America Firsters

One thing that really annoys me are politicians (most often American ones) saying that we should stop "interfering" in the world and deal with our own problems.

That's rather a selfish view, IMHO. Plus, these problems don't get better without outside intervention. Two, if we were to, par exemple, withdraw from Iraq prematurely, there would be a failed state that would cause problems for America, Britain and other countries.

Where are the internationalists in American politics? And don't say the protectionist Democrats are better.

Hot Fuzz

Saw this at the cinema yesterday. I'd highly recommend it. It's laugh-out-loud funny, has some great (and funny) action scenes and a lot of famous UK faces (Timothy Dalton is particularly good). The plot's not half bad either.

Ian Richardson 1934-2007

The first time I saw Ian Richardson was in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and he was great in that. I've never seen House of Cards though. He was great as Death in Hogfather.

He'll be sorely missed.

Doom

Bit gory, a lot of foul language and virtually all the cast end up dead. Some violations of the laws of physics as well (In the real world, people do not fly back ten feet when shot).

The first-person bit was nice, mind.

Gremlins

Finished off Gremlins today and found it OK. The Stage 1 Gremlins were a bit unconvincing (eyes didn't look real), but the second stage ones were better.

Wasn't there a sequel made to this?

My Iraq plan

It's important for those who are criticising Bush's policy on Iraq to say what they would do differently. I'm not exactly a critic, but here's what I think we should do:

1. Place the Iraqis firmly in command. Put their generals and leaders in charge of the Multi-National Forces.
2. Focus our effects a lot more on training the Iraqi forces.
3. Zero tolerance of corruption, police abuse of power.
4. Banning all the militias. In fact, get the Iraqi government to make possession of a firearm, save by the militaries and bodyguards, a criminal offence.
5. Point out who is responsible for most of the deaths in Iraq.
6. When the training of the Iraqi forces is done, start fully withdrawing, but set the timetable privately.
7. Take a tough stance with Iran and Syria. These regimes simply need to stop arming these terrorists. Sanctions would be a good idea, but not war.
8. No use of torture. It just makes us look bad.
9. Carry on with the province-by-province transfer of security, but speed it up.

Comments are welcome.