I was watching the freestyle snowmobile event last night as the X Games opened. Gotta admit it was a bit on the boring side. Until this.
X Games Crash
Categories: Cool things
Tags: Organizations, Outdoors, Recreation, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Snowmobile, Snowmobiling, Sports, X Games
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Ovechkin, the NHL and All Star Weekend.
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Alexander Ovechkin, the Washington Capitals captain, says he’s not going to the All Star game.
My heart is not there. I’m suspended, so why I have to go there? I love the game; it’s great event. I’d love to be there, but I’m suspended. I don’t want to be a target. I feel I’m not deserving to be there right now. If I’m suspended, I have to be suspended.
The league responds.
In light of yesterday’s suspension, we informed the Capitals that, while Alex Ovechkin was still welcome to participate in this weekend’s All Star festivities in Ottawa, we would not be insisting that he do so. We now understand that Alex has decided to withdraw from this weekend’s events. Given the circumstances involved, we understand Mr. Ovechkin’s decision in this regard and have no intention of pursuing this matter further.
Think about this. Alexander Ovechkin is arguably the league’s number one star now that Crosby is out. He has many, many fans. His presence on the ice is exciting for all, including other players who never get to play with him. Although he is a notorious puck hog, he is also a very good player and the All Star game is a great time for him to shine. The league benefits from his presence in many ways, including increased viewership.
So what does this boneheaded league do? Days before the All-Star game, they levy a three game suspension on the Washington captain. What, they couldn’t wait a week? Is he such a monster that he needed to be suspended immediately? Why not simply delay the hearing (decision) until after the ASG?
Morons.
Food For Thought Regarding Taxes and Fees.
Image by 401K via Flickr
Ask yourself this question.
Do you prefer to know the provider’s cost of an item or service only to be later disappointed that you have to pay taxes and fees on top of all that as in the case of automobiles, airline tickets and rental cars, or do you prefer to know the total cost with taxes and fees included like gasoline, alcohol and cigarettes (sales tax excluded)?
This question is motivated by the US Dept of Transportation latest directive to airlines that the fare needs to include airport fees and taxes up front. Spirit Airlines, for one, thinks that is just a way of hiding the actual cost of the taxes and fees and I agree.
Here’s a post on the subject from The Consumerist.
Categories: Taxes
Tags: Airline, Airline ticket, Car rental, Fee, Spirit Airlines, United States, United States Department of Transportation
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Is Tim Thomas Right Or Wrong? Who Cares.
When the Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins visited the White House the other day, their starting goaltender Tim Thomas was voluntarily not among them. Thomas, a self-proclaimed tea partier, is disgusted with the state of affairs in all branches of government by both parties. As such he felt it was necessary to stay away from the White House.
I think the White House thing with sports champions is a nice gesture. At its very most it is only a photo opp and a chance for the current President to get a free jersey with his name on the back. Beyond that, it is meaningless. The fact that Thomas skipped it, for which he is catching both flak and praise, is as equally unimportant. Plain and simple, it isn’t a place for politics and the fact the Thomas chose to make it such doesn’t change that.
Related articles
- Tim Thomas Skips White House Ceremony For Political Reasons (boston.cbslocal.com)
Categories: Politics
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I Feel All Toasty Inside.
Make sure your sound is on for this one and play it in full screen. Then sit back and enjoy.
If Donald Sutherland were narrating he would say, “Simply awesome.”
Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.
It’s A Broken Heart’s What Done Him In.
There is science behind it.
A total of 4,486 widowers of 55 years of age and older have been followed up for nine years since the death of their wives in 1957. Of these 213 died during the first six months of bereavement, 40% above the expected rate for married men of the same age.
I didn’t know Joe Paterno. His wife survives him. Yet I can’t help but think that his heart was broken. Too bad he didn’t feel as strongly about protecting young boys from a monster as he did about a stupid game.
My Favorite Show Of The New TV Season.
I am not sure if you have seen this television show (really a half hour infomercial) and I cannot say exactly when it airs. I only know that I have seen it while flipping through channels while drinking my morning coffee. It is nearly ubiquitous these days.
Here’s a clip of the workout package called Brazilian Butt Lift. (Warning: contains many images of butts in skimpy bathing suits and if I had used the language in the show when I was 10 years old, my mother would have fed me some lifebuoy – so NSFW))
Check it out if you have the inclination. It is very humorous if only for the number of times the word “butt” appears. Hey. There’s a new drinking game idea. Hoist one every time the word “butt” appears. I guarantee you’ll be plastered after the half-hour info-mercial.
United States v. Jones: Hey Copper, If Wanna Use GPS, Then Get A Warrant.
Today the Supreme Court handed down the first of what may be a series of cases in the next few years regarding warrant-less monitoring of suspects using GPS technology. In the case at hand, the opinion of which was handed down today, deals with a known drug dealer whose vehicle was kept under GPS surveillance for 28 days. The tracking led to his presence at a drug distribution spot where he was found with lots of cash and lots of cocaine. The police had previously had a warrant to track the suspect, but it had expired. The police also exceed the parameters of the warrant by attaching the device to the vehicle in a public parking lot.
While all nine Justices agreed that GPS monitoring is akin to “search and seizure” and entitled to 4th Amendment scrutiny, they disagreed on the reasons why this particular case was unreasonable. In a nutshell, four agreed that the act of placing the device amounted to a trespass. Four others thought that 28 days of monitoring exceeded the suspect’s reasonable expectation of privacy. Justice Sotomayor agreed with both groups.
I followed this case on its way up because the implications scare me. As I was studying the case, it occurred to me that the month-long tracking was excessive. Think about it. If the police are tailing you for a month, the chances are you will get wise to them at some point. With this type of tracking, you would have no idea unless you crawled under your car and saw the device. I believe that could very well lead to very lazy police work, and while I understand jurisdictions are under tightening budgets and don’t have manpower to devote to a month-long surveillance, if they don’t, then they better have a warrant. I find it hard to believe that many judges out there would give cops a month anyway.
I disagree that the act of placing the device is a trespass. It will be interesting to see the next case to come along, which will likely not be for the duration as this one. For more information on GPS monitoring and the Supreme Court, check out the Supreme Court blog.
Don’t Blame Steven
It’s not Steven Tyler’s fault that his rendition was the sonic equivalent of cats humping. He sucks, and everyone should know it. The fault lies with whomever the dumbshit was that thought it would be a good idea to invite him.
Please don’t watch this if you have a working auditory nervous system.
Contraception, Catholic Church, Health Insurance and Barack Obama.
The Obama administration has declared that all health insurance plans must include the contraceptive coverage and that employers who provide such coverage, even religious employers like the Catholic Church, must comply.
The bishop of this Diocese is outraged. Leonard Blair writes,
For the United States this is an unprecedented attack on freedom of conscience and of religion. It prompts a troubling question as to just how far the heavy hand of government will go, despite protestations and assurances to the contrary, to impose what Pope Benedict has called ‘powerful new cultural currents which are not only directly opposed to core moral teachings of Judeo-Christian tradition, but increasingly hostile to Christianity as such.’ ‘It is imperative,’ the Pope says, ‘that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres.’
I urge everyone in the Diocese of Toledo, beginning with the clergy, to address this issue squarely, to inform people what is at stake, to prepare them to make sacrifices for their faith, to keep our country in their prayers, and to work to overturn what we Bishops have called a ‘literally unconscionable’ decision by the Obama Administration.
Earlier today, Barack Obama praised the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade as keeping government out of private family matters. I commented that is simply not the case. The government is in your private family life all the time and this is just another example. I expect that the Catholic Church will fight this one all the way to the Supreme Court if need be. This is clearly a violation of the First Amendment and points out again the hypocrisy of the Obama administration, which has been characterized by one disappointment after another.
What’s next? An EEOC ruling the women should be allowed to be priests?
Related articles
- I cannot imagine a more direct and frontal attack on freedom of conscience than Obama’s contraception ruling (cardinalrogermahonyblogsla.blogspot.com)
Categories: Informative
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