Thank You for Smoking

A brilliant movie...

One of my room mates introduced me to the film over Spring Break while we were in Florida. A few friends and I came across it tonight in a local video store and decided to give it another watch. It was even more fun the second time around.

Thank You for Smoking follows Nick Naylor, a lobbyist for Big Tobacco, on his journey to further his industry's agenda while coming to grips with his role as a father. Aaron Eckhart is marvelous as the silver-tongued hero of the smoking industry. You will laugh until your sides split...and not once does it feel like an anti or pro-smoking advertisement...no one is safe! Rather than radically defending one side or the other, it presents the issues as they are in real life, and then stands by its message of free choice, allowing the viewer to make his or her own decisions.

I also saw Knocked Up last night. This movie is also wonderful. I went into the experience with fairly low expectations...a movie about an unwanted pregnancy has to be about abortion...well, much to my surprise and delight, the issue only arose twice for less than a minute each time.

Knocked Up addresses parental responsibility and facing the consequences of the choices we make, for better or worse. The chemistry among the cast members is marvelous, and it was fantastically written. Language and adult-content make it fairly un-kid-friendly, but for anyone old enough looking for a good way to spend an evening, go and see this one.

In other news, it's nice to see France's conservatives are doing so well in the elections, as it's been a fairly uphill battle for them to this point.

One more thing...This is older news, but if you haven't seen Global Warming: The Great Swindle, watch this series of videos:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

I think the best part of this video comes in the form of the debates that spring up in the comments below...really...check it out. You can read about people like srfurchick88 who believe that (and I quote) "...whatever the FACTS are might be different or similar to my point of view, but no matter wat the facts are it still does not change my POINT OF VIEW.. I BELIEV WHAT I BELIEVE."

Debate needs to be reintroduced into mainstream education. Way too many people today confuse fact with opinion (or "POINT OF VIEW" as srfurchick88 might call it). The fact (pun intended) of the matter is that in the end, science is what it is...and politics, public opinion, and political agendas won't be able to change anything.

In other words, to reference yesterday's posting, no matter how many pretty pictures you paint of a velociraptor munching lettuce, given the chance, one would still eat your face.

That's all I've got.
Peace out.