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The Wrath

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Everything posted by The Wrath

  1. I frankly do not trust any Objectivism-centric websites to provide an objective (no pun intended) review of this movie. If it is a well-made movie but the philosophy is not close enough to that of the book, it will be torn to shreds and no one will give the filmmakers an ounce of credit for the artistic quality. If (as is more likely) the movie is ineptly made but the philosophy is a passable--if abridged--reflection of the book, then Objectivist reviews will be singing its praises. Based on the trailers I've seen, I see no reason to think the philosophy will not be fairly presented. But the acting looks horrendous, and the director (along with all the actors and writers) are a bunch of no-names who have not a single cinematic accomplishment of any renown. Maybe this will be their first...but I doubt it. A project as ambitious as this needs to be pulled off by accomplished filmmakers with decades of experience and a proven track-record of tackling deep-think topics. Many of the best books are inherently uncinematic, and I fear that even a collaborative effort by Hitchcock, Scorsese, and Kubrick would fail to turn Atlas Shrugged into a watchable movie. It would be like trying to turn a Michael Bay movie into an 1100 page philosophical novel. I don't know how widely this will be released, or if mainstream critics will even review it. But it will take a positive review from Ebert (or someone on his general level) for me to change my mind about seeing it.
  2. But if history has taught anything, it's that what we expect to happen almost never actually happens. Who could have foreseen that a senseless act of terrorism on the part of a 19 year-old Serbian national would be the spark needed to topple the monarchies of Europe and redefine the nature of global power for the whole 20th century? Perhaps the self-immolation of this young Tunisian man was the spark needed to topple the old order of the Middle East... Then again, perhaps not. Time will tell, and I still remain cautiously hopeful that this will result, at least, with the installation of government that has to answer to the people. Whether the people in general want Islam to take a role in politics, it can still be a step in the right direction. Most people in the US want Christianity to play a role in politics, and the Islamist party is currently in power in Turkey. Despite that, imagine how great a leap forward it would be if Egypt wound up looking like Turkey.
  3. That's definitely interesting, but that's not the kind of thing a director would assume the audience will notice. It seems more likely to me that the use of different actors is a result of child labor laws, and the different shoes were a mistake. I could be wrong. If he is awake, he must have given that top one hell of a spin, b/c it goes for a while.
  4. No way, he's still asleep. Isn't a bit far-fetched that his plan gets pulled off so perfectly (in the end), and that a single-phone call from a Japanese businessman allows him to bypass American customs? Also, his kids have not aged and are wearing the same clothes that they are in his memories.
  5. True, the Israeli media isn't going to tell me what I want to hear. But do you seriously think that the Israeli media in this instance is going to be objective? The Israelis have a much deeper interest in these events than any western country, and it is in their interests to paint the movement as Islamist, in order to prompt the major players to forestall any Islamist movements. Even so, I opened the Jerusalem Times just now and the following 2 articles were the first ones to jump out at me, as being about the uprisings: http://blogs.jpost.com/content/revolution-apparently-order-day http://blogs.jpost.com/content/how-egypt-more-libya-will-affect-middle-east Though they both mention the Muslim Brotherhood's posturing, neither paints this as a movement that is primarily Islamist in nature, and the first one even seems cautiously optimistic about the ultimate effect on the region. I've never claimed anywhere that this is going to result in full democratization or modernization. I'll wait for history to decide. But I do think there is reason to hope that the Middle East is taking an important step in the direction of modernization. And while people in here are decrying my statement that the uprising is not primarily Islamist, no one is offering me any evidence that it is--or that it is, as you just said, "less secular and capitalistic". And I haven't followed Bahrain that closely. I know the Sunnis are protesting against Shi'a rule, so there may be more of a religious tint to that one. But the 3 major revolutions (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya) do not, so far, seem to have taken on an Islamist fervor.
  6. I'm actually surprised it was a Republican that dissented here. Given the extreme religious, right-wing nature of the protesters--not to mention the fact that the left frequently tries to silence its opponents, these days--I was surprised that none of the liberal justices dissented.
  7. First of all, it is unnecessary to make 4 separate, consecutive posts, when a single post containing all your points and questions will do just fine. More to the point: There is indeed a reasonable expectation of not being harassed while in public, and certainly of not being harassed while you are inside private property and your harasser is standing just outside the property line. However, that is not what happened in this case. As Roberts points out in his opinion, the protesters were over 100 yards away and could be avoided with a minimum of effort. If the court were to rule that they violated the family's right to a peaceful funeral, that opens the door for legal challenges to war protests--even if not directly targeting the funeral--since family members of the deceased might find them offensive.
  8. Good lord, are we watching the same newscasts? The Islamist movement has been, at best, on the sidelines of the revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. The overwhelming preponderance of statements from the protesters has been about toppling dictatorships and installing government that answers to its people--not the Quran. And I love the dismissal of any potential progress, because of the fact that the protesters haven't been calling for a laissez-faire capitalist economy. You're setting up a very dangerous false dichotomy, where a country is either Singapore or North Korea, with no intermediates. Toppling dictators and installing accountable government is a step in the right direction.
  9. It's shocking to me how many people think the members of this church do not have the legal right to protest as they see fit. The fact that a jury awarded this man millions of $$$, when the protest was over a hundred yards away, is just staggering. It reeks of the "free speech as long as I agree with it" syndrome, that large numbers of Americans across the political spectrum seem to suffer from, these days. Phelps and his ilk are the worst sort of vile creature that Christianity produces in the modern age, but 8 of the 9 SCOTUS justices got this one completely right. The quote from Alito's dissent indicates little or no objection other than "this speech is offensive."
  10. That wasn't a swipe at any particular poster. Just amazement at the apparent failure of this forum, as a whole, to even have a serious, ongoing conversation about these events. I mean, I certainly haven't done a better job at starting a thread than anyone else, but I don't post here that much anymore. Just seems like at least one of the regulars would have picked this up and run with it.
  11. Amazing that the only comments on this forum about the ongoing Arab Revolutions are cliche conservative talking points about the UN. Not that they're inaccurate, but can't you people come up with something more substantive to say about a popular movement that could wind up modernizing large swaths of the Muslim world? This is why I rarely post here anymore.
  12. The notion that he is a Muslim is ludicrous. I don't think I would call him a Marxist if, for no other reason, actual Marxists would not count him as one of their own.
  13. I don't plan to see it at all, unless some professional movie critics give it passable reviews. I trust Roger Ebert, for the most part. Though he often comments on the politics of a movie--and whether he agrees or disagrees--he generally doesn't let that impact his assessment of the quality.
  14. I've believed all along that Atlas Shrugged is inherently uncinematic and unfilmable. It could be a joint directorial effort between Scorsese, Hitchcock, and Coppola and it would still not come close to living up to the book. Everything I've read and seen on YouTube leads me to believe this movie will be horrendous.
  15. The fact that it missed a few questions does not erase the fact that it won by more than $25K more than its closest competitor.
  16. This is like saying that homo sapiens evolved from archaebacteria. Technically true, but you're omitting a lot of necessary intermediates.
  17. All true, but I didn't say anything about the Muslim Brotherhood taking over. Just that whoever takes over isn't likely to be much better than Mubarak...ElBaradei might be a step in the right direction, but I don't much about Egyptian politics and I have no idea what his chances are. Egypt is just the example, but it applies to any country in the Middle East.
  18. But to say that about modern-day Egypt is ignoring the social and historical context. Modern Western governments did not come into existence when a bunch of erstwhile superstitious barbarians thought rationally about politics and decided that democratic/parliamentary government was the way to go. Egyptian society--and Middle Eastern society in general--has long way to go, philosophically, before anyone should expect them to replace their current tyrannies with anything measurably better.
  19. I'm not going to comment on the content of this video, but I will point out that Olbermann is among the worst offenders to violate the maxim of calm and sane political discourse. He is probably the worst of the MSM's left-wing commentators. Whatever saneness he may be demonstrate here will, no doubt, eventually give way to his usual vitriolic character assassinations.
  20. The fact that this was even your initial suspicion does not point to your rationality. It's like people who, upon seeing initial footage of the plane hitting the tower, thought to themselves "Goddamn George Bush for doing this."
  21. Though I agree with everyone who says his post is unjust and incredibly elitist, I can't help but notice that he accurately described the entire family of my ex-wife, who lived in a small town outside Toledo.
  22. This is the rough equivalent of threatening a man by saying that you won't put his balls in a vice-grip. By all means, spare me from having to suffer any more of your "reasoning."
  23. You cannot be at physical war against an abstract concept like "fundamentalist Islam." We are at physical war with certain people who hold beliefs that are consistent with fundamentalist Islam. And until you can demonstrate that the people building this mosque are acting in league with our enemies, your argument holds no water. The fact that they fall under the same generic heading of "Islam" is not enough. The existence of the mosque does not, in any way, violate your rights. Lose the persecution complex.
  24. Like I said, I don't know anyone who thinks the US is on the verge of Christian theocracy. I don't personally know the Hsiehs or Peikoff. I know Peikoff supported the Democrats in '06 b/c he thought Christianity was a greater threat than socialism but, given that he now advocates voting for Republicans, I'd say he's changed his tune. To the extent that anyone really does think the Christian theocrats are on the verge of taking over, I'd say they've lost touch with political/societal reality. Christians did not invent secular government. But I grant that they were the ones who put it into practice in Europe. But...so what? They did it in spite of Christianity, not because of it. And you are absolutely wrong to say that there is no track record of secular government within Islam. The government of Arab lands during the European Dark Ages was eons ahead of European Christianity. It wasn't secular by modern standards, but it was certainly more tolerant of religious differences. And I think many experts on Turkey would dispute the notion that it is becoming Islamist. Also...there are governments in the Arab world that, while leaving much to be desired, are secular in nature. Syria, for example. I guess I should clarify. I'm not taking into account what demographic changes might happen over the next 1000 years. In our lifetimes, there is effectively zero chance of a demographic shift that would allow Islamic principles to be codified into American law. Whatever appeasement there is of Islamic sensibilities is really trivial. It is based on general philosophies of multiculturalism and apologizing for perceived Western misdeeds, rather than any serious sympathy for Islamic ideals. One only need look at the Ground Zero issue to see that Islam is nowhere near being a serious influence in this country.
  25. I don't know anyone who thinks that there is an impending Christian theocratic takeover in the United States or anywhere else. Even so, if there are people who think there is an impending Christian theocracy in this country, they would be wise to notice the difference between run-of-the-mill churchgoers and politically active fascists like Pat Robertson. I think the overall health of our society is currently more vulnerable to Christian nutjobs than it is to Islamic nutjobs. The Islamists can kill some of us and make our buildings collapse, but there is no serious threat of Islamic doctrines finding their way into our laws. The same cannot be said of Christianity. Since pro-Islamic legislation is basically impossible in the United States, Islamic nutjobs can only succeed in undermining the freedoms on values that built this country if they successfully provoke overreactions that result in us voluntarily giving them up. The reaction of many people to the mosque "controversy" is an example of such an overreaction.
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