UConn James

Exactly. Her main drive was to get her name in the papers. And if she couldn't do it through actual talent, it'll be done by offending people. Look, I swear like a truck driver who used to be a sailor. But I don't don't do it in front of kids or in situations where the proceedings deserve clean language and respect. The Super Bowl, where there's every expectation that you will be heard because you're wearing/holding a microphone and the camera is right in front of you with a feed that you know is being watched by hundreds of millions, is such a situation. It's not a secret that profanity and obscene gestures are not allowed on broadcast teevee. No doubt (and I mean NO doubt!) every performer who's onstage has been instructed in this by the NFL. And yet, this one does it anyway because she and her agent think making people see her name in headlines can make her act more marketable. The point --- hire people with class and who don't need to resort to this to become "known."

Doubt it. But... monkey see, monkey do.

I didn't notice it either because everyone at my place was talking, the volume was turned down and I don't think anyone was watching because, dude, it was Madonna. Still, my 4-year-old niece was there and it would be nice if she could watch teevee without being exposed to this trash. I know it'll happen eventually, but we shouldn't have to put earmuffs and blindfolds on to avoid it. I guess some people just need to swear and flash obscene gestures to get noticed....

Link Perhaps Roger Goodell should also consider eliminating the Super Bowl halftime show if they're just going to hire two-bit youth-pop acts that are 85% dancing, 13% costume and 2% music.... Acts who see the most-watched event of the year as a forum for pedantic stunts to establish their brand via "obscenity" publicity, rather than as a forum for showing the world a graceful display of their talent. M.I.A. wasn't the headliner but saw this as her opportunity to steal the headline, knowing that extending a middle finger and saying the F-word gets tons of press the next day and for months and years. And... it looks like it worked. Apparently, getting known by performing well and being a good singer is too difficult. So, these hacks look to shock value to get their 15 minutes of fame/shame and a little wad of money. Memo: Real entertainers don't need controversy and fluff. In the future, get real professionals who have ability to handle the situation with class like Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, etc. And then limit the performance to these professionals, rather than inviting all and sundry who will be looking to make a name for themselves in the 'negative publicity is still publicity' milieu.

Good thing nurses don't have to take the Hippocratic Oath!

Must've been a really special bottle of spray-paint to go back for. This a real loss to society, I'm certain....

Too bad it couldn't be like that in every other game. Which, to me, smacks of a huge need for more consistency. Especially WRT pass interference. Moore clobbered that dude while the pass was still ~3 feet away. No call. McKelvin a few times this year (I believe the most obvious one was in the second Jets game iirc) played the WR perfectly in every respect. No physical contact. But he got flagged because he "didn't turn his head" as the announcers said. Which is BS. The strange and wildly varied application of pass interference gives WAY too much power to refs (this season more than any other)... and IMO, is the league's dirty little open-secret of how they keep games close and "exciting."

Two words: Joe Klopfenstein. It happens. Doesn't mean Belicick isn't a first-rate peckerwood, but it happens.

I'll be your proofreader. (Don't deny it. I've read your posts.)

Yep. It seemed like whoever wrote and directed had such a dislike for Thatcher, that they tried to temper it by making her something pitiable. And so it was less biography than a 'Look how the mighty have fallen!' uppercut. The interspersing timeline and flashback narrative style doesn't allow for us to get an undistracted glimpse of her glory years. There's always this slap in the face that the woman is now senile, physically seeing her deceased husband and thinking she's still the PM. But even then, they took to task that metaphor of the "Iron Lady," careerist, giving her own children the cold shoulder, and the requisite "shop-keeper's daughter" quips. It would be like a film of Ronald Reagan's life concentrating hard and viewed through the extrapolated, exaggerated prism of his secluded Alzheimers' years that few people would even be able to speak of --- but that would be more appropriate, given that some of the signs did show in public. There weren't more important things to focus on that happened in her longest reign as PM? They had to assault her with this, during her lifetime? Yes, some people get old and some people develop dementia, but the decline is not the most important part of someone's life. I fundamentally disagree with this period of Thatcher's life being used as the basis. I suppose the excuse would be that it's a "King Lear"-like drama that focuses on the final fall of its subject, laying out where he'd gone wrong and the ignominy of no longer having power coupled with the loss of wit and vigor. But Shakespeare with a quill and moving his players, this was not. The performances were good with what they were given, but it's a shame that Streep and Broadbent were used so ill here. No surprise that Hollywood gave it a political nomination. As Sean Penn himself said after he won for "Milk" in 2009, God knows they can't resist lauding "commies and homos." And, I would add, the cutting-off-at-the-knees of strong women who happen to be politically conservative --- just about the only thing most Academy members do judge to be an unnatural abomination. Frankly, it looks like they hope to use the cachet of "The King's Speech" win last year (Firth's performance aside, something I was very disappointed with, given the screenplay's reductive and overwhelmingly fast and loose portrayal of history) and hope that a film about a British upper-cruster's personal battle with disorder can catch lightning in the Kodak _______ Theater a second time.

A landslide? With those numbers? The +5/6 polls are from PPP, Democrat pollster, and NBC, a Democrat network. The rest of the recents show a tie --- with Obama having the soap box of the presidency and Romney still duking it out for the nomination. With the electoral college and the changes from the census? And those are with a SOTU "bounce."

I guess I'll try it out.... I have been watching "Once Upon a Time" from some of the "LOST" writers & producers. Can't wait until AR and Survivor come back because otherwise network teevee is a wasteland. Memo to teevee execs --- TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT!

Do you say that to every inanimate object you encounter, too?

You don't get how 100% of those profits are being sent to China, based on designs and trademarks that Americans are trying to defend? Instead of it going to NFL players (who get 49% iirc from the CBA), teams, the league, and from there distributed to jewelry makers, tailors, sprinkler system installers, bookstores, universities, etc., etc... that cash instead goes out of country. It leaves. Less money in the economy. This one bust was over $4 million and we're still half a week away from the game. This is just NFL jerseys. Can you fathom how much is sent over there for untold other products, that were created by someone else, but that they're not profiting from, and part of the reason why prices are driven so high is to keep a company's profits level while legitimate sales slip because so many are buying from illegal producers/sellers?

Not when copyrights are allowed to be ripped by Chinese manufacturers and the American consumer goes along with it, like Hansel and Gretel being led into the oven. When our patents and trademarks are stolen, there is less incentive for people to come up with new products because these ideas and formulas will just be stolen. But, a lot of people fail to see this point.... Case in point: the counterfeit jersey threads. Amazing tho. God bless curious people who want to make life easier.

Waldo's in the Super Bowl this year. So, I could certainly think of sadder. The North Carolina education system for one.

Meh... An understanding can exist of involvement in a preferred area i.e. the open secret during the '08 DNConvention that Hillary would be given State.

Even if Ron Paul would be offered Treasury or to chair the Fed? That smacks of not actually wanting change in fiscal and monetary policy. I could understand Libertarian Party voters with Johnson making their moot point, but you're telling me that Paul could get a chair to do many of the things he's talked about for so long, and his supporters wouldn't vote for that? It's really all-or-nothing? Or... better put, all-or-we-may-vote-for-the-guy-who-rickrolled-us-with-the-stimulus?

Cow got your tongue?

Is there a time limit on # of years or chances for consideration? When does any chance get kicked to the Seniors Committee (at which point he'd have to wait 15-20 or more years)?

Interesting article from WaPo on the Romney-Paul "alliance." I'd say that if Romney does get the nomination and wins in the general, Paul-ites could expect their guy to have some influence on the monetary and budget side of things. If not Treasury Secretary, then certainly an economic adviser. I haven't heard too much disagreement b/w them on that. Foreign & Defense policy differences is another matter entirely, but not something that a domestic economy arm of an administration would really touch. If Paul supporters want their voices to have any shot at / any kind of weight in actual governance, this might be their best bet for a long time. With the ground game both of these candidates have built, I don't think Obama would stand a chance.

Don't you have some jerseys to counterfeit?

With 17 teams in each conference, where would the extra go division-wise? That would raise all kinds of hell WRT schedule-making, no?

Bills fan!

... And Imus was fired for a really, really terrible joke. When does Mr. Matthews get to sit in Al Sharpton's studio and get preached and leered at for 30 minutes?