But Our Shit Doesn't Stink and No, Hockey League

Upon learning that over 250 scientists just reported that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe, Reuters reported that:

"The United States said it would not sign up for any calls for caps in emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide. Washington is the only nation of the eight that has refused to join the 128-nation Kyoto protocol on curbing global warming.
"I don't know why the United States is like an ostrich burying its head in the sand," said chief Gary Harrison of the Arctic Athabaskan Council, which represents thousands of people in Canada and Alaska.
But Paula Dobriansky, U.S. undersecretary for global affairs, rebuffed the criticisms. "We base our policies on science and we will take the findings (of the report) into account," she said. " (http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/113004G.shtml)

Meanwhile, today I read an article in the Detroit News indicating that the National Hockey League looks ready to cancel the rest of the season due to the irreconcilable differences between the owners and players (who were locked out by the owners at the start of training camp for this season) concerning issues such as salary cap, luxury tax, arbitration and revenue sharing. As some of my friends and family members well know, this whole situation has enraged me beyond comprehension. Along with baseball, hockey is my favorite sport. Having said that, the quality of the NHL game has deteriorated significantly in recent years due to various factors, including but not limited to bigger players with bigger equipment playing on the same old (now tiny) ice rinks, thereby leading to more injuries and defencive systems that nullify free and talented expression; the NHL's crackdown on fighting and its advocacy of instigator penalties, which allows chicken-shit punks to tee off on star players without fear of retribution; free agency and watching favorite players don hated rivals' sweaters; and numerous other concerns. The point is, the game has deteriorated and it is often difficult to watch even for hockey enthusiasts like me, and in most cities, even including the original six city of Chicago, teams are not selling out their rinks -- not even close. In Chicago, they only sell out if nearby rival Detroit is in town (and half of the rink is filled with Detroit fans), no less.

Having bootstrapped my opinion that the calibre of play has waned substantially over time, the owners and players have the unmitigated arrogance to think that people cared in the first place in the U.S. for their once great game, and worse, that they care at all that the game is not being played this winter. I miss my Red Wings, as well as my old love the Montreal Canadiens an awful lot, because I love them and have followed them closely all of my life. But nobody I know, save friends or family back in the relatively crazed hockey town of Detroit and one friend here in Chicago gives a hoot about it. And so we're supposed to care who is right or wrong in this dispute. And so we're supposed to return in droves to the arenas and rinks if or when the differences are resolved? Remember when baseball went on strike and canceled the World Series several years ago? People here in Chicago still blame the lower attendances for the White Sox on that strike. And even though things in baseball are only now as relatively healthy as they were before such strike, it took years to forgive and forget and move on. And that is for this nation's pasttime! Will people in Carolina or Florida or Los Angeles care about hockey players? Sure, they may bear no deep grudges as in baseball because people here have an emotional relationship with baseball, whereas hockey to most people in the US is window dressing. So if you want the window dressing fans and high-priced corporate suite occupants to return, revel in it, Bettman. You'll never get a wiedespread, hard core base, though, especially if you don't address the waning quality of the game in the first place. Hockey is not even this country's fourth major sport -- it gets consistently beaten in ratings by baseball, football, basketball, and even auto racing and golf. Probably poker too, since ESPN has been showing so much of it lately. Cancel the season, guys, what difference does it make? Who are you to be so bold; so stupid; so reckless?