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Stackhouse Soapbox - Saskatchewan lacrosse is thrilling

I’m hooked on the Saskatchewan Rush lacrosse team.

I’m hooked on the Saskatchewan Rush lacrosse team.  I took in my second game of the season over the weekend and what a thriller as the Rush rallied to win 12-11 in overtime over the Colorado Mammoth to solidify their hold on first place on the second place Mammoth.  It’s hard to believe that there can be 15,000 people at every single game and despite all the regional sports channels this country has to offer, you can’t find a broadcast anywhere unless you pay for the streaming package direct off the NLL website.  This would be my favorite sport if I could find enough people to shoot the breeze with about it the way I do with friends who are into hockey, baseball, and football.  It’s fast, rough, has plenty of offense, and the atmosphere in the building is indescribable.  I do have some concerns about how well the team will be supported once they are no longer a first place team, but let’s enjoy the ride while it lasts.  There is no indication they are willing to relinquish their elite status in the NLL.  They’ve got a number of well established players and are also bringing along some younger ones who look like they could be stars in the next few years.

Saskatchewan’s other professional sports team, the Roughriders, aren’t winning me over nearly as easily as the Rush.  I just have a hard time reconciling the fact that Chris Jones has decided 34-year-old Darian Durant is washed up, but 33-year-old Vince Young, who has been on his couch in the basement of his house for the last six years isn’t.  I’m not saying the Young experiment won’t work; but it’s a far bigger gamble to bet on Young than it is on Durant and when it comes to the quarterback position, money shouldn’t matter.  It also shouldn’t be a position you are willing to take chances with.  Plus, isn’t there some kind of onus on you to be a good employer with a long time employee who has given you tremendous service over the last ten years or so?  Don’t get me wrong.  Professional sports is still a business and you have to do what’s best for the franchise, but if you chase Durant away to another team, please tell me there is a plan better than a guy who’s just as old who hasn’t picked up a ball in six years.  

Saturday Night Live made the news once again this weekend for skits that mock Donald Trump and his closest allies.  This is just another example of how the news tries to create stories rather than report them.  SNL has long done skits that make fun of US Presidents, but when was the last time it made the news?

It’s really too bad when we have to rely on criminals to mete out the justice; but I haven’t run into a single person who has been upset or outraged to learn Douglas Garland received a second beating this past week.  Garland murdered an elderly couple and their five-year-old grandson.  That tends to not go over well with folks already in the grey hotel.  There’s honor among these people, a lot of which I don’t understand.  If they all had honor, none of them would be in jail in the first place.  

I see non Sask Party people are upset that Don McMorris has been allowed back into his caucus just a few months after it was revealed that he was guilty of a DUI offense.  Let’s remember there is a woman sitting in an apartment like setting, otherwise known as a healing lodge, just one month into a 10-year sentence for killing an entire family while driving while drunk.  So, if we are forced to accept that, I can live with McMorris going back to his old job.  One thing McMorris has brought up is the subject of interlock devices on all vehicles to help curb the Saskatchewan epidemic of drinking and driving.  I’m not immediately as opposed to this as you may think.  We, in Saskatchewan, have proven over and over again to not be responsible.  Our DUI rights are through the roof and unacceptable.  A compromise may be to require those who are found guilty of a DUI offense to agree to have interlock devices in their vehicle for the rest of their life.  That, I would go for.  As far as the topic of healing lodges, I’m sure they are very beneficial for rehabilitation, but it should come after the sentence handed down in court and not be part of it.

Brad Wall has done what critics have asked him to do, and that’s lead by example through announcing he and his MLA colleagues will take a 3.5% wage reduction in order to better deal with an increasing financial shortfall in Saskatchewan.  The NDP won’t support this, saying more needs to be done.  Of course, their version of ‘more’ that needs to be done shouldn’t affect NDP MLAs.  They are calling for a 20% financial reduction to SaskParty cabinet ministers.  It’s easy to chop wages when you don’t want to touch your own salary.

Nice person mentions this week:  Donna Keshane, Brad Hickman, Chelsie Schneider, Kathleen Quan, and Darren Toth.