I need a break from politics

John Cole posted on this yesterday. Yes I am a Buffy and Angel fan. Own all the seasons on DVD. Joss Whedon is a phenomenal writer ( Toy Story oscar nomination ) I've always felt that if the series were called: "The Slayer" it would have attracted a far greater audience. Buffy is being taught in Pop Culture classes now.

What I find is that in the last several years women are much more interesting characters to watch as hero figures on TV or in the movies for that matter. It started for me with Emma Peels , but Buffy took the mantle in the late 90's and w/o the series would Alias have ever been made? Sydney is really Buffy without the mystical aspects built in. Actually two former Buffy and Angel writes were hired for this last season. (Update)-Great article in USA TODAY "Holding out for a heroine"on women as leads in the new action films.

John is on Season Five which I liked. He was asking for "Cool v. Uncool" Anyone care to weigh in? If you do "No spoilers" I will say that "Faith" ( Eliza Dushku ) needs her own series. The choice Eliza made of Tru Calling is a big mistake. Maybe when she stops getting the "bad" girl rolls on B-movies she'll realize that a Faith series would catapult her career. By the time she turns 30, the series would be over and she'd be doing A movies projects like Sarah.

Since I've seen Season V, I won't say much. My favorite Seasons are II and III.

Here's Cole's picks:

Buffy's sister- uncool
Giles's new car- cool
Xander tired of being everyone's 'bitch'- cool
Riley- still uncool
Buffy in pink leather pants- cool
Spike only having cameos- uncool
My still missing the bitchy, whiny, shallow, obnoxious, and insufferable Cordelia (BEST. BUFFY. CHARACTER. EVER. Spike and Drusilla are a close second) even though she has been gone a season- uncool.
Xander's Demonic girlfriend- very cool

Fri Mar 4, 2005 08:31 PM ET

(Reuters) - Afghan heroin production represents an "an enormous threat to world stability" and the country is "on the verge of becoming a narcotics state," the U.S. State Department said in a report released on Friday.

Despite steps by the Afghan government and foreign donors, the U.S. International Narcotics Control Strategy Report found the Afghan "narcotics situation continues to worsen" more than three years after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban regime.

The most dramatic conclusions in the report, an annual survey of the world drug trade, were about Afghanistan, where it praised U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai's efforts, but said Afghan poppy cultivation more than tripled last year.

I might be wrong, but doesn't drug trafficking help support terrorism? We sure have a firm hold of that country. (hat tip Editerette)

  The Guardian UK: (h/t Gregory)

British troops could remain in Afghanistan for more than the 38 years it took them to pull out of Northern Ireland. That is the bleak assessment by Army commanders on the ground in Helmand province.

In an interview with The Observer at HQ in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, Brigadier John Lorimer, commander of UK forces in Helmand, said: 'If you look at the insurgency then it could take maybe 10 years. Counter-narcotics, it's 30 years. If you're looking at governance and so on, it looks a little longer. If you look at other counter-insurgency operations over the last 100 years then it has taken time.'

His scenario is the starkest assessment yet from a senior officer tasked with defeating the Taliban, tackling the heroin trade and rebuilding the war-ravaged country. Last week troops pulled out of Northern Ireland after 38 years, the longest operation in UK military history. Afghanistan, commanders fear, may take longer.[..]

Scores of soldiers have succumbed to heatstroke while hundreds have battled on despite dehabilitating illness. Almost 50 out of 160 forward troops reported severe sickness and diarrhoea in the forward base at Sangin last month. A number of troops have lost limbs during firefights in the upper Gereshk valley, south of Sangin.

I can't imagine anyone involved--the Americans, NATO, the Brits or most of all, the Afghanis--being okay with this lasting that long.