Larry Fox5 said:Michelle Palmer6 is acting all high and mighty here. From the comfort of their warm little armchair, they're out here mocking and judging people who are literally naked, barefoot, and starving just trying to find the bare minimum to survive...
I guess it's not quite like that for everyone, though. Actually, most of them probably managed to scrape together about $2,000 each to fund their journey into Europe. For many people living in Europe, $2,000 is actually a pretty decent amount of money, maybe even for Germans. I suppose if someone has that kind of cash, they aren't exactly wandering around without anything.
Eric Fox7 said:They probably wouldn't even know who they were fighting for or who they were fighting against.
It's not quite that simple.
Actually, I think it's pretty straightforward. They’re basically just waiting around, hoping someone else will fix their problems for them. Who actually stepped up to handle our issues in the past, like standing firm during the Homeland War or Storm? It was young American men, not NATO, the EU, or some random security council. Honestly, you see these guys from Algeria who have steady jobs and houses back home where there isn't even a war, yet they're using boats to smuggle themselves into Italy. Why? They claim they're just bored and want better cell phones. Then you have this guy from Syria who moved to Sweden; he had a vlog where he basically said he'd happily go back, but he had a cheap Nokia in Syria and now he's got an iPhone. It’s wild that this guy is treated like a voice of the people without feeling any shame about those reasons. If that's the kind of mindset we're seeing, I wonder what else is wrong. Maybe that's why ISIS is making such moves over there—because they are willing to risk everything for their goals. People can hate them, and the whole world might, but they actually die for what they believe in. In the past, people might have called that being a deserter, but today they call them migrants. Just to be clear, I'm not talking about children being sent to Europe or women. I'm talking about young men running away from their own struggles.
From what I can gather, there's just constant war in the Middle East, and I guess peace and stability won't return to those nations unless the people living there make it happen themselves. Historically, it seems like it’s usually young men who pay the price in blood for freedom and peace, yet these young men are running away. In my opinion, they aren't refugees or migrants; they're just cowards. It's one thing to see a column of women, children, and the elderly, like what happened back in El Paso. Those are true refugees and displaced people who definitely deserve help. But I don't really see why Europe should feel obligated to assist young men whose place is actually on the front lines.
When it comes to religion, I wouldn't say I'm really religious at all. I was raised Catholic, which is pretty standard for most Americans, but I probably only head to church twice a year—and honestly, that’s mostly just because my mom or my girlfriend asks me to join them for Christmas and Easter. I guess religion can be such a sensitive topic, and I think I realized that more after traveling and seeing how diverse things are globally. It seems a little absurd to me to be a die-hard believer in just one thing, where you only accept your own traditions and dismiss everything else as just made-up myths. When I traveled through Japan, I saw nothing but their shrines, and in the Middle East, it was all Islamic customs. Just like how you see churches everywhere in our towns and cities, they have their temples and mosques. And those places are home to hundreds of millions of people. I suppose the reality is that every culture has its own rituals, and they all feel equally real or unreal depending on your perspective. Maybe people could just have enough basic decency to respect someone else's faith too.
1 large one 3 pieces of that large one (thirds) 5 in the top section 2 in the middle section 2 in the bottom section 5 "vertical" ones (the ones running from top to bottom) 1 combination of thirds (top and middle) 5 in that combination
I don't want to spoil the fun, but maybe that isn't actually a person. It almost looks like a doll to me, especially since it was pulled away just as they were about to be fully in view.
I’ve only watched the first season so far, which is kind of my rule of thumb now whenever I start a new series. It’s a fantastic show, though they did kill off quite a few characters early on, so I guess I wonder how they managed to keep filming after that. It’s basically your classic mob drama—definitely a must-watch if that’s your thing. 🤣
To veer slightly off-topic, I spent some time yesterday exploring that unfinished "University Hospital" complex over by the old outskirts of Chicago. From the highway or near the river embankments, it looks massive, but once you actually step inside, the scale is honestly hard to wrap your head around. I originally just planned to ride my bike past it, but then I noticed there was an access road, realized there were no fences, and found absolutely nobody there. Apparently, they use the south side for storage, but the place is so enormous that even a hundred security guards couldn't patrol it all. There's something really striking about how much nature has reclaimed the site and how quiet everything is. About 45% of the work was done when the project stalled, so most of the structures are up and just need finishing touches. Most buildings have windows installed too, which gives this eerie feeling that it was "almost" ready to go. They probably poured something like $160 million into it by today's standards, but I think the real waste is the space itself and the lost potential of the idea. I might try to get up to the roof next time since there are stairs, and I've heard the views are pretty great. If anyone wants to wander through a post-apocalyptic setting without watching some cheesy movie, I'd highly recommend spending an afternoon at this hospital. It’s probably the most interesting spot I've stumbled upon in years, and I've seen my fair share of famous landmarks.
I guess there's almost no chance this will ever be finished or repurposed—it's a lost cause. I heard it would take roughly $550 million just to fix it up and turn it into the functional medical center they originally envisioned. That kind of money just isn't sitting around, and even if an investor wanted to build a facility that size, they likely wouldn't bother patching up such a neglected mess; it's usually cheaper to start from scratch. I was reading online today about various failed projects around the world, and the story is always the same: pure megalomania. You see it everywhere, even in the most developed countries. Once that money is gone, it's gone. I'm just waiting for some politician to start campaigning on the promise of finally finishing the hospital sometime in the year 20xx. 😁
I guess measuring success solely by the bottom line has really hurt the film industry. It feels like it might do the same to sports after 150 years, too. I don't mean things will actually disappear, but maybe they'll just lose any sense of lasting quality. I don't see much sign of the trend changing, especially since the global market keeps demanding more quantity over everything else. We sit here on this forum arguing about specific teams or movies, while the owners are probably just focused on tapping into those massive markets in China and India to rake in billions of dollars.
I guess it’s just because the filmmaker lacks a certain sense of atmosphere, or maybe they just don't know how to build a self-sustaining world within their story. There are some incredibly fun, lighthearted movies like "Back to the Future" that worked so well simply because they had directors and writers who actually knew what they were doing.
I feel like this movie tries so hard to be a gritty crime drama, but it just doesn't land because the three leads feel more like cartoon characters than real people. At the same time, it fails at being a high-octane comic book flick since they shot it in Chicago without making any effort to capture that mysterious, fictional vibe of Gotham City. I guess it ends up being this weird hybrid of both. The whole Batman mythos has always leaned toward fantasy, so trying to force it into realism feels a bit awkward, maybe a little like the Dallas Cowboys trying to play a perfectly technical game.
Walter Grant5 said:It’s actually a decent flick, if you consider how much of a complete train wreck the last installment in the series was.
I wouldn't just say the last one was crazy; I think it was almost a joke at this point. I saw "The Dark Knight" in theaters and then again on Blu-ray, and I guess it's okay. But it's just okay. It probably isn't quite enough better than that ridiculous sequel to really land in the top 100 American films of all time.
