Last night was a Friday night and a night that was once the all important date night. But now that I’m part’n parcel of a happily married couple, it was a night like many others except for the fact that I was wired as I entered the master bedroom that featured resting wife and snoring dog.

I was wired with ideas and spirit not because of substances, but high on new technologies I was evaluating earlier that day. Technologies like XAMPP, TikiWiki and Moodle - awesome open source tools that the more I learned about and experimented with, the more juiced I got with ideas for mapping to business opportunities.

So I entered the sleeping bedroom not knowing what to do next. I knew I had to power down, but I also knew I probably wouldn’t get to sleep for another two hours or so.

Thus the issue became:

• Do I enter the bedroom with laptop and continue to surf and educate myself about these technologies (yes, I have headphones, wireless keyboards, and illuminated keyboards so as to cut down on audio / video noise thus respect sleeping wife);
• Do I leave laptop in office and flip the TV channels to find something fun to watch and relax (the TV was already on with low volume set to the Food Network);
• Or, do I turn the TV off and pick up one of the many books that I have open and can’t wait to finish reading but need to turn the lights up to read ..??..

While tempted to continue computing with the wireless laptop, I opted to leave it in the office and first try the TV option via halfhearted attempt of channel surfing knowing I could dive into one of the books as fail safe option.

So I flipped and flipped and nothing exciting appeared on TV that I haven’t already seen on some of my favorite channels (e.g., history, travel, and discovery). But then the cosmos inspired me to flip to the PBS channel (channel 13) just in time to see Charlie Rose interview Professor Lawrence Lessig.

WOW! What a TV surprise - two of my favorite people, neither of whom know me but both of whom I respectfully honor.

Below is a video clip of that interview hosted on Google - enjoy!

I should also note that the reason I love this interview and these two people is partly due to their content sensibilities - e.g., Professor Lessig has been (and continues to be) instrumental in shaping the Creative Commons and argued CopyLefts (vs CopyRights) before the Supreme Court; Charlie Rose has been (and continues to be) inspiring with his objective and truthful coverage of multilateral thinkers, do-ers, movers-n-shakers, et al.

But back to the video clip. It is a dialogue between Charlie and Larry about many things including why Congress failed on copyright issues (simple issues), why Congress continues to fail on the big issues (e.g., global warming), and why Congress needs to change (e.g., upgrade to Congress 2.02b) in order to survive by serving the greatest good (a good thing) which is us (i.e., we the people - everyday people who vote, pay taxes, do our best to add to the system, get along, play by the rules, groove with the flow, just get by, hang on, etc.).

The big idea (as I understand it in this video interview) is that Congress needs to move from money focus to idea focus.

In the old days, I believe they called this Statesmanship - vs today’s vulgar political hack who sells out to special interests even though all parties involved are mostly in denial.

So the good news is that what once was old is new again - yippee - e.g., for best examples of Statesmanship see Founding Fathers.

And as they used to say in Brooklyn, “Go You Guys! Just You Go!”