Musings: [[2002 State of the Union]]

It was a good speech, but I have some concerns.

##Foreign Policy

I, as most Americans, am thrilled by the way that President Bush is handling the war on terrorism. His attitude is justified and proper, and we as a nation shouldn’t worry too much about what the rest of the world thinks. We didn’t start the fight, but we’re going to finish it. ‘Nuf said.

###Homeland security

I don’t know about everyone else out there, but all this talk of **Homeland Security** has a slightly disconcerting tone to it. When President Bush talked about being vigilant citizens and keeping a watch for things that aren’t quite right, the alarms started going off in my head.

If you’ve never seen the movie “Brazil”, you need to go find it right now and watch it with an eye towards the road our country is on right now. Pay close attention to details in the background that are seemingly unimportant.

It seemed as though Bush was pushing paranoia and encouraging people to spy on their neighbors. I’m sure (at least I hope) that that’s not what he was doing, but it sure sounded that way. And if it sounded that way to me, I’m sure it sounded that way to many other people.

I for one find this uncomfortably close to the way that it worked with the KGB in the Soviet Union.

##Domestic Policy

On the domestic front, things were a little more vague and he sounded a bit less sure of himself. Gone was the leader with a vision for a world without terror, and in his place was the campaigner from the 2000 Presidential race saying the same old tired Republican catch phrases… cut taxes… fiscal responsibility… stronger national defense…

Not that I have any problems with any of these. Quite the contrary! But, I was hoping we could get past the cliche’s and get some more substance behind the rhetoric.

It’s a shoe-in for best picture according to this writer.

Guess who’s nominated?

Sir [[Ian McKellen]] is nominated for **Best Supporting Actor*’ and the whole cast is nominated for ‘*Best Acting Ensemble**. The awards will be broadcast on TNT, March 10, at 8pm EST. Set your VCRs!

YEAH! The momentum is still there!

Are you watching academy members????

Maybe Warner Bros. isn’t completely retarded after all!

It looks as though [[B5]] will be released on DVD this fall. Thank god someone at Warner is paying attention to us!

The legal team at MGM have gotten the courts to issue a cease and desist order on the production of **Austin Powers in Goldmember**.

I guess that they just don’t have a sense of humor! What a bunch of whiners!

I just bought one of these digital cameras, and for the most part I’m quite satisfied.

##The Good

I love this new camera! The pictures that it takes are simply beautiful, and its integration with iPhoto from Apple is wonderful.In order to get it to work properly with iPhoto, you have to have it set to PTP mode (the manual says how to do this).

##The Bad

One of the main reasons that I bought this camera was the way it stores its images on CD. That is just awesome… CDs are ubiquitous, so there’s no issues with compatibility like there is with memory sticks.

Or so I thought.

For some unfathomable reason, Apple decided not to support the UDF volume format in OSX! What’s up with that!

I called Apple Support, and they told me to call Sony.

I called Sony, and they tell me that it’s a problem with the operating system that I’m using!

Could you two please get together and decide whose going to fix this and make sure it gets done!?!? I know I’m not the only Mavica owner with this problem.

Guess which film is listed as a front runner?

Yeah!

Best Picture This category, always the object of intense interest, seems especially clear. Two films are destined to be nominated and, more than that, likely to fight it out for the actual award. One is “A Beautiful Mind,” a Ron Howard-directed look at what happens when a genius goes mad; and the other is Peter Jackson’s [[The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring]], whose co-front-runner status was enhanced by a victory in the recent American Film Institute awards.

The story goes on to name **Ian McKellen*’ and ”’Viggo Mortensen”’ as likely nominations for ”’Best Supporting Actor”’ and ”’Peter Jackson”’ for ‘*Best Director**!