My Crushes: James Bond

"Hello, Miss Moneypenny." Seano is still a dashing, if classically Scottishly-disheveled man. Here he is, doing his patriotic duty attending the opening of the new Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood in Edinburgh. Yes, Virginia, there IS a Scottish Parliament. 

Political: Out of the mouths of babes...

Mommy! Make the bad man stop! 

Hope Springs Eternal!! 

Political: Presidential Debate, Part The Second

This will be brief because today is the National Book Festival (brought to you by the Library of Congress and First Lady Laura Bush) and the whole dang family is converging on DC to attend.

So, let me just say this: the best line of the entire debate was the President's response to Senator Kerry's example of small business tax cuts. Kerry was using the example of "the President gets $48 for a lumber mill, blah blah, and he's considered a small business. He's not."

To which our dear President (he of "ob-gyns can't practice their love on their patients") says in an attempt to be witty, "I own a lumber mill?!"...................... He then looks at poor Charlie Gibson and says,

"You want some wood?"

I laughed till I cried. Then I laughed some more till I realized that I'm not a 16 year old boy and I shouldn't find that so funny.

Alan Keyes and Gov. Allen. I never did post this from the GOP convention... 

Smorgasbord: Getting to Know You

These surveys were popular back in the 90's. Since I felt like I was in a time warp watching President Bush talk about war in Iraq, I figured it was perhaps appropriate to bring it back for a brief time.

Feel free to cut/paste/and post your own!

Name? E (don't use your real name just in case weirdos want to start sending you "enlarge your p&nis" emails)
Hometown? Small town, Massachusetts. City a' Cultchah!
Boxers or Briefs? Boxer briefs.
Bacon bits or croutons? Bacon bits.
Salad dressing? Ginger sesame.
Do you drink? If the booze is free and the men are cute. Just kidding. I drink socially.
Deodorant? Suave Raspberry.
Shampoo? Herbal Essences.
Skinny dipping? Never.
Do you make fun of people?: Duh! Yeah!
Favorite Color? Green.
Any convictions? Not yet. But I haven't chained myself to a nuclear plant's chain link fence with Martin Sheen yet, so there is still time.
Best friends? You know who you are. Poor schmucks.
Pets? I wish.
Favorite movies? Amadeus, Willy Wonka, Braveheart, Office Space.
Favorite music? Old school rap, Ella Fitzgerald, any and all Rat Pack, Andrea Boccelli.
Hobbies? Gardening, reading, and rockin' da house at karaoke.
Dream car? One that comes with a driver.
Current car? Footmobile, baby!
Movie Crush? Joaquin Phoenix and Ewan McGregor. Rowwrrrr.
TV Crush? Sydney Bristow's dad on Alias. Seth Cohen on The OC.
Word/phrase you overuse? Giddy Up!
Favorite food? French fries. As if you had to ask.
Tattoos? Nope. Just can't see myself with "love" spelled out on my knuckles.
Do you get along with your parents? Totally. The Pottsteins, although a handful, are delightful. They got much smarter as I got older...
Favorite perfume/cologne? Eternity for Men. Giddy Up!
Favorite sport? Tennis, field hockey, MLS Soccer
Silliest person you know? RJL. Silly and off-da-richter smart to boot.
Most humiliating moment? Farting really loudly during story time in 2nd grade...and realizing that my "who was THAT?!" protestations were not to be believed because Ground Zero for the rank miasma was my plus-sized fattie-kid corduroys.
Favorite holiday? Thanksgiving. And then Christmas every other year, because it means that we interrupt the standard Jewish Christmas of Chinese food and first-run movies for a huge dinner at "Grammy and Dee's" house. 42 people around a huge table, three major cuts of different meats, more sides than you can imagine, plenty of boozation, a very welcoming atmosphere, and good, good times.

Political: The Debate--Round 1

So the first Presidential Debate was held last night in Miami, which means that we must now spend the next 48 hours arguing about Who Won and Who Flubbed and Who Looked More Presidential. Since you can get that anywhere, The Haggis is going to avoid it. What we will discuss instead is this:

Who Really Believes That The Debates Affect the Election Outcome? Are there really people who are truly Undecided? Or are they just too busy to focus right now, but in general have some sense of where their vote will land?

I ask because CNN's Bill Hemmer (who every day looks more like John Boy Walton in those post-war/starting to be a writer in the big city episodes), was in Ohio with "undecided voters" who were giving their immediate responses in real time to each candidate's remarks. I felt bad for Bill Hemmer for two reasons: a) he was far, far away from the real action while the inexplicably still-employed unbearable Candy Crowley was at Debate Central, and b) he was covering undecided voters who, by their comments, were nothing of the kind.

As he asked the panel of everyday folk to offer their thoughts on why they pressed the 1 or the 5 or the 10 on their Insta-Reaction-Love-Connection-Style hand keypad, it became clear from their comments that these Undecideds already knew who they supported. One woman said, "I just really trust President Bush on Iraq, and so I liked his answer better." Interesting that it was not the other way around: "his answers on Iraq gave me confidence and so I trust him."

Now, let's use a comparison. You know how every now and again an artist will put out an album that just stinks up the joint? It is the worst creative effort they have ever put forth and deserves to end up in the 99 cent bin next to Leo Sayer and Billy Ocean albums? Reviewers always say: "this CD is for true fans only," meaning that true fans are the only ones who will think that Jewel's "poetry" is inspired or that Jennifer Love Hewitt really is going to hit it big some day as a singer (you know who you are, JLH fan-in-question!). So you buy the CD because *you are already bought into the cult of personality that is that artist.* You are a supporter of that artist even when all good taste, sense and reason is telling you that Rod Stewart ought not to tackle Cole Porter.

Cut back to this woman and President Bush. Her answer belies her essential support for the President. She is as "undecided" as I am "taciturn." The woman is a GWB supporter, buys all his albums no matter what pablum is on them, watches every Larry King Live he is on, stands out in the rain to get concert tickets, and has the screen saver to boot. But if you ask her: "Hey--are you a fan of Georgie B?" You will get a more measured response than her actions and thought processes indicate to be true because something about saying an unqualified Yes makes her uncomfortable. Or maybe she just wanted to get on television...

Short Story Long: Okay, I can't resist the horse race: Kerry was more succinct than usual but still needs to practice Soundbite Television. It's a morale booster that he did as well as he did. Bush has the Aw Shucks vote all sewn up. He kept going back to "look, it's a hard job/terrorists hate freedom/Iraqis love freedom" which provided all the elements of a rockin' drinking game (ie, drink every time he says one of the above); but as simplistic as I thought that was, Wendy Winecooler from Ohio probably thought it was an honest and understandable answer because it did not descend into the more arcane "multilateral/international/omnibus bill/proliferation" territory.

As interesting as last night was, I am more jazzed to see Edwards take on Cheney next Tuesday. That is gonna be a fist fight to the finish, kids.