I'm totally captivated by "Kevin and Drew: Unleashed," a Discovery Channel show about two white-collar New Yorkers who travel by RV to different places in the country to do blue-collar tasks and have some fun learning new trades. I've seen two episodes now, and so far, they've driven from Manhattan to Orlando (to learn how to raise/breed/wrestle aligators) then from Orlando to Boston (to pick cranberries from the Bog at Ocean Spray), then to Tupelo, Oklahoma to be cowboys, then to South Carolina to be shrimp boat experts. This is cool stuff. That's the only part of the "free bird" life that I haven't been doing- learning new trades as I travel. I think that would be a lot of fun. So while I've been to a lot of the places they're seeing, I'm still living vicariously through them. It's a neat show. Check it out on the Discovery channel.

While I'm reviewing things, Spider Man 2 is AWESOME. Check it out. Seriously. Best superhero movie I've seen. (yes, better than Batman) I was totally expecting more cheese like the first one, but out of sheer curiosity from reviews, I thought I'd finally see for myself why the reviews were so great. The flick was terrific. I'm not very much into Kirsten Dunst, but even she did a great job. Don't miss it.

Sandy Berger- If you didn't hear about this guy, it's a great story. Berger admitted that during visits to the archives last year to review materials for the 9/11 commission, he "inadvertently" removed some documents. In his pants. He stuffed secret documents into his pants. Not his pockets. IN his pants. A mistake? How does that happen? These documents were classified at levels higher than nuclear security codes. They were classified as SCI - a very high level classification, and somehow, they crawled into his pants. Inadvertently. Why the news media didn't make a big deal out of this baffles the hell out of me, considering that an eating disorder of an Olsen Twin makes the front page. This man STOLE from the National Archives AND he was a National Security Adviser, not some punk off the street. Holy hell. What is this world coming to? Archives officials told investigators that one document is still missing -- an analysis of the effectiveness of counterterrorism efforts against threats tied to the turn of the millennium. That was most likely a tell-all statement about how the Clinton Administration failed to protect America.

Don't get me wrong here. I'm not going to be like the commission and point my finger at someone about 9/11 (besides Osama Bin Laden). I think everybody fucked up in terms of protecting the nation, but I also think that we just didn't see a bigger picture. I have no problem once again pointing at the Clinton Administration for being really really really shady. This is not your ordinary story. Yet, it's no longer out there. You can't find anything on Berger out here. Still, a theft like this seems oddly peculiar-- very much like so many other Clinton scandals that rose and then quickly disappear....

Here on my homeland, I killed my US map webpage- kind of- not really- but I took it down for a while so I can work on the upgrade. The newer version will be a lot better (and not so shifty for those of you who mentioned you had problems reading the notes on places where I'd been.) So, stay tuned. I'll have it fixed eventually- hopefully before I go back out again!

I recently read the Executive Summary of the 9/11 Commission's report on the history, current state of affairs, and future of our nation in terms of National Security. It was a pretty interesting read, and while it was a summary version that I read, I think it was pretty thorough in its suggestions and very-well culminated. I have to say though, as a citizen, it was pretty unsettling to see the committee on TV, interviewing everyone as if they were looking for a single point of failure. It appeared as though the committee was searching for someone to blame, a person who could admit that they simply dropped the ball.

The thing is though, we all know that that tragedy of 9/11 wasn't a single point of failure. It was the exposure of multiple vulnerabilities that we had in our infrastructure. They knew where, when and how to hit us the hardest. They knew how to get around immigration, how to infilitrate the planes, how to destroy buildings, how to get past checkpoints...all based on knowledge of where we were the weakest. So now that I've read the summary of the report, I have actually reversed my opinion that it was a waste of time. I think the report is a good wake-up call, and was probably necessary for someone of note to say, "Hey, look. We're all to blame here. Here's what we need to do to fix the problem." I think we'll be in good hands in the future.

I did think though, that we were already taking the right steps to prevent future damage. While Moore's film would lead you to believe that Bush is protecting his oil investments instead of his constituancy, I can assure you that Bush has done more than any president before him in making strides against terrorism. Yes, I thought his idea of conquering evil around the world was too lofty, and possibly naive (after all, there can't really be world peace...is that possible?), yet who else has even come close to making this nation safer? Yes, I hate that we had to go to war. Am I glad we did though? Yep. I don't think it was excessive, and yes, I think in the end, a lot more good will come to the world now than it would have if we had done nothing. People seem to forget that as a wealthy nation, we have the responisbility to help others.

I met up with the West End gang to watch Bourne Supremacy, something I'd been waiting for since the first of the series, Bourne Identity was done. The first flick's director, Doug Liman, came back as an executive producer this time around, but gave the directing job up to Paul Greengrass, who got the job done, but not without a lot of cutaways. No wonder we're such a short-attention-spanned society, with editing like this. One scene starts, they cut in less than a second to a steadycam shot, then BAM cut to a different angle, then BAM immediately shift to another close-up view, blurring at first, then zooming out into focus, then BAM another shot.... Don't get me wrong, I thought the story and characters were excellent. I plan on seeing this again before I get the DVD, but man- I thought I was going to get dizzy there for a while. Terrific flick! DOn't miss!

I caught Kerry's acceptance speech for the Democratic ticket in the upcoming elections. It wasn't bad, in fact I liked a lot of the wise things he said...too bad they were quotes from other presidents of the past. Lincoln was a hell of a speech writer. ;) I don't think much gets accomplished in these speeches really anyhow. They tell people what they want to hear, try to pander to every race, class, creed, sex... it's how you win elections. (not to mention that the speech was in front of an audience that was most likely 100% pro-Kerry) I will be interested in seeing how Bush responds to this.

I didn't think I'd get politically charged up, but hey- here I am. This is kind of exciting.