I always seem to get memed just as I am leaving the country. It must be a conspiracy. And since today's entry is running a little late (it's a long, boring commentary on all the television shows I missed while I was in China), I thought I'd grab two that I've noticed so far, as I catch up with the blogosphere.

James has tagged me with the "Thinkers. Leaders. Doers." meme that, apparently, is all the rage in the Canadian Blogosphere just now. The task is to choose eleven smart and famous individuals to "rule the world" from a list of 100 individuals listed on a BBC website. You must select a leader, a thinker, and an economist, with the other 8 being anybody you wish. Needless to say, I'm rather pissed that I am not on the list, but whatever. Here are my picks...

Thinker: The Dalai Lama. This was a very tough choice. My gut instinct was to select the Dalai Lama, as I am a huge fan of his teachings (specifically) and Buddhism (in general). For me, the entire concept behind Buddhism that I find so appealing is to "do no harm" whether that be by thought or action. But, unfortunately for us, we live in a chain of escalating violence where the Dalai Lama's peaceful ways simply could not rule the world very effectively. I was all set to choose somebody else, but kept coming back to the fact that a world ruled by the Dalai Lama would not be "ruled" at all... it would be a world governed by mutual respect for life. Such a dream is so appealing to me, that I simply could not choose anybody else.

Leader: Nelson Mandela. Believe it or not, I was very close to selecting former President Bill Clinton for the spot. If you can ignore his womanizing and the entire Lewinsky affair, he was actually a decent leader who did much for many people. Unlike President Bush, who I honestly think doesn't give a crap about 98% of the people he is supposed to be representing, I always had the sense that Clinton actually cared. Another contender was Vaclav Havel, because he was always so forward-thinking in his motives for political action, and we could certainly use some of that. But in the end I chose Mandela because he is such an icon for reform against oppressive elements, and a living embodiment of dignity and respect in leadership. How can you argue with that?

Economist: Steve Jobs. This should surprise no one, as I have made it quite clear that I worship the ground His Steveness walks on. He drives success from innovation and beauty as much by economic factors, and this is the way it should be. I loathe the idea of stagnate economics driven by the likes of Bill Gates, who keeps us mired down with a shitty OS (Windows) to run shittier programs (MS Office) and then builds a fortune not by innovation, but on the basis of entrapment. Apple keeps releasing amazing stuff which makes life more interesting, and what do we get from Microsoft? More bloated, buggy crapware that's pretty much the same old shit with a new name or version number. F#@% Bill Gates. F#@% him up his stupid ass (which I would gladly do for even a fraction of his unfathomable wealth).

As for the others... I stopped paging through the endless list of 100 individuals, because many of the people there, while worthy, are simply not in the realm of possibility for me. I decided to just toss out eight additional people that I feel are smart/famous enough to rule the world with the above-mentioned persons (and, granted, I did not give this as much thought as I probably should have... choosing instead to just write down people who popped into my head).

• Elizabeth Hurley (Actress, Business Person). Who gives a crap whether she actually has leadership qualities or not... she would look simply smashing running the world. Admit it, even if she came on television and announced that all right-handed people in the New World Order were to be executed, you'd love her for it.
• Matt Groening (Comic Genius). Creator of The Simpsons, Matt Groening gets the nod for one reason: his short-lived show Futurama. If this is truly his vision for the future of our planet, count me in.
• Luc Besson (Film Director and Writer). I think that a diverse imagination is important for leaders to have, and the man responsible for The Big Blue and The Fifth Element definitely has the imagination for the job.
• Jonathan Ive (Designer, Apple Computer). If all the world could be made as beautiful as an iPod, I think I would very much like to live there.
• Jeremy Piven (Actor). Hug it out bitch! I would want an entertaining world leader, and who could handle that better than Jeremy Piven, who steals every scene he has ever been in and is responsible for the greatest television show of all time: Cupid.
• Richard Bach (Writer). Anybody who can create something as lyrical and beautiful as Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions can rule my world any day.
• Allison Adler & Anya Epstein (Writers, Commander in Chief). Geena Davis' new drama about being the first woman President of the United States, is kind of boring. But there is a quote from the first episode that is so dead-on target, that I rewound and listened to it several times. I don't remember it exactly, but it's something along the lines of "a true power does not seek to rule the world, but to serve it." Anybody who understands this simple concept should have a place in running the planet.
• Me (Evil Genius). Screw the BBC. I am the most capable person I know of to rule the world, and I shall not let the glaring oversight of my omission from their list stand in my way to global domination. Bwaaah ha ha haaaaah!

Anthony has tagged me with the "23rd Post Meme" where you search your blog archive for your 23rd entry, then excerpt the fifth sentence. He wonders if I have stopped doing memes, which I haven't... I just don't tag other bloggers with them anymore.

Anyway, here's an excerpt from my 23rd post... "Of life and Arizona".

This amazing, amazing place was supposed to kill 2 hours on the way to the Big Event, but ended up sucking an entire day... and I would have dearly loved to stay longer.

This was said in reference to the Sedona area of Arizona (near the Grand Canyon), which truly is one of the most amazing places on earth.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got another 8 hours of television to watch...