[Railroader]

Originally Posted by analogika

A little humility never done no-one bad.

Agreed.

[Troll]

Originally Posted by pooka

Show me something from France that can dethrone Evil Dead 2 as the greatest movie every made and I'll eat a snail. Hell, beat Rushmore and I'll let French women start sleeping with me again.

Alien - by Jeunet who did Amelie. How about Leon (the Professional) with Natalie Portman or Big Blue by Luc Besson?

My top 3 movies of all time would all be European films. Kolya (Czech), Cite des Enfants Perdus (French), Il Postino (Italian) would probably be my favourite ones. These are films that make me think, "Man, I wish I could write like that." Of course, I'm a huge fan of American movies too. Love most Mike Myers films, Clerks was great too and a bunch of others, but they're not in the same league as the others.

[Troll]

Originally Posted by osiris

America is #1 for me in terms of the amber waves of grain thing... It's amazing that I can drive an hour and be either on top of a mountain or at the beach.

Been to Barcelona? Cape Town?

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Troll

Been to Barcelona? Cape Town?

Morocco? Chile?

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by analogika

Morocco? Chile?

North Wales? Rio?

[Troll]

Originally Posted by Doofy

North Wales? Rio?

Mountains in North Wales? Maybe I should get there.

[MacIntel]

Originally Posted by analogika

a) Pride is a sin.

So is anger.

b) If you're gonna be proud, be proud of something YOU did. It certainly wasn't your decision, responsibility, or achievement to be pushed out on a piece of dirt that happened to belong to US territory. Congratulations, you were lucky, by some standards. Unlucky, by others.

If you're going to be angry, be angry over something that actually matters a hill of beans, not bitter over someone else liking where they live.

c) I feel threatened by blind, idiotic displays of nationalism, yes.

Refer again to b.

d) No, I didn't gloat over the Columbia's destruction. It didn't devastate me as much as the Challenger did (I vividly remember that day). But any moron going rah-rah gung-ho, technological leader, we are #1 Greatest Nation In Duh Werld™ at this shuttle launch would do well to remember the royal ****-up that made this one so special.

And again, your nation's Space Shuttle program has never had a royal ****-up why is that again? Perhaps its just easier to do nothing and never ****-up, and enjoy the luxury to second guess everything others do.

A little humility never done no-one bad.

True, nor has a little taking of one's own advice.

[SimpleLife]

Originally Posted by loki74

Thats why I said that music was a tool used to help move along the storyline--like you said it is big time in the eliciting emotions department. But it is STILL part of the art. Don't try to discount it.

You make it sound like movies brainwash you into liking that movie... yeah I guess there are movies out there that brainwash you. Or try to at least (any of Micheal Moore's "documentaries"). As for them being overly simple... I dunno. How complex do you like it? If you want a complex storyline, play a Japanese RPG. I don't think that movie storylines should be too complex, unless its a series of movies, SW or LOTR type stuff. Also, movies based on books tend to have slighly more complex storylines.

I don't know a whole lot about the indie film industry, although I may be entering it very soon... What I don't like about what I've seen so far about the indie film scene here in America is that there are a lot of people who really are not creative at all, and just want to mooch off of other peoples wallets and creativity, while they take the credit. I once did a production designer role for a guy like that. Real jerks are out there it seems, and a lot of them. Oh well, dont take my word for it, as I really don't know a whole lot, honestly. thats just my experience/observation so far.

oh well whatever

I think you raise excellent points here, many I agree with. Why it seems to hit more American cinema is probably because of all the money involved. Yet, some movies are jewels of simplicity, low budget, and extremely rich in meaning.

I suggest you watch some of Kieslowski's movie, i.e. the blue white red trilogy. If you have the chance to rent the DVDs, make sure to have a look at the documentaries made around these movies.

My favourite movie is "The Double Life Of Veronika"; cryptic, yet simple, and so beautiful! The music is actually one of the actors...

Sad that the guy is dead already...

Btw, I do have some fondness for some American movies, or rather, special moments in some American movies.

I also enjoyed thoroughly "MIllion Dollar Baby"; probably the best Eastwood movie, and one of the best of American cinema. Note there was not too much music in it... very discrete.

[Kristjan]

On the USA being first in human rights, please read these: Amnesty's report for 2004 and Human Rights Watch's page on USA.

Please note that I'm not anti american, I like most things about your country, but I have to raise my voice when someone says America is first in human rights.

[mojo2]

Originally Posted by SimpleLife

I also enjoyed thoroughly "MIllion Dollar Baby"; probably the best Eastwood movie, and one of the best of American cinema. Note there was not too much music in it... very discrete.

Might I add that Eastwood is a former "saloon" piano player and has written, scored and musically performed in his own films several times before.

One of the best decisions is knowing when and when not to do a thing. If his film might have benefitted from louder or a more prominent score, Eastwood would know to do it.

By the way...

I've only known ONE person who didn't like music.

An old girlfriend from Canada, actually. I called her Crazy Mary. One eye went this way, the other went ->

Loved, "I Love Lucy" though.

[Moderator]

Originally Posted by MacIntel

If you're going to be angry, be angry over something that actually matters a hill of beans, not bitter over someone else liking where they live.

Not that I'm particulrly angry about this.....but my main problem with the U S A Yahoo contingent is that many believe that :

A) America is THE best place in the world
therefore
B) Americans are THE best people in the world

both of those statements are ********e. Maybe if someone had lived in many different countries, met many people of all sorts of nationalities, and experienced all sorts of different cultures..he or she could have some basis for making a statement like that...

The thing is the more you've seen and experienced, the more you realize you haven't seen or experienced much at all, and therefore the less likely you are to make such absolute judgements..

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Troll

Mountains in North Wales? Maybe I should get there.

Technically, yes. They ain't the Rockies, but they're mountains all the same.

Mountains.
DoofyMobile™ on beach, same mountains starting in background.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by SimpleLife

I suggest you watch some of Kieslowski's movie, i.e. the blue white red trilogy. If you have the chance to rent the DVDs, make sure to have a look at the documentaries made around these movies.

I concur. "Red" is my favourite film ever.

[Macrobat]

Originally Posted by Doofy

What? Liberating Europe from the Nazis? Bad example. We were fighting them for years before you guys arrived late to the party. You might not have come had Japan not invited you.

Actually, you mean you were losing to them for years until we came along. Check your history.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Macrobat

Actuually, you mean you were losing to them for years until we came along. Check your history.

We were?

[Macrobat]

Originally Posted by analogika

Germany was only the entire basis for the US space program.

The Russians had an independent program around Tsiolkovsky, IIRC.

Both the US and USSR wouldn't have made it into space without their captive Nazi rocket experts.

BTW, Only ones on the moon, only deep space probes and only successful missions to Mars - Sputnik just doesn't cut it for a claim to "first." Just because you get up there first, doesn't make you the leader overall.

[Macrobat]

Actually, the single thing that makes America great is the FACT that, no matter where you're from, your financial status, the country of your birth before becoming a citizen, your physical handicap, or your ethnicity - it is still the ONLY country on the planet where anyone can make as much of themselves financially, politically or academically as they have the gumption and drive to reach.



not to mention that the US grows and provides more of the world's food supply than the rest of the planet combined.

[Troll]

Originally Posted by Macrobat

Both the US and USSR wouldn't have made it into space without their captive Nazi rocket experts.

BTW, Only ones on the moon, only deep space probes and only successful missions to Mars - Sputnik just doesn't cut it for a claim to "first." Just because you get up there first, doesn't make you the leader overall.

Of course Sputnik counts! People all over the world were sitting on their rooves watching Sputnik and listening to it on the radio. Besides, the Russians were the first to put animals in space and the first to put humans in space.

[Troll]

Originally Posted by Macrobat

Actually, the single thing that makes America great is the FACT that, no matter where you're from, your financial status, the country of your birth before becoming a citizen, your physical handicap, or your ethnicity - it is still the ONLY country on the planet where anyone can make as much of themselves financially, politically or academically as they have the gumption and drive to reach.

Right, nowhere else on the planet is that possible. How many other countries have you tried?

Originally Posted by Macrobat

... not to mention that the US grows and provides more of the world's food supply than the rest of the planet combined.

... first for obesity, first for geneticall modified crops too. Why is producing an excess of food considered a positive trait anyway?

[Macrobat]

Originally Posted by Doofy

We were?

Yes, you were. You had El Alamein and the Battle of Britain - which was pure luck, since all Hitler really had to do was physically invade across the Channel, the RAF was virtually crippled at home after the air battles. One of your greatest "triumphs" was the successful retreat from Dunkerque, ferchrissakes.

The Germans made not one step backward in Europe until after the US entered the war. This is historical fact.

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar...ne/ww2time.htm

BTW, you had only been in a declared state of war with the Axis Powers for a grand total of 27 months before the US actively intervened - using American-supplied Lend-Lease war materiels for 19 of those months. The US was involved with your efforts almost from the very beginning, as well as those of every Allied Power, including the Soviet Union.

All of Western Europe with the exception of the Iberian Peninsula (Franco, titular ally, but "neutral") and GB had fallen to Germany.

[Macrobat]

Originally Posted by Troll

Right, nowhere else on the planet is that possible. How many other countries have you tried?

... first for obesity, first for geneticall modified crops too. Why is producing an excess of food considered a positive trait anyway?

And which country are people clamboring to get into?

I have been to Japan, Germany, Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, Italy, South Korea, The Philippines, France, Luxembourg, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Russia, and Thailand - yourself?


An "excess of food" is considered a positive because we feed the rest of you, as well. Disasters, natural or manmade, happen all over the world and guess who sends the food?

I don't see where a crop being genetically modified to not require chemical insecticides or to produce more than before is necessarily a bad thing.

[Kristjan]

Originally Posted by Macrobat

All of Western Europe with the exception of the Iberian Peninsula (Franco, titular ally, but "neutral") and GB had fallen to Germany.

Sweden and Switzerland were never invaded by Germany.

Also, most of eastern Europe was under german control when USA entered the war.

[mojo2]

Originally Posted by Troll

Of course Sputnik counts! People all over the world were sitting on their rooves watching Sputnik and listening to it on the radio. Besides, the Russians were the first to put animals in space and the first to put humans in space.

Excuse me that I'm going to use an analogy which may be a bit risque, but here goes.

You can never forget or discount the importance of your FIRST TIME. But when attempting to put things in their proper perspective it is not the one who took you first who counts the most but the one who sent you to the moon and who TRULY went where no man had ever gone before who must be hailed as the greatest of all time.

Until you are taken higher. (Sly and the Family Stone)

Until you are taken to the next phase, baby. (The Isleys)

Until you take it to the limit one more time. (The Eagles)

(Why America is great)

[mojo2]

Originally Posted by Troll

Why is producing an excess of food considered a positive trait anyway?

I dunno, why not ask these folks?

[budster101]

Sweden and Switzerland were the banks for the Nazis.... why would Germany invade a neutral ally?

[Kristjan]

Originally Posted by budster101

Sweden and Switzerland were the banks for the Nazis.... why would Germany invade a neutral ally?

Switzerland was the bank, Sweden had the iron ore Germany needed and we gave it to them instead of them invading us. Nothing to be proud about, but we were not allies.

[Troll]

Originally Posted by mojo2

I dunno, why not ask these folks?

Are you trying to say that you give that excess food to the starving?

[Troll]

Originally Posted by mojo2

But when attempting to put things in their proper perspective it is not the one who took you first who counts the most but the one who sent you to the moon and who TRULY went where no man had ever gone before who must be hailed as the greatest of all time.

No man had gone into space before Gargarin.

[Macrobat]

Originally Posted by Troll

Are you trying to say that you give that excess food to the starving?

Sure as hell looks like it:

Edit:
edited out picture, way too large

[badidea]

Originally Posted by MacIntel

If you're going to be angry, be angry over something that actually matters a hill of beans, not bitter over someone else liking where they live.

You got that pretty wrong!
Someone isn't just liking where they live - someone is saying that they are the best in the world (the text of the post - not the title of the thread) which is nothing else than saying that all others are worse!!!
This is why non-americans get pretty upset/angry!!

I am not proud to be German - I am glad to be German!



P.S.: Germany lost the war in Russia - the invasion in the Normandie just finished it!
You guys should honor the Russians a bit more - they gave the most lives!

[Troll]

Originally Posted by Macrobat

Sure as hell looks like it:

Ah, my mistake, I didn't realise the US only produced one plane-load of excess food. I thought mojo was trying to say that all the excess food produced goes to the starving. Not that it gets wasted.

[Moderator]

Originally Posted by Macrobat

it is still the ONLY country on the planet where anyone can make as much of themselves financially, politically or academically as they have the gumption and drive to reach.

the ONLY country! c'mon do really believe that...

[Macrobat]

And again, Trollie goes from white to black. Cute.

A picture of one planeload out of literally thousands, but I forgot Troll was King of Literal.

Sorry to break it to you, Trollio, but the US is consistently the largest supplier of International Food Aid, actually providing more than the rest of the countries in the world combined year after year.

http://www.farmfoundation.org/2002_farm_bill/paggi.pdf

This, on top of billions of dollars in monetary aid, as well as personnel provided (both military and private) to render that aid.

[Kristjan]

Macrobat, could you please scale down or remove the huge image? It makes it very difficult to read the rest of the page.

Edit: Too late...

[Macrobat]

Originally Posted by Kristjan

Macrobat, could you please scale down or remove the huge image? It makes it very difficult to read the rest of the page.

Edit: Too late...

Sorry, my bad, didn't realize the thing was so huge until after I had linked it.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Macrobat

Actually, the single thing that makes America great is the FACT that, no matter where you're from, your financial status, the country of your birth before becoming a citizen, your physical handicap, or your ethnicity - it is still the ONLY country on the planet where anyone can make as much of themselves financially, politically or academically as they have the gumption and drive to reach.

Rubbish.

Originally Posted by Macrobat

Yes, you were. You had El Alamein and the Battle of Britain - which was pure luck, since all Hitler really had to do was physically invade across the Channel

You underestimate the British people. If all Hitler had to do was troop across the Channel, why didn't he do it? We didn't get to run the largest empire the World has ever seen by being pussies, you know.

Originally Posted by Macrobat

And which country are people clamboring to get into?

Britain, by the looks of our immigrant rates.
(which is why I want my green card - it's getting too full here).

[Macrobat]

That empire was built TWO GENERATIONS before WWII. And you had already lost two-thirds of it to the Axis by that time.

I didn't mean to underestimate the Brits, they are a formidible people (after all, we share common stock). Sorry to break it to you, but historians have almost universally agreed that, had Operation Sea Lion proceeded as planned, Britain would have been defeated. You simply did not have that large a number of ground forces at home at the time.

The Royal Navy could not bring its 10:1 advantage over the Kriegsmarine into play, as it was committed in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific. You had more troops on the ground in Asia and Africa than you had at home to defend the islands. The primary defense was the Channel itself and the RAF. You had the Home Guard (comprised of youths and older men) and a grand total of 71,000 trained troops available to defend against the initial German invasion of 160,000 battle-hardened ground troops and the numerically superior Luftwaffe. Had the Luftwaffe managed to secure bases on British soil, it would have been over, since most of the battles "won" in the Battle of Britain were because of fuel starvation on the part of German fighters causing them to be unable to commit to sustained dogfights. See, this is the situation that led to Churchill's famous "we will fight them on the beaches . . ." speech. Luckily, British guile kept the Germans from ever learning just how desperate things were at that time.

History has also proven your "rubbish" statement to be exactly that, as well.

And Britain couldn't contain the numbers of immigrants (both legal and illegal) who are entering the United States daily, you simply don't have the room.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Macrobat

That empire was built TWO GENERATIONS before WWII. And you had already lost two-thirds of it to the Axis by that time.

?
Malta and Cyprus weren't two-thirds of the empire.

Originally Posted by Macrobat

I didn't mean to underestimate the Brits, they are a formidible people (after all, we share common stock). Sorry to break it to you, but historians have almost universally agreed that, had Operation Sea Lion proceeded as planned, Britain would have been defeated. You simply did not have that large a number of ground forces at home at the time.

You and those historians are missing the fact that we don't need "ground forces" to defend our island. Heck, we beat the poop out our fellow citizens every Saturday night for fun. Imagine what we'd do to an invading force.

Originally Posted by Macrobat

History has also proven your "rubbish" statement to be exactly that, as well.

I'm proof that your statement isn't correct and the "rubbish" retort is well-founded.

oh, and:

Originally Posted by Macrobat

I don't see where a crop being genetically modified to not require chemical insecticides or to produce more than before is necessarily a bad thing.

http://www.greenconsumerguide.com/index.php?news=2697

[Macrobat]

You left out all the Pacific possessions you had already lost to Japan(such as Singapore), the Holy Land, and all your various island possessions, with India, Burma, New Zealand and Australia threatened as well, how convenient for you. I specifically said "Axis Powers."

"Soccer Hooligans" are no match for tanks, guns and bombs. Germany already had you on your knees with the air campaign alone. The RAF was down to 23% effectiveness when Germany gave up trying.

All this while firing American-supplied bullets.

Are you independently wealthy, have your own business and want for nothing? No? Then you aren't proof.

[Troll]

Originally Posted by Macrobat

Sorry to break it to you, Trollio, but the US is consistently the largest supplier of International Food Aid, actually providing more than the rest of the countries in the world combined year after year.

No need to go into this argument again. All I was saying is that there is no point in making more food than the aggregate of the food your chronically and unhealthily fat population can already consume and the food you do actually give to the starving.

[Macrobat]

Agriculture is not an exact science. You cannot simply say "I will plant x to yield y" because of weather and other factors, so it is far better to produce a surplus (especially of grains, which can be stored indefinitely) than to et out to produce "just enough" and wind up with not enough.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Macrobat

You left out all the Pacific possessions you had already lost to Japan(such as Singapore), the Holy Land, and all your various island possessions, with India, Burma, New Zealand and Australia threatened as well, how convenient for you. I specifically said "Axis Powers."

You said "lost", not "threatened".

Originally Posted by Macrobat

"Soccer Hooligans" are no match for tanks, guns and bombs.

And your military planners thought that a load of pyjama-clad Vietnamese folks wouldn't be a match for tanks, guns and bombs either. I assure you, we're a lot harder than the Vietnamese.

Originally Posted by Macrobat

Are you independently wealthy, have your own business and want for nothing?

Yes. No need. Yes. I'm proof.

[Macrobat]

The pajama clad Vietnamese fallacy again. Hate to break it to you, but moronic American government policies lost Vietnam, not the military.

[Darthmaul4114]

Originally Posted by hip(2)b⟡

First in human rights

did you kno during the vietnam war the US dropped over 30million cluster bombs on Laos even though we never declared war against them? they weren't even doing anything, it was just a "precaution" so that communism wouldn't spread. worse than that, only 33% of the cluster bombs exploded on impact, so for the last 30 years there have been 20 million bombs lying idle all over the landscape until some innocent Laotian walks over it, or hits it with a hoe while farming and then...well you know. 2000 kids die a year because of them, and all the US is doing to help is giving them like 10 grand a year.

if you call that first in human rights......i dont know what the hell is wrong with you

[Monique]

Because you are very welcoming and it is truly a country full of opportunities to someone who knows how to use them. Also, it can be a heaven for a person like me who is an intellectual.

[Darthmaul4114]

Originally Posted by Monique

Because you are very welcoming and it is truly a country full of opportunities to someone who knows how to use them. Also, it can be a heaven for a person like me who is an intellectual.

if you are a white christian or a supreme intellectual its a country of opportunities

[MacIntel]

Originally Posted by badidea

You got that pretty wrong!
This is why non-americans get pretty upset/angry!!

You let someone else's opinion make YOU angry, and you're proud of this fact? Did it ever occur to you that people get a kick out of your silly reaction to their opinion, and so express it even more often just to get a rise out of you?

America is the greatest country!

I am not proud to be German - I am glad to be German!

So what. Maybe that angers someone else who gets upset over people being glad to be German.

P.S.: Germany lost the war in Russia - the invasion in the Normandie just finished it!
You guys should honor the Russians a bit more - they gave the most lives!

Honor the Russians for taking over the Eastern half of Europe, including your country, and slaughtering more people all told than the nazis? Sure, okay. Strange thing to honor though.

[MacIntel]

Originally Posted by Moderator

Not that I'm particulrly angry about this.....but my main problem with the U S A Yahoo contingent is that many believe that :

A) America is THE best place in the world
therefore
B) Americans are THE best people in the world

both of those statements are ********e. Maybe if someone had lived in many different countries, met many people of all sorts of nationalities, and experienced all sorts of different cultures..he or she could have some basis for making a statement like that...

Who says they didn't? I know plenty of Americans who came here from all over the globe who love America, and who don't care how angry people get because they do.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by MacIntel

So is anger.

Possibly - I'm not too well versed in what the various churches consider sin, and what not. I do remember "pride" being a biggie, though.

However, I'm not angry. Not at all. This thread doesn't anger me, and the pathetic little chest-thumping of the original-poster flag-waver over NASA's finally getting over one of their biggest catastrophes is rather more amusing, and a wee bit threatening, but not angering.

Originally Posted by MacIntel

If you're going to be angry, be angry over something that actually matters a hill of beans, not bitter over someone else liking where they live.

I like where I live, else I wouldn't live here.
Maybe it's just me, but there's something about the thread title and the first post that makes me think there's a little more to it than that for the original poster.

Originally Posted by MacIntel

Refer again to b.

Again, I'm not angry. It might make it easier for you put off what you think I'm saying to just make it up, but I assure you, you've got it wrong.

Originally Posted by MacIntel

And again, your nation's Space Shuttle program has never had a royal ****-up why is that again? Perhaps its just easier to do nothing and never ****-up, and enjoy the luxury to second guess everything others do.


True, nor has a little taking of one's own advice.

That kind of hinges on finding anger in my posts in this thread.

we had our Space Shuttle-type stuff.

But most of all - and that's really my point in this thread - we've had our phase of gung-ho blood-and-earth pride in place of birth, and the belief in being the Greatest Country In The World.

We got over it.

Heil Hitler,

-analogika.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by analogika

Heil Hitler

Sieg heil!



Ooops. Was that out loud? Sorry, force of habit.