Is it just me or...

...does anyone else notice that the only thing our President seems to focus on is campaigning? Granted, he is a great campaigner, but once elected most people tend to stop and, you know, govern. I've been noticing that his most recent foray to Japan and China, and points in between, seems to be more campaigning, more glad-handing or bowing, more wearing of some other country's ethnic garb, more speeches saying, "Really, we're just like you, except where we have acted like we might be better than you, and for that we are sorry..."

Ditto for domestic issues. When it is time to deal with the difficult decisions, the Campaigner-in-Chief goes out on the trail, whipping up sentiment and emotion, but deftly avoiding concrete answers to the questions. He spends alot of time promising change that will make us all feel better...and we're getting change, but people only seem to feel good it about when they are listening to him wax eloquent. The reality doesn't seem to support the rhetoric -- which, I contend, is par for most any campaign, and especially so for this extended version!

Unfortunately for Mr. Obama, most citizens expect the campaign to end, and the real work to begin. There are many, many of us out here who DO notice that what governing is happening is detrimental to our freedoms, and that this presidency seems to be a lot more about the man, than the country.

Carrie, Carrie, Carrie...(Prejean, that is)

So someone finally dug up a sex tape featuring the villified Carrie Prejean, speaker of negative opinions about gay marriage. She admits that she made this tape at the age of 17 (um...what???where were your parents, Carrie????) but has since changed her life, and has not and will not be involved in any such thing again.

She also is complaining loudly, not the first time, that it is not fair that she has been targeted for destruction, vilification, and treatment akin to mental torture.

I agree that it is not fair. I agree that I wouldn't want to be her right now...but it also seems to me to be a case where "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen". Ms. Prejean and her supporters claim that when such videos are found starring Lindsay Lohan, or Paris Hilton, those women are not villified or harrassed, or made the top story on the news.

Perhaps this is because such activity caught on tape would not be out of character for the aforementioned celebs. It IS out of sync with the character Ms. Prejean has claimed -- and thus it is news. The fact that she is a conservative woman also makes it a given that she will be held to a different standard, and WILL be targeted, and followed, and harrassed. Sad, but true -- not fair, agreed -- ridiculous, understood.

It's not that I don't have sympathy for this woman. She simply stated her opinion in a cogent way, and a firestorm ensued. However, she decided to ride the firestorm and get out of it what she could.(I'm wondering if, for a while her motto might have been, "the only bad press is no press".) I think she would have been better off to explain her unfortunate actions -- "I was young and foolish, and have changed..." and acknowledged her current "popularity" -- "Because of my beliefs, I have been targeted. I'm not surprised they dug this up. I regret my actions of the past...That's not who I am now...end of story. I'm sure their scrutiny of my life is not over, but I'm not going to be imprisoned by it." Her loud protestations, and appearances on so many talk shows, only take away from her dignity. She's giving her pursuers more power by playing the victim.

So stop, Carrie! You're in the kitchen -- get out, or get some oven mitts!

I don't think so...

I noticed these plot summaries of the new movies in town this weekend:

"A married couple is presented with a small box containing a button that when pushed will grant them a million dollars and kill someone they don't know..."

"Set in 1967, a professor watches his life unravel when his wife prepares to leave him because his inept brother won't move out of the house..."

"A Nome, Alaska-based psychotherapist's videotaped sessions with her patients offer the most compelling evidence of alien abduction ever documented..."

"A sometimes serious, sometimes whimsical look at the people who bring chickens in their urban backyards..."

Don't these descriptions just make you want to RUSH right out and lay down your $15 to watch a movie??? As if watching the news isn't bad enough lately, the movies only offer the slimiest and most asinine of plot lines. I've spent the day working, and worrying about my country, and so FOR SURE I'll want to spend the evening watching people wrestle with whether killing "someone they don't know" is worth a million dollars (THIS is a moral dilemmna???). Or maybe I can relax while watching someone's life unravel...On the other hand, perhaps the stimulation of seeing people terrified out of their gourds would be a good way to get the old ticker going, and the brain a-stirring! Better yet, I could spend a couple of hours hearing why people raise chickens in town...

As I read the movie info, I was struck by how overwhelmingly pathetic the options are...I'd have to be desperate to choose one of these movies! Someone would have to pay ME to go see them!!I thought about checking into the kid movies as they are probably a better bet. I'd think about going to them for the mere entertainment value and the escapism of laughter...But the older I get, and the more I deal with indigestion, all those burp & fart jokes aren't so funny any more...

What has happened to movies whose goal was to make you feel good about life when you reached the end??...THAT'S what I'm looking for. I can find them in the archives, but it would be nice to find them in a theater once in a while...