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Wednesday Link-Off: America, F*ck Yeah

miranda-kerr-cannes15-02A little late but probably better for it, it’s time for the Wednesday links. Today, we’ve got a bit of a ‘Murica themed edition of the links. It includes such timeless links as how many Americans are married to their cousins and… Yes, that is an actual statistical analysis someone did. And, yes, it was an American site that did it.

Anyway, let’s get to the links. We’ve got a lot of pictures from the Cannes Film Festival and let’s start with Miranda Kerr.

How to do the Republican Presidential candidates want to assure you they aren’t all gung-ho about war? They’re now blaming faulty intelligence for the Iraq War. Faulty intelligence that most people saw through. (Mother Jones)

The question everyone wants the answer to: Just how many Americans are married to their cousins? (FiveThirtyEight)

Could Stephen Harper be considered one of the worst Prime Ministers of all-time? Of recent memory, yes. In 50 years, he could go down as one of the most forgettable. (National Observer)

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Sunday Link-Off: Bodyslam

charlie-xcx-maxim15-06I hope that you’ve been paying attention to the calendar because the deadline for filing taxes in Canada is on Thursday. I still have to file mine. They’re done. I just have to actually file them. Hopefully you’re not leaving the actual preparation of your taxes to the last second. That’s the hard part of doing your taxes.

Anyway, it’s Sunday which means that it’s time for the links. To keep you on your toes, let’s kick things off with Charlie XCX. I don’t know who she is but she looks like what an acquaintance of mine would look like as a brunette.

Is/was the Harper government closely tied with oil giants? Redacted entries from Mike Duffy’s diary seem to indicate such. (National Observer)

The Republican Party’s Presidential nomination race might be a battle for the future identity of the party. There’s a massive difference between the ideals of the GOP establishment and the GOP’s youth. (Rolling Stone)

Ben Affleck has courted controversy by trying to cover up that one of his ancestors owned slaves. That almost begs the question of who wouldn’t. (Boston Globe)

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Sunday Link-Off: Wonderful Easter Time

camille-rowe-expressswim15-05So the prank I mentioned in the last linkdump was a glitter bomb I had mailed to a coworker. The office admin forgot that I tipped her off and told the victim that the envelope was suspicious. So he didn’t fall for it, cut a slit in the side of the envelope and left it on my desk. I fully intended to get him back but allegedly accidentally dumped it on someone else for his participation in a prank some 16 months ago. It’s the slowest of slow burns.

Anyway, it’s Sunday which means that it’s time for me to watch some Formula E. I guess we can do some links too. Here’s Camille Rowe.

Former Prime Minister Paul Martin has taken a look at the Canadian economy and the Harper government’s budget plans and only sees disaster in the near future. (CBC News)

Nuclear talks between Iran and the west has resulted in a tentative agreement that is being lauded as a breakthrough. Naturally, the Republicans aren’t happy with it. The question may now become whether they can be trusted with keeping the world’s peace or if they are just going to oppose anything the Democrats would do with no regards for the consequences. (The Guardian)

Happy Easter, Christians. Your religion is being used as a cover for homophobia. (Think Progress)

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WrestleMania Fails of the Last 30 Years

I know that we usually do fails of the week on Mondays or Tuesdays but I thought we could do something WrestleMania themed today given that the biggest wrestling show of the year that isn’t NJPW’s annual Wrestle Kingdom was on Sunday. I probably should have done this last week but better late than never.

So from the archives of Maffew’s Botchamania, it’s the biggest botches in WrestleMania history.

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Eight Videos to Get You Hyped (or Worried) About WrestleMania 31

For better or worse, that time of year is upon us. The WWE’s annual “sports entertainment” spectacular, WrestleMania, is upon us for the 31st time. This year’s edition got a last-minute boost of intrigue with the late re-signing of Brock Lesnar so for the first time in about 9 months, the outcome of the main event is up in the air.

So to get you ready for the five-hour show (that includes two pre-match shows expected to start at 3:00 PM PDT), I found some of the best “hype” videos to get you ready for The Granddaddy of Them All, The Showcase of the Immortals, WrestleMania Play Button.

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Wednesday Link-Off: The Wroad to WrestleMania.

natalie-dormer-self15-02I’m pretty sure that I warned you guys on Sunday that there were wrestling links coming. Wrestling Christmas comes but once a year. But since I didn’t watch New Japan until WrestleKingdom 9 in January, I guess we have to settle for being excited about WrestleMania 31. But there are plenty of links to read that are about more than just Vince McMahon’s ego.

Anyway, it’s Wednesday which means that it’s time for us to do the links. Let’s kick things off with Natalie Dormer. Good time to reminds you that Game of Thrones is back next month. I’m looking forward to it.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that the new national security bill should be fast tracked because everyone supported it. He might want to pump his brakes because the reality is the exact opposite. (Metro)

Talk about irony. The Republicans might get embroiled in their own birther controversy over prospective Presidential nominee Ted Cruz. (Washington Post)

Loblaw’s has a new plan to cut down on waste. They’re taking less aesthetically pleasing produce and selling it for a discount rather than tossing it in the garbage. (Think Progress)

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Sunday Link-Off: 14 Seconds of Links

Okay, this isn’t a 14-second post but who knows? Maybe you’ll just skip to the end where we have the whole damn Ronda Rousey / Cat Zingano fight to watch in a GIF. I missed the fight and was worrying about catching a video this morning but I didn’t expect it to be that easy to watch the fight. Joe Rogan’s first post-fight question to Cat was longer than the damn fight.

Anyway, it’s time for the links. It’s only appropriate to start this post with Ronda Rousey.

Until this week, you may not have known that Prince Edward Island was looking into launching online gambling. Then the plan went so wrong that Robyn Doolittle is doing a report on it. (The Globe and Mail)

Bill O’Reilly has gotten off comparatively lightly for lying when compared to others. Maybe that’s because it seems to be a force of habit. (Daily Dot)

Prime Minister Harper said that a Muslim woman should have been forced to remove her niqab when taking the Canadian citizenship oath. Not everyone is happy with that remark. (CBC News)

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WWE Fastlane 2015 Review

wwe-fastlane-2015-banner
Just five weeks from WrestleMania 31, the actual 30th anniversary of WrestleMania, the WWE was still working on setting the stage for their big annual show. They were scrambling to make up for the underwhelming and nearly riot inducing Royal Rumble by putting Roman Reigns’ hated WrestleMania title shot up for grabs in a match against Daniel Bryan. They pretended the US Title mattered by having John Cena challenge for it. And… Nothing much else worth hyping. But the Uppercats were on the card. They’re cool.

But the first WWE Fastlane pay-per-view was something closer to a go-home show for WrestleMania 31. Getting on the fast lane to WrestleMania seems to have meant fast tracking the creative for WrestleMania too.

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Sunday Link-Off: It’s the Law

candice-swanepoel-maxim15-03I kind of wanted to title today’s linkdump with a bit of a Judge Dredd reference but this title fit best. I’ve finally caught up on my back issues of Judge Dredd. Now it’s to catch up on Justice League and Superman. I don’t even have that big a file at my local comic book shop and I’m always behind. Some people order in like five times the number of comics I do. How can they pull that off?

Anyway, it’s Sunday which means that it’s time for the links. Something like nine months after being named Maxim’s hottest woman of 2014, we finally have Candice Swanepoel’s Hot 100 shoot. It’s too bad that there’s only one photo that’s remotely SFW.

When the chief economist for America’s biggest conservative think tank can’t come up with an actual fact to back up his claims that the Affordable Care Act has been a failure, isn’t it time to give up that fight? Then again, lying to electorate seems to work so why the hell not. (Daily Intelligencer)

A former CSIS officer says that the Harper government’s new anti-terror bill will completely backfire. (National Post)

Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein went from petty criminal to shooter in a short period of time. What happened to him to cause that change? (Time)

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NXT Takeover: Rival Review

nxt-takeover-rival-logoWhile the first stop on the Road to WrestleMania 31 was a disappointment, the WWE’s developmental territory was here to save the day last week. The last time NXT had a live special, it completely overshadowed the main roster pay-per-view that followed only a few days later.

NXT Takeover: Rival was the fifth NXT live special and it had massive expectations to live up to after the critical success that was R-Evolution. Fortunately, NXT doesn’t have to live up to this weekend’s WWE Fast Lane pay-per-view because it’s likely to be terrible. But could NXT live up to its own standards?

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