Spring Cleaning

1 - First off, a profuse apology to both loyal readers (you know who you are) for not updating this thing since February. I've started writing for the student newspaper here at the U of R, meaning that itch I had to write all this stuff has been getting scratched a lot lately. The job has been good, but it makes me pine for the good old days back when I was my own editor. That was the ticket...

You've probably also noticed that Man on Fire now has a name. That's because I've come to the conclusion that if you're going to have opinions on anything, you should at least be willing to sign your name to them. And, I'm fully confident that if any psychos tried to track me down through the internet they'd stop once they realized they'd have to come to Regina to find me.

Anyway, when I read something interesting on the net the first thing I do is email myself a link (yes, I have two email addresses, three if you count my U of R account) with a quick comment so I'll remember to write about it later. Since I haven't done any blogging since February, my email account is full of old stories I was planning to link to, but never did. Hence today's post title, Spring Cleaning, in which I get rid of all the crap in my mail box and put it on my blog. Some stuff has been left out because (a) it's really old news, or (b) I have nothing to say about it anymore. I've also mixed in some stuff from the last week or so. So without further ado...

2 - If I actually supported the Bloc, I would be smashing my head against a wall after Gilles Duceppe told the Canadian Press he would consider defeating the government over Canada's 'mandate in Afghanistan' back in December (I know, that's a really long time, but you'd be surprised at what you find when you start spring cleaning). Things haven't changed much in the months since that comment. I am by no means a seasoned political observer, but defeating the government over that issue would be bad for the bloc for two reasons. One, I very much doubt that back in December, or even now for that matter, the Bloc would gain many seats in an election where Afghanistan was the main issue. Even in Quebec where resistance is apparently high. The reason is that there are three parties in Quebec that oppose the mission as is, on only one that supports it. Splitting votes two ways killed the P.C.'s and Canadian Alliance--Reform parties in Ontario in the 90's. Imagine what a three way vote split would do in 2007 in Quebec. Two, I doubt the Bloc would be prepared for the @#$% storm that would follow a Canadian pull-out, even one done slowely over several months. I'm not talking about domestic back-lash, I'm talking about international back-lash. Most Canadian politicians, seperatist or not, care way too much about what the rest of the world thinks of us, and there wouldn't be a lot of respect going around for Canada after an act like that. A few days later the Bloc reversed their position somewhat, claiming they would only take down the government if provoked. The only difference was that Ducceppe was trying to squash the idea that his party was going to be pro-active in forcing an election, and convince people the Bloc really did want to play nice, but if the mean old Conservatives wouldn't do what they wanted they'd defeat them on a confidence motion. Nice strategy actually. Fortuanetly (or unfortuanetly, depending on you political stripes) the Bloc et al stopped using the club called Afghanistan to beat the Conservatives with, and switched to the enviroment. Fortuanetly (or unfortuanetly) the enviroment stick turned out to be a foam bat, and nothing became of the threats about Afghanistan.

3 - Meanwhile, across the pond...

A 43-year-old German man decided to settle his imminent divorce by chain
sawing a family home in two and making off with his half in a forklift
truck, reports news.com.au.

Add your own wisecracks in the comments.

4 - From the 'Where are they now?' file comes word that a drug dealer known as the 'Milkman' was jailed for 30 years in England after organizing the largest drug smuggling network in British history. Couldn't be Naoaki... could it?

5 - Quicky play-off predictions:

Calgary beats Detroit (unless Calgary plays the rest of the series like they did tonight...)
Ducks beat Wild
Canucks beat Stars
Sharks beat Preds

Sabres stomp Isles
Lighting beat Devils
Thrashers beat Rangers
Penguins beat Senators (unless Ottawa plays the rest of the series like they did on Wednesday)

Remember, you heard it here first.

P.S.

Make sure to watch for the Rotchford effect throughout the play-offs (the unwritten rule that whatever team theDING is cheering against will go all the way).

6 - Crosby Show Falls Flat

That was the headline in the National Post the day after the Penguins where manhandled in their first play-off game since 2001. Let me ask you something, was anyone actually expecting Pittsburgh to win that game? Was anyone actually thinking Ottawa wouldn't dominate game one? Because if the answer is no to both questions, I don't see how they fell flat. Don't you need to seriously underachieve or something before you fall flat? At any rate, expect the Pens to play much better in game two. Fleury is a question mark though. Who knows where his head's at.

7 - Take this for what it's worth. My guess is the Liberals figured they were going to get slobberknocked in that riding anyway, so why not concede and do your best to screw up the NDP and Conservatives. Not a bad idea actually, if that's what they were trying to do. The other side of the coins is the Liberals are generally concerned about the enviroment, so much so that they are willing to give up seats to unite in the face of a common enemy (how noble). The air is so thick with non-partisanship it's making me gag.

Well, the mailbox is clean. Cheers until later.

Jason