It’s been pretty interesting watching the media handle Howard Dean. First there was a rush to anoint him as the nominee. They couldn’t say enough about his unorthodox fundraising and how he dared to take Bush to task for the war and other issues. Then right after the military caught Saddam the tone changed. All of the sudden there was a spate of stories about Dean, questioning whether he was the guy for the Democrats or not. These stories were all the same, posing the question, “Is Dean too angry to win the presidency?”

Apparently the idea that enough people in the country might actually be angry with what the current administration has done over the past three years is a ludicrous. All these articles predict that if Dean gets the nod that it could spell doom for the Dems. His anger, you see, will drive away all those middle-of-the-road types. Ah, yes, and the Democrats have enjoyed sooooo much success cozying to the right. Surely the path to victory is to be only slightly left of Rumsfeld and his ilk.

I’ve got news for them: they’ll never defeat the Republicans by being just like them. If they had any balls, they would embrace the idea of being an actual party of opposition. I don’t want some chucklehead telling me that he too is for tax cuts for the rich and that he too supports the war despite its bogus pretexts. Fuck that. I want the guy who will stand up and call the Bush Administration on their lies and take them to account for the horrendous damage they’ve done to this country since 2000.

I swear, 9-11 was the biggest gift Osama could have possible given Bush and Rummy. Brand new American martyrs and a golden excuse to drape the president in the flag and use people’s fear of terrorism to go hog wild with their hideous agenda.

So yeah, give me the angry guy. Give me the guy who might actually rouse some people out of their apathy. There are a lot of disenfranchised lefties out there and no mainstream politician has made an attempt to get those votes in recent memory. Maybe getting angry is just what this country needs.

And for the record, it remains to be seen if Dean is that guy.

The past few years Nicole and I have spent New Year’s Eve at shindigs thrown by our good friends Jess and Kathryn. Late in the evening (or early in the morning, depending on how you look at it), Jess always does a round of New Year’s resolutions. One of mine the previous two years has been to eat better, exercise, and lose some weight. Suffice to say that hasn’t exactly worked out, with my “sitting in front of a computer/attending game conventions” lifestyle.

This year Nicole got a headache early in the proceedings, so we actually left the party by 1 am. Thus we missed the resolutions, so I told no lies this time. Ironically, Nik and I had agreed to give the South Beach plan a try and we started that today. Phase 1 is no carbs and no sugar for two weeks. As a guy who likes sugar and cream in his coffee and toast and cheese for breakfast, this is going to be interesting. I also decided to start using the exercise machine again. Figured if I was making the effort to adjust my diet, I might as well try to get back into the workout routine.

So this year no resolutions, but action. We’ll see how strong my will is!

Hong Kong actress Anita Mui died of cancer this week. In the U.S. Mui is probably best known as “Wonder Woman” (no, not the comic character), one of the Heroic Trio. Who can forget the scene in Heroic Trio 2 when the imprisoned Wonder Woman squeezes a rat until its blood drips into her mouth so she can regain her super strength? She was also terrific in Drunken Master 2, giving a hilarious performance as Wong Fei Hong’s sly mother. 2003 was not a good year for Hong Kong cinema fans, as Leslie Cheung also committed suicide a few months ago. Cheung starred in many of the seminal HK films of the 80s and 90s, from John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow to Ching Siu Tung’s A Chinese Ghost Story to Ronny Yu’s Bride With White Hair. Ironically, he and Anita Mui co-starred as lovers in the ghostly romance Rouge in 1987.