Check your hopes, Sabres fans, and don't say them aloud. We can't afford to get ahead of ourselves. Please, enjoy the Sabres' 2006 playoff experience for all its worth, but don't get too excited about Buffalo's decimation of the Philadelphia Flyers in the first two games of their first round playoff. Clamoring for the silver-drinking chalice that shall not be named is understandable, but a bit foolhardy. Anyone who remembers the real meanings of "Wide right!" and "He was in the crease!" knows why a good Buffalo team can't be overly optimistic. Buffalo's sports teams are notoriously susceptible to jinxes and the last thing the Sabres need now is for everyone guaranteeing they will win the trophy that shall not be mentioned.
It's hard to look past the wounded Flyers in surveying hockey's playoff picture today and not get excited. The Flyers look spent, and right now the Sabres' main Eastern Conference competition looks vulnerable. So, it's understandable why Sabres fans fevered speculation is reaching hockey's peak. But people, please, for the love of God and the Queen City - don't rush the bandwagon yet.
Being a fan of Buffalo's sports teams is akin to being kicked in the gut hard, after you've been beaten down and mugged at your own party. Boston Red Sox fans used to know our plight, but now only the Chicago Cubs' beleaguered fan base recognizes our tantalizing plight. Even after a record-setting year, Buffalo sports reality rears its ugly head and footballs sail wide while pucks go in that shouldn't.
Such is life for a Buffalo sports fan.
Energy flip-flopping
Bush's latest quick oil fixes a half-hearted measure
We live in an age where everyday the hypocrisy of our politicians' actions increases in proportion to their duplicitous rhetoric. President Bush brought this to another level Tuesday by ordering the temporary suspension of environmental rules for gasoline refining, in an attempt at driving down gas prices. This came just one day after Bush delivered a speech calling for increased alternative energy use, particularly hydrogen and ethanol sources.
In giving a speech to the Renewable Fuels Association Monday, Bush called for the development of alternative fuel sources utilizing ethanol to pull the nation from its oil addiction. He's right on this point, and should have followed his own advice.
But Bush's latest gasoline measures show he's not. Bush only gives lip service to the long-term environmental goals he laid out in his State of the Union address calling for the United States to drop its dependency on oil. The clean air speeches he's so fond of mean nothing in reality because the short term is all that matters, especially with mid-term elections around the corner. The proof is his temporary easing of environmental regulations that mandate additives such as ethanol, which makes gas burn cleaner, are put in our gasoline. Relaxing environmental regulations are not the answer. In fact, it's debatable what this even means at the pump.
What is not debatable is that Bush needs to lower gas prices to prop up his, and his party's, free-falling poll numbers. Calling for an inquiry into gas pricing as he did Tuesday is nice, but if he really wanted to address the high cost, he should go to his Houston country club and have a sit down with the oil company CEO vultures he came from.
We have a hard time believing the supply and demand aspect of the gas market is what really drives gas prices up when Exxon Mobil's chief executive and chairman, Lee R. Raymond, received a $69.7 million compensation package with a $98 million pension payout upon retiring recently. And the whole oil industry had record profits last year because of ever-rising gas prices. Bush should start his gas investigation right there.
