playoff predictions

With the beginning of the NHL's second season, I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you, dear reader, my picks for this postseason.....

Eastern Conference.....Habs beat the Canes in 6; Sens sweep the Bolts; Devils make easy work of the Rangers in 5 and the Flyers beat the Sabres in 7.

Western Conference...Red Wings over the Oilers in 5; Sharks trounce the vokoun-less Preds in 5; Dallas over the Avs in 6 and finally, in what should be the most entertaining and high flying series, the Mighty Ducks survive the mighty Flames in 7.

Happy Playoffs!

The Glass Building

Less than an hour ago, a Palestinian terrorist blew himself up outside the old Bus Station in Tel Aviv. Early reports indicate 9 Israelis died, with upwards of 60 casualties. Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the bombing....committed by a 16 year old.

In the Middle East, things function differently than here in Canada. It's the whole clash of civilisations debate. East versus West. We stand for liberty, democracy and freedom. They stand for despotism, Islamism and terrorism. We value life. They value death. We value growth and change, human rights and expression. They value hoarding wealth, keeping citizens dirt poor and the dissemanation of misinformation and half-truths. And who suffers, dear friend?

Obviously, Israeli citizens suffer for it. Scores of dead and wounded; injured...emotionally and physically scarred...living reminders of the horrors people can commit against others. All for what? For whom? Committed in the name of Allah, in the name of jihad, in the name of a right to defend oneself against occupation? All bullshit.

It's done for one reason and one reason only....FEAR.

Islamist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad operate with the sole purpose of making Israelis so scared to live their lives that the government is forced to acquiesce to the terrorists demands. One would think that 60 years of failed terror directed at Israelis would teach these barbarians that their fear tactic will not work....but they continue. They continue to target civilians with a hate-filled fury; with vitriolic statements about reasons. But these are not reasons for terror, these are simply excuses.

Unfortunately, the Israeli government has gotten quite good at retaliating. But now, with Hamas in power, an opportunity presents itself....an opportunity unseen the past few decades. As the international community continues to deny aid to the Hamas led PA; as pressure mounts on Hamas to recognize Israel (it will never happen!), the IDF has the unique opportunity to really dig into the hornest's nest and root out the terror cells. Now is the time to strike. Now is the time to demonstarte the true strength of the Israeli Defense Forces. Now is the time to show the Palestinians, the Arab world and the international community that the Israeli government is committed to defending their citizens; committed to destroying terror; committed to the Western, democratic way of life.

And as Canadians who enjoy the fruit of democracy's labour, we must stand side by side with the Israeli government and demonstrate to the world that democracies will stick together through thick and thin. And in these thick times, it's more important than ever.

"World Outlook"

As time continues to tick on by;
As I continue to live on high;
As heroes continue to birth and die;
My world outlook does not waver.

No matter how hard you might try;
No matter how many tears you will cry;
No matter how many truths are transformed into lie;
My world outlook I do, indeed, savour.

As the lion is strong and the fox is sly;
As countless tales continue to fly;
As whispers of change slowly turn to 'sigh';
Your world outlook is of my own flavour.

This Week's sign the apocalypse is upon us...

WASHINGTON - Call it a coincidental sign of our digital times or a reason to stay up late and stare at the clock. Either way, early Wednesday morning the time and date will be 01-02-03-04-05-06.

At 1:02 a.m. and three seconds on Wednesday, April 5, 2006, it will be the first hour of the day, the second minute of the hour, the third second of that precious minute in the fourth month and the fifth day of ... uh oh. It's not really the sixth year.
It's actually 2006 — only in our shorthand is it '06.
"It just happens to be a chronological oddity," said Geoff Chester, spokesman for the U.S. Naval Observatory, an official world atomic clock timekeeper. "If you were to use the full year, that would screw things up completely. You do have to bend it a little if you want to make it work. That's what you call 'Finagle's Law of Best Fit'."
Even numerologists, such as Rob Ragozzine, who runs the SimplyNumbers.com web site, dismiss the 1-2-3-4-5-6 moment as merely "a neat coincidence" because of that pesky 2006 thing.
"People are interested in numbers," said Jack Horkheimer, 67-year-old host of the Star Gazer public television show and executive director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium. "Would I stay up all night waiting for it? Ten years ago, I would have had a party. Now, I will probably be deep in the arms of sleep."
There are less bleary-eyed alternatives. There's 1:02 p.m., but Horkheimer said that's really 13:02 p.m. and doesn't really count.
Chester recommends celebrating universal time, the standard scientific time, which is four hours ahead of eastern daylight time. So 01-02-03-04-05-06 can be celebrated at 9:02 p.m. EDT by calling up the U.S. Naval Observatory's "master clock" then and waiting for the universal time pronouncement, he said. That number is 202-762-1401.
The clock is also on the web at: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_fe_st/storytext/numbers_row/18618487/SIG=1172aoend/*http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/what1.html.
For much of the world, especially Europe, this odd line-up of numbers doesn't really happen until next month. That's because many countries put the number of the day first, then the number of the month. So for many places, 01-02-03-04-05-06 happens at 1:02 a.m. May 4.