Lock out Over! (Final Blog) JHEEZ

The NHL lock out is officially over and hockey fans can get back to watching their favorite teams playing in the most competitive hockey league in the world. It was a grueling few months for hockey players, owners and especially fans during the duration of the lock out. The lock out lasted 113 days  where a total of 625 regular season games had been sacrificed, over half of the 2012-2013 season. On January 5th 2013 the NHL and the NHLPA had reached a verbal agreement on a tentative framework for a new collective bargaining agreement. Multiple meetings were arranged between the players union and the league owners during the lock out but they were unable to compromise on a deal that would satisfy both parties. In the long run the fans had to pay. How ever on Jan 5th the players union and the league owners were able to come up with a solution after a 16 hour talks amongst themselves. After the NHL asked for a $60 million cap, the players got the league to move all the  way to $64.3.

Now that the dust has settled fans, owners, coaches and players can get to what they do best. Fans being able to watch the sport they love, players training for the games ahead, coaches devising plays, and owners sitting on their lazy asses counting the dough that is rolling in. In all seriousness it is all a business, the owners are the ones who are making most of the money from owning a team. It is their team after all and the players are the ones who make their team marketable. For example Sidney Crosby with the Pitsburg Penguins is a prime example of a heavily popular team with a star player who can make or break the team. Being an owner you need to satisfy your star players and have close relations with them so they can help build your team. But it seems one person is not enough most of the time, a star player should be surrounded by a few other good players to build a championship caliber team. Satisfying your players is the key for the owners so they do not leave your team. With that in mind they will help you win a championship that will obviously build up the teams popularity.

With popularity amongst the fans that will generate tons of revenue through merchandise, ticket sales and network deals. When fans are turned of by a certain team that will result in a loss. The fans are everything, they are an open market to whom ever dares to step in. But not anyone can step in, they must have andproject something the common hockey fan wants. For example in 2009-2010 everyone wanted a Sidney Crosby jersey because he was the hot topic at the time. The lock out is now over and everyone is back to doing what they love and that is what really matters. But in the future hopefully something like this does not happen, because the owners should know not to cross their players because without their players they are nothing. BANG BANG

The War on Cannabis-A War Worth Fighting?

This is a very controversial topic that many would side with or fight against, the use of Cannabis. I am simply going to lay down the facts as they are and you be the one to decide whether this plant is harmful to our society or a benefit. Every since the beginning of time the Cannabis plant has been used for multiple reasons, not just to get "high" it is used for paper, fuel, building materials, fabric, textiles, rope and hemp seeds are highly nutrition rich protein, minerals and dietary fiber. Cannabis was huge in America, at one point this that had so many benefits was required to be grown by most people in America. George Washington, the first president of the United states grew hemp and the declaration of independence was written on hemp paper and the parachute that George Bush Sr. used in World War 2 was also made out of hemp. Hemp had many uses and was going to be the "billion dollar plant" because it had many benefits. They were going to use it for oil, food, and newspapers. But then one man named William Randolph who owned a new paper and multiple paper mills heard about this new revolution which was going to cost him millions of dollars decided to publish a story in his paper about this new drug called marijuana. They got his plant illegal by saying "people were smoking it, and blacks and Mexicans are raping white women." So congress outlawed this new drug without knowing it was hemp. Which hemp had been used for thousands and thousands of years, then the war on pot was started with all these propaganda's were launched to make people feel guilty of using this plant it was totally economic. Since 1972 the government has been fighting this war and has been losing it. President Nixon has been one of the few presidents who has really opposed the use of Cannabis, he funded a case study on the use of cannabis and the results said that there is no harm in this "drug" to be used privately, so he freaks and says "the blacks, the gays and the jews want this drug to be legal." It is a very hypocritical and unjust way to restrict people to this natural plant that has so many benefits.

Many recent studies most notably one in Spain has come to the conclusion that hemp oil can actually cure cancer, but there are so many other alternatives that the pharmaceutical industry has like chemo therapy that degrades your body, and even cutting a limb off. The real reason why Cannabis is banned is because of economics and business, there are thousands of things that Marijuana would fix that pharmaceutical drugs right now would prescribe for and if Marijuana was made legal that would cost the industry billions and billions of dollars. The economies and world wide markets depend heavily on the pharmaceutical industry because it produces billions in revenue. If Marijuana was made legal it would cost alcohol companies because the alcohol companies fund "partnership for drug free America" which produces much of the modern day propaganda. Alcohol is also a type of drug some would say and so are cigarettes containing nicotine which is an addictive substance. Why cigarettes are legal is beyond me, it is because they produce a lot of revenue and is taxed which goes toward the government, as long as the government is making their money they have no questions to ask. But if governments were to legalize marijuana they would save billions and billions of dollars. In a year alone in the US they would save 8.7 billion dollars in law-enforcement costs in which 750,000 people are arrested nation wide annually in cannabis use related "crimes". The legalization would hurt and disable drug cartels all over the world as 60% of their income is through Marijuana, and all those benefits come before it is taxed. If Marijuana were to be taxed the revenue it would produce would be about 13.7 billion that is more than alcohol.
                                                         

They say that Cannabis is a gateway drug to other things much worse such as heroin and cocaine, if that was the case then why is Marijuana a class 1 drug while heroin and cocaine are Class 2 drugs? Yes the "drug" is mind altering and changes your perception but just like alcohol it needs to be used in moderation just like everything else in the world. Many religions such as the oldest religion Hinduism and especially Rastafarianism partake in the consumption of Herb, it puts then in a spiritual state of mind and cleanses the body and heals the mind.You say you can get addicted to Weed? But you can also get addicted to gambling, TV, sex and even Facebook. They say Pot makes you lazy and a loser. No, that is because before pot you are already lazy and already a loser, now your just a pot smoking lazy loser. No one has died from Pot in thousands of years, 400,000 people die every year directly from use of cigarettes and 75,000 deaths from alcohol. There is more harm then good that comes from alcohol and cigarettes, while this plant that God has put on the face of the earth for our use is outlawed. Many drunk driving deaths happen because of alcohol and violence, with Marijuana there is no domestic violence, sexual assault, and overdose deaths. What is the worst that can happen? The world will run out of Doritos come on. Bob Marley once quoted that "Herb is the healing of a nation while alcohol is the destruction." Genesis 1:29-30 "And God said, behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which upon the face of the Earth and every fruit of a tree yielding seed: to you it shall be for meat." Paul:1 Timothy 4:1-3 "Now the spirit speakth expressly that in the latter times, shall speak lies in hypocrisy commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be recieved with thanksgiving of them which believes and know the truth." Words of God, Not Mine. BANG BANG

                                                            

Canada Loses in Junior Hockey Championships

A lot of disappointed Canadian fans today as the Canadian junior hockey team had lost to a 6-5 game to Russia in overtime for bronze. Not only losing to Russia was an upset, but also losing to the United States in the semi-finals in which the score was 5-1 where the winner would go onto facing Sweden in the championship. Canada was thought to be a hockey super power and the best country for ice hockey at least  it looks like now that other countries have stepped their game up as well. Canada is known to be a hockey super power but the truth is that is not the case any more because other countries have been beating Canada lately. Its not that Canada is a bad team its just that all the other countries around the world are getting that much better. If Canada wants to reclaimed its superiority they need to make some serious changes and look back at the drawing board and fix the errors in its hockey program, especially the coaches. Many criticize at the defense Canada was playing especially against the U.S in their 5-1 loss. It was the most embarrassing game for the Canadian juniors since a game in 1998. Many fans were also looking forward for Canada to take it since the World Juniors Championship is the highest level of hockey being played right now since the NHL is in lockout season. Canadians wake up at ridiculous times just to see our boys in action and sadly "for what to see our buts getting kicked?" Not to take anything away from the boys their Bronze medal match was a thriller in a very close game against Russia which went to overtime. Unfortunately Russia came with that point both teams needed badly, it could have gotten either way. This was the first time since 1998 that Canada left the Junior Championships with no hardware. Needless to say it was a decent outing especially in the round robin portion of the tournament where they skated through everyone put in front of them. Canada was a Junior phenom between the years of 2005-2009 where they claimed nothing but gold, but in recent years Canada has no answer for all the countries stepping it up. In 2010 and 2011 Canada ended up with silvers and 2012 with a bronze and now in 2013 nothing. But because of how impressively some of the individual players played in the games the end result probably won't affect their future promising careers because many NHL recruits seen potential stars within some of the players of Team Canada. But the way Canada's hockey program is shaping out it needs more work because Canada is not the super power but only one of the super powers in a list of 4 joined with the United States, Russia and Sweden. Needless to say Canada hopefully will be back to reclaim a dominating Juniors run they had in 05-09 but at the end of the day if anyone criticizes Canada as being a bad hockey nation, we still have the Olympic title and that is all that matters.

The truth of the matter is that Canada will always be a hockey country and will be considered one of the top Dogs in the world but if they keep losing and don't step up their game they will eventually go on the decline and lose some fans. Just like the maple leafs people will stop giving a crap about Canada, for teams to hype themselves up they need to produce results. If Canada's Junior hockey team does not produce results next year (Gold) the nation will be devastated. And it is inevitable that with upset fans that things like jersey's and merchandise sales will go down. That will affect those people who ride of the athletes to make money in their own pockets. Those same people who ride of the athlete will then treat the athletes the way their profits are building up, poorly. The better an athlete or team does, the more money it tends to make which makes the owners happy and in return they award their prize possessions which are the athletes and teams. It is a circle of some sort in the sports business, what goes around comes around. BANG BANG

Black Friday In Canada?

When someone were to speak about `Black Friday` they would assume all the ridiculous sales and discounts they will be able to receive from the other side of the boarder. But that does not seem like the case this year, black Friday is also taking place in Canada. For black Friday sales, Canadian often hop over the boarder to shop and save money. It is a win-win situation for Canadians if they were to shop in the US because currently the Canadian Dollar (CAD) is higher than the US Dollar (USD). So, our dollar being higher and the prices for the goods we can buy from the US being cheaper, the question that comes up is `why shouldn`t we go to the US to shop?` Well I`ll give you one very good reason, there`s black Friday in Canada too! Black Friday is not known to be for Canada, we are more of a Boxing day nation but at the rate that Canadian are hoping over the boarder to save money, something has to happen to preserve our domestic income. When Canadian go over to the US, the US is obviously making that Canadian money. Why should we let that happen. So in response to the CRAZ Canadian stores and malls have issued their own black friday sales to preserve the Canadian income. That is business Canada is losing if we go over to the US to shop. In this day and age everyone is a bit lazy, so to drive all the way to the US for savings that are already  here in Canada might not make much sense.

Two notable Canadian malls, Toronto`s own the Eaton center and the West Edmonton Mall (that happens to be the largest mall in North America) both opened extra early to feed the craz that is a Canadian Black Friday. The west Edmonton Mall opened up at 8 a.m two hours earlier than usual, while Toronto`s Eaton Center threw open its doors prior at 6 a.m, the earliest its ever opened. Staff at some stores in the Toronto Mall had to open even earlier than that because even before the sun had risen shoppers were already lining up outside of stores. Others malls also joined the Canadian Black Friday day, nine malls in Ontario opened early Fairview mall, Sherway Gardens and Shops at Don Mills in Toronto, Markville in Markham and Promenade in Thornhill. Canadians have no reason now to hop the boarder they are receiving those discounts and saving at home. Canadian stores are happy with this move they are keeping their customers happy and are making money at the same time. Mean while America is losing a bit of Canadian business but they still have more than enough people to mount a nice profit. Americans will always be Americans, just yesterday they are thankful for all the things God has given them and then tomorrow on Black Friday they are obsessed with buying more things to fulfill their desires. This is why Canadians are thankful at least a month before hand before going crazy for mere material objects. BANG BANG

Rom Vs. Obam

With the election day simply looming in the distance President Barack Obama and Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney made a last chance effort to wow the voters on Sunday. In one of the tightest election campaigns in recent American history, this one will come down to the wire. Obama and Romney have their own territories where they have the majority of the vote but as far as reliance goes anything can happen. On Sunday both campaigns were projecting pure confidence to insist that their man had the momentum. "I'm very confident that, two days out from election day, the president's going to be re-elected on Tuesday night," David Plouffe, a White House adviser who managed the president's 2008 campaign.  "Here on the ground, there is a lot of enthusiasm for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan." Republican Eric Cantor, a Virginia congressman and the majority leader of the House of Representatives said about Romney. Both men were in Ohio this Sunday and are very much focused on securing that state. Polls show Obama being up by less than 2% but others show it being neck and neck. The Republicans are firing at Obama accusing him of being a borderline socialist by advocating big government and a welfare state while raising taxes and running up the national debt to levels they consider obscene. The democrats have warned that Romney will slash entitled programs such as Medicare and loosen Wall Street regulations to the extent that another financial meltdown could occur. 

Of course it is easier to tackle the President since he has been in the seat for 4 years already and was forced to captain an already sinking ship (Bush) but Romney is being called out by the democrats of switching his stance on various issues. "He was a friend of immigrants, then a scourge of immigrants, then again a friend. Assault weapons were bad, then good. Abortion was okay, then bad. "the post wrote. Tuesday’s presidential election is ultimately about the U.S. economy. There are numerous issues that matter to the voters at present, but front and center is the limping economy, and the battle between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama is over who has the best plan to boost growth. BANG BANG