Wow, best summary of the argument against the Dubai Port company I've heard. To me personally, it just seems like such a laughable offense for everybody to care about compared to everything else Bush and his friends have screwed up. So I don't see what the big deal really is (Yeah, of course its a bad idea, but far from the worst thing they've done...), but on the other hand if John Q. Normal wants to be pissed off about it I'm happy to enable them. Saying the UAE was more involved in 9/11 than Saddam is just a brilliant summary of how facacta the whole situation is. Kudos.

Maybe its because I never watched the show until season 5 started (and of course got caught with help from Blockbuster in about a week), but I don't have any of the complaints most seem to have about this season. I thought the second episode was crap when it came, cause of course I wanted more, but after watching the second and third episodes together I thought the whole Kevin Finnerty thing was hilarious. I thought the Vito angle was funny and really didn't get how many people were angry that *gasp* there was GAY STUFF on the Sopranos! (maybe they were more upset that they weren't slim, good looking gay guys)

I've always liked the show more because of the way it portrays dysfunctional families and personalities so perfectly. The black comedy on the show is priceless. People getting killed and the misc mob stuff is maybe 4% of the show and always has been since season 2. In fact when I think about why I love season 2 so much its the godawful jacket, Christopher's guys trying to be stock brokers, Richie Abril strutting around in members only jackets and rayon, Janice going from hippie to a clone of her mom, etc. Not anybody getting whacked. And of the actual whacking from that season, I think the 3 o'clock thing with Chris/Paulie, the visit to the psychic, and old yuppie couple taking back their testimony when they find out its a mob thing, blah blah, was the entertainment. and Janice just flipping the hell out when Richie slaps her? Like, "how dare you hit ME!!??" after she's been justifying him breaking somebody in half...ho man that was perfect. And that look Tony had on his face when he walks in and sees Richie dead! C'mon people. Thats what makes the show great.

And there's been plenty of that all season. Hell, MORE of it and it has all been funny. The JFK thing made me spit milk out of my nose. The stupid, made up one liner/quotes from little Carmine, the Sicilians laughing about the crappy dollar/euro exchange..."nah...I don't think they're terrorists...one of them has a dog." Lighten up. WTF would make you kids happy anyway?

What could be the most predictable, contrived ending for the season finale? A bunch of crazy shit happening. Somebody dying. Thats not what I watch the Sopranos for, thank you very much. Instead the finale was a shocker, because everything we got lured into expecting got foiled by hilarious irony, ex. Phil's heart attack, which better yet came after he went to the hospital where he was told he wasn't having a heart attack. Ending with a happy Christmas was perfect. I laughed my ass off.

There. I said it.

I can't even get into this chocolate percentage nonsense. I've had $200 and $300 bottles of wine before and I couldn't tell the difference between a $50 bottle, which in my opinion is pretty much where you plateau quality wise. I tried very, very, very hard to be a whine snob and it was just like the day I went to church with my friend in first grade: everybody else insisted Jesus was posessing them or something, and I didn't feel a thing (no offense Jesus).

I loved the Penn and Teller episode last year where they insisted they were serving comically pretentious luxury items to people and really it was rot gut whine, canned meat, etc, all painted up by their prop guy to look really good. The decorated spray can whip cream in the fruity, tiny glass was about the funniest thing I have ever seen.