Monday night, Sharon & I watched a documentary on the life of Paul Wellstone, a two-term Minnesota Democratic/Populist senator until his death in 2002. Any words I could try to come up with for the man would fall far short. I will simply say that he may have been the most conscienable, genuine, and passionate congressperson in our nation's history. If anyone ever has the opportunity to learn more about him, I urge you to do so. I would even be happy to find a way to get you the VCR tape on which we had just recorded the PBS special. Man, the crash of the plane he was on may not have been orchestrated by the Bush regime, but if you consider what we know about this administration's tendency to use whatever means to achieve its ends, combined with the timing (shortly before Wellstone's re-election bid vs. a hand-picked Bush lapdog; also very shortly before our Iraq invasion); well, I don't think there's a person left of center in this state that hasn't considered it as a possibility. One other possibility is that we really ARE heading for the rapture and that everything that has happened, politically, in the past 6 years is God's way of telling us: "Don't bother. I WANT you all to be fucked."
A couple days before viewing the non-violence preaching Wellstone, I indulged myself with a viewing of the violence promoting Clint Eastwood movie, "The Eiger Sanction." For some reason, I had some totally way-off base idea about this movie. Somewhere along the line, years ago, I had gotten this idea it was considered one of the all-time great suspense thriller movies, along the lines of Femme Fatale, The French Connection, etc. And while the movie did offer some thrilling mountainside action sequences, it was for the most part a campy, rompous, over-the-top affair with crazy numbers of one-dimensional characters, funky 70s settings (complete with a desert training run in jeans & long-sleeve shirt), and enough one-liners (some OK, some putrid) to fill 20 movies. It was very much like a Roger Moore James Bond-which isn't always terrible, as long as you're not filling your DVD shelves with it. So, if you guys are looking for a movie to see that is an enjoyable way to pass time and that your wife won't mind missing, this may be the ticket.
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12 comments:
Are you going to ignore the comments on the last post of yours? I will have to agree with you that Wellstones was a great and good man. Definately a great politician who's heart was in the right place. We need more of them. Dan, on some level, you could be like that.
Thanks-I responded to the "Dan politican" idea on the previous post.
The other issue is, at this point and time in this country, who's gonna vote for me? I don't exactly represent the mainstream.
I have some characteristics that would translate well to being a politician, but some that would not at all-the greatest of which is the gladhanding & fundraising.
I think I'll skip addding The Eiger Sanction to my Netflix queue.
You'll live. But you wouldn't have hated it, at least.
I love "Ever Which Way but Loose!" Not a big fan of Clint Eastwood as a cowboy except in "Unforgiven."
Good Lord! Pale Rider? The Outlaw Josey Wales? The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly? A Fistful of Dollars?
Unforgiven was not possible without the others. It's the same character, essentially.
I am more of the Roy Rogers type of cowboy. :)
Gay?
You wish.
Again, your comebacks would make a junior high student proud.
That's right mother f'er.
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