Phi for All

"Staff" envy? * sigh * Have you been drinking?

For me it has nothing to do with whether he's a conservative, and it has absolutely nothing to do with forgiveness. I love him as an actor and still do. I've loved most of the movies I've seen him in. However, as an alcoholic, I can tell you that being drunk is never an excuse for horrible behavior, no matter how much you want it to be. And being drunk doesn't put words in your head, it just makes you stupid enough to give voice to the words that are there already, no matter who they hurt. Alcoholism is not a disease, it's an addiction. Calling it a disease makes it somehow not your fault. And this was definitely Mel's fault. But he merely showed us his prejudice, his opinion of Jews, so it's not up to me to forgive Mel Gibson for what he said while he was drinking. This is not something he did against me that needs my forgiveness. It's really not about the Jews forgiving him either. We now know he blames Jews for many things and it's up to us to decide whether or not we want anything to do with him anymore. Mel Gibson is entitled to his opinion about Jews. And I'm entitled to think less of him for it.

I looked it up before I posted and a quick check revealed that the highest jump was something over 31,000 meters (yes meters, not feet). JohnB, will there be any zero-G training involved before the flight? That would be awesome just by itself.

Is it some kind of drawing or do you have to write an essay or something to win this contest? I've seen some other contests where suborbital flight was the grand prize and it sounds so great! If you need online votes let us know. Hey, watch it, they didn't say where they were going to drop you off, now did they? Probably push you out over the Americas with a chute at 30,000 meters!

OK. No, I'm not. Fair enough. Again, I'm sorry you tend to place members in "groups" from which it will be difficult for them to escape. It makes everyone's job a bit harder. I would hope all here could be simply knowledge seekers instead of in some kind of clique. I could be wrong but you did say we had graduated high school, no? Record-straightening, that is where this is coming from. I thought your comments were continuing an imagined feud with the staff. Perhaps I was wrong. But perhaps I was not wrong. Either way, the record is... less bent, and I'm content that I've tried to explain how I feel about DrCloud's perspective.

No, I'm taking exactly what he mentioned: It's odd because I ususally like to "open the drapes" but have chosen to use the third degree lamp on you to show how it tends to be received in a very defensive manner. It causes reactions like:

Sometimes it's worth taking a thread a bit off-topic to correct mis-information. You can't just leave it there for others to pick up as legitimate at a later date. As long as you are "opening the drapes to let the sun shine in" as opposed to "focussing the third-degree lamp on the suspect" I think your intentions will speak for themselves. This is a good example of someone who should "open the drapes" more often, imo. Silkworm, I love ya buddy, but you sometimes let your witchhunting get the better of you. You are smart and knowledgeable enough to enlighten your audience without resorting to roughing up the suspect. It's all a matter of perspective. You are working much better in the forums to enlighten the membership but some of the IRC logs I've seen are just shameful. I don't participate there because of this lack of respect. For what it's worth.

Howz about STST for, "Spin there, spun that"?

No one cares what you or I think, but Mel Gibson "owns Malibu" and has thousands of media outlets waiting to hear anything at all from him. His actions and words carry weight. What he does and says affects millions of opinions around the world. His "bandwidth" is enormous compared to the average person, so he does have a responsibility to use it wisely. In fact, I have to give him credit for mentioning several times his responsibility to those his actions affect. He's aware that celebrity carries a heavy price.

Kids' date=' don't make me come down there! Your squabbling could cause another divorce! What will happen to my property value living next to a bunch of singularivegetarians? He sends me those pictures, too.

Free market means you can have your cake and eat it too. Don't look for what you want to be satisfied by the mainstream venues. Mass marketing has to do what it can to throw the widest net and that often means playing to average tastes. But because you have a need for something different, a free market means someone is out there trying to reach you. If you're above average, or want something less Pop culture then you have to be willing to look farther afield. Get a subscription to Independent Film Quarterly instead of Entertainment or People. Don't go to the UA Googleplex 110 cinemas, visit an artsy old landmark theatre (not the kind where everyone wears raincoats). Don't buy white bread from Safeway, buy something tasty and grainy from Hippy Village grocers.

Playing with your dinghy doesn't count. Most millionaires don't live splashy lives (splashy as in "falling off your yacht"). They work hard, spend frugally, invest, and then leave all their money to their kids. Then the kids blow it all on splashy lives.

LOL, thanks, but remember that following others can lead to soulless mass production. That sounds fantastic! We should do lunch! I'll pick you up in my Mercedes, but you'll need to bring your own soul. Seriously, I've had a little experience with independent efforts and still have some contacts in the biz. You should PM me with your idea, I'd love to hear more. Don't buy into the image. Not every industry millionaire (in any industry) sells their soul to drive a fancy car. That's just an image that's fostered by the media. Most millionaires have never been on a yacht.

I agree. The alcohol made him say something he normally wouldn't have *said*. It didn't make him say something he normally wouldn't *believe*.

Could you find that for us? I could only find this, from Abraham Foxman, ADL National Director: It doesn't make sense that the ADL would be so forgiving of the director of The Passion of the Christ after being so concerned about the impact of the movie.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5595512&ft=1&f=1001

Alocohol is not an excuse, it's a reason. It doesn't put the thoughts inside your head, it merely erodes the barriers keeping those thoughts in. Alocohol affects judgement, it doesn't affect your belief system.

You're not looking at this the right way. Their are now and always will be people looking for profit who will be trying to reach that part of the market which feels the way you do. Find the smaller studios who are NOT catering to the majority market. They are putting out some pretty great stuff. Don't blame the quest for profit; a free market economy ensures that there will be people looking to make and sell you just what you really want. I'm going to see Clerks II on Friday. I hope it is as great as the first one was.

I will subscribe when my Nano is feeling better. Podcasts are a great way to pick up the latest without the annoying commercials. I wish you the best of luck and I hope you'll post more here than just this once.

"Helmets are for wimps." "We don't have time to be cautious." "Lay on, Macduff, and damn'd be him that first cries 'Hold, enough!'" -MacBeth "Dying is easy. Comedy is difficult." -Edmund Gwenn (actor, played Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street)

Appealing to the masses is not about making the most people happy, it's about making the fewest people upset. If you watch a movie and you tell someone who asks about it, "Yeah, it was OK", then word-of-mouth is taken care of and marketing will ensure that the budget and ROI are covered. This also works with national chains in virtually every industry. Skye is right, check out smaller independent films, ones that don't have to answer to a major studio for more than 50% of their backing. When the majors make a movie, they run everything through focus groups and end up with something nobody hates. They also spread the liability out among several production groups (and the credits keep getting longer). When you're dealing with tens and hundreds of millions of dollars, the majors don't want to take chances (we've all heard about the big gamble Disney took with Johnny Depp as Captain Jack). Indies usually fly on their own merit, the quality of the writing, the performances, the vision of the director. You'll find some that help you catch up on sleep but you'll also find some great stuff. It's usually Indies that pave the way with experimental ideas that become successful so the majors can build on the success without taking too many risks.

I think it sounds like this teacher is not trying to teach. He's trying to preach and drum up support. Many college kids love to see injustice and conspiracies everywhere. I'd tell you more but my Reynolds Wrap is overdue for replacement and my mind may be controlled as I write this. You should stay for the math. Oooh, you're right, no tears here. Now that your beliefs are well established, I find nothing insightful about them. Hey! I'm an iconoclast!

There's no way to set this up automatically with any degree of precision, which means physically going through every old thread to delete manually. That's a LOT of extra work for me because you think something you said might be embarrasing sometime in the future. Let me think about it. No.

There's no doubt they will be saying that, but I think we can avoid being quoted in the worldwide press as aiming ourselves or a World War at "Islamic extremists". If we widen the scope beyond terrorists, won't defending ourselves against fascist elements be enough? Why go out of our way to bring an entire major religion against us? In the words of Murdoch (William Shatner) from Airplane II, "That's exactly what they'll be expecting us to do!"

Is this for homework?