We're at the 1st intermission of Dallas vs. Vancouver, Game 1 of the NHL Playoffs, and the Stars are tied with the Canucks at 1-1. Dallas has played with quite a bit of fire so far, which I think is a good sign.

The best thing, for me, is getting to listen to Ralph Strangis and Daryl Reaugh, the BEST, absolute BEST hockey play-by-play duo in the business. I've got them on WBAP.com. Go Stars!

While I'm listening, an hour removed from seeing the gorgeous Haley Scarnato eliminated from Idol, I've got a few links for you, some articles I'm checkin' out myself.

Kathleen Parker writes that while what Don Imus said regarding Rutgers' hoops players was absolutely racist, all this hub-bub about it is a bit much, particularly considering the verbal anti-Semitic racism spewed by both Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in the past.

I still see this as a slippery slope to the detriment of free speech, and oddly enough I am in agreeance with Rosie O'Donnell, who actually stuck up for Imus' right to speak like a fool if he chooses without worry of crucifixion.

Both Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama called for Imus' firing, which I think demonstrates what political monsters they are. I think it was a spineless move on their part, and I'll likely look for somebody else to support. Seriously. Political correctness at the expense of thought, logic, sensibility and reason is abhorrent.

Camille Paglia suggests that "man is too weak to permanently affect nature, which includes infinitely more than this tiny globe."

I tend to agree with her. The more I study global warming, the more I realize that not only is science not united on the subject, it's also steeped in politics from both sides. My honest hunch is that with the dramatic increase in global consumerism over the past 50 years and the lack of sound environmental policies and/or regulation among companies across Mother Earth, well, the game has changed.

I think it's possible that we have caused a slight but possibly deadly change to our very climate.

However, that is merely a hunch on my part, and to my taste, the claims of scientists that our planet is imperiled any time in the next 50 years is pretty spurious, about like all the brouhaha about the Year 2000, which was born of logical computer geeks, whose analyses I trust more than climatologists because the entirety of intellectual property regarding computers is available to computer scientists while only a fraction of knowledge regarding the planet's climate is available to climatologists.

I don't believe global warming is a "hoax," but let's just say I'm highly, highly skeptical, and I personally think Dems would be served well to be skeptical as well.

One more piece of required reading. Ryan Welton writes about payment systems and merchant gateways. Good stuff, and I'm told it's the most popular article on practicalecommerce.com -- yay!

That Ryan dude is a pretty good writer.