The Frankish Reich

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.

If I mis-ascribed some of these thoughts to you, my apologies. Honestly, I don't keep track of individual posters. I'll just point out that we now have something of a divergence of arguments (if they deserve that lofty term) among the anti-mandate/anti-vaccine posters here: - the ones who've backed off the conspiratorial thinking. We have almost a year of experience with the major COVID vaccines, and it's obvious that the fears of some kind of awful wave of side effects just ain't happening. So they say things like "but it won't completely eradicate COVID, so the herd immunity argument in favor of a mandate is a bad one." Those are the arguments I'm taking on here. - the ones who are now starting, little by little, to let their wacko conspiratorial ideas leak out. You know who you are. The use of the term "Big Pharma" is a giveaway. So too is some bizarro Digital Control thing that seems to be a repackaged Bill Gates Micro-Chipped My Ass thing.

Do you think we'll see Josh Rosen? Good Josh vs. Bad Josh.

Nathan Peterman's competition!

Well, we have the Jets, Dolphins, Texans, WFT among our wins, with only the signature defeat of the Chiefs so far to set us apart ... oh, and a loss to the jags.

OK, even down 19 with 2 minutes left, that's a bad interception.

Josh Rosen time! So glad I stuck it out.

Jim Kelly says hi

There's nothing "mediocre" about Ryan's career. 14 years, 58,000 passing yards, 362 TD passes ... he may not make the HOF (that SB loss is a killer), but there's lesser QBs already inducted.

You guys may be right, although a really smart/disciplined QB with a really subpar arm can still succeed in a good offensive system. The aforementioned Pennington, the post-injury Montana, Drew Brees his last couple years. The good thing is there seems to be a ceiling - good enough to make the playoffs, never good enough to make it to the SB.

Good lord. Falcons can't make anything happen.

Interception! You know what, I changed my mind. I said Leslie Frazier won't let Mac Jones have all those dinks and dunks. I was wrong. I think he will! We have the playmakers on defense to eventually capitalize on a tip or bad pass, and our offense isn't going to be utterly incompetent like the Falcons. This IS the way to beat the Pats.

Right. Ryan's best year was the one after the SB. He's been decent on bad teams since then, but he no longer has the ability to carry a weak team/offense.

They never recovered after losing Patrick DiMarco.

I think Atlanta (me too!) kind of got fooled by this idea that modern day QBs can play at a high level into their late 30s or beyond. Brady, Brees, Rivers, to a lesser extent Ben ... Ryan is kind of a Hall of the Very Good guy in his career, but some guys still fit the old aging pattern of earlier eras.