Don't watch it... unless you like... what you think it probably is

Invictus. I mean what an idea. But here's a short review. If you like Nelson Mandela, watch the first half of the movie, it has some interesting political points, and Morgan Freeman, despite his the coming and going of his accent is just a phenomenal actor. For that matter Matt Damon is good too, with a well-polished accent, but he did the best he could with such a 1 dimensional character. The first half, roughly, is about Mandela and politics and racism, the second half is about a somewhat boring series of rugby games and almost magical racial reconciliation. Sports or rugby fans will probably get a lot out of this, but the number of unfinished plotlines, confusing or unnecessary scenes, huge buildup about assassination (with no even attempts at assassination even occurring, just lots of unnecessary tension) and downright cheesyness of it all was a bit too much for me. One scene in particular where Mandela comes on to a random woman at a party is particularly laughable. His pick-up line is something like: 'My father was a polygamist, and even though I'm a monogamist, looking at you makes me envy my father.' What?! What's the purpose of that? Mandela you dog! : ) I can say no more.

If you want a better movie about Nelson Mandela, watch the Color of Freedom/Goodbye Bafana.

Why/what P.L.? WTF vs?

Ah the consequence of conversation. Something to cause the creation of some awful blog with yet another awful unclear name (like FDL... wtf?). So in lieu of having an even more arbitrary title, I decided upon PL.

This stands for Philosophical Liberalism or, if you like, Political Liberalism, and the lack of clarity on this distinction is intentional. The idea highlights the problem inherent with trying to reconcile the openness or even relativism of most philosophical liberal belief and the often uncompromising arrogance of leftist political thought. Which of these is being expressed and what they are, in fact, versus, is what this blog will hopefully be about.

I follow politics, so most of what will be followed here is political news, hopefully with a sarcastic or humorous spin (occasionally, perhaps, angry). I also like weather and other random interesting gossip, movies, video games, environmentalism etc. so there should be some variation in topics. 538 is my absolute favorite blog, followed by Jeff Masters @ wunderground so look no further for substantial nerdery. To the 3+ people who tune in (am I being too generous?), enjoy : )!