kimmy

I firmly believe that is a complete lack of understanding of the mechanics of it, not any physiological disadvantage. Not much different from somebody who doesn't know how to play baseball trying to bat for the first time. They stand facing the pitcher, rest the bat on their shoulder, have their arms tucked against their ribs... a lot of girls punch almost the same way. As for what separates a real power-puncher from the rest, even among well-trained fighters, it's kind of a mystery. Frankie Edgar is a terrific MMA boxer, with fast, accurate hands and good reach for his weight class, but I don't think he's got knockout power. BJ Penn doesn't seem like he would have any particular physical gift... but he hurts people when he hits them. I don't think anybody who's watched UFC cards lately is too worried that grappling is being pushed out of it. The ever-increasing dominance of guys from NCAA wrestling backgrounds makes that plenty clear. Letting the top fighters pick and choose their opponents isn't really that good for the fans or the sport. Yeah, that's kind of what I meant about the "sameness" that MMA is starting to develop. I think that would be a disastrous decision, not just for Cris herself, but for womens' MMA as a whole. I think the most mediocre male Flyweight fighter in UFC or Strikeforce would beat the hell out of her in under a minute. I think that even in the same weight class, a male competitor would have a huge physiological advantage, because men and women are just built differently. And I think that skillwise Cris Cyborg isn't even particularly good. She's not much of a technician, she's just bigger and stronger than all of her opponents. I think male fighters who make it to a high level have had to compete against much higher calibre opposition. I think they've trained at a much higher level. On the other hand, I doubt any male competitor would want to fight her anyway, because it's a no-win situation. Lose, and you got beat by a chick. Win, and you beat up a chick. Either way, it's a disaster for your career. May the force be with her? -k

That's a total misrepresentation of John Reilly's comments. He never said any such thing. He said there's different levels of sexual assault, requiring different levels of punishment, and that judges need to have discretion to do that. He's absolutely correct. That he's being made to apologize for stating the obvious is a joke. The way his comments are being distorted is a disgraceful statement about the state of politics in this country. -k

Back when "Friends" was on TV, people always wondered: how do those 20-somethings afford apartments near Central Park? Piece of cake, as it turns out: Felicia Cohen lives just a block away from Central Park for just $700 a month! The catch? Her apartment is just 90 square feet. It actually looks pretty cozy. Everything she needs, unless she wants to bake something. I wasn't sure which part of the forum this belonged in, but "Travel, Leisure, and Sports" is about as close to a "Lifestyle" section as we have. I was wondering two things as I watched her video: -is this the future? -could I live this way? Is this the future? Is this how people will cope with increasingly crowded cities, increasingly scarce space, increasing costs of energy? Is this the answer to how everybody can live closer to where they work? People talk about higher-density housing. People talk buying less, using less, needing less. This, to me, is an example of what that might look like. It actually doesn't look that bad. Could I live this way? hmm. I would have a hard time getting used to cooking in an apartment with no actual kitchen. Some of the money I saved on rent would probably be spent on eating out. I wouldn't be able to exercise in such a cramped space. My punching bag and weights would have to go. Some of the money I'd save on rent would be spent on a gym membership. Would there be space for me to have friends over? Unless we were jumping straight into bed, it would probably be a little cramped for watching a movie or something like that. Obviously, my 50" plasma isn't going to fit. Some of the money I saved on rent is probably going to be spent on nights out, the movies, and things like that. Those were things I was thinking when I watched the video. What do you think? Is this the future? Could you live this way? -k

Nothing "lefty" about it. For-profit media in search of a sensationalist story to sell papers, get viewers, or generate page-impressions. There's a number of threads where myself, Da Shwa, and Michael Hardner have discussed the subject, but basically my position is that a racial aspect to a news story is a factor that generates extra media interest... as long as it's white people who are in the wrong. In reversed situations, the racial aspect tends to be overlooked or not mentioned at all. I think the media love any story where they get to talk about white supremacists (or especially use the word Nazi!) but handle "reverse racism" situations with extreme caution because they're worried about being "inflammatory" or "hot-button issues", etc. I'll send you some links to prior threads on the subject when I have more time. I'm skeptical that you can draw any linear relationship between the fringey black supremacist groups and pre-existing non-supremacist groups. I don't see a connection between black liberation movements and the ideas of these fringe groups. And I think that the majority of "white supremacists" would actually also be more accurately described as being more interested as segregationists than supremacists, as well, so I'm not sure that using a literal definition of supremacist is a distinction here either. -k

Yes. Rest assured, if this was high school, I would give you a "swirly" and then pull down you pants in front of the other kids. Yeah, I bet that'll be a winning political strategy. "Mr Speaker, the Premier is behaving like... a bully! b-b-b-but she said bullying was wrong!" -k

A couple of drinks and just about everybody develops an unreasonable sense of overconfidence. I do often get to deal with young people who have had too much to drink, and often even young people who are more or less sober but for reasons of abject stupidity or social maladjustment feel like getting belligerent anyway. I believe that 90% of women do not know how to punch. They throw like they're holding a fly swatter. Well, guys like Josh Koscheck and Gray Maynard have gone out of their way to try and prove they can do more than "lay and pray". Maynard's match against Frankie Edgar turned into a pretty wild striking contest... was it because Gray wanted to entertain the fans, or was it because Frankie Edgar's impervious takedown defense made "lay and pray" a poor strategy? Probably the latter. It'll hurt a guy's career potential if that's all he can do. That's what I hope, anyway. It's a little subjective, but a formalized ranking system would be a little subjective too. Vitor Belfor knocks out Rich Franklin on one card and Yushin Okami gets a decision win over Nate Marquardt on the next card, who should be ranked higher? Well, it depends if you think Franklin or Marquardt was the tougher opponent, and it depends if you think the knockout is more impressive than the judges decision... so really it's not any more scientific than Joe Silva deciding who should be the next up. It's like NCAA championship voting. But it's really not much of an issue. Keep winning and you'll get there. The big problem the UFC has isn't that there are too many guys who deserve a chance. The biggest problem they have is not enough guys who prove they deserve a chance. So you get situations like Dan Hardy fighting GSP, or Patrick Cote fighting Anderson Silva. How did those mooks get title shots? Well, Anderson and GSP had beaten the piss out of everybody else, and they had to find somebody for them to fight. Cain Velasquez and Jon Jones look like they'll be two more champions who are head and shoulders above everybody else in their divisions. Then again, BJ Penn looked like he was head and shoulders above everybody else too, until Frankie Edgar came along. The creme rises to the top in UFC. It always does. The same can't be said for boxing. UFC isn't the only employment option for MMA fighters, even with Strikeforce now being purchased by UFC. There's smaller organizations in Canada and the US, and there's options in Japan and Europe as well. Guys who don't want to fight for the UFC don't have to, but most of them do because UFC pays the best and provides by far the most exposure and opportunity. And considering the damage that has been done to boxing by promoters, I can't imagine anybody thinking the UFC is doing things poorly. The fighters who earn better opponents get better opponents. Fighters who deserve title shots get title shots. Compared to how things run in boxing? Boxing is a freaking disaster. Your fighter can't fight for my fighter's title unless you agree to these terms, which guarantee me and my guy a $5 million dollar cut of the gate off the top, and by the way, if your guy somehow beats my guy, the contract says that your guy signs me on as his new manager and you're out of luck, and if you don't like it your fighter can go fight some nobody instead because he's not fighting the champ unless you like my terms and conditions. Outside the ring, boxing sucks. It's disgusting. It has destroyed its own credibility. Well, based on his long winning streak and the beating he laid on Dan Henderson, Jake Shields deserves the hype. Then again, based on his fight against Martin Kampmann, where only very generous judging gave him the win, Jake Shields might be a little overhyped. Personally, I think GSP is going to turn him into Salisbury steak. Well, Shayna is a bit like Demian Maia... really exciting grappler... pretty bad at striking. She'll either win by submission or lose by knockout. She was in a hurry to get Cyborg on the mat because Cyborg on her feet is just brutal. Most women in MMA fight at 135... they only recently came up with a 145 pound class, basically because Cyborg and Carano both struggle (and often fail) to make weight at 135. -k

I couldn't even guess. It can't be many. Btw, how many "White Supremacist" groups are there in Canada, and how many members do they have? We're talking about a highly fringey assortment of people either way. While I'm sure the news and popular entertainment would have you believe white supremacists are lurking around every corner, that's not the case. Refer to Da Shwa's earlier thread, where some dude having a "British Heritage" party on his property turned into big news for no explicable reason. Or the event in Calgary where a handful of skinhead mooks became national news for no explicable reason. Clearly the media is highly vigilant for White Supremacist-related news items and will report them even when there's very little actual news to report; I'm skeptical that the reverse is true. And you proposed the theory that the concept of "supremacy" is limited to whites, based on your class-struggle ideas. I offer "melanin theory" as a counterexample: an idea based on pseudoscience that black people are just straight up superior to everybody else based on the miraculous properties of melanin. You're probably also aware of religious theories of black supremacy, based on interpretations of the Old Testament that hold that black people are actually God's chosen people. Or that cult that believe that white people have no souls. There's also theories that people with pale coloration are the result of inbreeding or genetic defects like albinism; charter-rights has come at me personally with that one more than a couple of times. So, long story short, I think your theory falls flat. -k

Maybe he can join up with Lou Dobbs and start a "We Used To Be On TV But Now We're On Meds" speaking tour. Or join up with the kooks at PrisonPlanet.net and talk about how his show was cancelled because The Man was afraid he was getting too close to the truth. -k

This thread shows up on the front page as "Ignatieff's Wife is Not", and I keep glancing over it and reading it as "Ignatieff's Wife is Hot" and giggling. As far as the actual topic, I consider it a non-issue. -k

Read up on "melanin theory". -k

It might reflect badly on some people in that riding association, but this isn't something that I would hold against the national party. Nobody could possibly believe they'd have let him be their candidate if they'd known. It happens. All 3 major parties have been embarrassed by some incredibly poor choices of candidates once in a while. -k

I want him to prove that it wasn't really Cheesus on my sandwich. -k

How could I know? I was a toddler at the time. I remember flags, mountains, lakes, RCMP in red coats on horses, flags waving. -k

It reminds me of the little National Anthem video TV stations used to play before they went off the air at the end of their broadcast day. -k

Pretty much everybody agrees that there's no need for subsidies right now. But only the NDP seem to be in favor of a moratorium on development. That's the real danger that people seem to be missing. -k

I didn't ask whether there are really 589 missing First Nations women. I asked how you know there aren't 589 missing white women in Canada right now. Here's what you said: Well, the number of missing women in Canada is in the thousands, and less than 600 of those are aboriginal, so you figure out the rest. Imagine what the news would look like if there were 589 missing white women? There are more than that, and the news hardly has anything to say about it at all. I waded through dozens of news articles about missing aboriginal women, searching in vain for information about missing non-aboriginal women. There are rallies and lobby groups and police inquiries and news series about missing aboriginal women. Nary a word about missing non-aboriginal women. -k

That's a broken premise to start with. -k

The Senate there is not there to give any particular underprivileged group a veto over parliament. -k

Jesus appeared to me on a sandwich and it has special powers. -k

I don't know if it's the sort of thing that's going to persuade anybody. If you like Harper already, you probably listen to the speech and say "yay! Go Canada!" If you dislike Harper, you probably listen to the speech and think everything he says is dishonest or insincere. If you're on the fence, maybe it'll give you enough warm-and-fuzzy to think "gee, he doesn't seem like such a bad guy." Or maybe not. -k

THE TRUTH REVEALED! (It's out there!) -k {psychotronics!}

Let a few lefties into a rally and pretty soon they're bike-locked together on stage and shouting that Christie Blatchford is a war criminal. -k

Because they're a political party now? And senate representation for black francophone wheelchair lesbians too, I say! It's only fair! Get enough provinces on side for a constitutional amendment! It'll be a piece of cake! -k

How do you know there aren't? -k

How could he have been filtering government money when he hasn't been with the government since late 2008? Particularly funny, considering that the company does not appear to have received any money at all, either directly from the government or through Indian bands. The allegation against him, the only actual crime he's being accused of, is working as an unregistered lobbyist. -k