I have always enjoyed watching "old" TV shows much more than current fare. This becomes more true the older I get.

There are some good and interesting shows on these days but much of the landscape is an utter wasteland. The CSI shows are reasonably good although I think they would be better if they concentrated less on bizarre story lines. The Law & Order shows are good except I can't stand the bozo on Criminal Intent so I never watch that one. The episodes of both of those franchises though, really start to blur and run together after a while.

One show that I find enjoyable and full of some surprises is House. There was an episode a season or two back where House convinced a young girl, who had been raped, to have an abortion. This really annoyed me until I saw a later episode where he again tried to harangue a woman into an abortion. This time however the mother resisted.

This lead to a decision to operate on the unborn baby (which House insisted on referring to as "the fetus"). The woman's abdomen was opened and a female doctor (who had argued against abortion) reached in to get access to the baby. A tiny hand reached out and very lightly grasped her finger. The camera zoomed in on House's face as he stood frozen, eyes locked on that tiny searching hand.

This was as powerful a moment as I've seen on network television in many years. No words were spoken. None were needed. The unmistakable point was made with nothing more than a tiny hand reaching forth from its mother's belly and a look of shock and then dawning realization on the face of a cynic.

Very interesting post today from DJ Drummond at Stolen Thunder.

DJ is providing some much needed perspective on the various polls this year.

I remain unconvinced that the polls showing Obama up by 3 to 8 points are valid. Pollsters this year seem to have all gone off the tracks to one extent or another. I suspect that they all believe that Obama should be ahead and thus they are to an extent cooking the polls to bring that about.

There are two distinct groups of polls. First there are the media polls done by the networks and major newspapers. These are almost always suspect and I ignore them as useless.

Then there are the other polls done by Rasmussen, Gallup, IBD, Zogby, Battleground, etc, which are from a technical standpoint highly accurate. The problem comes in the various weighting standards that are being used. When Gallup releases not one, not two, but THREE different polling models with large differences in the results, then how sure can anyone be that any of the polling is accurate?

Barack Obama is clearly the most radical major party nominee ever. Sarah Palin is drawing huge crowds, and John McCain keeps fighting. This race is not over yet.