redwing77

I guess a flag on the ground that has been repeatedly walked upon would qualify in my opinion for destruction. And good point regarding the American Legion flags.

Stanford's mascot is a tree. So, unless that's a Black Spruce, they're not racist.

I'm not sure I'd be so unsympathetic to Eaves. He did get ROYALLY screwed by the officials. UND vs UW was not solely UND's fault, but the officials did let it get way out of hand. I'm willing to let UND take a lump if it means getting an opportunity to slap Greg Shepherd around in a PR and a professional capacity (I'm not saying going around and beating him up).

Poor preparation is different than poor performance. Coaches can be held accountable for poor preparation. I do not think that the coach can be held accountable if his team goes out and just plays badly. I think both were the case against BC. Hakstol didn't do well this time around, but neither did the entire team. A true team loss for sure.

When art breaks the law, then it's not art. It's illegal. A flag that touches the ground, IIRC, must be BURNED. It is a token mandated of respect. That's why such disdain was cast towards those worthless hippies that wore the American flag on the seats of their jeans. Admittedly, there were a lot of disdainful acts committed between 1967-1972 between American CITIZENS in the United States (to be redundant here. I don't want people saying I'm criticizing Vietnam. To me, Vietnam was an awful engagement and an embarrassment, but nothing compares to what was going on at the same time domestically). However.... I see both sides of the Art Institute's story here. On one hand, no one in art or literacy or speech wants to be censored. They should be able to express whatever they want. And, yes, offensive material is protected by the Constitution. HOwever, OBSCENE material is not. Porn might be offensive, but rape is obscene. See the difference? Well... in art and speech it gets blurred. There is no real standard definition of what is obscene, so there are activists who are out there trying to ban this, that, and everything under the sun they find "obscene." In other words offensive-obscene. I am not in favor of these activist groups. I am not in favor of subjective censorship because it tends to be arbitrary and superficial in nature. What happened to the Art Institute is how non-profits work nowadays. There is no such thing as blind support. There can't be otherwise the restraint will be lifted and ugliness and obscenity will be passed off as art. There are such things as standards in artistic expression. This flag idea obviously overstepped those standards. I don't think it was wrong for the protesters to do what they did. I also think the Art Institute Director is right in what he/she said. However, the way the Director went about it was wrong. You don't have to censor art. You just say that the edgy art like the flag idea doesn't fit in with the artistic community in that area, wish the artist well, and there you go. You could call that selective censorship, as you would be refusing to display the artwork in your museum, but not every art piece produced makes a museum.

Forgive me, but going into Minneapolis, I thought Frazee would be a sure fire NHLer someday. The fact is that I'm now uncertain if he'll even make the AHL team out of camp is how far my opinion of him has changed. Finley had a rough freshman year, but I can honestly say that he has improved every single season he's played for the Sioux. I think he could use a senior year, sure, but some teams only look for a prospect making strides every year before deciding to take control. Other times it's "just time." In Frazee's case it was a salvage operation.

It was said in a couple of sources, once here and once on the WCH blog IIRC. If I'm wrong, it wouldn't be the first time.

Gopher fan might be right in that Finley may not be an NHL All Star. However I do believe Finley will play in the NHL. I don't think for a second he'll jump directly to the NHL like Erik Johnson, though. I think he'll spend some time in the AHL. But he will play in the NHL regularly.

You're absolutely correct. For that, I apologize. Maybe there are a lot of incidents performed by non-frat members that aren't getting covered. Of course, if that's the case, then I'd hope that gets fixed too. I've said it before, but I'm sure there are a ton of great fraternity members and sorority members as well. I know sororities are always doing something for the community. But it's just amazing how many times a frat name gets brought up on the college crime blotter. I guess what I'm saying is this: Most rational people know that a few scattered incidents cannot classify an entire organization.... or can it? A few incidents with the nickname has UND and its pro-nickname supporters in hot water. As for the frats in particular, there is a TON more things they could do to resolve their sullied image. I just don't see them doing it. They still party a good percentage of the week. They still contribute to underage drinking (and don't give me the bs of "If they close the frats underage drinking will go away" I agree with that completely. It won't go away, but at least underage drinkers will have to find a place to go rather than knowing they can always go to whatever frat). They contribute to a lot of foolish behavior.

There are a lot of flaws in this article: First, how can a guy who wasn't there know the intent of the accused? He was a member of a fraternity. He should know better than to state that. Frat members do stupid things just because they think they're funny all the time. Look at the Steak and Sirloin Club or Gamma Phi whatever (yeah, that's a sorority but still...). Second, this Weinstein character is no more a member of the JSO as Ralph Englestad was. I was President of the JSO at one time and I never even saw him. We told him when our meetings were and tried to contact him and he NOT ONCE bothered to reply. This is a growing trend among professors across the nation. When there is no controversy or chances for personal gain, they aren't a part of anything even though their name may be a part of it. Then, once something bad happens and a chance to advocate against some ideal, they're suddenly the most ardent member. Weinstein's views should be taken with the utmost of salt grains. Third, Beloff is right. Ralph has no connection to this. The nickname has nothing to do with it either. It was just some dumb people. D-bags to be sure, but an isolated incident. It isn't like it is a daily occurrence like at SCSU.... or a University endorsed activity... like at SCSU (at one point). EDIT: And trust me, the JSO people are no saints either... at least not when I was there. They made a T-Shirt that said in Yiddish "Alles Goyim esst drek: Why can't we just get along?" Now, the "Alles Goyim" bit was in Yiddish so, unless you were literate in the language you wouldn't know that Alles Goyim Esst Drek means "All Gentiles Eat Garbage" (though Drek can be loosely attributed to the word !@$!). I was floored that they'd even suggest something like that. They said "Well, majority rules" and I resigned on the spot. They then ordered me a T-Shirt. I told them where to stuff that t-shirt.

Might not be. I can't find a prospect report on Chara, but the guy got awfully good over time. Finley is capable of that.

Sure! Yes, St. Croix is thinking hard about the NCAA route and is rumored to be leaning towards UND if he does go that route. Yes, Toews and Bertram got drafted highly in the WHL and went the NCAA route instead. However, that seems to be the exception to the rule. The biggest deal regarding St. Croix in our favor is that he wasn't drafted by Red Deer. If he was, I'd be 90% sure he's going WHL. They are a lot like London (OHL) and Moncton (QMJHL) in that they have no regard for the NCAA and are quite successful at steering players away from the NCAA. Right now, I'm sitting at 75-25 WHL for St. Croix.

While we're on wild speculation: I bet the rumor had to do with Winnipegger Michael St. Croix. He got drafted in the top 5 of the WHL draft though. It's not impossible that St. Croix will come here, but it is certainly a very long shot.

SportsDoc- And I'll restate my firm belief that racism may not truthfully hold to an ethnicity but it is treated as a white man's disease. No one cares if a black guy does "White face" but if a white guy does "black face" he gets torn to shreds. Racism may exist among non-whites, but it will never be acknowledged because it's to be expected. It is, after all, the white man's fault that the minorities hate the white man.

I'm thinking that this was a rumor that turned out to be untrue. Just like the post following up with information on Joe Howe.

You're white. No one knows the affliction of the non-Whites by a majority. This nickname is just prolonging the suffering. The Vandals... comon! All that is is a bunch of white hoodlums who deface concrete walls, the sides of railroad cars (including subway train cars), etc. It's not like that paint has ever hurt people!

HA! Enforce the rulebook and things will change? Maybe in an ideal world! 1. McLeod brags about WCHA's parity. Well, if the rule book was enforced, I doubt we'd see such parity. Top teams would flat out blow out bottom tier teams a majority of the time. 2. How do you enforce a rulebook in which everyone has a different interpretation of it? And worse, the interpretation changes by opponents, situation, time of year, perceived weight of the game, regular vs. post season, regulation vs. OT, and so on? Since there is no standard interpretation, refs have to guess for themselves. Some are good at it (Zelkin) some are bad at it (Adam). Since Shepherd cannot enforce accountability when even he cannot get his own interpretation standardized (not to mention the "buddy buddy" system he has in place) officiating cannot improve. The NHL isn't perfect. However, they put on games that are, at times, much more evenly called than the WCHA.

Correct! However, it is a tired old argument much like the Old Ralph vs. New Ralph one.

I say that both Colorado and Minnesota played well enough to get into the playoffs and proved that Colorado was only barely better than Minnesota. Colorado then went on to prove that regardless of who won the MN/CO series, neither team would have gone any further. So, it's not necessarily that the Wild stunk as much as I can say that their division produced weaker opponents than initially thought. It's not the AL Central during the first 2 of 3 AL Central titles by the Twins, but it's not that far off.

It means that, usually when a guy debates a gal, the debate ends up being irrelevant. He may win the debate but he'll lose the war. I mean... in a relationship, you can argue with your gal that you deserve to spend time with the guys whenever you want and she may relent, but it doesn't mean that you won't be sleeping on the couch for a while. It's one thing I learned from my dad. When the debate doesn't involve a lot of money or the removal of body parts, just say "Yes, Dear!" And mikeypat - Did you see Zetterberg's goal? WOWZERS! Here's the link.

I got some lint! Can I put that up against your change?

This is getting way off track here, but allowed bumping is only cool when you (as an 8 year old) isn't getting run off the track by teenagers or college students like my brother did. He got taken out hard at the Wisconsin Dells by some punk teens. It's all cool when you're older, but not cool when you're taking out little kids.

Does anyone know about this Joe Howe goaltender from Waterloo? He'd be good for 2009. He's a 1990 birthdate and showed up on the Final ISS rankings.

Vaht? Are you talking about TJ Oshie? Ifo so, I'll say it again: Vaht?

We have a better chance to win the Cup than both the Hawks and the Wild combined right now.