UConn James

A sensible route is to get one and have your name put on the back with your favorite number. This is almost always scoffed at here by numerous posters, who apparently have money trees in their yards and like to spur fellow fans to dump cash into the team/NFL coffers every couple of years. But if you don't want it to be obsolete and an expensive closet decoration w/in 3 years.... Going this way, I'd probably go with the third-jersey throwbacks, for longevity purposes, b/c I have to believe the next owner will dump the navy blues, while the throwbacks are very popular b/c they look sharp (I think the throwbacks are TD's best move as GM. Which is kinda sad). Also kinda sad that I don't have anyone on the team that I cheer for like back in the day. I root for the laundry. In my mind, this makes it a little easier to put your own name. Or, as suggested, go with a retired vet (there are some nameplate rules depending where you order it e.g. someone tried to order a specific player on a specific style jersey and NFLstore said they couldn't fulfill the order due to legal restrictions). I'm past the stage of buying/wearing a jersey tho. Just seems like a waste of good money.

As much as I hate he Pats* they didn't do anything wrong. They could've gotten more? Well, that's their own business. Makes sense that they didn't want to do a trade with Denver/TB b/c they might've felt Cassell could be a good QB in the system that McDaniel sets up, with a history of good (tho dirty) OL play and many of the building blocks in place already. Or, rather, they don't want to take the risk that he might be, b/c Denver with a capable QB presents a big threat in the AFC. They traded him to KC, where the recovery program from Herm et al. is probably going to take a while even with Midas-touch Pioli and where Haley might be in over his head. Nothing against the rules in making a tactical move.

I said "to say nothing of" it. Doesn't mean I'm a conspiracy theorist. But, at the same time, I'm not prepared to put anything past that sleazy POS and his personal agenda / ambition. We'll never know the whole truth.

Losing Lee Atwater was a pretty big part, too. Bush the Elder was a decent president. I'd add LBJ to this list. To say nothing of any of his links to the assassination... his micromanagement of Vietnam did almost as much to kill our troops as the VC. My uncle --- who was 1/2 mile from the DMZ at the start of Tet --- has vowed that before he dies, he will eat several bowlfuls of five-alarm chili before sitting on LBJ's grave, and just let it ooze out all over the stone. He'll be arrested, of course, but he's on 100 percent mental disability with the VA, so the lawyer can plead insanity and vouchsafe, it won't be a lie.

Don't forget the 'Lookout' blocking scheme that they run on about 10 percent of the plays.

Where would they have gotten a gun? The shot on the Sawyer's paddle was a shotgun pattern. Which suggests 'My condolences' dude. When exactly that happened, we don't know. Also, I think that group was in the zodiac from the freighter that was transported thru the time flashes. Correct me if I'm wrong. Ehhh.... I'm waiting for what Sawyer's reaction is going to be when he learns that Jack and Kate were engaged and doing the hibbity-jibbity in the alternate time-string. As well as what it was that he asked Kate to do for him (I assume it has to do with Sawyer's daughter, Clementine Philips, in Phoenix).

I'm not going to say for sure that it's the case in this situation... But sometimes people facing legal action plead nolo contendere for relatively minor offenses in exchange for ultimately having any charges disappear. Sometimes it's easier to just "Dance for the Man" and have done with it than to have a cloud continuously hanging over you. With college classes and games (where it was maybe his most important year to perform in order to get to the NFL), why risk distractions like random court dates, having to pay an attorney, or the DA getting overly rambunctious or in a railroad state of mind (see: Nifong in the Duke case) to make you a example b/c you defy them... when you can go to a soft-touch class and do some community service over summer break and be done with it? Some people can do this, others fight doggedly to clear their name of any mark, and often make a bigger problem/scene that snowballs. Now, that the DA essentially dropped the charges, it kinda sounds like such a situation of dancing for the man. His taking a lie detector test also indicates that he wanted to prove to his teammates and everyone that racial slurs didn't happen; shows commitment to the team, his relationship with teammates to not have them see him differently b/c of what someone said he said, was his main priority. No other incidents seem to indicate he learned a lesson of avoiding putting himself in bad situations.

Why would the Bills want to do something like that? It would put Linda Bogdan (Ralph's daughter / chief OL scout) on a serious hot seat. No dice.

I'm considering the context, here. In the middle of a snowstorm, how many people can even see a crosswalk? And then, it was not he who jaywalked in the first place --- he was helping some elderly women who first jaywalked to get across the street b/c they were having trouble. Was he supposed to stay completely out of the road and only use the crosswalk and just let people get hit and say "But I couldn't jaywalk to save them! I just couldn't!"? This is along the lines of charging someone with indecent exposure if they have to use their swimming trunks as an emergency tourniquet. There are times when fast action to help those in need necessarily flouts a legal technicality, but for the much greater good. In such a time, also, it's on drivers to use common sense (which, isn't a common thing these days...) do everything they can to avoid an accident. Here, the guy saved people's lives and is getting ticketed (an update says the PD is now reconsidering the ticket). That the cop refused to grant any lenience given the real-life circumstances, is pretty stevestojanny.

Injured good Samaritan ticketed for jaywalking : Man helped push 3 people out of path of pickup truck before being struck Wow this cop is a prick.

I just find it funny that you think it's impossible for the military/govt to decide that they also need our First Amendment rights. Or, say, the Sixth Amendment rights just become inconvenient to them. What happens when the 48th POTUS decides he wants to become dictator-for-life and has the support of the military, and by that time with a liberal youth bent, guns have been outlawed? Better stock up on those kneepads, people. --- This is the start of the pendulum swinging back. Bush pushed it further to the right than it's been in a long time, now I suppose it's going to be going further to the left than ever on the momentum of the backswing.

I haven't gone back to look. In the Bernard & Rose episode, at that healing place... was there a well there? I seem to remember one when Bernard was bending down to talk to a little girl with crutches. But that could just be my mind playing tricks on me. BTW - what the hell ever happened to Bernard & Rose?

So, they're saying that in order to make Mexico safer, we need to !@#$ over our Constitution. Yeah, that sounds 'bout right. And it won't do a damn thing, there or here, except to take some guns out of law-abiding citizens' hands. And, for those clammoring 'who needs an assault rifle anyway?!?'... the laws are written intentionally broad so that traditional rifles will be included. If you think this is just for AKs, Uzis, you're wrong. They'll start arguing that since .30-06 or .22 rifles can potentially be modified in assault-weapon-like ways, those need to be banned too. There are bad things coming, people. Bad things.

The sh-tty thing is, I wasted my time and my money at the U. Graduated summa cum laude and I couldn't buy an unpaid internship, much less a job where people with 10+ years experience lined up in droves. Now, five years out I'm unemployable in it, even if anyone were hiring or will be hiring if a miracle takes place. I've been working construction (what I did during summers) ever since. Really am at the crossroads and it's like whatever direction I choose there's a 'Do Not Enter' sign. When people see "journalism" their eyes get all beady, and they grow dark and secretive like some kind of Tolkien character. I'm considering sending my diploma back to the registrar's office.

Well, that's the point, and there's the rub. When most every paper closes shop, there won't be much of anything left to link to on the Internet re: news. W/o it, what's the Internet going to become? Pornography (as ever), and a sounding board for dopes in message boards/chat who get their info from the broadcast media sounding board with 'news' like "Man Shoots Neighbor" --> a bunch of mouth-breathers saying, "He was always so quiet," "I never thought something like that could happen here." Over and over and over. Retard rodeo here we come. For a while now, folks have just been debating about how print media could survive in the digital age. They dragged their feet for the past couple of decades and no one seems to have come to any real answer. And they're going to die now. Them's breaks, boys and girls. The more people have grown accustomed to getting their news for free (as if it just writes itself) the more they now expect to continue getting their news for free. Well, that gravy train is going to be coming to an end one way or the other.

Some not so good news... but it's not dreadfully bad news, considering the powerhouse that is AI. (I just don't get the appeal or the point of Idol, tho. The entire concept is retarded, nevermind the people. I've never watched it. Not a minute. And I never will. What I do know is gleaned from talking heads and the moments where I can't get to the remote fast enough to avoid a blurb on entertainment news crap shows.) Overnights for 18 Feb. Overnights for last night. Why LOST’s Nielsen ratings struggles won’t matter much to fans Especially the bit at the end about the DVD sales. This is something I have noticed among some LOST fans --- they'll wait for the DVDs and watch it all at once.

Well, Desmond may 'get it' but with the island and 'the universe course corrects' he and they are essentially powerless to stop from being pawns. What we're seeing here this season is the players gathering all the pieces so they can play. At this point, it doesn't matter to the players if the ones they're collecting are not their pieces --- they just need to get them to the island. (For a better explanation, two players playing chess, setting up the board, the white player could arrange whatever of the black player's pieces he randomly picks up, to ready the board and get the game going. But. Once real play starts, you only use your own color.) He more lied about the sawed-off shotgun from under the desk. The woman Alicia(?) (who... looked like Ana-Lucia, has a similar name, and also appears to be a law enforcement officer, as she was escorting Sayid) saw something bulky go in the bag, not paper. And he showed her the flashlight. I've also been wondering what the ratings for the show have been for last week and this week, going head-to-head with American Idol. I remember seeing that the season premiere had a pretty healthy Neilsen (especially compared to some stretches in the past couple of years).

I don't know that the island is done with Ben... as Widmore said, there's a war coming. Now, it's all convoluted as to what exactly the sides are in the war. Is Widmore part of Dharma or is he going to try to rejoin the Others/hostiles? Just don't know enough to decide if Widmore is 'good' or 'bad' --- and I get the sense that there's a whole moral relativism thing brewing where no one is either one or the other; they're just acting in their own selfish wont. Some may be more evil than others in our eyes, for sure. It has me thinking back to Locke playing games, and that website "Lost is a game" as well as Desmond's line from the repeat last night that it's all a game. It's going to be interesting to see how Locke reacts to Ben. Whether he wants vengeance or whether he sees that what happened had to happen in order for them all to get back to the island. Locke needed to die and he died. Just odd to see Locke get to that point with a noose around his neck... even with his character's floating b/w faith and elation and then doubt and depression, it just seemed odd that after so many times of his faith and his purpose / destiny being renewed that he would just give up. I just wonder about the Others... whether they too are conning him into doing their bidding, telling him that he's their man, and then they're just going to dump him. Jokeman, I'm pretty sure that it wasn't after finding out about Jin, but you make a point that I was going to bring up about Ben's demeanor doing a 180. It was right after Locke said he was going to see a woman named Eloise Hawking in LA. Ben grabbed the cord and went at it. Going off from the above graph about some being more evil than others, what is yet to be revealed about Ben's actions (esp. with the suspected killing of Penny) we the audience will want him dead. And I'm talking we're going to want his head on a !@#$ pike, disemboweled, drawn and quartered. We're going to want it to hurt, and we're going to want him to see all of his plans fail right before he suffers an agonizing death. (Remember, this was --- did he mean it or was it more a play to get Kate's and Sawyer's release --- Jack's plan during the surgery.) I think last night was just the start to building up a real audience rage against Ben. As for the plane, well, we see that it did crash and at least half of the O6 were sucked out by the (final?) timeflash... 'My condolences' dude said all 6 were, tho. Am I right in seeing that they crashed on the smaller island from the first part of S3? Or is it another station? Also, 'My condolences' dude doesn't quite sit right with me. He seems to be a little too involved/interested/yet incurious (he didn't even look at the maps) for all of this to be new to him... and he seems to've found the station a little too soon. But I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night so I could be wrong.

The series went too slowly and there wasn't nearly enough action. There's only so much dramatic tension that can be built up by a guy looking at a computer or getting text messages in his basement, and they did that sh-- for ~ the first season and a half. It's really too bad that the character writing and action blend didn't get actually interesting until the last half of the second season. The finale was really good, which sucked b/c you thought to yourself 'Why couldn't the series have been more like this?'

Which lead me to wonder about it in an above post. Dude isn't affiliated but he got access. A post-BB-game presser isn't quite to the tune of the whole Jeff-Gannon-Gate thing at the White House, but you just wonder who gave this guy a photog pass (and did he even have a professional-style camera?) and what their purpose was. As I said, it may be a little passive-aggressive posturing from the U/state in Calhoun's contract year.

According to the senior Hartford Courant sports columnist I quoted above, the reporter was invited by Calhoun to discuss the issue in the hall after the post-game. (Which suggests to me that Calhoun's temper/irritation had subsided and he wanted to seriously address the question.) This invitation was declined. As I wrote above, this tells me everything I need to know about the questioner's intent. If Kreyske were really after the story, as any journo will tell you, he would have met with Calhoun. The guy didn't want an answer, he wanted a scene. And let's be clear. I'm well aware that officially you don't need any kind of credential/education requirement to be a reporter b/c that would be against the First Amendment. ... But, the man involved is otherwise a longstanding political operative in the Green Party, and I guess they are trying to make some kind of point. He is not a student reporter as the thread title asserts.

A good write-up by Jeff Jacobs of the Courant. Calhoun Owes Answer, Not Refund This last graph in my quote says all I need to know. Calhoun can be abrasive, it's his style, you just accept it. (And hey, he doesn't throw chairs and choke his players --- his abrasiveness is words.) He offered to talk to the reporter after the post-game and the little turd stole off into the night. Tells me all I need to know. Krayeske didn't want a story. He wanted a scene. Picked the easiest mark in Calhoun. (BTW, in something remembered by the state's journos, this dude was arrested for impeding the gov's inaugural parade a while back too. Anyone see a pattern here?)

That said, the governor wasn't too keen on the outburst. She called Calhoun's response an "embarrassing display." After a night's rest, maybe it was. He could simply have said that that's his negotiated contract, the team makes lots of money for the U and the state, he gives plenty of money back to the U and the state through his gifts and multiple charities, he doesn't want to talk about financials and that this post-game presser isn't the venue, next question. What can you say? It's the Irish in him, ya know? That personality that makes him an effective coach to the tune of 2 national championships isn't something he leaves on the hardwood --- it is him. A little gruff... but the dude didn't even come prepared with any facts or figures and admitted so on the tape. If he was really interested in discussing the financials, he would've and should've known the financials. As it was, this little turd was there to be the story. Wonder how all this affects a contract negotiation (his contract is up at the end of this season). Also wondering if this wasn't a little preconceived passive-aggressive stunt on the state's/U's part in advance of any negotiation... e.g. to create the air that the state is hard up and people want him to give money back, so he'd better not be looking for more than he's making now --- $1.6M/yr.

Back when I was at the U, I'd see him jogging around campus pretty often. Never said anything, he probably enjoys that as a moment of peace and I don't like to bother people. Saw and met many of the players --- men's and women's --- too. Actually sat next to Sue Bird in a gen-ed class one of the years they won the national championship... she's a good sh-- and pretty good-looking (I made no attempts there, tho). I hope this douchebag got the message not to f--- with a legend w/o hard proof. That was just an a--hole thing to do.

Besides the $ brought in via ticket sales, etc. ($14M for a championship, which we've won 2 under him), there's the free advertising he brings to the U. In the late-80s/early-90s UConn was a !@#$ hole. It was a !@#$ hole. Attention via the sports programs brought on $2B of state funding to make it what it is today --- an elite public university that now delivers back to the state three-fold in economic output. The athletic dept has been self-supportive for a long time, and same as other schools, basketball and football pay the way for the lower-tiered sports that are required for Title IX and give opportunity to a lot of students and enjoyment to fans. This is to say nothing of all the stuff that the coaches have given back to the U. E.g. For the library renovation, Auriemma donated funding for a large reading room and the book self-check-out center (which is why Calhoun's "I'm not giving a penny back' wasn't accurate, in his own favor). It's the way the books are organized that makes the coaches technically a 'state employee.' How many other single state employees bring in the kind of $ they do?