Puterbac News Network and Political Discussion Thread

[Professor Tiger]

You have to give Saddam Hussein credit - his armies threw themselves at Iranian guns and tanks and died in droves...well over a million.

Iraqi soldiers now just throw down their guns and run.

They must have been trained by the French.

[bluetick]

Time to bring back this guy. No training necessary.


"Stay calm. Terrorist forces have been thwarted and are in full retreat."

[Johnette's Daddy]

Movies, pre-1950:

I tend to prefer the "snappy palaver" of the romantic comedies - anything with Cary Grant, William Powell, Fred Astaire or David Niven worked for me. For dramatic stuff, Casablanca was the gold standard.

The key for me was that the movies were story driven, rather than technology driven. Watch an action flick today and the real star is the special effects coordinator in charge of blowing stuff up.

[Johnette's Daddy]

Time to bring back this guy. No training necessary.


"Stay calm. Terrorist forces have been thwarted and are in full retreat."

Colin Powell told Bush that if we went into Iraq, it would be a minimum of 20 years before we could get out.

The sad reality, however, is that if we go back, it won't be to protect American interests primarily, but to protect Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Dubai and Qatar from populist revolutions.

[Toemeesleather]

Time to bring back this guy. No training necessary.


"Stay calm. Terrorist forces have been thwarted and are in full retreat."

He's been replaced by someone much more effective....

[10ac]

Heh

[hedge]

I'd like to see her use those man hands to effectively slap the shit out of both of you corn pone faggoths...

[hedge]

I like noir stuff from the 40's and 50's. Hard to beat something like Double Indemnity...

[Johnette's Daddy]

Jordyn Howe pleaded guilty in court Tuesday for the 2012 shooting death of his friend, Lourdes “Jina” Guzman-DeJesus, 13. Howe had brought his stepfather’s gun on the school bus, firing it once at the ground.

Nothing happened.

He pointed the weapon at Guzman-DeJesus -- and this time, when he pulled the trigger, the gun fired, killing her.

The victim’s mother, Ady DeJesus, spoke about her daughter’s death in court.

“It’s such a painful experience,” she said, still visibly shaken. “Two parents should never ... I can’t.”

Howe, now 16, confessed immediately to the crime, pleading guilty to three charges -- including manslaughter with a deadly weapon.

One of my mentees did something similarly stupid. When he was 18, he got ahold of his cousin's gun (cousin was an armed security guard). He unloaded the gun, then went over to his other cousin's house to play Video games, etc., then told his cousin they were going to test their manhood and play Russian Roulette. My mentee goes first, points the gun at his head, pulls the trigger - click. Hands it to his cousin, who pulls the trigger - BOOM! Long story short, my mentee does 3 years of a 6 year manslaughter sentence. I became his mentor while he was awaiting trial - took about two years - then after he got out we've remained close. He's gotten his life together, owns a business, husband & father, active in church . . . but his cousin is still dead.

This is one of the many reasons I'm for gun regulation.

[AlabamAlum]

Your friend/mentee is an idiot and shoulda served more time. Willing Russian Roulette (as a gag) and can't even unload a revolver? Wow....


Yes, I need more restrictions, and we need to water down the 2ndA, because of an anecdotal story of two people who play Russian Roulette...one of which, who can't unload a revolver before he does.


I know a guy who drank a gallon of Everclear and died of alcohol provisioning...let's bring back prohibition.

I know two guys who got drunk and threw knives at each other, yep, one had an artery sliced and is in a vegetative coma...


Christ on a Cross, Russian fuckin' roulette?

[AlabamAlum]

I tell you what, let's start up some Poulan chain saws and throw them at each other. When one of us loses an arm, let's restrict chain saws!


Fuck me...

[Dr. Strangelove]

Is that eCat in the last frame of that cartoon?

Also, totally disagree about GWTW. If the complaint is that it's a soap opera, you might as well complain that life is a soap opera. And not even that good, in most cases. So that can't be a valid criticism of GWTW as a piece of dramatic art, unless you're willing to criticize well over 50% of any dramatic art ever produced (and maybe you are, but it certainly leaves you with little else to enjoy except zombie flicks and such, and even those have their soap operatic elements). I'm hard pressed to think of many great movies that don't have that same "soap opera" element. Apocalypse Now, maybe, or some other war flick, but I guess you could criticize those types of movies as just another political flick. No, GWTW is one of the timeless great pieces of cinematic (and dramatic) art...

Hedge

Perhaps I should call Gone With the Wind a poorly written soap opera then. It's 4 hours of sappy, unbelievable dialogue surrounding a love triangle.

I don't remotely find it "timeless". For one, it's fairly racist and extremely revisionist. It's much more benign than Birth of a Nation, certainly. But it still portrays all blacks as subservient to whites by nature and slavery being the proper condition for them until Yankees put dangerous notions in their minds.

But forget the political and social stuff. It's just not a very good story. Certainly not one that merits an epic-length four hours.

Have you ever seen Cimarron? I would consider GWTW an improved version of that. Stories differ, obviously, but it's basically spectacle hindered with a lackluster plot. There's barely any memorable lines other than Rhett's famous last line and Scarlett's speech out in front of Tara. Visually it is extremely memorable but the acting, characters, and story are really not much to talk about. I honestly don't know how you can say "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is no deeper than GWTW is. It's like watching a flick with gorgeous CGI that has a story that's totally mediocre behind it.

Films from around the same time that I would possibly say are superior to it for rewatch value: Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, Grapes of Wrath, Sullivan's Travels, any of the period Capra Movies (It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds, Mr. Smith, You Can't Take it With You), Sgt. York, My Man Godfrey, Rebecca, among others. I've yet to watch it but I've read people write that Betty Davis in Jezebel plays a better, deeper "southern belle" than Scarlett O'Hara. And for a movie that has a deeper message about war to deliver I would certainly say that "All Quiet on the Western Front" is better in that aspect. And that flick is almost 10 years older. And still very watchable.

All in all I'm not saying that that GWTW is a bad movie but I don't find it to be amongst the best 5 movies ever made as it's placed in a lot of lists. It's there because of legacy and the enormous popularity it once had.

[AlabamAlum]

GWTW is a chick flick with a civil war backdrop. It's pabulum. It's a ridiculous, mind-numbing piece of shit with horrible dialogue and shitty character development - and those are its good points.


.

[Dr. Strangelove]

You are a scholar and a gentleman, AA. Just for that, I will declare hereafter than no more shall I recognize Mike Price as a head coach of the University of Alabama. He is now persona non grata!

[AlabamAlum]

Are you telling me that you will erase ALL of his losses at Bama?

[Dr. Strangelove]

Every. Single. One.

[AlabamAlum]

OUTSTANDING! But we can keep ALL his wins?

[Dr. Strangelove]

It is as you wish

[AlabamAlum]

Wow! You are my salvation!

[10ac]

You misspelled saliva.