Disappointing and Ineffective

Conditions: Biblical

CI-MIA. 

The CIA has been greatly disappointing over the last few decades. Unable to properly warn of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in time, it then reacted to that horror by effectively giving in to some of humanity's worse instincts. And only now are we learning just how much they had given in.

The US Senate Intelligence Committee has voted to recommend declassification of part of its report into "brutal" interrogation methods used by the CIA when questioning terror suspects.
[...]

Leaked parts of the report said that the CIA often misled the government over its interrogation methods when George W Bush was president.
[...]

"The report exposes brutality that stands in stark contrast to our values as a nation. It chronicles a stain on our history that must never be allowed to happen again. This is not what Americans do," the California Democrat said.

-bbc.com

Well, it’s not what Americans used to do. But given the fact that no-one is going to be punshed or prosecuted for what are effectively crimes against humanity, it seems to me that this is what Americans do now.

Editorial: http://theweek.com/article/index/259106/sorry-dick-cheney-torture-doesnt-work



Film Review: Need For Speed.

Apparently based on a computer game, Need For Speed tells the unlikely tale of a garage owner who spends his nights as a street racer to make some extra cash on the side. Despite this, the business is in trouble, and it looks like him and his idiot friends are going to have to find somewhere else to hang out and play games. But then some rich guy shows up who wants them to rebuild a classic car and sell it. Afterwards, despite desperately needing the money, the idiot garage owner agrees to gamble it on a race with the rich kid, who just happens to have 3 supercars in his garage.

When the idiot gets out of jail two years later, he swears vengeance on the rich kid who killed one of his friends, and vows to drive across the country in order to enter a big illegal race in order to ...well this is the part where I fell asleep for a while, but basically I guess the idea was to win the race and use the prize money to buy some dancing shoes, or something. The rich kid sends his heavies to stop him, but ultimately they all take part in the big race at the end. Guess who wins?

This film is ridiculous. Look, while I appreciate just how well the car scenes were done, apparently using a lot of real footage and not just cheating with computers, I found myself really hating this film in the end. The motivations of all the characters were so shallow and stupid. Every time the film slowed down I just wanted to fall asleep again. No chemistry at all between the girl and the driver. No sense whatsoever in how the big race is actually supposed to work as far as prizes or cops are concerned. No explanation of how the driver actually operates as a human being. The team of friends all happily dedicated to getting caught and/or killed in order to watch whatshisname drive like an asshole. No attempt to show the cost of all that carnage. It really is the shining example of a film that insists you turn your brain off at the door. I find the attitude of this film to be really repellent and insulting. This really is a movie that shouldn’t have been made. One smashed supercar out of five.



- Peace out