I like to think of myself as being somewhat worldly, in that I can carry on educated conversations about a number of different topics. Sure, I'm likely most knowledgeable about sports, but I have a wide variety of interests.
This past weekend, the G20 was held in Toronto and as I watched news reports on Saturday night about the 'protesters' and the ensuing violence and looting, I can't help but be completely confused. First of all, I wonder if these protesters have any idea what they are advocating. Life in the free world doesn't get any better so what is it that these people are against? The news reports didn't help, all they showed were police cars burning, and the Starbucks and Scotia Bank getting windows smashed. Wow, that's really making a difference. What cowards. The leaders, themselves, are far removed from these protests and don't see any of it. So, who are these folks making a point to?
The leaders are not totally innocent either. In this day and age of technology, a meeting of this magnitude could probably be done via video conference from their respective offices. Or, it could be held on an army base where you wouldn't have to spend the money transforming an entire city into a fortress. Or, what about holding the meeting on a posh cruise ship in the middle of the ocean and have the boat circled by the Navy on water and the Air Force in the sky?
Something else I'm confused by: how is it that the Taliban, who are really nothing more than a bunch of bushwhackers can outsmart Canadian and American troops? It's been years and still we are unable to flush these guys out. Troops would almost have more success just going door to door, conducting interviews and making determinations from that point whether or not the individual is a Taliban or not. I guess it's a place you have to see to believe, but I can't help but have this mental picture of us having all the technology, all the heavy duty machinery, and yet still getting blown up on the side of a road in the middle of the desert from who knows what. I mean the Canadians and Americans have set up a modern day base complete with fast food outlets, while the Taliban are hiding behind sand dunes somewhere. And, still we can't wipe them out!Sports question of the day: you are running the Boston Bruins and have just drafted Tyler Seguin 2nd overall. You now turn around and put Marc Savard up for trade. You had a team that lost in seven games to the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round of the playoffs, so the club is a contender. The question, then, is this: How does drafting Seguin and dealing Savard make you a better team? In this day and age of salary caps, teams often lose focus. There are no guarantees that you will be good in five years, so take advantage of what you have now and see how far you can get. I like the Bruins if they have Savard, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, and Seguin up the middle. I don't like them as much with Savard not in the mix. Oh, but they'll be good in five years, I guess. You don't see teams like Detroit, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and San Jose wiping the slate clean every two years so that they can be good in five years. The plan should be to be as good as you can be every year. It can be done.
Further to last week's column about the Terriers and that they should make their tickets game specific. I think they could really get creative with their ticket packages so that you can minimize the griping. How about offering a Melville package, whereby you can have 5 tickets to each of the games against Melville? Or, how about a six game mini-pack, where you choose at the time of purchase what six games you will attend? You can also have a Bauer Conference package that allows you to go to games against teams from the north that we don't see on a regular basis. What about a pre-Christmas and a post-Christmas package? All game specific, of course. Again, I suggest the people to make the biggest noise against such changes are those that take advantage of 'free' seats in the final games of the season, and that cripples the franchise.
It's long overdue, but better late than never: nice person shout outs to Kirk and Sheri Weinmaster, Heidi Derbowka, Kelsey Jones, Jason Sheppard, and Dana Rathgeber.
