Funny to hear that a Republican who was born in North Dakota and held office in Texas thinks that Sidney Crosby’s endorsement would wrap up the state for Hillary Clinton. And he’s the only one on the panel who knows who Sidney Crosby is! From CNN’s Situation Room:

ARMEY: I think she would get Sidney Crosby to come out strong for her, he could sew up the whole state. Right now, he’s probably the most popular person in the entire state.

But I also believe that Mrs. Clinton, Senator Clinton, will stay in this. She understands her obligation to the superdelegates. That’s the elite of her party. Their judgment should prevail. She understands the importance of that. And I, for one, believe she owes it to the Democratic Party to stay in until the convention.

BLITZER: Sidney Crosby, are you saying — who is Sidney Crosby?

ARMEY: He’s the most important hockey player in…

BLITZER: Oh, OK.

ARMEY: … in…

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: You knew that? Did you know that?

BRAZILE: No.

(CROSSTALK) BLITZER: I didn’t know that.

(CROSSTALK)

ARMEY: They don’t have hockey in New Orleans.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: I thought he was talking about Bill Cosby for a second, who went to Temple University.

BRAZILE: Well, Bill Cosby is also very popular.

BLITZER: He’s a popular guy in Pennsylvania, too.

Shame I can’t find the video. Brazille’s response is priceless.

Something tells me that Crosby’s endorsement wouldn’t go over so well in eastern PA.

As for Crosby’s thoughts on the matter:

Crosby isn’t interested in following Armey’s suggestion.

“I wouldn’t endorse anyone,” he said yesterday. “People have to decide for themselves.”

Crosby has been following the high-profile race between the two Democrats.

“Every channel you turn to, it’s so big and it’s been going on forever,” he said. “I have my own opinions, but I’ll keep them to myself.”

Something tells me Crosby is an Obama man.

This story is hard to stomach, literally:

In what is being called an unprecedented move, the federal government will pay Canadian pork producers $50 million to kill off 150,000 of their pigs by the fall as the industry teeters on the brink of economic collapse.

The animals are being destroyed at slaughter plants and on pig farms in a bid to cull the swine breeding herd by 10 per cent.

Most of the meat is to be used for pet food or otherwise disposed of, but up to 25 per cent of it will be made available to Canadian food banks.

“The value that the market is providing to hog farmers for their breeding animals has fallen to virtually nothing,” said Martin Rice, executive director of the Canadian Pork Council on Monday.

We have food riots around the world as the price for rice and wheat and soy skyrockets and Canada is going to slaughter animals and throw away the majority of the meat to help their domestic pork market?

Needless to say, the excess pork meat can’t be sent to Egypt or any other muslim nation. But c’mon, there’s got to be a better solution than this. How about Haiti?

As people go more and more vegetarian for ethical and economic reasons, we will see more and more stories of livestock being slaughtered for the sake of market dynamics.

Jarko Ruutu beat out Chris Simon for dirtiest player in the NHL?

Man, they really must hate the guy. Glad he’s on my team.

To get the true dirt on the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns, the Philadelphia City Paper sent two reporters undercover posing as volunteers for their respective campaigns. The articles can be found here:

• I Was An Obama Volunteer
• I Was A Clinton Volunteer

The two articles show stark contrasts between the two campaigns, and in the end, clearly illustrate my own reasons for supporting Obama over Clinton. Analysis below.

I got an email today about a deal on Tivo HD, something we absolutely plan on buying before going to Canada. There was a link for a video that discussed the new boxes features, so I clicked on it.

Cool thing: Tivo is hosting the video on YouTube. I love when established companies take a chance to use Web 2.0 sites to promote their product.

But I have a feeling this will be one time experiment. Notice what is considered more relevant than “Tivo HD Review” or “How to hook up Tivo HD”. (click for larger image)

Now this is class. Marc Savard got wind of Don Cherry’s psychological analysis of him and decided to thank him.

I love the fact that Don looks like he’s really touched by the gesture.

What is with this man?

Here’s the latest bit of nonsense to come out of Bill’s mouth. From ABC News:

“When I watched that debate last night, I got kinda tickled,” the former President said at an American Legion Hall event in St. Mary’s, Pennsylvania, “After the [debate], her opponents’, oh, the people working were saying, ‘Oh this is so negative, why are they doing this.’ Well they’ve been beatin’ up on her for 15 months. I didn’t hear her whining when he said she was untruthful in Iowa or called her the senator from Punjab.”

“And, you know, they said some pretty rough things about me, too. But you know, this is a contact sport. If you don’t want to play, keep your uniform off,” Clinton told a loudly cheering crowd.

Whining? Bill has the gall to accuse Barack of whining about last nights excuse for a debate after Hillary complained about her treatment in the media during a debate:

Well, can I just point out that in the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time. And I don’t mind. I — you know, I’ll be happy to field them, but I do find it curious, and if anybody saw “Saturday Night Live,” you know, maybe we should ask Barack if he’s comfortable and needs another pillow. (Laughter, boos.) I just find it kind of curious that I keep getting the first question on all of these issues. But I’m happy to answer it.

I tell you, the Clintons and their ilk have no shame. I never understood why Republicans hated Bill Clinton so much. It always seemed out of proportion with them having won the White House.

I wasn’t as political astute back then. But I’m starting to get it now. I’m understanding where the antipathy comes from: The slash and burn politics, the bending of the truth, the willingness to say anything to win. It’s just sad.

They justified all of it by chalking it up to triangulation, like it’s just a function of being clever. But in the end, it just means doing what you need to win, regardless of what the cost is.

I really used to like Bill Clinton. A lot. But from my viewpoint, the man has irreparably tarnished his legacy in a failed bid to establish a Clinton dynasty.

Read this rundown of the various food shortages and riots occurring around the world. For people making one or two dollars a day, the price of food is becoming more than they can afford and they are responding with protests and violence.

This isn’t some Sally Struthers commercial talking about starving kids in Africa. This isn’t some obscure leftist anti-globalization doomsday diatribe. This is happening today, all across the world. We’re talking about increases of 50, 60, 180% in one year in places like Haiti, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan. Even Italy has had protests over the cost of pasta.

The chart below shows the change in the price of rice in the past three and a half years:

Rice is a staple for a large part of the world’s human population, especially in East, South and Southeast Asia. At these prices, people who are already living at subsistence levels will fall below that level. They will begin to starve, they will begin to riot, they will tear down the fabric of their society in order to try to survive.

And it will only get worse.

The price of food is going up for two reasons. The easy-to-demonize reason is the advent of biofuels. While I agree that biofuels are an absurd use of farmland given the pressing demands on the world’s food supply, it’s not the main culprit.

The real culprit is the increased worldwide demand for food. Not only is the population growing, but people in emerging economies are becoming more affluent. When that happens, they start to eat a higher quality diet and that invariably includes meat.

The problem is, meat is horribly inefficient as compared to any crop. It takes up a huge amount of farmland to raise cattle and the cattle themselves eat a huge amount of feed: 7 kilograms and a great deal of water for each kilogram of beef.

In addition, methane from cows may contribute up to 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas problem.

I tried going vegetarian a few months ago, partly because of these reasons, mostly to just eat a more healthy diet. I started to eat a lot of salads, skipped the chicken in burritos and started ordering tofu with my chinese food. Even discovered tempai and quinoa.

At first it was easy. I didn’t miss meat at all and proudly provoked shock from my friends when I told them I went vegetarian. But eventually, I started being constantly hungry. Even while I was eating, I was thinking about what I would eat next. On top of that, I found myself eating far more fish than I normally eat. And to be honest, I trust fish even less than meat.

So, I decided to become mostly vegetarian. I still go for a vegetarian option at every opportunity. But if I’m really craving a hamburger, I’ll have it. If I’m at dinner with friends with an American menu, I’ll order meat without an ounce of guilt.

Is it perfect? No. Am I a true vegetarian? No. But I eat 90% less meat than I used to, probably just once a month, which is a huge improvement over where I used to be.

But if everyone just became a 50% vegetarian, it would have an enormous effect on both the global economy and global warming.

You can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Come on, give me a 39!

You Canadians might have grown up with this man and his antics, but I only discovered him since subscribing to NHL Center Ice back in 2003. So I still find him hilarious and can’t get enough of him.

This bit about how Marc Savard feels about his stick is just too much:

I can’t wait to get to Canada.