Mercy

A half-listened-to CBC radio-doc (yeah, I listen to CBC Radio, OK? There I admitted it.) was whining about how the Canadian Women's Hockey team's impressive 16-0 win over the Italian hosts and 12-0 over Russia endangered the existence of the sport of Women's Hockey as an Olympic event.

Pure Fuddle-Duddle, horse-twackey. They'd take crap for losing...Now they're taking crap for winning too well?

TSN gives the whiner a voice



Jeez, do you think that it comes down to the good old-fashioned concept of GOAL DIFFERENTIAL?



Ruggiero's acting as if this is the first blowout in Hockey history. The Americans are facing some tougher opponents, but if they had faced Italy and Russia, would they not have done the same thing?

You want a balance of talent in a mature sport. Women's Hockey isn't that mature yet. The best in the world are still getting better.

I believe that the sport will mature to the point of people like me actually PAYING to see good Women's hockey, rather than jumping on the bandwagon every four years when the Olympics come around. (C'mon, admit it: that's what Molson Patriots do.)

And the hand-wringers want them to slow down so that the laggards can catch up? Is this the way the best get better?

This attitude is even infecting our team:



Mercy? "We do not train to be merciful here, mercy is for the weak. A man confronts you in the street he is your enemy. An enemy deserves no mercy..." Sorry, too much Karate Kid as a child...

Hmmm, outside of crappy movies or TV shows, how many teams have been considered great because they were merciful?

Were the Edmonton Oilers of the 1980's "merciful" to their opponents? How 'bout the 1970's Canadiens? No? Mercy would dictate that some team should "let" the Toronto Maple Leafs win a Stanley Cup so the suffering of long-time Leafs fans can finally come to an end (or at least they could shut up about 1967.) Who the hell would want to watch that game? No one wants to watch a team that isn't trying their absolute best.

When I thought of doing this entry I found that Darcey had beat me to it. Peruse the comments there for more discussion.

Meet the new Boss

So while the blog was sleeping we supposedly had an election that changed the face of Canadian politics changed nothing.

Seriously though: the last time someone crossed the floor I got all huffy and name-cally...now I'm just a little despressed and deflated by the whole thing. Was everyone expecting that the Conservative Government would be all that different once the keys were handed over?

The interesting thing will be if the old Liberal trick of pissing everyone off early, followed by showers of Federal gold later to sooth the savage electorate will bear fruit for the Conservatives this time 'round.

While I was thinking about old Who songs my darlin' wife Rue revived the optimistic self-interested money-grubber in me when she asked if this effects those cheques that we're supposed to be getting in July...

Sometimes self-interest can be a comfort. And a government can break some promises without too many consequences as long as it keeps some of the big ones.

Undead

Remember when I said that this blog was dead and that I had nothing left to contribute?

Well, it seems that I was mislead...or misguided...or mis-whatever her name was...

Nope.

Seems like this blog won't die.

I tried to kill it, but that damned "domain-name renewal" email kept coming and coming and coming.

I thought that I should just let it die.

I can't.

I'm back.

Maybe not the same, but I'm back.