Oliver North: Send in the Marines

I regularly read the articles published by Lt.Col.Oliver North, the Marine officer who “fell on his sword” for his country, and was used as a scapegoat in the Iran-Contra affair of the late 80’s.

In his latest article he has concerns over the military being used to render aid to the victims of hurricane Katrina and other such natural disasters declared national emergencies. Quite frankly so do I. The armed forces are stretched thin enough across the globe without those on rotational leave from the Global War on Terror to be gallivanting around the south repairing infrastructure and searching for survivors who should have known better then to stay around for the impending hurricane in the first place.

It could be that congress may amend the constitution so that the military could be used to restore order such as in situations that got a little out of hand in the Superdome and such. While I think that would be good to have “live-target practice” on US soil, it would only take one little mistake for the wrong person to be shot and then more time and money for a public inquiry. So instead of giving the military disaster relief and policing training- I think they should give the police, military training, and some military grade weapons and let them cull the unruly population instead. Leave the military and especially the Marines, do what they do best- kill foreigners. Eagle-eyed readers who can read "fruit salad" will notice the absence of the Humanitarian Service Medal from my chest!

Episode 6 of 2IGTV now online!

My buddy Mark has just posted the latest episode of our podcast "2 Irish Geeks and a TV". In this installment you'll learn (among other things) about who the villains that will be in "Spiderman 3", I review "Land Of The Dead" and the pilot Episode of Bochco's "Over*There", Mark reviews the pilots of "Invasion" and the new Brannon “Star Trek Killer” Braga / Brent “Data” Spiner TV show: "Threshold". Anyone who listens and comes away with the impression that I was perhaps a bit "too excited" by both Over*There and Land of the Dead... ...is probably right, I was! And I don't apologise for it (except to Mark for hogging his airtime- Sorry Mark!).

You can also get the latest episode and all previous episodes by vistiting visit Mark's blog here, or use iTunes to subscribe to the podcast feed.

If you don't know what a podcst is or havn't a clue what I'm on about go here.

Family of slain foreigner want justice!

I just read this on Sky News. I'm apalled that Sky would give airtime to the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazillian shot in Stockwell station, London on July 21st. The last thing the authorities in the UK want now is their agents second-guessing who they should and shouldn't shoot, after the governent are finished with their politically correct 'inquiries'.

The 27 year old electrician should have known better- he was running, he was carrying a rucksack full of tools and he was foreign. Dumb Ass!- I'm surprised they only shot him seven times.

Future religious artefact to be released on DVD

Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith will debut on DVD Nov. 1 as two-disc set with a host of features, including a featurette titled Within a Minute. The newly produced feature offers insight into the complexity of creating a single 49-second sequence of Episode III, showcasing the amount of work that goes into one short sequence. The featurette was created from more than 600 hours of material gathered throughout the process of making Episode III and is hosted by producer Rick McCallum.

As usual there'll bedeleted scenes including the arrival of a certain diminutive Jedi Master to the swamp planet of Dagobah.

George Lucas and members of the movie's crew provide another insightful commentry and new featurettes include The Chosen One and It's All for Real that look at Anakin Skywalker's transformation into Darth Vader and the creation of the stunts in the climactic lightsaber duel between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

To be honest I was sort of hoping for some class of admission from Lucas in regard to him being a god and that he's pleased that he has so many followers to his religion, but that seems not to be forthcoming. Unfortunatly Lucas has always played down himself as a deity like Ben Sisko distanced himself from his role as the Emissary. Pity. Mabe after the TV show...

Anyway I've had mine on order for the past two months, have you?

Truth is stranger than (Science) Fiction

While an airliner flying around in circles may not sound like a compelling TV image, it was enough to attract some 10.5 million viewers to the cable TV news networks in the US during the 8:00 p.m. hour Wednesday, while at 9:00 p.m. the drama was watched by 13 million viewers.

The huge number waiting to see whether the JetBlue plane with damaged landing gear would land safely was greater than even the audience for Hurricane Katrina. Fox news, CNN and MSNBC pulled in some of their highest ratings ever.

I'll assume that folks just wanted to see a real Airline crash live on telly? It's no fun just seeing wreckage in the aftermath or grainy amateur video. Of most intrest is the ratings it snapped away from LOST which unfortunatly went out on ABC at 9PM, I hope the producers aren't too upset.

Just as intrestingly: Some of the passengers on the plane got wind of their problem from the MSNBC news cast covering the plight of Flight 292 before the cabin crew told them!!! Thursday's Los Angeles Times said that the crew allowed the TV broadcasts to continue to beam throughout the plane until moments before the actual landing. What fun!

Aussies Die Laughing

Two Australians are dead after falling unconscious in a car with the windows up and a canister marked nitrous oxide - known as laughing gas - in the boot. One of them, a 38-year-old man, died on Sunday and a 23-year-old woman later died on Monday evening. Sydney Police found what they believed were more cylinders of laughing gas at the home of one of the occupants of the car. A Housemate said the group had been out all night at a club before they were found. The case has prompted warnings about the dangers of abusing nitrous oxide, a general anaesthetic.
Is just me or does it sound like a hit! Still, I almost died watching Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy so I know how they felt. Poor bastards!

Who wants a real Star Trek phone?

Viacom are licencing the first true Star Trek phone in time for the 40th Anniversary of Star Trek next year. It'll appearently have Star Trek only content and games and probably look like an Original Series Communicator. What get me is that if they make it so the actual size of the Communicator prop: the bloody thing will be too big for a phone nowadays.

Enlarge this picture of my Star Trek Communicator produced from the actual series prop next to my Nokia 5100 and you'll see what I mean.

Watch your back folks, China's flexing muscles.

Novellist Allen Topol agrees with me that there could be a storm brewing in the East. Last week, in a display of its new military power, China deployed a fleet near a gas field in the East China Sea. This area is rich in resources; notably oil and gas. Unfortunately China's claim over this area is hotly disputed by Japan so now there is a serious risk of war breaking out between them.

The economies of both China and Japan are now heavily dependent upon these resources. Beijing is playing a dangerous game of chicken. The Japanese are unlikely to back down and can also be expected to escalate the situation.

Unfortunately with US forces stretched so thin over Iraq, Afghanistan and the Katrina aftermath, any threats that the US make to China are likely to be ignored by Beijing. Similarly, pledges of support made to Japan will not be seen as credible.

We can hope, however unlikely that calm minds will prevail in Asia, but I certainly think that it's time for the West to start worrying big-time.

Sizemore gets more rehab.

Tom Sizemore may be out of prison but he’s back in Rehab after violating parole. He’s still one of my favourite actors and I think he’s the only person who could play a ‘real’ Colonel Creedon on screen. In July, his Judge accepted the 43-year-old actor's request to stay at the treatment centre after he admitted violating his probation by trying to fake the results of a drug test by using a prosthetic penis. C'mon you've gotta admire that level of ingenuity?

Wacko Jacko's back!

Michael Jackson may be as guilty as O.J. but everyone’s favourite alleged plastic paedophile is back! Now he's recording a new bleeding heart song to help Hurricane Katrina victims. I don’t think it’s a good idea for him to do that considering that his credibility should be screwed in the eyes of the public and it may actually hurt the relief effort- better let someone like Sir Bob or Bono do that crap, but I think the last thing they need is a song at the moment. If Michael wants to make his useless ass useful he should get some Wellingtons and gloves and help those poor folks drag the bodies out of the receding waterline.

You wanna write for Star Wars?

Lucasfilm is now hiring potential writers for the forthcoming Star Wars TV show due to begin principal photography in Australia in January 2007. George himself will ‘oversee’ the 1^st season then pass the torch to someone else. The show will focus on “Imperial Bounty hunters” and take place during the time period between ‘Revenge of the Sith’ and ‘A New Hope’.

IRAQ 24/7

CNN cofounder Reece Schofield proposes a 24/7 Iraq News Channel "dedicated to the Iraq war and related subjects. The only network with the potential to do it immediately is CNN. I think the war in Iraq must be covered in context and in detail and that only a 24/7 Iraq news network can grab the attention of the general public and bring Americans to an understanding of what’s going on in the battle between the forces of fundamentalism and the forces of reason."

Personally I think it's a great idea. War has always proved to make great TV. I discovered "The News" on August 2 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait. I was very keen to watch it up until January 17th 1991 when the Allied attack began-and after that I was glued. My only regret at a 24/7 Iraq News channel would be that I would have to eat, work and sleep during it's broadcast and miss some.

Podcast

For those of you that are unfamiliar with Podcasting- it's like a blog and a radio show mixed in together; an audio broadcast which is in MP3 format and playable on anything that can play MP3s- and not just on iPods as the term may mislead you to believe.
I take part in such a Podcast with my buddy Mark every 10 days or so. Mark was my handler for many years, and my mentor in modern technology. I have 5 PCs, mobile communication, DVD, LCD screen and iPod technology due to his intervention and suggestion over the years. We agree, disagree and agree to disagree on a range of subjects from entertainment to technology, and this "banter" was seen as ripe for our own podcast; So on Sunday, July 31st, 2005 our first instalment of "Two Irish Geeks and a TV" was uploaded for the world to hear. You can get them all from Mark's blog here. If you have iTunes installed (and if you don't- why not???) you can subscribe to the feed by selecting the "Advanced" menu on the top of your iTunes window and copying: "http://blogs.linux.ie/stuff/feed" into it. Alternatively you can grab the MP3 file of the latest instalment right here, in which you'll hear our impressions of "Red Eye" and "The Man", learn about "The Transporter 2", the pilot of "E-Ring" and the current series of "Stargate SG-1" and "Stargate: Atlantis". A discussion involving William Shatner, Brannon Braga and Heather Locklear. A preview on US TV's all to similar new sci-fi shows and the forthcoming games, Fahrenheit, Starship Troopers and MYST V and much more...

Charlesfort

It was a lovely day in Charlesfort this afternoon, where I went to see a group of re-enactors shoot each other with blanks. Here we see the United Irishmen give a pasting to the British :)
The Irish Lebanon Veterans were also there with their UN equipment, which you see behind me. Am I cool or what?

New Telly Set Up

Cool! I managed to set up my telly in time to see Cork beat Galway in the All-Ireland.

4th Anniversary 9/11

While there was horrific loss of life in New York this day 4 years ago. We must not forget the 124 Military personnel and civilian contractors who lost their lives in The Pentagon in Washington at the same time.

New Telly Arrives

My new Sony Wega KE-P42M1 42 inch Plasma television arrived this morning. It'll probably take about 10 hours to unpack and set it up.

This Blog Thingy

Well this is my first post. I hope you weren't expecting anything exciting. I'm using a template for my blog at the moment put I'll be Creedonising it later, stay tuned.