Frank Sinatra was a great singer. The greatness was in a narrow range, but it was greatness nevertheless. Oscar Wilde was a great playwright. Woody Allen is a great filmmaker. People who achieve greatness in one field may well be total bastards in other aspects of their lives. But villainy does not cancel out their areas of greatness.

Actually, the Republican party is the party of the smokin hot babes. Think about it: Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Michael Malkin, Michael Bachman, Katherin Harman, Laura Ingraham, Pamela Geller, Pia Varma, Jodie Miller, Carrie Prejean, Sharise Parviz. (maybe not all Republicans, but certainly cultural conservatives.) I'm sure I'm leaving out a few here, but the Democrats have nothing to compare with this lineup. Beauty and brains. Too bad most of the Republican men are such dweebs.

What it is, is pure class snobbery. She's not east coast elitist. And she's not California coastal glitteratti. She's from rural, frontier America, a place that hardly exists any more, save for a few remnants tucked away in the lower 48. She can raise a brood of kids, ply a commercial fishing boat, keep the books in the family business, build her own house with her husband, shoot a rifle, field dress a moose, AND run for office, AND prevail against a corrupt good ol boy network, AND govern a state, AND work a computer, AND command the attention of the nation by her use of the internet, AND at all times maintain a sense of unforced femininity, glamor and pure raw star power while doing it. She is easily the most charismatic politician of her generation, and they can't stand it.

Syriana was the movie that put me off of Hollywood forever. For American movie makers to make a movie about the middle east, and end up with the villains being Texas oil men and the CIA, and the heroes to be Hezbellah suicide bombers was the most despicable kind of pandering and cynicism.

What about "The Incredibles"? I forget the year, but I believe in was in the decade.

I'm a huge Palin fan, and despise the treatment that she has received since the election. But I thought that Shatner's reading of her resignation speech as a form of beat poetry to the accompaniment of bongos to be actually pretty funny. Because it was a sort of free form poetry. We shouldn't let our political feuding get so out of control that we lose our sense of humor. I also like the Obama as Joker poster.

Well, the series was about the Napoleonic wars, so making it a French ship wasn't much of a stretch.

That's what I wanted to hear.

Syriana was the movie that made me swear off Hollywood movies forever (with the rare exceptions, like "300"). I couldn't understand how American film makers could make a movie about the Middle East where the villains were Texas oil men and the CIA, and the heroes were Hezbollah suicide bombers. Didn't any of those people have even a glimmer of patriotism left in their souls? Then I heard an interview with a Hollywood producer who said that they were indeed focusing movies on the international market. I haven't been to a movie theater since. (Well, since "300", anyway.) Thank God for Netflix. And mostly the movies I rent there are classics like "La Dolce Vita."

Aren't you afraid of getting mugged?