Wednesday, February 28, 2007

OUR thug, or just any old thug?

The Red Wings are still the Red Wings, for anyone who was concerned about the implications of the salary cap in the NHL. Todd Bertuzzi, while a significant health risk, was one of the top three players "available" by the trade deadline of 3pm yesterday, and the mighty Wings pulled off a deal to bring him in. But it's not as easy as it was with Curtis Joseph, Luc Robitaille, Robert Lang, or anyone else.

First, the aforementioned significant health risk. Bertuzzi has back problems. He's played 7 games this year. He hasn't been "effective" since his monster 2002-03 season. The Wings miss Brendan Shanahan, but Bertuzzi is not Brendan Shanahan. Shanahan was a fighter who reinvented himself and became one of the top 10 power forwards in NHL and a future Hall of Famer. Bertuzzi is 31 and has had two very good seasons and two or three decent ones. But do the Wings need Bertuzzi to score? Not really. It would be nice, but let's be honest, he's going to be a stunt double for guys like Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Cleary, and Samuelsson. I would have rather had Gary Roberts.

Looming abover everything else, though, is what Mitch Albom calls "the shadow" in this morning's Free Press. As anyone who watches any sports network in North America, and maybe even those who don't watch, remembers, Todd Bertuzzi almost killed a guy. On the ice. With a cheap shot. For a city that remembers the '96 Conference Finals and Claude "insert obscene nickname here" Lemieux's dirty shot to the head of Kris Draper, Bertuzzi's hit on Steve Moore has become an instant message board topic and wedge between the very, very loyal fans of this team. I am very torn. As a person who believes that even some of the worst criminals can be rehabilitated, I want to give Bertuzzi a second chance. Then I see how he almost ended this guy's life in a stupid retaliatory play and didn't pay for it in any way and it disgusts me. If I had done this to someone on the street four years ago, I'd be in jail today. His "suspension" coincided with the lockout season, so anyone who brings that up as penance needs to do their homework. In this case, I would have rather had anyone but Todd Bertuzzi. Except maybe Claude Lemieux.

Realistically, Bertuzzi may never play a game for the Wings. Even if he comes back on schedule, the key deal the Wings made was for Kyle Calder. Playing for the Flyers (and not just this season, I'm talking EVER) would turn Gretzky into a 60-point scorer. Calder is flying totally under the radar at this point and may become the top offensive player on this team if he sticks around. And why wouldn't he? He's played on two terrible teams in his career with very few other skilled offensive players. This team (the Wings) brought Dan Cleary back from the dead. Kyle Calder, too, will rise again. If he plays 75 games next season, he'll score 90 points.

Any attention that Calder's acquisition got was immediately smothered by Bertuzzi. But this might be a good thing. As weird as it sounds, the Wings might need an off-ice distraction to keep them focused on what they have to do, which is make the conference finals. Anything less, and Babcock is on the hot seat already, whether it's fair or not. I would not have made the deal for Bertuzzi, but I'm not a GM. I'm also willing to wait and see. There are approximately 20 articles about Bertuzzi in the two Detroit papers this morning, and almost every one mentions his incident. He needs to address it. Don't go the Webber route, Todd. Give us a sound bite. Let us know you're sorry and ready to win a Cup for Hockeytown.

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Friday, February 23, 2007

Webber had better be the final piece...

Dumars content to leave roster unchanged

I was wondering whether this was intentional or not. I guess I still am.

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So this is a Democratic Congress

When the Democrats lost their majority in 1994, I had just turned 15. needless to say, I wasn't as in tune with Congress as I am now. I do know a fair bit about Congressional history, though, and I feel pretty secure in saying that this kind of crap wasn't happening then. If there is anyone out there who believes that this kind of polar partisanship is a good thing, I'd like to meet them. Actually, I'd like them to stay as far away from me as possible. I'm glad that people in the Bay Area have such strong opinions about Congress and its members, because I'm sure they're all very well schooled in its operations as only people 2500 miles away can be.

Ellen Tauscher does what every Member of Congress is supposed to do, which is deliver for her constituents, whether that means bringing jobs to the district, keeping them from leaving, or providing social services, or whatever. By most accounts, she's pretty good at it. if you live in her district and you disapprove of her work, let her know. It's your right. Otherwise, quit it. Odds are good that your jurisdiction is not perfect. Worry about that first.

I think the Internet and the explosion of mass media is a good thing in most ways. We're far better informed as a culture than we were even 20 years ago. I find these things depressing. Last year, Bono visited with Harry Reid. I'm willing to bet a lot of constituents - citizens of Nevada - were told Senator Reid wasn't able to meet them that day because he was spending his time with someone who doesn't live in his state, or even his country! I could fill pages with anti-Bono rants. Tauscher shouldn't have to care about Kos or anybody outside her district.

It's very disconcerting to see so many people who think that affiliating yourself with a political party means that there's some multiple-choice quiz that you have to score well on to be included. It seems that this gets magnified the farther you get from DC. My representative is a Republican, and I think he does a pretty good job representing our district. The economy is certainly good in Fairfax County, the schools are good, our houses aren't being searched randomly, and last time I checked, you can't draft a whole Congressional district and send them off to war. Someone will always beef that an elected official doesn't share their views. And this is probably a good thing. I'm extremely liberal. But there's no way I'd want 435 of me in the House. Certain things would go straight to hell. I wouldn't want 435 conservatives either. Our government works pretty well, and it always has. We need the balance in order to make things work and keep people from reverting to their human nature and abusing their power. Unless someone has committed a crime, stop the witch hunt.

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Thursday, February 22, 2007

Adventures with the Homeless

About six weeks ago, I decided to start trying to go to weekday Mass at least once a week. St. Patrick's Church is a few blocks away and they have Mass at 12:10 daily. It's been easy enough; last week was the first time I didn't go at least once. I went Tuesday this week. There were a couple of homeless people there, which is pretty typical. If you've ever been to DC, you know we have a lot of homeless here. And they tend to roll pretty thick when it comes to church attendance. But I had never seen either one of these people.

There was a woman, probably in her 30s, applying makeup and drinking an unidentified black substance from a Mountain Dew bottle. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a new flavor. She commented on Mass the whole way through. A couple of high points: during the homily, the priest mentioned marriage. She screamed out "Sorry honey, I'm not married!" and then corrected him a few minutes later, blurting out "Sacra-MENT" after he used the word sacrifice. She was entertaining. Went up and down the entire center aisle during the peace be with you handshakes.

Bruce was wearing a "Hello! My Name Is Bruce" nametag. He was a little slow, but very friendly. When I was kneeling after Communion (I like to call it "gettin' my pray on") he came over and asked how I was. Being a polite Midwesterner, I said I was doing great and asked how he was. He held out his hand, so I went to shake it, and he started to move closer, indicating that he was going to 1) hug me, 2) kiss me, 3) steal my iPod, or 4) all of the above. It was just a number 1, but an adventure nonetheless.

Apparently it's a very common thing to put a giant inflatable rat out when you're striking. I never knew this. At 11th and G, there'sd a group of (I think) construction workers striking with a massive inflatable rat in the back of a pickup. I had never seen this until this week. It's awesome. I urge anyone nearby to check it out.

So today I was walking down the escalator to the tracks on my way in. As I went to get on the train, a homeless guy points at my head and says, "iPod?" I said yeah, and he proceeds to whip out an iPod video. Some guy sat in a seat with him and got a 15-minute demonstration of its capabilities. This entire sequence puzzled me.

On a serious note, it is troubling how many homeless people we have in this area. Homelessness has become the only answer for many people and families in recent years as income inequality and costs of living have increased at a far greater rate than wages. Contrary to popular belief, the overwhelming majority of these people are not "lazy," but have serious mental or physical disabilities and nowhere to go, or have been forced out of their homes because of rising costs. Please do what you can in your community to aid these people often in dire need of help. It doesn't matter where you live - this issue is everywhere. Check with your local government to find resources and offer your assistance. Your one hour a week might save someone's life.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

It's the year of the pig. Where will you be tonight?

No more promises about future posts. That's just a poor idea.

Today is the special Ash Wednesday, Lunar New Year post. Can't eat dumplings tonight though - they have pork in 'em. So it'll be something scrumptious, I'm sure. Tuna burgers, perhaps?

I meant to write a few weeks ago about Chris Webber and how the Pistons look so good with him in the lineup. I'm not sure they're beatable with him. Even Dallas or Phoenix would have a tough time beating them 4 out of 7, I think. San Antonio, that might be a different story. The Spurs have it when they need it. It's amazing to me. Last Wednesday was terrible. Rasheed can't just bomb threes all the time and expect things to go well.

The Flip Saunders thing is only sort of distressing. And not just sort of distressing because he says he didn't do it. I think he's a great regular season coach. I'm going to leave it at that. I would love to see Joe Dumars behind the bench, but that's not happening. Bill Laimbeer might be a more realistic option. I think that would be fantastic. I have not been all that crazy for Flip since he was named coach, and he's not winning me over anytime soon.

It's time to go home. Hopefully I'll remember the hugs and rats stories. I think they're at least OK.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Well, it's Friday and I wish I had something intelligent to post about. I don't feel like writing about Anna Nicole Smith or Nancy Pelosi's plane, and those seem to be the biggies today. Maybe two posts, one serious and one not? I think we have a winner. And so I give you...

Somalia

I don't even know how to begin this. It seems like a really ugly repeat of 1992. Other than the news report from a couple weeks ago that the US executed a supposedly successful bombing campaign there where we killed an al-Qaeda official, what do Americans know about Somalia? Not much, I think. We're very preoccupied, and maybe righfully so, with Iraq. I don't necessarily support the war in Iraq, but Somalia is a powerful example of what might happen if we don't finish what we started. Simply put, Somalia is a mess. This is one of those situations where arbitrary boundaries imposed by colonial powers split up ethnic groups and started a fire between groups.

I honestly think the Bush Administration is at a loss for a response to what's going on there. I don't think they understand why this would be bad if the situation in Somalia/Ethiopia/Chad worsened. The establishment of an Africa Command is a major step in the right direction, but we have to get people in the command who know what they're doing. It is deplorable that so few military and State Department officials in the Middle East speak Arabic or have any training in Middle Eastern culture or history. How do we expect these people to function there?

The Africa Command will likely begin the same way. But without a major event like September 11 to spur interest in Africa, where will the new experts come from? 5 years after the attacks on America, Arabic classes are full, and they're offered everywhere. Suddenly everyone wants to take Middle Eastern history. In 1998, I had to hunt down an Arabic tutor, and my knowledge of Middle Eastern history came from books.

How will we get kids to learn about Africa? At my undergrad graduation, a guy got an award for extraordinary studies. He was planning on going to med school, and he had learned Hausa so that he could go to Nigeria and practice. There are enough gifted kids in the world to make this far more common than it is. Kids need to know where Nigeria is, period. Without ranting about the state of our country's education system, there are many areas where we need to improve. First and foremost, we need to be citizens of the world. Let's all do our part to make this happen.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

What does it mean to be from where you're from?

I've recently started listening to Definitely Not The Opera via podcast. This week's was all about Detroit/Windsor. Marty Gervais, a columnist for the Windsor Star, said what I've never been able to articulate about what it means to be from southeast Michigan or southern Ontario. You like going to the other side, you even consider it part of your town, but at the end of the day, you go home and you're proud to be what you are, either American or Canadian.

I remember having a lot of puzzling moments when we moved to Virginia, and I'm sure they were even more puzzling for the people on the other end. Like the time I tried to pay my fee for art class with a mix of US and Canadian money (it was $12.50 or something like that and the only quarters I had were Canadian, perfectly acceptable in Michigan). Or when my mom would drive us to school and there wouldn't be anyone there because an inch of snow had shut down the whole school system. It still feels natural for me to root for the Canadian hockey team in the Olympics, and I like the CFL and understand the rules.

There's a perception in Canada that increased "security" as customs checkpoints is designed to keep everyone out, and it doesn't seem all that crazy. There was a time when you could pass through customs, joke with the guard whether they were American or Canadian, and move on through. Now you sit in line and they can search your vehicle. "Times are different." And times are different. Canada seems more foreign every day, and at the same time, seems to disappear. When I was in elementary school, I started to learn French from the backs of baseball and hockey cards. You can't do that anymore. Most TV in Canada is American. Music is American. Movies are American. Stores are American.

And at the same time, individuality has never been this big. I have this blog, which by rights no one in the world should care about, and it doesn't matter whether anyone does. This is MINE. Someone hosts it for me, I just have to design it and post. Selling a million albums is far harder than it used to be. This individuality - homogeneity thing is blowing my mind. I'm done here, and I don't think I addressed the topic.