overthere

What blind luck? You think the CPP agreement was a random event. No, Kathy called in a favour from her buddy in Ottawa.

Your review?

I guess that explains why things >went so well in Caledonia<.(sarcasm font) Would you describe the police actions there as competent?

Hey that sounds Like Alex Ovechkin until Barry Trotz arrived. Phil Kessel has played the same way his whole career. I don't blame him for that, since multiple teams have been willing to pay him a lot of money to play exactly like he does. Brett Hull made a Hall of Fame career out of playing like Kessel. Fat, lazy, one dimensional and scored a boatload of goals. Note that he flourished much earlier than Kessel, when smart St Louis managemnt put him on a line that had Oates to set him up, and a variety of plugger wingers to get the puck. What that means is not that Blues mgmt was great, it was that Toronto mgmt failed to recognize the situation or failed to correct it. Kessel scored 59 points this year in regualr season, yet somehow he is seen as a flop by Leafs fans. Far from it. He had a great year and earned all he achieved. his last year he was -34, which is terrible. Of course, Toronto was horrible overall. The 2 previous years he was -3 and -4, also on crap teams.

The actual target was helping the Ontario Liberals to save face, and get away from the vapid stupidity of their own proposal to create an Ontario version of the CPP. This proposal falls far short of what Commissar Wynne wanted, but the Ontario Finance Minster looked very, very relieved to announce that ON was bailing out entirely just minutes after Morneau announced the modest changes to CPP.. Mission accomplished.

Not only that, but Harper appointed Supreme Court jurists who shot him down on several occasions. Trudeau won't be taking that kind of risk, oh no he won't.

Mostly second tier jurists, but certainly not any kind of surprise from Trudeau. As always, he is playing to an audience that approves of the result and is willing to hold their noses on the process. I am delighted that medical licenses are not passed out on this kind of 'merit'.

But Phil was most definitely the guy when it mattered: Stanley Cup playoffs. He excelled, and was in the Conn Smythe conversation. It wasn't his fault that his former team sucked so badly while he was there. He excelled then too, scored lots of goals for a shitty team. He wasn't much of a goalie though.

I mostly agree with you here, that there is a double meaning to her smirk as she left- which I enjoyed to the soundtrack of Bolton having his face eaten in the background. It was a little hard to make out the squishy sounds over the noise of the applause in my living room. But Ramsay was only one step in her life, albeit a very harsh one. Remember her as pubescent teen, gushing over Joffrey and crapping on her own sister? Her journey is an important one in GOT and shows her transition from a dumb tween to.... a leader. She knew that Rickon was toast no matter what, she knew they did not have enough fighters, she knew Ramsay would best Jon Snow if allowed to do his schtick. This, despite claiming not to know anything of strategy.... For me, she has gone from an annoying character to one of my favorites, and her growth is a logical progression. As a group, the Starks are pretty formidable. Between Bran the mystic, and three warriors in Jon Snow, Sansa and Arya- they are emerging as a formidable management team. But none seem to want to be King, which leaves the field open for Dany, who does. Only the Tyrells are close to them in quality/depth, with Loras as the noble Jon Snow clone, and Margeary a tough, smart and ambitious but pragmatic leader. I do wonder at her conversion to fundamentalism though......she may just be playing at it for now while biding her time....And Olenna is the smarts in the bunch, but might not survive insulting Cersei so thoroughly I think perhaps Littlefinger will not live long and prosper either. His power base in Kings Landing is gonzo. His new base in the Vale rests tenuously on his link with the boy Robin Arryn, who is an erratic lunatic on his good days. Sooner or later one of the lesser Lords of the Vale will make Robin fly too, and Littlefinger won't be long in following him. Having major wood for Sansa won't get him much traction anywhere, though he bought a reprieve from her hatred by saving the day at Winterfell.

I don't think she even recognizes that she is a Dead Woman Walking. Her power base is gone in Kings Landing, her main man Jaimie has no heart for any of it, and her 'allies' would welcome the opportunity to carve her heart out. Oh and lets not forget the massive debts they owe the Iron Bank. So who is left to fight it out in Westeros? Jon Snow and Sansa don't have much ambition beyond Winterfell. The Dornish Clan, the IronBorn, the Vale fighters, the Lannisters, Tullys, Freys and whomever I have forgotten are fragmented and isolated. Looks like easy pickings for the D Day when Dany arrives with some serious firepower. But I really think this is still all prelude, the Iron Throne is not the prize and the fight over that must be brief and penultimate. Winner the battle with the White Walkers must surely be the end gamer.

Leafs fans are just going to have to accept that 'Phil was just not that into you".

But Cersei is increasingly on the fringes and without allies. Her position in Kings Landing is precarious, and her main force is off north at Riverrun. The Tullys loath her as does Dorne, and she has nobody in the North except the turdish Freys. Her sole remaining child is not listening to her. Margery may yet leverage Tommen and herself into a better place in the plot, but I don't see how Cersei goes with them.

That might be a good idea for when they bring Hutchison up to replace him in the rotation. It might force their hand with all the middle infielders though.... have to make a roster move unless they send Girodo (their sole lefty)down. More likely they'd just send Ceciliani back I guess. One thing that Stroman does that enhances his worth in the bullpen: he throws strikes. Lots of strikes. To me, that is critical in a reliever. They come into games in tight situations, and nothing blows more than a guy that comes in with wild pitches, walks, hits batters etc. Grilli has done this lately. Drives me crazy that a major league pitcher cannot throw a strike at will. ETA: speaking of sole lefties, how have Atkins and Shapiro gotten to this state of affairs?

Yes, the Middle East is the place for Muslims, since there are several hundred million that live there. I suppose that is pretty much expected that they are 'responsible' for.... something...... I'm not sure what your point is about Mecca. Your noise is out of joint because access to holy places is reserved for adherents? You cannot wander about the Vatican at will, or to many Christian places of worship except as directed, or to Jain temples, or to Mormon temples, or to many Hindu places of worship or.......

And 'what to do about the pitching' has now spread from the bullpen to the starting rotation. Could we soon see Hutchison in Buffalo and Stroman in the 25 man roster swap places?

Other than perhaps Littlefinger, is there anybody in the North with ambitions for the Iron Throne? And how does Littelefinger finagle himself into that chair? You can see that Jamie pukes a little in his mouth any time he is around the Freys, his only remaining ally with any heft. I don't think Jamie has much stomach left for a fight against anybody. What is the point? He can see that the Lannister occupation of the Iron Throne is tenuous at best.

I just do not get how not vaccinating children somehow translates into a belief in creation. Where is the link. It is just not true that because you believe in God or a greater power that you don't vaccinate your kids, that you think the Joos perpetrated 9-11, that Obama is a radical Muslim born in Kenya and so on. If believing in a God or Creation also meant that Christians or Muslims or Buddhists were slitting throats to get me to think that way- there would be a case. I don't see any link, and I don't see how those beliefs affect or harm me in any significant way.

Add these movies to the list: pretty much any movie by one of the consistently best directors/writers of our time: Mike Leigh. http://www.rogerebert.com/cast-and-crew/mike-leigh He generally makes quiet, understated powerful stories about ordinary people. And he always gets sublime performances from an ensemble cast of fine actors. They are not widely seen because they never have explosions, CGI or tits. One of the very best is 'Vera Drake', one of my favorite movies .

Goins had already played a game in the outfield this year, and played there 4 games last year. My point is that of the three, he is the only one with MLB experience in the OF. It won't matter though, if and when the time comes to send somebody to Buffalo. At this point, he is also a fairly valuable piece of trade bait because he is young, good and cheap for a long time. So is Travis. Barney is the odd man out here- cheap at $1 Million but 30 years old and a free agent soon enough. That sways the 'who goes, who stays' equation to seeing Barney gone- but his bat this year.........

It costs me nothing in my schools either. Every publicly funded school here has two certainties: the mandated provincial curriculum must be taught, and it must be taught by professional teachers certified and licensed by the province. Beyond that, any parent can send any child to any school they wish in the province at no cost, with the caveat that there must be room in the school after local kids are registered first. Beyond the mandatory govt curriculum, schools can choose from a wide variety of curriculum items, and they do. If you object strongly to any curriulcum, be it secular or religious, you can easily send your kid elsewhere. As a taxpayer, it does not cost me any more or less either way.

Your information about Australia is both disingenuous and not factual. Australia spends about $22.7 billion US, 1.8% of GDP, $1000 per citizen Canada spends about $14 billion US. .9% of GDP, $399 per citizen. Not even close to equivalency. They are far from being leaner, they spend far more on their national defence on every metric. But their major outspending of Canada is not their biggest difference. It is a longstanding reality in Australia that a commitment to their national security transcends party p[oltics. All parties are committed to the notion that national defence is not a matter of 'if', it is a matter of how much is required, and that sum is at the top of every budget, not a football to be punted endlessly back and forth. Of course, they don't have a major power on their doorstep paying many of the bills. We won't have that either, soon enough..

Gibbons is a step ahead of you- Goins played LF a couple games ago and has played the OF before, not much but some. And you are right about the value of a lefty bat, which can be in short supply on the Jays. I really don't think anybody wants Goins 'gone'. But in a head to head competition, he comes out a close third to Travis and Barney at this time. Its a shame , because he stepped into the fulltime 2B job last year and played really well. And again, I think his roster spot is OK until and if the Jays go back to 8 in the bullpen- and nobody else gets injured.

Maybe, but the real reason that Trudeau and poor sad bastard Dion(in well over his head yet again) won't commit is..... no surprise.... political. The Liberals aren't worried about what the Opposition, the national media or even the populace thinks about the whole genocide biz. It will get a few minutes on CBC, then it will 'hey look, a squirrel' and bye bye. What Trudeau thinks matters is how the UN perceives Canada, since Trudeau is very anxious to gain a Security Council seat. So, time for some good old fashioned asskissing and obeisance. Let them decide our policy. It is not about foreign policy anyway, about doing the right thing for these women or even about taking a generic position on rape and enslavement. These are trifles happening far away. If you want Canada to 'be back', the actual horror is not at the forefront of an actual position. The objective is to proudly sit at the side of such luminous global examples of compassion as Angola, Venezuela, Egypt etc, everybody flapping their hands and making righteous little squeaks, while the permanent SC members decide what is going to happen at the UN. And while that is happening, the CDN campaign, the govt can source the additional billions in 'extra foreign aid' that is always required to be dispensed before any developed country buys the votes of undeveloped nations to get the SC seat. It's great that we have a plan.

But how are you threatened by the idea or the people, being an advanced thinker immersed in the scientific method? Instead of intolerance for the foolishness of others, how about a little love brother? I think that is a better investment of my time and energy, rather than attacking what I acknowledge is quite silly. The whole 'act of faith' serves a major purpose for believers. Their belief system provides them so many benefits and costs me nothing. I know folks who are comforted at times of grief, who feel they belong to something with people that truly care about them, that gain confidence in themselves thinking that the unanswerable has been answered. Who am I to squat over all that helps them and go out of my way to take a giant shit on their world? It costs me nothing to just let them go, and join me in exercising choice.

100 games to go, more or less. Nobody is a lock to win or to lose, except for a few teams that clearly won't contend. That was not my point. My point is that the Jays did not and could not win with their game last year. And they have not mended those holes this year, not yet anyway. Estrada has been worth every cent, and he was not hugely expensive in any case. That was a good dollar amount and term for the Jays. Pitching is stupid expensive, especially starters. It is a bit crowded on the bench now, with only 7 in the bullpen. Cecil won;t be back until July perhaps, so they don't have to decide anything yet. They could go to 8 at that point, but who would they keep? Girodo is more likely to be sent down whenever Cecil gets back. Or perhaps the Jays will have made a deal for bullpen help by then. Sanchez will end up there, but not for quite a while. The Jays have 6 on the bench, and two of them are not going anywhere: Thole and Carrera- their backup catcher and the only career outfielder. When Tulo comes back, they will send Burns down. That still leaves a logjam at second. Narrowing ti down is hard to do from a fielding perspective: all three of Goins Travis and Barney are all reliable or better, all arer in the .984 to .989 range. Barney is the most versatile, playing 2B, ss or 3B. Goins might have a tiny edge for best arm. Travis might be the one with the worst range at 2B. But ... hard to pick a fielder. None of them has played much or any outfield, except Goins who has a few MLB games there. So batting..... Barney has easily been the best by a wide margin this year. Travis was really good last year, and is showing definite signs of life now: but limited size sample both years. Goins hit well last year, but his career average is below Barneys, and this year he is .100 points behind him in BA. The Jays will send Burns down when Tulo comes back, and don't have to decide on who plays 2B yet, or who stats on the roster yet- room for all right now. But if they acquire a reliever and need roster space, I think it will be Goins who goes to Buffalo. Or gets traded. His fielding cannot be faulted, but his hitting...... For example, I just don't see the Jays using him as a pinch hitter, but both Barney and Travis could be. You cannot get rid of somebody as hot at the plate as Barney, and Travis and his bat is a player for the future for the Jays. It is not really a terrible problem to have, too many decent players!