The thing I said about forgiveness was a paraphrase of a cliched, lazy attack on Catholicism. I don't believe that people engage with religion in that sort of cynical way, in which it's just a bunch of mechanical technicalities to navigate to get into Heaven.

By your response I suspect I'm misreading your quotes, because I thought we were on the same page :) I'm not very familiar with those books.

Those are nice quotes that seem to repudiate Protestantism … but the problem still remains of what 'works' are. If you're a person who pays any heed to the implicit morality of the Old Testament, then 'works' can be inclusive of the slaughter of the old and infirm. Even the most virtuous of the books of the New…

Of course not, no one says that, because that sounds cynical, and no one wants to be cynical about their own character. The problem with religion isn't that it literally makes people think they can get away with anything (like that cliche about the problem with Catholicism being 'I can just do anything and be forgiven…

You focus on logistical reasons for why these movies are morally dissonant, but I'd point at something more fundamental. These are made by people whose engagement with religion is predominantly not as a moral arbiter but as a moral justifier. Protestantism in particular is appealing to people because it doesn't…

It's kind of cute! This is like your 10-year old son running up to you and excitedly telling you: 'Hey dad there's this game Valkyria Chronicles and it's totally based on World War II it's really mature!'

My internal monologue in response to this: 'Well it's not like we're talking about something potentially *sensual* like Tarantino's feet. I mean, we're just talking about Christopher Nolan here who tells stories like someone who's never had sex with a woman and oooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh…..'

Boy … I'm not gonna demand that this is a bad album, but by the time I finished listening to it one time, I was pretty sure I'd just listened to the exact same three songs four times in a row.

2018: Bullet City - Gerard Butler is a cop who just watched his wife, the district attorney, shot down in the street, and he thinks he knows which mobster is responsible. His partner, played by Jake Busey, might be on the take. His captain, Dolph Lundgren, doesn't believe him. And the mob boss, played by Bruce Willis…

JJ … pretty smart, sophisticated guy! So … how is it that he can't direct a single goddamned scene with any more sophistication than 'Something's happening I have to zoom in on it!'

Is Citizen Kane the Scarface of rich white people?

I'd actually watch a show called "The Coolers", where Hardwick, Ray, and Mirah guest on (or maybe just crash) shows that take place in front of a live audience, yell out arbitrary pop culture references and middle-school-level jokes with Steve Martinesque self-importance (but without the grasp of irony), and…

I'd actually watch a show called "The Coolers", where Hardwick, Ray, and Mirah guest on (or maybe just crash) shows that take place in front of a live audience, yell out arbitrary pop culture references and middle-school-level jokes with Steve Martinesque self-importance (but without the grasp of irony), and…