overthere

I watched the first season, we PVR the second.and my wife still keeps up weekly....I'm not so keen on it anymore and it took a while to figure out why. The show is obviously a retooling of Seinfeld, another entertaining 'show about nothing'. There's one big difference though... In Seinfeld. the characters were selfish, banal and entertaining but ultimately they were endearing. In Girls, they are similar but there is an underlying meanness about many of them, the shallowness of character is always there. Sometimes there are not many laughs in an episode. Maybe it's just me.

To me, it's the worst stance possible. All of us have had a lifetime of opportunity to form an opinion on the existence of God or gods. We've examined and accepted or rejected the evidence, or have abandoned the need for evidence via an act of faith. And then we have formed an opinion or drawn a conclusion based on that examination. Were you washing your hair that day?

Good point. Alberta is really short on cash right now, to the extent we ran our Premier out of Dodge for wasting a few bucks. Send it east.... Would you mind awfully if we charged big tariffs on every train, vehicle and human that leaves BC and crosses the BC border into AB? We fear the environemntal consequences.

Depends where you live perhaps. Industry pays good money in AB, and there is and has been a labour shortage(skilled and unskilled) for many years in many ways. It is now much the same in SK and soon in BC. AB has recruited across Canada for skilled trades people for many years and it appears that everybody willing to move has done so already. If that leaves you skilled and unemployed in Ontario or elsewhere, tough shit. Your choice. Work is regional and often transient. Its the way it is, and actually that is how it has always been in my lifetime. What has changed in the last half century is mostly expectations. Everybody seems to expect now that you can go to school, get something useless on a piece of paper, then start your life close to all that is near and comfy with a good secure job c/w corporate pension where you can work to 53 and retire to a 35 year retirement on fat pension- all withinh walking distance of Grandmas house. Those fantasies don't exist any more. If you want a life with disposable income, pepare to follow the work around this great and large country.

The ethnic Russians in Crimea have spoken and Putin has listened. I wonder if his hearing will be as acute the next time the Chechens have something to say?

Nah, we're about 40 to 50 years away from that being a Canadian tradition in the Toronna sense. Once again, the Center of the Universe wins out.

I reckon a lot of people from SK and BC are in and out of here depending on the economy back home- and in recent years there has been increasing work back home. I don't see that being the case in ON, their economy is going through some structural change that may be very long term. It's not cheaper homes that matter, it affordability. Having cheap houses doesn't matter if you don't have a job, somehting not lost on the many Maritimers here.

Being from Calgary is a prerequisite to job security as PC leader. The PC party has been run from there for many decades and they really get in a snit when it goes otherwise. One of the real oddities is that they have not changed their leadership process, which has led to two consecutives hijackings of the leaders positions. Stelmach was the first - there was a massive soiling of underwear south of Red Deer when he won , beating two ultinate old guarders in Dinning and Morton. It could be argued , and perhaps persuavively that the Stelmach episode was the stimulus behind the rise of Wildrose. That too was ehavily Calagry based in the angry remains of the right and religious parts of the old PCs.. Redford was the second. Of course, Redford is from Calgary but in the eyes of the party old guard she arrived there after indoctrination in North Korea. Doomed.

Sears is 51% owned by its American parent company and is in serious financial trouble lately

They should put it on Canadian calendars, along with Thanksgiving in October and Queen Victorias Birthday in May. It's an icon, a Rite of Spring.

Yep. Packed with former Torontonians. The whole province is full of 'em. They come because they can find work, buy a decent home and not have to commute 2 hours each way to work to do it. Did I mention disposable income yet? Not only that, but they can continue to watch a seriously shitty hockey team. Two of them given an expansive cable package.

I'm not sure why you don't see the EU itself as a superpower. Did the EU ask Harper for our oil and gas too? That would be quite a climbdown from their formerly snotty position on same.

There is a skilled labour shortage in SK now, and very soon will apply in BC as their many energy related projects compete for a fintie number of silled laboput positions. I don't know what you mean by 'higher education' though. Many trades people are very well educated in their fields, which have technical and math components that would crush the brains of many university education generalists. It's not just Arts degrees. At one time I hired people with commerce degrees. They all were proficient with Excel, but beyond that they knew nothing about business in general and our business in particular. University grads were no better or worse than those with business diplomas or those that had no post secondary training but had learned on the job. The real training came on the job, something some grads were reluctant and/or arrogant about acknowledging. I suggest that those with the most relevant employable skills/knowledge coming out of uni are those with specific technical skills like medicine, some science degrees, and -with hesitation- engineers. My quibble with engineers(hired plenety of engineering people) is that those coming straight from school really had no applied skills, but were quite certain they did. They'd never run an actual project in their lives although they were wizards with the project software. They were unaware that projects required people skills too. I actually had better immediate results form Technologists from two year programs.

Bogus. At the time of abolition of slavery, for the most part churches were the most powerful social groups in the West were churches. They had far, far more influence on every aspect of life. Atheism was rare , or rather it was not smart or profitable to proclaim your lack of faith.

I'm surprised it was only 81 cases of cancer vs a statistical average of 79. Remote communities tend not to eat or live very healthily in general.

The Liberals paid down some small portion of the national debt with two main 'strategies': by making provinces assume costs for core programs like healthcare/slashing defence costs and by taking advanatge of lower interest rates on the debt(rates they lucked into). They just transferred debt to other levels of govt and fooled a lot of people, including you apparently. Oh, and Alberta has had a pretty crappy real estae market as compared to Canada since 2007, and still the economy prospers in spite of that. Real estate markets in Canada are very regional.

Fear is a very effective tool for survival. Fat species get eaten.

Lower bowl seats in Edmonton are north of $200, and people buy those too. Go figure. $19 for a Cubs seat? I doubt that ever happens in reality. They cost $40 plus on the rooftops outside the stadium. Aside from that, Wrigley seats more than twice what ACC seats, they sell out everything, there are 81 home games in the regular season, and playoff seats/revenue are not an issue in either place. And here are two guarantees: they sell far, far more beer at Wrigley, and the revenue on the street scene will be exponentially higher in Chicago. I like to plan trips there so I can catch games in both Chicago stadiums and pop up to Milwaukee on the train. Their park is usually jumping too.

"They love to back a winner**, and they most certainly are , second in Cups baby !" Maybe there are some people that are alive now that remember the Leafs but not for much longer. I hope somebody is taking steps to preserve those grainy clips of Foster Hewitt stumbling through the last win in 1967. It will be the only record of a fabled Leafs win in existence as all the oldtimers perish or succumb to dementia.

I can explain Edmonton:because all the intelligent people leave southern Ontario at their earliest convenience. Another puzzle solved. I know there are many many thousands in Edmonton and Calgary because they can get jobs and buy homes: neither of those opportunities are available in ON. Simple really. It also explains the Habs fans here. And Canucks, though that tends to be more cyclical.

It might never be found. They are finally starting to troll for the black boxes. The clock is ticking on that too.

I went to school when class sizes were much larger than they are now. Yet... you're saying that there are many more 'struggling learners ' today? Are the teachers that much worse now, despite their high pay and superb benefits? Perhaps we ned to cull the poor performers, somehting that has never been attempted in Canada. Wouldn't your union like that: accountability for results. Oh, and speaking of results.... Edmonton Public Board( a big one) unofficially capped class sizes about five years ago. Since then, universal test results have gotten worse. Funny that. Oh, and I'm a strong supporter of public education, it has worked a charm here. Somehow you equate that with offering a blank cheque to you and your pals. Looks like you need some remedial work in reading comeprehension.

The Leafs have a contingent at Oilers games because there are so many economic refugees from Ontario here. There are a lot of people from Ontario no longer living in Ontario. It's nothing to do with any innate national love for the Leafs, more of a sad commentary on economic reality in Ontario. Oh, and tickets for the Cubs are expensive and hard to get. Is it cheaper to fly to LA to watch a Leafs game than to buy a ticket at the ACC?

"Because Don Getty was more popular in Calgary than he was in Edmonton." Maybe that was because people in Edmonton had watched his career as a horrible quarterback for the Eskimos? Getty was run out of office by his (Calgary based) cabinet. He inexplicably did not change any of the Cabinet when he became Premier, an oversight he paid for dearly. Oh, and at the time Liberal leader Decore was getting pretty frisky, mostly with many seats in Edmonton. So... the Calgary based party exec dumped him and installed Klein(Calgary icon). Of course, installing Klein meant assassinating the career of the favoured Nancy McBeth, the front runner and a pal of Getty. Not coincidentally, McBeth was from.... wait for it... Edmonton.

I don't think you'd want to put the hater vs lover thing to the count. I've been to both Cubs and Leafs games, and the atmosphere is far more fun at Wrigley. There is a queasy sort of self loathing thing with the Leafs crew. Didn't pick up that with the Cubs, it's a party in the stands until the 7th inning or so when everybody settles down to some serious drinking and watching the game. And the party is all over the streets in the fun neighbourhood all around Wrigley.