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The other day President Barack Obama was addressing the graduating class of West Point Army cadets and he came up with a great quote: “Just because we have the biggest hammer doesn’t mean every crisis is a nail.” Many Republicans always urge for U.S. intervention in world hotspots.

Invade Syria as John McCain lobbied for, go into Ukraine to help the Ukrainian democrats, hit China in retaliation for their cyber spying, nuke North Korea back into the stone age etc. (this one I sort of agree with, North Korean leadership is completely nuts).  As the Iraqi invasion debacle demonstrated, U.S. military intervention when there is no urgent threat can be disastrous. Thank Lady Luck there is a moderate and intelligent person in the White House. Not like George W. Bush.

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This crane crew showed up, set the crane into position, and went to work.  They lifted a blower cooler ventilation apparatus and some other backwash regurgitation flush device into position on the roof of the building in 1.5 hours. These guys were very fast and efficient.

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The Duchess playing hot rhythm guitar.

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Dangerous Minds

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Depictions of Russia in American propaganda had some wild vacillation before the Cold War. The first Red Scare followed the Russian Revolution, and anti-communist sentiment really found purchase around 1919. Leftists in the US (many of them immigrants) became a force to be reckoned with, and bitter labor conflicts (plus some radical terrorism) seemed to suggest a Bolshevik revolution was imminent in the Americas. There’s the period however, during World War II, before Truman decided to wave his nuclear dick at Stalin, when Russians were still our Nazi-fighting Allies, and 1944’s Merrie Melodies production “Russian Rhapsody” is a fascinating artifact of that ambivalence America had towards the Soviets.

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Of course, the cartoon doesn’t quite portray Russians as “dignified.” Rather than some cartoon-friendly version of Red Army soldiers fighting Nazis in the snow, they’re literal “gremlins”—tiny things that are only really capable of sabotaging a plane. (The title was originally “Gremlins from the Kremlin,” but Disney was developing an animated version of Roald Dahl’s The Gremlins at the time and Roy Disney pressured Warner Brothers to change the name.) Regardless, the gremlins are clearly the good guys, whipping out a mask of Stalin to frighten Der Führer.

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In addition to being a really beautiful (and profoundly weird) piece of animation, “Russian Rhapsody” has some great dog whistles. The cartoon starts out with Hitler delivering a speech that’s a direct reference to a scene from Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will. As an inside joke, some of the gibberish German Hitler spouts is actually the names of animators and studio staff. The gremlin faces are actually based on caricatures of Warner Brothers legends like Chuck Jones, Robert Clampett, Friz Freleng, and Leon Schlesinger. The berserk musical score was provided by the great cartoon composer Carl Stalling.

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Dog owners have been lobbying for more off-leash dog parks for years. And civic governments are opening more parks to the off-leash scenario where the hounds can abound and sniff other dogs rear ends at will.  Dogs need to run and frolic without the constraints of that choking leash.  And dogs love to congregate in packs. They like to chase each other and occasionally try a quick hump. But what about cats?

Cats are incorrectly perceived as lazy and aloof.  When in fact cats can run really fast and are underrated social critters.  The cat likes to mingle with other cats.  They like to check out the grooming techniques used by other felines and maybe have the odd boxing match.  Maybe even a good old rough and tumble cat fight. So why not have a little green space that can be used as a free roaming cat park? 

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Unknown to most people is that cats can really burn rubber.

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Cats usually don’t venture too far away in a new setting.  But if they get spooked they can disappear in an blink.  Cats are also awesome jumpers. So the park would have to have a very secure fence surrounding the perimeter. Cats can wiggle through the tightest holes.  If they escape the park they could wander for weeks, defecating in flower beds and hunting birds.

This type of fence should work.

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Some little cat houses would make the park more attractive for the cute little fur balls.

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Born free, as free as the wind blows
As free as the grass grows
Born free to follow your heart

Live free, and beauty surrounds you
The world still astounds you
Each time you look at a star

*Stay free, where no walls divide you
You’re free as a roaring tide
So there’s no need to hide

Born free, and life is worth living
But only worth living
Cause you’re born free

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May 17, 2014

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May 27, 2014

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Summer arrived so fast this year that certain people forgot to take off their winter clothing.

May 29, 2014. +33 Celsius

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It is sad, mentally challenged individual with parka and tuque in this heat.

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You never get anything right, complained the teacher. What kind of job do you think you ll get when you leave school ? Well, I want to be the weather girl on TV.

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Does anybody really need a house this big?  Two guardhouses! Okay, if you got millions of dollars I guess you have to spend it.

CTV

It looks like a new hotel along a highway but this can’t-miss construction project turning heads just west of Calgary is a huge single-family home.

It’s been under construction for months on Highway 22, just north of the Highway 8 roundabout, and it’s so large that neighbours and people on social media can’t stop talking about it.

According to property records obtained by CTV Calgary, the two-storey home, set on 80 acres, will be 11,000-square-feet when it is complete.

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It will also have a nine-car garage, seven fireplaces and two guardhouses that are formidably sized on their own.

The home is being built by Jager Homes and documents list its value at $3,159,594. The cost of permits alone is more than $10,000.

People living in the area and passersby have reacted negatively to the lavish home.

Rhonda Phillips wrote to the Cochrane Eagle, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more grotesque and narcissistic tribute to the owner’s ego in my life. Not to mention that it couldn’t be more out of place unless it was built in the middle of some of the slum areas of a third world country.”

Others on chatboards and social media have marveled at its size.  A post on the Calgarypuck forum, “Flabbibulin” says it’s, “the biggest bloody house I have ever seen!,” while “OzyFlame” dubbed it, “overly hedonistic,” and “jaydorn” asks, “That’s a house?! Drove by there last month and just thought it was a weird place for a hotel/condos. But a single family home?”

While the wooden structure of the building is up, and solar panels are visible on the roof, it appears finishing work is still far from over.

Neighbours tell CTV News that an iron fence has surrounded the property for about two years. Building permits were applied for in July, 2013.

There’s no word on a completion date.

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Some pictures of the rooftop patio at the Tavern United bar in downtown Winnipeg. First pic is from March and the second pic is from May 28th.

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March to May

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Ah, summertime.

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Southern Professional Hockey League 

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This league goes to show that some of those southern folk like hockey.  The team nicknames are great. Alligators versus rattlesnakes and bears versus ants.  Got to love it.

Team	City/Area	Arena	Founded	Joined	Head Coach
Columbus Cottonmouths	Columbus, Georgia	Columbus Civic Center	1996	2004	Jerome Bechard
Fayetteville FireAntz	Fayetteville, North Carolina	Cumberland County Crown Coliseum	2002	2004	Emery Olauson
Huntsville Havoc	Huntsville, Alabama	Von Braun Center	2004		Glenn Detulleo
Knoxville Ice Bears	Knoxville, Tennessee	Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum	2002	2004	Mike Craigen
Louisiana IceGators	Lafayette, Louisiana	Cajundome	1995	2009	Kevin Kaminski
Mississippi RiverKings	Southaven, Mississippi (Memphis area)	Lander’s Center	1992	2011	Derek Landmesser
Pensacola Ice Flyers	Pensacola, Florida	Pensacola Civic Center	2009		Rod Aldoff
Peoria Rivermen	Peoria, Illinois	Carver Arena	2013		Jean-Guy Trudel

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Fantastic uniforms. The Mississippi Surge in dark and the Huntsville Havoc in white.

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