Can't sleep, clowns will perfume me.

In a dream last night, deviathan was over to visit, and while crawling across the bed (and over me, in the process), very directly declined my hand on her shoulder with the assertion, "No. You smell funny."

Not going to be too talkative until late afternoon; got handed a Large, Important, and Real Short Turnaround type of project when I walked in, and am going to be skipping lunch so I can scoot the meows to the vet to get tapeworm-eradication shots at 3:00.

Apropos to nothing, Madden 2005 is well worth the discount price, I turned the air conditioner on yesterday, and apparently overdid it slightly at the gym (and was declined the use of the chiropractor who was at the gym for some mid-month sales incentive thing, as his services were for employees only. drat!).

CAR!

[crossposted from a locked entry in trystbat's journal]

I respectfully disagree with her allocation of blame.

The owners got themselves into this mess by overpaying the players. It's within their powers to say, "You know, Dave, you're not worth $9mil a year as a free agent. Here's $6.5." If some other owner steps in and ups the ante, that's capitalism at work.

I'm sure she did at least as well in Economics class as I did, and remembers this little maxim: "If there's nobody willing to pay $X for something, nobody will buy it, and the price will come down to something people -will- pay."

You think ownership for one instant has considered how low ticket sales are going to be in the wake of this, and thought about lowering prices to entice fans to come back, if and when play resumes?

The players -are- playing for relative peanuts these days - overseas.

I have no sympathy for billionaires who are trying to bilk millionaires for their own avaritic reasons. They've cooked their books in such patently cheesy ways that even -I- can smell the bullshit and know that they're not losing money. King Kaufman in Salon has a field day pointing at the fiduciary follies of NHL ownership; I take it one step further to make this point:

You don't make the quarter-billion dollars it takes to purchase an NHL franchise by being a fucking moron; who, exactly, do you think you're going to fool when that's exactly what you claim to be when it comes to your inability to run that franchise profitably, especially with the huge public monies that are often subsidizing stadium construction and tax breaks to keep the franchise from being spirited away?

Bettman looks pissed-off and defensive at the press conference, as well he should. He's the bad guy (or at least the figurehead on the bad guys' side of this conflict). Don Fehr is an asshole of the first rank, but at least he's on the right side in this one.

If I was in the players' position, I'd do exactly the same thing. I'm not going to take a pay cut because the rich fucker who hired me can't keep his fly buttoned when it comes to the free agency market. I'll play for less, but not for that collection of greedy, selfish assholes.

Financial responsibility begins at home; it's a damn shame ownership can't be evicted, because their "offers" were patently ridiculous, and their stubborn insistence on a salary cap has succeeded in doing nothing more than earning them the animosity they so rightly fucking deserve.

Sucks to be a hockey fan today.

Hey, Bob!

Here's something we can debate vigorously, yet still end up agreeing on!

Who's the worst pro sports commissioner: Bud Selig, or Gary Bettman?

*grins*

And on that note, I'm off to go play chauffeur to our felines.