Recent content by couch_sloth

A lot of entertaining fiction is centered around crimes that seem rather silly. e.g. Murder plots that are overly complex and risky. Oftentimes we love these stories because of the portrayal of the characters involved, the plot itself becomes somewhat secondary.

And there was the phone booth scene :)

Sorry for not being clearer, I figured you didn’t believe tariffs were the reason for the secession. I just meant to point out that the whole argument about tariffs doesn’t make a lot of sense when you look at the fact that seven of the Southern states had already seceded before the law passed...

If the tariffs caused the secession, why did most of the Confedate states secede before the tariffs were voted on by the Senate in early 1861?

Perhaps many early Christians didn’t believe that Jesus was physically resurrected, and the empty tomb story was created later to promote this belief. This would explain the strange ending in the earliest versions of the gospel of Mark. (Saying that the women found Jesus’s empty tomb but...

I prefer the Brothers Comatose cover of this song

Belle de Jour was made in 1967. I had never heard of it before I saw it about 12 years ago. It’s definitely one of my favorite films.

I also like Cocker’s version of the Beatles song ‘She Came In Through The Bathroom Window’.

My understatement for the day: Dylan has never been known for having a great singing voice.

My Twentieth Century (1989). A Hungarian film about twin sisters who were separated when they were young. The bulk of the story takes place when they were in their early 20s (in 1900). One of the twins has become a ‘high end’ con-artist and party girl, the other twin is an idealistic...

This is pretty much what I believe. I was raised an Episcopalian and became a born again type Christian when I was 17. The number 1 thing that eventually led me to reject Christianity was the realization that religious faith was a horrible method for: determining what is-or-isn’t real, and...

The Lincoln Lawyer (2022, 10 episodes, Netflix). 5/10. It’s a law & crime series that follows a defense attorney who does much of his work while being chauffeured around in his Lincoln Continental. After watching the first 5 episodes, I read a review of the series in which the reviewer...

In the news… For decades, Southern Baptist leadership covered up sex abuse by their clergy. https://apnews.com/article/baptist-religion-sexual-abuse-by-clergy-southern-convention-bfdbe64389790630488f854c3dae3fd5

I haven’t heard #10 in a while…. If I remember correctly this comes from a Christian psychology professor in New York. The idea is that atheism comes from having a father who is too strict (too much of a disciplinarian) or from having a father who is too soft (not enough of a disciplinarian)...

I would think that most religions have the potential to help people stop some of their destructive habits. That's part of the reason religious beliefs have so much appeal. Many things can be used to induce an epiphany (e.g. Sensory deprivation, fasting, EST, Scientology, LSD). A...