Link-Off

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Wednesday Link-Off: Trump Card

nina-dobrev-interview15-02At what point does the laughing stop and the worrying begin? The world has had a laugh at a reality TV star running for President but his rhetoric has gone from generally false to quite possibly dangerous. At what point do people wonder if he can actually lead America and the world or if he’s just spouting policy rather than a plan?

Anyway, it’s time for us to do the links. Let’s get started with Nina Dobrev.

After Donald Trump announced his plans to ban Muslims from entering America, Arianna Huffington changed her publication’s stance on Trump coverage. Instead of treating him as a sideshow, the full might of the politics team would be devoted to unbiased coverage of the Republican frontrunner. The truth won’t set the GOP free, though. (Huffington Post)

For all the fear-mongering that Trump does when it comes to Muslims, he sure likes to do business with them. (Washington Post)

Also convenient omitted from stories following the San Bernardino shooting is that Saudi Arabia has once again managed to not be mentioned in the narrative about terrorism. (CBC News)

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Sunday Link-Off: The Song Remains the Same

jessica-alba-edit15-05bAnother week, another mass shooting in America. I remember seeing a statistic to the effect there being more than one mass shooting per week since President Obama took office in 2009. You can make statistics say a lot of thing but it’s scary that this one seems so believable. It’s even more frightening that nothing will be done to prevent another mass shooting from happening in future.

Anyway, let’s get this post started. Let’s kick things off with Jessica Alba.

America is big on fighting terrorism. Domestic terrorists, on the other hand, they’re willing to give them a pass. (New York Times)

It’s scary to think that the San Bernardino shooting has already made people forget about the Colorado Springs shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic. That shooting may not be down to terrorism but people incited by anti-PP rhetoric. (Washington Post)

For some reason, the press invaded the apartment of the two San Bernardino shooters. It wasn’t a pretty scene. It was just sensationalist bullshit for the sake of ratings. (Mashable)

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Entertainment Link-Off:

Bella-Thorne-Glamour-MexicoIn the Heart of the Sea is out in Australia after a very long delay but based on the mixed reviews, perhaps all that extra time didn’t benefit the final product after all. Anyway it’s the first weekend of December so Christmas is near! Oh better yet, the next installment of Star Wars is nearer! Let’s kick off the ELO with Bella Thorne’s latest photoshoot with Glamour and then we’ll proceed with the links.

After the jump, minor spoiler for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Adam McKay wanted to kill off Zoolander, the worst kept secret villain shows up in Batman v Superman, get ready for Alien vs. Predator in Mortal Kombat X, The Avengers reimagined as a rom-com and an epic drum battle between David Grohl and Animal. Continue reading →

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Wednesday Link-Off: Going Right

natalie-dormer-womenshealth15-01“Fair and balanced” is a buzz phrase that is really an excuse to skew hard to one side of the political spectrum to counter-act a message they perceive as supporting the opposite end of the spectrum. Both the left and right are guilty of it but it seems to be more often the right because they’re the ones shouting loudest about needing to present their perspective as balance. Both the left and right are engaged in a self-aggrandizing circlejerk in the name of some sort of superiority complex. I don’t know what that has to do with the links or the title of this post but this needs to be said.

Anyway, let’s just get to the links and move on with our lives. Let’s kick off with Natalie Dormer.

Despite allegations that the Planned Parenthood shooter was a transgender liberal, the man’s ex-wife says that the shooter is conservative, religious and anti-abortion. (Raw Story)

Remember when people liked Chris Christie? That was before he realized that having good relations with the White House was actually detrimental to his own White House aspirations. His Syrian refugee plans are just more evidence of how far to the right he’s going to win the nomination. (Esquire)

And while everyone on the right is willing to ban Syrian refugees, statistically, you’re seven times more likely to be killed by a gun nut than a terrorist. (Think Progress)

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Sunday Link-Off: The Stories They Don’t Want You to Know

brooke-lawson-playboy15-13bOops! I was busy working on some writing for the week and completely missed that there was supposed to be a set of links that went up this morning. I did my annual Video Game Awards / VGX / The Game Awards write-up that will be posted this Thursday. I’m also working on the Doctor Who review for this week. There will also be a gaming column up either tomorrow or Tuesday.

For now, we have some links to do. Since I’ve been doing a lot of games writing, let’s kick off with Brooke Lawson who the internet might better know under the stage name Dodger.

The terrorists in the Paris attacks didn’t use any super-secret encryption or other under the radar means to plan the attack. They did it right under everyone’s noses. (Wall Street Journal)

It’s already time to start year-end awards. MacLean’s names Justin Trudeau their newsmaker of the year. (MacLean’s)

What do you really know about the John Furlong case? I’m guessing very little that is factually accurate. You see, the abuse allegations against John Furlong were never proved false in a court of law. In fact, the only legal proceeding regard Furlong that went before the courts has proven that people are allowed to make statements that are not necessarily accurate when defending oneself from a serious attack. So here are the sworn affidavits alleging abuse at the hands of John Furlong. (Canadaland)

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Entertainment Link-Off: The Awakening

Maite-Perroni-SohoIt’s Saturday night and if you got nothing better to do (like me), then just read along for this week’s fix of the Entertainment Link-Off. Actually on second thought, I’ll just head out to see Creed this weekend. Reviews are flowing in and they’re looking very good. Not too sure who to start the ELO with this week but then I came across Maite Perroni’s latest photoshoot that was Star Wars themed. I still remember the good ol’ days when she was with the pop band RBD.

After the jump, watch out for Friday Night Lights the musical, Neil Blomkamp’s Alien sequel could have been awesome, Ridley Scott just wants to pump out more Prometheus films, a possible undead character from Game of Thrones, a few new trailers to check out including Captain America: Civil War and listen to Pentatonix channel their inner Star Wars.  Continue reading →

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Wednesday Link-Off: Truthiness

giada-de-laurentiis-campari15-02Is the truth really a matter of perspective? I know there are two sides to every story and the truth often lies somewhere in the middle. It almost seems like politicians are rewarded more as they stray farther from the truth. It’s not any one side, either. It’s as if the farther you get from the political centre on either end of the spectrum, the farther you get from the truth.

We’ll have more on that in a minute as we do the Wednesday set of links. Let’s kick things off today with Giada de Laurentiis.

The PolitiFact Truth-O-Meter goes from True to Pants On Fire. The Donald’s claim that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheered when the World Trade Center buildings came down could break the scale. (PolitiFact)

On that note, Bernie Sanders wants his shot at Trump to challenge his “facts.” The trick with people who have no facts is that they’ll force people to spend so long debunking made up stuff that they’ll never have the time to make their own points. (The Hill)

It’s all because Trump is trying to appeal to the GOP base to win a primary. Will this help him win an election? Most of the world hopes not. (The Guardian)

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Sunday Link-Off: Politics as Usual

kate-upton-harpersbazaar15-01I keep saying that the hardest part of doing these linkdumps isn’t finding the links but coming up with the intros to the links. I’ve been busy this weekend and haven’t had much of a chance for writing. The next week on the blog could get annoyingly dull as a result.

Anyway, it’s Sunday which means that we have to do the links. Let’s kick off with Kate Upton.

Did a Conservative MP call a fellow politician an “NDP whore?” The whole of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald newsroom thought so but the story never ran. (Canadaland)

President Obama isn’t a fan of being too politically correct as it can be used to shut down whole conversations that could otherwise be held. (Daily Intelligencer)

Two men were asked not to board a flight because another passenger was afraid to fly with them because they spoke Arabic. They talk about terrorist winning by instilling fear in people. Well, here’s a perfect example. (NBC)

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Entertainment Link-Off: Pick Your Poison

krysten-ritter-jessica-jones-premiereThe final chapter of The Hunger Games is in cinemas this weekend in Australia! However, if you’re not in a rush to see it in cinemas, you can always camp at home because Marvel’s Jessica Jones has premiered on Netflix. It probably helps that this series stars Krysten Ritter and it’s also getting rave reviews!

After the jump, Peter Jackson reveals why The Hobbit failed, a big reason to go see the Baywatch reboot, a minor character spoiler for Game of Thrones season 6, Zoolander is back, and let’s contemplate on whether not watching Star Wars is a relationship dealbreaker. Continue reading →

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Wednesday Link-Off: The World This Week

angelina-jolie-vogue15-01We didn’t have too much on the Paris attacks on Sunday but there has been a lot of new articles and analysis about the attacks since then. There is a lot of interesting insight into the politics of a terrorist attack in today’s links.

So I think it’s time to conclude the introduction and commence the Wednesday links. Let’s kick off with Angelina Jolie.

Naturally, intelligence agencies are using the Paris disaster to try to get more powers. They’re ignoring that story that just came out that said that the pre-9/11 CIA didn’t need massive privacy invasions to find out that it was going to happen. (The Guardian)

A French Redditor tells the tale of how he was so desperate to escape the Bataclan that he crawled over bodies to get away. (Upvoted)

To America, France has always seemed something like a political pawn. After years of bashing the French, the political right is now embracing them as friends for political gain. (IBT)

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