Some of my cousins and I have been exchanging e-mails evaluating the Superbowl ads. Personally, I liked the e-trade "milkaholic girlfiend" one.

But for some of those ads, I'm torn between annoyance and a kind of perverse admiration at how they try to exploit male insecurities. Like the FloTV one.

To paraphrase:

"You're missing a football game to spend time with your girlfriend? YOU PATHETIC, EMASCULATED B*TCH! The only way you can reclaim your masculinity is to buy this gadget so you never have to be seperated from your TV ever again!"

Any guy who buys into that pitch doesn't need a new gadget. He needs a slap upside the head. Maybe this kid can administer it.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have urged Congress to overturn the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

I don't generally weigh in on military policy. I know this makes me kind of a rarity in journalism, which often consists of little more than a civic form of back-seat driving. But I tend to assume that people who have been doing a certain job for a significant length of time know what they're doing, unless and until they demonstrate otherwise.

So when it comes to military policy, I generally assume that people in the military have a better grasp of the issues than someone like me, who never served.

But for what it's worth, I've known a few lesbians in my time who served honorably in the military. And at a time when we're at war in two different countries, can the military really afford to reject qualified people because of their sexual orientation?

This is an honest-to-God political ad from the campaign for Carly Fiorina, a Republican primary Senate candidate from California. Ms. Fiorina might want to tell her creative team to cut back on the peyote.

Our sports editor, Chris Otto, forwarded me this news release. The first paragraph sums up the gist:

"A national conservative political activist group is urging people not to watch the Super Bowl this year, and instead read a book about politics or history. Mark Dice, spokesman for The Resistance, calls football the 'opiate of the masses' and says Americans' obsession with sports is partially to blame for the decline of country."

I'd never heard of Mark Dice or The Resistance before, so I did a Google search. According to Dice's Website, he wrote a book called "The Resistance Manifesto." Topics include "The Knights Templar, the real Holy Grail, and the role the Templars played in the formation of the Illuminati mafia."

In other words, he's batsh*t insane. Enjoy the Superbowl.

In case you're interested, here's the news release:

Between the governor's race and the contest for U.S. Senate, I guess we were all expecting a pretty contentious year in Pennsylvania politics.

I just talked to Bob Reilly, Todd Platts' spokesman. Platts wasn't at the State of the Union Address because he was at an undisclosed location in South Asia/the Middle East.

See, every time there's a mission too dangerous for conventional armed forces to handle, they send Todd Platts in. The conversation usually goes like this:

U.S. GENERAL: Todd! We need you to come out of retirement for one last mission!
TODD: Forget it! My war is over!
U.S. GENERAL: For the love of God! American lives are at stake!
TODD: Damn!

OK, all kidding aside -- Platts regularly travels to the Middle East as part of his duties with the House Armed Services subcommittee. Reilly said he's part of a bipartisan delegation. He can't tell me exactly where Platts and the others are, but said the press will get a full briefing when he gets back.

Although he wasn't able to attend the speech, Reilly said he got a written transcript and read it last night.

OK, I was wrong. Local Congressman Todd Platts DIDN'T show up on camera as President Obama entered the room. We've actually had a lot of people asking about that. I guess it's kind of like when you watch an Alfred Hitchcock movie, and keep an eye out for his cameo.

I'm about to call Platts' office and get to the bottom of this.

In the meantime, there's something I want to discuss. On Youtube, they have the entire State of the Union address posted -- in a video lasting one hour and nine minutes. But when ordinary users like me post videos, they have to come in at 10 minutes or less.

Sure, the State of the Union address is important. But I happen to think that this video, which I posted after my friend Ken's annual Christmas party from 2008, is of equal if not greater importance.