Mickey

The article you reference is based on the work of Bryant Wood whose group is the Associates for Biblical Research. They describe themselves as "the only Christian organization committed to demonstrating the historical reliability of Scripture through excavation and research in Biblical archeology." Does that sound like an objective academic group to you or one with an agenda? The Jericho site was most extensively studied by Kenyon and she dated the walled city there way before the Bilble does. Wood disputed that (after Kenyon's death) and you article covers that by simply saying she made a mistake and that actually the city was there in 1407 BC as the Bible says it was. The article doesn't say what the mistake was nor provide a reference. Worse, it ignores follow up work done after Wood's assertion that Kenyon had the date wrong that shows, in fact, Kenyon was right all along: When did what walls fall? and Is Bryant Wood's Chronology for Jericho valid? Allegedly, Wood trucks tourists out to sites to have them dig up biblical evidence and has been called a crackpot. I won't bother with the link as I think it is easy enough to address his arguments without even bothering to get into an argument as to whether he is a loon. Besides, sometimes crackpots are right. Interestingly, I was able to find tons of hits for Wood's work on various christian sites and almost all of them had no reference at all to the subsequent work on dating samples and the British Museum's withdrawl of the age calculation upon which he based his conclusion. They simply site Wood, rave about his findings and move on. The biblical chronology site was the exception. The additional radio carbon testing done by Bruins and Plicht were hard to find and not mentioned on creationist sites.

that is an insult to toilet rolls, no more 4 ply for you

Please point out a post where I "pushed" socialism. Since, according to you I post that stuff every chance I get, I am sure you can find tons of examples. Why do you find the notion that learning about something has value even if it doesn't end with an absolute answer to be so objectionable? You do realize that I was being sarcastic, highlighting the poster's unwillingness to discuss the issue in more depth because he was sure we woudn't ultimately agree.

No doubt about that. Seriously, I think the problem is deeper than that and an important one for a christian to consider. How do you get around the problem that passionate belief can't help but endanger objectivity? There is no problem when the inquiry at hand does not touch, even slightly, on matters of faith. When it does, there is a clear conflict between investigative objectivity and faith that can be difficult to handle. One way it can reveal itself is in too eager acceptance of a relic as being genuine.

...or so you assume. And if we did, wouldn't I learn in the process what relics are considered to be the most "authentic" and wouldn't you learn what doubts still linger about those same relics? Learning. If it doesn't result in an absolute and irrefutable truth, it is a total waste of time.

List some that have been proven authentic with links to that proof and I will respond. I see no point in having an amorphous discussion about unidentified relics of presumed authenticity. The ossuary at issue has been in the news quite a bit lately and was even the subject of a 60 Minutes report not long ago. This is the latest development on the story. The forgers involved have been faking relics, hundreds of them, for a long time and as a result, the whole field of biblical antiquities has been turned upside down. I think that is interesting so I passed it on. Moreover, I think that such fakes are easier to pass as legit because there are those whose objectivity when it comes to biblical relics is lacking because it touches on their faith. Certainly, those who questioned the authenticity of this relic were widely criticized by many segments of the christian community. I see a paralell with "intelligent design". It is just as much a load of hoo-ha as that ossuary. Becuase of people's faith, I think they can be vulnerable to this kind of thing. Fabricated relics, fabricated "theories". Same thing. I don't think it is exactly a revolutionary thought that a person's most deeply held beliefs might compromise their objectivity. It is why a juror in a capital case can be relieved of jury duty if capital punishment is a violation of their beliefs. Just pointing out the possibility that such a theory holds no water or that a biblical relic is a fake subjects one to attack as an anti-christian which is in fact, precisely the response my post illicited when it just as easily could have begun an intelligent discussion on the abuse of faith by even the faithful.

Where should I start? The crusades maybe? Galileo? The inquisition? Salem, witch trials? Silence during the holocaust? Koresh? Jonestown? Maybe you are afraid to confront the abuse of christianity but I think it has value even when the abuse is perpetrated by christians themselves. I don't think the cause of christianity is advanced by charlatans peddling forged relics or pseudo science. I guess that means I am not christian enough for you. I don't suppose you'd actually care to discuss the issue of the too eager willingness by some to accept as authentic biblical relics that are in fact frauds rather than attacking me?

It is not a question of love or like or hate or what. The question is, who is the best QB on our roster? That is the guy who starts. The coaches decided that Drew is the best QB on our roster, I agree. If they listened to the legions of posters here, they would have benched Drew 7 weeks ago and that Pitt game would have been meaningless because we would have gone into it at 5-10. As for next year, I will again take the ludicrous position of starting the best QB on our roster. Since Drew spent this season getting us within a Josh Reed offensive pass interference call from getting into the playoffs and since JP spent the better part of the year wearing a track suit and carrying a clip board, I am thinking Drew might start next year. If JP demonstrates to the coaches that he is the best QB on the roster, great. Is that so hard to understand? While we are on the subject of crucifying Bledsoe for yesterday, lets be consistent and trash everyone who had a major screw up. Here are they guys I guess we should release immediately based on TBD logic: Clements: He fumbled a punt. Cut him. Jennings: Missed blocks on critical plays leading to sacks/disasters. Cut him. S.Williams: Fumbled that pitch on 3rd and 1. Cut him. Lindell: Missed that FG. Cut him. Tom Clements: lousy scared game plan, nothing deep. Fire him. Adams: was off sides on that long Pitt. drive when we had stopped them. Cut him. Everybody who blew a coverage on Randle El: Cut all of them. Moulds: dropped two passes. Cut him. Fletcher: missed Parker on that long run. PI on that long pass. Cut him. Reed: dropped a pass, intereference call killed a drive. Cut him. Moorman: Shanked about 7 punts. Cut him. Trafford: crack back penalty cost us a first down after Spikes int. Cut him. McGee: dropped a sure pick that would have been 6 points. Cut him. That's a start anyway. I know it seems harsh but when you miss the playoffs by 5 points, it is time for a major house cleaning, right?

The "James Ossuary" has proved to be a fake, a total fraud (details here and here). If you want to see just how many were fooled by this, just run a search on "James ossuary". So many are so desperate to find some actual "evidence" of their faith that they are gullible to this sort of thing. I am beginning to understand why so many find it so easy to gulp down "intelligent design" as a worthwhile "academic" field. I certainly hope the future of christianity doesn't depend on fake relics and pseudo science. Who is more to blame here, the fakers or the people who are so eager to find such "evidence" that they will believe anything?

There is no sense moving to the right on social issues, the republicans will just move a little further to the right themselves. Its not like there is a limit as to how far they can go. You can't outflank them there. Democrats should cut taxes like mad hatters but only for the middle class and forget about the effect on the budget. They'll need to put on poker faces and spit out some mumbo jumbo when the press brings up how much that would tank the budget. When it comes to putting money in people's pockets, they'll believe any half-baked explanation justifying it democrats can come up with. Republicans don't worry about the budget when rewarding their constituents, why should we? At the same time, we need to target republican congressman in states with large cities such as Florida, California and New York. We need to show the locals how these guys are helping to screw over their own states by supporting budgetary policies that reward rural states by taking federal tax dollars from the wealth producing states and bestowing it in true communist style on rural states who receive tons more in federal $$$ than they pay in federal taxes. Voters in the wealth producing states need to see why their states are losing army bases while those welfare states keep theirs. Its because those welfare state congressman stick together and can count on just enough republican congressman from northern and coastal states to give them the votes they need.

Complaining about a "breakdown in morals" has been a popular mantra for generations of politicians looking for attention. It is as predictable as older generations complaining about the music of younger generations. Bush won because he is an incumbent in war time. He we elected by one of the lowest margins ever for a re-elected President because his Presidency has been something akin to a disaster. He has 4 years to turn that around and I hope he does. Which morales are breaking down by the way? Is it the majority of people who are pro-choice or who favor gay unions? Or maybe the problem is too much violence and sex on TV and in advertisements. If you think for one second that this will change, that corporations will suddenly stop producing precisely what Americans, using their dollars as votes, really want, you are mistaken. They have no agenda or politics beyond profit. They will sell what sells. That isn't Sean Penn's fault, but it is the fault of the very conservative corporate sultans who own the studios, the networks, the recording industry and the publishing houses. They give us what we want despite all the holier-than-thou pretensions of politicians masquerading as preachers to gather votes from the faithful. Moral breakdown? More of a national mental breakdown that we reward these charlatans with votes if you ask me.

29 of the last 60 teams participating in the last 30 Super Bowls were quarterbacked by first round draft choices. A number of others were headed by second roung picks like Favre, Esiason, Jaworski and Stabler. There are also a few notable third round picks like Montana, Ken Anderson, Chandler and Hostetler. Staubach is an interesting case, he wasn't drafted until the 10th round but he had a Naval committment and couldn't play for a number of years which pushed him down the draft boards. Otherwise, he might have been selected in the first round. He played in 3 SB's which would push the total to 32. Basically, if your team is in the SB, odds are they are being run by a QB taken in the first round of the NFL draft, more so by far than QB's taken in anyother round. Lots of crappy QB's have been taken in lots of rounds. However, if you want to get in to a SB, you would do well to take a chance on a QB in the first round when you think the right player is there.

But he carries the clip board with real style and looks great in a track suit. JP's year has been pretty much a wash. He has been in rehab for most of the year so he will be little better than a rookie next year. Shane is the No.2 and Drew the starter until further notice.

The Jet game that we lost is the one that made me step up and take notice. The Jets were hot then and we were playing them in their house. We suddenly started throwing the ball in the 4th quarter, especially on first down after trying to pound the ball against stacked fronts all day. We scored easily and Willis came off the bench and had some nice runs. That was the first sign I remember seeing of what we are now seeing every week.

I'll be there with my cousin, my sister and an as yet to be named fourth person. Chili cheese fries here I come.

But what is your complaint? Government is so stupid they let hijackers vote so we shouldn't trust government to do anything right, is that it? See, I am a model of brevity.

That was my first thought when I read it Tom. Rummy was talking about the hijackers themselves taking the jet down which is what the tapes all point to. In the 9/11 report the hijackers are talking about whether it was time to crash the jet, a question which they faced because the passengers were in the process of trying to take back control of the aircraft. At some point, apparently when it was clear to the creeps in the cockpit that the passenger uprising was going to succeed, one of them is heard saying that "yes, its time" or words to that effect. The 9/11 report also shows that the shoot down order did no good as it came too late and was not relayed to the pilots. The passenger assault could be heard on the tapes, relatives of victims have identified the voices of their loved ones during the sustained effort (it lasted over 3 minutes). The "pilot" shook the plane back and forth to try and interrupt the assault. After 3 minutes or so he is heard to ask "Is that it? Shall we finish it off?". A reply is heard on the tape: "No. Not yet. When they all come then we finish it off." Sounds of more fighting are heard. A passenger is heard to say: "In the cockpit. If we don't, we'll die!". Sixteen seconds later a passenger says "Roll it!" [could they have been using a beverage cart as a battering ram?]. Then the "pilot" is heard to say "Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest!". He then says: "Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?". The reply heard was "Yes, put it in it and pull it down". Then the same voice says "Pull it down, pull it down" and again the "pilot" says "Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest!". The passengers could be heard still attacking the cockpit as the plane crashed into the field. The plane crashed at 10:03 am. The first notice that it had been hijacked was not received by the FAA until 9:34 am. The FAA order for all aircraft to land to clear all US airspace did not go out until 9:42 am. The FAA only began to even consider asking for military help with regard to flight 93 at 9:53. Another aircraft reported seeing flt 93 at 10:01 "waving its wings". This was the pilots attempt to throw off the passenger assault. An Air National Guard Cargo Plane on the way to Minnesota passed over the crash site within minutes of the crash and reported seeing black smoke rising from the site. At no time before the crash did the FAA request military help with the problem of flight 93 nor did they even pass the information they had to the military. The first notification of the problems with that flight recieved by the military didn't occur until 10:07, after the plane crashed. The military couldn't find the flight because it was on the ground. The only fighters in the air over the capital, from Langley, were told at 10:10 that in they did not have clearance to shoot down aircraft: "negative-negative clearance to shoot..." were the exact words used by the mission crew commander. At 10:15, the military was notified that flight 93 had crashed. Some testimony by NORAD officials later turned out to be simply incorrect. For example, one official thought that they learned that 93 had been hijacked at 9:16. No way. The hijacking had definitely not occurred yet. There was a lot of confusion involving confusing suspect flights. When some of these guys were testifying about 93, they were confusing it with AA 11. Cheney was evacuated to the shelter starting at 9:37. They took him to the tunnel leading to the shelter where he waited for his wife who arrived at 9:52. He arrived in the shelter at about 9:58 and spoke to the President between 10:10 and 10:15. It was during that talk that allegedly the shoot down order was given. At that time, flight 93 was already in the ground. WH Deputy Chief of Staff Joshua Bolden suggested to Cheney that he confirm the shoot down order with the President at 10:18 and also testified that up util that time, he was not aware that the President had indeed given that order. Cheney called the President and "confirmed" the order which was noted on AF 1 by Ari Fleischer at 10:20. Whether Cheney decided on his own at 10:10 or Bush did at that time or not until later doesn't matter as far as flight 93 is concerned. It was not shot down because it was down long before anyone could find it, give the orders and get a plane in the air to get it done.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of help can a carrier battle group give in this kind of a disaster? I am sure they can do something but I don't know what. Rescues at sea maybe? Air searches?

Where were they registered to vote, here or in their home nations? I am just not sure what argument you are trying to make here. Do you want us to spend more money on voter registration security or less? "big attorney brain" I'm going to try that the next time my wife and I disagree: "C'mon honey, trust me, I have a 'big attorney brain' so I must be right". They wouldn't find my body until spring.

I'll be there, should I bring my cards? You know, just in case.

All 19 drank water, does that mean water is bad? What is the connection here?

I wrote this about our making the playoffs before the Seattle game when we were 4-6. I will not mention the names of any of you who responded with versions of “Mickey is on crack”. Four division winners go and two wild cards. The Division leaders in the AFC are NE, Pitt, Den and Indy. The wild card contestants that are ahead of the Bills right now are SD 7-3, Balt 7-3, Jets 7-3 and J'ville at 6-4. At 4-6, it looks near impossible but, looking at the schedules, it is not as bad as it would seem. SD's remaining opponents are a combined 34-31, J'ville's are 32-28, Balt's are 34-25 and the Jets' are 36-23. Buffalo's are only 24-36 and that is with the Steelers at 9-1. Take them away and our remaining opponents are a pathetic 15-35. We get the Steelers at home on the last game of the season. There is a chance that they will have locked in home field advantage by then so they could be resting their starters. Even if they aren't, if we we're lucky enough to be playing at home on the last game of the year with a shot at a playoff birth, I'd like our chances. The Ravens have games left against Indy, Pitt and NE on the road. Those teams are a combined 24-5 and have only lost one game at home all year. J'Ville has tough games left at Minn and GB. They also have to play Pitt at home. The Jets have Pitt on the road, NE at home, Seattle and St. Louis. San Diego has games against Denver and Indy as well as always tough Tampa. By contrast, the only teams with winning records we play are Seattle and Pitt. If we can pull off a road win against Seattle, things really get interesting. Just for starters, figure that J'ville loses next week to Minn on the road and Balt loses to NE also on the road and we pull off a win in Seattle. That puts us at 5-6, J'Ville at 6-5 and Balt at 7-4 (with road games ahead at Pitt and at Indy). If we win the following week at Miami (1-9) and J'Ville loses to the Steelers which isn't hard to imagine, we will be at 6-6, tied with J'ville. That isn't at all impossible and at that point J'ville would still have an away date with the Packers. We don't have to beat out all 4 of those teams, just 3 of them. Yeah, it is one huge long, long shot but as the saying goes, we 'aint out of it yet. I posted this update after we beat Seattle: I posted last week some numbers suggesting that it was less than impossible for Buffalo to make the playoffs. It is still a long, long shot but just about everything we needed to happen this past weekend to improve our chances actually happened with the exception of the Jets getting upset in Arizona. Remember that all division winners get in and two wild cards. Lets start with the presumption that NE, Pitt and Indy are going to win their divisions. The last division in the AFC is up for grabs between SD and Denver. Both were are 7-3 going into the weekend. For us it doesn't matter who wins the division, just that the second place team start to lose some games in a hurry. SD won so we needed Denver to lose and thanks to that blocked kick last night in the snow, Oakland beat them. For now anyway, the Wild Card candidate from that division is Denver at 7-4. Along with Denver there is Baltimore, now 7-4 due to its loss to NE yesterday. J'Ville which is at 6-5 following their loss to Minnesota. Then there is the Jets at 8-3 after their close win against the Cardinals. Is it possible for us to get in? Well, lets start with J'ville. We are only one game back from them and they have games remaining against Pitt (10-1), Chicago (4-7), GB which is away (6-4), Houston (5-6) and away at Oak. (4-7). Certainly the Pitt and GB games will be tough. Two losses and the best they finish is 9-7. …And thus it came to pass. As predicted, they lost the Vikings, and the Steelers and then we got lucky with the loss to Houston. The question is, can we finish 10-6? It isn't likely but the schedule isn' t that bad. They are away at Miami (2-9), Cinn (5-6) and SF (1-10) with home dates against Cleveland (3-8) and Pitt (10-1). The Steelers game is the last of the season and so might not be of much interest for them. Perhaps they will be resting their starters. The Bengals on the road is the toughest of that group until you get to the Steelers. It is certainly not impossible for us to go 10-6. We are one step away from doing just that. Denver is at 7-4 with games left at SD (8-3), Ten (4-7) and KC (3-8). They are also at home against Indy (8-3). With two 8-3 teams on the schedule, it is not impossible for them to finish with at least two more losses. Any slip up against the others and they are 9-7 at best. Obligingly and according to our evil plan for world domination, the Broncos did lose to SD, slipped up against the Chiefs. Now we just need them to stick to the script for one more week and lose to Indy. As for Baltimore, they are 7-4 with away games at Indy and Pitt to go as well as games against the Giants and the Bengals, two middle of the road teams that are dangerous. I think the Ravens are looking at two losses minimum over the rest of the season. If anything weird happens, they could slip up against the Giants or Bengals. That would make them 9-7 at best. That is exactly what happened, they lost to Indy and Pitt and were upset by the Bengals. The Ravens gave up 24 points in the 4th quarter and the Bengals drove 60 yards in 1:30 or so for a FG to win it at the buzzer. The Jets at 8-3 have an away game at Pitt and a home games against NE still on the schedule. They easily could lose those (they did) and also have to play Houston (5-6), Seattle (6-5) and St. Louis (5-5). Essentially they are playing two of the best in the league and then three against aspiring teams with solid records. Again, it wouldn't take much for them to lose at least one of those games. So far they haven’t but we have one more chance for them to unravel. In short it is a long shot that just got a tiny bit shorter.

I know, we have a lot of football left to play this year but that shouldn't stall the speculation over the 2005 draft from getting off the ground. I am thinking that moving Vincent to FS solves one problem but creates another. We gain a FS but lose a CB. Picking up another decent CB prospect should definitely be in the plan somewhere. The OL, despite playing much better, still needs work. Apart from re-signing some people, we still need a G. Assuming we lose Henry, we need a solid second string RB. The defense is playing so well it is hard to poing to any real problems. I would say that our weakest points on defense are probably the ends and Posey. Schobel is competent but not much more and that is a position where you'd like to see a guy who can wreak havoc once in a while. Posey is not the rushing LB we thought we were getting. Both Spikes and Fletcher do a better job on the blitz. Kelsay is coming on so we might have that positon finally filled. If Drew doesn't come back next year, we will need a third string QB. Lindel is okay but nothing special. I'd hate to have to rely on him to make a 49 yarder to win a playoff game. Maybe this is the year we have the luxury of affording to use a pick on a place kicker.

Get the wax out of your ears, he didn't say "play for a winner", he said he wanted to play "for the highest bidder". I don't think AW is too upset, he cashed in on the big money that is every player's plan once their first contract is up.

Wide Receiver Review Larry Fitzgerald: Taken with the third pick in the draft by Arizona, Fitzgerald started 15 games snagging 55 catches for 744 yards and 8 TDs not to mention 34 first downs. Roy Williams: Taken by Detroit with the 7th pick in the draft. He started 11 games, made 50 catches for 7 TDs, 755 yards and 31 first downs. Reggie Williams: Taken by J’ville with the 9th pick in the draft. He has started 15 games but only has 27 catches for 268 yards and one TD to go with 14 first downs. Lee Evans: Taken by the Bills with the 13th pick, he has only started 11 games but has 46 catches for 780 yards, 9 TD’s and 37 first downs. His average per catch is over 17 yards. Michael Clayton: Taken by Tampa Bay with the 15th pick in the draft, Clayton has started 12 games and has a whopping 78 catches for 1107 yards, 6 TD’s and 54 FD’s. Michael Jenkins: Taken by the Falcons with the 29th pick. He hasn’t started a game and has only 6 catches. Rashaun Woods: Taken by SF with the 31st pick of the first round. He has no starts, only 4 or 5 catches and 1 TD. Devery Henderson: Taken with the 18th pick in the second rd., 50th overall by the Saints. He was a hold out, missed a week or two of camp. Hurt his hamstring in October and has only played in one game, zero catches. Darius Watts: Taken by Denver with the 22 pick in the second Rd., 54th overall. Has only two starts but has played in every game, 31 catches and 1 TD. Keary Colbert: Carolina picked him with the 30 the pick in the 2nd, 62nd overall. Has 14 starts, 45 catches, 715 yards and 5 TD’s. Ernest Wilford: Taken by J’ville in the 4th round with the 24th pick, 120th overall. He actually has 16 catches though he is credited for 17 (the TD against Buffalo was not a catch). He has 215 yards and 2 legal TD’s to go with the illegal one in Buffalo. Clarence Moore: Taken by the Ravens with the 34th pick in the 6th, 199 overall (comp pick). Moore has started 5 or 6 games and played in almost all of their games. He has 23 catches for 279 yards and 4 TD’s. Jonathan “Fast Freddie” Smith: Buffalo took him in the last round with the 13th pick, 214th overall. He has 3 catches and has run 2 reverses. He has returned punts, one for a TD and several others for over 20 yards. Patrick Crayton: Dallas picked him with the 15th in the 7th, 216th overall. He has 7 catches for 104 yards and a TD. I skipped some who are basically complete non factors but who were expected to be. We obviously did very well with Lee Evans but Clayton so far is the stud of the first round group and of the upper echelon guys, none appear to be busts although I am sure Reggie Williams has been a bit of a disappointment so far. Jenkins, Henderson and Woods are possible busts but they were taken so late in the first and in Henderson’s case, the second, that I don’t think you can label them busts for not hitting stride in their first year. Overall, I’d have to say that is one of the best WR draft classes ever. Evans, with his speed has a chance to be the best of the lot. To be fair, I haven’t seen much of Clayton and some of the others but even so, I don’t know if I have ever seen that much speed in a Bills uni. He reminds me of Marvin Harrison who I watched at Syracuse for 4 years. Harrison runs a sub 4.3 40 yard dash. That makes Torry Holt look slow.