CommentsDisplaying semidisk's 10 most recent comments.

• Iranian State TV Praises Oscar Win as a Victory Over the ‘Zionist Regime’

  February 27, 2012 at 12:17pm

  In reply to Gonzo.

  Broadly speaking Sonick is right here; it’s troubling to see so many people dismiss this film before having seen it. (Incidentally The Artist is largely a tribute to American filmmaking, so you‘d think it’d be a little more appreciated here.)

• Iranian State TV Praises Oscar Win as a Victory Over the ‘Zionist Regime’

  February 27, 2012 at 12:08pm

  In reply to Locked.

  I haven’t seen the Israeli film but I have seen A Separation. It’s safe to say here that the Iranian government is trying to co-opt something that doesn’t belong to them – although A Separation isn’t a political film, there is implicit criticism of (or at least exasperation with) the government, from the disfunction of its legal system to the hypocrisy of its members; the win for this film simply cannot count as a win for Iran except in the most inarticulately broad terms (i.e. except in as much as that this film won and it’s from Iran). And this isn’t anything new; Iranian filmmaking has long existed at odds with the Iranian government, which has a history of artistic censorship. It’s worth remembering that the second most significant film to come from Iran this year, This Is Not A Film, had to be smuggled out of the country in a USB drive in a cake.

  (By the way the film IS good. It’s not my favorite foreign film of the year – not by a long shot – but it’s a deserving winner.)

• How Have Americans’ Opinions on Faith & Religion Evolved Since 9/11?

  September 12, 2011 at 5:52pm

  In reply to DimmuBorgir.

  A hipster: http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/replicate/EXID10472/images/hipster_metal.jpg

  An atheist: http://www.algemeiner.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/christopher-hitchens5-e1309800420909.jpg

  Identical.

• Updated: Rapper ‘Soulja Boy’ Insults the Military & the FBI, then apologizes

  September 6, 2011 at 10:53am

  In reply to JLGunner.

  All that rap inherently “is” is a certain musical form of saying words over beats. That many people appropriate that style for unintelligent commentary doesn’t speak to the worthlessness of the form itself; it only speaks to the fact that most rappers lack the skill to make intelligent commentary. And of course that isn’t only true of rappers.

• Updated: Rapper ‘Soulja Boy’ Insults the Military & the FBI, then apologizes

  September 6, 2011 at 9:59am

  Ha, it’s Soulja Boy. Even people who like rap music don’t pay attention to Soulja Boy. Who cares what he said in some song somewhere?

• Hurricane Irene Claims Over 20 Lives as of Sunday Night

  August 29, 2011 at 2:04am

  Is it too much to put away the sarcasm and show some sympathy for a single story?

• Rapper Kanye West: ‘People Look at Me Like I’m…Hitler’

  August 8, 2011 at 3:11pm

  In reply to poster.

  @ Bushie
  It kind of sounds like you‘ve never heard Kanye’s music. That’s really the precise opposite of what it is; e.g. his album 808s & Heartbreak was about the personal pain he felt from recently losing both his mother and girlfriend and his most recent album MBDTF was largely about all of his personal shortcomings and failures. On Watch the Throne there‘s even a song about how he doesn’t want his (hypothetical) son to be like him. He makes really great music; it‘s just that when he’s not making music he has a sort of disheartening grip on reality — which leads to things like this.

• Rapper Kanye West: ‘People Look at Me Like I’m…Hitler’

  August 8, 2011 at 2:58pm

  In reply to Shiroi Raion.

  Haha, no. Kanye’s completely harmless. He just does lots of things that make people tsk and say “Hey, you jerk.” Nothing like those things. (Except for the taking the mic thing. That’s the worst kind of thing he does.)

• Unlikely That Norwegian Terrorist Will Be Declared Legally Insane

  August 1, 2011 at 7:21am

  In reply to cromag11b.

  Actually the sentence can be extended every five years for another 21 years. He’ll have a life sentence in all but name.

• Oslo Shooter’s Lawyer: I Think My Client is Insane

  July 26, 2011 at 3:51pm

  In reply to MONICNE.

  No. To lefties (and hopefully pretty much everyone) killing dozens of children for over an hour is insane.