I haven’t been watching 24 this year because I watch Heroes and I tape Heroes. One VCR, no Tivo, that means I can watch one show and tape another, but I love Heroes so much I’ve been watching it and taping it. And, well, 24 has gotten really stupid. Especially this year.

Like, right now, Jack Bauer is de-arming a nuclear bomb. No, really. Not only can he defeat any kind of superterrorist, but apparently he can also disarm a suitcase nuke. Which was left behind by the terrorists who kidnapped a programmer from CTU and then tortured him into arming the bomb. Because, gee, that always works: In order to get a computer genius to reprogram the whatsit so that it does the thingamabob, torture him.

I’m sorry, just not believable. Which is not to say that 24 was ever really believable, but it’s even less believable than ever.

The only reason I got to see it tonight is because they’re running a double episode.

Not missing the show.

At least on Heroes, you believe a man can fly. It’s the premise of the show.

(Countdown to Jack Bauer fans arguing the premise of the show is that Jack Bauer IS SuperAgent.)

So I was reading something on TNR, and there was an ad on top for a film with the guy who played Reed Richards in Fantastic Four, and he was all dressed up in 19th century (or 18th century) English garb, so I clicked on it, having both a soft spot for period pieces and extremely handsome men with gorgeous cheekbones.

And I found this. It’s a movie about the man who ended the English slave trade, and looks, well, phenomenal. Just put it on my must-see list.

I have no interest whatsoever in the origin of the song, which is apparently also part of the film.

Don’t expect much from the website. It doesn’t seem to be working properly once you get off the main page. But the trailer is, well, amazing.

Great news: The Arrow anti-missile defense system worked under test conditions that mirrored real-world attacks.

According to defense sources, the test was aimed at examining the system’s ability to deal with destroying enemy missiles. This time the main battery, which is supposed to hit the missile, was not placed dozens of kilometers from the test field.

“This test constitutes a step up in the extreme conditions we set for ourselves compared to previous tests,” a defense source stressed. “We are definitely dealing with relevant threats faced by the State of Israel.”

Defense Minister Amir Peretz praised the successful test-firing of the Arrow missile. He telephoned senior defense officials and commended them on the test’s success.

[...] Defense establishment officials expressed their satisfaction over the successful test.

“Everything worked perfectly and this proves that Israel has a system which knows how to deal with the threats faced by the State,” Colonel Moshe Fatal of the Defense Ministry’s Homa anti-ballistic system project told Ynet.

This is wonderful news, especially considering Syria and Hamas have joined Hezbullah in stocking missiles.

According to Fatal, the fact that the test was carried out under extreme conditions examined how the system would deal with a real challenge, and the success was therefore extremely significant.

“New parameters, which were developed in the past few years, were used in this test,” he said. “We are continuing to develop the system. A new launcher was used, for example, in order to accommodate the system to real threats.”

That’s great to hear. Well, unless you’re Hamas and Hezbullah.

First the good news: The AP has continued to correctly identify the Temple Mount’s importance to Jews.

The disputed hilltop site is home to the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, the third-holiest site in Islam. The compound, built atop the ruins of the biblical Jewish Temples, is also the holiest site in Judaism, and Jews gather to pray near one of its outer retaining walls, known as the Western Wall.

Now the bad news: The ramp construction will be delayed due to pressure from the lies the Muslims are telling.

Jerusalem’s Jewish mayor has ordered a review of construction work near a holy site at the center of the Arab-Israeli conflict, a City Hall spokesman said Monday, in an attempt to quell days of Muslim protests and condemnations from throughout the Arab world.

The decision is expected to delay completion of the project, a new walkway leading to the compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount. But it will have no effect on preparatory work currently going on, and did little to assuage Muslim concerns that the work will harm Islamic holy sites.

And this means absolutely nothing to the Arabs:

The preparatory work is being carried out by Israeli archaeologists, who began carrying out an exploratory dig last week to ensure that no important remains are damaged when the walkway is built.

[...] The project has drawn fierce protests from Palestinians and Arab countries, who accuse Israel of plotting to damage Muslim holy sites. Israel denies the charge, noting the work is about 50 yards from the compound.

[...] Muslim leaders rejected Lupolianski’s move as insufficient because it didn’t stop the archaeological work.

“The problem is the digging, which hasn’t stopped, and unfortunately the Israeli government has decided to continue the digging,” Mohammed Hussein, Jerusalem’s mufti, or Muslim religious leader, told The Associated Press on Monday.

Liars. The Muslims are lying about the effects of the dig, lying about the placement of the dig, and lying about the results of the dig. They are lying to fan the flames of incitement against Israel.

Lawmaker Arieh Eldad called it “a disgraceful surrender to the threats from the Arabs of Israel and the Arabs and Muslims of the neighboring countries that if we behave as a people behaves in its capital they will ignite the Middle East.”

Speaking to Israel Radio, he said the fight over the walkway is really a fight over sovereignty in Jerusalem.

I will point out once again that when Jordan annexed Jerusalem between 1949 and 1967, Jews were not allowed to go near the our holiest site. Muslims basically control all of their holy sites, and are trying to control the entire site.

Yeah, well, life’s tough when you start a war to eliminate a nation and lose. Five times.

Barack Obama is showing his inexperience in the first 24 hours after announcing his candidacy for president. Now, I think it’s entirely possible Obama may make a good candidate in another four or five years, but I think he needs a little work. Especially in math.

The background: Obama said if he’s elected, he’d bring the troops home by March 2008. John Howard, Australia’s Prime Minister, thought it was a bad idea.

CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) — Australia’s conservative Prime Minister John Howard said Sunday that victory for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and his party in next year’s presidential election would be a boon for terrorists.

“If I were running al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats,” Howard said, speaking on “Sunday,” a TV show on Australia’s Nine Network.

Obama struck back:

Mr. Obama said Australia had sent 1,400 troops to Iraq, a fraction of the American force.

“If he’s ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and send them to Iraq,” Mr. Obama said. “Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of empty rhetoric.”

Actually, it’s nearly impossible to send another 20,000 Australian troops to Iraq. The entire Australian army currently numbers about 25,000 troops. That would be because Australia has less than one-tenth the population of America, so when you realize that the U.S. has 140,000 troops in Iraq, and Australia has 1,400, the math is just about right. However, Howard’s working on building up the army. He’s adding another 2,600 troops for the next year—which would equate to the U.S. Armed Services bulking up by about another 150,000 troops.

Yeah, Australia’s got that great big land mass. But they have a little more than 20 million people on the continent. America has over 300 million.

This is why I have zero confidence that Obama can do the job. He can’t even do the math.

I’m sorry, but it isn’t really too terribly difficult to know that Australia’s population is only a fraction of ours. And it’s not too much to ask that a presidential candidate have someone available to find out something simple, like the size of the Australian army. It took me a ten-second Google search.

Rudy’d never make that mistake. Then again, Rudy would never say he’s bringing the troops home by next March. Rudy would say they’re staying until they get the job done.