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MaddDog

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  • Birthday 12/06/1969

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  1. it's been too long. You were right about everything and I just never knew till now.

  2. Rockies, I think if these journalists had the vast exposure to A$$holik that we've had, he'd have been seriously considered for the list. Same with ole' "Cornelius" Odelein. Then again, I used to know a girl whose sister found Lyle hot so there's no accounting for taste.
  3. Well, I wasn't that upset over the boots last night although Ayla should have stayed over the likes of Paristasia and Pickler. I can't stand either of those overrated, overpimped girls at this rate! Their vocals have NOT impressed me and their personalities are bothering me. I read on some board that Hee Haw Hickler was all over Chris last night at the end of the show?? If true, guess she forgot he's MARRIED? Maybe Slime-on called her "little minx" for good reason! Gedeon did deserve to stay over Bucky or Kevin based on this week's performance, but let's face it, the kid was a bit creepy. Between his smile, preacher type speech, and that freaking acid-induced painting, I think it was a bit much for some fans. I personally would have rather kept Will over Chicken Little though. Kev MUST be getting the 80 year old vote like Simon said since the teenies vote for Ace, I imagine. I'm just relieved the Amish Leprechaun Elliott stayed for now. Yeah, he's really hard on the eyes but he can SING! And of course my man Chris made it, yay!!! Another highlight - the unpimped one Melissa stays another week, much to Simon's dismay. She really is actually somewhat decent and she's gotten the total shaft on the show so far with the severe lack of airtime overall. I have a feeling even if she sang the best in the future he'd find a reason to downgrade her and get her kicked off just to save his Pimped Pets "Gary Coleman" (Paris) and Picklehead. What is up with the Stevie Wonder theme? Like we haven't heard enough of him over the five years of Idol? I guess they are praying Chris and Bucky have a trainwreck!! I think Chris actually might be able to pull it off if he picks the right song, but Buckster might be toast here.
  4. I've never heard Fantasia on mainstream stations, not once!! She must be only on the urban stations that play r and b, hip hop, and rap. I'm kinda glad for that though, cus' I can't stand listening to her screeching voice. Ruben is going to have a smaller niche too given his style of music - r and b and gospel??? Not everyone enjoys it. Plus he's so morbidly obese I just can't see this guy substaining his career for long - he's already had health scares. As for Carrie, I think those in charge knew that she'd mainly appeal to the country market but she's already sold over 2 million albums.... so she'll make them $$$$ even if she stays country, since country music has a big fanbase all over the country (yes, even in the Northeast to some degree!). Maybe she'll cross over into the country-pop realm in the future like Shania and Faith Hill did. The ironic thing about Kelly Clarkson being the most successful Idol EVER of ANY Idol competition in the world is that the dumbass producers never even wanted her to win!! They wanted Tamyra to be the victor! That just goes to show they don't know sh!t sometimes, as far as what the public wants. I really wish they'd ease up on the pimpage with certain contestants, even with those I like. Season 1 had a bit less of that manipulation and it all worked out - the fans DID vote for the BEST, without it being shoved down their throat every second! Of course, I had to endure the Tamyra Love Fest for a while before she went bye bye.... but it was still nothing compared to recent seasons. I think Ace is their man this year, and Chris if Ace falters. Both have appeal, just to different fanbases I guess (depends if you go for "boy-band-pop-r and b" or "alternative-rock"). Taylor or one of those teens like Will might be the back up back up plan. The reason I don't think they want ANY non-white dude winning is cus look at who they chose..... 1) Bobby Bennett 2) Gedeon - scary Joker type smile, not a horrid singer but nothing that makes you go "wow", huge ego and annoying personality. He'll be LUCKY to make the top 12. 3) Sway - uh, no. Sings like he's been castrated, and doesn't sing WELL as it is. Very bland r and b sound with crappy vocals. He might squeak into the Top 12 if Gedeon doesn't (if the show feels like they HAVE to have at least one non white dude in the Top 12.. the judges pimp his ass too much for my liking). I pray to god PARIS isn't in their plans to win if a few of the top guys doesn't pan out, cus I can't tolerate her!!!!! It's like Mantasia all over again. Yeah, I know she doesn't sing EXACTLY the same way but it's the whole package that's irritating the fvck out of me.
  5. Is he wearing socks there?? That's the first thing I thought, but maybe they are white shoes?? Jeez, they should change his nickname from Foppa to Drunka! Or is it Full-a in Svensk?? These hammered Forsberg photos are the best thing to come out of the Olympics!
  6. I thought the girls as a whole were pretty mediocre. But I do agree with RD that the judges slammed on some of them a bit too much, which kinda proves my point that they so want a WHITE MALE to win. Case in point, Ayla and Melissa. I believed they were among the best of the night (not GREAT by any means, but decent) and the judges critiqued them almost as much as some of the others who legitimately sucked! And they seemed to go easy on those like Lisa, Paristasia, and Kellie Picklehead when it came to their weak vocals. (Is it just me or did Paris seem to sing most of that song in too low a key? It sounded like sh!t!!!! I assumed she was doing this to hit the high notes, so she didn't sound like a helium chipmunk, but the rest of the song was horrid. I don't recall the judges saying ANYTHING about this!!!!) I reaaaaaaally hope the guys are better tonight.
  7. This is retrograde amnesia, when you forget past memories. But it sounds like she can still form new memories?? Or maybe not.. if the article said she forgot a book she read the week before???? That's anterograde amnesia. Wow, that is some profound amnesia, poor kid . How awful it must be to have your whole past wiped out like that. Hopefully some of the memories will return with time. It's actually more likely from blows to the head too, like Anna sustained, but alot of people suffer the brain trauma from car or motorcycle accidents (or repeated blows to the head like boxers get).
  8. Kozlov DOGS IT on the ice with the Devs more often than not, what's this "he doesn't get ice time" excuse? When he was on a good line, he didn't do jacksh!t for the most part. Our only hope is that he comes back to NJ with at least 25% of the motivation he had in the Olympics Man, who'd have thought BOTH Canada and USA wouldn't have a shot at ANY medal? I am upset that Slovakia is losing though . They were the underdog team I wanted to win gold (plus I'm 1/4 Slovak). Czechs kinda annoy me. Come to think of it, the Finns might be the team that'd be left that bothers me the least if my other choices are Czechs, Swedes, and Russkies. Go Suomi! At least Marty can't get burned at the stake for this loss. His team scored a whopping ZEROgoals for him. I guess it's only fitting that Cro Mag Bertuzzi took a dumbass penalty to seal their fate.
  9. Well, Kellie wasn't PUTRID, but she was alot worse than the judges made her out to be. If you're going to sing Martina McBride, you've got to come remotely close and she didn't! It just irritated me how the judges pretty much avoided slamming on her weak vocals and kept gushing how 'nice' she is. I honestly didnt really have much of an opinion on Pickler's voice up to this point so I think I'm being pretty objective when I say I thought she kinda sucked. As for Paristasia she annoys me for whatever reason. Mantasia used to do that bo-bo dance bullsh!t on stage with the over the top theatrics. I wasn't fond her performance either but then again her voice doesn't wow me either. Her singing voice just isn't pleasing to my ear, as it gets a bit Fantasia sounding once again on the high notes (helium and shrill). I don't like how she name drops her talking about her mother and grandmother every other sentence too, how they are great famous singers or whatever. It's as bad as Pickler's sob story about her Daddy in jail. Yeah, Mandisa WAS pretty good. I liked the fact that she sang some 80s rock instead of the usual generic pop or r n' b. I was actually expecting her to bust out with some Whitney crap so it was a pleasant surprise! I'm not sure what to think of Ace yet. He looks nice, but the voice I haven't heard enough to judge. God knows Paula found her new boy toy though!!!! (Interestingly, I heard Ace said Constantine is his favorite idol and he said he's most like Con... I don't think their vocals are very similar but maybe the appeal to the females??). Chris (aka Vin Diesel) ha a really good voice - it sounds like it blows away Bo's, at least what little I've heard so far! I hope he doesn't disappoint tonight.
  10. RD, Chris Daughtry is my favorite guy so far too. He doesn't sing like he's been castrated. I get sick of listening to those guys who sing like girls after a while. As for the girls... am I the ONLY one here who dislikes Paris?? She acts way too 'cutesy', like she thinks she's hot sh!t. Her voice, imo, isn't THAT strong and she relies more on her stage performance and dancing. I am getting Mantasia vibes from her and I COULD NOT stand Mantasia. I think Mandisa, Katharine, and Ayla were decent last night. I don't think Melissa had the best song-performance but I DO like her vocal tone, so I'd like her to stick around a bit longer (not to mention she got no air time before this, not really fair). Lisa wasn't that bad but she was a bit boring to me, plus she tended to sing the notes in the same tone. Too pageanty-star search for my liking.. oh, she WAS on Star Search once, huh?? Brenna, Stevie, Heather, Becky, Kinnik, and KELLIE pretty much sucked ass to varying degrees. I don't get the Pickler Love Fest from the judges. It's like, "you're a nice girl even if you were horrid"?? She's like an ultra crappy version of Carrie. Nice way to pimp and get her some fan votes. Look at how they ripped on people like Melissa and Ayla, yet I thought they were better than Kellie for sure. This show is so biased, manipulated, and rigged. Considering most of these females weren't that great, I think it's safe to say the show will heavily pimp a WHITE GUY this season and want him to win. Simon's worse nightmare, having to market that Harry Potter kid!! I haven't quite decided how much I like Kevin yet. He's sounded both good and semi-crappy in the earlier rounds. I think he's better than the Teen Sinatra wanna be David Radford, though. I had told myself last season I'd boycott voting for good but now I'm tempted to vote for Covais or Taylor Hicks to piss off Simon!!
  11. Don, from the sounds of it, they just recently passed a law banning sharia law in Ontario.... from nosharia.com web site. So I wasn't exactly pulling facts out of my arse before when I thought I had read that Canada had some kind of sharia law. Wednesday, February 15th, 2006 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Ontario passes new law family legal arbitrations must now use Canadian law TORONTO
  12. Swede, check out this article.... why should we Westerners be tolerant when it comes to intolerance, as the Jyllands Posten editor notes? His article discusses why he chose to publish the Muhammad cartoons. Why do you comment on the 'scary views' about Muslims but gloss over the violent atrocities certain Muslims commit, never mind their rabid anti Semitic and Western attitudes? So the West is the 'bad buy' once again and the Muslims are totally absolved of blame for their hideous behavior?? There IS a reason why many Westerners are developing less than positive attitudes about Islam, and a hint.... it's not ALL the Westerner's fault. Link Why I Published Those Cartoons By FLEMMING ROSE, culture editor of Jyllands-Posten Childish. Irresponsible. Hate speech. A provocation just for the sake of provocation. A PR stunt. Critics of 12 cartoons of the prophet Muhammad published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten have not minced their words. They say that freedom of expression does not imply an endorsement of insulting people's religious feelings, and besides, they add, the media censor themselves every day. So, please do not teach us a lesson about limitless freedom of speech. I agree that the freedom to publish things doesn't mean you publish everything. Jyllands-Posten would not publish pornographic images or graphic details of dead bodies; swear words rarely make it into our pages. So we are not fundamentalists in our support for freedom of expression. But the cartoon story is different. Those examples have to do with exercising restraint because of ethical standards and taste; call it editing. By contrast, I commissioned the cartoons in response to several incidents of self-censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam. And I still believe that this is a topic that we Europeans must confront, challenging moderate Muslims to speak out. The idea wasn't to provoke gratuitously -- and we certainly didn't intend to trigger violent demonstrations throughout the Muslim world. Our goal was simply to push back self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in tighter. At the end of September, a Danish standup comedian said in an interview with Jyllands-Posten that he had no problem urinating on the Bible in front of a camera, but he dared not do the same thing with the Koran. This was the culmination of a series of disturbing instances of self-censorship. Last September, a Danish children's writer had trouble finding an illustrator for a book about the life of Muhammad. Three people turned down the job for fear of consequences. The person who finally accepted insisted on anonymity, which in my book is a form of self-censorship. European translators of a critical book about Islam also did not want their names to appear on the book cover beside the name of the author, a Somalia-born Dutch politician who has herself been in hiding. Around the same time, the Tate gallery in London withdrew an installation by the avant-garde artist John Latham depicting the Koran, Bible and Talmud torn to pieces. The museum explained that it did not want to stir things up after the London bombings. (A few months earlier, to avoid offending Muslims, a museum in Goteborg, Sweden, had removed a painting with a sexual motif and a quotation from the Koran.) Finally, at the end of September, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen met with a group of imams, one of whom called on the prime minister to interfere with the press in order to get more positive coverage of Islam. So, over two weeks we witnessed a half-dozen cases of self-censorship, pitting freedom of speech against the fear of confronting issues about Islam. This was a legitimate news story to cover, and Jyllands-Posten decided to do it by adopting the well-known journalistic principle: Show it, don't tell it. I wrote to members of the association of Danish cartoonists asking them "to draw Muhammad as you see him." We certainly did not ask them to make fun of the prophet. Twelve out of 25 active members responded. We have a tradition of satire when dealing with the royal family and other public figures, and that was reflected in the cartoons. The cartoonists treated Islam the same way they treat Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions. And by treating Muslims in Denmark as equals they made a point: We are integrating you into the Danish tradition of satire because you are part of our society, not strangers. The cartoons are including, rather than excluding, Muslims. The cartoons do not in any way demonize or stereotype Muslims. In fact, they differ from one another both in the way they depict the prophet and in whom they target. One cartoon makes fun of Jyllands-Posten, portraying its cultural editors as a bunch of reactionary provocateurs. Another suggests that the children's writer who could not find an illustrator for his book went public just to get cheap publicity. A third puts the head of the anti-immigration Danish People's Party in a lineup, as if she is a suspected criminal. One cartoon -- depicting the prophet with a bomb in his turban -- has drawn the harshest criticism. Angry voices claim the cartoon is saying that the prophet is a terrorist or that every Muslim is a terrorist. I read it differently: Some individuals have taken the religion of Islam hostage by committing terrorist acts in the name of the prophet. They are the ones who have given the religion a bad name. The cartoon also plays into the fairy tale about Aladdin and the orange that fell into his turban and made his fortune. This suggests that the bomb comes from the outside world and is not an inherent characteristic of the prophet. On occasion, Jyllands-Posten has refused to print satirical cartoons of Jesus, but not because it applies a double standard. In fact, the same cartoonist who drew the image of Muhammed with a bomb in his turban drew a cartoon with Jesus on the cross having dollar notes in his eyes and another with the star of David attached to a bomb fuse. There were, however, no embassy burnings or death threats when we published those. Has Jyllands-Posten insulted and disrespected Islam? It certainly didn't intend to. But what does respect mean? When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy. This is exactly why Karl Popper, in his seminal work "The Open Society and Its Enemies," insisted that one should not be tolerant with the intolerant. Nowhere do so many religions coexist peacefully as in a democracy where freedom of expression is a fundamental right. In Saudi Arabia, you can get arrested for wearing a cross or having a Bible in your suitcase, while Muslims in secular Denmark can have their own mosques, cemeteries, schools, TV and radio stations. I acknowledge that some people have been offended by the publication of the cartoons, and Jyllands-Posten has apologized for that. But we cannot apologize for our right to publish material, even offensive material. You cannot edit a newspaper if you are paralyzed by worries about every possible insult. I am offended by things in the paper every day: transcripts of speeches by Osama bin Laden, photos from Abu Ghraib, people insisting that Israel should be erased from the face of the Earth, people saying the Holocaust never happened. But that does not mean that I would refrain from printing them as long as they fell within the limits of the law and of the newspaper's ethical code. That other editors would make different choices is the essence of pluralism. As a former correspondent in the Soviet Union, I am sensitive about calls for censorship on the grounds of insult. This is a popular trick of totalitarian movements: Label any critique or call for debate as an insult and punish the offenders. That is what happened to human rights activists and writers such as Andrei Sakharov, Vladimir Bukovsky, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Natan Sharansky, Boris Pasternak. The regime accused them of anti-Soviet propaganda, just as some Muslims are labeling 12 cartoons in a Danish newspaper anti-Islamic. The lesson from the Cold War is: If you give in to totalitarian impulses once, new demands follow. The West prevailed in the Cold War because we stood by our fundamental values and did not appease totalitarian tyrants. Since the Sept. 30 publication of the cartoons, we have had a constructive debate in Denmark and Europe about freedom of expression, freedom of religion and respect for immigrants and people's beliefs. Never before have so many Danish Muslims participated in a public dialogue -- in town hall meetings, letters to editors, opinion columns and debates on radio and TV. We have had no anti-Muslim riots, no Muslims fleeing the country and no Muslims committing violence. The radical imams who misinformed their counterparts in the Middle East about the situation for Muslims in Denmark have been marginalized. They no longer speak for the Muslim community in Denmark because moderate Muslims have had the courage to speak out against them. In January, Jyllands-Posten ran three full pages of interviews and photos of moderate Muslims saying no to being represented by the imams. They insist that their faith is compatible with a modern secular democracy. A network of moderate Muslims committed to the constitution has been established, and the anti-immigration People's Party called on its members to differentiate between radical and moderate Muslims, i.e. between Muslims propagating sharia law and Muslims accepting the rule of secular law. The Muslim face of Denmark has changed, and it is becoming clear that this is not a debate between "them" and "us," but between those committed to democracy in Denmark and those who are not. This is the sort of debate that Jyllands-Posten had hoped to generate when it chose to test the limits of self-censorship by calling on cartoonists to challenge a Muslim taboo. Did we achieve our purpose? Yes and no. Some of the spirited defenses of our freedom of expression have been inspiring. But tragic demonstrations throughout the Middle East and Asia were not what we anticipated much less desired. Moreover, the newspaper has received 104 registered threats, 10 people have been arrested, cartoonists have been forced into hiding because of threats against their lives and Jyllands-Posten's headquarters have been evacuated several times due to bomb threats. This is hardly a climate for easing self-censorship. Still, I think the cartoons now have a place in two separate narratives, one in Europe and one in the Middle East. In the words of the Somali-born Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the integration of Muslims into European societies has been sped up by 300 years due to the cartoons; perhaps we do not need to fight the battle for the Enlightenment all over again in Europe. The narrative in the Middle East is more complex, but that has very little to do with the cartoons. Flemming.rose@jp.dk Flemming Rose is the culture editor of Jyllands-Posten.
  13. Brylin, yes, in fact, I did talk to the History Professor and he reinforced what I already thought. That BOTH the Palestinians and Jews have a right to the land. In my opinion, it's too bad that many Palestinians are unwilling to compromise. It's also a shame that the Pal's wonderful Muslim neighbors refuse to take them in and instead blame Israel for that whole mess. Go check out the latest Hamas PR video, since you want to lecture me about how "little" I know. I have a feeling that I read ALOT more articles and books from different perspectives than you do, given your responses, so the fact that you're insinuating that I don't read is hysterical. I just read the "Death of Feminism" by Phyllis Chesler and I'm going to begin reading a book about how the West helped fund terrorist groups (something right up your alley eh? ).
  14. Right, I definitely "felt" Lysacek's program more from an emotional standpoint. The entire program was a joy to watch, and it really sucks that he doesn't get rewarded accordingly because he left out that one extra rotation on a jump or some sh!t. I really don't intend to watch this rubbish anymore if it's just 10000 jumps and nothing else content-wise, what a snooze. Did they change the rules for the females too?? I guess the chick that can leap in the air the most will win, even if she falls a few times.
  15. No problem, I've been saying this stuff for a while and I get flamed on the board. I'm just glad that I'm not entirely alone Having said that, I can't stand Bush at all.... But I agree with the rest of what you said. I didn't see Muslims protesting when the Palestinian terrorists took over and desecrated the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and that is considered one of the most holy Christian sites in the world. But somehow a Muhammad cartoon is a much more heinous offense!! Those who blame Bush for terrorism have tunnel vision. As you note, they've been wanting to kill us "infidel"s for decades; it's nothing new. Basically the Western world apologizes for everything and the Muslim world for almost nothing. The Muslim version of tolerance of late seems to be "What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine too". (e.g., Sharia law in the Middle East yet they are trying to force their laws and belief systems onto Western culture)
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