>> ^westyrules:
So you're saying it's like rugby, except that everybody is allowed to stop and think about tactics every 5 seconds. And you wear padding.


Well, injuries in handegg are so nasty precisely BECAUSE of all that 'padding'. The most dangerous moments in a game of handegg tend to be kick-offs, because you have 300 lbs terrors wearing 50 lbs of gear that shield them from some injury, thus making them a little cocky, running full speed and aiming said gear at certain vulnerable points in the padding of another player. As someone mentioned, this would never be done with the first string kicker--the chance of a single linebacker missing the obvious and being in the right place at the right time is simply too great.

It's also why you can extinguish a match or a candle by first licking the pads of the fingers you're going to use. You still have to retract quickly, as the candle/match is burning MUCH hotter than the visible flame would suggest it would.

>> ^EDD:
^whoa, dft you've completely missed the point of this episode. It was no random piano player. It was in fact a figment of Kara's imagination - her 'dad', if there ever was one. The realization I mentioned in the description is the one of her having memory (imprints) of the song (Hera's notes merely provided cues for her to follow), which quite clearly leads to conclude that Kara IS Daniel, number 7, THE 13th Cylon model (who was artistic (piano, paintings, remind you of anyone?) and whose DNA had been radically altered, as we learned in the previous episode).

Umm... Occam's Razor? Isn't it far more likely that Kara Thrace is, in fact, the first Hybrid, and that Daniel was her father? I mean, she does stuff that Hera does (drawing the supernova over and over as a child). Look--we see him. We see the silly rituals they did when she was little. Starbuck's mom sure thought he was a real dude, and Kara even has a cassette tape of one of his performances. Admittedly, we've never "seen" him before, but he has loomed rather large in her life.

What I really like about this is that they've really drawn out the whole Greek Mythology angle, with the 'final five' (in fact, the FIRST five) lusting after their children and grand-children, unaware that in this, there is only sterility.

I've always thought Kara was a hybrid, but I thought that perhaps Saul Tigh was her real father, and that he had no idea. Rewatching the first season, I see that it puts a whole new spin on their relationship.

Oh, and I couldn't be happier about how all this is resolving. They had me at "naked singularity".

I remember seeing this in the theater, and when it was over, I walked over to the 24 hour Target across the street, and started wandering the aisles just be with people for a while. I haven't had a movie affect me like that since I was a little kid. A lot of people hate this movie (except, of course, the end credits, which are brilliant), but if a movie can evoke a feeling like THAT...man, that's some potent stuff.

>> ^cyberscythe:
I'm pretty sure that this is safe for work.


19:25. It's not terrible, but it does fit the NSFW criteria. Also, some people are bugged by gratuitous use of the word, "Hell," which he uses a bit.

>> ^srd:
I'm really looking forward to the uninhibited use of microwave crowd controllers on peaceful demonstrations by some powerhungry idiot with the finger on the button.


Given that we have a sitting member of the SCOTUS saying that "Torture is not punishment," it is indeed only a matter of time.

People who decry a 'liberal media' miss one critical fact--while many members of the media seem to have liberal sensibilities, many have very large paychecks, and will report in whatever way that will guarantee that paycheck does not decrease. More often than not, it's to pump up the drama. They NEED this to be a horse race. 2004, with the eminently qualified but uncharismatic Kerry, was a non-starter for them. They indulged the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth just because it made Kerry a little more interesting, to the detriment of the truth itself. Whenever you're watching the news, and you hear the response to a question that should then elicit a, "What did you just say?" moment, know that whoever asked the question knows that clarification is not the friend of good drama.

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it - Upton Sinclair

>> ^syncron:
How could anyone keep a straight face while singing that??


Umm...because those aren't the actual lyrics?

From http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/b/b128.html :

Blessed city, heavenly Salem,
vision dear of peace and love,
who of living stones art builded
in the height of heaven above,
and, with angel hosts encircled,
as a bride dost earthward move;

from celestial realms descending,
bridal glory round thee shed,
meet for him whose love espoused thee,
to thy Lord shalt thou be led;
all thy streets and all thy bulwarks
of pure gold are fashioned.

>> ^dgandhi:
What is this from?


It's from The American Experience (1999). I can tell David Ogden Stiers's voice anywhere.

Yup, that's right. MG just said he would register as a democrat.


Well, the nice thing about the electoral system in most states is that you only have to declare a party during primary season, and can vote for whomever you please in the fall, so you can hide your secret shame and vote your conscience. I myself a longtime Democrat registered as a Republican (and my, has my junkmail gotten interesting since then) just so I could bump Ron Paul's profile up a smidge. I don't for a second believe in most of his libertarian ideas, but at long last we had a candidate who was forcing us to talk about REAL issues, based on silly little things like, oh, the Constitution.

As for the content of this video--sigh. As someone else said, the difference between racism in the North and South was that in the South, Blacks could live near whites, as long as they didn't get 'uppity', but in the North, Blacks could get uppity, as long as they lived nowhere near whites. What I'm seeing here is people reacting poorly to the unknown, people who believe that life is a zero sum game, that social justice for Blacks and Hispanics means less opportunities for whites. Someone needs to point out to them what Bill Hicks said so many years ago: Poor whites have much more in common with poor Blacks than they do rich whites, and rich whites do everything in their power to make sure neither side sees that. Before there was What's the Matter with Kansas, there was Bill Hicks, getting it right every time.

It's actually from Contamination (1980) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082000/

Here's a piece of the transcript that sets up the clip

From http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/us/politics/05text-rdebate.html:

MR. GIBSON: I'm going to move on to domestic policy, and I'm going to violate a promise that I made to all of your campaigns. I promised that we wouldn't do any questions on videotape -- questions from somebody outside this room -- but I'm going to violate it with a question from the president of the United States, who posed a question that I think is important about all of you -- posed a question at his last news conference about what he thought candidates ought to be as they ran. Take a look.

PRESIDENT BUSH: (From videotape.) You can't be the president unless you have a firm set of principles to guide you as you sort through all the problems the world faces. And I would be very hesitant to support somebody who relied upon opinion polls and focus groups to define a way forward for a president. It is -- and so my question to -- if I were asking questions to people running for office, I'd say: What are the principles that will stand on in good times and bad times? What would be the underpinning of -- of -- of your decisions?

MR. GIBSON: What are the principles, and are they constant? You all have been questioning -- as I've watched you campaign, you've all been questioning your opponents. And I'm going to ask Senator McCain, you and Governor Romney, because you two have been going at each other in interviews and in ads about this, of the constancy of your principles, or whether or not you look to opinion polls and focus groups to make up your minds.

[From here, McCain, Romney and then Giuliani dish forth the usual canned response to things like this, and it's all a set-up to the eventual smack down that Gibson delivers--they're ALL career politicians, they've ALL flip-flopped. It's all an attempt to see if one or more will either 1) admit to the flip-flop or 2) call Bush the Lesser a fool.]

Here's the story behind the story, including a transcript provided by the driver (http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/19/1961.asp). There's a link to another video where the driver is questioning certain legalities of sobriety checkpoints. In this video, when asked about the camera and security set-up, and whether or not he has a record, he mentions being assaulted by an off-duty cop, and the city of St. Louis paid him off not to sue them. So--clearly the cop abused his authority, and to get SO foul mouthed SO quickly is unconscionable. At the same time, the driver seems to have quite the chip on his shoulder, and might very well be driving about, looking for some rabid cop to annoy.

It also tracks with the weird phenomena seen during Clinton's impeachment where people disapproved of his behavior, but did not necessarily think he should be punished for it. It drove the Christian Right NUTS that the more he was attacked, the more popular he became. This is a symptom of the basic decency for which Americans are (or once were) so well known. I think it's helpful to point out the dangers people get themselves into when they don't think things through. I don't feel abortion should be illegal, but if the guy had asked me, I would have replied, "Mandatory counseling," designed to help them get through the grieving process which wouldn't happen in a world of illegal abortions.

Simply amazing. First, 200 degrees centigrade inside the shelter is SURVIVABLE?!? Whoa. Every time I saw that, I thought, "Someone's makin' a hot pocket." I'd like to know what they sheltered the video camera with, since the flames that generated the 1000 degrees were right there with the equipment that failed catastrophically.