- Is a hockey cold war in the offing? If former Detroit Red
Wings star and current Russian senator Slava Fetisov is allowed to decide, then
the answer is going to be an emphatic yes. Fetisov is leading the charge to
have the Communist hell hole on the eastern flank of Europe reintroduce
Soviet-style restrictions to prevent promising young hockey players from moving
to the NHL. Because any time you can channel the policies of Stalin, you need
to cash in on that chance. The esteemed senator said that federal law should be
used to stop Russian players from moving to North America before they turn 28.
In other words, keep them under Russian control through the best years of their
career with the aim of keeping "our most talented guys, the ones who the people come to
see." How jingoistic of you, Slava. It’s fitting that this guy who is
trying to keep the best Russian players in a form of indentured servitude –
albeit with better pay – is named Slava, because dude wants to make these
athletes a slave to the machine. Ironically, Fetisov was one of the first
players to benefit from the relaxation of Soviet-era rules that prevented any
hockey players from leaving. He bolted from Russia to the NHL in 1989, joining
the New Jersey Devils when he was 31, and went on to win two Stanley Cups with
the Red Wings. Now that he’s made his money and earned his fame, he wants to
tighten the reins on the next generation and make sure that they aren't jumping
ship for bigger money and better hockey in that bastion of capitalist greed to
the west………
- China, you have company. Your controlling policies on how
many children couples are allowed to pop out have long been the gold standard
for the government reaching into the lives of private citizens are dictating
how they can chase their dreams and ambitions, but your friends in Myanmar are
gaining ground fast. They took a huge step forward when their president
signed off on a controversial law requiring some mothers to space their
children three years apart. The Population Control Health Care Bill — drafted
under pressure from hard-line Buddhist monks with a staunchly anti-Muslim
agenda — definitely seems like it overreaches and critics smartly point out
that it could be used not only to trample women’s rights, but also to restrict religious
and ethnic minorities. Foreign parties have suggested that such a law could
stoke the always-simmering flames of intolerance in Myanmar, a predominantly
Buddhist nation of 50 million that is already deep in the throes of sectarian
violence. Supporters of the bill counter that the law merely gives regional
authorities the power to implement birth-spacing guidelines in areas with high
population growth rates, preventing people with no self-control and no intelligence
on the practices of various birth control tactics from flooding poor areas with
strained resources with too many kids to support. As usual, if common people
would simply use the brain cells God gave them and realize that having five
kids in five years when you don’t even have the income to support on is a poor
idea………
- Score another one for artistic weirdness when it comes to
the truly esoteric rock band of the 21st century, Radiohead. The weird one
leading the parade for the auteurs of ‘Karma Police,” Thom Yorke, has channeled
his inner hipster and recorded an 18-day soundtrack to a new art exhibition by Radiohead
visual artist Stanley Donwood. Donwood, who has been designing Radiohead’s
artwork since the British rockers released “The Bends” in 1995. Yorke and
Donwood launched the showcase at Carriageworks in Sydney, Australia, revealing a
comprehensive look at 25 years' worth of work. It is titled ‘The Panic Room’ and runs until June 6
and anyone who shows up will hear a little something different as Yorke’s ambient
soundtrack, 'Subterranea,’ features 18 days' worth of original material. There
are no plans for an official release, but the soundtrack is audible in a
preview online for anyone who doesn’t have the time or spare cash to fly to
Australia and spend a day or two immersing themselves in the high-minded,
pompous artistry of two men who probably believe they are way, way cooler than
you. Donwood also gave fans a preview via Twitter, sending out pictures from
inside The Panic Office, which
includes artwork for Radiohead, Thom Yorke and Atoms For Peace. Finding another
band this wrapped up in its own mythology and creations might be difficult, but
if you have a patented art-observing stance, sigh and pensive look to pull out
when examining a new creation, this could be the next great adventure for
you……..
- When an attempted gesture of racial hate is so lame, so
clichéd and so tired, it’s almost not worth getting angry. Someone should have
told that to the hundreds of people who gathered in suburban Boston for a peace
rally in response to the desecration of a Holocaust memorial with chunks of
pork earlier this week. Sure, the gathering was actually an interfaith service that
drew a large crowd at Pride of Lynn Cemetery in Lynn, site of the Holocaust
memorial, but there really was no reaction needed to some ass hat leaving five
chunks of raw pork at the memorial's base Tuesday. Yes, Jewish dietary laws
prohibit eating pork. Yes, this was a definitey sign of a loser who thought it
would be funny to insult Jewish people with a gesture both unimaginative and
just plain ignorant. However, the idea of police investigating the incident as
a possible hate crime and pursuing a new lead after a cemetery worker found
what appears to be a supermarket wrapper in which the pork may have been
carried is just too much. If the best someone can do is waste their time and
money buying raw pork and tossing it at a Holocaust memorial, then that person
is such a lost cause that it’s beneath the insulted people to even respond. It
was nice of Chabad Lubavitch of the North Shore Rabbi Yossi Lipsker to say that
people at the rally stand united against all forms of evil and we all should do
so, but in this case the responsible party is like the drunken, slurring family member at your
holiday gathering, the person everyone ignores because he’s a brain-dead
ignoramus when he’s sober and ,ay actually have a negative IQ when drunk. Actually,
uncle Terry and his .12 BAC are probably still smarter than whoever pulled this
pork prank and thought it was cool……….
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