Buffalo Dave

I am proud to be an American today and proud to be from Buffalo also.  It was really nice to see the United States pull off that victory last night against team Canada in Olympic hockey.  The Canadian team was devastated.  You could tell by the looks on their faces.  That is not why I enjoyed the win.  I think Canadians are awesome. But, it does prove just how important the sport of hockey is to Canadians.

The USA team obviously lacks the offense that the Canadians and some of the other teams have.  In goal though, the USA team is really tough.  We got some absolutely outstanding goal tending from Miller.  He is making Buffalo proud. 

Team USA was outshot something like 45-22.  Still Miller refused to let the superior Canadian offense take command.

This leaves team USA in a nice position going into the medal rounds.  I am looking forward to some more outstanding American hockey.  Let’s get a few more pucks flying at the other teams’ net though.

I just hope Miller isn’t worn out when the Olympics are over.  Buffalo is in a good position to make a run deep in the playoffs this year.

I turned on the television during supper last night and managed to catch part of the women’s curling competition.  Being from the northern United States I actually know what this sport is.  I wonder how many kids tuning into the Olympics for the first time are going “Huh?  What the heck is curling?  Where are the dumbbells?”

Yep.  There is nothing quite like the seat of the couch action you get when watching an event like this.  It is like watching a giant shuffleboard tournament.  (I bet a lot of people don’t know what shuffleboard is either)  The girl gets on one knee and slides a giant rock down a slippery lane trying to strategically position it for points.  All the while she is yelling things like “Yep,  yep, yes, yes, yes, yep, hold, hooooooold, yep, yes, yes”  Meanwhile two other girls are alternate between furiously sweeping miniscule debris away in front of the rock as it heads toward its target.  Sometimes they sweep like madmen and other times they just fake like they are going to do it.

What a concept is sports.  Who invented this thing anyway?

My wife was watching it with me.  The United States was competing against the Janpanese.  When the Japanese girl went to launch her rock I wondered if she would start yelling “Hai, hai, hai, hai” instead of yes.

The other thing I found very strange was the names of the women on the Japanese team.  They had Americanized first names like Amy and Moe.  Seems like some Europeans have been doing some breeding in that part of Japan.

I felt inspired to throw my own two cents in about the Olympics when I read about Paul Buckley’s post about the Olympics.

I kind of like the extra coverage of Lindsey Vonn.  I guess I am just a pig with raging hormones who likes to see hot looking women on television.

I agree about the rain though.  How disappointing is it to have a rainy winter Olympics?  The rain has already influenced a number of outcomes.  It is a shame that weather plays a factor in some of these competitions like the biathlon.

The chairwoman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers is Christina Romer.  She was interviewed on CNBC this morning regarding the recent jobs numbers and unemployment data.

The unemployment rate is lower because people have given up looking for work, not because they have been put back to work.  Yet, the Whitehouse tried to spin this like it was somehow positive for the country.

CNBC Article

Romer was encouraged by the down tick in unemployment.  Really?  You are encouraged that people have given up looking for work?  Ahh.. I see.  The Obama plan of economic recovery involves waiting for people to become hopeless in their search for a job so that they choose an alternative approach like retirement.  Great idea guys!  Woo hoo!  What a concept.

What a bunch of idiots. 

This Romer lady is ridiculously incompetent and totally reinforces the accusation that this cabinet is an incompetent one.  When was the last time that the President’s cabinet was populated with this level of total incompetence?  She needs to get the boot along with most of the other cabinet members.