The Pens didn't deserve to be in OT in this game but here they are so now they have to pull out the extra point....
This is much more vital an extra point for the Leafs then it is for the Pens but really both teams just need to keep climbing the ladder to secure themselves playoff spots....
Nothing overly special so far right now as the two teams are now apparently retreating a bit, waiting for their chance to win it....
Looked like there should have been a penalty to the Pens for 2 many men but nope....looks like the refs are going to let the Pens get away with a bit more now....
Best chance of OT as Kessel is alone in front off a tipped shot taken by Schenn but he can't do anything with it.....last minute of OT now.....
Kessel steals with 30 seconds left, sets up Connolly but Fleury makes a huge save....
The Monster just made his best save of the night, sprawled across the goalline to rob Letang and send the game to a shoot out.....
Highly entertaining game that should have been over about 12 times so far....now we go to a field goal kicking contest, err, shootout.....should be fun....
As well, both the Devils and Caps have fought back to tie their games, with the Devils in a shootout as well and just over 16 minutes left in the Caps game....What a turn of events tonight
Letang takes the first shot.....easy save for the Monster......
Grabo up next....stopped by Fleury
Malkin goes in and scores....damn guy does nothing until the last minute of the game and now looks like he may pull it out for the Pens
Kadri get stoned leaving Chris Kunitz with a chance to win it....STOPPED by the MONSTER!!!!
Kessel has to score......and he doesn't....Pens steal 2 points.....How putrid....Unreal that they were able to battle back from a 4-1 deficit....the same 2 teams play again tomorrow in TO....Hopefully, the Leafs will play like they did up to the point where they were up 4-1 and not the way they played afterward.
And lets not forget about the disallowed goal that should have counted....Leafs got hosed.....
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Leaf Game Blog....3rd Period
TSN Panel debating what would they get in a trade for Grabovski that would be a fair deal....Carter? No. Van Riemsdyk? No. Getzlaf? All the panel jumps at that one. They were actually saying Grabo is a #1 type of center on the Leafs.....interesting premise but is he really worth $4-4.5 million a year? Don't know about that. If he cracks the 80-90 point range then maybe...
Interesting point made during the 1st intermission about Nashville and what they would want IF they were to ever deal Ryan Suter. An NHL regular, 2 top Prospects AND a 1st round pick....FOR RYAN SUTER?!?!?! Wow they are nuts....
Can someone please beat the crap out of those pesky Senators? WTF?!?! They just keep going. They leas the Big Bad Bruins 3-2 heading into the 3rd. Just shocking.
3rd period is underway....Grabo is still the best player on the ice, dangerous whenever he has the puck.
Malkin really has disappeared in this game. Other then that late 2nd period flurry of activity in the Leafs zone, it looks like Malkin has taken the night off for the most part. Both he and James Neal are MIA today.
Typical Matt Cooke....takes a stupid penalty and of course it results in a power play goal. A top corner blast by Tyler Bozak to make it 3-1. Funny that Lupol, as reported by Ferraro, said to Cooke "Why would you do that?" about tripping him...
And even as I wrote THAT, the Leafs score again and Grabo gets his 7th point in his last 2 games....MacArthur nets his 14th. Pretty good 2nd line production in Grabo and Clarkie.....4-1 now...halfway through the 3rd....looks like the Leafs will jump back into the playoffs with Washington losing tonight to Tampa and New Jersey down to the Rangers by identical 2-1 scores....Boston has woken up now and are up 4-3 now...
Gardiner takes a spill and gives Stevie Sullivan (who is shorter then I am by the way) a partial breakway and he blows a slapper, top cheese to make it 4-2.
It really speaks volumes that in this game, Grabovski's line is playing head to head with Malkin's line and they have outplayed them pretty much from the drop of the puck.
After the longest streak of going without a penalty for the Leafs since the 1940's, Lombardi gets called for hooking on Malkin. This comes after he couldn't lift a shot over a sprawled out Kris Letang, who was all that stood betwen Lombardi and a 5-2 Leaf lead.
Pens looking dangerous on the powerplay but the Leafs kill it. 17 straight Penalty kills in January.
Right after they kill the penalty, a dumb turnover results in a Penguin goal...4-3 now....5 minutes left and now the Pens feel they are in it....
Really starting to hate Rogers......How is it possible that TSN, The Score and even Sportsnet Ontario (their own LOCAL station) are always having issues with my HD receiver. I get perfect reception for Sportsnet West, East and Central....People at Rogers TV, get you act together already....JEEES...
Just over 3 minutes left and Big 'Mo is on the Pens side....the Leafs need a couple of strong shifts to stem the Penguin tide a bit....of course, in this game that means the Grabo line....
Unbelievable finish as the Pens kept pressing in the final minute and it finally paid off with a game tying goal scored with 6.5 seconds left that looked like it banked in off Malkin's leg....he did absolutely nothing all game then gets a fluke goal with barely any time left to tie the game....ridiculous
Off to OT we go.....
Interesting point made during the 1st intermission about Nashville and what they would want IF they were to ever deal Ryan Suter. An NHL regular, 2 top Prospects AND a 1st round pick....FOR RYAN SUTER?!?!?! Wow they are nuts....
Can someone please beat the crap out of those pesky Senators? WTF?!?! They just keep going. They leas the Big Bad Bruins 3-2 heading into the 3rd. Just shocking.
3rd period is underway....Grabo is still the best player on the ice, dangerous whenever he has the puck.
Malkin really has disappeared in this game. Other then that late 2nd period flurry of activity in the Leafs zone, it looks like Malkin has taken the night off for the most part. Both he and James Neal are MIA today.
Typical Matt Cooke....takes a stupid penalty and of course it results in a power play goal. A top corner blast by Tyler Bozak to make it 3-1. Funny that Lupol, as reported by Ferraro, said to Cooke "Why would you do that?" about tripping him...
And even as I wrote THAT, the Leafs score again and Grabo gets his 7th point in his last 2 games....MacArthur nets his 14th. Pretty good 2nd line production in Grabo and Clarkie.....4-1 now...halfway through the 3rd....looks like the Leafs will jump back into the playoffs with Washington losing tonight to Tampa and New Jersey down to the Rangers by identical 2-1 scores....Boston has woken up now and are up 4-3 now...
Gardiner takes a spill and gives Stevie Sullivan (who is shorter then I am by the way) a partial breakway and he blows a slapper, top cheese to make it 4-2.
It really speaks volumes that in this game, Grabovski's line is playing head to head with Malkin's line and they have outplayed them pretty much from the drop of the puck.
After the longest streak of going without a penalty for the Leafs since the 1940's, Lombardi gets called for hooking on Malkin. This comes after he couldn't lift a shot over a sprawled out Kris Letang, who was all that stood betwen Lombardi and a 5-2 Leaf lead.
Pens looking dangerous on the powerplay but the Leafs kill it. 17 straight Penalty kills in January.
Right after they kill the penalty, a dumb turnover results in a Penguin goal...4-3 now....5 minutes left and now the Pens feel they are in it....
Really starting to hate Rogers......How is it possible that TSN, The Score and even Sportsnet Ontario (their own LOCAL station) are always having issues with my HD receiver. I get perfect reception for Sportsnet West, East and Central....People at Rogers TV, get you act together already....JEEES...
Just over 3 minutes left and Big 'Mo is on the Pens side....the Leafs need a couple of strong shifts to stem the Penguin tide a bit....of course, in this game that means the Grabo line....
Unbelievable finish as the Pens kept pressing in the final minute and it finally paid off with a game tying goal scored with 6.5 seconds left that looked like it banked in off Malkin's leg....he did absolutely nothing all game then gets a fluke goal with barely any time left to tie the game....ridiculous
Off to OT we go.....
Leaf Game Blog....2nd Period
Rumour du jour had the Leafs getting Rick Nash and Kristian Huselius for Kadri, Schenn, Komisarek and Grabovski. Love this deal for both teams but one major stumbling block: Nash has a full no trade clause and the Blue Jackets host the All-Star game next year so I don't see them dealing their captain and only star.
If I were the Leafs, I would do anything in my power to get Nash...short of totally gutting the team. Even if you had to throw in a 1st rounder as well to get this deal done, I would jump on it in a heart beat. Komi sucks, Schenn is not much better, Grabo and Kadri are good and potentially really good but Nash would catapult the Leafs into a different type of team entirely. Plus, with guys like Joe Colborne and Matt Frattin chomping at the bit to jump up onto the big club, moving out 2 forwards and getting back only one healthy one (Huselius is hurt and most likely out for the year), opening up roster spots is of vital importance to the Leafs in the next few weeks. Colby Armstrong is due back as is Darryl Boyce and John-Michael Liles which means this glut of extra players and depth is now at its' optimal usage time. You deal from a position of strength and now is the time.
Period 2 set to begin....
The Monster wasn't nearly as busy as Fleury but was steady when called upon....
Looks like Grabovski doesn't like to be mentioned in trade rumours as he has been on fire in the 2nd period. 2 goals, zipping around as if he knows he is the best player in that game (Paging Evgeni Malkin.....Malkin.....Malkin...) he even passed up a chance to get his first career hat trick on a 2 on 0 by passing to a wide open Nik Kulemin (except the puck jumped over his stick). Heck, even Luke Schenn is starting to look like an offensive dynamo in this game as the Pens just look flat, even after a timeout by Couach Bylsma.
The Pens show some life, as they get a goal from a nice re-direct by Matt Cooke. 2-1 Leafs late in the 2nd....
After the goal, the Pens finally had a bit of pressure (this after giving up 2 more odd man rushes) but they were unable to tie the score....after 2, Leafs lead 2-1....
Back for the 3rd...
If I were the Leafs, I would do anything in my power to get Nash...short of totally gutting the team. Even if you had to throw in a 1st rounder as well to get this deal done, I would jump on it in a heart beat. Komi sucks, Schenn is not much better, Grabo and Kadri are good and potentially really good but Nash would catapult the Leafs into a different type of team entirely. Plus, with guys like Joe Colborne and Matt Frattin chomping at the bit to jump up onto the big club, moving out 2 forwards and getting back only one healthy one (Huselius is hurt and most likely out for the year), opening up roster spots is of vital importance to the Leafs in the next few weeks. Colby Armstrong is due back as is Darryl Boyce and John-Michael Liles which means this glut of extra players and depth is now at its' optimal usage time. You deal from a position of strength and now is the time.
Period 2 set to begin....
The Monster wasn't nearly as busy as Fleury but was steady when called upon....
Looks like Grabovski doesn't like to be mentioned in trade rumours as he has been on fire in the 2nd period. 2 goals, zipping around as if he knows he is the best player in that game (Paging Evgeni Malkin.....Malkin.....Malkin...) he even passed up a chance to get his first career hat trick on a 2 on 0 by passing to a wide open Nik Kulemin (except the puck jumped over his stick). Heck, even Luke Schenn is starting to look like an offensive dynamo in this game as the Pens just look flat, even after a timeout by Couach Bylsma.
The Pens show some life, as they get a goal from a nice re-direct by Matt Cooke. 2-1 Leafs late in the 2nd....
After the goal, the Pens finally had a bit of pressure (this after giving up 2 more odd man rushes) but they were unable to tie the score....after 2, Leafs lead 2-1....
Back for the 3rd...
Leaf Game Blog....
The game is just in the first period and already it has the feel of a playoff game. It's been intense from the drop of the puck and already a blown call as Tyler Bozak scores a goal that should have counted. Instead the idiot ref calls it incidental interference caused by a slight bump by Joffrey Lupol on Zybenek Michalek into Marc-Andre Fleury...total BS.
Nazem Kadri DRILLS Paul Martin behind the Penguins net on a clean hit....then he looses the puck at center ice as he got closer to the blueline, and the Penguins bench starts calling him "footsteps".
A few minutes later, Kadri himself gets nailed again at the Pens blueline. Solid hit.
TSN's Ray Ferraro almost calls Matt Cooke a choir boy, saying he is up for the Lady Bing as he only is on pace for 27 penalty minutes and is trying to play within the rules as they show a hit he laid on Kadri.....then about 6 minutes later, he looks like he is trying to take Mike Brown's head off with a leaning attempt that rips his stick out of his hands.
Fleury is stealing this period, despite quick whistles and blown calls. He is on top of his game with a couple of big saves off Kessel and Lupol.
Back during the 2nd....
Nazem Kadri DRILLS Paul Martin behind the Penguins net on a clean hit....then he looses the puck at center ice as he got closer to the blueline, and the Penguins bench starts calling him "footsteps".
A few minutes later, Kadri himself gets nailed again at the Pens blueline. Solid hit.
TSN's Ray Ferraro almost calls Matt Cooke a choir boy, saying he is up for the Lady Bing as he only is on pace for 27 penalty minutes and is trying to play within the rules as they show a hit he laid on Kadri.....then about 6 minutes later, he looks like he is trying to take Mike Brown's head off with a leaning attempt that rips his stick out of his hands.
Fleury is stealing this period, despite quick whistles and blown calls. He is on top of his game with a couple of big saves off Kessel and Lupol.
Back during the 2nd....
Monday, January 30, 2012
Birthday Thoughts & The Right Verdict
Thank you to everyone for your birthday wishes. It was a fun weekend even if it was just me turning a year older, another year wiser and hopefully finally about to make all my dreams start to finally come true. Unlike some people, at least I have the chance to get a year older, which leads directly to my first real topic of the day.
The Shafia murder trial has finally concluded and the only verdict that could make any sense was returned just yesterday; Guilty on all counts for all 3 of them. After reading many of the articles that have been published on the various websites today and reviewing the evidence that was presented in court, there really is no way there was going to be a different verdict other then the one returned yesterday.
It's been encouraging to read all the different articles that have quotes from different Muslim leaders professing how they want to use their pulpits to change the way women are treated and discourage "Hounour Killings" and the continued oppression of women. The problem is that even if such things are discouraged by moderate Muslims, the radical ones are the ones who are using violence in other parts of the world, pushing the battle for equality further and further from what we have in the Western world.
Yes, there are many people who are appalled by what the Shafia trial showed us can come from a backwards culture, one which places a greater value on that of "Family honour" then the lives of some of their own family members, but these attitudes are still prevalent in places like Afghanistan. One of the stories posted on the Toronto Star website today had direct quotes from both male and female relatives of the Shafia's who actually were defending their actions and then went on to say that they would do the same thing in their place.
Another story from just yesterday was that of a man who killed his 22 year old wife because she gave birth to a 3rd female child, had his mother help attempt to cover up the murder, then fled. His mother even tried to tell the authorities that her daughter-in-law had committed suicide before, again, trying to rationalize her murderous sons' actions.
While some would argue that it isn't an Islamic thing, others WOULD make that argument. The problem is that most of these appalling cases are still coming from the Muslim world, the same place where women are still forced (in some cultures, if not all) to wear burqa's and niqabs. These are still places in the Arab world where women and girls have acid thrown in their faces for trying to attend school or are given lashes for going out in public without a male relative.
The problem is that when people who believe in things like this come to Canada or the US, they don't accept that woman have more rights here then they do back home. They carry with them the same values that perpetuate the same type of actions that led to the deaths of 3 innocent young girls and a woman who had been forced to subjugate herself into a servant posing as a cousin to the family when she was in fact the first wife of the patriarch of the family.
Many of the stories today focused on the lack of action by the authorities in Quebec. Some, even in the Muslim community, were saying that maybe the fact that some people were being overtly politically correct over the cultural sensibilities of this particular family. It is true that once there were complaints made by the 2 eldest daughters of abuse, instead of being taken away, they were brought back to the family and asked to repeat their allegations in front of the same man whom they had accused of abusing them. This of course led to their recanting their stories and the allegations being forgotten.
If anything, this case needs to wake up everyone to the beliefs in some cultures surrounding women and make sure that ANY allegation of abuse, regardless of what culture the perpetrator happens to be, is investigated thoroughly. This needs to start happening now or else we will see more and more deaths like the one that the Shafia trial shed a light on over the last few months. I hope they rot in those jail cells for the next 25 years and that they are haunted by the actions that they committed against their own family members. That would take a hell of a lot more of a conscience then any of the convicted killers seem to have....
The Shafia murder trial has finally concluded and the only verdict that could make any sense was returned just yesterday; Guilty on all counts for all 3 of them. After reading many of the articles that have been published on the various websites today and reviewing the evidence that was presented in court, there really is no way there was going to be a different verdict other then the one returned yesterday.
It's been encouraging to read all the different articles that have quotes from different Muslim leaders professing how they want to use their pulpits to change the way women are treated and discourage "Hounour Killings" and the continued oppression of women. The problem is that even if such things are discouraged by moderate Muslims, the radical ones are the ones who are using violence in other parts of the world, pushing the battle for equality further and further from what we have in the Western world.
Yes, there are many people who are appalled by what the Shafia trial showed us can come from a backwards culture, one which places a greater value on that of "Family honour" then the lives of some of their own family members, but these attitudes are still prevalent in places like Afghanistan. One of the stories posted on the Toronto Star website today had direct quotes from both male and female relatives of the Shafia's who actually were defending their actions and then went on to say that they would do the same thing in their place.
Another story from just yesterday was that of a man who killed his 22 year old wife because she gave birth to a 3rd female child, had his mother help attempt to cover up the murder, then fled. His mother even tried to tell the authorities that her daughter-in-law had committed suicide before, again, trying to rationalize her murderous sons' actions.
While some would argue that it isn't an Islamic thing, others WOULD make that argument. The problem is that most of these appalling cases are still coming from the Muslim world, the same place where women are still forced (in some cultures, if not all) to wear burqa's and niqabs. These are still places in the Arab world where women and girls have acid thrown in their faces for trying to attend school or are given lashes for going out in public without a male relative.
The problem is that when people who believe in things like this come to Canada or the US, they don't accept that woman have more rights here then they do back home. They carry with them the same values that perpetuate the same type of actions that led to the deaths of 3 innocent young girls and a woman who had been forced to subjugate herself into a servant posing as a cousin to the family when she was in fact the first wife of the patriarch of the family.
Many of the stories today focused on the lack of action by the authorities in Quebec. Some, even in the Muslim community, were saying that maybe the fact that some people were being overtly politically correct over the cultural sensibilities of this particular family. It is true that once there were complaints made by the 2 eldest daughters of abuse, instead of being taken away, they were brought back to the family and asked to repeat their allegations in front of the same man whom they had accused of abusing them. This of course led to their recanting their stories and the allegations being forgotten.
If anything, this case needs to wake up everyone to the beliefs in some cultures surrounding women and make sure that ANY allegation of abuse, regardless of what culture the perpetrator happens to be, is investigated thoroughly. This needs to start happening now or else we will see more and more deaths like the one that the Shafia trial shed a light on over the last few months. I hope they rot in those jail cells for the next 25 years and that they are haunted by the actions that they committed against their own family members. That would take a hell of a lot more of a conscience then any of the convicted killers seem to have....
Friday, January 27, 2012
Shafia Trial & Experiementing with Your Kids
There is an article in the Toronto Star online edition from yesterday about a woman who purposely chose not to write about what sex her baby was online as a test to see if she could do it. She claims that she has been raising her child in a "gender-rich" environment, where there were toys for both boys and girls to play with at any time. While I don't see the point of experimenting with children in this way, at least this parent isn't as bad as the idiots that were portrayed in the Star back in May who are raising their child, named Storm, genderless.
The world is already a place filled with so many prejudices based on sex and sexual identity and these nimrods decide to screw up a child from birth with regards to their sexual identity? If this isn't a case of moronic idealists basically ruining their own kid's childhood, then I don't know what is. It's alright to have your own ideas about sex and sexuality. Not everyone is going to agree with your opinions and even fewer will try to change your opinions to match theirs. In my view, by not giving a child a definitive view of what it is to be male and female is one of the biggest issues we are fighting right now as a society.
Over the last 25-30 years, we have seen gender roles change significantly in Western Society. So much so in fact, that many new immigrants to the West still suffer from "culture shock" because they simply are not accustomed to seeing women in roles that are traditionally those of men in whatever part of the world they may come from. These changes can also be seen in the pre-teens who are currently in grade school and about to move on to high school. They are being subjected to a multi-media barrage of what it means to be a man in today's world and the ever changing role of women in North America to the point where many are more confused than any other kids of past generations.
I'm concerned for kids that are being subjected to this kind of an environment in their formative years because we are already seeing the damage our mixed messages to the current generation of kids (with regards to gender roles at least) has been doing to their development both physically and intellectually.
I really think that experimenting with your kids and how you raise them is just plain wrong. I'm shocked that Children's Aid hasn't intervened on the basis that these kids are being raised in an unfit environment but considering some of the things they are busy dealing with, I can understand their failure to act.
And now on to the case of yet another great parent. This time we are talking about the father and mother (as well as the brother) killing their children (and his other wife while they were at it). The Shafia trial held closing arguments yesterday after a bomb threat (I would love to speculate as to who sent in a bomb threat but let's just move on).
Suffice it to say that after hearing closing arguments, the flimsy defense of the 3 accused was made to look paper thin. The images of the damaged cars (in the same sections that it would take to have one car push the other), the computer histories showing that either the father or brother (or both) had looked up things such as "how to get away with murder" and "best places to dump bodies", as well as "large bodies of water in Canada" points a pretty good circumstantial case. Then there were the wiretaps which caught the patriarch of the family saying that he was glad the deed was done and that if they were to come back from the dead he would kill them again and again.
Then there was the fact that the brother's cell phone was triangulated to be in the area of where the 3 girls and the first wife were found dead. On top of all of that, the father and brother admit they were there and have a different story of events, saying that it was an accident. The mother also said she was there but later recanted. A confusing defense that left many who watched this trial scratching their heads and wondering what their exact strategy actually was.
If I were on this jury, given the sheer volume and depth of evidence, as well as the clear and apparent motive that the father had to get rid of 2 trouble making "westernized" daughters who had already gone to the authorities once about their mistreatment, a 3rd daughter who was following along in their footsteps, and a first wife who was bound to leak out the truth about their polygamous marriage, I think it would take all of 5 minutes to return a verdict of Guilty of 1st degree murder. And I don't see how it's possible that the 7 women, 5 man jury returns anything other then the same.
The world is already a place filled with so many prejudices based on sex and sexual identity and these nimrods decide to screw up a child from birth with regards to their sexual identity? If this isn't a case of moronic idealists basically ruining their own kid's childhood, then I don't know what is. It's alright to have your own ideas about sex and sexuality. Not everyone is going to agree with your opinions and even fewer will try to change your opinions to match theirs. In my view, by not giving a child a definitive view of what it is to be male and female is one of the biggest issues we are fighting right now as a society.
Over the last 25-30 years, we have seen gender roles change significantly in Western Society. So much so in fact, that many new immigrants to the West still suffer from "culture shock" because they simply are not accustomed to seeing women in roles that are traditionally those of men in whatever part of the world they may come from. These changes can also be seen in the pre-teens who are currently in grade school and about to move on to high school. They are being subjected to a multi-media barrage of what it means to be a man in today's world and the ever changing role of women in North America to the point where many are more confused than any other kids of past generations.
I'm concerned for kids that are being subjected to this kind of an environment in their formative years because we are already seeing the damage our mixed messages to the current generation of kids (with regards to gender roles at least) has been doing to their development both physically and intellectually.
I really think that experimenting with your kids and how you raise them is just plain wrong. I'm shocked that Children's Aid hasn't intervened on the basis that these kids are being raised in an unfit environment but considering some of the things they are busy dealing with, I can understand their failure to act.
And now on to the case of yet another great parent. This time we are talking about the father and mother (as well as the brother) killing their children (and his other wife while they were at it). The Shafia trial held closing arguments yesterday after a bomb threat (I would love to speculate as to who sent in a bomb threat but let's just move on).
Suffice it to say that after hearing closing arguments, the flimsy defense of the 3 accused was made to look paper thin. The images of the damaged cars (in the same sections that it would take to have one car push the other), the computer histories showing that either the father or brother (or both) had looked up things such as "how to get away with murder" and "best places to dump bodies", as well as "large bodies of water in Canada" points a pretty good circumstantial case. Then there were the wiretaps which caught the patriarch of the family saying that he was glad the deed was done and that if they were to come back from the dead he would kill them again and again.
Then there was the fact that the brother's cell phone was triangulated to be in the area of where the 3 girls and the first wife were found dead. On top of all of that, the father and brother admit they were there and have a different story of events, saying that it was an accident. The mother also said she was there but later recanted. A confusing defense that left many who watched this trial scratching their heads and wondering what their exact strategy actually was.
If I were on this jury, given the sheer volume and depth of evidence, as well as the clear and apparent motive that the father had to get rid of 2 trouble making "westernized" daughters who had already gone to the authorities once about their mistreatment, a 3rd daughter who was following along in their footsteps, and a first wife who was bound to leak out the truth about their polygamous marriage, I think it would take all of 5 minutes to return a verdict of Guilty of 1st degree murder. And I don't see how it's possible that the 7 women, 5 man jury returns anything other then the same.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Tim Thomas: You Goofed....Big time
I'm not sure when it became part of Championship sports in America, but the trip made by a winning team to the White House, in good times and bad times, during prosperous times and recessions, peace and war, has hardly ever been turned down by a member of one of those Champion teams. From what I have read, he is not the first player who has turned down the invite.
The first athlete to turn down the invitation was Larry Bird in 1984. He was always a country bumpkin (which seems to ring true of a few people on this list) and he simply said that if the President wanted to meet him, he could always come to his place instead. WOW! Basketball Jesus he may have been but a rocket scientist he will never be....
The next player to do the exact same thing was Michael Jordan who did so in 1991 after winning the first of his 6 Championships (he would end up attending on the other 5 occasions). He was widely criticized, even by his own teammates (namely Horace Grant who went off saying that there was always a "double standard" with regards to Jordan) for his actions. He defended himself by saying he choose to spend his time with his family (as if his entire off-season regiment would have been put off by going to see then-President George Bush Sr.)
Former Green Bay Packers Tight End Mark Chmura declined his invite in 1997 after the Packer won the Super Bowl. He had already committed to attending a charity golf tournament for a former NFL player who had been paralysed from an injury sustained in a game (Mike Utley) but later admitted he regretted not going and felt he was immature about the way he acted.
Another Brainiac, Pittsburgh Steeler Linebacker James Harrison (he of the multiple fines for repeated illegal hits to his opponents), has the dubious distinction of having declined the White House invite twice, once in 2006 and again in 2009. His reason? If they really wanted to meet him, they would invite the team to the White House after a season in which they didn't win the Super Bowl. And that explains, in even more detail, why you act the way you do; Big muscles....TINY BRAIN!!!
After the Red Sox won the World Series in 2007, Manny Ramirez was a no-show at their White House invite. The reaction? Just Manny being Manny. He never explained why he didn't go.
The most interesting one happened in 2011. The 1986 Chicago Bears never were able to make their visit to the White House after winning the Super Bowl. The week they were supposed to go, the Challenger disaster occurred and, for whatever reason, the team never was granted their opportunity to go. President Obama is a Chicago native. He rectified the situation by extending the offer to the 1986 Bears except that Dan Hampton, one of the Hall of Fame members of the team refused to go saying that it should not have taken 25 years for the team to get the chance to go (and he was right).
Now we come to Tim Thomas. Granted, politics in general in the US has been pathetic since President Obama took office (it's almost as if the Republicans decided that even if they did lose the election, they were not going to let Obama do anything easily and have basically created political gridlock), his stance has been the only one that was (as much as he says it wasn't) politically motivated.
When you say something like you feel that Washington is "Broken", you are making a political statement with your actions. When you refuse to show the proper respect to the office of the President, regardless of whether you agree with the politics of the man who currently sits in that seat, you are making a political statement. When you subject your teammates and team to a barrage of negative publicity and make them have to answer questions about you and your political beliefs (including the fact that you actually think that the science behind global warming is flawed, particularly when you have a member of your team who is close personal friends with David Suzuki), then refuse to answer any questions from the media about your declining the invite, you have made a political statement with your actions that has shown you to be a selfish, pompous, egomaniac who cared more about snubbing the White House then how your actions would be preceived by others and how it would effect your team.
You have made what should have been a nice, feel good moment for you and your teammates into a firestorm in which you are the center of attention, the exact opposite of what any good hockey player would ever want to do. You are not bigger then the Boston Bruins and yet you seem to think you are with your actions and, if I were the owner of the team, having been personally embarrassed as he is rumoured to be by what you did, I would take the first chance I had to get rid of you off my team. Yes you won the Cup last year. Great. If you don't repeat, you are gone. Even if you do, I would still get rid of you because clearly you are not a team player. That and Tuuka Rask is ready to take over the job at a fraction of the pay...
So have fun in the spotlight this weekend in Ottawa at the All-Star game. I hope you enjoy the onslaught of media that you will have all over you this weekend as you highjack that as well. Here's some free advice
for you; If Prime Minister Stephen Harper walks into the locker room (as he well might since he is a massive Hockey fan and historian, who is writing a book about hockey's history in Western Canada), it might be a good idea to just smile and nod if he tries to shake your hand. You may be permanently kicked out of Hockey if you don't (If Harper has anything to say about it)...just sayin' (I'm just kidding, he will just have to undergo an intense Conservative Brainwashing program instead.....hahahaha)
It was the wrong move Tim, and you really do owe your team and everyone associated with it, an apology for being so selfish.
The first athlete to turn down the invitation was Larry Bird in 1984. He was always a country bumpkin (which seems to ring true of a few people on this list) and he simply said that if the President wanted to meet him, he could always come to his place instead. WOW! Basketball Jesus he may have been but a rocket scientist he will never be....
The next player to do the exact same thing was Michael Jordan who did so in 1991 after winning the first of his 6 Championships (he would end up attending on the other 5 occasions). He was widely criticized, even by his own teammates (namely Horace Grant who went off saying that there was always a "double standard" with regards to Jordan) for his actions. He defended himself by saying he choose to spend his time with his family (as if his entire off-season regiment would have been put off by going to see then-President George Bush Sr.)
Former Green Bay Packers Tight End Mark Chmura declined his invite in 1997 after the Packer won the Super Bowl. He had already committed to attending a charity golf tournament for a former NFL player who had been paralysed from an injury sustained in a game (Mike Utley) but later admitted he regretted not going and felt he was immature about the way he acted.
Another Brainiac, Pittsburgh Steeler Linebacker James Harrison (he of the multiple fines for repeated illegal hits to his opponents), has the dubious distinction of having declined the White House invite twice, once in 2006 and again in 2009. His reason? If they really wanted to meet him, they would invite the team to the White House after a season in which they didn't win the Super Bowl. And that explains, in even more detail, why you act the way you do; Big muscles....TINY BRAIN!!!
After the Red Sox won the World Series in 2007, Manny Ramirez was a no-show at their White House invite. The reaction? Just Manny being Manny. He never explained why he didn't go.
The most interesting one happened in 2011. The 1986 Chicago Bears never were able to make their visit to the White House after winning the Super Bowl. The week they were supposed to go, the Challenger disaster occurred and, for whatever reason, the team never was granted their opportunity to go. President Obama is a Chicago native. He rectified the situation by extending the offer to the 1986 Bears except that Dan Hampton, one of the Hall of Fame members of the team refused to go saying that it should not have taken 25 years for the team to get the chance to go (and he was right).
Now we come to Tim Thomas. Granted, politics in general in the US has been pathetic since President Obama took office (it's almost as if the Republicans decided that even if they did lose the election, they were not going to let Obama do anything easily and have basically created political gridlock), his stance has been the only one that was (as much as he says it wasn't) politically motivated.
When you say something like you feel that Washington is "Broken", you are making a political statement with your actions. When you refuse to show the proper respect to the office of the President, regardless of whether you agree with the politics of the man who currently sits in that seat, you are making a political statement. When you subject your teammates and team to a barrage of negative publicity and make them have to answer questions about you and your political beliefs (including the fact that you actually think that the science behind global warming is flawed, particularly when you have a member of your team who is close personal friends with David Suzuki), then refuse to answer any questions from the media about your declining the invite, you have made a political statement with your actions that has shown you to be a selfish, pompous, egomaniac who cared more about snubbing the White House then how your actions would be preceived by others and how it would effect your team.
You have made what should have been a nice, feel good moment for you and your teammates into a firestorm in which you are the center of attention, the exact opposite of what any good hockey player would ever want to do. You are not bigger then the Boston Bruins and yet you seem to think you are with your actions and, if I were the owner of the team, having been personally embarrassed as he is rumoured to be by what you did, I would take the first chance I had to get rid of you off my team. Yes you won the Cup last year. Great. If you don't repeat, you are gone. Even if you do, I would still get rid of you because clearly you are not a team player. That and Tuuka Rask is ready to take over the job at a fraction of the pay...
So have fun in the spotlight this weekend in Ottawa at the All-Star game. I hope you enjoy the onslaught of media that you will have all over you this weekend as you highjack that as well. Here's some free advice
for you; If Prime Minister Stephen Harper walks into the locker room (as he well might since he is a massive Hockey fan and historian, who is writing a book about hockey's history in Western Canada), it might be a good idea to just smile and nod if he tries to shake your hand. You may be permanently kicked out of Hockey if you don't (If Harper has anything to say about it)...just sayin' (I'm just kidding, he will just have to undergo an intense Conservative Brainwashing program instead.....hahahaha)
It was the wrong move Tim, and you really do owe your team and everyone associated with it, an apology for being so selfish.
Monday, January 23, 2012
The Epic Championship Games & The Super Re-Match
Well, well, well. What a weekend of football it was. What a day!
What we witnessed yesterday was 2 epic games that saw thrilling and gut wrenching conclusions for both the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers. The two teams left standing after one of the most thrilling Championship weekends, the New England Patriots and the New York Giants, give us a chance at revisiting one of the most amazing Super Bowl's in recent history when these same two teams battled it out only 4 years ago.
For New York, this is a chance to have (gulp) Eli Manning become the King of New York and surpass his own future-hall-of-fame brother in the process if he is able to win another Super Bowl as well as becoming the first QB in New York to win 2 Super Bowls, 1 more then the Legendary Joe Nameth.
Tom Coughlin, Giants head coach, has become the first NFL coach to win 7 road (or neutral site) playoff games and if they were to win the Super Bowl, they would simply add to his already NFL Record total (he is 7-1 in his career).
For Tom Brady and the Patriots, there is far more at stake, historically speaking. First of all, there is the revenge factor. Remember of course that it was Eli and the Giants that ruined their prefect season with a lucky catch and the failure of the officials to call 4 holds on that same play against the offensive linemen of the Giants (Sorry, I will never forgive those officials for blowing that game for my PERFECT Patriots).
Next of course is the fact that this is Brady's 2nd chance to tie Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw for the most Super Bowl wins by one Quarterback at 4 (Brady is 3-1 but should be 4-0!!!). Also, by winning this Super Bowl, Brady will become the all-time NFL Playoff Leader in Career Playoff wins as with his win yesterday, he tied Joe Montana with his 16th win (he is 16-5 but should be at least 17-4, yes it's a recurring theme today).
Bill Belichick, Patriots head coach, has a chance to win his 4th Super Bowl title which would tie a record held by the legendary coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Chuck Noll, who won 4 in 6 years back in the 70's along with Terry Bradshaw. He along with Brady, have already broken the record for most wins in the regular season by a QB and coach combination this season and will also set the playoff record shortly but this Super Bowl has a lot more meaning to the Patriots then it dos to the Giants. Brady and Belichick have a chance to solidify their already Hall of Fame worthy careers by tying legends of the game if they win in 2 weeks.
Back to the Conference title game losing teams for a moment. I feel horrible for the 49ers and Kyle Williams. He was filling in for the injured Teddy Ginn Jr.and had only had fielded 4 punts the whole season before being pressed into duty yesterday. He fumbled 3 punts, recovering 1 of them but the most vital was the one in OT as it gave the Giants great field position which led to their game winning field goal. He, undoubtedly, will never forget probably the worst day of his life.
The same goes for Billy Cundiff, field goal kicker for the Baltimore Ravens. With Patriots leading 23-20, he lined up with 15 seconds left in the game to try a 32 yard field goal, routine some would argue. A chip shot that should have forced the game into OT instead went spiraling wide left, giving the Patriots their 7th Super Bowl appearance since 1986 and their 5th in the last 12 seasons.
Understandably, Cundiff was a shattered man after the game but he wasn't the only Raven who should be wearing the "Goat" horns today. Lee Evans, wide receiver, should have put them ahead only 1 play earlier except he was unable to hold on to a perfectly thrown ball that was in his bread basket in the end zone until a back up corner back named Sterling Moore was able to rip it away from him.
I watched the post-game interviews conducted by some of the Ravens and I admit I think I have changed my view on Ray Lewis, the long time linebacker of the Ravens. He took it upon himself to defend his teammates and proclaimed that it wasn't the fault of one single player but the fault of all 53 players on the team for their loss. His words should help ease the pain of Cundiff and might even allow him to remain on the team, despite the fact that all the Baltimore media will harp on the missed kick for the entire off season.
Two games, 2 losing teams left in disarray, 2 teams yet to fight it out for the Championship. What a weekend it was....
What we witnessed yesterday was 2 epic games that saw thrilling and gut wrenching conclusions for both the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers. The two teams left standing after one of the most thrilling Championship weekends, the New England Patriots and the New York Giants, give us a chance at revisiting one of the most amazing Super Bowl's in recent history when these same two teams battled it out only 4 years ago.
For New York, this is a chance to have (gulp) Eli Manning become the King of New York and surpass his own future-hall-of-fame brother in the process if he is able to win another Super Bowl as well as becoming the first QB in New York to win 2 Super Bowls, 1 more then the Legendary Joe Nameth.
Tom Coughlin, Giants head coach, has become the first NFL coach to win 7 road (or neutral site) playoff games and if they were to win the Super Bowl, they would simply add to his already NFL Record total (he is 7-1 in his career).
For Tom Brady and the Patriots, there is far more at stake, historically speaking. First of all, there is the revenge factor. Remember of course that it was Eli and the Giants that ruined their prefect season with a lucky catch and the failure of the officials to call 4 holds on that same play against the offensive linemen of the Giants (Sorry, I will never forgive those officials for blowing that game for my PERFECT Patriots).
Next of course is the fact that this is Brady's 2nd chance to tie Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw for the most Super Bowl wins by one Quarterback at 4 (Brady is 3-1 but should be 4-0!!!). Also, by winning this Super Bowl, Brady will become the all-time NFL Playoff Leader in Career Playoff wins as with his win yesterday, he tied Joe Montana with his 16th win (he is 16-5 but should be at least 17-4, yes it's a recurring theme today).
Bill Belichick, Patriots head coach, has a chance to win his 4th Super Bowl title which would tie a record held by the legendary coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Chuck Noll, who won 4 in 6 years back in the 70's along with Terry Bradshaw. He along with Brady, have already broken the record for most wins in the regular season by a QB and coach combination this season and will also set the playoff record shortly but this Super Bowl has a lot more meaning to the Patriots then it dos to the Giants. Brady and Belichick have a chance to solidify their already Hall of Fame worthy careers by tying legends of the game if they win in 2 weeks.
Back to the Conference title game losing teams for a moment. I feel horrible for the 49ers and Kyle Williams. He was filling in for the injured Teddy Ginn Jr.and had only had fielded 4 punts the whole season before being pressed into duty yesterday. He fumbled 3 punts, recovering 1 of them but the most vital was the one in OT as it gave the Giants great field position which led to their game winning field goal. He, undoubtedly, will never forget probably the worst day of his life.
The same goes for Billy Cundiff, field goal kicker for the Baltimore Ravens. With Patriots leading 23-20, he lined up with 15 seconds left in the game to try a 32 yard field goal, routine some would argue. A chip shot that should have forced the game into OT instead went spiraling wide left, giving the Patriots their 7th Super Bowl appearance since 1986 and their 5th in the last 12 seasons.
Understandably, Cundiff was a shattered man after the game but he wasn't the only Raven who should be wearing the "Goat" horns today. Lee Evans, wide receiver, should have put them ahead only 1 play earlier except he was unable to hold on to a perfectly thrown ball that was in his bread basket in the end zone until a back up corner back named Sterling Moore was able to rip it away from him.
I watched the post-game interviews conducted by some of the Ravens and I admit I think I have changed my view on Ray Lewis, the long time linebacker of the Ravens. He took it upon himself to defend his teammates and proclaimed that it wasn't the fault of one single player but the fault of all 53 players on the team for their loss. His words should help ease the pain of Cundiff and might even allow him to remain on the team, despite the fact that all the Baltimore media will harp on the missed kick for the entire off season.
Two games, 2 losing teams left in disarray, 2 teams yet to fight it out for the Championship. What a weekend it was....
Friday, January 20, 2012
Tragic Loss, False Identities and The Road to the Super Bowl
As I am sure you have heard by now, Sarah Burke, Freestyle skier extraordinaire and pioneer in getting her sport of Freestyle skiing into the Winter Olympics, passed away yesterday after having had a horrible crash during a training run in Utah 9 days ago. While her family felt it was important to stress the fact that her death wasn't directly caused by her fall, stressing instead however that she did in fact suffer cardiac arrest right after the accident which cut off the flow of oxygen to her brain. The full extent of the damage was not revealed until shortly after the doctors in Utah tried to fix the severed arteries damaged in the fall.
Once they saw that she had suffered such extreme and irreversible brain damage, the doctors informed the family and their new conference scheduled for Monday was cancelled. It was only a matter of time after that before she finally succumbed to the severity of her injuries and she died peacefully yesterday afternoon.
She was only 29 years old but she was already considered a living legend in her sport and had fought tooth and nail to get her sport on the big stage of the Winter Olympics. She narrowly missed out on getting it into the Vancouver Olympics but would have been the top competitor for the 2014 Olympic games in Sochy, Russia had she not been taken away by such a tragic fall.
Her loss will be flet most by her family and her grieving husband of course but whenever a young, vibrant athlete, at the peak of their lives, is so unfairly taken away from the world, we all feel the loss as if it were one of our own family members. The Sports world has suffered a tragic loss.
Some one is going to have to explain to me how athletes from the Dominican Republic continue to evade US Authorities by somehow using false ID's and names to gain entry to the US as well Green Cards to play Baseball. Late word today on sportsnet.ca was that Cleveland Indians Pitcher Fausto Carmona (Gret name choice too, by the way; Fausto) was arrested as he attempted to renew his papers. Apparently, his real name is Roberto Hernandez Heredia and he also lied about his age as well as when he was listed as Fausto, he was 28 but Mr. Heredia is actually 31. A pretty big lie for a man who is scheduled to make $7 million this year, and the Indians hold options for 2013 at $9 million and 2014 at $12 million. That's $28 Million locked in for a guy who was able to effectively lie to the entire world for almost a decade, if not longer, until today.
While he was released on US $13,000 bail, the Indians have a pretty big decision to make with regards to whether they honour his contract or decide to terminate based upon his deception. Considering this is a man who once won 19 games for them in a season, it won't be an easy decision.
Conference finals are upon us in the NFL with the New York Giants playing against the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens heading up to Foxborough to play my New England Patriots. Nothing would make me feel better then to have a re-match with those pesky Giants but I really think it will end up being the 49ers who beat the Giants and head to the Super Bowl by smacking around Eli Manning and holding his offence in check to the tune of a 21-10 win while the Patriots will steam roll the Ravens by a final score of 35-14. Normally I would go ahead and breakdown the what, why and exactly how but I think this time I will just let my Super Bowl Finalists speak for themselves: San Francisco vs. New England
Once they saw that she had suffered such extreme and irreversible brain damage, the doctors informed the family and their new conference scheduled for Monday was cancelled. It was only a matter of time after that before she finally succumbed to the severity of her injuries and she died peacefully yesterday afternoon.
She was only 29 years old but she was already considered a living legend in her sport and had fought tooth and nail to get her sport on the big stage of the Winter Olympics. She narrowly missed out on getting it into the Vancouver Olympics but would have been the top competitor for the 2014 Olympic games in Sochy, Russia had she not been taken away by such a tragic fall.
Her loss will be flet most by her family and her grieving husband of course but whenever a young, vibrant athlete, at the peak of their lives, is so unfairly taken away from the world, we all feel the loss as if it were one of our own family members. The Sports world has suffered a tragic loss.
Some one is going to have to explain to me how athletes from the Dominican Republic continue to evade US Authorities by somehow using false ID's and names to gain entry to the US as well Green Cards to play Baseball. Late word today on sportsnet.ca was that Cleveland Indians Pitcher Fausto Carmona (Gret name choice too, by the way; Fausto) was arrested as he attempted to renew his papers. Apparently, his real name is Roberto Hernandez Heredia and he also lied about his age as well as when he was listed as Fausto, he was 28 but Mr. Heredia is actually 31. A pretty big lie for a man who is scheduled to make $7 million this year, and the Indians hold options for 2013 at $9 million and 2014 at $12 million. That's $28 Million locked in for a guy who was able to effectively lie to the entire world for almost a decade, if not longer, until today.
While he was released on US $13,000 bail, the Indians have a pretty big decision to make with regards to whether they honour his contract or decide to terminate based upon his deception. Considering this is a man who once won 19 games for them in a season, it won't be an easy decision.
Conference finals are upon us in the NFL with the New York Giants playing against the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens heading up to Foxborough to play my New England Patriots. Nothing would make me feel better then to have a re-match with those pesky Giants but I really think it will end up being the 49ers who beat the Giants and head to the Super Bowl by smacking around Eli Manning and holding his offence in check to the tune of a 21-10 win while the Patriots will steam roll the Ravens by a final score of 35-14. Normally I would go ahead and breakdown the what, why and exactly how but I think this time I will just let my Super Bowl Finalists speak for themselves: San Francisco vs. New England
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
City of Toronto Budget Wars: Temporary Fix to Permanent Problems
Some people in the City of Toronto are (rightfully) ecstatic today as several programs and facilities that were on the chopping block, were saved at the last minute by a move by rookie city counsellor Josh Colle that saw over $15 Million re-inserted into the 2012 budget. All the people in attendance (the ones who actually give a damn about specific things within the city limits) cheered when the motion passed and the major portions of Mayor Ford's budget were voted down by a narrow 23-21 vote.
What these people gained this year was just another year reprieve for programs such as underused public pools, outdoor skating rinks and mechanical leaf collection in Scarborough and Etobicoke (Really? With people fighting over money for daycare, you allocate money for mechanical leaf collection?). The shortfall in the budget for these programs is now being covered by money that could have been saved for use next year in the budget shortfall that will once again be in place then. Without such things as user fees (and really, who can't afford paying like $20 a month to use a city run pool during the summer?) these programs will once again be the subject of great debate one year from now because they just don't generate the revenue that can continue to keep them in the black as opposed to being in the red.
The problem we are seeing with Toronto City Council is the result of the low voter turnout in the municipal elections which brought Rob Ford into power in the first place. The people who cared and took issue with the way that former Mayor David Miller ran things, were the ones who voted in Mayor Ford because they were tired of Miller and his double digit increases to his own and city counselor salaries while city infrastructure deteriorated around him.
These same people wanted a hawk to come in as teh next mayor and do exactly what Rob Ford promise he would as he used the slogan, "Stop the Gravytrain" to grab their attention, claiming he would finally stop the flow of taxpayer money from city coffers to hand picked supporters of the former Mayor and city counselors who would commonly use their office budget as their own blank cheque to use as they wished.
These same people who have been whining and complaining about just about every suggestion of Mr. Ford has made with regards to budget cuts failed to generate enough support for their own candidates when it counted in order to put their own choice for mayor in office. Even I disagree with some of Mayor Ford's suggestions for his budget but considering the fact that he is the only one coming up with ideas and every single one has seen protests or complaints from one segment of the population or another seems to me to be completely unfair. Essentially, the people of Toronto are acting like children.
Mayor: "Would you like a red crayon?"
City: "No!"
Mayor: "How about a blue one?"
City: "NO!"
Mayor: "Yellow?"
City: "NO, NO, NO!!!!"
I know I am being a bit over the top there but still, you get the point. Instead of even having his newly elected city counselors come up with ideas, they pussied out and instead when asked to come up with suggestions, they opted to have continuous town hall meetings to get the public to give them ideas in order to save their own political asses, without really getting any ideas of what to do at all. All the town hall meetings did was generate a ton of bad press for the Mayor as he was characterized as the one who wanted all these cuts and the counselors, who didn't have the balls to make any suggestions, came off looking like the beacons of democracy for bailing on the job they were voted in to do; make budgetary decisions.
I'm not saying Mayor Ford isn't an idiot for not having just rallied the troops and done exactly what he wanted to do. You are the mayor. You were voted in to enact change, then go out and do it (this rings true for you too Mr. President, yes you Mr. Obama). If you are voted in with a specific mandate, then by god you do it, come hell or high water. If you don't then you are showing everyone who voted for you that you were all talk, and no action, regardless of your reasons why (although I will give Mr. Obama a break on this one as he was pretty much stymied at every turn by a racist Republican Senate that simply didn't want to do anything that the President would even think of suggesting). The fact he allowed such public groundswell of support to build against him does not bode well for any future re-election campaign.
What the people in the city of Toronto need to understand is that when the city budget is in such rough shape (mostly because of the way that the former Mayor left the city in such a huge fiscal hole after 7 years of budgetary ineptitude on his part), tough calls will have to be made with regards to specific programs. A one year fix (which is all this budget that was passed last night will be: a temporary fix), does nothing but delay a final decision by one year. You've done yourself no favours here.
Celebrate all you want but the issue will return until you realize that by continuing to live above your means, you are only dooming future generations to years and years of having less and less because thy will still be paying off the debts we are creating today.
Great job....
What these people gained this year was just another year reprieve for programs such as underused public pools, outdoor skating rinks and mechanical leaf collection in Scarborough and Etobicoke (Really? With people fighting over money for daycare, you allocate money for mechanical leaf collection?). The shortfall in the budget for these programs is now being covered by money that could have been saved for use next year in the budget shortfall that will once again be in place then. Without such things as user fees (and really, who can't afford paying like $20 a month to use a city run pool during the summer?) these programs will once again be the subject of great debate one year from now because they just don't generate the revenue that can continue to keep them in the black as opposed to being in the red.
The problem we are seeing with Toronto City Council is the result of the low voter turnout in the municipal elections which brought Rob Ford into power in the first place. The people who cared and took issue with the way that former Mayor David Miller ran things, were the ones who voted in Mayor Ford because they were tired of Miller and his double digit increases to his own and city counselor salaries while city infrastructure deteriorated around him.
These same people wanted a hawk to come in as teh next mayor and do exactly what Rob Ford promise he would as he used the slogan, "Stop the Gravytrain" to grab their attention, claiming he would finally stop the flow of taxpayer money from city coffers to hand picked supporters of the former Mayor and city counselors who would commonly use their office budget as their own blank cheque to use as they wished.
These same people who have been whining and complaining about just about every suggestion of Mr. Ford has made with regards to budget cuts failed to generate enough support for their own candidates when it counted in order to put their own choice for mayor in office. Even I disagree with some of Mayor Ford's suggestions for his budget but considering the fact that he is the only one coming up with ideas and every single one has seen protests or complaints from one segment of the population or another seems to me to be completely unfair. Essentially, the people of Toronto are acting like children.
Mayor: "Would you like a red crayon?"
City: "No!"
Mayor: "How about a blue one?"
City: "NO!"
Mayor: "Yellow?"
City: "NO, NO, NO!!!!"
I know I am being a bit over the top there but still, you get the point. Instead of even having his newly elected city counselors come up with ideas, they pussied out and instead when asked to come up with suggestions, they opted to have continuous town hall meetings to get the public to give them ideas in order to save their own political asses, without really getting any ideas of what to do at all. All the town hall meetings did was generate a ton of bad press for the Mayor as he was characterized as the one who wanted all these cuts and the counselors, who didn't have the balls to make any suggestions, came off looking like the beacons of democracy for bailing on the job they were voted in to do; make budgetary decisions.
I'm not saying Mayor Ford isn't an idiot for not having just rallied the troops and done exactly what he wanted to do. You are the mayor. You were voted in to enact change, then go out and do it (this rings true for you too Mr. President, yes you Mr. Obama). If you are voted in with a specific mandate, then by god you do it, come hell or high water. If you don't then you are showing everyone who voted for you that you were all talk, and no action, regardless of your reasons why (although I will give Mr. Obama a break on this one as he was pretty much stymied at every turn by a racist Republican Senate that simply didn't want to do anything that the President would even think of suggesting). The fact he allowed such public groundswell of support to build against him does not bode well for any future re-election campaign.
What the people in the city of Toronto need to understand is that when the city budget is in such rough shape (mostly because of the way that the former Mayor left the city in such a huge fiscal hole after 7 years of budgetary ineptitude on his part), tough calls will have to be made with regards to specific programs. A one year fix (which is all this budget that was passed last night will be: a temporary fix), does nothing but delay a final decision by one year. You've done yourself no favours here.
Celebrate all you want but the issue will return until you realize that by continuing to live above your means, you are only dooming future generations to years and years of having less and less because thy will still be paying off the debts we are creating today.
Great job....
Want a Better NHL? Hire Better Refs!
I will preface this blog by saying that after having watched the Leafs-Sens game last night and then most of the Canucks-Kings game as well as parts of the Sharks-Flames games, I went to bed with such a bad taste in my mouth about the officiating in each game that I hardly wanted to watch the end of either of the late games.
Lets start with the Leaf game as there were at least 5 blown or bad calls just from that game alone. Shortly after the Leafs had taken a 2-0 lead, the Refs started to impose their will on the game, turning an end to end gem into a game that left many (including Daren Dreger this morning on TSN Radio expressing the same thing as me), shaking their heads. First there was the missed interference call on Kyle Turris as he slid into James Reimer, making it impossible for him to make the save on the first Ottawa goal. The fact he was slightly pushed into the crease area by a Leaf defender doesn't change the fact that Turris kept going and pushed Reimer enough to make it easier for Alfie to snipe the top corner on a weak backhand.
While I don't think it should have been a penalty, at the very least the goal should have been disallowed and the play restarted outside the Leaf zone as if the Senators had short the puck out of play on their own. But no. So that's 1 mistake. The second occurred when Nick Foligno, clearly reacting to how Dion Phaneuf had treated Jason Spezza in a scrum only moments beforehand, pulled the exact same move that Brad Marchand pulled on Sami Salo last week, resulting in a 5 minute major, game misconduct and multi-game suspension for the same penalty Foligno was called on; Clipping. Instead, the typical 2 minute minor and Phaneuf, appearing as if he had been concussed on the play, left to head off the ice only to return a few minutes later (probably without having gone to the "quiet room" as he should have). That makes 2 bad calls.
Just before the end of the period, bad call #3 comes to us after Foligno and Phaneuf fight it out. In what was clearly a mutually agreed upon battle, somehow the Leafs Phaneuf ended up with the extra 2 minutes (for what? I really don't know, even to this point and neither did Joe Bowen or Greg Millen). So that makes 3 now. Then, on the same power play no less, Ottawa scored to tie the game, but again it should not have counted. I'm not sure what league these officials used to work in but when an opposing player goes into the goalie as he is trying to make a save and basically sits on him, then reaches behind as the puck is loose and taps it in while impeding the same goalies ability to make an attempt at a save, by definition, it is called goaltender interference and, in this case, should have been a penalty. It wasn't and the goal counted as the only thing they reviewed was whether it was kicked in or not (it was but then was lucky enough to hit Spezza's stick before slowly making it's way over the goal line).
So that makes 4 bad calls and we haven't even hit the 3rd period yet. Kyle Turris scored the only clean goal of the night for the Sens by picking the top corner, glove side on Reimer. I can accept that. What I get mad at are clear calls that are missed when they are done right in front of the officials. With about 9 minutes left in the 3rd period and the Leafs pressing the issue trying to tie the game, Joffrey Lupul and Sergei Gonchar were battling back in forth in the corner.
The puck squirted towards the back of the net and both players pursued it with Lupul slightly ahead of Gonchar. As they both slow to try and corral the puck, Gonchar takes two cross-checks to the lower of Lupul, knocking him down on the second. This with one of the officials just 10 feet away, watching the play. After he knocks down Lupul, Gonchar grabs the puck and the Sens clear the puck with no call made by either ref. This prompted Greg Millen to wonder aloud why that wasn't called a penalty before and then to comment that the refs had "put away the whistle", a polite way of saying that he missed yet another one.
That makes 5 missed calls in one game that should have ended at the very least at 2-1 for the Leafs but instead saw the Sens get a "officially" gift wrapped 3-2 victory. It appears to be synonymous with the current brand of NHL officials to at least either change the tempo of a good game or try to impose their will on the game at the most ridiculous times possible by making calls or missing obvious ones. I could go into just as much detail about the calls that should have been made in the other 2 games (which were just as blatant) but I think I have made my point. The point? That current NHL officials are missing more and more calls or making bad ones that make no sense.
Here's another example of something I can't stand. Player A is chasing player B (with Player B having possession of the puck). The whole time he is hacking and whacking at him as he chases him. No call. Now if Player A had instead simply put his stick in the general area of Player B's stomach and maybe even tried to lift his stick but instead made any kind of contact with Player B's hands, that's a penalty, even if that slight hook made no difference in the play. Another example; Player A slashes Player B's stick and the puck comes loose.
No call. Player A lightly taps Player B's stick and it snaps (because it's a piece of crap graphite stick). Penalty. There is, within the rules, a chance for the official to use his head and determine if it was or wasn't worth a penalty but 99% of the time, these guys don't use common sense or logic and just go with what they see.
It's so infuriating to watch the officials turn the game into a mockery. The credibility of the league comes into question when the officials can't get simple calls right and last night made me really wonder about the zebras out there. Can we bring back Paul Stewart or Bill McCreary or Kerry Fras...Check that on the Fraser one, he missed the easiest call ever and cost the Leafs a chance at being in the Cup Final in 1993. I guess officials are one thing over everything else: Human.
Lets start with the Leaf game as there were at least 5 blown or bad calls just from that game alone. Shortly after the Leafs had taken a 2-0 lead, the Refs started to impose their will on the game, turning an end to end gem into a game that left many (including Daren Dreger this morning on TSN Radio expressing the same thing as me), shaking their heads. First there was the missed interference call on Kyle Turris as he slid into James Reimer, making it impossible for him to make the save on the first Ottawa goal. The fact he was slightly pushed into the crease area by a Leaf defender doesn't change the fact that Turris kept going and pushed Reimer enough to make it easier for Alfie to snipe the top corner on a weak backhand.
While I don't think it should have been a penalty, at the very least the goal should have been disallowed and the play restarted outside the Leaf zone as if the Senators had short the puck out of play on their own. But no. So that's 1 mistake. The second occurred when Nick Foligno, clearly reacting to how Dion Phaneuf had treated Jason Spezza in a scrum only moments beforehand, pulled the exact same move that Brad Marchand pulled on Sami Salo last week, resulting in a 5 minute major, game misconduct and multi-game suspension for the same penalty Foligno was called on; Clipping. Instead, the typical 2 minute minor and Phaneuf, appearing as if he had been concussed on the play, left to head off the ice only to return a few minutes later (probably without having gone to the "quiet room" as he should have). That makes 2 bad calls.
Just before the end of the period, bad call #3 comes to us after Foligno and Phaneuf fight it out. In what was clearly a mutually agreed upon battle, somehow the Leafs Phaneuf ended up with the extra 2 minutes (for what? I really don't know, even to this point and neither did Joe Bowen or Greg Millen). So that makes 3 now. Then, on the same power play no less, Ottawa scored to tie the game, but again it should not have counted. I'm not sure what league these officials used to work in but when an opposing player goes into the goalie as he is trying to make a save and basically sits on him, then reaches behind as the puck is loose and taps it in while impeding the same goalies ability to make an attempt at a save, by definition, it is called goaltender interference and, in this case, should have been a penalty. It wasn't and the goal counted as the only thing they reviewed was whether it was kicked in or not (it was but then was lucky enough to hit Spezza's stick before slowly making it's way over the goal line).
So that makes 4 bad calls and we haven't even hit the 3rd period yet. Kyle Turris scored the only clean goal of the night for the Sens by picking the top corner, glove side on Reimer. I can accept that. What I get mad at are clear calls that are missed when they are done right in front of the officials. With about 9 minutes left in the 3rd period and the Leafs pressing the issue trying to tie the game, Joffrey Lupul and Sergei Gonchar were battling back in forth in the corner.
The puck squirted towards the back of the net and both players pursued it with Lupul slightly ahead of Gonchar. As they both slow to try and corral the puck, Gonchar takes two cross-checks to the lower of Lupul, knocking him down on the second. This with one of the officials just 10 feet away, watching the play. After he knocks down Lupul, Gonchar grabs the puck and the Sens clear the puck with no call made by either ref. This prompted Greg Millen to wonder aloud why that wasn't called a penalty before and then to comment that the refs had "put away the whistle", a polite way of saying that he missed yet another one.
That makes 5 missed calls in one game that should have ended at the very least at 2-1 for the Leafs but instead saw the Sens get a "officially" gift wrapped 3-2 victory. It appears to be synonymous with the current brand of NHL officials to at least either change the tempo of a good game or try to impose their will on the game at the most ridiculous times possible by making calls or missing obvious ones. I could go into just as much detail about the calls that should have been made in the other 2 games (which were just as blatant) but I think I have made my point. The point? That current NHL officials are missing more and more calls or making bad ones that make no sense.
Here's another example of something I can't stand. Player A is chasing player B (with Player B having possession of the puck). The whole time he is hacking and whacking at him as he chases him. No call. Now if Player A had instead simply put his stick in the general area of Player B's stomach and maybe even tried to lift his stick but instead made any kind of contact with Player B's hands, that's a penalty, even if that slight hook made no difference in the play. Another example; Player A slashes Player B's stick and the puck comes loose.
No call. Player A lightly taps Player B's stick and it snaps (because it's a piece of crap graphite stick). Penalty. There is, within the rules, a chance for the official to use his head and determine if it was or wasn't worth a penalty but 99% of the time, these guys don't use common sense or logic and just go with what they see.
It's so infuriating to watch the officials turn the game into a mockery. The credibility of the league comes into question when the officials can't get simple calls right and last night made me really wonder about the zebras out there. Can we bring back Paul Stewart or Bill McCreary or Kerry Fras...Check that on the Fraser one, he missed the easiest call ever and cost the Leafs a chance at being in the Cup Final in 1993. I guess officials are one thing over everything else: Human.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Leafs Should make some Deals...They Need Bobby Ryan and they need him NOW!!!
Rumours are the in thing for sportscasters to speculate about. As I heard earlier, without them, many would be out of a job. One of the hottest ones out there has been that the Anaheim Ducks are about to blow things up and deal one of their young studs in an effort to change their fortunes and maybe even start looking at the future since they got off to such a terrible start this year.
Their 3 headed monster of Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf and Bobby Ryan have been largely inconsistent this season considering the fact that their top point producer is 41 year old Teemu Selanne (who seems to just keep on going and going). Ryan seems to be getting the most attention as teams are apparently lining up to try and pry him away from the Ducks, hoping he is the missing piece of the puzzle for their team to go on a nice long playoff run.
It's not as if he is an aging player as he was drafted right behind Sidney Crosby 2nd overall, in 2005. He can still produce points and some highlight reel goals and he's just 23 years old so many teams are looking at him as a potential cornerstone for their future....if the price is right.
I'm here to tell you that the Leafs need to make a deal to get him and they need to do it now. They are coming off of a tough loss to the Sabres (where the Monster had a couple of softies get behind him) and then a no-show the next night against the Rangers at home in a 3-0 whitewash and their top offensive guys seem to be in a rut right now as both Kessel and Lupul have gone 3 straight games being held pointless.
The rumours suggest that the Leafs are offering up Luke Schenn (about time), Nazem Kadri (logical since he has never been one of Ron Wilson's favorites) and a draft pick to Anaheim for Ryan. I wouldn't stop there however as this should really be the first of at least 2, maybe 3 moves that they need to make to secure themselves of that elusive playoff spot.
With several players about to return to active duty in the coming weeks, the Leafs are now in a position of depth at every position which they should use to get younger, cheaper and better. Liles, Armstrong and Bozak are all either about to return or well on their way to returning, which has already forced the team to demote a couple of young players who probably didn't deserve to be sent down in Matt Frattin and Jake Gardiner.
As well, Joe Colborne showed enough (to me anyway) in his short time up here, that he is ready to be that 2nd or 3rd line center in the NHL now as he has the hands, the body and the vision to become the eventual top line center that this team has been dying to find since Sundin was here.
If they could somehow get Ryan out of Anaheim, then their next focus should be to try to finally get that top line center (a stop gap until Colborne is ready to take over that spot). I would suggest that the best player available may very well be Eric Staal out of Carolina and, of course, to even attempt to get him would cost just as much, if not more then getting Bobby Ryan.
I would suggest that if Anaheim were to deal Ryan for Schenn, Kadri and a pair of 2nd round picks then that would leave some cookies in the cupboard for a run at Staal. Here is what I would offer for Staal; Nik Kulemen, Tyler Bozak, Jake Gardiner, this years first round pick as well as a conditional pick based upon if the Leafs win the Cup in the next 3 years or not (which could turn into another 1st round pick).
The team would take on such a dramatic change that it would take a good 10 games to sort out everything but with these lines, I think we would have a much better team;
Kessel-Staal-Lupol
Ryan-Grabovski-MacArthur
Frattin-Connolly-Lombardi
Armstrong-Steckel-Brown
Crabb and Boyce as the extra forwards and Rosehill Demoted/Released
Phaneuf-Aulie
Fransen-Liles
Komisarek-Gunnarsson
Korbinian Holzer would become the 7th Defenceman in a pinch and there are several others on that Marlies team that are pushing to make the big team already.
With Reimer an Gustavsson giving the team decent goaltending, it's entirely possible that this team could do some serious damage in the Playoffs. Who knows, it might even make people hate the Leafs even more if they actually won the whole damned things for once....
Their 3 headed monster of Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf and Bobby Ryan have been largely inconsistent this season considering the fact that their top point producer is 41 year old Teemu Selanne (who seems to just keep on going and going). Ryan seems to be getting the most attention as teams are apparently lining up to try and pry him away from the Ducks, hoping he is the missing piece of the puzzle for their team to go on a nice long playoff run.
It's not as if he is an aging player as he was drafted right behind Sidney Crosby 2nd overall, in 2005. He can still produce points and some highlight reel goals and he's just 23 years old so many teams are looking at him as a potential cornerstone for their future....if the price is right.
I'm here to tell you that the Leafs need to make a deal to get him and they need to do it now. They are coming off of a tough loss to the Sabres (where the Monster had a couple of softies get behind him) and then a no-show the next night against the Rangers at home in a 3-0 whitewash and their top offensive guys seem to be in a rut right now as both Kessel and Lupul have gone 3 straight games being held pointless.
The rumours suggest that the Leafs are offering up Luke Schenn (about time), Nazem Kadri (logical since he has never been one of Ron Wilson's favorites) and a draft pick to Anaheim for Ryan. I wouldn't stop there however as this should really be the first of at least 2, maybe 3 moves that they need to make to secure themselves of that elusive playoff spot.
With several players about to return to active duty in the coming weeks, the Leafs are now in a position of depth at every position which they should use to get younger, cheaper and better. Liles, Armstrong and Bozak are all either about to return or well on their way to returning, which has already forced the team to demote a couple of young players who probably didn't deserve to be sent down in Matt Frattin and Jake Gardiner.
As well, Joe Colborne showed enough (to me anyway) in his short time up here, that he is ready to be that 2nd or 3rd line center in the NHL now as he has the hands, the body and the vision to become the eventual top line center that this team has been dying to find since Sundin was here.
If they could somehow get Ryan out of Anaheim, then their next focus should be to try to finally get that top line center (a stop gap until Colborne is ready to take over that spot). I would suggest that the best player available may very well be Eric Staal out of Carolina and, of course, to even attempt to get him would cost just as much, if not more then getting Bobby Ryan.
I would suggest that if Anaheim were to deal Ryan for Schenn, Kadri and a pair of 2nd round picks then that would leave some cookies in the cupboard for a run at Staal. Here is what I would offer for Staal; Nik Kulemen, Tyler Bozak, Jake Gardiner, this years first round pick as well as a conditional pick based upon if the Leafs win the Cup in the next 3 years or not (which could turn into another 1st round pick).
The team would take on such a dramatic change that it would take a good 10 games to sort out everything but with these lines, I think we would have a much better team;
Kessel-Staal-Lupol
Ryan-Grabovski-MacArthur
Frattin-Connolly-Lombardi
Armstrong-Steckel-Brown
Crabb and Boyce as the extra forwards and Rosehill Demoted/Released
Phaneuf-Aulie
Fransen-Liles
Komisarek-Gunnarsson
Korbinian Holzer would become the 7th Defenceman in a pinch and there are several others on that Marlies team that are pushing to make the big team already.
With Reimer an Gustavsson giving the team decent goaltending, it's entirely possible that this team could do some serious damage in the Playoffs. Who knows, it might even make people hate the Leafs even more if they actually won the whole damned things for once....
The end of the World (?!),Tim 316 Tebow, Vampire Diarrhea and other 2012 Thoughts
So the world is going to end this year.....yeah, for anyone who dies....and that's about it
We are a little over a week into 2012 and I think I have already seen about 10 shows about the end of the world this year. This is the last year of the Mayan calendar and everyone sees that as a prophecy that this is the last year of our current version of the world. Did it ever occur to anyone that maybe the Mayans just ran out of room for their calendar on the tablet?
All joking aside, I think people need to relax and get a grip on things. The way I look at it, the day you die is the day the world ends for you. This planet, as old as it is and as much of a beating as we do to our environment, the world will not end. This planet is millions of years old. It has survived anything and everything our cosmos has thrown at it and even though we have been acting like the Decepticons in an old Transformers cartoon episode by draining all of our resources at record levels, this planet will endure. We, however, may not and that is the main reason why we need to get our collective heads out of our asses and do something about the environmental issues around us.
Not sure if you’ve heard of a guy who is the QB of the Denver Broncos. Tim something or other. Tebow, right yeah. Tim Tebow continues to amaze with the way he has evolved over the last 10 weeks. When he was promoted from the 3rd string QB to the starter, he simply went out and won 7 of his first 8 starts, including 3 OT wins, propelling his team to an 8-5 record at the time and had them leading the division. The last 3 weeks of the season saw a regression of sorts as teams started to catch on to what he was doing and we saw an 0-3 record and the team back into not only a playoff spot, but also a division championship. Even when he lost, he won. Just not with regards to his critics.
He has had a spot light on him since his college days when he won the Heisman trophy as the top Collegiate Football player as 2 National Championships. He is a devout Christian who has chosen to wait until marriage before having his first sexual experience and he has even appeared in an anti-abortion ad that has run in the Southern US. He has had almost every single football expert critique his play to the point where almost to a man, they all agreed he will ultimately fail as an NFL player and yet, he has somehow managed to get the Broncos to the 2nd round of the NFL Playoffs. He has had games where he has looked like a high school player playing against men for 3 of the 4 quarters then turns the tables and looks like a man playing against boys in the 4th quarter in leading his team to several come from behind wins.
He was supposed to get eaten alive by the big bad Steelers and their #1 rated Defence and instead he came out and threw for a religious 316 yards in the air in a thoroughly entertaining 29-23 OT win. Now he goes up against someone who is considered the poster boy of the NFL, Tom Brady, who is almost the exact opposite of Tebow. Tebow was the 4 year starter and Big Man on Campus for his entire college career while Brady had to scratch and claw just to make his way up the depth chart before he was finally the starter in his final 2 years. Brady has kids with 2 of the most beautiful women in the world, one of which was out of wedlock, Tebow right now wouldn’t know what to do with a naked woman other then tell her to get on her knees….and join him in prayer.
Then there are the similarities. Both of them did not play in their first year in the NFL. Both of them had to come in and take over the role of starter in their 2nd year when many thought they were not ready for it. Both of them were involved in massive upsets of the Steelers in the Playoffs in their first year as the starter. But unlike Brady, Tebow has been very harshly criticized more for his beliefs then for his play (and that’s saying something considering he was usually awful for 3 out of every 4 quarters he was playing, even when he was WINNING?!?!). There are many who believe that Tebow has been more harshly attacked because of how he wears his religious beliefs on his sleeve.
To be fair, NFL players commonly get into prayer circles when a player is injured and well over 95% of NFL players are Christian themselves so it does seem a bit odd that yet so many are openly attacking him that it seems almost as if there is some form of resentment towards him from many of the people who are supposed to be objectively reporting what he does. I hope that after he fails to defeat the Patriots this weekend, that people don’t start calling him a flash in the pan because he isn’t and the performance he put on display a few days ago shows that he does in fact have what it takes to be a solid NFL starter.
And now to the real thing I wanted to rip when I first started writing this today. Vampire stories are just flooding our airwaves with garbage almost on a nightly basis. Just since 2009, there has been an onslaught of TV shows and movies all with a central theme of Vampires and it’s just insane to me. Here’s a quick list of some of the ones that stick out (complete list below); Daybreakers, Priest, True Blood, the Vampire Diaries, Underworld 3 and 4, Being Human (UK and US versions), Fright Night, Lost Boys 3, not to mention all the Twilight movies, 28 Weeks Later, I Am Legend (while both of the latter are about blood sucking creatures, they still fit into the criteria).
(Thank you to http://suburbanvampire.blogspot.com/2008/12/vampire-films-in-2009-2010-2011-and.html for the complete list)
Being Human (2009) (UK TV series) TRAILER
Bled (2009) (DVD)
The Bleeding (2009)
Blood (2009)
Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) TRAILER
Bram Stoker's Vampire Diaries Renfield (2009)
Carmilla (2009)
The Coffin (2009)
The Dead Matter (2009) TRAILER
Dead of Night (2009)
The Death of Alice Blue (2009)
Doomsday County (2009)
The Eternal (2009)
Hello Darkness (2009)
High Midnight (2009)
The Informers (2009)
Kiss of the Vampire (2009) (DVD) TRAILER
Lesbian Vampire Killers (2009) TRAILER
Let the Right One In (2009--Italy, France, & UK) TRAILER
New Moon (2009)
Live Girls (2009)
Patient X (2009)
PCP... A VanGuard Chronicle (2009)
The Revenant (2009)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (2009) TRAILER
Shadowland (2009)
Sodium Babies (2009) TRAILER
Suck (2009) TRAILER
The Teeth of the Night (2009)
Thirst (2009) TRAILER
Transylmania (2009) TRAILER
True Blood, Season 2 (HBO TV series, June 2009)
Twilight (2009--various countries) TRAILER
Twilight Watch (2009)
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009) TRAILER
Valemont (MTV web series) (2009)
The Vampire Diaries (TV series, 2009) TRAILER
Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (2009)
Vampire in Vegas (2009)
The Vampire's Assistant (formerly Cirque du Freak)(2009) PHOTO TRAILER
The Vampires of Bloody Island (2009)
30 Days of Night: Dark Days (2010)
Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire (2010)
Bite (web series) (2010) TRAILER
Daybreakers (2010) TRAILER
Dead Sucks (2010) TRAILER
Dracula: The Undead (2010)
Eclipse (2010)
The Fixer (TV series) (2010) TRAILER
The Historian (2010)
The Knights Templar (2010)
Last Blood (2010)
Let Me In (Let the Right One In U.S. Remake) (2010)
Lost Boys 3 (2010)
Love at Second Bite (2010)
Priest (2010)
Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell (2010)
Soulstice (2010)
Stake Land (2010)
The Un-Dead (2010)
Bubba Nosferatu and the Curse of the She-Vampires (2011)
Breaking Dawn (2011)
Castlevania (2011)
Dark Shadows (2011)
Dracula (2011)
Dracula Year Zero (2011)
Hotel Transylvania (2011)
House of Night (Untitled Project) (2011)
The Night Projectionist (2011)
Virulents (2011)
Blood Brothers (date TBA)
Blood Type (TV series, date TBA)
Damned Friday (date TBA)
Damn Nation (date TBA)
Dear Dracula (date TBA)
The Hunger (date TBA)
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (date TBA)
Pangs (date TBA)
Vampire Tales (date TBA)
Vamps (date TBA)
I’m sorry to anyone who likes this stuff but just looking at the list and realizing how much money is being poured into it is kind of scary. Even scarier is the fact that women (mostly) are so enthralled with these vampire stories that they just can’t get enough. They idealize these “dead” men in these stories and dream of being whisked away by these creatures like what’s his name in Twilight does to what’s her face (Yes, I know it’s Edward and Bella, I have a sister who is a Twilight nut).
It is my opinion, and I hope others back me on this, that we are being over saturated by movies of this genre and horror movies as well. Why do people really want to see scary shit on the big screen? I fucking can’t stand horror movies. It’s almost as bad as the tabloids; it’s shock-entertainment. Being scared while watching a movie doesn’t exactly float my boat and I don’t understand how horror movies can be seen as entertaining by anyone. The vile and gruesome thoughts that are unleashed in these movies (in most cases on innocent people IN these movies) while the villain not only survives but keeps killing with impunity (Freddy, Jason, the Scream character and all the Texas Chainsaw gang to name a few) and without any remorse makes you wonder about the type of person who not only would dream such stupidity but actually enjoy watching it.
I admit I enjoy a suspense movie, a crime drama, an action movie. Some are more realistic then others (yes, the Expendable is completely unrealistic but still fun to watch), but you go into those movies knowing that 8 times out of 10, the good guy wins and you aren’t going to need to puke after watching some of the ways in which people are murdered in them. In most horror movies, the only winner is the coroner who has the unenviable task of doing the body count.
I have a collection of nearly 700 DVD’s and NONE of them are what you would classify as “classic” horror movies and I like it like that. I am glad that I can say I have watched nearly all of my 670 DVD’s and can say every single one of them is better than the best Horror movie ever made because I don’t think there is such a thing as a “good” horror movie. Again, this is just my opinion.
A quick hit on a couple of other items; The Syrian PM has said he is going to crack down on dissidents with an “Iron hand”. Kind of scary when you think about it I guess because if killing nearly 17000 of his own people isn’t being heavy handed then what the fuck is he going to do next? I really think that if he doesn’t stop what he is doing, the Arab League may just take him out on their own as he is becoming a real embarrassment to them on the world stage. He agrees to stop killing people and lets their observers into the country and yet, apparently, the killings have increased since they started “observing”. Unless of course the observers are there to learn how to crush dissident movements the wrong way, he is flaunting his authority within his nation right in their faces and, if it continues, I really think the Arab League may take some much more aggressive action to keep their own legitimacy from being questioned by the rest of the world. One can only hope.
The US Republican Presidential Nominee will be selected over the course of the next few months and if it turns out Mitt Romney ends up at the top of the Republican Bill, then you can write this down now; Welcome back to the White House, President Obama. Romney has no chance to unseat the President, not when Romney was raised with a silver spoon in his mouth and is still a very, very rich man at a time when most voters are struggling not only to find jobs in a depression era-like economy but to put food on their tables and keep a roof over their heads. Another thing working against Romney; all of these current issues were left behind by former Republican President George W. Bush. How can anyone really trust the Republicans to go back to the White House after what they did when they were in there for 8 years?
That’s the thing that Obama will need to key on heading into his 2nd campaign; He was left with an enormous pile of steaming crap for an economy by the previous administration and was handcuffed from the start. The problems he has had in congress were again caused by the Republicans that refused to work with him. He and the Democrats need to not only win back the Presidency but also to get a healthy majority in the Senate and Congress to push through the reforms he has wanted to push through from the start.
The last thing I would have liked to have talked about would have been this Honour Killing Trial going on in Kingston right now. 3 young girls (19,17 and 14) murdered as well as their father’s first wife who was living with the blended family under the guise of being a cousin. The prosecution has rested after calling over 50 witnesses and so far, surprisingly, the patriarch and matriarch of the family have actually gone up on the stand in their own defense. Both of them have been blabbering incoherently trying to say they did not do anything with the worst of it being today’s testimony by the 2nd wife who said she fabricated the story she made up about being at the scene of the crime just after it happened.
Quite frankly, with only one more defendant yet to take the witness stand, I hope these three rot in jail for at the very least 25 years each and that it serves as a wake-up call to people coming over here thinking they can bring backwards traditions with them. Honour killings are not welcome here. Women have rights here and (despite the objections of certain sects of Mormons) you can only have 1 wife at a time here. Either accept it or don’t come here!!!
And one final thing I need to mention here. Concussions are still a big deal in the NHL and still increasing in number. Sidney Crosby is out of the lineup for the foreseeable future as well as a whole host of other top flight players. Crosby needs to sit the rest of the year and let his brain heal properly. Clearly, despite all the precautions he took before returning, you never know when a 2nd or 3rd one will hit so it’s best that he wait and take his time before returning again. He wouldn’t be the first one nor the last one to take time off to heal and it’s probably for the best.
Until next time….
We are a little over a week into 2012 and I think I have already seen about 10 shows about the end of the world this year. This is the last year of the Mayan calendar and everyone sees that as a prophecy that this is the last year of our current version of the world. Did it ever occur to anyone that maybe the Mayans just ran out of room for their calendar on the tablet?
All joking aside, I think people need to relax and get a grip on things. The way I look at it, the day you die is the day the world ends for you. This planet, as old as it is and as much of a beating as we do to our environment, the world will not end. This planet is millions of years old. It has survived anything and everything our cosmos has thrown at it and even though we have been acting like the Decepticons in an old Transformers cartoon episode by draining all of our resources at record levels, this planet will endure. We, however, may not and that is the main reason why we need to get our collective heads out of our asses and do something about the environmental issues around us.
Not sure if you’ve heard of a guy who is the QB of the Denver Broncos. Tim something or other. Tebow, right yeah. Tim Tebow continues to amaze with the way he has evolved over the last 10 weeks. When he was promoted from the 3rd string QB to the starter, he simply went out and won 7 of his first 8 starts, including 3 OT wins, propelling his team to an 8-5 record at the time and had them leading the division. The last 3 weeks of the season saw a regression of sorts as teams started to catch on to what he was doing and we saw an 0-3 record and the team back into not only a playoff spot, but also a division championship. Even when he lost, he won. Just not with regards to his critics.
He has had a spot light on him since his college days when he won the Heisman trophy as the top Collegiate Football player as 2 National Championships. He is a devout Christian who has chosen to wait until marriage before having his first sexual experience and he has even appeared in an anti-abortion ad that has run in the Southern US. He has had almost every single football expert critique his play to the point where almost to a man, they all agreed he will ultimately fail as an NFL player and yet, he has somehow managed to get the Broncos to the 2nd round of the NFL Playoffs. He has had games where he has looked like a high school player playing against men for 3 of the 4 quarters then turns the tables and looks like a man playing against boys in the 4th quarter in leading his team to several come from behind wins.
He was supposed to get eaten alive by the big bad Steelers and their #1 rated Defence and instead he came out and threw for a religious 316 yards in the air in a thoroughly entertaining 29-23 OT win. Now he goes up against someone who is considered the poster boy of the NFL, Tom Brady, who is almost the exact opposite of Tebow. Tebow was the 4 year starter and Big Man on Campus for his entire college career while Brady had to scratch and claw just to make his way up the depth chart before he was finally the starter in his final 2 years. Brady has kids with 2 of the most beautiful women in the world, one of which was out of wedlock, Tebow right now wouldn’t know what to do with a naked woman other then tell her to get on her knees….and join him in prayer.
Then there are the similarities. Both of them did not play in their first year in the NFL. Both of them had to come in and take over the role of starter in their 2nd year when many thought they were not ready for it. Both of them were involved in massive upsets of the Steelers in the Playoffs in their first year as the starter. But unlike Brady, Tebow has been very harshly criticized more for his beliefs then for his play (and that’s saying something considering he was usually awful for 3 out of every 4 quarters he was playing, even when he was WINNING?!?!). There are many who believe that Tebow has been more harshly attacked because of how he wears his religious beliefs on his sleeve.
To be fair, NFL players commonly get into prayer circles when a player is injured and well over 95% of NFL players are Christian themselves so it does seem a bit odd that yet so many are openly attacking him that it seems almost as if there is some form of resentment towards him from many of the people who are supposed to be objectively reporting what he does. I hope that after he fails to defeat the Patriots this weekend, that people don’t start calling him a flash in the pan because he isn’t and the performance he put on display a few days ago shows that he does in fact have what it takes to be a solid NFL starter.
And now to the real thing I wanted to rip when I first started writing this today. Vampire stories are just flooding our airwaves with garbage almost on a nightly basis. Just since 2009, there has been an onslaught of TV shows and movies all with a central theme of Vampires and it’s just insane to me. Here’s a quick list of some of the ones that stick out (complete list below); Daybreakers, Priest, True Blood, the Vampire Diaries, Underworld 3 and 4, Being Human (UK and US versions), Fright Night, Lost Boys 3, not to mention all the Twilight movies, 28 Weeks Later, I Am Legend (while both of the latter are about blood sucking creatures, they still fit into the criteria).
(Thank you to http://suburbanvampire.blogspot.com/2008/12/vampire-films-in-2009-2010-2011-and.html for the complete list)
Being Human (2009) (UK TV series) TRAILER
Bled (2009) (DVD)
The Bleeding (2009)
Blood (2009)
Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) TRAILER
Bram Stoker's Vampire Diaries Renfield (2009)
Carmilla (2009)
The Coffin (2009)
The Dead Matter (2009) TRAILER
Dead of Night (2009)
The Death of Alice Blue (2009)
Doomsday County (2009)
The Eternal (2009)
Hello Darkness (2009)
High Midnight (2009)
The Informers (2009)
Kiss of the Vampire (2009) (DVD) TRAILER
Lesbian Vampire Killers (2009) TRAILER
Let the Right One In (2009--Italy, France, & UK) TRAILER
New Moon (2009)
Live Girls (2009)
Patient X (2009)
PCP... A VanGuard Chronicle (2009)
The Revenant (2009)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (2009) TRAILER
Shadowland (2009)
Sodium Babies (2009) TRAILER
Suck (2009) TRAILER
The Teeth of the Night (2009)
Thirst (2009) TRAILER
Transylmania (2009) TRAILER
True Blood, Season 2 (HBO TV series, June 2009)
Twilight (2009--various countries) TRAILER
Twilight Watch (2009)
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009) TRAILER
Valemont (MTV web series) (2009)
The Vampire Diaries (TV series, 2009) TRAILER
Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (2009)
Vampire in Vegas (2009)
The Vampire's Assistant (formerly Cirque du Freak)(2009) PHOTO TRAILER
The Vampires of Bloody Island (2009)
30 Days of Night: Dark Days (2010)
Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire (2010)
Bite (web series) (2010) TRAILER
Daybreakers (2010) TRAILER
Dead Sucks (2010) TRAILER
Dracula: The Undead (2010)
Eclipse (2010)
The Fixer (TV series) (2010) TRAILER
The Historian (2010)
The Knights Templar (2010)
Last Blood (2010)
Let Me In (Let the Right One In U.S. Remake) (2010)
Lost Boys 3 (2010)
Love at Second Bite (2010)
Priest (2010)
Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell (2010)
Soulstice (2010)
Stake Land (2010)
The Un-Dead (2010)
Bubba Nosferatu and the Curse of the She-Vampires (2011)
Breaking Dawn (2011)
Castlevania (2011)
Dark Shadows (2011)
Dracula (2011)
Dracula Year Zero (2011)
Hotel Transylvania (2011)
House of Night (Untitled Project) (2011)
The Night Projectionist (2011)
Virulents (2011)
Blood Brothers (date TBA)
Blood Type (TV series, date TBA)
Damned Friday (date TBA)
Damn Nation (date TBA)
Dear Dracula (date TBA)
The Hunger (date TBA)
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (date TBA)
Pangs (date TBA)
Vampire Tales (date TBA)
Vamps (date TBA)
I’m sorry to anyone who likes this stuff but just looking at the list and realizing how much money is being poured into it is kind of scary. Even scarier is the fact that women (mostly) are so enthralled with these vampire stories that they just can’t get enough. They idealize these “dead” men in these stories and dream of being whisked away by these creatures like what’s his name in Twilight does to what’s her face (Yes, I know it’s Edward and Bella, I have a sister who is a Twilight nut).
It is my opinion, and I hope others back me on this, that we are being over saturated by movies of this genre and horror movies as well. Why do people really want to see scary shit on the big screen? I fucking can’t stand horror movies. It’s almost as bad as the tabloids; it’s shock-entertainment. Being scared while watching a movie doesn’t exactly float my boat and I don’t understand how horror movies can be seen as entertaining by anyone. The vile and gruesome thoughts that are unleashed in these movies (in most cases on innocent people IN these movies) while the villain not only survives but keeps killing with impunity (Freddy, Jason, the Scream character and all the Texas Chainsaw gang to name a few) and without any remorse makes you wonder about the type of person who not only would dream such stupidity but actually enjoy watching it.
I admit I enjoy a suspense movie, a crime drama, an action movie. Some are more realistic then others (yes, the Expendable is completely unrealistic but still fun to watch), but you go into those movies knowing that 8 times out of 10, the good guy wins and you aren’t going to need to puke after watching some of the ways in which people are murdered in them. In most horror movies, the only winner is the coroner who has the unenviable task of doing the body count.
I have a collection of nearly 700 DVD’s and NONE of them are what you would classify as “classic” horror movies and I like it like that. I am glad that I can say I have watched nearly all of my 670 DVD’s and can say every single one of them is better than the best Horror movie ever made because I don’t think there is such a thing as a “good” horror movie. Again, this is just my opinion.
A quick hit on a couple of other items; The Syrian PM has said he is going to crack down on dissidents with an “Iron hand”. Kind of scary when you think about it I guess because if killing nearly 17000 of his own people isn’t being heavy handed then what the fuck is he going to do next? I really think that if he doesn’t stop what he is doing, the Arab League may just take him out on their own as he is becoming a real embarrassment to them on the world stage. He agrees to stop killing people and lets their observers into the country and yet, apparently, the killings have increased since they started “observing”. Unless of course the observers are there to learn how to crush dissident movements the wrong way, he is flaunting his authority within his nation right in their faces and, if it continues, I really think the Arab League may take some much more aggressive action to keep their own legitimacy from being questioned by the rest of the world. One can only hope.
The US Republican Presidential Nominee will be selected over the course of the next few months and if it turns out Mitt Romney ends up at the top of the Republican Bill, then you can write this down now; Welcome back to the White House, President Obama. Romney has no chance to unseat the President, not when Romney was raised with a silver spoon in his mouth and is still a very, very rich man at a time when most voters are struggling not only to find jobs in a depression era-like economy but to put food on their tables and keep a roof over their heads. Another thing working against Romney; all of these current issues were left behind by former Republican President George W. Bush. How can anyone really trust the Republicans to go back to the White House after what they did when they were in there for 8 years?
That’s the thing that Obama will need to key on heading into his 2nd campaign; He was left with an enormous pile of steaming crap for an economy by the previous administration and was handcuffed from the start. The problems he has had in congress were again caused by the Republicans that refused to work with him. He and the Democrats need to not only win back the Presidency but also to get a healthy majority in the Senate and Congress to push through the reforms he has wanted to push through from the start.
The last thing I would have liked to have talked about would have been this Honour Killing Trial going on in Kingston right now. 3 young girls (19,17 and 14) murdered as well as their father’s first wife who was living with the blended family under the guise of being a cousin. The prosecution has rested after calling over 50 witnesses and so far, surprisingly, the patriarch and matriarch of the family have actually gone up on the stand in their own defense. Both of them have been blabbering incoherently trying to say they did not do anything with the worst of it being today’s testimony by the 2nd wife who said she fabricated the story she made up about being at the scene of the crime just after it happened.
Quite frankly, with only one more defendant yet to take the witness stand, I hope these three rot in jail for at the very least 25 years each and that it serves as a wake-up call to people coming over here thinking they can bring backwards traditions with them. Honour killings are not welcome here. Women have rights here and (despite the objections of certain sects of Mormons) you can only have 1 wife at a time here. Either accept it or don’t come here!!!
And one final thing I need to mention here. Concussions are still a big deal in the NHL and still increasing in number. Sidney Crosby is out of the lineup for the foreseeable future as well as a whole host of other top flight players. Crosby needs to sit the rest of the year and let his brain heal properly. Clearly, despite all the precautions he took before returning, you never know when a 2nd or 3rd one will hit so it’s best that he wait and take his time before returning again. He wouldn’t be the first one nor the last one to take time off to heal and it’s probably for the best.
Until next time….
End of Year Musings: 2011 Year in Review
Another year is rapidly coming to a close and there have been so many things that have happened this year that I don't even know if I can remember all of the things that have shaped our year accurately. But I will give it a try....
Almost exactly a year ago, Sidney Crosby was injured (yes I will start with Sports….sue me :-P ). The first of his 2 concussions occurred against the Capitals New Years’ Day and then the more severe of his 2 concussions happened a few days later when he was hit from behind into the boards face first by Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Sidney Crosby’s Injury Impact
It took nearly 10 months for Sid to come back into the NHL fold but only a couple of weeks ago, not only did he return, he returned right where he left off; as the best player in the NHL collecting 4 points in his first game back. After his 10th game however, Sid’s been shelved again for 2 games (as a pre-caution the team insists) after a rough game against the Bruins which saw him endure several hits, but fortunately none of them were to the hit. Several were particularly hard which has now left Sid feeling “less then 100%” necessitating this 2 game sabbatical.
Hopefully, for him as well as the NHL, these 2 games will be all that he will miss as this would be the worst time for the league to lose its top player, yet again, to a head injury or recurrence of his concussion. With his injury and those of Marc Savard, Marc Staal, Nathan Horton (in the Finals if you recall) and a whole host of others in the past year (including Kris LEtang, Andy McDonald, Marek Zidlicky Chris Pronger and Claude Giroux only days ago being diagnosed with concussions themselves), the one good thing to come out of it has been a new focus and drive (even if only from the media) to try to force the league to take head hits out of the game.
While it puzzles some that the NHL has been only making incremental moves towards such action, it doesn’t surprise me. I will explain in more detail once I get into the whole Change of Leadership in the NHL Discipline department and “Sherriff Shanny” later on. At least now the league is at least doing something to try to prevent further brain damage (which in essence is the exact situation that happens when a player suffers a concussion except that it isn’t permanent for most, at least that is what we are being told by doctors) by instituting a new protocol for player who appear to have suffered any kind of brain injury during the course of a game.
When you look back over the course of recent NHL history, it is littered with players whose careers have been drastically shortened due to concussions. The list reads like a who’s who of recent players as well as some of the more marquee players who suffered concussions during their careers over the last 15-20 years; Pat LaFontaine, Paul Kariya, Marc Savard , Eric and Brett Lindros (Brett wasn’t as talented as Eric but still), and then there is Michel Goulet.
A star in the 80’s with the Quebec Nordiques, Goulet was still productive in the early 90’s with the Chicago Blackhawks until he was tripped up on a break away and slid head first into the boards with the back of his head smashing extremely hard. At that time, he was still wearing the same helmet that Wayne Gretzky used to wear; a flimsy Jofa helmet that offer extremely little if any padding on the back of the head. His injury was so severe that he went into convulsions after being taken off the ice on a stretcher and very nearly died. It has been nearly 17 years since his injury and every time I see him during a public appearance, I am reminded of how he acted back during his very first public appearance 1 year after his career ending injury; his eyes a little goofy, his body unsteady, acting almost child-like.
To this day, he has still not and most likely never will recover fully from that horrific injury and yet we are still no closer to pushing head hits out of the game. While it’s true he was not hit in the head by another player, he should still serve as a beacon for other players to see what the effects of a severe head injury can do to you after your career is over.
Ok onto other things. Still in the sports realm of course, the Green Bay Packers have not lost a game since last year, having reeled off 19 straight wins. They won the Super Bowl last year and are still unbeaten this year having a record of 13-0. While people are already anointing Aaron Rodgers as the next big thing (and he will certainly be in elite company if he completes the perfect regular season), something still irks me about how he and Packers management handled the whole change from Legend Brett Favre to making it Rodgers team.
Looking back on it, clearly it was the right move as Favre seems to be the most undecided retired/active player ever but at the time of the change, to me, it felt like Rodgers was a spoiled brat who just wanted things his way. Clearly he was ready for the big time and the Packers made the correct move (and Favre’s comments in the last year show that he may have been more at fault in the strain in their relationship then the general public was ever made aware of) but the whole fallout and subsequent is he retired or not soap opera still (and possibly always will) leave a bitter taste in my mouth because it was essentially caused by Favre being shown the door in Green Bay.
Canadians Vote In Conservative Majority, Jack Layton Wins Opposition Status, Loses Battle with Cancer
Finally, after 3 Minority Governments, Prime Minister Harper was able to get the Majority Government he deserved. His political victory, while impressive was slightly overshadowed by the fact the NDP pulled off a stunning victory of their own by usurping the fading Liberal Party (which was absolutely decimated in the Federal Election) and becoming the official Opposition winning almost all of Quebec’s 75 ridings (59 in total) and winning an impressive 103 ridings in total. Jack Layton, for all his faults, ran a great campaign and had his message resonate with more people than ever before.
Unfortunately for Mr. Layton, he never actually got to reap the rewards of his years of service to Canada as he passed away before the legislature came back into session in October. While I never did agree with his political views, he was one of the most passionate political leaders of our time. His love for this country was unsurpassed and his tireless efforts for the causes he supported have left an indelible mark on the fabric of our nation. He leaves behind a huge void on the political scene as is witnessed by the fact his successor (when finally chosen out of the 10 final candidates vying for his vacated role) will most likely never be able to replicate Mr. Layton’s election results. He will be sorely missed. Yet another person cut down by Cancer WAY too soon. What a brutally awful disease.
The Arab Spring
Arab nations seemed to finally have come of age in that their populations began revolutionary marches and demonstrations demanding changes to their nations. It began on Saturday, December 18th 2010 and has had effects in Tunisia and Egypt; caused a civil war in Libya resulting in the fall of its government and the death of Gadhafi; civil uprisings in Bahrain, Syria (which is now in full defiance of the Arab league and under heavy sanctions for their harsh crackdowns on peaceful protestors which have many predicting that nation will be in a civil war very shortly.
In Yemen the demonstrations resulted in the resignation of the Yemeni prime minister. Other major protests in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Oman have led to political changes in some form or another while minor protests in Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Western Sahara have reinforced the notion that Arab youth is tired of living under oppressive strict governments and want change. There have even been clashes at the borders of Israel back in May.
All of this has, in some way shape or form, led to protests around the world and some would argue that they were in fact the genesis of the Occupy Movement (which I will discuss later on). Regardless of what it has spawned, the results speak for themselves. Egyptians forced out Mubarek. Libyans were able to remove Gadhafi from power after a short but intense civil war, Syrians will eventually get the change they want even if it does have to come about after their own civil war very shortly but at least on the face of it, changes are coming and they are giving rise to how powerful people actually are, even in repressive regimes that dominate the Arab world.
US Policitcs turns Nasty, Republicans Use overt Racism to Target President Obama
I find it unbelievable that President Obama is STILL having his birthplace questioned. It’s gone beyond a matter of being a mere question. To me, it’s an overt form of racism. If Obama were white, there would never be a question like this floated around. It’s ridiculous. Now, over the course of the last 3 years, President Obama has been a huge disappointment to many. He campaigned on the premise of changing the status quo and, to be perfectly blunt, he hasn’t changed a damned thing. While he inherited a financial nightmare from the Bush administrations 8 years of ineptitude, his management of the American Economy over the last 3 plus years, while hampered dramatically by the Republican dominated Senate, has been abysmal.
The US economy has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in the last 3 years. The mortgage meltdown has forced thousands of people out of their homes and bankrupted not only many individual citizens but many financial institutions as well as cities and states that are feeling the economic hardships of this depression-like era that the US is going through right now. In previous eras, at least the US had strong leadership to help guide them through their problems. President Obama has not shown any kind of leadership over the last 3 years and despite that fact, he remains the best choice to continue as President as the Republicans are mired in an ideological malaise that has them yelling at the top of their lungs about nothing that really matters, fighting within themselves about whether they want to teabag each other and their top choice was a serial grouper.
The problem is that, as I mentioned before in a previous note, instead of giving the people a “bailout”, the government bailed out the banks and kept money in their own pockets when its citizens came calling, resulting, in part, in the Occupy movements having a real reason to protest government action. What I don’t understand is why did they wait to start their protests in September and October when it’s starting to get into the colder seasons? Has they started their protests in May, they could have legitimately camped out in every major city all summer long and really made politicians nervous and possibly forced some real change.
But back to my point about the bailouts. Some people would even go so far as to suggest that giving money to big banks and watching how they have handled it (refusing to really change anything or loosen their credit granting to help stem the flow of people towards insolvency, continuing to give out insane bonuses to top executives) has prompted many citizens of the United States towards the exact causes espoused by and implored throughout the Occupy Wall Street movement and helped it have real roots to begin in the first place. Every other occupy movement mimicked the original but, for the most part, were a shadow of the one in New York. The one in Toronto, for example, was a joke. People were basically showing up on the weekend to be, as I call it “weekend protesters” and they had their own political agenda. It was almost like the people trying to organizing the protests had no real agenda and were winging it on a daily basis.
It may seem like I am ripping the Toronto movement a bit much but the truth is, for the most part, I was all for the basic reasons for the movement but once you start attacking any and all political figures simply because you don’t like them or their political beliefs and not because of any real item in particular, that’s when I get a little miffed. For example, there still seems to be this nagging belief that the Prime Minister has this sinister agenda hiding somewhere which will make this country “American” with all the changes that these people seem to think he will bring to this country. The same thing can be said about how the Occupy Toronto Protestors seemed to almost daily attack Mayor Rob Ford.
While I don’t agree with everything either of them do, Mayor Ford has been unfairly criticized by the press and everyone who didn’t vote for him because of the mess he was shackled with that was left behind after 7 years of having an idiot like David Miller running the City of Toronto as Mayor. I agree that there are some things a city shouldn’t be cutting but when you are faced with a massive deficit in a democratic city, you put everything on the table and then try to determine your fiscal priorities. Having the citizens of your city engage in discussions over where the city should and shouldn’t spend its money is a good thing and yet all people know how to do is complain about every idea that comes up.
Boston Wins Cup, Dumbass Vancouverites Riot, Again
The Boston Bruins continued a recent trend of New England Sports dominance by winning the Stanley Cup in 7 games with a 4-0 win over the top team in the NHL last year, the Vancouver Canucks. Th running joke all day was that if the Canucks did end up losing, would there be a repeat of the 1994 Riot when the Canucks lost in 1994? Our questions were answered when the images started flooding in from Canadian news channels and were re-broadcast all over the world, making Vancouver the laughing stock of the world only 18 months after having shown themselves brilliantly on the world stage during the Winter Olympics.
The shocking display of stupidity by, what would be best described as “Hockey Hooligans” was only amplified by a poorly prepared Vancouver Police department that was slow to act and undermanned for what essentially became a rampant display of drunken idiocy.’ Only in Canada would someone feel the need to riot when their hockey team loses’ was the perceived foreign media reaction as they laughed at the morons in Vancouver.
3 Former or Current NHL Players Found Dead, Russian Plane Crash Kills 46 Members of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv
Almost from the moment the final whistle went off in Vancouver to pronounce the Bruins as Champs, the NHL embarked on possibly the worst off-season in their log and illustrious history. Rick Rypien committed suicide in a hotel room, after years of battles with Depression. Derek Boogard was found dead in a hotel room as well only a few weeks later, after he accidentally overdosed on pain killers. The 3rd death happened again only a few weeks later, once again in a hotel room, when Wade Belak, who had been training to be a part of the Battle of the Blades show in CBC, was found dead under mysterious circumstances. Originally deemed to be a homicide, it was later ruled a suicide as well, which the family refutes to this day. Regardless of how Belak died, the media had a field day and began to link all three deaths to the fact each player or former player wasn’t exactly highly skilled. Two of them were fighters and the third, Rypien, was a third line player at best, who had to scratch and claw for every moment he had of ice time in the NHL.
Just because they were fighters does not mean that they would be predestined to have an inclination towards drug abuse or suicide and yet that was and is the connection many in the media have been trying to force feed hockey fans as they push hockey towards eliminating fighting altogether. The day they take fighting out of the game is the day I stop watching. You might as well take the goalies away and raise the nets about 10 feet in the air and call it basketball if you are going to do that.
Shortly before NHL training camps began came word of a tragedy that hadn’t happened in nearly 30 plus years as an entire team perished in a horrific plane crash in Russia. The entire Yaroslavl Lokomotiv team died when their aging and worn-out 40 year old plane crash on takeoff, killing many former NHL players and coaches. The last time an entire team was killed was when the entire Marshall Football team died in the early 1970’s in a plane crash as well. It took years for the school to recover and it will take many years as well for the KHL to recover as a league, not to mention the families of all the players who will never truly get over such a senseless and tragically large loss of life.
Euro-Mess Killing World Economy
Surprise, surprise, the European economy is tanking and the Euro as a currency seems to be the root of the cause. If you know anything about how hard it was to bring this currency into the world, you would know that it took very difficult referendums in several member nations before all the nations in the Euro zone adopted the Euro as its currency. At the time, many people feared the impending rise in the cost of living that would force people to borrow more and more to continue to live within their lifestyle and, guess what? They were right. But the problem wasn’t so much the people in large debt because of the currency but rather nations themselves.
I’ve heard anecdotally that in some European nations, if you go out of business, you are mandated as a business to continue paying your employees up to 6 months of wages, regardless of your financial standing so if a small restaurant owner goes belly up, he has to still pay all his staff, putting himself into much further debt while suffering through the closure of the business. No wonder no one really wants to open a business in some of these nations.
Back to the point, Germany and France seem to be the only nations that really want to keep things going with regards to the Euro as Merkel of Germany and Sarkozy of France have been working diligently to prop up Ireland, Portugal, Greece and Italy. The problem now seems to be that even with all the bailouts ongoing all over Europe, where is all the money coming from? You can only tax your base so much before they revolt. It’s not a revolution if the people just decide they have had enough and do what they did in 1791 in France when they killed all their leaders. I fear that Europe is heading for a revolt of epic proportions if the leaders continue to focus on austerity measures on everyone else without cutting their own luxuries.
Why is it that whenever austerity measures are brought in, political leaders focus on cutting things everyone else uses without focusing on their own? Why not cut their own pay cheques and budgets first in half? Why not take all the pensions of former members of parliament or former PM’s, Presidents and the like and cut their pensions down? In Portugal alone there are 33 former members of parliament who are working in the private sector while receiving gigantic pension subsidies from the government. WTF?!?! Cut those bastards off first before you cut the pensions and vacation pay of the everyday Joe Blow. I fear this will not end well.
So I have done my best to recap the year as I saw it. Hopefully you had a better year then most. Like everyone else, I had an up and down year as I lost my uncle Joe but found out my sister is pregnant (I thought it was going to be a Girl, but I was wrong).
I hope everyone has a great 2012 and NO the world will not end this year….just for some unfortunately but not everyone. So yes, Nostradamus and the Mayans are wrong people. The Mayans never thought the world would get to 2012 plus years and Nostradamus figured he would just take a shot in the dark at a year so far in the future (for him) that he figured no one would care who he was and what he said….guess not eh?
As always feel free to tell me what you think.
Until Next Time…
Almost exactly a year ago, Sidney Crosby was injured (yes I will start with Sports….sue me :-P ). The first of his 2 concussions occurred against the Capitals New Years’ Day and then the more severe of his 2 concussions happened a few days later when he was hit from behind into the boards face first by Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Sidney Crosby’s Injury Impact
It took nearly 10 months for Sid to come back into the NHL fold but only a couple of weeks ago, not only did he return, he returned right where he left off; as the best player in the NHL collecting 4 points in his first game back. After his 10th game however, Sid’s been shelved again for 2 games (as a pre-caution the team insists) after a rough game against the Bruins which saw him endure several hits, but fortunately none of them were to the hit. Several were particularly hard which has now left Sid feeling “less then 100%” necessitating this 2 game sabbatical.
Hopefully, for him as well as the NHL, these 2 games will be all that he will miss as this would be the worst time for the league to lose its top player, yet again, to a head injury or recurrence of his concussion. With his injury and those of Marc Savard, Marc Staal, Nathan Horton (in the Finals if you recall) and a whole host of others in the past year (including Kris LEtang, Andy McDonald, Marek Zidlicky Chris Pronger and Claude Giroux only days ago being diagnosed with concussions themselves), the one good thing to come out of it has been a new focus and drive (even if only from the media) to try to force the league to take head hits out of the game.
While it puzzles some that the NHL has been only making incremental moves towards such action, it doesn’t surprise me. I will explain in more detail once I get into the whole Change of Leadership in the NHL Discipline department and “Sherriff Shanny” later on. At least now the league is at least doing something to try to prevent further brain damage (which in essence is the exact situation that happens when a player suffers a concussion except that it isn’t permanent for most, at least that is what we are being told by doctors) by instituting a new protocol for player who appear to have suffered any kind of brain injury during the course of a game.
When you look back over the course of recent NHL history, it is littered with players whose careers have been drastically shortened due to concussions. The list reads like a who’s who of recent players as well as some of the more marquee players who suffered concussions during their careers over the last 15-20 years; Pat LaFontaine, Paul Kariya, Marc Savard , Eric and Brett Lindros (Brett wasn’t as talented as Eric but still), and then there is Michel Goulet.
A star in the 80’s with the Quebec Nordiques, Goulet was still productive in the early 90’s with the Chicago Blackhawks until he was tripped up on a break away and slid head first into the boards with the back of his head smashing extremely hard. At that time, he was still wearing the same helmet that Wayne Gretzky used to wear; a flimsy Jofa helmet that offer extremely little if any padding on the back of the head. His injury was so severe that he went into convulsions after being taken off the ice on a stretcher and very nearly died. It has been nearly 17 years since his injury and every time I see him during a public appearance, I am reminded of how he acted back during his very first public appearance 1 year after his career ending injury; his eyes a little goofy, his body unsteady, acting almost child-like.
To this day, he has still not and most likely never will recover fully from that horrific injury and yet we are still no closer to pushing head hits out of the game. While it’s true he was not hit in the head by another player, he should still serve as a beacon for other players to see what the effects of a severe head injury can do to you after your career is over.
Ok onto other things. Still in the sports realm of course, the Green Bay Packers have not lost a game since last year, having reeled off 19 straight wins. They won the Super Bowl last year and are still unbeaten this year having a record of 13-0. While people are already anointing Aaron Rodgers as the next big thing (and he will certainly be in elite company if he completes the perfect regular season), something still irks me about how he and Packers management handled the whole change from Legend Brett Favre to making it Rodgers team.
Looking back on it, clearly it was the right move as Favre seems to be the most undecided retired/active player ever but at the time of the change, to me, it felt like Rodgers was a spoiled brat who just wanted things his way. Clearly he was ready for the big time and the Packers made the correct move (and Favre’s comments in the last year show that he may have been more at fault in the strain in their relationship then the general public was ever made aware of) but the whole fallout and subsequent is he retired or not soap opera still (and possibly always will) leave a bitter taste in my mouth because it was essentially caused by Favre being shown the door in Green Bay.
Canadians Vote In Conservative Majority, Jack Layton Wins Opposition Status, Loses Battle with Cancer
Finally, after 3 Minority Governments, Prime Minister Harper was able to get the Majority Government he deserved. His political victory, while impressive was slightly overshadowed by the fact the NDP pulled off a stunning victory of their own by usurping the fading Liberal Party (which was absolutely decimated in the Federal Election) and becoming the official Opposition winning almost all of Quebec’s 75 ridings (59 in total) and winning an impressive 103 ridings in total. Jack Layton, for all his faults, ran a great campaign and had his message resonate with more people than ever before.
Unfortunately for Mr. Layton, he never actually got to reap the rewards of his years of service to Canada as he passed away before the legislature came back into session in October. While I never did agree with his political views, he was one of the most passionate political leaders of our time. His love for this country was unsurpassed and his tireless efforts for the causes he supported have left an indelible mark on the fabric of our nation. He leaves behind a huge void on the political scene as is witnessed by the fact his successor (when finally chosen out of the 10 final candidates vying for his vacated role) will most likely never be able to replicate Mr. Layton’s election results. He will be sorely missed. Yet another person cut down by Cancer WAY too soon. What a brutally awful disease.
The Arab Spring
Arab nations seemed to finally have come of age in that their populations began revolutionary marches and demonstrations demanding changes to their nations. It began on Saturday, December 18th 2010 and has had effects in Tunisia and Egypt; caused a civil war in Libya resulting in the fall of its government and the death of Gadhafi; civil uprisings in Bahrain, Syria (which is now in full defiance of the Arab league and under heavy sanctions for their harsh crackdowns on peaceful protestors which have many predicting that nation will be in a civil war very shortly.
In Yemen the demonstrations resulted in the resignation of the Yemeni prime minister. Other major protests in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Oman have led to political changes in some form or another while minor protests in Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Western Sahara have reinforced the notion that Arab youth is tired of living under oppressive strict governments and want change. There have even been clashes at the borders of Israel back in May.
All of this has, in some way shape or form, led to protests around the world and some would argue that they were in fact the genesis of the Occupy Movement (which I will discuss later on). Regardless of what it has spawned, the results speak for themselves. Egyptians forced out Mubarek. Libyans were able to remove Gadhafi from power after a short but intense civil war, Syrians will eventually get the change they want even if it does have to come about after their own civil war very shortly but at least on the face of it, changes are coming and they are giving rise to how powerful people actually are, even in repressive regimes that dominate the Arab world.
US Policitcs turns Nasty, Republicans Use overt Racism to Target President Obama
I find it unbelievable that President Obama is STILL having his birthplace questioned. It’s gone beyond a matter of being a mere question. To me, it’s an overt form of racism. If Obama were white, there would never be a question like this floated around. It’s ridiculous. Now, over the course of the last 3 years, President Obama has been a huge disappointment to many. He campaigned on the premise of changing the status quo and, to be perfectly blunt, he hasn’t changed a damned thing. While he inherited a financial nightmare from the Bush administrations 8 years of ineptitude, his management of the American Economy over the last 3 plus years, while hampered dramatically by the Republican dominated Senate, has been abysmal.
The US economy has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in the last 3 years. The mortgage meltdown has forced thousands of people out of their homes and bankrupted not only many individual citizens but many financial institutions as well as cities and states that are feeling the economic hardships of this depression-like era that the US is going through right now. In previous eras, at least the US had strong leadership to help guide them through their problems. President Obama has not shown any kind of leadership over the last 3 years and despite that fact, he remains the best choice to continue as President as the Republicans are mired in an ideological malaise that has them yelling at the top of their lungs about nothing that really matters, fighting within themselves about whether they want to teabag each other and their top choice was a serial grouper.
The problem is that, as I mentioned before in a previous note, instead of giving the people a “bailout”, the government bailed out the banks and kept money in their own pockets when its citizens came calling, resulting, in part, in the Occupy movements having a real reason to protest government action. What I don’t understand is why did they wait to start their protests in September and October when it’s starting to get into the colder seasons? Has they started their protests in May, they could have legitimately camped out in every major city all summer long and really made politicians nervous and possibly forced some real change.
But back to my point about the bailouts. Some people would even go so far as to suggest that giving money to big banks and watching how they have handled it (refusing to really change anything or loosen their credit granting to help stem the flow of people towards insolvency, continuing to give out insane bonuses to top executives) has prompted many citizens of the United States towards the exact causes espoused by and implored throughout the Occupy Wall Street movement and helped it have real roots to begin in the first place. Every other occupy movement mimicked the original but, for the most part, were a shadow of the one in New York. The one in Toronto, for example, was a joke. People were basically showing up on the weekend to be, as I call it “weekend protesters” and they had their own political agenda. It was almost like the people trying to organizing the protests had no real agenda and were winging it on a daily basis.
It may seem like I am ripping the Toronto movement a bit much but the truth is, for the most part, I was all for the basic reasons for the movement but once you start attacking any and all political figures simply because you don’t like them or their political beliefs and not because of any real item in particular, that’s when I get a little miffed. For example, there still seems to be this nagging belief that the Prime Minister has this sinister agenda hiding somewhere which will make this country “American” with all the changes that these people seem to think he will bring to this country. The same thing can be said about how the Occupy Toronto Protestors seemed to almost daily attack Mayor Rob Ford.
While I don’t agree with everything either of them do, Mayor Ford has been unfairly criticized by the press and everyone who didn’t vote for him because of the mess he was shackled with that was left behind after 7 years of having an idiot like David Miller running the City of Toronto as Mayor. I agree that there are some things a city shouldn’t be cutting but when you are faced with a massive deficit in a democratic city, you put everything on the table and then try to determine your fiscal priorities. Having the citizens of your city engage in discussions over where the city should and shouldn’t spend its money is a good thing and yet all people know how to do is complain about every idea that comes up.
Boston Wins Cup, Dumbass Vancouverites Riot, Again
The Boston Bruins continued a recent trend of New England Sports dominance by winning the Stanley Cup in 7 games with a 4-0 win over the top team in the NHL last year, the Vancouver Canucks. Th running joke all day was that if the Canucks did end up losing, would there be a repeat of the 1994 Riot when the Canucks lost in 1994? Our questions were answered when the images started flooding in from Canadian news channels and were re-broadcast all over the world, making Vancouver the laughing stock of the world only 18 months after having shown themselves brilliantly on the world stage during the Winter Olympics.
The shocking display of stupidity by, what would be best described as “Hockey Hooligans” was only amplified by a poorly prepared Vancouver Police department that was slow to act and undermanned for what essentially became a rampant display of drunken idiocy.’ Only in Canada would someone feel the need to riot when their hockey team loses’ was the perceived foreign media reaction as they laughed at the morons in Vancouver.
3 Former or Current NHL Players Found Dead, Russian Plane Crash Kills 46 Members of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv
Almost from the moment the final whistle went off in Vancouver to pronounce the Bruins as Champs, the NHL embarked on possibly the worst off-season in their log and illustrious history. Rick Rypien committed suicide in a hotel room, after years of battles with Depression. Derek Boogard was found dead in a hotel room as well only a few weeks later, after he accidentally overdosed on pain killers. The 3rd death happened again only a few weeks later, once again in a hotel room, when Wade Belak, who had been training to be a part of the Battle of the Blades show in CBC, was found dead under mysterious circumstances. Originally deemed to be a homicide, it was later ruled a suicide as well, which the family refutes to this day. Regardless of how Belak died, the media had a field day and began to link all three deaths to the fact each player or former player wasn’t exactly highly skilled. Two of them were fighters and the third, Rypien, was a third line player at best, who had to scratch and claw for every moment he had of ice time in the NHL.
Just because they were fighters does not mean that they would be predestined to have an inclination towards drug abuse or suicide and yet that was and is the connection many in the media have been trying to force feed hockey fans as they push hockey towards eliminating fighting altogether. The day they take fighting out of the game is the day I stop watching. You might as well take the goalies away and raise the nets about 10 feet in the air and call it basketball if you are going to do that.
Shortly before NHL training camps began came word of a tragedy that hadn’t happened in nearly 30 plus years as an entire team perished in a horrific plane crash in Russia. The entire Yaroslavl Lokomotiv team died when their aging and worn-out 40 year old plane crash on takeoff, killing many former NHL players and coaches. The last time an entire team was killed was when the entire Marshall Football team died in the early 1970’s in a plane crash as well. It took years for the school to recover and it will take many years as well for the KHL to recover as a league, not to mention the families of all the players who will never truly get over such a senseless and tragically large loss of life.
Euro-Mess Killing World Economy
Surprise, surprise, the European economy is tanking and the Euro as a currency seems to be the root of the cause. If you know anything about how hard it was to bring this currency into the world, you would know that it took very difficult referendums in several member nations before all the nations in the Euro zone adopted the Euro as its currency. At the time, many people feared the impending rise in the cost of living that would force people to borrow more and more to continue to live within their lifestyle and, guess what? They were right. But the problem wasn’t so much the people in large debt because of the currency but rather nations themselves.
I’ve heard anecdotally that in some European nations, if you go out of business, you are mandated as a business to continue paying your employees up to 6 months of wages, regardless of your financial standing so if a small restaurant owner goes belly up, he has to still pay all his staff, putting himself into much further debt while suffering through the closure of the business. No wonder no one really wants to open a business in some of these nations.
Back to the point, Germany and France seem to be the only nations that really want to keep things going with regards to the Euro as Merkel of Germany and Sarkozy of France have been working diligently to prop up Ireland, Portugal, Greece and Italy. The problem now seems to be that even with all the bailouts ongoing all over Europe, where is all the money coming from? You can only tax your base so much before they revolt. It’s not a revolution if the people just decide they have had enough and do what they did in 1791 in France when they killed all their leaders. I fear that Europe is heading for a revolt of epic proportions if the leaders continue to focus on austerity measures on everyone else without cutting their own luxuries.
Why is it that whenever austerity measures are brought in, political leaders focus on cutting things everyone else uses without focusing on their own? Why not cut their own pay cheques and budgets first in half? Why not take all the pensions of former members of parliament or former PM’s, Presidents and the like and cut their pensions down? In Portugal alone there are 33 former members of parliament who are working in the private sector while receiving gigantic pension subsidies from the government. WTF?!?! Cut those bastards off first before you cut the pensions and vacation pay of the everyday Joe Blow. I fear this will not end well.
So I have done my best to recap the year as I saw it. Hopefully you had a better year then most. Like everyone else, I had an up and down year as I lost my uncle Joe but found out my sister is pregnant (I thought it was going to be a Girl, but I was wrong).
I hope everyone has a great 2012 and NO the world will not end this year….just for some unfortunately but not everyone. So yes, Nostradamus and the Mayans are wrong people. The Mayans never thought the world would get to 2012 plus years and Nostradamus figured he would just take a shot in the dark at a year so far in the future (for him) that he figured no one would care who he was and what he said….guess not eh?
As always feel free to tell me what you think.
Until Next Time…
NFC Championship Game will be San Fran and the G-Men? I guess Rodgers & Brees just couldn't get it done....
This was supposed to be the year of the Quarterback. Drew Brees and Tom Brady both broke Dan Marino's record for yards in a season, Aaron Rodgers led the Packers to a 14-1 regular season (his coach pussied out and benched him for the final game of the year and, gee, I wonder if that kind of backfired on him since Rodgers looked quite rusty yesterday) and even the other Manning, who seems to think he should be considered among the elite QB's in the NFL, Eli set the all-time record for 4th Quarter Touchdowns in a season this year, eclipsing the old mark of 14 set by his brother Peyton and another Colts legend, Johnny Unitas.
With the offensive players now being given the benefit of the doubt on just about every play, as well as the new focus on not allowing defensive players to lead with their heads, receivers were able to rack up TD's and yards at an all-time record pace. There was such a focus on offense this year that the top 3 offensive teams (The Patriots, Saints and Packers) all had winning records (they went a combined 41-7 this past regular season) also had 3 of the worst defenses in the NFL (Green Bay was ranked 32nd, New England 31st and New Orleans was 24th).
Yet here we are, a week away from the Conference Finals and we have New England (31st ranked Defense, 2nd ranked Offense) against Baltimore (3rd ranked Defense, 15th ranked Offense) and San Francisco (4th ranked Defense, 26th ranked Offense) against the New York, football Giants (27th ranked Defense, 8th ranked Offense). If ever there was a clash of styles, then the lead up to this weekends' games will be the definition of that.
Something tells me that the Giants and Patriots Defenses are both playing much better then their regular season stats would have you believe. How else do you explain the Giants shutting down Rodgers and the 3rd best offensive team in the league so easily on their way to a dominating 37-20 victory last night? What about the Patriots "D" which has been lambasted almost from the start of the season for how many yards they allow and blah, blah, blah and yet they stopped Tebow and the Broncos easily on route to a 45-10 dismantling of a Broncos team that had racked up 29 points against the vaunted Pittsburgh Steelers top ranked Defense just 6 days prior?
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the 2 games coming up Sunday will be Defensive battles the likes we haven't seen since the 1950's when the forward pass was first instituted. All I am saying is that despite the numbers, the Giants and Patriots look to finally have their defenses playing well at the right time. Baltimore and San Fran are both teams that rely on their "D" to overcome the deficiencies they have Offensively, while the Giants and Pats are the exact opposite.Should make for a couple of interesting games Sunday.
On a side note, Tim Tebow and the Broncos are not done yet shocking people. I really think that with a real off-season, instead of a lock-out shortened one, Tebow will be able to really work out the kinks in his mechanics and become more of a true QB without losing his god-given physical abilities....and just for the record, I DID call it when I said they would get creamed by my Patriots.
I don't understand how the Colts could fire 2 good men in GM Bill Polian and his son (who have helped to turn that Colts franchise into a perennial Contender, while the Chargers opted to keep GM A.J. Smith and coach Norv Turner, who have had some of the most talented teams in the league over the last 8 years, and done absolutely nothing with them.If the Colts really plan on choosing Andrew Luck with the #1 choice in this years draft, then part of their firing makes sense because you really don't need a GM and President of Football Ops to make the easiest choice ever at the draft. Why pay someone to make the easy choice when everyone already knows Luck is the top pick?
The Chargers situation is much more perplexing. How can you keep a couple of guys on the job that have just continued to fail to get your team over the hump time and time again? The knock on Norv Turner has always been that he is not a head coach. He is a great offensive co-coordinator but can not get the job done as the head hancho. While A.J. Smith's failings seems to be his inability to hire a coach that can push his talented group of players to that next level. I'm sorry, but the wrong 2 men were fired here.
Another man who should not have been turfed was Hue Jackson in Oakland. The man brought stability to a franchise that lost it's leader mid-season when Al Davis passed away at the age of 82. With the hiring of a new team President, his first order of business was to fire Jackson. Dumb move. It just goes to show that even without Al Davis in the fold, the Raiders remain the most dysfunctional team in the league by a very wide margin.
My Super Bowl prediction out of the final 4 teams remaining is that it will be San Francisco vs. the Patriots with Tom Brady cementing his legacy as the greatest QB of this generation by winning his 4th Super Bowl in 5 opportunities and his 3rd Super Bowl MVP Award will also be a record, 37-14.
With the offensive players now being given the benefit of the doubt on just about every play, as well as the new focus on not allowing defensive players to lead with their heads, receivers were able to rack up TD's and yards at an all-time record pace. There was such a focus on offense this year that the top 3 offensive teams (The Patriots, Saints and Packers) all had winning records (they went a combined 41-7 this past regular season) also had 3 of the worst defenses in the NFL (Green Bay was ranked 32nd, New England 31st and New Orleans was 24th).
Yet here we are, a week away from the Conference Finals and we have New England (31st ranked Defense, 2nd ranked Offense) against Baltimore (3rd ranked Defense, 15th ranked Offense) and San Francisco (4th ranked Defense, 26th ranked Offense) against the New York, football Giants (27th ranked Defense, 8th ranked Offense). If ever there was a clash of styles, then the lead up to this weekends' games will be the definition of that.
Something tells me that the Giants and Patriots Defenses are both playing much better then their regular season stats would have you believe. How else do you explain the Giants shutting down Rodgers and the 3rd best offensive team in the league so easily on their way to a dominating 37-20 victory last night? What about the Patriots "D" which has been lambasted almost from the start of the season for how many yards they allow and blah, blah, blah and yet they stopped Tebow and the Broncos easily on route to a 45-10 dismantling of a Broncos team that had racked up 29 points against the vaunted Pittsburgh Steelers top ranked Defense just 6 days prior?
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the 2 games coming up Sunday will be Defensive battles the likes we haven't seen since the 1950's when the forward pass was first instituted. All I am saying is that despite the numbers, the Giants and Patriots look to finally have their defenses playing well at the right time. Baltimore and San Fran are both teams that rely on their "D" to overcome the deficiencies they have Offensively, while the Giants and Pats are the exact opposite.Should make for a couple of interesting games Sunday.
On a side note, Tim Tebow and the Broncos are not done yet shocking people. I really think that with a real off-season, instead of a lock-out shortened one, Tebow will be able to really work out the kinks in his mechanics and become more of a true QB without losing his god-given physical abilities....and just for the record, I DID call it when I said they would get creamed by my Patriots.
I don't understand how the Colts could fire 2 good men in GM Bill Polian and his son (who have helped to turn that Colts franchise into a perennial Contender, while the Chargers opted to keep GM A.J. Smith and coach Norv Turner, who have had some of the most talented teams in the league over the last 8 years, and done absolutely nothing with them.If the Colts really plan on choosing Andrew Luck with the #1 choice in this years draft, then part of their firing makes sense because you really don't need a GM and President of Football Ops to make the easiest choice ever at the draft. Why pay someone to make the easy choice when everyone already knows Luck is the top pick?
The Chargers situation is much more perplexing. How can you keep a couple of guys on the job that have just continued to fail to get your team over the hump time and time again? The knock on Norv Turner has always been that he is not a head coach. He is a great offensive co-coordinator but can not get the job done as the head hancho. While A.J. Smith's failings seems to be his inability to hire a coach that can push his talented group of players to that next level. I'm sorry, but the wrong 2 men were fired here.
Another man who should not have been turfed was Hue Jackson in Oakland. The man brought stability to a franchise that lost it's leader mid-season when Al Davis passed away at the age of 82. With the hiring of a new team President, his first order of business was to fire Jackson. Dumb move. It just goes to show that even without Al Davis in the fold, the Raiders remain the most dysfunctional team in the league by a very wide margin.
My Super Bowl prediction out of the final 4 teams remaining is that it will be San Francisco vs. the Patriots with Tom Brady cementing his legacy as the greatest QB of this generation by winning his 4th Super Bowl in 5 opportunities and his 3rd Super Bowl MVP Award will also be a record, 37-14.
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