The ramblings of a raving liberal

The Chicago Blackhawks and the NHL are making special arrangements to accommodate a request by the Chicago Gay Hockey Association's request to have the Stanley Cup and one of the Champion players attend the Chicago Gay Pride Parade.

Brent Sopel, a defenseman for the Stanley Cup Winning Blackhawks, and his family will march in the parade, with the Stanley Cup.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Stanley-Cup-Blackhawks-will-march-in-Chicago-s-?urn=nhl,250390
http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2010/06/22/blackhawks-bringing-stanley-cup-to-chicago-gay-pride-parade/

It's also worth noting that the Chicago Cubs will also have a float in the parade.

Major League Sports are notoriously unfriendly for gay men. So it is good to see something like this happen. Hopefully, it will help break down a few barriers.

The title is "Imagine if the Tea Party Movement Was Black":
http://ephphatha-poetry.blogspot.com/2010/04/imagine-if-tea-party-was-black-tim-wise.html

I think it makes the point rather well.

Here's one especially for vixenkit and pjladyfox: It's a new video from Mind.In.A.Box called "8-Bits":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoGpLl-SUfk

What it took to clear the road this morning:

- 8 people with shovels
- 1 person with a snow blower
- 1 large truck with a snow plow
- 1 skid loader (to dig out the snow that was piled up by the plow)
- 2-3 hours of work by all of the above

But at least we now have a street clear enough to drive off of!

When taken out of context, this headline trips my sense of humor:
"Penguins Face Streaking Senators"

I'm just going to quote from the Penguins' website here:

"The Penguins coaching staff enjoyed their Sunday off by attending the KISS concert at Mellon Arena.

...

After Kiss finished their song "Detroit Rock City," the crowd booed for their displeasure of the Red Wings. Bylsma was asked A) if Kiss should have played the song and B) if he liked the fact that Pittsburghers booed.

"We were commenting on the fact of whether they should have played it or not. They should have and yes I did.""
http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=509812

:)

"New York Islanders defenceman Brendan Witt was hit by a car in Philadelphia on Tuesday, according to Newsday. But Witt reportedly picked himself up off the road and, after a few profanities, assured everyone he was all right before continuing on his way ...

"I'm okay," Witt told the crowd as he dusted himself off, according to Newsday. "I've got to go play some hockey. I'm a hockey player. I'm okay. No big deal.""
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=301565

Hit by a car in the morning, will still play in tonight's hockey game. I'm not a fan of the Islanders, nor of Brendan Witt, but that's still an awesome story.

Though this probably does contradict the NHL advertising campaign from a couple years back that said, "Hockey players are just like everybody else, except they're really good at hockey". I can't think of too many people that can just get up and walk away after getting hit by a car, after all...

I meant to share this on Thanksgiving, but hey, better late than never!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qj8PhxSnhg

"I don't care about the Constitution!"
-- Bill O'Reilly, on Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try five Gitmo detainees in NYC

(Taken from the "Say What" portion of today's Doonesbury Daily Dose: http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/ )

It was pretty clear this was true, based on many of his stands on issues, but it's nice to see him be honest about it for a change, I suppose.

We've got the G-20 Summit going on in Pittsburgh right now, and pretty much as expected, there were violent confrontations between some of the "protesters" and the police. I put "protesters" in quotes, because it was more like a riot than a protest. People were throwing rocks at the police, rolling dumpsters at the police, setting dumpsters on fire and rolling them at the police, and, of course, breaking windows of businesses all around the city. These self-proclaimed "anarchists" declared their "demonstration" a success, too.

I don't have much sympathy for them. They went out of their way to provoke the police, they caught up innocent people in their actions, and they destroyed private property, all so they could essentially say, "I told you that cops are bad!"

Sorry, but the ability to exercise your rights doesn't mean you get to trample on other people's rights. That's why you need a permit to do a massive march through a city: you're disrupting the lives of everyone around you when you do so. You're interfering with their rights to move freely, their ability to get to work, and, frankly, when it comes to this particular group, you're endangering their homes and their livelihoods. So I don't have much respect for these people who proudly call themselves anarchists. Somehow, I suspect they wouldn't much appreciate a true anarchy, where no rules means might makes right.

This isn't to paint all of the protesters with the same brush: most of them were peaceful, and I have no problem with them. In fact, there's a local blog that pretty much expresses how I feel perfectly: http://angrydrunkbureaucrat.blogspot.com/2009/09/open-letter-to-g-20-protesters.html

I feel sorry for those caught between the rioters and the police. Those who went to take a look, and got caught in the mess. But for those who incited these riots? You haven't convinced me that your cause is just, that your cause is sympathetic. You've convinced me that I don't want to have anything to do with you. You've convinced me that the city was correct to bring in extra police officers for this summit. You've convinced me that anarchy is not what I want. In other words, you've utterly failed. Congratulations.