2 postmortems

I was watching the McLaughlin Group yesterday and got thinking about something. What gets me is that Republicans can be damned proud of being called "right wing" politicans, whereas Democrats consider it a boon if they get the label "centrist," at least on the national scale. The "liberal" or "leftist" label is like leprosy for any Democrat. Eleanor, the token woman of the group, blamed the right-wing columnists for the demonization of the word "liberal." I take an alternate stand -- I think Democrat voters are comfortable with their politicans straying from the Liberal tag to win over a greater support base, whereas Republicans think it's moral bankrupcy to stray from the right. So, as a result, the nation is stigmatized against the liberal tag -- it's a moral black hole.

On a related note, according to Time, "The Washington Post once referred to Cheney the congressman as a `moderate,' prompting him to order an aide to call the paper's editors and `suggest they look at my voting record.'" (from today's NYtimes).

And on a tangential note, my #1 dream job is to be John McLaughlin. I guess #2'd be Charlie Rose, but then I'm swimming dangerously close to James Lipton territory.

Postmortem on 'bottle rocket' -- So bad it hurts. This movie is less fun than filtering spam by hand, which I was also doing while watching. Some movies die for me because of expectations -- this one just sinks like an anchor and defecates expectations right out back out in true cinematic diarrhea.

Unrelated: saw an MIT production of Sartre's 'No Exit' last night. I guess the 'MIT production' part should give it away, but it killed me. I sat there watching the mutilation of my favorite play.