UConn James

High Real Unemployment Data Reflect Poorly On Obama No matter how they try to push the narrative of recovery, the raw numbers can't fool anyone except those who want to be fooled. Employers are not hiring because they are scared stevestojanless of social-economic mandates and over-regulation (that adds ~$12K+ in tax/overhead responsibility before a wage is paid) makes it impossible to add more people. When the only solution in the administration's Bag of Tricks is to raise taxes even more... like the limbo bar, we have yet to see how low this thing can go. What they're selling as "good economic news" is 99-weekers being kicked off the unemployment insurance rolls. But still, they're churning these out every month as if this is evidence of Recovery rather than a canard.

But the real test to how far these marriage laws will go is when some 5th grader wants to marry a pouch of cherry-flavored Capri Sun.

Oh dear. Make no mistake, that is an act of pure love. I'm a softie for dogs, so I imagine that I'd want to do the same but common sense dictates certain things. The caption indicates that the dog was on the ice, not that it fell through. It sounds dumb to ask but could he not have called the dog back... but then I'm guessing he probably did. My little boy is on his leash 100 percent of the time when outside.

Tom is not a historian. Historians get paid $1.6M by FannieMae/FreddieMac. Ask Newt Gingrich, he'll tell you.

Natalie Gulbis also did a bodypaint set for SI. Wow. Nice form!

I thought that wasn't starting 'til March. And yes, it looks pretty good. Enjoyed Isaacs' performance in the BBC / PBS Masterpiece Mystery "Case Histories" last fall. This might mean the end of that series if it gets picked up. The networks have certainly had a string of 'em in recent years trying to pick up British actors and mash 'em into plots with recycled American character actors --- ones that still have active studio contracts where they're paid whether they're filming anything or not. Joseph Fiennes in "Flash Forward," former Doctor Who star David Tennant in "Rex is Not Your Lawyer" (which sadly never made it to air for reasons unbeknownst; it had even been getting a fair amount of critical buzz) and some dude who was also in "Flash Forward" and now playing the director in "SMASH."

I won! Oh wait. We had to stare at her eyes??!?

What about a DE/DT, being used as a LB, covering a WR? Because Spencer Johnson and Carrington did that several times in Edwards' system. That just... boggled the mind.

Nevermind that Santorum has ZERO experience balancing a budget at an executive level of any kind. And in defense / national security --- the #1, #2, #3 and #5 job priorities of a president --- he has ZERO experience. He would get absolutely railroaded in both if he were elected, and we can't afford another president who has to do OJT on how to be an effective executive rather than a professional populist or proselytizer.

Yeah, gotta say that Probst summed it up nicely by basically telling them they're typical crazy bitches who'd better get their acts together or they're not gonna last long in this game. I have a feeling that they're going to be doing a reshuffling (i.e. where everyone has to pull a buff out of the bag) fairly soon. Men vs. Women is interesting in theory, but then in practice, you get last night. The only thing it avoids are the strong guy-weak girl alliances that have been pretty effective in this game over the years. That may be what the producers are trying this time. To be fair, they're going to need to make some immunity challenges less physically- and spatially-dependent. All I know is that Alicia and her 'If we were in Chicago, you'd be on the floor' crap to Chelsea ( ) at tribal and her general vindictiveness at Christina has gotta have her marked. That's not how you pull a tribe together. But, then again, these are a bunch of typical crazy bitches, so I could definitely see them getting rid of the most productive/competitive members first.

I've got a short-haired dog, so grooming is minimal (tho, winter shedding drives me sometimes). I get his food @ Petco... and not cheap stuff. How do people think they're going to get away with stuff like this? You make a mistake, own up to it, apologize, make restitution. The fault of the lame cover-up is always 1,000 times worse than the mistake itself.

Tough to get names straight early on. Actually, the older chick (not the one with busted face), Monica, is. I'm liking the black girl's game so far. Chelsea Christina and I don't know why Alicia is getting in her frill about trying to make a deal with the men for fire. 'Cause, uhh... they needed fire to have drinking water, which is kind of important. Tough break for Courtney. But if there is a "good" time for it, it would probably be before she had too much invested into it....

Adam is a fence-sitter. Who'd've guessed!

Hope to catch it live, but may have some necessaries to do tonight. Should be a good season trying something new. I liked Redemption Island, as it added another twist in the strategy realm, but the returning players angle was a letdown in how much they dominated the game. I think from now on, they should leave that to an All-Star season. I did have the thought to perhaps create a merged Survivor / Amazing Race thread. From a casual observation, most people who post in the threads watch both. Survivor essentially gets Tuesday-Friday, AR gets Saturday-Monday. I dunno. Just a thought.

No doubt. And I mean... no doubt.

Haven't seen all those live "news" reports from gas pumps of people complaining tho, have you? Hmm. I wonder why?

My 4-year-old niece eats little beyond mac&cheese, plain spaghetti with butter and parmesean, rice, corn, bread, yogurt, soy milk, and Jello. Sometimes she'll have bacon or ham if she's here. Doesn't eat anything that she doesn't like the look of and if it has flecks of parsley, pepper, whatever. Now, I think this has been wrought in large part because my brother's ex is a neurotic herself that can't be bothered to spend more than 10 minutes making a meal. But that's neither here nor there. Trying to instill adult eating habits on kids is a complete waste of time and $. They'll eat when they're hungry and they will try different things as they grow up (or, "grow older" for those people who fail to grow up) and discern their likes and dislikes in their own time. Forcing kids to eat and attempting to beat them over the head with rigid guidelines will only cement bad habits in an "I'll teach them!" kind of way.

HBD to Jim Kelly & lighting a candle for Hunter.

Since this is where the discussion of the contraception/insurance stuff is.... After ires have cooled a little bit, this would seem to be an important read by Andrew Sullivan, who thinks Obama is being dumb like a fox on the issue. How Obama Set a Contraception Trap for the Right And given the numbers he's citing, it probably was smart for Romney to not dive into it, other than to say that the White House's plan as originally crafted was stupid and obviously against the 1st Amendment. The "compromise" --- other than a financial focus of fairness/splitting-hairs-of-'direct'-vs.-'indirect'-coverage discussion WRT insurers being made to eat the cost of these services --- would seem to be where the majority of the country, and even the large majority of lay-Catholics are on the issue. The numbers are saying this move does appear to win approval among women and among indies. Not for nothing that Obama can so often appear to step in stevestojan and have it come out smelling like roses. This issue was presented by them, tactically, so Obama could offer the "compromise" and pick up some brownie points with groups he needs to win. That, and any time spent on this is time not being spent on Obama's biggest weakness --- the economy and the budget/debt.

One party has members who use the phrase "Cut, Cap & Balance" a lot. This is one of Romney's major talking points, for those people too lazy to check out what he actually says and just figures 'Hey, he was governor of Massachusetts, so he must be a tax-and-spender.' And hey, they may not get it done. There's a lot of special interests that will beg, steal or borrow to get their crack fix. But they're the one major party who's at least saying there is a debt problem and X is what needs to be done about it, rather than wanting to put $1.2T more on the gov't credit card limit like Obama and the Democrats.

Ahhh.... Crayonz, reelin' 'em in!

Excuse those of us who don't think we ought to fete either of these people as role models. Excuse us if we comment how much of a waste she made of her life and squandered her talent via drugs.

Yup. I hope he's up to it. The priorities in the next few years are likely going to be getting the academics back up to par, building a basketball practice facility on campus next to Gampel (where the old football field is), and probably finding a successor to Calhoun. (Altho I fully expect JC to coach at least another year, and if they're tourney-ineligible in 2013 then two more years; no way will he go out on a note like this. He's too proud, too Irish.) Anyway, Manuel's pedigree seems good. Anyone have anecdotes or anything to share?

Hmm. I usually disrespectfully disagree with ...lybob.

And that's not even the biggest douchebag statement that Mr. Collins made in the article. He took the opportunity to say that this is what you get with Republicans heading government. Because Democrats, Independents, Greens, Communists and Lyndon Larouche followers haven't ever made crass jokes or worse.