Maximum Taco

Prestigious definitely. There are very few positions in court as high up as Hand of the King, and his wife would hold a considerable amount of prestige and influence as well. However, it should be pointed out that Hand of the King is not a hereditary position, at any point her husband could be stripped of that authority, title and prestige and cast out of court because he does not serve for life (like the Kingsguard) but instead at the pleasure of the Queen (or King). This is unlike something like Lady of the Vale, as she would know that she would always be Lady of the Vale while her husband lived, and even afterwards her son (assuming she has one) would be the next Lord of the Eyrie.

Talking about it is not the same as preparing their tombs. When Ned dies they haven't carved his likeness in stone already in preparation of his death, they need to find a stonemason who knew his likeness well. It's especially morbid in the case of the Starks who carve their dead in the likeness of stones. Imagine tiny child statues sitting down in the crypts. I can't imagine Ned or Cat wanting to do commission those.

Also the just straight up freaking morbidity of preparing your children's tombs. What fucked in the head parent would do that?

Again I think that just speaks to the fact that Bran and Rickon are better seers then the rest of the Starks. It might be a issue of youth too, it's a very common trope that magical abilities are at the rawest and easiest to tap into when the user is young, and if not seized upon they start to fade with age.

All the Starks are potential wargs, and I think they all have the potential to greendream as well, in the books Jon dreams of Robb's death, so it's not just Bran and Rickon who have been shown to have this ability. They can all do it, Bran's just better at it then his siblings, probably partially because of natural gifts, partially because of his injury and partially because he's the only one who is fully aware of what he is and is working at getting better and better at it.

I agree. Bran is going to become some manner of immortal, perhaps the last one as magic fades from the world. It could end up being much more heartbreaking then death, if he's left alive to watch his family go on without him. Very bittersweet, which is what GRRM has been promising.

They aren't obsessed with becoming the Starks, they have no desire to be honorable or just, they're fully happy to rule through fear and oppression. They're obsessed with destroying the Starks, and why not? They are ancient enemies. Really it's the Starks' own fault, they should've taken a page out of the Lannister playbook and Castamere'D the Boltons long ago.

No need to feel sorry, the Knicks don't have a pick in tonights draft. Denver owns their 1st rounder, and Houston owns their 2nd rounder, and the Knicks don't own anybody else's pick.

I think this was my favourite episode this season. I love the Fionna and Cake-verse. Only complaint: Neil Patrick Harris didn't come back to do the voice of Prince Gumball. I realize he's a busy guy, but it's still disappointing, conversely it's awesome that they got Donald Glover to come back to be Marshall Lee. Love that the Ice President (Ice Queen's rule 63 version of herself), does his own Rule 63 fanfic starring Lynn the Person and Janet the Fox. What I love is how different each iteration is. The Ice Queen seems much more combative with Fionna and Cake then the Ice King is with Finn and Jake and the Ice President is with Lynn and Janet. Also the Ice President is so freaking philosophical, it's difficult to imagine it all stems from the mind of Ice King. Also of note the "table" theme did go all the way through, even if Ice King couldn't find it. 1) Fionna and Cake were at the breakfast TABLE 2) Prince Gumball consulted the periodic TABLE of candy elements 3) Flame Prince set fire to the TABLE of Contents 4) LSPrince had a TABLEspoon of syrup 5) Ice Queen: "Why don't we TABLE this for now so I can destroy you!" Did anyone find the second theme? I assume this is the one Gunter found. 1) Fionna: "You're a real ACE in the kitchen." 2) Butterscotch Butler: "KING me." 3) Fionna: "We've still got TEN minutes until the library closes." 4) LSPrince: "This is J-JACK." 5) Fionna: "Oh hey Ice QUEEN!"

We don't express loyalty to the Queen instead of to the nation. By expressing our loyalty to the Queen we are expressing our loyalty to the nation. Canadians live in a monarchy, and as such our entire state is personified in the monarch. It is impossible to be loyal to Canada without being loyal to the Queen. By our own laws the Queen is Canada. That's why the term "head of state" is a misnomer, the Queen isn't the head of state, she is the state in its entirety. This also addresses another point, we are not pledging our loyalty to the Queen as a person, but as the embodiment of the state.

Lesson #2: Have Evgeni Malkin on your side!

Watched it a second time, I'm actually fine with most of the narrative flaws with Sansa's actions now. 1) Sansa going from "We have to get Rickon back" to "Rickon's already dead" - She says this after the parlay with Ramsay, when he says "There's no need for a battle, get off your horse and kneel. I'm a man of mercy" to Jon, the focus is on Sansa and she's pretty much thinking "NOPE, I remember this guy now." he very obviously would've slaughtered Jon horribly if he had surrendered his army and knelt to him. I can buy that as the moment she gave up on Rickon. "No one can protect me. No one can protect anyone" 2) Sansa withholding information about Littlefinger and the Vale knights - Leaving aside the fact that she had no proof they were coming aside from her own feelings, and that fact wouldn't have stopped Jon from attacking. She needed a Plan B in case Jon did exactly what she thought he'd do (and what he ended up doing.) If Jon had added the Vale Knights to his army he still would've only just matched Ramsay's strength and he might have gotten everyone slaughtered by falling into the trap he ended up falling into. The way she did things, Sansa is set either way. If Jon sticks to his plan Ramsay's knights charge him and the Vale Knights act as the hammer to his anvil taking them in the rear. If Jon falls into Ramsay's trap, like he did, the Vale Knights out flank the Bolton army after they think they have flanked Jon's. She says she's not a warrior, but this is pretty simple logic. She just wanted a plan of her own in case Jon didn't listen to her, which he didn't. 3) Sansa knowing that Ramsay's hounds had been starved for a week - I think this one's just a mistake. I suppose someone could've told her, but it doesn't make any sense to. Unless she saw the hounds after they took Winterfell and asked how long since they'd been fed, and then someone offered the info that Ramsay said it had been a week.

Ok according to the bonus scenes the third state to abstain was Pennsylvania. That's really odd because Pennsylvania has 20 representatives. Very unlikely that they would deadlock, unless of course they agreed to abstain if one candidate failed to get 11 votes among the Pennsylvanian delegation.

Not necessarily true, since the vote is done by state delegation. So while one party might control the House in a vote where each rep gets a vote, their candidate could still lose the election if the other party has key representatives in smaller states, because in the event of a Presidential tie breaker vote, a state like Vermont (with 1 representative) now has exactly the same amount of power as a state like California (with 53 representatives) It would be theoretically possible to win such an election with only 58 congressmen in your corner, by getting all the states with the smallest delegations to vote for you.

That's getting into a lot of debate over whether the Head of State in a Commonwealth Nation is the Governor General or the Queen or both. There are examples of Governors General acting unilaterally without the direction of the monarchy, and acting solely in the interests of their nation, suggesting that the GG should be considered head of state in their own right, without the distinction of acting on the monarchy's behalf, because more often then not they act on their nation's behalf as opposed to the monarchy as a whole. I suppose according to the constitution the Queen is the head of state, or rather the embodiment of the state, but in effectiveness and practice, the Governor General is.

Note on the abstentions: The two known ones were Vermont (1 representative) and Missouri (8 representatives), so those two potentially check out as abstentions, although Vermont's would look weird if it wasn't an independent in that seat. There's also a flaw in Amy's understanding of Presidential term limits. Anyone who ascends to the Presidency (which Tom James would because the Senate is electing him Vice President and he will assume the Presidency via the line of succession) and serves more the half of someone else's term as President cannot be elected to two further terms as President, he can only be elected to one as per the 22nd amendment (although I suppose there technically is loophole here as Tom isn't serving someone else's term since nobody has been elected.) And of course there is the possibility that Tom never actually assumes the Presidency and remains "Acting President" for the entire 4 years while somehow constantly dodging a vote in the House that could elect Meyer or O'Brien. Which is even more ridiculous, since it effectively makes the Acting President a slave to the Speaker of the House who could trigger a vote whenever he felt like it. And if the Republicans ever gained control of the House during those 4 years the new Speaker would trigger a vote immediately. Finally if this is the case Tom wouldn't be able to make Meyer his VP (as he's suggested) because he'd be the current sitting VP; he's not the President, he's the Acting President (and Vice President), and he can't fill a position he's currently occupying. The maximum consecutive time that any one person could be President is 10 years, via succeeding to the Presidency in the last 2 years (and not one day more) of another President's term and being elected to two further terms. I say "consecutive time" because it would technically be possible for a former two-term President to ascend to the Presidency after his two terms. For instance, a former two-term President could not run as someone's running mate, because as per the 12th amendment if you are not eligible to be elected to the Presidency, you are not eligible to be elected to the Vice Presidency either, however nothing constitutionally prevents him from running for a seat in the House, if said former two-term president ran for a congressional seat after his Presidency and became Speaker of the House he could ascend to the Presidency in the event that the President and VP are deemed unfit to govern, and serve the entire term. Theoretically there is no limit on the amount of time one could serve as President, there is just a limit on the amount of times one can be elected President. Part of me is thinking, "My god American politics has the potential for a lot of fun", and the other (much larger) part is thinking, "Thank god I'm Canadian."

Wow, finally a great game in this ugly ugly series. Have to respect both teams they fought and scratched, but it just goes to prove that to win your best players need to be your best players. Lebron was Cleveland's best all through this series (maybe Kyrie in Game 5) flirting with the triple double in almost every game, finally getting it in the one that mattered the most. Contrarily, Steph was not Golden State's best, not even Klay was. Draymond was the one trying to get the Dubs to a championship over the last 7 games. Congrats to the Cavs, Toronto isn't experiencing even close to as big a drought as Cleveland was, but I have to say I felt a kinship with Cleveland, a fellow 3 team desert waiting for even the slightest drop of rain, hopefully it doesn't stop too soon. I also have to feel a little vindication that my Raps provided a bump in the road at the very least against the eventual NBA Champions, it might be a foolish feeling but it makes me feel like we aren't quite as far off as I thought we were at the beginning of the playoffs. At the same time gotta feel for the Warriors, making history you wanna make in the regular season and then the history you don't wanna make in the playoffs. They thought they were the 95-96 Bulls, but in the end they were the 72-73 Celtics. I'm sure they'll be back next season trying to get even better though. Whatever else you learned in these playoffs, it's that you can't count out the Dubs until it's all over. Good season everyone, let's do it all again soon.

You still think they are doing that story? It doesn't seem at all necessary. The whole Alys Karstark thing was to partly to misdirect Jon to thinking Arya would be arriving at Castle Black, partly to highlight the meddling Jon was doing that he shouldn't be doing as LC, and partly to take power from the Karstarks (and inform Stannis of their treachery), who seem likely to all be dead. I don't see what purpose it would serve to introduce her after the Battle of the Bastards, since Jon and Sansa seem like they'll already be consolidating their power at the end of this season.

Mamma (of Dragons) Mia?

This was fun, definitely seemed more highschool-y then the first few episodes. Totally made sense too that Maya, who lives in a Spanish neighborhood, is great at Spanish, and Zay, who probably worked really hard on fundamentals to keep up with Lucas when they were younger is now great at baseball, while the Riley and Lucas who probably coasted on being more naturally gifted realized they can't get by on those natural gifts anymore. I had a similar revelation, but later on in my educational life, I coasted through highschool getting relatively easy A's before realizing I actually had to buckle down and study in freshman year if I wanted to do the same in university. Also loved Maya and Zay's baseball celebration handshake (at least that's what it seemed like they were going for.) Awesome that we have another character who treats school like an actual school. We need more of these. Bonus points for making the Spanish teacher's name "Chang" cause I'm treating that as a Community reference and nobody can stop me. I will lose it if she ever talks about getting all up in someone's cabeza.

This is worse. At least on Game of Thrones you can justify most of the deaths of the likeable characters because they do stupid things that lead to those deaths, and they are at least partially responsible for their own stupidity which led to their death. Also usually there's someone directly responsible to hate for killing them. Poussey's death was just meaningless and awful and accidental and potentially ruined several lives. And you can't even really hate Bayley that much, he didn't mean to kill her and he was poorly trained and none of the guards (excepting Bearded Douche) were really equipped to deal with a unified effort of the prisoners to cause problems. Anyway thanks a lot OITNB, now my heart hurts.

Might be a Munenori Kawasaki reference, even though he's with the Cubbies now. He gave a pretty weird interview once after he left a game due to cramps that he needed to eat more bananas, because "monkeys never get cramps" And then after the Jays clinched the AL East last year he drunkenly slurred that "we don't need bananas, we need champagne" He was a weird guy. We liked him a lot in Toronto.

Hilariously could actually be a character in Game of Thrones. Lord Horatio of House Caine Words: We Don't Get Fooled Again