Posts by northernscout9

Chloe Rodriguez5 said:Yeah, I probably would.

Look, we just have different ideas about what sex is supposed to be, and honestly, who cares? We aren't all clones.

I mean, some people think it's totally fine to watch porn with their wife...

To each their own, right?😉

Are you actually worried about being labeled gay just because you might say "yes" to anal like this guy?

Chloe Rodriguez5 said:To some people, a father and son engaging in sexual acts is just business as usual. To others, a guy having eight different women is perfectly fine. Some folks even think anal sex is totally normal...

Look, everyone should be free to live their life and believe whatever they want, right?

But as someone who actually believes in God and lives by Christian values, I figured I’d have the right to hold my own opinion on all this...

Oh, please. You’re telling me you’re against it? Seriously? Like, if you were actually with a woman and she wanted to go there, you’d really just sit there and say, "Nah, I'm good"?

Daniel Chase13 said:Actually, many atheists recognize that atheism is often a choice—one made after navigating life's traumas or deep disappointments, or perhaps even out of a desire to live with a clear conscience by avoiding what God has revealed to be a life of sin. There are plenty of different paths that lead someone toward an atheistic worldview.

I actually think it’s the exact opposite. Look at the prison population here in the USA—most of those inmates are religious, even though by definition they’re people who chose to live in sin, you know, stealing, killing, all that stuff. Or take organized crime groups, like the Russian mob having Jesus's crosses tattooed on them, or the Italian Mafia with their ties to Vatican City and laundering cash through Vatican banks (anyway, have you ever actually seen the movie "The Godfather"?); or even Mussolini, who basically worked with the Church and insisted on religious education in schools while being a total moral wreck himself.

Plus, honestly, people are walking away from religion because they don't want to spend their lives hating others (like the LGBTQ+ community), they're tired of carrying around guilt for things they didn't even do (like the whole "eating fruit from the wrong tree" thing), they don't want to waste their Sundays sitting in a pew listening to depressing sermons, and they definitely don't want to be xenophobic. Basically, they just want to be free and happy.

Bryan King3 said:I actually mentioned this on another thread once...
I ran into him in Washington, D.C., during Comic Con.
It wasn’t like there was some massive line around him or anything—I actually spent about 45 minutes chatting with him.
Honestly? It was one of the most pointless 45 minutes I've ever wasted in my life.

Flat earth.
He wrote a book... or maybe a few (they cost about $20, though he might have just given me one for free, I can't quite remember).
Look, you just can't have a coherent conversation with anyone who holds such extreme views.
I tried to explain to him that my own position is the one currently backed by actual scientific consensus.
If—and this is a huge "if" (in my lifetime)—anything were ever proven, based strictly on rigorous scientific principles, that would change my mind, then I’d happily change both myself and my opinion.
But any argument regarding the origin of the world, our country, or the universe... if it's based solely on the Bible, it's just not worth my time.

There are two things about him that are particularly symptomatic of his mindset.
First off, all the "evidence" he uses to support his nonsense was gathered using machines, tools, software, specialized knowledge, and experience... which is basically the definition of SCIENCE.
Not the Bible.

Second—and this is why I cut the discussion short and walked away—he told me he "discovered God" because a child (I think they were 9 or 11 years old) suddenly passed away without any apparent cause.
I just couldn't continue a conversation built on that kind of foundation.
There's such a thing as having some respect for the dead.

Exactly. I’ve mentioned this regarding Elvis Presley before—it’s not exactly a rare thing for people to lose a child, have a complete mental breakdown, and then start clinging to total nonsense. Take Vesna Krmpotić, for example, with her whole thing about believing in Saj baba.

Or you’ve got the classic case of the guy who wrote Sherlock Holmes—Arthur Conan Doyle. He actually fell for those kids claiming they took photos of fairies in their garden; he even went as far as writing a book about how those fairies were totally real.

I don't know if anyone else has caught this, but it seems like Roger Ebert has been stuck in the hospital for quite a while now. He had to go in for some emergency surgery to deal with a tumor, and his recovery is dragging on—it's been a long road. In the meantime, they've already cycled through three different critics to fill his seat over at the Chicago Sun-Times... looks like he might be stuck there for a bit longer than expected.

Man, I totally blanked on Vrdoljak—and I didn't even bother mentioning Sedlar because, let's be real, he’s got zero shot at winning since he’s basically at rock bottom right now.
I get that this whole poll/thread is kind of a headache for you guys, but hey, it's just American cinema... it is what it is.
Ugh, my bad, I typed Matanic instead of Matthews—honestly, I'm losing my mind. 🙂

Who do you guys think is the best director working in America right now?

So, there’s that old cliché floating around—you know the one—that says every rule has an exception. But if you really sit down and chew on it for a second, it kind of breaks itself, doesn't it? Like, if a rule *must* have an exception, then wouldn't that specific rule itself need an exception? And if it does... well, then the whole thing falls apart and the rule isn't actually true anymore. A total brain loop. 😕
Can anyone help me untangle this logic puzzle?

northernscout9 said:Warner Bros. was just straight-up blockbuster fodder—basically trash masquerading as mainstream news.
Hollywood tries to juggle both, I guess...

Yeah, I used to think the exact same thing about that mag. But eventually, I realized they actually had some solid intel on what DVDs were hitting the rental stores—plus that weird little corner for niche DVD finds they used to have before they cut it from the recent issues. A few other perks were that they actually had people based here in the States doing the actual interviewing, so they were right there in the thick of it with the actors and directors. They didn't just scavenge whatever junk they could find online like, say, "Hollywood" does (though, honestly, I haven't even cracked one of those open in years). Plus, the writing had a decent sense of humor, which was always a plus.
The biggest gripe, though, was how they pretty much ignored European cinema and its directors entirely. The only exceptions were Lars von Trier and Lucas Modysoon, but even they eventually stopped covering them because they started overhyping them way too much.
As for movie shows, I really think they should put together at least one short weekly segment that just plays trailers for upcoming releases—nothing fancy, no deep philosophical dives. It’s just silly that the folks who aren't constantly glued to the internet end up totally out of the loop when it comes to what's happening in the film world.

Honestly, there isn't a single decent film magazine left in America—I mean, maybe Hollywood still puts out something, but if they do, it’s absolute garbage. I stopped buying it ages ago because the quality just tanked. There used to be Total Film back in the day, which was actually pretty solid, but they shut it down.😠 😠
And it's not just the lack of magazines; you don't even see film shows on TV anymore. Like, what happened to the culture? Nowadays, if you actually care about movies, your only real option is hitting up the internet—which is how I do it—but even then, I constantly find myself lost. I can't tell which movies are hitting theaters versus what's dropping on streaming, let alone keeping track of what's actually available to watch at home.
Why can't someone just make a weekly TV show dedicated to movies and industry news? The only way you hear about cinema on television these days is when some director gets dragged onto one of those political talk shows. And instead of talking about their craft, they just spend the whole time grilling them about what they thought of Tito or what their take is on Tuđman and all that other nonsense. 👎