If you're going to hurl...

...go to Ireland!

Seriously, you learn something new every day on the Hotline. Today we learned "Hurling" is the national sport of Ireland, and it has nothing to do with drinking beer!

http://www.gaa.ie/page/all_about_hurling.html

We want to wish Tony Griffen luck with his bike ride across the country! All money raised goes to 3 charities including Lance Armstrong's.

What a busy show! I know you love it when Rick gets fired up and the caller John certainly did that in the first hour! Just hearing Rick read about the torture from the newspaper article today made me sick. I am a firm believer in "Do unto others" rather than "An eye for an eye".

The rally at province house should be interesting tomorrow. Students from Kaitlyn Murray-Selinger's school will be rallying for better crosswalk safety measures. Kudos to them, as I feel this is another issue the media has focused on, and sadly, has had to leave it behind. As someone who has nearly been smoked at crosswalks in my neighbourhood, I wish them all the luck in the world.

Can you believe what went down at Halifax West yesterday? Someone gets stabbed over some windshield washer fluid? Wow. That's our poll question today - if a student uses a weapon on school grounds, should they be expelled for the rest of the year - take it and you can view the results right away. I was blown away by Will's story today too - the student who fought back against a bully and was suspended for the rest of the year. That is so bogus. I know someone who was bullied in school and the bully tried to beat him up one day, and ended up breaking his own knuckles! (This person has an extremely hard head!!) After that, the bullying stopped. But what was the student Will was speaking about supposed to do? Snitch and be a pariah at school, or continue to be bullied? As Rick said last week, bullying is a cancer. If only we put more resources into fighting this cancer, a few of society's problems might be alleviated.

What did you think about the gun debate? All I'm going to say is that I'm with JH on this one. It's a good debate though and not one that's going away anytime soon!

Ben called from the Island today. He didn't get on, but he took issue with David calling Rick "The Rickster"!! He says he has copyrighted it and he will be suing David for copyright infringement! Ha!! I guess he hasn't read the blog or I'd be on that list too. Ben's calls always brighten my day. Yesterday he called to volunteer to ride the Gay Pride parade float with "The Rickster". I think it's a great idea - but no thongs, please.

One caller started out the show suggesting we pray for gays and lesbians to change their ways. I won't be doing that. Instead, I'm going to be praying that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq end. I'm going to be praying that there isn't another school shooting. I'm going to pray that things that cause harm to people and to things are somehow alleviated by someone or something.

Busy show, long blog.

Talk to you tomorrow - it's an all open show! (I think!)

Cheers,

Amber