Xrist on a crutch, was India populated entirely by ginger haired Englishmen? Kipling would never have expected us to believe that.

@bareboards2

It seems reasonable to oppose unnecessary race cards because most of the people who play race cards contradict themselves, and race cards tend to be used as crutches.

@bareboards2

Thank god, someone played the race card. "I can't imagine why someone would dislike crime, so just to be safe let's call her a racist."

How would we survive without anti-self-reliance crutches.

@longde

1. What do you mean Asian Americans don't experience discrimination? They're demonstrably racistly discriminated against as a matter of official policy.

2. Most Asian Americans aren't Hmong, and the group averages are still true. Feel free to stop making references to Whites, Latinos, or Blacks, since those groups have much variance within them, and then we can finally make affirmative action based on income instead of self-reinforcing tribalistic concepts.

3a. Everybody has to develop their human capital if they want to be skilled in advancing in the business world. I read a dozen books (or audiobooks) per year on how to do it, and I think about it constantly, trying new things, writing down my thoughts, and improving on my (many) past mistakes.

3b. People can use anything as a crutch, and when something goes wrong, which is a constant part of life, they attribute it to that crutch. They then won't develop their full potential. We should probably have affirmative action based on height, beauty, and likable personality (if you believe in affirmative action), and if we'd rather be born as Will Smith (Hollywood's highest paid actor) than Paul Giamatti, these are more significant crutches than what sub-culture we belong to.

When CGI is used right, it is awesome. With new facial mo cap techniques it can even look almost lifelike. But yes there are certainly times (to often these days) that CG is used as a crutch to carry a film, such as the newer Starwars movies. Actors spent so much time on green sets where cars were just green foam blocks they sat on and they spend almost their entire time talking to nothing, it produced only bad acting and painfully unrealistic CG characters.

I think Avatar was a success because there was very little 'actor to cg' interaction. Most the areas were sets instead of green screen so actors could immerse themselves into their part much better. Sure there was plenty of green screen in the movie. The forest areas, riding on the raptors,etc but it was just the right mix.

I'm to much an old school B movie fan. If you can do something with actual sets and miniatures, with only CG where you really cant do it otherwise, you'll have a much better movie than actors spending all their time sitting on blue foam talking to empty space.

>> ^boblobblaw:

Please direct us to a few of those movies with quality fights scenes in your opnion. Thank you in advance...>> ^swedishfriend:
Funny, the fight scenes are some of the worst out there. reminds me of the super slow exaggerated stunt fighting from the 80's. I liked Serenity in spite of the fight scenes not because of them. There have been so many films with good fight scenes at any budget level that I am amazed how once in a while films still get made with such lame feeling action. Being flexible and acrobatic is not as important as having an intelligent use of the forces you throw around to at least look like you are putting some force into each hit VS I am touching you gently now and then you fly backwards as if a much greater force hit you. The dissonance between cause and effect is so great that it looses any impact.



Three off the top of my head:

Luke and Vader's fight at the end of Empire Strikes back, particularly the final scene on the gantry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-DeI3ohVbY
It's inelegant, rough and psychological; Vader is toying with Luke, who is clearly inferior, in an attempt to break his will. Way better than any of the fancy choreographed rubbish fights of the prequels.

Total Recall, the fight with Quaid and his mate from the quarry, along with his goons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KtHhIePpZg
For an action movie it does well, not too cheesy (though they sorta come at him one at a time, I guess) and he just kills them quickly any way he can. It establishes that the character possibly has latent abilities he didn't know about, as even he is surprised/shocked.

And although I generally view Kung-Fu as largely aesthetic, at least the way films depict it, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon's style nicely blended in a mythical aspect to their abilities (gliding across roofs and treetops).
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OxQ-2gR1DU

I agree with @swedishfriend, that even if it's all pure fantasy, if it doesn't *look* like someone actually delivered any force with their fancy legwork, then it doesn't hold water for me. It's fine to film it that way if they want to, but it's just that there have been other fantasy films that have depicted combat better. Kung-Fu seems to be a sort of crutch that Hollywood leans on for making their fight scenes look more genuine. But I just really wonder how well all that twisting of arms and balancing on toes would really stand up against a kick-boxer, or other more practical style.

Ohh, also the needless twirling of swords... How I grit my teeth when I see that.

Christians always resort to analogies like this and straw-man arguments.

Evolution is a blind watchmaker. Evolution is a sand-sculptor.... Blah blah blah. They try to make Evolution something which it is not so they can destroy the Non-evolutionary argument they created and cry 'Ha!'.

Rational people do not need such crutches. Attacks on God and faith can be made purely on how wrong and stupid those beliefs are without the need for fallacious argument.

Explain the laryngeal nerve on a giraffe (or a human for that matter) creationists.

On a fish the l-nerve is straight, it passes under the arch of the aorta in the most direct possible path.

In mammals the nerve also passes under the arch of the aorta but the route carries it from the brain, down to the chest and back up to the throat. In a giraffe this means a detour of several metres.

Either God is a terrible engineer or creationists are wrong.

>> ^MarineGunrock:

How short are we talking? I've come to HATE the idea of multiplayer because studios use it as a crutch when releasing a less than stellar game. They skimp out on the SP mode by saying "Oh, but it has multiplayer!"
No game should EVER need that excuse. If a game can't hold itself up on it's SP campaign, it shouldn't be released yet.


I've heard 4 to 5 hours. I think CoD has gone from a good single player game with multi-player added in, to a multi-player game with single player tacked on.

I don't care much for CoD style MP, so I'm not about to drop $60 for 4 hours of SP. I'm still waiting for CoD: MW2 to come down below $20 before I pick it up, but since it is still selling at full price ($59.99), it looks like I'll be waiting a while.

How short are we talking? I've come to HATE the idea of multiplayer because studios use it as a crutch when releasing a less than stellar game. They skimp out on the SP mode by saying "Oh, but it has multiplayer!"

No game should EVER need that excuse. If a game can't hold itself up on it's SP campaign, it shouldn't be released yet.

>> ^jimnms:

The game ruining glitch is the short SP mode and the price.

How short are we talking? I've come to HATE the idea of multiplayer because studios use it as a crutch when releasing a less than stellar game. They skimp out on the SP mode by saying "Oh, but it has multiplayer!"

No game should EVER need that excuse. If a game can't hold itself up on it's SP campaign, it shouldn't be released yet. </rant>

In reply to this comment by jimnms:
The game ruining glitch is the short SP mode and the price.

>> ^Yogi:
That's pretty cool but I also see another drummer that uses Double Peddle like it's a crutch instead of an asset.


If your talking about the guy in the video, maybe. But the actual drummer certainly only uses the double pedal when it's needed (see single foot blasts), which happens to be most of the time for this kind of music.

That's pretty cool but I also see another drummer that uses Double Peddle like it's a crutch instead of an asset.

Oh yes, the La Rouchebags. When Bush was in office, Bush had a Hitler stash and they were all anti-war. Now that it's Obama, Obama has a Hitler stash and health care reform is secretly about killing your grandparents. When I was much younger (and dumber) I asked one about their organization. I was given some pamphlets about how La Rouche is all knowing, and invited to a "spiritual" retreat on an island....Something seems 'off' to me

There's a fine line between free speech and screaming at people/flipping out when being asked to leave private property. Sorry, but that guy had a better case for his freedom of speech being violated before he started screaming in people's faces, and yelling insults at anyone that wanted him to quiet down.

The whole chubby cop pinning down a man with crutches was pretty cringe worthy though....

Those are pretty pansy charges BTW. Basically yelling insults at people, refusing to leave private property, and screaming about something violent. The video could work against him, at least as far as the Assault 4, and trespass goes.

>> ^rychan:

Still not as bad as the musical crutch "hands in the air". Aliens listening to our insipid music would certainly believe this gesture to be a cornerstone of our culture.


Dude, come on, hands in the air is the cornerstone of human civilization. Now put your hands in the goddamn air or I'll have to kill you.

Still not as bad as the musical crutch "hands in the air". Aliens listening to our insipid music would certainly believe this gesture to be a cornerstone of our culture.