overthere

That is always a fear, that the network won't know when to let it go. Many times the writers and producers will keep going as long as somebody keeps buying it, like Law and Order. But Law and Order was not serial, and any time an actor got too uppity(expensive), they just wrote them out. It is happening now with Walking Dead, which is already a season or two past making any sense. Now they have introduced yet another community of weirdos into a sagging thread. Please, end it. Mad Men did not let it drag on too long, and even the mighty Game of Thrones appears to be staggering towards an epic punch line. I'm not saying Westworld has come anywhere near approaching the need to conclude, but I do hope they recognize it before they must. The series that set the bar for me for bad management was Lost. By the end of about season 2 I realized that there were something like 200 people on the crashed plane, and we were going to see the back story of every freaking one. I was done then.

We know with absolute certainty that both of the best power players in the game are worth a lot more than sweet f all. And the other certainty is that two valuable pieces that could have been used to improve the team are worth sweet f all now. The starting pictching is OK. The bullpen remains inadequate, obviously, and is their most pressing need. Cleveland went a long, long way by playing the kind of aggressive, unselfish, winning baseball I dream of seeing in Toronto. So many unselfish, slashing, hit-to-opposite field ABs by so many players. What a contrast to the Jays! I hope Gibbons was taking notes, though it is very unlikely. Even better, they did it on a small payroll. It would seem the Jays -with their huge market clout and bigtime attendance can easily afford to buy what they need, since given the example fo EE and Bats they don't have the wits to trade for it. But I won't hold my breath.

It is pretty amusing to see observers blow off the value of Encarnacion and Bautista in March 2016 as being nothing. They were two of the best power players in the game then, and one has improved on that status now. Who would want to drop consistent 100 RBI, 30+ RBI guys into the heart of any lineup? Right, they had no value at all. Hilarious. What is not the least bit hypothetical is that two very valuable, well regarded assets who both indicated 'pay up or bye-bye' in March 2016 are going to get absolutely no return to a team that needs to get better to move to the top rank of teams. It may well be the best opportunity the team has had to win for 20+ years- pissed away. What a great end to the season last night in Cleveland!

My favorite Trudeauism so far is 'social infrastructure'. This is NewSpeak for classic Liberal program spending. Orwell would approve. Program spending never ends, because then Trudeau would make somebody unhappy that he had previously made happy by gifting them money. It just goes on year after year indefinitely until the economy starts to buckle under the double weight of the ongoing program spending and the cost of borrowing more and more and more and more money to fund the programs. Oh, and what happens when the cost of that debt starts to rise dramatically when interest rates rise, which they undoubtedly will? Justin is starting to closely resemble old Dad: socially an activist, while at the same time fiscally disastrous.

It is still a bit hard to follow but what an ending to the last epsiode. A nude and revived Maeve says 'Hello Felix, it's time you and I had a little chat'. Wow. Chilling. I don't see this ending well for Felix. HBO keeps setting new standards for TV. Their producton values are off the charts.

The motivation for Britain was not to benefit the Arabs, what an amusing and quaint idea! The Brits needed to secure the Suez Canal, and more importantly to greatly diminish the authority/power of the Ottoman Empire in the entire region. They succeeded in both, and the Brits came out of that buntoss with a lasting influence on both regional politics and a great big pool of a certain precious black liquid.guess what precious liquid. They pretended to empower the Arab tribal leaders, knowing that they could and would either be both squashed and controlled after the war. This was nearing the end of Empire for Britannia, they used to be very good at this game.

cultural appropriation is A-OK if you are a privileged white man. Was Sophie in blackface?

I respect the opinions that some Christians hold on abortion. Many- of course- have different opinions in support of choice on abortion, they act on their opinions by having abortions, and I respect that too. If only all Christians had the same tolerance for others, wouldn't the world be a much more Christian place? Imagine too if all Christians tolerated gay people, allowed them to express their love for each other via marriage in a church. Imagine what Jesus would think of that.

Joaquin Benoit? LOL . If we go into next season depending on geezer recovery projects like Benoit and Grilli.... it will be another indictment of those idiots in management. Kansas City and Cleveland both have balanced teams with great bullpens. Winners. Giants were like that too, The Jays are not.

No, I'm singling out the Jays as being serious contenders in 2015 who failed to do anythign to advance further in 2016. Of course every team does not have a chance to win a world series. Neither did the Jays, given the failure of management. LOL about what the Jays might have gotten for two of the very best power players in the game, circa spring 2016..... Two draft picks is a f***ing joke. I do not get why you again apologize for losing 2 great asets for absolutely no return. Must be a Leafs thing. Why wouldn't they get a big return for EE and Bats...... when they both had big value? Instead.... nada. Dick. Zero. AA left them with a full stadium and a contending team that needed some tweaking. Now they have a team with some really big holes, and they lost two players that could have gone far in filling those holes. Of course.

Both made their positions very clear at the second debate. Once again, I am so very pleased at the way Canada has handled womens reproductive rights for nearly 30 years now. Roe vs Wade may be a landmark case, but is at the same time a wholesale cluster****. Because it is a court ruling, it is a constant and continual target for challenge after challenge by so called pro lifers. Roe vs Wade serves to keep the issue continually in the US courts at many levels. It and never will be resolved, and put to bed legally. It is an industry unto itself. By contrast, Canada treats abortion not as legal issue but as a medical issue, between (women) patients and their doctor. There is no law really, which means there is little to challenge in court, no rulings to appeal and so on. That alone is a massive source of frustration for 'pro lifers'. They have no public venue to visibly complain.

Alberta. By air. There are only deals on travel to South America from here in mid winter, and they all involve a useless transit via Toronto, then at least one flight and more often two to get to most SA destinations. Travelling around SA is also expensive as it is large , there are few cheapo carriers like there are in North America, Asia and especially Europe. I can almost always get cheap flights from here to anywhere except South America. One exception is a direct (winter only) flight to Panama, which is a major hub to much of SA, especially the northern SA countries. A better hub is Mexico City.

I was assured that all these appointees were non partisan. Are you saying they are not?

for 24 hours, until Montreal won, the Oilers were the top team in the league at 5-1 record. But they have had a run of mostly home games and mostly against weaker teams, except for their well earned victory over St Louis. The OIlers only loss was a thorough thrashing from.....Buffalo. Washington on Wednesday will be tougher. Last year the Capitals spanked the Oilers at home.....

Good teams do not need to hit at that clip to win games. Just the Jays. As I , and now countless commentators, have pointed out. Maybe you missed every talking head on Rogers and TBS mention it? Zaun, Campbell and others avoided speaking of it until it was impossible not to, but I don't have those constraints because I am not paid by Rogers. The Jays had the best starting pitching in baseball, and could not win close or extra inning games all season. FAIL. Management FAIL. Nor have not forgotten that the Jays had two massive assets in March, the heart of their order, and that they could easily have turned one or both into pitching and/or prospects- and did nothing. So they get nothing now. They have to offer one of them not enough money now, and the other too much . The only reason to offer Bautista anything is to get a draft pick. And draft picks are far from the quality players and quality prospects avalable in March for these guys. FAIL. Management FAIL.

But that is not what happened under Shapiro/Atkins. The team that rampaged through the AL East last year left as faves to win it all this year. They were widely anticipated and picked to go all the way this year. Instead, they barely made a wild card berth, and were laughed off the field in the ALCS. The Jays lost to a balanced, fast, agressive team with good pitching last year. Hey ho, -same thing this year. Their model does not work in WINNING. It appears that yoiu have finally come around to what I have been saying since about May: the structure of this team and the way the game is approached by the Jays does not work. That burden is on the management, not the players-though the Jays also need to slap some sense, and fast, into several of their selfish lads who refuse to play to win. It is two years in a row that the Jays failed-with prodigious talent both years- to have any chance of advancing from the ALCS. Balanced teams have won for the last decade. It was obvious the management did little or nothing to address the core reasons we lost last year. We lost to the same team for the same reasons. No, Shapiro, Atkins and Gibbons do not get a mulligan. This is not beer league.

That is me: I hate freedom and cannot spell misogyny either. I should be deported, really. To Costa Rica. On a pension.

So far, he has been much more than just a goon. Lucic was really good in all ways on Thursday , when the Oilerrs beat the Blues 3-1. Scored the winner, had some great chances, and ground it out on the boards against a really good team. Lucic cannot skate with McDavid, but in fairness- who can? The Oilers would not have won a close game against a good team last or previous years. Fingers crossed....

He was expecting 5 years at $30 million per year. LOL. Then and now. Really, given his performance this year why would they want him back at all? Qualifying offers are around $17 million , right? What if he takes it? He is too fragile, injury prone, weak in the field, weak at the plate and apparently his penchant for whinimg at every pitch is contagious. Really? Success in pro sports has only two metrics metrics:improvement and winning championships. Did they do either? They did not take over a team of mutts.

Actually. South America is considered a different continent. And it is very expensive and time consuming to get to South America for me. It is likely the most expensive (populated)place in the world for me to get to.....Asia, Europe, Australia are all easier and often much cheaper. Is cost ever an issue for Europeans when they travel. or is it only a valid excuse for Canadians?

Liberals just gotta be Liberals!

It is embarrassing that our Trade Minister had to cry, then threaten to leave. Or perhaps that is a new page in the 'lets get consensus' Liberal playbook? If we cry, maybe the bad guys will change their minds.

How could any EU member country possibly complain about political meddling of sovereign members, or an attack on state autonomy? Isn't that an everyday activity in Brussels?

I just realized what The Accountant reminded me of.... Steven Seagal movies. Imagine a Seagal flick with a plot not derived from a comic book, a decent budget, plus competent actors and you have The Accountant.

We tend to have a need and love for what never happened. We remember only the good things. Why would we want to return to 'traditional Canadian values' of even a generation ago? Sexism, racism, mysoginy, and hatred of foreigners were standard fare not long ago. I don't yearn for any of that crap.