UConn James

I did a couple of weeks ago. Wow, that was terrible. On every level.

~30 seconds in... a probably unintentional/non-double-entendre Slavic-accented "New balls, please!" Yeah, that's what I'd be saying too.

As in the South Park meme, a 350-pound Sally Strothers making the case for these kids just smacked you in the face. Either that, or the reality that a % of donations went to feed/support militaries or gets sold on the black market and goes into pockets, at which point that donated food simply crowds out whatever local food production there is by being able to undercut its price. It seems like this has gotten less of a problem with more recent efforts e.g. micro-lending, but no doubt that it still happens. We live in the land of plenty where 60%+ of the population is now overweight or obese (and yet, we've got hunger in our own backyard). We don't need all the food we eat; we could do with shipping it overseas... but why should this be done for free? Another point is our inherent food production failures --- there are a good number of obese kids that are, by definition, undernourished. Should we really be fobbing a foreign carbohydrate/HFCS/junk diet on people? Does that help them? As to the second point, it is now simply called "The Children's Fund." That name-change rubbed me the wrong way tho, as if they need to hide the fact that they're doing this as a tenet of their beliefs. I guess it has to do with perceptions in certain parts of the world and even here, as you give question to. Just seems stupid that they have to change the label and defeat part of the original purpose, which was to show that 'Hey, I'm a Christian and you're a Muslim. That doesn't matter. I want to help you. Accepting that help doesn't mean you need to adopt my beliefs. I just hope that you'll respect them, and don't want/try to kill me just because we believe in different ghost stories religions.' I guess with all the foreign apology tours of the last four years, that this way of conducting oneself in the world just went out vogue. (Sorry, that's the only light political comment I'm going to make.)

True. The above was looking at it from a lower-power magnification / macrocosm / one-generation-blends-into-another. Animals are completely wanton; People have some degree of free will. Should we/others have to enable a people into complacency or is it 'better' for them to make their own choices and, to quote Goethe, be forced to "sweep their own doorstep"?

Those REALLY disturb me too. I think it's that most dogs are better than people. Add in that it's not the fault of the animal that they have been exposed to such direct cruelty by their owners. While the children in the other commercials aren't living to an American standard (and yet, my grasp on this concept is slipping by the day. Does that mean exposure to media violence, over-processed junk food and 60% of a population around them that's more concerned by what's happening on their smartphone than the real world?) they are in that situation not by direct cruelty of their parents/guardians but because of complex political problems that, if enough people were to do something in that country, the tyranny that impels the thing could be thrown off. It's sad to see , but as a society, you made your bed, now lie in it. If you don't like the bed, do something else. The recent troubles here in the U.S. have made it abundantly clear that we can't afford to keep doling out to everybody either privately or publicly. We've forgiven so many loans to African/Eastern European/etc. countries in the last century you lose count. And bear in mind that this all goes to our national debt, taking food out of our grandchildren's mouths to feed someone in another country. Another country that will never return the favor if/when the tables are turned, and in fact runs the risk of feeding someone who becomes our enemy. (AFAIK, dogs and cats will never be gleefully flying airplanes into the Freedom Tower.) We've been doing this for 40 years and there's been little or no improvement. Feeding and watering and basic-educating a few kids is hacking at the branches of a problem, rather than striking the root. Give a man a fish / teach a man to fish, and all that. Animals don't get a voice or a vote to get out of situations like that. I will forever hate Michael Vick. It's a travesty that he's out of jail after murdering so many dogs, and a millionaire again to boot.

I am so stealing this.

When he hits those in actual games with 300#ers rushing him, you might have an argument. It's one thing to replace Moorman, a spot where accuracy is less exact, where his leg and touch have slipped and where there's no points at stake. Lindell is arguably the best Bills kicker ever. He's here for another couple-few years, barring getting injured and Potter coming in like gangbusters and not missing a beat. If Brad Smith is kept at the 3rd QB slot, we're already saving a roster spot from the 53. If Gailey, DeHaven and Co. believe that keeping this kid for KOs is worth it over a spare LB/DT/OL, I'm gonna have to defer.

Is this in reference to the firecracker... or his *? On second thought, forget I asked.

Again, one poll. On the first day of August. Not to mention that the Q NYT & CBS polling have been way off so as not to be believable. Q had Romney at 38 in one last month as even the overt-Democrat polling had him in the mid-and upper-40s. I don't expect it to get better when they join forces like this; to put it in antenna-speak, instead of decreasing, the signal/noise ratio just amplifies. When the debates roll around is when the all-important undecideds start to pour their concrete.

The news that was there has been at several big sites, including my local paper's. Why can't anyone have the courtesy of putting "The women's gymnastics team competition finals are complete. Click if you want to know who won" or somesuch. WTF? I don't want to have to live under a rock just so I can watch the Games with some degree of anticipation. But I guess that's where we're at.

Geez. Just opened Google News and their top story is a COMPLETE spoiler for most of tonight's broadcast. WTF?!?! I don't know who to be more pissed at. Media outlets in this situation can't even give us the option of not wanting to see results before the event is shown? This is an utter FAIL.

He was projected to be a 5-7 round pick and for some reason known only to Buddy and God, he was a second round pick. I'm not knocking that intrinsically and it's not his fault where he was picked, but even for a 5-7 he hasn't done enough to stay with this team. There are no sacred cows. Especially not this season.

Some have hit on it here, but here's what happens when you slam NBC for the time-delays and other coverage nits in the big leagues.... Critic of NBC has Twitter account suspended after network complains Twitter gets :thumbdown:

It's just like, if Walt offs Mike... who the hell would run the business side? Who would supply the methlamine? The thing of it, tho, is that why go to that length? If Walt and Jesse simply tell Mike that the deal is over and they want to go their separate ways, what's stopping a bloodless split? I mean, Mike didn't want in on it in the first place... until the $ got RICOed. I suppose now that Mike is in a hard spot WRT his so-called legacy people and he needs to keep them quiet. I just wonder who that veiled threat was intended for. I thought it was kind of directed at Jesse, who now can cook on his own, knows the lab equipment and was suggesting schematics to fit in the roadie trunks.... Mike's relationship with Jesse formed last season might put him in a spot to try to get Jesse on board with getting rid of Walt and making the division of $ simpler. Geezus. Can Walt ever be in a comfortable situation with the business side, without making his own demands based on how he sees things in a 'I deserve X'? Walt is not the business side and probably never could be because it's not his metier and he hasn't wanted to get his hands in that deep. And well, when you want something done, especially something illegal, you pay a premium.

As of late... Gregory Alan Isakov, Melody Gardot, and The Kinks.

Actually, there was a piece done on NBC where Brian Williams interviewed Phelps. Now, there's the whole impression that the Subway commercials gave and then there's reality. Phelps said that post-Bejing there was a serious letdown / euphoric crash / depression, he started using mary-jane and heactually gained ~25 pounds (and there were photos to prove that). He said that eventually, one of his buddies was like, 'Dude WTF is going on. You need to get it together and get back on track' and that this shook him out of it. His conditioning and fitness are not the same. Granted, it's four years on and wear and tear and change is inevitable. But questioning his work ethic, when he himself admits it suffered.... Yeah.

Yeah, I was gonna say that while it does look advantageous to have a TE's size and strength who can basically play at wideout... the answer to that is basically, Kill Tom Brady.

Didn't say that. It means they were last based on the heat results... where swimmers routinely take something off their performances to conserve for the final (and perhaps drive some of the lesser competition, who may be going all out in the heat, into the final). So, while it's not a rule that's set in stone, it is generally a rule of thumb with the idea that swimmers are marginally 'taking something off' by a similar %. Phelps swam like ass in his heat, got relegated to 8, swam better in the final but not well enough. Did the lane have much to do with being (iirc) ~3 seconds behind Lochte in the 400IM? No. Phelps isn't at the peak he was in 2008. The commentators said he was basically dragging himself out of the pool. But then again, Phelps held his own in the relay last night and Lochte blew a full body-length lead to the French. So... [shrug].

Touche!

Boston media reports have said that Belicheat has been lining up Aaron Gonzalez at a wide out slot in practices at times. That would be quite a mismatch on most CBs.

Along the same idea as drafting in motor racing, running, cycling, etc. as they don't continue cascading through the pool away from you. And so they put up some measure of resistance in a sport that's so often now decided by fractions of a second. To follow that, if you're relegted to the outside lanes based on heat results, you're not really in contention.

You don't want to bother reading through the thread that's already dedicated to Mitt Romney and the Olympics. So you think you're different from everyone else (well, besides Dave in Norf--k who created FOUR threads in two days about Mitt Romney being rich) and just start a new one. *.

*cough*

Vouchsafe that the Pentagon has plans of attack against EVERY country in the world, they have plans of attack for multiple countries in the event of a nuclear war, for biological and chemical and EVERY somesuch contingency, plans for which to attack first and which to attack last, and from there, on specifically where to attack, with which weapons and how many and with how many forces.... Stark contrast to how Jay Carney, WH press secretary, did his best impression of a stone wall the other day. That was an exercise in sheer pedantism. Don't for a minute think that the meaning behind refusing to answer what the White House considers the capital of Israel --- Tel Aviv or Jerusalem? --- went unnoticed among American Jews. This admin has been stand-offish and even hostile to Israel from Hour One. The bleeding heart Left is quick to say "Never Again" in the social studies classroom, and then duck and run when it comes to doing anything about making sure of Never Again when Israel has been under constant attack. Link

Tanya Cagnotto, Italian diver