I recently entered the new millenium by joining Blockbuster Online and getting movies delivered straight to my home (what a coun-try! </Yakov Smirnoff>).
I love movies, but my spouse doesn’t. So for that past several years my movie consumption has taken a nosedive, but on top of that there are plenty of movies prior to 1983 (when I first discovered HBO) that I haven’t seen.
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The Minnesota Wild will take the ice tonight down three games to one in their NHL playoffs series with the Anaheim Ducks. They will do so without their leading ice-time defenseman, Kim Johnsson, who was sucker-punched at the end of Tuesday’s victory by noted bounty hunter Brad May.
Click here for a picture of the punch. While May has been non-committal in his quotes (“That’s the spirit of those things. … It’s competitive out there. It’s two good teams going at it, trying to win, trying to advance to the next round.”), it’s pretty clear that Johnsson has his gloves on, with no intention to fight, when he got punched.
Reports say that Johnsson will be out indefinitely, and there’s reason for concern, since he has a history of concussions. For this, May was suspended… three games? That’s it? Jordin Tootoo was given a five game suspension only one month ago for punching a defenseman who was coming to hit him, with his glove on! May gets an intent to injure penalty, and only gets three games?
Don’t get me wrong here. I love hockey, and I think that fighting has a place in the game. But the NHL’s enforcement of players who cross the line is a joke. I think if you get suspended for intent to injure, and you injure the player, you should be out for as long as the person you injured. Bertuzzi should be out of the league, and May should sit until Johnsson is healthy. If the league office isn’t going to take care of these things properly, I think it’s entirely possible that someone could be killed on-ice. And then you’d really make SportsCenter in the wrong kind of way.
Interesting point about the VT shooter found here:
Some news accounts have suggested that Cho had a history of antidepressant use, but senior federal officials tell ABC News that they can find no record of such medication in the government’s files. This does not completely rule out prescription drug use, including samples from a physician, drugs obtained through illegal Internet sources, or a gap in the federal database, but the sources say theirs is a reasonably complete search.
Umm… indeed. I don’t quite know what to say about that, but it’s interesting in a bothersome way.
In case you haven’t heard, some madman shot and killed 32 people at Va. Tech before killing himself.
Too soon for the sarcastic intro?
Anyway, shortly after hearing this I am reading a news article and the president is quoted, to be fair it was a spokesman, saying “The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed”.
Wow…a horrific massacre (and I use that word in the truest sense, not the sensational sense that is being used in the media) has just occured, and the president has the gall/balls to use this as a political plug for defense of a narrow interpretation of the second amendment?
Bravo Mr. Bush, just when I thought I couldn’t think any less of you… bravo!
The unblinking eye now turns to the most beloved pasttime in the country, whose fault is this! Because someone must be held responsible, and it can’t be the poor depressed selfish idiot who actually killed these people.
The culprit must be:
– Virginia Tech: for not doing more… not locking down a campus with tens of thousands of students and faculty… or not having better security… not committing the kid to a mental hospital after he wrote some graphic plays… or some such nonsense.
– Video Games: not for any particular reason besides the fact that violent video games are a punching bag for every ignorant soccer mom and nascar dad to blame for any senseless murders
– Pharmaceuticals: it must be the anti-depression drugs (and if he wasn’t taking any, then of course he should have been on drugs)
The list goes on. But what happened here? A seriously depressed kid went out and bought a couple of handguns and killed a bunch of people. How could this have been prevented? There are two key pieces to that statement. Depressed Kid. Bought Handguns.
Well, someone could have diagnosed him and gotten help for him. But when a kid stays on the fringes and the only interaction he gets is from his English Prof., who reports the disturbing behavior, what can be done? You can’t force someone to see a psychologist.
The other opportunity for prevention was the easy access to handguns. We all know what a complicated and emotionally charged issue gun control is, but who is against a ban of handguns? Rifles would still be available for hunting. There is no rational necessary need for easy access to handguns in our society. There is nothing legal that necessitates the “need” for a handgun over a rifle.
The good news, the debate over the Second Amendment will continue. The bad news is that the same unrealistic arguments (on both sides) will be used and no meaningful change will occur.
what it’s like . . . when it’s unknown if a trip to school will be your last.
I wonder if my family is OK . . .
This is a big challenge for us. We are courageous people. We are brave.
Virginia Tech?
I’m not here to make the claim that people in the US value the lives of our own more than the lives of others. (One could make that argument, though, and one would have a pretty healthy leg to stand on.) What happened yesterday was a tragedy, plain and simple. What happens to civilians every day in Iraq (and Darfur, Somalia, etc.) is also a tragedy. And my complaint is, it’s not covered.
Near as I can tell there have been three newsworthy stories in the past month:
We certainly didn’t need more than 10-15 minutes on the first two items, and I’m not sure we needed constant live coverage of the third. Is it really too much to ask for a purported news channel to show news when it’s not showing programs that feature peoples’ opinions about news? Is it any wonder I’m jaded?
