🌽🎈Todd Thacker 🎈🌽

If you're visiting my profile from some other post, hello! I get along with pretty much everyone. That probably includes you, even if we disagree. Remember, the measure of a person isn't politics; it's how they treat others, especially those who can do nothing for (or to) them.

@tjm585 After theaters take their cut, and marketing costs, I think it needs closer to $750M to make a profit, but given the great word of mouth and Nolan's track record of his film having legs he should hit that number with little problem.

Holy cow. It’s already made a profit.

Defense of (a): 1) An unborn child is a human life. 2) An ethics that allows human lives to be terminated on the grounds of age, cognitive capacity, dependency, etc., has no consistent ethical grounds to oppose the elective termination of non-fetal humans in similar situations. 3) Similarity, allowing the termination of humans because they are inconvenient or burdensome creates ethical issues I hope are obvious. 4) Ergo, ethically, we should not allow the elective termination of unborn children. I can't think of a similarity-compelling justification for racism

@Tyler_A_Harper I have some sympathy for both of these but I’m genuinely unsure how you would defend (a) and re (b) I’m troubled by the idea that eg a philosophy dept wd have to be open to hiring John C Calhoun if old-fashioned racism became common enough

Here’s the brass tacks question progressive academics seem to want to avoid answering: does anyone seriously believe that a geographer critical of immigration would be likely to be hired by an elite American university? Or would those views put them at a profound disadvantage? 1/

@macona @BenHart_Freedom I agree the specifics in ST are not a 100% overlap with this idea; I just thought the cultural reference was funny. 🤣

@todd_thacker @BenHart_Freedom In Staraship troopers they don’t get their rights until after successful service.

Qualifications for voting should include only U.S. Citizens who: 1) Own property. 2) Work and pay income taxes. 3) Veterans. 4) Retirees (age 65 and older) who paid into Social Security (FICA taxes) for at least 20 years. 5) Spouses of the above categories. No one else should be allowed to vote. I also think voting age should go back to starting at 21. Have I missed any categories?

@Steven86232722 @ClayTravis Empire Strikes Back Terminator 2 The Road Warrior There's an argument for Aliens

@ClayTravis What’s a better sequel than original? Rocky 2 maybe How about The Godfather 2? Easily Gladiator 2 but it doesn’t count can’t have a 20 some odd year gap

What’s the worst drop off from great first movie to disaster sequel? This is a fun debate. Buck argues Gladiator to Gladiator 2. I say Jaws to Jaws 2.

That's entirely possible! I'm not really expressing an opinion on whether any of Nolan's film are timeless are not (although I think The Dark Knight will probably be in the conversation as long as Batman is around). I'm just saying it's hard for us, here in 2026, to say what future generations might think on that subject.

@todd_thacker @_5HoursAhead @avidfilm And while I agree with Casablanca's timeless appeal, the post was more about how the modern adaptation brings nothing to the table in comparison to make it a memorable work. Even in Nolan's filmography itself, it would be placed several notches below his earliest flicks.

So after all the ridiculous controversies surrounding this film, I finally saw The Odyssey. My verdict? It’s very good, but not one of Nolan’s best. The actual flaw of the movie is that Nolan’s style doesn’t completely fit with the fantastical nature of the story. It’s not woke, nor does it desecrate Homer. If anything, it’s too faithful to the structure of The Odyssey, and prior knowledge of the poem is strongly recommended. I feel the film would have been stronger if it wasn’t specifically based on The Odyssey, but an original story based on the Trojan War. But the drama is excellent, and Matt Damon does an excellent job, I would actually say the last 40 minutes of the movie when Odysseus returns to Ithaca is the best part. It’s a shame this movie was the subject of this ridiculous culture war, it absolutely did not deserve it, and I hope Nolan is not subjected to it again. I definitely recommend seeing this on the big screen.

@randOmuos @michaelbd @HorEmperor Denzel was Don Pedro in "Much Ado About Nothing," which is a great film,

@michaelbd @HorEmperor was it Denzel in Othello cuz Othello is AA per “Francis Bacon” himself...no? not prolly say shylock or romeo...lol

I was completely against the pre-lash to The Odyssey. I went to see it, and really enjoyed the third act and was surprised at the symmetry of its themes. But I could absolutely see why fans of Homer would dislike or even hate this film. It’s a revised take. The film isnt “woke.” Its view of war and the gods is closer to mine than it is to Homer’s. Ultimately this Odyssey is morally horrified by war and profanation of the divine. In Homer Odysseus is not guilt-stricken about the Trojan horse, war is a normal and potentially glorious enterprise, and profanation is really just another (probably inadvisable) form of risk taking and adventure, not a moral crime.

@JBGCUSA @BenHart_Freedom I've read it. What do you think I'm missing? If you're going to define a "traitor" as one who has bad politics, that's still dystopian (and could be used against communists, Marxists, socialists, etc.).

@todd_thacker @BenHart_Freedom There’s a method in place to strip traitors of their citizenship. Also, maybe actually read 1984 before you try and lecture us on it.

@BeatsWilda @BenHart_Freedom @digibruce This list doesn’t say only veterans and active duty can vote. It says they're among the several categories of people who can vote.

@BenHart_Freedom @digibruce Problem with this list is if only veterans and active duty can vote, we would be stuck with only low IQ voters. Because most military our low IQ followers which is the opposite of what you need to build the biggest country in the world.

TEB's idea isn't taking away the right to vote, it's giving extra votes to people who have demonstrably contributed to society. If someone has "the best solution" they need to be able to convince others of that anyway; this just makes it so that the people who have demonstrably contributed to society have a proportionately larger role in its decisionmaking.

@BillC17136056 @BenHart_Freedom You earned your vote being a citizen. Some time the smallest noise in a crowd has the best solution. Taking a citizen right to vote is unconstitutional. And the constitution is more important than any president or anything in America. Sorry trump didn’t read the document

@JBGCUSA @BenHart_Freedom I hope you'll agree that stripping people of citizenship due to wrongthink is pretty dystopian (and could be used against anyone, depending upon who is in power). Someone should write a book about this.

@BenHart_Freedom We should also strip every maga fuck of their citizenship. I’m sure you agree with that since you love this country. No American wants them here. Make them stateless.

@SalmonChanm9uk @BenHart_Freedom I understand him to be saying that if you fall into ANY of these categories you can vote, not that you have to satisfy all of them. Some of them (e.g., working and being a retiree) are mutually exclusive.

@BenHart_Freedom False. A 30yo with a job and a family who’s renting their home doesn’t fit into any of your moronic categories. Stop being a colossal fucking idiot.

@BenHart_Freedom Service guarantees citizenship!

3) should be veterans and active duty military.

@HJ_Mendoza07 @GnomDePlum @federoffm @CaudilloNuclear "Real Christians" 🙄

@GnomDePlum @federoffm @CaudilloNuclear The other 99.5% of society is comprised of atheists and pagans. Christians, specially real christians (trad catholics, orthodox, etc.) are a minority.

"Nothing puts you more at risk of being sexually unsuccessful than being a devout man of faith." I recently tweet that walking close to God is ending men's bloodlines... 1/6

@tales_un_told @_5HoursAhead @avidfilm I think that's hard to say because film is such a relatively new medium. Did anyone in the 1940s think "Casablanca" would be one of the major enduring films from that era (and I think Casablanca WILL be remembered 1000 years from now; it's demonstrated its timelessness)?

@_5HoursAhead @avidfilm No one in a thousand years will remember a single work from Nolan.

"Taking a clay heart that has hardened into stone and replacing it with a malleable heart that can be conformed to Christ… Taking a dead spirit alienated from God and making it alive to God through Christ — and depositing the Holy Spirit to work in them, with their new spirit, to will and to do what pleases God… That doesn’t sound like forcing…" It's 100% forcing. Just because it's for our own good doesn't mean it's not forced.

🤔 Forcing…? Taking a clay heart that has hardened into stone and replacing it with a malleable heart that can be conformed to Christ… Taking a dead spirit alienated from God and making it alive to God through Christ — and depositing the Holy Spirit to work in them, with their new spirit, to will and to do what pleases God… That doesn’t sound like forcing… That sounds like mercy on enemies that were carnal and hostile, both unable and unwilling to put themselves into the Potter’s loving hands. But instead of being grateful God has made us new creations… instead of pursuing peace and edification with those being built up together with us as a holy dwelling place for God and a brotherhood of fellowship… We’d rather bicker over foolish disputes, biting and devouring one another over why God chose us as vessels for mercy but not someone else who is perishing and being prepared for destruction, for their day of doom… As if our “truth-without-love” arguments actually do anything besides make a lot of noise… as if they actually please God… as if He really depends on us defending our perceptions of His character while creation groans impatiently for us the preaching of the gospel to all of it while we cast vile accusations at one another and generate strife… as if any of our debates is the power of God to save one lost soul… As if God were obligated to also do for the children of the flesh what He’s done for us, the children of God; as though they’re somehow entitled to what even we were not. What was it to the one thief hanging beside Jesus whether the other criminal should have the veil removed from his heart or not? He preached the gospel, confessed Jesus as Lord, and followed Christ into Paradise. Maybe if more of us were hanging on our own crosses and actually following after Jesus, we wouldn’t have so much time on our hands for derisions and divisions... for tearing down the work of the Holy Spirit in each other’s lives. 🤷🏻‍♂️

It is intellectually dishonest to claim that God is not forcing anyone to love Him while believing that God has to IRRESISTABLY draw you by literally changing your will for you to "want" to love Him. Good theology doesn't require dishonesty or checking your brain at the door.

@iowahawkblog I see your Indiana, and I raise you the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team.

Fuck the Knicks, fuck NY, the 2025 Indiana Hoosiers going 16-0 and winning the national championship is singularly the greatest and most shocking achievement by any sports team in my long lifetime

@Timothy_ElderJr @rentveil @Soteriology101 I don't think there's any emotionalism in what I've said at all. I am, as I've been trained to do, using observation, logic, and reason. Nothing I've said is untrue. No ranting here. 🤷‍♂️ Although it seems like your emotions have been engaged?

@todd_thacker @rentveil @Soteriology101 You can keep saying it. But that doesn't make it true. It's just another anti Calvinists rant trying for legitimacy with emotional garbage.

If Calvinism is true—that every person is born totally unable to believe the gospel, and that faith is only possible through God’s sovereign, supernatural regeneration that causes belief in the elect—then WHY was Jesus astonished at the Centurion’s exceptional faith (Matthew 8:10) and astonished at the unbelief of the people in His hometown (Mark 6:6)? A consistent Calvinist view renders Jesus’s astonishment inexplicable, since faith (or its absence) would simply be the inevitable outworking of God’s unconditional decree and effectual calling rather than something genuinely surprising or praiseworthy in response to human response!

The question isn't whether Jesus knew which individuals would believe. The question is why He would be astonished by either faith or unbelief if He knew the underlying explanation. The Calvinist explanation is straightforward: Faith exists because the Father effectually grants it to the elect. Unbelief exists because fallen people remain in their natural condition unless God regenerates them. If Jesus knows those principles, neither phenomenon is remarkable in itself; they're exactly what Calvinism predicts. Under Calvinism, the explanation for the centurion's faith is not the centurion; it is God's unilateral act of regeneration. And the explanation for Nazareth's unbelief is not the people; it is that God did not grant them saving faith. So why would Jesus marvel at either one? Also, Jesus didn't just observe the centurion's faith. He commended it: "I have not found such great faith, even in Israel." That sounds like the faith shows something genuinely remarkable about the centurion, not merely evidence that the Father happened to regenerate him while passing over others. Finally, your appeal to Jesus' limited human knowledge doesn't solve Mark 6:6. Jesus wasn't amazed because He lacked omniscience. He was amazed at their unbelief. But if unbelief is simply the inevitable condition of those whom the Father has not effectually called, then unbelief is exactly what should be expected--it's not astonishing at all.

God the Father knows those whom He will send to the Son. The Son knows a group will come. He doesn't need to know who in advance. He will not turn any away that the Father sends. Since he was specifically sent to Israel, it makes sense he wouldn't expect gentiles. He as second person of the Trinity being fully man as well lived a life of sinless, but the same surprise we all endure. You've given instances, not a rule.

It 100% exists. Example 1: if I go to Utah, I'm not going to be "astonished" at the high percentage of Mormons I run into, or that they're correspondingly resistant to Trinitarian Christianity. Example 2: If I go to a secular university, I'm not going to be "amazed" to find unbelief.🤷‍♂️ Example 3: If a rich friend of mine has been giving out $1 million to various people, I'm not going to be "astonished" that someone has $1 million, and I'm certainly not going to see it as a credit to them, rather than my friend.

@todd_thacker @rentveil @Soteriology101 You can know something and still be surprised by it's manifestation. You are just trying to invent a know-once-never-surprised rule that doesn't exist .

@Timothy_ElderJr @rentveil @Soteriology101 If you know the principles, you will be astonished neither by exceptional faith (which the Father gave the person) or by unbelief (which is the natural state of people who the Father has not chosen to regenerate).

@todd_thacker @rentveil @Soteriology101 Why?