Yesterday's 24 for okay. They just do some stupid things, I guess for TV, that don't make sense. Kim Bauer who is on the run from the cops got caught in an animal trap. Finally the trap owner, some survivalist dude, comes and frees her. He offers that she stay in his place because it is too dangerous at night to get back to the highway. She agrees and I can kind'a see that happening. But here's the stupid part. She gets in his house, he offers her his bathroom so that she can clean up and stuff, she goes in cleans up and puts on a sexy tank top with no bra and comes out. Now, isn't that crazy? The situation is crazy enough with some reclusive guy in the middle of no where at night and she is baring it all? That whole story line with her has been a horrible diversion from an otherwise very good story. The other annoying aspect is Jack Bauer who always leads every raid with his pistol and no helmet while everyone else is in full body armour. I realize that he is the star and people want to see his face, but it does get to be a bit much. Yesterday's episode was somewhat unsatisfying but it is still a good show and the only show now that I am really interested in. I have since lost interest in Alias and ER and the Practice. ER may be redeemable, the Practice is the Practice, and Alias, it is hard to see have they can recapture the magic of the maiden voyage, they destroyed the Alliance, which was the primary villain.

I am teaching a class on Christian morality and the question of torture has come of frequently because the President in 24 has resorted to torture in order to break a traitor. Torture is considered to be an instrinsic evil, i.e., no amount of good intention or circusmstances can make it morally acceptable. I agree with that, but I also think that the evil of this world causes us to do evil things sometimes, perhaps the lesser of two evils. We are often fortunate that we personally do not have to be involved in the decisions that affect millions of lives and we don't often deal with people so evil that extreme actions have to be taken. I think there is a line that simply cannot be crossed such as invasive torture. But in the case of 24, they use electric shocks . . . I don't know. Actions that are intrinsically evil are never acceptable such as rape, I guess the question is more about the definition of torture and when does it become intrinsically evil. There are a broad range of actions that could be deemed torture, from the very benign "tortures" of basic relationships to pure cruelty. Anyway, this is the same problem with war. It is a necessary evil, justified under certain circumstances. The issue of torture is one that needs to be given more thought.