Hurlshort

Interestingly enough the Star's AHL affiliate doesn't want him. This is a pretty odd situation. Avery is a decent player, but I can't think of a team that would be willing to take him in now that the Stars seem like they are going to write him off. I'd say the Rangers, since they've taken in troubled players before, but he did just come from there. This sure does illustrate the difference between other professional sports and the NHL. This would be a non-issue in the NFL. There was another TSN article that had the Dallas players basically trashing Avery. I think management would probably accept his apology, but when you lose your teammates, you are in deep trouble.

I've been wheeling and dealing on the Auction House in LotR Online. These new legendary weapons come in two flavors, standard third age and extremely rare second age. The second age weapons can level up more and usually have better stats. They are selling very high right now, and any time I see a second age priced too low I buy it and sell it at a higher price. I've made an enormous amount of gold off just a couple weapons so far.

Um. Thanks for the review? Can you please go into the NHL thread and post about your lack of interest in hockey as well? It's very important.

Discriminating against anyone is pretty dang un-christian. Let's leave the judging of others up to God. edit: I took some more time to look at the article. What does that have to do with anything?

The Alevi would disagree. That was interesting, I knew very little about the Alevi. I should qualify that the Muslim women only wear the headscarf and such when they go to the mosque.

No, they are strictly on a stream. The interface is pretty odd right now, you can't actually browse movies if uu haven't put them in your queu. So I go to my computer, choose a movie, and then it shows up on the 360. Seems an unnecessary step, but I imagine it will be updated down the road. We also used to not be able to pause videos when the 360 first came out.

Have any of you actually discussed this with a Muslim woman? I have. There is a separation of the sexes. They appreciate this, because men and women are different. But in the Mosque I visit regularly, Muslim women aren't oppressed. Many of the women I have met are well educated and hold affluent jobs. There is nothing in the core teaching of Islam that says women should be oppressed. It's quite the opposite, women are supposed to be given respect and treated as equals. Covering themselves in public is about modesty to these women. Now of course there are many Muslim countries that oppress women. But again, I blame the leadership of those countries, not the religion.

Just got my 360 back and set up the Netflix feature. It's fantastic! The choices are phenomenal, I've already selected and played a couple programs for my daughter, and I look forward to watching a movie or two myself.

That must be a pretty small pay out, they've yet to lose at home and Columbus isn't a powerhouse. That said, they are probably going to lose because we have voiced our expectation. It's like talking to a goalie about a shutout before the game is over. You just don't do it.

To allow truly vile lies such as the ones propagated by such high-ranking members as Alfonso and Francisco pass without any internal action on the part of the Church represents tacit support of these statements. Or it could mean the church leadership isn't willing to create a huge schism over the opinions of some officials. The catholic church is very slow to act these days so as to not cause huge waves. There are good and bad results to this strategy.

I was going to refute this at length, but I really need to get back to harvesting hides from dead wolves in LotR Online.

I don't disagree with what you are saying, but I think you can blame that completely on the leadership of these religions. I think there are millions of muslims that practice their religion peacefully, and I think the sense of community it builds is intrinsically crucial for humanity. People who argue that the world would be better off without religion are being unrealistic, religion is a part of human nature. What we can do is hope that religions preach peace above all else. The catholic church is guilty of atrocities throughout history, but in the last couple hundred years it has reached a point where it's very clear it does a ton more good than bad. But it took nearly 2,000 years for that! Islam is a young religion. I think it's just a matter of time before it stabilizes. It needs a reformation, and I wouldn't be surprised if I saw it in my lifetime.

Does it really matter how many times a day you pray? Why pray 5 times a day? What if you only pray 4 times a day, does that make you a bad muslim? Who sets these arbitrary numbers anyway? There are quite a few reasons for the 5 times a day prayer that I can come up with. It takes discipline and reinforces the religion consistently throughout the day. It brings Muslims together as they engage in the prayer. I'm no expert on Islam, but I believe the prayers are broken up as follows: early morning prayer, mid-morning prayer (breakfast time), mid-day prayer (lunchtime), evening prayer (dinner time) and before bed prayer. The three prayers in the middle are often performed in large groups, at a mosque if possible. This solidifies the community. I believe the prophet Muhammad set the number, and it was likely a message given to him by the Angel Gabriel. That's what the Qur'an is, messages related to Muhammad from Gabriel. That may sound crazy to many people, but I can't think of any religion that isn't based around something supernatural.

Islam is based on 5 pillars, none of which have anything to do with violence or suppression. 1. Declaring your faith in one God 2. Praying 5 times a day 3. Making a pilgrimage to Mecca 4. Charity, or sharing wealth with others 5. Fasting during Ramadan

If only LotRO had a better PvP system in place, it would be the perfect MMO. I haven't touched PvP at all, although I did create a warg and run around for about an hour one time. I'm glad Turbine has focused on the single player aspect. It's difficult to pull off both, and I think developers need to choose one over the other. I thought WoW really shifted too much attention to raids and PvP and that's why I eventually stopped playing. Warhammer Online is my PvP game of choice. It's designed around it and it shows. I recommend it if that's what you want.

I should probably add that, as someone who studies and teaches History and world religion every day, I find most religions to be beautiful. I am fascinated by them all. That's why I enjoy my job. I'm not committed to any specific religion myself though.

Healthcare is uneven in America. You can still get some of the best care in the world here. But it comes down to money.

Well said. I find Islam to be a beautiful religion, and I am impressed by the fact that many Muslims in my area are truly committed to the religion, unlike many of the one day a week Christians I know. But there needs to be a much stronger united movement to rid Islam of these radical groups, and it needs to be led by the millions of peaceful muslims in the world.

It's really not even that Avery talked crap about another player, it's that he made disparaging comments about his former girlfriends. Serious lack of class. But I don't agree with suspension since it has nothing to do with hockey and isn't a crime.

That is hilarious. It's in bad taste and it's a horrible thing to say, and it just reinforces the idea that Avery is really not a good person, but I'm not sure if it deserves indefinite suspension. Heck, his punishment should be to have to play against Calgary, because Phaneuf isn't exactly a pushover on the ice.

That's why I'm surprised anyone is really upset about this. The concept of DK is totally open to anyone who wants to develop it. The IP only covers the name and the storyline, which isn't in existence. If anyone wants to create a RTS game where you make dungeons and try to trap heroes, no one is stopping them.

Too many humans, not enough robots. If you want to have a large human cast, I better be able to see half of them get squished by the giant robots. Also, why the hell was Starscream loyal to Megatron? I see the issue here. I know almost nothing about Transformer lore, and so I viewed the movie as an action flick with cool robots and a few humorous lines. Transformers were just crappy toys when I was growing up that broke fairly quickly. I wasn't invested in the IP.

Transformers was one of the better action movies I've seen in the last two years. 7/10 for Twilight, really? That looks terrible in every way. It looks like an MTV psuedo-reality show with vampires. Do you like The Hills?

I'm excited, my daughter is old enough to really understand some of the stuff. We'll get our tree this weekend. Things are tight economically, so I won't get too many presents. Most of my money is going towards our RV trip to San Diego from the 27th to the 1st. We plan on seeing the Zoo and Sea World, as well as some relatives up from Mexico. I did buy a new gas grill for the occasion. It's nice.

Technically Overlord is the new Dungeon Keeper, so I'm not sure what the fuss is about.