Yesterday I found the answer to my TV woes: I need a component video cable because my old ps2 is incompatible with the newer technology on my TV. I was warned that even with the cable the games and videos may look really bad, but for ten bucks (as opposed to over 200 for a PS3) I’ll at least take the chance.

While I was up in Portsmouth, I went to the Fox Run multiplex to see the new Abraham Lincoln movie. I think I was the second-youngest person there, which was scary in and of itself. I really did like the movie, though. Rather than being a full biography, it focused on the first few months of 1865 when Lincoln was trying to get what would become the Thirteenth Amendment banning slavery passed before the Southern states surrendered. Daniel Day-Lewis was a terrific Lincoln, and the movie itself showed all the different pressures he faced (hysterical wife, son who wanted to go to war, more-radical Republicans pushing for full Negro equality, and conservative Democrats trying to block the amendment altogether- not to mention the burden of bringing the war to a close). I think today we have the impression that Lincoln was more a statesman than a politicican, but the movie showed him getting down-and-dirty as he twisted the arms of wavering House members by various means, concealed information about the peace negotiations from Congress and used humor to defuse tense situations. I’ve often heard it said that Lincoln couldn’t be elected President today due to his homely looks and sometimes awkward manner, and that may be true, but I believe with the political skills he had, he would still have been an effective leader in a high position. And let’s face it, our country needs more leaders for whom style takes a back seat to substance. Abe Lincoln overcame his own issues and limitations to guide our country through a terrible time, and that’s why he’s one of my heroes.