circular logic at it's best.
one mans brilliant attempt to rationalize his own sense of persecution.
highlighting hitler and the third reich and the horrors of world war 2 while ignoring the fact that the tactic used had been used for thousands of years....by the church.
how do you get people,whole communities...nations...to go out and murder/slaughter other people?
by demonizing them.
and nothing compares to the power of demonizing another culture than religion,but for the past century this has been due to nationalism.love of country and not so much love of god,but this has been a fairly new enterprise when put in historical context.in the past it was the church whipping its religious flock into a murderous froth.
in regards to germany,demonizing the jewish people is more understandable when we look at what happened to germany after world war 1.what happened to their economy and political and social structure..they were RIPE with fear and uncertainty..which hitler exploited to his radical benefit.

key word:fear

religion uses this emotion like a bully in the pulpit.yet this emotion is antithetical to what jesus taught,but fear will always be the best tool to control and manipulate the masses.the church dons the mantle of false authority and instills fear in order to subjugate and enslave.
saint patrick is given credit for clearing ireland of "serpents".yet when you realize that "serpents" represents "pagans" i.e:actual human beings and that tens of thousands were murdered and slaughtered for not leaving when given the chance,one can only come up with a more apt word:attempted genocide.
think on that the next time your enjoying a pint of green beer.

i always wonder how a true follower of christ reconciles putting on a uniform,picking up a gun and shooting another human being.america's current military has become more and more christian based.with evangelicals joining in such groups as "warriors for christ".while i am fully aware of passages in the bible that not only condone acts of war,but demand it,i do not recall jesus ever once stating that killing your fellow man is a godly and righteous thing to do.

this is hypocrisy incarnate and,in my opinion,one of the very powerful points atheists point to and with good reason.religious historical slaughtering aside,this is happening NOW.
radicalized fundamentalist islamic people being manipulated into jihad by those who pretend to have the authority of god.
fundamentalist christians taking up a "crusade" against the warriors of allah.
as if 1500 years of murder,rape and slaughter were not enough to teach both of these easily manipulated people in to the continued killing of each other.
these people are being deceived by those who wish to dominate using the very scripture these poor souls have deemed holy writ.

another good example is how a small and fringe political ideological group called the "neo-conservatives"(formerly known as neo-liberal) hi-jacked the evangelical religious folk in the late 70's and it was the LEADERS of that evangelical movement that sacrificed their own parishoners to the wolves.
jerry falwell,baker,swaggert,roberts.
all of them used their authority and charisma to convince their followers the righteousness of this radical political ideology.
war,empire,domination,dismissal of the poor and weak.
all put into biblical terms which the faithful bought.hook..line and sinker.

i could go on but suffice to say atheists have a few really strong points when it comes to the hypocrisy of religion and it always amazes me how many religious folk are totally unaware of their own hypocrisy and circular logic.accusing others of this or that while being totally unaware they are doing the exact same thing...very much like this man in the video.
cherry picking certain sound-bytes while ignoring historical context does not an argument make...
quite the opposite.

i am going to upvote this just so we can see this train wreck of logic exposed for what it is:a rationalization.

Holy crap man! Have you seen Fox News? (I'll bet you have.)

Again, I don't understand the need to deflect this to Obama as you guys are doing. I could give a SH!T about Obama. The issue is that this woman, no matter who she is or where she comes from, is an idiot! It wouldn't matter if she was running for the presidency or for a local city council.

The sad thing is that if she would either do a little research or broaden her talking points a little she could potentially ride her charisma and popularity to great heights (god help us all) but instead she talks and talks saying things that she thinks people want to hear with her mouth in drive and her brain in neutral. This makes me think her to be egotistical and lazy; "I don't need to prepare, the people love me and everything I say." No wonder the McCain campaign staff turned on her.

>> ^bobknight33:

All Quaumtum was doing
is pointing out the blatant Bias the media has. He correctly points out that time after time after time after time after time the current fool called the president gets a pass every times he fucks up.
But the media will dog Palin on every opportunity they can.
When will you get your self absorbed heads out your asses and see the truth? You heads have been up you asses so long you all think you shit doesn't stink.

>> ^ponceleon:
Really quantum?
Defending her just makes you a troll. Please. I like you more than Shiny right now, just take it back and we can still be friends.

Thank you

In reply to this comment by eric3579:
*promote

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I only wish I had the raw talent and sexual charisma of a Doug Sheehan, or even a Danny Ferguson.

>> ^deathcow:

Brian?? wtf I thought your name was Doug Sheehan! 5 yrs??? is that awesome or terrifying or what! We always said at 5 years the site would go completely hardcore porno!

Reminds me of me when I was a lad, before corporate America lobotomized me.

I was a little bored at the end because the farts got too repetitive, but the charisma shining through all the retarded nonsense makes the retarded nonsense more than just bearable -- it makes it downright HILARIOUS!

He's a great politician but has no charisma to be president and thus will never be elected. He also does not pander to the elite class of America so he will never be funded enough to get elected.

As for his religion, I really doubt he will ever use it in formulating policy. He is probably the most staunch supporter of the constitution than anyone else in office. I would trust his policy making over any other politician.

Sarah, like George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan before her, is a perfect corporate vessel. She has that right combination of vanity, self importance, folksy charisma and complete ignorance. If elected, we will focus all our outrage on her as she mindlessly carries out the will of big business. She will gladly take credit for all of the things she has been instructed to do, and at the end of her term, will be completely destroyed by the public and the media. Luckily for her anonymous patrons, there is a limitless supply of megalomaniacs in the USA. Rinse, Repeat...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism

I cannot say this about all young people, despite the charisma and amazing public speaking talent that this young man has, I still believe that 95% of young people today have no idea what is going on in their world beyond facebook and twitter.

But what a great and passionate speaker this guy is. Its refreshing to hear someone speak from their mind and heart, rather than note cards and teleprompters. It was GREAT to not hear phrases such as "ummm", "and like", and "know what Im sayin" every 3rd word.

I can't help but still like him on screen. He has screen charisma, that's for darn sure.

But I think a lot of the truly great actors are pretty darn screwed up personally and have some huge issues.

I think, as a friend, Mel would probably be a good friend. He obviously has a hell of a temper and also has some issues carried over from his dad's very wrong world viewpoint.

He's like Tom Cruise a little on that front. I think Tom is great on screen also, I have faaar more issue with his personal beliefs than Mel's (although Mel is pretty hardcore religious too of course).

Oh that's possible. I don't know when my sensei trained with Steven, but know for sure he trained under Ueshiba (my sensei, not Steven).

Honestly, I think Steven's contributions to martial arts has more to do with his outsized ego than his ability. Many of the practitioners in my dojo are probably just as skilled, if not more so, than Steven, but they simply don't have his charisma.

I don't think his size is really at cause for his power, however. In aikido, size can serve as a detriment if it is not embodied within the hara -- the center -- and moves with the hips, as in any athletic endeavor.

And as someone who has experienced the kind of qi he references here, the energy is in no way mystical. It is a real phenomenon with actual effects on the mat.

>> ^TheFreak:

>> ^Trancecoach:
My Aikido sensei, an 8th Dan, trained under the founder of Aikido with Steven. when you learn to embody the principles, the art is quite beautiful
His demo starts around 1:15 in this video.

Morehei Ueshiba died in 1969. Steven Seagal went to Japan in 1974. So Seagal never learned Aikido from the founder.
His accomplishments in Aikido are still impressive though. Undoubtedly the biggest influence in popularizing the martial art in the US.
And to elevate one of Westy's points, I suspect he gets more power from being 6'4" than he gets from any form of mystical, universal energy.

Hello! Just back this minute from seeing the film. I have a few comments to make which may involve SPOILERS.

SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS


Hmmm.

The short review is - what a load of disappointing and quite frankly tedious crap.

Oh Nolan why are you getting worse with each film? Who honestly thinks LDC is an actor with enough charisma to hold a film like this? He really wasn't enough for this role. Why the fuck does Nolan insist on having that thuddingly monotonous soundtrack pounding over virtually every single scene of dialogue? Why not give the actors some space instead of making it feel rushed and forcing them into layering soundbites for only the sake of exposition? Why not make this about the performances rather than worship the god of pacing? (it certainly didn't feel like 148 minutes I'll give him that).

Sorry, that girl he hires? Where was that maze she designed? Oh fuck that, we want a shortcut now. And why is Leo's dad (Michael Caine again for some reason) offering up students to do dodgy work? And what was she studying? Extraction 101? What world is this that dreams can be hacked in this way? This is never explained. Should we expect to see the flying cars out the window? Has cancer been eradicated in this world? How many other people are doing this shit?

And Leo with a bad case of dead wife syndrome (DWS). You know if you want to keep pulling that trick you might want to make it better than it was in Memento. Which is hard to do. Mainly because Guy Pearce is a better actor who makes you feel something about his character. Sympathy, disgust, shock, whatever. Something. LDC is like balsa wood in comparison.

But maybe I'm being too hard on Leo. Maybe the problem is with the script. I was surprised to find I had no problems following what was supposed to be a twisty, layered plot. I didn't see multiple plots criss-crossing and tying my mind up in knots - you want that? Try a James Ellroy novel. I still find Memento a mind-bending watch. The dream within a dream scenario is as hard to imagine as a box within another box. And here that's all that Nolan is concerned about. He loves the techie aspects of this. How does box C behave in box B. Oh B is jiggling about so C is getting all shook up. And do we get to care much about the inception itself? Nope. I thought this was a big missed opportunity to play the complex mind-games required to crack the subject. But in between explosions there wasn't much time for that.

Nolan has become a slightly more sophisticated version of the recent fanboy directors. But he's still thoroughly crass and obvious and doesn't have the talent to explore the spaces between what initially seem like promising ideas. But dreams? Hell, I enjoyed the more straightforward japes of Dreamcape and that was a long time ago.

But I am surprised that so many love this - I'd ask that you think about the characters. State what was memorable about them and what made them interesting. What did this film actually say that was of substance? Strip away the artifice and what are you actually left with?

I saw Total Recall, again, a few days ago. It was better than this.

Anyone know where you can find that version of the audio book? I checked out one audio book version and it was just unlistenable due to the reader. I could live with someone besides Sagan reading it, but this guy was unbelievably irritating. Just non-stop nasal whining, like Wallace Shawn without the charisma.

I tend to agree with you. It is an oddly dated piece. But I still think she is a fascinating figure in the 'art world'. Ugh. Hate that word.

From the NYT review:
" The museum estimates that, if she can stick to the plan, she will sit for 716 hours and 30 minutes, earning her a record for endurance in the performance art sweepstakes.

In a sense the whole business is another act of self-enshrinement in the art world’s ego Olympics, and that’s not interesting. Divas are a dime a dozen, and I don’t trust charisma anyway. More interesting, because it ties in with her impulse to conserve a possibly unconservable art form, is the way “The Artist Is Present” attempts to control time, hers and ours.

I have no idea what her experience of sitting in that atrium for all those hours will be; there has to be some serious agony involved, which is where she hooks up with her implacably daredevil younger self. But my guess is that her presence will have a demonstrable effect on visitors to the museum; that it will slow them down, get them out of drive-by looking mode.

And every now and then someone will slip into that chair across from her — that’s what it’s there for — and spend some time exchanging stares, or energy, or going blank, or thinking, maybe for the first time, about that hard, high-flown, funny word “endure.”

>> ^Shepppard:

>> ^Chinspinigcra:
Upvote for not being radical-left-wing-GWIZ-lie-machine-democrat-payola-shitt. This video is a proud one percent of it's kind on VS.

First off.... what?

second, this does nothing for me unfortunately. I appreciate the time that went into this, but it's not beautiful, it doesn't show anything deep about the people she sat with, its just.. sitting.

Again Beckham manages to be a complete charisma vacuum.

>> ^acidSpine:

What on Earth makes Palin think America can supply it's own energy demands, ...

You guy's refuse to build nuke power plants and let environmentalist nuts dictate energy policy. Point is valid. The US energy policy on anti-nuclear set back actual development in other high-form reactors by about 60 years.

>> ^Shepppard:

... snake oil salesmen were unscrupulous unintelligent morally deprived people who relied on their high amount of charisma to charm people into believing them and buying what they're putting out.
The most comparable thing to this isn't science, it's Sarah fucking Palin.

You mean like Gore? Or other environmentalists? The ol'BS meter is generally pegged on anything relating to climate "science", simply because of the amount of scientists who use it to get their funding for the year. Another 10 years and sanity will return, providing that idiots who follow it, don't drive us into global bankruptcy first.