Happy 200th Birthday Charles!

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25 Random Things About Me

1. My parents nearly named me Alexander.

2. The first thing I ever wanted to be was an ambulance driver. This was before I knew that meant you had to be a paramedic. I just wanted to drive fast and turn on the siren and lights.

3. I am an insane Star Trek fan. Yes, I even go to the conventions.

4. Living in Europe gave me a rabid wanderlust. Most people thought that after 20 plus countries, I'd be satiated, but that merely proved to me how much of the world I've yet to see.

5. I am a cat man.

6. I once saw myself in national politics. The first time I lived in Washington D.C., I interned for Newt Gingrich's Grand Old Party. When I returned, I was a liberal. Thanks for that W.

7. When I was flying in the Navy, my call sign was "Senator." I was given the nickname because, during my training, while all my friends read the Sports and Comics sections of the newspaper, I was always interested to see what was going on in Washington D.C.

8. I can take or leave sports.

9. People have always told me I look like Vince Vaughn.

10. My favorite movie is "Lawrence of Arabia."

11. I second the late John Updike when he said, "The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding. "

12. The only thing I have ever stolen in my life was a Belinni shot glass from Harry's Bar in Venice. It was the bar Earnest Hemingway used to frequent.

13. I have no patience whatsoever for technology that does not work as it is designed to.

14. I adore kids but don't know if I'll ever have any.

15. I never go to bed without watching Jon Stewart.

16. I hate the summer. I hate heat. I wish it could be fall year round.

17. I drink my coffee black and my tea with cream and sugar. I've never lived in the South but super sweet is the only way to drink iced tea.

18. I grew up in the mountains but never want to be far from the ocean.

19. My mom was raised in Africa and considers herself more an African than an American.

20. I could eat seafood for every meal.

21. My sister is gay and I love and support her and her wife in every way.

22. Before podcasts, I used to plan my Saturdays around NPR shows. Brunch? No thank you, I have to listen to "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" and "This American Life."

23. I look back on my days in high school and college and I don't recognize myself. I believe so few of the things I believed in then.

24. While I adore making a living (yeah, right!) writing about other people’s films, I hope that someday soon others will be writing about my films.

25. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

Well Done Good and Faithful Servant

It's official. The S-3 Viking, an anti-submarine patrol aircraft, has flown its last. It was time. The airframe is as old as I am. Most people know the S-3 (if they know if at all) as the jet President George W. Bush used to deliver his infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech (it was the only naval aircraft to ever be given the designation Navy One). For me, the S-3 is my "old office" when I served in the Navy.

Well done old friend. Welcome to your rest.

Neil's back on The Daily Show

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Neil deGrasse Tyson

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He even got a mention on last night's show too!

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My Pictures from Inauguration Week

My pictures of the inauguration follow a wee bit of commentary…

I had an entire entry written and ready to go. It was set to post last Monday, President Bush’s final day in office. It went on for several pages about the abomination that was the Bush presidency.

About how a man propelled into office by the slimmest margin in history immediately began governing as if he had an overwhelming mandate. About how the self-titled uniter divided this country like never before. Abut how the compassionate conservative was neither.

How a $100 billion budget surplus was transformed into a $700 billion deficit. How an administration ignored the warning signs and, in fact, encouraged the lack of oversight that led to the collapse of America’s financial markets, ushering in the most imperiled economy since The Great Depression.

How the Commander in Chief obliterated America’s standing in the world, refusing to acknowledge any responsibility in a war based on false pretences, murdering more than 4,000 Americans and butchering tens if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. How a leader who was supposed to be an advocate of small, unobtrusive government presided over the most sweeping disintegration of American civil rights in history — declaring that he was within his right to pick and choose which laws he would enforce or ignore, using the threat of terrorism as his rational to set in motion warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, the subversion of the Justice Department, unmonitored military tribunals, indefinite detentions of suspected enemy combatants, and the torture of detainees in legal nether regions.

How Bush abandoned thousands to neglect after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and continues even to this day to insist that the only thing he would have done differently was the photo-op aboard Air Force One. How he actually reveled in crushing scientific dissent, being a world polluter, ignoring climate change and continually undermining saving endangered species.

But when it came time to post this admitted rant, I found myself suffering from a certain feeling of anti-climax. For years I’ve written Bush a “goodbye and good riddance” post in my head, but during its final hours I didn’t feel like writing so much as falling to my knees in political and emotional exhaustion.

Why waste one more word on that man and the repugnance that was the last eight years?

But it wasn’t all fatigue. Note even remotely. Last week was a week of hope, of renewal and of unbridled optimism. It was rebirth. It was chrysalis. It was morning again in America. That is what I chose to focus on instead.

My wife and I were able to secure tickets to the inauguration and, in addition, participated in several events during the week, including the Florida Ball and the “We Are One” Inaugural Celebration.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll stop talking and let the images take over (with a few explanatory paragraphs, naturally). Please click on any of the images to enlarge them.

* * *

We fought the crowds to get a great piece of real estate along the front, left side of the Lincoln Memorial for the “We Are One” Inaugural Celebration concert featuring musical performers like U2, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban,, John Legend, John Mellencamp, Usher, Shakira, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, will.i.am, and Stevie Wonder. Among those reading historical passages were Tom Hanks, Jamie Foxx, Queen Latifah, Steve Carrel, Rosario Dawson, Jack Black and Denzel Washington. I went in assuming U2 would bring the house down, but little did I suspect that Garth Brooks would walk away with that honor!






















We got tickets to the Florida Ball. This was not one of the “official” balls, meaning the Obamas did not attend. Still, any excuse to wear my tuxedo is a good one. Our dear friends Brett and Cassidy joined us.
























On Inauguration Day, we were part of the infamous Purple Gate and as a result, nearly didn’t make it in. After several hours of moving only three or four feet, we broke out of line, found the gate (just one gate for tens of thousands of people), pushed our way through the literal crush of bodies and made it to a spot on the Mall with the other 1.8 million spectators just as the ceremony began. Thousands behind us were not so lucky. Our stories are just like everyone else’s: no organization whatsoever, no police or volunteers directing the human traffic — just a line of people as wide as a city street that ran for block after block without any idea of where it was going or how to get there. Once in place, we quickly forgot about the bitter cold and the hours spent in line and reveled in viewing history with out own eyes as Obama was sworn in and began his awe-inspiring inaugural address.





































































For an extraordinary satellite image of the Mall that day, click here. This image was taken almost a full hour before Obama was sworn in. Almost all of the open space along the Mall was filled in by then.











For other, professional, extraordinary pictures of the inauguration please click here.

For more of my pictures, please click here: The “We Are One” concert, the Florida Ball, The Swearing-In of Barack Obama.

Giving Up on God

Kathleen Parker, the conservative columnist who raised the ire of many Republicans during the election by eviscerating Sarah Palin in print, publishes a very interesting article today on the Republican Party's lack of church/party divide, claiming that if they want to return to prominence, the G-O-P needs to "dump" G-O-D.

The entire text is below or can be read at its original Washington Post source here.


As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.

Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.

I'm bathing in holy water as I type.

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.

Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.

The choir has become absurdly off-key, and many Republicans know it.

But they need those votes!

So it has been for the Grand Old Party since the 1980s or so, as it has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners.

Short break as writer ties blindfold and smokes her last cigarette.

Which is to say, the GOP has surrendered its high ground to its lowest brows. In the process, the party has alienated its non-base constituents, including other people of faith (those who prefer a more private approach to worship), as well as secularists and conservative-leaning Democrats who otherwise might be tempted to cross the aisle.

Here's the deal, 'pubbies: Howard Dean was right.

It isn't that culture doesn't matter. It does. But preaching to the choir produces no converts. And shifting demographics suggest that the Republican Party -- and conservatism with it -- eventually will die out unless religion is returned to the privacy of one's heart where it belongs.

Religious conservatives become defensive at any suggestion that they've had something to do with the GOP's erosion. And, though the recent Democratic sweep can be attributed in large part to a referendum on Bush and the failing economy, three long-term trends identified by Emory University's Alan Abramowitz have been devastating to the Republican Party: increasing racial diversity, declining marriage rates and changes in religious beliefs.

Suffice it to say, the Republican Party is largely comprised of white, married Christians. Anyone watching the two conventions last summer can't have missed the stark differences: One party was brimming with energy, youth and diversity; the other felt like an annual Depends sales meeting.

With the exception of Miss Alaska, of course.

Even Sarah Palin has blamed Bush policies for the GOP loss. She's not entirely wrong, but she's also part of the problem. Her recent conjecture about whether to run for president in 2012 (does anyone really doubt she will?) speaks for itself:

"I'm like, okay, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I'm like, don't let me miss the open door. Show me where the open door is.... And if there is an open door in (20)12 or four years later, and if it's something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I'll plow through that door."

Let's do pray that God shows Alaska's governor the door.

Meanwhile, it isn't necessary to evict the Creator from the public square, surrender Judeo-Christian values or diminish the value of faith in America. Belief in something greater than oneself has much to recommend it, including most of the world's architectural treasures, our universities and even our founding documents.

But, like it or not, we are a diverse nation, no longer predominantly white and Christian. The change Barack Obama promised has already occurred, which is why he won.

Among Jewish voters, 78 percent went for Obama. Sixty-six percent of under-30 voters did likewise. Forty-five percent of voters ages 18-29 are Democrats compared to just 26 percent Republican; in 2000, party affiliation was split almost evenly.

The young will get older, of course. Most eventually will marry, and some will become their parents. But nonwhites won't get whiter. And the nonreligious won't get religion through external conversion. It doesn't work that way.

Given those facts, the future of the GOP looks dim and dimmer if it stays the present course. Either the Republican Party needs a new base -- or the nation may need a new party.

Bush Has Only Two Regrets; We Provide More

The satirical political website 23/6 recently ran a story too hilarious not to share. I've cut and pasted an excerpt below. To read the whole thing, click here.


In an interview on Veterans Day, President Bush was asked to reflect on his regrets over his two terms in office. Bush said he regrets, "saying some things I shouldn't have said, like 'dead or alive' and 'bring em on.'" Bush also said he wishes he hadn't spoken in front of the "Mission Accomplished" banner to declare an end to major combat operations in Iraq in 2003.

Okay, that's two! Looks like he needs help with the others, so we threw together a brief list of some of the things Bush should probably be regretting right about now.

A Quick List Of Stuff George Bush Should Regret
(Off The Tops Of Our Heads)

1. His existence

2. His decision to go into politics

3. Not learning how to better run oil companies so he wouldn't have to go into politics

4. His decision to run for president

5. His decision to run for a second term as president

6. Every word spoken into a microphone since January 20th, 2001

7. That time in 2001 when he shouted at Dick Cheney, "You know what, screw it. You run the country if you're so smart!"

8. Ignoring the way Alberto Gonzales was always saying, "Geneva Convention, Schmeneva Schmonvention!"

9. Those times when he let Donald Rumsfeld make decisions.

10. Revealing the identity of a covert CIA operative. Not cool!

11. That time when he said "Osama, Saddam. What's the damn difference?"

12. Letting the country fall into economic ruin.

13. That "wait for this to blow over" position on Katrina.

14. Not learning how to keep from smirking while addressing the nation about certain issues, such as Katrina.

15. Not giving more people hilarious nicknames, like "Turd Blossom."

16. That "Iraq" kerfluffle.

17. Not giving more speeches in front of banners that read, "Danger: Under Construction" or "Not Finished" or "This Mission is going to take at least six or seven years, if we're lucky!"

18. Saying, "All right Harriet, you've talked me into it."

19. Betting Cheney $1,000 they'd lose in 2004

20. Thinking, what the heck, it's just a pretzel

21. Not taking it as a bad sign that Karl Rove has a forked tongue

22. Responding to a report titled "Osama Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside The United States" by repeating the title in a mocking, high-pitched voice that made Cheney laugh real hard.

23. Not saying, "Brownie, we should sit down for a performance review in the next week or so."

24. Those twenty or twenty-five times when he should have offered his resignation but decided to "wait it out."

25. Not doing more to avoid the inevitable indictments sure to come next February once they start finding out about "the real bad stuff."