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Dan

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Everything posted by Dan

  1. Despite still being a very solid team, and a team the Bills can't beat, the Patriots* are definitely a team on the down swing. For all the talk every year about them winning the Superbowl, the last one they won was 6 seasons ago. Of course, they lost 2 years ago, but the last two years they've been one and done in the playoffs. As long as they have the core of the team there - Brady, Belichick, and a few others - they'll be competitive. But, I think it's time for Pats* fans to realize that their best days are well behind them and growing smaller in the mirror every season.
  2. I probably shouldn't have included the link, huh? Dang it! I do love that place though... go almost every time I'm in town which I hope is in about 2 weeks.
  3. Looking at the voting results.. it makes you wonder how these franchise chain places stay in business!! I travel quite a bit and always prefer a local restaurant over the chain places. But, I'll say that the overriding decision point (for me) usually revolves around quality of food and appearance of the place. Quality of food is a given... if your food sucks, why would I go there. The advantage of a larger franchise place is you know pretty much what you're going to get walking in. IHop is IHop, Texas Roadhouse is Texas Roadhouse. You expect a certain quality of food, cleanliness and type of staff when you walk in those places. You don't always get it, but that tends to turn you off on that one restaurant not the chain overall. The problem, as I see it, for the local shop is... how do you get someone to walk in your door and determine that you have better quality food? You get some business just by being local and it's easy for people living/shopping nearby to walk in. But, that's probably limited business. If you've got enough of that business, you can have a dirty hole in the wall and you stay alive. I find those places when I'm with a local that says... trust me the food is worth it. There's a place in Idaho Falls (Rutabega's) that's like that. From the outside, you'd probably never walk in. It's in a small building, you can't see in, you'd hardly know it's a restaurant at all. Walk in and the place is great with some of the best food anywhere I've been. Anther great one is Vino's in Little Rock. Pizza place that looks a little skeevy to walk in based on the neighborhood but a local said I had to - best pizza in town. It is - I go every time I'm back there. But, if you want to try and get a completely new customer. You do that by having a clean, well-lit restaurant; professionally signed with a cleaned parking lot and exterior. Essentially, you need to look like a clean, safe, inviting place for a stranger to walk into. Giuseppe's Ritrivo in Bexley, OH (Columbus) is a great place. Driving down the street, you can see inside the windows, clean place, lots of hot girls waiting on the tables; a little bar area for lounging while you wait. Why wouldn't you go in to try it out? I did and it's one of my favorite places anywhere - a little pricey, but hey... what's money, right? Interesting that no one here has said anything about price, either. I guess we're an elitist bunch here - no chain food and damn the price! But, I'd add that if you're in an area with other restaurants, especially pizza places, you need to be priced comparatively. There's a pizza place in Chicago - Bacci's (it's a local chain place). They don't have the best pizza in town; but I can get a ginormous slice and medium coke for $5. That's a great deal for lunch. Hence, they get my business when I'm in a hurry and just need to eat and go. Bottom line: IMO, make a great pizza (maybe calzone too) first, then figure out the best way to get the customers you want in the door. Just a few things to think about.
  4. My wife and I enjoy these show as well. We've seen them all.. several times. A few points that come to my mind while watching them... They have to make a few leaps in their logic or thinking. Otherwise, there wouldn't be much of a show. First, we can't definitely prove aliens were here. And second, logic tends to dictate a simpler answer that can be proven. So, I think they have to make a few "jumps" to carry the storyline further and in a more interesting direction. I've never quite bought into the whole, ancient civilizations weren't advanced enough to build or do certain things. I think there's an ego centric bias in that thinking. It's amazing what people can visualize and do when they don't have a TV running all day and night draining their brain. I think it's more logical to conclude that human civilization has lost just as much technology and knowledge through the sands of time and war as we've lost entire cities and cultures. I've never quite followed the logic either that there's ancient carvings, sculptures, what have you of flying objects. Therefore, these people must have seen something flying. Why would they put them in artwork if they didn't exist? I'd offer for the same reason that we do it today. They had imagination and used that imagination to tell stories. Imagine our culture being wiped out in some catastrophic event and a few thousand years someone finds a few toys from the movie star wars and concludes that these things were real. I think it important to remember that we're only seeing a small window of what an ancient civilization was like. We only see what survives, not everything that it encompassed. Yet, everything discovered is viewed in the light of having some great meaning. Maybe? But, maybe some guy was just making some crap up to tell some story.
  5. Jets are proving it's hell for the Bills to be in this division! We have to go against a team that been in the AFC championship game for 2 consecutive years and then you have Pats*. How do we ever get to the playoffs?
  6. ...and we should all continue to blame Donte for being drafted. Why couldn't he have just told the Bills when the called him that he didn't deserve to be drafted that high and respectfully hang up the phone? It's all his fault!
  7. That's an understatement IMO. I've contended for years that they're literally wasting roster spots by keeping the 2 or 3 TEs they have. Have any of our TEs done anything? It's like we're playing with 10 guys on offense. I say cut them all and add a few players that might actually contribute something to the team.
  8. For me at least, it's not about whether or not we can do better than Donte; it's about creating a hole just to fill it again. Donte is a good safety. Not great, not top 5, but plenty good enough to start. If you let him walk, you'll have to replace him. OK, George Wilson but, then who's backup? You need depth. Right now, our secondary is set. Is it the best in the league? No. But, it's by far not the worst unit on the team. IMO, if you want to build a winning team, you leave the functioning pieces alone and concentrate on the areas (LB, DLine, TE) that are completely non-functioning. Yeah, maybe Whitner wants too much money. My only question there would be does paying him $7mill/yr restrict you from signing the right players in other areas of need. As far under the cap as this team is, I'm not at all convinced paying him a few million more is going to hurt the team. Maybe give him some of Kelsay's money. Because if I had my choice.. I'd take Whitner on this team any day of the week over Kelsay. If anything, seeing Nix re-sign Kelsay and potentially letting Whitner walk, gives me great pause as to his abilities to evaluate the needs of this team and how to address them.
  9. Actually, I was thinking about congress on the state level. I guess you could argue that, that's still too broad and it should be county level laws. I'd imagine there's pros and cons to both.
  10. American Idol gets some of the highest ratings out there. Is that quality TV? I highly doubt it. Just because you're popular doesn't mean you're of high quality. It just means you're able to tell/show the people what they want to hear/see in a way they want to hear/see. I do agree competition tends to make things better. But, that's not always the case either. And, believe me, I'd never say that only hardcore conservatives watch FOX because I watch it quite frequently and I'd be reluctant to call myself a hardcore conservative.
  11. I understand the concept quite well. I just don't insinuate that diversification means increased quality. Increased quality is certainly a possibility of diversification, but it's not a given by any means. I think we could also agree that quality is in the eye of the viewer as well.
  12. You see CYA from the sheriff, others see partisan rhetoric as the root of his comments. Maybe the guy's just incompetent. I honestly don't know what, if anything, motivates his actions or inaction. I think the concern is that if we "pre-emptively" lock people up or order them for counseling based upon patterns of behavior, we're on a slippery slope. I'm sure many would bring up the McCarthyism of the 50's. Who determines what behaviors are bad, what patterns warrant counseling, etc? Imagine the flack a congress person would get for proposing a bill that youtube accounts be reviewed for suspicious behavior?
  13. I agree. Both sides share equally in the divisive nature of the political climate in this country. No, I'm not changing my point. I'm clarifying my point because you misinterpreted it. I would completely disagree with the bolded statement. Or are you suggesting that MSNBC is filled with quality programming? I do hope it settles down, because IMO all it's doing is making this country more divided than we've been in quite some time. And that's not good.
  14. I can agree that there was a pattern there. But, the police can't arrest or commit someone based on a pattern of misdemeanors and odd behavior. It's no different than the husband that beats his wife, she gets a restraining order, and he eventually kills her. There's little the police can do. Yes he was convicted of beating her, lost his job, called her every night and called her names, even bought a gun. But, none of that means they can do anything. Of course, when he snaps and shoots her; we all knew it was coming. But, they can't put the guy in jail because he fits a pattern of a person that abuses his wife and then kills her. Perhaps this nut's mom had something to do with the sheriff not being more strict with the guy; I don't really know. But, there's also, legally, very little anyone could have done to stop this.
  15. Actually my point has more to do with the amount of hateful discourse than the actual level of hate. Yes, there's hate-filled rhetoric, just as there always has been. But, what has happened (or so it seems) is it's become much, much more frequent and all intrusive.
  16. Prior to his shooting rampage, what had he done to warrant a full investigation, let alone being committed? The police don't investigate every kid that gets in trouble with campus police. They certainly don't cruise the web looking at youtube accounts. They don't even investigate people that commit multiple misdemeanors like smoking pot. It's easy with hind sight to say this guy was troubled. But, how many people are walking the streets right now that behave similarly. There are lots of social outcasts running around taking drugs and spouting anti-government, anti-everything rhetoric. But, there's little anyone can do until they actually commit a serious enough crime to warrant an investigation.
  17. Apparently you fail to realize that his cartoons are not germane to my point. Furthermore, you again assume that you're the only person that's familiar with his work. Do you always make so many wrong assumptions?
  18. Actually, you only mentioned one other thing - he had run ins with Campus security and was suspended from college. That's not a whole bunch. I guess you did say there's "an additional stack of EVIDENCE" as well. I guess that counts as a bunch of things? Boy you got me there. You're right, the Sheriff needs to check up on all the youtube accounts of the college drop outs and lock any up that say some weird stuff.
  19. I don't pretend that there as been NO hate-filled discord between the parties prior to the Clinton administration. I'm well aware that there's a long history of it in this country. Perhaps none as severe as the 20 years or so leading up to the Civil War. What I'm saying is that it seems, in the last 20 years, to have become much more prevalent, such that it's far more common to have people slinging mud than it is respectful disagreement. And are you seriously drawing a comparison to a Genesis video showing Reagan as a puppet and someone showing Bush with a noose around his neck or some of the imagery thrown at Obama? Come on. I'm not referring to Chevy Chase making fun of Ford tripping and falling down. I'm referring to a Congress so determined to undermine a presidency that they launch a 6 or 7 year , non stop investigation just to eventually prove the guy got a blow job. Huge difference.
  20. Just because it's something I've long thought, but never really seen anyone else make such a claim. So, I've long wondered did things really start to go down hill in the 90's or did I just become aware of things in the 90's. I agree, I'm not referring to anything policy related; just the manner in which people talk about the policies. Each side's comments have become increasingly polarized, increasingly extreme, and increasingly bitter, IMO.
  21. You're funny. I suppose everyone who's made a ranting youtube video should be committed? Must be a nice world in which you live.
  22. I would suggest that you assume quite a bit. Interesting to see you say that. I've often said that the vitriolic rhetoric really escalated in the early Clinton years and has gone downhill since - getting worse with each successive administration. Of course, being the age I am, I didn't really pay too much attention to pilloried prior to the 90's. So I really couldn't say if that really is a turning point or if it's just an awareness point, on my part.
  23. Ravens at Steelers is turning into a flag fest. Seems every other play is a penalty of sorts.
  24. Time for new material.
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