Things I don't get

I know, I know, "what a wide open category," you're saying. but see if you can explain these to me.





--- I don't get Muslims, period. I mean, look at it from the outside just once. These people are expected to give complete obeisance to a god whose main desire is for his servants to kill everyone who doesn't believe. I know some of you will say, "look at Christianity", but again I say, whose intent is being served? When the Church in its misguided zeal launched things like the crusades and the inquisition, were they obeying a command from God? Jesus said, "I give you a new command- to love one another," and "blessed are the peacemakers". Those who murder in the name of Islam can show the rewards they are promised for doing so- nothing misguided there. It is a religion of hate, for other faiths and for each other as they battle over who really follows the real successor to Mohammed, which was so important to the prophet that it slipped his mind, and Allah's apparently, to name one. They are much like the IRA used to be- killing as a profession and reasons behind the killing secondary. They hate infidels, they hate each other, they hate their women- mere property that are "so precious" that they must be hidden behind a closet full of coverings. "No, I don't mind that I don't get to look at her. We've been married since we were six and have had sex whenever I demand it since she was 9 or 10." And they resent us because we aren't enlightened enough to induct Shiera law into our courts. In the midst of this rant is what I don't get- how can you allow yourself to be/expect others to be so slavishly loyal to such a deranged god that his main command to you is "Hate!"





---- I don't get idiots like the one we heard about on the way home tonight, who kills his ex-girlfriend and sets their baby daughter on fire alive. You're upset, okay. We all get upset. You feel the woman has screwed you over, I suppose, and maybe she has. Even if, in the longest stretch of your imagination, she deserved it, WHAT DID THE CHILD DO TO YOU? Why do we constantly have these murder suicides that involve killing innocent children? One of the many reasons that God will never see fit to make me king of the world is that this chump would, upon arrest, would be taken to the nearest tree grinder and ran through it. No trial, no lawyer, no excuses.





---- A Cleveland father took his 8-yr-old son to the game with the Jets. They were Jets fans. (No, this isn't about their poor choice of teams; it's a free world there.) A drunken Cleveland Browns "fan" decided that this wasn't proper and TACKLED the eight year old- knocking him down and leaving him crying while he escaped. It reminded me of the day several years ago when Sam Wyche was coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. One snowy day in Cincy, the fans began to try to hit the officials with snow and ice balls after a badly blown call. Wyche got on the PA, chewing the so-called fans out for doing this, adding those fateful words, "You don't live in CLEVELAND!" Sam had to apologize for that later in the week. My question, then and now, is why? Fans in Cleveland and her sister city of Philadelphia constantly pull this kind of crap. One CBSSports columnist suggested that perhaps with fans like these, Cleveland deserves to never get a championship. All these years I've considered Art Modell an a-hole for moving the original Browns to Baltimore. Today, at least, I see his point.





--- In a NYC suburb, a couple of enterprising boys were running a cupcake stand. Their dream was to one day save enough dough to open their own restaurant. Then a police officer came along and said SOMEBODY had turned them in for not having a permit, and he would have to shut them down. Here's more:





The newspaper got on the case, filed a Freedom of Information Act request, and learned the tipster was Michael Wolfensohn, a Democratic councilman.
Wolfensohn told the newspaper: "All vendors selling on town property have to have a licence, whether it's boys selling baked goods or a hot dog vendor."
Asked whether he could have told the boys to obtain a licence instead of going to the police, Wolfensohn said: "In hindsight, maybe I should have done that." He added: "The police are trained to deal with these sorts of issues."
Getting a permit requires a $1 million certificate insurance, plus a $150 to $350 fee per two hours.





Obviously Democrats, fearful of the looming extension of the Bush tax cuts, are getting withdrawl shakes and are desperately looking for other income sources. I wonder how much of the per-hour fee was supposed to end up in Wolfensohn's pocket. The sad thing is this is about the fourth time a story like this has surfaced just this year. Isn't it about time that Federal, state, and local governments look themselves in the mirror and say, "this kind of law enforcement is NOT HONORABLE."? Or, to paraphrase Pink Floyd: "HEY, LEECHES, LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE!!!"





Okay, done ranting now. If you haven't been mentioned so far in this post, have a nice evening. If you have been spotlighted...

Comments on the Declan Sullivan death

I was just doing a little digging into the "accident" that cost the young man at Notre Dame his life. I thought to myself, surely there is some kind of safety guideline on such a machine, and certainly some guidelines for use by the university.

What I learned was this. At Illinois, IU, Nebraska, and Kentucky, such lifts are grounded in winds over 25 mph. At Penn State and Michigan, 28 mph. Texas Tech will allow you up 20 feet up to 40 mph, but no higher over 25 mph. North Carolina State grounds them when the wind is 50% of the machine's rating. South Florida is getting rid of them altogether, installing practice field permanent towers that can handle any reasonable wind.

The facts? In winds gusting anywhere from 31 to 51 mph, Declan Sullivan was 40 feet up. The machines rating was 28 mph.

(Notre Dame coach Brian ) Kelly said Saturday it was his decision to hold practice outdoors on a windy day when a student videographer died after the lift he was in fell over. "You have to be able to look at the weather conditions and find out whether you believe it's going to be a productive day, first. We believed it to be productive, it was productive, obviously up until the tragedy,"Kelly said, speaking to reporters after Notre Dame's 28-27 upset loss to Tulsa. "Practice must be safe," he added.

Notre Dame had systems in place for dealing with safety issues at practice but those systems failed and are being evaluated, Kelly said.

Really? What system was in place that allows a boy 40 feet up in wind gusts up to twice the machine's ratings?

Kelly said he didn't have answers as to why someone didn't tell Sullivan to get off the tower, or who was responsible for monitoring the changing conditions. "Those are all the things that we're examining right now. We could probably come up with a number of different things that we're all wondering. Those are the questions that are being asked exactly as you've asked them," he said. He also was asked if there is a maximum wind speed prescribed for using the scissor lifts. "Again, if I had the knowledge specifically of wind speed and heights of lifts, all of those, I certainly would provide those to you. I just don't have that information," he said.

Let's see, Brian. The machine's ratings I'm guessing are prominently posted on the machine, easy to read if the damn thing isn't tipped over. Why didn't you order him off the tower, Brian, you ordered the practice and were presumably in charge.

Declan's parents, Alison and Barry Sullivan, released a statement through Notre Dame saying they were grateful "for the consideration shown to us by the Notre Dame administration and everyone associated with the university" in the wake of their son's death.

I should say that administration should be kissing their asses at this point. They have the lawsuit of all time right in their laps.

Frankly, if sports wasn't the high dollar abortion that it is, the only question would be the possible recruiting violations Kelley would be getting if he was working while spending 1 to 3 for aggravated involuntary manslaughter in prison.

Sometimes it happens to my teams, sometimes it don't

First of all, the don't:



KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- The Atlanta Braves have suspended a minor league pitcher who was charged with two prostitution-related misdemeanors after a sting conducted not far from the team's spring training facility.
Right-hander Deunte Heath bonded out of jail Friday. Kissimmee police spokeswoman Stacie Miller says the 24-year-old ballplayer was arrested Thursday night when he allegedly responded to Internet prostitution ads and agreed to pay $75 for a sex act.
The Braves say Heath has been suspended indefinitely and sent home to Decatur, Ga., while the club gathers details of his arrest. The team says it will have no further comment.
Heath, 24, pitched in 32 games last season with Triple-A Gwinnett and Double-A Mississippi. He went 2-6 with a 5.20 ERA.

Now, having spent some time near Kissimmee, I realize that it sits near enough to Orlando to be a service center for all the Disneyworld sin spillover. Apparently the Bravos are a bit lax on the "stay away from" lectures that should be an annual spring discussion by now. Either that, or one must wonder about a "prospect" who fails to be attentive to coaches and staff despite the fact that he's not exactly torn it up in his career . Anyone want to lay odds on Decatur, Ga., getting a call back from the Braves?

Now, my team:

ATLANTA -- A police report shows Miami Dolphins running back Ronnie Brown had a blood alcohol level that was nearly twice the legal limit when he was arrested on a DUI charge in suburban Atlanta over the weekend.
The report, obtained by the Associated Press through an open records request, says Brown failed a field sobriety test and had a blood alcohol level of .158 when given a breath test. The limit to legally drive in Georgia is 0.08.
The report says a Marietta police officer pulled Brown over at 4:29 a.m. Saturday after seeing the 28-year-old driving fast and drifting into other lanes.
Brown did not immediately return a message seeking comment Thursday on his home phone. A man who answered the phone at Brown's mother's house said Brown and his mother were in Maryland.

Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie...

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Now, on to the strange case of the S91 cushion. This appeared on a Country Casual (or 'casualty', as I call them) order a few days back. Nobody but nobody knew what it was, though we had a pair of recent special orders with similar nomenclatures and we assumed it was a special order that we were still awaiting an e-mail from corporate about. Two days later, our new engineer Jeff comes out with a cut sheet (which shows us what we need to make). I stopped him and said (after looking at the thing) that since it was topped with a 35 1/2" radius, I needed him to print me a pattern on his blueprint printer. He came back out a bit later and said that it was the same as a H54 pattern, which we already had. Move forward to the next morning (yesterday) when I tried to make the fool thing. Order called for it to be made of L217 fabric, which is basically a dirty sky blue with hints of green. As I began to lay out the fabric, I noticed the cut sheet said that the fabric that wraps around the welt cord around the edges was to be "contrasting", i.e. a different yet complementary color. Checking our C.C. cheat sheet, we had no standard complementary color for L217, so I went to our super, Rhonda, to see if this was correct. About five minutes later, our lead, Victor, told me that the system (which now the S91 was a part of apparently) claimed the "complementary color" was L330, which made everyone recoil in horror, as this is well named as "nutmeg brick". Rhonda contacted our plant manager Lisa, who looked at the situation, took a picture of the 2 fabrics to e-mail corporate with the statement, "Oh, really?" (Her words, not mine.) Move ahead about 3 hours to Rhonda coming out and saying, "That's what the customer wants, go ahead."
Now, I've seen many odd combos and much lack of taste at Arden over the years. I can't even truthfully say for sure its the worst thing I've ever saw- but it's got to be way up there. But the story isn't done yet. I made everything exactly according to the cut sheet I was given. Minutes later, Wanda showed me that, for some reason, the sewn bands I cut for the zipper didn't match the size (width -wise) of the main band. We called over Monica, our expert on things like this. She took one look at the cut sheet and said that the zipper bands should have been 2" wide rather than the 1 3/4" the sheet called for. While she marched into the engineering office to chew buttocks, I decided to examine the situation. The pattern for the H54 was made about 3 years ago by myself, and I was putting all the band sizes and such right on the cardboard. Looking at the pattern, it said 1 3/4- but it was crossed out. Sure enough, look at the H54 cut sheet and the 1 3/4 had been crossed out and replaced with a 2", and at this point I remembered going through all this way back then. At that time, the engineering department was supposed to change the band size in the system and print us new cut sheets. Neither of those things happened, because the engineering department is "just so busy" and must have forgotten. Enter poor Jeff, who gets told by his bumbling boss Bob (who claims he didn't get his degree at Purdue but I don't believe him) that an S91 is an H54 and so he prints out a cut sheet with only the name changed- and thus still containing the too-narrow zipper bands. In comes Monica with her mad on and with Bob comfortably wasting time in yet another conference call, here stands poor Jeff, who has no idea not only that the cut sheet was wrong, but no idea of the dynamics of how a zipper band gets folded over to be sewn, etc., etc., and thus does'nt know how to tell when a zipper band doesn't match the main band. Believe me, he knows now.
Wrapping up, the fool things finally got sewn and look just as ugly as we imagined. We closed the situation speculating that the cushions were either a mother's day or wedding anniversary gift for a mother or wife who is a close likeness to Nancy Pelosi.

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And today's playoff games: Salavat Yulaev beats Neftekhimik 2-1 on a Mika Hamula goal 9:19 into OT. This after Neftekhimik goalie Ivan Kasutin had already stopped 48 of 49 shots. This series has now seen two 2-1 OT games and two 1-0 games, and the difference is that 6-2 Salavat win in game one. Salavat will have a chance to take the series Sunday. Also, Ak Bars went on a 3 goals in 11 1/2 minutes tear in the second period, and held on, against a withering (this is sarcasm) 17 shot attack to down Metallurg 3-1 and take a 3-2 lead into Sunday's games. Tommorow, Lokomotiv gets its first shot at eliminating Spartak and movng on to face MVD.

KHL playoffs begin

The second season of the Russian Kontinental Hockey League is over, and the playoff matchups are now decided.

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First we have SKA St. Petersburg vs Dinamo Riga. SKA ("sports klub of the army") Finished 40-16 for 122 points. Their big name (i.e. Name that NHL fans know) is Alexy Yashin, and Canadian goalie Robert Esche led the league with 29 wins. Riga is basically the Latvian olympic team plus Czech forward Marcel Hossa, brother of Chicago Blackhawk Marian Hossa, and the league's goal leader with 35. The 8th seed in the east, they went 27-31 for 84 pts this year.







The second set features HC MVD Balashikha and CSKA, the former Red Army team. Both of these are basically Moscow teams in a league top heavy with Moscow area clubs. MVD was 31-25 for 102 pts, and CSKA, who finished 30-26, boasts one of six Americans in the KHL. His name is Nikos Dimitrakos and he scored 12 goals this year. CSKA are the Yankees of the KHL, having won 32 championships in the various Russian premier leagues, the last in 1989.






Third set features Atlant Mystischi and my favorites, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. Atlant, the "Atlases", are yet another Moscow suburb team and boast league scoring leader Sergei Mozyakin who tallied 66 points. They had a 37-19 mark for 101 pts this season. Lokomotiv, last year's playoff runners-up, claim Slovak olympian Richard Zednik as their big name and former Carolina Hurricane Josef Vasicek as their big gun. Lokomotiv have won 3 Russian titles and went 31-26 this year for 96 pts.

The last of the east matchups is an old Moscow rivalry, Dynamo vs Spartak. Dynamo, a 9-time champion, went 33-23 this year for 101 pts and include Alexi Seminov and Finn Jiri Hudler. Spartak, who played the Komets and beat them 7-4 many years ago, are 4-time champs and went 32-24 for 92 pts.

The west kicks off with top seed Salavat Yulaev from the city of Ufa against Avtomobilist Ekaterinburg. Salavat won a second straight regular season title (they lost in the first round to Avangard Omsk) with 44-12 for 129, and have one one Russian championship. Viktor Kozlov, late of the Red Wings, is their most recognizable name. Avtomobilist replaced Khimik in the league this year and made it in on the season's last day, going a dismal but not suprising 22-34 for 64 pts.

Next up is Metallurg Magnitogorsk, a 3-time champ, vs Traktor Chelyabinsk. Magnitogorsk is lead by Detroit Hall of famer Sergei Federov and their goalie Vasily Koshechkin had a league-leading 8 shutouts. They came in at 40-16 for 115, third-best in the league behind SKA and Salavat Yulaev; Traktor limped home with a 21-35, tying Ekaterinburg with 64 pts.

The next matchup is two teams of snow leopards. AkBars of Kazan are last year's Gagarin cup champions, one of three Russian titles. They posted a 33-23 mark for 96 pts. Barys of Astana are one of the 3 non-Russian teams in the league(Dinamo Riga, Latvia and Dinamo Minsk, Belarus, are the others) are based in the capital of Kazakhstan. They struggled to a 26-30 mark this year, 79 pts, led by Josef Stumpel.

Finally KC's team, the Neftekhimik ("petrochemists") of Nizhnekamsk face the

team led by Jaromir Jagr, Avangard Omsk. Neftekhimik boasts the second of 2 Americans in the playoffs, defenseman Deron Quint. They went 31-25 for 93 pts this season. Avangard, in addition to Jagr, are known for being one of the teams in the brawl in Chekov where the two had three bench-clearing melees and over 700 minutes in penalties before 4 minutes were gone in the game. (Both teams were given 5-0 forfeit losses and several million rubles in fines as too many players were ejected to continue play.) They broke even at 28-28 for 90 pts.

Playoffs start this week.