I Am Legend, based on the Richard Matheson novel of the same name, tells the story of Robert Neville, a military scientist who is the survivor of a lethal manmade plague that has killed off most of humanity. Neville continues to live in New York City and works diligently in his private lab to find a cure. While the virus almost always kills its host, it also has the unfortunate tendency to turn a small but significant percentage of victims into your typical post-apocalyptic homicidal mutants. His only companion is the family dog and he is beginning to show the psychic trauma of three years of without human contact.

I’ve been looking forward to the this film for a while and it mostly lived up to my expectations. Will Smith gives a strong, nuanced performance as a man trying to carry on after the unimaginable has happened. The story is gripping and provides several genuinely frightening moments. But the movie does collapse towards the end, descending into hokey spiritualism and giving the viewer cause to wonder whether Neville found his science degree at the bottom of a cereal box. It’s a letdown after the virtuosity of the film’s preceding two-thirds. Still, I Am Legend is infinitely better than The Omega Man, that cheese platter starring Charlton Heston.

The only people who have sent me Christmas cards are my friends who work in law firms. It’s comforting to know there are people I can call if/when I ever get busted for some indeterminate offense. Not that I’m guilty of anything. I’m just saying.

The universe is a weird, weird place. Take, for example, the recent discovery of a black hole at the center of a distant galaxy that is firing an enormous stream of lethal radiation at a neighboring galaxy. The creators of Star Trek never thought up anything this cool. I’m betting that these kinds of findings begin to reveal only the slightest hint of the universe’s deep and abiding strangeness.

The latest Disability Blog Carnival is now live and its theme is “A Few of Our Favorite Things”. Go check it out while I finish my gift shopping.

As the Christmas recess approaches, Congressional Democrats are folding like cheap furniture. They’ve backed down on pledges to expand children’s health care, to require utilities to meet renewable energy milestones, and to attach withdrawal deadlines to continued funding for war in Iraq. It absolutely kills me when I read news stories referring to Democratic “negotiators” trying to work out a deal with Republicans. If this is how Democrats negotiate, I’m terrified to see what surrender looks like.

I put a lot of blame for this embarrassment on old-guard Democrats like Harry Reid and Steny Hoyer. They’re committed to keeping themselves in power, keeping their hands in the till, and not much else. I don’t think either one of them has one shred of a vision for this country, much less a progressive vision. They–and the rest of the Democratic leadership–need to start leading as if they only have another year in power. Because if this kind of political cowardice keeps up, I’m not sure they deserve another chance.