kimmy

I did just finish listening to it, and really enjoyed it. She's extremely articulate and bright, and seems very well-read too. Thanks for recommending it. -k

I haven't listened to the interview yet, but to me Megan's story is one of the most inspiring religion stories in recent years. I was quite overjoyed when I read that she (along with her younger sister Grace) had left the WBC. They are still religious, but now belong to a mainstream church. Megan was the one who ran the WBC's social media presence, as well as performing their parody music videos. But behind the scenes, she had been engaging in a long-running theological debate with a Christian blogger about her family's brand of belief. She was an A+ student at college, and she went back to the library and delved into books trying to settle her growing unease with her family's theology. And she couldn't do it... she couldn't reconcile her family's views with her understanding of Gospel. And she, along with her little sister, left. Not just the church, but her family as well. They're not just excommunicated from a church, they're excommunicated from their whole family. She posted a statement that read, in part... And she changed her Twitter from this... to this... Since then, the two have traveled and tried to connect with people. They attended a Jewish festival that their family picketed just a couple of years earlier. Grace went to Jamaica and worked with a humanitarian group. I guess what I found so heartwarming about their story is that it shows that hate can be overcome. These two women were indoctrinated in WBC's ideology from their infancy, and they eventually saw through it. Perhaps others can too. To me, that's an inspiring thought. -k

Agreed on "Fully Completely". My favorite Hip songs are more conventional sounding rock tracks like "Locked in the trunk of a car", "At the hundredth meridian", "Looking for a place to happen." -k

Right, Argus. I have a hard time believing that anybody who completes 9 to 12 years in a Canadian public or Catholic school system is illiterate, and I think using this statistic as an argument for reforming the school system or changing the English language completely misses the point. Canada's public and Catholic schools are excellent. The issue here is people who for whatever reason didn't attend Canada's major school systems, or didn't attend them for very long. That includes immigrants, as well as people who somehow fell through the cracks-- people on reserves without adequate education, perhaps children of incompetent parents, perhaps other factors. -k

oh god wtf -k

It saved a lot of US jobs. Who knows what kind of effect all those jobs shutting down at once would have had on the economy? It could have been like dominoes. -k

People are talking about Rush in another thread, so I have been listening to Rush and trying to figure out why I don't like Rush more. I remember one time when I was still a teenager, listening to the radio one night, someone phoned in and said "hey, can you play some Rush for me?" The DJ said "sure! I can play any Rush song you want. Except Red Sector A. That's not getting on the radio. Not on my watch." He went on this rant about how they'd play Red Sector A over his dead body, that he'd quit if the station played Red Sector A, that he'd rather burn the station down than play Red Sector A. It was pretty amusing, he made it sound like it was worse than Ebola. I kind of like it...it has the same sort of gloomy feel that makes Subdivisions my 2nd favorite Rush song. I also stumbled across this video last night... like a lot of Rush songs, I like the music but hate the vocals. The instrumental portion of the song reminds me of an Iron Maiden instrumental, in that it's very precise, controlled, measured, progresses with a definite plan... it's basically the exact opposite of Freebird and other jam-type instrumentals. I was completely blown away by this video, though! I don't know if this was put together by the user who uploaded the video or if it was professionally done, but whatever it is, it's awesome. It fits the song perfectly. I've watched this several times... it's electrifying (badum-tsh!). -k

Yeah, but was it any good? I can't recall any singles from it or anything... the last Rush single I can recall is "Nobody's Hero" (which IMO was awful and not exactly top 10 of the last 25 years type material...) I admit I never "got" rush. I do like a few of their songs. The 2112 Overture, Subdivisions, ... uh ... maybe Closer To the Heart? Trees? uh, I'm sure there must be more, but I honestly can't think of them right now. There's a whole bunch of them, like Tom Sawyer and Spirit of Radio and New World Man that get on the radio all the time that I'm like "uh-huh" that I don't mind, but if I never heard them again there wouldn't be anything missing from my life. -k

A year ago, the story of an elephant's rescue from a cruel keeper captured hearts around the world. After 50 years in chains, Raju the elephant literally wept when he realized he was being unchained. Today Raju lives at a wildlife sanctuary with other elephants. This week the staff at the sanctuary had a party for Raju to celebrate his first year of freedom. -k

That's what I was wondering. People are angry that Rush isn't on this list... but when was the last significant record they released? One glaring omission, however, is Robin Sparkles' "Sandcastles In the Sand." Conceived as a more mature followup to "Let's Go To The Mall", Sandcastles was intended to mark Robin's progression from teen pop to a more adult sound. It didn't achieve the commercial success of "Mall", but still stands on its own artistic merits. The title track: Bonus: Robin Sparkles and her friend Jessica Glitter performing a duet! -k

My contacts in the aviation biz tell me that rotor wash is extremely loud, to the point that they will put high-isolation ear-plugs in, then put on their sound-dampening headsets and turn the volume up to maximum just so that they can hear the radios. -k

If Trump wanted to talk about immigration, border security, and trade in a grown-up way instead of the kind of stuff he's saying, it would be a discussion worth having. I actually have no idea why American progressives aren't more supportive of better border security and reducing immigration, considering who is most hurt by flooding the market with cheap labor. And it's unfortunate that only fringe candidates on either side are talking about the Trans Pacific Partnership. Maybe that's why Trump's numbers are surging. It's just too bad there isn't a serious candidate who wants to talk about these things too. -k

When I heard that the Leafs had acquired Harrington, naturally I was hoping it was Kit Harrington. The trade is basically Phil Kessel and a 2nd round pick for Kasper Kapanen and a 1st round pick. The other parts of the trade aren't worth very much. The pick Toronto gets will probably be in the last half of the first round, and the pick the Penguins get will probably be very early in the 2nd round, so the net effect of the swap of picks is to improve Toronto's 2nd pick by 10-15 places at next year's draft. And they have to pay $1.2 million of Kessel's contract every year. I don't know much about Kasper Kapanen, but it doesn't seem like they got a whole lot in return for Kessel... -k

She has committed to not running. -k

Motorhead was mentioned over in the Glastonbury festival thread. BC Sapper mentioned seeing Hawkwind way back in the day. Wow! That's pretty cool! For who aren't familiar with them (which I assume is basically just about everybody), Hawkwind was an English psychadelic band that started in the late 1960s. They were ... uh, pretty weird. They were fascinated with science fiction, and much of their material is inspired by the idea of a disturbing future where technology has displaced humans. They hooked up with a poet named Rob Calvert who wrote some songs and genuinely creepy spoken-word material for them. Later they got into fantasy, and worked with Elric author Michael Moorcock. Later on they got into native American spirituality. They were, legend has it, pretty much constantly stoned. They had some minor brushes with success, and a couple of near misses-- one of their songs "Urban Guerilla" was charting in England until it was yanked off the radio due to an IRA terror attack. Hawkwind's most lasting contribution to the music industry is undoubtedly that they were Ian Kilmister's first major gig. Lemmy got fired from Hawkwind after he got busted at the Canadian border with a bunch of drugs. He started his own band, which became Motorhead, and the rest is history. Lemmy's unmistakable bass and vocals and signature sound are evident in some of the early Hawkwind songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t94ka96sCzk -k

I should have known. The Hardhome episode was basically just an extended episode of Metalocalypse. -k

That probably didn't pick up any steam because what Sanders wrote doesn't actually say what you wish it said. -k

Regarding what I said about Motorhead: The Johnny Cash line was a self-deprecating quip from late in his life when he was continuing to record new songs. An interviewer asked him how his voice was holding up, and he chuckled and replied "it's about as good as it ever was." He was poking fun at himself, saying he was never a good singer. This clip of Motorhead reminded me of that story, because he sounds very old and just about worn out. I'd still love to see him perform, though. I've been a fan for such a long time. -k

Yeah, perhaps Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul could get more coverage if they went around ripping on millions of people. -k

Oooh! Motorhead! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB868BrCYtU I think Lemmy is about 70 now, but to borrow Johnny Cash's line, he sings about as good as he ever did. Alabama Shakes was there as well. They have been on my radio a lot lately. I like this song, except for the opening screech, which causes my cat to go on full alert. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WDlDDdCKd0 -k

Word on the street is that Florence and the Machine stole the show. -k

The "last 25 years" thing rules out some of these suggestions. Like 2112 is pretty cool, but it was 40 years ago. I'm not sure Bryan Adams has put out anything all that great in the past 25 years either... I think Jagged Little Pill is a great suggestion... by strange coincidence it was in the news recently for 2 reasons. First, it's the 20th anniversary of the record's release, and second, it just sold its 15 millionth copy. I would suggest that maybe Sarah McLachlin "Surfacing" merits consideration for the list. Neil Young released "Harvest Moon" in 1992, it might be his last good record... High on my personal favorite Canadian albums of the past 25 years are: "Synthetica" by Metric, "Coyote" by Matt Mays, and "Fuzz" by Junkhouse. -k

@realDonaldTrump Twitter: -k