>> ^spoco2:
This doesn't get a WTF from me in the sense of 'Holy cow, are they really doing that?'
This gets a WTF from me in the sense of 'Really, people older than about 12 years old find this sort of stuff entertaining?'
Really, Anime fricken leaves me so cold. People wax on and on and on and on about how it's so damn superior to western animation, but really, so much of it is lazy (a LOT has an awful lot of static image in the frame with barely a mouth moving), outlets for the repression of the Japanese culture. The amount of violence and sexual abuse that is in these things is truly horrible. I found the violence funny when I was a kid, but after that, it just bores the pants off me.


How do you know this anime was made for people above the age of 12? Studio Ghibli films are usually for kids, I thought.

As for the rest of your post, I certainly spend more time enjoying animation that's "Made in Japan" than animation that's "Made in America", but I don't see why I should care either way. I'm an American. If I draw a shitty cartoon in my basement, am I automatically an example of shitty American animation? At what point is my failure my own and not my country's? Factor in multi-national corporations/ownership and the whole issue becomes even more muddled. Dreamworks and Pixar, to my knowledge, are the sole two animation companies in "The West" that are admired, and Dreamworks is owned by an Indian company based in Mumbai. Elsewhere, multiple anime titles have been and are being produced by Japanese studios specifically to appeal to "Western" audiences (read: white middle class youth), or at the very least significantly factor in their interests.

Anyway, the giant budget 3D animated movies cost dozens of millions of dollars to produce, and only offer up perhaps 90 minutes of entertainment after years of production time (The Incredibles cost $92 million, Wall-E: a whopping $180 million). Because of the massive budgets these movies require, the scripts of these films rarely take any risks. Everything's rated G and has a story that is very "lowest common denominator" in my eyes. I'm getting far too old to enjoy these films beyond their technical merits, since their target audience is primarily below the age of 14.

Meanwhile, partially due to smaller budget requirements in anime production, I can choose all sorts of anime that tries to cater to a slightly older crowd. Very little anime attempts to appeal to anyone above the age of 30, but even in the "age 13-18" type shows, there's interesting themes to chew on. One of my fav animes, Gundam, is basically Star Trek with robots. Its creators have described the show as a humanist show, and the shows take on imperialism, racism, and war really line up with what I saw in the humanist Star Trek shows (I loved TNG/DS9). Since Star Trek has been dead for a while, it's nice to have a place to go to (btw: the upcoming movie will abandon much of what the shows were about in favor of violence and sex). Most Gundam shows are about a teenage boy who hops into a war robot, gets traumatized by war, manipulated by corrupt politicians into fighting questionable wars, and deals with issues of imperialism. Not the most intellectually challenging stuff in the world, I know, but it sure beats what I've seen in stuff like 24 or Heroes and a lot of other dramas on the major networks. And those are aimed at considerably older demographics. I think the much smaller budget requirements of anime helps studios create things for niche demographics (such as sci-fi loving humanists) and that's good for me. Are they technically superior to something like Wall-E? Not by a long shot. But a 1,000 minute Gundam series didn't cost $180 million every 90 minutes either, and yet still left me more entertained.

I liked the Gundam SEED music

Excellent, I'm a little disappointed that he did not capture Godzilla and gundams flying in the background though.

@gundam
Marine as to your first comment i felt compelled to look into private property laws, so that we could see what the case is really about now. If there are no signs that is good for the cop, if there are signs, its worse for the cop. But the uniforms will still have to deal with the dog issue.

I know the laws, and they are quiet complicated when it comes to officers (even private security suits) and potential violation of property, it was part of last line of work.

Each county is different, and so are the cities, what may fly in one township may not fly in another, even thought the consensus is signs are needed a fence will do just fine in the state I currently reside. If a person jumps that fence it is a violation of county laws and owner of that land is entitled to protect his or her livestock.

agreed GUNDAM,and jwray brings up the exact point (harming others) where this argument always gets caught up.
is abortion murder?
i say it is.but that does not mean i wish for the government to step in and create legislation to ban it.
roe vs wade has stood up well for 35 years,mainly in part (in my opinion) due to the fact it compromises.
and while i agree jwray that laws may pertain to morals,but really they are in place to protect the victims.
so while masturbation is a victimless crime,it is still against the law in some states.just as me using an old testament reference was a jab at brutality for the sake of justice,that was jab at stupid,archaic and puritanical laws.
that whole diatribe was my lil jab at some of the archaic laws that have infected human society.
though i understand your point,which you made succinctly,it brings us back to
the beginning,in which we ask,when does life start?this is the juxposition that can never truly be clarified.
if life starts at conception,then its murder.
and if thats true,
how can we deprive this "potential individual" of its/his or hers..rights?
and the deabte rages on.
all im saying is keep government out,
it is already a relative issue with the person involved.
a moral crisis they will have to face,and ultimately take responsibility for.
but thats my take on the issue.
i thank gundam and jwray for their well-thought out posts.
till next time..peace.
Enoch D.D.S

>> ^thepinky:
>> ^jrbedford:
thepinky said:
The mental pain and trauma of carrying and delivering an unwanted or forced baby can be very severe, indeed, but our emotional well-being is never more important than a human life.
I'm annoyed by people who pretend to know something about the choice to have an abortion. I know three women who believed that an abortion would make them happy when they had it done. All three of them still regret their choice.
--
I disagree that emotional well-being is never more important than a human life. What's the point of living if it will be in constant pain, depression, etc.? I realize there is the potential to "get over" the trauma, but I think you should reconsider what makes living worthwhile, and should allow a person to make that decision for themselves.
Also, I know a woman who had an abortion and she does not regret her choice. She's living a great life now, one that she probably would not have been able to live had she not had the abortion.

Well, you do have a very good point there. However, Gundam is right that there is a difference between life and lifestyle, and I would venture to say that almost never does a pregnancy damage a life so much that it is not worth living. But let me say this: It may weaken my argument to mention it, but I actually do believe that women ought not to be FORCED to carry a child in the case of rape, incest, or threat to life, but I agree with Palin that she should be counciled to have the baby and that we ought to make it as easy as possible for her to do that. And the reason I believe this is because of what I mention earlier, that "ALMOST NEVER does a pregnancy damage a life..." I agree with you that sometimes (very seldomly) a pregnancy could in essence destroy the life of the mother. This is why it ought to remain a choice in those cases, because, yes, the LIFE and not the lifestyle of the mother is potentially more valuable than the life of the baby. But abortion as it stands today is advertized as some kind of instant fix. We make no effort to impress upon people the magnitude of the decision they are making. Like Deedub pointed out, abortion can be a cause for suffering in and of itself.
And abortion is still wrong.


Well, its clear we have a Sarah Palin to go along with the Lantern dude for president in 2024. CaptainPlanet420 promise - you have my vote.

>> ^jrbedford:
thepinky said:
The mental pain and trauma of carrying and delivering an unwanted or forced baby can be very severe, indeed, but our emotional well-being is never more important than a human life.
I'm annoyed by people who pretend to know something about the choice to have an abortion. I know three women who believed that an abortion would make them happy when they had it done. All three of them still regret their choice.
--
I disagree that emotional well-being is never more important than a human life. What's the point of living if it will be in constant pain, depression, etc.? I realize there is the potential to "get over" the trauma, but I think you should reconsider what makes living worthwhile, and should allow a person to make that decision for themselves.
Also, I know a woman who had an abortion and she does not regret her choice. She's living a great life now, one that she probably would not have been able to live had she not had the abortion.


Well, you do have a very good point there. However, Gundam is right that there is a difference between life and lifestyle, and I would venture to say that almost never does a pregnancy damage a life so much that it is not worth living. But let me say this: It may weaken my argument to mention it, but I actually do believe that women ought not to be FORCED to carry a child in the case of rape, incest, or threat to life, but I agree with Palin that she should be counciled to have the baby and that we ought to make it as easy as possible for her to do that. And the reason I believe this is because of what I mention earlier, that "ALMOST NEVER does a pregnancy damage a life..." I agree with you that sometimes (very seldomly) a pregnancy could in essence destroy the life of the mother. This is why it ought to remain a choice in those cases, because, yes, the LIFE and not the lifestyle of the mother is potentially more valuable than the life of the baby. But abortion as it stands today is advertized as some kind of instant fix. We make no effort to impress upon people the magnitude of the decision they are making. Like Deedub pointed out, abortion can be a cause for suffering in and of itself.

And abortion is still wrong.

This guy would make a great Gundam pilot.

The Jew-Gundam suit looks awfully slow. A Segway is in order.

Agree with Gundam. Stockard Channing was a mess even back then.

>> ^shuac:
^ Ooof! nomino ftw.


Gundam 0
Nomino 1

Is there anything sexier than a girl gracefully shooting down an ignorant man?

Nomino/Obama '08 ftw

Hey Gundam, if you are a visiting cop during a crisis and going into strange people's houses to evict them, well tough shit.

First job as a cop, know the law. Second job as a cop, try to obey and enforce the law. You can't go into people's homes and evict them. You can't take away private guns on private property. I don't care if this is marshall law bullshit, we have precedents based on "due process" and posse comitatus forbid using federal troops, but that isn't obeyed anymore. I don't care if there is a fire or hurricane, you should be allowed to remain on private property and the police should not be allowed to tresspass. They should have the burden of proving your life is endanger or others lifes are at risk. This woman posed no threat and unless you can prove she would have died if she stayed, (which you cannot), it is a free choice we no longer have in this country thanks to Bush and his cronys.

Hear, hear, Gundamn.

Besides, every tank has a commander - a commissioned officer senior NCO. Any shit that is illegal or wrong, especially if it's being videotaped - will ultimately fall upon his shoulders. So had this been a no-no, surely the Cpl/Sgt would have put a stop to it.

I'm not saying that this couldn't have been illegal, but like Gundam said, for all we know the tank crew all chipped in and bought the car for some fun stress reliever. Don't sit there and tell me that if you went to an airshow or something and they did this there that you wouldn't be giddy if you saw a tank run over a car in real life.

Gundam:

First of all, if they thought it had an IED in it, would it be wise to drive over it?
Second of all, if they didn't think it had an IED in it, how good does it look to the Iraqi population for American soldiers to have "some fun" with it by driving a tank over it? Even if they were going to tow it away later, it looks like shit. If the streets of America were being occupied by a foreign invader, how happy would you be to see your neighbor's car being crushed by a tank, even if they were going to tow it away later?

Besides, towing is a generally ittle more difficult after a vehicle has been crushed. But boys will be boys, right? Except they are NOT boys; they're soldiers. They need to act like professionals, because when they don't it only disgraces their uniform and their country.

I am a little puzzled by your reaction, Gundam. Are you saying that I don't support the troops because I show a video of some unprofessional behavior? Is it asking too much for our soldiers to not act like children?

All good points, Gundam. Maybe God did it.

I would claim that there are a lot of mysteries around nine one one in general, and only a few regarding Wtc7. Some of Silverman's behaviors are mysterious to me. Or what was going on in the CIA and DOD offices. What the true condition of the South face? How could the emergency generators on the fifth floor propagate fires on the 12th floor and above? What was the true condition of the South face, was it gouged out to 25% of it's depth? Why did Tucker Carlson refuse to show the video of the collapse when Steven E. Jones was a guest on his show? Why did firefighters tell survivors to flee because there's a "bomb in the building"? The molten metal at the site persisting months after? The claims of atomized spherical iron particles? These are common questions. I can answer some of them quite reasonably, some I can't.

If you prefer the original * lies, please appeal to the original poster or any other ranked member to change it. Or Sift your ass off and do it yourself

I think * mystery is a lot less polarizing than * lies, is all.