Sumpta

Actually, the problem is not really the losses from WW. Russia's real problem isn't a lower birth rate, but a higher death rate. The average age a man dies is 59. The reason: alcohol. It isn't such a stupid or new idea either. Governments all over the world have done this in the past (after losses in a war for example) and are doing it now: coaxing their people into producing offspring, with extra fees and actions like these. PS Right now, I can't help but be glad I'm not Suzi.

My family history is shrouded in mystery (father's side), but it contains everything to write a good novel about. Love, treachery, politics, war crimes, art, mental illnesses - you name it, we got it.

No, no, no, no. I actually take offense to the kind of "reasoning" that says that faith gets you perks like instant healing or luck with the lotto. No, no, simply no. I can't emphasise this enough. To turn the discussion away from the mind-body matter a bit, I feel that faith serves to give you... well... faith that everything will turn out alright. To give you strength when you're in trouble, to lighten the weight of life and bring you more joy in happiness. Not as a miracle spawner. Religions that contain these kinds of miracles and cannot take it beyond the metaphorical, lose all credit with me. Idolatry, believing in miracles,... they belong in the same non-rational and rather stupid discourse of bread-and-games religions for the unthinking masses. Extremely dangerous in my mind. Not to mention that they bring discredit to all forms of religion. In christian religion, it is often said that God performed miracles when people doubted his existence. I've always wondered, if I were God, would I find it necessary to prove I existed? I think not.

Paranoid |||||||||| 34% 49% Schizoid |||||||||||||||| 62% 53% Schizotypal |||||||||||| 46% 53% Antisocial |||||||||||| 46% 47% Borderline |||||| 30% 47% Histrionic |||||| 26% 43% Narcissistic |||||||||||||| 54% 41% Avoidant |||||||||||||| 54% 39% Dependent |||| 14% 37% Obsessive-Compulsive |||||||||| 38% 40% I score above average on schizoid (huh?) - narcissistic (mmkay, maaaybe a little) and avoidant (mweh). Why do they make it sound like those are so very bad things *whine*?

These kinds of topics kill me. Really. I'm just going to stick to the one scene. In the Name of the Father - the scene where the prisoners set fire to a scrap of paper and let it fall down through the bars of their jail windows in honour of Giuseppe. It sounds cheesy, but I remember how the image of those little lights twirling down in the dark really really got me when I watched it.

It's the universe sending you a signal! Join the cult! Watch Blake's 7!

The Seven Year Itch - Yet another great Wilder film. It contains the famous scene with Monroe's dress blowing up on the metro grating. The Rachmaninov - Chopsticks scene is just classic... intricate fantasy gets thoroughly beaten by the simple real life. Blake's 7 - season 2 - Okay, it's a series, not a film, but I just love love love love this show, so I'm adding it nonetheless. It's a very low budget sf series, with outrageous costumes and outdated special effects (even by the standards back then). If you can look beyond this and accept it as a charming part of the series, you'll be thrown by the wonderful dialogue and powerful characterisation. The story? A band of nit-wits, thieves and criminals escape enprisonment and fight against the evil federation. They fight as much amongst themselves though, not all are too keen on risking their hides. Main characters can and do die, it's wry, but also funny and brilliant.

Without going into the pro/cons of these matters, I find it hard to judge these kind of things into good/bad categories. * The decline/end of fossile fuels and the necessary uprise of green alternatives. There's no way around this one... * The gaps between populations and population groups will continue to grow, on several levels (radicalisation): poor/wealthy; educated/non-educated; democratic/non-democratic; western/eastern; left/right * Paradoxically enough, globalisation will grow larger also. * Further technological growth and dependance on it, hopefully not to the exclusion of nature. It may sound very hippie & Ayurveda, but people need to have their feet connected with the bare ground and grass sometimes...

Jindabyne - Mweh. Says it all. Raymond Carver is a great short story writer, and that's just the point. Turning a short story in a 2+ hour film is a bad move. Director Altman was smarter, he used several of Carver's short stories to make one fabulous film (Short Cuts). Anyway, Jindabyne: you feel the painful struggle of the director to get a certain mood into the film and prolonguing the short story with complete drivel. Even without knowing the story, the viewer feels effortlessly what has been added later. In the end, the director botches up the thusfar just bearable film by trying to go for cheap emotions with a performance of a Celine Dion/Mariah Carrey-like tearjerker. No likey.

Well, I can see one positive element in moving together with TIF'ers: Daan's DVD collection. However, let it be understood that severe penalty will be dealt out to anyone touching my DVD's *grin*. Seriously, what's up with all these "love & aren't we such great friends" cliquish topics on OT lately?

I don't think it matters if we exist or not. It's our perception that matters. We perceive ourselves as thinking and existing matter, so we behave as thinking and existing matter, which is fine by me. Not much use in pondering about things you can't possibly know. I'd rather break my head over other things, problems that need and can be solved. Obviously, I'm too practical to be a good philosopher :).

I don't like these kind of questions, because they imply that the one can't go with the other, especially with women. I hate how some pretty girls have to prove themselves over and over again. Anyway, I'd choose intelligence, please, both for myself as for my partner. For myself, because beauty can be as much a burden as a blessing. Well, the same goes for intelligence, I guess, but still. I thrive on reading, understanding and thinking, and sometimes I wish I was a bit smarter. For my partner also intelligence, because all the handsome men I've met are bastards. They can't help it, they just know that they're beautiful and know that they can have any girl they want, so -understandably- they get themselves every girl they want. That combined with a slight arrogance just does not make them good relationship material. I don't blame them for it, but nevertheless, I'd rather not get involved with them.

I had seen The Apartment before, as a child/teenager and I liked it, but at that age I didn't really get the bitter side of the film. I liked the humour and the lovestory, but now that I've seen it again, I'm impressed with how this film deals with the beginnings of a consumption society (eating fastfood in front of the TV with endless advertisements), adultery, suicide, the things you do in the name of ambition,... I've only ever seen the poster for Attack of the 50 foot woman. Tssk, and you accuse me of watching overhyped films :-). I wish I was in Venice now though. Both the Biennale and a fabulous Festival, with new films by Greenaway, Brannagh and Burton. Guh, drool.

The Apartment - Wowza. Billy Wilder to me equals funny, witty and brilliant entertainment for a lazy afternoon. But boy oh boy, does he take it to another level in this film. Funny, witty, yes, but also striking, unnerving and baring a society of adultery and blind ambition, in which thoroughly decent people lose their way. Once again, Jack Lemmon proved his genius as an actor.

Huh, you are like 25, right? You were late in cinema! Anyway, nice titles! although I'm not a fan of the hype titles (Amelie and Eternal Sunshine), but there's enough classics to make up for that. 8-) Oh, I dunno, the Little Mermaid dates from 1989. I was 7 then. Considering how much I hate little brats of 4 or 5 in the cinema (they just can't keep still, can they), I fully understand my mother's decision to introduce me to the silver screen at the tender age of 7 :-). I thought "Am̮̩̉̉lie" was very cute, but definitely overhyped. But come on, it's such a great feel good movie for dark afternoons! Eternal Sunshine I saw in sneak preview in the cinema before it was hyped - I had no idea what I was in for - and it floored me. I'll admit it was overhyped though...

I suck at these kind of topics, but oh well... A selection of films that were important to me as a child or an adult. Not necessarily the best films ever, but favourites nonetheless. Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari Metropolis The Great Dictator Wuthering Heights The Third Man Sleuth Roma Dr. Strangelove Le Fabuleux Destin d'Am̮̩̉̉lie Poulain (yes, it was overhyped, but I loved it, mmkay?) Dr. No Indiana Jones (childhood memories) Star Wars (childhood memories) Moulin Rouge & Strictly Ballroom Arsenic and Old Lace His Girl Friday The Philadelphia Story The Little Mermaid (childhood memories, ohh, my first film ever in the cinema) To be or not to be Die Blechtrommel Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Some Like it Hot

La vie sexuelle des Belges - With the country on the eve of a possible separation, I felt like a bit of Belgium-nostalgia. The setting, costumes, the inside jokes, yes, the film is thoroughly Belgian... I think it's for this reason that I liked the first half hour best, because it was still fresh and new. It deals with a young man growing up in a fast changing world (from the 50's to the the 70's), wrapping his head around the weird mix of sexual repression and sexual freedom that was typical of those times. By the end of the film I was starting to lose interest, but nevertheless, a very interesting watch.

Ohh, finally a band whose name I recognise. I like the way Dead Can Dance mixes different styles and musical influences. They really bring passion and spectacle, though they tend to be a bit over-dramatic :-).

Ratatouille - Fun, light, cute, etc. I don't know what it is with me and Ice Age, Monsters Inc. and the like. I always like watching them, but they just never leave that much of an impression afterwards. Still, entertainment-wise, it did beat Shrek 3 and Pirates 3 to name a few. Der blaue Engel - I liked this one very much. It's a German film from 1930 with a then still unknown Marlene Dietrich. In my mind, she isn't the star of this film, that part goes to Emil Jannings who plays the poor man who falls into Dietrich's clutches. He switched between comedy and tragedy brilliantly, effortlessly taking the public along for a great ride to a moving ending. Really pleased I got to see it on the big screen.

I'm not a particular fan of Radiohead but in Paranoid Android, at about 03:30 or something, Thom Yorke starts singing "Rain down, rain down"... gets me shivering every time. Jeff Buckley's little sigh right before he start singing "Hallelujah" does something similar to me. It's not really God mode though, in fact, I get filled with the thorough sense that I'm very human and that that makes me very powerful in some odd way. Can't really explain.

I think I can feel Sumpta's vibes right now asking my hand to slap you. Thank you! You said it all, I couldn't agree more with everything you said. So i am wrong about that? A woman doesn't know if i put on a condome and i in turn can read on her forehead wether she took an anti baby pill, has a hormone spiral or whatever? Also who ultimately makes the decision wether to abort or not? (ideally we will discuss this together, but who has the final say?) What are you talking about? A woman doesn't know if you put on a condome? How could she not know? I don't mean to be crude, but it's not like she's in another country while you're having sexual relations with her. It's really simple to break down the responsibility issue. You don't trust your bed-partner: * she says she takes the pill/alternative anticonception - you use a condom/alternative anticonception * she says she doesn't take the pill/alternative anticonception - you use a condom/alternative anticonception You would trust your bed-partner with your life: * she says she takes the pill/alternative anticonception - you don't use a condom/alternative anticonception unless you like it better that way * she says she doesn't take the pill/alternative anticonception - you use a condom/alternative anticonception If you didn't use a condom and she got pregnant, you were too easy of trust, which is pretty stupid, but doesn't exempt you from your responsibility. The state doesn't expect you to take on any fatherly duties, except paying an alimony which is usually hardly enough to actually raise a child. Both mother and father are well-protected by the law. A woman does have the power to end a pregnancy on her own. She doesn't need the consent of the natural father to do so. In my neverending naivity, I'd think that that would be worse for men. They'll never really know if they haven't impregnated a girl sometime.

I think it would be better to have gay or lesbian parents. They'd be teaching the kid(s) tolerance. Not to say heterosexuals don't, but not all heterosexuals do. In nature many animals are raised by neither parent. And they can be masculine, feminine, gay, lesbian, even transsexual. I know plenty of adopted children with two moms or two dads, and one with a transsexual mother. Last I checked they were all straight, avid partakers in their community, church goers, and very very stable. In cross-reference to the abortion thread: gay couples who want children choose consciously for having kids and often (in the case of adoption) get reviewed by social security and a herd of psychologists. How could they be worse parents than -say- a careless drug addict teenager who got pregnant against her will (yes, exaggerating for effect, I'm sure you get the point).

Belgian here, can't say I notice any difference at all. It's the immigrants who get blamed for everything that goes wrong here anyway. It's very much not done (not to mention extremely unhip) to diss gay people and I haven't actually met anyone who makes an issue about gay marriage. Everybody seems to be very tolerant. Mind you, with some people this tolerance is just a thin layer of varnish, but for the most part, gay people are accepted into society. The country hasn't fallen apart, our streets don't burn with hellish fire...

'Scuse me? Sex is for reproduction and bonding in a relationship. Sex existed long before marriage or even monogamy did, darling. . 'Scuse me? thanks. Sex is for reproduction. thanks that says it all. so why in the hell would you need to have an abortion? unless raped. because you pretty much explained it your self there..darling, even if you are pro choice...and obviously if a women gets pregnant some time and it was a mistake well...she shouldn't have been bonding with John Doe over there... because she isnt ready to reproduce so...thanks darling you gave me the answer to your own answer Nobody can deny that from a biological point of view, sex serves to reproduce. Luckily however, we aren't just animals and so we've created other reasons to have sex. We also take emotions, love and pleasure into account. But hey, if you only want sex to have kids, whatever floats your boat. You're missing out. Way to go in not getting the marriage - sex point, though, honeysuckles.

Whoa whoa whoa, I must have totally zoned out, but Vik got banned? How can that be? Could someone enlighten me (best to pm I guess)? Sorry for the OT'ness, I'd fill in the list, but like I said on these sort of topics before, I really suck at doing this. I tend to think too long about it and always end up forgetting to put in the people I like best :D.