UConn James

This concept of desire-and-receive is something I was wrapping my brain around too. Maybe the c.r.a.s.h was "wished" by the (justifiably) crazy lady Sayid met. She did say somesuch thing like she was lonely.... Well, here's some company for her, even tho she doesn't want to be with them. Maybe Sayid's short prescence was enough. Or maybe it c.r.a.s.h.ed b/c she wanted her jewelry box to play the song again. Sayid fixed it. The desires do seem to be either something small or some quality w/in the character. Some people have said they don't know how this can last beyond one season. I don't see that being a problem at this rate of discovery.

The fact that Rumsfeld wasn't prepared to answer a question that's obviously on the soldiers' minds might lead one to believe that situation was already in place independent of the reporter. He was a conduit that facilitated the question to go over the microphone in clear wording.

He didn't create a story. He "created" a question. The fact that it was a valid question made it a story. What would have happened if Rumsfeld had a valid answer? Instead, he reached into his bag of tricks. The examples were in response to the false generalized maxim that "reporters shouldn't be or create the news." Rest assured, I'm not confusing the two.

Excuse me for poking a hole in the whole "reporters should not be/create the news" issue that people are concentrating on rather than the pertinency of the question. And this might help all of you in your future of reading the news and reactions to it. Let's look at some reporters who have "been" the news for what they did to report a story. --- "Ten Days in the Mad-House" by Nellie Bly exposed brutal mistreatment in NYC asylums. The only way she could do this was by pretending to be a patient. --- One Stephen Crane (he was mostly a journalist throughout his career, did you know that?) put himself in just about every story he wrote. Competing newspapers often titled stories "Journalist Crane ..." and his method of reporting so they could try to capitalize on his popularity. --- George Orwell. The famous drop-out narrator. --- "The Death of Captain Wascow" by Ernie Pyle. --- "The Bronx Slave Market" (1950) by Marvel Cooke, who became a housecleaner and reported the conditions, the backbreaking work they had to do, and the crap wages they were paid and often cheated out of by white families. --- "Black Like Me" (1960) by John Howard Griffin, who over the course of a year traveled to Northern and Southern states, going b/w being white and black (he got a pigment from a doctor to change his skin color). Really one of the first stories that started to change opinions b/c it was written by a white man who was brave enough and crazy (for the chance he took) enough to "make the news." --- "Tiananmen Square" by John Simpson, who was there when it all went down. Supported the students but helped save a few people's, including a govt policeman's, lives and made what happened there, before the Chinese put up black drapes around the entire square so what they did couldn't be seen, known. These among many more who, when they see something they don't agree with or an issue that's being disregarded by people in charge, DO something about it rather than wait for the "right time" or the "proper source," like that's going to happen. Don't get me wrong, there are times when it can go too far. A reasonable effort should be made to get the story by the conventional methods. The conventional reporter-official was not allowed in this case. I can see where people might not appreciate the method this reporter used to get attention to the issue. If it's an issue you and the 2,300 soldiers you travel with care about deeply enough to want to get it asked of their superior.... If 2,300 people (and I'm sure many more soldiers wanted it asked too) call your newspaper and say there's a question on their minds that they want asked, you ask it or you hand in your reporter's notebook. Reporters aren't supposed to be part of the story? Where did you get this? Where did you get this? Is this like the one where lawyers aren't supposed to lie? Getting information out into the world is damned difficult as it is. Objectivity is a bunch of crap. By definition of being a human being and having your own eyes, there's no way for anyone to be objective. What matters is fact.

Word is that Weis has an interview scheduled for the ND job for either Fri. or Sat. 1. He's an alum B. maybe there's another reason he hasn't gotten a shot at being a HC in the NFL besides not being able to interview earlier. Maybe he needs to prove he can be successful out from under BB's wing? Maybe there's concerns with his health? I'd like to have Clements stay for the sake of continuity.

Well, obviously. It's late. Or early, depending on your perspective....

That's not the meaning of irony. Irony is when something happens that is the exact opposite of what you'd almost surely expect to happen. Like, the Pope admitting on his deathbed that he was a pagan the whole time. April developing another good returner isn't entirely unexpected. Grammar lesson over, McGee is one of the best kick returners I've ever seen. The article on the TBD frontpage says that he limps in practices during the week but brings it on gameday. He's injured and he's doing all this? We can only hope that he isn't like the Chiefs returner who burned it up last year and now this year he's been so good that I can't even remember his name.... TD needs to lock him up. If he hits the RFA market, someone will gladly give up a 4th rounder for him. Also agree on Clements. Nice post. As for Jennings, I'm just not convinced he's worth the offers he's likely to get elsewhere. Buffalo is not his first choice, it's just where he went in the draft. He hasn't grown into the area and longs for Ga. Buh-bye.

"A conscience which has been bought once will be bought twice." -- Norbert Wiener (As for the last name, I'm leaving it alone. Too easy. ) Why do you think Bush suddenly tweaked his stance late in the game to say that civil unions are a viable alternative? I agree, but then again, I saw the logic of it back in 1999 when it first came up. I guess it just takes longer for some people to do a day's work....

Nope. (BTW -- my given name is not UConn.... My friends and enemies just call me James. ) How was he not reporting on an important issue? As has been this admin's MO, he wasn't allowed to ask a question. He helped someone else who could, ask in their own voice and words. Clever reporters find ways to get answers to their questions when they get stonewalled. "The question is whether or not the soldier who asked the question really believed in it, and my guess is that he did, or he wouldn't have asked it," said Loory.... Wow, other media outlets decide to put his name in their own papers and make a big deal of that rather than the issue in question. What a surprise. Fabrication means to make something up with the intent to deceive. Or are you just using every media criticism cliche and buzzword you've got? How does any of this make the question that was posed any less pertinent? Don't know about you guys, but when I got a math problem, I figured out the answer rather than piss and moan about the guy who came up with the question.

In all fairness, it was actually Bush who sued to stop the manual recounts in Florida. Hence Bush v. Gore. The Ukraine story just gets seedier every day. We are nothing like that, thankfully.

Reported on ABC that three companies that make the specific type of armor that was being discussed each say they are not producing at full capacity. They haven't even been asked to. That's in addition to the $70B in supplies and parts the DoD doesn't even know where it put, according to the GAO. The excuse underneath this is laughable. Fuggin' WalMart has better computers than this; they can tell you how many strawberry PopTarts are sold in the 24 hours before hurricanes. Maybe someone needs to take a look at their system, or "requisition" it under some eminent domain statute. Necessity is the mother of invention. Good news. There's a lot of steps along the way for that. I can accept small steps and the process; it's the standing still on it and Rumsfeld acting like it's a news to him that raises my blood pressure. I daresay that not every roadside bomb has been 200 pounds of explosives in a car; have you seen some of the more recent videos the soldiers have taken themselves? In reality, it wasn't a 'planted' question. A proofreader does not make up the meat and bones of a question, simply recommends ways to phrase it that someone can decide to use or not. A reporter helped the Sgt word his question to ask one of the most powerful men in the chain of command. There's many people who, when they walk into the Oval Office, simply lose the power of speech. I guess preparing a serious question in advance is against the rules tho. And I guess the reporter did a ventriloquist act on the Sgt and forced the 2,300 other soldiers cheer and clap too.

Judging by the early sack totals, they were standing straight up with a befuddled look on their faces and using their fingers to spell that out.

Thanks for your serious input, BiB. My heartrate increases a little too much over this issue at times. I personally know 15 people who are over there right now. This most certainly isn't a video game to me. It burns me up that they don't have the protection and supplies needed. How is it that this has been an issue for well over a year and the fact that the commander of this unit reports that 95 percent of the 400 vehicles they have are not properly armored (BTW, this is not an issue of armoring vehicles that don't need/shouldn't be armored) is somehow news to Rumsfeld? The indignation and muted outrage that was in that question yesterday reflected this frustration. My brother can escort Bush's white F-250 (which, I don't need to get into in this forum but the retrofitting on it...) in "his" C-130 to Crawford in three hours for 4-wheeling with Vlad, and we can't get armor to the guys in the sand. What happened to the days when FDR had the lights turned off in the White House to conserve electricity (I know, it had the dual use of not giving potential kamakazis a lit target...). Sacrifice? What's that? But no, we needed an $89B tax cut. I don't have a problem with the govt spending money --- when it's spent wisely and with a practical goal, i.e. vehicle armor. Whether it's the govt, consumers or industry spending the money, the GNP is the same. C+G+I+NX=GDP. Of late, Consumer and investment spending is down b/c it's being saved or used to pay debt. In a capitalist system these are the areas we most value and produce the best results. But in the absence of that, gov't or exports have to take up the slack to keep the GDP from going down the commodus. We've had record trade defecits for the past umpteen years, so what does that leave to put money into our economy? Better to have it go where it's needed NOW until C and I recover and start spending than to languish in a trust fund goody-goody's account so they don't have to work a day in their lives.

As well as their taxpayer-funded stadiums (or is that stadia?). Then again, this wrinkle extends to pretty much all professional sports. Well, one might argue, those aren't funded by the federal gov't.... Specifically no, but for every dollar a city spends funding a stadium for a private business, that's one dollar less that goes to fire departments, police, schools, etc. They then beg to the federal govt that they need funding for these critical areas that, surprise, surprise, don't have enough money, and how can Uncle Sam refuse firefighters in this day and age?

Have you watched them much? They're joining the Big East for football next season along w/ other Conf-USA teams. They were #8 in the polls, so obviously they're good.... Might bring back some respectability after UM, VT, and BC defected. I think ND has talked about joining the BE in the past but they just haven't. I would imagine the BE offered to let them keep their deal w/ NBC.... It's probably b/c they want to keep their schedule wide open to play big-name schools from all over. Which is the best way to end up with losing seasons in this day and age of growing talent parity, so if you're a masochist, ND's your team! I'd love for Weis to go there. Gets rid of the Patriette's O scheme-man and prevents him from going to the Dolphags at the same time.

Troops put tough questions to Rumsfeld. Anyone else catch the video of this and the thundering cheer after the guy asked his question? And then the pencil-pushing geek voice of Rumsfeld's weasel replies? At one point he had to say "Okay, take it easy!" The troops aren't buying your excuses anymore. But no, if you listen to the guys on this board, we're not there so we don't know the situation and this is probably some orchestrated stunt by a small contingent of 2,300 troops. And according to VABills, they should all be summarily executed for mutiny.... You do have to be smarter than the people trying to blow you up. The troops are doing all they can but it's not enough. But there's better leadership in the frigging Boy Scouts.

Actually it's not. I've posted my thoughts to your self-same question in that thread. No need to write it over again. Look it up. I don't have the time right now to link it. Still, what kind of point are you trying to make? What does that have to do with sports players taking illegal drugs and speaking otu against it? Apples and oranges.

We agree again. Twice in one day. People should eat better. But you can't force this. Provide them with easily accessible info and when they ignore it, let them die of a heart attack at 30. I won't cry for them.

Not sure what this has to do with an argument about steroids/performance-enhancing drugs in sports or even drugs in general. Consensual sex, even among kids of certain age ranges depending on your state, is not illegal. Not trying to evade the question but you might be surprised. Don't need a tangent here. This has been talked about at length in the AO thread. Look there.

Well, if his beef is solely with baseball, I would hope the scope gets broadened so more time and money isn't wasted when scandals are revealed in every other major sport. For reasons of enforcement, I'd rather not have the gov't be involved b/c WTF, clean your own house. This is posturing to show the stick to the players unions. I just shake my head over this and say, 'Our sorry-ass little First-World problems....' For one week out of the year, everyone in this country should go without food, have their paycheck reduced to the wages an average Somali would earn, and live in the woods (some of us already do this last one willingly tho ). The excess of this country is sickening. The desire for ever bigger muscles for sports stars through illegal drugs is simply a manifestation of it.

Sweet.

Well, I'm not very sympathetic. I hope it does hurt. Maybe next time she'll stop. Second paragraph pointed out she's religious and had a Madonna on her rearview. That makes her actions better.

Hey, that's what he was paying someone else to do.

Well, they've tried everyone else. It would stand to reason that they're now down to first-year OCs. It would be a very bad career move for Clements. In fact, it would be a very bad career move for anyone, not just Clements. Storied legends you can never compete with given their recruiting handcuffs, for kids who even want to go there. Newsflash to ND: You don't even matter anymore. (Except to NBC. You're the only sport they have left.)

Hastert and two other House Repubs are holding up the Intel bill b/c they want a "majority of the majority" to pass it. The votes have been there from almost every Dem and many Repubs; they're just weren't being allowed to vote for it by leadership. Issues with drivers licenses and illegal immigration which everyone else said is going to be on the agenda seperately in the next session. But I actually heard the House was going to vote on it today. It's apparently enough of an issue for Pres. Bush to devote a few minutes of the State of the Union to it. And for all of Congress and guests to stand up and clap for it. Look here, I agree with Bush about something. If McCain wants an anti-drug system for baseball exclusively, then I disagree with him. Others have said they would push for Olympic-style testing for all sports. And yaknow, this is all probably posturing. The leagues would likely rather take care of their own sports than be subject to federal law. Then again, they're already in bed together w/ antitrust regulation, stadium financing (would Congress actually have to approve it for the new D.C. baseball team?), etc.