UConn James

I get what you're saying about predictability and habits... but that's an extremely marginal factor in a case where there's a determined individual bent on destruction and who doesn't care a wot about consequences b/c he's preparing to die anyway, and is simply seeking personal vengeance and then whatever he can get to try to rack up a high score. There is no way that routines and/or changing them up would have made a difference here. He had deadly weapons combined with psychotic bent, and they hid behind doors and under desks. Feel however you want in whatever way helps you sleep. But if someone has you as a target for whatever reason and you have no method of security other than the police with 10 minute response times... you're on a slab, bro. Safety in the crucial first couple of minutes is self-help.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/15/children-and-adults-gunned-down-in-connecticut-school-massacre/ It's in the 3:06 p.m. update. Just going to say that I found out off the record just how bad this was going to be ("over 20 dead" someone told me) a little over an hour before the media got it and were still only saying the gunman was dead. Still didn't prepare me one iota for the shock. I feel 100 years old.

Evidently, his mother was NOT a teacher there. There is some speculation that was either a substitute or a sometimes-volunteer. The latest I read was the shooter had an agument with four teachers/staffers on Wed or Thursday, when he went to the school. He returned Friday and killed three of those four (the other had called in sick and was home yesterday), apparently primarily targeting them. What the nature of that argument was has not yet been detailed. In retrospect, if someone who doesn't belong there/has no reason to be there comes onto school grounds and gets in a tiff with staff, maybe it would have been best to get police involved and check it out. Not assigning blame here, just to be clear, but this was a warning sign and may be an area of stress going forward. If you have no business at a school, GTFO.

On the subject of SoS comes the news today that Hillary Clinton fainted, hit her head and suffered a concussion last week. http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-73709151/ I'm certainly not her biggest fan, but I wish a speedy recovery. Scary thing to see someone faint out of the blue. Happened in college ~10 years ago when a girl was standing at the printer not far from me and she suddenly just went totally limp and flopped like a sack of potatoes. Came to and fainted again. Called 911, medics came... She was really classically pretty too... but from what I suspect as I was trying to keep her talking, she hadn't eaten and was likely borderline anorexic.

Where do you think abortion falls in that? 'If this emerging life is too much for you to handle, if you can't afford it, if it's a cramp to your lifestyle... just snuff it out. Problem solved!' Now, I actually support many abortion rights and the stare juris of Roe, but you CANNOT remove it with a clean break from the degradation of society's views on the preciousness and value of life. Maybe especially in this case, of innocent life that did nothing wrong, it was simply viewed by an older person with the means as so detestable/inconvenient/etc. that it should be gotten rid of. From what little we know, he hasbeen described by a couple of people who knew him as a First-Person-Shooter-Videogame player. Personally, I think if we were to dial back those games to the Nth degree in availability and content, as well as encourage fewer murder-death-kill teevee shows (NCIS: Alabama, CSI: Waterloo, Law&Order: 7 Spinoffs, Criminal Minds, Bones and WAYYYY too many more to name here) with ever more graphic content, it would go some of the way toward ending the desensitization bent. Monkey see, monkey do. And if programmers don't want to do this voluntarily, then by other means, including broadcast licenses, First Amendment be damned. This stuff is obscenity much moreso than porn that gets all the focus in this section of law.

I'm not entirely sure whether Brown's ~2 years would count in that... but, yes, I'm under the impression that the Sr./Jr. designation goes by consecutive time spent in office, not by non-consecutive. As it stands, that terminology is only important to newspaper reporters to have another non-proper-noun when referring to the two.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/kerry-replace-hillary-state-dept-report-article-1.1220883 Gotta say that this is much more preferable to Susan Rice. Kerry will be confirmed easily with Senate collegiality. ----- Aside from all that, it would set up an interesting special election in Mass. if, as expected, Scott Brown runs for the seat and the challenger can't ride the Obama/general-ticket coattails.

Uhh... except that's not what happened here, as far as all the info out there right now. It was two 9mm and a rifle of some sort. I worry less about some survivalist who wants a hundred guns to put in his safe than I do about a guy who just wants one for each hand to enact some sick fantasy and so he can work up the courage to do what he should have simply done in the first place... and just put it up to his own temple. But we apparently don't live in that world anymore where if you're sad or angry, you take out just yourself or the one person you're really angry with.... Now, these people take out as many as they can like they're trying to rack up a high score.

Note that the time stamp there was BEFORE reports of children dead, and merely that the gunman was. I actually heard that this was REALLY bad about an hour and a half before it hit media from someone in the Major Crimes unit. The tenor of your posting in this thread is pretty sick, EiI. Shouldn't be censored, as I have had recent issues with all that, an abuse of moderating, and a total failure of consistency in application (but whatever... moving on now). We don't need that here, but it requires a baseline/floor of decency more than the regular boards, and a thicker skin. Words don't bother me no more, in that way. Making light once we find out that there's dead kindergartners... that's a line of special *-dom. ----- Like Jauronimo, I really want there to be almost NIL coverage/photos/borderline glorification of this shooter on the Whys of whatever his motivations and/or manifesto was. What is most important is the Hows. How did a guy dressed entirely in black and wearing tactical clothing gain entrance to a school? Likely, this will follow the same pattern as the other in Colorado, VT, etc. We'll hear about someone who ignored warning signs. People will exert themselves to come up with security measures to stop this from happening again... again... again. But the simple truth is that a determined individual who doesn't care what happens to him/her can accomplish a great deal of their violent bent before they meet resistance. Maybe especially in a school, which are 'gun free zones' where Sam Colt's maxim of equality has become perverted by those who think criminals care about such things... newsflash... that only emboldens such a person even more when they know they'll have free reign for whatever police response time is. Police are 90% of the time there to clean up after the fact, file paperwork for the insurance companies and do their part in security theatre. Just to note, tho, that this is just a more extreme version of the intense anger that's built up just beneath the surface in this bipolar country, reinforced in our entertainment and 1st-person-shooter-video-games (not blaming them specifically, but these things DO NOT HELP this society!!!) Kindergartners, tho? I... I just have no words.

I'm just going to say that MD could learn a few things from Mantai T'eo. I get that you can be sad after a close relative dies. But that doesn't mean you let it affect your job so negatively. It's like when a soldier goes to war, the term is that to a large degree, they have to put their personal life in a box. T'eo handled his grief constructively and in a way it seems to have actually helped his game, because it was a vent for his emotions. It doesn't seem like MD was (and maybe, is) coping healthily.

Seriously, I just can't fathom how this guy is getting flak for two great pass defense plays in an age where breathing wrong on WRs draws anywhere from a 15 yard to a 70 yard penalty. GW didn't make an interception. Whoopie. Yep, he was right there, his hands were so close, and it just didn't happen. I'm not going to blame him a bit and he didn't suddenly become a bad SS b/c he didn't get a pick, when a team is doing really good to get 15-20 per season. The team shouldn't have been in that position to start with. GW did his job on those plays and is getting faulted b/c he's not Superman?!?

The NFL isn't really about defense anymore.

Obama / Democrats wanted a class war... well... they got it. [shrug] A lowering tide sinks all boats.

Of the $1.6T in new taxes Obama is seeking, $1.2T would be going to new spending. http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/75-percent-obamas-proposed-tax-hikes-go-toward-new-spending_666067.html NO cuts are on the table. Tax and spend.... Tax and spend....

Brace yourselves.... http://pinmobo.com/17644,brace-yourself-winter-is-actually-coming#

Like Doc, we got a 16GB iPad 3 back in March/April or whenever it came out.... It's basically replaced my laptop. Also got the wifi-only because it rarely leaves the house and then that's just as an offline games distraction, a shopping list, or for music/camera function. Gotta say that I love the thing. Yep, it cost a bit but it's one time and done. Uses less power than one of those new light bulbs, despite how great the screen looks, and the battery length is awesome. I've got a fair amount of apps, just about all my songs ported over from the laptop, and camera/video-roll with ~300 pictures on it (actually need to delete some stuff that my 4yo niece made of the dog etc. while she was playing with it) and still have a little more than 8GB of space left. Hell, the Simpsons Tapped Out and Temple Runner game apps are almost worth it alone! TuneIn Radio gets ANY station you want crystal clear.... It's just a great little device. And this is from someone who didn't even have a cellphone until about this time last year... not that I'm a technophobe. My father is and even he can get around on it. It just about runs itself. Definitely get the new version, what they're calling the iPad 4 (it has a slightly different power strip design than the third) because some things are starting to lose support from the 1st and 2nd gen. Tried my brother's Nook and that thing is unusable.

How much is this like trading for Drew Bledsoe, Part Deux? I'm more than ready to cut bait on Fitz. It doesn't seem like QB is SD's problem, so I'm a little dubious of this report. But if Rivers would deliver 3 years of steady QB play to what I believe is a fairly well-built nucleus otherwise, with the addition of a true possession WR and/or a dual-threat TE. We simply need a QB who can physically throw the ball past 20 yards without straining every muscle in his being to do so. The NFL today has moved past dink-and-dunk. You can't get by with exclusively that anymore. It truly has become vertical passing and needing to hit big throws and being able to have defenses think you have the ability to hit deep so as to keep them honest. Fitz's BB gun arm just doesn't cut it and accuracy just isn't there. And it's a shame b/c other than that, he's got the makings for greatness WRT smarts, quickness, toughness, escapability/scrambling.... It's just that the Bills never get the COMPLETE package in any QB since Kelly --- there's always been a glaring deficiency. Collins had no pocket presence, AVP was good but physically limited, RJ couldn't stay healthy, Flutie was undersized but I'll be the first to admit he was a firecracker and it's too bad we got him when he was farting dust, and TPTB in Ralph's dottering mind unfortunately played the Trump card on Wade and sat Flutie for what I think was mostly marketing. Bledsoe... well, we all know what happened there. Losman could throw a beautiful long bomb to the absolute perfect spot, but couldn't hit a guy who was 5 yards away. Holcomb's arm was dead. Trent got gunshy after the concussion (then again, it was starting before that too) and the antithesis of Losman... even tho he physically could do it, his release/inability to read Ds meant he was playing Hot Potato out there and he refused to throw beyond 5 yards, even if it were 3rd & 25... he simply refused... he was getting that ball out of his hands, quick. I guess you're never going to get a perfect QB, but is it too much to ask for one without a GLARING deficiency? Rivers forces things sometimes. I admire a gambler, don't get me wrong. In this league, you've gotta take chances. And I have to note that I'd rather have a ball intercepted that actually GOT TO/AROUND ITS TARGET, rather than the Fitz picks we've been seeing.

Aaron Paul tweet. (There's an s-word in there, if that merits a NSFW....) So looking forward to this final season to see just how Gilligan is going to wrap it up. https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/264994_10151294200657722_916823296_n.jpg?dl=1

Has he been a worldbeater? No. But the dude's done everything that's been asked of him. I wouldn't lay it all on him that the scheme hasn't fit the personnel for so long. Literally, as BillinNYC points out, with DEs covering WRs. That the D seems to be coming together provides some hope. Then again, I don't trust them to not give up 300 rushing yards to the Jets in the last game... because no one does one step forward three steps back like the Buffalo Bills!!! Anyway... this is not the '90s and Kelsay is not Chris Speilman. Once you have this serious a problem and you're not in a relatively protected-class position like Peyton Manning, you're talking about 'quality of the rest of your life' issues. Brain, neck, spinal cord injuries are nothing to just take the old grind-it-out-because-I'm-gonna-show-them! attitude. Not with what we know now, and not with what we don't know yet. CK has made plenty of coin playing a game. As much as I've been frustrated by him, maybe expected more of him than was reasonable, I'd shake his hand and say it's been a good run but it's time to give more consideration to the long-term.

You sound like a gomer during the Middle Ages saying that even tho the king has no children and has not named an heir, everything will fine. And in the all-too-predictable resulting civil war among fifteen guys who want to be come king, you get a battle-ax lodged in your head. But you can feel better because you deemed the topic to be verboten while the king could still do something. This is how I've viewed the succession topic from the start. Now, we don't have physical wars over this stuff, but there's the analogy of it. We do it more civilized now with bank notes doing the talking, dirty deeds and coups des graces. Ralph has been a bad king. He has left his people in the lurch in 'Après moi... la deluge' style. A good king settles things for his people, does his damndest to make sure they will be properly looked after when he is gone. Those who live for today and fail to publicly and thoroughly deliniate a plan of succession are not well remembered when things turn to stevestojan. Thise are bad kings. If Ralph has a care about his legacy and how he will be remembered in WNY beyond a moneybags who couldn't field a halfway decent team for 50 of his 60 years and fired the only guy who delivered greatness, he has to step up to the plate and pick a successor. What worries me is the millions-$ gift to the HOF a couple of years ago with a wing of that building named for him and his enshrinement there.... Is THAT how he sees his legacy? Not as a living, breathing testament of a proud franchise that he helped anchor... but as a notable from a bygone era whose bust will collect dust, with Buffalo being only the most recent city that lost an NFL team because its population, economy, and importance declined. I've said it before, and I'll say it again here, that while I don't wish ill on anyone, and for his loved ones, I hope Ralph has good years left.... there's a part of me that just wants whatever's going to happen, to just happen. I think the franchise will be better off without Ralph's involvement because you need a strong presence at the top these days. One voice that is in control, signs the paychecks and demands accountability. Old Man Syndrome has hit this franchise hard. I'm simply tired of living in the limbo, not knowing, while all the speculation builds toward LA and not having ANYTHING to point to as a way of saying, 'Oh yeah? Well, we've got THIS and we're going to be fine and we're going to be HERE.' It's like a Band-Aid being peeled off hair by hair when we all know that faster's better and it'll sting for a while but it'll be over. Like last week in the shoutbox, Beerball or whatever mod/admin can give me even *more* Warning Points for having the audacity to say that Ralph will die, and that, given actuarial tables, the odds are that this is going to happen relatively soon. I'm NOT going to apologize for stating facts and having an opinion that's expressed as gracefully as this topic *can* be discussed.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cMXcgEwZw5E/T2MZ_WI0NRI/AAAAAAAACnk/ogqM2WvJlPc/s1600/vultures-patience-my-ass.jpg *Note to Beerball et al., this is just a joke from old.

If Malcolm has two brain cells to rub together, he takes Lisa and Abi to the Final Three. Lisa has POed a number of people on the jury. And tonight with that 'I'll take out the strongest player' she totally lost Penner --- who reached for his hat and then covered the look on his face as she finished saying that --- if she ever *had* a chance for his vote. Penner likes her, sympathizes with her life situation, and could read her like a book, but that doesn't mean he thinks she deserves the million. If Malcolm makes it, which seems likely since he has an idol that gets him to 4, and what seems like a tight alliance with Denise, I don't see how he loses unless he flips the bird to everyone on the jury as they're voting.

It finished filming in April, for a September premiere/late December finale? Wow, I didn't know there was that much postproduction.

I'm not totally against "the rich" paying a higher %age. I'm against them paying a higher %age and that money going toward more bike paths and light rail and any of the litany of farting-unicorn liberal wet dream feel-good projects that do nothing but create more expenditures when these have to be maintained. I think even the rich would pay more taxes IF spending were reduced. If there were a delineation of 'We're cutting this and this and this and this and it cuts the deficit by X.' Which, off the cuff, is what the Republican plan proposed, sith a mix of cuts and an $800B tax increase. And THEN, have those tax increases earmarked to paying down the national debt. Not get used for whatever new spending initiative the Democrats want or Pres. Obama says we "need." If those increases directly go to paying down our principle, I'm 100% on board. They just have to use that word... earmark. Or, hell, they can use "lock box" if they want. The problem is, there's no way that's going to happen b/c tax money is like crack for Democrats --- give them more, they'll simply spend it all, throw it down the money hole / get crapola in return, and require even more to get the same crack high next time. We all want a solution to this crap. There are just different objectives. And the only Democrat proposals have been bad jokes. No one denied that? Funny. The Left denied it vociferously up until just recently... after the election where they again played the Bush Bad card. If that is true, and seeing SDS's word, then I apologize. I didn't recognize your screen name. Daveinnorf--k/Connor/beausox/eleganteliot/etc. has SO many screen names that he's used and switched between it can be hard to keep track. Despite the 2003 reg I, too, have been on TBD since the start --- RD&C, rivals, everything. I'll make a note in my databank.

Thanks. :thumbs up: