what's your problem?

in terms of sane, intelligent, and polite political discourse, what's your problem? is the polar opposite to the old crossfire show on cnn (i'm not sure i can think of two people who were more devoted to partisan politics than paul begala and robert novak. oh, wait a minute, donna brazile comes to mind....).

instead of partisan talking points, loud voices, and hypocritical accusations, left-leaning peter beinart and right-leaning jonah goldberg do a pretty good job arguing substance instead of just spouting out rhetoric.

i've only watched two episodes of the show, but so far, i'm pretty impressed.

click on the link of this post's title to go to the episodes from season 1.

quote of the day

"Personal liberties are not rooted in the law of averages."

-Justice Potter Stewart in 1975 in Faretta v. California (granting criminal defendants the constitutional right to refuse counsel in state criminal proceedings).

the flexible chair

who wouldn't want a chair that cool?

shins' concert last night

i saw one of my favorite bands, the shins, last night in north charleston, sc. the venue left a lot to be desired, and despite a short set, i really enjoyed getting my first taste of the shins' music live. their combination of melodies/vocals is pretty amazing. i thought some of their music might not translate very well live, but i was mistaken. all the cool noises that you hear on one of their studio albums show up in concert as well.

their most recent album, 'wincing the night away,' is my favorite album of theirs. it doesn't have a song as good as 'new slang' or 'caring is creepy,' but overall, it's consistently better than any of their other albums. i highly recommend it.

i just wished they played a little bit longer last night...

Lou Holtz's Newspaper Magic Trick

you gotta love lou holtz. sure, he can be pretty senile at times, and he certainly did not live up to expectations as head coach of my usc gamecocks. however, he certainly had a key role in bringing our current head coach, mr. spurrier, to town, and for that, i will be forever grateful. and apparently, he's pretty good at magic, as this video demonstrates. i'm pretty impressed. with the magic.

zeitgeist, the documentary

so i watched a very intriguing and ambitious new documentary today called 'zeitgeist.' as with many documentaries these days, there is a A LOT of truth in this movie, but it is NOT the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. at the very least, it brings up a ton of very important questions: specifically, how christianity was really invented; what actually happened on 9/11 and since then; the influence of international bankers on our politics and society; more generally, how to interpret what's going on in the world around us.

this movie is much more than just a conspiracy theorist's wild dream, although there are definitely aspects of that. this documentary is free of charge, and click on the title of this post to watch all 1 hour and 56 minutes of it.

the movie is broken into 3 parts:

part I - modern religions in general, and christianity in particular, were basically copied from egyptian and greek mythologies and are concoctions intended to control citizens. (i agree with approximately 40% of this part of the film, although that does NOT mean that i do not respect the opinions of my many religious friends and family!).

part II - 9/11 was an "inside job" that could NOT have occurred but for the united states' government providing resources to make it happen. most notably, this film claims that 6 of the alleged hijackers are still alive. (i agree with about 30% of this part of the film).

part III - international bankers, especially american bankers, have controlled governments for the past 200+ years. most notably, american bankers funded both sides of WWII, and war is GREAT business for banks, giving banks a huge incentive to motivate them to press our political leaders to engage in aggressive foreign policy decisions. specifically, that FDR knew about pearl harbor in advance, or at least provoked the japanese into attacking us in order to help the banking community of which his family was a significant part. (i agree with about 20% of this part of the film).

here is a GREAT review.

one issue brought up in this movie that definitely persuaded me to change me mind was the 9/11 commission. up until now, i really had thought they had done a pretty good job. this movie really makes me think that they did a tremendously sloppy job.

please let me know if you take the time to watch it so that we can further discuss the movie's assertions. to be crystal clear, i do NOT claim to believe everything (or even most) of the assertions made in this movie, but i really like the tone of it and think that it is extremely helpful for people to be asking the types of questions that are asked and to attempt to explain what's really going on around us.