Dot the Eye

Conditions: Dreary

Favoritism

You'll be unsurprised to know the injustices surrounding the U.S military in Iraq are still not being addressed. The latest is for a killing spree carried out by marines on Iraqi civilians who were near where a bomb had just exploded

BAGHDAD — Iraqis were outraged Tuesday to learn that the Marine considered the ringleader of a 2005 massacre that left 24 of their countrymen dead in 2005 was sentenced on Tuesday to a reduction in rank but avoided any jail time after pleading guilty the day before to a reduced charge.
[...]

The Marine, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, 31, pleaded guilty on Monday in a military court in California to dereliction of duty, telling the judge that he regretted ordering his men to “shoot first, ask questions later,” according to news agency reports.

Although the reduced charge carried a maximum sentence of three months in jail, which the military judge said he would have imposed, The Associated Press reported that as part of the plea deal, prosecutors had agreed that Sergeant Wuterich would receive no jail time. He had faced up to 152 years in prison if convicted on the charges of manslaughter and assault on which he stood accused.

- nytimes.com/

Wow, 152 years, guy pleads guilty and he doesn't serve a day in jail, and doesn't even get kicked out of the army. I think they were actually tougher on Lindsay Lohan, which shows you just how much they actually care about Iraq, or Iraqis.


Film Review: The Darkest Hour

Cheap alien invasion movies are usually disappointing in how they try to emulate the likes of Independence Day, but with bad camera work, blurry effects and wooden actors. However The Darkest Hour actually manages to deliver a nice alien invasion film that has a bit of depth and reality to it, while minimizing on the special effects. It no doubt helps that the film is set in Moscow, and the aliens are mostly invisible, but these points are used to the film's advantage as we are introduced to Sean and Ben, two American web entrepreneurs trying to sell their website idea to a Russian corporation. All is cut short however once the aliens start dropping in.

Our heroes team up with two American girls on vacation and together they all try to figure out how to get out of Moscow. Along the way they'll meet some new friends, discover what the Aliens want, help set up the resistance to them, figure out how to kill them, and get killed by them. The first step is discovering the Aliens are generating some kind of electrical power that lights up any light bulbs nearby. This gives our heroes a chance to figure out where they are. Combined with a chance discovery that the Aliens cannot see through glass, and they are on the way towards survival.

All the elements for an invasion survival story are present. The awkward introductions that are hurried along by menacing circumstances, the desperate initial run and hide. Then an evaluation, and even a trip to the mall to get more appropriate clothing, along with a joke about what the correct attire is for the end of the world. While the film doesn't delve too much into it's characters, it at least allows them to come across as reasonably real. The aliens themselves are simply monsters to be avoided, and then fought. And then finally the ending is more of a stoppage than a finish, leaving us wide open for a sequel. The upshot of all this is a real-feeling, but ultimately somewhat hollow experience, where the audience is more detached from what's happening than we should be. The actors do their best with what they have, but the movie just seems to sink out from beneath them. But a solid try nonetheless. Three streaks out of five.


- Peace out