I haven’t written much this week, because I’ve been busy building a website. This site was a real rush job, my fellow developer and I went from zero to completely done in three days of coffee-fueled coding and design madness. But the results are quite attractive (we think), as you can see by visiting it here:

http://www.foodflirt.ca/

I don’t normally create websites but that seems to be changing. Interestingly enough the site is built using the same software (WordPress) that runs this blog. I’d love to hear what you think and if you like that kind of classy, minimalist style. The business this is for is also really cool, though I don’t recommend visiting the site if you are really hungry – doing so tends to make my mouth water and my stomach growl.

Anyway, enough about me, time to get back to our favourite American president, George W. Bush. This was sent to me today:

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George Bush has a heart attack and dies. He goes to hell where the devil is waiting for him.

“I don’t know what to do here,” says the devil. “You’re on my list but I have no room for you. But you definitely have to stay here, so I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’ve got three people here who aeren’t quite as bad as you. I’ll let one of them go, but you have to take their place. I’ll even let YOU decide who leaves.”

George thinks that sounds pretty good, so he agrees.

The devil opens the first room. In it is Richard Nixon and a large pool of water. He keeps diving in and surfacing empty-handed over and over and over. Such is his fate in hell.

“No!” George says. “I don’t think so. I’m not a good swimmer and I don’t think I could do that all day long.”

The devil leads him to the next room. In it is Tony Blair with a sledgehammer and a room full of rocks. All he does is swing that hammer, time after time after time.

“No! I’ve got this problem with my shoulder. I would be in constant agony if all I could do was break rocks all day!” yelps George.

The devil opens a third door. In it, George sees Bill Clinton lying naked on the floor with his arms staked over his head and his legs staked in spread-eagle pose. Bent over him is Monica Lewinsky, doing what she does best.

George Bush looks at this in disbelief for a while and finally says, “Yeah, I can handle this.”

The devil smiles and says, “Monica, you’re free to go!”

This video is a fascinating look at what’s happening in New Orleans on the ground. A lot of the information you get comes from outside the city, but this is from right inside, as volunteers manning boats venture into submerged neighbourhoods looking for survivors. Click here to watch.

I have been following the post-Katrina coverage very closely. I’m completely and utterly furious, disgusted, appalled. It’s unbelievable what is happening there right now. This disaster did not have to be like this. And there are some ugly conclusions to be drawn about what’s happening right now – I don’t know if you’ve noticed but New Orleans right now is almost all black people – people who are suffering and not getting help – people who are increasingly desperate, sick, dying, rotting. Most of the white people, it seems, were able to leave. And now the black people are left to die.

Perhaps that seems harsh. But it’s hard not to come to that conclusion. I have seen some white people suffering in the city. But most of the white people I have seen are being loaded into ambulances, or surveying their property, or receiving supplies, or even eating a nice breakfast of coffee, waffles and eggs. The communities on the coast where the white people were took a serious blow and many died, yes…

But a much different situation has unfolded in New Orleans, the city that has long known of its dangers, the city whose newspapers warned was vulnerable, the city that had a plan to make itself safer but whose funding was cut off in 2003 by the federal government. The Iraq war was more important than making New Orleans safe. And maybe the authorities knew the white people and the people with money – in New Orleans, apparently, that’s pretty much the same thing – could leave.

The social and political consequences of this will be profound. If a white middle-class Canadian like me is thinking this way, think about how the poor and the people of colour in America are feeling right now. Think about how the people of New Orleans are feeling. As though they have been abandoned. As though the already flimsy shroud that covered the ugly side of America has just dropped away. As though people care more about the tsunami victims than them.

I urge you to watch this video, or if you’re unable to because your Internet is slow, read the transcript. Both are available here. The video is a bit long but it’s worth it. You need to hear what this photojournalist had to say. What follows is a brief snippet of the beginning of the transcript:

ALISON STEWART: Tony, I know you’ve seen a lot of things in your career, but have you ever seen anything like that?

TONY ZUMBADO: I’ve gotta tell you, I thought I’d seen it all, but just when you think you’ve seen it all, you go into another situation and you see something horrific. I’ve never seen anything in my life like this. … I can’t put it into words the amount of destruction that is in this city and how these people are coping. They are just left behind. There is nothing offered to them. No water, no ice, no C-rations, nothing, for the last four days.

They were told to go to the convention center. They did, they’ve been behaving. It’s unbelievable how organized they are, how supportive they are of each other. They have not started any mêlées, any riots … they just want food and support. And what I saw there I’ve never seen in this country.

We need to really look at this situation at the convention center. It’s getting very very crazy in there and very dangerous. Somebody needs to come down with a lot of food and a lot of water. There’s no hostility there … they need support. These people are very desperate. I saw two gentlemen die in front of me because of dehydration. I saw a baby near death.

Thanks to alevo for sending this in. Media coverage of Katrina saw these two images posted with the bylines you see underneath them:

A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005.

Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The two pictures together in their original contexts can be seen here.

I spent all weekend searching for a non-political topic to contribute to Ade, something that doesn’t involve cheap shots, and egos. Now, get a load of this:

www.aaahockey.com/hockeyenforcers/

For those of you familiar with the Ultimate Fighting Challenge (UFC), this event will come as no surprise. For those of you who like to watch UFC, it may come with welcome arms. As for hockey fans, I am sure opinions will be varied.

Let’s throw this out in the open, right off the bat. The Hockey Enforcers Fight Challenge isn’t really about hockey. It’s more like UFC in costume. This is about pay-per-view television, and one man’s quest to dupe people into buying into an absurd spectacle. If dog fights were legal, you could expect to see it on pay-per-view. In my opinion, this is the same thing.

As anyone who has fought on skates can tell you, there is very little detail, or artistry, worth noting in the technique. Swing hard, hold on to your opponent harder. More importantly, hockey fights are seldom about winning, they’re four-parts defense for every one-part attack. Most game-time scrums are choreographed to end quickly. The players end up off-balance and lying on the ice before either of them has a chance to land a real haymaker.

That said, there is sanctioned bare-knuckle boxing in most spectator hockey leagues. It gives people like Eddy “the tool” O’toole, or Link “the missing link” Gaetz a chance to ply their talent at being a talentless hockey player who can fight on skates. It is a cross that hockey fans have to bear. Fighting is likely too much a part of the fabric of the game we love to be given up lightly. It is an organizing structure, and stratagem in the increasingly physical game being offered by the NHL.

Steve Moore and Todd Bertuzzi are the latest victims, Moore, because he was injured, Bertuzzi because he was coached. Recall Marty McSorley before that, he got too violent for his britches and whacked Donald Brashear unconscious with his stick in 2001. Both incidents ended up in the courtroom, but the former had far worse repercussions for both players. For many, the jury is still out on Bertuzzi. He may not deserve to play in the NHL, but he still does. For Moore, he simply can’t play until his spine heals.

The only bona fide NHL player on the roster at the HE Challenge, one with more than a couple of games under the proverbial ‘ole fighting strap, was 41-year-old Bruins thug Lyndon Byers. He didn’t even show. So, you can imagine the level of hockey austerity this event carries. Not even Lyndon Byers, with his 25 goals over 10 NHL seasons (as a right winger!) could be bothered to show up. He was probably busy signing jocks at Hooters in Boston.

I can’t imagine that the Hockey Enforcers Challenge will ever be able to capture a huge pay-per-view audience. Especially when the NHL is actually playing – and fighting. It’s true, when you tune into the NHL, you’re not guaranteed any blood on the ice, and when you buy a concentrated hour of hockey fights on pay-per-view, you know just what you’re gonna get. However, it’s like they say about sex: the anticipation is part of the fulfillment. HE Challenge is tawdry hockey porn, and little else.