- Riot
Watch! Riot Watch! England’s rage is real and despite the regal manner in which
the Brits like to carry themselves, they find themselves in a position not so
different than the one in which Greeks find themselves as the hands of those
authoritarian ass hats at the European Union. Greece has agreed to myriad cuts,
changes and austerity measures handed down by the EU in exchange for keeping
their fiscally insolvent state above water and now that the British government
is applying the same sorts of measures to England, let’s just say the English
aren't drinking it down the way they do their beloved warm beer. Instead,
thousands of angry Englishmen took the chance to gather in an angry mob outside of the Bank of England for a march to protest
against British government austerity programs and spending cuts. Sadly, the
march from the financial district to Parliament Square was disappointingly
peaceful even though the protestors claimed to be irate about public sector
cuts meant to address government deficits, which ballooned after Britain
rescued troubled banks during the 2008 financial crisis. If they were really
angry then sh*t would have gotten burned, overturned, looted and hurled, so
these protest poseurs’ argument that the public is being punished for a crisis
it did not cause doesn’t hold much weight. Place blame for that on Sam
Fairbairn of the People's Assembly, which organized the event and said the
march will be the start of a nationwide campaign of protest, strikes and civil
disobedience. Sorry Sam, but none of that sounds like it’s going to make much
of a difference……….
- Much
to the surprise of no one, the latest World
Anti-Doping Agency report on who is and isn't jamming illegal substances into
their veins or down their throats in the pursuit of athletic excellence on a global
stage. The WADA report shows expected clubhouse leaders Russia and Turkey
producing the most doping violations, with equally expected individual sport
leaders weightlifting and track and field heading the list of those with the
highest number of cases. It also revealed that a whopping 1,953 sanctions were
handed out for doping violations committed in 2013 and to the credit of the
world’s many athletics-loving nations, those sanctions and the cases from which
they were spawned involved athletes and
support personnel in 115 countries and in 89 sports. In other words,
dishonesty, scumbaggery and deceit know no language barriers or ethnic
constraints. Everyone cheats and everyone can translate the phrase, “If you’re
not cheating, you’re not trying and it’s only cheating if you get caught,” into
their own language. Still two nations managed to separate themselves from the
pack and try to gain an unfair, illegal edge more than any other. Russia led
all countries with 225 violations, followed by Turkey with 188. WADA president
Craig Reedie stated the blatantly obvious when he said that "with close to
2,000 sanctions in one year and almost every sport represented, it's evident
that doping still represents a huge threat to modern day sports." Way to
shock the world, C-Note. As for which sports were the dirtiest, athletics
produced 280 violations and weightlifting had 252………
- What
the hell, Uber? You may think your supposedly revolutionary transportation
service in which ordinary schlubs with a car and some spare time shire
strangers around town is awesome and will revolutionize the driving business,
but it won't if you keep pulling sh*t like this. Yes, the ride-hailing app is
banning its riders and drivers from carrying guns. Uber announced late last
week that it is banning firearms of any kind during rides arranged through the
Uber platform and may ban drivers or riders who violate the rule from accessing
the platform. Of course, there is no damn way Uber can actually enforce this
given the independent contractor nature of its system, short of providing drivers
with portable body scanners and patting down every driver before they head out
on the road, but merely announcing this change - effective July 10 - should do
a decent amount to make both drivers and passengers feel safer. Uber said in a
statement that it made the change after reviewing feedback from both passengers
and drivers. The San Francisco-based company allows users to summon cars
through an app in more than 250 cities worldwide and is valued at around $40
billion. In the past, Uber deferred to local law on the issue, but in the face
of various legal and regulatory challenges as it expands in the United States
and abroad for many issues, including the thoroughness of the background checks
it does on drivers and other safety issues, it has decided that change is
needed. Oh, and there was that incident in April in which an Uber driver with a
concealed-carry permit shot a man who had opened fire on a group of pedestrians
in Chicago. According to court records, the man was shooting at pedestrians who
were walking in front of the Uber driver's vehicle, and the driver shot the
gunman. Although the driver wasn’t charged and prosecutors said he acted in
defense of himself and others, Uber has decided to play it safe and sideline
sidearms……….
- The
gang is getting back together and it’s a beautiful thing. We already know that
after an abortion of a bogus “Bourne” movie three years ago in which the name
of the titular character is the only actual link to said character in the
entire subpar movie, Bourne himself will be riding back to the franchise’s
rescue as Matt Damon takes his rightful place at the head of the film and
elbows Jeremy Renner aside. Damon is returning because his chosen director for
the film, Paul Greengrass, is back and as it turns out, so is another key piece
of the first three (legitimate) films in the series. Julia Stiles has signed on
to appear in the fourth installment of the Bourne franchise, reprising her role
as intelligence agent Nicky Parsons. Like Damon and Greengrass and other key
members of the family, Stiles mercifully had nothing to do with the cinematic
stink bomb that was “The Bourne Legacy” and now she can step back in and be a
part of making the franchise awesome once more. This could change the recent
rumors linking former “Machina” actress Alicia Vikander to the female lead in the fifth “Bourne” film, but it’s not like that
would be devastating news to anyone because Vikander has no history with the
franchise and you can't miss something that never existed. There is no official
title for the fifth film, but it will mark Damon’s first turn as Jason Bourne
in a decade and for the first of their soon-to-be-four turns together in it, Damon
and Greengrass will write the screenplay themselves, alongside Christopher
Rouse, who served as editor on the second and third Bourne films. Details
about the plot are being tightly guarded, but merely comparing it to “Legacy”
will undoubtedly make it shine by sheer comparison………
No comments:
Post a Comment