A couple of quickies this morning to get things started.

It was great to hear that Elizabeth Smart was found alive and apparently in good condition yesterday. The amazing thing is that just that morning there had apparently been some reports, in Utah papers, that the Smart family was lambasting the police for failure to follow up on various leads.

The family had nothing but positive things to say for all involved later, but it will be interesting to see what comes out about a police investigation that can NOT find a girl lost for months, while they had apparently spoken to the man who had abducted her.

I also give credit to Mr. Smart for using his media spotlight to aim some anger at politicians dragging their feet on the "Amber alert" legislation. He actually named one politician by name, and you can expect that guy to be dodging reporters for a while.

Watched the 1st Annual TV Land Awards last night. I mean, for the most part there were no surprised, as you could tell from the clips who was going to get any particular award, just by knowing which folks were actually in attendance. The best part, and sometimes the saddest, was seeing so many 'familiar faces' from past shows. I was most surprised to see how frail James Doohan looked when the cast of Star Trek appeared together.

Also evident was the editing, since some folks almost magically appeared on stage while others had their acceptance speeches very, obviously cut. It seems that Shatner's remarks began somewhere in the middle of whatever he had to say.

The show could have done without some of the padding, such as the dress designer Jacques Whomever(?) retrospective. Cutting bits like that could have shortened the show, or allowed the acceptance speeches to be kept.

Looks more and more like it will be the U.S. acting on its own in Iraq, although it's possible that the British will have some troops and aircraft in the area for support. It also seems that Blair, whose friendship with Bush, looked like a good move post-9/11, will actually be his downfall within his own party. With less then 20% (I think it was 19% in the latest polls) of Brits supporting a non-UN backed war, plus some of his Cabinet already resigned (and more threatening that), I would not be surprised to see a vote of "No Confidence" or something of that order coming up shortly.

I am fascinated by articles coming out about how various entertainment and sports events might be effected by a war. Networks fear that the "March Madness" college basketball tournaments might be shuffled off to VH1, with sidebars talking about how it will impact advertisers like Budwieser because they might hesitate to advertise if the games go to the youth oriented MTV channels.

We can hold our heads up high though, since the Academy has announced that a war won't cancel or postpone their annual event. It was one thing, apparently, to hold off when it seemed that 'terrorist' threats might take place, but there's nothing like a party to keep your mind off of the bombing of Iraqi citizens.

Man, am I Mister Cynicism again, or what?