So I's sitting here studying the San Jose Sharks vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning game, illegally, thanks to our beloved commenter Swegs, and I'm all like: "My, sirs and mesdames, I've been drinking a lot of wine tonight and I daresay my Sharks have beaten the godawful Lighting 7-1 or something like that."
But that's not the point. I'm happy the Sharks (who are like SO my second favorite team after our hapless Thrashers) won, but it bears pointing out that Todd McLellan's Sharks were extra-classy in the closing minutes of the game. Why? Because instead of putting Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau onto the ice, your Todd McLellan (my Todd McLellan?) sent out the 3rd and 4th line guys so as not to humiliate the Lighting TOO much.
Joseph Thornton could have had a hat trick, for all we know. But T-Mac decided to pit the less offensively-brilliant players on the SJ Sharks against the less talented players on the Lightning (not that Vinny or Marty are slouches; I'm referring to the penalty-soaking others)
Classy.
By the way (speaking of class and gallantry), if you love Israel's massacre of impoverished brown-skinned children in the Gaza Strip, in the name of "counter-terrorism," you don't deserve to be alive.
Meshuggah! I hate Hamas too, and Jewishness is one of the most important things in my life (if you want detail on this I ain't gonna give it to you) but Jesus H. Christ...I hate fundamentalists of all stripes. Violent folks. Where are Baruch Spinoza and Joseph Roth and Charles Reznikoff and Hannah Arendt and Albert Einstein when you need them?
I'll probably regret typing this kind of thing in the morning. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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Now then. On to Business:
Our esteemed comrade the Falconer has all kinds of things to say about Rich Peverly. He's far more optimistic about this young man than your Chronicle, and for good reason:
A club like the Thrashers would be wise to give a cheap minor leaguer like Peverley, Haydar, Krog, Chris Kunitz or Brett Sterling a legitimate shot each year. These players typically come with flaws but if you can squeeze a 40-50 point season out of player making close to the NHL minumum--that means you can make those cap dollars go further (like paying your super stars the going rate).
Scorers always end up getting paid in the long--a GM earns his keep by finding value in cheap players before they start making the big bucks (the Red Wings find guys like Mikael Samuelsson and Dan Cleary). A revenue poor team like Atlanta really needs to exploit cheap offensive guys like the Rich Peverleys and Chris Kunitizs of the world.
I'm actually encourage that Rich Peverley is going line up with Kovalchuk on Wednesday night. That tells me that the organziation is being realistic about where they are and they're using games and ice time wisely to look for bargains and players who could help in next season.
He's referring to Chris Kunitz for a reason:
Every so often there is a guy in the minors who is given a shot by NHL team and he turns out to be a useful NHL player...
[An] example of this is the "fish that got away" aka "Chris Kunitz" whom the Thrashers wisely claimed off waivers only to have Bob Hartley refuse to give him a real opportunity in the NHL. Anaheim got Kunitz back when the Thrashers tried to send him down to the AHL and after he was given a realistic shot in the NHL he posted 40, 50 and 60 points in the NHL. Again, he's no All-Star but he is decent complimentary guy.
I honestly didn't know that the Thrashers once owned the rights to Christ Kunitz. That hurts me. Deeply. Dear God that sucks.
Oh. Oh. Woe Betide.
24 comments:
damn when you look at all the talent that atlanta has pretty much just given away it makes me sick. how are the people who make these decisions still employed. oh wells atleast the thrashers play tonight. theyre like a car wreck, its not pretty but you just cant look away.
It does make sense to get lesser known guys to produce at a lower cost, thus giving us more money to use elsewhere.
I'm looking forward to seeing Peverley play tonight.
You never know...
Oh, and maybe it is time to lay off the wine a little bit Morty.
Yes.
Yes it IS time to lay off the wine.
Put in the motherfucking street.
Yeah. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson probably could be considered "fundamentalists" in there time.
Seriously...they should have been stopped.
Good thing I'm for the launching of rockets from schools, and the use of human shields! But in all seriousness those people seem to love them some blood and violence. A couple years of "peace" and they are all like fuck that shit I want to watch my children explode!
Actually, the founding fathers were rather radical, politically. Socially, not so much, the whole slavery thing was pretty bad. Well, Franklin didn't like it, but he did say some nasty things about people from a non-anglo-saxon backgrounds back in his early letters. Hamilton was the closest thing to a fundamentalist seeing as he was almost a monarchist. History lesson for the day.
Dude, blowing shit up is fun. Everybody knows that.
who needs an xbox with call of duty 4 when you have your own real life first person shooter.
You can keep your wine, Morty, but we may have to cut off your access to Al Jazeera.
Short version:
Murder apologists,
Go fuck yourselves.
-MP
Longer version:
Anon-
Not sure what you mean by the Founding Fathers being "fundamentalist." And who do you mean to align them with, Hamas or the Israelis? I have to admit I don't see a huge resemblance to either.
I won't mention the absurdity of calling a bunch of Enlightenment-era Deists who didn't have much time for space ghosts and holy zombies "fundamentalist."
Jointhead-
Rocket launches from anywhere are a horrible crime, and Israel has every right to defend itself, but I'm sad to say the talk of "human shields" in schools and houses is propaganda. I SUPPOSE one could make the argument that during the Blitz Hitler was really only targeting the Churchill government and not civilians, and that all the Londoners who were killed were really just human shields. Or that the Viet Cong were using dirt-poor peasants--mostly women and children--as human shields when the US was really only trying to napalm the evil Communists...I'm not sure how moral such a position would be, though.
And finally, Razor-
I'm not getting my news from Al Jazeera (though I don't see why everyone gets in such a tizzy about that network; it's the Arab equivalent to CNN: definite political slant, but more or less a respectable news organ; did you know it was banned in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan because it ungodily allows uncovered women anchors?). I'm getting my news from pretty much every conservative-slanted and liberal-slanted newspaper on the planet Earth, minus the mindlessly pro-Israeli militarist ones in this sad country of ours.
to Everyone re: the "what if YOUR town had to deal with rocket attacks? wouldn't YOU expect a military response? Civilian death is regrettable, but the Palestinians voted for Hamas and probably deserve it" logic:
You do realize that this is the EXACT same logic that justifies suicide bombings in Israeli nightclubs and pizzerias, right? "What if YOU had to deal with decades of occupation and misery and subjugation, wouldn't YOU expect a violent uprising eventually? And besides, any civilians who die really aren't innocent, because they've all probably served in the IDF."
It also justifies flying civilian airliners into skyscrapers: "They're all Americans, and Americans are evil, so there's no such thing as an innocent civilian in this case."
Israel has every right to defend itself against (largely shitty and ineffective) rockets from the Gaza Strip, but that right doesn't justify the massive havoc the IDF is wreaking right now. At some point the "response" gets out of hand and becomes a much bigger crime than the original provocation (which one could argue WASN'T the original provocation, since Israel has blockaded Gaza and forced it into beggary and ruin; this cycle goes round and round into infinity, it seems, who did what to whom and blah blah blah).
My point is I refuse to fall for the standard American op-ed line (shared by Republicans and Democrats; there's no issue on which there's so much lock-step agreement as Israel's behavior) that Israel is blameless and always a noble victim. There's nothing respectable or noble about mass murder.
I'd like to visit one day, though. I met a girl from Tel Aviv once; she was HOT.
One more note on the press thing:
The best coverage of this whole thing is in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, where you'll find much more robust criticism of the Israeli gov't than anywhere in the US.
As we know both sides have their faults as well as being right. It is a tough situation. Probably will never be dealt with properly. Israel makes sense, but a bunch of people moving into my neighborhood and calling it their own is another blah blah.
Every damn country in that region of the world was carved out by Europeans. The Ottoman Empire ruled it forever, which wasn't too great either. It's been a constant issue for some time. T.E Lawrence tried, and he said screw it. It's a sad troubling situation that really does suck. The issue began hundreds of years ago. In the end, everybody is wrong. They all screwed each other. Hell I shouldn't be where I am. The Cherokee and Creek should still be here. Human History is one screw up after another and another man's ineptitude.
Yet, in little patches wonderful things happen like the Enlightenment, which our found fathers were a part of or Ray Bourque hoisting the cup.
What it comes down to is this ladies and gentlemen. You want to solve the issues in the Middle East? Provide a good pitch, soccer field or an arena. Let them settle it there. It's more fun and no one gets hurt. We didn't get through the Cold War by a natural war. We had a bunch of college kids that put down the Red Army. Symbolism, can be the best way. It puts things into perspective and uplifts. You've got to let these people blow off some steam in a good way.
I like hockey. It is fun.
There is always you can bring it all back home, hockeywise.
I read the Guardian and TSN. I think that says it.
If someone built the arena outside of Atlanta, I think I'll start shooting rockets.
Woo, look at all these comments. I's impressed.
"Short version:
Murder apologists,
Go fuck yourselves."
Mort,
My point is that from everyone's own perspective, they are in the right.
If you go look from the view of Great Britain in the 1700's, we Americans were terrorists and murderers.
And telling people to go fuck themselves because they have a differing opinion than you?
Real classy.
Stay classy Atlanta.
Morty says that like every time. I'm surprised no one is used to it.
Woh woh woh hey hey, there were sympathies towards us in Parliament. Just saying. The British were tied up with the French. They were the real bastards to the Brits. John Adams defended the soldiers in court at the Boston Massacre.
Then after the war we terrorized ourselves. Shay's Rebellion anyone? A bunch of screwed over farmers get put down by the American militias in Massachusetts. The Constitution was born out of that because the Article of Confederation were too weak to deal with such a situation.
Dammit everyone, look at my post as of recent, it's more important. The only one I like anymore is Shooter, I'm leaving. Me and Huet are going to go make our own blog. Hockey and cuisine, it's going to be great. I'm going to go eat some brie and escargot now. Hyoh!!
I'm starting a coup. No responses from Morty on this subject, because the horse is frothing at the mouth.
Hockey is good. Good is fun.
Anonymous (do I offend you by shortening your name? If so I'll stop):
My reasons for wanting you to go fuck yourself were clearly outlined in the paragraphs that proceeded from the initial "Shorter Version."
As to your argument: I hope I'm paraphrasing correctly here, but it seems you're saying that it's not worth wringing your hands over any kind of violent confrontation because everyone thinks they're in the right. Who am I to judge the Israeli gov't when the American colonists could have been considered terrorists and murderers, etc. etc.
First of all, the analogy doesn't quite make historical sense. The colonists were revolting against the most powerful empire on the planet (with some crucial help from the French, of course); Israel is an armed-to-the-teeth, economically advanced society funded and armed by the most powerful country on the planet.
If one wanted to apply the whole 1700s analogy, if anything I see Israel as the Anglo-Saxon settlers of America, the Palestinians as the poor-schmuck Indians who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the US as Great Britain.
Not that that analogy holds either, really.
The problem I have with your reasoning here is that yo could justify ANYTHING by saying "They thought they were in the right." Hitler and the Nazis thought they were in the right: from their perspective, Jews were a uniquely evil and impure race that needed to cleansed from the earth. They thought they were doing good.
Ditto American slave-owners. Ditto Stalin. Osama bin Laden certainly thinks he's in the right.
Finally, "go fuck yourself" frivolousness aside, the reason I get so bent out of shape when it comes to this issue is because I see it (and many, many others see it) as more than a mere disagreement over policy and politics, like health care or taxes or same-sex marriage or something like that.
Not that those issues aren't important, but Israel-Palestine involves all kinds of real human suffering, unimaginable killing and destruction, quite a lot of it financed by US taxpayers. The US gov't (the Democrats are particularly bad and opportunistic on this issue) and the media almost uniformly try to make Israel's crimes respectable. The other side has committed innumerable crimes too, of course, but we never hear about Israel's sins in the mainstream US media. I can't stomach it.
Ah damn oh damn, nobody listens to me. My coup didn't work, more brie please.
Monsieur-
I only saw your coup d'etat after I posted my last comment. I swear: no more. I'm letting Anonymous have the last word.
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