kimmy

And what breaks my heart is that womens' safety has been put at risk by this "gotta break a few eggs" attitude of their elected officials. To me, that seems about as sensible as hosting a mushroom tasting party when you don't know which mushrooms are safe and which ones are poisonous. Certainly once people start keeling over you know which mushrooms to stop serving your guests, but it's a little late for the ones who've already been poisoned. -k

One of the most shocking things about the British prostitution scandal, aside from the sheer scale of it-- numerous groups involved, with several dozen men in all-- and the number of victims-- believed to be around 1400-- and the length of time it went on-- 16 years-- is that the police and politicians were more concerned with covering it up than they were with doing anything to stop it. They were afraid of being accused of racism. They were afraid that if the information got out, it would fuel racism. They did their best to deny there was even a problem. And on a very similar note, Swedish police have fessed up to hiding information from the public regarding rampant sexual assaults at a Stockholm music festival. The behavior is the same as that described in the Cologne assaults: women found themselves encircled by groups of men described as having "foreign backgrounds." To me, the real money quote: These guys, like the Rothenham councillors, clearly think that maintaining pleasant optics is more important than the safety of the people who count on the police and their elected officials. -k

From your same link: Regarding the Pakistani child prostitution rings in England, members of that community are willing to agree that there is a cultural aspect to what happened: -Dr Taj Hargey, imam of the Oxford Islamic Congregation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_sex_gang#Reaction_and_public_debate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_sex_gang#Reaction_and_public_debate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochdale_sex_trafficking_gang#Response_from_Muslim_spokesmen -k

I think if there's anything that disappoints me about the new movie, it's the sense of been-there, done-that. The Star Wars universe is a huge place, filled with infinite possibilities. They've explored some of them in books and video games and comics set in the Star Wars continuity. They've had stories based around smugglers, and spies, and bounty-hunters, and underworld themes and military themes... but here we are, back on a desert planet-- but a different desert planet-- with a new apprentice who is strong in the Force and has some kind of hidden connection to that same family... and they have to destroy another planet-smashing device before the bad guys smash any more planets... and the same bad-guys, and the same good-guys, same space-ships, same two droids... I think a movie set in the "Old Republic" setting would have actually been way more interesting... but I assume that the studio figured there'd be more money to make by bringing back the good old gang... kind of like how Star Trek just wasn't a money-maker without James T Kirk, I guess. -k

You make a good point there. -k

David Bowie has passed away at age 69. -k

It really does seem like an inefficient strategy. It feels like the writers just needed a plot device and decided to recycle the planet-killer idea yet again. "meh, whatever. Let's blow up some more planets." -k

40 is the number of suspects they have been able to identify so far, not the total number. The leaked police report had police officers estimating the crowd as being over 1000. And not all 300+ victims were attacked at the same time. They weren't traveling as a group of 300+ women. The attackers, in groups of a couple dozen or so, encircled small groups of women, preventing them from escaping. Why didn't anybody help? Have you ever tried to confront a mob of 1000 people? Police were on the scene, and tried to help, and were simply unable to get through the mob to help people. Also worth mention that this didn't just happen in Cologne, although that seems to be the largest incident. Several other German cities had similar incidents, as did Helsinki, Zurich, Salzburg Austria, and Kalmar Sweden. -k

Not Darth Vader... Darth Plagueis. In Episode 3, Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious tells Anakin about his master, Darth Plagueis, who was supposedly so powerful that he could create life or deny death. Palpatine tells Anakin that he killed Plagueis... but maybe he didn't. Can't be easy to kill a guy who can deny death, right? The supposed evidence for this theory is the music. John Williams doesn't recycle music without a reason. In the original trilogy the Imperial March is strongly identified with Darth Vader, and in the prequels, we hear musical hints from the Imperial March when Anakin makes choices that lead him toward evil. Things like that. So regarding the Snoke/Plagueis theory: the music we hear when we meet Supreme Leader Snoke is allegedly the same music that we heard when Palpatine was telling Anakin the legend of Plagueis, and that music appears nowhere else in the 7 movies. According to proponents of the theory, at least. -k

I still prefer posting to being the board schoolmarm. But I'm not drunk with power yet, so that might change over time. -k

The Empire didn't build the clones themselves, remember, they were bought from a factory on a planet called "Kamino" in Episode 2. Given that the original clone army were biologically adult at a time before Luke and Leia were born, the first batch of clones are probably dead of old age by the time of The Force Awakens. Supposing that the Empire continued buying fresh batches of clones right up to the time they were defeated, the last batch of clones purchased would still be biologically quite old (by soldier standards at least) and certainly a lot older than Finn. And I would assume "The First Order" couldn't just go out and start buying clones... they were in retreat after being defeated and must have needed some amount of time to rebuild themselves... and I wouldn't think the New Republic would allow defeated enemies to just fly over to Kamino and purchase a fresh army. But I also don't think the Empire would have continued buying clones following the events in Revenge of the Sith, because they had no enemy to fight and they could just recruit soldiers from member planets. Luke talked about going to the Academy in Episode 4. I think the General dude talked about having soldiers who were indoctrinated from childhood, didn't he? Also I think Phasma said something about FN287 having not shown any breeches of his programming prior to the incident on Jakku... it sounds like the soldiers are raised from childhood and brainwashed the whole time. -k

Silver woman is Gwendolyn Christie, from Game of Thrones. She's about a foot taller than Angelina Jolie, I believe. I find it kind of hard to picture her being somebody who could fight a Jedi or lead Ben Solo to Grandmaster Snoop, as all she accomplished in Episode 7 is getting punched out by a Wookie. Hey, do you guys think Snoop is really 30 feet tall, or does he just have a really big hologram to compensate for other shortcomings? I heard a crazy theory about Snoop's real identity. Will post later. -k

I'm sure he'll be ok. He said there were no guns allowed at the stadium. This has been a wacky Wildcard Weekend so far. With powerful teams like Seattle and Kansas City getting off to slow starts this season, division winners like Cincinnati having key injuries, and teams from weak divisions like Houston and Washington getting to host strong opponents, it has been a rough week for home teams. Can Washington keep the home teams from being swept? I kind of doubt it. I bet the Vikings would have rather played the Redskins than the Seahawks. -k

If it's simply a matter of displacement, why do the events in Cologne last week bear such a disturbing resemblance to the events in Tahrir Square a couple of years ago, when attackers and most of the victims were right in their home country? The comparison to the Vancouver Canucks riot of a few years back is somewhat apt, in the sense of events escalating out of control of the law enforcement officers on site, but one striking difference is that in Vancouver even at the height of the lawlessness, the violence was directed at cars and windows, not at people. That was Mayor Reker's advice to Cologne women this week. Her comments were ridiculed all over the planet. For the moment this appears to be "the new normal", although Mrs Merkel is now attempting to reassure German women by promising massive security and surveillance increases to prevent repeats. They appear to grasp, belatedly, that they've created a monster. I agree with that much. Manageable numbers will reduce the scale of the risks. And families and women are, I suspect, far less likely to form a sex-assault mob than single men. I feel like we're making progress here in the sense that at least we can acknowledge that yes, there is a risk involved in bringing in people who don't understand the law or the culture to live among us. -k

Plus 5 Iranians and 4 Syrians. That's 26 out of 31 from North Africa/Middle East, so far. As well, the leaked police report has been confirmed to be authentic, which indicates that the police force's own internal reports agreed with the assessment of the mob being largely Arabic and North African. As well as confirming that the police checked many IDs that night and that many of thes IDs presented to them were asylum-seeker documents. -k

Interesting theory... -k

haha, that was Daniel Craig? Is Captain Phasma even still alive? I thought they stuffed her down a trash compactor on a planet that was about to blow up. -k

This sort of thing isn't constructive... some explanation of which parts you disagree with, or some rebuttal of the main points would move things forward. -k

Was that actually established in the film? I gathered that's the case from the voiceover in the trailer, the one that says "the Force is strong in my family. My father had it. I have it. My sister had it. And you have it." I assume that was Luke speaking to Rey, but that dialogue didn't actually happen in the film. It does explain the lightsaber "calling out to her". Sooooo uh, why does Luke have a daughter? In the "Expanded Universe" books, Luke hooked up with Mara Jade, but it seems as if the new movies have completely thrown the Expanded Universe books in the trash and started with a blank slate. -k

Hal's point is that a Canadian politician who made a similar comment would be pilloried (as has Ms Reker) for putting the focus on the victims as opposed to the attackers. -k

...errrrr because this is the Islamophobia thread? -k

This is tip-toeing towards inflammatory. You're obviously referring to the anti-migrant backlash. Could you really expect anything other than a backlash in wake of these incidents? Clearly the politicians have embarked on a reckless policy that has put their own citizens at risk. Clearly the police attempted to brush it under the rug, giving rise to the appearance that they're more interested in protecting the optics than protecting the citizens. And clearly the media initially self-censored the reportage of the incidents, giving rise to the appearance that they can't be trusted to provide information to the people. How could there not be a backlash? -k

I think the sheer volume is a key part of what happened in Germany. The police were on scene, and had a higher-than-normal presence on site, and were still powerless to help. If the mob numbered a few dozen instead of in the thousands, then things obviously would have turned out much differently. In all likelihood there wouldn't have been a mob in the first place. The common-sense advice to women in Canada has always been to take special precautions in dangerous areas. The common-sense advice from Mayor Reker is to treat the whole city as if it's a dangerous place. In Canadian cities, "dangerous places" has always been understood to mean high-crime areas of town, and areas where you might be isolated from assistance if something bad happened. In Cologne, "dangerous places" now appears to mean everywhere outside your home. -k

All that aside, I think the hype about spoilers is excessive. The film's big bombshell-- that Kylo Ren is actually Han and Leia's son-- was dropped early on. That Han dies at the end is, I guess, pretty shocking, but you could see it coming. I felt like Kylo Ren was kind of an emo little wuss. All hat and no cattle. He clearly needs to go back to Sith School. Rey kicked his ass, and it was her first day on the job. -k

I really mean it! You've been warned! Supreme Leader Snoop says: Spoilers ahead! -k