Habs Fans: Disgusting Beyond Measure

I’d like to take this moment to note that Montreal Canadiens fans are absolutely disgusting specimens of the human race, for booing and whistling throughout the Star-Spangled Banner before tonight’s Game 3 between the Habs and the Tampa Bay Lightning (the Lightning lead the series 2-0).

This isn’t even the first time this playoff season that they’ve done it — it was a key feature of the Montreal-Boston series. In Boston during Game 7, Bruins fans retaliated by cheering their team on during the third period with “U-S-A! U-S-A!” chants. The only thing disappointing about the Chowds’ reponse is that it didn’t work, and that these clowns weren’t thereby removed from the playoffs for the year.

The Canadiens are probably the closest thing this continent has to a European soccer club, in terms of their fan support being mere inches from religious status. Before the advent of the late, lamented Quebec Nordiques, you simply weren’t French-Canadian if you didn’t love the Habs. Now that the Nords are nearly 10 years gone to Colorado, things are back to that status, complete with near-sycophantic adoration among sportswriters both French and English (the francophones refer to the club as la Sainte Flannelle — the Holy Sweater (jersey)). I’ve rarely seen more transparently-biased coverage, even from Tennessee Volunteers and Miami Hurricanes beat writers. Tonight, the CBC broadcasters are so bad, I’m switching to the less-knowledgeable, but not maple-leaf-flavored Kool-Aid influenced, ESPN2 coverage.

The Habs have started two brawls in the first 13 minutes of the game, but the Lightning has weathered the storm (heh) so far. Go Bolts!

Toronto Goes Insane

I got on the TTC subway at Union Station after Jays-Red Sox and Leafs-Sens Game 7 ended nearly simultaneously, and the mass of Leafs fans that joined the baseball crowd were relatively calm and sane. Then I rode it up to Yonge and Wellesley and started walking back down Yonge, where I saw…

Mid-street partying…

And this guy…

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A Good Day

The Toronto roadtrip report will be up by next weekend, but I’ve already got your highlight right here.

BTN Global Iraq Link Dump

Political link dump time, going from England to Canada to Russia to break down Iraq for you.

First up, Tony Blair again demonstrates his eloquence, writing in the Observer (the UK left-center Guardian’s Sunday counterpart) about the progress that has been made in Iraq, and the consequences if Western societies lose their will to see the reconstruction of Iraq through.

It’s a credit to the Guardian that they chose to publish this, despite it going wholeheartedly against their editorial line; several of America’s purportedly non-ideological media outlets seem to have gone fully into defeat-Bush-at-any-cost mode, even at this early point in the race. To my disappointment, this has included the Washington Post, which I used to respect as a journalistic institution. Although generally leftist, the Post usually tended to approach the issues pragmatically rather than ideologically. That tone has changed, and I don’t care for it — were I a subscriber, I’d have cancelled delivery. If I want to read world affairs coverage from left-wing ideologues, the BBC does that better than the Post.

Another interesting commentary appears in the London (Ontario) Free Press, where University of Western Ontario political science professor Salim Mansur provides a strong exposition of why war was necessary in the first place, and summarizes the political currents that the US/British-led coalition hopes to unleash in the Middle East from a democratic Iraq.

Finally, we’ll head for the Moscow Times (in English), where defense analyst Pavel Felgenhauer systematically destroys American Democrats’ comparisons of Iraq to Vietnam. He prefers instead to liken us to the British in the Sudan, but puts forth a key question: “Will the Bush administration — or the Democrats, should they win the White House in November — prove better, kinder rulers of the world than the British Liberals and Tories of a century ago?” Imperialism assumptions aside, his question of the message we send to the world through our conduct in the Middle East is one we have to consider.

The Anatomy of a Cheap Trip

After attempting to explain the steps to several different people recently, and losing them when I referenced six URLs in the span of two sentences, I figured maybe it was time to put together a quick reference on how I pull off my cheap weekend trips. I’m going to link this at behindthenet.org/cheaptrip, for the benefit of those who require a simple, easily-spoken URL. Feel free to share as you like.

Flights

There aren’t many tricks here, particularly if you need some choice in your schedule (which you don’t get with Priceline or Hotwire). But, paradoxically, you may be better off if you don’t have a clear destination in mind — just look to see where you can go for cheap.

• Digital City Travel Deals — Richmond (or from DC)
• Yahoo Best Fares from Richmond (DC)

The other places to look for very short-notice deals are the various weekend fare-dump e-mails sent out by most U.S. airlines. I find the US Airways E-Savers most useful, since (a) I’m in Richmond, a big US Airways city and (b) they generally allow Friday departures and Saturday returns, but you might also be interested in AA Net SAAvers or United E-Fares.

Southwest and its fellow low-fare airlines are worth checking, but if you plan it right, you can usually fly the majors for the same price or close to it because Southwest forces them to fare-match on common routes. Where SWA really shines is in its low cost for refundable and one-way airfares.

Of course, if you know what you want, there’s always the Big 3:

• Orbitz
• Expedia
• Travelocity

I personally prefer Orbitz nowadays, but I’ve used them all dating back as far as 1997. If fares appear high on your favorite site, it’s worth checking the others, as fare availability may not be consistent between the services.

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