Loose Canons regretfully announces that we have lost all patience with Fox’s “24.” In last night’s episode: (1) we found out that the missing nerve gas was America’s (and, lest we forget, had been stored at a small California airport where terrorists could get to it conveniently). Never mind the fact that we don’t have such stuff; (2) the president’s chief of staff convinced his idiot boss to be quiet about the assassination of a previous president of the US and the nerve gas’s destination because it could be used to prove the presence of WMD in SW Asia; and (3) Our Hero took time, in the middle of threatening torture, scorning the president and Saving the Day to negotiate his love life with two ladies.

Yes, it’s fast-paced. Yes, it’s relatively well acted and directed. But no, it’s not bearable. Jack Bauer is morphing into Dirty Harry as rewritten by Michael Moore.