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10:31 PM
nintendo
We won't do any research into whether liberation therapy is an effective treatment for multiple sclerosis, unless we already know that liberation therapy is an effective treatment for multiple sclerosis.
9:20 PM
nintendo
The announcement was made today, and I am still in shock over it. Long-time NHL defenceman Chris Chelios - he of 48 years young - has decided to hang up his skates for retirement. While most hockey players call it a career between the ages of 38 and 42, Chelios defied the odds and continued to play at a high level well past 45. However, it appears that Gordie Howe's record will continue to stand as the eldest statesman in the NHLPA has decided to call it quits before his first pension cheque arrives.
6:04 PM
nintendo
An eight year-old child was caught in a market in Iran stealing bread.
9:56 AM
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The obverse design of the coin is based on Christian Gobrecht's Liberty Head Quarter Eagle, minted from 1840 to 1907. Inscriptions have been added indicating "15th Presidency", the years of the term "1857 1861", the motto "In God We Trust", and the date of issue "2010".
These previous issues each had maximum authorized mintages of 40,000 coins across both proof and uncirculated versions. Only the first managed to reach the maximum, while the others had combined sales less than the maximum established for the upcoming Buchanan's Liberty coin. The last reported sales figures for the first three issues of the Liberty subset are shown below.| Unc | Proof | Total | |
| Jefferson's Liberty | 20,000 | 20,000 | 40,000 |
| Jackson's Liberty | 4,754 | 7,806 | 12,560 |
| Van Buren's Liberty | 4,334 | 7,515 | 11,849 |
Coin Update News: Latest US Mint Sales Report
6:40 AM
nintendo
5:15 AM
nintendo
As a member of London's medical and Muslim communities, I was surprised to read the news that Dr. Khurram Sher was arrested Thursday along with two others, accused in a terrorism-related plot.
I was also surprised -- and became increasingly concerned -- as more information was published regarding the allegations. Our system of justice is built on the zealous presumption of innocence, yet this man and the Muslim community around him have already been judged. In the absence of evidence, Sher is being tried in the court of public opinion.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews' spokesperson already found Sher guilty in comments to The Toronto Star. Even The London Free Press's headline of Byron terror bust left little room for the presumption of innocence. The effects are chilling for all, and leave Muslims and non-Muslims feeling tense and unsafe in the rush to accept arrests as guilty verdicts.
It is the same disturbing pattern we saw with the Toronto 18, even as the numbers dwindled and charges were stayed.
It shouldn't need saying that most Muslim Canadians are law-abiding citizens who abhor violence and terrorism, and are committed to the safety of their communities. Yet we find ourselves as one of the only communities in Canada compelled to write public statements when members of our community are alleged to have done something.
When we do speak up, we are expected only to assert our "Canadian-ness," rather than raise serious questions about due process and intelligence agencies with poor human rights records -- questions shared by many Canadians and sorely in need of addressing.
5:00 AM
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11:38 PM
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10:51 PM
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9:05 PM
nintendo
Some interesting news hit the wires today as the Phoenix Business Journal is reporting that there is a new bid for the Phoenix Coyotes, and the mystery buyer wants to keep the team in the Glendale, Arizona locale! Honestly, between all the Ice Edge Holdings news and the possibility of the team relocating back to its original home of Winnipeg, Manitoba, I have been ready to close the book on this story until something significant happened. With new owners on the horizon and a commitment to keep the team in Arizona, the Coyotes may have received the best news they've heard all summer that hasn't included any player signings.
5:30 AM
nintendo
This theme has emerged in opposition to mosque projects in California, Connecticut, Kentucky, Michigan, New York state, Texas and Tennessee.but concludes:
These groups are noisy but marginal. This is the opposite of Europe, where Islamophobia has gone mainstream. In North America, it is still held in disdain.
One of the most under-reported political stories is the increasingly vehement, nationwide movement -- far from Ground Zero -- to oppose new mosques and Islamic community centers. These ugly campaigns are found across the country, in every region, and extend far beyond the warped extremists who are doing things such as sponsoring "Burn a Quran Day." And now, from CBS News last night, we have this:Fire at Tenn. Mosque Building Site Ruled Arson
Federal officials are investigating a fire that started overnight at the site of a new Islamic center in a Nashville suburb.
Ben Goodwin of the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department confirmed to CBS Affiliate WTVF that the fire, which burned construction equipment at the future site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, is being ruled as arson. . . .
The chair of the center's planning committee, Essim Fathy, said he drove to the site at around 5:30 a.m. Saturday morning after he was contacted by the sheriff's department.
"Our people and community are so worried of what else can happen," said Fathy. "They are so scared" . . .
Opponents of a new Islamic center say they believe the mosque will be more than a place of prayer; they are afraid the 15-acre site that was once farmland will be turned into a terrorist training ground for Muslim militants bent on overthrowing the U.S. government.
"They are not a religion. They are a political, militaristic group," Bob Shelton, a 76-year-old retiree who lives in the area, told The Associated Press.
Shelton was among several hundred demonstrators who recently wore "Vote for Jesus" T-shirts and carried signs that said "No Sharia law for USA!," referring to the Islamic code of law.
Others took their opposition further, spray painting a sign announcing the "Future site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro" and tearing it up.
Earlier this summer opponents criticized the planned mosque at hearings held by the Rutherford County Commission, as supporters held prayer vigils.
At one such prayer vigil, WTVF reported opponents speaking out against construction.
"No mosque in Murfreesboro. I don't want it. I don't want them here," Evy Summers said to WTVF. "Go start their own country overseas somewhere. This is a Christian country. It was based on Christianity."
The arsonists undoubtedly will be happy to tell you how much they hate Terrorism. And how there's a War on Christianity underway in the U.S. The harm from these actions are not merely the physical damage they cause, but also the well-grounded fear it imposes on a minority of the American population. If you launch a nationwide, anti-Islamic campaign in Lower Manhattan based on the toxic premise that Muslims generally are responsible for 9/11 -- and spend a decade expanding American wars on one Muslim country after the next -- this is the inevitable, and obviously dangerous, outcome.
5:15 AM
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5:00 AM
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10:34 AM
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The Globe & Mail, one of Canada's daily national newspapers, has a number of excellent writers at its disposal. One of those writers is Mr. Bruce Dowbiggin. Today, Mr. Dowbiggin's column sounded surprisingly like an excerpt from the NHL Commissioner's various speeches about NHL participation at the Olympics. It is worth pointing out, though, that Mr. Dowbiggin is framing this article very well, and makes a case for why the NHL should be compensated in some way if they are releasing the players they have under contract to the Olympics."The Olympic TV impact is negligible in most of the American burgs where Bettman has hawked franchises, the elite players are exhausted by the travel and it punishes the NHL regional broadcasters who must go on hiatus at a time when hockey has the stage almost alone to itself in February.If you were the owner of an NHL team and you allowed your best players to head over to Sochi, Russia in 2014, what kind of return do you get besides a little national pride? And how does the IOC repay you if your superstar - say, Ovechkin or Crosby - ends up with a season-ending injury during his participation at the Olympics?
"Plus, the NHL gets bupkis in return. As it stands now, the panjandrums of the International Olympic Committee and International Ice Hockey Federation are telling the league to butt out, they’ll be the ones to collect the cash. They’ll also tell you what uniforms teams can wear, how often you’ll play and probably how much luggage you’re entitled to bring.
"It’s a one-sided deal, one not reflecting the NHL’s leverage: the world’s best hockey players."
6:00 AM
nintendo
This all "amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight." We chirp endlessly about the Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court, the Democrats and Republicans, but this is the Real U.S. Government: functioning in total darkness, beyond elections and parties, so secret, vast and powerful that it evades the control or knowledge of any one person or even any organization.
Anyone who thinks that's hyperbole should just read some of what Priest and Arkin chronicle. Consider this: "Every day, collection systems at the National Security Agency intercept and store 1.7 billion e-mails, phone calls and other types of communications." To call that an out-of-control, privacy-destroying Surveillance State is to understate the case. Equally understated is the observation that we have become a militarized nation living under an omnipotent, self-perpetuating, bankrupting National Security State.
Late one night in October, a 17-year-old on a bike was chased by a police officer in a cruiser. When the boy refused to stop, the officer aimed his Taser out the driver's window and fired. The boy fell off the bike and the cruiser ran over him, killing him.
Another report on the same incident:
At about 12:45 a.m., said Moultrie, Victor left on a borrowed bike. From there to where the chase started was about four and a half miles. But it was about 1:45 a.m. that Officer Jerald Ard spotted Victor. Where Victor went after leaving Moultrie's house is unclear.
Ard would later say that he tried to stop Victor because he had seen him at a construction site and thought he may have stolen something. But witness Victor Stallworth said he saw Victor ride his bicycle past the construction site without stopping. Months later, Ard gave investigators a different reason for stopping Victor: He didn't have a light on his bike -- only two reflectors.
A video camera on the dashboard of Ard's squad car recorded the brief chase:
Ard spotted Victor and did a fast U-turn to stop him. When Victor didn't stop, Ard veered to the wrong side of the street and up on the sidewalk behind the teenager.
The officer revved the motor, his tires screeching, as he followed Victor into the side yard of an apartment building. With his flashers and PA system on, Ard yelled at Victor to "stop the bike."
It is unclear why Victor disobeyed the order to stop, but the teenager continued pedaling, trying to escape. Ard followed his every move, driving in and out of the wrong lane of traffic and up onto the sidewalk again. One minute and seven seconds into the chase Ard fired his Taser at Victor, who turned into a parking lot. About two seconds later, Victor fell to the ground and Ard ran over him.
And if that isn't enough to make your blood boil, this certainly should:
A video, taken from the dashboard of another officer's car, recorded what happened in the minutes before the discovery:
Three officers squatted next to Ard's car, looking under it at Victor. Ard unlocked the passenger side of his car and got something out. The object is light-colored and floppy, but isn't clearly visible. Ard, holding the object, crawled under the car next to Victor's body and stayed there for 40 seconds. Two minutes later, paramedics found a 9mm silver and black semi-automatic in Victor's pocket.
Lab tests showed the gun had been wiped clean. No fingerprints were on it -- not Victor's, not anyone's. Victor's family, as well as his pastors and friends, were aghast. Victor was scared of guns, they said. He would not have carried a gun around.
None of this is particularly unusual. The officers in the Atlanta PD drug squad who turned state's evidence against their colleagues testified that virtually every officer in the department kept bags full of drugs in the trunks of their squad cars to plant on people.
And guess what? A judge decided that the officer had not done anything wrong by firing a taser at a kid on a bike on the false basis that he might have stolen something that had never been reported stolen.
9:17 PM
nintendo
The South shall rise again
8:44 PM
nintendo
If you watch Sunday evening television, or any sort of syndicated television, the image to the right is a bit of a joke from The Simpsons. While the Simpson family lives in a fictional town of Springfield, there is a real Springfield in Massachusetts that is home to the AHL Falcons franchise. This franchise has undergone many changes in its history, but they always seem to honour their past. With the AHL beginning its 75th Anniversary with a home-and-home throwback series involving the Falcons, it's time we take a quick peek at what the Falcons will be wearing.
2:44 PM
nintendo
6:08 PM
nintendo
With the summer months rolling into the autumn season, there are a lot of things to consider in terms of time. As you may be aware from reading this blog, I'll be away for the entire month of September, but this blog will not stop. Instead, I've already lined up some excellent writers to do a few pieces for me while I'm away, and they will receive the schedule this week. There are also some notes on the AHL and KHL calendars for important dates, and we'll take a look at these dates this evening. We can't be missing these events from other leagues not named "NHL", so I want to be sure you're up-to-date on your calendar with all of these events.
4:57 PM
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1:00 PM
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Here's the good news: this record of progressive accomplishment officially makes Obama the most successful domestic Democratic president of the last 40 years. And here's the bad news: this shoddy collection of centrist, watered down, corporatist sellout legislation was all it took to make Obama the most successful domestic Democratic president of the last 40 years. Take your pick.
First, consider which viewpoints cause someone to be fired from The Liberal Media. Last month, Helen Thomas' 60-year career as a journalist ended when she expressed the exact view about Jews which numerous public figures have expressed (with no consequence or even controversy) about Palestinians. Just weeks ago, The Washington Post accepted the "resignation" of Dave Weigel because of scorn he heaped on right-wing figures such as Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh. CNN's Chief News Executive, Eason Jordan, was previously forced to resign after he provoked a right-wing fit of fury over comments he made about the numerous -- and obviously disturbing -- incidents where the U.S. military had injured or killed journalists in war zones. NBC fired Peter Arnett for criticizing the U.S. war plan on Iraqi television, which prompted accusations of Treason from the Right. MSNBC demoted and then fired its rising star Ashleigh Banfield after she criticized American media war coverage for adhering to the Fox model of glorifying U.S. wars; the same network fired its top-rated host, Phil Donahue, due to its fear of being perceived as anti-war; and its former reporter, Jessica Yellin, confessed that journalists were "under enormous pressure from corporate executives" to present the news in a pro-war and pro-Bush manner.
What each of these firing offenses have in common is that they angered and offended the neocon Right. Isn't that a strange dynamic for the supposedly Liberal Media: the only viewpoint-based firings of journalists are ones where the journalist breaches neoconservative orthodoxy? Have there ever been any viewpoint-based firings of establishment journalists by The Liberal Media because of comments which offended liberals? None that I can recall. I foolishly thought that when George Bush's own Press Secretary mocked the American media for being "too deferential" to the Bush administration, that would at least put a dent in that most fictitious American myth: The Liberal Media. But it didn't; nothing does, not even the endless spate of journalist firings for deviating from right-wing dogma.
. . . .
Then there's the Nasr case itself. Look at how our discourse is completely distorted and dumbed-down by the same stunted, cartoonish neocon orthodoxies that have also destroyed our foreign policy. In our standard political discussions, the simplistic and false notion -- obviously accepted by CNN -- drives the discussion: Fadlallah is an Evil Hezbollah Terrorist!!, and Nasr probably is as well given the "respect" she expressed for him during his death. Thus: CNN got caught employing an Israel-hating Terrorist-lover, and once she revealed herself, she had to be fired immediately!!!! That really is the primitive level of agitprop churned out by neocon polemicists and then dutifully ingested and embraced by CNN.
The reality, though, is completely different. [More here, with copious links.]
1:00 PM
nintendo
In a league of her own
By Ben Houser
PLANT CITY, Fla. -- She registered another perfect pitching record this year, 12-0, for her Little League team.
She threw her second perfect game -- and predicted this one just hours before she did it.
Her fastball hits the mid-60s, and she can send opponents to the bench in tears, embarrassing them with a knuckleball she learned from former major league knuckleball legend Joe Niekro.
Meet Chelsea Baker, a girl pitcher in a boys' league.
Heads are turning in Plant City, where Chelsea hasn't lost a sanctioned Little League game in four seasons.
Although it is a little early to call the 13-year-old the next big thing in baseball, she's a sought-after pitcher who has the attention of respected talent evaluators, including former Boston Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette. They see grand possibilities in her developing knuckleball, already-hopping fastball and strong hitting skills that sparked a .604 batting average this past season.
"She is definitely one-of-a-kind," said Keith Maxwell, one of her coaches and a former minor leaguer who coaches Little Leaguers across several states. "I've had an opportunity to play with some girls coming up in Little League, and they were actually pretty good ballplayers. Some of them actually made all-star teams and that kind of stuff. Chelsea is on a whole different planet compared to them.
"Chelsea Baker is by far the best female 13-year-old girl [baseball player] in the United States. She is the best I've ever seen in my life hands down. The sky is the limit."
Baseball until she no longer wins
It's baseball, and it will be that way so long as Chelsea has a say.
"I don't like to play softball," she said.
Opponents' parents often remark about Chelsea -- not always quietly or kindly.
The most common: "'Go play softball with the girls' -- we get that a lot, and we have gotten that a lot over the last three years," her mother, Missy Mason Baker, said. "'When is she going to move to softball?' At some point, maybe she might have to go play softball, but right now as good as she is doing and she is able to keep up … and that is her goal, I am going to stand behind her and let her continue playing baseball as long as possible."
"She tried softball," said Rod Mason, her stepfather and coach. "She doesn't like it, so baseball is her deal."
His thoughts about when softball may enter the picture: "When she can't strike out little Johnny no more."
Such talk does not affect her, Chelsea said; it just motivates her.
"I think they say stuff like that because they are jealous," she said.
Chelsea's Little League teams are 95-8-2 the past four years with three city championships, one city championship runner-up, two tournament of champions titles and two District IV championships. She struck out 127 batters in 60 innings this year.
"After I usually strike somebody out with a knuckleball, they sometimes start crying back to the dugout, and a lot of them just like open their mouth like they can't believe it," she said.
"There's no crying in baseball, right?" said Duquette, the former Red Sox executive. "It's embarrassing to strike out anytime, but I'm sure for young boys it's probably more embarrassing to be struck out by a girl."
Corey Blanchette, a player on a team of all-stars from Pittsfield, Mass., laughed after recently becoming a victim.
"She got me on the two fastballs, and I didn't know she had a knuckle curve, and then the knuckle came in and it was just so dirty [good] I didn't know what to say," he said.
. . . .
Chelsea learned the knuckleball from one of the best: former major leaguer Joe Niekro, who died shortly after he taught her how to throw it. She met him in 2005 when she was a player on a baseball team he coached.
"I'm so happy that Joe's memory is living on; his legacy is continuing through Chelsea Baker learning how to throw the knuckleball," Duquette said. "The key for her will be commanding her knuckleball pitch and getting it in the strike zone consistently."
Breaking down barriers
All agree that consistency will be key for Chelsea.
But maybe just as important will be how she handles navigating the traditional boys' game as she moves forward and how the traditional boys' game treats her.
"It's unfortunate that boys feel so much pressure to perform well against the girls," Siegal said. "I know that Chelsea would like to be seen as a player, not just a girl playing baseball. And in our society, we have this myth that girls are weak and boys are strong. Chelsea's debunking that myth. And as soon as girls and boys realize that they can play the game together -- the whole game -- baseball, the greatest game on Earth, will become a better game for everyone."
Lance Niekro, Joe's son, played in the major leagues with the San Francisco Giants for four seasons. He watched Chelsea pitch in her regular-season finale in a pitching duel against his younger brother, J.J. Niekro.
"Who are we to say that she can't play baseball?" Lance Niekro said. "There's no rule that states that. So as long as she's doing well and people want her on their team, I don't see why she shouldn't be allowed to play. If parents have something to say [about a girl playing baseball], then maybe that's the parent whose kid is striking out against Chelsea.
"With the success that Chelsea has had now, throwing a couple of perfect games … boys will learn not to make fun of her."
Siegal said that negative remarks are only now beginning for Chelsea and her family.
"Once you start playing in high school, the sexual jeers get more intense," said Siegal, who pitched and played shortstop on a high school boys' baseball team in the 1990s. "As a pitcher, I had a lot of sexual comments directed towards me that are not PG for ESPN. But as a pitcher, a female, who wants to succeed at the game, you have to be able to hear those words and then ignore them and continue your game.
"Chelsea's doing a great job with the taunts as a 13-year-old, and she'll have to do even better and continue to focus as she gets older with the high school level as the taunts get more intense."
Duquette seems to think that being a female won't be a factor in how far Chelsea is able to go in her baseball career.
"People will recognize Chelsea Baker, and they'll promote her based on her skill," he said. "Her gender won't really matter to anybody if she develops the skills. She'll find the opportunity.
"I know that there are some physical limitations that will not allow the girls to compete with the boys on higher levels, but if Chelsea Baker can perfect her knuckleball, she has a chance. The knuckleball is a great equalizer, and that would give her an out pitch, where she could get hitters out, irrespective of their sex and irrespective of their level."
As Chelsea heads into eighth grade next year, she is already thinking about high school. She plans to try out for the high school boys' baseball team.
Plant City high school baseball coach Mark Persails, who played for 12 years with Detroit Tigers and Houston Astros, is looking forward to her coming of age. . . .
7:30 AM
nintendo
What's happened to Canada's compassion?
If the 492 Tamil asylum-seekers who recently arrived by boat on B.C.'s shores are "queue-jumpers," then I guess my parents were too.
They came as Vietnam War draft dodgers from the U.S. in 1967. Like a couple of the Tamil women who just arrived, my mom was pregnant with me. My parents did not seek advance permission from Ottawa to immigrate. They did not fill out any paperwork before arriving. And they could no more seek permission to leave from their home government than these Tamils could, for what they were doing, as far as the U.S. was concerned, was illegal and would result in my father's arrest.
Of course that's the thing about being an asylum-seeker — you don't get into a queue. When you've got to go, you've got to go.
My folks didn't even know Montreal, where they landed, was a predominantly French-speaking city. They just showed up. A key difference, however, was that in those days, they got landed-immigrant status in 20 minutes at the airport. While estimates vary, over the course of the Vietnam War, as many as 100,000 American war resisters came to Canada. Yet here we are setting our hair on fire about 492 people.
But those aren't the only numeric comparisons I find curious.
Among the common reactions to the arrival of the MV Sun Sea is the proposition that Canada's alleged lax immigration laws make us a global sucker — a target for many of the world's migrants. This is absurd.
World conflicts, environmental disasters and a global economic system that keeps billions impoverished has resulted in millions upon millions of refugees and displaced people. In Pakistan alone, the current flooding has produced as many as 14 million internally displaced people. Globally, the United Nations says, there are more than 43 million "forcibly displaced people," of which some 15 million are refugees.
The vast majority of these globally displaced people are not being absorbed by wealthy countries, but rather internally or by neighbouring poor countries — the places least able to afford the costs and with the bleakest economic prospects. The number of refugees accepted by Canada has declined in recent years, and last year we accepted fewer than 20,000 — just over 0.1 per cent of global refugees. Surely, when a few hundred people arrive on our shores, we can afford to treat them with respect and grant them due process.
Here's another curious comparison: The real and much more significant Canadian immigration story of recent years, at least measured numerically, isn't about refugees or people arriving by boats. It's about the explosion in the number of temporary foreign workers. The number of those workers entering Canada each year now exceeds 200,000 and surpasses immigrants.
But the Harper government hasn't been sounding the alarm about this. On the contrary, the federal government has been promoting and facilitating the massive growth in this category of migrants. Why? Because unlike regular immigrants and refugees, these workers are being specifically requested by employers, their indentured status makes them unable to exercise key employment rights and leaves them highly vulnerable to exploitation and unsafe conditions, and they are unable to make the same claims to the social and economic rights that Canadians take for granted.
Immigration is central to the story of Canada. Waves of people came, mostly to meet a domestic need for labour, but sometimes fleeing harm and conflict. But historically, once people arrived, either as immigrants or refugees, they were upon landing met with a social contract: They could avail themselves of the social and economic rights Canadians enjoyed, and in a few years could be granted citizenship.
With the explosion of temporary workers and tightening of regular immigration, the government is effectively saying, "that deal is off — we're happy to have temporary indentured labour, but don't think you can be a Canadian."
When my parents arrived, some Canadians slapped unwelcome labels on the war resisters, but the government itself refrained from such labelling. By and large, the draft dodgers were welcomed, and went on to make valuable contributions to Canada. Much the same can be said of the Vietnamese boat people who arrived in the late 1970s. Why can't better receptions be the norm?
A key difference today is that the government itself immediately labelled the Tamil asylum-seekers as terrorists, criminals and queue-jumpers, before any due process. In doing so, they set the tone of the debate, and gave licence to a particularly nasty wave of xenophobia.
Here's what troubles me most. In a world still coming to terms with the reality of climate change, the truth is that the number of global climate migrants and displaced people will soon dwarf the UN numbers cited above. Will the recent ugliness mark each new unexpected arrival, or can we have a rational conversation about what our moral obligations and humanitarian response should be to the global realities ahead?
7:00 AM
nintendo
It’s only books ’n’ shelves but I like it
SHHH! Keith Richards, the grizzled veteran of rock’n’roll excess, has confessed to a secret longing: to be a librarian. After decades spent partying in a haze of alcohol and drugs, Richards will tell in his forthcoming autobiography that he has been quietly nurturing his inner bookworm.
He has even considered “professional training” to manage thousands of books at his homes in Sussex and Connecticut, according to publishing sources familiar with the outline of Richards’s autobiography, which is due out this autumn. He has received a reported advance of $7.3m (£4.8m) for it.
The guitarist started to arrange the volumes, including rare histories of early American rock music and the second world war, by the librarian’s standard Dewey Decimal classification system but gave up on that as “too much hassle.” He has opted instead for keeping favoured volumes close to hand and the rest languishing on dusty shelves.
. . .
In his autobiography, Life, due to be published in October, Richards will reveal how, as a child growing up in the post-war-austerity of 1950s London, he found refuge in books before he discovered the blues.
He has declared: “When you are growing up there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully: the church, which belongs to God, and the public library, which belongs to you. The public library is a great equaliser.”
5:30 AM
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5:00 AM
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10:52 PM
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Russian spy goes public with sexy shootCheck them out if you want, but I cannot be bothered to post a CNEWS link on my blogroll anymore.
Sea monster or big fish in BC lake?
Sex offender busted babysitting
Home invasion horror for Toronto family
Australian lizards on verge of evolutionary leap
Road rage gets British man 9 years
Victim says couple 'like the Bernardos'
9:53 PM
nintendo
We head back to the mailbag, or email inbox, for Thursday's question, and it's quite a doozy if I do say so myself. Personally, I like the tough questions, and I really want to be sure that I get this one right. It means a great deal to me, and I'm sure it means a great deal to the email writer and the people of Hartford, Connecticut. They may have the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack playing there now, but it sounds as if the "Whalers" may make a triumphant return to the city they called home through the NHL and WHA eras."I’d like to get your take on if you think the NHL could and should return to Hartford. Obviously, this is not going to be an overnight adventure. We are trying to build support again here in this city (not that us fans ever lost it).First off, a great email to hit me with as I am still a huge fan of the Hartford Whalers franchise. The Whale can do no wrong in my eyes, and I used to love the old Boston-Hartford/Montreal-Hartford battles in the Stanley Cup Playoffs before Peter Karmanos decided to pack up his gear and head south to Raleigh, North Carolina.
"I think Baldwin is the right guy to try his hand at this. He did it before here, and we believe he can do it again. There is a lot of renewed energy here again with Howard in the picture.
"But with Bettman still as commish, I just don’t know. We here in Hartford also support the return of the Winnipeg Jets and the Quebec Nordiques. That the Whalers merchandise is the 11th best selling merchandise in the NHL should say something about this once proud franchise. P.S... we still HATE Karmanos!!!!"
"[T]he last hurdle has been cleared for Howard Baldwin and his Whalers Sports & Entertainment to take over operation of the Hartford Wolf Pack. Larry Gottesdiener and his Northland Investment Corporation’s essentially removed itself from the equation in the operation of the XL Center. They turned over their interests to AEG. Well, it is only a matter of time now, as early as next week, that it should become official. When that happens, the Hartford Wolf Pack will be no more and the new team will be the Connecticut Whalers. The relationship with the Rangers will remain in place."So while the Connecticut Whalers are on the verge of being born as an AHL franchise, the question of whether or not the city of Hartford can support the NHL returning is a murky one.
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