kimmy

Should be a massacre. Brock will fight Shane Carwin next week, and the outcome is anybody's guess. -k

I'm surprised the adventure club has created so much interest around the board. You guys should start a Boys Who Eat Meat Adventure Club! I'm not the originator of this idea either, although I have no idea where I picked it up. I've dabbled in writing fiction for a long time, and although I'm not very good, I've at least spent enough time at it to recognize some of the hooks the author is trying to use to get the writer emotionally invested in the story. I can't speak for the books, but the movie plays like something that was based on a story by a high-school kid. One of the things I've learned while writing, and reviewing other writers' work, is that one surefire way to write crappy fiction is to make your character a thinly veiled avatar of yourself. Writers of Star Trek fan-fiction coined a term for such characters a long time ago: "Mary Sue", after a character in a parody. Mary Sue is a character who wins the respect and admiration of all, wins the romantic interest of Captain Kirk in the story, and more than likely saves the Enterprise from inevitable destruction with some incredibly noble act of self-sacrifice which leave everyone heartbroke that she is gone. While originating in fan-fiction, I think Mary Sue is a concept that can be seen in original settings as well... and to me that was what I saw when I saw Bella Swan: a vehicle for the author's wish fulfillment. But not just the author's, but the audience's as well: I think the root of Twilight's immense popularity is that an enormous number of teenaged girls look at Bella Swan and imagine her as themselves. -k

Oh noes!!! -k

People would probably be more considerate of naomi if she were to stop being a human vuvuzela. -k

I gather Toronto earthquakes are a lot like Toronto blizzards. You are a futurenaut. -k

The "fake lake" was never the problem. It was a sound-bite, something tangible that people could point at as a symbol of the out-of-touch excess of this event. The real issue is and always has been the extraordinary and unbelievable amount of money being spent on security for the event. -k

Your link has been updated and now reads... It sounds as if the party caucus has the power to hold a leadership review if it wishes, and to vote on a new leader as well. In this instance, Rudd decided to spare himself the embarrassment of being turfed in a leadership ballot and resigned; Ms Gillard became leader by acclamation. -k

I notice they're trying to get that hard-core right winger Rick Mercer onboard. Fascinating. Fascinating stuff there, Topaz. I suppose that if one was under the impression that Harper's chances of winning the next election depend on "SunTV", then this comment would make sense. -k

"Speak truth to power" is one of those phrases that makes me vomit a little in my mouth each time I hear it. Other than that, I have no comment. -k

I feel exactly the same way I felt when Ann Coulter came to Canada. I think he should be allowed to speak. And if he does say anything that fits under the specific legal definitions of restricted speech in Canada, he should be charged under the law. And whatever the case, I hope that the organizers of this event are asked explain to Canadians why they thought this guy should be brought to Canada. I think an event like this would be an opportunity for modern-thinking Muslims like Tarek Fatah to articulate their opposition to the brand of Islam that this guy represents. Ultimately, I think that bringing a douchebag like this to Canada and letting him speak could only accomplish one thing: public embarrassment of conservative Muslims. I'm all for it. I'm all in favor of giving them the opportunity to do so. Why should we protect them from themselves by preventing this guy from speaking in Canada? -k

The Stanley Cup finals *averaged* over 4 million viewers, while the 2.275 million viewers for the England-USA World Cup game is the *highest ever* viewership for a preliminary round game. The other games have gathered 1.6m, 1.3m, 900k... How many Canadians watched the Olympic gold medal hockey game? 22 million... If you think soccer is anywhere close to hockey in Canada, you're the one living in a delusional world. -k

Is there something you're trying to say? Are you attempting to communicate in English? Are you retarded? Help us understand where you're coming from. -k

August contrasts Montreal hockey fans-- where Montrealers unite to cheer on a team of Anglos and Russians and Slovaks and Americans-- to the World Cup, where the English cheer on the English and Spaniards cheer on Spaniards and Italians cheer on Italians. August forgets that during the Olympics, Canadian hockey fans were cheering on Canadians. August forgets that when the World Cup is over, the English and Spaniards and Italians will go back home and cheer for their favorite teams which will, like the Montreal Canadians, have players from all over the globe. Club teams-- whether in soccer or hockey-- demonstrate merit hiring in action. If you're running an NHL franchise, your livelihood depends on winning. And when winning is what matters, it really doesn't matter if your goalie is French Canadian or Slovakian... it matters that he can win games. Soccer? Don't care to watch it. Just a personal preference. It's no doubt annoying to hear your favorite sport dissed by people who don't appreciate the finer points. However, it's also somewhat annoying to hear this idea that often circulates at World Cup time: that since the rest of the world loves soccer, Canadians must be somehow culturally deficient to not appreciate it. -k

This here is a great example of why you can't trust PrisonPlanet (and InfoWars and the rest of Alex Jones' family of websites) as a news source. They start with a legitimate news article and then add in a bunch of their own fear-mongering that has nothing to do with what the news article they link to says. In this case, they start with this article from ZDnet... (Ziff-Davis is a long-running and credible observer of technology-related issues) which confirms that there is a bill under discussion that would give the US government the power to shut down internet service providers in cases of "cybersecurity emergency" (whatever that means.) But then they go off the rails into PrisonPlanet mode, talking about how the idea here is to destroy independent media, prevent reportage of things like that senator who roughed up the student, and suppress criticism of the government... none of which relates to the original article, and all of which is entirely their own paranoid speculation. But mooks will read the article and say "gee, they linked to another news article, so what they're saying must be true!" Don't be a mook. Don't take anything Jones and his crew say at face value. -k

Well said. I agree completely. -k

Do you think any President would leave the American taxpayer to pick up the tab for this while BP shareholders continue to collect their dividend cheques? Of course. Is anybody here saying that Obama should grind BP into the ground? Nobody benefits if they aren't around long enough to pay for this. And they will be around, and they will pay for this, and if setting up the $20 billion escrow fund means that BP shareholders don't get divident cheques for a few quarters, I can't imagine why I should feel any more sympathy for them than I feel for anybody else who invested money in stocks that go downhill. Still picturing English grannies in their sitting rooms sipping tea and telling each other "That Mister Obammer isn't giving BP a fair go." "He doesn't like the British, you know. It goes back to the colonial days." Why are they different from any other investor who had a stock market setback? -k

This article explains some of the background, and what the FCC would like to happen. The Net Neutrality doctrine says that the service provider should allow the exchange of data without regard to content. When Comcast decided to throttle data transfer rates of BitTorrent clients, that was in contradiction with the tenets of Net Neutrality, and FCC ordered them to stop doing it. Comcast appealed in court and won. The court rule that the FCC does not have the authority to regulate Comcast's management of its subscribers' bandwidth. The FCC is seeking to obtain legal tools that would give it the power to enforce such a decision next time. -k

I have seen it. I can't comment on the "spending money" part. -k

If you invested in a company and the company releases a product that flops in the market place, your investment loses money. If you invested in a company and their competitor releases a way better product, your investment loses money. If you invested in a company and they get caught doing shady accounting that overstates their sales, your investment loses money. If you invested in a company and they get into legal trouble, your investment loses money. If you invested in a company that creates an incredibly expensive disaster to clean up, your investment loses money. People who think that it's not fair that their investments lost money should have bought government bonds instead of investing in the stock market. -k

It goes without saying that Buffy would not have stood for behavior like this. -------- The vampire drives a Volvo. -------- There was a laugh-out-loud funny moment early in the film. We find Bella studying paramecia in biology class, with Edward hovering nearby, twitchy and agitated like a meth addict going into withdrawal. Finally he gets up and storms off, leaving Bella inexplicably intrigued. We next see Edward at the principal's office, demanding to be transferred out of biology into physics or chemistry or anything else. Informed that there's nothing else available in that time slot, he proclaims "I guess I will just have to ENDURE!!" and storms off again, leaving Bella even more inexplicably intrigued... because guys who storm off in high dudgeon are just inexplicably intriguing to women. At first I thought the idea was that vampires hate studying biology because they hate being dead. But then I realized that it was sitting near Bella that was the torment: she is, for some reason, like vampire catnip. She apparently just smells super-delicious to vampires. So... the immortal prince of the night was unable to get out of biology class, which leaves us wondering... why the immortal prince of the night needs to attend highschool at all. Especially if being around the teenage girls is like putting booze right in front of a recovering alcoholic. -------- Bella is walking in town after dark and within about 12 seconds a gang of men are there with the intention of raping her. Our immortal prince of the night charges to her rescue (in his Volvo). The movie iswish-fulfillment fantasy for teenage girls: "I wish I had a dark knight to watch over me." "I wish a handsome boy was obsessed with me." "I wish I had a cool name like Bella Swan instead of Suzie Pfetzer." "I wish the cool clique at school would adopt me into their circle." "I wish I could be a part of a world of magic and secrets instead of this boring life I lead." Kristen Stewart deliberately makes Bella Swan a bit of a void. (Deliberately? I think so, although I may be overestimating Stewart's abilities.) She makes Bella a blank screen, onto which young women can project themselves. -k

Never underestimate a prairie farm girl. -k

Guys who love boobs are at the right place, because this forum is full of 'em. -k

Neither Michael Bryant nor anyone else is obliged to fight with a raging psycho just because a raging psycho wants to fight with them. Darcy Allan Sheppard was killed by Darcy Allan Sheppard. -k

I agree completely, and for me that is probably the most troubling aspect of this case. If that guy had not gone to court to get the video back from the RCMP, none of this would have been possible. The RCMP could have (and intended to) simply make the video disappear. Instead it became a matter of public record that opened the whole country's eyes and launched the whole inquiry. If it had just been a case of an overenthusiastic officer accidentally killing someone because he didn't realize that Tazers were dangerous, this story would have been a tragic accident. Dziekanski's death was an unfortunate tragedy, but for me the real story is the length to which the RCMP went to try cover it up afterward. And I think this is the real accomplishment of the Braidwood inquiry: he tore into not just the officers on the scene, but also into the RCMP's communications with the media, their efforts to suppress information that portrayed them in a bad light, their shoddy internal investigation of the incident, their training, their leadership, and their culture. And I think the recommendations to reexamine charges against these mooks and to establish civilian oversight of investigations of police misconduct are important steps in getting there. -k

The facts are in... and confirm my take on this story: the "victim" was a rageaholic with a history of violence and of trying to provoke fights with motorists. Charges against Bryant have been withdrawn: “Mr. Bryant was confronted by a man who, unfortunately, was in a rage,” Peck told reporters outside court. “In such circumstances, he was legally justified in trying to get away. The case could not be proved.” Here's some photos of Sheppard confronting another motorist just 3 weeks before his attack on Bryant ended in his own demise. -k