As if Galloway wasn't a big enough stain on the history of British politics we now also have Jenny Tonge- this is the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament and LibDem "spokesperson for children"- who was sacked from her front bench role for her comments in which she said that she might become a suicide bomber if she were Palestinian. Her boss, LibDem leader Charles Kennedy, an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq- even now he's opposed to British troops helping this fledgling democracy- said at the time: “Her recent remarks about suicide bombers are completely unacceptable. They are not compatible with Liberal Democrat party policies and principles. There can be no justification, under any circumstances for taking innocent lives through terrorism."
Tonge tried to excuse her comments at the time by saying that, "having seen the violence and the humiliation and the provocation that the Palestinian people live under every day and have done since their land was occupied by Israel, I could understand and was trying to understand where [suicide bombers] were coming from." No mention of the hundreds of innocent lives which have been ended by these murderers, no understanding of the destruction caused. Does she for a moment even consider the victims of these barbaric crimes? Of course not, but Labour MP Richard Burden thought that she was right to recognise the "pain of the suicide bomber". It's enough to make you sick.
Kennedy sacked her a day after many complaints were made about Tonge's comments and his statement certainly sounded good but it fails to explain why he has now nominated her for Britain's upper chambers, the House of Lords. Is her stance on terrorism still wrong or is it now in line with Liberal Democrat policies? Do the LibDems now support the murder of innocent civilians with explosive vests? Or is it that he really does agree with her and now that the election is past he feels free to do something controversial?
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
V for Vendetta
Somehow I totally managed to miss this news- they're making a movie of the Alan Moore graphic novel, V for Vendetta. Truth be told that I can barely remember a word of Vendetta, it's just been too long since I read it. Moore's masterwork for me has always been Watchmen but I've enjoyed most things that he's written. V is something I'll certainly have to have another look at. The story involves a character known only as V (who wears a Guy Fawkes mask), a survivor of medical experimentation in a concentration camp, who undertakes a war against the totalitarian regime in post-World War Three Britain. Given our current climate, it'll be interesting to see how Hollywood handles a big budget movie whose central character is essentially a terrorist.
The screenplay has been written by the Wachowski Brothers of Matrix fame and stars Hugo Weaving as V with a shaven-headed Natalie Portman as his companion Evey. Now, as I said, I cannot remember anything about this- it just didn't stick in my mind the same way Watchmen did, or even League of Gentlemen did, so I'll need to review the source material again. Maybe post a review of the graphic novel soon.
Oh, just caught this on IMDB- they are making a Watchmen movie! No news yet on a cast, just some speculation in the comments section there.
The screenplay has been written by the Wachowski Brothers of Matrix fame and stars Hugo Weaving as V with a shaven-headed Natalie Portman as his companion Evey. Now, as I said, I cannot remember anything about this- it just didn't stick in my mind the same way Watchmen did, or even League of Gentlemen did, so I'll need to review the source material again. Maybe post a review of the graphic novel soon.
Oh, just caught this on IMDB- they are making a Watchmen movie! No news yet on a cast, just some speculation in the comments section there.
Traitor Galloway Again
Galloway, who sides with a homicidal dictator and calls on British troops to disobey their orders, gave an interview back in November 2004 in which he compares Fallujah to Stalingrad and says that the "people who invaded and destroyed Iraq and have murdered more than a million Iraqi people by sanctions and war will burn in Hell in the hell-fires, and their name in history will be branded as killers and war criminals for all time."
He also claimed that the "criminals who invaded.. fell like wolves upon the people of Iraq". I'm not quite clear here if he means the Americans who have worked tirelessly to free the Iraqi people, rebuild their country and provide them the means to have democracy or the foreign terrorists who almost daily are targeting Iraqi civilians in terrorist attacks. Who are the wolves George? The Americans who have freed the country or these terrorists who kill Iraqi children?
Quite apart from his appalling use of English, how he can call the liberation of Iraq destroying it is beyond me. This left-wing socialist MP (a disgrace to Britain) would rather that rich fat-cat Saddam Hussein was still in power. Remember Saddam, the guy who used chemical weapons on Iraqi civilians, the one who built palaces with all that UN money instead of give to his starving people? Yep, George the socialist would rather the downtrodden masses were kept in their place by a brutal tyrant than be free to vote and choose their own leaders. Where are his principles? Who's looking out for the man on the street in Iraq? It's certainly not the left wing anti-war activists who were quite happy to let these ordinary men and women starve, be tortured and murdered than to see them free.
He also claimed that the "criminals who invaded.. fell like wolves upon the people of Iraq". I'm not quite clear here if he means the Americans who have worked tirelessly to free the Iraqi people, rebuild their country and provide them the means to have democracy or the foreign terrorists who almost daily are targeting Iraqi civilians in terrorist attacks. Who are the wolves George? The Americans who have freed the country or these terrorists who kill Iraqi children?
Quite apart from his appalling use of English, how he can call the liberation of Iraq destroying it is beyond me. This left-wing socialist MP (a disgrace to Britain) would rather that rich fat-cat Saddam Hussein was still in power. Remember Saddam, the guy who used chemical weapons on Iraqi civilians, the one who built palaces with all that UN money instead of give to his starving people? Yep, George the socialist would rather the downtrodden masses were kept in their place by a brutal tyrant than be free to vote and choose their own leaders. Where are his principles? Who's looking out for the man on the street in Iraq? It's certainly not the left wing anti-war activists who were quite happy to let these ordinary men and women starve, be tortured and murdered than to see them free.
Doctor Who - The Unquiet Dead Review
From the get-go episode three of the new series feels 100% more like vintage Doctor Who to me; an in-the-past setting combined with apparent supernatural elements and some great sets. The effects were better than earlier episodes with the blue "ghosts"and the undead make-up looking pretty convincing. Throw in an appearance by Charles Dickens which was handled pretty well (it didn't feel too much like a "this week's famous person from the past slot"), a nicely paced story, good acting from the supporting players and, well, a great plot. This felt altogether more like it, Doctor Who back on track. According to the Mind Robber site, this was the first episode not written by the series head writer and producer Russell T. Davis. Based on this showing, it looks like Davis needs to stick to producing and leave the writing to others more suited to the task. The best episode of the series so far.
One of the great things about it was that the set-up was handled quickly, with no fuss and the TARDIS' usual hiccup- instead of travelling to Venice in 1860, they end up in Cardiff in 1869. A nice little touch. It was also darker than the first two episodes, which is exactly how I remember Doctor Who, and it seemed to take the material seriously. Compared to this the first two shows come across more as programming for a younger audience.
One of the great things about it was that the set-up was handled quickly, with no fuss and the TARDIS' usual hiccup- instead of travelling to Venice in 1860, they end up in Cardiff in 1869. A nice little touch. It was also darker than the first two episodes, which is exactly how I remember Doctor Who, and it seemed to take the material seriously. Compared to this the first two shows come across more as programming for a younger audience.
Time for a lie down
Scientists are now claiming that the human mind functions better when you lie down. Apparently it's all to do with the release of noradrenalin which, though linked to cognitive ability and attention, is believed to impair creative thinking- less is released by the brain when you are reclining.
Sounds like a great reason to go lie down for a bit of think- and if your boss happens to walk in, tell him your eyes were closed too because you were "visualising the problem". Yeah, that should work.
Sounds like a great reason to go lie down for a bit of think- and if your boss happens to walk in, tell him your eyes were closed too because you were "visualising the problem". Yeah, that should work.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Assorted Movie News
First up is the long anticipated Indiana Jones 4; no word on a plot line but progress is being made. Rumours have suggested Atlantis, but personally I can't see it, it's a bit too far out for Indy- could be that it's set in the fifties with the Communist Chinese replacing the Nazis as bad guys. No one knows for sure though, it's all just conjecture right now. Constant rewrites are bad news though- could it be that they can't find a story for Jones? I find that hard to believe given the amount of Indy books that have been written- take the plot from one of them. The other bad news is the suggestion of a younger sidekick- I don't want to see an Indiana Jones movie where the young gun gets to do the exciting stuff, I want to see Indy do it. If Harrison Ford's getting on too much for big stunts, CGI his face onto his stunt double (like they did with Christopher Lee in AOTC). Hell, give him a .45 and have the action scenes as a series of shoot-outs.
Next up is, Aliens vs Predator 2. The first film was pretty disappointing. Fans already had their story- the predators seed a remote planet with alien eggs, the aliens coming from big buffalo-type creatures. The script of this Dark Horse comic is available to read here. Better than the movie that was made. First off, the first two films tell us that the predators love the heat and only come to Earth on the hottest of summers- so AVP has them in the Antarctic. Huh? I also didn't like the whole set up- a subterranean pyramid in the Antarctic that can move and shift around like a big puzzle box? This movie did no justice to either franchise. Let's hope the sequel has an entirely original cast and a new setting- perhaps a remote outpost where the predators can seed herd animals with alien eggs?
I haven't seen xXx 2 yet, and I'm not sure if I will. The first film was okay- I enjoyed it more when I watched it for a second time on DVD recently. Yeah, it's a "hip" (I use the term loosely) James Bond and it took perhaps a little too much from that franchise (their own "Q" and gadget car) but it was fun enough. Vin Diesel was pretty good- no Riddick for sure, but not bad. I'm not exactly over the moon with the idea of Ice Cube as xXx- wasn't that Diesel's tattoo and not the codename for a super-spy anyway?- but the producers seem to be toying with the idea of a female xXx for the next film. That might be okay- at the end of the day it's another big budget action movie with a spy theme so why not? Just so long as we don't have to waste the first twenty minutes or more of each film with an origin story- if they can build that into the opening scene and titles I'm all for a rotating-door xXx series. Besides that the James Bond films could really do with some competition to perk them up a bit.
The Mummy 3- if director Sommers can not do another Van Helsing (what were they thinking? Did anyone get sacked for that travesty?) then I'm all on for this. The Mummy movies are dumb, big fun. 1 and 2 are equally enjoyable fare and a third- if it's up to the same standard- is more than welcome. Maybe it could be switched from a big action number to a creepy horror film, the sort of thing Peter Cushing would have appeared in. That would be nice but I don't think Sommers can do subtle or creepy- big, brash, and flash seems to be his forte.
Next up is, Aliens vs Predator 2. The first film was pretty disappointing. Fans already had their story- the predators seed a remote planet with alien eggs, the aliens coming from big buffalo-type creatures. The script of this Dark Horse comic is available to read here. Better than the movie that was made. First off, the first two films tell us that the predators love the heat and only come to Earth on the hottest of summers- so AVP has them in the Antarctic. Huh? I also didn't like the whole set up- a subterranean pyramid in the Antarctic that can move and shift around like a big puzzle box? This movie did no justice to either franchise. Let's hope the sequel has an entirely original cast and a new setting- perhaps a remote outpost where the predators can seed herd animals with alien eggs?
I haven't seen xXx 2 yet, and I'm not sure if I will. The first film was okay- I enjoyed it more when I watched it for a second time on DVD recently. Yeah, it's a "hip" (I use the term loosely) James Bond and it took perhaps a little too much from that franchise (their own "Q" and gadget car) but it was fun enough. Vin Diesel was pretty good- no Riddick for sure, but not bad. I'm not exactly over the moon with the idea of Ice Cube as xXx- wasn't that Diesel's tattoo and not the codename for a super-spy anyway?- but the producers seem to be toying with the idea of a female xXx for the next film. That might be okay- at the end of the day it's another big budget action movie with a spy theme so why not? Just so long as we don't have to waste the first twenty minutes or more of each film with an origin story- if they can build that into the opening scene and titles I'm all for a rotating-door xXx series. Besides that the James Bond films could really do with some competition to perk them up a bit.
The Mummy 3- if director Sommers can not do another Van Helsing (what were they thinking? Did anyone get sacked for that travesty?) then I'm all on for this. The Mummy movies are dumb, big fun. 1 and 2 are equally enjoyable fare and a third- if it's up to the same standard- is more than welcome. Maybe it could be switched from a big action number to a creepy horror film, the sort of thing Peter Cushing would have appeared in. That would be nice but I don't think Sommers can do subtle or creepy- big, brash, and flash seems to be his forte.
Star Wars Remade
Here's a not unreasonable suggestion- to remake the original Star Wars films (A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) because with the new trilogy just finished the originals look more than a tad out of place. Here we have bright shiny new technology some decades BEFORE the ships and weapons of the original trilogy. While Lucas' vision in the original trilogy was praised- his "lived in" universe- it seems like the technology of the new films is far advanced on the original, odd given that the new films take place before the old films.
I've got to say that I'd love to see the originals remade, just to see what they could be like with completely new special effects. What would be even better is if they completely ignored the designs of all the technology (Millennium Falcon, etc etc) and re-did it all from scratch. Start anew, continuing on the design style of the new movies just to see what they could come up with. My only demand would be that the damn silly Ewok battle be re-written with aliens that are just a little more dangerous than four foot tall teddy bears. Make it a planet of intelligent grizzlies or something. That would be good, because as it stands I just can't buy Stormtroopers getting their butts kicked by soft toys.
Another thing which makes me think that the originals should be remade are these pictures of Princess Leia- Carrie Fisher never did it for me, even in that gold bikini and having seen Adam Hughes' Leia, I've got to say that some recasting is in order. The second picture is taken from a Maxim calendar and is NSFW- which is why I've thoughtfully provided a link- and features glamour model Lucy Becker posing as Princess Leia.
I've got to say that I'd love to see the originals remade, just to see what they could be like with completely new special effects. What would be even better is if they completely ignored the designs of all the technology (Millennium Falcon, etc etc) and re-did it all from scratch. Start anew, continuing on the design style of the new movies just to see what they could come up with. My only demand would be that the damn silly Ewok battle be re-written with aliens that are just a little more dangerous than four foot tall teddy bears. Make it a planet of intelligent grizzlies or something. That would be good, because as it stands I just can't buy Stormtroopers getting their butts kicked by soft toys.
Another thing which makes me think that the originals should be remade are these pictures of Princess Leia- Carrie Fisher never did it for me, even in that gold bikini and having seen Adam Hughes' Leia, I've got to say that some recasting is in order. The second picture is taken from a Maxim calendar and is NSFW- which is why I've thoughtfully provided a link- and features glamour model Lucy Becker posing as Princess Leia.
Doctor Who - The End of the World Review
Episode Two of the Doctor Who series carries right on where Rose left off, with the Doctor and Rose travelling five billion years into the future to gatecrash an exclusive viewing of the destruction of the planet Earth. My main gripe with the whole episode was that even though we're five billion years in the future, technology does not seem to be that far advanced. Read an Iain M. Banks' Culture novel or a Ken MacLeod book and you'll get a pretty good insight into the possibilities. In fact, go and read some MacLeod stuff anyway- he's a great writer and his imaginings on uploaded minds, smart suits and all the rest make for superb reading. The Fall Revolution series is particularly wonderful.
Aside from the poor science element we're also left with a gathering of aliens which wouldn't look entirely out of place in Jon Pertwee's day. The BBC special effects department needs a swift kick in the arse- people in masks and make-up might be cheap but it doesn't make for any sort of spectacle. For goodness sake, get the Henson Company to make some muppet aliens if needs be. They also need to show a bit of imagination because the small assortment of aliens is not just done on the cheap, they show a distinct lack of anything special or original. What we get are some badly designed oddities. Jabe, the tree-alien lady, is the only one with any distinct personality and while her make-up is okay, putting a few flowers in her bark-hair does not a tree-alien make. My other main gripe here is with Cassandra, the last living human. She is basically a sheet of skin with a face in the middle stretched between a metal frame, her brain in a jar below. Somehow, without any lungs or vocal cords (she's translucent and no organs whatsoever are visible) she's able to speak. It might sound petty but shows like this have got to display some internal logic or they just don't work. Also, we're five billion years in the future- surely she could engineer herself an entirely new body whenever she wanted? This lame plastic surgery thing just doesn't wash.
Aside from the basic lack of understanding that five billion years of technological development would make this setting look really alien (we do get a space station filled with bundles of wires, ridiculous Oompa-loompa maintenance staff and a computer that probably runs on Windows 95, while we don't get DNA computers, an organically grown platform, nanotechnology, aliens that don't look like actors in gowns or any feeling at all that- you know- five billion years have passed) what this episode lacks is a real plot. We do get a few insightful moments from Rose on how witnessing the destruction of her world affects her, but aside from that the story involves some bad-CGI metal bugs carrying out some sabotage. Again, the feeling is this should have been a story arcing over several episodes. Back in Tom Baker's day this would have been a dark, claustrophobic tale of intrigue and conspiracy as the inhabitants of the station are killed off one by one. There would have been some sleuthing, some out-of-the-box thinking from the Doctor. Instead we get about a third of the episode dedicated to the set-up and then the rest of the story is rushed. Maybe it could even have been Die-Hard-ed up a little as the Doctor fought to save the platform but the danger elements don't work. Again, we need to feel that the Doctor is facing a real threat. We do get some insight into the Doctor's background, some nice flirtation with Jabe (who is very well acted indeed- maximum impact with minimum screen time) but it's all let down with the denouement- and even that's further spoiled by the disappointing way in which the Doctor tracks down the culprit. It's a bit of a cop out. The writers on the show really need to up their game. If their speciality is sci-fi and they want to do a bit of a mystery at the very least they need to consult a mystery writer on the plot elements.
Having said all that, it's not a complete disaster, it just feels like they weren't really trying. This is supposed to be a flagship BBC show and yet we seem to be stuck with the same low production values which marked the original series. The aliens just felt like the designers were being a bit silly, there's no feeling that a lot of thought went into it. As with episode one there was one great stand out moment with the Doctor- I don't want to include any more spoilers but if you see the episode you'll know which bit I mean. All in all, it's not bad- a bit of character development from Rose and proof that Piper can act, not quite so many silly grins from Eccleston and a good supporting act in the tree-lady. Watchable but not great. The main benefit is that Eccleston feels like the Doctor this time around. You get the sense that he's made the character his own.
Aside from the poor science element we're also left with a gathering of aliens which wouldn't look entirely out of place in Jon Pertwee's day. The BBC special effects department needs a swift kick in the arse- people in masks and make-up might be cheap but it doesn't make for any sort of spectacle. For goodness sake, get the Henson Company to make some muppet aliens if needs be. They also need to show a bit of imagination because the small assortment of aliens is not just done on the cheap, they show a distinct lack of anything special or original. What we get are some badly designed oddities. Jabe, the tree-alien lady, is the only one with any distinct personality and while her make-up is okay, putting a few flowers in her bark-hair does not a tree-alien make. My other main gripe here is with Cassandra, the last living human. She is basically a sheet of skin with a face in the middle stretched between a metal frame, her brain in a jar below. Somehow, without any lungs or vocal cords (she's translucent and no organs whatsoever are visible) she's able to speak. It might sound petty but shows like this have got to display some internal logic or they just don't work. Also, we're five billion years in the future- surely she could engineer herself an entirely new body whenever she wanted? This lame plastic surgery thing just doesn't wash.
Aside from the basic lack of understanding that five billion years of technological development would make this setting look really alien (we do get a space station filled with bundles of wires, ridiculous Oompa-loompa maintenance staff and a computer that probably runs on Windows 95, while we don't get DNA computers, an organically grown platform, nanotechnology, aliens that don't look like actors in gowns or any feeling at all that- you know- five billion years have passed) what this episode lacks is a real plot. We do get a few insightful moments from Rose on how witnessing the destruction of her world affects her, but aside from that the story involves some bad-CGI metal bugs carrying out some sabotage. Again, the feeling is this should have been a story arcing over several episodes. Back in Tom Baker's day this would have been a dark, claustrophobic tale of intrigue and conspiracy as the inhabitants of the station are killed off one by one. There would have been some sleuthing, some out-of-the-box thinking from the Doctor. Instead we get about a third of the episode dedicated to the set-up and then the rest of the story is rushed. Maybe it could even have been Die-Hard-ed up a little as the Doctor fought to save the platform but the danger elements don't work. Again, we need to feel that the Doctor is facing a real threat. We do get some insight into the Doctor's background, some nice flirtation with Jabe (who is very well acted indeed- maximum impact with minimum screen time) but it's all let down with the denouement- and even that's further spoiled by the disappointing way in which the Doctor tracks down the culprit. It's a bit of a cop out. The writers on the show really need to up their game. If their speciality is sci-fi and they want to do a bit of a mystery at the very least they need to consult a mystery writer on the plot elements.
Having said all that, it's not a complete disaster, it just feels like they weren't really trying. This is supposed to be a flagship BBC show and yet we seem to be stuck with the same low production values which marked the original series. The aliens just felt like the designers were being a bit silly, there's no feeling that a lot of thought went into it. As with episode one there was one great stand out moment with the Doctor- I don't want to include any more spoilers but if you see the episode you'll know which bit I mean. All in all, it's not bad- a bit of character development from Rose and proof that Piper can act, not quite so many silly grins from Eccleston and a good supporting act in the tree-lady. Watchable but not great. The main benefit is that Eccleston feels like the Doctor this time around. You get the sense that he's made the character his own.
Mufti shows his true colours
On the one hand we have groups like Free Muslims Against Terrorism, but on the other we have the Mufti of Australia proclaiming his support for the jihad in Iraq; "we value your jihad and your efforts." Now, he has called for the terrorists to release Australian hostage Douglas Wood but to do so in the same breath that he shows his support for their "holy war" is unbelievable.
I can't in all honesty say what I would do if it were a member of my family being held hostage by terrorists but I know that I'd be furious about "support" like this. And I'd want nothing to do with it. Of course, the President of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, who was present when the utterance was made, explained that the term jihad is, of course, misunderstood- they're only fighting a war of self-defence don't you know. He doesn't explain how blowing up Iraqis and assassinating democratically elected officials helps "free the country from foreign occupation".
I can't in all honesty say what I would do if it were a member of my family being held hostage by terrorists but I know that I'd be furious about "support" like this. And I'd want nothing to do with it. Of course, the President of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, who was present when the utterance was made, explained that the term jihad is, of course, misunderstood- they're only fighting a war of self-defence don't you know. He doesn't explain how blowing up Iraqis and assassinating democratically elected officials helps "free the country from foreign occupation".
Monday, May 09, 2005
Airsoft Glock 17
I'm not much of a photographer but for what it's worth, here's a snap of my Glock 17. Sadly it's not the real McCoy, being an airsoft replica. It's a gas-powered full blowback model meaning that each shot give the weapon a little bit of a kick. Range isn't great but for plinking in my backyard it's perfect. This airsoft replica is accurate enough that you can even mount rail lights made for the "real steel", complete with all the usual Glock markings. Airsoft guns are also useful for practising drills that you couldn't otherwise do with a live weapon, such as indoor training. Ideal for training to fight off goblins in your own home.
The background is my DPM (Disruptive Pattern Material) SAS smock.
The background is my DPM (Disruptive Pattern Material) SAS smock.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Doctor Who Review - Rose
I finally got round to watching episode one of the new BBC Doctor Who series, entitled Rose. This is our first glimpse of Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor and it's a tricky one- there's no set up to show his transformation from the previous Doctor. He simply turns up in the life of Rose (former pop star Billie Piper) and saves her from death at the hands of the Autons. If you're not a huge geek-fan of Doctor Who, the Autons are simply shop dummies come to life. I loved Doctor Who when I was a kid and back then there was no easy way to see episodes so I had a massive pile of paperbacks- even at that I don't think I came across the Autons once. From watching the episode the Nestene/Auton consciousness is able to bring plastic objects to life. Here's my first complaint- we see Rose in a department store, with a mass of mannequins coming at her; surely the obvious thing to do is create the same sense of dread and horror that you would with zombies. Shop dummies twitching forward robotically, faces blank and lifeless, a mass of blind destruction. The horror of the Autons was missed here and then later in the episode in a big "come to life" scene. Doctor Who used to have a reputation as being a scary programme. Sure it had lousy production values but that was because of a tight budget. With the new Doctor a little too much of it was light-hearted and tongue in cheek and that grated a bit- the way to bring a successful franchise, whether it's a comic or a classic show like this, to life and to keep it successful is to do it seriously. There are some faintly comic moments in the episode and the dialogue with the Doctor and Rose is well done but the sense of threat and danger is somewhat lacking- the Autons are supposed to be coming to Earth to suck the planet dry and destroy everything on it but the threat is confined to a couple of autons here and there. They could really have taken a cue form Shaun of the Dead were we see odd things happening in the background as Simon Pegg's character travels to and from work.
As it is I spent the first half of the show wondering if this news series was going to be an astonishing flop but by the time the second part came around I was beginning to slowly warm to Eccleston's slightly manic portrayal of the Doctor- he has a stupid smile plastered across his faced just a little too much of the time but he's a good enough actor that he can switch from weirdly jolly to intense in the blink of an eye- and his "I can feel the planet moving through space" speech was very well done. I wasn't too sure about Piper either, but she seems like she could be a good companion. A really tiny bit of action (note to the show's producers, the pilot episode should have been longer to allow time to introduce the characters and have a cracking story) and a curious intimacy with the Doctor early on- holding hands as they run- indicate that there's an odd attraction between the pair and the chemistry seems to work. I'm hoping that as the series goes on the writers will take the subject matter seriously and not try to spoof it too much. The big Millenium episode with Paul McGann as the Doctor was played straight down the line so I don't see why this one can't be one the same way.
No doubt more reviews will follow as I watch the rest of the episodes I've recorded.
As it is I spent the first half of the show wondering if this news series was going to be an astonishing flop but by the time the second part came around I was beginning to slowly warm to Eccleston's slightly manic portrayal of the Doctor- he has a stupid smile plastered across his faced just a little too much of the time but he's a good enough actor that he can switch from weirdly jolly to intense in the blink of an eye- and his "I can feel the planet moving through space" speech was very well done. I wasn't too sure about Piper either, but she seems like she could be a good companion. A really tiny bit of action (note to the show's producers, the pilot episode should have been longer to allow time to introduce the characters and have a cracking story) and a curious intimacy with the Doctor early on- holding hands as they run- indicate that there's an odd attraction between the pair and the chemistry seems to work. I'm hoping that as the series goes on the writers will take the subject matter seriously and not try to spoof it too much. The big Millenium episode with Paul McGann as the Doctor was played straight down the line so I don't see why this one can't be one the same way.
No doubt more reviews will follow as I watch the rest of the episodes I've recorded.
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Kylie Minogue
Just for a little change of pace, I decided that pop poppet Kylie Minogue should brighten things up around here tonight. She's been in the charts in the UK for years now but like a fine wine, she seems to improve with age and she possesses a certain grace which seems to be lacking with some of the newcomers to the music scene these days. As well as being an actress and singer, the tiny Aussie also has her own range of lingerie which she models here for your delight.
Another Terror Attack Looming?
I hope I'm wrong about this, I really do.
The more I think about it, the more it seems to be that we're building towards another terrorist attack or series of attacks. In the message left by the Islamic group claiming responsibility for the British Consulate bomb they state that the attack was "the beginning of war inside and outside of America". They go on to claim that they "will not hesitate to hit the parties and coffee shops, the hotels and the churches, with the help of Allah.” Finally they call on “our cells in America to start battles in the streets.” This group Jund al-sham also claims responsibility for the Texas oil refinery blast, the one the FBI said had no connection to terrorism eight days before they went to see the site themselves. There was also the pipe-bomb making factory raided in New York recently, the one with no connections to terrorism despite pictures of Bin Laden and beheadings in Iraq on the walls.
At the same time we also have a message from Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia calling on Bin Laden to help them by attacking America immediately. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it seems like there's an awful lot more of this sort of activity going on now than before. Is it building towards something? I really hope not but I'd advise everyone to pay a little more attention to their surroundings. It can't do any harm to be a bit more wary.
The more I think about it, the more it seems to be that we're building towards another terrorist attack or series of attacks. In the message left by the Islamic group claiming responsibility for the British Consulate bomb they state that the attack was "the beginning of war inside and outside of America". They go on to claim that they "will not hesitate to hit the parties and coffee shops, the hotels and the churches, with the help of Allah.” Finally they call on “our cells in America to start battles in the streets.” This group Jund al-sham also claims responsibility for the Texas oil refinery blast, the one the FBI said had no connection to terrorism eight days before they went to see the site themselves. There was also the pipe-bomb making factory raided in New York recently, the one with no connections to terrorism despite pictures of Bin Laden and beheadings in Iraq on the walls.
At the same time we also have a message from Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia calling on Bin Laden to help them by attacking America immediately. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it seems like there's an awful lot more of this sort of activity going on now than before. Is it building towards something? I really hope not but I'd advise everyone to pay a little more attention to their surroundings. It can't do any harm to be a bit more wary.
Terror Attacks on Hospitals?
I wrote at some length about the dangers that terrorism pose to life in America yesterday- if Al Qaeda and their associates decide not to try and take high-profile targets, there is a vast amount they can do simply to spread fear in the United States. I think to that a few bombings in small towns in, for example, Oregon or Utah would do more to spread the kind of fear that residents of Washington felt when the Beltway snipers were at large. Imagine the effect random attacks like this could have on the population at large- no longer would it be a matter of New York or Washington DC being threatened, it would be anywhere in the country.
Bearing this in mind, this story of small groups pretending to be doctors and inspectors to check out hospitals in New Jersey, Boston, Detroit and Indiana becomes much more ominous. What their intent was is difficult to say, although given the terrorist's predilection for the use of the bomb- be it remote detonated or in an explosive vest- I'd rate that fairly high on the threat-meter. Could be that this sort of reconnaissance, the likes of which has apparently being going on for some time on America's airlines, has been happening for months. The advantage to the terrorist is always that they can strike anywhere- for them a shop in Colorado has the same value as a target as a military base. A man on a terror watch list was arrested recently and it turns out he'd been working on the George Washington Bridge.
Stay alert people, keep your eyes open for suspicious behaviour and packages. The British Consulate bomb didn't do much harm but the same thing detonated next to a school bus-stop could. Don't think the terrorists would do that? Palestinian terrorists fired an anti-tank rocket at a school bus packed with children. Stay safe.
Bearing this in mind, this story of small groups pretending to be doctors and inspectors to check out hospitals in New Jersey, Boston, Detroit and Indiana becomes much more ominous. What their intent was is difficult to say, although given the terrorist's predilection for the use of the bomb- be it remote detonated or in an explosive vest- I'd rate that fairly high on the threat-meter. Could be that this sort of reconnaissance, the likes of which has apparently being going on for some time on America's airlines, has been happening for months. The advantage to the terrorist is always that they can strike anywhere- for them a shop in Colorado has the same value as a target as a military base. A man on a terror watch list was arrested recently and it turns out he'd been working on the George Washington Bridge.
Stay alert people, keep your eyes open for suspicious behaviour and packages. The British Consulate bomb didn't do much harm but the same thing detonated next to a school bus-stop could. Don't think the terrorists would do that? Palestinian terrorists fired an anti-tank rocket at a school bus packed with children. Stay safe.
Kingdom of Heaven Facts
I'm not sure if I'll even bother to go watch Kingdom of Heaven- the reviews are pretty lousy so far and CAIR seems to think that it's great. That's one recommendation that instantly put me off. Medieval history is certainly not one of my strong points but if this movie is suggesting that it was Christian crusaders who spoiled centuries of Muslim peace and harmony then I think I'll skip it. I'm fairly sure that's not how it happened. If you're interested in a bit of background on the events in question then check out this article over at The American Thinker.
BTW, Orlando Bloom's not exactly my idea of a leading man- he was great as Legolas and acceptable in Pirates of the Caribbean but he's not my idea of a sword-wielding leading man. In Troy he was appropriately wimpy and I'm afraid that image of him is going to stay with me for some time. Maybe if he were able to grow a proper beard things would be different.
UPDATE 12/05/2005- Because of the number of Google searches for this article I've added another post to say more about the actual facts of the movie Kingdom of Heaven. Thanks for stopping by.
BTW, Orlando Bloom's not exactly my idea of a leading man- he was great as Legolas and acceptable in Pirates of the Caribbean but he's not my idea of a sword-wielding leading man. In Troy he was appropriately wimpy and I'm afraid that image of him is going to stay with me for some time. Maybe if he were able to grow a proper beard things would be different.
UPDATE 12/05/2005- Because of the number of Google searches for this article I've added another post to say more about the actual facts of the movie Kingdom of Heaven. Thanks for stopping by.
Free Muslims Against Terrorism
I seem to spend a lot of time detailing the atrocities carried out by Islamic terrorism- and on more than one occasion have noted that the Muslim community has been maddeningly silent on the matter. Seems like we never hear condemnations of the violence from them. Well, today I'm glad to announce that next Saturday a group called Free Muslims Against Terrorism are holding a rally in Washington DC to support freedom and democracy in the Middle East.
The Free Muslims Against Terrorism (FMAT) are a group of Arabs and Muslims who feel that "religious violence and terrorism have not been fully rejected by the Muslim community in the post 9-11 era". It's so refreshing to see a group like this come out against terrorism that I believe they deserve all the support they can get. Their voice is the one people seem to talk about when they mention "moderate Muslims"- yet as LGF points out many of the major Muslim groups in the US are not endorsing the rally. Hopefully, this rally will draw large numbers. A quick browse through their website shows that they are in favour of modernising Islam and in doing so bringing many Muslims out of a third world/medieval existence, are opposed to blaming the Jews for the problems faced by Muslims, and are in favour of secular democracy in the Middle East. Let's hope that this group gains some widespread support from the Muslim community.
The Free Muslims Against Terrorism (FMAT) are a group of Arabs and Muslims who feel that "religious violence and terrorism have not been fully rejected by the Muslim community in the post 9-11 era". It's so refreshing to see a group like this come out against terrorism that I believe they deserve all the support they can get. Their voice is the one people seem to talk about when they mention "moderate Muslims"- yet as LGF points out many of the major Muslim groups in the US are not endorsing the rally. Hopefully, this rally will draw large numbers. A quick browse through their website shows that they are in favour of modernising Islam and in doing so bringing many Muslims out of a third world/medieval existence, are opposed to blaming the Jews for the problems faced by Muslims, and are in favour of secular democracy in the Middle East. Let's hope that this group gains some widespread support from the Muslim community.
High-Tech Map Making
Another new development in technology funded by the US military, this time a method of creating a virtual 3D map of a city within an hour. With this new system troops will be able to obtain an accurate 3D model of a city created either by plane and truck or another new development- a swarm of drone aircraft which can carry out a recce at speed, equipped with co-operative software which allows them to respond to some of their number being shot down.
The 3D maps will be photo-realistic and the aim is to be able to update the maps as each patrol moves through the city, registering buildings destroyed or roadblocks, etc. It's absolutely startling to think that a city could be mapped down to each doorway and window in such a short time but this ability will give US troops a huge advantage in battle.
Total spectrum domination indeed.
The 3D maps will be photo-realistic and the aim is to be able to update the maps as each patrol moves through the city, registering buildings destroyed or roadblocks, etc. It's absolutely startling to think that a city could be mapped down to each doorway and window in such a short time but this ability will give US troops a huge advantage in battle.
Total spectrum domination indeed.
Friday, May 06, 2005
Carmen Electra
Carmen Electra was in the gossip columns lately when she said that she can't stand her stomach, that it can't be flat enough for her. Apparently when she gets in one of these moods she can't even bear to be touched. All I can say is, that's crazy talk- she's obviously in great shape. Women don't seem to understand that guys like curves, and Carmen is obviously serveral large meals away from being a really curvaceous woman.
Thinking About the War on Terror
This started life as a reply to a comment left on my "Don't You Like These Big American Breasts" post. It might make more sense to read that first. This is a longer than usual post but I hope you'll read it through to the end, particularly my American readers.
As far as using the Geneva Convention to govern the treatment of terrorist prisoners the Justice Department has already ruled that these rules do not apply. Further details are here.
The reason the Geneva Convention does not apply- quite apart from the fact that these terrorists do not fight for any state, they do not act themselves by these standards and have never signed the convention- is that the Convention was created as a set of rules to define how war should be fought. These terrorists do not wear uniforms, they hide amongst the crowd, they hide their weapons, they deliberately target civilians. This is one of the major reasons why I do not believe that they should be accorded the same standard of treatment as a civilian prisoner in a police cell- when soldiers go to war, they do so knowing full well what to expect and they have volunteered to undertake this dangerous job. Civilians doing their weekend shopping or going to work or playing with their children have not- and they do not deserve to be deliberately targeted by terrorists with bombs or bullets. It's this very activity which I believe means that extra measures should be taken when questioning them. Measures which I believe are morally acceptable.
I do believe the techniques used at Gitmo are entirely acceptable when it comes to the treatment meted out to our own troops captured by the enemy. First rate medical care, decent food and a complete lack of violence. Keeping someone in a stress position, for example, might make them uncomfortable but I certainly do not categorise it as torture. There's a vast difference between making someone lean against a wall for a few hours or offending their religion, and beating them with batons, or punching and kicking them. Likewise shackling and hooding prisoners to prevent them killing their guards is not torture- it's a sensible safety measure.
As a resident of Northern Ireland I've lived in a society which became more than used to bombings and shootings. Nationalist terrorists targeted not just soldiers (who were originally put on the streets to protect the nationalist community) but also off-duty police officers and civilians. Even builders or painters working in police stations have been murdered here. The United States has a long way to go before it gets to the state Ulster has been in for the past thirty years, but if the terrorist problem is not stopped overseas then measures will be put in place which every citizen of the US will no doubt despise- can you imagine having your bags searched by private security guards before you enter a shop?
The simple fact is that groups exist which are determined to destroy the US and everything it stands for. Freedom, tolerance, rights for all- these are the standards which I'm sure Patient Voice of Reason and the war supporters on the other side of the aisle both admire and cherish. These are also the very things that the terrorists wish to destroy. Can you imagine a time when a policeman has to check his car to make sure that there isn't a bomb attached to it before he gets in each morning to drive to work? Can you imagine what it's like to go to the mall and wonder if the next terrorist bomb is going to be planted there? The one big difference between the IRA and the enemy we face is that the IRA never had suicide bombers- how much harder is it going to be to stop a man with a few pounds of explosives strapped to his body, or women with Semtex in their bras? Think on the campaign waged against the civilians of Israel for a moment- people blown up on buses, restaurants demolished by car bombs, people attacked as they drive. Now transplant that to the US and just think about how the authorities could fight that war.
The problem here is that the enemy has proven that he will stoop as low as possible to inflict casualties- flying planes into buildings, strapping explosive vests to children, leaving bombs by the side of the road, driving car bombs into a crowd of children clustered around an American vehicle, murdering hundreds of children at school. Islamic terrorism is a threat not just to American soldiers in Iraq- it's a threat to everyone everywhere. Beslan wasn't on any front line, neither was the Madrid train. To fight men like these, who are willing to kill anyone, takes extra steps. I'm not for one moment advocating that detainees are ruthlessly beaten or anything like that, but if a little pressure is applied then I do find that acceptable. And the pressure the American interrogators are using is something that I do think is acceptable to be used against "our guys"- in fact, I think that the troops would agree with me that they'd rather be in a prison run along the lines of Gitmo than one controlled by al-Zarqawi. If a man has his faith insulted in the process of preventing more deaths, that's not torture. There's a difference between name-calling and torture. The men at Gitmo do have the protection of law and decency- sure, it's not the same as a civilian prisoner, but they are not civilian prisoners, they were captured trying to kill American and Allied troops. Offending someone's religion might strike you as harsh, but it's not as harsh as someone being shot or blown up, and that's exactly what the troops as Gitmo are trying to stop. Put it this way- someone in court for an unpaid parking ticket shouldn't be shackled hand and foot, but it's a reasonable precaution to do the same to a multiple murderer. The men at Gitmo are enemy combatants, some with terrorist training, so surely it's reasonable to afford them extra attention in their questioning and imprisonment.
I can appreciate the point Patient Voice of Reason was trying to make, that everyone deserves the full protection of the law but these men are protected, there are rules in place governing how they are treated. It might not be exactly the same as in a police station, but that's because this is a different set of circumstances. At most I'd call their treatment 'stern' but it's not torture.
I believe deeply and passionately in freedom and that was why I joined the military some years ago- I'm sure that that's the one thing the pro- and anti-war sets can both agree on, it's merely in the methods by which it is secured that they disagree.
Take a few moments and imagine this though- really think on it- military helicopters fitted with cameras patrol your skies, armed soldiers the streets, and the police move about in armoured vehicles. Innocent people are regularly murdered by terrorist guns and bombs, so much so that it barely registers on the news any more. Car bombs are left outside army barracks, police stations, shops, people's homes. That's what life here was like up to a few years ago when the terrorist gangs quietened down a little. Now imagine Islamic terror too- jihad against the infidels in which everyone is a target. Imagine Northern Ireland at its worst crossed with Israel at the height of the Intifada. Now put that in your local American town. Al Qaeda might have been thwarted in attacking America since 9/11 but maybe they'll begin to change their tactics soon and forget about high profile targets. Maybe your local Gap or Walmart will be the target on a busy Saturday afternoon. Maybe they'll switch to poisoning water supplies, destroying power sub-stations or bringing down power lines, randomly leaving car bombs in town and city centres to disrupt businesses and destroy property, calling in bomb threats which close down airports or highways for hours on end while police search for the threat. I've seen Belfast brought to a complete standstill with nothing more than a phone call- this War on Terror is currently being fought overseas but it could just as easily come to America's shores. The IRA operated for thirty years while the British Intelligence service- surely one of the best in the world- fought them, and yet still the bombings and shootings continued. Terrorists can be sophisticated operators and preventing them carrying out atrocities can be nigh on impossible. America's borders are not secure, terrorists are most likely already in the country. It's a matter of understanding the scale of the threat and then asking yourself- how far am I prepared to go to ensure the safety of my country? Rubbing ink on a prisoner's face is a small price to pay to stop another airliner crashing into a building.
As far as using the Geneva Convention to govern the treatment of terrorist prisoners the Justice Department has already ruled that these rules do not apply. Further details are here.
The reason the Geneva Convention does not apply- quite apart from the fact that these terrorists do not fight for any state, they do not act themselves by these standards and have never signed the convention- is that the Convention was created as a set of rules to define how war should be fought. These terrorists do not wear uniforms, they hide amongst the crowd, they hide their weapons, they deliberately target civilians. This is one of the major reasons why I do not believe that they should be accorded the same standard of treatment as a civilian prisoner in a police cell- when soldiers go to war, they do so knowing full well what to expect and they have volunteered to undertake this dangerous job. Civilians doing their weekend shopping or going to work or playing with their children have not- and they do not deserve to be deliberately targeted by terrorists with bombs or bullets. It's this very activity which I believe means that extra measures should be taken when questioning them. Measures which I believe are morally acceptable.
I do believe the techniques used at Gitmo are entirely acceptable when it comes to the treatment meted out to our own troops captured by the enemy. First rate medical care, decent food and a complete lack of violence. Keeping someone in a stress position, for example, might make them uncomfortable but I certainly do not categorise it as torture. There's a vast difference between making someone lean against a wall for a few hours or offending their religion, and beating them with batons, or punching and kicking them. Likewise shackling and hooding prisoners to prevent them killing their guards is not torture- it's a sensible safety measure.
As a resident of Northern Ireland I've lived in a society which became more than used to bombings and shootings. Nationalist terrorists targeted not just soldiers (who were originally put on the streets to protect the nationalist community) but also off-duty police officers and civilians. Even builders or painters working in police stations have been murdered here. The United States has a long way to go before it gets to the state Ulster has been in for the past thirty years, but if the terrorist problem is not stopped overseas then measures will be put in place which every citizen of the US will no doubt despise- can you imagine having your bags searched by private security guards before you enter a shop?
The simple fact is that groups exist which are determined to destroy the US and everything it stands for. Freedom, tolerance, rights for all- these are the standards which I'm sure Patient Voice of Reason and the war supporters on the other side of the aisle both admire and cherish. These are also the very things that the terrorists wish to destroy. Can you imagine a time when a policeman has to check his car to make sure that there isn't a bomb attached to it before he gets in each morning to drive to work? Can you imagine what it's like to go to the mall and wonder if the next terrorist bomb is going to be planted there? The one big difference between the IRA and the enemy we face is that the IRA never had suicide bombers- how much harder is it going to be to stop a man with a few pounds of explosives strapped to his body, or women with Semtex in their bras? Think on the campaign waged against the civilians of Israel for a moment- people blown up on buses, restaurants demolished by car bombs, people attacked as they drive. Now transplant that to the US and just think about how the authorities could fight that war.
The problem here is that the enemy has proven that he will stoop as low as possible to inflict casualties- flying planes into buildings, strapping explosive vests to children, leaving bombs by the side of the road, driving car bombs into a crowd of children clustered around an American vehicle, murdering hundreds of children at school. Islamic terrorism is a threat not just to American soldiers in Iraq- it's a threat to everyone everywhere. Beslan wasn't on any front line, neither was the Madrid train. To fight men like these, who are willing to kill anyone, takes extra steps. I'm not for one moment advocating that detainees are ruthlessly beaten or anything like that, but if a little pressure is applied then I do find that acceptable. And the pressure the American interrogators are using is something that I do think is acceptable to be used against "our guys"- in fact, I think that the troops would agree with me that they'd rather be in a prison run along the lines of Gitmo than one controlled by al-Zarqawi. If a man has his faith insulted in the process of preventing more deaths, that's not torture. There's a difference between name-calling and torture. The men at Gitmo do have the protection of law and decency- sure, it's not the same as a civilian prisoner, but they are not civilian prisoners, they were captured trying to kill American and Allied troops. Offending someone's religion might strike you as harsh, but it's not as harsh as someone being shot or blown up, and that's exactly what the troops as Gitmo are trying to stop. Put it this way- someone in court for an unpaid parking ticket shouldn't be shackled hand and foot, but it's a reasonable precaution to do the same to a multiple murderer. The men at Gitmo are enemy combatants, some with terrorist training, so surely it's reasonable to afford them extra attention in their questioning and imprisonment.
I can appreciate the point Patient Voice of Reason was trying to make, that everyone deserves the full protection of the law but these men are protected, there are rules in place governing how they are treated. It might not be exactly the same as in a police station, but that's because this is a different set of circumstances. At most I'd call their treatment 'stern' but it's not torture.
I believe deeply and passionately in freedom and that was why I joined the military some years ago- I'm sure that that's the one thing the pro- and anti-war sets can both agree on, it's merely in the methods by which it is secured that they disagree.
Take a few moments and imagine this though- really think on it- military helicopters fitted with cameras patrol your skies, armed soldiers the streets, and the police move about in armoured vehicles. Innocent people are regularly murdered by terrorist guns and bombs, so much so that it barely registers on the news any more. Car bombs are left outside army barracks, police stations, shops, people's homes. That's what life here was like up to a few years ago when the terrorist gangs quietened down a little. Now imagine Islamic terror too- jihad against the infidels in which everyone is a target. Imagine Northern Ireland at its worst crossed with Israel at the height of the Intifada. Now put that in your local American town. Al Qaeda might have been thwarted in attacking America since 9/11 but maybe they'll begin to change their tactics soon and forget about high profile targets. Maybe your local Gap or Walmart will be the target on a busy Saturday afternoon. Maybe they'll switch to poisoning water supplies, destroying power sub-stations or bringing down power lines, randomly leaving car bombs in town and city centres to disrupt businesses and destroy property, calling in bomb threats which close down airports or highways for hours on end while police search for the threat. I've seen Belfast brought to a complete standstill with nothing more than a phone call- this War on Terror is currently being fought overseas but it could just as easily come to America's shores. The IRA operated for thirty years while the British Intelligence service- surely one of the best in the world- fought them, and yet still the bombings and shootings continued. Terrorists can be sophisticated operators and preventing them carrying out atrocities can be nigh on impossible. America's borders are not secure, terrorists are most likely already in the country. It's a matter of understanding the scale of the threat and then asking yourself- how far am I prepared to go to ensure the safety of my country? Rubbing ink on a prisoner's face is a small price to pay to stop another airliner crashing into a building.
Girl Murdered by Terrorists
This picture of a US solider comforting a fatally wounded Iraqi girl following a suicide bomb attack in Mosul, has already appeared on LGF and Head's Bunker. Thanks to both those sites for linked to the photographer's own blog. According to Michael Yon's report a group of some twenty children where swarming around a Stryker when a terrorist drove his car bomb into the vehicle. The terrorist could just have easily waited until the Stryker was further down the road before carrying out the attack- proving once and for all how little disregard these "insurgents" and "militants" have for the lives of the Iraqi people themselves. Their battle is not for the Iraqis, it is against their freedom and democracy- and their lives mean nothing to the terrorists waging this revolting campaign.
Yon's report goes on to point out that when the US troops returned to the neighbourhood the next day, they were welcomed back by the Iraqis- and their children raced out to see them. Perhaps those on the Left who seem to think that America is the bad-guy, that these terrorists are some sort of freedom fighters, should think on that.
Yon's report goes on to point out that when the US troops returned to the neighbourhood the next day, they were welcomed back by the Iraqis- and their children raced out to see them. Perhaps those on the Left who seem to think that America is the bad-guy, that these terrorists are some sort of freedom fighters, should think on that.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Wonder Woman
Another great example of an all-American girl, this time Wonder Woman's Lynda Carter. There's talk of a new movie helmed by Joss Whedon but I think they'll find it hard to find a woman to fill Lynda's costume. A few names are mentioned on IMDB but of the bunch none really stand out- Jessica Biel would probably be best suited, particularly if she's in her Blade:Trinity shape with those muscular shoulders.
Muslims killing Muslims
From Strategy Page comes this optimistic assessment of the current effects of terrorist attacks in which Muslims are being killed by Muslims. Author James Dunnigan cites statistics, which show a reduction in the number of attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and even Chechnya, and concludes that the effect of Muslim attacks which kill other Muslims is reducing support amongst Muslims for these various terrorist groups.
However, when it comes to his analysis of Iraq he seems to miss the point- Shi'a Muslims are not happy with the terrorist/Al Qaeda activity there in which they seem to be coming off worst, but Dunnigan claims that Sunnis outside of Iraq are not best pleased either- odd given that it's mainly been Sunni terrorists causing all the trouble in the first place. Are these Sunni Muslims protesting the violence? I haven't seen any evidence of this yet so it's hard to see how Dunnigan reaches this conclusion. And for any who don't want to see the link between the terrorism in Iraq and Islam I point you towards any of the videos made of hostages having their heads brutally hacked off- Allah is mentioned once or twice.
I'll be more convinced that Muslim terrorists killing women and children in Iraq is losing Muslim support when people like the Chief Justice of Saudi Arabia's Supreme Judicial Council stop encouraging men to go to Iraq to wage war. Or when the apparent tolerant non-fundamentalist majority of the Religion of Peace begins to speak out against these attacks. So far they're been oddly silent.
However, when it comes to his analysis of Iraq he seems to miss the point- Shi'a Muslims are not happy with the terrorist/Al Qaeda activity there in which they seem to be coming off worst, but Dunnigan claims that Sunnis outside of Iraq are not best pleased either- odd given that it's mainly been Sunni terrorists causing all the trouble in the first place. Are these Sunni Muslims protesting the violence? I haven't seen any evidence of this yet so it's hard to see how Dunnigan reaches this conclusion. And for any who don't want to see the link between the terrorism in Iraq and Islam I point you towards any of the videos made of hostages having their heads brutally hacked off- Allah is mentioned once or twice.
I'll be more convinced that Muslim terrorists killing women and children in Iraq is losing Muslim support when people like the Chief Justice of Saudi Arabia's Supreme Judicial Council stop encouraging men to go to Iraq to wage war. Or when the apparent tolerant non-fundamentalist majority of the Religion of Peace begins to speak out against these attacks. So far they're been oddly silent.
Improvised Immigration Control
Immigration is not just a major feature of the British elections taking place today, it's also a hot topic in the States, where the Republican administration seems to be doing its level best to avoid doing what it's supporters want- controlling the porous borders and securing the country. This isn't about being racist- typically the term applied to anyone in the UK who wonders if vast numbers of unchecked immigrants into the country is a good thing- it's a security issue, above all else. There are estimated to be somewhere in the region of 10 million illegal immigrants in the US- and among that number could be any amount of enemies of the USA.
As well as the noted failure of Bush to do something about the issue, there is the stunning inefficiency of the Immigration Service, which is highlighted in this article about a police chief taking immigration control into his own hands. Nine illegals from Ecuador and eleven from Mexico were handed over to immigration control who refused to do anything about them. Seems like a number of people are not doing their job and need to be summarily sacked. I'd like to see how many other jobs you'd get to keep if you were handed some work to do and just said, "no".
Anyway, a police chief in New Hampshire came across a guy stopped by the side of the road who turned out to be in the US illegally. Immigration officials refused to take him into custody and so the police took the only action left to them- they charged the man with trespass, defined as a person, "knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he enters or remains in any place." Amazingly a spokesperson for Immigration Control accused the police chief of grandstanding, adding that they do arrest illegal immigrants that are violent or who pose a threat to public safety.
Perhaps they have some special telepathic powers which enables them to know which illegal immigrants might at some time in the future break another US law. Perhaps the current staff should be sacked and the Minutemen hired to replace them?
As well as the noted failure of Bush to do something about the issue, there is the stunning inefficiency of the Immigration Service, which is highlighted in this article about a police chief taking immigration control into his own hands. Nine illegals from Ecuador and eleven from Mexico were handed over to immigration control who refused to do anything about them. Seems like a number of people are not doing their job and need to be summarily sacked. I'd like to see how many other jobs you'd get to keep if you were handed some work to do and just said, "no".
Anyway, a police chief in New Hampshire came across a guy stopped by the side of the road who turned out to be in the US illegally. Immigration officials refused to take him into custody and so the police took the only action left to them- they charged the man with trespass, defined as a person, "knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he enters or remains in any place." Amazingly a spokesperson for Immigration Control accused the police chief of grandstanding, adding that they do arrest illegal immigrants that are violent or who pose a threat to public safety.
Perhaps they have some special telepathic powers which enables them to know which illegal immigrants might at some time in the future break another US law. Perhaps the current staff should be sacked and the Minutemen hired to replace them?
Head's Bunker
Head's blog has been on my links list for a long time and his posts are always good- but take the time to go beyond the blog, particularly to his gallery where you can see a range of weapons very expertly photographed. There are some awesome images there and I for one think it's high time some high resolution pictures were made available for use as wallpapers.
Hint hint.
Hint hint.
Good news
The US Marine who shot a terrorist during the battle of Fallujah who had pretended to be dead will not face a court martial. Frankly, I'm surprised that the Marine Corps had an investigation into this incident as in the middle of a battle anyone not actively trying to surrender should surely still be considered a threat. Also remember that during this battle Marines were killed and wounded by terrorists feigning death who then detonated explosive devices.
Chalk this one up as another victory for the good guys.
Chalk this one up as another victory for the good guys.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Backwards Diet
I'm not one for diets of any description whatsoever, I merely try to cut down on junk food when I'm trying to lose weight. This woman however, went another route and created a 'backwards diet' in which she eats dinner for breakfast and breakfast at dinner time. By this method she has gone from a size 22 to a size 1. Those figures are pretty meaningless to me but it works out at 172 lbs and is mighty impressive. She has also kept all that weight off for five years.
One curious thing about her diet is that for breakfast she usually eats oatmeal with shredded wheat in orange juice instead of milk. This might work for her but that sounds like it would be enough to make me sick. Gah!
One curious thing about her diet is that for breakfast she usually eats oatmeal with shredded wheat in orange juice instead of milk. This might work for her but that sounds like it would be enough to make me sick. Gah!
Catwoman Review
Catwoman is a bad movie, a real stinker, and everyone knows it. I resisted seeing the flick for a time because such universal condemnations of turkeyness are usually correct, but occasionally they're wrong. Hudson Hawk is a prime example. A pet-project of Bruce Willis', I loved it, but it was pretty much dismissed by everyone else. Maybe now is the time for a Hawk re-appraisal. If you haven't seen it, go check it out. Sure it's silly, but it's a comedy, it's supposed to be a bit silly. But anyway, I'm getting side-tracked- Catwoman, everyone said it was bad but I had to see for myself, just to be sure. Sadly, everyone was right. But why does it reek so bad?
The first and most apparent problem with Catwoman is that it's not really Catwoman at all. Even if you've never read a Batman comic this will be obvious. Catwoman, as we all know, is Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns. If you want to see a good Catwoman movie, get Batman Returns and then fast forward it to every scene Pfeiffer is in- there's your good movie. Instead, in this turkey, we get the "differently talented" Halle Berry playing someone called Patience Phillips- strange, since Catwoman's name is Selina Kyle. This is a strong hint that the pretentious one-name director, Pitof, should never have been allowed to make this film. It also shows that DC Comics needs to keep a tighter grip over the creative control of their characters. Catwoman = Selina Kyle. Simple. I was also a little thrown by the casting of Berry, as Selina Kyle's character is white, but I'm prepared to overlook that. There was talk of casting a black actor to play James Bond and it just doesn't seem right- if you want to have a black spy character, or a black Catwoman, why not create your own instead of changing a character that's been around for so long? No doubt accusations of racism will be levelled at me for thinking that white actors should play white characters and black actors, black characters. Wouldn't it have been equally stupid to cast a white actor as, say, Blade?
Okay, so we have a Patience Phillips character. We also have a movie that takes between 40 and 50 minutes to actually introduce us to Catwoman. That's way too long for a set-up. Twenty minutes is tops to set-up the story. When we do get to see this strange character called Patience (not Selina), she's wearing a costume that, at best, can be described as ridiculous. Again, it's not Catwoman's costume by any stretch of the imagination. You want to play with the costume a little, fine- Tim Burton did it in Batman Returns to superb effect, giving the traditional outfit a slight twist- but you don't go and change the outfit completely for something so stupid. When Catwoman does get going she turns out to not be a cat-burglar at all (did anyone involved with this movie even know who Catwoman is?) and she has these weird super-powers. Luckily for her, her Cat-god given powers involve being able to play basketball really well. Obviously, we all know how fantastic cats are at shooting hoops.
Aside from the horrible butchering of a well-known character (maybe movie makers need to remember that there's a reason why these characters have lasted decades in comics- there's nothing wrong with the way they've been written up to now) the movie suffers from some pretty shoddy CGI, even when none is required. One scene involves Catwoman sliding down a narrow gap between two buildings, her claws scratching the walls to slow her descent. Seems like a fairly easy stunt to set up with some basic wirework but Pitof instead opts for unrealistic CGI. The same can also be said for an acrobatic fight-scene between Catwoman and some pump-action wielding burglars. Yeah, she scurries around the room and up and down walls and generally leaps around avoiding getting shot- but it's all computer animated. A couple of fight choreographers from Hong Kong and some wire-work and you'd have the beginnings of a fabulous action sequence- we get a bad cartoon instead. Bad CGI is one of the things that really brings this film down- a lousy plot, wooden acting and awful dialogue are things that can be excused if the action-quotient is sufficiently high, but former Visual Effects Supervisor Pitof lays on the bad effects thick and heavy when there's absolutely no need for it. We get a fair bit of Halle Berry's avatar leaping around the rooftops like a cat when what we really should have had was Halle Berry or her stunt double on wires leaping through the city. Strangely in her anti-climatic battle with Sharon Stone at the end of the movie, Catwoman's amazing agility seems to desert her and we're left with a yawn-inducing fight. A bit of girlish hair-pulling would have livened the battle considerably. The one place in the movie where CGI might have been preferable, even the cheap CGI in this film, is to replace Berry's appalling hip-swinging walk. She might have been trying to move like a slinky cat, but she actually looked like a cheap hooker.
So, let's catch up- Catwoman has the wrong name, the wrong costume, is the wrong colour, doesn't do what comic-Catwoman did, she has super-powers where Catwoman had none and the effects are poor indeed. The thing I cannot understand is why this was even called Catwoman- it's patently not a film about the Catwoman character. Feline-Chick or Cat-Girl sure, but not Catwoman. What this is, is a completely unengaging snoozefest with no zip or zing to it. Go see Batman Returns instead.
BTW, this is what Catwoman looks like.
The first and most apparent problem with Catwoman is that it's not really Catwoman at all. Even if you've never read a Batman comic this will be obvious. Catwoman, as we all know, is Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns. If you want to see a good Catwoman movie, get Batman Returns and then fast forward it to every scene Pfeiffer is in- there's your good movie. Instead, in this turkey, we get the "differently talented" Halle Berry playing someone called Patience Phillips- strange, since Catwoman's name is Selina Kyle. This is a strong hint that the pretentious one-name director, Pitof, should never have been allowed to make this film. It also shows that DC Comics needs to keep a tighter grip over the creative control of their characters. Catwoman = Selina Kyle. Simple. I was also a little thrown by the casting of Berry, as Selina Kyle's character is white, but I'm prepared to overlook that. There was talk of casting a black actor to play James Bond and it just doesn't seem right- if you want to have a black spy character, or a black Catwoman, why not create your own instead of changing a character that's been around for so long? No doubt accusations of racism will be levelled at me for thinking that white actors should play white characters and black actors, black characters. Wouldn't it have been equally stupid to cast a white actor as, say, Blade?
Okay, so we have a Patience Phillips character. We also have a movie that takes between 40 and 50 minutes to actually introduce us to Catwoman. That's way too long for a set-up. Twenty minutes is tops to set-up the story. When we do get to see this strange character called Patience (not Selina), she's wearing a costume that, at best, can be described as ridiculous. Again, it's not Catwoman's costume by any stretch of the imagination. You want to play with the costume a little, fine- Tim Burton did it in Batman Returns to superb effect, giving the traditional outfit a slight twist- but you don't go and change the outfit completely for something so stupid. When Catwoman does get going she turns out to not be a cat-burglar at all (did anyone involved with this movie even know who Catwoman is?) and she has these weird super-powers. Luckily for her, her Cat-god given powers involve being able to play basketball really well. Obviously, we all know how fantastic cats are at shooting hoops.
Aside from the horrible butchering of a well-known character (maybe movie makers need to remember that there's a reason why these characters have lasted decades in comics- there's nothing wrong with the way they've been written up to now) the movie suffers from some pretty shoddy CGI, even when none is required. One scene involves Catwoman sliding down a narrow gap between two buildings, her claws scratching the walls to slow her descent. Seems like a fairly easy stunt to set up with some basic wirework but Pitof instead opts for unrealistic CGI. The same can also be said for an acrobatic fight-scene between Catwoman and some pump-action wielding burglars. Yeah, she scurries around the room and up and down walls and generally leaps around avoiding getting shot- but it's all computer animated. A couple of fight choreographers from Hong Kong and some wire-work and you'd have the beginnings of a fabulous action sequence- we get a bad cartoon instead. Bad CGI is one of the things that really brings this film down- a lousy plot, wooden acting and awful dialogue are things that can be excused if the action-quotient is sufficiently high, but former Visual Effects Supervisor Pitof lays on the bad effects thick and heavy when there's absolutely no need for it. We get a fair bit of Halle Berry's avatar leaping around the rooftops like a cat when what we really should have had was Halle Berry or her stunt double on wires leaping through the city. Strangely in her anti-climatic battle with Sharon Stone at the end of the movie, Catwoman's amazing agility seems to desert her and we're left with a yawn-inducing fight. A bit of girlish hair-pulling would have livened the battle considerably. The one place in the movie where CGI might have been preferable, even the cheap CGI in this film, is to replace Berry's appalling hip-swinging walk. She might have been trying to move like a slinky cat, but she actually looked like a cheap hooker.
So, let's catch up- Catwoman has the wrong name, the wrong costume, is the wrong colour, doesn't do what comic-Catwoman did, she has super-powers where Catwoman had none and the effects are poor indeed. The thing I cannot understand is why this was even called Catwoman- it's patently not a film about the Catwoman character. Feline-Chick or Cat-Girl sure, but not Catwoman. What this is, is a completely unengaging snoozefest with no zip or zing to it. Go see Batman Returns instead.
BTW, this is what Catwoman looks like.
Kettlebell
I'm a huge fan of Kettlebell training and if you've ever wondered what the KB or girya looks like, here's one. This particular example is from powerseekers.com where I bought both of mine. Good build quality, great value and fast delivery.
As I've said before KB training is highly effective and with the girya you don't need anything else in your home to train with- the girya can burn fat and build strength like nothing else I've tried. It's as simple and reliable as the Kalashnikov.
As I've said before KB training is highly effective and with the girya you don't need anything else in your home to train with- the girya can burn fat and build strength like nothing else I've tried. It's as simple and reliable as the Kalashnikov.
Big American Breasts
It seems like a pretty good idea to keep posting pictures of "big American breasts" so here's another today- this time model Kim Smith, who hails from Texas. You might know her from appalling movie Catwoman as the 'face' that was replacing Sharon Stone.
The rage for women in tight sweaters might have been fashionable way back in the fifties, but looking at this picture, it seems to me that it's a look that should be back in vogue. Sexy without being sleazy.
The rage for women in tight sweaters might have been fashionable way back in the fifties, but looking at this picture, it seems to me that it's a look that should be back in vogue. Sexy without being sleazy.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Rise
Animal Rights At War
Okay, this is an odd one- to protect a rare fox found only on this one island, conservationists are going to slaughter 3,000 pigs on said island. Seems the pig population has only existed there since the 1850s and it's not cute and fluffy so it can kiss its ass goodbye. Another group of animal rights types, however, is trying to protect the pigs.
Foxes or pigs? I'd say that there's good hunting to be done with both. Or maybe man could keep out of it and let, you know, nature decide.
Foxes or pigs? I'd say that there's good hunting to be done with both. Or maybe man could keep out of it and let, you know, nature decide.
Monday, May 02, 2005
Pamela Anderson
I saw Pamela Anderson interviewed recently and she sure is ditzy, but there's something likeable about her. Also, she's a great example of "big American breasts". Take that, Islamists!
Nazis on the rise?
Like many others before me, I've often wondered how the horrors of the Holocaust ever came about- how could an entire nation go along with a genocidal madman like Hitler and cause the deaths of so many? What sort of madness gripped the German nation?
Well, it seems like British university lecturers are showing us how easy it is for anti-Semitism to rear its ugly head. As you've probably read, the British union of university lecturers has approved a motion to stop working with scholars from Israeli universities. As appalling as this is I thought nothing more of it than the Left's ridiculous love affair with the Palestinian terrorist movement. What it is about these idiots' fascination with so-called revolutionaries is beyond me. Perhaps they don't have the mental capacity to comprehend that what these apparent "freedom fighters" actually do is commit crimes like the murder of a pregnant woman and her children. Her name was Tali Hatuel and she was eight months pregnant. The Palestinian butchers also murdered her daughters- Hila, 11; Hadar, 9; Roni, 7 and Merav, 2. This wasn't done at long range either, it was no accident. They fired on her car and when Tali lost control and crashed they closed in and carried out their murders- by shooting the children twice each in the head.
That British university lecturers would align themselves with people like this - and that's what they're doing- is disgusting and absolutely unforgivable. And it wasn't until I read this article that I realised that it's behaviour like this which made Hitler's accession to mass-murdering dictator possible. I don't have to wonder how it all started in Germany any more- I can see the same prejudice on the rise right here in the UK.
Well, it seems like British university lecturers are showing us how easy it is for anti-Semitism to rear its ugly head. As you've probably read, the British union of university lecturers has approved a motion to stop working with scholars from Israeli universities. As appalling as this is I thought nothing more of it than the Left's ridiculous love affair with the Palestinian terrorist movement. What it is about these idiots' fascination with so-called revolutionaries is beyond me. Perhaps they don't have the mental capacity to comprehend that what these apparent "freedom fighters" actually do is commit crimes like the murder of a pregnant woman and her children. Her name was Tali Hatuel and she was eight months pregnant. The Palestinian butchers also murdered her daughters- Hila, 11; Hadar, 9; Roni, 7 and Merav, 2. This wasn't done at long range either, it was no accident. They fired on her car and when Tali lost control and crashed they closed in and carried out their murders- by shooting the children twice each in the head.
That British university lecturers would align themselves with people like this - and that's what they're doing- is disgusting and absolutely unforgivable. And it wasn't until I read this article that I realised that it's behaviour like this which made Hitler's accession to mass-murdering dictator possible. I don't have to wonder how it all started in Germany any more- I can see the same prejudice on the rise right here in the UK.
Don't You Like These Big American Breasts
Oh, the inhumanity! Cry torture! Or just be disgusted that the media circus around Guantanamo Bay continues to try and paint the Americans as the enemy and terrorists as oppressed, badly treated innocents. F**k but this enrages me!
Here's the story- a former Army translator at Gitmo has- surprise, surprise- written a book about his experiences. Of particular note is his tale of a female interrogator questioning a terrorist who had received fight training- remember 9/11? The interrogator unbuttoned her shirt to reveal *gasp* a T-shirt, and she then touched her breasts and uttered the classic line- "don't you like these big American breasts?". Now, I've never been interrogated, or even tortured, but what's being described here is as far removed from my idea of torture as you can possibly go. In fact, I'm sure many people would pay good money to see a woman touch her breasts right in front of them.
But wait, it gets worse- she later unbuttoned her trousers and put her hand down them! I know this probably makes for hard reading, hearing the unbearable horrors that have been perpetuated against these poor defenceless terrorists, but bear with me. As she circled around the terrorist, who could have been planning on murdering another 3,000 innocent people, she pulled her hand out and it was red, covered in- brace yourselves- ink. She told the prisoner- "I'm actually menstruating right now, and I'm touching you. Does that please your God? Does that please Allah?" To add insult to injury she then wiped the red ink on his face, saying, "How do you like that?" My God, it's horrific, isn't it? To think that a man, captured on the battlefield fighting and trying to kill American soldiers could be treated like this? Well, the translator went to bed that night feeling, and I quote, "dirty and disgusting".
I wonder if these absolutely barbaric "torture" activities are known to the enemy we're fighting? I mean they only brutally murder their captured prisoners, sawing their heads off on video while they scream "Allahu akbar". Perhaps if they knew what was happening at Guantanamo Bay, where some prisoners were kept in stress positions for up to 24 hours at a time, were some even had their thumbs bent back, were one poor terrorist even had- I can barely write it- duct tape wrapped around his head, they too would change their tactics. I mean, cutting a man's head off with a small knife can't even compare to putting tape around his head can it?
The author of this catalogue of "atrocities"- you just know that's the term the media is going to use to describe this- goes on to say that out of the 600-odd prisoners there, he "thought" only a few dozen were dangerous. This must be the same few dozen that threatened to kill the guards before they left, or is it the same few dozen that have been released and have gone back to fighting against American troops in Afghanistan? He's not too clear on this point, but I guess that if he gave any indication that the men at Guantanamo were in fact dangerous terrorists out to destroy the United States and that they were being treated more than fairly, his book might not sell so well to the usual crowd of America-haters.
Here's the story- a former Army translator at Gitmo has- surprise, surprise- written a book about his experiences. Of particular note is his tale of a female interrogator questioning a terrorist who had received fight training- remember 9/11? The interrogator unbuttoned her shirt to reveal *gasp* a T-shirt, and she then touched her breasts and uttered the classic line- "don't you like these big American breasts?". Now, I've never been interrogated, or even tortured, but what's being described here is as far removed from my idea of torture as you can possibly go. In fact, I'm sure many people would pay good money to see a woman touch her breasts right in front of them.
But wait, it gets worse- she later unbuttoned her trousers and put her hand down them! I know this probably makes for hard reading, hearing the unbearable horrors that have been perpetuated against these poor defenceless terrorists, but bear with me. As she circled around the terrorist, who could have been planning on murdering another 3,000 innocent people, she pulled her hand out and it was red, covered in- brace yourselves- ink. She told the prisoner- "I'm actually menstruating right now, and I'm touching you. Does that please your God? Does that please Allah?" To add insult to injury she then wiped the red ink on his face, saying, "How do you like that?" My God, it's horrific, isn't it? To think that a man, captured on the battlefield fighting and trying to kill American soldiers could be treated like this? Well, the translator went to bed that night feeling, and I quote, "dirty and disgusting".
I wonder if these absolutely barbaric "torture" activities are known to the enemy we're fighting? I mean they only brutally murder their captured prisoners, sawing their heads off on video while they scream "Allahu akbar". Perhaps if they knew what was happening at Guantanamo Bay, where some prisoners were kept in stress positions for up to 24 hours at a time, were some even had their thumbs bent back, were one poor terrorist even had- I can barely write it- duct tape wrapped around his head, they too would change their tactics. I mean, cutting a man's head off with a small knife can't even compare to putting tape around his head can it?
The author of this catalogue of "atrocities"- you just know that's the term the media is going to use to describe this- goes on to say that out of the 600-odd prisoners there, he "thought" only a few dozen were dangerous. This must be the same few dozen that threatened to kill the guards before they left, or is it the same few dozen that have been released and have gone back to fighting against American troops in Afghanistan? He's not too clear on this point, but I guess that if he gave any indication that the men at Guantanamo were in fact dangerous terrorists out to destroy the United States and that they were being treated more than fairly, his book might not sell so well to the usual crowd of America-haters.
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Schoolkid Group Sex?
I thought that the story about a group of schoolkids, aged 12-17, making a sex video was bad enough, but this made my jaw hit the ground. According to school nurses in England (and usually when people over here hear a story like this they mutter to themselves, "only in America"- not this time) teenagers are taking part in group sex "swinger" sessions. The practice seems to involve older teenagers (I guess this means 16-18 but the article doesn't specify that) going to someone's house and then having sex with multiple partners. I don't even know of any adults doing that.
One of the most worrying things about this is the nature of coercion involved, with some teenagers feeling compelled to provide sexual favours as a result of some sort of gang culture. When I was a kid our parents worried about peer pressure making us smoke or drink- I don't think group sex even crossed their minds as a possibility. The article goes on to mention kids prostituting themselves for money. That sounds like something that might happen in some deprived inner city area but I heard that a fourteen year old girl from the village where I live was doing just that, for the ridiculous amount of fifty pence (that's about 95 US cents).
What is the world coming to? I think my kids just got grounded until they're thirty. Just to be safe.
One of the most worrying things about this is the nature of coercion involved, with some teenagers feeling compelled to provide sexual favours as a result of some sort of gang culture. When I was a kid our parents worried about peer pressure making us smoke or drink- I don't think group sex even crossed their minds as a possibility. The article goes on to mention kids prostituting themselves for money. That sounds like something that might happen in some deprived inner city area but I heard that a fourteen year old girl from the village where I live was doing just that, for the ridiculous amount of fifty pence (that's about 95 US cents).
What is the world coming to? I think my kids just got grounded until they're thirty. Just to be safe.
Dragunovs in US Hands
Murdoc Online hits the mark yet again with a post on Dragunov SVD sniper rifles in the hands of US troops in Iraq. Seems that the weapons were seized in raids and put to good use by the American Forces in a counter-sniper role. So far in Iraq we've heard of US troops ditching their M16s in favour of AKs for house to house fighting and there's even been a picture of a US Marine packing a WW2-era PPsh-41.
When a modern Army finds its troops ditching their issue-weapon in favour of one dating back to WW2 then I think it's time that they took a long and serious look at the demands of the battlefield and the equipment they're issuing.
When a modern Army finds its troops ditching their issue-weapon in favour of one dating back to WW2 then I think it's time that they took a long and serious look at the demands of the battlefield and the equipment they're issuing.
FHM Top 100
My Other Half has already blogged on the FHM American Top 100 Sexiest Woman list. If you're in the States and are interested in the selection made by us Brits, here's the UK Top 100. I'm sure that a lot of names in the UK list will not be familiar at all to readers outside the UK- helpfully, Yahoo has linked each name to an image search.
Comparing the two lists I've got to say that the American one makes more sense to me. Cheryl Tweedy listed above Angelina Jolie? Please. But Monica Bellucci comes in at 89 on the US list compared to 54 in the UK? That's just silly. Surely she should be at number two, right behind Angelina?
One thing I will say is that UK FHM has the most bizarre, twisted photographers/make-up people in the world. For some reason they tend to take the most unflattering photos of the celebrities- and then put the worst of each set into their Top 100 supplement. Weird. Anyway, I haven't been able to find a link to the actual UK photos yet, but you can see the US list in two parts here and here. Enjoy the photos and then have fun complaining about the list- I know I do.
Cool Bike Design
This is a great idea- a tricycle that becomes a bicycle when you cycle faster. Sounds a bit screwy, but the design is aimed at kids (and adults) who are learning to ride a bike for the first time. The tricycle design allows them to just hop on and start riding while the ingenious concept of the rear wheels slowly coming together to form a single wheel means that they can go at their own speed and not have to worry about Mum or Dad holding onto the back of the saddle as they peddle. If they start to feel a bit unsteady all they have to do is slow down a little and the bike will return to the stable tricycle formation. Manufacturers are already interested in the concept so expect to see this in the shops before long.
Ant Ambush
Most kids are fascinated by ants and I was no exception- particularly after my brother and I sat up late one Saturday night to watch Them! when we were kids. Even now if I see ants scurrying about their business I have to crouch down to have a look. Our local ants have nothing on this Amazon species though- they not only build fibreglass-tough nests, they also create lots of little tunnels on the surface and use these to ambush larger prey. When the bigger insect lands on the surface the ants break out of their little foxholes and grab a hold of the nearest extremity, holding the prey down all over its body. With the big insect immobilised the ants bite and sting it into submission and, finally, either cut it up into pieces there and then or simply transport it back into their nest.
Impressive.
Impressive.
Friday, April 29, 2005
Ain't It Cool
I'm not what you'd call a frequent visitor to Harry Knowles' infamous site but when I do go I always make sure to check out his monthly DVD picks- April's are here. It's a fairly eclectic round up of movies being released and while a lot of it's not to my taste, there's usually something there that I'd like to see but would never have thought of looking for.
Bond News
There's been so much talk about who is or isn't going to be the new James Bond that I'm really hoping this news is true- Brosnan has apparently signed on for two more pictures. He's certainly a better choice than any of the other names that have been mentioned. Clive Owen seems to be everyone's hot favourite but after seeing him being interviewed on Tonight With Jonathan Ross a few months back I was extremely underwhelmed. He lacks a certain something.
Now, with Brosnan back in the saddle all they need now is a decent script and an actual action director. The past few movies haven't exactly been up to scratch. Maybe the franchise needs some big summer blockbuster help- Bruckheimer should step in and gloss up the format. It certainly couldn't do the series any harm.
Now, with Brosnan back in the saddle all they need now is a decent script and an actual action director. The past few movies haven't exactly been up to scratch. Maybe the franchise needs some big summer blockbuster help- Bruckheimer should step in and gloss up the format. It certainly couldn't do the series any harm.
Schoolkid Sex Tape
I'm thirty two but it seems like things in schools are changing at light speed; life certainly wasn't like this- not even remotely- when I was at school. A group of schoolkids has made a sex tape, four girls and one boy, ages twelve to seventeen. They were found out when one of the girls tried to show the tape to her younger brother. Why she would want to do that is beyond me.
As if that wasn't bad enough the girls were apparently not upset when the tape was shown to their parents by police- they were "carefree" as if it were a commonplace occurrence, claiming that this is what's going on in schools. As a father of two young girls- who will not be in high school for another ten years, this is pretty damn terrifying. If this is the kind of thing teenagers are getting up to now- and I'm hoping that it really isn't that common- then what's it going to be like a decade down the road?
Comparing my high school days (I finished in 1991) to those of people from about five years ago, my school-life starts to seem like something from an idyllic fifties movie; times really were more innocent back then. It doesn't bear thinking about what it's going to be like in years to come.
Something else for me to worry about for my girls.
As if that wasn't bad enough the girls were apparently not upset when the tape was shown to their parents by police- they were "carefree" as if it were a commonplace occurrence, claiming that this is what's going on in schools. As a father of two young girls- who will not be in high school for another ten years, this is pretty damn terrifying. If this is the kind of thing teenagers are getting up to now- and I'm hoping that it really isn't that common- then what's it going to be like a decade down the road?
Comparing my high school days (I finished in 1991) to those of people from about five years ago, my school-life starts to seem like something from an idyllic fifties movie; times really were more innocent back then. It doesn't bear thinking about what it's going to be like in years to come.
Something else for me to worry about for my girls.
Desert Storm
Thanks to The Sun here are some cool pictures (low quality I'm afraid) of a massive sand storm in Iraq, taken by US Marines in Al Asad. The storm was 80 miles across and the cloud of sand reached as high as 5000ft. Very impressive.
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Girevik
I finally got round to moving up from my one pood girya (16kgs or 35lbs kettlebell) to the two pood weight. This is 32kg or 70lbs. The standard weight girya used by the Russian military is 24kg or 50lbs weight, and while I'd originally planned on getting one to work up gradually, I jumped the gun and went for the big boy instead. The next weight up is 88lbs. I think I might pass on that one!
Now, 32kg doesn't sound like a lot but believe me it is when you're swinging it around. To be honest, while I'm happy enough doing high rep sets with the 16kg KB, this 32kg is a whole different ballgame so I'm taking it very easy. My first workout consisted of swings, cleans and squats. This is too much weight for me to attempt to snatch just yet- I'm not quite sure how my body'll hold up so I'm taking no risks. My second workout was just three sets of swings, keeping the reps low and trying to get the girya a little higher than the night before. I can get it up to chest height now which is all I need for swings. Now that I know my limits with that my next goal is to increase my cleans, get the reps up a little and then work towards adding in the overhead jerk. When I started with the 16kg kettlebell I really noticed my shoulder strength increase so I'm hoping to see big gains with this. Though my workouts have been light so far I can already feel the muscles around my torso being worked by the KB- these things really do work your whole body.
I've got to say that I'm pretty much hooked on kettlebell training- it's simple, fast and effective- and it's good to finally have the two pood girya to train with. I feel like I can finally call myself girevik, a "kettlebell man".
Now, 32kg doesn't sound like a lot but believe me it is when you're swinging it around. To be honest, while I'm happy enough doing high rep sets with the 16kg KB, this 32kg is a whole different ballgame so I'm taking it very easy. My first workout consisted of swings, cleans and squats. This is too much weight for me to attempt to snatch just yet- I'm not quite sure how my body'll hold up so I'm taking no risks. My second workout was just three sets of swings, keeping the reps low and trying to get the girya a little higher than the night before. I can get it up to chest height now which is all I need for swings. Now that I know my limits with that my next goal is to increase my cleans, get the reps up a little and then work towards adding in the overhead jerk. When I started with the 16kg kettlebell I really noticed my shoulder strength increase so I'm hoping to see big gains with this. Though my workouts have been light so far I can already feel the muscles around my torso being worked by the KB- these things really do work your whole body.
I've got to say that I'm pretty much hooked on kettlebell training- it's simple, fast and effective- and it's good to finally have the two pood girya to train with. I feel like I can finally call myself girevik, a "kettlebell man".
Blade Trinity Review
First off let me say that I'm a big fan of the first two Blade movies- I really enjoyed both films. So I was looking forward to Trinity and, boy, was I disappointed.
The film has several problems, first of which is Hannibal King, played by Ryan Reynolds. There are a lot of things wrong with this character, and my main complaint was the simply appalling dialogue. He keeps trying to be whimsical and amusing but it comes across as if this guy is supposed to be in another movie. A movie that is not funny at all. Second, he's a kick-ass vampire hunter- well, no that's not right either. He gets his ass kicked several times and he just struck me as being effeminate. This man is no action hero and shouldn't be within 100 yards of a Blade movie set. Oh, did I mention that he can't act either? Bad, bad choice.
Second up, is Dracula. We know from the get-go that he's Dracula but for some reason he calls himself Drake in the movie. This is maybe a minor quibble but if you're going to have the arch-vampire in your film, why go and change his name? There's a point in the film where Dracula says something like- "didn't you ever read Stoker's fable?" (I'll ignore the fact that he's been in vampire hibernation for hundreds of years but upon awakening has apparently prioritised reading Bram Stoker's original Dracula novel); seems to me that David Goyer, the individual responsible for writing and directing this mess, should have read Stoker's book because the casting is all wrong. The actor picked has all of the charisma and presence of a lampshade. Also, he doesn't actually play too big a part in the film- any generic vampire badguy would have fit the bill- there's nothing really Dracula-specific about the plot. There's some distraction about him being the first pure vampire, but he turns out to be not that scary or dangerous at all.
Which leads me on to my next complaint- Blade can handle vampires because he's half-vampire, he's as strong and as fast as they are. The Nightstalkers on the other hand- a bunch of badly drawn background actors along with Jessica Biel and the aforementioned pansy Ryan Reynolds- are not. The vampires they're up against just aren't frightening at all. The threat simply does not exist. And speaking of the Nightstalkers, shouldn't the makers of Alias be suing over the theft of their tech expert? He's been lifted right out and set down in Blade- the actor even looks a little like the Alias character.
So, what do we have so far- uber-wet blanket Ryan Reynolds, appalling dialogue, a script that's not very well paced, vampires who aren't really scary at all (among the bad guys only Parker Posey's vampire bitch stands out- the others seem to burst into flame at the merest hint of Blade or giggle in the background), a seriously badly cast Dracula, silly weapons (don't even get me started on that), a completely unfunny script, and uninspired action sequences. In the first two movies, Blade was the epitome of cool. Here, he seems underused. It's as if David Goyer wanted to make a Nightstalkers movie, but had gotten lumbered with Blade instead. I'm not all that surprised that Wesley Snipes is taking legal action after seeing this- his Blade is a shadow of his former self. It's a sad way to end the series, going out with a whimper instead of a bang.
One other point that I should mention is that Goyer has absolutely no idea of how to even hint at menace. In the first movie we were treated to time lapse imagery of the sun going down and the night taking over the city. The same trick is tried here- several times- but it fails to establish any sense of menace. There's no impending threat of darkness coming because the vampire enemies just aren't that frightening. If Ryan Reynolds can be a Nightstalker, then so too can any geeky fifteen year old kid. If there is a Nightstalkers spin-off franchise, Reynolds is not the man to helm it. Jessica Biel is more butch that he is. And Biel's character was oddly missing. As Whistler's daughter she had some cool points saved up already- and in her first confrontation with the vampires she handles herself pretty well, but Goyer throws it all away by giving her a bow and arrow and a silly UV light weapon- kind of like a batleth. He also totally fails to develop her at all. She remains little more than a cardboard cut-out throughout the film. There's one scene where we see her in a shower apparently terribly upset, but it seems like nothing more than an excuse to show some Biel-flesh rather than to try and be meaningful in any way. Sure, there's a place for nudity in horror movies, but shouldn't she be upset about something? As far as I can remember all that's just happened is girly man Reynolds got wounded. Maybe she was crying because his character hadn't been killed off? Now there's a thought, Blade: Duo would have been a much better movie. One totally ridiculous and unnecessary thing about her character is her need to listen to MP3s while she's hunting. Quite aside from the fact that she wouldn't be able to hear the superpowered vampires sneaking up on her, this comes over as a totally blatant ad for Apple iPod and iTunes. There are more subtle ways to sneak marketing into films- Goyer obviously didn't get that memo.
One last thing, which really annoyed me because it was so stupid- sissy Reynolds holds up a tiny fragment of Dracula's armour, and I mean we're talking thumbnail size. He then goes on to show us what Dracula's entire suit of armour and helmet look like, because they've extrapolated. Yeah, right. Shouldn't someone over the age of five be watching for mistakes like this in the script? I'm stunned that stupidity like this can not just go into a script, but it can be storyboarded, the scenes prepared, even a little computer graphic designed and filmed- and it can actually make it into a final cut of a movie without anyone saying, "hang on a moment, you can tell what a whole suit of armour looked like based on this tiny thing that could have come from anything?"
Okay, there's one other thing that jarred with me and really annoyed my Other Half, and that's the swearing. I can't for the life of me remember Blade cursing in the first two flicks but he does in this and it just didn't sit right. There's no need for to use "MF" in a film based on a comic book.
All right, there's another thing (I'm in danger of becoming Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch)- without wanting to give too much away, there's a prison break scene and at the end of it the group is faced by a swarm of police cars with cops pointing guns at them. Big problem? No, they just run away from the twenty or thirty cops- without getting shot- and drive away. The police don't bother to drive after them. It's this kind of poor thinking that characterises the whole film. If only Guillermo del Toro had been the director, things would have been a whole lot different.
The film has several problems, first of which is Hannibal King, played by Ryan Reynolds. There are a lot of things wrong with this character, and my main complaint was the simply appalling dialogue. He keeps trying to be whimsical and amusing but it comes across as if this guy is supposed to be in another movie. A movie that is not funny at all. Second, he's a kick-ass vampire hunter- well, no that's not right either. He gets his ass kicked several times and he just struck me as being effeminate. This man is no action hero and shouldn't be within 100 yards of a Blade movie set. Oh, did I mention that he can't act either? Bad, bad choice.
Second up, is Dracula. We know from the get-go that he's Dracula but for some reason he calls himself Drake in the movie. This is maybe a minor quibble but if you're going to have the arch-vampire in your film, why go and change his name? There's a point in the film where Dracula says something like- "didn't you ever read Stoker's fable?" (I'll ignore the fact that he's been in vampire hibernation for hundreds of years but upon awakening has apparently prioritised reading Bram Stoker's original Dracula novel); seems to me that David Goyer, the individual responsible for writing and directing this mess, should have read Stoker's book because the casting is all wrong. The actor picked has all of the charisma and presence of a lampshade. Also, he doesn't actually play too big a part in the film- any generic vampire badguy would have fit the bill- there's nothing really Dracula-specific about the plot. There's some distraction about him being the first pure vampire, but he turns out to be not that scary or dangerous at all.
Which leads me on to my next complaint- Blade can handle vampires because he's half-vampire, he's as strong and as fast as they are. The Nightstalkers on the other hand- a bunch of badly drawn background actors along with Jessica Biel and the aforementioned pansy Ryan Reynolds- are not. The vampires they're up against just aren't frightening at all. The threat simply does not exist. And speaking of the Nightstalkers, shouldn't the makers of Alias be suing over the theft of their tech expert? He's been lifted right out and set down in Blade- the actor even looks a little like the Alias character.
So, what do we have so far- uber-wet blanket Ryan Reynolds, appalling dialogue, a script that's not very well paced, vampires who aren't really scary at all (among the bad guys only Parker Posey's vampire bitch stands out- the others seem to burst into flame at the merest hint of Blade or giggle in the background), a seriously badly cast Dracula, silly weapons (don't even get me started on that), a completely unfunny script, and uninspired action sequences. In the first two movies, Blade was the epitome of cool. Here, he seems underused. It's as if David Goyer wanted to make a Nightstalkers movie, but had gotten lumbered with Blade instead. I'm not all that surprised that Wesley Snipes is taking legal action after seeing this- his Blade is a shadow of his former self. It's a sad way to end the series, going out with a whimper instead of a bang.
One other point that I should mention is that Goyer has absolutely no idea of how to even hint at menace. In the first movie we were treated to time lapse imagery of the sun going down and the night taking over the city. The same trick is tried here- several times- but it fails to establish any sense of menace. There's no impending threat of darkness coming because the vampire enemies just aren't that frightening. If Ryan Reynolds can be a Nightstalker, then so too can any geeky fifteen year old kid. If there is a Nightstalkers spin-off franchise, Reynolds is not the man to helm it. Jessica Biel is more butch that he is. And Biel's character was oddly missing. As Whistler's daughter she had some cool points saved up already- and in her first confrontation with the vampires she handles herself pretty well, but Goyer throws it all away by giving her a bow and arrow and a silly UV light weapon- kind of like a batleth. He also totally fails to develop her at all. She remains little more than a cardboard cut-out throughout the film. There's one scene where we see her in a shower apparently terribly upset, but it seems like nothing more than an excuse to show some Biel-flesh rather than to try and be meaningful in any way. Sure, there's a place for nudity in horror movies, but shouldn't she be upset about something? As far as I can remember all that's just happened is girly man Reynolds got wounded. Maybe she was crying because his character hadn't been killed off? Now there's a thought, Blade: Duo would have been a much better movie. One totally ridiculous and unnecessary thing about her character is her need to listen to MP3s while she's hunting. Quite aside from the fact that she wouldn't be able to hear the superpowered vampires sneaking up on her, this comes over as a totally blatant ad for Apple iPod and iTunes. There are more subtle ways to sneak marketing into films- Goyer obviously didn't get that memo.
One last thing, which really annoyed me because it was so stupid- sissy Reynolds holds up a tiny fragment of Dracula's armour, and I mean we're talking thumbnail size. He then goes on to show us what Dracula's entire suit of armour and helmet look like, because they've extrapolated. Yeah, right. Shouldn't someone over the age of five be watching for mistakes like this in the script? I'm stunned that stupidity like this can not just go into a script, but it can be storyboarded, the scenes prepared, even a little computer graphic designed and filmed- and it can actually make it into a final cut of a movie without anyone saying, "hang on a moment, you can tell what a whole suit of armour looked like based on this tiny thing that could have come from anything?"
Okay, there's one other thing that jarred with me and really annoyed my Other Half, and that's the swearing. I can't for the life of me remember Blade cursing in the first two flicks but he does in this and it just didn't sit right. There's no need for to use "MF" in a film based on a comic book.
All right, there's another thing (I'm in danger of becoming Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch)- without wanting to give too much away, there's a prison break scene and at the end of it the group is faced by a swarm of police cars with cops pointing guns at them. Big problem? No, they just run away from the twenty or thirty cops- without getting shot- and drive away. The police don't bother to drive after them. It's this kind of poor thinking that characterises the whole film. If only Guillermo del Toro had been the director, things would have been a whole lot different.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
How Fit Are You?
From the pages of Men's Health magazine comes this simple test to measure your fitness level. I'd actually meant to write about this some time ago but the magazine ended up on the bottom of my 'to read' pile. Oh, well, better late than never. Here goes:
1. Strength
a. Press Ups- get down and hammer out as many as you can in two minutes with proper form. You're in good shape if you can do 40-50 and apparently top army recruits can manage 68 in that time.
b. Sit-Ups-Feet flat on floor, knees bent and hands on thighs. As you curl up move your hands up to your knees. Do as many as you can in one minute. The average for most men is 35 and Men's Health rates 40 as giving you a solid core.
c. Squats- Keeps knees behind toes and lower until thighs are parallel to the ground. Do as many as you can- no time limit. A score of 31-34 is average leg strength. 45 is excellent.
2. Cardiovascular Fitness
You'll need to concentrate for this one. Get a sturdy box or step that's 12-18" high and step up and down for three minutes straight. Rest for one minutes and then take your pulse rate for 30 seconds. Multiply the result by 5.6 and then divide this figure into 18,000. A mark of between 60 and 100 is considered fit.
3. Flexibility
Sit down on the ground with your legs straight out in front of you and reach towards your toes. Being able to reach your toes is okay, past them is good.
4. Agility
You'll need someone to time you on this one. Place two markers on the ground 9ft apart, marker 1 and 2. Set two books down beyond marker 2. Start the clock at marker 1 and sprint to 2, grab the book and run back to 1 and set it down. Return to 2, grab the second book and return to 1. Stop the clock. Anything under 10 seconds is fast.
5. Power
Standing against a wall, wet your fingers and reach as high as you can to mark the wall. Now, do three vertical jumps, marking the wall with your fingers each time. Select the highest of the jumps and then measure between it and your standing mark. 20" is good.
1. Strength
a. Press Ups- get down and hammer out as many as you can in two minutes with proper form. You're in good shape if you can do 40-50 and apparently top army recruits can manage 68 in that time.
b. Sit-Ups-Feet flat on floor, knees bent and hands on thighs. As you curl up move your hands up to your knees. Do as many as you can in one minute. The average for most men is 35 and Men's Health rates 40 as giving you a solid core.
c. Squats- Keeps knees behind toes and lower until thighs are parallel to the ground. Do as many as you can- no time limit. A score of 31-34 is average leg strength. 45 is excellent.
2. Cardiovascular Fitness
You'll need to concentrate for this one. Get a sturdy box or step that's 12-18" high and step up and down for three minutes straight. Rest for one minutes and then take your pulse rate for 30 seconds. Multiply the result by 5.6 and then divide this figure into 18,000. A mark of between 60 and 100 is considered fit.
3. Flexibility
Sit down on the ground with your legs straight out in front of you and reach towards your toes. Being able to reach your toes is okay, past them is good.
4. Agility
You'll need someone to time you on this one. Place two markers on the ground 9ft apart, marker 1 and 2. Set two books down beyond marker 2. Start the clock at marker 1 and sprint to 2, grab the book and run back to 1 and set it down. Return to 2, grab the second book and return to 1. Stop the clock. Anything under 10 seconds is fast.
5. Power
Standing against a wall, wet your fingers and reach as high as you can to mark the wall. Now, do three vertical jumps, marking the wall with your fingers each time. Select the highest of the jumps and then measure between it and your standing mark. 20" is good.
Honour Killings
I'd actually wanted NOT to blog on Islamists for a day or too, but the outrages won't stop coming. The latest is from Jordan where a man shot dead his sister after seeing her photo on his friend's camera phone. Let me repeat that- he murdered his sister because someone took her photo. He said he did it to "cleanse his family honour" and turned himself over to the police. According to the article this is the fifth honour killing in Jordan this year, while there were nineteen last year.
Under Jordanian law, the murderer faces a maximum jail sentence of one year.
Religion of Peace?
Under Jordanian law, the murderer faces a maximum jail sentence of one year.
Religion of Peace?
Monday, April 25, 2005
Hollywood Takes on 9/11
Hang onto your hats for a Moonbat storm warning- Hollywood has determined that enough time has passed to allow it to begin making films about 9/11. Now, I know what you're thinking- 3,000 innocent people perished in the biggest ever terrorist attack on the United States, an act which has changed our entire world forever. These reprehensible f**kers flew planes into buildings where civilians were doing nothing more harmful than going to work. You'd expect that Hollywood would understand that the unprovoked mass murder of American citizens going about their daily business would be a sensitive issue. That's what you'd expect but this is Hollywood we're talking about, so instead we get this-
A new movie called The Great New Wonderful, which actress Maggie Gyllenhaal informs us "deals with 9/11 in such a subtle, open way that I think it allows it to be more complicated than just, 'Oh, look at these poor New Yorkers and how hard it was for them." As if this wasn't sickening enough she then adds, "because I think America has done reprehensible things and is responsible in some way and so I think the delicacy with which it's dealt allows that to sort of creep in."
That a spoiled, overpaid brat like this can come out and blame America for Islamic terrorists murdering 3000 people is so staggeringly stupid that I'm astonished. And absolutely disgusted. What makes this even worse is that this movie- which delicately deals with America's blame for 9/11- is being shown at the Tribeca Film Festival which was "founded in 2002 by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff as a response to the attacks on the World Trade Center". Isn't that great, a film festival created to help the damaged city of New York is playing host to this garbage?
Well, I know for sure that I'll never again paid a penny towards any movie associated with any of the people in this film- that includes dumb b***h Gyllenhaal, Tony Shalhoub (whose work I actually used to like), and the writer and director. Remember, the only way to affect the crap Hollywood pumps out is to boycott it and the people involved with it.
Hat tip to LGF for the story.
A new movie called The Great New Wonderful, which actress Maggie Gyllenhaal informs us "deals with 9/11 in such a subtle, open way that I think it allows it to be more complicated than just, 'Oh, look at these poor New Yorkers and how hard it was for them." As if this wasn't sickening enough she then adds, "because I think America has done reprehensible things and is responsible in some way and so I think the delicacy with which it's dealt allows that to sort of creep in."
That a spoiled, overpaid brat like this can come out and blame America for Islamic terrorists murdering 3000 people is so staggeringly stupid that I'm astonished. And absolutely disgusted. What makes this even worse is that this movie- which delicately deals with America's blame for 9/11- is being shown at the Tribeca Film Festival which was "founded in 2002 by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff as a response to the attacks on the World Trade Center". Isn't that great, a film festival created to help the damaged city of New York is playing host to this garbage?
Well, I know for sure that I'll never again paid a penny towards any movie associated with any of the people in this film- that includes dumb b***h Gyllenhaal, Tony Shalhoub (whose work I actually used to like), and the writer and director. Remember, the only way to affect the crap Hollywood pumps out is to boycott it and the people involved with it.
Hat tip to LGF for the story.
Sunday, April 24, 2005
First Piece
Well, I rummaged around my PC and found a short little work to post over at Cryptic Fiction. It's little more than a fragment, a writing exercise I did some time ago. Hopefully, it'll give a little taster of things to come.
Flight of Fancy
I've never been a huge fan of glamour girl Betty Page but I do think that this image of her is pretty spectacular. Although I wasn't sure when I first found this piece, it turns out that it's by Dave Stevens, the guy who created the The Rocketeer comic book.
Cryptic Fiction
I've added my new site, Cryptic Fiction, to my Links. I intend to post some of the stories I've written there. Right now, it's a "coming soon" feature as there isn't anything there, but I need a kick in the pants sometimes to keep me motivated. Knowing that the page is there waiting will hopefully given me a bit of extra motivation to work harder.
The main type of story I work on at the moment is adventure. Burroughs is a BIG influence on me, but I'll try to put a variety of things up. I dabble in various fields; horror, science fiction, action, nothing too literary. My intent at the moment is to put up sample chapters, stories I'm writing at the moment and any other bits and pieces I can find. Feedback is appreciated. My Other Half tells me she loves what I write but I think she's just being kind.
Anyway, I'm trying to get a few things together tonight/tomorrow and get them posted ASAP.
The main type of story I work on at the moment is adventure. Burroughs is a BIG influence on me, but I'll try to put a variety of things up. I dabble in various fields; horror, science fiction, action, nothing too literary. My intent at the moment is to put up sample chapters, stories I'm writing at the moment and any other bits and pieces I can find. Feedback is appreciated. My Other Half tells me she loves what I write but I think she's just being kind.
Anyway, I'm trying to get a few things together tonight/tomorrow and get them posted ASAP.
Saturday, April 23, 2005
RoP Issues Death Threat
A Norwegian minister is under police protection in Sweden because he denounced Mohammed as a 'confused paedophile'- and a fatwa calling for his death was promptly issued. There are several interesting points raised by this story.
First off is the actual factuality of the statement- that Mohammed was a paedophile. Well, he was married to a girl called Aisha when she was six, consummating the marriage when she was nine years old. Sex with a nine year old girl would pretty much fall under the heading of paedophilia for me. Now, I got to this story via FARK and I decided to enter the comments section there to see what the general view was. Boy, what a mistake. In relation to the facts of the case the point was made that long ago in olden times, young girls got married. This seems to obfuscate the point- a grown man having sex with a 9 year old, regardless of who else was doing it at the time, is still a paedophile.
The second point is one of free speech. This didn't seem to bother too many of the FARKers. Few railed against the fatwa and its effect on others speaking their minds. That the preacher merely uttered something that was true was also pretty much disregarded. According to the Aftenposten story, Muslim groups have called the preacher's statement "a hateful attack on Islam". They were also fearful of the violence seen in the Netherlands after Theo van Gogh was killed by an Islamist for making a film. They didn't elaborate on whether they were fearful of retaliatory attacks on them if the preacher was killed. I don't recall reading in the article that the Muslims in Sweden had denounced the fatwa as being entirely inappropriate. Maybe I missed that section? An Islam expert also said he thought that the preacher's statement was intended to provoke a religious war. He found it 'unpleasant'- he's not the only one, I find it unpleasant that a Christian preacher can point out a fact mentioned in hadiths regarded as the most accurate by Sunni Muslims, and then be issued a death threat. The only religious war being threatened here is by the Muslims. So far, Swedish Christians have not issued any kind of death threats.
The other thing about this that really got my blood boiling- quite apart from the fact that Islamists can issue death threats against someone was speaking their mind- was the FARK comments. It doesn't take them long to stop criticising the Religion of Peace and begin attacking Christianity. I wonder if it had been a Christian issuing a death threat if the reaction would have been the same? Would other religions have been attacked too? The majority of the posters also seemed to miss the point that Christianity is not in the habit of threatening to kill those who speak out against it. Nor are there sections in the New Testament advising on how to fight infidels or cut off their heads. This fact seems to have missed some of these mooonbats entirely- "oh, but Christians did bad things hundreds of years ago". How this has any bearing whatsoever on the state of Islam today is beyond me. Nor can I see how wars in the past which had been claimed in the name of Christ can have any relation to Christ's teaching- love your enemy and turn the other cheek are what he preached. He did not call for war.
Besides, what has Christianity got to do with Islam? What's the link between Islamists calling for a man's death for speaking and the Christian Church? I don't know what's p*ssed me off more- this ridiculous fatwa or the sheer ignorance and muddled thinking of the moonbats. Argh!
First off is the actual factuality of the statement- that Mohammed was a paedophile. Well, he was married to a girl called Aisha when she was six, consummating the marriage when she was nine years old. Sex with a nine year old girl would pretty much fall under the heading of paedophilia for me. Now, I got to this story via FARK and I decided to enter the comments section there to see what the general view was. Boy, what a mistake. In relation to the facts of the case the point was made that long ago in olden times, young girls got married. This seems to obfuscate the point- a grown man having sex with a 9 year old, regardless of who else was doing it at the time, is still a paedophile.
The second point is one of free speech. This didn't seem to bother too many of the FARKers. Few railed against the fatwa and its effect on others speaking their minds. That the preacher merely uttered something that was true was also pretty much disregarded. According to the Aftenposten story, Muslim groups have called the preacher's statement "a hateful attack on Islam". They were also fearful of the violence seen in the Netherlands after Theo van Gogh was killed by an Islamist for making a film. They didn't elaborate on whether they were fearful of retaliatory attacks on them if the preacher was killed. I don't recall reading in the article that the Muslims in Sweden had denounced the fatwa as being entirely inappropriate. Maybe I missed that section? An Islam expert also said he thought that the preacher's statement was intended to provoke a religious war. He found it 'unpleasant'- he's not the only one, I find it unpleasant that a Christian preacher can point out a fact mentioned in hadiths regarded as the most accurate by Sunni Muslims, and then be issued a death threat. The only religious war being threatened here is by the Muslims. So far, Swedish Christians have not issued any kind of death threats.
The other thing about this that really got my blood boiling- quite apart from the fact that Islamists can issue death threats against someone was speaking their mind- was the FARK comments. It doesn't take them long to stop criticising the Religion of Peace and begin attacking Christianity. I wonder if it had been a Christian issuing a death threat if the reaction would have been the same? Would other religions have been attacked too? The majority of the posters also seemed to miss the point that Christianity is not in the habit of threatening to kill those who speak out against it. Nor are there sections in the New Testament advising on how to fight infidels or cut off their heads. This fact seems to have missed some of these mooonbats entirely- "oh, but Christians did bad things hundreds of years ago". How this has any bearing whatsoever on the state of Islam today is beyond me. Nor can I see how wars in the past which had been claimed in the name of Christ can have any relation to Christ's teaching- love your enemy and turn the other cheek are what he preached. He did not call for war.
Besides, what has Christianity got to do with Islam? What's the link between Islamists calling for a man's death for speaking and the Christian Church? I don't know what's p*ssed me off more- this ridiculous fatwa or the sheer ignorance and muddled thinking of the moonbats. Argh!
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