A Mea Culpa: Joe Eszterhas, screenwriter for Basic Instinct (among other, less well received pictures) and throat cancer survivor, has come out with an impassioned plea against glamorizing smoking in movies. When he notes that placing cigarrettes on the silver screen may eventually cause the deaths of millions of moviegoers, you can infer a more powerful (and more persuasive) point - that while conservatives (and Lieberman) decry the violence and sex in movies today, that little cylindrical accessory, manufactured by corporations donating millions to GOP campaigns, is a helluva lot more influential on impressionable kids than any gun or prostitute could ever be.

Finally: After years of my complaining, the New Jersey DMV is actually going to issue digitized licenses to replace the relics they've had in place for the past few centuries. Apparently the two 9/11 hijackers with fake NJ licenses expediated the decision-making process a bit. Nonetheless, a welcome bit of news.

The Dems' Surprise: As I worry that my beloved New Jersey may in fact elect a Republican Senator (I still have hope in Torricelli - besides, Forrester's just a loser), The New Yorker reminds me of a race that may turn out surprising for the country and infinitely damaging to George W. Bush. Texas, who since LBJ has since erased the words "Democrat," "liberal" and even "moderate" from its vernacular, may be preparing to send an African-American lifelong Democrat to the Senate. What universe am I living in?

Ron Kirk, the black, pro-business, deal-making former Dallas mayor is currently polling even or ahead with John Cornyn, his cookie-cutter conservative Texan opponent. With national star power warrating Clinton-hosted fundraisers, Kirk is running on the consensus-building aura mastered by LBJ and mimicked by Bush. Whether Kirk can win is another story. Certainly, it is counter-intuitive to believe that he should even be competitive in the race. Should he pull off the upset, though, and prove to be the decisive majority-maker in the Senate, the president will have been dealt an unbelievable political blow to his agenda as well as his ego. This is one to watch.

New Discoveries: A recent argument by creationists suggests that God intentionally produced fossils of prehistoric hominids to lure and confuse the nonbelievers. Apparently God is doing an exceptional job at getting the poor befuddled paleontologists to throw up their hands in the air. Regardless, if last month's discoveries of two new hominid fossils don't confuse you as much as they do the scientists, you may yet have a career in evolutionary science.

One Year Later: August 9th marks one year from President Bush's "decision" to allow a crippled federal stem-cell research program. Two thoughts come to mind - first, did Bush really need to spend three months struggling to find the least harmful political decision, while he was getting vague CIA warnings of al Qaeda terrorist plans? And second, exactly how many scientific doors did Bush open by allowing the limited research?

The answers are: no, and not many. For a decision that was hailed as "thoughtful" by many, it certainly seems to have plunged American scientists years behind their British, Australian, and even Israeli colleagues. Interesting, that all-out war with the Palestinians has less of a retarding impact on embyronic stem cell research than the Bush Compromise.

A Better Idea: The Port Authority of NY & NJ and New York City are currently negotiating a land swap deal to give the City control of the World Trade Center site. The PA would then get ownership of both JFK and LaGuardia airports. On several levels, this seems like a good idea.

Firstly, it wipes out the need to rebuild all that commercial space. While there are those of us (present company included) that would like to see the towers rebuilt completely, public opinion is not fervently in that direction. There would also be some justified trepidation as to working in the new towers' upper levels. As it is, many of the victims' families do not want any commercial space put in at all. While a commercial-free site is not cost feasible for the Port Authority, the City of New York, with federal funds funneled through the state, could plan a more serene memorial to the victims.

For the Port Authority, it gives them the control of two airports it has sought for a long time, by removing from their neck the noose applied by many City mayors. Moreover, they have no real use for the WTC site as related to their fundamental purpose, so the land swap works for them doubly.

The one downside to the announcement of the land swap negotiations is the realization that this memorial is not going to be built any time in the near future. Once these talks have ceased, with or without a deal, the planners, as per public mandate will go back to the drawing board with rebuilding plans. Hopefully, when a tasteful and permanent solution has been found, the funding and construction can be fast-tracked past the bureaucracy and financial quagmires that seem not only forseeable, but inevitable.