The president said this week he wants to restore U.S.-Muslim relations to the level that existed "20 or 30 years ago." This column shows why he surely didn't mean that.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/boot/52431
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Northwestern 77, Indiana 75
Indiana at Northwestern
Jan. 28, 2009 - tipoff 7:30
Welsh-Ryan Arena, Evanston
Both teams had a lot at stake in this game. Northwestern is in a serious run for its first-ever NCAA tournament bid. Indiana, 0-6 Big Ten before the game, was fighting for its first Big Ten win of the season--unheard of for the once-proud basketball power. Thanks to a significant contingent of local Indiana fans, the game is typically a sellout, but that was not the case last night. (Announced 5126 out of 8117 seats--that sounds awfully low.) Somehow my seats ended up among a sea of Indiana fans. I ordered them from the Northwestern ticket office. How did NU know? I didn't click "IU." Strange. The arena is has half as many seats as a normal basketball arena. We had center court, Row BBB, near the top of the house. The single-lettered rows do not go to Z, thank G-d. It would be more accurate to say we were in Row 33 than Row 54. Pretty high, but not as bad as seats in Bloomington, Indiana's Assembly Hall. Come to think of it, I don't think it's possible to have seats as bad as in Bloomington's Assembly Hall. The main seating bowl has about 45 rows, and the last 10 or 20 rows need to deal with the balcony overhang. The balcony has about 10 rows and is much too high. The place is a 60's-era dump in dire need of being replaced. As for Welsh-Ryan Arena, I really can't complain other than the fact that most rows are bleachers rather than individual seats. (Northwestern calls individual seats "Purple Preferred" and reserves those for season tickets.) And the scoreboard obviously hasn't changed since I was a kid. It's crying out for a video board, but Northwestern probably just doesn't want to commit the money. It's using the same lame graphics on its tired LED board that probably went up about 25 years ago. It's Lite-Brite!
Could either team find an inside game? I think the only inside shots were off rebounds or breakaway baskets. If either team can perfect an inside game, it's on to something. Dozens of three-point field goal attempts, many successful. The team that committed the fewest mistakes won, and surprisingly, that turned out to be Northwestern. I was sad for IU and happy for Northwestern. Maybe the Wildcats are on to something. It would be nice to have a strong basketball team in Evanston. Every other school in the Big Ten except for Penn State has had a strong men's basketball team within the last decade. It just couldn't be that hard. It requires a financial commitment to recruiting and coaching. Yes, Northwestern is a small school and the only private school in the Big Ten. Still, it should be able to manage a couple of blue-chip recruits a year. That's all it takes.
Jan. 28, 2009 - tipoff 7:30
Welsh-Ryan Arena, Evanston
Both teams had a lot at stake in this game. Northwestern is in a serious run for its first-ever NCAA tournament bid. Indiana, 0-6 Big Ten before the game, was fighting for its first Big Ten win of the season--unheard of for the once-proud basketball power. Thanks to a significant contingent of local Indiana fans, the game is typically a sellout, but that was not the case last night. (Announced 5126 out of 8117 seats--that sounds awfully low.) Somehow my seats ended up among a sea of Indiana fans. I ordered them from the Northwestern ticket office. How did NU know? I didn't click "IU." Strange. The arena is has half as many seats as a normal basketball arena. We had center court, Row BBB, near the top of the house. The single-lettered rows do not go to Z, thank G-d. It would be more accurate to say we were in Row 33 than Row 54. Pretty high, but not as bad as seats in Bloomington, Indiana's Assembly Hall. Come to think of it, I don't think it's possible to have seats as bad as in Bloomington's Assembly Hall. The main seating bowl has about 45 rows, and the last 10 or 20 rows need to deal with the balcony overhang. The balcony has about 10 rows and is much too high. The place is a 60's-era dump in dire need of being replaced. As for Welsh-Ryan Arena, I really can't complain other than the fact that most rows are bleachers rather than individual seats. (Northwestern calls individual seats "Purple Preferred" and reserves those for season tickets.) And the scoreboard obviously hasn't changed since I was a kid. It's crying out for a video board, but Northwestern probably just doesn't want to commit the money. It's using the same lame graphics on its tired LED board that probably went up about 25 years ago. It's Lite-Brite!
Could either team find an inside game? I think the only inside shots were off rebounds or breakaway baskets. If either team can perfect an inside game, it's on to something. Dozens of three-point field goal attempts, many successful. The team that committed the fewest mistakes won, and surprisingly, that turned out to be Northwestern. I was sad for IU and happy for Northwestern. Maybe the Wildcats are on to something. It would be nice to have a strong basketball team in Evanston. Every other school in the Big Ten except for Penn State has had a strong men's basketball team within the last decade. It just couldn't be that hard. It requires a financial commitment to recruiting and coaching. Yes, Northwestern is a small school and the only private school in the Big Ten. Still, it should be able to manage a couple of blue-chip recruits a year. That's all it takes.
Lost Jan. 28
Lost
ABC
Wednesdays 9pm ET/PT
Bad Robot
ABC Studios
Jan. 28 episode
So the teenagers with the guns are members of The Others, before Juliette's time. Oh, now I get it. Now it all is starting to make sense!
Charles Whitmore was on the island? Get OUT of here! And Desmond's and Penny's baby is named Charlie--for his grandfather or for Desmond's friend Charlie? I can guess.
Danny Farraday, Charles Whitmore, Ben's father--it seems like everyone worked for Dharma Initiative at one time or another. Even the actor who played the Chinese consul from the fourth season of 24 also played Dr. Candle (the guy who did all the videos).
Hmmm. Looks like the U.S. Army really did put an H-bomb on the island. But how did The Others succeed in taking out 18 military men? That I don't understand. I guess we'll never find out.
This season, we don't need flashbacks. We just wait for another flash in real time.
Did anyone miss Jack? Since the whole episode took place on the island, there was no sign of the Oceanic Six.
ABC
Wednesdays 9pm ET/PT
Bad Robot
ABC Studios
Jan. 28 episode
So the teenagers with the guns are members of The Others, before Juliette's time. Oh, now I get it. Now it all is starting to make sense!
Charles Whitmore was on the island? Get OUT of here! And Desmond's and Penny's baby is named Charlie--for his grandfather or for Desmond's friend Charlie? I can guess.
Danny Farraday, Charles Whitmore, Ben's father--it seems like everyone worked for Dharma Initiative at one time or another. Even the actor who played the Chinese consul from the fourth season of 24 also played Dr. Candle (the guy who did all the videos).
Hmmm. Looks like the U.S. Army really did put an H-bomb on the island. But how did The Others succeed in taking out 18 military men? That I don't understand. I guess we'll never find out.
This season, we don't need flashbacks. We just wait for another flash in real time.
Did anyone miss Jack? Since the whole episode took place on the island, there was no sign of the Oceanic Six.
24 1-2pm (spoilers)
24
Mondays 9pm ET/PT
Fox
Imagine Television
Real Time Productions
Twentieth Century Fox Television
Jan. 26 episode: 1-2pm
I'm still trying to keep all the characters straight. I just can't get over the serious breach of protocol of a Secret Service assignee having just one Secret Service agent. Agents always work at least in pairs, probably to prevent a situation just like this one, in which one agent decides to do the exact opposite of his mission. Agent Gedge is working for the Conspiracy and is to murder Henry Taylor, the First Man--the president's husband. The Conspiracy already succeeded in killing off Roger Taylor, the First Son, and Samantha Roth (played by the lovely Carly Pope, last seen in the WB's show Popular), Roger's girlfriend. Is that paralytic Gedge slipped Henry intended to cause permanent damage? Will he live to explain everything? What a gripping cliffhanger! I'm really excited.
The CIP module reminds me of that movie Sneakers (Phil Alden Robinson, 1992 - I knew it was long ago because River Phoenix was in it). The movie featured a guy who invented a universal decoder, and that's what the CIP module sounds like. It's already been used to cause a runway incursion and now, a midair collision of a very full flight and a private jet. Just for added effect, this was within clear view of the Oval Office. More wanton destruction of human life. I can certainly understand the president's reluctance to give into the terrorist Dubaku's demands. Would a president really knowingly take a cellphone call from a terrorist, even with the situation she was in? I didn't understand that; it seemed more like a tv effect. I mean, no one gets through to the president.
So Chloe O'Bryan, Bill Buchanan, Tony Almeida, and now Jack Bauer are running this rogue CTU operation with a laptop, a few cellphones and a GMC van? Oh come on! That makes almost no sense at all. Back in Los Angeles, CTU was a serious operation employing dozens of people. And now we're down to a pair of field agents and two behind the scenes? (Sadly, computer geek Edgar Stiles is dead. They need him.) I find that very hard to believe.
Dubaku planned on double-crossing Almeida! That's just not going to happen!
I did not see the trailer for next week; it does not follow the online presentation of the episode. I am sure it will be very exciting.
The presentation at fox.com is excellent. Some commercial breaks didn't even have the single commercial to which I've become accustomed while watching episodes online. The clock flashed on the screen and came right back.
Mondays 9pm ET/PT
Fox
Imagine Television
Real Time Productions
Twentieth Century Fox Television
Jan. 26 episode: 1-2pm
I'm still trying to keep all the characters straight. I just can't get over the serious breach of protocol of a Secret Service assignee having just one Secret Service agent. Agents always work at least in pairs, probably to prevent a situation just like this one, in which one agent decides to do the exact opposite of his mission. Agent Gedge is working for the Conspiracy and is to murder Henry Taylor, the First Man--the president's husband. The Conspiracy already succeeded in killing off Roger Taylor, the First Son, and Samantha Roth (played by the lovely Carly Pope, last seen in the WB's show Popular), Roger's girlfriend. Is that paralytic Gedge slipped Henry intended to cause permanent damage? Will he live to explain everything? What a gripping cliffhanger! I'm really excited.
The CIP module reminds me of that movie Sneakers (Phil Alden Robinson, 1992 - I knew it was long ago because River Phoenix was in it). The movie featured a guy who invented a universal decoder, and that's what the CIP module sounds like. It's already been used to cause a runway incursion and now, a midair collision of a very full flight and a private jet. Just for added effect, this was within clear view of the Oval Office. More wanton destruction of human life. I can certainly understand the president's reluctance to give into the terrorist Dubaku's demands. Would a president really knowingly take a cellphone call from a terrorist, even with the situation she was in? I didn't understand that; it seemed more like a tv effect. I mean, no one gets through to the president.
So Chloe O'Bryan, Bill Buchanan, Tony Almeida, and now Jack Bauer are running this rogue CTU operation with a laptop, a few cellphones and a GMC van? Oh come on! That makes almost no sense at all. Back in Los Angeles, CTU was a serious operation employing dozens of people. And now we're down to a pair of field agents and two behind the scenes? (Sadly, computer geek Edgar Stiles is dead. They need him.) I find that very hard to believe.
Dubaku planned on double-crossing Almeida! That's just not going to happen!
I did not see the trailer for next week; it does not follow the online presentation of the episode. I am sure it will be very exciting.
The presentation at fox.com is excellent. Some commercial breaks didn't even have the single commercial to which I've become accustomed while watching episodes online. The clock flashed on the screen and came right back.
24 4th season - 2005
24
Imagine Television
Reveille
Fox Television Studios
This post is not for children.
This post includes many spoilers and assumes either the reader watched "Day 4" of 24 or doesn't care about the end being ruined. If this is not true, please move on to the next post. This post also includes a spoiler from the Fox broadcast of 24 earlier this week.
Terrorists' wanton lack of respect for human life really struck me in this particular season. It's interesting how the death of a handful of characters I see on a tv screen--especially if those characters are innocent women and children--can have as strong an effect as, say, "271 die in airborne collision" from this week's episode. In one sequence, the terrorists, led by the madman Habib Marwan, planned to shoot down Air Force One in hopes of recovering the nuclear football. This, in turn, would give them the launch codes to launch a nuclear attack against an American city. The plot began with a fighter pilot assigned to a B-117A Stealth fighter sortie that evening. Finishing an encounter with his girlfriend, he receives a call on her cellphone (which he found odd) from his wife. His wife and children are being held hostage. His assignment is to smuggle an impostor, Mitch Anderson, into the Air Force base where he was to report for duty. If he does not, the terrorists would wipe out his family. He does as he was told. Then they kill his family (off-screen, obviously since there were children), and the impostor shoots him. Just awful. I wish he had thought this through. For one thing, he knew that the on-base security included biometrics. For the two of them to walk up to the door while he put his finger on the pass panel for the impostor to walk in just didn't make sense. After killing the pilot, the impostor amputated his finger and used it to enter the secure area. Someone tells Anderson the flight was to be postponed 12 hours due to a mechanical problem, so he shoots that guy, too. Anderson does succeed in shooting down Air Force One, severely wounding the president. The vice president takes over in his place. The terrorists are able to recover one page of the nuclear football and launch one missile, which the Counter Terrorist Unit and the Air Force manage to blow up midair in the show's final hour. Unfortunately CTU was too late in discovering the plot to prevent the loss of Air Force One. The Air Force did shoot down Mitch Anderson's bomber.
Another example was an extended sequence in the final episodes of the season. After the terrorists launch the missile armed with the nuclear warhead, CTU discovers a possible lead on Habib Marwan's location. They hope to reach him before the missile reached its target. The lead--a couple working for Marwan--just finished an amorous encounter and were about to leave their apartment complex for the rendezvous with Marwan when Mandy (the stunning Jewish actress Mia Kirshner) notices a helicopter landing a block away. Realizing she needs to make a clean getaway, she shoots her boyfriend. She then shoots and kills a CTU field agent before taking Tony Almeida, another CTU agent, hostage. While she has Almeida, she walks into her next-door neighbors' apartment and shoots two of them. Then somehow she forces another pair of them to leave, hoping CTU will think the pair is actually herself and Almeida.* They go to their car, which blows up as soon as they enter it. So she killed six people in the space of a couple of hours. Her attempted escape, with Almeida in tow, ultimately fails. In exchange for a full pardon, including the attempted murder of President David Palmer in an earlier season, she reveals Marwan's escape location--the helipad atop Global Center. (I cannot find that building or company in Los Angeles.) Marwan hurls himself off the side of the building rather than be captured, but CTU is able to recover data from his cellphone that reveals the missile's flight path. If the missile had hit its intended target, Los Angeles, the loss of life could have been in the millions. But I was more shocked by the pilot's family being wiped out and Mandy's shooting spree.
*Can anyone explain how she forced these innocent people to leave and enter their vehicle without going to police?
Imagine Television
Reveille
Fox Television Studios
This post is not for children.
This post includes many spoilers and assumes either the reader watched "Day 4" of 24 or doesn't care about the end being ruined. If this is not true, please move on to the next post. This post also includes a spoiler from the Fox broadcast of 24 earlier this week.
Terrorists' wanton lack of respect for human life really struck me in this particular season. It's interesting how the death of a handful of characters I see on a tv screen--especially if those characters are innocent women and children--can have as strong an effect as, say, "271 die in airborne collision" from this week's episode. In one sequence, the terrorists, led by the madman Habib Marwan, planned to shoot down Air Force One in hopes of recovering the nuclear football. This, in turn, would give them the launch codes to launch a nuclear attack against an American city. The plot began with a fighter pilot assigned to a B-117A Stealth fighter sortie that evening. Finishing an encounter with his girlfriend, he receives a call on her cellphone (which he found odd) from his wife. His wife and children are being held hostage. His assignment is to smuggle an impostor, Mitch Anderson, into the Air Force base where he was to report for duty. If he does not, the terrorists would wipe out his family. He does as he was told. Then they kill his family (off-screen, obviously since there were children), and the impostor shoots him. Just awful. I wish he had thought this through. For one thing, he knew that the on-base security included biometrics. For the two of them to walk up to the door while he put his finger on the pass panel for the impostor to walk in just didn't make sense. After killing the pilot, the impostor amputated his finger and used it to enter the secure area. Someone tells Anderson the flight was to be postponed 12 hours due to a mechanical problem, so he shoots that guy, too. Anderson does succeed in shooting down Air Force One, severely wounding the president. The vice president takes over in his place. The terrorists are able to recover one page of the nuclear football and launch one missile, which the Counter Terrorist Unit and the Air Force manage to blow up midair in the show's final hour. Unfortunately CTU was too late in discovering the plot to prevent the loss of Air Force One. The Air Force did shoot down Mitch Anderson's bomber.
Another example was an extended sequence in the final episodes of the season. After the terrorists launch the missile armed with the nuclear warhead, CTU discovers a possible lead on Habib Marwan's location. They hope to reach him before the missile reached its target. The lead--a couple working for Marwan--just finished an amorous encounter and were about to leave their apartment complex for the rendezvous with Marwan when Mandy (the stunning Jewish actress Mia Kirshner) notices a helicopter landing a block away. Realizing she needs to make a clean getaway, she shoots her boyfriend. She then shoots and kills a CTU field agent before taking Tony Almeida, another CTU agent, hostage. While she has Almeida, she walks into her next-door neighbors' apartment and shoots two of them. Then somehow she forces another pair of them to leave, hoping CTU will think the pair is actually herself and Almeida.* They go to their car, which blows up as soon as they enter it. So she killed six people in the space of a couple of hours. Her attempted escape, with Almeida in tow, ultimately fails. In exchange for a full pardon, including the attempted murder of President David Palmer in an earlier season, she reveals Marwan's escape location--the helipad atop Global Center. (I cannot find that building or company in Los Angeles.) Marwan hurls himself off the side of the building rather than be captured, but CTU is able to recover data from his cellphone that reveals the missile's flight path. If the missile had hit its intended target, Los Angeles, the loss of life could have been in the millions. But I was more shocked by the pilot's family being wiped out and Mandy's shooting spree.
*Can anyone explain how she forced these innocent people to leave and enter their vehicle without going to police?
Stop me before I send another to De-Friend mode
I'm on a roll.
It happened again.
Granted, this was my fault. A friend sent me a Facebook Group invite for "No Dibs," a group he started. We are both against putting furniture out to lay "dibs" to cleared parking spaces on Chicago streets. We believe it is selfish and un-neighborly. It is also illegal. That is not an opinion; that is Chicago law, that putting private property in the public way is an obstruction.
As a side note, I drove to said friend's home Jan. 16, about 15 minutes before candle-lighting. There was no time to spare in terms of searching for a parking space. His block usually has a number of spots available, even at peak times like late at night or just before shabbos. But on Jan. 16, all the spots were taken--either cars or dibs furniture. I had to park around the corner and drag all my shabbos stuff to his place, even though there were several parking spaces available right in front. Taking furniture off the street and parking there incurs the risk of vandalism to one's vehicle and/or physical attack. What nice neighbors! So not a good idea.
So my friend started a Facebook Group, and in the Group credo or introduction, he used language that wasn't very nice, such as "greedy jerks" to refer to people who to participate in this practice. Now, this would include many of my friends, and with that in mind, I should have suggested to my friend that he reword the introduction to make it "pareve" rather than provocative. Instead, I sent the Group invitation to three dozen people. I guess I should have considered myself lucky that only one person responded in kind, i.e., rather rudely. He wrote on my Facebook Wall--visible to all my Friends--if I didn't like this particular tradition, I should leave the city. He added that if I take his folding chairs from his parking space, "See what you get." That sounded like a physical threat. On top of that, he De-Friended me, which prevented me from writing on his Wall in response. (Clever. I respect him for that move.) I asked him about this series of events and asked him to reconsider his De-Friend action. He responded very nicely and said he regretted the language he used, but stood by his De-Friend move. So we moved the conversation to a civil tone and departed as friends. So to speak. But not Friends.
At least he's not vegetarian. Then he would really be angry. =)
It happened again.
Granted, this was my fault. A friend sent me a Facebook Group invite for "No Dibs," a group he started. We are both against putting furniture out to lay "dibs" to cleared parking spaces on Chicago streets. We believe it is selfish and un-neighborly. It is also illegal. That is not an opinion; that is Chicago law, that putting private property in the public way is an obstruction.
As a side note, I drove to said friend's home Jan. 16, about 15 minutes before candle-lighting. There was no time to spare in terms of searching for a parking space. His block usually has a number of spots available, even at peak times like late at night or just before shabbos. But on Jan. 16, all the spots were taken--either cars or dibs furniture. I had to park around the corner and drag all my shabbos stuff to his place, even though there were several parking spaces available right in front. Taking furniture off the street and parking there incurs the risk of vandalism to one's vehicle and/or physical attack. What nice neighbors! So not a good idea.
So my friend started a Facebook Group, and in the Group credo or introduction, he used language that wasn't very nice, such as "greedy jerks" to refer to people who to participate in this practice. Now, this would include many of my friends, and with that in mind, I should have suggested to my friend that he reword the introduction to make it "pareve" rather than provocative. Instead, I sent the Group invitation to three dozen people. I guess I should have considered myself lucky that only one person responded in kind, i.e., rather rudely. He wrote on my Facebook Wall--visible to all my Friends--if I didn't like this particular tradition, I should leave the city. He added that if I take his folding chairs from his parking space, "See what you get." That sounded like a physical threat. On top of that, he De-Friended me, which prevented me from writing on his Wall in response. (Clever. I respect him for that move.) I asked him about this series of events and asked him to reconsider his De-Friend action. He responded very nicely and said he regretted the language he used, but stood by his De-Friend move. So we moved the conversation to a civil tone and departed as friends. So to speak. But not Friends.
At least he's not vegetarian. Then he would really be angry. =)
10 "Chick flick clichés" not in new chick flick
Not bad--especially acted out among male trio--rather amusing.
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