Last week, I was all fired up to write a thing about the Criminal Bush's lack of support for ballistic fingerprinting, and specifically some really stupid, ignorant-sounding pinheaded comments coming from a White House spokesperson. But then my computer stopped working--temporarily, hopefully--and so I can't get to my notes, including the URL for the aforementioned quote. (I'm writing this during a lull at work.) Plus, I seem to have contracted some sort of cold/flu/bug thing, and my head hurts, so I can't really be bothered. Besides, complaining about the Criminal Bush just snowballs any more. I mean, do I complain about the stupidity, the corruption, the warmongering... So hard to pick.

So, instead, I'm going to say that I'm getting a huge kick out of watching Birds of Prey. It is completely, totally, and utterly what it seems intent on being, which is a comic-book superhero series, and it's nice seeing a network television series embrace that. Also still getting a kick out of American Dreams, even though I apparently can't be bothered to look up a link for it right now. Liking it may be completely unhip, because it's just a really good family drama (though not as good as Once & Again; damn you, ABC) but I don't much care. Sundays at 8 pm on NBC, plus they rerun the previous week's episode Sundays at 7 pm. Check it out.

And, while you're at it, check out Firefly, the sci-fi Western from Buffy/Angel creator Joss Whedon. This show seems to be getting a bunch of stick from internet sci-fi fans, as well as comics writers like Peter David and "I'm so hip and British; just ask me" Warren Ellis, and here's my thinking why: it's a science fiction series that's not really a science fiction series. David, in particular, seemed upset that it wasn't turning enough sci-fi cliches on their head. Me, I think it's obvious. It's not a science fiction show. It's a Western. It's a post-Civil War ensemble drama made by people who understand that it's easier to market a science fiction show than a post-Civil War show and who probably don't want to be ham-strung by historical reality. It doesn't break new ground in sci-fi programming because that's not one of it's goals. To paraphrase--badly--Neil Gaiman, it's like ordering a pizza and then complaining that it's this round, flat, bready thing with tomato sauce and cheese all over it. I do agree that the dialogue and characters are more interesting than some of the plots, but it's still a show worth watching, says I.