Ross is love.

Ingmar Bergman.

Aw, man. 

Buffy update.

New Buffy movie? Joss Whedon's Ripper, following the further adventures of Anthony Stewart Head's Rupert Giles, may well be showing up on the BBC in 2008. Joss is also working on a horror movie called Cabin in the Woods

That was an entry-level tidbit. For the truly advanced Buffy-nerd, here's an interview with Brian Lynch, writer of the upcoming Angel continuation: After the Fall. Speaking of comics, MySpace.com/darkhorsepresents has an original web-comic from Joss Whedon called Sugarshock.

The picture above is the cover to the forthcoming Long Way Home collection.

Toons.

After successfully hosting a YouTube debate of Democratic presidential candidates, CNN has had quite a bit of trouble getting more than a couple of Republican candidates to agree to a similar format. The idea is that regular people submit questions to YouTube, and CNN sorts them out to find challenging and representative questions.

I'm not really following the Presidential campaign of Republican Mitt Romney, but I couldn't help but be amused by his spokesman's explanation for Romney's refusal to agree to the debate:

"A lot of Americans would wonder whether we should be answering questions from a cartoon."

Indeed.

T.V. Sundays.

Mike's been torturously ill for three days, and I've - how do they say it? - ah, yes..."thrown out my back". Is this what it is to be old? If so, it could be worse, frankly. It's given me an excuse to catch up with my programs and even allowed me some vague moral license to watch something called Caesar's 24/7, which follows various sportos, motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies, and dickheads around the famed Vegas casino in mercifully short but oddly captivating half-hour blocks. It was followed by Airline UK, centering around the staff of low-cost British Airway easyJet. That's right, there's a show about the comings and goings of budget-minded English fliers and the people who take their tickets. Juuuust when you thought there was a show for everything. Save yourselves. Turn off the TV now, before it's too late.

This mild convalescense has, of course, also given me the opportunity to finish up the last bits of Harry Potter. I've seen Rambo movies with lower body counts, but I'm nevertheless quite pleased. No longer bound to secrecy, J.K. Rowling herself has been willing to provide just a bit of added detail with regard to the fates of the main characters that she felt would have been unweildy in the book.  Click here for a tad more closure.

This morning's edition...

...of "Things Only Pet Owners Say!":

"Don't eat that! That's poop."

That's all. Carry on.

Don't get me started.

Not to beat up on John Edwards, but here's the YouTube video from the CNN/YouTube debate last night. Not to bring this up twice, but it's galling that even in the follow-up, he goes to great lengths to explain why he would never let religion determine his decisions as President, but reiterates that he wouldn't allow gays to get married. For reasons of religion. Or something. Or he might be on a journey. Of some kind. Because, you know, it's not a question that's been on anyone's radar, so apparently he hasn't had time to think about it.

He's trying to have it both ways, trying to appease religious bigots while not completely pissing off liberals, and he needs to be called on the carpet for it. I'm not giving a blank-check to the entire Republican Party, which is, as an organization and as a group of candidates opposed to equality under the Constitution, nor am I particularly enamored of the "separate-but-equal/civil union-not-marriage" concept, but someone like John Edwards should be held to a higher standard. In 2007, this sort of backward-ass thinking is intolerable, no matter how many people are convinced that their Bible makes it right.

I, Potter.

I'm desperately trying to take my time with Harry Potter, but alas I'm already on page 300. At this rate, I'll be all out of Potter before the week's up. Unacceptable. Plus, I just know someon'e going to tell me how it ends. The pressure is too great. What would Harry do?

And why is everything stressful?

The love is gone.

Just for the record, though I appreciate his stands on several issues, here's exactly why I will never vote for John Edwards:

QUESTION: I'm Reverend Reggie Longcrier. I'm the pastor of Exodus Mission and Outreach Church in Hickory, North Carolina.

Senator Edwards said his opposition to gay marriage is influenced by his Southern Baptist background. Most Americans agree it was wrong and unconstitutional to use religion to justify slavery, segregation, and denying women the right to vote.

So why is it still acceptable to use religion to deny gay American their full and equal rights?

(APPLAUSE)

EDWARDS: I think Reverend Longcrier asks a very important question, which is whether fundamentally -- whether it's right for any of our faith beliefs to be imposed on the American people when we're president of the United States. I do not believe that's right.

I feel enormous personal conflict about this issue. I want to end discrimination. I want to do some of the things that I just heard Bill Richardson talking about -- standing up for equal rights, substantive rights, civil unions, the thing that Chris Dodd just talked about. But I think that's something everybody on this stage will commit themselves to as president of the United States.

But I personally have been on a journey on this issue. I feel enormous conflict about it. As I think a lot of people know, Elizabeth spoke -- my wife Elizabeth spoke out a few weeks ago, and she actually supports gay marriage. I do not. But this is a very, very difficult issue for me. And I recognize and have enormous respect for people who have a different view of it.

Just for the record, John Edwards is the only Democratic candidate to oppose any form of gay marriage or civil union. He's given mealy mouthed answers to the question at every single debate, and tonight's was no exception. Sorry, John. The romance is over. Pardon my French, but I've had plenty of this religious bullshit, thank you very much.

Cheney in Charge!

...of our days and our nights, la la la...

Sorry. The President's getting a colonoscopy, so he's handed over power, and Dick Cheney's sitting in the big chair as we speak. Presumably because the Christian conservative base wouldn't accept a President with a probe stuck up his ass.

I'm going to go ahead and gas up the car. The man opposed releasing Nelson Mandela from jail, for Christ's sake. I'm not taking any chances.

Pottermania.

So the secret, it would seem, to getting the latest and greatest (perhaps) Harry Potter book is not to pre-order, and then wait in the endless, chaotic, disorganized, and stressful snaking-around-every-nook-and-cranny-in-the-store-I-have-no-idea-where-I'm-supposed-to-be-but-I-have-this-green-bracelet-with-some-numbers-on-it...

The secret, and this'll only work this once, so I doubt it'll do you much good in the future, sad to say, but the secret is to ditch the Borders and down the plaza to the Wegman's and leave in about five minutes. Sorry for those dutiful fans still waiting in line at the bookstore, but the grocer was always clearly the way to go. (Barnes and Noble, by the way, had a much, much better system last time we popped in there for a Potter book. Rather than making people line up, you were given a number and groups were called to check out. Easy-peasy.)

Now, granted, you can't get the $4.99 Cultivating Cannabis bargain book at Weggie's, but you can look that shit up online.

Thanks to my crack Rick-Mike-Sarah book-huntin' team, I'm now off to read...get thee to a Wegman's, book lovers. Alternately, head on over to Darcy's Random Thoughts for an informative Potter-related video.