When You Breath, I want to be the air for you

I'll be out of commission for a week as we head off to a little cluster of islands formally referred to as The United Kingdom. That's right, a week with no Copeland blogging (you're devastated, I'm sure).

Since we'll be flying into Belfast and then off to Edinburgh I thought I should make a nice light post with a little history about the religiously and politically-torn country of Northern Ireland. And, no, it's not the north of Ireland. It's an entirely different country that is under British rule. They even use the slipping Great British Pound.

An interesting fact, however, is that North Irish citizens are given the option of having a North Irish passport or a Great British Passport. Belfast is also the birthplace of the Titanic in 1911. Coined "The Unsinkable" it sank on 15 April 1912 counting over 1,500 in the death toll.

Also home to "the most bombed hotel in Europe" the infamous four-star Europa Hotel, Belfast visitors still find it important to book a room here.

Ever thought of where the song, Brown Eyed Girl, was composed? It was in Belfast by the awesome Van Morrison.

Want a good bottle of single-malt Scotch? Follow us to Edinbugh, Scotland's capital city and founding land of Scotch Whiskey. Did you know that Edinburgh is considered by many, the most picturesque city in Europe? And it's commonly held that the city began 330 years before the birth of Christ.

And semi-related to the main topic of this post is this day - Halloween. Originally believed in the Celtic sects of Ireland, Halloween makes some wonder about the often-times misunderstood jack-o-lantern. Well, the carved pumpkin lit by a candle inside is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols in America and is commonly called a jack-o'-lantern. Originating in Europe, these lanterns were first carved from a turnip or rutabaga. Believing that the head was the most powerful part of the body, containing the spirit and the knowledge, the Celts used the "head" of the vegetable to frighten off any superstitions.

Wow! We're all a little smarter now.

Orphans

Here is a very interesting (and disheartening) article. It's a brief look at Rob Simpson's book, What We Could Have Done With the Money: 50 Ways to Spend the Trillion Dollars We've Spent on Iraq.

All of the stats are fascinating, but there's certain points such as the fact that for the one trillion dollars spent on the Iraq war the government could buy 16.6 million Habitat for Humanity houses, enough for 43 million Americans. And in the interest of breaking this country of our insane debt addiction we could could pay off every American's credit card. Amazing, although, personally I feel that people should be responsible for their own debts (ahem, AIG, Fannie, Freddy, everyone).

Anyway, check out the article and the website http://www.whatwecouldhavedonewiththemoney.com/ You won't even come close to being able to spend all that dough.

Turn off the lights

Our good friends Exxon Mobile, again, posted the highest quarterly profit.....ever! This trend is absurd. I guess people keep buying Exxon gas because they're "involved in a complex public health problem." They are so amazing for caring so much.

I don't really dance much

Today President Bush spoke a few words of such heart-warming encouragement. He encouraged us to be patient in these times of a struggling economy. That's so kind of him to encourage us. It was even kinder that he was so fervently pushing to have an insane bailout pushed through congress to avoid the economy going further into the crapper. That's worked out nicely.

I especially loved that he mentioned that now is not the time for nations to abandon open market policies or approve changes that would threaten free enterprise.

Hmmm...I thought open market policies were to let the strong and smart survive and the ones who make mistakes fail. I though free enterprise allowed business and the free market to regulate itself. Well, I'm glad that Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke and Pres. Bush decided not to approve those changes.

I'm possibly feeling annoyed and sarcastic this morning.

Deep in Thought I Forget Everyone

If you're lacking good music in your life go back and explore the entire Smashing Pumpkins catalog. Seriously. You should do that anyway. And really spend some time listening to Siamese Dream, preferably with good headphones. Not those crumby iPod earbuds.

If you'd like a good read, here's a great opinion piece by Warren Buffet. You have to admit it...the man's a genius. And he's only become smarter in times of perceived crisis. I particularly like his comment, "Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful."

He also makes the awesome point (a point that I hold a lot of faith in) that over time, the market and economy have *always* self-regulated and not only floated back into the black, but rapidly advanced into the green. And that happened several times in the 20th Century. Through two world wars, a national depression and more. The market even held its own during the time that the painful TV sitcom, Dinosaurs, was on the air. Only The Lord knows how anything made it through that.

I was holding on to you

It's officially fall/autumn/thebestseasonever. And with fall comes a plethora of great, new television. Included in the line-up starting tonight is the new season of 30 Rock. If you happen to miss it tonight, you can check it out on Hulu.com.

In the midst of what's turning out to be a circus of a political season, it's nice to sit back and absorb the genius writing of Tina Fey and the brilliant acting performance of Alec Baldwin and Tracey Morgan.

It's quite possibly the perfect comedy series these days. The script is perfectly intertwined, the roles of each character are cast perfectly and, honestly, any time Will Arnet holds a regular role on a show you must have pure gold (which I hear that gold is worth a lot right now with tanking economies. Oh, that'll be another post).

The Office is also on tonight as the 5th season continues. It's been pretty hilarious so far. Personally, I could go for less of the Jim/Pam romantic to-do. Maybe that's why I'm not a writer for the show.

How Am I To Be?

Thank the Lord for a sane voice speaking out in journalism. Read Jack Hunter's piece in the Charleston City Paper here.

Note: His litmus test is mildly assumptive to say the least, but his voice about why not to vote for Obama or McCain is extremely sound.

From the article - The greatest power the people have is their vote, and in supporting the lesser of two evils each election, voters ensure eternal evil.

Leave Here A Stranger

Battle In Seattle is a movie that I highly and passionately recommend. Directed by Stuart Townsend and starring Charlize Theron, Andre 3000, Woody Harrelson and Ray Liotta, the film centers around fictional characters taking part in the actual 1999 protest surrounding the WTO's annual summit in Seattle.

The film is fantastically done and is a great use of art to speak out against the injustice of the WTO and the US political system as well. I won't go into much detail, but I will highly encourage you to check this film out at your first chance.

Sea of Love

If you're feeling bold, strong-willed and certain of your personal stance on the legalities of abortion, then I might recommend watching Lake of Fire.

Writer and director Tony Kaye (director: American History X) did a fantastic job of presenting a balanced look at multiple viewpoints surrounding such a controversial subject. Everyone from the radical Christians to the radical feminists and from Pat Buchanan to Noam Chomsky lend their voice and opinions about this topic. Even Jane Roe, herself, Norma McCorvey, had her amazing story told in a fairly objective light.

Again, this is not for the faint of heart and is definitely not the feel-good documentary of the year, but it wonderfully carries the viewer down a tough road of controversy, faith, and constitutional right. Proceed with caution.

It Came. I Saw.

This week's Town Hall-style Presidential Debate landed in Nashville, Tennessee this Tuesday. Many people have voiced their opinion that Sen. Obama was on point, sharp and spoke well to the middle class people in attendance. I have to agree, although I got bored with incessant stats quoting and eventually put in the movie Fun Fatboy Run. It was quite funny, but almost too romantic-y.

Oh, right...back to the debate. According to letters sent in to the New York Times, many people were turned off by McCain's "performance." But, hey! He's going to get Osama Bin Laden, right? How can we *not* elect him?

I have a few more personal opinions that I'll reserve for a face to face conversation, but all in all, I think we've heard it all and if people haven't made up their minds yet, then it's time to vote for Nader.

The Lost Vikings

I urge you to go to iTunes or Amazon right away and purchase both seasons of Metalocalypse. You can find it on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. It's by far one of (if not the) funniest cartoons I've ever watched.

You'll fall instantly in love with the lead singer, Nathan Explosion and bassist, William Murderface. And you'll find that they have made the band, Dethklok, the most metal band to have ever existed. And you'll laugh hysterically when you see fans' faces be literally melted by Dethklok's killer (get the pun?) shredding.

And everything else in the show is to the ultimate level of heavy metal and it's awesome. The show's own creator, Brendon Small describes it as "Spinal Tap meets Scooby Doo meets Norway in a never-ending search for the brutal."

I cannot recommend this highly enough.