According to the countdown clock on the Planet F1 website the first race of the season will be in Bahrain in 22 days and some change. I am not so sure that is going to happen. But, more importantly – for me – I don't think it should happen. I think that F1 should blow town.

I want to be very clear that – a couple of weeks ago – I knew almost nothing about Bahrain except that it would host the first Formula One race of the season. Now I know that it is a kingdom with a Sunni king who is willing to kill people from its – primarily – Shite population to maintain order. Of course, maintain order really means keep the king in power.

If the powers that be decide to run the race, I'll probably watch it. But it does make me wonder about how much we are willing to do to walk our talk. In Egypt, in Bahrain, people are willing to die to walk their talk. That is hard to understand. I think that most of us, OK, many of us; think we would be at the public square, protesting. But I doubt it.

Michele and I went through a war zone on our honeymoon.  But – and this is important – we thought it would be safe. And we were right, it was safe. American journalists went to Egypt to report, thinking it would be safe and they were wrong; it wasn't safe. Many left. But the Egyptians and Bahrainis who went into the public square didn't leave. When thugs beat people, killed some, they didn't leave. I find that extraordinary.

If what they are doing, fails; they will -probably – have ruined their lives. It is hard for me to even imagine that level of commitment. Back in the good ol' USA, as the cold rain falls outside and I sit in my warm home; I wish them well. I hope they succeed. They are true freedom fighters and they deserve it.

I really don’t know what else to say. It is truly impossible for me to imagine what it must of been like to live under the thumb of a brutal dictatorship protected by a vast system of oppression. The terror of living in that world.

These people who risked everything, including their lives, to change their world, and our world, are heroes. They were ordinary people doing extraordinary things and becoming transformed.

I am not sure that I would have had their nerve. I try to imagine getting up in the morning and going to a rally, not sure I would live to come home again – and I can’t. Imagine, then, getting to the rally and seeing main battle tanks – as big as small houses – and knowing that they might turn on you. And staying and then doing it the next day and the next.

Martin Luther King was right The arc of history bends towards justice.

When Joe Biden, on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, said that Mubarak is not a dictator, it just pissed me off. Then  – in the turmoil of Egypt – that stupid comment seemed to disappeared. But according to Chase Madar over at the london Review of Books, Biden has made the same sort of stupid comment about Darth Vadar, among others.

Look, I know Darth fairly well, and Jim, I just want to mention that Darth has overcome asthma, some serious, serious asthma, and it’s just a really inspiring story, he’s written a children’s book about it, I gave a signed copy to my granddaughter for Christmas. Anyway our position is that before Darth blows up the planet Alderaan with his so-called Death Star, which is really just a large weather satellite with a few dual-use components, Darth should, you know, take some of that planet’s concerns into account. He should take their concerns seriously, and it should be a peaceful process. They have a right to protest against their planet getting blown up. But Jim, it’s a two-way street, and Alderaan shouldn’t be vandalising the Death Star’s weapon systems, which, of course, not that they exist. There’s been a concern that some of the more radical elements, you know, the Wookie Street, might try to do this. So no, we don’t think Darth Vader should resign. But if he does – if he does – we can find the recent appointment of Darth Maul as his acolyte Dark Lord of the Sith to be really, really encouraging from a human rights perspective. Just remember, the Empire is a fragile beacon of democracy in a turbulent universe.

This is riped off from Slate, but lots of fun if you like movies.

If Filmmakers Directed the Super Bowl

A couple of days ago, I saw a satellite photo of the US covered in snow.  Except when I was in the Army, I have never lived in an area that got really cold in the winter. Snow is a drive to the mountains for the weekend sort of thing. Or a drive across Nevada to get to southern Utah sort of thing.

Here it is spring with the fruit trees in full blossom.

In another couple of weeks, if the weather forecast is right, the almond trees in the Central Valley will be so full of flowers  that even the ground will be covered. It will look like snow.