Blogger Buffet - World Cup, Gang Violence and more

I just thought I'd pass on my musings and maybe tell a story or two.

-WORLD CUP - I tired to get excited, but it turned into a huge bore with no goals except those on penalty kicks. Yawn. I haven't seen diving that good since Greg Louganis retired. The final between Italy and France was pathetic, and the last game for Zinadine Zidane was a nightmare. He opened the scoring early but had a meltdown in extra time, headbutting an Italian player in the chest...Why the chest? What damage can you do to someone's chest? Idiot, I am glad he's retiring.

-CFL - Wow some big scores on the weekend. I was 2-2 for my predictions leaving me with a record of 8-7. The BC-Edm game I knew could go either way but I never saw the Stamps getting over 50 points against the Greenies. Man, that had to hurt.

-MY SON'S SPECTACULAR WIPEOUT PT II - As I mentioned a week ago my son had a crash on his scooter and got a few cuts and a big shiner. Last night though my wife and I discovered that he also broke the bottoms off his 4 front teeth! He was complaining that they were sharp and they are, luckily they are basically spares, as they will fall out and get replaced with grown up teeth but ouch! That is one tough kid.

-A VIOLENT TALE - My best friend and I joke that Trouble likes to sit on it's front porch and wait to see what we are up to before deciding what it wants to do for fun. Saturday night was no different. I had worked late and was meeting a friend at a local tavern when I came upon a frightening scene.

Amid some broken glass and pools of beer and blood was an unconcsious guy about 25 or so with his buddy frantically calling for help. I just wanted to go to the bar and now here I am double parked, doing first aid and talking to the 911 operator while trying to ignore a growing crowd of drunken 'helpers.'

The guy was a mess with gashes on his face and back and head and broken teeth and it didn't help that he was severely intoxicated. He did regain concsiousness and even cracked a joke when asked by his drunken buddy if he was alright he said between spitting mouthfuls of blood; "I feel Awesome!"

The Paramedics/firfighters/ambulance dudes and police soon arrived and I got out of the way but I did manage to hear that it was allegedly done by three gang members over something pretty minor no doubt. Probably someone 'disrespected' someone or whatever. It's all stupid. I have been in enough fights and I admittedly have wanted to beat a guy up for some transgression or another, but I have never needed nor wanted the assistance of others to inflict permanent injury on someone. Why do people have to be like that?

The most disturbing aspect of the whole thing for me was the reluctance of others to say anything. In fact one witness wanted out of there so bad he actually smashed his car into a curb in an effort to get away without talking to police. It saddens me to think that someone who could assist in an investigation would do that. What if it was your son or daughter that was assaulted? It's not so simple though. If you look at it the other way why get involved and risk angering known criminals if it doesn't concern you? Both valid points for sure but which one is right? I know what I would do but what would YOU do?

Oh well, at the end of the night I made it home in one piece and that's what's important.

Finally, a moment to pay respects to the latest casualty in Afghanistan, Cpl Anthony Boneca of Thunder Bay. A young kid who was three weeks away from coming home was killed in a fierce firefight with the Taliban, while two of his mates were also wounded. He is the 17th casualty since 2002.