A Lot of Noise Over Here

Conditions: Quiet. Too quiet.

Stuff behind the Curtain

As the outrage continues to apparently simmer over the CIA’s use of methods of torture over the last 10 years or so, I think it’s important to keep one important point in mind. While U.S forces did abduct and torture various people in a stupid and pointless attempt to get information, they also invaded the nations of Afghanistan and Iraq, killing God knows how many innocent people and, at least in the case of Iraq, in direct violation of the U.N and without any justification. Hell, military forces today still are killing people on a regular basis using unmanned drone aircraft simply because they think those people look suspicious. So, yes, torture is bad. So’s murder. Where’s all the outrage about that.

A parliamentary committee is to request the US hands over any material documenting the UK's role in the CIA's post-9/11 interrogation programme.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind said the intelligence committee he chairs would act "without fear or favour", although some MPs want a judge-led inquiry.

It follows a US Senate report which found "brutal" treatment of suspects.

Downing Street has said some material was removed from the report at the UK's request for national security reasons.

But it said no redactions related to British involvement in the mistreatment of prisoners.

- bbc.com

Point. Counter Point

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Film Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Okay, in the last episode we basically got lied to. Katniss and Peeta were again required to fight in the hunger games by the eeeevil President Snow, and things were not going that well, and then a surprise revolution happened and Katniss gets swept off to safety while we react to the fact that we spent the entire film watching the wrong story. Part 3 starts off with Katniss trying to accept the fact that a revolutionary force has been building up for years underground and she’s become the poster girl for it. And basically that’s the film. Various faces, new and old, appear to either help or instruct Katniss as to what is needed, and a P.R war develops between the Capital – who uses Peeta to send out videos condemning the rebels, and the revolutionaries – who use Katniss to send angry videos about all the death and destruction Snow’s bombers are doing.

If we keep with the comparisons to the old Schwarzenegger classic The Running Man, this film is essentially the bit where Arnold finally finds the revolutionaries and they then hack the TV network to send out a video telling people the truth. The problem is that in The Running Man that bit took about fifteen minutes. Here, it’s two hours, and given that we never see any of the people of Panem reacting to all the various duelling videos it’s difficult to take it all that seriously.

I guess the important part of the film for the younger audience is the ongoing 3 way romance subplot between Katniss, Peeta and Gale that’s mixed in. Katniss has some very strong feelings for Peeta despite him being on TV telling them all to give up, and that’s getting in the way of Gale getting anywhere. Sigh. I guess. Honestly, at around the forty minute mark I started to get frustrated with the whole thing. There are more important things going on here than Katniss’s potential love interests, and I think that yet again the film starts to twist itself away from the actually important plot developments in order to keep focussing on something less interesting. The final part of the film is a covert rescue mission to get Peeta back, because Katniss insists on it, even though she’s not allowed to take part in it. Basically it seems the war got put on hold for a bit so the kids can get a chance to sort out their feelings. So we now look forward to the final final chapter, where perhaps the grownups can get on with things. Two roses out of five.



- Peace out