15 posts from 2004

I think I'm a cold hearted bastard. If I actually said the following out loud, to people, I think I would be lynched, but it has to be said.When I hear about the UN crying that the U.S. is stingy, I wonder what the big deal is really. Give them a couple bucks and the shacks should be good to go. When a third world country gets hit with a natural disaster, how much does it really cost to fix nothing? We're going to send them millions and millions of dollars to build a new country for them, not fix what they had. How fucked up is that? What is also fucked up are the comments that some people make regarding the U.S. "Always sticking their nose where is doesn't belong". Fine! they'll stay out of this one ok, and they'll keep their money too. So don't cry when someone else has to foot the bill. Don't get me wrong, I'm not American, and I think their gung-ho attitude is a little too cavalier, but if you're going to tell them to stay home during wars, shouldn't they also stay home when the world wants money?Let me take this one step further. I feel bad when I hear the stories and see the pictures of the devastation. But isn't this Darwin at work "survival of the fittest"? Like the world needs a model, poor Petra. Who gives a rats ass about some supermodel. Reports of her harrowing survival are all over the news. There are a lot more people who have stories too. But enough is enough, is there nothing else going on in the world that we can be sad for?How can news reporters sleep at night? When they look at how the moral fiber of the U.S has decayed, they should consider their contribution to it. But that's for another day. Happy New Year.More interesting comments click here.

Not that I'm usually a cheery christmas person, but I try to get in the spirit, but this year, not an inkling of spirit. Bah Humbug! I usually take joy in sending out the annual christmas card (I usually send out a festive picture that was taken at some point in the year) along with a letter describing the excitement that has occurred to me over the year, I prepare a holiday CD with songs that I think best exemplify my xmas. But none of this happened this year. I was not even in the mood to shop. I didn't know what to buy anyone for christmas, and I really didn't want to go to the mall, but I obliged the people that would be expecting gifts from me. I was surprisingly in a good mood to go shopping, until I experience the selfish bastards at the malls. What was I thinking, people would actually change because it was christmas? If anything, it made things worst. ALL the stupid, inconsiderate bastards were there. EVERYWHERE.Instead of the usual inconsiderate teenager at the mall, now you had Paco and all the freakin family, including grandma (who doesn't speak english, and can barely walk), uncle Pepito, auntie Margarita and a few others as well as everyone's kids running around yelling, screaming, crying, fighting. But "No, no, don't worry, that my family and I are trying to enjoy a shopping day, it's ok take up the whole freakin walkway while you slowly window shop at stores you will never shop in, and god forbid you actually let somebody go by you." AHHHHHHHHHhhhhI tried to chit-chat with the overworked salespeople (I hate chitchat), who obviously had to deal with the stupidity, I tried to sympathize, and did. But at the end of the shopping day, no more ahead in my quest for gift giving, I was giftless, and pissed off even more.I think the world has become a sad a dark place where everyone is concerned with only themselves. Forget about your fellow man, much less being nice to someone else. I tried to be optimistic really, I almost had the xmas spirit, but it went away as quickly as Scrooges ghosts did.

I used to get so excited by the holidays. While on break from school, I would go home, and the whole family would decorate our house, then we would go to my grandmothers and decorate hers, including putting up lights on the outside of the house (which is not a pleasant experience in -30 degree weather). But it was fun and I loved to do it.
So why is it now that I absolutely DETEST doing it. My mother used to get on me for not having a tree, so I bought a 4" tree that used to sit on the corner of my bar. I've since moved up to the pink/purple disney princess tree, bought on an after xmas toy shopping spree. But I can't seem to muster up enough energy to dig it out of the closet and put it up.
Last year I was so motivated I made a compilation of favorite christmas tunes and gave them to friends. This year, I looked at last years compilation and thought "I can't top that screw it!" I barely got christmas cards out. Why, or what is going on?
I am so angry lately that I cannot drive home or to work without getting realllllllllllly worked up an yelling and screaming at people. I mean extreme road rage.
I get glimmers of "yeah, it's christmas", but then the bubble bursts and I realize where I am. I am sitting at my desk today, and just want to be at home, sleeping. But noooooooooo, I have things to do, I'm going to VEGAS this weekend. I should be way more happier.
What the @#$@!$?

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was hopeful, with last week's news that the players association wanted to meet, and were bringing a deal with them. But after news of the meeting, it looks like they'll be no hockey this season. It's certainly a sad day for hockey.

Why????? In the beginning I thought, "screw those overpriced, divaesque, money-grubbing hockey players!" They're getting paid to PLAY A SPORT. Just be happy that you skated (no pun intended) through school, have a degree, yet are still playing the sport you loved as a child. You overgrown peewee crybaby.
But I've been reading the various sites that carry news of the strike, and I'm beginning to feel bad for all the name calling. One example is next year's projected top draft pick, with the salary cap he'll only be making $850,000 - a $400,000 cut, with no signing bonuses.
I feel real bad that this "20-something year old man" will be ONLY making $850,000. Why doesn't anyone realize if they start small, there's more room to grow from? As opposed to paying them the most when they start out, they could get hurt on the first game? OOOOh what an investment there? (Look at other sports that have paid through the nose to get rookie players, think Lebron James and others).
And I do feel bad for these grown men who have lost the love of the game. Can't they remember when they were on the travel team, getting up early, loading into some parent's car to go a game? When the arenas were just the ice-rinks with thin plywood walls around them and a few bleachers to keep the chill and snow off the spectators. Looking up from the ice after you'd scored a goal to see the crowd cheering. Getting the tacky team photo that your mom insisted on buying, the whole family could wear a button with your face on it? Remember rockin' out to someone's boombox in the locker room, getting "pumped" up for a game.
These are the memories that made hockey great for me, and there are so many more. Sure I can sit here and criticize the players for wanting more money because I'm not getting paid, but every week when I'm out there on the ice skating with my team, I'm thankful that I can still play.

Let's hope that from this is a new appreciation for the sport is created. And the future hall of famers don't just see dollar signs in their eyes, but an appreciation of the opportunities given too them.

WTF!!!! Damn I sound sappy. Just wake the fuck up and play!

Come to your own conclusion....
The Salem News, Yahoo Sports - NHL Lockout Log, ESPN, Sports Illustrated and a fanbased site

This quote is from USA Today:

"The thing that intrigues me about the leagues proposal Tuesday is the way it might sit in households of individual NHL players. According to the NHL, 91.8% of the players will have to play for 24% or less of their salaries under the new proposal, and 75% would play for 20% or less reduction in pay. Forty-four percent would have no reduction at all. It's a Robin Hood scenario. Let the ultra-rich take the biggest hit. I would think an enormous majority of players sat at dinner tables last night thinking: "I was willing to go back to work for a 24-percent reduction, and now they'll let me go back for 20% reduction (or less), and my union shot this down?" "

By Virginia Perez BROOKINGS, S.D.America had concentration camps long before Adolf Hitler's Germany, says Floyd Red Crow Westerman, and the Native activist is pushing that provocative message with his planned documentary on the holocaust of the American Indian. Westerman, born in 1936 on the Sisseton-Wahpeton reservation in South Dakota, and told an audience of students, faculty, friends and family at South Dakota State University that his description is not exaggerated. "Reservations were concentration camps, and we couldn't leave them so they were concentration camps," he said during his appearance Oct. 19. The federal government dehumanized Indian people and used two tools—the bullet and smallpox-infected blankets—to try exterminating them, according to Westerman. The gift of a blanket represents respect in many Indian cultures, he added, and using a tainted blanket to spread smallpox was the first instance of biological warfare against American Indians. Westerman, an actor and musician, outlined his views in promoting a documentary he is writing and producing. It is titled "Exterminate Them!—America's War on Indian Nations." According to Westerman, the series will look at the Indian holocaust region by region, starting with California Indian history. Although he has no formal agreement to broadcast the work, Westerman cited PBS and The History Channel as possible outlets for the series. Historical Resources According to Westerman's Web site, www.eyapaha.net, the documentary will utilize historical resources, tribal elders, historians and community leaders. The series will also feature celebrity cameos and an original soundtrack with Indian and non-Indian musicians. For some people in Westerman's audience, the holocaust comparison was apt. "I thought it was neat because I never thought of that, because I visited the Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C., and I never related it to that," said Paula Garcia, a Navajo and Acoma Pueblo. "I never thought of the reservations as concentration camps, but if you compare it to that, it was," said Garcia, who attends SDSU as an exchange student from Eastern New Mexico University. Marie High Bear, a Cheyenne River Lakota and journalism major, agreed. "It was good how he compared it [government policy] to the Jewish extermination," she said. "He made a good point there." During his talk, Westerman said that when it is established that a holocaust has occurred, there are provisions under international law to restore the wealth of holocaust victims. "I tell a lot of young people that we should go back to the old ways to heal," he said. "America will heal too, once they realize their wrongs." Native Americans in the audience were not the only ones who reacted positively to Westerman. "I think that he made the Native American perspective very visible to the whites that were present, and I think quite frankly he's a remarkable man," said Del Lonowski, a political science professor at SDSU. 'The BS Theory' On other subjects, Westerman challenged the anthropological theory that America was populated by Eurasians traveling across a land mass over the Bering Straits. He scoffed at that and said it was intended to show that Indians were not America's Native inhabitants and to allow others to take their land. "We call it the BS theory," he said. On the environment, Westerman said pollution has thrown everything out of balance. The evidence is in frogs with six heads and in children with cancer, he said. Westerman reminded his listeners of the Lakota phrase "Mitakuye Oyasin" that prays for harmony of all forms of life. "Everybody is so distracted by things for the self," Westerman said. "They don't care about their relatives anymore. The SUV shows how we feel about the environment. To turn this around, we need to go back to the earth and live with the earth spiritually." To address the nation's political shortcomings, Westerman suggested looking to the past, to the clan mothers. He said that the House and the Senate should be divided equally between men and women and that the women should have the final word. "The clan mothers ran everything and had the last word," he said. "I think that's the answer." Westerman closed the evening with what he said he loved to do best—playing music on his guitar—and he included folk and rap songs for his audience of about 60 people. article from groovinnativebeats@yahoogroups.com