UConn James

Hartford Courant's Jeff Jacobs: UConn Can't Sit as Big East Collapses Really good take on the situation from a really good sportswriter. Also reports that a Courant source has said UConn "has had conversations with the ACC."

As I wrote, if it lasts at all, The Big East will become a basketball-only conference and a weak one at that. If they continue to hand-sit on Hillside Drive and remain stuck in a depleted / bandaged BE, I don't think it's too much to say it will be the eventual downfall of UConn sports. There will be little incentive to build the basketball training complex they're dreaming of, and then when Calhoun retires the standard will be lost with an inability to attract a major coaching talent to a weak conference. Then Geno A. will leave sometime and by then the football program will be a low-tier also-ran and people will remember when UConn used to win championships. Gotta say that I am keen on this in-a-perfect-world re-alignment plan, but I'm just afraid it's not going to go that way. There's also the matter of there (no doubt) still being a bitter taste in the ACC's mouth over then-CT Attorney General (he's now a U.S. Senator) Dick Blumenthal's lawsuit against them during the VT, U, BC defections. Don't think the ACC's forgotten about that and will miss the opportunity to extend a big middle finger at UConn, even if adding us would make their conference better.

Just to note that the Big East's rules for exiting the conference changed after the loss of the U, VT & BC. There's now a 27-month notice required and $5M exit fee. Now, the money's not a big object, but those 2+ years... awkward! We'll see what comes of that as "the dominoes continue to fall," tho, because just about everything in this world is negotiable. Regardless, it might give UConn some time to figure out their move. Then again, if Syracuse and PITT are accepted, there's only 2 slots left in an ACC 16-team super-conference. West Virginny may be another interested party vis-a-vis their VT and UVA rivalries. And Louisville is a strong possibility, geographically, to say nothing of USF.

Link Clink, clink. Couple more dominoes.... Looks like the Big East is going to be gutted and, if anything, will become a basketball-only conference w/ Georgetown, St. John's, Villanova, etc. Just hope the UConn muckity-mucks have been making plans for this eventuality. I think we'll be all right and hope to land either in the ACC or Big(12)10.

Winter's Bone. Don't mean to nitpick, but getting movie titles correct is often important.... Ordinary People Black Swan was depressing in what happens after the audience basically had gotten intimate with her.

That is an awesome Weeping Angels (from "Doctor Who") one on 11 Sept.

Having a family member as a relief carrier/sub, I hear a lot of the shop talk. To me, cutting Wednesdays would make a lot more sense. It gives two days early in the week, a break, then another two business days and preserves a weekend day when as you point out, most people are active doing errands and such that they can't do during the week. There's a purely practical reason why Wednesdays would be a more feasible option --- the pile-up of mail. The heaviest days already are always Mondays. If you cut out Saturdays, that will be then be an accurement of Friday third-class, and what people generate on Saturday and Sunday. It would make Mondays even more burdensome. Eliminating Wednesday would make it so that on either side of it, there will be a delivery, and spread out the load more evenly. As to the fundamental question... yes, the postal service is losing its grasp on information exchange. But it is still a really fast, reliable means of moving paper and things around the country. You might not think of it, but the measure of a country is partly on how well its citizens can be reached --- centralization of government. There is any manner of things that basically have to be done by mail, because it's a common denominator --- everyone has an address (even a number of homeless!). Not everyone has a computer or the Internet. Census (I think the Census ought to be conjoined with the Post Office in order to save $); jury duty and summons; motor vehicle stuff.... Not to mention that it's important for many reasons for every person to be reached. Say, in case of a nuclear accident or attack. There's actually postal training materials where they will be the first ones to get potassium iodide or such treatment (and must not give it to anyone else, even their children), and then be the delivery method for everyone else. There's a lot of stuff the average person doesn't think of or see as to why the post office is still vitally important.

That's probably mine as well. For a special reason vis-a-vis Stephen King's choice of names. As good as the novella was, Darabont brought it to life so faithfully. And you can name others all you want, this is the one that put Morgan Freeman on the A-list. Great story, great acting, great blend-in of the soundtrack; all great movies/series need these, very few have them all. But I would say that "North by Northwest" is close.

That issue looks like it's headed for the Supremes. But really, to a certain extent, this already is in effect. I am uninsured and when I got bitten by a pit bull derivative while walking in the road with my dog earlier this year, after the ER visit, my primary doc had to call around specialists... who didn't want to know me from nothin' until one of them asked if there was going to be a lawsuit. When the doc's secretary asked me that and I said yes, I had an appointment for two days later. Say what you want about the Hippocratic Oath, but there's a certain degree of discouraging or holding out on expensive treatments for people who won't be able to afford it. The stink of it is, during that whole thing, my dog got better care for more serious wounds at the vet for ~ $400 vs. me with our medical system for ~ $3,000 (so far). The cost structure is so far out of whack it's unbelievable. And Obamacare does nothing to address that besides a vague HOPE that it'll CHANGE. Newsflash: adding users into the system does not force prices downward.

Levi, in what world is Nadal a "pretty-boy"? I was pulling for a 5th set but wow, both the Wimbledon and US Open finals were clinics in court movement. Can't say that I'm a big fan of Djoker, given the givens of his family's vocalizations and his history until this season of being... how do I say it... soft to a degree that Jonas Jennings is an Iron Man in comparison. After the medical stoppage and he still kept rubbing at his back and the third set not going his way, I was thinking "He wouldn't retire in the U.S. Open Final... would he?" Nevertheless, he had an amazing season. It's great for tennis to have several star players and some younger guys who are breaking in again after a long time of it being the Federer-Rafa Show. If "King Roger" hadn't had several years post-Pete/Andre where he was virtually uncontested, there's no way he wins that many Slams. He's a very good player, but he benefited greatly from being the only very good player at a time when the men's tour hit a snide. A bit of the same deal with Henin with the women.

G.O.P. Gains House Seat Vacated by Weiner

From what I heard on the news, the motorcyclist was in the hospital, a little worse for wear but he's not doing bad, and he thanked his rescuers profusely. If it hadn't been for them, he'd have been extra crispy inside of another 5 minutes. A number of ordinary people who aren't paid to do so risked their own safety to help this guy. Even if there was the whiff of a lawsuit, with that video, it would be a rare jury that would side with a plaintiff, and there would be a heavy onus to prove he would deserve anything but a slap upside the head. Nonetheless, know your state laws and whether there are strong Good Samaritan laws to CYA before you do anything like this.

SILENTLY A FLOWER BLOOMS In silence it falls away; Yet here now, at this moment, at this place, The whole of the flower, the whole of the world is blooming. This is the talk of the flower, the truth of the blossom. The glory of eternal life is shining here. - Abbot Zenkei Shibayama Roshi --------------------------------- Thoughts / prayers....

* Hic * * BUUURP!! *

Not the past couple of seasons and especially not last year. The Chiefs' punter, Weatherford was available as an UFA and placed over 40 punts inside the 20 last year. Moorman had, iirc from responding in the Moorman thread during camp, ~ 15. I didn't see much today to convince me that he hasn't lost the touch. It was a hell of a win and this may be down on the list of problems, but Moorman's production and placement is off. And as the season wears on and his leg gets tired, the problem will likely compound. Further on and in tighter games against better teams, it may cost us.

The obvious reason being that he's a !@#$ing * who here deigns to tell everyone the content of our own thoughts. Thoughts that, wouldn't you know, agree with Krugman's worldview. And then being too chickenshit to accept criticism. So basically, just another day of being a typical liberal.

I say this without a political tinge, just an observation of their communication styles.... President Bush talked to us. He wasn't a smooth speaker at all times, for sure, but it was almost always a conversational tone of someone who could connect with anyone one-on-one. Certainly a far cry from Ronald Reagan but I believe that's who he modeled himself after. But you're always going to get an undawdled honest answer based on what he knows and how he thinks. President Obama talks at us. He's a clear and concise speaker who has a halted speech style that makes sure he's picking/reading the exact right word. Professorial, I'd call it. There is an immediate distance established. Ask him a question, present him with something that needs to be decided on RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW, and he wouldn't know whether to **** or turn purple. The impression from his style is that he's crafting his message with the goal of persuading and winning approval rather/more than just telling you what he thinks... but that he'd rather go to his office and map a response out and test it for a month before he gives an answer.

Just to put this to bed with the predictable outcome, the league has gone on record now that players can wear licensed gear featuring 9/11 tributes / Red, White and Blue during week 1 games, without facing fines. Link Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

I heard that they want to reduce Social Security and Medicare garnishment by the tune of $1,000 a year for an average worker.... No words spoken on the borrowing we'll have to do to fund those programs. Or hell, maybe they'll just let them collapse in 2025 or 2030 and for all us younger folks who've paid in and will never see a dime of that back, they'll just laugh and yell out, "SNOOKERED!"

Count me as one who misses the Anthem being shown before games. It's just a great reminder that for all we enjoy, there are those who've sacrificed their time, their freedom, their lives to preserve this nation. Is a 45-second song that connects us as a common people --- among all our divisions and petty disputes --- really that hard to live through? As an addition to this topic, I'd just like to say that I loved Jordin Sparks' rendition on Thursday night. Wasn't over the top, wasn't a gob of Elmer-Fudd-on-a-blender vocalizations trumping Francis Scott Key's words. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0muP8G7tbM&feature=player_embedded

You do know that Obamacare's not in full force until 2014, right? And just this week, we learned of yet more great things packed down deep into a bill that needed to be passed before everyone could find out what was in it. Link

If it's not settled, and Gilligan said that it'll be up to the viewers to decide, then OK. Fair game. I thought the disclosure was foreshadowing specific events to come. But that doesn't change that the thread structure re: spoiler tags needs to change. This is the last time I'm going to harp on it, but if the episode has aired (11 p.m. Sunday), anything that has aired and our own observations and speculations are free to discuss openly. If you've DVR'ed/Tivo'ed then read at your own peril. Anything beyond discussion of previously aired material and viewer speculation needs tags. That Gilligan isn't saying and might not disclose Gus's sexuality is actually pretty cool. Because it's not that big a deal. Gays are just like anybody else, don't you know. I wonder if that was even Gus's house. There's a whole double bluff smokescreen that exists between Gus and Walt/Jesse. He's seen when he wants to be seen. The don was trying to neuter his competition there by taking out the most important man of the operation --- the cook. It would be totally counterproductive of Gus to off Walt or allow Walt to be offed. Gus has now been shown to have had even more of a problem with retaining his high-level cooks than we knew wrt Gale. And I think the Yes or No question was whether Gus would hand over Walt ostensibly to be killed as payback for the twins and/or Tuco. When the don said that he knew everything that went on in his empire, I was so waiting for Gus to say that evidently, he didn't even know that Tuco's uncle pisses in the don's pool. I suppose that would've been a bit of disrespect, which wouldn't be a smart move. Gus's past in Chile remains to be seen, but it appears that he was a muckity-muck who had enough influence to make his records there disappear like a ghost.

The obsession-gene appears to be recessive, tho. So, I'm safe. (I don't even have a cellphone.)

These are conclusions that many average Americans could see long ago. And yet, she's among a few who'll actually say this and actually sound like, if it were up to only them, we might have a chance for change vis-a-vis things like term limits, cutting wasteful federal spending, balanced budget amendment, etc. D.C. is there to keep big business and Wall Street running. And that's okay, there's not too much overly wrong with it --- indeed there's a feeling in me that the macrocosm should mostly deal with the macrocosm level of the country. But where the political class fails is in trying to make Main Street businesses think D.C. gives a rat crap about them. They don't, they really don't. They're there to ensure a steady stream of income to the federal govt and small businesses just don't show up on their radar. To a large degree, D.C. believes that governors and states are there for that, and for smoothing out the bumps left in the road by the feds. And again, that's not entirely wrong-headed, states and cities/towns should focus on state business. Where D.C. goes wrong is in trying to mandate outside of their focus. and without a clear sense of what conditions "on the ground" are where they're making these mandates. Case in point is Obamacare. They may try to pass off that the Massachusetts plan was their model. And yet, the Massachusetts plan only has a chance of working in Massachusetts because it was tailored for that state/commonwealth, their demographics (4% uninsured), their medical system infrastructure (extensive and accessible geographically) and within their own means (affluent) such that the changes have a good chance of success and being absorbed. As Romney has said, in the good old "states' rights" way, what the legislature came up with and he tweaked to bring some fiscal sense to for the Mass. plan will not work for the whole country with such different conditions among states. I still think, whether by design or just how she is, she comes across as an unsavvy, tactless moron. And that's not something people usually want to have for the demeanor of the POTUS, given an alternative.

But no matter who wins, I hope they use some Lysol on it. For a Brooklyn/Queens district, this is a shocker. And perhaps only a harbinger for what Democrats can expect for 2012. You can chalk up some percentage of this to Weiner's conduct, but really, how much does that explain for perhaps the most urban of urban (read: Democrat) districts? Link