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overthere

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Everything posted by overthere

  1. A parallel career to Scorcese is actor Robert de Niro, a pair that have crossed paths to great mutual benefit a few times. De Niro is generally thought of as one of the very best actors of his generation, and certainly has been excellent in some epic movies. But lately..... the guy seems to be low on money, appearing in some really weak stuff. Compared to what he's done, it's more 'going through the motions' than 'working'. I can understand it when actors feel they have to take anything to make a living/ stay visible in a very competetitive business. But surely de Niro can do anything he wants in the movie business, he must get offered good parts. Beats me why he is making the crap he has lately.
  2. True, we are content to get a free ride by sucking constantly at the breast of the US taxpayer. At our current defence expenditure level, our country would be basically undefended and indefensible without Big Daddy lurking on all our military horizons. Our smugness would evaporate overnight if we had to carry ourselves at our own expense.
  3. God was an essential human invention, intended to provide some convenient answers for hard questions, but more inportantly to provide hope in lives that were often harsh, brutal and short- and hopeless. Organized religion also provides another tribal connection, which is something we all instinctively seek while pretending to be above it all. I have no problem with organized religion as applied to the grieving, it provides comfort and solace to wounded hearts when they most need it. Whatever works.....as long as it is optional.
  4. "Not so, the tankers used from Vancouver are much smaller than the supertankers proposed for Northern Gateway, " Not for long. When Kinder-Morgan expands, the choice will be either lots more small tankers or fewer big tankers in the Port of Vancouver. Kinder Morgan will be larger than Gateway in volume, and the new oil won't be going to Cherry Point via pipeline, it will go to Asia by tanker. That will be an interesting battle, since there has been crude oil and other products shipped through the port of Vancouver(up to 120,000 ton tankers)for the last 60 years. I'm wondering how much money BC gets now from the constant stream of Alaskan supertankers running down their coast for the last 3 decades? Anybody know?
  5. Shannon was also in Mud, though he had a smaller role and is a bit hard to recognize despite being a large homely man. It's a very good movie- another fine performance by the surprising Matthew McConaughey. Mud reminds me of the oldie but goodie Stand By Me. Shannon has become a favorite actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the meh Revolutionary Road and of course is great in Boardwalk Empire.
  6. well, no. Nobody watches CBC TV programming and they continue to pound massive subsidies into it. It is clearly not a matter of supply and demand.
  7. Oh , and if you follow directors, check out the work of a newish American named Jeff Nichols. In recent years he has written/directed a couple of terrific movies: Take Shelter and Mud. I'll invest two hours and $12 in this guy until he makes me stop!
  8. I don't think Scorcese has had the sharp decline in quality that a director like Woody Allen has had.... Allen now makes romantic fluff and homages to pretty Euro cities. Shocking really. Way too many shitty efforts, I don't bother with him any more. Scorcese has made several classic movies, films that will be seen for decades. The Departed is one of them even though it is a remake itself. I haven't seen Wolf of Wall St yet, but will get to it. Friends complain that it is much too long. Maybe having final cut -directors of his stature get it- is not such a good thing sometimes. Do check out the Harrison doco- Living in the Material World. It is a sympathetic portrait, Scorcese was his friend- but very watchable.
  9. Sorry if I offended any creationists here by sugesting that prehistoric man actually existed.
  10. I reckon that one of conditions of sentience is the ability to wonder about the meaning of life, about the origins of our environment, and all the other deep questions that have vexed us for... ever. Isn't it a bit of modern arrogance to think that early man did not have at least some wonder about this? And if they asked the questions, they no doubt came up with some answers that worked for them. Are those answers religion or superstition? Is there any difference between the two? Are our beliefs in a Great Father in the Sky or reinacarnation or whatever any more valid than whatever prehistoric man came up with to explain his harsh, short life?
  11. I acknowledge that the government of the day, including Chretien, have the right and responsibility to define spending priorities and national defence Chretien and the Liberals hacked military budgets as part of their deficit cutting actions in the 90s. Fair enough. But what is absolutely unforgiveable is that the govt continued to commit our troops to missions where their lives were endangered by the lack of equipment, such as in the Balkans. That is callous and negligent in the extreme. The inability of Canada to fulfill its NATO treaty obligations did not go unnoticed by our allies either. Only recently do they have any confidence that Canada can do what we promosed to do in support of our friends.
  12. I've never worked anywhere in my life where all employees could speak for or about the company publicly. Big corps and government departments all have communications people to handle 'the message'.
  13. I think he has had a somewhat typical career, but only in the sense that the quality of his stuff has been erratic. If you look at the filmography of most directors and actors with long careers they all pretty much have hits and misses. He has had some good ones in the last couple of years: Boardwalk Empire, Hugo and the excellent George Harrison documentary. But what is astonishing about Scorcese(aside from some classic movies) is the sheer volume, the guy must work 24/7.
  14. He is using Turkey, Malysia etc as examples of Muslim countries that are not shitholes. It raises a question though.... Turkey is not a shithole, it is an interesting and vibrant place that is not an Islamic republic. The stated religion of Turks is overwhelmingly Muslim, but constitutionally is a secular nation. So do you have to be an Islamic republic such as Iran to be a 'Muslim country' and therefore a shithole, or does having a lot of Muslims enough for you Shady? If the latter, we'll have to add the UK to your generic list of shitholes, perhaps France too. Oh, and I'd add Indonesia to the list of countries that are overwhemingly Muslim but are not shitholes. They have many challenges for sure, but still an interesting place with the potential for a good future. Can we do a list of Christian shitholes next? We could start with Venezuela.
  15. "Stability and security is absolutely necessary for development," I agree, but you related that to "our systems", meaning our political systems. That is simply not true, examples provided. Saudi Arabia would be another example: autocracy, safe, secure, wealthy.
  16. The housing industry is always slowed down when mortgage rates rise, since fewer people qualify for mortgages and those that do qualify can get less money. But.... five year fixed mortgaes can be gotten today for around 3.5%, variable rates for about 2.6%. That is still cheap money, and modest increases to both won't make a huge difference. What might make a difference is the decline of the $CDN, now at or near a three year low around $.93US. That is good news for Canadian exporters and manufacturers, if there are any left in Ontario. So to answer your question 'will it hurt': overall, it's a wash.
  17. It is not a crime, but in a public and potentially hostile venue there is no way should anybody not vetted and examined by PM security should get close enough to kill the PM with a handheld rock. If I was an angry lunatic intent on getting my name in the news, I'd be paying close attention to how easy it was for this pair. No surprise that the RCMP would not press charges, they'd love this utter and epic failure at their jobs to just go away.
  18. I have no evidence of ancient humanity having organized religion, but it would make sense. We are social and tribal animals, and pretty much all religions are strongly tribal. Why wouldn't our forefathers use religion as well as blood realtionships to bind themselves to mutual advantage?
  19. Forgot to mention that the presence of these two protesters so close to the PM is a horrific breach of security. Heads should roll.
  20. "How do we support those privileges? Politically with our systems, and economically with our development which is based on fossil fuel consumption. We are saying the same thing. " Not really. Our nominally democratic political system is not necessary to support development, nor is the cheap availaibility of fossil fuels. China is in the midst of an unprecendeted tsunami of devlopment and they have neither a democratic political system or access to cheap oil. Vietnam is another example. I was just in Panama, they are doing pretty well economically or at least a lot better than their neighbours in Central America. They don't have much to do with fossil fuel extraction or consumption, and only recently had any actual experience with democracy.
  21. "What poor countries want to do is develop. If you tell them no to fossil fuels, they cannot. " That's about half right, maybe 3/4 right. What people in less developed countries want is exactly what we have: 1) personal safety, joint security, and the rule of law 2) a reasonable shot at earning a living. It's why they come to countries like Canada, even with our horrible climate and constant whining despite immense privilege of birth. If getting there involves fossil fuels, fine. They generally don't give a shit what gets them to the two universal objectives.
  22. Do you have any data at all that would validate your claim that CBC has the blessing of a huge majority of Canadians? You'd think a few of them would actually watch CBC TV if that was true.
  23. Don't forget that a contributing factor to Canada having the cash to fund universal access to health care comes from the reality that we have long lived under the umbrella of US defence expenditures. Yes, there is a free lunch there and we have gotten fat from it.
  24. cheaper gas is due to lower taxes in US, no other reason. It also accounts for nearly all the disparity in gas prices in Canada. The rest of the disparity is freight. cigarettes: heavily influenced by taxes too, much higher in Canuckistan Cheese and milk: very little to do with 'volume'. The absurd prices in Canada are mostly due to the supply control in Canada, with milk and cheese producers protected from competetition by law. It's not 'volume', it's 'politics'. Lower taxes: yep, pretty much though what it paid for by federal taxes. US buys a lot of guns for cops and soldiers, Canada buys more medical care for citizens. Jobs? the work isnUSA is in general paid far less and jobs are far scarcer than where I live in Canada.
  25. Everly Bros. was a bit before my time, but their music was generally terrific. I was at a concert this summer that was almost all Everly Bros music, performed by Bonnie Prince Billy(Will Oldham and Dawn McCarthy).
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