johnzo

Why is it so important that Rey has some big secret origin? We see all kinds of Force kids in the prequel movies and given how Jedi aren't allowed to mate or love, those younglings must have come from plain old non Force parents... I know that JJ Abrams teased that Rey had some mysterious pedigree but remember, this is the guy who made Lost -- he's great at setting up mysteries but not so much at paying them off...

Also, Jesus ******* Christ the North Korean situation is scary. China appears to be gunning up for a war -- if the USA + ROK go it alone against DPRK, suddenly this could be a hot superpower war.

Republicans got their big tax bill through. As a salaried wake earner, it doesn't do a lot for me. My taxes will go down a bit temporarily and then pop back up in 2027ish. I'll be able to buy a new cymbal or two with my savings. As an (small-time retirement savings) investor, I suspect I'll see some benefit. The stock market will love this. The GOP wants to do Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security cuts next, given that they've now kneecapped US federal revenues for the next ten years. They also want to somehow spend more money on the military, which is, by all accounts, completely fubarred by previous (bipartisan) budget cuts. I'd rather have the social services and working aircraft carriers than the tax cut. And yes, I know I can voluntarily send the govt more tax money, but voluntary tax remittance is kind of an unsteady revenue stream that you can't really plan programs around. The plan is polling very badly and appears to be viewed ad a giveaway to the investor class ... will be interesting to see how much class war stuff we see from the Dems next year.

So people have been saying that the reason that Jennings slipped so badly in 2016 is that defensive coordinators have solved him -- they've figured out how to defend against him and he hasn't adjusted or can't adjust. Others are predicting the same thing will happen once Bridge starts playing regularly, and that the same thing happened with Casey Printers a decade ago -- another guy who made a big splash and then flamed out. What kind of tendencies and tells do DCs look for when they're figuring out a QB? If you're putting together a book on how to defend a particular QB, what will that book contain?

Brandon Bridge signs for another year with the Roughriders. Good signing for them, he looked like he was coming along nicely for them next year ... will be very interesting to see if Jones pursues another QB or goes another year with Bridge / Glenn, maybe with Bridge moving into the starting role?

"We stuck by you when you did things that hurt us before" lol nerds

I've seen a lot of folks complaining about this and I don't get it. The Force will often pop in to help out untrained force sensitive folks in mortal danger ... Luke against the Wampa ... Luke against the Death Star ... Rey against Kylo Ren and her stormtrooper guards. This just felt like more of that. Not saying that people are wrong or anything, I just don't understand the objection given how we've seen this very thing a bunch of times in past movies.

The thing I remember is that they alerted all their allies, and no one replied, no one wanted to stick their necks out and rescue them. But I've seen it just the one time.

The entire Resistance and all its equipment was destroyed except for the few people on the Falcon at the end...sure they were all like "we are the spark" but I read that as just putting a brave face on things. Kinda like an end-of-season interview with the GM of a non playoff team ... "we like our core and our approach, we're gonna come back next year and compete."

Liked most of the filmmaker's choices, especially that Rey is someone of no particular lineage. I'm so sick of chosen one / royal blood storylines, they were tired when the Matrix did them and then the Star Wars prequels and Harry Potter ran them into the ground. Thought most of the jokes landed, thought the tooling of Hux was the funniest one. The throne room fight scene was great, the high point of the movie, the death of Snoke was shocking and cool, and the Kylo / Rey dance in the aftermath was cool as well, it felt like anything could happen. That red salt planet looked gorgeous, the red-marked plain in the aftermath of the battle reminded me of fresh snow turning muddy at recess. Luke's distraction at the end was the ultimate Jedi move, winning a battle with zero aggression. Liked how Luke echoed the Jedi practice of lying to one's apprentice. Liked that the Dark Side showed Rey that she was her own parent. And the Dern maneuver was excellent. It had some pacing problems, tho, the jedi island stuff was pokey until Kylo Ren shows up and the casino excursion felt like it was on-point thematically but kinda meh dramatically. When you've got a siege going, you shouldn't just be able to leave the siege. I don't even think we see Rose and Finn jump away, it's just that suddenly they're in hyperspace. And they're looking for a guy who has no name, but who has a distinctive piece of costume jewelry? heh. It's my #4 Star Wars movie right now. I don't think it's as good as Empire, Star Wars, or Rogue One, but I liked it better than all the rest of them.

O'Shea was a complete beast, definitely on the list of great MLBs I've watched in my time. I remember one game during his early years in Hamilton that he absolutely took over. Run between the tackles? O'Shea was there. Pass to the flat? O'Shea was there. QB getting too comfortable? O'Shea obliterated him on a blitz. Wide receiver sweep? O'Shea ran it down. Draw play? O'Shea wasn't fooled. Screen pass? Dropped the receiver for a loss. He had something like 20 tackles that day. One of the most dominating performances I've ever seen. I wore #59 because of that guy and he was my favorite non-Bomber for years.

yup, absolutely, and Rolling Stone deserves all the heat it got for the story. This is a super real problem and messy reporting about it really hurts efforts to do something about it.

holy crap, Zarley Zalapski, the best name in NHL history, is dead? I'll never forget the Penguins' play-by-play guy yelling about Zarley's zalapshot...

It gets even weirder ... the Alabama special election parallels the 2010 Massachusetts special election almost exactly. Early in a new, controversial president's term, a safe senate seat flips in a massive upset because the favored candidate had some flaws. But yeah, conventional wisdom is that the presidential party loses seats in Congress during the midterms, and I think that will get even more pronounced in the near future. Midterms turn on motivated voters -- the Tea Party had been stoked white-hot in 2010, just like the anti-Trump resistance is now.

re: false allegations, they do exist. Here is a great example of the difference between a false accusation and a credible accusation. https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-cernovich-chuck-johnson-alt-right-hyped-anti-schumer-forgery-that-plagiarized-conyers-complaint

from https://www.cfl.ca/2017/12/11/oleary-popp-gives-argos-every-option-need-centre/

Maybe the Argos are pitching a Harris / Burris type situation? Ray comes back in 2018 as the starter, but Franklin is sure to get some starts too, and then in 2019 Ray is gone and Franklin is the guy.

Who else is geeked for The Last Jedi? I'm seeing it on Saturday with a ton of friends at the plushest theatre in the area. Have avoided all the trailers too, I'm going in completely cold.

Speaking of Canadian receivers... http://3downnation.com/2017/12/08/receivers-nik-lewis-rob-bagg-discuss-changing-cfl-ratio-rules/ (I am a fan of the Canadian roster rules overall but I hope they'll be revised if the league ever expands to 10 teams.)

June Jones doubles down on Johnny Football: https://www.tsn.ca/jones-manziel-would-be-best-player-to-ever-play-up-here-1.937424

JJ is pumping Johnny Football's tires hard. Warren Moon? Seriously? https://www.cfl.ca/2017/12/04/jones-says-plug-manziel-ticats-offence-easily/

Any love for Shaq Johnson? He looked good against us last year. Signing him might really help with our ratio, and would put the Lions in a big bind...

Bauming tweets that "Mark Nelson will remain with the team in a coaching capacity." Is there any way this isn't a demotion for Nelson? Looks weird for him to be sticking around, but maybe I don't know enough to judge. In other news, J. Mincy has been released to try the NFL. Als lose one of their bright spots from last year. Thought he had some great games against the best in our league. Good luck to him.

Jesus Christ, dude. I'm sorry to hear that.

I don't think you should need to go to court to fire someone., I suspect that when a guy of Lauer's stature is canned so quickly, that there's some open secrets in his workplace that we're not privy to. Firing him is risky, he's a big star and has gobs of money to fight this if he wants. You have to think that the beancounters and producers figured out that the risk of keeping him and being sued into oblivion for enabling a sex criminal was greater. He's also semi-confessed and semi-apologized, so it's not like he's denying he's been a creep. And that whole thing about his desk button that would lock his office door is just gross.