This Just In: The Messenger, The Message and Mother Earth

First, thank you to those of you who -- privately and anonymously -- advised me that you believe my distaste for the new Bond missed the mark. To clarify, I don't think Casino Royale will be a bad movie -- I do, however, think it will be a bad Bond movie. The Bond formula -- crass, misogynistic, charming, lucky, always-in-the-right-place-right-time guy named Bond, James Bond, finds the bad guy, lets the bad guy know he's taking him down, gets threatened by the bad guy, scores with the bad guy's wife/girlfriend/significant other, beats bad guy, fixes his slightly-mussed hair, tosses a quip or two at the camera, and then the credits roll. That's it. There's big guns, big cars, big sets, big bodies of water, big stunts, and big lines. And big box-office returns. This Bond, however, isn't about laughs or smiling or coming off as cool and charming; he's about being bad, doing his dirty job -- because someone has to do it -- and going home. It's not what the Bond formula -- at least the film version thereof -- is and has been about.

With respect to more important -- and other current -- incidents, there's the fracas -- a most underutilized and underappreciated member of the English language -- over OJ Simpson's forthcoming book entitled "If I Did It." Apparently, publisher Judith Regan -- for whom I have immense respect -- is getting all sorts of vile, disrespectful feedback over her decision to a) publish OJ's "confession;" and b) interviewing him with respect to what's in the book. Her explanation of why she went through with it isn't entirely convincing, though I think she's fairly up front and honest when it comes to this sort of thing. But more importantly, it sounds like OJ's finally addressing the fact that there are no "real" killer(s) out there hiding on golf courses while he works on his handicap (aka searches for the "real" killer).

In other news, it turns out that Sony's newest game machine, the PS3, was released in limited form around the country today. Of course, that means people actually lined up -- for days -- in front of Best Buys, Circuit Citys and any other place that purported to have some of these newly-released game machines. But since they cost upwards of $300 per, a few innovative individuals opted to make some money on the losers who were lined up ready to plunk down their hard-earned Benjamins with real hardware. Story's here. Since this wasn't one single incident but nearly a half-dozen nationwide, it really makes one wonder what, in a thousand years, our descendants will think of us as a society. Then again, based on this news item, one has to wonder whether humanity -- or this mockery thereof -- has another thousand years left.

Speaking of brainless losers, an Internet argument -- eg mutually-escalated insults hurled between geeks in chat-rooms, bulletin board forums or newsgroups -- got so intense that Moron #1 attacked Moron #2. Once I had digested the combined tale of geekdom and stupidity, it occured to me that this stuff likely happens on a regular basis. Which, perhaps, is the inspiration for the politically incorrect image to the right. There are those among us who might cringe at the awful depiction of a young, presumably disabled athlete with a less-than-flattering label. And there are those of us, myself included, who have more respect for people who are developmentally disabled than those who aren't but behave as if they are.

So the next time you encounter online someone or something eminently stupid, completely devoid of thought and/or extremely irritating -- excluding this site, of course -- don't hesitate to share with the originators of the material your opinion, unless doing so involves you getting in a car or other moving object and hunting the object of your derision down and killing them. That would be wrong.

Merciful, perhaps. But wrong nonetheless.