[Discontinued Foods You Miss]

Glad to see crispy M&Ms are back. Still miss the habanero flavored Doritos.

[Loathesome!: Characters We Hate]

Was that the guy who had his heart-to-be-transplanted eaten by a dog? In the hospital lobby? The clip of that made The Soup and that is how I know about that incident.

 

Peyton was a girl so that wasn't her.

[Faux Life: Things That Happen On TV But Not In Reality]

Only on tv do medical doctors not know how to use birth control. I didn't watch E.R for its entire run but I can't think of a single character that had a  planned pregnancy.

[Jill, Derick & the Kids: Moving On!!]

She mentions having had a stem cell transplant.  I'm very happy for her good health, and for the research and legislation that allowed it.  But..aren't fundamentalists opposed to stem cell transplants?  I'm curious about that aspect of it.  

 

I think it depends on what kind of stem cells were used. I'm assuming the treatment was using adult stem cells and not embryonic but who knows. 

[Sweet Fellowship: Duggars and Friends (aka the Bates Family and Other Featured Families Thread)]

Carlin looks absolutely terrified, and I would be too. I really would love to know the exact words she was thinking in that moment.

 

This is the family that travels in the bus, yeah? The kids look....very unhealthy. Wow. They also look just very tired. (Also, is Hannah adopted?? why is Jill calling her her "Portuguese Princess" if not?)

 

With the last name Rodrigues - I'm assuming they're of Portuguese descent.

 

Am I the only one who thinks that the husband looks like the Deliverance version of Xander from Buffy?

[American Sniper (2015)]

Anyway, it's just a personal annoyance of mine to see anyone seriously state, with no qualifiers, that their country is "#1" or "the best".

 

So, as soon as Kyle said that America was the best country in the world, it was an automatic "ugh, fuck" from me. :)  I'd like to know which other countries he's lived in so that he felt comfortable making that assessment.

 

Love your country. Respect your country. Fight for your country if you want, but please, please, please, don't ever turn a blind eye to its faults.

 

The US is a good country. I just don't think it has to be called the best piece of dirt on the planet Earth to justify fighting for it.

 

I think you can still call the US the best country while recognizing that it has many faults. There isn't a single country in the world that doesn't have problems. 

[Super Social Analysis: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and LGBT in Movies]

Well, there was a study done that showed that watching television decreased the self-esteem of black boys, black girls, and white girls, but increased the self-esteem of white boys. Yeah, I don't think that's a coincidence. 

 

It would be interesting to see if this actually has any impact on kids in the long run. A number of other studies seem to show that kids tend to have similar levels of self-esteem regardless of race and gender. This study found black children actually have the highest level of self esteem and Asian children have the lowest. 

[Unpopular Opinions]

That's not true. The New Yorker article cites specific sources, and the New Orleans conversation was taped.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/06/03/in-the-crosshairs

Me, I think the man had a drinking problem and what was most likely untreated PTSD, and that he was most likely a victim of the national frenzy for "supporting the troops" by putting them in harm's way and then having other priorities for our money (tax cuts, say) when they came home broken. He was tragically far from alone in that.

Leaving aside that it's a horrible thing to accuse people who opposed this war of, I also think that it's a huge disservice to men and women who served honorably to suggest that people who have a problem with glorifying this one man don't support the troops. It's lazy agitprop, and I'd genuinely to see the cynical use of that trope stop.

Although get over it works too.

 

I could be missing something but the New Yorker articles says "Three people shared with me varied recollections of that evening: the first said that Kyle claimed to have shot thirty men on his own; according to the second, the story was that Kyle and the other sniper had shot thirty men between them; the third said that she couldn’t recall specific details" which doesn't confirm that Kyle actually claimed that he killed 30 people in New Orleans. I agree that the man had a number of demons and shouldn't  be glorified but I don't think it's fair to him to attack his reputation with something that is based on what other people claimed he said while they were all getting drunk.

[Unpopular Opinions]

http://mpmacting.com/blog/2014/7/19/truth-justice-and-the-curious-case-of-chris-kyle

 

Those are still all hearsay sources. Not that he didn't say it but no where in any of those articles is there a direct quote or confirmation from Kyle.

[Unpopular Opinions]

Chris Kyle, by his own admission, is a murderer of US citizens.  He claims (but probably lied about it) that he sat on the roof of the Superdome in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and killed, by his own count, 30 people.  US citizens, who had not been even accused of any crime or brought to trial, but murdered in cold blood by this self-appointed vigilante.

So whether he is a hero for his actions in wartime is beside the point.

 

I don't mean to hijack this thread but I've seen this all over the place and was wondering if there is a source where Kyle actually claimed this. Everything that I've read is of other people claiming that he said this; did he ever come out and actually verify this one? I know he completely made up the Ventura thing and definitely lied about a number of other things.

 

To add an actual UO: I loathe Rose from Titanic. I know her mother wasn't the greatest but I don't know how you can let your own mother think you died in a horrible tragedy when you're still alive.

[The Lonely Js Club: Jason, James, Jackson & Johannah]

I wonder how much of it is Anna asking and needing the help or the sister in laws simply wanting to get away from Arkansas for awhile. It's not like Jana or Jinger have that many opportunities to get away from home like normal young adults.

[The Disney Renaissance]

I mean, I think they both skew younger than say... Tarzan or Pocahontas but I just feel like Tangled is meant for a younger audience. I think the fact that Frozen's score is contemporary musical theatre helps it skew older. The lyrics are smarter and more complex. They might be more challenging for a younger audience. The plot is also more difficult to sort through where Tangled is more straightforward. I mostly think it's the characters. I know some people have their complaints about Anna but I liked her. I thought she was quirky in the way you'd expect someone very sheltered would be while still managing to be competent. It reminds me a little of Fiona in the Shrek musical. On the other hand, Rapunzel felt very childlike to me. I think she was closer to Snow White than most of the other Disney princesses. Ariel is very clearly 16 but most of the others feel older. Cinderella, Aurora, Mulan, Meg, Tiana, etc. They don't act like children. 

 

Rapunzel definitely seems more childlike but that makes sense story wise as she had spent her existence locked in a tower with only one other person and a lizard. Anna, at least, interacted with her parents and the other palace staff and received an education so while sheltered she isn't ignorant of other people and the outside world.

 

That aside, I thought Tangled had the more complex villain and by a long shot. Mother Gothel's relationship with Rapunzel is probably the most complicated villain/princess dynamic in any of the films. Hans, on the other hand,  was vital to the plot twist but otherwise pretty one note and his plan was kind of odd once you think about the way royal succession tends to work. Killing Anna and Elsa just paves the way for their fourth cousin or similar relation to take over.

[Gimme That Old Time Religion]

Raising my hand because I have another question: In home churches like the Duggars, how are the sacraments handled? In my own denomination we have infant baptisms (or any time later -- but only once) and then some time after the age of 13 or so, the child attends confirmation classes and then joins the church by a profession of faith. We also have an open communion. And I'm also quite familiar with the tradition of infant dedication followed by baptism for a youth or adult accompanied by a profession of faith. I assume the latter is the practice with the Duggars, but does the individual join the church and thus commit to serve? Is there weekly communion? Are the elements simply blessed by the father in the household? 

Thanks in advance. I keep wondering these things. 

 

There was no communion at the two Evangelical services that I have ever attended. I don't think the churches were quite as fundamentalist as the Duggars but they were non-denominational and services were held in a community center and a preschool gymnasium, respectively. I found it strange coming from only ever attending Lutheran and Catholic masses but it might not be that uncommon.

[Super Social Analysis: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and LGBT in Movies]

Not to disagree with your point about Disney needing to adapt non-European stories into movies but the majority of Disney animated films have not been based on fairy tales; only 8 of their 54 full length animated films have been based on European fairy tales, specifically. I think the princess thing has just become so huge that it's overtaken everything else that the studio produces. The next big princess movie, however, will be set in Polynesia.