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Maybe they should have called the latest Bond movie, “Quantum of Suckiness.”

Almost two years to the day that I first saw the diminutive Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, I sat through his latest movie, Quantum of Solace. As an action movie, QOS was perfectly fine (although not as good as Casino Royale). Tragically, the new Bond movies are becoming indistinguishable from the equally entertaining “Transporter” series starring equally British tough guy, Jason Statham. But QOS was decidedly not a Bond flick. So once again, I feel obligated to remind the Broccoli family of exactly what is required to be a true Bond flick.

Arenaball, like real football, only not really.

They got this sport called Arenaball. It looks a lot like football, but it's played indoors on a field half as big. (If you're really curious, it's on ESPN too much. It's marginally entertaining if you're really bored and Quayle isn't on C-SPAN putting to rest any doubt that he's an idiot.) The Tampa Bay Storm is the reigning butt-kickers in the league. We beat everybody last year and only lost once this year. Frankly, since it's not real football, I haven't been keeping up. The games are ridiculously high-scoring. Since the field is only 50 yards long, they score on a decent run up the middle. It seems kinda stupid, but you do get to cheer a lot. (Very important after a few too many beers.)

Scrappy mega-corp triumphs over pathetic, citizen do-gooders.

Now that Bush & Co. are finally out of the White House, it seems unnecessary to keep harping on the unrepentant ethical lapses occurring hourly at FOXNews. But since there seems to be no ebb to the tidal wave of biased "reporting" flooding into American homes, I feel this particular outrage merited mention again due to its spectacular sliminess.

What should the U.S. auto industry really worry about? Freaking zombies, man.

Lately, I've been researching and mulling over my next car purchase (in spite of my previous rant about the “Age of Automobiles” coming to a close. Of course, living in Northern California virtually requires me to buy an environmentally friendly mode of transportation—something that either runs on reclaimed french fry grease, wind-power, solar power or pixie dust. But if you go to any auto dealer around here and ask to see a zero-emission vehicle for less than $50,000, they'll stare at you like a dog trying to solve a Rubic's cube. Accidentally, I discovered what may be the best way to get around town: Zombie power.

What your astrological sign says about you: Namely, that you know too much about Astrology.

When I was first introduced to the concept of Astrology as a kid, I was skeptical. After all, believing that the position of the planets and stars could impact your life in any meaningful way, let alone dictate your daily behavior, seemed...what's the word? Oh, yeah, stupid. But the more I learned about this ancient "science," the more I came to feel that people DID seem to reflect the personality traits predicted by their sign. But how? Finally, I read the book that empirically and scientifically explained how and why Astrology really works.

BOOKS

I am America (And so can you!), Stephen Colbert—Sage advice for an ailing nation.
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens—The case against belief.
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality, Brian Greene—A mind-bending romp through quantum physics.
Adam's Curse: A Future without Men, Bryan Sykes—It's not MY fault, it's my chromosome's.
1984, George Orwell—Who says no one can predict the future?
Nonzero : The Logic of Human Destiny, Robert Wright—It gives you hope for the future.
The Stranger, Albert Camus—Alienated existentialism at its best.
A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson—Why aren't textbooks this funny?

POLITICS

Change Congress Help keep Big Money out of politics
Earmark Watch Bringing citizen oversight to congressional spending
Money And Politics Illuminating the connection
Open Congress The real story behind what's happening in Congress
Fortune 535 Find out how wealthy your local politicians are
OpenSecrets Center for responsive politics
Citability Making government accessible, reliable, and transparent
Data.gov Public access to high-value, machine-readable data sets
Public Markup Review and comment on proposed bills before they are even introduced
FedSpending Find out where your tax money is going
The Sunlight Foundation Shining light on money, lobbying, and government
Transparency Int'l. Stop corruption to save lives.
Congresspedia The citizen's encyclopedia of Congress

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