Trite but true

I like to watch
I recently met a wise American warrior who provided me with the following quote from the Shawshank Redemption:
"Get busy living, or get busy dying"
It got me thinking about other words of wisdom and inspiration from movies, good and bad. What are yours?

Salon.com - War Room

Salon points out a hilarious, but maybe blasphemous bit from the Daily Show:

Salon.com - War Room: "the Gaza withdrawal has been a wrenching event, and hard to watch. Some comic relief is in order. On Jon Stewart's 'Daily Show' on Wednesday, faux correspondent Rob Corddry reported 'live' from the Gaza Strip on the disputed land, which like much of the Middle East consists of inhospitable desert. Corddry intoned that 'both sides still feel this land was given to them by their respective God,' then added:
'But I've been here for a couple of days now, and if God gave me this particular piece of land, I'd be wondering what I'd done to offend God. I mean, frankly, Jon, I'm standing by the nice rubble, um, the stuff they take out when company's coming over. My guess is someone gave the land to God, God saw it and in his infinite wisdom he regifted it.' "

Greek Tragedy: grass

An Uberblogger's everywoman insights on wanting, waiting, and romantic frustration. Well worth reading in full on her blog Greek Tragedy:

"When I explore the relationships that begin with ignition and spark, I'm left sobbing into my pillow wondering how I ended up so sad again. Sparks, I've learned can lead to fires' and then fire escapes."

Greek Tragedy: sample sale

My new favorite writer Stephanie Klein explains how love is like a sample sale (trust me, it is...) You just can't force it. Greek Tragedy: sample sale:

"I've been known to do it from time to time: the chick out. It's 'chicking out' because it's usually freaking out about something only a girl would freak over, like a sample sale for the ultimate date outfit so you can snag a great boy, or a boy not calling, or like a boy getting back with his ex. Notice how chicking out involves a boy...

I'm a goal-oriented high-achieving hyphenated type of woman. I was raised on a diet of you can do whatever you set your mind tos, and it has served me well. The suit fits; the diet worked, but the suit is tailored and professional. It has covered buttons and long conservative hemlines. The 'I will make it happen' tude doesn't flow with the ruffles of a social party dress. "

Greek Tragedy: hard knock life

Enough politics. This is about life....Greek Tragedy is New York writer Stephanie Klein's enormously successful blog-- like electronic chick lit, but usually better written. Some of the stuff recalls Candace Bushnell (Sex and the City) but with more originality and less pretension. This is Fat passing for thin:

"You see it in the stitching or the way the logo is clipped near the zipper, and you know it's a knock-off of a pricey must-have. It was a good impersonation, but you're onto them now. Some people are knock-offs, too, and sometimes I worry I'm one of them. I diet all day long to find a guy who'll love me even if I ever get fat. That's called fat, passing for thin, and I worry it's just as bad as Canal Street."

I Like to Watch: Wannabe TV

From Salon.com Arts & Entertainment I Like to Watch, Heather Havrilesky's brilliant take on drunken, whoring sea donkeys and other denizens of reality tv:

"Suicide blondes
Of course, the most pathetic denizens of the wannabe genre populate 'The Real World.' These are dreamers who don't dream of becoming chefs or models or even male strippers, they dream of becoming ... stars of 'The Real World.' Since the producers have long since abandoned the original goal of enlightening rednecks about gays and blacks about whites and so on (all the kids in the house know about that stuff already anyway, from watching every season of 'The Real World' ever), the show is free to focus full-time on following the kids around as they get drunk, get naked, and get
into fist-fights with the locals, not necessarily in that order. "

Bush Approval Rating at Lowest Point

Salon.com - War Room: "A new AP-Ipsos poll puts George W. Bush's approval rating at its lowest point yet.
Only 42 percent of the public approve of the president's job performance; 55 percent don't. The same poll shows that, by a 50-48 percent margin, Americans now believe that their president is dishonest. Only 38 percent of them approve of the way in which he's handling the war in Iraq.
As bad as those numbers are, it's important to keep them in perspective. Things could be worse. Iraq could be, say, Plamegate. According to the latest CBS News poll, 77 percent of the American public believe that the Bush administration is either lying or hiding something about the outing of Valerie Plame. Only 12 percent say the White House is telling 'the entire truth.' "

FOXNews.com - Politics - Report: Plame Gave Money to Anti-Bush Group

This is their smoking gun?
FOXNews.com - Politics - Report: Plame Gave Money to Anti-Bush Group: "WASHINGTON � Outed CIA spy Valerie Plame last fall gave a campaign contribution to go toward an anti-Bush fund-raising concert starring Bruce Springsteen, it was revealed Tuesday night.
It's the first revelation that Plame participated in anti-Bush political activity while working for the CIA."

Those Evil Springsteen Fans: Salon.com - Daou Report

Salon.com - Daou Report: "Intelligence Agency - Dear Director X, NY Post columnist Deborah Orin has discovered a serious threat to the CIA's security. It seems that some of your covert agents attend Bruce Springsteen concerts. Naturally, fans of the Boss are not to be trusted. That, says Orin, justifies their betrayal--at least it did in Valerie Plame's case. It's imperative that you act quickly to purge your ranks of other Springsteen fans before Karl Rove is forced to betray them as well.'"

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: The Gay Child Left Behind

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: The Gay Child Left Behind: "But there was one bright spot this week. On Monday, Maya Keyes, the daughter of Alan Keyes, officially declared herself a lesbian at a gay rights rally in Annapolis, Md. It was a bit of good news for gays and lesbians, particularly those who are connoisseurs of schadenfreude. "