Juror#8

My mom quit smoking when I was 12. She smoked Kool Milds and Virginia Slims. I don't think they make those cigarettes anymore. I wonder if they were a casualty of the Phillip Morris/tobacco litigiousness during the earlier part of the decade. An edifying postscript to this story is that my mom really stopped smoking when I was 14. She smoked in the bathroom with the fan on for a couple of years until she finally quit one day cold turkey. Neither me, nor my siblings, ever mentioned that we knew that she still smoked because she seemed so happy that we were happy that she was quitting. She hasn't touched a cigarette in over 20 years now. She also doesn't drink soda, alcohol, or eat any meat besides chicken and fish. At 64, she is one of the healthiest people that I know. I often wonder what the epiphany was, 2 years removed from her declaration that she had quit smoking, that allowed her to really quit smoking.

You should be happy a lawyer took on this effort. You don't want to know what a pro se petition would look like in this case. An attorney is just saving the taxpayers money by clearing the docket faster. Best to recognize...

But dat federal pinch doeeee?

He'll be the next Jamarcus Russell. Oh wait...

A very good ESPN article that discusses Lewis' dichotomy: http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2012/story/_/id/8886652/super-bowl-xlvii-ray-lewis-do-believe When do you judge a man, at his best or at his worst?

So why do you vote? Why do you have a pronounced political opinion? Everyone here discusses what they don't like about the controlling political establishment. That presupposes that they have a vision of what the nation should be like that Obama, Bush, or whomever has not created. I'm just want to know when was the last time that the nation was like what you want it to be again?

We debate incessantly that _______ is "returning us to this," or "trying to turn this country into that," or "plunging this country into __________," etc. When was the last time that things were good? In your lifetime, has it ever been "good"? I understand that everything is relative so I'd be interested to hear about the "better times." However, if you're fortunate enough to have experienced prosperity, no politico-social complaints (relative to you), and a full satisfaction with our national political direction, it would be interesting to hear about it. Cause for all the griping we do about what is or isn't, no one has ever mentioned when it was. And how can you know if any political party can do it, if you don't know if it's even possible, or if there is some historical basis for what it's like if you get there... I mean can you really hate or love the woman that you've never known?

I would have been ambulance chasing the fuuuuuck out of that strict liability claim. Someone would be getting paid an easy 6 to 7 figures for about 3 to 4 hours of work. Everybody can be home and paid before the street lights come on.

You're speaking for everyone there sister (cue the usual suspects coming to your defense in the affirmative)? I think not. Why don't you go back into hiding like a little bitttch. That is what you did post-election right? So grow a sack and come back when you have something to offer the discussion besides declaratives. I wish I was that sensitive. I wish I cared that much about vapidity. Maybe my fiance would stop calling me cold and robotic when we argue. Indeed.

I tried to tell her over and over again that the Administration wasn't worried about Romney. He was convinced that they were they were quite afraid of Romney and that their candidacies, and the election, would bear that out. I told her that I heard from some VERY connected folks that Romney was the candidate that they most wanted to face because they felt that he couldn't connect. I told her that they had a healthy skepticism about Cain and that Gingrich's philosophical conservatism was an enigma to them and they felt it might connect with voters who wanted more substance in politics. I said this 14 months before the election because that is what people who work in politics were telling me. Magox was convinced that his profound [mis]understanding of politics was more informed than folks who get paid to know this ****. She was wrong.

Shhhhhhhhhhhh baby....just rest..... You're the worst kind of "ignorant."

I want to help you in your road to recovery. I'm your support group. I'm paying it forward.

Exactly the response I would have expected from you. Good ol' deflection and indirect denial.

I'd LOVE to take credit for it, but it wasn't me who was thinking that. As I mentioned then, I heard that from people who have good reason to know, and who are reliable gazetteers on matters of democratic politics. And sense Newt didn't win the nomination, and it's therefore impossible to prove a negative, my point still stands unchallenged. In fact, the election taught us that Mitt Romney - due to his lack of principle, passion, and sincerity - couldn't bring together a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and couldn't inspire a prositute to !@#$. Newt, an idea man and visionary on matters of political philosophy, could never be confused as "disingenuous," "lacking ideas," or "selectively conservative." Maybe that's what the administration was worried about - an idea guy who could deconstruct progressive talking points at their ideological foundation, rather than someone who could parrot "manager," and "job creator" at any media type's beck and call. You obstinately denied my points (and facts as it were), guided by your own dogma and mis-applied sense of political understanding. It's ok to be wrong. But you don't get the same latitude if you're wrong twice. Next time, at least feign interest in information from folks who get paid to know more **** than you do about more **** than you. It may save you the indignity of being really wrong after-the-fact. If nothing else, at least you get to say that you entertained a distinct thought. Eh, but what the !@#$ do I know...I'm just getting information from speechwriters, lower tier advisors , and assistants to assistants. And you wouldn't have believed me anyway if I told you that I had an interesting 15 minute conversation with Bruce Reed back in early 2011 at Sonoma's about his take on the GOP field. You wouldn't believe me if I told you about my old convos at Longworth. Cause I'm just some pretentious !@#$ on an internet forum. You'll learn...

The opposite was being said in late 2001. Maybe it's not bias; maybe it's just sensationalized journalism and contrived narratives.

Al Gore is an idiot and a hypocrite. For all his talk about energy conservation, his lifestyle belied his rhetoric. Oh and by the way, Magox, since you're back, do you finally believe me when I said, in October, 2011, that the administration was not worried about a Romney candidacy? You don't have to answer that.

The bolded and underlined point above is about the extent to which I care about "Cash for Clunkers."

Isn't Manziel a true freshman? I would love for him to be in a Bills uniform but since I gather he'll be a top 3 pick in 2015, I hope we're not drafting near that high then. Tyler Wilson, Landry Jones or Geno Smith please.

I'm so excited about this hire. I'm seen/read enough to believe that he will bring welcomed change, direction, creativity, culture and success to this team. I like Lovie, but I don't think that this was the best situation for him. Let's close ranks folks and get ready for NFL season, 2013.

+1 I think the FO was actually prescient on this. Of course, we don't know how the interview went; however I think that it is telling that there was such an accelerated hire time frame (and apparently an early morning decision) after meeting with the candidates late last week. I would like to think that the FO took advantage a few teams' preoccupation with Chip Kelly's pyrite and made the move in the midst of their misplaced enchantment. I don't know about y'all, but I love my Bills so I'm going with that.

Yea....like Nick Saban.

Please believe that there are a few that advocate the eradication of firearms or that all firearms have to be maintained at a government approved location for sporting purposes. I'm of the belief that there shouldn't be much restriction on the type of firearms that a citizen can purchase. Obviously some firearms have dedicated military or similiar purposes. John Q. Citizen doesn't need that. I like this idea myself. By "security," I meant a private individual whom the school hires.

This, sir, is very true. Many missed the point of my little diddy post. I thought it was more satirical than anything. But mostly, it was to say that there is not an inherent disconnect between hip-hop, hip hop culture, style, dress, etc, and success. What is "the cause" and "being down"? The Nas' and Jay-Zs and Rick Ross' of the world drop those words dysphemistically to basically reference getting rich while still using Tobasco sauce, and drinking Hennessy, and watching Scarface. Ya'll are being fooled by theater. The only "cause" is self-preservation and a better life for one's progeny. And that is why, despite all the talk of "keeping it real," Jay Z is married to a pop icon and has a daughter named Blue Ivy. That is why he flies to Warren Buffet's house and hangs out for weekends, and why Buffet is a regular at Jay Z parties. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68lpYf4cbcM http://www.nypost.co...WnLfJuFauQNlpqN The "cause" is to hustle the **** out of you mother!@#$ers. You are subsidizing 50 Cent's' fortune. Why? You know the biggest fans of hip hop? Suburban white females. They download the music, and go to the concerts, and buy the cds. Everytime you talk **** on one of these rappers businessmen, you broaden the cultural divide between yourselves and your children. Your children already feel that you're out of touch. Your criticisms reify that suspicion and causes them to flock to everything that is the antithesis of you - incidentally making rappers more wealthy in the process. The "cause" becomes more complicated for those who don't have a marketable lyrical skill set. When wealthy black celebrities discuss this "cause" (which we've now defined as moving up the socio-economic ladder), there isn't a bunch of accompanying detail from which lil Donte and dem can diagram their path to success. Jay Z is not gonna tell "Little Ray Ray," or "Shampoo," or "Little Minus Sign," that Blue Ivy is going to go to the best schools in the nation because a good education is very helpful in any effort to be successful. He won't tell you that he hangs out with billionaires to get financial advice and that they drink 1995 vintage Krug. 50 Cent talks about "keeping it real" but he won't tell you about his Farmington, CT home, or his myriad business ventures, or his efforts to get his GED and attend college. So Shampoo and dem think that the only way to get rich is to slang crack rock or have a wicked jump shot. And that becomes they're "cause".....trying to get rich by hustling. And you have to have a certain presentation to be taken seriously as a hustler (the language, the clothes, the style, the slang). Cliff Notes: People are sold a lifestyle but not told how to get there. At the end of the day, that's what happens when tax subsidies fund educational infrastructure in poor and abjectly impoverished neighborhoods. The quality of education today in a place like Barry Farm (where I grew up) or West Baltimore, or Temple Hills, or Hyattsville, remains a direct reflection of 60s era segregationist destituteness. Simple things like crafting a resume, or what high school graduation feels like, or how to apply for college, or what the SAT is, plays second fiddle to getting through a day without gun violence, or how to get Ms. Turner's classroom out of the former utility closet, or the thought that "since this school was constucted in the 40s, is it more likely than not the case that these crumbling walls and routinely falling ceiling panels have asbestos?" You keep sitting around thinking that generational poverty, apathy, and nihilism is an acquired taste that people have to try hard, and REALLY want, to maintain. You'll learn.

I'm not one of th idiots who thinks that people could have exacted the same level of destruction with baseball bats, ropes, or paper clips. But I do think that if there were more responsible gun owning individuals in that situation, it would have assuaged much of his impact. The problem is not less guns, it's giving more guns, training, and responsibility to those in a position to neutralize threats. We as a nation shouldn't fear guns - you fight fire with fire. There are crazy people in this world who feed off of unpreparedness and vulnerability. Why not default to having a safeguard in place in our most vulnerable areas and institutions. We have gun carrying safeguards in courthouses. There are armed safeguards on most college campuses throughout the nation. Why not have an armed security personnel to protect our most vulnerable members of society in a place where they are the most vulnerable? There should be a trained administrator in every school licensed to carry a firearm. We can turn on some John Lennon and wax poetic about a world without guns. But there are more guns than people in this world. And if you hate guns because they're offensive and dangerous in the wrong hands, but it's unrealisitc to round up billions of them, how can we now effectively protect ourselves against the irresponsible and the injudicious without them?

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson? Is that you....brotha? Keep making em' smile Heels. As long as their entertained, right... As an aside, I have a nice little pocket of education from some schools that may make your girl moist if I name-dropped them with some mood music and Hennessy Ellipse. But your whole "acting black enough" and being "held down" explanation makes me think that you're either bojanglin' oooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrr you're Asian. But then again, you never said you're black, now did you, brotha? Juror#8 out....and..... Listening to some Nas "Nasty", in my new/used M3, pimp-leaned to the right side in the driver seat, dropped on new shoes (19s, Volks), tinted the !@#$ out, with my ESQs E92 plate, driving fast on the way to Negril Eatery in DC, in my Nudie Jeans that are slightly slouched, and some black and red Jordan XIs (that I paid $200 for and got a week early), with my non-fat blond haired blue-eyed fiance in the passenger seat, talking about "The Wire" and thinking about sipping on some henny while listening to Bootsy Collins later. This is 50+ hours after we settled the biggest case of our young lives, in a Brioni suit, and made a couple extra dollars to boot (hence the M3). !@#$ your stereotypes nehga (and if youre black, you know how that ****'s pronounced). I'm out! Food, drink, lounge, sex. Peace. "Eyes flutter as love when Nas pops up Stars get starstruck, panties start drippin’ The ways of Carlito, blaze, torpedo cigars Drop moves, drop clothes Louis the XIII freaks, women nice size I ride like Porsches, thick, brown and gorgeous It ain’t my fault, semiautomatic weapons I brought the world “Crazy,” I’m rich and I’m girl-crazy Dick ‘em, convince ‘em all to praise me They ideology is confusion, I lose ‘em Fellates me, who hate me? My gun off safety Since a Tunnel escape key, my jewelry in HD."