The (Cute) Face Of Terror

Big uproar in the social media (and media in general) regarding Rolling Stone's front page, showing Boston bombings suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev...

Critics are saying they make him look glamourous, like a ''rock star'', comparing it to their covers featuring The Doors' Jim Morrison:

Sure, if dying in your bath is what passes for glamour.

Funny how no one batted an eye when the New York Times featured the exact same fucking picture on their front page:

I know the concept of ''innocent until proven guilty'' has taken a beating of late, and how there are innocents on death row and George Zimmerman walks free...

But to call for a boycott of one of the most important publications of the 20th Century because they dared show that appearances can be deceiving, that a popular kid who is a good student can veer from the straight path, that not all terrorists are disgruntled old men with long beards - is completely missing the point.

Shit can happen, and can spiral out of anyone's control. Not all troubled teens turn downright ''evil'', not every honor student becomes a killer, but the ''perfect storm'' of circumstances can bring a home-grown threat to life just as much as blindly waging useless wars abroad, or blindly supporting countries that get on other countries' nerves on purpose.

I say ''kudos, Rolling Stone''. Instead of putting Maroon 5 or Bruno Mars on your cover for a vapid, 3-page piece on how hard it is to do your own shopping when you're a superstar, you strapped your balls on and went ahead with the main article of the summer.

Then again, you also put Charles Manson on your cover once...

Shout Out To Boston

I'm sure you heard.

But what I choose to remember from this, after the pain, the sadness, the sorrow, the anger, the guilt, the lack of understanding... is the people who made this shit day better: the runners who ran an extra two miles to the nearest (!!) hospital to donate blood, folks who ran towards the blast to help victims, and an incredible focus to get to the essence of the emergency.

Good, tough people.

For now, I don't care who did this - Life will get them back. I care about the heroes who stopped this tragedy from being 10 times worse.

One last thing, for Republicans/Conservatives: would more guns have stopped this? Would lower taxes have prevented this? Where was God? How can we blame gays, or ''illegal'' immigrants, or minorities in general? Can a war be started over this?

The Tim Thomas Incident

You've probably heard by now about Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas, who refused to participate in his team's visit to the White House ''for political reasons'', defending his ideas/ideals which seem pretty damn close to Tea Party ideas.

Hockey is a sport built on tradition, and Thomas is as much an athlete as he is a student of the game; he respects the tradition that stipulates opponents trade handshakes after a playoff series. Tradition also calls for an American team winning the Stanley Cup to be invited to the White House - and to accept the invitation.

His only explanation came via Twitter Facebook, of all fucking places:

I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People. This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government. Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House.

This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL.

This is the only public statement I will be making on this topic. TT

Jesus Christ. I hope he's not afraid of heights, because his fucking pedestal is as high as they come.

Michael Grange from Sportsnet had this to say:

To me the real problem is that Thomas couldn't rise above his beliefs and not only support his team but support the tradition of public discourse and debate which is the only logical way out of whatever issues are ailing the United States and how many other democracies these days.

There's no objection to his views here, but there is an objection to the notion that you can't show respect to the individual democratically elected to serve your fellow citizens, even if it's to vigourously agree to disagree.

The Bruins shook hands with the Canucks, after all.

Sure they scrapped like brothers the next time they met. All the old wounds remained raw.
But they honoured the spirit of the game. Tim Thomas should have too.

Even Barack Obama spoke - highly! - of Thomas, as can be attested in this article from ESPN's Joe McDonald:

During his speech, President Obama spoke glowingly about Thomas and his performance during the Stanley Cup playoffs.

"This Stanley Cup was won by defense as much as by offense," Obama said. "Tim Thomas posted two shutouts in the Stanley Cup finals and set an all-time record for saves in the postseason, and he also earned the honor being only the second American ever to be recognized as the Stanley Cup playoffs MVP."

Thomas' absence was uncalled for. The president has more important things to worry about with Tuesday's State of the Union address.

But it's going to be interesting to see what this does to the State of the Bruins.

Team spirit can, indeed, take a monstruous fall. But Thomas is a hero in Boston; they're calling him possibly the team's best ever. He's a God in the city, and a heck of a warrior for his team. I, for one, think if one person could survive such an un-team-like act, it would be him, the team's most unselfish character.

Thomas' harshest critic, however, is from The Boston Globe's Kevin Paul Dupont:

Shabby. Immature. Unprofessional. Self-centered. Bush league. Need I go on? All that and more applies to what Thomas did, on a day when Cup teammates Mark Recchi (now retired), Shane Hnidy (a radio guy these days in Winnipeg), and Tomas Kaberle (a member of some Original Six team in Canada), all gladly joined the red-white-blue-black-and-gold hugfest at the White House.

Thomas needed to be there in solidarity, and celebration, with his team. It was the same government yesterday, and will be today, that protected his country, his security, his family, and his right to make $5 million a year, all last season. In his absence, he stole his teammates’ spotlight. Win as a team. Lose as a team. And when asked to stand up and take a bow, then stand up there and suffer if need be, even if you don’t like the setting, the host, or any of the political trappings and tenets that come with it.

And he went on to add even stronger words:

If Thomas is feeling the way he is today, it could not have happened overnight. He must have felt much the same just shy of 24 months ago when he sounded so proud to wear that Team USA sweater at the 2010 Olympics, and so proudly dipped his head to accept that silver medal. Or was he doing all of that under governmental duress, the pain of knowing our leaders were acting, as he wrote yesterday, “in direct opposition of the Constitution and the Founding Fathers’ vision of the Federal government.’’

Someone so disgusted with our government ought to turn in the sweater and the medal. It must be a horrible burden, if not a pox, to have them in his house.

That's the stuff!

What Stanley Cup?

I'm not ready to acknowledge the Stanley Cup victory of the Boston Bruins yet.

Sure, they're the Habs' rivals I respect most, the real deal, but this year's crop of Bs just had too many detestable, despicable, dirty assholes for me to bear, starting with Greg Campbell and continuing with Andrew Ferrence, Zdeno Chara, Shawn Thornton and Brad Marchand. And Mark Recchi, a former Hab who asked to be traded away; and Michael Ryder, the traitor who left the Habs after not caring about the team so much he was throwing paper planes into the crowd when he was scratched; and Tomas Kaberle, a former Leaf.

But there's the flipside: Tim Thomas, Patrice Bergeron, Milan Lucic, Rich Peverley: tough, talented competitors, worthy adversaries, deserving champions.

And there you have it: more bad than good. Which is why I'm pretending last night didn't happen for at least a few more days.

Violence In Hockey, Chapter 176

A month ago, I wrote a post on violence in hockey. Since then, there was the Max Pacioretty incident, where Boston Bruins defender Zdeno Chara got suspended for a grand total of zero games for attempting to sever the head off the young Habs forward using a pole.

Some of my favourite reactions come from people such as Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau, who said:

You don't like it, don't come to the games.

Which would make sense in a normal, capitalistic society. But the NHL is not that. At all. As a matter of fact, if for just one game, out of protest, the Bell Centre would only be half-full, the victims wouldn't be the Montréal Canadiens, one of the league's richest franchises; no, it'd be more likely to be Boudreau's Caps, who get about a third of the money they put on their payroll from Canadian NHL treams through revenue sharing, because the 6 Canadian teams make double what the rest of the league makes in revenue - despite two of the top-5 moneymakers being American - the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings, of course.

So... biting the hand that feeds, Brucie?

Fuck Authority! Wait, I'm The Authority!

File this under whatever you like:

1. Things that happen only in Boston
2. Metallica brings out the rebel in anyone
3. Another cop being a shitty human being
4. Cops go lightly on criminal cop - again

Either way, this story has its moments.

An off-duty police officer at a Metallica concert thought it would be a good idea to get R. Kelly on another fan's head and provide him with a golden shower. Yes, he peed on him.

Presumably, the piss recipient was not pleased, as the policeman was arrested for his actions. During the arrest, Joseph Houston, the cop, tried to use the “But I’m a cop!” routine, and it didn't quite work.

Now, if it had been me urinating on someone else, I'd be accused of disorderly conduct, assault, exhibitionism, public nudity, and maybe even resisting arrest. What Houston got was an accusation of ''trespassing'' (seriously, what the fuck?) and PAID LEAVE while the story blows over. Makes sense, yeah.

I've said it time and time again, and I'll keep repeating it until it gets in their stupid heads and they react accordingly: I come from a family of cops and military men. Stand Up Guys who did the Right Thing because it was the only thing to do, because if you can't trust the Uniformed Men to uphold the law with higher moral standards than anyone else, the institution they represent loses its credibility.

When something like this happens, the cops shouldn't protect the asshole, they should get him into court and try him as they would anyone else; and when the sentence comes, it should be double what anyone else would receive - one time for the crime, one time for betraying the institution and the public they should be serving.

This would achieve two goals at once: 1. it would keep the weak-hearted and criminally-bent from even thinking of applying for a Service job, and 2. it would help restore the public's faith in an institution that has seemed to be more vile and wrong than even the mob for the past 40 years, with each passing day bringing a new news story of abuse of power, corruption, criminal activity and/or bad decision-making.

You wear the suit, you are responsible for living accordingly - with respect for your fellow citizens, The Law, and the society you're living in. If not, we're no better than banana republic police states - and that would mean that, once in a while, a good riot would be in order, with deaths on all sides and maybe even some politicians' heads getting chopped off.

And we don't really want that, now, do we?