You might remember back in the late 90s there was a bit of a kerfuffle between the major record labels (Recording Industry Association of America) and a group of upstart software companies that allowed users of their wares to share music files in a peer to peer manner. This situation got nasty when the industries legal options against the companies releasing the software didn't stem the tide of change and they decided to sue the actual users of these services which resulted in situations where housewives and their kids were being sued for tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars.

To me at the time, the whole thing seemed pretty stupid. Even though I was still in my hyper-leftist socialist sympathizer phase, what annoyed me was that there was a clear market opportunity that the record companies were missing out on. The fact was that file sharing networks were terrible places for people who bought a lot of music to get the product. First off, it was biased toward really popular music so if you weren't listening to top 40 stuff, you'd have to wait for somebody with more nuanced taste to log in - which was frequently not when you were logged in. Next, it was very singles oriented as you were much more likely to find a particular song than an entire album. Finally, there was a huge variance in the quality of the files with most people ripping music at relatively low fidelity bit rates.

These were all problems that the record companies could have addressed by launching their own service and making their entire catalogs available. Instead, they chose to sue. I understand why they did it, the fact that the entertainment industry is notoriously bad at adapting to disruptive change - look no further than Jack Valenti's notorious comment before Congress in 1981 about the VCR:

Now, the question comes, well, all right, what is wrong with the VCR. One of the Japanese lobbyists, Mr. Ferris, has said that the VCR... is the greatest friend that the American film producer ever had.

I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.

Even still, the bigger problem was that customer demand was changing too fast and instead of responding to the change, they alienated customers who were simply telling them what they wanted. This was too much for me and I, the kid who as a high schooler spent his entire allowance on music for years, decided to boycott the RIAA. Not only would I not buy anything from them, I wouldn't even illegally download it. This boycott lasted from roughly 2000 to 2011. What happened in 2011 to cause me to lift my embargo?

The Zune Pass.

When I got my Windows Phone, it came with a service that I found interesting. For 15 bucks a month, you could download or stream all of the music you wanted to be played on your phone or PC for as long as you had an active subscription. In addition to that, you could also download 10 high quality MP3s per month to keep forever. The math to me was pretty simple, if I assumed a song cost 1 dollar, then I was paying 5 bucks per month to listen to all the music I wanted and only buy what I liked. I thought it was a great deal and represented exactly what the industry should have done when the likes of Napster and Kazaa and GNUtella were popping up.

I signed up and haven't looked back.

Today the service has been modified (it is now known as the XBOX Music Pass) and what really differentiated it from a Pandora or Spotify - the 10 downloads - is no longer included, but the idea is that there are now lots of different services that allow you to legally consume tons of music on demand. That is progress. And not only that, every Tuesday I can listen to every new album released as much as I want without paying an additional dime so the costs of my music addiction are predictable. My iPod touch is passe compared to my Lumia 920.

Here are some albums I have enjoyed this year:

Devendra Banhart - Mala: Very quirky lighthearted and enjoyable. You have to hear it for yourself as I'm not capable of doing it justice in words. Favorite song: Your Fine Petting Duck.

Lupe Fiasco - Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album: I'm not 100% on board with his politics, but the fact that a rapper even has politics in his music - much less, articulated in an extremely thoughtful manner - these days gives him cred in my book. Very good all around album. Favorite song: Around My Way (Freedom Ain't Free)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Mosquito: Their electro-rock sound reminds me a lot of Garbage, and I really dug Garbage. However, what really got me going on this album was a completely out of the blue appearance from the one and only Dr. Octagon. Favorite song: Buried Alive

Snoop Lion - Reincarnated: Honestly, I still don't know what to make of this record. Snoop is a pretty mediocre reggae vocalist, but it takes guts to do something like Reincarnated and I feel like those guts are what make it work... on some levels. Favorite song: I'll get back to you.

Dropkick Murphys - Signed and Sealed in Blood: I dare you to not get amped up while listening to this group chant away. It's like Irish Crunk Music. Favorite song: They are all awesome but I'll go with Rose Tattoo (Prisoner's Song seems like a cheap pick)

Lately I have been getting into mobile app development and, as a result, I have purchased an Mac (iMac) since it is impossible to write iOS applications without one. This is the third Mac I've personally owned and the first since the big x86 move a few years back. The Mac and its OS haven't changed much and neither has my opinion of it as a good but highly overrated platform. Still, my return to Appleland has gotten me thinking about a few things...

- I hate Apple's abbreviated wireless keyboard. I don't think the average person would have much of a problem with it but, for a coder and probably a writer, it is horrible with no home end or delete keys (the keyboard has a key called "delete" but it is actually analogous to backspace). Apple sells a full sized keyboard with the caveat that it is wired but jeez, it's hard to not feel nickle-and-dimed being charged 50 bucks to get such basic typing features.

- The Mac has come a long way app-wise. My guess is that the popularity of iOS has gotten a lot of developers familiar with Objective-C and therefore increased the number and quality of Mac developers. The gaming selection is still a little weak but I was able to download Civilization V from Steam so 90% of my personal gaming is covered. It is very cool that a Steam license can cover PC and Mac.

- Once you get used to it, Xcode is pretty cool. I think Visual Studio is a superior IDE in many ways but, like many things Apple, there are small touches that I appreciate. The profiler in particular is very robust (I'm guessing that is a byproduct of Objective-C's lack of garbage collection) and I appreciate having a good one built in as for many years I had to buy RedGate profiler to get decent analytics developing in NET. I also like the little animations that clearly illustrate the positions of code braces and parenthesis.

- I find Objective-C to be a very interesting language. Its elegance kind of sneaks up on you, probably because that NextStep (NS*) prefix on so many classes can make it unsightly at first glance coming from the cleaner naming used in Java and C#. Once I got past that, I have grown to find idiomatic Objective-C to be a nice change of pace. The self-documenting method naming is really cool. Also, I've been learning without Automatic Reference Counting turned on and I have to say that my return to pointer city hasn't been so bad.

- iTunes is as bad on the Mac as it is on the PC. It's just as well because I find that the Zune desktop app and XBOX music / video make iTunes pretty much obsolete anyway for anything other than managing your iOS devices - a practice that is fundamentally obsolete as well.

- According to certain opinion-makers, we are supposed to be an a "Post-PC" era. While I think this proclamation has more to do with the fact that people are falling over themselves to label things "Post-x" than anything else there is something to this idea. However, the idea that tablet sales are cannibalizing PC sales anywhere but on the margins is a non-starter for me. I'm sure that some people are ditching PCs for tablets but I think the average tablet use case is an augmentation to the PC rather than a replacement. Slowing PC sales are likely due to the fact that the marginal benefit of new hardware has been shrinking for some time as system requirements for running Windows haven't changed since Windows Vista was released in 2006. Solid State Drives are the only system component that really gives the average user additional bang for the buck and you don't need a new computer for that upgrade.

For months I have been running Windows 8 on a machine I built when Vista was released and the machine actually runs faster than ever now due to optimizations in Windows. I think this increased efficiency is stretching out PC upgrade cycles - manifesting itself as slow growth. We're just seeing it now probably because so many people skipped Vista and went from Windows XP to Windows 7 where there was an actual need to upgrade hardware, but right now those same consumers have little reason to upgrade their machines again. I think Microsoft the PC OEMs realize this, and that's why we are seeing so many novel (read: more profitable) Windows 8 designs. This glut of innovation is good for the PC industry.

- Apple's recent release of a 7.9 inch iPad is clearly a reaction to the success of the Amazon Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7. A $399 entry point for last generation's iPad just wasn't going to cut it when competing with companies like Amazon and Google that don't have to make profit - and could actually endure a loss - on their devices to profit. I think the big question for Apple is how much downward pressure the Windows 8 hybrid machines will bring. I think that is largely a function of the quality of machines delivered over the holidays and how quickly the Window 8 store catches up on big name apps and games.

- It's impossible to talk tablets Apple and Microsoft without mentioning the Microsoft Surface. I've had a good amount of first-hand experience with the Surface RT and I think it's a great device. If you use it for any significant amount of time (steadily for a few days) it's clear that the device is 1.0 but the issues are mainly small software glitches. For example, there were times where the Start Screen just stopped working and the tiles did not respond. A reboot fixed the problem (FYI: reboots in Windows 8 in general and the Surface in particular are extremely painless) but it has come up a few times. That sounds alarming but when I first got the Surface the performance was a little weak, turns out there was a day-one patch that eliminated all of those issues. I am confident that Microsoft will work out the remaining glitches in time.

The good news about the Surface is that the hardware is top notch. The screen isn't "retina" quality and it shows, but I think the difference in resolution is dramatically less in reality than it is on paper. This is partially due to some font-smoothing technology and screen properties, but also to the design of Windows 8 applications which have very striking and "big" designs that the screen displays very well.

- This holiday season looks to be big for phones too. It looks like the marquee contenders are Apple's iPhone 5, Samsung's Galaxy SIII, LG's Optimus 4 / Google Nexus 4, and the X-Factor: Nokia's Lumia 920 (disclaimer: I am a Nokia stock holder). The 920 is a mystery because it will be running the de facto - at least until Blackberry shows it has a pulse - third wheel Windows Phone operating system which has had massive problems gaining market share. It's no secret that I am a Windows Phone fan, but the slow market adoption is concerning. Many say it's too little too late, but I think much of the problems with Windows Phone have had to do with the hardware. Until the Lumia 900 earlier this year, there was no differentiated (via marketing or design) Windows Phone hardware available. I think the lack of compelling hardware was mostly due to the fact that the Windows Phone 7 series had severe hardware limitations and OEMs had a hard time pouring resources into pushing technologically inferior phones on the market. It took Nokia - who was fully invested in Windows Phone to make that plunge. The results were mixed at best.

What also may have concerned OEMs was the fact that Windows Phone 7 was a stopgap to buy Microsoft time for converting Windows Phone from its legacy mobile-focused Windows CE core to the full Windows NT Kernel (the NT kernel is the same technology that powers Windows desktops and servers). The net result is that Windows Phone 7 devices can't be upgraded to Windows Phone 8, making all Windows Phone 7 devices a dead end. Again, who wants to sink a product cycle into a product with a clear dead-end. Now that Windows Phone 8 is coming, Samsung, HTC, and Nokia are bringing compelling hardware to go along with the generally well-regarded operating system. All of this makes the current iteration of Windows Phone offerings largely competitive with devices running Apple and Google's software, the primary gap to close now is that of third party apps. Given the shared internals of Windows Phone and Windows 8, I think that gap will close soon but it is very real and has a strong impact on many customers.

I am writing this post in mid-October 2012 intending it to be posted the morning after the election.

For months I've been tempted to label myself as currently "undecided" on how I will vote but, if I'm honest with myself, the most appropriate description of where I am is "ambivalent." I've watched the debates, read the platforms, listened to the speeches and, as far as President goes, I don't think it matters much at all who gets elected.

Both candidates and their parties pander to the middle class to avoid making the tough decisions required to put the economy back on sound footing like putting tax hikes for everyone on the table and cutting back on market-distorting government subsidies to corporate interests in the form of rampant tax breaks and excessive regulation.

Both candidates and their parties support fiscally unsustainable policies, they just have minor differences in what political allies sectors of the economy they want to subsidize with debt-driven government largesse (green energy, unions, defense contractors, etc.).

Both candidates and their parties support significant - though different - government interventions in the health care market.

Both candidates and their parties support sanctions against Iran that only harm the regular people, meddling militarily in the affairs of sovereign nations while at the same time expecting other regimes to "trust us" that we won't do the same to them if they abandon pursuit of the only deterrent to Western military adventurism (nuclear weapons). Not to mention brazenly trampling on the rights of Americans at home and abroad (not to mention the principles of this country) with privacy-violating surveillance programs and data collection in addition to outright assassination.

There are some who are fond of saying that a person who doesn't vote has no right to complain. With choices like these, I beg to differ. I won't say there is no difference between the two parties, but the differences seem to be which lane the country should take while driving the wrong way down an Interstate. I understand it's hard being President and running on a big party ticket and I think both Obama and Romney are good guys - better than most in their situation - and are doing the best they can within the constraints of their positions. The real impediment to change is their parties and the crystallized interests that control them. For that reason, I've decided to go with my conscience and support Gary Johnson with the hope that enough people are tired enough of these mediocre platforms - of better yet, the mediocre execution of said platforms - to kick start something new. Some real change. Change that strikes fear in the hearts of the entrenched and raises the hopes for a new order with fresh faces and innovations.

I can dream can't I?

A random list of albums I like. These are the easy ones. More will follow.

Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030

Moon Safari - Air

Paranoid - Black Sabbath

Discovery - Daft Punk

Black Trash: The Autobigraphy of Kirk Jones - Sticky Fingaz

Enter The Wu Tang: 36 Chambers - Wu Tang Clan

Uptown Saturday Night - Camp Lo

Brown Sugar - D'Angelo

What's Going on - Marvin Gaye

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles

Mezzanine - Massive Attack

Songs in the Key of Life - Stevie Wonder

Symbol Album - Prince

Fear of a Black Planet - Public Enemy

I'm supposed to be working, but I have to take a moment to record what i just saw so I don't forget.

I was walking down Edgewood Ave. at about 6:10 pm when I ran into a local business owner I hadn't seen in a while. While we caught up, there was a disturbance about a block east of our location. Two women were fighting. As me and the four or five people in the vicinity walked toward the altercation it became evident that the scuffle was between a young woman and an older - presumably homeless - woman. The younger woman clearly had the upper hand and was wildly swinging forcing the older one back.

The younger woman's boyfriend successfully pulled her off and things seemed to calm down. The young woman was screaming "she scratched me!" and "she's got AIDS!" When I got a look at the older woman, she was a clearly mentally disturbed and apparently had a history of disturbing people on Edgewood - according to several other business owners who had spilled out onto the sidewalk beside me.

At that point it looked like things were under control. The young woman - still engaged in severe histrionics - was restrained and there were police sirens in the distance. I continued speaking with my acquaintance when I heard a crackling sound. I ignored it at first until I heard "bitch!" and then another crackling noise. It turns out the young woman had gained access to a Taser and shocked the older woman a couple of times. Amazingly enough, when I finally got focused on what was going on, the young woman was trying to electrocute the lady again but it looked like the device had run out of juice.

After the young woman's boyfriend restrained her once more, they both walked into my general direction. According to what we heard, the older woman scratch and bit the younger one - several first-hand witnesses confirmed the story. At this point all of us onlookers advised the young woman, her boyfriend, and her mother who was also present to leave.

Then things got surreal.

The young woman continued with the wailing and proceeded to approach the totally incapacitated old woman - who was leaning against a car, crying in her hands - with a cup of water. She doused the woman with water several times and proceeded to throw several nearby bottles and cups. At this point we were yelling for them to leave and I felt like I needed to call the cops as the sirens we heard hadn't produced any.

As soon as I took out my phone I heard glass breaking. The young woman had found a stray glass bottle (good ol' Edgewood) and broke it on a light post. Her boyfriend - who was probably her height and lighter in weight - was trying his best to hold her back but was being slowly overpowered. I rushed to complete the 911 call and exactly when I got a 911 operator on the line a couple of police cars pulled up and they handcuffed the old woman while the young one continued to scream about needing a teatnus shot and having AIDs. She was attended to by an ambulance.

Lots of thoughts have gone through my head. There seems to be little doubt that the mentally-deficient woman was the aggressor and, for that reason, I can't blame the younger woman who was in an unfamiliar setting for her initial reaction. However, from my vantage point, everything after that first scuffle was superfluous and I think they both belong in jail. It was crazy watching this woman whose brain had apparently fallen into some sort of loop where she was wholly incapable of walking away.

In retrospect, two thing are sticking with me. First, how completely ashamed I am of myself. I stood there and watched a helpless woman get continually assaulted and did nothing to get between her and her assailant. Yes she "started it" but in her state of physical and mental frailty she deserved somebody intervening on her behalf. Next, I can't help but think that I saw a young woman in a fist fight with her older self. I would be okay if I never saw that again.

For many years I religiously watched Sunday morning talk shows. For people such as myself that like to keep up with the political zeitgeist, these Sabbath morning staples are a weekly opportunity to see leading politicians and political operatives wax eloquent on issues of the day. Or at least, that used to be the case. Now they feel like a shooting gallery where politicos score headshot after headshot on poor unsuspecting targets named "truth" and "nuance." It could be that this was always the case but, as my knowledge of the issues discussed has become more detailed, the talking point treatment has become more difficult to bear and I have looked for more stimulating ways to scratch my itch for policy debate. The solution? Policy journals.

Policy journals are the equivalent of pure uncut dope for political junkies like me. While partisan hackery is by no means absent, due to the fact that the policy journal audience is primarily made up of people with above-average nonsense detectors the majority of commentary is civil and reasonable. More importantly, the journals serve as battlegrounds for vetting and sharpening the vanguard of policy ideas. Eventually the professional politicos will pull the best (or most politically tenable) of these ideas and subject them to focus groups, messaging experts, and other manner of dilution in order to tailor them for use by your favorite spin doctor on Sunday morning.

So in a sense, reading policy journals is like watching a saner more detailed version of Sunday morning news shows months - even years - in advance. What's not to love?

Here are a few journals I enjoy reading. I am heavily biased toward foreign policy, but these are not all exclusive to that subject. In order to put a publication on this list, I have at least read through one issue in its entirety. For the vast majority however, I have read three or four.

The National Interest - TNI primarily serves as a mouthpiece for the Policy "Realist" school of thought. Realists tend to be center-right and prefer to look at the drivers of US Foreign Policy through the prism of cost/benefit and national interest as opposed to arbitrary declarations of "will of God" and desire to impose American norms on the rest of the world. I have only been reading this journal for three issues, but it has skyrocketed to the top of my list of favorites.

The Wilson Quarterly - Published by Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, WQ is not a hardcore policy journal, but it consistently delivers high quality analysis and commentary of social and political issues that are always important in the policy debate. I think it's safe to say that the majority of content is focused on domestic maters, but there is always good International coverage as well. WQ is one of the few publications I would unflinchingly label as a Must Read.

Foreign Affairs - The fact that FA is the product of the conspiracy-magnet Council on Foreign Relations sours its reputation with some, and it is certainly the most advertising heavy journal that I've seen, but I've read lots of great essays and the journal is on the higher end of total content per issue.

National Affairs - An unabashedly conservative domestic-oriented policy journal. I've only read a couple of issues but have found a lot to like. Since there is no pretense of being balanced, I've come across a few articles that I've disagreed with more than normal when reading journals, but those articles were always compelling and forced me to rethink my beliefs. I don't know that there is a higher compliment I can give.

World Affairs - I've probably been reading World Affairs longer than any other journal on this list and I've found it to be balanced in perspective and diverse in subject matter. Not much to say outside of the fact that it's a reliable workhorse that you can't go wrong reading.

Journal of International Affairs - JIA is unique compared to the previously listed journals because it publishes only twice a year (the others are either bi-monthly or quarterly), it normally has a dedicated theme for each issue, and the content tends to be much more focused and in depth. The upside is if the theme is something you're interested in, you get a veritable smorgasbord of really detailed content and six months to get through it. The downside is that six months might seem like too little time to drudge through the minutia if you're not into the issue's subject matter.

Honorable Mention (These publications are just as good as what I've listed above, I just got tired of writing):

Foreign Policy Magazine (technically not a journal, but indispensable nonetheless)

Brown Journal of World Affairs

Policy Review

The Journal of International Security Affairs

The Cairo Review of Global Affairs

Please let me know if you have any to add! I am particularly looking for a strongly Liberal (as in left-wing US Democrat) journal.

I don't know this for sure, but I would guess I am notorious amongst my long-time associates for nitpicking comic book movies and remakes because I always whine about details in the source material that get omitted or changed unnecessarily in my opinion. Over the years I've mellowed-out a bit and I really try to watch these films with more of an open mind, letting these new visions stand alone and be what they are. Seeing the remake of Total Recall was a challenge however, as the pre-CGI original could stand a visual update but it has so many other intangibles - its wicked 80s-style humor, cartoonish violence, cheesy production values, mind bending plot, and the guts to not cop out at the end - that it was hard to imagine its singularly unique spirit not being lost in an update. I think the result is a very competently-made action movie with an incredible technological upgrade to the original and several flourishes that give it a unique character, but I prefer the original.

The remake's production design borrows liberally from Blade Runner and Minority Report, but those two films to me are easily the gold standard for on-screen depictions of technological progress. Total Recall melds them into what is the most amazing vision of a future Earth I think I've ever seen. There is an extraordinary sense of place and the designs feel real and where they fall short of realism, they at least feel logical. The cast is also a visual upgrade with Colin Farrel, Kate Beckinsale, and Jessica Biel adding a much sleeker veneer to the main characters and onscreen action.

Where the update starts to eke out an identity of its own is in its reframing of the story as a political struggle between the United Federation of Britain and The Colony, replacing the original film's representations of Earth and Mars respectively. I was hesitant about losing Mars as it was so central to the film I love but I have to say that bold steps were taken with this liberty that paid off for me. The most remarkable plot device is "The Fall," a spectacular rendering of a Gravity Train allowing travelers to commute between the UFB and The Colony by falling straight through the center of the Earth. It's a unique idea and, to their credit, the script uses it to maximum effect.

Another plot refinement is the development of the main character, Quaid, as a factory worker with ambitions for moving up in his organization but kept down because of his status as a citizen of the Colony. I appreciated this elaboration on the character as a guy who is trying, but stuck due to circumstances out of his control. I'm less thrilled about the elaboration on everything else. Total Recall appears to take every element of the original and try to double it. This is fine for discerning Quaid's motivations but becomes pure tedium when the film devolves into an incessant litany of action scenes. This was my biggest issue with the film.

It seems to me that director Len Wiseman let his huge budget (reportedly $200 million) serve as an excuse to unleash his inner Micheal Bay. Quite disappointing as his work in Underworld produced some of the most efficiently satisfying action in recent memory and even the implausible excesses of his Live Free or Die Hard have a better sense of when the action reaches the point of diminishing returns. Regardless, the original movie - for all of its mind screwery - was an action film, so I guess it makes sense that the action as well as the visuals are updated to current (over indulgent in my opinion) norms.

Bulletstorms aside, I think this version of Total Recall might have functioned better as a stand-alone film not tethered to a highly regarded classic. Wiseman pays respect by inserting many homages to the original, including the infamous (and beloved) three breasted woman, Mary. The special effect is much more believable now but, strangely enough, her presence isn't. The original Mary was just one of a large number of mutated humans on Mars who were suffering the consequences of being exposed to radiation leaked by cheaply built domes. Martian environmental injustice if you will. There is no such condition in The Colony which essentially means that Mary exists simply because no film named Total Recall could exist without her.

This film could exist without her though, and it could exist without most of the elements brought over from the original. I think baggage from the earlier film hindered what could have been a first-rate production more than it helped. We get the broad strokes of the original plot with a visual update, but we get none of the fun or raw audacity. Thankfully, Total Recall (2012) does bring enough visceral thrill to be worth a look if you're into any sort or Action or Science Fiction. Just prepare to have your eyes and ears more engaged than your mind.

Random Thoughts:

- Bokeem Woodbine, yes, Bokeem Wodbine is in this film.

- Director Len Wiseman loves his wife - co-star Kate Beckingsale. Much of the film seems to be an ode to her brooding feminine strength.

- There is a great bit of misdirection in the updated transit scene.

- I can't say enough about the depiction of the Gravity Train. This is one of those really cool Sci-Fi objects that gives geeks like me chills to see prominently featured in a film.

At 10AM today the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is going to rule on the constitutionality of certain provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - known primarily by its detractors as "Obamacare." The most contentious part of this attempt to reform the US health care system is the insurance mandate, a requirement that every American be compelled by the government to buy health insurance. I figure that now is as good a time as any to get out a few - very quick - personal thoughts on this issue. I hope to expand on each idea in detail later.

- I don't know that the word "right" means what people are making it out to mean in this debate, but If health care is going to be that, I think government needs to directly provide it. The idea of conferring the "right" of health care through private insurance and private health care providers is admirable but, in my view, wrongheaded and immoral. For the record, I personally don't see health care (or any other non government-produced material good or service) as an honest to goodness right, but if we're going to go there, cut the BS and take full accountability for it.

- The idea of stopping insurers from "discriminating" against people with pre-existing conditions is admirable, but I think fundamentally flawed given the fact that the whole idea behind insurance is to be discriminatory. Having said that, the insurance mandate - which essentially turns America into a huge group insurance pool - looks to be a vastly superior way of getting there than anything I've heard from the GOP, namely high risk pools, tort reform, and selling insurance across state lines. I appreciate market based solutions as much as any other market enthusiast, but I haven't seen one that works. Let me caveat that by saying most of my reading on this went on while the PPACA debate was raging so I may have missed some good alternatives that have surfaced since then.

- I am glad this law was immediately sent through the legal system. I think any large program like this needs to be thoroughly vetted so that any doubts can be eliminated up front. The law sucks (like all far-ranging Federal initiatives are bound to do) but I think it can have many positive outcomes in the long run. Those outcomes come at a cost, but I don't think the costs will be as catastrophic as some make them out to be nor do I think those costs will be significantly higher than those of the alternatives I've seen. Continued uncertainty is a huge cost that will come from overturning the mandate.

2.5 out of 5

So I just got home from seeing Battleship and I wanted to jot down a few thoughts - "review" is probably an exaggeration - before I went to bed.

For me the film was mindless, but very watchable, summer movie fare. What disappointed me was how, after plenty of subtle cues (no really) early on that humans may have made contact with something much more complicated than the typical relentless alien swarm, the film dashes my raised hopes and devolves into the orgy of CGI and surround sound that I was expecting. Still, a number of loose ends and questionable edits make me feel that the movie I saw wasn't quite the movie that was written. I think some studio bigwig eventually realized the film was based on a kid's board game choosing to reign in the nuance - and expletives.

Regardless, there was lots to like about Battleship (minor spoilers):

- Lots of cool military hardware

- Photo-realistic CGI

- I love Earth-oriented Jingoism

- Balancing the military rah rah with the presence of disabled veterans

- Rounding out the casting with a very raucous group of senior veterans

- When the aliens shoot at the human ships, their peg-shaped artillery dig into the hulls before they detonate. Nice touch!

Building on that last point, the movie actually takes the Hasbro license seriously and manages to squeeze a very compelling sequence out of the Battleship game mechanics. While not the work of a Charlie Kaufman or Aaron Sorkin, the script was fun and clever at times.

Look, we know why we go to see movies like Battleship and I can't say it disappoints. It plays like a Micheal Bay film but more focused and reserved. Every penny of that $200 million budget is on display and, while that cash clearly didn't go into actor talent, the movie hits the mark.