Bonk

Many sports "experts" now are wanting to take the fighting out of hockey. The triggering event was the tragic death of an amateur hockey league player in southern Ontario. He died of head injuries resulting from a fight.

The purists maintain a distance of reality in their defense of fighting. One can instantly tell the difference. You see the young man was engaged in a staged fight when he fell hard to the ice. Legally speaking the man's injuries resulted from activities related to fighting. Purists maintain that it was the loss of his helmet and the impact that caused death.

There is a larger issue though. The larger issue is concussions. In a fast game like hockey, concussions occur frequently. New research indicates that concussions should be considered with greater gravity than the past.

The goal of fighting is to knock out the other guy in hockey. The only truly vulnerable body part in hockey is the head. In the distant past, fighting was result of loss of temper. Today most of the fighting in professional hockey is staged or contrived.

My problem is that anything that contributes to the prevalence of concussions beyond that of the numbers that are accidental, should be challenged. Hockey teams maintain one or two goons on their bench. Most goons are only there to fight and lack hockey skill. This type of fight should be quashed in any sport.

How is this to be done. Hockey does have an aggressive edge bordering on fighting. That aspect i part of the game. It makes NHL hockey work effectively in entertainment value. Soccer created the shoot out. Hockey adopted that.

Soccer is a more mature sport both in chronology and practice. It too has a violent aspect. There is little or no padding or protection in footie. Fights occur. But the referee or umpire has access to two type of censure. The primary penalty kicks which occur on accidental and unintentional contact. The second type is the card system.

When a player commits a flagrant foul, the referee may also issue a personal warning to the player with a yellow card or a red card. The latter indicating a flagrant foul which the referee felt was serious. A red means dismissal and a game suspension. Two yellow cards over two games equalled one red. A yellow means the foul was flagrant but not bad enough to get one thrown out of the game.

This card system can be adapted to hockey. The card system lets the aggressive character of the players to function but the referee has the means to suspend flagrant foul repeaters. In the case of hockey there would be two blue cards, equal a yellow, and two yellows equal a red similar to the soccer idea. The cards can be supplemental to the existing penalty structure in hockey.

Canucks win Sundin

Vancouver Canuck fans gloated with glee when the Swedish god of hockey, Mats Sundin, finally decided to accept their contract offer. They felt that they had stolen this player from Toronto.

Toronto fans glum with the news when their former captain transited the walls of maximum hyprocrisy and signed with Vancouver. Nearing free agency in the spring, the proud Sundin pronounced that he wanted to be a Maple Leaf and blue flowed in his veins. He did not want to be a rent player.

After much theatre, Sundin finally decided on the Vancouver Canucks half way through the season. The Canucks were fixed in second place. With Sundin, they are 1-5-2. If the season ended today, they would be well out of the playoffs. Indeed, as of last night they have achieved a streak of seven losses. Sundin was always known for bringing his hockey team a level of consistency.

City Council

In the same callous vein borne of the US Bankers, Toronto City council decided to go ahead with salary increases. The reasoning is the same. They have to keep good people.

At the end of the increase they will make just shy of $100G per annum, not including perks for the jerks. The mayor also decided to receive the extra cash but claims to be giving it back to donate to a local charity. This only means he will get an extra tax break.

This year the council will be confronted by city unions on expiring contracts. They also want a hefty raise. There is no need to ask why civil strikes happen when the community leaders set the moral standard for leadership.

Bone asses for bangkors

The United States year end numbers have officially rolled out confirming rumors that senior bank officials of the banks that are receiving the US government bail out, got $18Bn in annual bonuses. A reason was given. The bank spin is that they had to pay these bonuses in order to keep good people within their companies.

Whow. Apparently this is going over very big in the US Congress. Politicians are finding it difficult to put heavy rules on needy auto companies when banks appear to be immune from the sensitivities of receiving monies from the US taxpayer.

Blackness denied

Good news day. Its been confirmed. Conrad Black wasn't given a pardon by outgoing President G.W. Bush.

Black is still appealing his sentence though. However, by the time the appeal is heard and a new trial upon even a successful appellate decision, Black will be incarcerated for at least two years.

Also at the end of his jailing, it is also likely that he will be deported to Britain. Ironic isn't it. The incoming President Obama politiced out of Chicago, Illinois as a federal Senator. The newspapers Black still owns are headquartered there. Too bad his lordship backed the Republicans. His schlep certainly would have worked far more effectively on Democrats.

Black's companies lost a $51M legal action to CanWest. Conrad appears to be on a roll.

CWSS#1

This is the first of a series which tries to define the reasons why to this day I cannot figure out exactly when I suffered severe back injuries. No brain, no pain.

The day lived on June. Grade nine lived in the mirrors. Brand new set of pants. Measures British Standard since the metric system hadn't been invented by Pierre Trudeau yet. Riding a relatively new bike but very fast that had recently undergone my masterful tuneups the day before.

This location was about 40 metres west of the Royal Canadian Legion on Howe Street. The road dips down about in a direction heading for the cobbled shores of Lake Superior. The road then makes a 90 degree right turn and goes for another one hundred metres to the Shell Oil Storage Tank Yard.

The gasoline tanks are no longer there making for a fenced vacant lot. The road featured corner banking proudly installed by my civil engineer father. Indeed, he was quite proud of the paved banking which enabled the truck drivers to negotiate the corner easily.

Due to the innovative new approach to education the high school officials had let me do my school day broken with a two hour noon hour and still get off at three in the afternoon. So after ingesting lunch, I began like taking a quick noon hour ride. Anything was better than school.

Today I came roaring down Yawkey Ave. at flank speed. I turned right without loosing too much momentum west onto Howe. I headed for the lakeshore. Down the legion drops picking up speed.

The day before I had done much the same thing, it should be stated. The pavement was relatively new having been laid only three years before. I had made the corner. But there was a freshly graded gravel driveway onto an outlook on the sandy cliffs overlooking Lake Superior and its Pebble Beach.

At the point I began leaning to make the apex. But the grader had left some gravel on the corner. As formula one drivers say, I hit the marbles. The bike crashed or laid out trapping my right leg under it. My hip and body had landed very hard. The leg became a toboggan runner.

I slid right across the corner on my hip right up father's shallow banking and into the air ten feet down range and three feet into the air again. The bank was also a jump ramp in the right circumstances. These were the right circumstances.

Again I landed heavily again. I pained my eyes into the blueness. No one had witnessed the crash. My leg hung naked from the freshing torn pants blood rakes from the gravelling claws of the road surface. Surprisingly my bike had survived, and why not it rode out the accident on my hips and legs.

I had badly scaped my right arm in the short sleeve shirt. I remounted my bike and made it back home.

Mother cursed me over the pants. “But mom, it was an accident.”

Mother was a nurse. Quick as a flash the wounds were washed unmercifully. Some scrapes were coated with tincture of extreme pain and torture to counteract infection. Another pair of pants were put on as mother pointed out that the new pants could not be repaired.

Painfully I crawled onto the bicycle and still made it to class. Education was a waste of time because the waves of pain made even the lowest level of concentration impossible. It was a Friday. I would have the weekend to rest and recuperate.

This was one incident in which I could have fractured my back. The wounded side is the same side that spasms the most through time. This event mundane was only one possible candidate for the broken vertabrate since the impact force of the crash was straight up the spine.

Tacks

So at the end of this day, the government will come down with a budget which may or may not solve the alleged economic crisis. Why would it be a crisis when it is just part of the capitalist money flow cycle?

Every trick in the book will be tried to the effect where the government, regardless of the party in power will spend $34B just to right the ship. But one must ask, if the ship is all that typsy. Free market is not like plate glass, which is perfectly smooth and even. Since Adam Smith twisted the quill and ink, economics has recognized that the free market economy is more like a Grand Banks squall with towering waves and deep troughs.

If a government wants a quick fix to apply to everyone, and cause an effective economic stimulus only one solution will work. That solution is to eliminate the retail sales tax both federally and provincially.

Lotttobouy

On my way to buy some lotto numbers, I was struck by a horrible thought. I could see into the future. Witnessing the apparent awaiting terror in minds eye, a turn to home was made.

I would likely lose my investment because the odds were so against winning. This should have been the reason, but it was not.

Winning wouldn’t make any difference, so pocket the ten bucks. This may have been a reason, but it was not.

Winning meant one thing. I would have to look for work. That was the reason, I was wrestling with.

What is the first thing everyone cites regarding winning the “big one”? They say they are going to quit their jobs. Means I gotta get a job to quit.

Economic whorers

Unlike the tax and spend Liverals, it seems okay for the Harperite Cornservatives to run up the debt. Most of that money is for wealthy banks, car makers and conducting a questionable futile war on the other side of the planet.

If economic stimulus were to be the goal, the elimination of the GST and a twelve month suspension of any provincial retail sales taxes in Canada would do the same trick and most effectively. Yet it appears that the government wants to reward failure in the upper echelons of the Capitalist System.

Barriers

The United Way just announced that their fund drive fell short for the first time in 18 years. They blame it on the economy.

It shows how much of a problem the impoverished have. They get left behind in the good times. They are the first to loose funding in the tough times.

Hat size

Jon Stewart did an interesting comparison last night. Stewart's main means of humor expression uses the words of politicians. The job of politicians is to lead, represent, deliberate, decide and deliver words expressing all the above. Sometimes though, the process of bullshitting creates smell.

The new President's speech fell below expectations. It was a well delivered address. But the problem with the expectations of the masses, it lacked the rousing quality. They wanted Lincoln, they got a Focus.

Abraham Lincoln was one of the world's greatest orators from Illinois. While Obama may have been a Senator from Illinois, in all rights he is a Hawaiian nurtured. A woman stud for sure, I can't actually see Obama splitting rails although he has been trying to portray that.

Another problem with oratory. It is often rather a great response loaded with relevant answers to timely great issues crafted in a short window of preparation. John Fitzgerald Kennedy's inaugural speech is still regarded one of the greatest ever because it defined change, outlined change, initiated a time of change and articulated that change. Obama's speech did none of that.

While everyone got all worked up about Lincoln and Martin Luther King, few cited Kennedy. Real change in America began with the Kennedy-Johnson years. Why did the Obama Democrats forget the contributions of Kennedy?

Lincoln is long dead for one. Lincoln only freed the slaves. He did not have the lifetime to begin the racist attitudes. Both Kennedy and Lincoln were assassinated because they lived on the edge of courage. King lived on the edge of courage with little personal protection. They made enemies. They defeated enemies. The only recourse that the enemies had was assassination. The enemies took their lives but could not quiet the power of their oratory to change the course of events.

The US and the world needs a President with the courage to live on the edge. Bush wanted to live on the edge but lacked the intellectual scope to do change. He started things with the right intentioned he claimed. But he lacked the planning to finish those tasks.

Obama appears to have the grey matter. But he does not appear to have the courage to live on the edge. In the US, great change such as international matters, economic and health issues now need someone to live on the edge.

Stewart compared the rousing parts of the Obama speech with clips of speeches from the outgoing President George W. Bush. The words of Obama appeared as reworked components of the Bush oratory. Everyone laughed but the skill of Stewart's writers ripped of a shell of Obama's protection to expose a troubling aspect. As Texan's say, that Obama speech ... was all hat.

My prediction. Obama may be a one term President. Why? The campaign speech making is over. The feet hit the mat. Obama has an Oscar, not an Olympic medal.

Et tu Obie

[auth. Jan 19th]

Sorry I 'aven't been 'ere for some days. Da 'ead cold works its uncomfortable magic.

During that time. Obama has made it this far. He took a train ride in a private coach. The only thing missing was the steam. It was replaced by a lot of other hot gases.

The only saving thing for Obama is that unlike his thick predecessor he appears to have surrounded himself with very smart people. But I have found that the only thing he does is repeat the same old phrases of future hope.

Closing Guantanamo takes the stroke of a pen. Filling out the forms for the transfer of billions to the banks takes the stroke of a pen.

Here lies a striking comparison. The leader of Afghanistan, Karzai, is rumored to be guarded by a full US Marine Brigade or about one thousand soldiers at any time. This is a lot of guards.

In Washington, according to CTV news, Obama's security detail for his first day on the job will be 40,000 security personnel, police and secret service agents. Or in other words, Obama is being guarded with a force roughly the size of the entire Canadian Army (circa 1995).

In most grim estimates the size of direct Al Qaeda operatives, optimistically put the global count as around17,000. This is highly speculative numbers, since the organizational structure and behavior not only changes from region to region, also remains liquid within it.

A terror group, any terror group wins by inflicting terror. Strategic topographical control remains a minor priority. The over the top response by Americans shows that the terror group wins again.

I am also reflective on history. Americans should study history. Most political leaders are not overthrown by an alien force but often by those considered close allies. Julius Caesar, Caligula, Sertorius, Anwar Sadat, Indira Ghandi, were offed by members of their own guard or, with the guard's complicity. Indeed one is more likely to have a successful internal attack than a successful external attack. A leader should also be aware of the mood of the Praetorian Guard.

This was taken to extreme in the Ottoman Empire when these emporers employed foreign born eunuchs called Janissaries. What history proved though was that the Janissaries played a role in leadership changes as that empire matured. Indeed they shortened the reigns of more than one of their supposed benefactors.

So Obama has a Praetorian Guard too. One army of guards exists surrounding him. Ironic, that it is only called the Secret Service. History should cause him to fear his Conservative leaning guards more than some imaginary terror plots.

Chill thrills

Well just a little smug. The mercury plunged after a week of warning. Now the temperature hunts around minus 18 degress Celsius this morning. Of course, the media dogs bark about it being near -31 degrees wind chill. (Then just don't stand naked in the wind stupid.)

This little chill episode only lasts about three days. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I remember in TWNBMB that during the months of January and February a day like this would be considered downright tropical.

The GO trains are stuck on frozen switches. Passengers are agog about being over 64 minutes late. Phhhhfff, nothing. I can remember the CP Dominion being days late.

Still don't require a parka. Everyone else is bundling up. But they don't know what to do with those clothes. I take mine off the minute I step inside a warm building. People on subways refuse to unzip their parkas.

But lets look on the bright side of this little cold snap. This is a good time for tow truck operators as they go from call to call.

Invest in engine rebuilders because they should make a good profit in this stuff. Most of the people here simply put water in their car's cooling systems. They also think a block heater is another name for a winter hooker.

Time for volunteer work.

Enough of this. Lets look at the bright side. Economic opportunities abound.

Joyous day

Today is one of the most important days in Canada, that isn't commonly recognized. In the USA the one thing they do better than us ice chippers is that they remember their leadership by commemorating the days of birth such as Washington, Lincoln and King.

In that vein we inject some Canadiana. Today is John A. MacDonald's birthday. Hip, hip, hoo-ray!!!!!!

Alright the next question is... who is John A. MacDonald? Another blag for that.

L A offs and EEk Cono Me

As we enter this period of recession, revisionist history climbs onto the wagon. One of them is recalling programs of wage and price controls enacted by the Canadian government led by Pierre Trudeau. The common remembrance is that there was only wage and price controls. There was a very important third part though which made the first two aspects work. In this day and age, a duplication of that program, with a layoff freeze will go a long way to help the economy.

While this set of policies appear outwardly as anti-business, in effect the grouping of policies enforces a completely pro-business effect. It is a two prong strategy meant to help the commercial take a short term breath much like resuscitating a nearly drowned person.

What the policy does do is defer the knee jerk reaction of bankers to interfere with the business recovery. Bankers who have only a financial interest take a look at the business accounts and recommends cost reductions to struggling business. Too many people in the modern world assume that bankers are part of the business sector. In every way the financial sector to which banking truly belongs anchors it.

Wage, price and layoff controls (WPLC) implemented on a six month re-evaluation cycle takes away the easy route to cost controls. Although every business has unique struggles the basis of obtaining financing remains universal. The easiest way to reduce costs is to reduce labor. The easiest way to spin into recession is to put people out of revenue generating work.

WPLC policies gives that breathing space where banks cannot maintain a stance of forcing businesses into labor practices which deepens the recession cycle. It gives businesses stable financial cycles over several reporting quarters. They can adjust their specific problems in a predictable environment.

Warming trends

Snows finally gather in the city scape. Mice run into the buildings fleeing from a certain winter. Squirrels crawl in attics.

Governments declaration of emergency cold alerts express false concern through media outlets. Churches close doors.

We stand alone. Alone we stand.

Which is kinda good in one way but bad in another. I just contributed with all the cattle in the world to the global warming gases. Spring will now come sooner than later.

Memorial ang syne

Flying into another year, there appears on the plate many important issues. One thing brings it into focus though.

Two floors below, a building superintendant passed away on New Year's Day from natural causes. I do not know his surname for he was one of those people who maintained an arm's length relationship with the tenants. We called him “Rick”.

I only found out about this on Tuesday this week. And its all sad.

What was stunning was that he was only around 48 years of age. I had seen him earlier in that holiday week walking to the store. The ever present cigarette smoldering, hanging from the corner of his mouth.

The only things we knew about him. He owned a tattoo business. He had two Harlies wintering in the basement where he lived. He had a daughter somewhere out west. That is about all. No funeral, no memorial and no one wanted to adopt his Rottweiler.

Winter thaw its

Sometimes things come across the desk which is a lot better than the blog I was contemplating. The following article is taken in its entirety to retain literal context, without commercial intent for the education and the edification of the student readers of this bleg.

Bushisms: U.S. leader sets standard for mangled phrases during presidency

Module body

Sat Jan 3, 4:03 PM

By The Associated Press, The Associated Press

President George W. Bush will leave behind a legacy of Bushisms, the label stamped on the U.S. leaders original speaking style. Some of the president's more notable malapropisms and mangled statements:

-"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." - September 2000, explaining his energy policies at an event in Michigan.

-"Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?" - January 2000, during a campaign event in South Carolina.

-"They misunderestimated the compassion of our country. I think they misunderestimated the will and determination of the commander-in-chief, too." - Sept. 26, 2001, in Langley, Va. Bush was referring to the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks.

-"There's no doubt in my mind, not one doubt in my mind, that we will fail." - Oct. 4, 2001, in Washington. Bush was remarking on a back-to-work plan after the terrorist attacks.

- "It would be a mistake for the United States Senate to allow any kind of human cloning to come out of that chamber." - April 10, 2002, at the White House, as Bush urged Senate passage of a broad ban on cloning.

- "I want to thank the dozens of welfare-to-work stories, the actual examples of people who made the firm and solemn commitment to work hard to embetter themselves." - April 18, 2002, at the White House.

-"There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again." - Sept. 17, 2002, in Nashville, Tenn.

-"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." - Aug. 5, 2004, at the signing ceremony for a defence spending bill.

-"Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." - Sept. 6, 2004, at a rally in Poplar Bluff, Mo.

- "Our most abundant energy source is coal. We have enough coal to last for 250 years, yet coal also prevents an environmental challenge." - April 20, 2005, in Washington.

- "We look forward to hearing your vision, so we can more better do our job." - Sept. 20, 2005, in Gulfport, Miss.

-"I can't wait to join you in the joy of welcoming neighbours back into neighbourhoods, and small businesses up and running, and cutting those ribbons that somebody is creating new jobs." - Sept. 5, 2005, when Bush met with residents of Poplarville, Miss., in the wake of hurricane Katrina.

-"It was not always a given that the United States and America would have a close relationship. After all, 60 years we were at war 60 years ago we were at war." - June 29, 2006, at the White House, where Bush met with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

-"Make no mistake about it, I understand how tough it is, sir. I talk to families who die." - Dec. 7, 2006, in a joint appearance with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

- "These are big achievements for this country, and the people of Bulgaria ought to be proud of the achievements that they have achieved." - June 11, 2007, in Sofia, Bulgaria.

- "Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction. Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit." - September 2007, in Sydney, Australia, where Bush was attending an APEC summit.

-"Thank you, Your Holiness. Awesome speech." April 16, 2008, at a ceremony welcoming Pope Benedict to the White House.

-"The fact that they purchased the machine meant somebody had to make the machine. And when somebody makes a machine, it means there's jobs at the machine-making place." - May 27, 2008, in Mesa, Ariz.

-"And they have no disregard for human life." - July 15, 2008, at the White House. Bush was referring to enemy fighters in Afghanistan.

- "I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office." - June 26, 2008, during a Rose Garden news briefing.

-"Throughout our history, the words of the Declaration have inspired immigrants from around the world to set sail to our shores. These immigrants have helped transform 13 small colonies into a great and growing nation of more than 300 people." - July 4, 2008 in Virginia.

- "This thaw - took a while to thaw, it's going to take a while to unthaw." Oct. 20, 2008, in Alexandria, La., as he discussed the economy and frozen credit markets.

Rez Ol' Lushions

Its been bothering me for days. Okay. Worrying about this means that I have excessive surpluses of temporal allotments on my manipulators.

New Year's Resolutions. The phrase irks. Such effort is cliche, lacking in any imagination. Plus its like telling the world that you, the Resolutioner", are an idiot.

Take the words "resolve" and "resolution". Check the linguistic dynamics of them.

Resolution implies that at one time there was a solution that was either re-applied or applied in replacement to a solution to a known problem. Stoking this thought channel the observer can only interpret that all the other efforts in solution or solved failed. You, the Resolutioner, are then a failed idiot.

Resolve implies that you are finally taking a firm stand. There was a solve and now again the same solve. This is milquetoast in the world of sagebrush philosophy. It means little. It means you quit once already when you were solving the problem and here you are back at it again. And everyone else knows that you will not achieve such a goal because in historical experiences you failed every time repeatedly. You are a repeating idiot.

Also such action could be interpreted for a lack of vision. History shows that most resolutions are cliche: lose weight, quit smoking, exercise everyday. Things like this require no originality. They are common solutions for common problems. Why are you elevating these simple remedies to the diety of a year ending determination. You then are an unimaginative idiot.

Alright then. There are a lot of people who are Resolutioners at the beginning of the year. Like one new day is going to change the history of the previous 365 days by magic. It also implies rather a domesticated existence. You follow the crowd. You adhere to the group culture without question. You are a sheep, idiot.

It is quite possible to go on, but it would be superfluous. Time is to dwell on other more important issues. I promise to this year. And that is a "Solution" not a repeat.