The Frankish Reich

You will love him as soon as he anoints Allen as the once-again frontrunner for the MVP.

Not to worry. I will transcribe any Collinsworth praise of Mac Jones, Bill Belichick, and the Patriots for you. I may even start a separate thread on it, just like those recurring "Chris Simms says Allen now playing like the genetically engineered son of Staubach and Favre" threads. 9:07 EST: Collinsworth suggests, Michaels agrees, that Chargers kind of happy that Miami took Tua and they were left with Herbert. More to come.

I thought posting a snarky reply like this, but I couldn't come up with the right pop culture late 1970s reference. I thought Donna Summer, but that just didn't seem to capture it. Debbie Harry is ... perfect. Congratulations, Sir Andrew - your mind is just a tiny bit more cluttered with pointless knowledge than mine.

You're right - a select text/quote error on my part. But the point is some other poster is just horribly wrong about 80% of life! 😜

So people will know what I'm disagreeing with you on? EDIT: sorry, I misread your take on Brown. Hey, we agree on that one!

Edmunds: I disagree. He was a risk because he was so young - by the time he hits his peak years, he'll be a free agent - but he's been really good and well worth the pick. Oliver: yeah, I wish he were the second coming of Aaron Donald, but he's been generally productive. I think I would've liked an O lineman with that pick. Bass: fantastic. A steal. Epenesa: with where he was chosen I think the pick was fine. I don't think using high picks on Epenesa, Rousseau, and Basham in consecutive drafts was wise. Brown: he looks like he'll be a good one, and he's already a starter. What do you want from a 3rd rounder? And Doyle was a 5th rounder, which is always kind of a crapshoot.

True. But I think this may say more about the state of the 2021 Seahawks than the excellence of a Cardinals team with McCoy at QB.

In retrospect, the soft early schedule was not our friend. When you have "the #1 defense" after 9 games and you've played: - the Steelers - the Dolphins - WFT - the Texans - Dolphins again - the Jaguars - the Jets for 7 of them, maybe you shouldn't be so sure that the numbers tell you something real. And when you start 5-2 and people are calling you the Super Bowl favorites, maybe you don't make the trade deadline deals you need to make. Maybe standing pat when you know the team has at least a couple major issues (offensive line in general, up the middle defense) wasn't the best idea. In Beane's defense: he hasn't been here before, in this "best team in the conference" situation, at least not as a GM. Another Beane -- Billy -- used to be fond of saying this: the first third of the season is to figure out what you've got and what you need; the second third is to get the parts you need; the third part is to win with them. This Beane probably made some mistakes in the assessment phase (the first third) because our opponents simply weren't good enough to expose our flaws. That caused him to think any problems could be papered over without making some personnel changes. Every other AFC team has its own flaws this season, but ours are looking a little more intractable without personnel changes than, say, the Chiefs. Or dare I say the Pats? Right now if you ask me who has the better chance of going to the Super Bowl this year, the Colts or the Bills, I'd probably have to say the Colts. If you ask me which team has the better chance of making the playoffs 4 or 5 times over the next half dozen years, it's clearly the Bills. Different team building philosophies (Colts: inside-out, build in the trenches, bring in a QB from outside; Bills: use draft capital for skill positions, build the O line and interior D line through veteran signings), different projections for this year vs. the upcoming years.

Yeah, I don't think it'll be the Bills. Right now it looks like we're just there in the middle of the playoff pack with every other AFC competitor. It's much more difficult to imagine this team putting it all together in December than, say, the Chiefs or the Ravens. We are more ... the Bengals or the Chargers right now.

Tampa was 7-5 after losing to the Chiefs at Thanksgiving last year. This was 3 weeks after they were blown off the field by the Saints, 38-3. Then they caught fire, never lost again, made the playoffs, had a couple of close playoff wins, and promptly destroyed the Chiefs in the Super Bow. Some team will probably also peak in December/January this year. I will admit the extreme upsets are just plain more extreme this year, but it's a matter of degree, not a whole new thing.

I think you could say this about every ostensibly good team. We've seen what the Cardinals are without Kyler, what the Packers are without Aaron, etc., etc.

You aren't paying attention. 7.66 BILLION total vaccines administered worldwide to date. 3.26 BILLION persons fully vaccinated. While some people fantasize about sci-fi control scenarios and worry about shrinking testicles, most of the world is getting on with it and doing something productive.

I told you - read up on the branch of philosophy known as ethics. You are adopting an extreme libertarian position, which is fine as long as you understand what you're doing. You don't.

I didn’t say “the science is still out” re kids and COVID vaccines. The science is most definitely in: they are safe and effective. I would like to see more epidemiological data about risk of spread among children for one thing. We continue to mandate measles vaccines even though an individual kid’s chances of getting it - THANKS TO THE HIGH VACCINE RATE - is low. Nothing immoral about that. You need to study your ethics.

I hated this case and everything it said about modern day America. - Black man shot by cops. A tragedy? Yes. He's crippled for life. Justifiable shooting? I think so. The cops were called to a classic dangerous/domestic violence scene, and the alleged perpetrator/victim (take your pick, they both fit the bill) did something stupid that caused the cop to think he was probably reaching for something dangerous. - Idiot antifa "protesters" - White protesters - see this as an excuse to break stuff and burn someone else's city down. Some bring guns to a peaceful protest. - Idiot chubby girlish looking Illinois boy decides he's gonna be the big man and brings his rifle to the riot. Tries to act tough patrolling the streets of someone else's city in someone else's state. And shockingly it all ends with dead bodies. From what I saw of the evidence and read of the law, I probably would've acquitted him too. He was guilty of stupidity, of trying to inflame an already explosive situation, but probably not of homicide under Wisconsin law under these circumstances. He is no hero. He is a moron. An acquitted moron, but a moron nonetheless. So too are his victims (or, as the judge would have it, recipients of his bullets). I've always disliked that old phrase that always pops up around here: "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes." But it applies here better than any other sentiment. People: just stop. Stop trying to get back at the man by breaking stuff and burning things of innocent people. Stop trying to be a self-appointed hero by fighting back against Idiot Team A by forming Idiot Team B. Respect the law. Protest and call for justice where you should. Jacob Blake? Not a hero. Cop who shot Jacob Blake? Not a hero (or a villain; just a cop trying to protect himself when an arrest went bad). Mr. Grosskreutz, the survivor with no biceps? Rittenhouse? Not a hero. Other than the wrong-place, wrong-time cop, all parts of the problem, not the solution.

It's a jackass move by Kroenke's lawyers, but that only makes him the biggest jackass in a stable of jackasses. The remaining NFL owners would have no potential liability unless they were complicit in the St. Louis screwjob. NFL owners are a special club of self-interested pompous billionaires. I have trouble making myself single out Kroenke against the likes of Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder.

That’s the living embodiment of the term “replacement level”

From his wiki page (did he edit it?): Hart started all 16 games in 2019. In 2020, he played in 14 games, starting 13, and was ranked 35th of 52 offensive tackles by Pro Football Focus.[9] Hey, despite the horrific PFF score for about 2 Games of action this year, It turns out that he was solidly below average just last year! Ray of hope … EDIT: I’m not a PFF subscriber so I can’t verify this, but it seems weird That there would be only 52 rated OTs last year. I mean, there’s 64 starting tackles by definition. Maybe the wiki editor is setting a minimum snap count that makes Hart look less awful.

No, hospitalizations for COVID aren’t going away under any current scenario. But “aren’t going to zero” Is kind of different than “are using 100% of our ICU beds.” Silly argument.

It’s the whole “who would play center if both he and Morse go down.” For baseball fans, this is the old manager’s phobia about using his backup catcher as a pinch hitter - what if my starting catcher gets hurt!! This has literally happened no more than a handful of times in 120 years of professional baseball.

Ok. Here we go: - mandates are appropriate for all adults. Period. - mandates are appropriate for older children. I think the studies were typically first done on 12 and ups. And that’s a good line. - whether a mandate is needed for younger children is probably debatable. I see the science as warranting vaccines. But I will say that there is room for debate here, such that a mandate may not be necessary or appropriate for, say, 5 to 10 year olds. And by the way, the “vaccine does not stop you from spreading the infection” is just silly. No, it is not perfect. But greatly reduces the risk of spread is still a great thing.

Ok, so I thought “maybe everyone’s wrong, the contrarians at PFF probably have him as at least adequate.” No. No they don’t. Only 101 snaps this year, but in those snaps they have him rated the LOWEST I HAVE EVER SEEN on PFF. 30.4. For PFF a score in the 50s is kind of replacement level. Ugh.

I “admitted” nothing of the sort (that it is “immoral” to require kids to get the vaccine). I suggested that the full cost-benefit analysis for younger children is still an open question. I told you, I don’t keep track of individual posters. But clearly the poster who said that COVID vaccines “ruin” your immune system would fit within the description of an anti-COVID vaxxer, no? That’s not an argument about personal freedom; it’s an argument (based on …. Nothing) that the vaccine actually does require more harm than good.

I get that. And yes, there's been overreach by a lot of the pro-vaccine types. I think there's plenty of room for debate when it comes to younger children for example. But ... I live in a state (Colorado) that is right now running AHEAD of mid-November 2020 in cases and hospitalizations. We're reaching the point again of having to move people to find ICU beds, etc., etc. And 83% of those hospitalized with COVID complications are unvaccinated. This is a state that is 63% fully vaccinated (a rate that is much higher among adults). The repercussions go way, way beyond the unvaccinated - they impact everyone. No, we are not going to shut the unvaccinated out and leave them to die. As annoyed as I get at unvaccinated adults sucking up our limited health resources, I'm not some kind of ogre - I don't want them shut off from health care. They made a bad choice, just like life-long smokers or the morbidly obese did. While vaccines may not eradicate COVID, they WILL allow us to avoid these kinds of episodes. We are moving toward more COVID restrictions because the unvaccinated are pushing us to another minor health crisis. That limits my freedoms, and it limits them because of stupid misinformation and collective bad decisionmaking of others. That's why I started this thread. That's why it's point - it's time to mandate vaccines - is even more important now.

"The Brownstone Institute." Hmm, sounds reputable ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Tucker Guy who "encountered Austrian economics" at something called Howard Payne University.