UConn James

"America is addicted to oil." It's nice for him to admit that. But I think all that means is he's now not ashamed to admit that hisownself, his family, his friends, and some of his biggest political contributors are our dope dealers. And it doubles to put us on notice that the price on the street is going to go up even more.

The story goes that Washington more or less ordered Thomas Jefferson into his tent one day and asked Jefferson if he had financed some papers that were highly critical of Washington. So, Jefferson did the only thing an honorable man can do in such a situation. He lied. ---------- For what it's worth, governance is never what any one person wants it to be. Which is why compromising, making consessions, and voting with the party that most closely represents your political beliefs is what we're stuck with in our republic. Start your own party, then; if you've got better ideas, you'll win. You don't like the nature of the beast, but it doesn't change the fact that the beast is always going to be there. You'd better get accustomed to that. From the sounds of it, tho, C22 wants everything to be run his way, so he'll have to wait until the Constitution is amended to run for the office of Dictator-for-Life.

This is sig line material.

Which is it? Plates or bowls? But yes. JG is now back in a spot where he can be effective. He seemed to do better when he had someone really experienced with the D to offer him some... I don't want to say supervision...but, guidance might be the word. I wish him luck, except against us.

The standard Red Cross questionnaire includes one for gays. They're asked/told that they should not give blood b/c of a higher statistical chance (I don't know by how much it is; could be 5 percent, could be 50 percent) they might have HIV/AIDS. Link.

I was going to make those same four points before you took the words out of my mouth.

Agreed. He's had quite a change from being the intrepid hunter and tracker to now having a cushy office job in the hatch (see: doing the crossword). Basically, I don't think he minds Jack being the 'president' and setting an idealogical goal/course. But Locke wants control of the nitty-gritty of how to go about acheiving those goals. Jack wants protection from the Others. Locke is likely seeing how 'Zeke'/the Others pwned the small group and took their weapons, which will now, no doubt, be used against them. Jack is essentially going off on his own with Ana-Lucia to form his own 'army.' Locke changes the circumstances by changing the lock on the arsenal, giving him a lot of power, and it looks like it's all building toward that "Locke problem" Jack predicted.

Maybe it's a response to the movie "H2O," where Paul Gross plays a prime minister who... well, let's not give it away. But it's billed as a "cautionary thriller" re: Canada's abundant fresh-water supply, which like any natural resource, the gov't of the country in ownership wants to either use it to make money or protect it for future use. It's not that bad of a movie. Link. I do appreciate Harper's use of the word "sovereignty" whereas the Rebecca Peters' of the world argue that b/c several countries in the UN want to ban guns, the U.S. must ban guns too, b/c she says it'll make the world such a better place. What goes on in the U.S. and Canada and Bumf--kistan with their political systems, with their natural resources, with their choice of floor tile, etc. is up to the people of each country. The Northwest Passage is going to be a reality before too long (probably 5-10 years) as the ice caps melt from all of the global warming that isn't occuring. Who will have use of it if Canada doesn't do anything? What will happen when there's a major environmental accident --- whose problem do you think it will be?

Interesting reads. I'm noting an increase in the number of people who ID as conservative Democrats, as Republicans more and more push the social side of their agenda and ignore the fiscal responsibility stance that got them so many votes over the years. As for the PBS link, does Shaw intersperse "you know" in his sentences all the time? Just like people who say, "Look, blah blah blah" that really puts me off.

What the Palestineans want is: Death. Death. Death. Death! Death! Death! Death! And then there's those of us who don't think it'll get "better." It's a downward spiral. All the more reason for us to get more and more uninvolved.

I dunno about that. They never tried to take Rose.

That far worse alternative being that the U.S. will be forced to clean up the mess. Like always. Don't be surprised when Israel elects a true hard-liner in retaliation, and the sh-- hits the fan. Where do you get off disagreeing with our president, who says that we must forcibly spread democracy (and this was a democratic election by all accounts) b/c 'no two democracies have ever had wars against each other.' Along come Iran and "Palestine" to prove him wrong on the last reason left why we absolutely, positively needed to invade Iraq.

I was referencing Eko's brother Aaron, the priest who was killed. At least, I think that was his brother's name. Wasn't it? That's why he reacted the way he did when he found out the baby's name was Aaron. Both of them have brothers who they tried to save and who tried to save them. Tho, this episode seemed to deal more with spiritual "saving" rather than from imminent physical harm.

It was an obvious setup. She probably worked in the mental hospital that Hurley was in. Count that as one of my more anticipated flashback episodes. Why was he in there? I was fuming a little when Locke clocked Charlie. And then, as everyone just kind of walked away (which was similar to everyone's turn-and-walk-away reaction when it was publicly aired in the S1 finale that Kate was a criminal). But Locke kind of has good reason for what he did. What Charlie didn't learn by being told to stay away, he might learn by being punched. Still, not liking the bad anima building b/w Locke and Charlie; it's headed somewhere.

To be fair, there was the game vs. Cleveland last year where we held them to like 4 yards. Then again it is easier to beat a team whose talent level is below East Bumf--- High School.

Not the best, not the worst, as has been the case in the past few episodes. I think it was an episode where Charlie's flashbacks reveal to his contemporary self that he needs to save himself. But it's weird, how Liam was able to get clean was to screw over Charlie by selling his piano (which = his livelihood (and btw that was a really good song he had going)) and starting a new life in Sydney. It's a complex story going on w/ Charlie and Liam, contrasted with Eko and Aaron last week. So, Liam got clean by needing to save his wife, daughter, marriage. Maybe Charlie figures he needs Claire and Aaron so he can do it by the same method. Pepper in among that, the flashback of his mum saying he needs to "save the family" by playing the piano, and the delusions on the beach (Hurley in the robe was fuggin' hilarious). Problem is, he's on the outs with her. He's tried it before with the British chick and the copier salesman job... which didn't work out either. We've had how many kidnappings of children that coincided with fire/burning? Rousseau set the fire to take Aaron to trade with the Others. Walt was taken and the raft was torched. Charlie starts the fire tonight to baptize Aaron. I want to say that there was another one, but I can't remember who it was. Why did Locke keep the statues in the arsenal? Set them very carefully on the shelf, like he was thinking about something. Blackmail? Some serious red flags are going up. And then, Charlie put his hood up in the last scene; a sign that he's going evil? (I'm referencing the first ep when they met the pilot and he was getting his drugs and he used the hood a lot back when he was using, and tonight right before he set the fire). His eyes had a pretty nasty stare there. And he's probably thinking about getting back at Locke. Line of the night: "You hittin' that?" -- Ana Lucia

Everybody dust off your Bibles. The previews have a lot of early Moses imagery. Given that the baby's name is Aaron and Eko noted that name's relevance in the Moses story, it's not an accident. Come to think, a lot of the backgrounds have biblical-parable-like properties. The Prodigal Father, the Gifted Child, the rich man with a curse, the Man who must serve his father-in-law to earn his wife's hand (I forget who that was... Joshua?). The handicapped man who was healed. .... Can't wait to hear Sawyer's nickname for Libby. I'm going to be breaking out the pineapple for the LOST party, which hasn't happened for the past few episodes. Guava and flukefish are special buys, reserved for the season finale. And leave the inflatable Jack, Kate and Hurley dolls in your passenger seats so y'all can take the high-occupancy lanes on the thru-ways tomorrow.

Jerry, we hardly knew ye. (But what we did know of you sucked bum.)

A restaurater down this way in the '60s used to have a hiring policy as follows for his waitresses: 1. Fold your hands together (as in playing Church-and-Steeple). 2. Place hands behind head, and have elbows jut straight forward. 3. Walk toward the wall. If her elbows touched first, she didn't get hired.

Pro Bowl selection tells you nothing about talent on OL. There are no statistics for it, so it's basically done by "Team X has a good running game, so Player Y that they picked in the first round must be a good run blocker." Quality OL have little to nothing to do with where they were acquired in the draft or off the street as long as there is talent and they get an opportunity to play and develop. Problem is that TD picked up guys who had demonstratably failed at their job to the point where their original teams (struggling on OL themselves, so what does that tell you?) dumped them. Which simultaneously undercuts the ability to develop younger players. You have to make an honest attempt to pick up OL/DL talent --- whatever is there --- when OL and DL are your weaknesses. Instead we got glamor picks.

Thought it pertinent to note Sarah saying that Jack "will always need something to fix." He takes on the toughest challenges rather than the ones that provide the most success. To wit, he stays with Boone when it's apparent that a miracle was needed rather than finding Claire and delivering Aaron. He fixates on Sarah in the ER and ignores Shannon's dad. He tries to fix the hardest problems and then, he moves on. I think people here are being too hard on Sarah, much like everyone thought they had Shannon pegged only to later see that she had a mitigating reason for her cons. Jack comes home from the unsuccessful surgery and kissing Gabriela to a cold dinner and a sink full of dishes, which he says he'll wash b/c it's "theraputic" (I can relate. It's satisfying to go from complete chaos and dirty plates to a rack full of clean ware. You feel like you control something). The dishes aren't the problem this night, and come to find out that he's grossly misdiagnosed the problem in his marriage, at which point he sincerely says he'll fix it, by working less, etc. But just like anything else, he'll fix it, then move on until it needs that kind of serious fixing again. Did Jack's father know about the marital problems and that's why he told him to go home? Maybe. I think he saw a son that was dedicated to his job in an unhealthy way (even tho Christian himself was on the other side of the coin). I am now trying to ponder how Jack's pattern of tackling problems is going to go down in the coming battle against the Others.

Government spending + Investment (business) spending + Consumer spending + Net exports = GDP. There's no point where you can spend more in one by taking the same amount out from another where it's going to change the GDP (or GNP or whatever you use). Not making excuses for TSA or whatever agency, but I know plenty of private business endeavors that do much worse or no better at managing their money and employees than gov't. Cost and efficiency b/w the two doesn't change all that much.

Most teams will allow other teams to interview their assistants for an upward-move job (tho not for a sideways move). It's a courtesy thing plus you don't want those assistants to harbor feelings such as "These $%#%^s kept me from getting the OC job!" Coaches aren't happy that their staff gets raided, but most accept that it's going to happen and they're happy that the person is getting an opportunity.

I can't tell, but that would surely be a zinger. Jack was staring at that photo really hard back in the premiere, as if he knew the girl....

Her watch? I didn't catch that part.... Could you ellucidate? I had a whole big write-up last season on Jin's watch=handcuff. Probably which no one bothered to read, but it's there anyway....