The Seperation of Sport and State

During President Obama's first address to the U.S. citizens since officially taking office, he took a break to talk about the New York Yankees third baseman. If you haven't heard (must have been living under a rock) Alex Rodriguez was caught taking steroids from the years 2001 to 2003 while with the Texas Rangers. The fact that is happened is neither shocking nor interesting to me in the slightest. The fact, however that the President of the United States mentioned how "ashamed" he was about the A-Rod incident during his stimulus package speech is mind numbing.

The United States congress has much much larger fish to fry then dealing with Major League Baseball and its now ultra famous steroid scandal. Congress should forget about its witch hunts for obvious PED (Performance Enhancing Drugs) users such as Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds and concentrate as much effort and energy into issues such as the economy, or social programs.

So Alex Rodriguez was supposed to be the super star that "didn't do roids", well he did and it is no big deal. Let Major League Baseball and their ever present inept commissioner Bud Selig deal with the mess that it helped create, and please Mr. President, stay out of baseball, at least for the next year or so, you are needed elsewhere right now.

Watch what Barack had to say about A-Rod here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf59w-1IMGs&feature=related

The Cold Shoulder of Public Tansportation

The public transportation in London, Ontario is less than adequate, to say the least. I have noticed that several of the bus drivers have permanent chips on their shoulders. If you don't follow their rules than you should not be able to ride their bus. They act like its a privilege for you to be riding on the bus. If you are not right at the corner of the stop, they will fly by you, staring with a menacing grin. They should realize that they are an employee of the city and a civil servant. Their job is to drive around the citizens of London, Ontario and to do it a professional manner. I must make clear that their are many warm and friendly drivers out there that do care, it is unfortunate that some "bad eggs" have ruined the profession's reputation.

I have noticed also, that some of these drivers will rush and speed to be ahead of schedule so that they can take an extended brake to go to Tim Horton's and grab a coffee or a snack. All the while leaving the people who follow the schedule in the dust and forced to wait another fifteen minutes or half an hour for the next bus! This is the opposite of what they are supposed to be doing. They should only take breaks if they happen to be ahead of schedule and could do nothing to avoid it. It makes me cringe to think that some of these drivers are so selfish that they would rather have someone miss their bus and be late for work or an appointment, just so they can "re - caffinate".

The drivers should lose the chip on the shoulder and realize that they are there to drive people around the city and if they are miserable they should not take it out on the patrons of the city that choose to take public transportation. After all isn't it a lot better for the environment to take the bus to begin with???