Thursday, February 01, 2007

"Extras" and my choice for president

Recently, i watched an episode of "Extras" on HBO, it was very funny. Subsequently, i have watched more episodes and i found this clip from a recent episode that provides a good glimpse of the show and its humor. The basic premise of the show is that Andy, played by Ricky Gervais, is a 40-something actor, in the first season he was on various sets as an extra trying to get his big break delivering one-liners, or simply being an extra in movies. This year he got an offer to do a shitty sitcom and took it. In the clip you will also meet his inept manager, Darren, and his secretary, Barry who is also an actor that only works as an extra.



Next we have my choice for the presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy. You probably don't know him, here is a interview he did on Wednesday, on The Charlie Rose Show.



Did i mention it was the French Presidential Election. Anyway, i hadn't heard of him either, but i watched the show on Wednesday night, yeah i'm a nerd, even my parents find Charlie Rose boring. With the choices Charlie Rose on PBS, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan, or Craig Ferguson, i often choose in this order depending on who guest's are for each show. So Wednesday i started watching and thought it was a great interview and longed for an American candidate like him, and for our presidential election to be similar to France's, for example they are not allowed to have any political ads on television. It was also very refreshing because the questions were not softball questions that were preselected and told to the candidate before hand, and because Sarkozy's answers sounded very atypical from the types of answers politicians in America give. If you are curious about my thoughts about America's upcoming presidential election you might be surprised to learn that if i had to vote today i would probably select Barack Obama. Stop smiling. I know what you're thinking, but the Republicans just don't have any good candidates they only have "bob dole" type candidates, and while i disagree with Barack on numerous issues, well actually most issues, such as universal health care, social security, Iraq, global warming, etc. He does support one of the issues that is closest to my heart. More than anything i like how different he is from the typical American politician, and how much he would spice things up in this country for better and for worse. What i hate most about him is that while he is obviously very articulate and charismatic, he doesn't have a plan or idea about a single issue. He is great at making things sound good but there is a big difference between saying how great and beneficial something would be and actually making it happen and be at all feasible. Universal Health Care, have the government take care of all your health care costs sounds great in theory, not so much in reality once you are paying higher heath care costs to cover others. Social Security, he wants to give more benefits to seniors and not privatize, that would work well for at least 8 years than Social Security would go bankrupt from giving seniors more money and from the enormous influx of baby-boomers collecting these increased benefits. It's easy to make no more health care costs and increased benefits to our grandparents and parents sounds good, but it doesn't sounds as nice once taxes are increased 5, 10, 15% to pay for all these heartwarming programs. Anyway, i hope you enjoyed the "extras" clip and the 30 seconds you probably watched of the Sarkozy interview.

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