- What is the world coming to when an NHL team can’t play a
song dedicated to skanks disrobing for money during one of its on-ice contests?
That question sadly must be posed after the Chicago Blackhawks announced they will no longer play "The
Stripper" during their Shoot the Puck contest after hearing from fans who
found the song demeaning to women. The chief culprit in this mess is Chicago
resident Marissa Miller, who started gathering online signatures Aug. 6 for a
petition for the Blackhawks to treat their female fans the same as their male
ones. Even though Miller has amassed a mere 900 signatures since posting the
petition and gained minimal traction with a hashtag movement on Twitter of
#BanTheStripper, Blackhawks president and CEO John McDonough said Wednesday
that the organization has been paying attention to its fans. "We have to
listen," McDonough said. "We have to be aware. We have to react when
appropriate -- not overreact, but react. We take all of this very seriously.” The
femi-Nazi known as Miller has lofty aims for her petition, including removing
"The Stripper" and changing how female contestants are picked for the
Shoot the Puck contest. However, there’s more. She also wants to alter one of
the fundamental elements of hockey – yes, she wants to cover up the women who
skate around the ice performing various minor tasks during the game. Providing appropriate
attire for the women's Ice Crew would defeat the unstated purpose of the Ice
Crew attracting male fans to games, but Miller is dogmatic about doing what she
believes is the right thing. In explaining her stance, she claimed to have
heard jeering and inappropriate comments during the contest and to have seen
women dressed in more attractive clothing picked for the contest over more
modestly dressed ladies. Her demands that the Ice Crew's uniforms for women
include something other than short skirts and crop tops has thankfully gone
ignored so far………
- Thanks for the cooperation, Sri Lanka. The United Nations
wants to know if alleged war crimes actually took place on your soil and rather
than open the doors, welcome them in and allow them to do their job, your
president is going all hard ass and refusing to cooperate. President
Mahinda Rajapaksa said Tuesday that he does not accept any investigation by the
United Nations into allegations of abuses by his soldiers and the defeated
Tamil Tiger rebels at the end of the country's civil war in 2009 and from the
tone of his voice, he’s going to turn his rings around and fight anyone who
tries to change his mind. The U.N. panel is investigating allegations of war
crimes and seeing as those alleged violations took place in Sri Lanka, it would
be really helpful to, ya know, actually visit Sri Lanka. The U.N.’s human
rights arm appointed a three-member panel in June to look into the allegations,
acting on the data in an earlier U.N. report claiming that up to 40,000 ethnic
Tamil civilians may have been killed in just the last months of a
quarter-century civil war. Sri Lanka has never really been known for its
governmental transparency and Rajapaksa’s stance isn't likely to come as a
surprise to anyone, but his refusal to accept the fact that he and his
government can't really dodge this issue and expect the world to forget about
it is still astounding. Any time you’re ready to remove your head from the sand
and take one giant step forward into the world of reality, we’ll be happy to
welcome you to the party, Mahinda………
- Kate Bush is back on stage after 35 years away, but she
hasn’t lost her prima donna ways in her absence from performing. The British
songstress will
play her first series of gigs since 1979 later this month when she begins a
22-date run at London's Eventim Apollo, which will take place between August
and October, and she has some demands for those who are going to plunk down
plenty of pounds to see one of the gigs. Simply put, Bush is asking fans to not
take and pictures or video during the gigs. "We're all very excited about
the upcoming shows and are working very hard in preparation. It's going very
well indeed,” Bush wrote in a post on her website. "We have purposefully
chosen an intimate theatre setting rather than a large venue or stadium. It
would mean a great deal to me if you would please refrain from taking photos or
filming during the shows. I very much want to have contact with you as an
audience, not with iphones, ipads or cameras. I know it's a lot to ask but it
would allow us to all share in the experience together." It’s a fairly
standard artist ego play, trying to elevate a show to some higher plane of
existence where audience and artist transcend the normal concert setting and
join together in something more meaningful and important. There is an element
of wanting to pry people’s noses from their electronic devices for a bit and
enjoy some actual human contact, but not allowing people to take a picture of a
concert they paid big money to attend is a bit much……..
- Josiah Ryan should know better. Ryan works as an editor for a New York
City-based website and as a Manhattanite, his daily existence brings him in
regular contact with the various manners of filth that populate the island. So
while a run-in with a hulked-up rat on a subway platform is difficult to
predict, it isn't so far out of the realm of possibilities. That possibility
became a reality over the weekend as Ryan was waiting on the downtown D train
at the 42nd Street subway station at Bryant Park. He was equipped with his trusty
camera, which he typically totes with him to record the weirdness he encounters
in the city. The SoHo resident was simply standing on the platform with his
fellow travelers when an amped-up rat bum-rushed him for no apparent reason. “I
am a football field away, minding my own business,” Ryan recalled. “And this
rat just comes straight at me with no provocation. I mean maybe he didn’t want
to be recorded. I don’t know how smart they are.” Not knowing a rat’s IQ is a
bit difficult to believe coming from a New Yorker, but Ryan’s admission that he
never feared rats before the attack is even tougher to stomach. Because the
rodent was far away, Ryan was able to dodge its advance and vacate to a safer
portion of the platform. Still, he admitted that the incident has altered the
way he views subway travel. “This incident is going to haunt me for a little
while now and I’m gonna be more likely to grab a Citibike and head downtown
instead of taking the subway,” Ryan said. Transit authorities insist they are
working on their rodent problem, but that’s been their story for years. Sure, a
field study in its second phase is testing non-toxic bait that permanently
sterilizes female rats and the rat population at study sites is declining, but
patience and vigilance are still the order of the day for subway riders………
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