As if I did not already have enough things trying to steal my money away, I go and stumble across this.

I do not know about you, but I definitely could do with the Unknown Soldier photo, or the Raptor flight manual. Of course, given my current buying spree, I honestly doubt I will have any spending money left over come 16 January, when the auction starts. Such is life, I suppose.

On another note, am I the only one who is quite disappointed that this coming half-season really will be the end of the new Battlestar Galactica run? I mean, they are striking the set, and when that happens, it is pretty much all over... While the story is looking like it will wrap up relatively well at the end, it still would have been nice to have at least one quality (or at least semi-quality) science-fiction show still producing new episodes periodically...

So, thanks to some leftover credit from hooking up my TiVo to Amazon's Unbox service (a concept which, by the way, still blows my mind - I hop on my computer, go to a webpage, order up a TV show, and it appears on my TiVo, and eventually my television... gotta love technology), I was able to catch up on all of the Battlestar Galactica episodes I missed, including Razor, and I have got to say... woah.

First, Admiral Cain would have shot me. There is no rutting way I would have followed her orders when it came to the Scylla, and since she tended to get in a killing mood when people disobey her... yup. Tactically, she was correct - the Pegasus needed crew and equipment to continue its battle against the Cylons, there is no doubt about that. But she was thinking on too short of a scale - yes, it is their mission, as military officers, as a ship's crew, and as the ship itself, to take the battle to the enemy, especially after said enemy just glassed twelve whole planets and killed God alone knows how many people. But considering the fact that they received no word of survivors form the colonies, they have to treat the situation like they are the last humans in... well... the universe. And taking those humans into repeated and increasingly deadly combat, while simultaneously shooting, and killing-through-stranding, some of the few civilians you happen to come across? Yeah, you might win the occasional battle against the toasters, but you sure as hell will lose the war.

Second, I find it all manner of amusing that the humans got to Earth after someone glassed it. And, yes, that does have to be Earth - granted, the stars projected in the Tomb of Athena on Kobol were possibly thousands of years out of date... But considering that Battlestars plot their FTL jumps and other navigation based off constellations, something tells me they can account for drift. Furthermore, the probability of different stars happening to align to perfectly represent those twelve constellations from some other planet are so small as to be effectively zero, so we are just going to have to accept this is Earth. The real questions are who nuked it, when, and why... And I guess that is what the rest of the season is for.

Third, what is the deal with Starbuck? Dead (as in ship-exploded-on-gun-camera-footage-dead), not dead; harbinger of death, guide to Earth... And what is with Adama 1 and Adama 2 just going along with it? Hope is one thing, but, damn..

For only having half a season left, this show has a lot of loose ends to either tie up, or chop off.

You know, I really might be nitpicking and overthinking this entire situtation, but I have been watching a few episodes of Battlestar Galactica (the new series) recently, and reached an odd conclusion.

Namely, their personnel armaments changed considerably as the show progressed. Initially, their sidearms were predominantly odd, rather large pistols, with no real analogue to modern day firearms. Basically, it was a prop, through and through, and did not appear to be based on anything made in these days, except in basic form only. As if to make matters more fun, it possessed a standard pistol barrel on top, and then a single-shot mini-rocket launcher slung beneath the barrel. Of course, the prop guy seemed to occasionally get the barrels mixed up, and you would see gun blasts coming out of either... Details. When it came to long guns, the troopers generally used silenced FN P90s. That much was patently obvious, due to the forearm-friendly bullpup-ish (how would you qualify that, anywise?) design, unique grips, and almost complete absence of any exposed barrel on the unsilenced models.

Moving on, however, things changed. The sidearm suddenly appeared to be based off the Five-seveN pistol. Ok, sure, I can live with that (even with the continuing thread of the rocket launcher underneath the barrel), considering it is made by the same company that produces the P90, and also uses the same ammunition. It would make sense that one's sidearm and rifle use the same ammunition wherever possible, assuming you are not looking for some massive, armor-piercing, tank-dropping round (generally a bad thing when you live in a tin can floating in space). Except the P90s are, predominantly, gone. Instead, in their place are a plethora of Beretta CX4 Carbines. Now, I will be the first to say that those are definitely futuristic-looking firearms, but they got nothin' on the P90s, and use completely different ammunition to boot (once again, pistol-friendly, but only in 9mm, .40, and .45 ACP caliber flavors - not the 5.7mm the P90/Five-seveN use).

Yeah, I admit it, I am splitting hairs... I am not going to argue with any of the choices from a realistic firearm standpoint... I like all of the firearms in question aesthetically, I love the idea of rifles and pistols sharing ammuntion, and I doubly love the 20-round capacity of the non-Kalifornistan Five-seveN. But I have to wonder why they went from a rifle that uses one type of round, to a pistol that uses the same type of round... while simultaneously dumping the rifle. Yes, I know this is a science fiction TV series, and the calibers of the firearms portrayed could be completely different. But regardless, the question remains, and one has to wonder why the changed props mid-stream... it is not probable that the fleet has a firearm factory with them, and you may as well use what you have. That, and no matter how you look at it, the, the P90's magazine design will yield it a much larger capacity than the CX4, no matter what caliber you use. And, finally, why change the props at all? I mean, only firearm-interested types like me would eventually notice, but still.

Ok, it was a slow day. Sue me. As an aside, does anyone know if the controversy over the 5.7mm round was ever resolved? I seem to recall something about it having tumbling problems...

For those of you who turned on the old-skool electronic god (otherwise known as a "television", though who calls it that?) yesterday evening, and had your world shattered by the complete and utter absence of Battlestar Galatica, take heart.  It turns out that the various executives of the SciFi Channel decided to move its airing to Sundays, starting tomorrow, and holding for the forseeable future.  I would not venture to guess as to why they would do this - I never particularly understood how ratings and airtimes and the such worked - but, since I have TiVo, it really does not matter a whole lot to me.  Just be prepared for my insightful, thought-provoking, and educational posts (only in my dreams) about the show to be a little late, since I will likely be watching it Monday evening. 

However, if you are yearning for one of those aforementioned posts before Monday (and this one really will be insightful, thought-provoking, and educational), take a look at this one written by Rebecca Cusey.  Suffice it to say that I agree with her writings almost entirely, and her last three sentences, quoted below for convenience, are dead on the mark. 

By moving our current situation from the front page of the newspaper to the recesses of space, the show engages us in a national conversation about war, democracy, and commitment. It may not give all the answers, but it asks the right questions. This is what makes it the best show on television.

I would venture to add that it is because it does not give all of the answers that makes it so great, but that might just be me.  Regardless, here's to Sunday evenings. 

At least when they are marathons of Battlestar Galactica.  Not so sure about "normal" ones. 

One of the more interesting things going on during this marathon is that the SciFi channel decided to do a viewer poll while the aired the entire third season of Battlestar Galactica, back-to-back.  People could either get online to vote in this poll, or use their cellphones to text in their responses.  Being the cheap little bastard I am, I definitely opted for the first choice.  Regardless, I figured I would go ahead and give you the questions here, as well as my answers and rationale, just for the fun of it.  Bear in mind that my answers may bear absolutely nothing in common with the multiple-choice answers provided by the SciFi channel... some of them I just consider far too constricting, or the right answer, but wrong explanation.  Before we embark upon this journey, however, a small gripe - what is it with television stations thinking I give a flying damn what people think of the show?  Or their opinions on certain matters?  Now, I admit, a lot of the time I do.  However, when I watch the show, I want to watch the bloody show, not have a fifth of the screen taken up by the blatherings of some nidgets.  G4TV started it with the Star Trek 2.0 and ST:tNG 2.0, and now SciFi is doing it with the BSG marathon...  Really gets on my nerves, serves no purpose, and gets in the way of me enjoying my damned show.  Stop it, already! 

As for the questions, first off, we have the one from the "Collaborators" episode:  What do you think should be done with the collaborators?  For those of you who do not remember the specific details, the question is referring to those humans who decided to work with the Cylons occupying New Caprica, whether it was by joining their "police force", or feeding them information, or other such activities.  The options the SciFi channel provide are "Execute them for the safety of the fleet," "Give them a fair trial by jury," and "Pardon them to reunite the human race."  Again, if you are unfamiliar with the turn of events, President Roslyn decided to pursue the last course of action, granting a blanket pardon to anyone and everyone who worked for or with the Cylons... unfortunately a little late for a few people, but still a nice gesture.  What would I do?  I strongly believe in the rule of law, and due process, and all of that related jazz, but I believe I would probably follow the same course of action.  It would be remarkably hard for me to ignore the actions committed by some of those people - I could probably forgive, but I would never, ever forget - but in the interest of keeping the fleet together, keeping our numbers high (a real consideration for the human fleet at this point), and preventing undue strife, I would probably pardon them as well.  A trial would provide justice, but it would take time, it would bring up old memories that should likely be forgotten, and the justice it would dole out would probably be better supplanted by forcing those individuals to live with themselves... and their guilt. 

The second question is drawn from "Torn":  "Who do you think will win the race to Earth?"  The provided answers are, "The Cylons," "The crew of the Galactica," and "Neither - Earth is a myth."  I confess that the last answer does hold a certain attraction for me...  all of the evidence, stories, and metaphors provided in the Scroll of Pithia do seem to be coming to pass, or at least the popular interpretation of all of those does...  But it would be a wonderfully annoying story quirk for both forces to be trying their damnest to find Earth and get there first... only to fail miserably after finding out it does not exist, and never did.  However, my honest answer is that the Cylons will probably find it first.  Superior processing power, superior numbers, superior knowledge of the Scroll (as well as other aspects of the human pantheistic religion), superior (if somewhat dogmatic) faith, no need for rest, no real death...  Oh, and Gaius Balthar, the consumate bastard, to boot.  All of their advantages are just too numerous, and too substantial to ignore.  Granted, the humans have been finding and understanding the breadcrumbs left by the mythical Thirteenth Tribe faster than the Cylons, but once they get the information, it does not take long for the chromedomes to catch up.  The real question is what is going to happen when whoever gets there first, does so.  Will it be the Earth we know now, a more advanced society, or an empty Eden, with no signs of what happened to the Tribe?  Of course, the additional question is why the Cylons, after taking over all Twelve Colonies, spontaneously decided that Earth was going to be their new home...  Granted, nuclear wastelands are far from being the most hospitable, but that hardly seemed to slow them down considerably. 

Moving on to the fourth question, related to the episode "Measure of Salvation":  "Would you order the use of biological weapons to wipe out the Cylons?"  The answers the boob-tube provided were, "Yes, it's either us or them," "No, it's akin to genocide," and "I would put it to a vote."  Alrighty, we will tackle these answers starting with the last, and moving forward.  First, the current human arrangement, when related to this question, is not a democracy, or even a republic.  Yes, the humans do have a government, with its duly elected representatives and the like, complete with its own Constitution-analogue and everything.  That has nothing to do with what is a military decision.  Exterminating the enemy is always a military decision - the very fact that the question came up indicates that diplomacy has already failed, and badly at that.  Second, while the term "genocide" has been grossly, grossly misused in the past, mostly to promote one political stance over another, I give the SciFi channel webmasters credit in using it properly this time around.  That said, the only thing that saves them, however, is "akin to".  Genocide requires the existence of an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group, and the Cylons arguably possess none of those.  To boot, it could easily be argued that Cylons, in fact, are not alive as we know it now...  the whole inability to propagate, as well as the fact that they never really die except in certain situations kind of eliminates that possibility.  As you can probably figure from that statement, I do not find the Cylons to be humans, either, which makes the genocide argument even more difficult.  Machines are machines, even if they happen to be bipedal, humanoid, and comprised of organic cogs, and destroying them by means of a virus is not really any different than doing so to your computer.  So, as should be obvious, my answer to this question would be, "Yes, without a moment's hesitation."  The Cylons have proben themselves to be immense threats to the continued existence of the human species time and time and time again, and show no signs of slowing in the forseeable future - in fact, it seems like they are trying to step it up.  Yes, there were two notable exceptions to that rule, but the percentages in that case would be so remarkably low...  And are you willing to pay the immense cost, in terms of human lives, to figure out which Cylon can be trusted, and which cannot?  The humans only have so many people, and a numbers game will always result in their loss - time to level out the field. 

And now for the lastion question, as framed by the "Hero" episode:  "Should Adama feel guilty about the attack on the Colonies?"  The answers include "Yes, his actions provoked the Cylons," "No, he was just following orders," and "Maybe - but for every action there is a measure of doubt."  Well, first off, I positively despite "maybe", fence-sitting answers, so that eliminates that one right off the bat, and we all know that eliminating one answer always makes multiple-choice questions easier.  Except for this one, because the SciFi channel screwed up.  My answer to the question, in short, is "No," and that is it.  None of this nonsensical excuse-by-reason-of-orders, none of this "provocation" nonsense... none of that.  As the Nuremberg trials demonstrated, orders are absolutely no excuse to execute an order you know to be wrong, especially for someone as high-ranking, experienced, and ethically/morally-minded as Commander Adama.  Additionally, while the Cylons probably are not alive by our understanding of the concept, they have demonstrated, by means of the Turing tests inherent in any human's interactions with a Cylon, conscious, sentient thought.  Assuming that postulate, the thought that they are still responsible and accountable for their own actions follows logically, so no matter the provocation, they are still at fault for their actions, and their subsequent decision to invade and destroy the Colonies.  Now, my rationale for why he should feel no guilt?  He made the appropriate decision at the time, both in the case of taking the mission (the humans needed the information), as well as when deciding to shoot down his own man.  And while his mission may, very well, have provoked the Cylons, that does not lay the blame upon his shoulders, nor does it make logical sense.  A single ship poking at their borders would not normally be sufficient reason for them to completely destroy their human counterparts, I would believe - in all likelihood, they had already planned out their assault, and the wheels were in motion... the scout mission simply provided a handy excuse, and starting point. 

So there you have it... my two cents, or credits, or however you want to look at it.  But wait, there's more!  Throughout the marathon, they have been showing preview commercials for the next season, and if you want to avoid some undue (and atrociously spoiling) spoilers, I would suggest that you do not read the rest of this post.  Either way, just remember that the new half-season starts on the 21st, a Sunday, at 10pm EST.  A new night, and a new time, so change your schedule (or TiVo, in my case, which automatically figured it out) to fit accordingly.  And before you run off entirely, this post was trackposted to Right Wing Nation, just for the giggles of it, as well as Stop the ACLU, in an attempt to get them to watch something other than 24. 

Once more into the Battlestar Galactica breach.

Well, I just realized that I had forgotten yet another relatively important aspect to a previous post. The episode was relatively good, definitely, but what was best about it was the quote uttered by Lee Adama when faced against Colonel Tigh... (I will leave this post in its normal format, simply because the information presented here is not entirely a spoiler, and if you have not seen the episode already, you are not likely to regardless :).)

Regardless, Apollo was hunting down all of the individuals who had been partaking of the violent black market, and had traced a gold bracelet back to Colonel Tigh. Tigh was hemming and hawing and trying to find any way to direct blame and attention away from himself, and finally came up with the tried and failed line of something approximating, "But everyone else is doing it!" He proceeded to cap it off with an unfortunately true, "Hell, so are you!" or words similar to that (those two lines are relatively unimportant - they only serve to set up the next). Apollo retorted with a tired look, and the line of, "Doesn't make us right. Just a whole lot of people wrong."

You have no idea how many other times I have heard the phrase, "Well, everyone else i sdoing it, so what is wrong with me doing it?" Just because a lot of people do something, it does not at all make that action the correct course. And just because the person who is currently hunting down all the offenders took part in it as well, it does not mean he is wrong either. A hypocrite, yes. But he is still correct.

The American populace seems to have developed the attitude that if enough people do something, then there is no point worrying about it - you cannot stop them all, so why even bother trying? What is more, the same populace seems to have developed the distasteful attitude that if enough people do something, then it must not be that wrong of a thing, or why would they do it? Well, I hate to break it to all of the utopians out there, but the average person cannot be trusted to do the right thing when doing something else would better suit his or her interests. Yeah, cynical, I know. But considering how much of an instant-gratification, touchy-feely, if-it-feels-good-do-it society we have become, do you really blame me? So yeah, I get a little concerned when someone's personal goals do not necessarily jive with society's goals, and what is arguably the correct thing to do...

Do I blame Apollo for partaking in the black market? Absolutely. Even though it saved the life of his prostitute's daughter, and turned out to create a "good' end result, the action itself was still "wrong", even though he was unaware of the finer points of the black market's policies at the time of the decision. Stealing food to keep from starving is necessary, yes. But still wrong. But do I consider Apollo to be a "rat", or "nark", or whatever for searching out and destroying the black market, or at least the unsavory parts, when he had the opportunity? Absolutely not. Hypocritical, yes. But still right.

As the saying goes, all it takes for evil to succede is for good men to stand by and do nothing. And while good men occasionally do lose their way, there is nothing to say that they cannot find it once again. Yes, what Apollo did was wrong, and he is equally culpable for all of the disastrous actions the black market decided to take. However, the fact that he was able to stand up against the establishment, and break it down to its knees, alone indicated that he had not really succumbed to its darker sides. And through that one act of defiance, even with his own life on the line, he brought the evil of the black market to an ostensible end, while still retaining its usefulness. In the end, a single act of contrition can make up for a hell of a lot of wrongdoing in the past. Not excuse it, but certainly compensate for it.

Trite though it may sound, we need more people willing to make that stand.

Well, I bring you the next installment of our counter-culture examination of the current running of Battlestar Galactica. The rest is below the break :).

So the big thing these days among the blogs I read is to make posts about the television series "24". I can honestly say I have never seen a single episode, and find most of the posts somewhat confusing, or just outright odd. Thus far, from reading those posts and talking to my parents, the show is thus named because its season encompasses an entire 24-hour period, with each episode literally lasting an hour of "show"-time, even factoring in the commercial breaks. From there, the show follows the life of counter-terrorist "Jack Bauer", and his many exploits saving America, defeating evil, and all that good, fancy stuff.

Well, never having seen a single episode, I cannot say I know much beyond that. And having missed the previous X seasons, I figured that picking it up in mid-stream would not be the best course of action. And since I am attempting to curtail my spending, buying the previous seasons is not an option either. So... yeah, this post is not about "24".

Rather, this post is about the best science fiction television series still being produced. My loyalties will always rest with "Firefly" being the all-time best series, regardless of how short it turned out to be, and with "Babylon 5" having the outright best storyline of any science fiction series (and being a damned good show on top of that), and with "Star Trek: The Next Generation"... well... just because. But this one is definitely the best of the bunch that still have new episodes coming out on a weekly basis.

Nope, this post is about "Battlestar Galactica". Now that is some good scifi television. Great special effects, wonderful intrigue, well-acted characters, and enough non-PC religious and political topics to send a liberal into a complete flat-spin, nose-dive of doom. And did I mention the special effects? Of course, one first has to get past the fact that Starbuck is now on the other side (of the gender war, that is), and that the chrome toasters of the past are ... well ... in the past, but once reality is suspended (twice - once for our reality, and once for the reality of the older series), life is good.

Suffice it to say that you should watch an episode on your own... Not sure how well you will fare if you pick up the series mid-stream, but the DVDs are definitely worth the money. If nothing else, there are some damned good explosions, good-looking chicks not wearing much, and enough technobabble to drown any nerd :). At any rate, the rest of this post will exist on the other side of the break, to avoid giving virgin eyes spoilers.