Random Acts of Observation

I have been hearing many things about director David Cronenberg's latest film, Eastern Promises, starring Viggo Mortensen. One of which is that, apparently, there is a scene set in a bathouse/sauna in which the audience is exposed, as it were, to the full Viggo.

What does it say about me that my very first thought was that this would almost certainly lead to greater anatomical correctness in Aragorn/Legolas slash fan art?

Blame whumpdotcom for this. He's the one on my friends list who posted the link to ROFLBOT

Both were random images.

This is what any cat would say, seeing as they are such superior beings.



This one's kind of wistful.

OK, political towns live on rumours, and from everything I've heard, Washington has elevated the use of rumour to spin and influence to, if not a high art, certainly the first line of both attack and defense.

So the rumour that's now hitting the US press is that Cheney, being implicated in the affaire de la Plame, will resign, to be replaced by Condolezza Rice. Who, one assumes, then becomes the favourite to run for the Republicans as President in 2008, becasue the VP is traditionally the favourite (if that's what they want to do).

Now... if it should actually come to pass (which I suspect is unlikely, and not just because high-ranking Republicans are already saying things like, "no, Rice can't be our candidtate, I think she's pro-choice") that Rice becomes the VP, what do the Democrats do?

See, my mind is already running in circles. Would this, if it happened, be a move to force the Democrats to nominate Clinton in order to nullify any gender effect (based on the Republicans believing that Clinton is beatable becasue now only is she a woman, and a Clinton, but she's the woman they were able to demonise quite effectively in the past)? Or would it be, even more bizarrely, be an attempt to influence the Democrats to nominate Clinton under the assumption that the Republicans would nominate Rice, but then, after the Dems are committed, would Rice withdraw, thus bringing the gender effect back into play (and I think the Republicans believe the gender effect would work in their interest, whether that is really true or not.)

Or am I having too much fun spinning the wheels in my head?