Stardate 20020423.2217

(On Screen): Bruce Rolston is someone I've been reading a long time, and he and I have engaged in a couple of cross-blog debates on occasion which have been quite enjoyable. I'm not totally clear on this but it seems that he's in the Canadian military reserve, and he's been involved directly in dealing with the aftermath (i.e. the funerals caused by) the bombing of Canadian troops in Afghanistan by an American pilot.

Naturally he's angry. I would be too, especially after the day he's had. He's pretty much decided that the pilot who dropped the bomb was at fault for being too aggressive, and he may well be right. However, it may turn out that this was the first time this pilot had ever been in a live fire zone and seen tracers coming in his general direction, and the pilot may have panicked. That's been known to occur. Or it may turn out to be something else entirely.

There's no excuse for what happened. It's a tragedy. It's sad. I wish it had not happened.

And I'm even sorrier that some Americans decided to moon Canada at a hockey game. All I can say is that in the spectrum of fans of various sports, hockey fans rank down about one step above pro wrestling. There are probably thoughtful, educated hockey fans, but there aren't damned many.

The rules of the sport prove it. In the NBA or NFL or MLB, if any player throws a punch at another player, he's tossed out of the game and probably suspended for multiple games and hit with a big fine. But in hockey the refs are required to stay out of the fight for 30 seconds before they're permitted to try to break it up. Then the guys who were fighting spend a couple of minutes in the box, and that's all there is as a penalty. Some teams recruit players because they're fighters; they're supposed to try to intimidate the other team.

So don't judge this nation by its hockey fans, please. That is the dregs, the worst we have to offer, and just about as atypical of the norm as possible.

And I am deeply, deeply sorry that those Canadian soldiers died.