20 Oct 2023

Bruins earn ho-hum 3-1 win over San Jose

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There is not much the Bruins could have learned about themselves in their game against the San Jose Sharks on Thursday at SAP Arena, such is the sorry state of their rebuilding opponent.

But while nothing jumped out to excite fans who stayed up late to watch, the B’s banked the requisite two points in their 3-1 win over the Sharks.

If they have pretty tic-tac-toe plays in their arsenal, the B’s haven’t shown it in their first three games. Unimpressed by his team’s 5-on-5 play in he first two games, coach Jim Montgomery had changed his top three lines going into the game. He turned the blender on again before the second period was out, still to no avail. But nevertheless, the B’s notched their third win in as many tries this year.

The B’s, who landed 17 shots on net in the opening 20, controlled much of the first period but did not get on the board until the final two minutes, when they scored twice in 21 seconds.

The first one came at 18:06 on a line change. After John Beecher changed for his fellow rookie Matt Poitras, he covered for the pinching Derek Forbort and stopped a clearing attempt at the left point and slipped it back down to Brad Marchand. The captain walked into the left dot and sniped his first goal of the year over goalie Kaapo Kahkonen glove arm, a perfect shot. The helper was Beecher’s first NHL point.

On the next shift, the B’s new 650-pound line of Charlie Coyle, Trent Frederic and James van Riemsdyk – the B’s best line of the game – went on the attack. Coyle went on the attack on his off wing, took the puck behind the net and then threw it toward the goal mouth. Frederic had a couple of wahcks at it before van Riemsdyk jammed it home for his third goal in two games. Sharks coach David Quinn debated with his staff of reviewing, van Riemdyk’s stick did come in contact with Kahkonen’s pad and moved it, but Quinn declined to challenge.

At the other end, Linus Ullmark (26 saves) wasn’t overly taxed, seeing a lot of long range shots. But he did come up with a terrific save on a slot shot from Mike Hoffman, one of the few Sharks’ scoring threats.

While still not giving up much, the B’s didn’t offer much in the way of offense in the second period until there was 3:14 left in the period. And even then, it wasn’t all that pretty.

David Pastrnak burst up the right wing on a partial odd-man break and elected to keep it himself. He got hit from behind and, off balance, Pastrank flailed at the puck before defenseman Matt Benning accidentally deflected it behind Kahkonen. Inartful as it may have been, it was Pastrnak’s fourth goal of the season.

The B’s could not keep the sheet clean for Ullmark in the third period. With 8:47 left, speedster Anthony Duclair streaked down the left wing nd, after running out of real estate, threw the puck in front where it bounced off Hampus Lindholm and past Ullmark.

20 Oct 2023

No cure for what ails lackluster ‘Sick Girl’

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What has happened to the American film comedy? Has COVID killed it? I would say that the current entry “Sick Girl,” a comedy wannabe about a young woman so desperate for her friends’ company and attention that she pretends to have cancer, is like a TV sitcom on a big screen. But “Sick Girl” is not good enough to be a TV sitcom. Written and directed by former casting director Jennifer Cram, making her feature debut, and executive produced by its talented lead Nina Dobrev (TV’s “Fam”), “Sick Girl” is a clever title for this tale.

But the goodness ends there. Cue the “Friends”-sounding opening theme music. Dobrev plays Wren Pepper, a low-achieving, thirty-ish singleton who works in a gift shop in an unidentified city and yearns for more time with her beloved friends from high school (there is no mention of college). The tall, self-centered blonde Jill (Hayley Magnus, TV’s “The Mapleworth Murders”), who is also a mother, has become some sort of girl boss. Redhead Cece (Stephanie Koenig, TV’s “The Flight Attendant”) has a new baby and is totally stressed out about it, and marathon runner Laurel (Sherry Cola, “Joy Ride”) has her training to keep her busy. In an opening scene, Cece claims to have learned how to sleep with her eyes open (I did that watching this).

Wren manages to get drunk in the morning and try to leave without paying at a local bar. She ends up in jail. When her behavior further shocks her friends, Wren blurts out the lie that she has cancer.

When asked to specify, she says that she, a heavy smoker and drinker has a “little tonsil cancer.” Yes, there will be a lot of puking, but very little in the way of mirth or humor. At The Inviting Place, the modest gift and card shop, where Wren works, the customers are few and far between. Her oddly tolerant boss Malcolm (Ray McKinnon, TV’s “Rectify”) is, like almost everyone, sympathetic when he hears Wren’s news. We hear the words “Uber,” “Postmates” and “Tinder” in quick succession as if to check them off a list of magical utterances that must be pronounced in any new movie.

Wren goes to a cancer support group, where she meets Leo (Brandon Mychal Smith), a kind and handsome young man with liver cancer, who feels like it’s OK  to use harsh language in front of other people’s kids in the pet store where he works. I didn’t know if it was a character flaw, or if writer-director Cram forgot there were kids in those scenes. “Fight Club” and “A Walk to Remember,” two films that could not be more different, are referenced.

Wren talks about having sessions with her friends during which they would fire “love missiles” at her to help her heal. Wren and her friends go out drinking at a club, where the other young women are slightly younger than they. Wren, Cece, Jill and Laurel get drunk, pole dance (of course), get into hair-pulling fights and land in jail (this is Wren’s second time). An alarm clock montage accompanies Wren’s quest to “atone.” We know Wren has reached her redemption when she finally cleans her filthy bedroom (and tries to eat a sandwich that has been in her trash). I’m sure it’s possible to make a comedy about having cancer. “50/50” was not bad. “Sick Girl,” which manages to waste the talent of Wendy McLendon-Covey as Wren’s mother, is. Bad.

(“Sick Girl” contains profanity, sexual references and drug use)

“Sick Girl”

Rated R. On Digital and VOD.. Grade: C

20 Oct 2023

Editorial: Calling Hamas ‘militants’ whitewashes terrorist atrocities

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With her refusal this week to acknowledge the Hamas terrorist organization as, in fact, a terrorist organization, Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson has scored a bad decisions hat trick.

It started with hiring her sister and son to City Hall positions, a conflict of interest violation, and worsened with her pushing for a $31M cut to the BPD this summer.

On Wednesday, she used a Boston City Council meeting to describe the Hamas terrorist organization as a “militant group” and characterized the attack that killed over 1,400 Israelis, among them women, children and babies, as a “military operation.”

This white-washing of Hamas’ atrocities in the guise of a “military operation” is shamefully popular among far-left progressives. The brutal killings, including the murders of children, women and the elderly are at best “unacceptable,” but Israel’s defense against such slaughter is deemed reprehensible.

As the Herald reported, the resolution filed by Fernandes Anderson calling for de-escalation and a cease-fire in Israel and “occupied Palestine” was in response to one filed earlier in the week by Councilor Michael Flaherty, who wanted to condemn “Hamas and their brutal terrorist acts against Israel.”

It’s inconceivable that a resolution to condemn terrorist acts would get pushback, but the progressive agenda is never at a loss for audacity.

In slamming Israel’s policies, Fernandes Anderson noted: “If you’re killing innocent children, in my eyes, you’re a terrorist. I don’t know what ethnicity you are, what religion you are. No matter what, you’re a terrorist. You’re a horrible person.”

We’ve seen the photos of children’s bedroom walls splattered with blood, seen the cribs soaked in it, and heard from those on the ground in Israel describe the scenes of horror after Hamas terrorists unleashed hell on Oct. 7. As the Israeli Defense Force told CNN, women, children, toddlers and elderly were “brutally butchered in an ISIS way of action.”

Did Fernandes Anderson miss the video of Shani Louk, the young German Israeli tattoo artist taken hostage by Hamas at the music festival? Footage showed the terrorists parading her near-naked body through the streets in the back of a pickup truck.

Hamas has executed other hostages. These acts more than tick off the boxes of what Fernandes Anderson considers terrorist behavior.

And when calling for a “cease-fire,” does that include the rockets launched by Hamas from Gaza? As NPR reported, more than 5,000 have been launched into Israel since the Hamas attacks began, according to the Israeli military. Or is the cease-fire just for Israel?

Though her comments were met with derision, Fernandes Anderson did get media juice out of the moment, and earned more cred with the chanting set.

At the end of the day, both resolutions were sent to the Committee of the Whole for a public hearing, after objections to a vote being taken Wednesday.

All par for the course for our city council. Resolutions and ideas, no matter how worthy, are too often hamstrung by far-left agendas.

Editorial cartoon by Gary Varvel (Creators Syndicate)

 

20 Oct 2023

Mallea: Hispanics unhappy with direction of U.S.

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President Biden has a Latino problem.

That’s a takeaway from a new poll that The LIBRE Institute recently published. The poll examines the U.S. Hispanic community’s attitude to a host of policy issues, and the results highlight a challenge — and an opportunity — facing all politicians: One of America’s largest and fastest-growing voting groups is deeply dissatisfied with the status quo.

Politicians ignore the Hispanic community at their peril. It’s contributed the most to U.S. population growth over the last few years, and a new Hispanic becomes eligible to vote every 30 seconds. And Hispanics don’t just live in a few pockets of the country — they are moving to every corner.

While it is true that Hispanics care deeply about immigration, it isn’t true that they are a single-issue group. According to our poll, Hispanics care the most about inflation, and economic issues more generally are top of mind. Beyond inflation, jobs and the economy are the most important issues, regardless of party or ideological affiliation.

And LIBRE’s poll tells us that Latinos sense something is deeply wrong with the economy. Nearly four out of five Hispanics have a negative view of the economy, and 71% say the country is on the wrong track. Drilling more deeply, 84% say inflation has hurt their quality of life.

These figures help explain Hispanics’ attitude toward Biden: A majority disapprove of his job performance, while he is underwater with independent Hispanics by 28 points.

But most alarmingly, the pessimistic attitudes are most prevalent among younger voters. When asked if they agree that the country is declining and that their children will have more limited opportunities, 70% of retirement-age Hispanics agree. Still, a remarkable 85% of those 18 to 34 agree. That means six out of every seven young Latino voters think the country is declining.

Those disillusioned voters will be a force not only in the coming presidential and congressional elections but for decades to come. Politicians from both parties can appeal to this group by offering policy solutions that will genuinely improve their lives instead of treating them like an interest group.

Our years of experience working with Latinos have taught us that Hispanics want policies that advance freedom and opportunity for everyone. The same policies that will tame inflation — restrained government spending, reduced regulations, budgetary reform — are the same policies that will give Hispanics and all Americans the greatest opportunity to pursue the American dream.

Biden’s policies of heavy regulation and reckless spending have driven the inflation that has hurt so many Latinos. Hispanics can’t take more Bidenomics.

Instead, they want policies that promote freedom and opportunity. The LIBRE Initiative believes that a thriving and free economy paves the road to widespread prosperity.

LIBRE also supports initiatives to unlock America’s energy potential, make affordable healthcare available, and modernize the U.S. immigration system. These policy initiatives will attract substantial Latino support because they will improve the quality of life for everyone, including Hispanics.

The reality is that both major political parties have largely ignored Latino voters. In the last two election cycles, three out of five registered Latino voters were not contacted by politicians.

But as this polling shows, that is a mistake. Not only are Latinos a growing force in American politics, but they cannot be co-opted or taken for granted. Latinos care about the economy, healthcare and education — just to name a few. We want to see a stronger country for our children.

We are not beholden to either particular party. We want to see solutions that promote prosperity and freedom. And we vote.

Jose Mallea is the chief executive officer of The LIBRE Initiative/InsideSources.com