From the mouths of world leaders

An anecdote from Barack:

"I was up at the G20 -- just a little aside -- I was up at the G20, and some of you saw those big flags and all the world leaders come in and Michelle and I are shaking hands with them," the president said. "One of the leaders -- I won't mention who it was -- he comes up to me. We take the picture, we go behind.

"He says, 'Barack, explain to me this health care debate.'

"He says, 'We don't understand it. You're trying to make sure everybody has health care and they're putting a Hitler mustache on you -- I don't -- that doesn't make sense to me. Explain that to me.'"

With a name like Honeysuckle Weeks, she should have been in a James Bond film by now.

Yeah, I've been blogging a lot about stuff I'm buying. Just call it my little contribution to helping the economy.

Soon to be deposited it our mailbox is the DVD box set "Foyle's War: Series 1-5 - From Dunkirk to VE-Day". Mrs. Mosley is eagerly anticipating its arrival, but in the meantime she can read today's DVD Talk review of the set.

A little Fiona is better than none.

I've been missing a lot of new releases lately. First, I'm blindsided by a new Wallace and Gromit short. Now, I find out that Fiona Apple contributed a few tracks to an album just released last week (entitled "The Best Is Yet To Come: The Songs Of Cy Coleman"). Needless to say, I'm ordering both of these this week.

Here's a nice little slideshow a Youtuber put together to the track "Why Try to Change Me Now":

"High-Resolution Graphics": Try not to laugh.

A little story for those of you who can remember back far enough.

It was determined one Christmas that my parents were getting me a Commodore 64 for my big gift that year. Whether they told me early or I just weaseled it out of them I can't recall. At any rate, I convinced them to take me on a trip to the Orange Park Mall before Christmas so I could get my first game to play on the Commodore. So off we went to the "Electronics Boutique" (what an awesome store) for me to do some shopping.

What I ended up getting was "Adventureland: Saga #1"!

Now here's the thing. This post isn't so much a fond remembrance of my Commodore 64 in general or this game in particular (I remember a lot of my games fondly, but this one barely registers). No, this post is to demonstrate how much of a computer-ignorant dumbass I was.

When we got back to the car, I sat in the back seat and opened the thin plastic package holding the manual and the 5 1/4 floppy disk. Having not even gotten my hands on an actual computer yet, I didn't know how disks worked. Seeing the black plastic covering for the actual disk, I thought the purpose was to remove the covering to get at the disk. I recall being in that back seat at night with my parents driving home up Blanding boulevard and using my fingernails to pry at the tiny flaps and rivets that held the plastic case together.

Fortunately, I eventually discovered the true nature of floppy disks before I succeeded.

Ah, memories. Anyway, in case you're interested, there's a Javascript version you can play online (minus the graphics). The simulation is pretty good and downright fool proof... even for this fool.

Wallace and Gromit in 'A Matter of Loaf and Death'

How did I miss this?


The damn thing was released in Britain last year and I had heard nothing about it. Now it's coming out on DVD in the States next Tuesday. I only have a handful of entertainment sites that I monitor, but a new Wallace and Gromit short should have come across my radar on at least one of them by now.

Suffice to say this is getting purchased next week, post-haste.

Glen Beck's own "Little Red Book"

Sunrise confession time, folks.

This past weekend, Mrs. Mosley, CC and I took a trip to Tallahassee to see some old friends and visit some old haunts of ours. It was a good weekend up until our final stop at Barnes and Noble before leaving town. This was the spot Mrs. Mosley and I first met, so it should have been a nostalgic reverie. Instead, I walked past a display featuring Glen Beck's latest book: "America's March to Socialism : Why We're One Step Closer to Giant Missile Parades".

Heaven knows I come across enough of this type of bile through my hours on the Internet, but somehow this singularly absurd and offensive title (that will none-the-less probably sell quite well) was the straw that broke the camel's back. It nagged at me all the way back to Jacksonville and really put me into a depression by that evening which lasted all the way to the following night.

I suppose the real reason why this title (and it's author) did this when the Coulters and the O'Reillys before it only annoyed me, is because that he fancies himself the head of a movement. It doesn't matter that the movement is minuscule compared to the force that elected Obama. As the summer's protests proved, decibel level sometime matters more than actual numbers. Beck considers himself some sort of modern day Howard Beale, and 50% of ad revenue be damned, he isn't going quietly.

Then I read an article over at Salon titled, "Meet the man who changed Glenn Beck's life". I urge you to read it now as it delves into the ten tons of crazy that Beck has immersed himself into. It's the McCarthy era all over again, folks, as Beck has patterned himself after a Red scare relic named W. Cleon Skousen. The man became so vilified in his time that even J Edgar Hoover and mainline conservatives couldn't stand him, yet Beck has taken up his banner and made his life's work his own.

Why did this cheer me? Perhaps because McCarthy's movement eventually fell to common sense, so history may repeat itself. Perhaps because, like I said about Dubya five years ago, this linking of the Republican party with Beck's movement will become an albatross in time. Perhaps I just want to see possible Republican front runner Mitt Romney asked about the movement and Beck's inspiration since Romney's own church has definitively rejected him.

Things will get worse before they get better, but they will get better, folks. Hang in there.