My dear wife has been stricken with the same cold that I am sure I acquired from The Children of the Corn...However, she has rebounded nicely after a week of rest, Alka-Seltzer, and extensive viewing of the daytime judicial system...particularly her hero and nominee for the next Supreme Court vacancy, Judge Judy...

It is fascinating to observe her reaction to the Old Testament hanging judge that is Judith Scheinlen...there is truly a cathartic effect for her in watching Her Honor dispense blistering rebukes and scalding justice to the seemingly endless parade of The Clueless and The Derelict. What I get from watching Al Pacino or George C. Scott, she gets from watching Judge Judy verbally vaporize the legions of deadbeat dads and community college burnouts who amble into her courtroom.

Typical Alexis commentary as Judge Judy dismantles another hapless schmo who is visibly bereft of sense and non-welfare state income..."I LOVE HER!!!!...JIM, I LOVE HER!!!!"

It starts to get a bit out of hand when she starts channeling Her Honor in our daily lives (i.e., pointing to her eye with two fingers, or bellowing, "IM SPEAKING!!! SHHH!!!"...okay, she doesn't do the latter, that was unfair embellishment).

Anyway, it's amusing, and in the Age of Obamanon, highly therapeutic...For one hour, from 4 to 5 on KPIX, the righteous reigneth, and justice rolls down like mighty waters...

Far healthier that Fox News...it's just funny to watch...

Celts edge Pacers, 104-99. Box score analysis to follow...

The Gallup tracking poll has Obama's job approval back up at 67%...the elixir of his rhetoric must have worked...

I was especially inspired by the bit about his bag of magic beans...made my spirits soar to Olympian heights of bliss...

I don't possess the skills to post links to other websites or articles, but nonetheless, I strongly recommend that you all Google"Rick Reilly on Elway." Rick Reilly recently penned an extremely poignant and genuinely inspiring article on athletes as role models that moved even my caustic heart.

It will take three minutes and it will improve your day. It is a powerful refutation of the Charles Barkley Thesis ("I am not a role model.").

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

-Winston Churchill

Five previous winners of the Best Actor Oscar paid tribute to each of the 2008 nominees last Sunday before the award made its way into the hands of the predictably churlish Sean Penn. While each of the tributes from previous winners were undoubtedly heartfelt, there was a notably awkward moment at the outset of the accolades when Michael Douglas spoke about Frank Langella's performance in "Frost/Nixon."

In praising Langella's rendition of the 37th President, Douglas claimed that compared to Langella, all other thespian incarnations of Nixon fell short...or something to that effect...

For openers, Douglas was standing next to Anthony Hopkins when he uttered that thoughtless and insensitive remark. Hopkins played Nixon in the flawed, but frequently compelling, "Nixon," in 1995. In fact, Hopkins garnered a Best Actor Oscar nod for his efforts. So the gracelessness of Douglas' words on the world's biggest stage was downright staggering.

To his credit, Hopkins didn't throttle Spartacus' kid on live television (THAT would have been entertaining...), and believe me, even though Hopkins appears slight, I'll take odds on him against Gordon Gekko anytime...

But there's another thing...I've seen both movies, and while I admired and enjoyed Langella's Nixon, I remembered Hopkins' immersion in the role as especially riveting and powerful...in fact, I found him far more convincing in conveying the essence of the man than Frank Langella.

To check that I wasn't kidding myself, I went onto Youtube and watched clips from the Hopkins' version of Tricky Dick. My instincts were correct. Hopkins didn't look like Nixon, he didn't sound like Nixon, but he truly captured the core of the man with all of his pathetic yearning for acclaim and chilling eruptions of malevolence.

Langella's Nixon seemed courtly, even urbane. Hopkins' Nixon was clumsy and uneasy with himself, desperate for affection and acceptance, but simultaneously pushing away his long-suffeing wife and children. Hopkins brilliantly and poignantly captured the torment of a man whose very soul was buckling under the weight of a lifetime of seething at wounds, slights, and a bottomless sense of inadequacy that no electoral landslide could ever satiate.

I felt sympathy, empathy even for Hopkins' Nixon. Langella's Nixon seemed more like an especially clever con man trying to pull one over on Frost and the T.V. audience.

The overall film of "Nixon" is a mess. It should have been cut by an hour and dispensed with the inevitable Oliver Stone conspiracy theories. However, at the center of the sprawling and undisciplined opus is a truly shattering performance by Anthony Hopkins...THE definitive Nixon in my estimation...

Jindal makes me want to return Louisiana to France...

There's some sort of voter focus group response meter running at the bottom of the screen on NBC...what the hell is this, and what is it supposed to be telling me?

My wife thinks it's an EKG...She also thinks Nancy Pelosi produced her outfit through macrame...She also would like somebody to get Michelle Obama a sweater...it's February in D.C. for God's sake...

Kenneth from 30 Rock, I mean, Governor Jindal, is still babbling...something about volcanoes...

Conservatives, Republicans, we're in bad shape. Really bad shape. Bobby Jindal, the Republican tapped by the party to give the firebreathing response to Obamanon...sounds like Kenneth from "30 Rock."

Really...

Madre de dios...

I know George Will can't be everywhere, but COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Afghanistan will be to Obama what Vietnam was to LBJ...I listened to a "counter insurgency" expert on NPR talking about what needed to be done in The Graveyard of Empires to "win." Short of rhapsodizing about capturing the "hearts and minds" of the local gentry, the guy sounded like he could have been speaking in 1965.

No external power has ever subdued and reshaped Afghanistan. Not one. The empires that have ventured into that misbegotten real estate have only been devoured and spat out in misery and ruin.

In the first month of this Administration 17,000 Marines were deployed to Afghanistan...it is unfortunately only the beginning...

Watching the State of Obamanon Address, I'm struck by the escalating level of audience feedback...I can't see who's doing the cheering/jeering, but it's starting to remind me of our legislative brethren across the Pond...

"The President needs to explain why the successful and the responsible must support the unsuccessful and irresponsible."

-George F. Will

Here, here...the concise and brilliant encapsulation of the core of contemporary conservatism...

It's not Social Darwinism folks...it's common sense...

The Boston Globe is reporting this evening that Stephon Marbury is on the way to Beantown as of Friday...I have to confess that I have great trepidation about this addition to Gang Green...great apprehension indeed...

Marbury may well possess vast reservoirs of talent and greatness, but the man is a toxin...I fear that he will function like so much anthrax in the Celtics locker room...

He has MUCH to prove...I just pray that he doesn't leave the franchise in rubble and ruin...

Recent use of the "n" word with regard to our banking system reminds me of a most excellent Churchill anecdote...

Churchill, the leader of the Conservatives in Parliament, was standing at a urinal in the House of Commons lavatory answering nature's call...Clement Atlee, leader of the Labour Party (Socialists), walked into the same lavatory. Churchill, seeing Atlee, quickly moved to a urinal far away from his socialist foe...Atlee sneered, "Feeling a bit standoffish today Winston?" Churchill's priceless retort; "Everytime one of you socialists sees something really big, you want to nationalize it...."

True story...hat tip to the late great Churchill biographer William Manchester for providing that nugget of Tory wit...

Latest Gallup Poll numbers...His Worship is down nine points in a month...a sizable drop from 68% a month ago to 59% today...

My wife and I were enduring the leaden Oscar ceremony, and as we approached the pentultimate moment, I prophesied that if Sean Penn won, everybody could count on The Master Thespian of Marin making an especially obnoxious acceptance speech...something heavily tinged with in-your-face left-wing politics...

Sure enough, I called it...from the opening syllables, Spicoli unleashed a surly peroration largely bereft of grace (aside from the nice salute to Mickey Rourke...sorry Mickey, once you spoke well of Dubya, you were cooked with the Academy) and delivered with all the delicacy of a barbed-wire enema...crude, heavy-handed, abrasive, and largely unnecessary...

Contrast Spicoli's approach with that of Tom Hanks when he won for "Philadelphia," in '94...

Telling people that they should be ashamed of themselves is not a winning strategy for changing minds, gaining votes, or getting people to see your movie...

How are those box office grosses for "Milk?" Pay for the catering yet?

After much thought...my final edition of The Top Ten Presidents...according to me...

1. Lincoln
2. Washington
3. FDR
4. Truman
5. JFK
6. LBJ
7. Reagan
8. T.R.
9. Eisenhower
10. Jefferson

Wouldn't change a thing after this...