UConn James

In a whole two drafts under Nix, what makes you so confident saying that he doesn't pick Best Player Available in round 1? That goes absolutely against everything I've read and heard of his draft philosophy. Yep. That Welker guy in New England... no one worries about him anymore!

I'm just going to note here.... You get that the salary cap only takes into account the highest 53 salaries of players on the team, right? So when they have 80+ guys in the offseason and camp, not all of those count or will count toward the cap. It's exceedingly rare for a late pick or an UDFA to count toward the cap.

If it were me, I'd take a flame thrower to that court house.

Your point is made as logically as usual... which means it displays none at all. You know, it would be one thing if increased taxes on "the wealthy/rich" would go toward the problem of the age --- the national debt and unfunded entitlement obligations (SS, Medicare) but any additional tax revenue would be spent on this or that department/project. We've seen that movie too many times to say that it might end differently. With the institution of the income tax comes the age of debt b/c pols can't stop spending. The left's solution of more tax revenue is like giving an addict more crack and expecting it to still be there in the morning.

NYT So Newt's first narrative about Romney is that he's a soft debater who won't be able to go toe-to-toe with Obama, but now he's saying that Romney is a bully? Which is it? In the first 15 minutes, Newt had his ass handed to him. No witty comeback when faced with the fact that he was a de facto lobbyist for Fannie/Freddie and others. Now, because an audience couldn't cover for him and waste time because they had to sit on their hands, Newt's threatening to skip the remaining debates. (Not to mention that there were several times where the audience did clap at responses. Just, they had nothing to clap at for Newt.) This is pathetic, Mr. Speaker. If you can't debate on the rostrum without the peanut gallery egging you on, distracting from the proceedings and wasting airtime, then you have no business being up there. Andrea Saul, a Romney spokesperson, rightly resurrected this picture out of the archives. http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/sites/default/files/styles/blog_listing_full/public/Aj7_NTXCIAAeLvr.jpg

I find it ridiculous that there are people who call themselves conservatives who are hating on Romney for having earned his wealth through private investment and in the past several years, living and donating to charity off of its returns rather than take in a salary from: serving as governor of Massachusetts (Romney took a salary of $1 per year); writing a book whose entire profits went to well-regarded medical charities including the Joey Fund, MS Society, Dana Farber, etc.; has tried to establish his groundwork and help candidates around the country raise $ for their campaigns (Romney did not mention this last night in reply to Brian Williams' question about his conservative/Republican Party bona fides). Romney hasn't been taking money from special interests and corporations that are seeking favors in return. These places aren't in the habit of gifting $300K a year for a "historian." Newt is full of stevestojan and it's telling that he had no witty comeback last night rather than saying that Romney had 'jumped pretty far.' Romney's point last night was that Newt Gingrich has looked to cash in since he left office by helping various entities that have paid him millions to maneuver Washington D.C. to gain access and get favorable influence (read: enable them to suckle more $ from the gov't teat). Does it really matter that Newt is not a "registered lobbyist"? That's like saying a fox didn't technically invade the henhouse because it doesn't have a dog license. Truth is, while Romney was making his money and setting up his nest egg by helping to build businesses, Newt made his money by gaming the system and setting up contacts that would pay back favors. And if he does somehow win the presidency (he's got slightly better than a snowball's chance in Hell, once you factor in Obama's Billion-dollar campaign and the inevitable leg-in-mouth moments that he'd have in 6 months that remind voters (Independents) of why they thought he was a sleaze-bag. Well, those that actually need to be reminded that he's a sleaze-bag...) Newt will have to pay those favors back. On the contrary, Romney has been currying favor by helping campaigns of pols he agrees with. They owe him. Which means he should have an easier time passing his core agenda --- repealing and replacing ObamaCare; Cut, Cap & Balance, reducing taxes to encourage businesses to come back and reinvest in America --- and not having to rely on a few big SuperPAC donors who will seek to have their backs scratched b/c they saved Newt's campaign. I have no problem voting for someone like Romney who's wealthy, and doesn't need to --- and the past 10 years indicates, will not --- make the presidency about increasing his personal finances. He's already got more than he can spend. Romney's goal here is to steadily lead this country back to something approaching fiscal sanity, not conduct a distractionary lip-service social agenda while it's business as usual in the Inner Loop. Because that's what has Newt and K-Street really afraid; they might actually have to do something to earn money rather than just be a siphon.

Don't speak too fast, aj! You often write about how you love your electronic devices. But now I hear you're on the waiting list for the iPod version of this product.

There are products that treat roots in septic. They're really not that expensive. I don't know how great they are for the environment, but you'd think they'd have to meet some kind of approval.

Spend it on 10 free bagels per day for all state employees! They're public servants, you know. That makes them more important than a customer service person at Macy's or a sales guy at a health care equipment store.... who are, like, private servants. Or bike paths! Bike paths are nice. Sincerly, ...lybob

RMPL

As far as I understand it, that is not piracy. As long as you own an original copy, you can make a digital back-up / rip to your computer. Just, if you go selling or "lending" that digital copy, there's the rub. I question the predicted death of the CD, for the same reason that we still have cassettes and vinyl. Getting totally away from physical media is dangerous. Files get corrupted and don't play (I had an issue with Media Player suddenly not playing anything earlier this year before it righted itself)... but as long as I've got a CD player and take care of the CDs, I'm good. It's entirely probable that they'll further be reducing the # in production, but I don't think we'll ever see the death of the CD/DVD.

Yeah, when I was bitten by a pitbull-mix on the hand earlier this year, it didn't hurt so badly at the ER. I think I said it was a 3 or 4. And then that night it was the worst pain of my life, and I don't live a protected existence b/c I do a lot of tradework. I just wonder how my pup got through it so well, because he got the worst of it because it (and another dog) was going right for his throat and I got bit trying to alternately push them off of us. They gave me a hydrocodone Rx and that didn't even begin to touch it so I stopped that on Day 2. Maybe that was wrong-headed. But I don't like painkillers on general principles. Very much a 'Man up!' kind of person.

No, if you remember from the 'Buy Chinese-Made Authentic-Style NFL jerseys for $25 each --- Just like the real thing!' threads, I don't bag on stealing intellectual property. Nor did I support those threads being hosted here on TBD because they were breaking the Terms of Service linking to sites that engaged in illegal activity. I stated this in the threads and was attacked by several posters for saying that copyright infringement, theft and receiving such wares is wrong and apparently no moderator had a problem with the flouting of SDS's TOS . The FBI raided a place the other week and some dude was caught with ~$300K worth of fake jerseys. One guy at one small location. But, people can keep telling themselves that it's not affecting the NFL's bottom line and the economy. As I wrote, I'm purchasing the two albums that are available on Amazon. Paying $ for a physical CD. Yes, I listen to Youtube, but that's been an impetus for a number of my purchases. And yes, I may be the last person in the world who does this. I've read that they're going to stop producing CDs within the next 5-10 years, which I'm dreading... I just like to have a tangible item if possible when I buy things. I hope they re-release "Some Lessons: The Bedroom Sessions" here. Just seeing that again now, and wow, that subtitle would be easy to misconstrue. As noted above, she recorded it from her hospital bed during recovery. ON EDIT: Sorry Beerball, I didn't see your sarcasm tag on first read....

I read her Wiki entry.... This girl's been through some stevestojan! According to what I'm reading, she does very limited touring b/c of the effects of the accident. (Well, then again, it wasn't an accident. Dude ran a red light.) You know, it's a hell of a thing to say, but seeing the EPK interview, in a way that accident was a great thing and another instance of God/The Island/The Flying Spaghetti Monster working in mysterious ways --- she might otherwise be some fluky fashion designer instead of a fabulous musician. Greatest suggestion from a doctor... ever! I'm really crushing heavy on "My One and Only Thrill." Can't get over that these are almost all original songs from her own writing --- something jazz and/or blues singers just don't do, especially so early on --- and they sound so timeless. I just love how she sings so nuanced and soft when a lot of others, especially these days, will just belt the lyrics out. Not that I'm disparaging that for those that can do it well (e.g. Brandi Carlile), but American Idol and the like have made a lot of people think they can be singers & make it as singers when they cannot... to say nothing of "singers" whose act is 85% dancing and image and frick-all when it comes to the music I'm gettin' the albums (not the one she did from the hospital bed. It was released in 2005 and is out of print?! Which means an import costs triple. ~$30 for 6 songs?!) and some Skullcandy headphones on amazon. You sold me, aj! Thanks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBWY6W1dSvE

I got into that Krall / Monheit thing near the millennium and then it just wore off. There was just something about the both of them that didn't seem right. For Monheit especially, after her second album it went from sugary to cloying. Songs that I didn't really like that came to be accompanied with swing-era music. As you're hinting, I thought Krall's voice was fine. She was just doing some esoteric stuff. I imagine being married to Elvis Costello will do that.... Norah Jones also seemed to go off in a weird direction. I love the French-ish bistro-y sound to this. The pacing and inflections. I'm also reading that she was hit by a car and it affected her eyes (hence the 'sunglasses at night / indoors') and hearing. Liking some other stuff I'm hearing too. Thanks for the heads-up! Also, to note.... I'm a fan of music, not necessarily any type. Just good music.

Embarrassed? Why? It was counter-intuitive and the reaction was out of left field (then again, was there ever any doubt that Southerners don't like religions that are not Baptist / "Born Again" / "Evangelical" .... but make no mistake that many of the reporters and anchors in that outfit are privately high-fiving because they were part of reviving the primary campaign of someone who has probably a 15% shot at beating their man Obama. This would be like expecting HuffPost to sheepish if they had helped Christine O'Donnell out-primary Mike Castle. !@#$ that --- they'd be doing jumping jacks!

Probably is Dave in Norf--k creating another screen name in advance of being banned or proven egregiously stupid (you know, over and above his normal level of breathtakingly stupid). You don't think it's a coincidence that shortly after one is banned or slinks away, another dumb-as-a-doornail liberal shows up here, right? Because there's been a string of them. Dude keeps getting knocked down and comes back for more wearing a different mantle. Sure, he might tack slightly one way or the other in an attempt to put people here off, but it's the same person. Elegant Eliot, connor, Mickey, beausox, pBills... the list goes on and on. I can't remember them all. Does anyone here think this is simply a string of one-off posters? If mods could check the IP numbers, I'm sure most of them would be the same. The dude likes his lulz. A pair of glasses may hide Superman's secret identity, but a < 100KB avatar does not fool me.

Wow!

They give me targets for my air rifle.

I don't know if you put a halt to the trolling here on the main board, but... As much as "Honey Badger don't care / Honey Badger don't give a stevestojan" Mr. Mathieu still just completed his sophomore season and is not eligible to declare for the NFL until next year if he does decide to leave LSU early. And while it's natural to think Philbin might want to bring some members of the band with him, it's control-freak Jeff Ireland that makes the ultimate decisions there. He may want to stick with Moore.

No stevestojan. birdog, there are planes and boats that leave every day for many European countries, Columbia, and Cuba (this won't be a direct flight) if you have such a zeal for income redistribution at higher rates than the U.S. already does.

I'm sorry, but I just don't buy into the idea that becoming an isolationist state will help us WRT the GWOT and "other countries hating us." Now, I'm all for reducing military spending that's wasteful and unnecessary, but we're involved in many areas and pulling our resources back with such a brunt as Ron Paul wants to do decreases stability, creates a power vacuum that other countries will fill and use to their political and economic advantage, and just leave us open to whatever entities want to come at us for payback once the word is out that we've turned into a weak sister.... The Islamic extremist set --- and even the moderate --- doesn't forget things easily. They carry grudges from 1,500 years ago like it just happened yesterday. People alive now beat themselves bloody for not being alive 700 years ago to stop the murder of such-and-such religious icon. Disengaging and pulling out from the Middle East to Paul's degree only guarantees the slow (or fast) destruction of Israel, and a free forum to plan attacks on the U.S. homeland in a "AND STAY OUT!!" milieu. That kind of sense was palpable on our exit from Iraq --- a place where we poured in trillions gave us the cold shoulder. We can't ever do something like that again, and Paul's point that Europe and other places need to be forced to start paying for their own protection rather than getting a free ride on our dollar is something I do agree with but that doesn't mean we should basically bring everyone home and hunker down. Especially at the prospect of a nuclear Iran ==> the Islamic Bomb. The idea that "blowback" will end toute suite once we disengage is foolish and preposterous.

You say you'd take sloppy seconds on every "would ya?" thread.

No, Philbin was working at the game. They showed him several times up in the coaches' box.

Yeah, I was alive in '97-'98 so I know the particulars. That was a more rhetorical question along the lines of "What was the use of it all?" I understand that there's a legal distinction b/w lying under oath and lying in front of the camera for all the world to see, and that somehow when you're in a testimony seat, there's a higher standard for truth-telling than when you're standing next to it. I was brought up to believe that a lie is a lie is a lie, no matter where you're sitting. And the pretense of this weasel trivia doesn't make Newt any less slimy than the creature his first name describes. The Clinton impeachment was at its heart a personal vendetta. And now Gingrich is getting the red ass because now his own brand of poison brew is the medicine he's being forced to swallow?!!? him. I'll probably vote for him if he's the nominee, just to get BO out of there, but I won't like it and I pray it doesn't come down to him. AD can chastise me for being a lemming and part of the problem all he wants, but I'll take a son-of-a-B word who at least says he'll reduce taxes and cut spending over a guy who's passing public money out like it's !@#$ing candy (not to mention running taxpayer-bought guns to Mexican drug cartels so he can get the wheels rolling on the "Progressive" wet-dream of U.N.-style gun registration and confiscation when he's got nothing left to run for).