War stuff. Barry. And TV thoughts.

To pile on WT's take on the Iraq War, who ever would've guessed that Iraq would become a terrorist haven? What a shocker!

Ah, the Pentagon. Never making mistakes. Always getting involved in such groundbreaking research.

I didn't know Dave Barry was retiring from his column. Sad news.

I recommend reading this article about "egocasting." The TV addiction stuff rang a little too true for me, unfortunately (C-Dawgg can probably attest to that...especially the symptom of "impatience"). However, I agree with little Rosen says about iPods. It seemed to be a weak distraction from the more dangerous point she was making about TiVo and TVs.

In that last article, there was a brief mention of The Wire, which is an HBO series I just started watching on DVD after reading its high praise on the internet. Well, it lived up to any expectations I had. It's now my favorite show, bumping out The West Wing (though that show has had a small renaissance with My Hero Josh leaving the White House to run an idealistic presidential campaign). The Wire is based on the Baltimore drug wars (centered just a few blocks west of where I lived a couple of summers ago). It basically pits a group of crusading cops against some West Baltimore drug lords who run a very successful and hierarchical operation. But the moralizing quotient is super-low and there are good guys and bad guys on each side. Actually, I'd go further than that and say that nobody is portrayed as really "good" or "bad." The characters are, at best, flawed and trying hard. Anyway, the head writers have spent many years in Baltimore and written a couple of excellent books (Homicide and The Corner which have actually been made into other HBO shows). In the past couple days, two articles in the NY Times have exhibited just how realistic their new show is (see here and here). When a TV show is this well done, watching it back-to-back on DVD with no commercials and few breaks is really enjoyable because of the long-term character development and satisfyingly slow plot. It's the best thing I've seen on any screen this year--even better than Garden State or Eternal Sunshine or Sideways or Maria Full of Grace or Napoleon Dynamite, which are the best movies I've seen this year. (Also recommended: Friday Night Lights, Closer, and In Good Company . . . keep in mind that there are at least a half dozen 2004 movies that I haven't seen yet that I expect would make these lists.) So go rent The Wire. And feel free to exhibit some of your TV addiction in the comments.