- The
NHL season hasn’t really started for San Jose Sharks left winger Raffi Torres
and as it turns out, it’s not going to start any time soon. Torres will not be
playing or getting paid for the first half of the season and it’s all because
of his actions in a totally meaningless game. He’s been suspended 41 games for
an illegal check to the head and interference committed during a preseason
game, a move that will cost Torres $440,000 in salary. The suspension stems
from an incident in which Torres was ejected with 7:15 left in the first period
for his hit on Anaheim Ducks left winger Jakob Silfverberg, who did not return
to the game. No one who follows hockey even casually was surprised given that
Torres has been suspended four times for a total of 33 games since 2011 for late
or illegal hits. Under the terms of the NHL's collective bargaining agreement,
Torres is now considered a repeat offender and as such, he will be donating
nearly half a million dollars to the players' emergency assistance fund in the
weeks ahead. At least the money will be used for a good cause, even if the guy
begrudgingly donating it could have ended a career with the hit that caused it
all. Maybe Torres doesn’t even care about getting on the ice these days, having
played just 12 regular or postseason games the past two seasons because of knee
injuries. But hey, perhaps he just forgot the rules or how to play with class
and professionalism with all the games he’s missed………..
- And
religious people wonder why more folks refuse to join them in the pew on Sunday
mornings. Meet the not-so-right Rev. Kevin Carter
-- pastor of St. Margaret of Cortona Church in Little Ferry, N.J. -- who was
arrested and charged with
aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child for
pointing a gun at an 8-year-old Dallas Cowboys fan. Carter’s church is squarely
in the middle of New York Giants country and the Vowboys are one of the Giants’
biggest rivals. Carter was arraigned on the charges even though witnesses say
it was all a joke. The legal battle ensued after the Newark Archdiocese notified Bergen
County Prosecutor John Molinelli on Sept. 28 that a parishioner at the church
contacted the archdiocese about alleged incident, which had occurred 12 days
prior. Molinelli’s office launched an investigation and determined that the boy
who got a weapon jammed in his grill by a man of God came to church for Sunday
services with his family. "Prior to the mass beginning, Father Kevin
Carter asked to see him in one of the rectory rooms," Molinelli said in a
statement. "Once in the room, Father Carter had the victim stand against a
wall. He then retrieved a long gun from nearby and pointed it at the child with
an indication that he would shoot him." Several witnesses verified the
events, but Carter totally believably claimed that the incident was just a
joke. "My concern, at this time, is more for the young boy and his family
than it is for myself," Carter, said. My man, if you had been concerned
about that kid’s welfare from the outset, we wouldn’t by in this situation because
you never would have stuck a functioning Civil War-style musket inches from his
face. The fact that Carter is a police chaplain and may have some goodwill in
the bank may not help him, not when he’s staring down one count of fourth
degree aggravated assault by pointing a firearm and one count of third degree
endangering the welfare of a child……….
- Did
anyone really expect Hasbro Studios to do anything
different? Hasbro has itself the rights to the "Transformers" movie franchise and
while terrible reviews and a world full of hate for last year's
"Transformers: Age of Extinction," the bottom line is that the movie
banked more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office and therefore, extended
the life of the franchise by at least two sequels. As it turns out, that number
is actually four, not two. Undeterred by critical hate and the fact that not a
single movie in the series has brought a single thing of worth to the world of
cinema - hello, terrible acting by Shia LeBouf and Rosie Huntington-Whitely! -
Hasbro president Stephen J. Davis announced over the weekend that there are
plans in the works for not only a fifth "Transformers," but for a
sixth, seventh and eighth. That easily trumps Vin Diesel saying there would be
another “Fast & Furious” trilogy and weirdly, “Transformers” might be the
one recent action franchise with worse acting than Diesel’s string of car
movies. The first four “Transformers” movies
have grossed close to $4 billion and no studio is passing up that sort of gravy
train, not when there are so many unnecessary, poorly written stories to tell
and so much terrible dialogue to unfold on the big screen. Hasbro and Paramount
Pictures want to keep their money machine going and they don’t care if LeBouf
or Mark Wahlberg returns. Anyone can stand next to CGI robots and take
direction from Michael Bay or whomever takes this massive payday to direct the
next movie……..
- Too
many countries are looking forward to technological advances and futures with
sustainable, renewable energy sources that don’t pollute the environment or
imperil the lives of those responsible for harvesting or producing them. Thankfully,
there are places like Poland, which is taking time off from having a neighborly
international pissing match with Russia over who’s to blame for the Holocaust
to proclaim - via its prime minister - that it does
not consider nuclear energy a priority and is instead focused on strengthening
the coal mining industry. Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz's underscored a major
diversion from earlier government plans to add nuclear energy to Poland's mix
in the coming years. Maybe she simply went off script and maybe she really does
represent the direction Poland wants to go, but her official position is that Poland's
energy security is based on coal. On a shockingly convenient note, The country
has rich deposits of the fossil fuel and the government is currently taking
steps to preserve coal mines and thousands of jobs in the industry. It’s funny because
it was just a few short years ago that the Polish government, then led by
Donald Tusk, said a nuclear plant would be built and be operational around
2020. Fast forward to today and you have Treasury Minister Adam Czerwinski
saying it is still not known where and how the nuclear plant would be built.
Decode that from bureaucratic bullsh*t-speak and it’s fair to say no nuclear
plant is being built in Poland any time soon……….
No comments:
Post a Comment