Greetings and salutations!

I was in the middle of drafting last week's post when it was lost due to Internet temper tantrums; so I apologize and offer the following:

This week's featured movie: Gladiator
This week's featured music: Meteora
This week's featured book: The Singing Sword

From Joe's Life:

This week I'm putting myself first *S*. The first item of note is my new car! I recently purchased a '94 BMW 325i and I'm quite enjoying it. You can see a picture of the car here.

Two weeks ago I watched the fight that, years from now, will be noted in my memoirs as the fight that got me into professional boxing. I've never had an interest in observing what I considered to be a boring at best, and barbaric at worst, sport. However, the recent Welterweight Championship bout between Zab Judah and Corey Spinx was an awesome spectacle of drama, power, technicality, and showmanship. I was captivated by the fight and enjoyed it immensely. For more info on the match, click here.

Finally, as if work couldn't be more interesting, a businessman in our building was recently arrested for a string of burglaries, apparently to support a gambling habit. He is also now the most likely suspect behind a past office robbery in the building. Check out more on this story here. Look for the video link on the right.

In the News:

The recent uproar over the assassination of former Prime Minister Hariri has sparked renewed calls for Syrian troops to withdraw for Lebanon. Syria says it will continue to remove it's forces under the conditions of an agreement signed over a decade ago! Meanwhile, Damascus continues to blatantly support terrorist groups such as Hezbollah. The international spotlight on Syria, as well as the Middle East at large, and the ongoing changes taking place there, draws attention to critical failures elsewhere, including a failure of the world to properly address ongoing genocide in Sudan and horrific abuses of human rights in North Korea.

Last week, Canada's new ambassador to the United States, Frank Mckenna, upset some people by speaking the truth, that Canada was already a part of the U.S.' missile defense plan, as we had signed the expanded NORAD agreement some time ago. Of course, the following day our Prime Minister, Paul Martin, declared that Canada would NOT be taking part, breaking a promise to discuss the issue in Parliament and confounding American diplomats. This was all part and parcel of the federal Liberal's Budget announcement, to which the seemingly lap-dog Conservative opposition quickly added their endorsement.

On a more upbeat note, I watch the Academy Awards (aka Oscars) religiously. Like many others, I was very curious to see how new & controversial host Chris Rock would carry the show this year. I think he did an excellent job, and while the awards were not an entertaining as they were two years ago (think Adrien Brody kissing Halley Barry and Michael Moore booing Bush), they were orchestrated excellently and I enjoyed them a great deal. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees, especially to Canadian Chris Landreth for his short animation, Ryan.

With Hope,
Joseph