Sunday Potpourri: Recruits, Blog Upgrades, Money and Marcel

Let's start of today with a short but timely review of where all the current future Seawolves are playing junior hockey this season.  There's a couple of changes from last season.  I've updated the links on each of the recuits in the "Future Seawolves" column on the right hand side.  So I won't be linking them in this post.

Down the Pacific coast in the BCHL there are two future Seawolves plying their trade.  That league is now on it's 2nd weekend of the regular season.  Sam Mellor with Trail already has 6 goals in 5 games which ties him for 2nd most goals in the league.  If he continues to rack up points at a rate of 1.8 per game he'll end the season with more than 100 points.  Damned impressive for a guy that doesn't turn 18 until the middle of this November.  Could be a fun year to be covering him.  

Andrew Pettitt is again playing with the Powell River Kings and is off to a bit of a slower start with just one goal in 5 games so far.  He bagged 36 goals last season with the Kings so expect to see him move up the scoring table as the season progresses.

The rest of UAA's currently committed recruits are playing for various teams in the USHL.  That league has begun it's exhibition season.  Scott Allen has left the AJHL's Spruce Grove Saints in favor of playing for Regg Simon with Des Moines.  That should be a good situation for him.  In 2 preseason games he's yet to tally a point but is a +2.  

Derek Docken has upgraded from the NAHL to Dubuque in the USHL.  Dubuque has played just one preseason game and Derek didn't make it onto the scoreboard.  Tony Larson is a teammate of Derek's on the blueline and didn't score either in Dubuque's loss to Cedar Rapids.  It's nice for me when two recruits are on the same junior club.  Just one less page for me to have to click ya know?  

Next on the list is Eric Scheid who is playing for the Lincoln Stars.  They've had two preseason games so far, Eric has no points.  Zack Rall moved over to the Tri-City Storm this season.  In their 2 preseason games Zack has one assist.  The USHL starts is regular season on October 1st.

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I have added a couple of permanent pages to the blog.  If you haven't noticed there are now some tabs just under the banner picture with the labels "Schedule" and "Roster".  Click on them and see what you think if you haven't already.  I am currently working on an Alumni section that will show you all the "Notable" players from past squads.  I haven't added it yet because I've got a formatting issue to solve with the embedded profiles from Hockeydb.com.  

Let me talk a little about the criteria I'm using to determine the "Notable" players.  First, I'm not going to list ANY one and done players.  Second, if the guy only played here for two years then I'll only add him if he's accomplished something noteworthy after leaving.  In other words, skated in the NHL.  Three and four year players qualify by my subjectivity only.  The ones I've selected made the list either because they were a favorite of mine, accomplished something significant after being here and/or did something noteworthy while they were Seawolves.

So once I get that formatted properly and up, I invite you to email me and make your case for any missing past alumni that you think merit consideration for the "Notable" label.

Additionally, I'm happy to consider any and all ideas for other tabs which you think would be a good addition to the blog.  I'm not the swiftest HTML dude of all time but you might be surprised what I can manage to do if properly motivated.

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Speaking of me being properly motivated.  I'd like to publicly acknowledge the most recent "Chip In" contribution to the blog.  As I expressed to the donor privately, whenever a new donation comes in I'm both appreciative and somewhat humbled.  It's a beautiful thing when feedback comes that way.

So how do I encourage others to donate?  I really don't know.  If what I do here has value to you then I can only hope that you take some time to quantify that and forward a donation.  I have looked into adding advertising to these pages.  Now, I won't say that I'd make any significant chunk of change by doing so.  But I did figure out that with the proper focus effort I could have more money in that account than just the 285 dollars that has been donated since it began.

I don't really want to add advertising.  I thought about selling "memberships" to the blog.  If the "Chip In" doesn't go as I'd hoped this season then I may look into that. 

Here's the thing friends, I'm not trying to fleece anyone with this effort.  I'm just trying to raise funds that will enhance the coverage for all readers and possibly enable me and/or JimmyJam to go down to a Final Five and report on the team.  I really don't want to go down there if the Seawolves aren't going.  But it's expensive as hell to make arrangements for a trip like that at the last moment.  

Thanks in advance for just considering what this blog is worth to you.  If you do decide to contribute, I assure you that I will be hugely appreciative.  In some sense I suppose I'm just trying to get a more tangible feel of the worth this is to folks.  Don't get me wrong, the personal platitudes and praise that every reader whom I've ever met was a tremendous thing.  But hey, we live in 21st Century America.  Everybody wants to "get paid" right?

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Now for politics.  No doubt you've noticed that when election season rolls around then the nuttiness really gets going.  But even when it isn't election season, there's plenty of election-style nuttiness.  So here's my beef; it's so fucking expensive to run for anything.  And I honestly believe that the way we do it here in the U.S. is at the core of why the U.S. seems so fucked up.

You can straight up buy a fucking election in this country if you've got enough money.  Some rich trollop in California is spending tens of millions of her own dollars to become governor.  And don't think for a second that she won't win.  Well over 90% of elections are won these days by the candidate that spends the most money.

Sycophantic sleazy lobbyists are wrapped up in the process so deeply that elected politicians are forced to cater to their issues in order to get enough money to go back and do some actual work.  And of course, we all know that less and less work is getting done.  

I know lots of you blame "big government" for everything going into the shitter.  But I have to say that you are missing something if you think that is the real cause.  It's all about the money.  It's always about the money (see my begging above).  Elected officials have to spend more and more and more time raising money for the next election that they cannot focus on doing the people's business.  Their own business is more important.

So how do we fix it?  Simple.  Eliminate any and all private financing of candidates.  That's right.  If we had public funded elections with strict limits on how much could be spent.  Then the entire fucking sleazy lobbying industry would virtually dry up.  But waaahhh, why should our taxes go to fund that process?  Because if we continue down the private finance path, then nobody except rich assholes will be representing us.  There isn't a rich asshole on this planet that could possibly represent my views and I dare say yours either.

And yes, after we go to publicly financed elections we can probably actually get some sort of term limits imposed on these people.  

I promise you that virtually not a single current elected official is interested in moving forward with public financing of elections.  So in order for it to happen, it is going to have to become the #1 issue in every voters mind.  If you are active politically already then you best query your representatives about public funding and demand they take some action to start moving this country in that direction.  If you aren't already politically active, then get politically active.

I know there are some potential pitfalls with publicly funding elections and honest debates about exactly how far it should be taken etc.  I can't solve those problems.  But nobody can unless this issue comes to the forefront.  Think about it, research it and talk to your representatives.  We sure as hell could do it here in Alaska without it taking any money out of citizens pockets.  We have $35,651,600,000 in the Permanent Fund.  The amount needed to fund campaigns would be akin to pulling a Rainbow Trout out of Big Lake.  After you do it, there's still shitloads more fish.

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And oh yeah, Fuck Joe Miller and the lipsticked pig (Palin) he rode in on.  Hopefully we see zero fucking politicians at the Sullivan this year.