Watching another one of the Marvel films with my kid, I am absolutely appalled with the cavalier way these stories treat human life. As long as it's not one of the costumed fascist Ubermenschen, none of the millions of victims are ever mourned or given a spare thought.
Here is an idea for a Marvel film. Make it about this German cop, obligingly shooting the Romanian Uber Soldier precisely into the tiny area of his body where he can't be hurt.
Tell the story of why his years of training have failed him in this situation. Tell the story of trauma
Tell the story of what the second-degree concussion he suffered for this shot did to his brain. The nightmares, the headaches, the disorientation, the inability to work, the partial memory loss...
Tell the story of what this cinder block hurled at his chest with Romanian Iron Arm's super strength did to his ribcage.
Give a shoutout to Germany's socialized medicine, but by all means don't skip a single scene dealing with recovery from a shattered sternum and 10 broken ribs.
But who cares, right? The Aryan Shield and The Shrugging Atlas have an argument about whether rules of humanity are puny obstacles to be cleared with little or no fuss or slightly higher obstacles to be cleared with a token amount of reflective thought.
What, Fake Russian has something to say, too? I already have the Winged Token to nod along to my brilliance, let's not turn it into a Berkeley cafeteria, people!
Finally!!!
Dr. Watson is here with the last two surviving cops in Germany to offer Aryan Shield and Romanian Iron Fist the one thing they both clearly need: a psych ward for the rest of their lives!!!
I have my new favorite character! Go, Watson!
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You may think that this is a terrible play by a Russian defender. But I have been watching Russian football for almost half a century, and I struggle to think of a play that was ever any better than this.
This is truly how football in Russia is played. All the time.
I mean, two straight backward passes, the second one to the keeper is practically a copyright of Russian football. In the old Soviet league, goalkeeper was the intended receiver of about 93% of all passes. This is literal truth. Look it up.
I was a goalkeeper in a Soviet club. The first thing I was taught is how to receive a pass from a terrified defender. The second thing was how to raise my arm demanding offside is called.
These were the only two things anyone was taught. The rest was just: "Mmm, catch the ball?"
Ture, and I support her rights. It should also be added that she gets hate for being an immigrant because lots of folks think we should shut up and be thankful and never criticize.
Let's also not pretend that her support of Palestinians is objective. Same for my support of Israel
I am a Jew, I view Israel as a safe haven for my people, because, let's face it, sooner or later all countries we live in get holocaust jones. It's just a fact of life. It's your quaint little thing, and we are used to it, so we need some place to go to when you get in that mood.
So, I won't be "objective" on Israel. I can easily criticize Netanyahu and support Palestinians' rights to a state, but I want Israel to survive and I want it to be a Jewish-majority state. Non-negotiable.
This is not an objective stance, sure, but no Jew can afford one.
.@sportexpress, Russia's major sports paper currently owned by Putin's mistress, has 7 articles today about Ukraine's soccer jerseys. UEFA has partially capitulated to Russian demands ("Glory to the heroes" will be removed, "Glory to Ukraine" and the map with Crimea will stay)
The articles run a tremendously pluralistic gamut of opinion between gloating ("Take that, our stupid neighbors: no glory, no heroes!"), official support of UEFA's decision and continued indignation ("This is a weak compromise! Crimea should be removed now!")
Russia has lost its collective shit over Ukraine's shirts, which include internationally recognized borders of the nation. Russia, which is incredibly, comically bad at soccer, considers it its national sport. For most of the population, it is the only sport worth following.
This is an amazing thread about Texas' new Soviet-like "patriotic education" law. However, as much as I love what this teacher proposes, the reality will be as such: none of the real history will actually be taught.
And, as a fellow educator, I will tell exactly why...
As soon as @brfranklin4 or another like-minded, well-meaning teacher begins to read ACTUAL foundational documents of Texas, with all their slavery and racism, like the very same day, scores of irate white parents will be calling the school screaming about the Evil Liberal Teacher
They will claim Mr. Franklin is teaching their kids critical race theory, making them ashamed of their whiteness, indoctrinates them with reverse racism and, of course, is a communist.
The "I am merely reading the actual text" defense won't work... It never does.
Make no mistake about it: the American system, which allows for wider participation and gives chance to late-blooming talents, is vastly superior. The Eastern European/Chinese systems are medal factories, but an Al Oerter or a Dick Fosbury could only appear in the US.
Ultimately, if the Germany, Russia and China churn out more medals by ruthlessly culling their young talents to a small elite core of super-athletes, while America keeps its high school/college sports, which let more kids play, have fun and dream, we in America should be happy.
Eventually, America needs to come to terms with the fact that Olympic gold is neither an indicator nor a substitute for national greatness. Let dictatorial regimes throw their kids' lives into a gold medal meat grinder. This is the only way they can self-validate, anyway.
Why do Democrats fetishize bipartisanship? It's so weird, and I am not just talking Manchin.
Biden offers to leave the 2017 tax cuts alone to get a bipartisan infrastructure bill. Remember how the GOP got them passed in the first place? In the middle of the night, zero Dem input.
And now, they are refusing to negotiate with Biden in good faith. No new taxes for rich/corporations in any form, peanuts in new spending. And still, Dems come back and beg. WHY?
At what point will their voters ask what good is to to elect Dems if they refuse to use their power?
And the GOP doesn't even have to worry about voter blowback. Their voters might like new infrastructure and jobs, they might agree to tax the rich. The GOP doesn't care. They want to keep the donors happy and know they can get the base in line with culture war bullshit.