Validus
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Posts posted by Validus
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I was reading a Justice League comic book the other day (and old one) and the heroes are discussing religion.Batman says something like,"I only go into church when some hood I'm chasing tries to hide in one.I'm an atheist."
Which struck me funny since one of his teamates is...well,an Angel and another is supposedly a goddess (Wonder Woman).
Now,I realize this was just a case of the writer attempting to force his own feelings onto an iconic character (happens waaayyy too often now-a-days....writers pushing their politics onto icons),but how stupid was that?He doesn't believe in Wonder Woman or his Angel buddy (whom he met,by the way...during a battle between the forces of Heaven and hell) :huh:
And some people wonder why the comic industry has lost steam.....
a note to lefty,uber PC comic book writers and their equally pathetic editors...KEEP YOUR POLITICS TO YOURSELF and KEEP WRITING ICONIC CHARACTERS THEY WAY THEY HAVE HISTORICALLY BEEN PRESENTED....YOU DID NOT CREATE THESE CHARACTERS....
Okay,I'm done.
:(
Batman has always been established as a skeptic who doesn't take anything on faith, which is why he's an Atheist. I would respectfully point out that just because a person has no religious beliefs, that is hardly a political statement...rather it is a philosophical statement. Wonder Woman is also not a Goddess, but an Amazon. Also, it was never made clear that Zaurial was really an angel. I'm sure Batman probably fancied that he was merely a meta-human with pretensions.
If you really need a hero who believes in God, well then I suggest you read Daredevil...he's a blatant Catholic. :(
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Lastly, I am really tired of Americans whining about 9/11. OK, so we lost 3,000 people. So what? Iraq has most more then seven times that number since we arrived under false pretences (no WMD's anywhere) and no one seems to give a damn about them...and Americans wonder why they are so hated around the world.Most of the people in Iraq are being killed by terrorists.
Obviously people care about that. The attacks are covered heavily by news organisations.
Every few days there is another bombing caused by these terrorists who are trying to prevent Iraqis from living normal lives.
Americans and other people around the world have every right to whine about 9-11.
3,000 completely innocent people were murdered by morons with the same mindset as those killing innocents in Iraq.
The whole situation in Iraq was not about going in there and looking for WMD's.
The situation was created by Saddam Hussein's complete and utter failure to comply with the United Nations regarding the verification of his WMD's which he did have.
Hatred of America and Americans around the world is usually motivated by jealousy.
Not at all. Having myself been to many foreign countries and also having lived in one for years (Scotland) I can honestly tell you that hatred of the United States has nothing to do with feelings of jealousy.
It has everything to do with the very clear perception that America fancies itself the New Roman Empire. George Bush tricked us into backing a bogus war with Iraq for reasons that have proven to be totally false, and the body count in Iraq is being caused mostly by American weapons in the hands of American soldiers.
Certainly no one in Iraq is weeping for Saddam being deposed, but it seems evident that we have simply replaced the tyrrany of one man with our own. We are preceived as invaders because that is what we are.
Most of the people in Iraq are being killed by terrorists? That might be true on FOX News...but if you want reliable news I suggest PBS or the Washington Post.
I would also remind you that America has proven time and again that it doesn't realy care about what people in other countries do to one another (as was proved when we did nothing in either Rwanda or Tibet).
Since there are no WMD in Iraq and since Saddam has been deposed we should leave....we should have left last year, instead- Bush has turned the Middle-east into yet another Vietnam, and it has already cost us more then $200 billion dollars...so much that social security is threatened by Bush's recklessness.
The best way for us to fight terrorism is for us to not engage in it ourselves.
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Well....
My Father is an Atheist and my Mother (his ex-wife) was a former Catholic who later converted to Presbyerianism.
My mother was adopted, so I've no idea what her "traditional" backround is, and my Grandparents on my father's side were both Episcopalians who never went to church.
I am myself a Buddhist (Zen/Theravadan) and have been now for eight years.
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I would say that you are getting a little possessive. It is not going to change my opinion of the architecture of the Twin Towers. I do agree that there should be an appropriate memorial since I lost a good friend there.Didn't we all lose someone that day. Or in the subsiquent war that followed. I get possesive because i can. I defend what i love. And i love NY. Really i do.. Visit.I'll buy you a knish
A bagel perhaps..With a nice schmere.. Oh i could go for some creme cheese.
Still the the Trade Towers were iconic with NY. I never liked what the Metlife buidling looked like. And i prefer that to the Empiere state. But its the skyline. What could you do
(Art Deco Chrysler is my fave!)
Can we set aside the sopping sentimentality for just a second and get real?
That 3,000 people died on September 11th is cetainly a tragedy, but lets be honest, the World Trade Centers were nothing more then generic steel and glass milk cartons. They were ugly and always were and I frankly won't miss them. The new "Freedom" Tower is nothing more then yet another building that will allow the builders to make a ton of money while at the same time they will be able to smile for the cameras and make it look as if a savy land management project is somehow synonymous with "patriotism"....which is just ridiculous.
New York is certainly not lacking for icons:
The Empire State Building
The Chrystler Buidling
Madison Square Garden
The Brooklyn Bridge
The Statue of Liberty
Yankee Stadium
I think New York is doing fine as far as icons go.
Lastly, I am really tired of Americans whining about 9/11. OK, so we lost 3,000 people. So what? Iraq has lost more then seven times that number since we arrived under false pretences (no WMD's anywhere) and no one seems to give a damn about them...and Americans wonder why they are so hated around the world. :(
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If you like ships, check out:
The coolest starship site on the web, in my opinion. :msn-wink: :msn-wink: :msn-wink:
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No offense to Lincoln lovers,but I don't hold "Honest Abe" in very high regard.Reagan was an excellent choice,and not one that I expected.
As far as I'm concerned,my parents were the "Greatest Americans"...considering where they came from and what they were able to build together...a great family,a home,a successful farm.
But since they weren't nominated,I would have picked Reagan or Billy Graham.
[Picks self up after hitting the floor with a deafening thud]
Ronald Reagan or Billy Graham...........??????????????
You have got to be joking!!!!
How could you pick -THEM....???
Billy Graham is nothing but a Bible thumping fanatic whose only goal is to spread Christianity like a plague, take way a woman's right to chose, oppress gay people, and line his pockets with the money he bleeds from his astonishingly gullible followers.
Ronald Reagan was a whore for the ultra-rich, and shafted the poor every single chance he got. How can you pick him given that he was such a blatant liar? Did you ever look at the details of the Iran/Contra scandal? Again- the only reason Reagan didn't get impeached was because he was a bit smarter then Nixon in covering it up...that hardly makes him a "great" American. The legacy of Ronald Reagan can be seen in the endless numbers of homeless people he helped create because of his brutal cuts in social programs. He also ignored the AIDS crisis, which ment that the centers for disease control were unable to do their jobs, again because of cuts made by him and his right wing sycophants.
When I think about the great men and women whom this nation has produced and that you would chose those two over them...frankly I am deeply offended.
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Buy them from Half.com...they have DVD's just as good as new for far less then the $100.00+ you're spending per season.
That's where I got mine often for as low as $63.00. Currently they have Season 4 going for a mere $60.00. :(
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You really think so? I agree that Tom, Tuvok and probably even Janeway would want to eventually leap back out into the big black...but only after spending alot of time at home catching up on things. After being an Ensign for 7 miserable years I'm guessing Harry will leave Star Fleet for good and Neelix will end up living on Earth, probably working as a Star Fleet advisor concerning the Delta Quadrant. Seven might want to go back out into space...but again- its conjecture. I thin it is far more likely that her and Chakotay will settle down on a nice Starbase somewhere and have a happy (and quiet) marriage.
I guess for me the only way to continue Voyager would be to have Captain Tuvok with Commander Paris as Number One. You'd still have The Doctor, of course, and B'Lanna would probably still be Chief Engineer. Odo could be head of security, and Ensign Ro (now a Lieutenant) could be Science Officer. I'd want to see them on a new ship....frankly I always hated the design of Voyager, it always reminded me of a wingtip shoe.
-how's all that sound? :cool1:
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Paris Hilton is my favorite accidental pornstar. If you liked Tom Cruise in Last Samarai then I highly recommend the film "Magnolia", which is one of his best films and is one that few people have seen (also includes Jullianne Moore, Jason Robards, William H. Macy, and many other top notch actors).
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A good place to find them at a good price is at Half.com. I've often bought DVD's, CD's and books from them at very good prices and I've never had a problem (like scratches or anything). The first four LEXX films are still only avalable in Canada at the link I already posted at the top of the thread, but are (in my opinion) well worth it.
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Last night I was drinking Ice water (damn the California heat!) and today I'm drinking...you guessed it...Ice water. :giljotiini:
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I picked Next Gen Season 3 on....
-which is actually the theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture which happens to be my favorite theme from all the films.
-gotta love the late great Jerry Goldsmith!!! :lol:
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It has been reported at Ain't It Cool that Glen Larson told BSG fans at a convention that he is in the process of developing a BSG movie based on the original series.What do you think of this news? Do you prefer the original BSG or Ronald D. Moore's BSG? Which would you prefer to see on the big screen?
Well- Trying to compare the original Battlestar Galactica to the new one is like trying to compare death by crusifixtion to lethal injection. :msn-wink:
The original was nothing more then a purile and cynical attempt to ride the coat-tails of George Lucas for easy ratings. The F/X were certainly good...but the characters were hopelessly two-dimensional, the acting was just pathetic, and the scripts were often on the level of Lost in Space.
Ronald Moore's Battlestar Galactica is everything the original wasn't. It is very well written and has the courage to follow its plotting (which is dark). Ironically I felt that the new Battlestar shamed the recent efforts by Lucas. The space battles in Revenge of the Sith are so friggen convoluted you can't tell who's fighting who...
I think that Battlestar Galactica is the best scifi show on television since LEXX ended.
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I recommend it. I would point out that Peter Jackson's King Kong is actually the second remake. They did a big budget King Kong film starring Jessica Lang and Jeff Bridges in 1976.
The original has F/X that seem dated now, but the original is a wonder bit of Hollywood mythmaking that has withstood the test of time. By contrast the 1976 version was just a hyped up Godzilla movie with little to recommend it...pity it was never shown on Mystery Science Theater 3000, where it belonged. :msn-wink:
When you see the original, keep in mind it was made more then 70 years ago with a budget that belies what is on screen.
Trivia Note: Seeing King Kong in the theaters as a kid inspired Ishiro Honda to later make his own famous monster film: Gojira (Godzilla) in 1952.
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We just got back from seeing it and... well... it was a movie. :lol:To paraphrase Bart Simpson, how does something both suck and blow at the same time?
Good effects. Decent acting. Crappy dialogue. Worse plot.
OK, it wasn't awful. But like AE said, it left way too many unanswered questions and had a bunch of tiny plot holes.
For one: How was that guy's video camera still working at the beginning?!?
A respectable blockbuster, but I don't have any desire to see it again.
5/10
I tend to agree. Although I kinda liked the dialogue. The problem is that the whole film is all foreplay but no climax. Still- it sure beats garbage like "Independence Day"
How come everyone has such a problem with Tom Cruise? For better or for worse, he is one of the best American actors currently living in Hollywood and has worked up an impressive body of films. I think these are his best films:
Born on the 4th of July (Dir. Oliver Stone)
Magnolia (Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Collateral (Dir. Michael Mann)
Minority Report (Dir. Stephen Spielberg)
The Color of Money (Dir. Martin Scorsese)
Personally I think all of those films are excellent.
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So many to pick from.... :lol:
I find Christian Slater to be pretty wooden, but to call Hayden Christensen wooden is to insult all puppets everywhere. Watching him play Anakin made me want to strangle George Lucas both for his bad casting and his even worse writing.
Adam Sandler is probably the least funny actor I can think of outside of Pauley Shore.
For actresses...well, Britney Murphy is just pathetic. Demi Moore always rubbed me the wrong way (she's always either yelling or crying in every single film she's ever made). I used to hate Natalie Portman until I saw Closer which proved she's actually a good actress. I'll admit that I think Pamela Anderson is one of the most beautiful women on the planet -but having said that, she's also one of the worst actresses who ever lived. She makes Marilyn Monroe look like Katherine Hepburn.
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I don't think the fanbase is the problem. The problem is that with Voyager now home, the whole premise has pretty much ended. After being stuck out in space for 7 long years it seems highly unlikely that any of the crew would want to go back out into space. It would be like asking the whole cast of Gilligan's Island to go out into another storm on the SS Minnow...what's the point?
If Janeway was given another ship with certain key crew members, that might work...but then you need a reason to justify a film -yet another Borg threat? I just don't see it...
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hey peeps, do ya think it was a good decision to bring Seven of Nine on the show. i think it was an awesome idea. kes was good, but Seven was better. her personality was more explored, and she didn't have any psycho psychic powers! she was also a strong female character, and i, as a girl (female) myself, like that ina TV show!Frankly, I think that without Seven, Voyager would have gone down the toilet, that is unless the writers could have made a heroic effort to make the show more watchable with better plotting.
It seems to me that what made Seven so interesting was the same thing that made Spock interesting in the original Star Trek: both Spock and Seven are essentially trying to reconcile their humanity with who they are. Spock clearly favors his Vulcan side over his human side (at least until Star Trek IV, when he seems more comfortable with his dual nature). Seven wrestles with her humanity and Janeway has the role of Mother as well as mentor in Seven's life (the latter she shares with the Doctor, of course). The greatest weakness in Voyager, for me at least, is that we never see a resolution to Seven's journey. What's her life like on Earth...? Do her and Chakotay marry and have a family, or what...?
I liked the actress who played Kes even if I can't admit to liking the character very much.
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I'd love to be a Q, except that I would worry about boredom (as was explored in Voyager). I can't even begin to fathom living for endless billions and billions of years. I guess after awhile you'd get so bored that messing with other civilizations would be your only outlet.
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I have seen Metropolis, I think, it was originally done as a silent film. Was it made in Germany, or am I mixing it up with something else? If it is what I have in mind, a very intriguing film, for the time in which it was made. I rented the video several years ago, I think.So, left with the choices I have, I vote for 2001: A Space Odessy, for the feelings of awe it generated in me, which I still remember. I was completely drawn in.
Metropolis was indeed a German film and it was directed by Fritz Lang, one of the greatest film makers that ever lived. The quality of the video you rented was probably pretty bad. Recently the German Film Institute spend three years and a fortune to have the entire film digitally remastered and restored. It is currently avalable on DVD and it now breathtaking, especially since they found the original music and re-scored the entire film. It can be found at Kino.com. I've got it and I highly recommend it....you might also find it at Blockbuster under scifi or "foreign" films. Considering it was made in 1925, it stands as a real acheivement unrivaled in my opinion.
I share your feelings about 2001...stunning even today. I only wish I could have seen it like my parents did -on the big screen.
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Frankenstein is considered by many academics to be the very first science fiction novel. Of course the novel has it's influences from the Jewish myth of the Golem and from the Greek Promethius. It is interesting that science fiction, as a genre, was invented by a woman (Mary W. Shelley). Shelley herself considered the story to be a kind of Gothic romance that shares much with the works of Victor Hugo, especially the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I've never seen Frankenstein as horror, but Universal Pictures decided that it was so that they could put it in their stable of monster movies (along with Dracula, The Mummy, and so forth).
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Yup....it was used to great effect in Sam Raimi's masterpiece Army of Darkness.
"Groovy"
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Lincoln? Well...I can see why some people might pick him, but upon closer examination you might want to rethink that option. Lincoln was an admitted racist who felt certain that black people were inferior (and would always be inferior) to white people. He often said that if he could have preserved the Union and kept slavery in place, he would've. He also suspended habias corpus during the Cival War, effectively making the United States a police state. The Cival War was the second most incompetantly fought war in American history (after Vietnam) and should have not lasted more then 6 months...instead it lingered on for 4 miserable years and half a million dead were the result. Lincoln's promise of 40 achers and a mule for all freed slaves proved to be one of his bigger lies. As it is it took 100 more years and JFK to finally crush segregation in the South, something all other Presidents (except for Truman) totally ignored.
I would say that Washington is superior to Lincoln in many respects, not the least of which being that he was offered a monarchy and flatly turned it down -something I think very few men could resist. While Washington did own slaves, he had them all freed after his death.
Ronald Reagan? Who on Earth would pick someone like him? Reagan was a man who was blatantly in favor of the rich and powerful, who never supported organized labor, and lied almost as much as Richard Nixon -especially with regards the Iran/Contra Scandel. The only reason Reagan got away with it is because he didn't have a taping system like Nixon (which is ultimately what brought now tricky D*ck more then anything).
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Well- I think the main appeal of LEXX was that it was "out there" beyond what one might expect from things like Star Trek (No Federation, No "Prime Directive"). I also liked the idea of the LEXX itself, the "most powerful weapon of destruction in the two Universes".
I think there are certain elements that LEXX shares with the likes of Douglas Adams and even Heavy Metal magazine, the emphasis on satire and sex for example...things which can actually be found in the original Star Trek.
:msn-wink:
I also really liked Stanly Tweedle, who is essentially a kind of "Anti-Kirk". He pretty much never gets the girl, and is certainly more flawed then Kirk or any other Star Fleet Captain...which I think is what makes him interesting.
How Should Wesley Die?
in Star Trek Polls
Posted
I think that Wesley was the single most annoying character in all science fiction until the arrival of Jar Jar Binks.
I think Wesley should be encased in carbonite...pity they can't do that in Star Trek. :(