A Question of Morals?

I never thought I’d agree so vehemently with the NY Post, but I guess there’s a first time for everything:

“NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Post endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination Wednesday, calling him an "untried candidate" but a preferable alternative to the newspaper's home state senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Clinton and her husband, the former president, "stand for deja vu all over again — a return to the opportunistic, scandal-scarred, morally muddled years of the almost infinitely self-indulgent Clinton co-presidency," the paper wrote. . . The Post endorsed Sen. Clinton's re-election bid in 2006, calling her a "pretty good senator." But the paper took a sharply different tone when weighing her prospects as a presidential candidate.
"A return to Senator Clinton's cattle-futures deal, Travelgate, Whitewater, Filegate, the Lincoln Bedroom Fire Sale, Pardongate — and the inevitable replay of the Monica Mess? No, thank you," the paper wrote.
Obama "has the ability to inspire," the paper added.”

I am truly an Obama girl, as you can tell from previous posts, and pretty much since I turned 18 I’ve been a staunch Democrat. But I guess since I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten a little more conservative… or maybe my moral compass has just gotten stronger. Either way, if it comes down to Hillary or McCain, I’ll be voting Republican for the first time in my life.

Applause

"You embrace that which defines you."
-Dane Cook's mother, to him, before she passed.
(the dedication at the end of his last TV special)

What great advice; no wonder he has the courage to do stand-up before tens of thousands of people. I know few who have more love coming at them than him, maybe most of all because (like a good boy), he took him mother's advice...

Rock on, man! ;) Thanks for making me laugh... especially when I wanted to cry.

And I thought I admired him before...

"I hope you don't mind if I speak about this. I feel very unsettled at the moment... and I suppose it's because I only just saw the news about Heath Ledger's death. . .It seems somehow strange to be talking about anything else. Not that there's anything to say really except to express one's regret and to say from the bottom of one's heart to his family and to his friends that I'm sorry for their trouble. I didn't know him, I have a strong impression I would have liked him very much." -Daniel Day-Lewis to Oprah 1/24/08



“For as long as I can remember, the thing that gave me a sense of wonderment, of renewal, the thing that teased me with the question ’How is such a thing possible’ and then dared you go back into the arena one more time has always been the work of other actors. . .There are many actors in this room tonight including my fellow nominees who’ve given me that sense of regeneration. Heath Ledger gave it to me. . .In ’Monster’s Ball’ that character that he created seemed to be almost like an unformed being, retreating from themselves, retreating from his father, from his life, even retreating from us. . .And yet we wanted to follow him, and we were scared to. It was unique. . .In ’Brokeback Mountain’ he was unique, he was perfect. That scene in the trailer at the end of the film is as moving as anything I’ve ever seen. I’d like to dedicate this to him.” –Daniel Day-Lewis accepting his best leading actor SAG award 1/27/08

I think (especially in this business), it takes a truly genuine, truly honorable person to pay tribute to another artist in a way that no one could ever mistake as anything other than a heartfelt outpouring of respect and grief. Thank you Mr. Day-Lewis for expressing what the rest of us who are saddened and moved by Ledger’s passing could not articulate.

R.I.P. Heath

From CNN.com:
"At the time of his death, Ledger had just finished playing the villain The Joker in "The Dark Knight," the latest installment in the Batman series. The film is to open in July.

The role disturbed him, according to The Associated Press. He called The Joker a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."

"Last week, I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told The New York Times. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going."

He said prescription sleeping pills didn't help, according to AP.

"It was a very great challenge for Heath," director Christopher Nolan told AP. "He's extremely original, extremely frightening, tremendously edgy. A very young character, a very anarchic presence that taps into a lot of our basic fears and panic." "


I'm not blaming acting or the movie for this beautiful young man's death, but I know how easy it is to go a little crazy when you're playing a crazy person and let the madness of the fiction of a role keep you up at night... I hope he can find peace now.

My heart goes out to his family, especially his little girl.

Maybe no one is irredeemable.

I Dare To Hope...

And awe-inspiring speech. You can watch it all here, or just read my favorite quote:

“. . .we’ve been teased, even derided for talking about hope. But we always knew that hope is not blind optimism, it’s not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead, or the roadblocks that stand in our path. . .hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us, if we have the courage to reach for it and to work for it and to fight for it.” -Barack Obama