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February 9, 2011February 10, 2011

Good Questions and Boring Ones

I rarely ask questions in press conferences, but when I do it’s because I’m fairly certain I’ll get a good response.

The other night, after the Pittsburgh-Washington game, I was in a packed press room when Bruce Boudreau stood at the podium.

The traditional media usually ask the most questions, typically to get quotes to fill in the angle of their story. That makes the questions relatively lame and not newsworthy. Questions such as: “How important was it to kill that power play after taking that penalty?”

Seriously? What do you expect the coach to say? That it wasn’t important to kill the power play? The only reason that question is asked is so the writer can enhance a passage on how the power play did. However, the coaches and players are used to taking softball questions from traditional media, so they answer it. It’s not bad or wrong, but who cares?

Several minutes in, I spoke up and mentioned something that deserved to be mentioned: Matt Cooke’s hit on Alex Ovechkin, which was knee-on-knee and could have ended Ovechkin’s season. The Penguins said they ‘clipped skates’ so I asked the coach if it was knee-on-knee.

Boudreau exploded.

“It was Matt Cooke. Need we say more? Its not like its his first rodeo. Hes done it to everybody and then he goes to the ref and says: What did I do? He knows damn well what he did. Theres no doubt in my mind that hes good at it and he knows how to do it. He knows how to pick this stuff. We as a league, we still buy into this that, Oh it was an accidental thing.”

I asked because no one else had, and it was indeed an angle I woud’ve led with on Capitals Outsider. When traditional media and other bloggers ignore a part of the game that I feel deserves a headline, I’ll be sure to cover it. After several minutes of ‘gotta get a quote for the article’ questions, I took the opportunity to mention something that should’ve been the first question asked.

The Post wrote a blog post about it. The quote appeared on several other sites, including Yahoo, ESPN and dozens of others. It was used on television, including Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, I’m told. Journalists don’t need to be attributed for asking the question that leads to the news, so there was no mention of me, and that’s fine and I understand that.

Here’s my beef: Why did it take a blogger to ask the obvious question after high profile journalists fished for routine quotes about the game as window dressing for their article?

January 27, 2011March 24, 2012

Kermit Gosnell Case Brings Out the Worst in Abortion Debaters

Abortion is one of the few topics that people on either side of the debate are applauded by enablers for shouting mantras, announcing flawed arguments, and name-calling while holding their fingers in their ears toward opposing views. And as expected, extremist pundits have come out to discuss Kermit Gosnell, a Pennsylvania abortion doctor who is accused of delivering live babies and murdering them with scissors, as well as other charges.

On Google, I’ve subscribed to news alerts for Dr. Gosnell and tried to read every last article that came across. What I found were opinions that were so flawed that anyone who can set aside their views on abortion for one minute and dissect them would realize that these folks have no business in these discussions. Free speech is one thing, but dumb speech is another, and dumb speech on abortion is too often accepted as if it adds anything to the discussion.

Let’s look at the extremists on both sides of the debate.

The most extreme antiabortion folks are blaming the Roe vs. Wade decision for Gosnell’s horrors. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Gosnell’s actions would be multiplied if it weren’t for Roe vs. Wade. That’s not to justify the decision, but ‘back alley’ and illegal abortions are just as much a cause for concern for the antiabortion movement as ‘clean’ and legal ones.

The most extreme pro-abortion rights advocates are blaming the antiabortion folks for Gosnell, which is just as silly. They claim that it’s restrictions on abortion that enabled Dr. Gosnell to operate. After all, if abortion were cheap and/or publicly funded, and easy to get, women would do it earlier in the pregnancy without resorting to going to Dr. Gosnell.

This argument is absurd to the largest degree possible and folks who even uttered these words clearly didn’t read past the second paragraph of any news article announcing the facts of the case. Dr. Gosnell made millions doing what he did, charging women an arm and a leg (no pun intended) for the procedure. Women often went to him because other abortion doctors turned them down since they were too far along in their pregnancy. If anything, the women ended up spending far more money to get rid of their late-term pregnancy. Seems to me that: The woman (and man) often bypassed using contraceptives (cheapest alternative), bypassed an early-term abortion (relatively cheap), then paid thousands of dollars to Dr. Gosnell for what they knew was an illegal procedure, only to suffer the consequences. Obviously, circumstances differ for each woman but it’s hard to see someone as a victim if they willingly entered Dr. Gosnell’s office. And somehow, this is the antiabortion movement’s fault?

The antiabortion folks need to work on changing the hearts and minds of people who feel there’s nothing wrong with abortion. Legalized abortion or not, no sensible person wants unsafe abortions to happen. Overturning Roe vs. Wade won’t help that cause, but only lead to more people like Dr. Gosnell.

The abortion rights advocates, particularly those on the extreme left, need to recognize that regulations on abortion, like in any industry, are put in place for a reason. It was politically-driven regulation failures that allowed Dr. Gosnell to operate for decades. Many argue that Bernie Madoff operated the same way as his connections with the SEC led to decades of illegal activity. While regulation in any industry often slows down progress, we’ve clearly seen the consequences of its failures in the banking industry and now the abortion industry.

But we’ve also seen the most unhelpful of them all: Those who refuse to see the obvious and only blame their opponents, while capturing the minds of drones who don’t think for themselves. Fortunately, in the case of Dr. Gosnell, the Grand Jury actually explored how this happened and who is to blame, and justice will be served. Then, those with extreme and foolish views will be back to spouting their absurd arguments.

January 21, 2011July 19, 2014

Sideshow Collectibles Morgul Lord Premium Format

I rarely pre-order items from Sideshow Collectibles, but I made an exception in the case of the Morgul Lord Premium Format Figure, which was shipped to me today. Typically I get items off eBay for less than the original price, but had no problem dropping the money on this, particularly since I made so much of it off of the action figure of this very same character while selling on Amazon.

I absolutely love this guy. Sure, it would’ve been nice it he was raising his sword in the air, like with the much smaller polystone statue which came out several years ago, but it’s really the mace and helmet that makes this character so cool. The mace is fairly large and you can position it the way you want since it’s attached to a chain. The robes are thick and stained with dirt. The leg armor is great, too, but it’s hidden by the robes.

I’ve got no. 137 of 1000. Love it! I choose not to get the exclusive version because I didn’t like the way the fire looked on the sword.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

January 19, 2011January 28, 2023

Bondra!

I’m not an autograph hound. When I was younger, I went through a short period when I was collecting some hockey autographs, and I once went to a card show when Dino Ciccarelli was signing stuff, but I was definitely not one of those people in a crowd reaching over others with a piece of crap for someone to sign. If anything, I’d prefer a photo with someone, as I did with Gheorghe MureÅŸan and Manute Bol (may he rest in peace). Didn’t even bother to get them to sign something for me.

It’s not uncommon to see former Capitals all-star Peter Bondra around town. I’ve seen him several times in the press box, we’ve interviewed him for Capitals Outsider a couple of times, and he’s frequently at the Gardens Ice House. He’s been retired for a while now but he’s actually been in the news a bit in the last month because he played in the Caps-Pens alumni game and yesterday, the Bruins’ Zdeno Chara celebrated a hat-trick with Bondra’s signature celebration.

So I knew Bondra was going to be in Laurel tonight, so I grabbed one of my cards and made sure I was there when he got off the ice while coaching his son’s team. I suppose I could’ve asked for a photo but I’ll get another chance. For some reason, I wanted his autograph. And I can honestly say that he’s one of the few players on the Caps – former or current – who I would even bother asking.

January 18, 2011December 10, 2022

Retrospect: Best Rock Music of 20 Years Ago

Twenty years ago, early in the year, Vanilla Ice’s utterly awful album, To the Extreme, was the number one selling album in the United States. Then people discovered the lasting star Mariah Carey, while also embracing ho-hum acts such as Michael Bolton’s Time, Love & Tenderness.

But 1991 also marked the release of some of the most important and influential rock albums of the last two decades. While the eagerly awaited Guns N’ Roses Use Your Illusion II didn’t disappoint and served as a perfect soundtrack to Terminator II: Judgment Day, it was Nirvana’s Nevermind and Pearl Jam’s Ten that brought the Seattle scene – grunge – to the forefront of rock music genres and put the final nail in the coffin for ‘80s glam metal.

However, 1991 didn’t just give us grunge. Metallica broke into the mainstream with its release of the self-titled Black album and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik brought funk into the ’90s. These four albums, along with others like Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger and Alice in Chains’ Facelift, took off that year, setting the tone for the rest of the decade. Even now, 20 years later, this music continues to get radio airplay, and stations aren’t likely to let up any time soon.

A bit of trivia: Both Nevermind and Blood Sugar Sex Magik were released on Sept. 24, 1991. Also, though Ten was released in ’91, it didn’t get popular until 1992.

Let’s take a look at these four albums, and not wonder how our lives and taste in music would be different had they not been released.

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” became the anthem for Generation X, and hits such as “Come as You Are,” “Lithium” and “In Bloom” kept album sales going and made Kurt Cobain one of the most famous rock stars in the world. Unfortunately, that and other issues were too much for him to handle, and he committed suicide several years later in Seattle.

It was “Jeremy” that really made this album, but it’s a masterpiece from start to finish, particularly with the radio-friendly hits “Even Flow,” “Alive” and “Black.” Pearl Jam has released many albums since and continues to have a cult following, but never reached the success in sales they had in 1991.

The riff of “Enter Sandman” made Heavy Metal more popular than ever, and “Sad but True,” “The Unforgiven,” “Wherever I May Roam” and “Nothing Else Matters” helped make the album one of the top selling of all time. Metallica had been accused of ‘selling out’ by those who loyally followed trash metal in the 1980s.

The sound of this album (and band) is entirely different than traditional rockers, but the Red Hot Chili Peppers had the same fans as the others and shared radio airplay time with the top rock acts of the ’90s. “Give It Away” became the ‘fun’ hit for this band while “Under the Bridge” quickly developed sentimental meaning for the teens of that generation.