Roger Ebert dead at 70.

I think lots of people who were raised Catholic identify as one regardless of how their beliefs have changed. My Dad was raised in the Catholic faith and even though he doesn't go to church or even believe in God now, he will still identify himself as "a Catholic". I think it often becomes more of a cultural rather than religious thing.

I think it's disrespectful to Mr Ebert to even speculate that he took his own life. And (surprise surprise) it's coming from the same guy (you're a guy right?) who posted that disrespectful picture just hours after he died. Seriously, show some respect. The man battled with cancer and lived with it for over 10 years. And it wasn't too long ago that he realized that he began to suffer from another cancer. But he couldn't take it anymore, because he was already weak enough. And he knew his death was coming, hence that announcement.

Why would you think such an awful thing?

My grandfather died of cancer and he lived with cancer for 8 years. His final months of life were spend at home and not at an hospital as they choose to let him go instead of putting him into a ICU, where they could have prolonged his life for several months. Something similar could have happened to Ebert, though that isn't euthanasia.

Also, given that Ebert wrote over 300 reviews in 2012, his own record, I think that his desire to live and work was still very strong at the time he died. People involved in more intellectual activities such as writing tend to care less about the physical state of their bodies than the general population. Steven Hawking is the ultimate example: his body has been useless for over 20 years but his mind and work continue unabated. Ebert was. in fact, in much better shape than Hawking.

I just could not help trying to laugh off his death a little -- that's how I handle death a lot of times. I make jokes. Even when relatives and close people to me have died, I've always managed to find jokes out of something related to it, even if they might be crude and offensive. That is just how I've always handled death, it seems. It's a defense mechanism. Death is so serious that I have to tone it down. Maybe I feel like I'm helping other people by trying to make them laugh.

And the suicide speculation -- I really wasn't trying to be humorous or shocking then. I really just thought that was a possibility. To me, it's fun -- or, at least, good -- to openly air thoughts like that if such an idea does occur to you. Like if you suspect a famous person didn't actually die and instead they faked their death. It seemed strange to me that Roger Ebert just up and died so unexpectedly, and right after making that announcement. As soon as I heard the news, I thought, "Well, what did he die from?" And it sounded to me like he was gonna start cancer treatment again before he died -- if that was the case, WHY did he just suddenly die, I wondered. It seemed to me like, yeah he had cancer, but it shouldn't have killed him... right away. So, I thought, well, maybe he got a doctor to help him die. Sometimes doctors DO that for their patients, I've heard. Roger Ebert is a smart, free thinking kind of person -- he might have just said, "I give up" and asked for relief. Nothing to be ashamed of. Not in my eyes, at least.

Whilst I don't always agree with your often controversial opinions, I think some people on here need to learn to not take everything so seriously and to heart. It's just an internet forum and if people want to say things let them, I think a lot of the time you can be very funny but I can understand why people get rubbed up the wrong way because you post what's on your mind even if at times it is a bit insensitive. I like to think that some of your posts are like really sick jokes, you know it's wrong, but you can't help but laugh.

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I'm like the Crypt Keeper.


AHHHH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

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People in general are way too easily offended, nowadays.
What damage can a little joke actually do? It's just talk.

Let's stop talking about me, anyway. We're supposed to be talking about Roger Ebert.

Well, Sexy Celebrity, just like you air ideas that occur to you, I'll do the same.

I'm not offended by a lot of your comments. I would say 'put off' would be a better term. They remind me of someone who didn't get enough attention as a kid and is always trying to compensate for that now.

You've successfully turned a thread about Roger Ebert into one about you.

Personally, I find Roger Ebert more interesting.

Psychologically, I might be like that. I'm sure I didn't get enough attention back then. People rarely liked me -- because I wasn't .

But that still may not be the reason.

I'd say it just happened. But I'm sure I'm responsible. (Hurrah?)

He is. Not to think low of myself, but he is. Though, if you got to know me, I might be more interesting.

Whatever you think about all this, the point about the thread's topic is certainly true. Let's keep this about Ebert starting now, please.

On an Ebert related note, his new website is absolutely beautiful http://www.rogerebert.com/

I personally was a bigger fan of the older and warmer brown tinted style of the site, but maybe I just have to get used to it.

Sad...

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"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo.

i'm so glad the last film he reviewed was a Malick film. being-towards-death and all that...