Mad Props

I am only in one hockey pool this year, and oddly enough it is with eleven (yes, eleven) others, all of whom live in the Detroit area.

Our pool is through Yahoo, and it has this really cool system where you can bench players when they are not playing, and call up others when they are. Goalie stats are included, and every week you are matched-up against one other member of the pool. Last week, I was matched up with Ken, the Motor City Madman. He is the Commissioner of the league, and invited me to join back in the summer. How could I resist joining a pool with 11 yanks? I mean, it should be a cake-walk, right?

Wrong.

There are four of us that are battling it out for first place. Last week, I really thought I was going to pull away. Heatley and Spezza continue to be on fire, Naslund has been doing well, Ovechkin is still tearing it up, and recent addition Scott Hartnell has been impressive also.

It sounds like a recipe for success, but I made one big mistake.

I picked up Alex Auld.

When Cloutier went down, I thought it was easy goalie points to snag Auld. He had done well in the few starts he had received, but last week he sucked worse than a Powermatic Legacy 2100.

So I lost my match-up to Ken.

Badly.

But I don't really feel so bad. Ken knows his stuff. Led by the likes of Gomez, Datsyuk, and Chara, his team has been holding its own. We are currently tied for second place according to the points total, but he gets the nod because he has more "wins" than I do (a "win" occurs when you beat the other player in a statistical category at the end of your match-up. I.E. Last week my players scored 15 goals to Ken's 6, so that is one win for me. Conversely his players had 45 minutes in penalties to my 20, which means one win for him.)

It is a great pool, and I've had a lot of fun tracking my stats and following my players. It really does make hockey that much more exciting to watch, because I've got a vested interest in nearly every game that gets played.

But last week I was bested by the Commish. His hockey knowledge and skill in choosing players is second only to his rugged good looks and charming personality. I've heard it said that Ken's sense of humour is amazing, and although he can turn a joke like no other, he is seldom the "centre of attention" like most other humourous types. As well, Ken has shown time and time again that his is a noble fellow, full of integrity. This is evidenced by the fact that he climbed a 26-foot high tree once to save a neighbour's cat. When the neighbour offered him a reward for his efforts, he donated the money to the local animal shelter. Firefighters be darned when Ken is around.

But most importantly, is Ken's quality of character. Rather than gloat about his obviously superior fantasy team, he quietly goes about his business, encouraging the rest of the GM's in the pool.

What a classy guy.

More on those Canadians in Iraq

It turns out the four men who were abducted on Saturday (two of them were Canadian) are peace activists whose organization, Christian Peacemaker Teams, have been virulently anti-war from the very beginning.

After doing a little digging, Misha informs us of the statement made by Christian Peacemaker Teams on their website:

We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the U.S. and U.K. governments due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people.

Yeesh, talk about transference. The four hostages would not be in this situation if they had decided not to go to Iraq. They would not be in the situation if Christian Peacemaker Teams did not send them there. They definitely would not be in this situation if those lunatic islamofascists had not kidnapped them.

But it is so much easier to blame George W. Bush and Tony Blair, isn't it?

Why so glum, chum?

I simply love the expression on Paul Martin's face in this photograph.

What a sad, sorry sack of crap.

Even sorrier though, is he will probably be re-elected with another minority government.

Even sorrier still, is Olivia Chow's decision to run again in the Trinity-Spadina riding in Toronto. Third time's the charm, I guess.

But perhaps most sorry of all, is the huge precentage of the Canadian population that will not vote. I'm not talking about solid Libertarians either. I understand and respect the reasoning behind their choice. But I personally know a pile of people who will not bother to vote. How tragic. If half the people who did not vote in the last election had voted, the results would have been completely different. The same will be true this year, I am sure. And these apathetic statists are the ones who often gripe the loudest over their morning coffees at Tim Hortons.

***

Andrew at the Bound by gravity used to scream about the Conservatives not spending enough time promoting their policies. Here's hoping the next month and a half will be a Conservative Policy Showcase. However you view the Tories, they truly are the best of big three in Canada.

***

I'll be keeping a watch on the campaign of Nathan Cullen, and hope to provide insight into the riding of Bulkley Valley Stikine. Mike Scott is the Conservative candidate, and as soon as I find out the Liberal candidate, I'll let you know.

The 11th Province

An eleventh province is in the works for Canada. What Paul Martin, Stephen Harper, Jack Layton, et al. don't want you to know about.

Jesusland will be ours!

Come Home Soon

Here's hoping the two Canadians that were kidnapped in Iraq are returned safe and sound...

...and may the rat bastards that did this vile act truly pay for their crimes in the worst (and I mean worst) way.

You reap what you sow

This post by Raskolnikov at Dust my Broom is a must read. Certainly one of the best blog posts I have read this year, if not ever.

There’s a lot of hang-wringing, tisking and head-shaking going on in the province this week after the news hit that Manitoba is one of the worst provinces in terms of children in poverty, food bank usage etc. While I certainly feel ashamed my home province has such a dubious distinction, I also feel rage and disgust that a province as socially-engineered and statist as Manitoba still has this problem despite the dumptrucks of money being spent on various programs to help welfare mothers and others in poverty.

As they say in Tennessee, read the whole thing.

Godspeed, Soldier

A Canadian has lost his life in Afghanistan.

Braun, you went too early. Thanks for your willingness to work for the freedom of those you do not know. You will not be forgotten.

Stanley Cup Ring to Darcey.

No, He isn't.

Erhm. 

Of all those pictures I posted the other day, I forgot to include this one, "Jesus Christ is coming soon". On Highway 62 from New Hazelton to Old Hazelton, you will see this sign. On the flip side, it says "Jesus Christ is your Saviour". I can agree with the latter slogan, I do not agree with the former.

This sign has been standing for as long as I have lived in the Bulkley Valley (13 years). Each time I pass it (which has been a heck of a lot of times, lately), I think about what must go through the minds of those who do not believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Surely there are many resident of Hazelton that are old-timers - those that have lived there for decades. For those unbelievers who have to drive by this sign every single day on their way to work, or school, or anything else for that matter, it must make their unbelief even more resolute. From their point of view, it has been two thousand years since this mystical "Jesus" person claimed to be God and said He would come again. Yeesh. I am open to varying definitions of "soon", but two thousand years is not one of them. Soon means soon. It does not mean thousands of years.

And a recent acquaintance of mine agrees, and his website is full of preterist archives and articles.

Worth exploring.

Trip to Hazelton

Hagwilget Bridge 

On Sunday afternoon a friend and I drove to Hazelton. I took along my digital camera and snapped some pics. For those of you that are into such things, the camera is a Fujifilm E510 with 5.2 megapixels. These photos are .3 Megs, and I used the manual zoom. This first picture is of the Hagwilget Bridge. The ones below are taken from the bridge.


Looking east-ish 


East Mountain 


Bulkley River 


Bulkley River 2 

There is a nice little trail that leads down to the shore on the right. In the summer there are piles of tourists that head down there to check it out. My friend and I were not so bold on this occasion. Middle of November = chilly weather!


Look Down 


Waaaaaay down! 


Mountain 

I have been doing a crazy amount of work in the Hazelton area over the past month or so. I have crossed the Hagwilget bridge at least two dozen times over that span. And yet I never get tired of seeing this mountain. My photography skills do not do it justice. You really do need to see it for yourself.

Classy

George Bush is going to Mongolia!

It was Mongolia's support for the war that provided the greatest incentive for Bush to become what aides described as the first White House visitor to the country since Vice President Henry Wallace in 1944.

Mongolia, which produced the warrior Genghis Khan, has deployed about 120 soldiers to Iraq, and Bush was expected to thank Mongolian President Nambariin Enkhbayar for his support in a speech.

A country that was caught in the communist tug-o-war between Russia and China for forty years.

A country that had its meager resources raped and pillaged by godless fiends.

A country that has, over the last decade and half, become a bastion for freedom and democracy despite hardships and strife and a communist resurgence.

That's a classy move by Bush, to visit such an ally. If he knows anything about Mongol history, he'll know liberty's hands have been on these people for centuries.

Bush wanted to "thank them for what they're doing in Iraq … and to give a boost to a country that's really moving in the right direction, and show that even a country that's far away or remote — if it's making the right choices the U.S. is going to stay with them," said a senior Bush administration official.

Here's hoping that a pile of US investment gets dumped into the Mongol economy, and the gold mines can continue to produce.

Red Ensign Standard 32

The newest edition of the Red Ensign Standard has been published by Alan at GenX at 40.

He was kind enough to include a couple of links to yours truly, even though I have not been blogging with as much regularity as I would like.

Go give it a read, and click those links!

Save our Pool - NO!

A vote for "saving" the pool in Smithers is a vote to raise people's taxes! That is why I am voting "No" in the referndum.

But, another good reason to vote no is that more than half the money collected from these additional taxes will go to increasing the wages of the employees.

A victory for the Bulkley Valley Regional Pool in Saturday's referendum will mean approximately half of the revenue from extra taxes will be going to wage increases over the next four years.
***
In the same period proposed wage and benefit costs will rise from $466,572 to $616,053.
Essentially this amounts to the pool receiving $197,805 extra revenue from the tax increase - $149,481 or 75 per cent of which appear to go towards wage increases.

Wealth Redistribution at it's finest, folks.

I haven't been at the swimming pool in a long time, and I won't be going anytime soon.

Heil Murtha

What a terrible picture.

Oh yeah, and his "plan" sucks too.

Insider Information

This post relates only to my readers from the Smithers, British Columbia area. For those of you living in other parts of the world, this will probably mean nothing to you.

The guy pictured on the left here... is that who I think it is???

Oh yes, it most certainly is!

*We now return to our regularily scheduled blogging*

Back to the Future

I'm thinking husbands can use this so they do not forget their anniversary's.

For the rest of us, well, it's a pretty neat thing as well.

It's a Girl!

Congrats, Matt and Angela.

Jessalyn Bree Norton. An exceptional name for an exceptional girl (and I might add, a substantially better name than my suggested one, "Mangela"!).

In typical Canadian fashion, these two former Calgarians waited until after the hockey game was over before going to the hospital. Five hours later, at 3:30am on November 13, she was born. I am certain there are many women who are jealous of her measly five hours of labour.

M'heh... did I just say measly labour? I bet Angela will have something to say about that!

And I'll have something to say about her choice of hockey teams. I'll be darned if she is going to be raised a Flames fan. No child should have to endure such hardship.

Congrats, my friends. I cannot wait to meet her.

Update 12:43pm - Five hours of hard measly labour, that is :=) And I went to the hospital to visit, wow... cute kid. Almost makes a guy want one of his own. Almost.

Gratitude and Respect

My Remembrance Day was spent working in New Hazelton. It is about a forty-five minute drive from Smithers to Hazelton, and on the way there I tuned into BVLD, the local radio station. Reporter Craig Lester interviewed a man named Dave Havard, who served in WW2. It was fascinating to hear his stories of his time overseas. Two things really struck me though. First, Craig asked him to describe some of the hardships of life during wartime. Rather than describe his own hardships as an officer, he responded by discussing what civilian life was like for people in England. When he was stationed there in 1943, the daily bombing raids from the luftwaffe were less intense than they had previously been. However, he recalled a story of a German pilot who had missed his bombing targets. In order to escape quickly and avoid being shot at by his enemy, he dropped his bombs to lighten his load. Unfortunately, he dropped them right on a school. If this had occured two years prior, the school children would not have been there. Early on during the Battle for Britain children had been exiled away from the cities to prevent such tragedy. They had only recently been allowed back to their homes when the bombs fell on this school. Mr Havard recalled the efforts he and his fellow officers pu in to rescue the survivors.

Towards the end of the interview, Mr Havard was asked about the sacrifice he made. His answer was truly stunning. This is as exact of a quote as I can recall,

"Well, I think it is only a sacrifice if you know you are sacrificing something. I was a teenager, fresh out of high school, and when I walked past the base in Victoria I thought it would be fun, so I joined up. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Sure, life wasn't easy for those two years, but I can't say I really sacrificed anything. In order for it to be a sacrifice, I would have had to be giving up something, and know that I was giving it up. There are a lot of people who really did sacrifice, but I can't say I did."

In case any of you are wondering why we remember on this day.
In case you may be thinking about why we call them heroes.
In case you take for granted the freedoms you hold dear.
In case those 'boring' Remembrance Day programs on television annoy you.
And in case you didn't pause for a moment to remember, here is one example of why we do it.

We remember because there and men and women who sacrificed. Many gave up their very lives for freedom. Your freedom. My freedom. Our freedom. They did not do it to receive accolades, and in Dave Havard's case, they desire none today.

A true hero does what needs to be done, then gives the credit to others.

Nothing I could ever say or do would be enough to thank them. But I will thank them anyways. And I will take a moment of silence. And I will remember.

As I said before, I spent the day working in Hazelton. I was able to earn extra money today because it is a holiday. Without the brave souls who fought and won in wars past, I would not have had the opportunities I have as a Canadian. What a privilege. What a fantastic gift to give.

I can never repay.

Vimy Ridge. D-Day. Liberation of Holland. Korean War.

Lest We Forget

A moment of Silence.

In Flanders Fields.

Well, now I'm in a bad mood.

Andrew at Bound by Gravity has closed his blog. He was a daily read of mine for several months.

I'm so amazed at the number of top quality bloggers hanging up their keyboards. What a tremendous loss!

The Red Ensign Brigade, and the entire Blogosphere, has lost a good one.

Here's hoping he pulls a Peter Rempel and comes back soon.

Ian Bush, BC Shooting

SEPTEMBER 5, 2006 - NEWEST ENTRY ON IAN BUSH CLICK HERE! PLEASE POST NEW COMMENTS THERE, AS I DO NOT CHECK THIS OLDER POST FOR COMMENTS! THANK YOU!


My Sitemeter has been spinning quite madly since I posted on the death of Ian Bush, who was shot while in custody (check that: several moments before he was to be released from custody) at the RCMP detachment in Houston.

For those of you searching Google, Yahoo, et al., my original post can be found here.

Update - I inadvertantly called him Ian "Smith" rather than Bush. Apparently the investigating officer's name is Smith, and I must have got that mixed up. Thus, I have changed this entry.

UPDATE 7:30 PM MONDAY MAY 29, 2006 - The news media in Northern B.C. have been talking about the investigation into Ian Bush's death, and the comments of our "honourable" MP Nathan Cullen. I have new comments on this which can be found here.

You were the Chosen One!

Ruth, the Chosen One, has raised the Red Ensign Standard.

Although I'm not a big Star Wars fan, I can certainly appreciate the novel effort she has put forth. Or, as Yoda would say, "Efforts appreciated I do yours".

Now go use the force wisely, and enjoy the linkage.

Majority Rules

On the Canucks website, they have a poll on the right hand sidebar which states: "Do you feel more or less comfortable that Alex Auld can handle the duties while Dan Cloutier is out of action after Wednesday's game?"

Nearly 82% of respondents are absolutely comfortable with Auld between the pipes, present bloggers included.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Classic comedy

Every now and again, I head on over to Imao to see what they are up to. It used to be a daily read, but I've got so many other daily reads that it kinda slipped off the radar for a while.

But Frank J. has done us all a service by giving us the top ten reasons why there are riots in France.

You can just imagine what the number 1 reason is....

Saturday Night Fever

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 5, 2006 - NEWER POST ON IAN BUSH CAN BE FOUND HERE Please post any comments you may have at the new post, as I do not check this post for new comments.

On Saturday night the police in Houston, BC shot and killed a 22 year old man at the detachment.

Ian Jeffrey Bush, 22, was taken into custody after a hockey game on October 29th. Near the end of the game, Bush attempted numerous times to fight with members of the opposing team. The police were forced to arrest him after he would not calm down.

Several hours later, when the police were releasing Bush from custody, he became violent and was shot once to the head by an officer on duty.

An official investigation is being carried out by the crime lab from Prince George.

***

Over the last five years, the police force in the Bulkley Valley has changed quite a lot. In Smithers, we have a number of "rookie" cops. Young guys and girls who are in their first or second posting. Although I do not know any officers in Houston, I have done some work at the detachment there and I have seen two cops who are probably younger than me (I am 27). I am not suggesting that these cops have not been trained properly, or that they did not know correct police procedure. Many pundits and reporters in the Canadian MSM were insinuating that the age and inexperience of the four officers killed in Mayorthorpe resulted in their deaths. Hogwash I say.

What I am saying is that Mr. Bush must have been stark raving crazy, and he must have been seen as a threat to the safety of the officers on duty that night. If the official investigation says otherwise, then I will question the motives and methods of the police. However, those cops have an obligation to protect each other, as well as the public at large. If one of these cops saw Mr. Bush as a credible threat to his fellow officer's life, then I fully support the choice he made.

By shooting Mr. Bush, that officer may have saved his own life, and lives of everyone else on staff that night.

***

Update 11:33pm - More here and here.

update 9:15am Friday Nov 4 - Still more here, and the second link above has been fixed.

Fore!

The Question of the Day:

We waited for about 20 minutes as Chretien was late and when he arrived the cameras and the boom mics and reporters rushed to flank his entry route. I propped myself on the right flank and as he was walking by I asked, "Mr. Chretien, how will this affect your golf game?"

Thanks Stephen, you just made my day.