[thought for the day] saturday evening

Everyone knows that when [if] Obama [or McCain] gets hit , the Veep steps in. My question and thought for the day is - which Veep would you vote for?



...or:

[in sickness] and in leadership

How many world leaders and people who have had an influence on the thinking of their times and on history, have actually been too sick to impartially do their work, for example:

In 1973, George Pompidou, premier of France, attended the summit meeting of world leaders in Reykjavik, Iceland. Journalists noted he wore a scarf around his neck. But why a scarf in May?

It was revealed later as an attempt to hide a swelling of his neck. But he could not conceal the swelling of his cheeks and face. Pompidou's bloated cheeks were the result of cortisone injections. He was also suffering from anemia ...

Others:

Cheney [heart], Blair [heart], Colin Powell [cancer], Arafat, Sharon, Castro, Abe, McCain, Kim - these are the standard conditions. But what of Charles Darwin , Stonewall Jackson [both obsessive compulsive], Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan [both with dementia], FD Roosevelt [polio], Pope John Paul II, Adolph Hitler , Mao Tse Tung, George Wallace, Pierre Trudeau [all with Parkinsons], JFK [multitude of ailments], many leaders [Aspergers], Henry VIII [syphilis, gout], to name a few.

How many leaders have had their conditions suppressed?

Each condition affects the individual in its own way but reflecting on your own illnesses over time - would you say you were functioning at your best at these times? What if you were making critical decisions in your work at the same time? What if your position were such that your decisions affected millions [or even a few hundred]?

[the andromeda strain] recurrence of a new theme

I watched three and a half hours of the mini-series DVD The Andromeda Strain last night and apart from the action which I quite liked, despite the suspension of disbelief in certain places, the thing which has struck me about almost all modern films I've seen in the past month are the themes:

1. that only a kick-ass woman can win through these days and men are basically inadequate [admittedly, this particular series is not a bad case of that];

2. the boldness with which the military industrial complex's clandestine agenda is being used to fill out the baddies' characters, something which was not permissible in Hollywood some time back.

3. the black mood themes of modern films.

Do films pander to public tastes or do the tastes reflect the themes of modern films?

UPDATE: I've just finished the mini-series. This book/film/mini-series has provoked a mini-discussion which I thought I'd bring you. How does time travel work? I don't mean how does it work but how does it overcome logical problems?

Example - in the Terminator series, the machines send a machine back to terminate John Connor. He sends a machine back to terminate the machine, thereby setting off a different reality, a different path. Yet Skynet follows the original path. If someone else from the future sent someone back to create a third path, somehow we'd have a multitude of actual historical paths not gelling with each other.

What would that do to both history and perception?

[guy ritchie] might just go back and watch one of his films

So Guy Ritchie has finally told the truth and said she looked like a granny on stage. According to Madge herself:

Ritchie's comments made Madonna feel "worthless [check], unattractive [check], unfeminine [check], insecure [check] and isolated [wouldn't know about that - there are her Kabbalist mates, after all]", reported London's Daily Mail, which has been forensically dissecting the break-up since Madonna's publicist announced it last week.

But the fact is, Madonna does look like a granny on stage, albeit a 21st century, super-fit, androgynous, very driven kind of granny...

You might have got the idea this blog does not much like the misnamed Madonna and you'd be right.

I envisage an island where all the Hiltons, Spears, Jolies, Beckams, Madonnas et al, can be airlifted, to romp around together in their wild animal luxury and leave the rest of us alone.

[so predictable] world financial reform

Finance pow-wow:

Ending a summit in Beijing, they also urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to play a greater role in helping countries hit by the market turmoil.

And while we're there, we'll institute UN control of international relations, WTO control of trade and WHO control of global health. As Shakespeare once wrote: "feeding on that which doth preserve the ill".

They're nothing if not predictable, these people.

[seven deadly sins] how do you fare

Greed:	Very Low
Gluttony:	Low
Wrath:	Very Low
Sloth:	Low
Envy:	Very Low
Lust:	Low
Pride:	Very Low

The Seven Deadly Sins Quiz on 4degreez.com

H/T Bag