UConn James

Bush hasn't done anything to increase it, but the point is that his admin has done nothing to stem the flood of companies leaving the U.S. In fact, they've said that it's a good thing b/c it leads to cheaper products (I agree on this point. For example, it costs less for cheap Jap steel that makes screws so easy to strip). Maybe they could reduce some of the corporate welfare given out to such companies if they're not going to employ our citizens. Like StanleyWorks (makers of your hammers and tape measures) in this state that moved HQ to Bermuda to save on taxes in '02.

And yet, "no law" became "some law" in every one of those areas....

I think the absolute minimum rating a passer can have, based on the NFL's calculator, is 30....

I don't care if there's 2,000 insurgents with guns drawn. You fight back! Kick someone in the knees, try to grab their gun! NEVER give up. Typical Iraqis to sit there and do nothing while they're popping you in the head one by one. Are they going to do the same when the next dictator steps up 30 seconds after we leave? Why did we got involved with these people?

Even a moderate Bush is better for the country? DUH. That's the point I was trying to make in that he is not a traditional conservative. And he never will be. We need a moderate Republican. I find Kerry to be the better choice as a caretaker president who will not be such a divider; division is when things go wrong. With all due respect, when intelligence gets its house cleaned, the military will do as it does and make proper recommendations that will be followed; I'll feel a lot better w/ Clark as Sec't of Defense, a man who has actually won a war. We will stay on the offense, but we also cannot ignore the defense and ability to prevent or respond more effectively to an attack. This is the same deal with the Bills; devote most of your attention to one area, and the other neglected area will lose the game for you. I'm not averse to federal spending if! it! makes! sense! in the big picture. I can't fathom tax cuts when the country is this much in the hole. It's a war! It requires sacrifice to pay for it! You can't have it both ways. And as far as the courts, take a look at who nominated justices and then what their rulings were. You'd be pretty surprised by a lot of them, both sides, and this is shown thru the history of the court. Judges that are nominated usually are hard to peg and you cannot gauge how they'll rule after they're appointed.

I think George W. might've gone so far to the right that he looped back and is now at the fringe left. This man is no traditional conservative. I'm voting for Kerry b/c it might force the GOP to get back to reality instead of this sideshow.

How about at RE? Ogden has over 100 pounds advantage on Shobel. Maybe just run it once as a surprise/stunt; might get Boller to burn an early time-out.

Gray said there was no problem w/ Adams; just played Edwards b/c he had a hot streak. Can't really fault Gray's decision, and can't fault Adams for being a little angry about not playing. It's like when the manager walks out to the pitching mound; it smoothes over shortly. Rest assured, Fat Sam is rarin' to go tomorrow.

Cowboys fans warned against showing team colors Well, this is actually something I'd encourage all the time.... The ban on electioneering is 75 feet in my town, but I didn't know that precluded someone from wearing a T-shirt, jacket, etc. that espoused some kind of political leaning. If there were a ballot for clean water in Maine, would that mean someone couldn't wear a Poland Spring T-shirt? (BTW -- I know where it is, but I'm not tellin'!)

There was a great series of editorials by David Moats on this subject back in 2000, when Vermont was grappling with the issue. It had really turned ugly and here was a guy who wrote pieces that encouraged civility during the debate and looked at the actual issues. There were some pretty powerful pieces in there. He won the Pulitzer Prize for the series. I highly suggest them, especially the March 16 entry, for anyone seeking thoughtful argument. Pulitzer. org -- David Moats Entries I favor the "civil union" compromise that Kerry proposes. It doesn't define the union as "marriage," simply mandates that the state enforce the same legal rights --- health care and decision-making, benefits, tax purposes, etc. --- that are given to traditional couples. Amazing how some people can't accept that this is a basic civil rights issue.

Living in a mountainous spot in NE CT, I get tv stations out of Boston better than than some from Hartford.... I gotta tell you that J.C. is right when he says Kerry does a good job for his constituency. That includes uniting across the aisle rather than "Go eff yourself." As far as showing up to vote, well I'm sure that a Senate recognition of X doing Y is really important for a group that made some accomplishment, but it's not exactly major policy.... When it's important for him to be there, he's there. That said, I do think that in today's world there needs to be some kind of remote voting method for Congress.

If you look at the list again, I think the point is that the New England states and others that actually fund programs that provide health care, prenatal care (which saves $6 for every $1 spent on it!), and even vastly underfunded social services like Rowland did in this state --- none of which really breaks the bank --- the infant mortality rate can be reduced by more than half. I tend to think that facts aren't political. If you don't like what those facts tell you, be careful how you vote. This right now probably has more to do w/ state elections than the national scope, tho states do get some fed. funds for these programs. Then again, Kerry's health care plan phase-in would cover children among the first. But how is he going to pay for it? Well, federal funding can be transferred from the above, and from other programs that will no longer be necessary. It's not really a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Except for that dehydrated water stuff....

At the 26th anniversary celebration of his election as pope on Sunday, John Paul spoke out against captial punishment, as he has numerous times before, and said he's against the entire doctrine of pre-emptive war, nevermind that he's spoken out against war as an answer since he gained the office. So, you're picking and choosing b/w what the pope says now and what the Church has said in the past, so as to fit your views. If you don't like Starbucks, you can quote the Church when they pronounced coffee as an evil. Or dancing. And just like you don't want others deciding for you what your beliefs are, please refrain from saying that I'd want Saddam re-installed. I wanted him gone in 1991 when I was 12 y.o. but we had another guy in office named Bush who wouldn't complete a job either. Republican doctrine after that was not to get involved with playing "world cop" and humanitarian efforts. We're paying the price for that now, with dividends.

Rich's link still doesn't work for me. But I just found an article on NYT. It's amounts to a canon lawyer not affliated w/ the Vatican blowing a lot of smoke. Was Bush castigated b/c he didn't "turn the other cheek" when we were attacked? As I said, if they excommunicate everyone who disagrees with them, they're pretty soon going to be preaching to empty churches and facing bankruptcy. Oh wait, some of them already are. I'm not a supporter of abortion, but I'm not about to tell other people they have to agree with me or else they're kicked out of my club.

Rich, The link doesn't work for me, which leads me to believe someone pulled a piece of crap fabricated story. But if true, that'd be a lot like Michael Jackson rebuking my mom for raising her child poorly. The Catholic Church leadership doesn't have much moral authority left. Most Catholics disagree with certain areas of church policy, but I don't see them being punished for their disagreements. If they were, there wouldn't be a Catholic Church left.

Bear in mind that this is a man who's on 100% disability. Call Howard Stern and ask him about the crazy MFer who hanged him out of an office window in Hartford by his feet. Call the Chevy dealership when they refused to take his new lemon of a truck back or fix it. You don't have to be crazy, but it does help.

Spec 5 in 2. He was drafted. My uncle had just about the same attitude in the Corps. Has the same attitude today, God bless him. Two tours.

It's about equally effed up. Like my brother who was in AF Raven Team in a C-130 whose landing gears wouldn't deploy. The pilot turned circles for a hour while the crew cranked the manual override/release and that didn't work either. Rosen landing in "a place we shouldn't have been." Survived b/c the pilot was good and extremely lucky. Point being that taxpayers spend a billion dollars on a plane; maybe something should actually work when they use it. If you're on the plane and the landing gears don't work and they tell you to go anyway, do you?

Yaknow, my father said No quite a bit in the Army. And it was followed up with "According to Article _, section _...." Just because someone has one more stripe than you doesn't mean they're not pulling orders out their a$$. I liken it to Gilbride calling a HB Pass on 3&1.

They haven't been charged with anything yet. I'll concede they likely will be, but I don't think they'll get a dishonorable discharge. That'd be raking up a lot of political muck the brass would likely rather keep settled at the bottom. No one seems to be absolutely right in this case.

The point being, of course, that the objective is to not put your troops in such a place where courage beyond courage is the strongest or only weapon they have. It makes for spine-tingling and proud stories and examples, but in the course of human history, it's also made for a lot of dead soldiers. So, the soldiers have to work to earn their armor b/c you don't want to pay for it? In terms of issues, you're comparing apples to polar bears. I got a whopping $1600 from Pell Grant and I'm done with college, but I can still see the value of the program, as does MOST EVERY American. I'm sorry if other people tend to look at the macrocosm and the good that program provides rather than the relatively petty microcosm of their own wallet, having to pay their $2 share of the program over the course of a year.... Oh, wait. I'm not sorry for that, b/c it's my opinion. You're welcome to your own opinion, VA, and you can vote to effect change as you see fit. But in that booth, you compete against 250 million other people. Are you going to drop another F-bomb now? "Son, when I first joined the Mounties, they gave you a paper bag and a stick. The paper bag was for boiling tea and the stick was for killing big game, and if you lost either of them, they charged you for it...." -- The ghost of Bob Fraser in "Due South"

Update -- GIs Who Refused Job Had Unarmored Trucks Says Gen. James E. Chambers. They'll still probably be charged, tho. Thurman, no matter the facts, can such a precedent be set where military members can't be sure their commanders won't send them out in unequipped vehicles? No matter the facts, what does this incident say to kids who are thinking about enlisting? How much money is spent on each Humvee, each Deuce-and-a-half, each fuel transport truck, etc. and they DON'T have armor coming out of the factory? It's not the Boy Scouts we're talking about.... In this day and age, with our so-called technological superiority, there's an expectation that we don't send our troops into battle with equipment that will get them killed (Rosen Hawks in Mogadishu, don't get me started...). The equivalent of this would be docking a mile off Omaha Beach, ordering the troops to swim to shore and when they get there, jump up and down yelling "I'm your target; shoot me, please!" Or when surrounded in the Ardennes and requesting support, the OIC telling them, Now we've got them where we want them! Did ANY of you ever read "All My Sons"?

From everything I've heard, read and personally experienced about this, improper or unecessary prescribing is probably one of the bigger problems in mental health care. Don't get me wrong, some people need the meds, but for others, alternative therapies can work. I've seen examples of both. Goes into our whole line of thought that a solution comes in the form of a little capsule. This same line of thought has teachers and parents going to doctors with claims of ADHD b/c a kid has behavior control problems. Put 'em on Ritalin, that's the cure! Is this b/c of pressure from drug companies on doctors to drum up sales? I'm not absolutely cynical about this, but sometimes it's hard not to be. Especially when their ads are running on TV 24/7.

Oh, Mr. WILLLLLSSSOONNNNN!!! Happy Birthday to a truly decent man! And here's wishing he has MANY more.