Detroit Sports Update

The Wings definitely found their hearts for Saturday's 3-2 win over the Sharks. What a game! And the crowd was alive again, too. (Even after we went down 2-0 early in the first again...) The octopi were flying, which always helps, and I don't think I've ever heard the Joe so loud as it was after we scored that winning goal... So it's out to San Jose tonight for game 3. And can I just tell you how much I love being in the eastern time zone, following a team in the Western Conference. More 10 p.m. games and groggy days at work to look forward to, but I'm not complaining.

And how bout those Pistons??? Swept the Magic Satuday, looking forward to round 2. Speaking of sweeps -- hahahahahah! ha. ha. The Heat got SWEPT in the FIRST ROUND!!! I hope Shaq was crying.

And in other news - the Lions picked up Calvin Johnson with their second round pick and, in a surprise move, MSU QB Drew Stanton. Not so sure how I feel about Stanton; he didn't exactly do much for State... At any rate, I feel very confident with these new additions that the Lions will win at least four games next season.

Tin Men

The Wings were looking for their hearts last night... they sure weren't playing with them in their 2-0 loss to the Sharks. The lackluster crowd didn't exactly help.

As a huge, lifelong fan, I really cannot believe the crowd (or lack thereof) all season. Empty seats at the Joe?? Are we living in a parallel universe? And the fans that were there looked half asleep. Are we really that spoiled by how well this team has done over the last 15 years?? Or are we that lazy/broke that we'd rather stay home and watch the game on HD than drop $200 to watch them live? Not sure, but this is disturbing.

Reading through some of the fans' comments from that Free Press article linked to above, I have to agree that Gary Bettman has ruined hockey. (you'll note on my profile, he is listed as one of the things I hate.) The Bruise Brothers were more exciting than just about any of our many, many wins this year. Nowadays you almost feel like you're watching womens' hockey, without as much hitting... They've tried to change a game to appeal to people in stupid expansion cities (another problem) that will never love or understand hockey because the only ice they've ever seen is at the Galleria mall (excluding northern transplants, of course). Meanwhile you have goalies two-handing players with their sticks after the whistle, sucker punches to injured players lying on the ice when the reff's back is turned, more slashing, more injuries, more cheap shots - but we don't dare let anyone throw a punch! Oh, no, no - can't have any of that fighting - it's only what fans in every rink sprang out of their seats for in quicker reaction to the red light flashing, but people in Arizona or Anaheim might not like that...

OK, enough ranting - our Wings are still our Wings and yes, we might also now have the Pistons and Tigers, but we should be ashamed of ourselves for our lackluster support. Are we, or are we not residents of Hockeytown??

If you live in the D - go out and get tickets!!! There are still plenty available. I'll be at the game tomorrow and you'd better believe I won't be sitting quietly.

Go Wings!!!

New HP Trailer

Only 77 days (yes, I'm counting along with mugglenet) until movie 5 is released and the new trailers are popping up everywhere. Book 5 was my favorite and I am hoping the movie does it justice - I will say that from the trailer, this looks to be far and away the best HP movie thus far...

Proof: Tax Cuts Bring in More Revenue

U.S. tax receipts from individuals hit record high.

Wow- this much hasn't come in since... last year's record high. (Are you sensing a trend here?)

How much proof do we need that lowering individual income tax rates (yes, even on those evil "rich" people) actually brings in MORE money to the government?

Surely now we'll stop hearing Democrats shamelessly propegate class warfare by caterwauling against "tax cuts for the rich"??? Any day now...

Dilemma

What do we watch tonight??? Wings - first game of round 2.... Pistons - game 3 of round 1... Tigers - v. the White Sox. If I owned these teams I would be livid at this extremely poor scheduling. OK, so the Tigers aren't in the playoffs, that's one thing - but the Wings and Pistons playoff games on the same night??? Ridiculous. That's lost revenue to the owners - and we're not exactly talking some paltry, irrelevant teams here! There will be a lot of remote control action going on in the D tonight...

The Great Global Warming Swindle

Anyone else disappointed this only aired in Britain? Naturally, you can see it online, as well. Thanks to Don H. for sending us the link.

Challenge of the Day

Find the most annoying thing about this article. This is a tough one...

Is it that the useless Democrats are wasting everyone's time by dishing out this supoena to Condi? Or is it this line "Democrats said they want Rice to explain what she knew about administration's warnings, later proven false, that Iraq had sought uranium from Niger for nuclear arms."???

It's a tough one for me... but I'm going to have to go with the incorrect statement in the article. We expect the Democrats to act like rabid lemmings; but we also expect an esteemed organization like Reuters to check its FACTS before publishing an article... Should we lump them with NBC going forward???

On the plus side, it's rather humorous that the only thing they could dream up to supoena Rice about is something so easily defendable that Condi can download her talking points from factcheck.org... On the negative side... you know they don't have a case. Can you say "Scooter?" Their angle here is clearly trying to entrap her into purgury - I hope Bush can negate this supeona somehow.

UPDATE: Go Condi! Don't take any of their crap!

What a relief!

Americans have standards after all. I was starting to worry.

The obnoxious, disgusting, sorry excuse for a "woman" is leaving the View.

Now I have to watch it this morning - just to hear her say it.

UPDATE: It had nothing to do with "standards" apparently. This article is all about hugging and singing Kumbaya and "you'll be missed" and other such euphemisms and inanity. Just once I wish someone in the public eye would call it like it is. I'd love to hear Elizabeth Hasselbeck talk about what an ignorant, hateful twit Rosie is instead of talking about how she helped them have "honest discussions" (gag). Just once. Whatever. In June, she'll be gone. Good freakin' riddance.

Another update/addition: How come Imus was fired, but this embarassment to the word "woman" isn't being raked over the coals for this rant? (via Lucianne) There were 17 year old girls in the audience. How is this okay? Because she's a lesbian and a liberal? Can you say "HYPOCRISY"???

Oh, and speaking of great news, the Dow crossed 13,000 for the first time in history today. Darn our bad economy. Darn it to heck.

Justice Brothers

I know this is a week or two old now and I never really commented on the Imus thing or the Duke rape charges being withdrawn (when the two reverends most recently crept out of the woodwork again), but has everyone heard Rush's "Justice Brothers" spots??? These have to be three of the best parodies he's done in a long time. I can't remember laughing this hard since he played the Mighty Mouse theme song whilst discussing Kerry's hampster heroics. They're even funnier than Algore singing about the ball of fire. Enjoy.

Fightin' Words

And they're about an actual war, not an election or global warming, so you know they're not from a Democrat...

Clp. Tyler Rock BLASTS defeatest Harry Reid.

excerpts:

"Yeah, and I got a quote for that [expletive] Harry Reid. These families need us here," Rock vented in an e-mail to Pat Dollard, a Hollywood agent-turned-war reporter who posted the comment on his Web site, www.patdollard.com.

"Obviously [Reid] has never been in Iraq. Or at least the area worth seeing . . . the parts where insurgency is rampant and the buildings are blown to pieces," Rock wrote.

"It sucks that Iraqis have more patriotism for a country that has turned to complete s- - - more than the people in America who drink Starbucks every day.

"We could leave this place and say we are sorry to the terrorists. And then we could wait for 3,000 more American civilians to die before we say, 'Hey, that's not nice' again."

"And the sad thing is after we WIN this war. People like [Reid] will say he was there for us the whole time."

Playoff Update

The Pistons had little trouble with the Magic last night in game 2 and are looking forward to game 3 this Thursday.

Also Thursday, the Wings open up round 2 against the Sharks. Can you believe espn's so-called "experts" are all picking the Sharks to win?? Because of their "depth."

Here are the Sage's picks (as compared to other voters on espn - mine are bold). OK, so maybe I was a little overzealous in my bias against NJ picking the Devils to bite it in 5, but otherwise, I think they're far more accurate...

Flames Extinguished - Who's Next??

Last night the Wings finished off the Flames early into the second overtime of game 6. Round 1 is down - now we wait for the outcome of tonight's game between Dallas and Vancouver to see who we'll face in the next round.

Very impressed with the Wings - They've always had the skill, but in recent playoff years have been out-muscled by their opponents. This year they came out hitting from game 1, didn't let any of Calgary's cheap shots bother them, and just took care of business. What a great series!

Almost fell out of my chair last night when Lang score - Lang! About time he finally scored. Franzen got the OT winner. Dom was amazing in net - the entire series, for that matter.

And how 'bout our Deeeee-troit baaaaasketballllllll??? Game 1 down; they meet the Magic again tonight at the Palace.

What a great season to be living in the D!

Liberal Kook of the Week

And so early in the week, too! This weeks honors go to Sheryl Crow for suggesting we only use one square of toilet paper each time we go to the bathroom. Honestly - what will these environmentalist whackos think of next??? Regulating toilet paper use for the environment??? Wow.

Common Sense

A GREAT editorial by the great Peggy Noonan, reflecting on the Viriginia Tech incident and how our culture's repression of plain old common sense let this happen.

Wow - Reid's Got Competition...

...for Liberal Kook of the Week honors. At first I thought Alec Baldwin's hateful message was left on President Bush's cell, but it turns out it was his daughter's...

Liberal Kook of the Week

Well, DP - I'm glad that Mr. Voight has a better grasp on the war in Iraq than Harry Reid.

It's a good thing Reid wasn't around during WWII to tell Hitler that we had lost the war before D-Day, or to let Jeff Davis and General Lee know that the war was lost before Gettysburg, or to inform the British that the Americans were surrendering prior Yorktown. (I believe our war for independence lasted 8 years, but who's counting? Had the Democrats been around then, we would have surrendered before the end of '76.)

Wars should be won completely and without question and nations rebuilt within a matter of months, not years. I say this, because Democrats were calling Iraq a "quagmire" and comparing it to their most beloved (because we lost) war in Vietnam within a month after Baghdad's fall.

Compare Reid's hopeful vision of our defeat to U.S. Army Brig. Gen. John F. Campbell's assessment of improvement in Iraq.

And Reid wants to cut off funding and hand our enemies a victory??? That's why he's earned this week's Liberal Kook of the Week honors.

Jon Voight - rational voice from Hollywood?

I couldn't believe it either.

Michelle Malkin reports about an interview with Jon Voight where he criticizes Bush hatred, supports the war on terror, and support for the troop increase.

The war on terror is real. People would have you believe it's not real. This is not Vietnam. This particular situation is not the same wherein we can walk away and just leave destruction behind us. No, we can't. Anyone who has paid attention to what [Iranian President] Ahmadinejad is saying, what all the mullahs are saying in this country and in England, and in all of the Arab world, this is serious—they're calling for the destruction of America and all democracy and that's what's going on. We could lose this war.

Please go read the whole thing. It'll make your day.

Partial Birth abortion banned!

Since I'm a member of the "anti-choice" right-wing conspiracy, I am thrilled that they have outlawed the practice of starting to give birth to a healthy baby then sucking out its brains before it can see the light of day. I'm of course against all types of baby-torture, including the practice of using a vacuum to dismember said baby while it's still in what's supposed to be the safe, warm womb.

However, I have a question that I'm hoping our more intelligent and rational readers can answer. I want to know why partial birth is even an issue - or why in the name of all that's holy it's even used at all.

A "full term" pregnancy lasts 37-40 weeks. Preemies can survive as young as 22 weeks - and sometimes even earlier now that new technologies are emerging.

The last trimester (where a "partial birth" abortion would happen) starts between 25 - 28 weeks. So. Here's my question. Can't the baby be "birthed" and then sent to the NICU instead of murdered? By the third trimester, the baby's chance of survival outside the womb is pretty high. If it was ME, and I had to make a life-or-death decision in my third trimester, I would at least TRY to give my child a chance instead of sucking out it's brains. But that's just me.

Also, the anti-life left is screeching about "mother's health! Mother's health!". By 25 weeks, I gotta believe that any problems would have manifested itself long before then. I've heard people caterwauling about the hypothetical situation where a mom in her third trimester finds out she has breast cancer and has to have chemo which would harm her "fetus". (by 22 weeks, the child can survive outside the womb, so I would call it a "baby", but again, that's just me.) So that's why she sucks her baby's brains out and kills it. I say - take the baby out by any means possible and give it a chance to survive in an incubator.

But that's just me.

p.s. I wasn't this staunchly pro-life until my serendipidous accident - my beautiful baby girl - was born. Which is why I am horrified by the inhumanity of people like Hillary Clinton - who has a baby girl - that support killing children.

Possible connection...

..to the "religion of peace?" As reported on Atlas Shrugs, the evil VT murderer signed his note with the same signature he had in red ink on his arm - "Ismail Ax."

I am not making this an issue about Islam, the killer did that for us. Not sure yet what, if any, significance this holds.

UPDATE: The more you hear about this sick individual, the more it looks like he was just a complete nut. His intention with the "Ismail Ax" could very well have just been to scare us in light of the threat we're under from Islamic facists the world over.

In the below post "Senseless" I gave my two cents about the culture of violence in entertainment and how it could possibly play into tragic occurances such as this. Now police are saying that this sicko was apparently copying scenes from a movie. I think we should re-evaluate if this type of senseless, violent entertainment is necessary... I don't believe in censorship, but if these types of films tank at the box office, they will cease to be made. It's up to us.

A Hero Amid the Chaos

Do you ever sometimes wonder when you hear about other peoples suffering - why me? Why am I so lucky? Why did so-and-so lose their mom to cancer, but I still have mine? Why did so-and-so's brother die in that car accident, but I'm still blessed with mine?

You can imagine that many of the people involved in this Virginia Tech tragedy will suffer from similiar survivors' guilt - why did those people have to die while I made it out?

Can you imagine the survivors' guilt Holocost survivors like Prof. Liviu Librescue may have felt? How many times do you think he wondered - why me? He went on to marry, father children, and teach hundreds of students who passed through Virginia Tech in the last 20 years. His final act was to hold the door to his classroom shut so that his students could escape out the window. He was eventually shot through the door. He died a hero, saving the lives of his students.

Next time you find yourself in that "why me" mode - either counting your blessings or your burdens, remember that God has His intentions for you. Your life is what you make of it, who you help, how you treat others, what you accomplish. When it's your time to go, it's your time to go and only God can determine that.

Senseless

Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the victims and all of the Virginia Tech community after yesterday's tragedy.

What compels a person to such an act? To take the lives of innocent people? So many innocent people... I feel physically sick to think of it: pure evil.

There will be plenty of analysis in the aftermath. Some parents are already calling for the school's president to resign, some students were angry they weren't given more warning after the first shooting - hindsight is always 20/20. It's like people who want to blame anyone but the terrorists for what happened on 9/11 - the killer is who we should be focusing blame upon.

But how and why does a killer become a killer?? The Euro press is trying to blame it on Charlton Heston and the NRA. I'm all for the second amendment and perserving our right to bear arms, but they have a point - not sure that criteria for certain types of automatic weapons doesn't need to be re-thought. On the other hand... my late great uncle had an arsenol of guns in his Detroit home. A closet full of rifles (he was a hunter), plus handguns placed in strategic drawers or cupboards in almost every room of the house. Those were strictly for defense purposes - there were 3 crack houses on his street, a brothel next door (that eventually burned down), they had been robbed twice, and drive-by shootings were commonplace. Criminals will continue to find weapons and good Americans should have the right to defend themselves. Guns don't kill people on their own; someone has to pull the trigger.

My humble opinion is that it's the increased acceptance of extreme violence that contributes to this problem - for giving all of these freaks ideas. (Anyone ever played Halo?? Just one example of a video game where the point is nothing more than to kill each other) Movies have become more violent, etc. I've never been one of those to blame the entertainment industry for the actions of individual people, but I can't help but think this culture of violence is having an effect.

More so than gun control or entertainment, though, you have to come back to the disintegration of the American traditional family.

I'm not saying it's one of these three factors or that any play into this tragic case at Virginia Tech. But you have easy access to semi-automatic weapons + culture of violence + no family support/moral compass and we're going to continue to see incidents like this.

Again, our prayers go out to those at Viriginia Tech. I hope in the aftermath we can learn valuable lessons from this, without thinking we have to compromise our fundamental American character.

One Down, Three to Go

Unfortunately I just made it home in time to see that little scrum at the end (refs - let them go!), but missed the Wings whooping the Flames 4-1 in their first game of the Stanley Cup playoffs. In my experience, 1 out of every 57 flights leaves LaGuardia in the general proximity of their scheduled departure time... but I digress. I did see the highlights, and the Wings looked great. They came out hitting, they came out looking like they meant it - something they've been lacking in recent playoff history. Datsyuk and Zetterberg looked great; Lidstrom scored; Bertuzzi didn't play, but we didn't need him. He'll be a nice addition when he returns to the lineup, but we're just fine without him. Still a long way to go. Calgary has some talent and lots of grit and they have an amazing home record - should be a great series.

(BTW- Did anyone see Malkin hosting O'Reilly tonight??? She ROCKS!!!)

Global Cooling CRISIS

We are to the point where if we do not do something NOW, this global cooling crisis will have dramatic and potentially catastrophic effects!

It was so cold down south last week...

In South Carolina, at least 90 percent of the peach crop was destroyed and officials said Wednesday they would seek federal aid.

"This is comparable to a hurricane," Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers said of the damage to the state's $40 million-a-year industry. "Growers say we'll be fortunate to get 10 percent of a crop.

They believe Georgia has also lost half their peach crop. (no Georgia peaches! Say it ain't so!) Before long the oceans will start receeding as more water is frozen in the polar ice caps - the consensus among qualified scientists is by at least 100 feet- and beachfront property up and down the coasts will drop significantly in value, creating an economic crisis, in addition to the other deathly consequences of global cooling.

"Since we've been keeping records for at least 150 years now of precipitation, hurricanes in North America, temperatures, etc. we clearly have definitive knowledge as to what the earth's climate will be like 40 years from now if people don't start driving more SUVs and pickups," leading environmental scientist, John Smith, told Conservababes. "There really is no debate - the temperatures have been colder in the last two months. We need to move beyond this debate and do something to fix the problem before we all freeze to death and beachfront property values plummet."

Smith declined to comment about the inability for weather forecasters to accurately predict tomorrow's weather, but assured us that there is no disputing the inevitable affects of global cooling if humans don't start exhaling more, chopping down more trees, and driving SUVs.

For those who cannot afford SUVs due to rising gas prices, live in a city and don't require a car, or suffer from shortness of breath, Smith has told us they can purchase oxygen offsets to help counter the global cooling phenomenon.

"For every oxygen offset you purchase, we will chop down seven trees," Smith says. "It really is the best way to help. We all should be doing something."

Global Cooling Update

This month is tracking to be the coldest April in 113 years. I hope the polar bears aren't suffering from frost bite.

Wings Look to Break First Round Jinx

The most exciting sport in the world - NHL playoff hockey - is about to commence this week. The Wings take on the Flames in round one. Historically, the Wings either win the Stanley Cup or get bumped out in the first round - this year it's anybody's guess. They have the potential to win, better this year than the last few so long as Zetterberg is healthy and absolutely, under no circumstances EVER does Niklas Lidstrom miss a game again. Luckily, OT shootouts don't apply to the playoffs.


Random Trivia- The Calgary Flames were originally an expansion team in Atlanta ('72-80). Their name derives from Sherman's famous burning of Atlanta during the Civil War. Hopefully they will fall like Atlanta this round...

Game 1 - Thursday, 7 p.m. - Look for the octopi to fly at the Joe.

Go Wings!!!

Global Cooling Update

Below average lows and "extreme" below average lows for Alaska in the month of March; climate analysts fear the polar bears are in danger of freezing to death and call on residents to drive more SUVs and exhale more in order to stem the potential disaster.

In other news, near New Fallujah I woke up to 6 degree wind chills and a blanket of snow over the ground and rooftops. This is April, by the way.

UPDATE: We've got sea otters starving and dying and record lows in the Carolinas. And it's still cold here in New Fallujah! Exhale more, people - I'm freezing out here!!!

SECOND UPDATE: Great article by Meteorology Prof. Lindzen at M.I.T. - Reality check on the global warming debate.

Denial at it's most dangerous

If you thought Chamberlin was bad denying Hitler's true intentions prior to WWII, I give you the United States Democrat party. The House Armed Services Committee has now banned the phrase "global war on terror." It also can't be called a "long war."

This latest act is just a further demonstration that the Democrats do not comprehend the threat terrorism poses to our country, nor do they feel the need to combat it. They never have believed the war in Iraq is part of the larger war on terror, chalking everying up to sectarian violence and ignoring the al queada terrorists and Iranian-backed goons pouring across the Iraqi borders (as opposed to, say, the American borders) to fight us. It's sad. I can only hope that going forward we continue to elect leaders like Reagan and Bush who are not afraid to fight legitimate threats to our national security.

My favorite Republican reaction to this ridiculous ban:

“If you are a reader of the Harry Potter books, you might describe this as the war that must not be named,” said another Republican aide.

Mahmoud the Benevolent

After illegally seizing 15 British sailors, holding them hostage like they worked at the American Embassy, then making a mockery of the western world by parading them on TV "apologizing," the Freak of Iran, Mahmoud Ahwannajihad, has shown his great compassion and benevolence by releasing them...

Did everyone enjoy watching this saga as much as I did? Do you think Ahwannajihad would have dared an act like this if half the country and world wasn't up in arms (well, not arms, that would be gauche), about the war in Iraq? (How dare we remove an oppressive, brutal, torturous, terrorist-supporting dictator who only violated 13 U.N. resolutions??) Personally, I would have treated Ahwannajihad like Reagan treated Kahdafi.

But I digress - Ahwannjihad also made sure to question western values in his press conference. He cited the fact that one of the British sailors was a woman and a mother when questioning our values -asking how a country could let a woman with children serve in the military! I'm sure that America's proud feminists like the head-scarf toting Nancy Pelosi will be expressing their extreme outrage over that remark. Any day now...

Another member of congress..

..who thinks they are the president. That would be Pelosi, undermining the real president and our country's credibility with this latest trip to Syria (which the U.S. officially considers a state sponsor of terrorism). Pelosi donned the old head scarf for her visit (as the picture on drudge shows if you link there first). I'm sure Assad will take this formiddable woman in the head scarf very seriously...

UPDATE: This is why rogue members of Congress should not try to be diplomats... There's Pelosi telling Syria Israel's ready to talk peace - she couldn't even get the message straight! (being tough on terrorists-supporting regimes being so difficult for her to comprehend or implement... she'd rather just don a head scarf and sing folk songs)

The Prime Minister's Office issued a rare "clarification" Wednesday that, in gentle diplomatic terms, contradicted US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's statement in Damascus that she had brought a message from Israel about a willingness to engage in peace talks.

According to the statement, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert emphasized in his meeting with Pelosi on Sunday that "although Israel is interested in peace with Syria, that country continues to be part of the Axis of Evil and a force that encourages terror in the entire Middle East."

Olmert, the statement clarified, told Pelosi that Syria's sincerity about a genuine peace with Israel would be judged by its willingness to "cease its support of terror, cease its sponsoring of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, refrain from providing weapons to Hizbullah and bringing about the destabilizing of Lebanon, cease its support of terror in Iraq, and relinquish the strategic ties it is building with the extremist regime in Iran."

The statement said Olmert had not communicated to Pelosi any change in Israeli policy on Damascus.

Pelosi, who met in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar Assad over the objections of US President George W. Bush, said she brought a message to Assad from Olmert saying that Israel was ready for peace talks.