Huh? The point was that Hitchens was a proponent of the Iraq War, wrote some defense of "enhanced interrogation" versus torture, was called on it, and followed through by letting himself be waterboarded. Then he admitted it was outright torture.

Japan has serious issues dealing with its past, but I think it's unfair to judge the film for not confronting that. It never really goes anywhere near to the "why" of the bomb (and so never makes a claim that Japan was without blame). It's merely interested in the after-effects of the bomb: physical, psychological,…

It definitely still has a high critical representation, but Resnais is always a harder sell than Godard or Truffaut. I think he's bit like Antonioni—the apex of "modernist" filmmaking (at least during the 60's), which can be very alienating to those of us raised under more postmodern films, which take more inspiration…

As always, to each their own. I enjoy these movies, but I find the first halves much more satisfying than the latter. My complaint, again, is that whatever fresh, unique tone or spin the movie established earlier on gets lost in the big huge action sequence. The Avengers does the best job with maintaining a tone…

The problem is that the first half of every Marvel film develops its own tone and approach (CA's 40's pastiche and 70's conspiracy thriller homage, Avengers' team-bickering, Thor's Asgard CGI lunacy and fish-out-of-water comedy), only to devolve into the same pattern of heroes dodging explodey things in the second…

What really creeps me out about that list is how everything is framed in terms of "market value" and "contracts." Even feminism is twisted into "a doctrine of class hatred." The fact that these people are framing their already insane beliefs in the rhetoric of Tea Party/neoliberal economics makes it all the more…

I can see why other governments might be hesitant to help them, because there would obviously be a big diplomatic fallout over questions of sovereignty and the Earth Alliance's right to police its own people. Narn desperately needs EA and IA support to get back on its feet, so I could see them being reluctant to…

I feel like it would have been much better if it had just affected the entire station. Less wheel-spinning with people trying to figure out what's happening, and a greater variety of characters might have meant skipping some of repetitive aspects of the conceit, like how each of the four stories we got doesn't need…

Another problem with the telepath arc is how Byron (and JMS) are so narrowly focused on human telepaths. I mean, if he wants a home planet for telepaths, wouldn't it make sense to seek out members of other species and form a galaxy-wide coalition? They may not be as poorly treated as human teeps (though we never get…

Those titles are all simple but evocative though. As opposed to simple and sounding like a cheap Hallmark channel movie, like Midnight in Paris or Magic in the Moonlight. Sad thing is, To Rome with Love was originally titled Bop Decameron, which is both a good title and doesn't induce awful groaning.

"What about your daughter? Can we get access to that if she's in the kitchen?"

Yeah, American propaganda during WWII claimed that spreading Shintoism (and the associated worship of the emperor) was one of the primary goals of Japanese expansion. So considering that that would be the way most Americans even knew of the term during the 40s/50s, it makes sense that it would be suspect.

Or GRRM confirmed the whole Jojenpaste theory, and the producers just stared at him awhile and then wrote down FIRE.

I wouldn't be surprised that more people are staying, and I expect a lot more may be starting to come back. I feel the like the big coastal cities are starting to become rapidly less attractive due to rent prices being absolutely nuts (and the internet/digital distribution making it easier to access and participate in…

Yeah, I think throughout all of Ohio, OSU basketball and football overtake the local professional teams in terms of popularity, especially during off years (which is most years).

I think Cleveland's bike problem is because it's so spread out and horizontal. Pittsburgh has a smaller area and is much more condensed, even though it goes crazy vertical. And its crazy streets and hills are unfriendly to both bikes and cars, so I think there was already more of a pedestrian/mass transit friendly…

I grew up south of Cleveland (in Canton) and went to college in Pittsburgh. Both cities went through similar hardships (heavy industry shutting down, environmental problems, massive loss of population, national joke), but I feel Pittsburgh is in much better shape these days than Cleveland. The universities and…

It's from a Random Roles with Udo Kier (Dracula, professional scary Germanic man, video game actor, and Lars Von Trier goodluck charm):
http://www.avclub.com/artic…

I have the recording of the line that was posted later and it occasionally pops up on shuffle and it is wonderful.

I cannot answer you because it is totally unknown to me and also very boring.