UConn James

Just like Michael Jackson, I get the sense that the proper mourning should be for what was lost a long time ago and what could have been, given their talent, but for a divergence down the wrong path(s). Rx abuse (sad to say, Dr. Feelgood is the state of the medical profession), illicit drugs, suicide, "natural causes" --- whatever it turns out to be it will be connected with the ravages of drug use. The tragedy in WH's life was the day she met Bobby Brown. Yesterday was just the final note of a dirge that started playing 20 years ago.

Specifically, Dave in Nor-ᵮ˅¢ƙ wants me to wipe his ass. Really, I'm flattered. I am. But A) I'm just not into that kind of thing and 2) Dave's boyfriend might get bent out of shape. I'm 96% sure he thinks there should be a Bureau of Ass-Wiping added to Health & Human Services available to provide free services and toilet paper for those earning up to 200% of the poverty level.

The naivete of Candidate Obama was galling. And I have no confidence that he's learned enough about reality to do much else than pray our military is competent enough to guide his hand. As for providing policy direction, what we have is an Afghanistan surge that he took longer to decide on a course and an arbitrary number of troops (a number that turned out to not be what brass said was needed to be effective) than letting the surge do its work before announcing that we'd be drawing it down. The failure of the Supercommittee showed he (as with all Democrats) sees the major way to more closely balance the budget in the short term and debt in the long term is by dismantling the military and screwing over our veterans.

Other than the 'Halloween Surprise' storm that decimated oak branches and knocked out our power for 9 days, I cannot complain about the winter here in CT so far. Certainly not after last year.

Age doesn't have much to do with it. When a person does heavy drugs like that for so long.... Official COD may not be drugs, but without a doubt, they played a big part b/c they just ravage your body.

My alma mater has gone from champs to chumps, but they were down by 2 late... and then Cuse hit those two straight treys --- done.

Ralph's opinion on the matter doesn't seem to have changed in 40 years. If he could black out every game, I'm about 89% sure he would do it. 'Let's put our sports entertainment product under a ing rock!' I don't get it.

Well they did a 40* turn. Is that enough? This "compromise" of forcing insurers to take a $ hit on providing abortifacients to employees of religious institutions isn't a compromise. It's backhandedly forcing the institution to do something that violates its teachings, rather than forcing them to directly provide them. What's the real difference? Employees are still getting free services to prevent or destroy pregnancy, the insurers are getting that $ from somewhere (are Catholics' policy rates going to decrease? I hardly think so!), and this just smacks of a smoke and mirrors pre-election move. To say nothing of HHS Sec'y Sebilius's guidelines for what constitutes a religious institution. Which would seem to preclude Catholic charities. Per Krauthammer:

The Saturday Essay : Foreign-policy pundits increasingly argue that democracy and free markets could thrive without U.S. predominance. If this sounds too good to be true, writes Robert Kagan, that's because it is. Some macrocosmic soup for everyone to enjoy this fine Saturday. For anyone wishing and hoping for a decline in American hegemony, or for those who think we should retract because we can't afford it anymore (cough Ron Paul cough), the continuation of world order as we've set it up is hardly guaranteed. And after we lose Superpower status either by volition or debt, it's pretty certain we'll be singing the geopolitical equivalent of "Big Yellow Taxi" (You Don't Know What You've Got 'Til It's Gone). Now, a small sliver of Ron Paul's arguments do have some resonance for me. Essentially, it is what Bill Gates told European powers on his farewell address there: those countries that by-and-large share American ideals must expect to stop getting a partial free ride with protection from the U.S. military's capabilities while they keep small armies that they've been hesitant to use, and when they do, usually only as token support to missions started by the UN or America. The Libyan campaign seemed the first major use of force from Europe for decades. Time for them to stop spending so much on social welfare, put it into their military and protect themselves so America can make some marginal cuts and use its resources more effectively. But let's get one thing straight, as it says here. If and when America is no longer the lead dog, there will be blood.

ABC News: US Officials Say Kim Jong Un Assassination Rumors Untrue As Doonesbury's Roland Hedley says, "Twitter is the first rough draft of gossip."

I've been de-friended a couple times. Women don't like being proved wrong in a public forum.

I don't see where the contention is. Roethlisberger has gotten some input from people around the league from people who think that Haley is great and some that he's lousy. He'll be meeting with Haley and from there he'll decide for himself. In order for this to be a story, it would have to be something like BR refuses to work with Haley. How did people around the league view Kevin Gilbride after what he did in Buffalo and in his previous stops? What did they think of him? Everybody has fan-boys and haters. Two Super Bowl Championships later, KG's not looking too bad....

Obama found out that the theory of closing GITMO is a lot different from the reality of closing it. It's not just Republicans. NO ONE wants Al Quaeda members in their backyard. You look back at the naivete of the campaign and it's just galling. Couple that with the acceptance of the left under Obama of things that they blamed and burned Bush in effigy for. They really don't mind --- and in fact, they tout these things! --- as long as its their guy doing it.

There is literally no one involved here who's not at fault. The owner for putting himself in this situation to begin with and not having adequately trained/socialized this dog. The fact that it's not current on its vaccinations tells me all I need to know about him. I hate people who get a dog because it makes them look tough and then can't handle them and don't take the time to do what it takes to properly keep them. I get that he didn't want to appear to be an * on live teevee, but how does the officer just sit there when it's pretty clear that things aren't going in the right direction? Nevermind an obligation to have done a check on the vaccinations after the incident or at least before you parade him around strange people and put him on camera. My father was an ACO for 20 years and that's basic due diligence. After the rescue situation, you don't have to be an * and issue a ticket for unvaccinated (I'm assuming this is rabies vaccination, as that's the only one any town or city I've ever heard of keeps track of) when you look at the records, but you do have to be like, "Uhh. Dude... Get your dog its shots. Now. And I'm going to follow up on this; if it's not done by tomorrow (unless there's a serious line-up at the vet), you're getting a ticket." And it may not be a police officer's job to do this, per se, but it would be his job to check things with the ACO and let them do their part. The reporter was way too aggressive, especially with an animal that had just recently been through a stressful situation, as KD wrote. I have worked to train my 2-year old GSP to take his tail being pulled and being up in his grill, even taking milkbones out of his mouth and not reacting. It's something we've done with every dog we've had, to cut out any aggression response. Even then, when you don't know a dog (and more importantly, when it doesn't know you), you can't act like this. Any dog, even the best-trained, can snap; it only takes the right set of circumstances. I was bitten this summer (my dog was as well) when I was walking down the road. Two fighting breed dogs just charged out of a house, crossed the road and lit into us. No sniffing of butts, no nothing. It does color my opinion that there are many people who own breeds they can't control and that they have no business owning. Why do you need a Cane Corso, a Rottweiler, or breeds that may not have higher incidences of bites, but that when the switch is flipped and they chase and bite, they are hard-wired to not let go?

Was it blue, by any chance? Looks like Walter and Jesse were busy....

There's no direct link on the Wheel site, but here.... and here, even tho this really isn't a good-quality picture or angle. Not trying to be skeevy. Just saying, nice pull sailor!

Love this attitude. He is not someone whose mind is always on the money or who'll tank once he sees $. It's all about the football. Have him in for a physical and maybe get something done with an extension in the OTAs.

I'd have to go with this. Service is not mandatory, nor should any demographic group be 'expected' to contribute arbitrary percentages to the military. But I am in favor of military members being welcoming to gays who want to serve. As much as some people were warning that there would be problems to ending DADT and that it might be the ruin of the military at an important time, such is the makings of our military that they have handled the change with such professionalism and proved that it's really not a big deal. More was made of it in the halls of Congress and among the worrywart dinosaur set who think that soldiers might be afraid of homosexual people. Well on us to be done with the useless bureaucratic tonnage and personnel losses this policy caused over 20 years.

I'm just gonna say, Grace F. on "Wheel of Fortune" tonight in their "Military Spouses Week".... Wow. Just wow. That's a lucky soldier.

Actually Dave in Nor !@#$ is saying that because he doesn't like Santorum, most of the country won't either. You know, pretty much the same thing as his Romney-is-rich-therefore-he-is-evil shtick.

Yeah.... The video feed on the ABC site keeps blacking out on me for the last segment of every show I try to watch there. So I got to the part where [yellow-fonted for spoilers] the mother character had been taken underwater and the dude was laying the skeleton in as a replacement of sorts and then *blip*. I'm not so keen on there being so much supernatural stuff so soon. And to keep watching, I'd also have to do a some serious 'suspension of disbelief' to not keep wondering why they don't get the out of there and if they want to come back, then do so with an army (or at least more than a lone security guy who's already displayed an ulterior motive/side mission, a shaman, body armor, a girl who has some kind of limp after a serious leg wound and a guy whose clothes don't magically dry minutes after diving to pull debris out of the rudder, and a bigger boat. I dunno if I'm going to bother catching how the ep concludes. Once Upon a Time is the kind of show I probably shouldn't like based on a description and kind-of reductive soap-opera-ish acting, but I'm enjoying the storyline and how they're fleshing out the tales and weaving them together, both in the fairy-tale world and in the 'real world" of Storybrooke. Wanted to catch Alcatraz. Meant to. But didn't. FOX doesn't always come in for me ( FCC co-channeling here) on the antenna. I'll probably be looking to give it a try when I get some time.

It had been my understanding that if a priest were to reveal in court testimony what was said in a confession scenario, it would be allowable, but that he would have to answer for it professionally (risking being de-frocked) and spiritually. Kind of how journalists have that unwritten rule for protecting their sources --- most judges will respect that tradition, but there's nothing prohibiting a journalist from testifying if they want to (realizing they won't ever work again) or for a judge throwing them in jail for not revealing a source as with Judith Miller. Guess that assumption was wrong. That first quoted Michigan law is pretty clear --- they aren't allowed to testify in the state even if they want to. I don't know how this court gets off on flouting it. Wonder how many states have similar laws?

Frankly, I didn't see an overt political partisanship in the ad. The getting up after a punch and "second half" analogies could well involve a proverbial switch of this country's quarterback.

Hasn't started campaigning? Dude, you must've been hanging out in John Adams' coffin. Obama NEVER STOPPED campaigning. The point that will be made in the general against Obama is that if/when we slide back into recession, bailouts and stimulus are the only tricks in his bag. He is intractable at any other means of reviving an economy and jobs; all he's done is create disincentives for businesses to spend and hire, which is why we're still going to be at over unemployment is still going to be such a problem. It's not unlike the housing mess where Biden himself said that the quickest fix is the Republican strategy; the Democrat strategy is to string the situation out until they accomplish their political goals and then maybe they'll see whether they can fix peoples' problems... most of which is that government is standing in the way of actual progress. I, for one, am not inspired that Obama is prepared or has learned a jot about how to respond to whatever happens next. All I've seen from this administration is hoping in one hand and stevestojanning in the other.

Actually, it's more like, offense gets/can get you to the championship, but defense wins it.