Antipundit Rides Forth

2003-07-27T21:33:00.000Z

Ultimates and Ultimate Spider-Man

Read the first six issues of the Ultimates and didn't particularly care for it.

The characters are just too unappealing.

Fury's a Samuel L Jackson copy without the personality, Betty Ross is an awful woman, Hank Pym a wife-beater and this version of Bruce Banner/The Hulk is about the worst I've ever read.

Tony Stark's got four type's of comments:

1) I need a drink

2) I'm extremely rich and talented

3) I like the ladies

4) Jarvis, stop being such a homo!

Another thing I dislike is the unnecessar name-dropping and featuring of non-entities like Freddie Prinze Jnr and Shannon Elizabeth. WTF? What have these non-entities done to deserve being in a comic book?

That being said the characters of Thor and Captain America are pretty interesting and I really liked the first issue.

Art's pretty but given how long it takes Hitch to draw an issue, that isn't surprising.

I also read about five trade paperbacks worth of Starman by James Robinson which blows away anything I saw done by Millar.

I've read a whole bunch of Ultimate Spider-Man and have to say I like it.

Definitely the best bunch of Spider-Man stories I've read with great dialogue and characterisation.

Best issue would be issue #21 where Spidey takes on Kraven, makes himself very popular and rounds it off by getting grounded.

Major complaint about the series is how slowly it moves. One issue had Perter Parker and MJ in a room talking for the entirety of it and throughout the first five issues I kept thinking "Lee and Ditko virtually told the same story in one 22 page issue and it's taking Bendis over 110 to do the same."

Still it's probably the best Marvel series out there and Bendis' Nick Fury is a lot better than Millar's.

2003-07-27T21:29:00.000Z

Daredevil

Saw the movie on DVD a couple of days ago.

Didn't like it. It just failed to hold my attention and every time I looked up to see what was going on some shite nu-metal blared out to accompany the scene.

Couldn't they get a decent composer to write a proper orchestral score? Seriously the only Marvel movie with a score worth a damn has been X2.

I don't really have any complaints about the casting (although Garner was the wrong choice to play Elektra - too American) or the effects or the direction.

But the script and dialogue seemed tired and cliched like a number of worshipful fanboys had written it. Bullseys's and Daredevil's first fight was allright, the rest unexceptional.

And if they really were going to use Miller's stories as an inspiration they should have gone for using much more blood and violence a la Born Again instead of a movie which was essentilly Batman Lite.

The rental wasn't a total loss though since there was an excellent documentary with interviews by Lee, the Romitas, Miller, Quesada, Bndis etc. that was well worth viewing.

Could have done without Smith bitching about adverse fanboy reaction and they could have dumped Kevin Mack in favour of Klaus Janson.

2003-06-23T18:17:00.000Z

Die Another Day

Just saw this movie ...and it really, really sucked. Same old repetitive Bond crap.

They tried so hard to show Bond was up-to-date and contemporary by borrowing bits from the Matrix and John Woo and even *gasp* using some fairly popular songs during a number of scenes.

And while the action was really well done it felt like watching someone else play a video game for the most part. The characters all sucked especially Halle Berry who was playing an action figure here.

I suppose my major problem with the movie is I think Bond's a boring arsehole. I'm tired of the crap one-liners, stupid sexual innuendo and zero character progression.

Frankly I liked Triple X a lot more. There you had a main hero who went from being somewaht of a nihilistic jerk to a guy who actually found something worth fighting for. Having a female lead in that who did more than just shoot people and fuck the star didn't hurt either.

I've also rented the first Superman movie and despite the somewhat crap third act was far more compelled to watch that again than wade through all of DAD.

2003-06-23T18:02:00.000Z

TPB reviews

Superman: Peace on Earth

I glanced at this in a comic book store a week ago and was immediatelyhooked. Best Superman story I've ever read and it isn't hard to see how influential this was on Smallville in terms of depicting Clark Kent as a person with feelings we can all relate to. Sale showed his versatility and attention to detail with his illustrations of Metropolis and Smallville and his Superman showed both immense power and surprising grace - although I thought the neck was a little too thick. About the only flaw in the story is the pretty contrived way Luthor tries to get Superman to lose faith. Highly recommended. Would have preferred more extras in the softcover trade since it didn't even have a foreword.

Batman: The Long Halloween

Disappointing. Maybe my hopes were raised too high by both Peace on Earth and the Haunted Knight trade but I found this pretty lacking. Sale's depiction of Batman shows off the character's immense size and fluid power (great costume too although I think Batman is best served without the trunks on the outside) and his Catwoman looked good too.

However too many of the issues felt like fillers and I think the series would have worked better if it was four to six issues long instead. Poison Ivy's role was a nice touch but Scarecrow and Mad Hatter seemed superfluous and Joker really didn't need two issues. Apart from the first and last chapters, the only one which impressed me was the Mother's Day issue. More foucs on Dent's character and his changes would have been appreciated too since the reasons behind his transition weren't particularly apparent.

JLA: Rock of Ages

I know some people have criticised Morrison's intertwining of both the Darkseid and Injustice Gang stories but I liked the structure which showed ambition, did something new and wasn't overly confusing. A great reminder of why I first started reading JLA (because each issue was like a $300 million movie and each arc featured intricate, intelligent plotting with pretty decent characterisation) and I'll be buying the rest of Morrison's run in trade format. The only nit-picks I have with the story line relate to the Darkseid issues. Firstly I doubt Superman would have killed himself because he broke his no-killing vow if Darkseid was in the midst of invading Earth. Secondly Orion rebooting the universe made the entire fight with Darkseid and all the sacrifices made pretty redundant. Recommended.

JLA: Earth 2

Quietly's art pissed me off. You'd think a professional artist would be able to draw human figures which looked a little less like cheap rubber mould action figures. The story was pretty good and the "I'm going to put a wall around Gotham and anyone who doesn't like it gets a bullet in a face!" line is worth the cover price alone. I'd like a revisit to this universe though and it'd be nice to see Earth-3 versions of Joker (maybe a hyper-rational cop?) and Doomsday (hippie vegetarian and pacifist!)

2003-06-12T10:46:00.000Z

Transformers

I actually haven't watched much Beast Wars since it didn't get much of a regular viewing schedule in the UK but the episodes I've watched blew Generation One out of the water in terms of writing and characterisation.

Code of Hero was amazing although my favourite ep was probably the return of Starscream.

I liked RID myself since it was so campy and Sky Byte was one of the more memorable Transformer characters.

Beast Machines was pretty boring and that whole "no guns" schtick was rather stupid.

Gen One still stands up though. The animation in some episodes is still a lot better than that Armada dreck and it still has the best voice acting out all the different series.

War Within was indeed pretty decent. I liked how they made Rodimus Prime's transformation a lot less stupid by making Optimus go through the same process, although you think they could have gone with Orion Pax as his first name.

The new Gen One series seems to have corrected a lot of the complaints about the old one and I like how they're fucking with the fans by doing stuff like bringing Scourge in while making the popular changes the fans want i.e. make Shockwave and Grimlock as they were during the Budiansky run and Ultra Magnus as he was written by Furman in the UK comics.

The only thing they're doing wrong is how Pat Lee draws Prime's chest.

I glanced at the More than Meets The Eye profile books but won't be buying them although I might pick up the Transformers: Genesis art book.

I'll probably be buying the Transformers/GI Joe crossover set during WW2 and that might settle the almighty "Decepticons are Nazis" debates over at alt.toys.transformers.

All in all it's been a great change since when I first saw Pat Lee's drawing in Wizard of a new Transformers series as part of a feature Wizard was doing on possible 80's revival comic books.

2003-06-09T11:26:00.000Z

TAKE THAT SOLZHENITSYN!:
Mark Steyn takes on A World Split Apart (Mark Steyn, American Enterprise, July/August 1998)

The important thing to remember about Solzhenitsyn’s Harvard speech is that it was given by a Vermonter. So when, after being asked if he could recommend the West as a model for his country, he says, "I would frankly have to answer negatively," the reasonable response is, "Are you crazy, man? You live in Cavendish, Vermont, for Pete’s sake!" Like most Granite Staters, I have fundamental differences with my Green Mountain neighbors over taxes, education, Ben and Jerry, and a zillion other issues. But compared to anywhere but New Hampshire—certainly compared to Mother Russia, Chechnya, Georgia, Romania—Vermont looks pretty good.

Alas, Solzhenitsyn is enough of a Soviet man that he seems to have absorbed the old Communist habit of discussing "the people" without the tedious bother of actually coming into contact with any of them. Real people—like his fellow townsfolk in Cavendish—are curiously absent from his speech. This helps to explain why, though everything he says is right in theory—indeed, his remarks about "TV stupor," press "superficiality," and "legalistic relationships," are unexceptional—yet here we still are, doing…O.K.

What Solzhenitsyn never seems to notice, at least not in a Western context, is the resilience of the people. Despite our descent into "the abyss of human decadence," the most popular forms of liquid manure in America are actually unchanged in their bourgeois sentimentality from a century ago: Today, "the people" enjoy Celine Dion singing the big ballad from Titanic, The Bridges of Madison County, "Touched by an Angel," and the like. The only difference is that, whereas a hundred years ago our betters told us to put down our parlor ballads and listen to Schubert, now they tell us we should be watching Natural Born Killers and The People vs. Larry Flynt. These films open to rave reviews and small loyal audiences in a handful of metropolitan fleshpots, but on general release across the country, they flop. When they come to Lebanon, New Hampshire, or Barre, Vermont, no one from Cavendish goes to see them. There is no commercial imperative to produce these films, only the dreary obsessions of our vulgarized elites.

Solzhenitsyn notes of Communism that "Western intellectuals still look at it with considerable interest and empathy, and this is precisely what makes it so immensely difficult for the West to withstand the East." The key word in that sentence is intellectuals—which is why, in democratic America, it proved immensely easy to withstand the East. Even in hippy-dippy Vermont, no avowed Communist could ever be elected as Cavendish Town Clerk or School Board Chairman.

....

"West" and "East" are, of course, generalizations. Within the "West" there are vast differences between Continental Europe and the English-speaking world—and even between the British Commonwealth and the United States. But you can’t help but notice that those countries which attempt to insulate their peoples from rampant materialism and the barbarities of commercial culture are the ones sunk in the deepest slough of spiritual poverty. The obvious reason would seem to be that those societies which most regulate the media and consumer products tend to regulate everything else, too.

Why did Solzhenitsyn never see anything outside his door that he could commend as "a model to my country"? Perhaps because he rarely peered outside his door. The most striking thing about Solzhenitsyn’s place in Cavendish was the fence—not, as elsewhere, a low white picket, a decorative skirting for the clapboards and shingles. In an area where few lock their homes and many don’t even have keys, Solzhenitsyn had a formal security fence. In the early days, it was assumed he feared a midnight wake-up call from rogue kgb agents. But as time went on, it became clear that he was as much concerned to keep Vermont out. If Solzhenitsyn had wanted something to put on the mantel alongside his Nobel Prize, he could easily have won an Ugliest House in Vermont competition. There is, in other words, more than one form of spiritual poverty.

For 18 years Solzhenitsyn endured a sort of self-imposed cabin fever, which the up-market essayists who sought him out in Cavendish dignified as "reclusiveness." Not far away in Stowe, there’s another model of artistic exile—the Trapp Family Singers, refugees from the century’s other great tyranny. They never made much money from The Sound of Music, but they run a popular ski lodge and Elisabeth von Trapp still sings every Christmas on wdev radio. They at least understand the virtues of a culture secure in itself.

When Solzhenitsyn returned to Moscow, it was to a new dacha in a compound enclosed behind an eight-foot barrier, with the Moscow cable company supplying him with mtv, cnn, and all the other American TV he couldn’t receive in uncabled Cavendish. Perhaps, behind his steel door in a toxic society far more spiritually enfeebled than America, he regrets his speech. Maybe he realizes that the best anyone could hope for is that Russia turns out half as agreeable as the Vermont he never quite lived in.

As we Westerners like to say, you wanna get outta the house more.

Usually my eyes glaze over whenever tracts like A World Split Apart or philosophers like Leo Strauss are discussed. Thank God for Mark Steyn, a man who can pretty much any subject worth reading.

2003-06-05T19:20:00.000Z

World War One

Why do you think WW1 started in the first place?

Here's a hint. It wasn't because that jobber prince got himself assassinated.

Germany's military and political elite brought on the war. They embarked on a massive military buildup and tried to build enough ships to challenge the Royal Navy.

Their agenda was the same as Hitler's in WW2: Conquer as much of Western Europe and White Russia as they could in order to build a German land empire, one which could serve as the base for global supremacy. They definitely WERE to blame for WW1.

Britain, Russia and France already had big empires. The Germans didn't have much in the way of colonies which is why they wanted war since having a substantial empire was the geopolitical equivalent of having a big wang.

And given how much actual control was in the hands of the Kaiser (he wasn't a constitutional monarch)it's very hard to believe he'd have supported the war only because his elite told him to.

Britain and France would have probably preferred to avoid war with the Ottoman Empire given that it had been their prop against Russian expansion into the West for centuries. And fighting the Turks would have given them a big headache in managing their own Muslim populations.

There was a general feeling that war was probably inevitable given Germany's aggressive militarism and the fact their High Command had been working on a plan (the Schlieffen Plan) to win a European War for decades.

And the Versailles agreement didn't cripple Germany at all. The allies progressively forgave more and more German debt as the years went on.

The damage it did do was breed resentment among Germans who didn't think they should be paying anything at all and thought they hadn't been fairly beaten in the war.

What crippled Germany was the hyperinflation crisis in 1923 resulting from some pretty idiotic economic decisions they made.

2003-05-22T20:04:00.000Z

DVD Wishlist

Transformers Seasons Two and Three Deluxe Boxsets

Transformers:Robots In Disguise Boxest (if it comes out)

Enter The Dragon Special Edition

The Beastmaster

Star Trek 2: Wrath Of Khan

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

Seven Samurai

Star Wars OT

Lord Of The Rings Bumper DVD Boxset (to be released after ROTK)

Waynes' World

Hard Boiled

Batman

Batman Returns

They Live

2003-05-22T20:03:00.000Z

Comics

I got into comics thanks to the Batman Knightfall series and most of the trade paperbacks I own (don't buy monthlies) are from DC simply because of the quality of the writing. Favourite character is Batman along with Superman (when he's done right) and Green Lantern.

The only Marvel TPB I own is Alex Ross's Marvels. Compared to that, the DC stuff I own includes Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, the Golden Age, Batman: Black and White, Kingdom Come, Batman: Year One, Alan Moore's Superman stories, Batman: The Killing Joke and a bunch of others.

I'm looking to buy Jeph Loeb's The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Superman:For All Seasons, Batman:Child of Dreams, John Byrne's Generations as well as James Robinson's Starman and Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Might pick up Akira too if I can get all the volumes cheap enough.

Marvel's never appealed to me. I picked up a few issues of Spider-Man during the indescribably awful Clones Saga (what the fuck were they smoking?) and was driven away for a long time. Around the time of Grant Morrison's excellent run on JLA (which I'm also collecting) I bought a couple of Silver Surfer and X-Men issues and they really sucked in comparison. The art was nice but the stories were just really bad, cliched sci-fi.

The Ultimates line has got a lot of good press but I still prefer Brand Ech.

2003-05-10T23:41:00.000Z

Best Books

Historical - Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson

Non-fiction - All The Trouble In The World by P.J. O'Rourke

Fiction - Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

SF - First three books of the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov

2003-05-10T23:40:00.000Z

X-Men 2

I've seen a lot of comic book movies good (The Crow, Blade, Batman 1 and 2), bad (Spawn, The Shadow) and mediocre (Batman and Robin, Mystery Men).

Comic book movies are yet to give moviegoers a genuine classic viewing experience i.e. something along the lines of Jaws, Empire Strikes Back, Pulp Fiction etc. About the nearest to approach such levels was last summer's Road To Perdition based on Max Alan Collins' graphic novel.

Given the subject matter it is to be expected since comic book movies are, like the industry itself, still dominated for the most part by superhero stories.

And X-Men 2 in terms of dialogue, action, acting, plot and effects, is undoubtedly the best comic book movie to date - although not my favourite which remains The Crow.

The opening scene featuring Nightcrawler was superlative and watching Alan Cumming, I couldn't believe this guy was the same actor who'd played an effeminate, emotional Roman emperor in the movie Titus which I'd seen a few days ago.

And it was nice to see a character who was religious yet not portrayed as a bigoted nutjob as they usually are.

There wasn't a single duff performance in the movie with the only jarring note being Anna Paquin's attempt at a Southern accent. Doesn't work and they shouldn't have persisted with it.

Everyone did an excellent job with Hugh Jackman continuing to show his leading man qualities and Sir Ian McKellan continuing to elevate every scene he's put in with quietly understated power. James Marsden's Cyclops hardly gets enough screen time but I suppose someone had to be sacrificed for the sake of giving Halle Berry a beefed-up role.

The villain of the movie, Stryker, was also refeshing in that he actually had a reasonable motivation in wanting to rid the world of mutants and not having to resort to the cliche of a mad, power-hungry, moustache-twirling villain.

The plot was great too with enough time given for some decent action but a healthy amount of character development also. Much better than Spider-Man where I was checking my watch every ten minutes after the origin story was complete.

Actually the action component could have been upped significantly since the Matrix Reloaded trailer before the movie did suck some heat from the crowd during X-Men 2.

The movie left me wanting to see the next instalment a lot more than the first movie did which was far too short. However I doubt X-Men will ever really reach the height on the movie screen that it does on the printed page simply because bringing characters like The Sentinels and Apocalypse to life would probably be too expensive.

And as good as these movies are, I'd like Bryan Singer to other movies and scripts too since I just rewatched The Usual Suspects on DVD and was reminded of how awesome a movie it would be.

2003-05-07T23:58:00.000Z

Superman 2

Saw this today (well, yesterday) it being Bank Holiday Monday.

The action sequences were nowhere near as impressive as how I first remembered them showing how far SFX have progressed since then.

What action there is looks incredibly fake since 90% of the stuff on screen was plywood. Any fanboy whining about the amount of CGI in say Blade or the latest Star Wars movies would have thought they were freakin' documantaries compared to this.

That being said Superman 2 does have a lot of charm probably because Richard Donner directed a lot of the scenes before being replaced.

The performances are mostly excellent from Hackman's weaselly Luthor, Stamp's Zod, Kidder's Lois Lane and most of all Christopher Reeve's Superman.

And the movie did bring home why Superman remains an endearing character. Unlike a lot of the cooler super-heroes like Spider-Man, Batman, the Punisher, Wolverine etc. he isn't a superhero because of personal guilt or angst. He just does what he does because he thinks it's the right thing to do.

Corny but heart-warming.

2003-05-04T12:26:00.000Z

Star Wars

What you think of the prequels so far

Attack of the Clones was amazing, best film of the year. I thought Menace wasn't bad either although the middle of it had me checking my watch, something I've never done with the others.

What you want to/think should happen in Episode III

We all know what's going to happen. I just hope Tarkin plays a major role and Obi Wan gives Anakin a proper schooling.

Your favourite of all 5 current movies

Jedi. Derided as the most kiddie movie but I loved how everything came together and got resolved in the end.

Your favourite moments/quotes from the films

Luke losing it in Jedi, "I am your father", Han's comedy in A New Hope, Yoda vs Dooku.

Any questions you have that you think someone else may be able to answer

I would like to ask why people keep bitching about the new movies.

Granted the dialogue in places is atrocious but the original trilogy would have received just as much criticism if it came out today.

The new movies are pretty good entertainment.

And while Jackson and Raimi are doing great jobs with their adaptations, they don't have the twin problems of coming up with the mythos AND dreaming up all the visual content at the same time.

And that "George Lucas is nothing but a capitalist whore raping his own legacy" guff is just so much BS.

Favourite characters

Luke Skywalker.

Expanded Universe: Your favourite book, game etc.

I like Rogue Leader best on the GameCube.

Don't read the EU stuff since I think the adventures should have ended after Jedi and not gone on with interminable crises.

2003-04-24T18:20:00.000Z

Prized Possessions

I'm not really attached to my possessions.

I kind of take the view advanced in Fight Club that caring too much about the stuff you own is bad for you.

I would be irritated if I lost the DVDs, videos, books and games console that took me a long time to accumulate but ultimately it wouldn't matter.

My one prized possession is my laptop hard drive and CD-ROM backups of it as I've got a huge treasure trove of high-quality articles on subjects from business, science, art, history, culture, technology, equities, crime, biographies, politics, humour, architecture, science, movies etc. I've been gathering from the Internet for the last five years or so and replacing them would be nigh impossible.

Nothing of any sentimental value either.

2003-04-23T09:29:00.000Z

Thanks Russia

I've been reading a biography on FDR by Ted Morgan and Russia's War by Allen Overy and I've come to the conclusion that it was fundamentally the Russians who destroyed Nazism.

Hitler had about 200 divisions fighting in the East and about 6 in Italy when the Allies showed up there. He would have had more defending Normandy if the Russian threat had been neutralised.

And if there was a single battle on which the course of the war changed it wasn't Normandy or Midway but Stalingrad where the Russians and Germans fought an incredibly bitter battle from street-to-street and house-to-house. It was here that the belief in German invincibility was shattered and the Russians began to steam-roll their way into Eastern Europe.

It was a bit of an eye-opener reading these books. I hadn't known facts like 20 million Rusians died during WW2 or widespread killing of Jews that took place at the hands of both Germans and Russians. I'd always assumed the bulk of the killings was done at camps like Auschwitz and Buchenwald and not at the hands of their own neighbours.

Well to sum up I'd say there were a few important facts which determined the course of WW2.

1. The outcome of the Battle of Britain which enabled the UK to stay in the war.

2. The reformation of the Red Army and the Russian Air Force plus the promotion of able commanders like Konev, Zhukov, Chuikov and Yeremenko.

3. The American Lend-Lease agreement which enabled the Russian economy to concentrate on producing weapons like T-34's and Stukas while the population fed themselves with spam from the West.

4. THe Russian-Japanese neutrality agreement which meant that Japan played very little attention to Russia during WW2. Surely the most fatal mistake on behalf of the Axis forces.

Additionally it was a sad fact so many Russians (civilians and soldiers) died at the hands of their own people (the NKVD) for the most innocuous "crimes" and their leadership did not bear much of a favourable comparison with the Nazis.

I guess we all have to thank the patriotism and endurance of the common Russian soldier and civilan for the fact we're not speaking German.

2003-04-22T20:24:00.000Z

Transformers - WWE/F

Optimus Prime=Bruno Sammartino

The Commander. The Icon. The Living Legend. Prime is Bruno. Of course given the amount of times he's been killed and brought back to life you could make a pretty strong case for Prime=The Undertaker.

The Dinobots=Road Warriors/Legion of Doom

The coolest teams bar none. Snarling bad-asses with little dialogue and immense attitude.

Perenially popular.

Grimlock="Me Grimlock say kick butt."

Hawk "Good for us. Bad for you. We win. You lose. Same old story. Uuuuuuggghhhhhhh what a ruussshhhh!"

Sky Lynx=Kurt Angle

Wear the same colours (red, white and blue) and both are egoists who are very good at what they do.

Could also make a case for Kurt Angle=Starscream.

Trypticon=The Big Show

Both are big, lumbering jackasses with the potential to be immense, destructive forces but too stupid and too busy stuffing their faces full of Big Macs/energon to have any real importance.

Predaking=Kane

Both are Big Red Machines. Errr, that's it.

Cyclonus=Triple H

Intelligent, evil bad-ass you can't help rooting for.

HotRod/Rodimus Prime=Chris Jericho

Both are charismatic yet have serious detractors for some reason.

Unicron=Yokozuna

Uni ate planets. Yoko looked like he did the same.

Wheelie=Crash Holly

Cringe-worthy, annoying midgets.

Galvatron=Ultimate Warrior

Both of them are definitely insane, the kind of guys on wild power-trips who repeatedly refer to themselves in the third person. You can hear the flapping of white coats.

Stone Cold Steve Austin=The Matrix

Lit up the WWF's darkest hour.

Ultra Magnus=Lex Luger

Both were kind of billed as the Next Best Thing. Both kind of flopped, in part due to their vanilla personalities.

Bumblebee=Spike Dudley

You just automatically want to root for them.

Jazz=Booker T

Both are pretty cool. Jazz was always popular.

Starscream=Shawn Michaels.

I never liked Starscream and seeing him get blown to pieces was supremely satisfying. The same goes for Shawn Michaels and I guess it says something that one of my all-time favourite matches is Hell in a Cell 1.

Omega Supreme=Chris Benoit.

All the physical tools, negative persona.

Metroplex=The Rock

The Rock rules the WWF. Metroplex as THE ultimate status symbol as far as toys go. It's a weak parallel but **** , this ain't easy.

Kup=Terry Funk

Old soldiers who don't fade away but stay around forever.

2003-04-22T20:23:00.000Z

Transformers history

According to my reading of the first issue in the Marvel series and from the version of TF history given in Desertion of the Dinobots, I'd have thought the Decepticons would have pulled off huge initial victories thanks to surprise and military expertise (on the order of billions of casualties) against TF foes who were mostly non-combatants and inexperienced in the way of war. As they were on the verge of total victory, the new Autobot leader Optimus Prime would inspirationally weld the remnants of the Autobots into a competent fighting force that stopped the Decepticons (kind of like William of Orange against the Spanish).

From what I know of TWW, it seems the Autobots weren't on the verge of extinction, were pretty competent soldiers already and weren't as reliant on OP as made out in other continuities. One thing I did like is the Optitrax (sp?)(should have been orion Pax really)--->Optimus Prime transition which doesn't make the Rodimus Prime thing in the movie look so goofy now. I guess you could retcon why Prime didn't turn back into Optitrax when the Matrix was removed by accepting the proposition that the Matrix was slowly giving off energy into Prime's body and ove the course of hoever many million years the change was permanent. Probably would have been the same for Rodimus if the Hate Plague had never happened.

Before reading TWW synopses, I also kind of envisioned TF history as being somewhat a little more complex and politically driven.

I'd have thought that instead of taking the cartoon line of Autobots and Decepticons effectively being separate races of Transformers with the 'Cons effectively being evil and wanting to take over the universe, they'd have shown them as being one TF race to begin with who split over differences in their outlooks.

To make a lazy analogy, the core Autobot membership could have consisted of space-faring traders, scientists, artists and entertainers like the Athenians while those who later became the "Spartan" Decepticons typically attracted TFs who were traditionally the protectors of Cybertron from outside threats and gloried in a gung-ho, aggressive culture.

As the military might of Cybertron grew, the Decepticons could've started arguing for Cybertronians to start colonising the galaxy to mimic and protect themselves from the other empires out there and the main TF population may have permitted them to do so.

The Decepticons would have become very successful (and rich) in taking over first barren, resource-rich worlds and then populated centres with conflicts breaking out between different Decepticon factions and increasingly heavy military conflicts with other galactic powers. Their numbers would have swelled with TFs looking for money and adventure.

The main TF population would have become more and more alarmed at 1)the sheer level of unnecessary, expensive warfare which they often had to pick up the tab for when the actions of a rogue Decepticon faction would bring an enemy armada to Cyberton's doorstep 2) the damage to their trade and diplomatic relations with normally friendly worlds and 3) a rising moral crisis as certain (but not all) Decepticons laid waste to whole systems and species to satisfy their lust for power and wealth.

This could have all come to a head when the Council of Elders and their leader (in spite of having several members sympathetic to and bought off by the Decepticons) demanded strict regulation of off-world Decepticon activities. And as the disputes grew, this could have broken into sporadic civil war as some TFs (including disgusted ex-Decepticons who were sick of their proud military tradition being dragged through the mud) provided covert and overt aid to systems being threatened by the Decepticons out of outrage to the treatment they would be subjected to by the Cons.

As these instances became more and more frequent the Great War could have started with the Decepticons deciding to take their battle to Cybertron first achieve mastery of their homeworld before taking over the rest of the universe.

2003-04-22T20:10:00.000Z

Battle of Autobot City

Well that's not strictly true. I think you'd be a pretty incompetent warrior if you were not to be able to kill the Autobots in the shuttle. The Deceptcons had them out-numbered, out-gunned and trapped.

As for the other deaths. Well we only saw Wheeljack and Windcharger die. The Cons had Skywarp, Thundercracker, and the Insecticons take on some very heavy damage. I don't think it was as uneven a battle as some think.

My own theory for any Deepticon supremacy goes like this.

1) The Autobots were outnumbered. I think on the respective sides theAutobots had 16 guys and the Decepticons 23. This doesn't seem much but I'm going on fact and not inference.

2) The Decepticons were juiced up and ready to go. During G1 they may have been suffering from energy shortages. They also had one single mission: to wipe out Autobot City. Pretty simple for most of them to understand.

3) The Autobots were not prepared for a major battle. They were caught off-guard and they were most likely not battle-ready. Imagine it's the eve of D-Day and the German Army suddenley launched a surprise sneak attack on Dover. The Autobots would have been away from cover (in the beginning at least) and physically unprepared.

4) If you see the Autobots at Autobot City, not many of them were wariors. Ultra Magnus, Springer, Kup, Windcharger and possibly Hot Rod were the only front-line proven warriors. The other Bots were workers, scientists or had other functions. If Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Tracks oreven the Dinobots had been around they may have had some more help.

maacprime

2003-04-22T20:04:00.000Z

Comic books

When I was about seven or eight on a whim I decided to buy a couple of comic books to see what they were like. One of them was the Captain America comic where his stand-in goes loco and kills twenty terrorists.

The other was Carwash of Doom.

I did not pick up another comic for another eight years.

maacprime

2003-04-22T19:59:00.000Z

Prime vs Galvatron

Reposting my old TF posts from Usenet here.

I'm having a geek attack. My writing is so excellent.

OK, I'm entering the Prime/Galvatron debate.

Now if Op had fought movie-Galvy he would have had a very tough fight and I'm not sure he'd have won. In addition to being sane, Galvy could probably draw off extra power from Unicron. I mean he did seem a hell of a lot more powerful in the movie then he did later on.

Post-movie is a different story. Emperor Nutbucket no longer had his power-source and now that the Matrix had been presumably activated to a higher level, Rodimus or Optimus could have drawn even more power from it than normal.

I'm thinking of the time during Dark Awakening when zombie Optimus said the Matrix made him strong. I presume he didn't have it during the first two G2 seasons and maybe that's what gave him the edge when he disabled the Cons and whupped Megatron while taking some very heavy punishment, even if it didn't have the power it had later on in S3.

During the movie fight I think Hot Rod actually did a pretty good job of keeping Galvatron at bay, that is until he got caught. And contrary to what some ATTers think, I believe Rod could handle himself pretty well in a fight against Galvatron. What he lacked in brawn, he made up with speed and an unwillingness to give up.

Another thing mentioned in the recent debate has been that Galvatron was barely affected by Ultra Magnus and the Protectobots blasting him. I don't rememmber much from the Rebirth but what I do know is that Magnus said Galvatron was almost finished. IMO the Protectobots and Magnus would have been heavily involved in the fighting and hence much more tired while Galvatron was busy directing the building of the huge space-engine and not concerned much with the front-line stuff and consequently much fresher.

maacprime

2003-04-22T19:55:00.000Z

Clancy and Transformers

I'm reading Carinal of the Kremlin by Tom Clancy right now.

There's a part in it where a CIA guy in the US embassy in Moscow reflects that the thing his kids miss most about America is the fact that they can't watch Transformers in the morning.

Clancy goes on to quote the opening theme. "More than meets the eye".

Cool.

maacprime

2003-04-22T19:51:00.000Z

Transformers, the Bible, Das Kapital, Keynes

Been reading a book by J K Galbraith on economics and stuff and thinking about he reasons behind TF popularity.

Galbraith said one of the reasons put forward as to why Marx's ideas in Das Kapital and John Maynard Keynes' ideas in The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money was the fact that no one could get an entirely clear idea about what the author was writing about.

Therefore, in a manner similar to the debate about the Bible, people argued about what the books were trying to say and everyone came up with their own views on the subject material. Interest in Das Kapital and the General Theory soared as a result of these discussions.

Galbraith argues that because the Bible, Das Kaptal and the General Theory were ambiguous or even contradictory in what they said, different people could read the same thing and come up with very different views. This in turn made them more popular than if they set out expicitly what the message was.

I think the same thing could be said about Transformers. From all the different canon US G1 cartoon, US comic, UK comic, G2 comic, Actionmasters, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, fanfic, Japanese continuity one can pick and choose a storyline to suit himself and his own view on the TF universe.

This probably makes the TF Multi/Universe a lot more dynamic and adaptable in comparison to stuff like Thundercats or the Go-Bots which generally only had one primary source of stories and probably is what makes it so popular with the post Star Wars generation.

Or maybe it's just because the toys are cool.

maacprime

2003-04-22T19:47:00.000Z

British PM's

I'm from the UK too. And your point is kind of wrong. Let's see we have Tony Blair right now (upper middle class, public school but definitely not over-privileged). Before him was a Brixton-born man who was born to working-class parents who worked in the circus (John Major) who succeeded a grocer's daughter from Grantham (Thatcher). Before her there was James Callaghan and Ted Heath who were hardly grandees either. In fact you have to go back to Harold McMillan to find someone "born into an over-privileged family with a silver spoon stuck in its mouth".

I wouldn't mind Prime as PM though. He'd take no shit during Prime Minister's questions for a start.

maacprime

2003-04-22T19:44:00.000Z

Abraham Lincoln

In article <8l5g03$im5$1@nnrp1.deja.com>, rosetursi@hotmail.com wrote:> Abe Lincoln was not the saint he's been made out to be. He often broke> rules to get what he wanted. He had a pretty disturbing private life,> and he suffered from extream drepression.
>
Of course he broke rules to get what he wanted. He was a politician for Cyberton's sake. And what he wanted most of all was to end the Civil War. The only part of his private life that could be considered disturbing was that his wife used to nag him.

Well let's see. The country's in civil war. Half the country hates your guts, the oher half thinks you're incompetent, the high-and-mighty in Washington make baboon jokes behind your back, one of your sons dies while you're in office and your wife is insanely jealous of any woman you see.

On top of that, your generals appear powerless agains the forces of Lee and Jackson, there's wide discontent with numerous Congressman and Senators urging a peace settlement with the rebels and letting the slaves go hang, while Confederate raiders are driving American maritime commerce into bankruptcy.

Well rosetursi, I'm not sure I'd be a happy bunny in that situation. Not unless I was a drug-filled masochist.

Hardly "Prime-like" > Then again... I don't consider the popular version of Lincoln to be > very Prime-like either.
>

Lincoln is kind of different from the popular version. For a start he was a notorious wise-cracker and spoke in a Western drawl that made folks in Washington cringe.

But he gave every ounce of energy at his command into fighting the rebellion and worked eighteen-hour days even while one son was dying and another became seriously ill shortly afterwards. He gave his damndest to keep his country together and obtain some justice for the slaves for whom too many Americans felt contempt and distaste. And just when he obtained the peace he'd worked so hard for, he was shot and killed.

He was, along with Washington and FDR, one of the greatest American presidents ever.

Given the way the Maximals in BW and BM venerate Optimus I'd consider their respect of Prime very Lincoln-like: the respect for a commander who fought for justice for all while not sacrificing his principles or his obligations.

2003-04-22T19:26:00.000Z

Transformers - Ultra Magnus

Was passed out on the sofa and thoughts turned not unnaturally, to Transformers.

Specifically why is Ultra Magnus not as popular as he should be?

I mean his toy was great. It had all the poseability of a brick but it looked dead cool and I bought it in lieu of Jetfire. Didn't regret that for a second as the Ultra Magnus robot was definitely the best looking of all my Transformers.

In the comics and cartoon he was a pretty big banana in the Autobot Army and also had the potential for a cult following with him spouting lines like "That's the most beautiful SIGHT I've ever seen, Now give me the bomb!"(Fight and Flee)

I came to the conclusion was because he's a Captain America clone. Now Cap's great (I even like the Liefeld run) but to be honest he's kind of whitebread. Although he can kick just about anybody's ass he's kind of blah and just not as cool as other comic characters. Cap's the comic book character your mother would want you to play with.

Ultra Magnus is the same (just look at the red, white and blue colouring). He commands a city, got freaking missiles on his shoulders and is 2nd in command of the most kick-ass Army in the galaxy. Yet he's just kind of boring.

I tried to extend this analogy further by using body paint as a criterion. Couldn't decide whether Optimus was Spiderman or Superman, thought Galvatron might pass for a Galactus and stopped when I realised Hot Rod looked just like Firestorm.

maacprime

By the way, Grimlock is definitely Batman.

2003-04-21T22:19:00.000Z

Evangelicals and Israel

Regarding Robertson I do find it a bit odd for Israelis to accept his support when a large section of the Christian Right believe the return of the Jews to Israel will signal the Second Coming according to end times theology.

At which time a small number of Jews will convert to Christianity and the rest go to Hell.

But I guess politics makes for strange bedfellows.

-M Ali Choudhury
-Apr 18 2003, 06:59 am # email homepage

Ali - (a) Only a small number of Christians believes that the return of the Jews to Israel signals the End Times; (b) If Robertson doesn't believe it, what does it matter that others do; (c) Those who do believe it probably expect large numbers of Jews to convert and be saved; (d) Many Christians, including Robertson by his own account, believe God's promises to the Jews must be fulfilled, and that Jesus's parable of the prodigal son - who stands for the Gentiles - and the elder son - who stands for the Jews - implies a promise to the Jews that "you are with me forever, and everything I have is yours" - and also implies that Gentiles and Jews are brothers in faith. So, though there may be a few disagreements, why not cooperate as brothers where there is common ground?

-pj
-Apr 18 2003, 10:01 am # email

pj: But isn't it a premise of Christianity that Jews forfeited their covenant with God because of disobedience?

And what of the popularity of the Left Behind books which would appear to champion dispensationalism?

BTW most of my info on this came from a Cato Institute article, so if you can supply a rebuttal I'd like to read it.

http://www.cato.org/dailys/06-04-02.html

-M Ali Choudhury
-Apr 18 2003, 11:31 am # email homepage

Ali -

It is a tenet of Christianity (and, I think, Judaism as well) that Jews must be faithful to gain the benefit of the covenant. But the covenant is eternal, and no matter how many Jews may be disobedient, their faithful children still enjoy the covenental promises.

The Left Behind series is popular, but I think you can draw from that few conclusions about specific beliefs. Time magazine's circulation goes up 40% when it puts Jesus on the cover; anything with Jesus in it is popular.

In the article you cite, look at the quotations from mainstream Christians, such as Reed, Olasky, and McAteer -- they are clearly just taking seriously God's biblical promises to the Jews, and wondering what those promises mean for us. Then look at the crackpot beliefs Bandow attributes without quotations -- because he cannot find anyone who said them or believes them: e.g. Jews are entitled to Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

The fact is that there is genuine affection for the Jews among orthodox Christians, because they are the Chosen People of God, because Jesus was Jewish, because they are our brothers and sisters in faith and fellow followers of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is this affection, plus a general perception that Israel is largely a victim of Arab violence and our general support for free and democratic societies, that accounts for the conservative support for Israel. Dispensationalist ideas have essentially nothing to do with it.

-pj
-Apr 18 2003, 06:01 pm # email

2003-04-18T10:08:00.000Z

Dictatorship and reform

I would posit that a large number of US-supported dictators had pretty negative effects on their countries.

Autocracy tends to have corrupting effects like it did with Galtieri, Marcos, Zia ul Haq (who ushered in fundamentalism in Pakistan and Afghanistan while the US cheered him on) and Suharto.

As for the Pinochet parallel, in the early 80's one could have said that Hussein's rule would usher Iraq into the modern age when he wowing everybody with his literacy and health programmes whilst still showing the same blatant disregard for human rights that typified his life.

Ali:

Except that Ba'athism was an intellectual movement that sought to transform society. Pinochet, Franco, Marcos, etc. were militarist who sought to preserve first the prerogatives of the military, but second the rest of the traditional conservative institutioons in the country. And because they were embraced by the West and repeated Western platitudes, they, whether intentionally or no, laid the groundwork for liberalization.

-oj

You know my opinion on Franco so I won't repeat it. I suspect Pinochet was an outlier.

I don't know much about Marcos but I suspect Filipinos would point out the country had a democratic tradition before he came to power and he didn't do much to help the positive development of institutions like a free press, independent judiciary, democratic opposition, corruption-free civil service or a free-market economy.

And I doubt the "well at least he wasn't a Commie who'd have cats sleeping with dogs" would wash with them either.
US backed

Anyway supporting dictators can and has rebounded badly on the US. Iran could have well continued on the path to Western liberalism if America hadn't pissed off the entire country by reinstalling a monarch who was definitely not the choice of the people and was too politically ham-fisted to realise he was dangerously antagonising *ahem* traditional Iranian conservative institutions.

Another thing is dictators can muzzle domestic opposition and existing tension in their countries thereby providing the illusion of tranquility but once they're gone, disputes between different classes and ethnic groups can flare hugely out of control as in Indonesia and Yugoslavia.

I don't want to slam the US since they did what they thought was necessary to win the Cold War and God knows policy makers tend to be faced with a multitude of bad options but I think the belief that's circulating (courtesy of pundits of the like of Fareed Zakaria and Robert Kaplan) to put faith in the power of autocrats who will (eventually ) allow for a transition to democracy is a little dangerous.

Getting a dictator who overall has limited interest in enriching himself, is politically gifted enough to survive all the opponents he faces, inflicts minimal damage on a country's population by the policies he pursues and lays the groundwork for a successful democracy seems asking a little too much for me.

2003-04-17T19:30:00.000Z

Questionaire by 'Automatic Chaos'

Ugliest actress: Minnie Driver

Hottest actress: Salma Hayek

Does your girlfriend/boyfriend like wrestling: No

Worst CD you have ever bought: Marilyn Manson's debut album

Best CD you have ever bought: Countdown to Extinction by Megadeth

Your fav movie: Seven Samurai

Fav video game: Final Fantasy 7

Least fav video game: Batman Forever

Fav drink: Tropical fruit juice

Fav food: Anything home-cooked. Had enough fast food during student days

fav cereal: Currently Fruitibix

Single/married/dating: Single

2003-04-09T11:03:00.000Z

Military history - Korea and Vietnam

Jobber: Actually the Chinese gave the US Army a pretty big ass-whipping when they surprised them during the Korean War. The war eventually settled down into stalemate once Macarthur was replaced by Ridgeway and American airpower and heavy artillery prevented them from advancing any further. The US couldn't defeat the Chinese and North Koreans because they were unable to adapt their tactics (like in Vietnam) to combat a peasant army fighting a guerilla campaign. Eventually both sides realised they may as well call it a draw and Eisenhower additionally said if the Chinese continued fighting he's consider nuking their forward positions.

The US military was hamstrung by being unable to attack North Vietnamese cities directly but then they never figured out how to extinguish a peasant based guerilla campaign and kept thinking bombing the crap out of the Vietcong would work.

If the Marines like General Victor Krulak had been in charge of the war, the tactics used would probably have been different and more successful since the Marines had over a century's experience in dealing with North Vietnam's variety of assymetric warfare while the Army ignored the lessons of Korea and kept in place a lot of commanders who'd only seen action against major industrial powers like Germany.

That had minimal effect on Vietnamese supply lines. And morale was awful because of the perceived lack of success which wasn't helped by the military drastically inflating Vietcong casualty figures and assuring the public that success was just around the corner.

The North Vietnamese had very strong control of their countryside so I doubt any CIA infilitrators woud have lasted long. In any case there weren't enough military units sent to make much of a difference. And lots of American wars have been pretty unpopular from the Mexican-American war to the Civil War onwards.

The weight of the anti war movements don't matter nearly so much as how successfully American armies fight. In 'Nam, the US didn't appear to be making much progress towards subduing North Vietnam and eventually decided to go home.

2003-04-09T10:59:00.000Z

Military history - The Mongols

Crippler, while the Spartans (and likewise the Germanic tribes) were a great military force they didn't do much besides defend their territory from the Persians\Romans and attack other Greeks\Germanic tribes.

It's not like they established a Spartan empire like Alexander did, encompassing most of the known world at that time.

As for the Mongols in a space of little more than a century they had come from nowhere to establish an empire stretching from the borders of Japan in the East to near Austria in the West, the greatest land empire ever. In fact if it hadn't been for the death of one of their leaders (which lifted their attacks in Europe) they would have taken over and destroyed Western Europe too.

What's more they are the only power in military history to have staged a successful invasion of Russia in winter, something which destroyed the armies of both Napoleon and Hitler and they had a general staff and military organisational structure which was thoroughly modern, utilising tactics of mobile warfare which are still studied to this day.

And in all this time, they were only defeated in outright battles by the Japanese (thanks to the divine wind) and the Mamelukes of Egypt when they were severely outnumbered.

Compare this to the Spartans whose dominance lasted about 33 years until the battle of Leuktra when they were given a thrashing from which they never recovered from.

The Mongols had the most modern, disciplined army the world had ever seen (and kept that record until the nineteenth century) with strict rules governing their conduct in war. In terms of mobility, structure and effectiveness none of their enemies could match them.

They slaughtered anyone who was dumb enough to resist them instead of surrendering but then Rome's conduct when it came to dealing with the Gaulish tribes or Carthage was hardly very civilised either.

The Romans did show the rare ability of learning fom their mistakes but there's no way they would have been able to acquire enough Mongolian horses or trained enough skilled archers (Mongols were on horseback from early childhood and archery was an essential skill that had to be learned for survival on the steppe) to make a difference. The Mongols would have whipped them worse than the Goths did.

2003-04-09T10:42:00.000Z

Houllier and Liverpool

It's not really the big-name players that Houllier has signed that's the problem.

Unlike Wenger and Ferguson he has a habit of wasting money on players like Diomede, Traore, Smicer, Diao, Cheyrou, Westerveld, Camara, Litmanen, Ziege, Barmby, Biscan etc. which don't add all that much to the side and lose a lot of their value before leaving or languishing in the reserves.

Henchoz, Hyppia, Dudek and Hamann have been his only undisputable successes in the transfer market.

2003-04-09T10:32:00.000Z

The next step

The US will pretty much do whatever it feels like although of course building a case for action would be much more difficult than against Iraq where Hussein did absolutely everything wrong from ignoring UN resolutions to committing egregious human rights abuses to not getting a clue that the US had set the bar for pre-emptive action pretty low following 9/11.

The incredibly easy victories in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown America can take major action without inflicting massive civilian casualties or losing lots of their own men which would make the case for war a lot easier to make to voters back home.

The Arab world was against the war in Iraq and the one in Afghanistan but that made zero difference anyway.

2003-04-09T01:19:00.000Z

Military history - ACW

You make the mistake in thinking ANV=Confederacy.

Not so. The Union had to subdue and occupy a huge amount of Southern territory not just wipe out Lee's army.

They were always on the offensive and were generally attacking entrenched forces who knew the territory well which made casualty rates pretty high. They also had to leave a substantial amount of effectives garrisoning occupied land and defending supply lines while the South didn't need to bother doing so since they were on friendly territory.

Also since the South had slaves to take care of most non-combat roles, the bulk of their white male population was available for fighting.

And in relation to Grant vs Lee, Lee had the highest casualty rate of any major commander in the Civil War. A pretty famous British army officer, J F C Fuller (who originated most of the initial theory regarding armoured warfare) wrote a book comparing Grant and Lee and found contrary to received opinion that if anyone deserved the butcher tag it was Lee.

Lee was the superior tactician no question, but Grant via his use of waterways, railroads, the telegraph and his understanding of how to adapt to American continental warfare was undisputably the better strategist and campaigner, the only Union general to consistently win battles and frankly the man who who the war for the Union with his victories at Fort Donelson, Vicksburg and Chattanooga.

When it came to Lee if it didn't concern Virginia he didn't really give a fuck about it.

2003-04-09T01:04:00.000Z

Equilibrium

Just saw this tonight.

Pretty derivative of 1984, Farenheit 451 and other dystopian stories although the scenes where Bale gradually enters the world of senses are very well done particularly with him and the Beethoven music and the dog. Excellent action sequences, better than that of the original Matrix particularly in the end.

I'll probably buy the DVD just to see them again in slow motion.

Sean Bean's acting has really impoved since LOTR and you can compare the sheer class of his understated cameo here with his OTT roles in movies like Ronin and GoldenEye.

About the only complaint I have is that it is a little obvious who the bad guy is and Bale could have really done with a genuine love interest as his "point of light" in the movie, kind of like Jennifer Connelly in Dark City or Natasha McElhone in The Truman Show.

Bale really holds this movie together though. He's onscreen throughout the two hours and gives it a solid centre. My definite pick for any future Batman movie.

I am really pissed off though that an intelligent, moving sci-fi film like this was dumped on 301 screens in the US when absolute shit like Kangaroo Jack gets to be the number one movie at the US box office.

Dimension Films which produced this also dumped Below, another superior sci-fi flick which depended on a good script and excellent characters, without any marketing spend whatsoever.

It makes me despair when crap sci-fi movies like Men In Black 2 rake in huge amounts of cash when quality films like Equilibrium, Below, Cube and Dark City disappear without making any impact whatsoever.

2003-04-06T13:07:00.000Z

Next British PM

Gordon Brown - next PM because of the deal he made in Blair in 1994. The only halfway competent Labour minister other than Blair himself and the reason I voted Labour in 2001. I just wish he'd put more emphasis on decentralisation rather than centrally-issued targets when it came to public services.

Prescott- Fat oik who the middle classes will never support. Effective backroom dealer, incompetent minister.

Robin Cook - not unless there's a disaster in Iraq.

Blunkett - Doubtful. What exactly has he achieved so far?

Jack Straw - Wishy-washy. Not a leader.

IDS- Incompetent at political strategy like his idiotic rows over issuing the whip on gay adoption and sacking "modernisers" thus nearly splitting the party. Doesn't have the talent to be PM or win a general election. And far too close to the Republican party for my liking.

William Hague - A good debater but knew fuck-all about campaigning. National politics isn't a mere adjunct of the Oxford Union. Deciding to campaign on tax cuts, Europe and asylum in 2001 showed how out of his depth he was. Appointed Archie Norman who was a shite politician too. Nice-looking wife though.

Michael Portillo - Too modern for the Tory Party.

Ken Clarke - Too pro-Euope for the Tory Party.

Frankly I'd like Oliver Letwin to be in charge of the Tories.

Charles Kennedy - Anti-war toad. Thanfully the Lib Dems are unelectable.

2003-04-06T11:47:00.000Z

Shanghai Knights

I watched this pretty recently and was very impressed.

When you go see a movie most of the time you don't expect anything mind-blowing and just hope it'll turn out to be mildly entertaining and not a total waste of money.

Shanghai Noon, the first movie in this series, didn't impress me much. The concept was good but the execution was pretty lacking and it just seemed sub-par compared to what Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan had done in other movies.

Regarding Shanghai Knights, other than Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade and Wayne's World I can't think of another movie which so consistently engaged my attention from beginning to end.

The chemistry between Chan and Wilson is perfect, much better than that between Tucker and Chan in the Rush Hour movies. The only time the movie loses its' sparkle is when one of the two isn't onscreen.

Easily Jackie Chan's best American movie with his fight against Donnie Yen one of the best I've seen in a long time.

Owen Wilson's rapidly becoming one of my favourite actors what with his roles in great movies like this, Zoolander, Meet the Parents and the Royal Tenenbaums.

I'm not sure if it's left theatres in the US but if you're in the UK, go watch this and you won't be disappointed.

Hopefully there'll be a sequel but in any case I'm looking forward to Chan's next movie Around The World In Eighty Days with Jim Broadbent and Steve Coogan as Phileas Fogg.

2003-03-27T10:13:00.000Z

Why I watch pro wrestling

I watch it mainly because a good wrestling match is one of the most exciting and entertaining athletic displays around.

I can't think of any other sport which gets the crowd so pumped up.

I don't really care about the soap opera aspects of it since most of it is pretty shite and quite hackneyed.

I also like the wrestlers themselves since along with Formula One drivers, they probably have one of the most physically demanding sports in the world.

Although I do wish the comedy quotient would be upped a little. And the WWE should really hire some acting coaches.

2003-03-27T10:04:00.000Z

The Blade movies

The opening scene in 1 is excellent, one I never get tired of. The rest of the movie doesn't live up to it though. And the bit about Blade's mother just seemed bizarre and out of place.

2 is a great action flick and whod've thunk Luke Goss from Bros would make a decent villain? The interaction with Ron Perlman, especially when he and Blade first meet is deligghtful too.

I've heard the third one will bring the movies to a close and will involve the vampires "outing" Blade as something akin to a terrorist and make him have to deal with humans tryingto kill him as well as blood-suckers.

Best line from the movies :

Some motherfuckers just like ice-skating uphill.

2003-03-19T19:50:00.000Z

Sporting heroes

Bret Hart

The best there was, the best there is and the best there ever will be.

Hakeem Olajuwon.

One of the finest gentleman to grace any sport.

Muhammad Ali.

Whether you agreed with him or not, he had the character to risk dooming his career by standing up for what he believed in.

Ric Flair

Worked his way to the top of his sport after surviving a plane crash that should have wrecked his career. Never failed to give 100% whatever the situation.

2003-03-19T19:47:00.000Z

Wrestlers=Comic Book Characters

Kurt Angle=Captain America. Needs no explanation. If only Cap was half as cool.

The Rock=Spider-Man. Funniest men in both businesses.

Hulk Hogan=Superman. The old perennial. Both get abused for their boring sameness but most of us probanly wouldn't have been fans if not for Hogan and Superman was the pioneer superhero character.

Brock Lesnar=The Incredible Hulk. Well-built, unstoppable engines of destruction.

Triple H=Thor. The sledgehammer, long blonde hair and a tribute to the Noorse-god worshipping Nazis as his symbol.

Sean O'Haire = Preacher. Both of them use use words to get you to do things you wouldn't do normally.

Chris Benoit=Wolverine. Short, mean Canadian.

Victoria=Wonder Woman. Looks pretty similar I guess.

Rhyno=Rhino. No explanation needed.

Booker T=Luke Cage. The only catchphrase-shouting black superhero I know of.

The Undertaker=Ghost Rider. GR's a motorcycle-riding demon so I guess that's as good a fit as any.

Ric Flair=Batman. I think Flair's character is supposed to be a rich playboy and like Btman he's the best at what he does.

The Hurricane=60's Robin. Same penchant for cheesy catch-phrases.

Jeff Hardy=Daredevil. The name fits as does the ingestion of painkillers. Ad Jeff sure puts his paint on like he's blind.

Randy Orton=Mr Glass. Harsh but true.

Stone Cold Steve Austin=Iron Man. They're both bionic?

Bret Hart=Hal Jordan (Green Lantern). Both got screwed over pretty well by creative and kind of went nuts.

Big Show=Galactus. Both look like they eat planets.

A-Train=The Beast. Hairy backs.

2003-03-19T19:45:00.000Z

Why I'm supporting the war

I suppose it comes down to whether you think Hussein's development of WMD is dangerous or not (I do) and whether it is likely to fall into the hands of terrorists (I'm a bit doubtful about that but Bush isn't and I'm not privy to the intelligence he has).

And I can't see how anyone would suggest that he isn't based on the fact he could quite easily do away with those bothersome sanctions and see oil revenues pour in if only inspectors could verify he'd got rid of them.

Given that people would have laughed at you if you'd said in all seriousness that the US could possibly suffer 3,000 deaths in a terrorist attack if Osama Bin Laden wasn't hunted down and killed before September the 11th, it is no wonder Bush and co. are moving against what they believe are threats to America.

That's the primary reason they're attacking Iraq not for oil or geopolitical leverage although they're probably welcome fringe benefits.

Like I've said before, the primary reason I'm for war is because it will mean the end of Hussein and his tyranny and the possibility that the average Iraqi will be able to lead a less shitty life than before.

And Sean Hannity does make me feel hurling at times with his condescending arrogance and insulting dismissal of people who don't agree with him but I listen to Alan Colmes' arguments about why there shouldn't be war and I can't bring myself to agree with his logic.

2003-03-11T12:38:00.000Z

On torture

Torture isn't exactly a very reliable means of obtaining information and is its' use is likely to create a legacy of moral outrage and bitterness out of proportion to its' utility.

And as Israel, France and Argentina have found out in their conflicts, if official policy allows it for certain "important" cases, it quickly becomes apparent that most investigators will proclaim that their cases are vital to the security of the state and will demand permission to use it.

What's going to prevent more 9/11's is having effective intelligence operations and quickly crushing terrorist networks as they're revealed not dilly-dallying like before.

If there is a ticking bomb somewhere and a terrorist is likely to know its' location, by all means go ahead and work him over with a cheese grater and pliers providinfg that political authority has been obtained. Other than that its' use should be strictly off-limits.

Finally don't underestimate the importance of having the moral high ground. Torturing prisoners is not going to help with that.

2003-03-11T12:32:00.000Z

On US relations with the world

Trade between Europe and America is far greater than trade between trading between any two other entities so for that reason alone there won't be a serious breakdown in relations between the two or even with France and Germany, the number three and number one economies in Europe.

American trade with China has risen quite a lot from virtually nothing in the early eighties but American companies could simply relocate labour-intensive activities to countries like India or Eastern Europe and the rest of South-East Asia who aren't going to hesitate to steal business from China and will probably laugh off any attempt at organising an embargo.

And given how China needs to keep growing in order to provide jobs for their huge numbers of unemployed workers as well as to stave off the collapse of their tottering financial system, they aren't going to be looking for a trade embargo either.

2003-03-11T12:30:00.000Z

On Samurai Jack

I don't get much time at all to watch TV nowadays, but I always make time for this.

Definitely the best animated series produced so far this decade and a nice blend of of influences like Ronin, Seven Samurai, Bladerunner and various sc-fi/fantasy elements.

What I really like about it is how much of the show is dedicated to action each episode, but the writers always think up new, imaginative "spots" so you never feel you're just watching the same action sequences again and again.

Also while you get lots of action, there's quite a lot of room for character development, humour and drama.

I was wondering who did the very impressive voice of the villain Aku, when I remembered it was the guy who does the narration for Conan the Barbarian.

Jack himself is a great hero, although you'd think they'd make him look a lot more Japanese.

So far the best episode I've seen is The Mountain where Jack climbs up a huge cliff, fighting enemies all the way and nearly giving up in the end.

2003-03-11T12:28:00.000Z

RajahWWF Top 100 Movies Of All Time

87-100
Austin Powers in Goldmember
Carrie
Election
Halloween
Happy Gilmore
Hitch-Hike
Monty Python and the Search For the Holy Grail
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Raiders of The Lost Ark
Ring
Road Trip
Rocky
Rocky IV
The Untouchables
67-86
2001: A Space Odyssey
American History X
Blade
Cannibal Holocaust
Dogma
Exorcist
Go
Good Will Hunting
Goodbye Charlie Bright
Goodfellas
Heat
Mallrats
New York Ripper
Office Space
Rushmore
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
Spartacus
Star Wars Episode 2: Attack Of The Clones
Tombstone
Waterboy
46-66
Batman
Birdcage, The
Casino
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Dancer in the Dark
Deep Red
For A Few Dollars More
From Dusk ‘til Dawn
Full Metal Jacket
Grosse Point Blank
The House On Haunted Hill
Inferno
Jurassic Park
Labyrinth
Ocean’s Eleven
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
The Professional
Rounders
The Shining
Spider-Man
Suspiria
31-45
Aliens
Apocalypse Now
Independence Day
Glory
Josie & The Pussycats
Killer Klowns From Outer Space
Last House on the Left
Life is Beautiful
Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels
Night of the Living Dead
Red Dragon
Seven Samurai
Some Like It Hot
Terminator 2
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
27-30
The Beyond
Saving Private Ryan
Snatch
Tenebrae
24-26
Chasing Amy
Evil Dead 2
Gladiator
23
Natural Born Killers
21-22
Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope
Zombie (Fulci)
16-20
A Clockwork Orange
Clerks
The Crow
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Star Wars Episode 6: Return Of The Jedi
15
Back To The Future 2
14
The Matrix
13
Memento
12
Back To The Future
10-11
Reservoir Dogs
Se7en
9
Godfather, The
8
The Fight Club
7
Pulp Fiction
6
Godfather Part 2, The
5
Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back
4
The Usual Suspects
3
Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring
2
Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
1
The Shawshank Redemption

2003-03-11T12:26:00.000Z

Top 5 Animated Series

1. Transformers

2. The Simpsons

3. Batman: The Animated Series

4. Samurai Jack

5. The Real Ghostbusters

2003-03-10T11:49:00.000Z

No Way Out 2003 review

My thoughts........

Overall it was watchable but I'd have been pissed if I'd had to pay for it.

Most enjoyable match was probably Y2J/Hardy. Nice face pops for the Canadian hero. He really ought to wear his hair loose just to piss off HHH.

RVD tag match was OK but the botched spot looked like Regal's fault since he didn't position his head upwards for the slam. Storm and RVD looked great together.

Undertaker's match was typically awful with the only surprise being the leg-drop spot. Got to wonder exactly how useless Big Show is if he gets gassed by punching and stomping. Well at least the match meant 2 people had a miserable contest instead of 4. Frankly Hogan's been entertaining me a lot more than Taker has.

Team Angle /Lesnar & Benoit was fast-paced and technically excellent albeit a bit short. They really should have brought Rhyno in to pop the fans. Benoit looked very impressive and I wonder what's next for him. Lesnar needs to stop doing that monkey dance of his. He's got all the skills but is a fundamentally uninteresting character and that's going to limit him. Most champs even the poor ones like Diesel had something special about them.

Hardy/Kidman wasn't very interesting. Little crowd heat.

Steiner/HHH. Dayum, the Game still has by far the best entrance in the business. Even I felt like cheering. The wrestling was garbage but hearing Steiner get booed and Hunter cheered just made it so satisfying.

Stone Cold vs Bischoff. Very satisfying. Hope some of those punches were as stiff as they looked.

Hogan/Rock. Match was garbage and why is Vince obsessed with Montreal screwjobs? Enough already! Rocky's heel character is amazing although he looks like an Indian geek now.

2003-03-10T11:47:00.000Z

Top 10 WWE matches of all time

My picks

I'll have to say this is in no way a definitive list since I've missed a lot of wrestling over the years (haven't seen Royal Rumble 2000 or No Way Out 2001 for example) and haven't seen some matches like Bret Hart vs Davey Boy Smith since they first aired.

1) Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels - Badd Blood '97 One of the worst beatings ever handed out in a WWFE match.

2) Razor Ramon vs Shawn Michaels - WM X Genre-defining.

3) Royal Rumble 1992 Flair's finest hour.

4) Bret Hart vs Owen Hart - Summerslam 1994 Greatest ever cage match.

5) Triple H vs The Rock - Judgement Day 2000 Match which got me back into wrestling. Best Iron Man match I've seen.

6) Hardys vs Dudleys vs E & C - TLC 1 Summerslam 2000 Surprised these haven't got more of a mention.

7) Bret Hart vs The Undertaker - One Night Only 1997 Best pure wrestling match Undertaker's ever been involved in.

8) Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant - WM III Fantastic atmosphere even if the work was crap.

9) Hulk Hogan vs The Ultimate Warrior - WM VI I never get tired of watching this. Arguably one of the best face vs face matches ever.

10) Chris Jericho vs The Rock - No Mercy 2001 I just liked this match a lot. Pity Jericho's been de-pushed since then.

2003-03-10T11:44:00.000Z

On Bret Hart vs Jobber to the stars

Bret Hart put on classics in all types of matches against all types of opponents.

From brawls against big men like Razor Ramon (Royal Rumble '93), Diesel (Survivor Series '95), Undertaker (One Night Only 1997) to more technically gifted opponents like Chris Benoit and Curt Henning as well as excellent matches against high-flyers like Hakushi and X-Pac/1-2-3 Kid on Raw.

And these were all mostly wrestling matches not gimmicked spot-fests.

He could make nothing matches like those against Isaac Yankem and Pierre Le (I've forgotten his name but the character was a one-eyed pirate ) into decent exhibitions and his feuds against Lawler, HBK and Austin were the most heated in the WWF's history.

Owen was a great wrestler but his best matches were generally against guys who were either his size (HBK, 1-2-3 Kid) or people who knew him inside-out like Bret and the Bulldog. I can't recall a classic match he had against big lugs like Diesel (although the one against Vader in One Night Only was pretty decent) or even being able to put on a better match than Bret (except maybe X-Pac) against a particular opponent. And his feuds were nowhere near intense as Bret's.

I think my opinion's borne out by the recent thread on the Top 10 WWE Matches Of All Time where aside from the matches against Bret, Owen barely gets a look-in.

I wouldn't characterise Bret as the best since that belongs to Flair. But he's most definitely up there given his ability to drag decent performances out of most everybody whatever you think he lacked in versatility. Owen is some way behind. Granted Bret wasn't a high-flyer but to say he could only wrestle in one style and was an A student in one subject is ridiculous.

2003-03-10T11:37:00.000Z

On the causes of Mid-East terrorism

And as someone who knows a bit about the politics of the region I'd say there are a number of factors driving terrorism. One is the lack of democracy which basically means dissenters basically become outlaws and thus only outlaws become opposed to the status quo. Another is the West-hating philosophy of Saudi Wahhabism which has been exported to the four corners of the Islamic world thanks to Arab petro-revenues. This has been augmented by more modern works by the likes of al-Quttub who visited the US in the 50's and regarded it as the den of moral dgeneration. Third is the lack of economic opportunity in the area for a very large and very young population who are having to reap the consequences of jack-assed Arab socialism promoted by the likes of Nasser and his successors like Hosni Mubarak. Palestine is a major factor sure, but the others are far more critical.

2003-03-10T11:32:00.000Z

MyTop 10 games of all time

1. Streetfighter 2 Turbo (SNES)
2. Final Fantasy 7 (PSX)
3. Shenmue 2 (Dreamcast)
4. Metal Gear Solid (PSX)
5. Championship Manager 97/98 (PC)
6. StarFox/Wing (SNES)
7. Skies Of Arcadia (Dreamcast)
8. Quake 2 (PC)
9. Chrono Trigger (SNES)
10. Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver (PSX)

2003-03-10T11:30:00.000Z

On Spawn the HBO Animated Series

The animated series was allright (they only show the first series here though), great voice acting.

Not one of my favourites though since it tried too hard being "mature" in a rather gauche way. Having lots of scenes in shadow, over-the-top violence, NSA conspiracies up-the-wazoo and frequent profanity ain't the way to do it. Pretty inferior to Batman:TAS or the anime it was trying to imitate in terms of plotting, characters or ideas.

Spawn was too much of an asshole to root for anyway.

I'm guessing Angela was replaced by Jade due to legal problems with Gaiman.

2003-03-10T11:28:00.000Z

In response to the question whether the British monarchy should be abolished and replaced with a Glorious Republick

No.

I'm not in favour of monarchy in general since I don't see why I should genuflect to someone who was lucky enough to be born in the right family.

And I turn the telly off whenever there's any news about the royals since the fawning over them is stomach-turning at times especially seeing Prince William's horse-like face on the front pages whenever editors are stuck for a story idea.

However I'm in favour of keeping the royal family because they are part of the fabric of the country and unless there's an excellent reason to turf them out they may as well stay put.

Besides that the public does feel a need for a certain amount of pomp, tradition and ceremony in public figures and having a king or queen allows that. This also means the country's relationship with the Prime Minister is a lot more down-to-earth than say America where the President at times is treated like quasi-royalty.

Other than that there's the question of what a president would actually do in a republic in constitutional terms. Would he be a political figure like Chirac in France (which would lead to a lot of political wrangling since here we elect a prime minister as dictator for five years for each new parliament) or a mere figure-head like the queen right now?

Besides can you imagine the mediocrities who would present themselves for election? Gits and publicity hounds like Tony Banks, Richard Branson, Jeffrey Archer or some Page Three tart like Jordan. Would any of them be willing to undergo the gruelling routine of charitiable work, state visits and civic occasions the royal family currently udergoes? Give me QE2 any day.

As for the argument that the Royal Family costs money which could go on the NHS, well that's BS. Spending on welfare and public services dwarfs that spent on the royals and they probably make that up by attracting tourists anyway.

That's not to say there aren't flaws. The Civil List should be drastically pruned and those freeloaders like Prince Michael of Kent should be turfed off immediately. And someone ought to tell that twat Prince Philip to keep his mouth shut already.

But putting that aside, the people feel a bond to the royal family beyond anything they'd feel for a president and judging from the public reaction to the jubilee and the Queen Mother's death I doubt any replacement would be at all popular.

2003-03-06T12:01:00.000Z

I think I'll start using this site as a repository for some of my better RajahWWF posts before they get deleted from the boards.

2003-03-04T14:01:00.000Z

Topic to think about.

Causes and reasoning behing rising birth-rates.

Why is America's population increasing while Italy and Japan will be extinct by 2050?

2003-03-04T13:51:00.000Z

Updated the site after a long time out.

Got linked to Reynolds! thanks to B. Cody's (nice dude) unwitting plagiarism.

Already had my name in the Times. Next mission - profile in the Economist!

And why am I posting like a retarded AOLer?

2003-03-04T13:46:00.000Z

RajahWWF Top 100 Games Of All Time.

=92. The Legend Of Zelda: Adventure Of Link (NES)
=92. Splashdown (PlayStation 2)
=92. Shenmue 2 (SEGA Dreamcast)
=92. Mortal Kombat 3 (Arcade)
=92. MechCommander (PC)
=92. Marvel vs. Capcom (Arcade)
=92. ICC 2002 (PC)
=92. Earthbound (SNES)
=92. Command and Conquer (PlayStation)
=92. Alpha Centauri (PC)
91. Age Of Empires II: The Conquerors (PC)
=79. SimCity 3000 (PC)
=79. Silent Hill 2 (PlayStation 2)
=79. Shadowrun (SNES)
=79. Sensible World Of Soccer (Amiga)
=79. Mario Party 4 (Nintendo GameCube)
=79. Killer Instinct (Arcade)
=79. Godzilla (NES)
=79. Final Fight (SNES)
=79. FIFA International (SEGA Mega Drive)
=79. Earthworm Jim 2 (SNES)
=79. Discworld (PlayStation)
=79. Civilisation 2 (PC)
=77. Super Mario Kart (SNES)
=77. Pokemon (Nintendo Gameboy)
=72. Resident Evil 2 (PlayStation)
=72. Resident Evil (PlayStation)
=72. ISS Pro 98 (PlayStation)
=72. Counterstrike (PC)
=72. Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 (PC)
=70. Super Mario 2 (NES)
=70. Championship Manager (PC)
=68. Hitman 2 (PlayStation 2)
=68. Colin McRae Rally (PlayStation/PC)
67. Devil May Cry (PlayStation 2)
=63. Monkey Island (PC)
=63. Final Fantasy IV (SNES)
=63. Doom (PC)
=63. Curse Of Monkey Island (PC)
=61. Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 (PlayStation)
=61. Streets Of Rage II (SEGA Mega Drive)
=59. TimeSplitters 2 (PlayStation 2/Nintendo GameCube)
=59. Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast (PC)
58. Perfect Dark (N64)
57. Tomb Raider 2 (PC)
=53. Sonic The Hedgehog (SEGA Master System)
=53. Mario 3 (NES)
=53. Final Fantasy Tactics (PlayStation)
=53. Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
=51. Madden '03 (PlayStation 2)
=51. Deux Ex (PlayStation 2/PC)
=49. Tomb Raider 3 (PC)
=49. Donkey Kong 64 (N64)
48. Final Fantasy VI (SNES)
=46. The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64)
=46. Star Fox/Wing (SNES)
=43. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
=43. Street Fighter II (Arcade)
=43. Halo (Microsoft X-Box)
42. FIFA 99 (PlayStation/PC)
41. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (SEGA Mega Drive)
=39. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles (SEGA Mega Drive)
=39. Chrono Cross (PlayStation)
38. WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role (PlayStation)
=34. Streets Of Rage (SEGA Mega Drive)
=34. Street Fighter Turbo (SNES)
=34. Final Fantasy VIII (PlayStation)
=34. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (Nintendo GameCube)
=31. WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth (PlayStation 2)
=31. The Sims (PC)
=31. Tekken 3 (PlayStation)
30. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty (PlayStation 2)
=28. Unreal Tournament (PC)
=28. Super Smash Bros. Melee (Nintendo GameCube)
27. Monkey Island 2 (PC)
=25. Pro Evolution Soccer 2 (PlayStation 2)
=25. Pro Evolution Soccer (PlayStation 2)
24. Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation)
23. The Legend Of Zelda (NES)
22. Tetris (Nintendo Gameboy/NES)
21. Championship Manager 97/98 (PC)
20. Super Mario World (SNES)
19. Championship Manager 3 (PC)
18. Championship Manager 2 (PC)
17. Mario 64 (N64)
16. Super Metroid (SNES)
15. Metroid Prime (Nintendo GameCube)
14. Championship Manager 00/01 (PC)
13. Chrono Trigger (SNES/PC)
12. Half-Life (PC)
11. The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past (SNES)
10. Mario Kart 64 (N64)
9. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PlayStation 2)
8. WWF No Mercy (N64)
7. Championship Manager 01/02 (PC)
6. Final Fantasy X (PlayStation 2)
5. Metal Gear Solid (PlayStation)
4. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time (N64)
3. Grand Theft Auto 3 (PlayStation 2)
2. Goldeneye: 007 (N64)
1. Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation)

2002-07-01T19:12:00.000Z

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Locdog07
To me, one of the greatest things about Shenmue 2 was going through all that action and then on the final disc getting to just walk around with Shenhua (sp?) in that beautiful landscape just talking...

It was just very relaxing and contrasted perfectly with the almost non-stop action portion of the game. Plus it explained why the heck the game was called Shenmue.

Plus, Ryo should just ditch Nozomi/Shenhua and take Joy.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm sorry but Lishao Tao is definitely the hottest woman in the game.

Although the Jeet Kune Do girl is a close second.

Joy looks like someone who doesn't bathe and is pretty skanky-looking.

I'd have to say that Shenmue 2 ranks among the Greatest Games I've ever played.

It's better than MGS 1 & 2 (I didn't think I'd be writing that anytime soon) and on a par with SF2 Turbo and FF7 with my Favourite Game Of All Time.

The graphics are incredible, particularly Wai Chin and Guilin.

No other game has had me in as much awe as to the quality of graphics.

The gameplay is excellent and the game world the best I've ever experienced. It is totally real.

The score is fantastic too, the best I have ever listened to.

The only negatives I can think of is that in a couple of places, you fight a boss and then have to do some QTE's to win the fight. If you fail these, you have to kill the boss again (although that isn't too hard). That's annoying.

Plus I wish there was a way you could replay the QTE sequences so you could sit back and enjoy them. In particular the QTE when Ryo fights off a bunch of thugs to rescue Zhang.

Shenmue 2 is much better than No. 1. The control system is much more intuitive and the game is less repetitive. You don't need to spend half your life training either. Also I felt like nuking the Harbour and Yanamose since you have to go back and forth so many times. Besides Master Chen, there isn't anyone else with any brains in the game and the final boss loks like a lobotomised chimp.

Before I would wait for Final Fantasy games. But the formula is beginning to pall. Young, reckless/taciturn man (with a slightly mysterious past) goes on a quest which develops into a struggle to save the world/universe/space-time from a being who is similar in background to the hero but gone evil/crazy. + Chocobos and Ifrit/Shiva/Siren/Quetzocatl etc.

Shenmue 2 is a lot more involving and much more varied with no annoying random battles either.

The characters are great too. Ryo isn't Solid Snake-cool, but damn he's got the makings of a great game hero. I can't wait to get to Lan Di and deliver him an allmighty ass-whipping. Tiger Swallow style my ass.

I can't wait for the next one.

To be honest, I was wondering which console to buy. I played this on my cousin's Dreamcast and would have bought the console just for this game. It is that good.

However since it's coming on XBox, I'll be buying that now. i just hope they keep the Japanese dialogue and don't replace them with American voice actors.

2002-06-17T14:52:00.000Z

Just read that Stone Cold Steve Austin has been fired from the WWF and he is currently
missing having beaten his wife.

I'm not an Austin fan, but this is a very sad day. Ppro wrestling devours its own with fury.

2002-06-13T18:25:00.000Z

Nice article by the always excellent Simon Kuper.

Kuper article

2002-06-13T17:58:00.000Z

As a new GALLUP poll shows 4 out of 5 Americans willing to give up some freedom for more security

Drudge Report

Well that is understandable although Ben Franklin said something about those willing to barter their
freedom for security deserve neither.

2002-06-13T17:55:00.000Z

World Cup Watch

You know if Mexico had wanted to go for the win, I figure they would have skewered Italy.

They were much more organised and cohesive and their captain and goalkeeper were highly impressive in defence.

The lack of mental strength that Italy have is shocking. Their defence went to pieces against Croatia and they were
panicking against Mexico today.

That abysmal corner kick which was shot forty yards away from goal demonstrated this. Del Piero may serve as their
talisman like Baggio did in '94 since Totti has been a complete disappointment.

However I don't think they can be seen as favourites since they're going to get nothing but tougher games from here on
in and the rest of the teams are not going to fear them, especially with that abysmal midfield.

Frankly if the USA (or even South Korea) face them, I wouldn't be surprised if Italy are knocked out.

They haven't at all shown the concentration, drive and self-belief which characterise championship-winning teams.

2002-06-09T19:15:00.000Z

Saw Mike Moore of the WTO on TV today. Was very good and did well against the gang of global envirofools, creatures
of the left and other idiotarians. You could sometimes see his frustration at the WTO and the West being dumped on
for all the trouble in the world when issues such as property rights, rule of law, responsible government and infrastructure
need dealing with alongside ending subsidies and scrapping tariffs. Pity Hertz, Klein, Monbiot etc. seem incapable of
understanding this. Frankly the anti-globalisation stance is based on naivete or wilful stupidity. Plus there seems to be
blatant incomprehension that free markets and industrial science come up with the resources we require and make them
cheaper and more affordable for all. We're not going to be eating ourselves people.

Soylent Green was simply bad science fiction.

I find it kind of suspsicious that everyone dumps on the US for steel and farm subsidies (cough, Nick Denton, cough)
without getting heated up about the CAP.

Anyhoo, Moore did well against this Indian lady who even seemed to deny the good effects of the Green Revolution,
mouthed some slogans and twittered on about "Northern" corporations doing this, that and the other. At times I felt,
Moore should get up, give the lady a Stone Cold Stunner, give a two-fingered salute to the Friends of the Earth and
douse himself in beer while some heavy metal played.

One more thing. Jonathan Dimbleby seems to shrink in his seat when asking questions. Doesn't appear to have the
ease and authority that brother David has. Plus seems rather a tool of the left with his blithe assumption that global
corporations were fucking the Earth and smiling all the time.

2002-06-09T18:59:00.000Z

World Cup Watch

Turkey were sloppy and paid the price against Costa Rica. CR may just pull out a surprise against Brazil.
After all who could have predicted that Norway would beat Brazil in '98?

Meanwhile Japan put on a very impressive performance against Russia. They're like Energizer bunnies that team.
Although I think the reason they appointed the Harry Potterish-looking Troussier is because he looks like a
nattier version of Arsene Wenger. Would like to see Nakamoto make an impact in the Premiership next season,
although Man U will reclaim their position at the top of the Premiership food chain.

What this World Cup has demonstrated is the strength of motivated teams (Costa Rica, Ireland, USA) vs
countries whose stars look fatigued and unmotivated (Portugal and Holland). This could also very well be England's
year although I myself thought 2006 would be their year.

2002-06-09T18:47:00.000Z

Good parody songs

Star Wars Gangsta Rap

Me Like Hockey by Angry Worms

Listening to Leg Of Time by the brilliant Bill Bailey right now.

Currently downloading Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead.

2002-06-09T18:46:00.000Z

Woman fatally shoots her disabled sons at Spalding County care facility, police say

The Associated Press

A woman shot her two disabled sons at a rehabilitation center where they had been living, then waited in the lobby for police to arrive, authorities said. Both men died early Sunday.

Carol Carr, 63, whose last known address was in Hampton, is charged with two counts of murder and could face additional charges, said Griffin police spokesman Sgt. James Landham.

She allegedly shot both men in their room at SunBridge Care and Rehabilitation on Saturday night, then walked to the lobby, sat down on a sofa and waited to be arrested, Landham said. He would not discuss possible motives for the killings.

Police identified the sons as Michael Randy Scott, 42, and Andy Byron Scott, 41.

The men had lived there since January, suffering from a long-term degenerative disease, said Chuck Brown, administrator of the center. He declined to specify what type of disease they had.

Grief counselors and chaplains were brought in Sunday to console the other residents and staff at the facility.

"It's an isolated incident," Brown said. "Everybody's very upset, though, and anxious."

He said Carr typically visited her sons several times a week but never gave any indication that she might harm them.

This lady will probably get off on a mental charge.

2002-06-08T17:53:00.000Z

Heart Of Oak

Come cheer up, my lads! 'tis to glory we steer,
To add something more to this wonderful year;
To honour we call you, not press you like slaves,
For who are so free as the sons of the waves?

Chorus
Heart of oak are our ships, heart of oak are our men;
We always are ready, steady, boys, steady!
We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again.

We ne'er see our foes but we wish them to stay,
They never see us but they wish us away;
If they run, why we follow, and run them ashore,
For if they won't fight us, we cannot do more.

Chorus

They swear they'll invade us, these terrible foes,
They frighten our women, our children, and beaus;
But should their flat bottoms in darkness get o'er,
Still Britons they'll find to receive them on shore.

Chorus

We'll still make them fear, and we'll still make them flee,
And drub 'em on shore, as we've drubb'd 'em at sea;
Then cheer up, my lads! with one heart let us sing:
Our soldiers, our sailors, our statesmen and Queen.

Chorus

2002-06-08T15:52:00.000Z

Saw Brazil vs China this morning. Absolute display of dominance.
Things are pretty messed-up in this World Cup since all the favourites
seem to be losing and England actually looks to be one of the best
sides, although IMHO Italy were robbed by a couple of daft decisions.
But then again, I can't recall any side which has lost in the World Cup
going on to triumph in the Final. So that would leave England, Germany
and Brazil. Germany still look like Bayern Munich without the class players,
Miroslav Klose notwithstanding, and Brazil really haven't been tested
defensively so far.

2002-06-07T20:32:00.000Z

Oh yes and we won. At last. Argentina finally gets a right seeing-to. BTW that 17-man pass was the best footballing move I've seen at international level for a very long time. Well done England. Now the last demon to exorcise is getting our hands on the World Cup again. And that's actually not an impossibility now.

2002-06-07T20:30:00.000Z

How does a Wall Street lawyer defend suicide bombings in Israel? Gingerly.

"We've got to ask why they are happening," says Michael Tarazi, who abandoned a corporate-law career two years ago

to become a legal adviser to the Palestinian Liberation Organization in the West Bank. "Some Palestinians say we

have no choice, that [terrorism] is the only thing that works. We have to give these people an alternative."

That alternative, Mr. Tarazi insists, is full Israeli withdrawal from Arab territory occupied since the 1967 war and

the birth of a Palestinian state. It's a tough case to argue right now, with Israelis under unrelenting attack by

Palestinian suicide bombers, the latest, Tuesday, killing 17 people. But Mr. Tarazi prides himself on tough

arguments.

Born in Kuwait, raised in America and educated at Andover and Harvard, the 34-year-old U.S. citizen is emerging as

the most articulate and sophisticated Palestinian advocate to come along in years. A rising star on the cable-news

channels, Mr. Tarazi is everything most Palestinian spokespeople are not: young, witty, fluent in American English,

knowledgeable about international law and steeped in Western liberal ideals.

His graceful speeches and sound bites, and sharp, well-researched legal papers, borrow a page from Israel's

playbook: statesmanlike spin, in perfect English.

"Abba Eban comes to mind," says Rabbi Joshua Stampfer of Portland, Ore., after having lunch with Mr. Tarazi last

month. Mr. Eban, South African-born and silver-tongued, helped win international support for the founding of Israel

in 1948. "Tarazi is closer than anything the Palestinians have had before," Rabbi Stampfer says.

But he isn't there yet. On a recent speaking tour of several U.S. cities, Mr. Tarazi told civic groups and private

gatherings that Palestinians are misunderstood. He called suicide attacks on Israelis desperate acts by desperate

people -- acts he personally opposes "point blank," he said. Yet many listeners, after hearing him, said he comes

across as almost too forceful, sometimes flippant and condescending.

Speaking at the World Affairs Council chapter in San Francisco, for example, Mr. Tarazi outlined a range of options

that Palestinians are willing to explore for compensating or resettling their refugees. He was a study in

open-mindedness, until this: "We'll ask Israel how many non-Jews can you take in your ethnically pure state, as

racist as that is," he said.

After the talk, some peopled grumbled on the way out about that gratuitous slap at Zionism. Asked about some of his

contentious statements, Mr. Tarazi says he doesn't play the "media game" and insists on speaking his mind. "The

minute I try to become a polished machine then I start betraying myself and I won't be effective," he says.

As a child growing up in Pennsylvania and Colorado, Mr. Tarazi had no idea he was Palestinian. Then, one day when he

was a 15-year-old sophomore at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., he called home to find his mother in tears over

the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in Lebanon. "That's when she told

me, `We are Palestinian; those are our people,'" Mr. Tarazi recalls.

He went on to college and law school at Harvard, then worked in corporate law for seven years in New York and

Europe, starting with the law firm White & Case and then becoming European general counsel for software-maker

Euronet Services Inc. of Leawood, Kan. "I knew more Jews connected to Israel than Arabs," he says. "That gives me a

unique place in this conflict."

Weary of corporate law, he resigned from Euronet two years ago and moved to the West Bank government seat of

Ramallah. It was Mr. Tarazi's first direct contact with Palestinian politics. He eventually landed a job with the

Palestinian Authority and was put to work on a new team of lawyers assembled to advise the PLO's peace-talks unit.

But, increasingly since the deepening of Israeli-Palestinian hostilities this spring, his main task has been

communications.

"Michael is deeper than securities law; he needed something more satisfying," says Sarinah Kalb, a Jewish friend

from Andover and Harvard who has been hotly debating Mideast politics with Mr. Tarazi for 20 years.

In his standard stump speech -- "What Happened on the Road to Peace" -- Mr. Tarazi tries to dispel two "big myths"

for his audiences. One is that life for Palestinians improved under the Oslo peace accords with Israel in the 1990s.

It didn't, he claims, in part because Israeli settlements got much bigger. "How do you divide a pizza with someone

who won't stop eating it?" he says.

The other is that PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat spurned a historic chance for peace at the Camp David talks with

President Clinton two years ago.

The concessions offered there by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak were "huge," Mr. Tarazi acknowledges, yet

not enough to ensure a "viable, independent" Palestinian state. He shows audiences, on color-coded maps, where

Israel wanted to keep territory for settlements, roads and security perimeters, relegating Palestinian statehood to

a jumble of disjointed "cantonments," he says. "Camp David gave us larger prison cells without letting us out of

prison," he says.

Palestinian violence over the past 20 months -- including all the suicide bombings -- stems not from irreconcilable

hatred of Israel but from exploding political frustrations on the ground, Mr. Tarazi says. "If you believe we were

offered everything, then it's easy to believe we don't want peace, only violence," he says. "But neither belief is

accurate."

That is the essential message he brought to lunch with three rabbis in Portland, Ore., last month, part of his

national speaking tour. The encounter, organized by the World Affairs Council of Oregon, Mr. Tarazi's host for an

evening speech, began with Rabbi Stampfer introducing himself as a "native Palestinian" -- born in Jerusalem in

1921. Mr. Tarazi swapped stories with him about birth certificates -- he was born in Kuwait in 1967 -- and talked

about kosher food laws with another rabbi who scanned the menu for a vegetarian meal.

"How do we stop the suicide bombings?" asked Rabbi Joseph Wolf of Portland's Havurah Shalom congregation.

Make peace, Mr. Tarazi said. The Palestinian authority successfully cracked down on terrorism in 1995, he said,

because enough Palestinians believed suicide bombings threatened their drive toward shatehood. But then the peace

process crumbled, he said, and people concluded diplomacy doesn't work.

"Israel is saying, `You give us security before we'll give you freedom,'" Mr. Tarazi said. "We're saying, `We need

freedom before we can give you security.'"

Said Rabbi Wolf: "We're back to the chicken and the egg."

Mr. Tarazi clearly delights in dissecting Mideast claims with American Jews. The son of a bookkeeper from Gaza and a

West Bank-born homemaker, he went to Andover on financial aid after discovering the boarding school in the "Preppie

Handbook." One of his mentors there was the Jewish chaplain, Rabbi Everett Gendler, who helped subsidize Mr.

Tarazi's first trip to Israel and the occupied territories in the summer of 1983.

Mr. Tarazi's parents didn't want him to go. But Rabbi Gendler encouraged him. Thereafter, Mr. Tarazi became part of

the Gendler family, attending birthdays and holidays at their Massachusetts home. Passover Seders were particularly

poignant, with Mr. Tarazi using the story of the Jews' exodus from Egypt to argue for Palestinians' own

"liberation," Rabbi Gendler says.

"Michael is able to affirm the needs of Palestinians without negating the comparable human and political needs of

Jews," the rabbi says. "If only we had 100 Michael Tarazis!"

After lunch with the rabbis, Mr. Tarazi was grilled by the editorial board of the Portland Oregonian -- "the most

hostile reception I've ever had," he said afterward. Oddly, he says, Israeli audiences tend to be much more

receptive to his maps and "myths" than do Americans, who give him a harder time.

Bob Caldwell, editor of the Oregonian's editorial page, complains that Mr. Tarazi "parses history" to fit

Palestinian claims. For example, when asked about Israel's claims that Mr. Arafat financed terrorism, Mr. Tarazi

dismissed the evidence in a technical "lawyerly" way more suited to a criminal trial than a search for truth, Mr.

Caldwell says.

"I came out of there thinking I'm not changing my opinion," the editor says, "but I'll think about what he said."

I like this article, from the Wall Street Journal. Maybe some of the bloggers will read this and perhaps apply a little perspective instead of screaming about how evil those vicious, barbaric Palestinians are.

Frankly if Israel seriously wanted peace, it could have it. But they just seem to want the Palestinians to stay mum while they continue to expropriate land and supply first-class living facilities to Jewish settlers.

Few bloggers ever comment that those settlers shouldn't even be there in the first case. And finally you're a lot more likely to hear about some poor Israeli teenager being blown to bits than about the numerous injustices and humiliations which take place in the West Bank due to Israeli control.

2002-06-06T21:25:00.002Z

Heard some Vex Red on ITV as they were replaying footage of Senegal vs France. Need to see a concert before I leave London.

2002-06-06T21:25:00.001Z

I read some more George Orwell stuff today. Great writer whose style (along with Abe Lincoln’s) I try to copy when it comes to my own scribblings. He was terribly wrong about socialism vs capitalism, but I figure if Orwell had been around a couple of decades more, he would have changed his mind. Like Keynes, he was quite free from dogma. Probably the best writer about the dangers of totalitarianism that I know of. He would have probably appreciated Star Wars too.

2002-06-06T21:25:00.000Z

Anticipating the England vs Argentina match. To be honest even if they d beat us, fate has already given them a real butt-fucking for the Hand of God. Here the UK is still kind of chugging along, New Labour’s idiocy as regards transport, education, health, industry, spending etc. notwithstanding and the Queen has just celebrated 50 years of her reign while England’s economy has grown bigger than France’s and we’re the fourth-biggest economy in the World. Meanwhile, Argentina is about as screwed as Zimbabwe and making a rapid descent to the Fourth World with a president who doesn’t know shit and a populace who are bawling their eyes out notwithstanding their own guilt in letting themselves be bribed by vast deficits. Hopefully Bolivia will not go down the same route.

2002-06-06T21:24:00.001Z

Just saw Stephen Carter on Hardtalk just now. Impressed me, he is very intelligent. A pity that jabronis like Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton cast themselves as representatives of black America, when there are people of Carter’s calibre about. I’d disagree with him about expanding affirmative action but his notion of how love and charity could be treated more as obligations rather than passions was interesting and thought-provoking. Came up with a good riposte to the presenter (seemed a left-wing secularist) on the participation of religious leaders in political discourse. Got to try to root out some of his writings.

2002-06-06T21:24:00.000Z

Woke up yesterday morning and watched the USA vs Portugal. TV reception was bad so I was a bit shocked when it cleared up enough to let me see the scoreline was 3-1 to the US. To be honest though, Portugal were god-awful and the US were organised enough to take advantage of them. The Portugese seemed to be tired, jaded and looked as if they’d much rather be on the beach with their children and their Swedish model wives. They were sloppy and disinterested, especially the goalkeeper Vitor Baia who had a horrendous game. It’s probably the last time we’ll see him play for Portugal. Figo was clearly struggling with injury, a shadow of the player he was in Euro 2000. Portugal also struggled with getting any penetration. It is a pity they seem to lack anything like a direct striker in the Shearer mold. The USA defending did lack technique at times and their approach play was nowhere as developed as some other teams e.g. Ireland. A better opposition would have gone for the kill once Agoos’ own goal had gone in, but to their credit the Americans didn’t panic and showed great composure and team spirit. Their match versus South Korea should be interesting.

In other matches Russia beat Tunisia (yawn) and Ireland got a last-minute draw against Germany who have still not recovered the invincibility that was shattered by Croatia in France 98. That’s the brilliant thing about football, everything can change within the space of 3 seconds. Ireland’s approach play was a delight to watch and you wonder if they should play with three at the back in order to give their attack a boost.

2002-06-02T21:51:00.000Z

The bloggers reviewed

Instapundit - Repetitive in comments but good source of info, like Drudge.

Brothers Judd - Crazy guy, but excellent content. Second to Layne.

Ken Layne - Numero uno. Best writer on the Web.

Matt Welch - Pretty good.

Andrew Sullivan - Not bad but tends to get obsessed with particular topics.

Libertarian Samizdata - Nice posts but not good enough for regular viewing.

Patrick Ruffini - Disturbing to see someone this young being so into politics.

2002-03-17T22:34:00.000Z

all hail me