Prior to his tenure as Secretary of State for President Bush I really had respect for Colin Powell.  He seemed like an intelligent man who could make decisions, even the tough ones, without letting politics rule the day.  Well, it turned out I was utterly and completely wrong about Colin Powell.  He ended up being weak and downright worthless.  Sure, I get that he was just one man in the middle of an administration that was totally allied against him, but that means he should fought to be heard or resigned rather than perpetrate a lie in order to get President Bush political approval to take our country into the disaster that has become Iraq.  Since leaving the Bush administration, Powell has done nothing but bitch and moan about what his former boss has done and continues to do.  I, for one, am sick of it.  He had his chance, now he just sounds like a hypocrite.

After reading about Barak Obama’s recent speech before a convention of the United Church of Christ I have to say I am even more happy with the meager donation I made to his campaign; so happy that I ended up giving more.  I’m not sure Obama has a chance of actually winning the eventual nomination, but right now he’s the only saying some of the things that need saying.  For example, this speech about far-right Christians and their hijacking of the Christan faith.  I certainly don’t hear Hillary’s highly managed campaign saying this, and probably never will since she more than any other candidate needs to court far-right Christans.

Even though any threat of a boycott would have been a complete and utter failure, Wal-Mart has decided caving to Conservative Christain groups who opposed their efforts to be more receptive to GLBT issues was in their best interests.  It simply annoys me when companies as large and as powerful as Wal-Mart turn out to be such cowards.  These groups can posture and threaten to boycott all they want, but no boycott would have succeeded.  Even though gay rights groups seem to be giving Wal-Mart a pass on this change, I think it shows Wal-Mart executives are cowards and backwards.

There’s still a lot of work ahead, but the Senate has passed legislation that would make the average MPG for cars, pickups, and SUVs 35 miles per gallon by 2020.  With gas prices sure to stay high this legislation is a long time coming.  Hopefully House members in the pockets of the auto industry won’t ruin the legislation.

So much for the sanctity of life.

I’ve never understood automakers resistance to better fuel economy.  They act as if making vehicles that get better gas mileage will mean a sacrifice in quality, in jobs, in safety!  Bullshit!  The big three already make vehicles that get better gas mileage than Congress requires, so what’s the big deal?  They’ve been struggling for years with decreasing sales; don’t they realize if they can make cars that getter better gas mileage people would be more inclined to make purchases?  With all the money the big three spend are they trying to say they cannot make a safe vehicle that also gets 35 miles to the gallon?  Well, they damn well better figure it out.  People are already embracing hybrids and with the price of gas staying around $3 a gallon consumers are going to start requiring better.

I don’t usually use this space to discuss movies and TV, but I have to say a word or two about The Queen and Helen Mirren’s performance for which she won a much-deserved Academy Award.  Her performance as Queen Elizabeth II is not just an actor mimicking another person; no, Helen Mirren captures the essence of this most famous of modern European royalty.  The film itself is not a flattering depiction of the British royal family.  It presents Elizabeth II as a cold and uncaring, but more because of the way she was brought than by actually being cold and uncaring.  Helen Mirren captures that so astonishingly well.  This film also presents an interesting picture of Charles, Prince of Wales.  In the film he’s shown as this sort of mealy-mouthed and pathetic man who would sacrifice his own mother to become king of England. 

But what I found most interesting how Tony Blair was depicted in the film.  I don’t know much about British politics, but I know that Labor are not exactly Royalists, but Blair and his team — his wife especially — are shown to have utter contempt for the royal family and at first they see the death of Diana as some sort of political gain.  At least at first.  As time passes you can see how Blair’s attitude changes and his contempt is replaced with a deep respect, affection even, for his monarch.

I’ve never been much interested in royalty, but I always felt Diana was at least party to blame for her predicament simply because she used the press as much they used her.  I also felt like the royal family got the shaft even though they obviously misjudged the situation and were so far removed from “their people” they didn’t understand how in thrall the British people were with their “people’s princess.”

I get that the family of Ron Goldman, the man murdered along with Nicole Simpson for which O.J. Simpson was acquitted, would want to keep his horrific book If I Did It from being published.  However, why would they want to publish it themselves, even with the new title Confessions of a Double Murderer?  Why give this bastard, who I believe did murder his wife and Ron Goldman, more publicity?  Why put Nicole’s children through this?  It just a bit unseemly to me.

As someone who spearheaded the invasion of Iraq you’d think Dick Cheney would think twice about promoting the idea of war with Iran. But no, this moron seems ready, willing, and able to take our exhausted and over-extended military into yet another military folly.  I get that Iran having nuclear weapons is a bad thing, but they are not Iraq.  We can’t just invade this large, very rich nation because they won’t just fall over and surender.  The citizens of Iran may wish for greater freedom, but they will not accept an American or even international invasion lightly. Add to that Iran does have friends in the world, chief among them Russia, and we could find ourselves in a horrific situation that would not only takes thousands of thousands lives, but possibly weaken our military and national security to the point we cannot even protect ourselves.  This is a stupid plan and another reason why we need these fucking war hawks out of OUR government.

I’ve never heard of anything such as the “gay panic” defense until I read this article.  Basically, it’s a temporary insanity defense that allows a person to walk away from hate crimes directed at a homosexual person, even when it leads to that person’s death.  In the state Indiana, it could be used to free two sick bastards who have confessed to torturing, beating, and eventually killing a man simply because he made advances toward them!  It says something about how Americans view homosexuals (at least in some parts of this country) as something less than human.  That their sexuality something that warrants beating and torturing, and if the person dies in the process well that’s just the price they pay for being gay.  Shame on the people of Indiana if they allow these sons of bitches to get away with murder.