Pens trade defenseman Ryan Whitney to AnaheimThe Penguins have traded defenseman Ryan Whitney to the Anaheim Ducks for winger Chris Kunitz and [Eric] Tangradi.
Whitney, 26, left the Penguins Wednesday to attend to a family emergency. He was in the second year of a six-year contract that totaled $24 million — a $4 million per year cap hit.
Kunitz, 29, is a 6-foot left-handed shot who has scored 81 goals in parts of four NHL seasons with Anaheim and Atlanta. He has 16 goals and 35 points in 62 games this season. He is signed through 2011-12 at a cap hit of $3.725 million.
Tangradi is a 20-year-old forward born in Philadelphia. The 6-3 left-handed shot was the 42nd player taken in the 2007 draft. He has 38 goals, 87 points and 57 penalty minutes in 52 games with Belleville of the OHL.
This man is good at what he does. He dumped a soft, turnover-prone defenseman for a gritty top line forward and a decent prospect and actually freed up a bit of cap space in the process. I don't know if it will be enough to salvage this season, but the future is looking slightly better.
Listening to an Obama speech is kind of like being lectured to by a 9 year-old, so I didn't actually watch the "state of the nation" thing, but after reading the transcript, I have to ask a question:
Is it just me, or does The One have an unnerving tendency to state his belief in a given course of action, then follow that statement with a list of ways he's planning to do the exact opposite?
I mean, he starts off the speech by claiming that he doesn't believe in bigger government, then spends the rest of it explaining all the wonderful things government is going to do for us, along with historical examples of government's supposed successes.
Seriously, am I the only one who noticed this? It's like the Pope starting a speech by declaring that he doesn't believe in God.
A while back, someone asked for the definition of a "yinzer."
In case my explanation wasn't good enough, The Pensblog has provided a helpful example:
Notice that this moron is at a Penguins game. In Washington, D.C.
That, minions, is a yinzer.
I know I'm probably spending too much time on this issue, but shit like this pisses me off a lot and makes it impossible to have an honest dialogue on race.
You may have seen that the New York Post apologized for any unintended offense while maintaining that the point of the cartoon was that the stimulus bill is such a mess that it could've been written by a crazed chimp.
Although I hate it when people give any ground whatsoever in situations like this (see my HillTV commentary from 2005), I have to give the Post some credit for sticking to their guns instead of throwing themselves at the mercy of the race hustlers.
However, in reading the comments to the above story, I noticed that people are still completely missing the point:
This issue is not about Rev Sharpton, this issue has to do with the NY Post. This cartoon was so offensive on so many levels. It wasn’t just racist, but it sends a disturbing message to those that are trying to hurt people of color. I will never, never buy this newspaper again. I hope all companies that purchase ads with this rag pull their ads and make a statement the racism, no madder what your skin color is, is unacceptable
The problem isn’t that it’s just a monkey, its that:(1) its a dead monkey who was killed by two cops, and
(2) it just isn’t that great of a cartoon.
The cartoon was insensitive to the extreme, and both the Post and the cartoonist were too immature and self-righteous to admit to it. Not only was the use of the chimpanzee racially offensive, but the suggestion of violence towards government officials in response to the stimulus package is reprehensible.
This is just further evidence that the Right Wing and the Republican Party and their mouthpieces — Rush Limbaugh et al — are racist. Another reason why the ugly Americanism of the GOP and their followers is quickly vanishing into irrelevance. Good riddance.
That's it. I kind of reconsidered some of the stuff in my other post, thinking that people genuinely misinterpreted the cartoon. Alternately, I thought that maybe people had become so used to the "Bush = chimp" bullshit that their thought process wasn't "chimp = black person = Obama = RACISM!!!" but "chimp = president = Obama = black person = RACISM!!!"
However, if the Post can issue an apology and an explanation and still get this kind of reaction, then I can only conclude that people are deliberately misinterpreting the fucking thing.
Seriously, how hard is this, you fucking dolts? I'll admit that the cartoon isn't particularly funny, but the joke has been spelled out to you shitwits:
1. A chimp attacked its owner and was shot to death earlier this week
2. Around that same time, Congress wrote a horrible "stimulus" bill
3. Therefore, the cartoonist is implying that the chimp wrote said stimulus bill, which is why
4. The police officer says that they'll have to find someone else to write the next one
Again, it's not that good a joke, but the fact remains that the chimp in the cartoon isn't supposed to "represent" anything except the actual chimp that was actually shot and killed by police officers. Not Pelosi. Not Obama. Travis the motherfucking Chimp.
Getting back to my original point, I really do think that people are deliberately misinterpreting this cartoon in order to deflect criticism of the stimulus. It is fucking impossible for anyone with an IQ higher than 0 to read an accurate explanation of the joke and still attribute racism to the cartoonist, no matter how lame the joke is.
I invite all of you asshats to either admit that you're making an issue out of nothing or explain how an honest person can argue racist intent here.
Not interpretation, which makes just about anything possible (ask Larry the Liberal what he thinks of hockey, for example), but INTENT.
On another note, check out this gem in the City Room comments:
I do believe in sarcasm but racism?? Anyone that is attempting to fix the enormous challenge facing the economy should be commended not ridiculed; or perhaps the Post wants to take a stab at coming up with more rigorous stimulus plan..
Oh, look, it's our old friend Good Intentions.
Do I need to refer back to my "putting out a fire with gasoline" analogy to explain why it's the height of idiocy to commend someone for simply making an effort?
By the way, just to make this point once more:
IF YOU SEE A CHIMP, AND THE FIRST THING THAT COMES TO MIND IS A BLACK PERSON, THEN YOU ARE A RACIST.
I hate stupid people so, so, so fucking much. Just die.
UPDATE
I'm not sure why I'm still expending energy on this, but willful ignorance just makes me want to hurt people.
Let me restate my point one final time, along with another invitation to prove me wrong...
Anyone who reads the explanation offered by the New York Post and still says that the cartoon was intended to be racist is either:
A. Hopelessly, tragically stupid
or
B. Lying
That's it. End of fucking story.
By the way, a few comments here and there would be awesome. This blog hasn't had any decent discussion for a long, long time, and frankly, I'm more motivated to write when I know that there's a chance someone else will add their own thoughts. Ranting in an echo chamber is for liberals.
Dear unfathomably retarded race-baiting perpetual victims,
If you would spend a little more time learning about how government actually works and a little less time looking for racism around every corner, perhaps you'd realize that Obama didn't write the motherfucking stimulus bill, so there's absolutely no reason to believe that this cartoon was in any way related to him.
You stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid fucks.
By the way, as others have pointed out, if you see a cartoon depicting a chimp and immediately think, "hey, that reminds me of a black person," or vice versa, then you have the damn problem, not the person who drew the fucking cartoon. Some of us have evolved (HAHAHA SEE WHAT I DID THERE?!) to the point where we're able to see people as people and evaluate blatantly non-racial statements on their merits rather than running our reactions through an arbitrary filter such as the amount of melanin in the current president's skin.
Kill yourselves. Seriously. You have no fucking reason to live, and the world would be a much better place without your manufactured outrage polluting the public discourse.
In closing, fuck you. Especially Al Sharpton.
Sincerely,
- CD
UPDATE
After reading some more reactions, allow me to restate my previous point:
IF YOU SEE A CARTOON OF A CHIMP AND IMMEDIATELY ASSOCIATE IT WITH A BLACK PERSON, THEN YOU ARE THE FUCKING RACIST, NOT THE CARTOONIST.
I fucking swear, it's like some people are actually making a conscious effort to remain stupid.
Crimestop, anyone?
UPDATE THE SECOND
To restate another point in a way that you dipshits may not miss:
OBAMA DID NOT WRITE THE STIMULUS BILL
OBAMA DID NOT WRITE THE STIMULUS BILL
OBAMA DID NOT WRITE THE STIMULUS BILL
OBAMA DID NOT WRITE THE STIMULUS BILL
OBAMA DID NOT WRITE THE STIMULUS BILL
OBAMA DID NOT WRITE THE STIMULUS BILL
OBAMA DID NOT WRITE THE STIMULUS BILL
OBAMA DID NOT WRITE THE STIMULUS BILL
OBAMA DID NOT WRITE THE STIMULUS BILL
If the cartoon was about Obama, the cop would say "They'll have to find someone else to sign the next stimulus bill," you ignorant bastards.
I'm not sure why I'm surprised that people who may not know who controls Congress are unaware of how Congress operates, but still...
Fuck. Just kill yourselves.
I know that most of you ignore my music posts, but this one is pretty quick and is related to the political stuff I've been writing lately, so you may be interested.
Anyway, as one of the few right-leaning musicians in the alternative metal genre, I feel it's my duty to inject some ideological diversity into the mix, as I did with the Suspended Agitation stuff, etc.
To this end, I've begun writing what will most likely be the first of many songs protesting the Obama presidency. It's called "Keep the Change," and it's going to focus mainly on his socialist leanings and his creepy cult of personality. It's still in the early stages, but I had a fun idea for the intro that I had to test immediately before I forgot it.
Basically, I took a bunch of voice samples pertaining to The One and his rise to the presidency and mixed them together with some effected drums and synth effects in GarageBand (it's admittedly a tribute to Dream Theater's "The Great Debate"), then added some MIDI riffs and drums that I wrote in TuxGuitar.
This is where you come in. I'm posting an MP3 of what I have so far, and I'd appreciate a bit of feedback on how effective it is, how much you can understand the sound bytes, etc.
In addition, there's a bit of a musical "Easter egg" between the samples and the couple of original riffs I've written, but you'll have to listen to find out what it is! Feedback on that would be great as well, if you recognize it. I think it's both funny and appropriate.
Once again, if you have two minutes, check this out. I'm still trying to perfect it, and I want to make sure that it doesn't come across as being somehow pro-Obama:
Click here to download KTC (sample).mp3
So, does it work? Did you laugh at the musical allusion? Let me know what you think. Also, as soon as I have lyrics written, I'll post them as well.
Finally, if you just plain don't care about my music, feel free to comment on that fact so I stop wasting my time writing these posts. I realize that people do read SIT, after all, and I want to accomodate my audience at least a little.
Dan Bylsma Named Interim Head Coach of Pittsburgh PenguinsDan Bylsma has been named interim head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, replacing Michel Therrien, it was announced tonight by Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero.
Bylsma, 38, has been serving as head coach of the team’s American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He will coach his first game with the Penguins Monday at 2 p.m. against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum.
Therrien was relieved of his duties this evening, and assistant coach Andre Savard was reassigned within the organization.
Either Therrien changed something he was doing, or the players were tuning him out. Whatever the case may be, the team wasn't playing well under him anymore, and Bylsma has been a beast in Wilkes-Barre. I'm just wondering why Mike "power plays consist of making pretty passes for two minutes" Yeo is still around.
The next couple weeks will be interesting...
So...
I finally, finally, finally got a new computer. Hooray.
You want specifics? No? Too bad!
My new friend is an Intel iMac 20" with a 2.66 GHz processor, 2 GB of memory, and a 500 GB hard drive. This thing is fucking fast.
For your enjoyment/envy, here are some pictures:
Of course, you may have also noticed my PowerBook in those pictures. For all the complaining I've done, I have to give it credit for staying alive long enough for me to transfer all my important files. It's gone from this (2006):
To this (2009):
In those three years, all of the following suffered severe damage and/or stopped functioning completely:
- The keyboard
- The rear left fan
- The CD/DVD drive
- Both USB ports
- The headphone jack
- The internal speakers
- Two power adapters
- The battery
In addition, it fell off my desk about a dozen times (which caused a lot of the aforementioned damage and made the duct tape necessary), I spilled a cup of water on it while it was plugged in, and I struck it in anger with my fists/elbows quite a few times when it shut itself off or acted weird. Despite all that, it still kind of works. It's like the Grigori Rasputin of computers or something.
In any case, it can finally retire, and I can go about the business of finding employment without having to deal with all the frustration it was causing. Should be fun.
I'll admit that I don't know a whole lot about economics, but I've become quite good at recognizing when people are trying to feed me a load of bullshit, and the abomination of a "stimulus" package going through Congress right now is setting off some alarms.
The main justification coming from The One and His disciples seems to be that the government needs to "do something," and it doesn't particularly matter what that something is.
Wow, what brilliance. I can see why educated people identify with this guy. Really.
These braindead children, who have the nerve to call themselves the "reality-based community" and bloviate about their respect for "science," are relying on a principle that makes absolutely no sense in any context.
Think about it. If your house is on fire, you probably need to "do something" in order to prevent further damage. However, that doesn't mean you should start running around with a can of gasoline and dousing everything in sight. In this case, doing nothing would've actually been better.
The tards are in charge, ladies and gentlemen.
Incidentally, if it seems like my writing has become even more profane and insulting than usual, get used to it. I just can't get over the fact that such an anti-intellectual philosophy has become the mainstream in American politics. Doesn't anyone fucking think anymore?
I should have my new computer by the end of the week, which means I'll finally be able to look for a fucking job without having to worry about all my research and contact info getting fried.
I have to wonder why The Obamessiah didn't ride His magical unicorn to New Jersey and deliver a replacement Himself, though. Weren't all the bad things supposed to go away after He ascended?
Well, it finally happened. My PowerBook successfully took its own life. Fortunately, I was already in the process of getting a replacement, and most of the important stuff is backed up. In any case, I'm back to being computerless. Fuck.
UPDATE
I used my mysterious voodoo powers to somehow bring the computer back from the dead, but now the one USB port that still worked is only semi-functional, and the whole thing is liable to shut itself off without warning at any moment. Fun stuff.
Blogging should pick up again once I have a computer that isn't trying to kill itself.
For now, considering the fact that the Penguins are playing the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight, I thought I'd mention that I went to the same high school as Columbus forward R.J. Umberger (although not at the same time).
Hopefully, his annoying ability to score goals on the Pens seemingly at will has diminished now that he isn't playing for the Flyers. Every advantage is important as long as Michel "reconfiguring the lines and giving French guys more ice time is the solution to everything" Therrien is still behind the bench.
Also, check out the description of PHS from that link:
Plum offers an award winning music department headed by band director, John Gula. The high school also offers another award winning program with their television production program headed by Rick Berrott.
Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while can go ahead and ponder what this says about the effect of one's education on one's future.
That's it. That. Is. It. Fuck this shit, I'm getting a new computer. I was going to wait until I had a job so I could pay for it all myself, but this fucking thing isn't going to last that long, and it's rather difficult to even look for a job when your computer overheats and shuts itself off approximately a dozen times a day.
Fuck it. I should've done this months ago. I'll make the money back with the extra years of my life that I'll have after I don't have to deal with the stress this bastard is causing.
Also, I'm extending a big "fuck you" to Amazon.com. When I request expedited shipping and still don't have my replacement battery a week later, something is wrong. Assholes.