Ross is love.

Superman @ 70

It's 8 o'clock on Friday, and I'm exhausted. I always find it alarming how fickle my sense of joy and self-worth is. A few days of sub-freezing temperature, and I find myself feeling like nothing is possible, and everything's just a terrible waste of time. There's nothing to do, of course, but ride it out (or save up for one of those over-priced light-box thingers). The problem is, I get down, and I eat poorly, which is the number one thing that makes me feel bad when I'm otherwise feeling good. Did I need the Cadbury Cream Egg today? Did it actually help? It certainly did not.

I'm going to enjoy this Superman video and my new Annotated Arthur Conan Doyle books that I managed to snag at incredibly low bargain prices in the meantime. This too shall pass, like they say.

Tarnation.

What in tarnation is the point of going to bed early if you're just going to wake up with a big, honkin' headache. Was it the dairy? It was the dairy, wasn't it? And what kind of temperature is 3.3 degrees? Could we get some of that global warming up in here? And, just in case you were thinking that all was nevertheless right with the world, here's an alarming new stat: not only is the U.S. prison population the highest in the world, it's also at an all-time high, and increasing. More than 1 out of every 100 American adults are now behind bars. It's actually closer to 1 in 99.

Nevertheless, in spite of my morning grumpiness, this isn't a day for griping. Not only is it leap day, it's also the day when Superman celebrates his 70th birthday. Happy birthday!

Poll update.

Adamn says:

"I'd vote for Rameses, builder of the temple at Abu Simbel.  Why isn't he a choice?  Also, was down with the nubian ass.  after beating them down, of course.  Nefertari?  Hot piece.  Although, Hatshepsut's temple is also kinda awesome, and she was big on the phallic-symbol pillars which also rule (and was portrayed as a man in most imagery).  Didn't they just find her mummy?  Could have a winner. "

To which I reply that, of course, if I expanded the voting out to encompass the entirety of the New Kingdom period in ancient Egyptian culture, rather than just the 18th dynasty, Rameses II would make the list. I thought that it was only fair to leave Mr. "The Great" himself off the list, for obvious reasons of bias. Besides, Nefertari? Hot piece. Nefertiti, queen to Akhnaten and probable pharaoh? Hotter piece.

Nevertheless, the man is right: Hatshepsut seems to have strongly overtaken an early lead from the boy king Tut. She may have dressed like a man, but she was all woman once you got rid of the false beard. There may be some love for the ladies yet in this election cycle...

Last one.

So, mind-numbingly awful final debate from the folks at MSNBC last night. Tim Russert, particularly, spent the whole night making the debate about him, and seemed to be determined to validate all of the SNL jokes about the media's generally shoddy treatment of Clinton, and specifically MSNBCs dislike for her. No nasty comments about Chelsea from the anchors tonight, but even the Hillary-hatin' folks over at Daily Kos have pointed it out. They were just generally more aggressive with her, cutting her off earlier, etc. On a question about mean things they've said about each other, the question to Obama was "How were her comments about you unfair?" Don't get me wrong, Russert and Brian Williams were pretty dumb all the way around, but it actually seemed as though they were trying to punish Hillary for her criticisms of their coverage of her.

Anyway, they both held up well. It was a more aggressive debate than the previous one, and no one seems to have landed a knock-out blow. Obama took a couple of new hits, including on his longstanding relationship with his spiritual advisor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. (the source of the "audacity of hope" title), a man whose hatred for the Jews is manifest in his strong support for the Reverend Farrakhan. Farrakhan is now supporting Obama, who tried to poke fun at Hillary for suggesting he hadn't denounced Farrakhan in strong enough terms, but there's something here. Obama's life-long associations with anti-gay and anti-Jewish forces are the single thing that I continue to find most disturbing about him. Hillary, for her part, botched a legit swipe at how the moderators were treating her, so I'm not sure much changes. Last debate, and this coming Tuesday will likely decide the nominee.

In the meantime, Jimmy Kimmel has an epic response to his girlfriend Sarah Silverman's now infamous fucking of Matt Damon:

Boy king, indeed.

In addition today, a quick word about the pharaoh voting going on over there to your right. Before everyone goes jumpin' on the Tutankhamun bandwagon, I want to point out a thing or two. Tut-ankh-amun the "Blessed offspring of Amun" began his career as the "Blessed offspring of ...Aten"?

Wait, huh?

Tutankh-aten? Amun represents the entire pantheon of gods, whereas Aten, the disk of the sun, was the focus of the world's first (short-lived) experiment in monotheism instituted by Tut's dad and stepmom, Akhnaten and Nefertiti. So which is it, boy king? Sure, Hatshepsut's a cold fish, but what if her ships had arrived at the land of Punt and she just went "Ah, to hell with it...we don't need any myrrh. I'll settle for bitter almond oil." What then, I ask?

Perhaps Tut was for the sun disk, before he was against it? Could those sandals be, in fact...flip flops?

¶ Dig Dickens and have 13+ hours to kill? Then you'll love Dickens of London from the BBC. My review is here.

Big finish(?)

Last night's closing of the Austin debate. It was a mostly civil one, retaining CNN's patented "I ate a flag, then threw it up" background motif. Obama seemed a little stilted at points, and Hillary took a couple of shots that didn't really land, but for the most part they both came off well. I'd say that Clinton was stronger, as she usually is in this format, but I'm not sure that it will be enough to turn the tide. Fingers crossed.

Hurts.

Eek. I guess that's what you get, but still...ouch.

http://view.break.com/453711 - Watch more free videos

Meanwhile, there's a brand new Sound of Tomorrow out there for your listening enjoyment. If you're not listening to SoT, perhaps this endorsement from listener Lady Raptastic will make you think again:

"You know, I am not around a lot of white people, and so, your podcast gives me the chance to hear how white people talk. And boy, do you like to talk. And boy, are you white. Please keep doin' what you doin', even though, not that many people listening."

And isn't it about time that America gave white people a chance to be heard?

Thriller: Primary night edition.

Who's a happy boy? OK, it's me. I'll try to put down my 25th Anniversary Edition of Thriller (featuring remastered sound, several questionable added tracks and one good one from Kanye) long enough to give you some primary returns and special Rossified analysis starting at around 8:30. There aren't a whole lot of delagates at stake in the primary in Wisconsin and the caucus in Hawaii, but the results will shape the narrative over the next couple of weeks: a strong showing by Hillary could put her back in the game going into the friendlier big states in a couple of weeks. Clinton has seen a bit of a rebound in national polling, so who knows.

Meanwhile, in a squeaker in our lowest turned-out poll yet, Rosserford.com readers have proclaimed Tina Turner "The Queen." All hail her. When Aretha comes knockin', I ain't home.

9:30: Ah, crap. Another win for Obama in Wisconsin, and a win for McCain. Hawaii will be decided much later, but it's Obama's home state. Another good night for Obama, winning in his typical upper-income brackets, but making further inroads into the under $50,000 crowd that Clinton has thusfar owned. It seems that working class Democrats have begun to --can I say drink the kool-aid? -- I'm trying to be positive, I swear. I do genuinely hope that people will taek one last look at these candidates before hopping on the Obama train. I know that very smart, thoughtful people support him, and I'm trying hard to see where they're coming from as he moves further into the lead. In so many ways I see a figure with few detailed policy proposals who feeds liberals lines of empty BS in the same ways that Bush has been feeding conservatives empty BS. Maybe I'm just jaded, but the last eight years have convinced me that our need for an inspiring leader figure, a creature of destiny, "the one" (as Oprah calls him) is a big part of our problem. I believe that Obama is better than that, ultimately, but his campaign glorifies rhetoric and dismisses detail and hard work as being for old people and the past. I want someone who can make the trains run on time, and will know where FEMA is the next time a city is about to be destroyed. I understand completely all the concerns people have about Hillary, and I share them, but I'm just not feelin' Obama. Frankly, he scares me. He could be great for this country, but if he continues to value high-minded ideas over practical solutions, he'll be a disaster, and all of this much needed energy and excitement will turn to disillusionment as it so often has in the past. Hopefully that'll change, because I'm just pissin' in the wind at this point. Ah, well. Ten states in a row for Obama, when he doubtless wins Hawaii later on. On to Texas and Ohio. I'm off to bed, thoughts of Michael Jackson dancing in my head.

Format Wars: Finale.

Anybody concerned about the high-def format wars? It's sort of like the war on terror, only crisper and more realistic. Anyway, HD-DVD is officially dead. After Warner Brothers, then Wal-Mart dropped the format earlier this year, it was just too much, and the walls began to crumble. So, if you're looking to get into the high-def game, you're safe with Blu-Ray.

What's nice about this? Blu-Ray is the superior format, so this time, it's kinda like Beta won.

¶ In completely unrelated news, our next President will be the first since Truman to deal with a Cuba not ruled by Fidel Castro. He's retiring. In news just slightly related to that, Wisconsin and Hawaii hold Democratic primaries tonight. Once again, Hillary's just trying to keep things close until she can make a stand in Texas and Ohio early next month.

¶ Weird animal alert! Giant frog! Giant frog! Growp.

Face à la mer

Behind on stuff I want to talk about...busy weekend, mostly. In the meantime, I really like this song: