The Return of the NHL: Only Missing 1 Thing Plus Some Other Tidbits..

For anyone who doesn't think Burke being fired by MLSE wasn't a shot at "The Count" sitting 

next to him, you really don't know how much some businesses were hurt by the NHL Lockout

 

I've been a bit busy lately with all the hockey that has been on TV so other things, like my blog, have been sorely neglected but that ends today. Ever since the league backed down and realized that they were doing more damage to the game then good by continuing to hold out for more concessions from the players then they already had gotten, they kick started a frenzied process which has been enthralling to watch. The game is back which means for me and many other passionate fans that it is back to some real hockey issues instead of watching fights over which one of the players or owners gets the majority of each dollar we spend on the League.

As much as I hate to admit it, I am back to watching as much as I can, just as passionate about the game as ever but there is one thing I will not bow down and do this year. Mostly, i refuse to do it because I really feel it would have been a sign of good faith on the part of the league to give it to us for free for whats left of the 48 game season. What am I referring to? The NHL Center Ice Package. I WILL NOT order it this year. I absolutely refuse to do it and no one should order it for the last 3 months of the season.

Sure, for the first 12 days of the season it was on for free for anyone who had a Rogers digital terminal or Bell Expressvu but once the calendar flipped over, it was gone. And really, with all the games TSN is desperately cramming into their programming scheduled between now and the end of the year, we have no need to spend cash on Centre Ice. We should be using this time to send a LOUD message to the League about how retarded they are with regards to their fiscal stance against the players.

At least now we can focus on these incompetent boobs instead of Bettman and his merry

band of dysfunctional and out of touch morons

The same deal they signed on January 10th, could have been agreed to back at the end of NOVEMBER had they been honorable enough to actually present it to the union at that time. Owners like Jeremy Jacobs, who acts shocked when the news leaks about just how much he detests his OWN players and belittles them like the way he mocked Cam Neely, former Bruin player and current Executive, during their Stanley Cup Parade by chastising him for never being able to do the same as a player himself during his career. These owners are such asses that they have no concept of just how a joke of that nature is in such bad taste that it makes them look like clowns. 

As much as we as fans are thrilled that the game is back and (at least in cities where they care for the sport) have returned in record numbers, we need to send a clear message to Bettman and the Hawks (Like Jacobs in Boston) among the owners who seem to revel in the idea of crushing their players union or at least want to attempt to do it each and every time they DARE to want something close to a "fair deal". We need to ensure that 8 years from now, we are not stuck in yet another mess of a lockout imposed by greedy owners who want "more" of a cut then they deserve.

To me, a simple first step is not paying at all or ordering NHL Center Ice. Its calculated based on how many games TSN broadcasts nationally, plus all the Leaf games on TV but it still sends a message with the only thing they seem to care about: Our pocket books. If that doesn't make it clear to them that they have pissed off their fans, nothing will.

Then again, the financial mess that the league is in (or claims to be in) is their own fault. They are the idiots that expanded into the US South into places that do not need, like or want to support the sport and they have already seen Atlanta fail, twice (with the Flames in the early 80's and the Thrashers recently both moving to Calgary and Winnipeg respectively) and they are STILL stuck in Phoenix with no end in sight to that problem. Maybe now that there is some stability in place with the union, the league will finally say enough is enough and get that team out of there.

With all the empty seats creating an even larger hole in the NHL wallet, when will

they finally wake up and realize its time to pull the plug on Phoenix?

Sure they sold out their first game back this season but ever since, they have been averaging 50% capacity of their building. They are the ONLY team below 80% capacity in the entire league which is really telling considering how much anger many fans have and still feel towards the League after the lockout. Even after the massive snowfall we had over the last 2 days here, I would GUARANTEE that the Leafs would have had a sell out tonight had they actually been playing here tonight instead of Montreal, who I am also sure will have a sellout tonight despite that same storm now moving in on them.Phoenix is just not a hockey market and i think at this point, with all the evidence mounting and mounting, someone in the NHL head office needs to come to that same realization.

My point is that if the League won't or refuses to see the problem with a market like Phoenix and how that single team is depressing the economics of the league as a whole, then it's time the Union started to make some noise about moving that team out of Phoenix. They need to flex some muscle quietly behind the scenes as the only way the salary cap will explode the way it did over the last 7 years (creating another large increase in the salary cap each year as it did) going forward will be tied to the future of that team as well as possible expansion teams in Quebec City and a 2nd team in Toronto.

Currently there are 30 NHL teams. Here is how they breakdown by conference at the moment;

Eastern Conference		Western Conference
Atlantic		Central
New Jersey Devils		Chicago Blackhawks
New York Islanders		Columbus Blue Jackets
New York Rangers		Detroit Red Wings
Philadelphia Flyers		Nashville Predators
Pittsburgh Penguins		St. Louis Blues
Northeast		Northwest
Boston Bruins		Calgary Flames
Buffalo Sabres		Colorado Avalanche
Montreal Canadiens		Edmonton Oilers
Ottawa Senators		Minnesota Wild
Toronto Maple Leafs		Vancouver Canucks
Southeast		Pacific
Carolina Hurricanes		Anaheim Ducks
Florida Panthers		Dallas Stars
Tampa Bay Lightning		Los Angeles Kings
Washington Capitals		Phoenix Coyotes
Winnipeg Jets		San Jose Sharks

As you can see there are some teams that are in Divisions they should not be based upon geography and most recently re-location. Detroit and Columbus should not be in the West and Winnipeg should not be in the East in a division with Tampa Bay and the Florida Panthers. The easy move would be to switch either Detroit or Columbus with Winnipeg but there is more that should be done and I have a better idea as a whole to help fix the situation.

First and foremost, there should be confirmation of 2 expansion teams confirmed to begin play in 2 years. 1 in Toronto and 1 in Quebec City. This of course means that there would be 17 teams in the East and 15 in the West which would be very unbalanced, without even addressing the Winnipeg or Phoenix issues yet. The next thing that obviously would need to happen is to move Winnipeg to the West. Just doing that brings the numbers back to 16 in each conference. What to do with Phoenix. Well, as much as it would be better and more fitting to have them move to Quebec City, the NHL clearly wants to maximize the amount of money they get for Franchise fees so Quebec will have to wait. Phoenix has failed as an NHL city which means it needs to move to another market.

In happier times (before Billy Hunter was on the verge of being fired by the players he represents), the

NBA Players Union rep and David Stern seem poised to allow Seattle to get their Sonics back by Summer

The most logical one to me will be confirmed as an option by the end of this summer and it is the city of Seattle. The reason why it has taken this long and will take at least another 6 months to confirm this eventual move is that with the fact that the NBA's Sacramento Kings are on the verge of moving to Seattle themselves bringing back with them the old Sonic nickname. If that happens (and it's about 95% certain), then the arena that the new owners want to build will need a 2nd tenant to make it economically viable.

Add in the fact that Seattle has already won the Stanley Cup twice (back in the early 20th century with the Seattle Metropolitans) and the Western Junior Hockey League's Seattle Thunderbirds being among the best run WHL teams with great attendance figures to back that up and you have a community that seems more then ready to welcome back the NHL. One other re-alignment idea to conclude this segment. With an even number of teams in each conference, this would allow for each conference to have 2 divisions of 8 teams, much better then the current 3 division set up.

Now on to some tidbits about not only hockey but of course the Super Bowl and other things.

The Leafs are 5-1 on the road and 1-4 at home which, for some people, is a huge shock. Not to me and not to a real Leaf fan. The atmosphere in the ACC is just brutal. The corporate suits take up all the good seats (of course, given their over-priced nature) and spend most of the game chatting with their latest squeeze or on their Blackberry Z10 (yes, I will talk about that too) or try to sell their product to the stiff they brought with them who doesn't give a shit about the team.

Doubt by most of Leafs Nation (including me) and even rumoured to be on their way to Van City

for Roberto Luongo, Kadri and Bozak are the main reasons the Leafs have been pretty good this season

The players on the team will probably never admit this but they prefer playing outside of Toronto for several reasons, the first of which being that in some places like Buffalo and Montreal, games there are evenly split with fans of both teams. Another reason has to do with how many Ontario born and bred players are in the league and playing on other teams in the NHL. When they come "home" they get to play in front of family and friends which only serves to motivate them even more. Added with that is the fact that these same players, in some cases (think Tyler Seguin) could have been members of the team or were in the farm system as some point and give it that much more effort when it comes to playing here as they just do not want to lose to the Leafs at any cost.

Those are the outside factors. Internally, given the fact that these players are under such intense media scrutiny (only the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys would have anything close in terms of accredited media after each game), these players are analyzed and dissected about 1000 times over before, during and after each and every game. The media crush in this city at times isn't even fair with the way they cover the team. Just look at how they handled the Phill Kessel goal drought. About 1 minute after the game was over and he had scored his first of the year, the Game winner mind you, the media was then turning it's full attention to Captain Dion Phaneuf and HIS goalless drought.

 Funny how after he gets canned, the Leafs are now that tough, no nonsense, aggressive, in your face bunch

he had always said he wanted them to be since he was first hired

While I find athletes who refuse to come here because of the media crush to be extremely soft, to a certain extent I would agree with them that the negative attention of the media can be overbearing at times. Still, being an Ontario boy, you should be falling all over yourself to come back home and try to win the Cup for a team that has this passionate a fan base. If you refuse because of the media (Re: Cammalari, Mike), then you are a pussy and the team is better off without you anyway.

This new rule about covering the puck with your hand leading to a penalty is stupid and needs to be eliminated about as quickly as the stupid trapezoid behind the net and the instigator. Of course, it will take about 3 years before they figure it out so I won't hold my breath.

Teemu Selanne is still going strong at the age of 42. He and his Ducks are off to a great start and the entire hockey world is better off with him still playing like a man 10 years younger then he actually is. His teammate though, Ryan Getzlaf, made a comment I saw on the TSN season preview show the night before the season started which has made me detest the man and hope he never becomes a Maple Leaf (as is rumoured to be possible if he does not sign an extension this summer with the Ducks). To paraphrase, he essentially blamed the changes in his family life (his wife having his 2nd child) for his bad season. Who does that? He sounded like a douchbag when he said it.

The Super Bowl was memorable on several levels. It was a lopsided game at half which turned into one for the history books after that (NFL sponsored) power outage. A 35 minute delay is absolutely ridiculous and would not have been tolerated had it not been something that the NFL clearly felt would level out the game and it did just that. Asmuch as I appreciate the Ravens win also giving me $250 in earnings that night, there are just too many players on that team that I do not believe deserved to win that game due to personal reasons and circumstances which make me question their character and moral fiber as individuals. The only one I am happy for is Michael Oher.

Michael Oher's story (and the $250 I won) are the only good things that came out of the Ravens 

winning the Super Bowl

The man behind the story for the movie "The Blind Side" now has a Super Bowl ring to add to his already incredible life story. It's a shame that he had to play on a team with a Linebacker who is a double murderer and an arrogant ass for a QB.

Why are we still seeing those annoying kids on those Rogers commercials? I thought they were gone but nope, they brought back one of the most annoying ones yet where the red headed guy is trying to test the speed of one phone against another and his ass of a friend won't do it. To me, that kid who won't do it needs a beating but maybe it's just Rogers way of showing that they are actually scared to test their "fastest ever LTE speed". Hmmmm.

Still on annoying commercials, ever see that one where the girl gets the wait staff to sing to her soon to be ex about her breaking up with him? The end of that song makes no sense. They sing "once we were 2 and now we are 1" but that makes no sense. When you are with someone, you become 1, it's when you end things that you go back to being "single" or 1. Even changing the words to say something like "once we were 1 and now we are done" makes more sense. Who hires these marketing firms? Such morons.

So the Fiberals have selected Katherine Wynne as the Premier-elect and just before doing that, Laurel Broten, Education Minister for Ontario repeals Bill 115 (the one which basically took away teachers rights to strike) claiming victory and that the Bill had "accomplished what it was designed to do". WTF?!?! Are these people on crack? If you were planning on turning the wrath of your biggest union supporters against you, causing them to make you look like fools for months and ruining the supposed "legacy" of their "beloved" former Premier Mc-Liar, then hey, you did a bang up job. What a colossal mistake in judgement it was to go after the teachers like they did. They have incurred the wrath of thousands of registered voters and made parents and students angry because of the work to rule campaign the teachers have been on since they had their rights infringed upon.

I don't think I could trust any of these 3 people to do anything for me let alone run the Province...

The Raptors finally pulled the trigger on a massive deal and traded away a long time loyal player in Jose Calderon. The return was Rudy Gay and, after the early returns, he seems to have been exactly what this team has lacked since they had an injury-free Vince Carter patrolling the court at the ACC. He has been dynamic and visibly happy to be playing on a team that is (FINALLY) trending upwardly.

If the rumoured deal of Andrea Bargnani to Chicago for Carlos Boozer happens next, then I will publicly state right now that the Raptors will claw their way into the Playoffs THIS year. I know they are well back right now but something tells me that this young core will finally gel and make a serious run down the stretch when they play 75% of their games at home.

With his master plan finally starting to come to fruition, Bryan Colangelo has proven his worth to 

MLSE and should remain at the helm of the team for the next few years   

What's with the sudden influx of new, young announcers on Sportsnet and TSN? By my count, TSN has 2 new, young hot women working their various Sportscentre telecasts (Natasha and Kate) and Sportsnet brought back Martine Gaillard and has brought in Erin Hawksworth who used to work for the Seattle Seahawks in their local pre-game show. I'm defintely not complaining, hell, Erin, Natasha and Kate are all just gorgeous women and all 4 are pretty good at different sports (no one is perfect) but the fact that this kind of beauty is now on these shows (and when you recall that CBC has Andi Petrullo and Hazel Mae is also back doing Jays pre-game shows but is now on Mat leave, that makes 6 hot women now all over the sports scene in Canada) it makes you wonder if the new pre-requisite is to either be a hot woman or ethnic (at least 5 new young male journalists have been added at the same time, none of which I would classify as "White").

  Her first night on air, I thought she was going to pop out of her shirt she had so much cleavage showing....

I will do my best to talk about a few other things that have been gnawing at me lately with a more concerted effort to write more blog entries going forward. Feel free to make suggestions about topics as I am always open to new ideas.

Until next time....

How The Media Needs to Be Held More Accountable for Destroying Society

When Fox News hires Sarah Palin and tries to call her a news analyst

That kind of tells you all you need to know about their type of "news" 

I had taken a bit of time off from writing lately in an effort to try and "re-charge" after all the crap that has happened with the elementary school shootings and the way American society has re-acted (or failed to react appropriately if you ask me) to gun violence and violence in general in the media and society as a whole. While I have already made my opinions known about guns (as in the 2nd Amendment in the US is BADLY misinterpreted and, has in fact been bastardized to justify the American obsession with owning guns), there is another element that has to be addressed and that is the impact of media in the desensitization of society towards violence. 

Now, I know this isn't the normal type of topic I would choose to talk about but I am getting fed up with all these disgusting horror movies coming out week after week and seeing how people are just flocking to them like lemmings. The problem I see is that as a whole, society is no longer satisfied with movies about normal everyday life. We have become so numb to everything around us and the daily dulldrums of their monotonous, boring life that the only way they can feel anything is to be scared silly.  

In a developed and free society like ours, every form of entertainment and expression is welcome and allowed to be, but the problem I have with horror movies is that it really isn't the kind of entertainment that we should be exposing our children to. Yet, this week's #1 movie in North America, a horror stupidity called "Mama", should not have it's commercials running 24/7 on just about every popular channel like it is. Exposing children (anyone under 16) to such violent and fear inducing imagery is not a good thing for their higher brain development. Given how prone kids are to suggestive material they are exposed to, its no wonder that we are seeing more and more of them act out violently just based on the commercials they see alone.  

Their were more horror movies released last year then

every other genre of film other then porn 

Instead of being in a position to be there to teach our children not to be scared of the images they are seeing, parents are working crazy hours trying to pay for the latest video games (which I will get to as another problem shortly) being used by them to babysit their kids. Our kids no longer being parented by their parents, When they are, it's a rarity. What we are seeing is an increase in absentee parents (mothers and fathers) which is resulting in more and more kids lashing out. What's the easiest way to make your kids behave nowadays? Drug them up of course. Their are kids being drugged up as young as 5 now on riddelin and other drugs because docs say they have this or that when really all some of them need is to have a  parent around to supervise them and teach them right and wrong. To me, with the way our society is now "ON" 24/7, we simply do not have the time to actually be parents anymore.

This new dependency of parents to explain away the issues of their children on illness and pump them full of drugs is making pharmaceutical companies rich while driving the mental health care field out of business. Once these children start to grow up and exibit many more symptoms of illnesses that they have now been diagnosed with because of the same drugs that they have been pumped full of for years, they become reliant on a broken mental health system that can't help them. What we end up with are mentally unbalanced individuals, living in their elderly and aging parents' homes (usually in the basement), playing video games all day because they can't handle social interactions with people for a multitude of reasons. Which leads me to video games  

I admit, I was a child of the 1980's and I grew up playing video games for a significant portion of the day (even moreso in the summer). I was playing sports on Sega. NHL Hockey, baseball, football, golf. Not these 1st person shooter games that are so realistic now, you can become so embroiled in them that you almost forget what is real and what is not. I actually bought and have Call of Duty: Black Ops and stopped playing it after it started to get into my dreams. When you stop dreaming about what you want your life to be like and start having nightmarish dreams about killing people like you see in a video game, it's time to stop playing the video game. But the problem is that despite the age warnings, these kids end up spending hours playing the game regardless because of? Absentee parents working away, trying to give their kids everything when the most important thing they need is their time.

  When your video games go from Sonic the Hedgehog to this,

you know that there are going to be people with issues   

This doesn't exclude the actual News media themselves. They took their cues from the way former President Bush handled his 8 years in office. His was a presidency based on fear. He was able to successfully keep the electorate scared, ripping off the tactics of US News media which has been constantly elevating their scare tactics (successfully driving up ratings at the same time, might I add) for years. I admit, I watch a lot of Jon Stewart as well as Stephen Colbert and they often point out just how ridiculous this type of fear-mongering is. The problem is that they are in the minority when it comes to this obvious position. CNN is notorious for doing this, just like most local news channels, but the worst offender is Fox News. 

When President Bush was in office, they could barely stop themselves from falling all over themselves in support of just about anything he said and/or did. Hardly ever did you hear a commentator on Fox EVER openly criticize the White House over ANYTHING they did. Ever since President Obama took office, every policy he has enacted, even the ones he KEPT from the Bush years, has been attacked, villified, butchered, called socialist in nature, anti-American, and communist. I honestly do not see how they are able to get away with the things they say about the President. The only thing they haven't said live on air is the "N" word in reference to Obama.

 I know I am picking on Fox News, but it's SO EASY!!!

They have far surpassed the point of being anything other then a bunch of racists spouting off and trying to scare Americans into an overt form of racism against their own President that (I would say) borders on treasonous. Never once did Fox even questions the faulty premise presented by the White House for invading Iraq and Afghanistan. Never once did they question when it was clear that there were no weapons of mass destruction. Yet they question and disect everything that President Obama does. Health Care Reform, the Bank Bailouts, wanting to close Gitmo, his appointments to the Supreme Court, his current selections to key positions in his own cabinet. 

I know I kind of went on a different tangent but my point is this: Media has been using scare tactics so much that even they now have veered off in a different direction since the public at large is no longer reacting to them in the same way. 

The one thing I can't stand is when people in the media start saying things like "this is the wrong time to be talking about an issue like this". If this isn't the time to talk about violence in your society, after a horrific event like Sandy Hook, then when is it time? Wasn't it time after the Columbine shooting? What about after the Virginia Tech shooting? Or maybe after the Batman theatre SHOOTING (I sense a trend), was it time then? These are the same people that think Sandy Hook could have been avoided if the teachers had had guns with them in their class. What a brilliant idea. We don't have enough guns and violence on display for our children already as it is, lets saturate them even more by having their teachers packing heat in the CLASS!!!?!?!?!

We have to address the main issue that is making kids feel the symptoms of

depression: Absentee parents

 

There will be those among you who may read this and just dismiss my arguments because living in Canada, we are bombarded on a daily basis with the same images that Americans are. While this is true, we have had specific safety nets and social institutions in place for generations now that protect us and insulate us form the kind of societal problems that you see in the US. We don't have people falling into a vicious cycle of being in jail or on the street when they are mentally ill (at least not on the same level as you see in the US). 

You don't see people in Canada falling into severe poverty because on an inability to pay your medical bills. You don't see the kind of violence overall in Canadian society whether it's in the media and the alarming civilized manner in which we hold our elections, deliver the news or generally interact with each other. You don't see the same number of guns or gun violence or even gun related deaths (in terms of ratios of course) here. While all that is true, we are just a different people despite our similarities.

There is no denying that the media has a vital role in our daily lives. If they would simply accept that they need to be more accountable and need to stop using scare tactics to try to make people do what they want, then we might be able to see some real changes in American society. For the moment, with all the voices shouting at the same time, it seems that it will never happen.

Why the NRA & Extreme Republicans Are Propegating Violence in the USA

Out of respect for the victims, I chose not to put up a pic of their greiving, 

opting instead for this picture of a father comforting his son

While I am sure I will get quite a few angry replies to my general thoughts on this subject, unlike some people who just react, please make sure you read the whole thing before you judge where I am going with this Blog post. The tragedy we saw yesterday is yet another symptom of a system in the US that hasn't changed much since the wild, wild west. Cowboy mentality and the need to stock pile weapons was the right way to think of things back in the 19th century. Last time I checked we are in the 21st century and the time has come for the US and many of it's backward citizens to catch up with the rest of the world in regards to this particular issue.

The violence we saw yesterday in Newtown, Connecticut (and again today in Alabama as a lone gunman killed 3 people in a hospital today) can be directly correlated to the way that the NRA (the National Rifle Association) has been fighting against any and all measures any US government over the last 50 plus years has even considered when it comes to imposing stricter gun controls across the country. Shockingly, for an organization as brazen as the NRA, they have remained quiet in the hours after these senseless and insane killings. Maybe the will of the people and the realization that people have had enough of their antics has finally put a muzzle on this idiotic group of people.

This single-minded and reckless organization has fought for decades to, as they see it, protect their "God given right" to bear arms that is enshrined in the 2nd amendment of the US constitution. The line that always gets me about this organization was issued by former NRA President Charlton Heston (yes, THAT Charlton Heston), who was issuing a speech in Colorado maybe 2 weeks after the Columbine shooting and basically stated that the only way the Government would take his rights away from him in this area was to rip his guns out of his "COLD, DEAD HANDS!!!"

These people don't seem to realize that we are not living in the 1800's anymore....

This kind of fundamentalist mentality is the biggest problem facing America and Americans when it comes to this and many other issues. It has permeated many areas of American society and has even started to destroy their democratic institutions in that over the last 5 years, more and more political extremists are being not only supported by the Republican party, but are in fact at the forefront and LEADING the party by being elected into the senate and house and as Governors of States. It has gotten so bad that some of these people are literally coming into their new found offices with pledges to ensure that there is political gridlock in Washington unless they get things done the way they and their supporters want. They are so extreme that you could make the case that they are no longer governing in the best interest of the country but rather their specific extreme minded supporters.

I know it may sound like I am just bashing the Republicans and the NRA but lets look at this more directly. It's ironic that on this day in 1791, the founding father of the US created the 2nd amendment for which the NRA and Republicans continue to throw back at anyone who even breathes the words "gun control" towards them. But what these people seem to be oblivious to in regards to this "sacred" amendment they keep repeating ad nauseum is that the environment of America in 1791 was vastly different then the current climate and stage of evolution of American society as a whole. These people may not realize but that was 221 years ago. Its time to evolve.

That seems to be the biggest issue with the "Right" side o American politics in the last 5-10 years; They can't seem to evolve their positions to the new reality of what American society is becoming. In Canada we have Liberals and Conservatives as well but their positions are not NEARLY as diametrically opposed as the Democrats and Republicans are currently in the US. We have been a nation for about 100 years less then they have and yet we HAVE tight gun control laws. We have a MUCH safer society then they do. We have (statistically speaking) lower gun violence per capita then they do and we live, the majority of us for the most part, roughly 50-100 km north of the US border. Guns seem to be part of the American DNA so to speak but that can change if Americans wake up to the reality of their world today.

 This kind of nonsensical drivel is common among the most extreme members of the Republican base

How he hasn't snapped and called them all racist I will never know

Some will argue that they will never accept changes like that to their nation. Well, lets see what else people use to say they could never accept as part of their nation over the last 160 plus years. President Lincoln fought and fought until he ended Slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation. It took a Civil War but eventually, the slaves were freed. Women were not allowed to vote until the suffrage movement in the 1920's. Now, the US is one of the top proponents of Women's rights around the world.

Despite ending slavery, African Americans had to fight for equal rights and it wasn't until the late 1960's and the murders of JFK, RFK and Martin Luther King Jr. that they were given rights that they deserved. Most recently, look at the fight that Gays and Lesbians have been having trying to ensure that they too have the same rights as everyone else. For all of these groups, there were people who stood up and had the EXACT opposite view of them and did everything in their power to demonize them, attacking them, even killing them in an attempt to suppress their voices. While I am NOT saying that the NRA is doing anything of the sort, their form of extremism in the face of the sad facts surrounding gun violence in the US makes you question the level of sophistication of their membership as well as the IQ level of people who can't seem to move forward into the present, opting instead to live in the past.

Here is a perfect example of how idiotic NRA members and Republicans can be. 18 hours before the tragic events of Newtown, the State of Michigan, now under the control of Republicans who owe much of their campaign funding to the NRA, rammed through a Bill into law which makes it LEGAL to have a gun in a school or daycare as long as it is for "self-defense" purposes and in the possession of an adult with a permit. Permit or not, why on earth would you legalize guns in schools? Do these people actually think it would have been BETTER if there was a gun fight in the school in Newtown? The possibility of more casualties is more appealing to them? Just pathetic.

No good can EVER come from what happened yesterday and today. The only thing we can do is hope that the anger and sadness that it has caused will spur debate and action on the part of the President and Congress to get tough on the Gun lobby and enact much more stringent gun control laws. Think about this; it is easier right now to buy a gun then to adopt a pet. It is easier right now to buy an assault rifle then it is to get a mental health assessment in the US. It is legal to posses a .223 calibre, semi-automatic assault rifle with a sniper scope, that carries up to 50 rounds of  ammunition in all 50 states but only a handful have made it legal for anyone, regardless of sexual orientation, to marry each other if they so choose.

There is no moral justification for a school teacher to need to have 5 guns in her home. The NRA has been the biggest opponent of limiting what kind of guns each person can own. To me, their 50 year fight has a direct link to this and every other shooting that has happened in the last 30 years. Why isn't there a check done to see if the person buying a gun has been through a mental health screening or lives in a home with someone who may have mental health issues? Because the NRA opposed it, that's why.

Kind of speaks for itself doesn't it....

American's will only wake up from the nightmare of this kind of gun violence when they grow up and realize that their precious 2nd Amendment is as outdated and antiquated as the majority of the people who still have power within the Republican party and NRA.Maybe then, maybe once these people are pushed to the fringes of their own party by moderates, maybe then will we see some semblance of change in the DNA of cowboy America. Then and only then, when the NRA are turned into a minor political annoyance and the Republican Party moves into the 21st Century, will we begin to see the democratic process for which the US praises itself for, take center stage once again.

President Obama can Sympathise with Rob Ford

Embattled Mayor Ford of Toronto should not have had to go through the week he did

With the news this week that Mayor Ford has been "removed from office" pending an appeal, it dawned on me that there are real parallels between Mayor Ford and US President Barrack Obama dating back to when we first heard of both of them in the political spectrum. Don't believe me? Well let me take the time to show you exactly what I am referring to.

When Ford started off his political career as a city counselor, he railed against the greed he saw in city counsel and was a consistent thorn in the side of Miller and all his croonies who were voting in higher pay for themselves, higher spending budgets for themselves and little to no regard for something called "a budget". He was the loudest vocal critic of Miller and for all his thrifty ways, and the fact he didn't spend a single penny of his office budget, HE was the one investigated. Kind of funny how the man who was demonstrating how to be fiscally responsible during Miller's days as Mayor and constantly complained about the spending ways of former Mayor David Miller's regime, ended up being the one investigated himself.. His wasn't the only voice that complained about Miller but it certainly was the loudest.

Ford sparring with Miller was a common occurrence back in the day

One has to wonder if Miller's friend in the media continue to attack Ford just out of loyalty

During Miller's time as Mayor, there wasn't as much as a peep about his spending spending and how he was basically flushing taxpayer dollars down the drain. The only person who consistently fought against Miller's wasteful spending was none other then Counselor Rob Ford. When Miller announced that he would not seek re-election after his final term ended in 2010, it signaled a chance to have someone different try to fight their way into the mayor's office and that was exactly what Ford did. He campaigned on his record and pointed to the wasteful spending ways of Miller and, guess what, people agreed with him!!! Funny how that works.

The voting public believed in the change Ford was talking about. Sounds like someone else doesn't it. President Obama basically was selling a similar message in 2008. He too campaigned on getting into office to correct the wasteful spending ways of his predecessor (who essentially left Obama with a turd sandwich for an economy when he left office).

Considering the crap Bush left behind, Obama has set a deadline to end operations in Afghanistan,

ended the war in Iraq, Killed Osama Bin Laden and avoided a Fiscal meltdown cause by Bush

yet Republicans think he is a fascist, socialist, muslim who wants their guns....hmmmm  

Like Obama, Mayor Ford has been thwarted at every turn by political adversaries over every single one of his promises. Ford wants Subways (the smart and environmentally sound choice to try and turn Toronto into the world class city its' citizens already think it is) yet everyone else in city counsel, in their infinite wisdom, wants Light Rail Transit that will clog our streets and congest an already unbearably congested downtown core even more. Ford has been fighting to eliminate wasteful spending and, shockingly, despite having to argue and bicker with everyone in city counsel about just about every one of his motions or ideas, the city coffers are actually starting to stabilize after 2 years of sound fiscal policies.

Just like Ford, Obama has had to endure political gridlock in Washington along with an economy that was on the verge of fiscal collapse. Despite being saddled with a nearly crippling economy and over 398 times when the Republicans filibusted (essentially did everything they possibly could to stop a proposed piece of legislation endorsed by the President from passing into law), President Obama was able to pull the American economy out of the nosedive it was in, reformed student loans to ease the crushing repayment options forced upon students, instituted Obama-care giving basic health care to over 3 million Americans and created over 5 million new jobs (despite losing almost a million in the first year of his 4 year term).

 Obama actually had lunch with Romney yesterday, at the White House no less

Maybe it was to rub it in just a bit that "Hey, this is still MY HOUSE BITCH!!!"

Like Ford, Obama's political opponents have been steadfast in their ridiculous approach to "dealing with" the President. When the Tea Party started to gain prominence in 2009 and were instrumental in getting several radical Republicans into the Senate, they made it clear that their main goal was to prevent Obama's re-election. They didn't care that they were basically shutting down the US Government for 2 years and wreaking havoc on the lives of every American in the process, they had a mission and come hell or high water, by God, they wee going to go through with it. Sounds a lot like the way people have been opposing Mayor Ford.

Instead of focusing on the messages of both men, opponents have instead opted to focus on the physical appearance and/or name, race or beliefs as reasons to openly oppose them. Opponents of both men have attacked them for being fat, for being rough around the edges (Ford) or for the family connection to Islam and their name and race (Obama) because they know that we as people are too stupid to wade through their crap and see their attacks as what they are; pathetic attempts by the opponents of these men to try to obscure their accomplishments by trying to make people mad about other things that have no bearing on reality nor upon their ability to lead.

I would suggest that despite all of these people and their dirty tactics used against these two men, they have accomplished much more than anyone seems to realize. Republicans have, in my opinion, been bordering on treasonous behaviour in the way (especially Tea Party members) have been acting in Congress and the Senate, blocking every attempt possible to get the political machine moving in Washington. Mayor Ford has had to deal with the fact that a minor charity fund raising issue has, for some reason, been brought to a court proceeding and resulted in a heavy handed suggestion by the courts that he be removed from office. Let's get the facts straight here. Mayor Ford admitted that he helped raise $3500 or so in funds for a youth football team, agreed that he had to repay the funds himself and voted in favour of his repayment and somehow that makes it right that he be booted out of office?

The actions of his opponents are despicable in my estimation. Here is a man who has his issues, that's a given, but who has been able to accomplish something Mayor Miller never could (balance a budget) and yet his opponents would prefer to squander that fiscal change and force an election that would cost the city about $7 million (conservatively speaking) all over this stupid matter that should never have gone to court. The Mayors of Montreal and Laval have been forced out of their jobs in the last 2 months as well but in both of those cases, we are talking about fraud and corruption that was well into the millions of dollars and that were only discovered by accident. In Ford's case, he himself readily admitted his errors and even voted in favour of forcing himself to repay the money and yet he is being forced out of office? WTF?!?!

 Don't get me wrong, Hazel is the best but her scandal last year was 

1000 times worse in scope and nature then Mayor Ford, and she is still Mayor

The people of Toronto as well as Republicans who continue to rail against Obama, have lost all my respect. The way they are acting right now (or should I say overreacting) in the case of Ford tells me that they would treat a zit on their forehead by cutting off the patients head. They are radicals who have no business in politics given the way they are reacting to such a trivial issue. I mean for the love of God Hazel McCallion, long time Mayor of Mississauga was invilved in her own scandal which was much more nefarious then what Ford admitted to doing (helping her son land an $11 million Convention center and hotel deal) and no a single person I know of felt that she should be forced out of office (even IF she had been found guilty, I still think she would have kept her job).

The difference is that she has the support of the people and Ford doesn't. Or at least he doesn't have the support of the right people, namely the media who consistently chose to mock him for his weight loss attempts and attack him whenever they can about any tiny thing he does wrong (like picking up some KFC or coaching the Don Bosco high school football team, neither of which has ANYTHING to do with his job as Mayor). Frankly, I would surmise that the media has been on a paparazzi-like witch hunt on Mayor Ford ever since he reacted angrily when a Toronto Star writer literally violated his privacy by trying to get pictures of the mayor at his own home.

They saw that they could antagonize him and he would react like a normal person, not like a real polished politician and they said screw it, lets keep poking the bear and see how he reacts each time. I mean if you listen to the Dean Blundell show on the Edge, every morning he and the guys find something new about the Mayor to mock him about. I love their show but at the same time, enough is enough. The man still has done a decent job, both despite his political adversaries and in spite of himself. But the message has been lost because of the messenger. Everyone has been so focused on the who that they have forgotten about the what.

 I'm not sure there is anything President Obama will ever be able to do to get his critics

off his back aside from flying a jet into an alien armada and saving the planet like 

Bill Pullman did in Independence Day

I am almost 100% positive that Mayor Ford will be able to fight off this challenge to his position and, given the fact that President Obama won a 2nd term, he will be able to get much more accomplished in the next 4 years then he did in his first 4 (and he did do a lot more then the Republicans will ever admit). Its just pathetic to me that at a time when people are always talking about "anti-bullying" and respect for all people that we are still looking at people and judging them based upon their appearance, their name their race and their political affiliations. We still haven't grown past them and, as much as people want to say that Toronto and Canada as a whole is not as divided as the US, I think it is quite clear that we are much more divided then even we realize.