24

I’m not much of a television fan, but I do make a point of watching 24. It has its moments of incredulity, but for the most part it’s a well written series and I really like the main characters. Tonight, after a recorder malfunction in the middle of the show, we at least got to watch the first hour and the last thirty minutes, so we were able to keep track of the plot.

This week’s show did a marvelous job of showing exactly how naïve and stupid our politicians can be when it comes to dealing with terrorists. Poor old Jack Bauer tries his best, but the bad guys always manage to do a lot of damage before anyone believes him, and people always die because of some arrogant, stupid politician or bureaucrat. Our new Attorney General, Eric Holder, sounds like he’d fit right into the show as an example of terminaly dumb.

The show makes you wonder if there is anyone in our real intelligence or special ops organizations that emulates Jack Bauer. I hope there is, because we sure could use someone like him to deal with the people trying to run the country now.

I also wonder if there are real computers that can instantly access anything and everything in mere seconds. I can’t even log onto the internet in the time Chloe can access the detailed blueprints of a building she’s never seen, and do a complete background check on an unknown Romanian sailor. Just once, I’d like to see her hit the wrong key and crash the system so bad that she had to reboot. If she did, and if her computer could get as screwed up as mine can, they might have to rename the show to 24.5.