stuffs arguments back up heinie from whence they came

Actually, I think that this is consistent with the shared part what all of you were saying. There is a trade off between the accuracy (associated with the most "gyroscopic stability") and the damage caused by the bullet (associated with less stability), and that for the last 100 years munitions designers have tinkered with finding the best balance of those two factors.

Nora,

why do you say this?

yeah, but it bugs me that Jack is seen as like this paragon of leadership, is all. Though, that seems to be unraveling. yay.

I never ever thought he was a paragon of leadership. He resisted the role of leader early on and Kate pretty well thrust it on him - as did Locke. I have never seen Jack in this role during the series. It's like people assuming Locke is a master hunter. Well, he isn't really, but he read a helluva lot of books and he is doing his best.

What the people on the island are assuming about their comrades should be different than how we viewers see them because we actually know their backstories, psychoses, and weaknesses.

So I equate seeing Jack as the paragon of leadership the way I would seeing Sawyer as a medicine hoarding asshole. The folks on the island may see them each that way but we know better.

I particularly liked the scene between Jack and his dad in his dad's office. Thought Matthew Fox was really good in that scene.

So if the spooky island dwelling other types brought down the plane to get their mitts on Claire or her unborn kid, d'you think Crazy French Woman was pregnant and they wrecked her boat to get their paws on her kid?

Maybe there's a correspondence between how young you are and how much control you have over the nature of 'reality' on this island. So a baby would grow into a toddler that as soon as is verbal enough you could influence to make things easier to deal with/more comfortable (less monsters). And therefore, the kidnapping of Alex. Perhaps Walt is already too old (past the age of the conscience developing) to have enough 'power' to be a kidnapping target.

Hmmm... notice that Locke was a war games/role player, and forced by his handicap to live more of his life in his imagination. Hurley, we've already speculated is a games designer or at least seems very familiar with science fiction. (He's the one that came up with the "dinosaurs?" theory, after all.) Jack -- his traumas are all rooted in his childhood relationship with his father.

I'd like to think that I'm onto something here, or maybe it's just still early in the AM for me. :-)

So I equate seeing Jack as the paragon of leadership the way I would seeing Sawyer as a medicine hoarding asshole. The folks on the island may see them each that way but we know better.

Hey, there le nubian. In my original comment, I meant that he was seen as a paragon of leadership by those on the island, not by the viewers or the fans.

I may not have been very cohesive in my downright grumpiness with the amount that Jack bugged me last night. I hate it when people get insane in a crisis. It generally hurts the situation more than it helps.

Sometimes I say things that aren't very well thought out. Especially this week where I'm just flying by base emotion more or less. To make up for it, here are 2 relatively cohesive albeit simplistic points/questions in my brain.

Did anyone think it was very forboding foreshadowing when Kate told Shannon that Boone being with Locke made him safe?

And where's the damn monster? Have we even heard it near this group (I know we heard it with Danielle) since Locke eyeballed it?

Nora, did you get my reply last night?

I did Frank, and also forwarded it to Tom. will reply directly today...

I did Frank, and also forwarded it to Tom. will reply directly today...

Excellent. I was worried because with dial-up at home I always worry that my e-mail is a little bit hinky.

t /natter

Perhaps Walt is already too old (past the age of the conscience developing) to have enough 'power' to be a kidnapping target.

Although he does seem to exert more control over their surroundings than anyone else from the plane crash, cf. the dice scene from the last ep, and the scene in ep. 3 where Michael promises he'll go look for Vincent as soon as it stops raining, and immediately it stops raining. Plus, the polar bear-->comic book connection.

Did anyone think it was very forboding foreshadowing when Kate told Shannon that Boone being with Locke made him safe?

Yeah, I definitely got that vibe.

le nubian, I'm intrigued by your tag. Does it have anything to do with the number of people on the island? I noticed a while ago it was 46, and then shortly after we met Crazy Rousseau, it was 47, and now it's 48, shortly after the introduction of Ethan as a non-plane crash person.

Kate,

ah yes! Good eyes. :-)