Welcome to jail Michael, please have a long stay

Here’s Michael Vick’s idea of being kind to a dog. Michael Vick and 3 other men were served with a federal indictment for dog fighting, Vick unsurprisingly being the leader of the whole group and funding the operation and owning the property they used for their…. ‘entertainments’. Vick today finally accepted of plea bargain agreement admitting his guilt.

They were acquiring dogs and used them to gamble on dog fights. The dogs that lost/couldn’t be trained to kill/weren’t violent enough to suit them were tortured and executed for their enjoyment. The methods of execution included shooting the dogs with a pistol. Wetting them down and electrocuting them. Picking them up and slamming them into the ground until they were finally dead. Or using their custom built dog guillotine to chop off their head. The other method was simply hanging the dogs. Some of these dogs were perfectly healthy but because they couldn’t fight or make them money they killed them. They filmed the dog fights and executions to retain for ‘memories’.

Most people seem to be under the opinion Vick is getting a raw deal and should go free with a few thousand dollar fine. “Well, it’s not like it’s a crime against people so he should be OK”.

Apparently people feel it’s perfectly acceptable and reasonable to take an animal with feelings and love and subject them to torture?

To quote a politician:“One is left wondering: Who are the real animals? Who are the real animals, who are the real animals – the creatures inside the ring or the creatures outside the ring?”

The NFL seems only concerned about the gambling charges, happily content to ignore the whole torture, execution, and forcing dogs to fight for their lives. Yes… gambling is worth suspending someone, killing dogs?  Not a problem.

The last I heard he’s expected to see prison time of 6-18mnths. Some claim this will likely finish his NFL career… I neither follow nor care about the NFL, so I won’t comment there.  He’s apparently still owed over 100Million $ on his current contract, one would hope the team can recoup that and kill the contract. I’d have to assume there is some personal conduct guidelines in the contract that Vick’s broken which will allow them to get out of it.

Look at the picture. That’s an animal that’s been treated well and kindly by Vick and his friends. Other pictures make this image seem the most humane thing you’ll ever seen.

Sick and disgusting person.

Updated Aug 18/2009:
Apparently he’s now back in the NFL, soon to be a millionaire again… and all is forgotten and forgiven.
I tend to believe in second chances. But I’m also a dog lover, so I’m not exactly happy.
I doubt he’ll do it again, but I also think the only reason he wouldn’t is because he knows he’d get caught.

Chris Benoit

I’m sorry to hear about the passing of Canadian wrestler Chris Benoit, I don’t follow wrestling but I understand he was highly regarded. Apparently it was a double murder suicide, strangled his wife and 7yr old son over the weekend then killed himself  the following Monday. I can’t even guess at what was going through his head. Maybe steroids screwed up his brain, I haven’t a clue.

Regardless I understand the WWE had to cancel their live show. What I don’t understand is replacing it with a tribute show to him. Maybe that sounds harsh…. but is this really a guy you want to do a tribute to?
I mean the guy just killed his family, a little difficult to call him a wonderful family man and a great example of how one should live their life.
Is this really a good character example that we should be speaking of what a wonderful individual he was?

Whatever the apparently positive perception of him was in life… it wasn’t accurate.

Update:  July 17/07
So we now know Benoit was indeed on steroids at the time of his death, but apparently none of them were the type to induce ‘roid rage’.
Apparently he was also on anti-anxiety drugs and pain killers, neither of which is particularly surprising given his career.
His wife was also, for whatever that’s worth.
We have more evidence that he’d been injecting his son with steroids for several years prior to this incident.

Beyond that, not a whole lot new. His personal physician had been procuring the steroids for him, and said physician had also apparently been doing the same fo two other individuals whether those two were wrestlers or not is apparently unknown.

In short-not a whole lot new, or surprising mostly confirmation of what I imagine most had already assumed.

Luongo to Vancouver

Keenan is officially insane.
The Vancouver Canucks have dealt forward Todd Bertuzzi, goaltender Alex Auld and defenceman Bryan Allen to the Florida Panthers in exchange for Roberto Luongo, defenceman Lukis Krajicek and a sixth round pick.

How Keenan even considered this deal I haven't a clue. Absolutely horrible, this is beyond defensible.

I wouldn't want Bertuzzi if Vancouver offered him for nothing at all.
He's extremely talented but hasn't shown any of that talent in 3yrs now, even paired with Naslund (I still consider him a top 5 forward in the NHL) he's barely able to hit 70pts now, even in a season in which scoring jumped considerably.
He's a liability defensively his once vaunted physical game has compleyely disappeared last season. You can count on him to give a sterling example to the young Florida talent of how to get rich by never giving more then a 2% effort.
Not to mention the massive baggage that comes along with him, the media still hunts him daily over the Steve Moore hit, and that's bound to be a distraction to Florida as if Bertuzzi isn't enough of a lockeroom cancer.

On the off chance that Bertuzzi somehow proves to be a worthwhile acquistion they can count on having him for…. 1 season. How thrilling, Luongo for a soon to be UFA.

Ah yes, they also get Auld. A 1B goaltener, basically a below average starter. Adequate but definitely not a guy you want to rely upon if you expect to make any noise in the playoffs. Roughly comparable to Cloutier, but cheaper and younger.

Allen at least does hold value. A 25yr old 2nd pairing defensive D-man. No offensive abilities at all, and he appears to have peaked but still a nice guy to have.

What does Vancouver get?
Either the best or 2nd best goalie in the NHL (Depnding on how one feels about Brodeur), and elite netminder in his prime that can singlehandedly carry a team on his back.
He is unfortunately an UFA after this season and has made it clear he intends to sign with a contender, which Florida is not. Easy to see why Florida was dealing him…. luckily Vancouver should be a pretty good team with Luongo in goal, and I'd give pretty good odds he'll be willing to sign long term there.
A spectacular upgrade on Auld whose dragged them down for so long, they finally have the reliable goalie they've so long desired.

The 6th rounder means little, it's a small addition but very unlikely to ever amount to an NHL player.

Krajicek is a young 3rd pairing offensive D-Man with some upside. He hasn't developed as expected thus far, but he can prvide some offence from the blueline and while he isn't very good defensively he's not a disaster either. If he could bulk up a bit and improve his defensive game positionally he could be a pretty nice player but I haven't seen the development from him to lead me to believe he's likely to improve much.
Still, a decent enough young player with some upside.

As far as I see this massively improved Vancouver in the short term and very likely in the long term, meanwhilst Florida downgrades significantly in the short term with precious little here to get excited about long term. They should have been able to bring back MUCH more in trade.

Horrible, horrible deal.

WordPress-New Home of my blog

Congratulations, you've found my new blog. Don't you feel ever so proud?
No? Well… neither do I actually.
My old Blog at LiveJournal is located here, though it'll no longer be updated.

I've imported a few choice posts, roughly 97% of the blog is over there so if you want to read my past posts you know where to go.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

Alexander Ovechkin Collecting autographs

Interesting bit from an article….
After the Capitals’ loss Friday, Alex Ovechkin sought out Pavel Datsyuk, a fellow Russian and former teammate on Moscow Dynamo. After the two spoke for a few minutes, Ovechkin returned to the Capitals’ locker room with Datsyuk’s hockey stick, which the Detroit star autographed and wrote “Good Luck” on the blade.
Ovechkin said he planned to add it to his collection of hockey memorabilia, which includes 2,000 hockey cards and about a half-dozen sticks from Russian players he admires. He already has autographed sticks from the New York Islanders’ Alexei Yashin, the Atlanta Thrashers’ Ilya Kovalchuk, the New Jersey Devils’ Viktor Kozlov and the Buffalo Sabres’ Maxim Afinogenov, among others.
Asked why he only has sticks from Russians, Ovechkin smiled and said: “I don’t know. I like how we play."

A quick description of my brush with the hurricane that struck Mexico.

My plane took off just in time it seems, as my plane was the very last one to leave Mexico before Hurricane Emily struck.

Apparently all the flights after mine were cancelled b/c of the hurricane. My flights out was reasonably nondescript, a bit of turbulance at times but that was it.

Nice timing eh?
Even 15min later and I'd be one of the deluge of tourists stuck in Mexico for the next week or so. They've evacuated the entirety of the state of Quintana Roo.
I do wonder where I'd be right now had my plane been a bit later then it was, as the resort I was staying at was part of the area where the Hurricane hit.
I feel sorry for the people that stayed at the same resort as I.
They paid good money for a nice all inclusive resort…. and they end up being evacuated. Kinda kills ones vacation I'd imagine… and I doubt the resort is going to be in pristince condition again for a while yet.

So, by some fluke of luck I'm out of Mexico safe and sound just in time.

Anyone that cares to hear about my time in Mexico can email me, b/c I don't feel like typing about it right now.