| SPORTS-N-REC: Nease shuts out Lake City 28-0 in regional semifinal ...
Beaches-area athletes showed no rust from the Thanksgiving layoff, feasting on competition throughout the state. Here are this week's top performers and events: n Friday night lights: The Nease High School football team blanked Lake City Columbia 21-0 at home Nov. 23 in the Class 4A regional semifinals, marking the second time this season the Panthers have shut out their district rivals. Last month, Nease was a 28-0 winner in Lake City to claim the District 5-4A title. Despite a more physical game and new offensive formations from the Tigers, the Nease defense held Lake City running back Tiger Powell to just 63 yards. Even though Nease senior quarterback Ted Stachitas was blitzed early and often in the game, he rushed for 69 yards, including 3- and 30-yard touchdown runs. Senior Graham Bates added a 28-yard run in the fourth quarter for the Panthers.
Comments on ‘Hollywood writers abandon Hollywood for web’
The WGA, UAW and all the other unions are a joke. It always amazes me that the 'land of the free' is so beholden to the concept of the unions and union workers, given what a 'socialist' concept it is and how they always hated the ideas of communism & socialism so much. Not that the unions are particularly socialist, more like big corporations themselves. I still can't really understand how the unions are allowed to survive, in particular the concept that if you're not a member you shouldn't be able to do particular jobs, or that you aren't such a good worker just because you don't pay union dues. Though at the current rate they'll self-destruct; it's not so tempting being in the union when it results in being unemployed. .
Moderator says anti-English bigotry is 'like sectarianism'
In perhaps the most controversial passage of her address, the Moderator urged people to think twice before making racially tinged remarks during sporting events."There is a thin line between banter and something which is more sinister," she said. "In Scotland, we have got used to football as a context for perpetrating sectarianism so I don't think we can pass off lightly anti-English remarks which are made during matches. It is too easy to dismiss this as healthy rivalry. It is not. "Caricatures that seek to diminish others that are barbed with prejudice and misinformation are not part of a healthy society. It is nobody's business to be disrespecting one another simply because they are English or Catholic, or whatever."The Kirk leader made her comments after taking part in the Moderator's annual visit to London.
SyFy 101: Sometimes Dead Is Necessary
However, the creative forces behind modern entertainment have trivialized the concept of death to the point of making it ridiculous. Genre shows are overusing the concept of temporary death ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Supernatural" and "Heroes" come to mind), and it is becoming a tired cliche used to bring in viewers during sweeps week. For death to be meaningful, it needs to be permanent. When introduced properly, cheating death can be a central, orienting element. The Cylons in "Battlestar Galactica" are defined by their ability to respawn. In "Torchwood," it is known from the beginning that Capt. Jack Harkness is unable to die. In "Heroes," Claire Bennet's super power is her inability to stay injured or dead, and it is a defining element of her character. These characters generally are exceptions to the rule, but increasingly, the rules are being broken, and the results are disappointing.
February 2008
McCain now leads Obama 46% to 43% and Clinton 48% to 43%. Obama is viewed favorably by 51% and unfavorably by 46%. McCain’s numbers are 55% favorable, 42% unfavorable. Clinton earns positive reviews from 47% of Likely Voters nationwide and negative assessments from 52%.McCain is trusted more by 55% of voters when it comes to National Security issues. Obama is trusted more by just 30% on this point. Just half (51%) of Democrats express more trust in Obama than McCain on national security. Unaffiliated voters prefer McCain by a two-to-one margin.On Iraq, McCain has a much smaller advantage—49% trust McCain while 39% prefer Obama.When it comes to the economy, 45% prefer McCain while 39% trust Obama more. The general election is a long time away, but there's something going on here.
Salmond’s bold new era of progressive nationalism
The new Labour leader, Wendy Alexander, has failed to offer any intellectual challenge to Alex Salmond's populist nationalism, and the party organisation is disintegrating. Labour have feigned opposition to SNP initiatives on issues such as bridge tolls, prescription charges, graduate endowment, and then ended up supporting them. In fact, it is hard to find much that the nationalists have done in the past nine months that Labour really oppose as a matter of principle. They even support Donald Trump's blessed golf course. The truth is that the SNP were doing a lot of things that Labour MSPs would have liked to do, but couldn't because of the London connection. Despite being only one seat behind the SNP, Labour have yet to mount any coherent opposition in Holyrood, and have ceded the initiative on many key issues - such as police numbers, trams, class sizes - to the Tories and the Liberal Democrats.
The End Of The Wag: Wave Goodbye To Coleen And Gemma
“WAVE GOODBYE TO WAGS," commands the Star. You'd best stand on a stool or bed and lean out of a window because the Wags are overseas. Goodbye, Coleen McLoughlin, says the Mail, waving so hard that Wayne Rooney's whale-voiced lover turns her head to the side and looks out across the Caribbean seas. Coleen is in Barbados. It's front-page news in the Express. This is Coleen's “new look". It's much like her old one, albeit in a leopard-print and not accessorised by a freckled man with sunburn. Goodbye, Gemma Atkinson, who is said to be dating a footballer called Mr Bent. She's in a bikini. Wags are so out of fashion, notes the Star, that now only “one in 100 dream of being like sexy Gemma Atkinson… and teaming up with footie stars".
Britons Strike Back at Bank Fees
On Jan. 14, a long-awaited hearing begins in Britain to determine the legality of bank overdraft charges. The test case pits Britain's main consumer watchdog against eight big British banks in a battle that will have major ramifications for retail banks and their customers. The court's ruling, says HSBC Holdings (HBC) Chairman Stephen Green, could "change the economics of retail banking" in Britain. British banks, like their U.S. counterparts, love to charge their depositors overdraft fees—those levies a bank collects for honoring a check when there's not enough dough in the account to cover it. British overdraft charges average some $57, much higher than the U.S. average of $34. Last year, banks in Britain generated an estimated $7 billion from overdraft and excess-borrowing charges, according to the Office of Fair Trading, the government's competition watchdog.
Ol' Shell Head gets a full-sized trailer
Something feels different about this Oscar season. The Best Picture nominees are all really good and unique. You have the traditional Oscar film in Atonement; a first-class entertainment like Michael Clayton; two arty masterworks that couldn't be any more different in the form of There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men; and a crowd-pleasing teenage comedy called Juno. With the exception of Atonement, not one of these films - on paper - screamed "Oscar". This was a great year for movies and the Academy did the right thing by nominating quality over genre or expectations. Tonight, they honor the winners. Meanwhile, we here at Rope of Silicon will do our damnedest to make fun of everybody instead. The show begins... ... And by show I mean the Red Carpet! Yes, it's the only part of the show where anything really can happen in totally meaningless interviews.
Election Madness
He has worked all kinds of shifts, night and day, to barely keep his family going. His letters to me have always been angry, railing against our capitalist system for its failure to assure "life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness" for working people. Just today, a letter came. To my relief it was not handwritten because he is now using e-mail: "Well, I'm writing to you today because there is a wretched situation in this country that I cannot abide and must say something about. I am so enraged about this mortgage crisis. That the majority of Americans must live their lives in perpetual debt, and so many are sinking beneath the load, has me so steamed. Damn, that makes me so mad, I can't tell you. . . . I did a security guard job today that involved watching over a house that had been foreclosed on and was up for auction.
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