The Fell Beasts didn't need to be ridden. The Servants of Sauron were completely capable of acting on their own. It's not a rationalization. You'd have to learn a bit more to know this, but as you've already closed your mind I rather doubt you're in the mood for learning. Plus, studying Tolkien-lore is much like being good at chess...it's a useless skill that only pleases its student. Your time would be better spent learning applied skills.

Sigh...I love when people wave this around like they found something and have proved once and for all a beloved work of literature is stupid and pointless. The Eagles are standoffish and don't mix with the rest of Middle-Earth. Most of their interaction with society comes from stealing cattle, which doesn't exactly make them popular.

And the old "oh-ho, why didn't they just fly into Mordor and drop the Ring into the top of Mount Doom", yeah right the Eye would have spotted them coming a mile off and they would have been met by every Fell Beast from Barad-Dur. Great job handing the Ring to the bad guy, people. The only reason the Frodo plot worked in the first place was because Sauron never saw it coming, only purity of spirit and mercy can get rid of evil, not brute force, etc. etc. Plot hole my ass.

I remember before the movies came out, that I wished more people could experience Lord of the Rings. It was just such an awesome book. I dreamed of the day the work would be known to everyone. Oh, don't get me wrong, lots of people knew LOTR back in the day, but it wasn't mainstream. I knew that if my dream were to come true, the real key would be overexposure. Hey, it's either that or stay a cult classic, right?

Of course, today, my dream has been fulfilled. The movies were great. Lots of haters, but you know what? The director kept most of the themes intact, and that's what counts.

The really ugly haters are on the literature side. The "literati" (LOL what a dumb name) are horrified by Tolkien because he shoves in their face the fact that they don't get to decide what literature is. The readers do. He reminds them that they are less and less relevant with each passing year, and they hate that.

Tolkien stands in stark contrast to the socialist-leaning, Modernist, elitist literati that hate him so much. As Mingardi and Stagnaro have demonstrated, Tolkien understood that socialism was unworkable and made little distinction between "left" and "right" socialism. Shippey notes that the literary coterie that "ruled and defined English literature at least for a time, between the wars and after World War II⦠were committed modernists, upper class, often Etonians, often professed Communists, often extremely rich, well-entrenched as editors and reviewers in the literary columns." (p. 316) In another article, Mingardi and Stagnaro show that far from being a statist as so many of the literati were throughout the 20th century, Tolkien identified himself as an anarchist (of the private property sort, not the socialist, bomb-throwing sort).

Furthermore, he commits a cultural/political crime that for our socialist literati is unforgivable. He likes the middle class and writes about them affectionately in the guise of the Hobbits. No sense of alienation! No sense of looking down on the middle class snootily from a lofty vantage point! Unforgivable!

-- Why They Hate Tolkien, by Lew Rockwell

Good job changing the subject. As for the draft-dodgers, Canada can keep them. The whole world would have been better off if Bill Clinton and his toxic wife had gone there and stayed.

Austin is an integral part of Texas. If you planted it into Massachusetts or Oregon it would become just another bland medium-sized metropolis with nothing to really recommend it. It's just bigotry due to the current poisonous political climate. Were Texas an actual shithole, people wouldn't be moving there from California.

The moment the American people take up arms against their own government is the day that the American mainstream media (and the rest of the world) call them crazy extremists who would be much better off with less freedom and smart people in charge of their lives. Oh wait, they already do that.

Detroit's government deliberately drove off businesses. It took a long time to get to where it is today, and it was all part of the plan. Look up who Coleman Young was and what his policies were.

What was the difference between someone getting hurt and not? The act was the same. It could have easily spiraled out of control.

An act of a child is something stupid. It's NOT trying to burn the school down. That's the act of an adult, 15 years old or not.

By the way, it is the general consensus that the Western world is corrupt, colonialist, imperialist, and outright evil. Where'd you get the idea that it treats its children well? You trying to hold it above other cultures? Racist.

I'd prefer having the support of local people. However, religious belief too often stands in the way of telescopic investigation of our universe. Perhaps there can be something done so they feel it is part of their culture after all.

Congresscritter?

I for one welcome our new -hole gender-neutral name style for jobs that are essentially "lie about this in the least possible lie, so that it still puts us in a good light"

In Germany, autopay comes with an authorization limit... basically, "if the bill is over X,€ don't autopay"

I'd prefer to see this on the autopay here in the states as well... because I'm fine with authorizing autopay for any bill less than $60... but if it reaches into the thousands, or even the hundreds, then I damn well don't want to authorize the autopay!

"To the Japanese, machines of war--from the heavy machine guns to the tank--are only incidentals in warfare. We Americans realize that the infantry must perform the tasks of actually taking over the ground and holding it, but we use every available machine of war to prevent unnecessary losses. In contrast, the Japanese do not conceive of substituting the shock action of war machines for the shock action of infantry, and they merely strengthen the shock action of troops by the assistance of the machines. The Japanese Army is an army of men, supported by machines of war; ours is an army using machines of war. This is a fine distinction and perhaps not readily understood, but every statement of Japanese military policy bears this out.

A Japanese who has not tasted defeat will attack with a dash and a magnificent disregard for himself. When he has been set back on his heels, just once, he loses that zip and comes back without confidence and impelled by a morbid feeling toward death that might be worded as "Come on, let's get it over with."

He has found himself up against things he can't understand: For example, the way we use artillery (the Chinese never used it against him like that, and he doesn't know what to do about it); the fact that we prefer to sit back and stop him with well aimed rifle and machine-gun fire, and not fight it out with the bayonet; the fact that when we meet him with a bayonet we don't break and run; and, above all, the fact that his basic idea--that skill, bravery, and cold steel alone will win the war--is wrong."

-- "Japanese Warfare as Seen by U.S. Observers" from Intelligence Bulletin, May 1943

Since when are leftists openly xenophobic and nativist? America for Americans? WTF? Have we always been at war with Eurasia?

Americans have this crazy idea that their government exists to benefit their own people. It has zippo to do with free markets. In fact, it screws with free markets to allow a race to the bottom. Americans are disadvantaged. We're not looking for a country that has a standard of living that a Pakistani bricklayer would consider decent. We'd move to other countries if that was the case.

From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.

That's the founding principle, and if you don't like it, then I think you're not really a leftist. You sound like a Republican complaining that her taxes are going to the poor.

PS all those states you listed have large black populations. You're a racist, too.