UConn James

Link I really feel for the people with severe conditions who actually need SSDI --- those who are actually physically incapacitated and can't earn an income. But what we're seeing here is only (possibly) the last vestige of a program where people look to suckle at the teat of government. I'm not going to say it's collapsed entirely because of illegal immigrants who are coached on every in-and-out of collecting checks from the U.S. Treasury, people who file fraudulent claims, greasy SS lawyers, people who file for conditions that make you want to slap them across the head --- as if getting a stipend that allows one to remain a shut-in will cure depression or PTSD. (Not that some cases of depression, PTSD, etc. aren't serious, but conditions where the person can physically function should not be covered by SSDI!)... But all of this **** surely hasn't helped. What really sticks in the craw, though, is this: This system is probably going to go bust, followed relatively shortly by the Social Security that we all know and love and/or hate. But they're quick to want to siphon money from the one where citizens pay in and half-expect vaguely hope to receive some portion of again... someday. (After having been taxed when they earn it, then taxed again as they receive it, but that's another thing ). Now, I understand that Social Security is a third rail of politics. Touch it at your peril. We all knew these days were coming. And it's time now for this program to be fundamentally overhauled or start de-accessioning it, reducing the amount people of these later generations pay in, and reducing the amount people who have paid in collect, and when. I ain't a good judge on how, but that would seem to be a more fair option than it just ending abruptly when the money runs out (or worse, putting yet more $ on the federal credit card to continue this government-run Ponzi scheme). And then, when FDR's liberal utopia dream finally has its headstone carved (because, to be expected, pols couldn't keep their grubby hands off of all that money that was just sitting there, literally begging to be spent on other crap the govt "needed")... keep some % of the SS tax in place to fund a tightly-controlled SSDI-like program.

Reading some of the comments here, I find it funny that a lot of you still don't realize that we are the Kansas City Royals of the NFL.

Kinda odd how the college board gets short shrift WRT proper moving of topics.... There's been hella more on OTW and TSW than here. What gives? Anyway.... UConn: Realistic ceiling of 6-6. Borderline minor bowl. Why they will: The lines - The overall structure of the trenches, which bred several 1,000+ RBs while Randy Edsall was coach remains in place. Run blocking was very good, pass protection was decent enough to get us to the Fiesta Bowl with the Big East's BCS berth. Paul Pasqualoni - While some people seem down on PP, he saw a lot of success at Syracuse and until he was lured here, he'd been coaching in the NFL for a few years. He's a change-up to Edsall's run-first, run-second, run-third style (which changed last year under a new OC who was given more of the reigns). Hope this means a more exciting offense that will not be so predictable. Edsall raised the baby from our entrance into D-1A football for the first 10 years, but after a few seasons of departure speculation, he felt it was time to move on and for some, the feeling was mutual. Edsall helped lead the campus through the senseless murder of CB Jasper Howard outside of the Student Union just a few hours after a game in '09. After something like that, there's two possible reactions. While I thought he might stay to see that whole group of guys through, it seemed like Edsall gave that group another year because he owed it to them. Still, he was jumpy all season, and it culminated in a terminally abrupt departure that left a bad taste in many a mouth in CT. (While he forced RB Jordan Todman to reveal plans to declare for the NFL Draft immediately after the Fiesta Bowl, he said nothing of his own plans, which was a flight to Maryland a few hours after the game and an introduction as their HC the next day). We've lost several in-state prospects (e.g. Aaron Hernandez who went to FLA) because of a perceived lack of connection with the tri-state area high school coaches. One of the oft-derided selling points was that PP has a solid history; boosters might deride it all they want, but it's damn important to know people when vying for recruits. Seems to have paid off already, as he's got a commitment from an in-state 3-star HS junior QB for next season. Also, I look for games to become fully 187% more watchable now that we have a head coach who doesn't crouch on the sidelines under the guise of seeing the field better, but really as a way of showing off his package (this is a tame photo). Seriously, Randy? Seriously? No one wants to see that. QB - In what PP has described as almost a dead heat between 4 guys, two freshman (one red-shirted), a sophmore who took ~ a dozen snaps last year, and a junior who was a viral video star this known as the "Trick Shot Quarterback" this past winter/spring. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0WMd0Y6hIw If this kid can do all the other things a QB has to do when 300-pound DTs are chasing him and the bullets fly for real, his accuracy can only be an asset for a program that hasn't really had a feature QB since Dan Orlovsky. The last time PP was this unsure of his QB so late in camp, Donovan McNabb took the field for Syracuse and the rest, as they say, is history. I'm certainly pulling for MacEntee. Why They Won't RB - I'm really not sure who they have to replace Todman in a northeast offense that's used the running game as its bread and butter for a while. This becomes important as the weather turns. The biggest holdover I remember was D.J. Shoemate, a touted commodity who for some reason transferred from the sunny climes of USC to Snorrs, CT. He had a case of fumblitis in the Michigan opener last year when we were in prime position for an upset, which let the Wolverines back in the game... and afterwards, he became a ghost. In order to have any chance of a balanced attack, they have to find a successor for Todman, and quickly. QB - Yep, you're not seeing things, QB is in both. As everyone knows, the position is key. If Pasqualoni can't deliver a starting QB from among this group of untesteds, it's going to be a very long year. Institutional Change - As regimes change, coaches are pretty much forced to put square pegs in round holes. Rosters aren't tailored to their liking to any degree. There's an entirely new playbook/terminology to learn, a loss of unspoken understanding, and new relationships to manufacture. We also add in the spectre of UConn's AD Jeff Hathaway getting the boot by the new university president Susan Herbst (and Jim Calhoun, whose rocky relationship with Hathaway... well, let's just say they tangled a--holes a few times, and it's not a wise idea to do that with a HOF, 3-time National Championship coach.) Pasqualoni was Hathaway's hire, so there's that, yet it seems like whoever they're going to bring in as AD will be required to be comfortable with the current big 3 coaches. So, it's shake-up all around. Sometimes it can work for a program. Usually, it doesn't. Most are picking UConn to finish last in the BE. I put 6-6 as the ceiling. If things work out for them, especially at QB, it could be so. The schedule starts out pretty light, so there will be some acclimation time before the conference games begin. Not expecting much this year. It's an introduction. I'm actually more interested/worried WRT the conference musical chairs. It's really up in the air, where if things start to go down, we may get pushed in one of several places... either as a ACC-North or Big(12)10 that could feature an intriguing blue-white vs. blue-white with Penn State, or as a part of the remainders of the Big East after it's been raided. The pull of the strong B-Ball teams will help, but football is what drives realignment. After investing quite a lot in the program, it will be very unpleasant if it all goes to crap.

Is the Arrest of Ahmadinejad Imminent? Wow. If this stuff is accurate, it sounds like Ahmadinejad has been planning a takeover of the supreme leadership....

Yeah, but we've got Doctor Who. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjnht1k8M7w

Just like the myth of the Texas education system miracle (both in wildly discrepant testing scores, and dropout rates where schools actually reported 0 dropouts when there were really several hundred) that was proved to be a fraud, I have a really hard time believing in the Texas economic miracle. BTW, I know several "libtards" that are big fans of Ron Paul. Anti-war/anti-DoD and isolationist. I definitely wouldn't subscribe to the notion that all of the Paul contingent are conservatives and/or Republicans. I guess they either haven't seen his stances on abortion or guns yet, or they're willing to make those tradeoffs to further their goal of demilitarizing America and legalizing pot/drugs... their personal import of which is not necessarily in that order. (Their reasoning is different, but their short-term goals are effectively the same). They're also totally not for defending the borders better, but they probably figure on getting that with the next guy after DoD gets whacked. Long and short of it is, don't try to ascribe too much logic here just b/c the guy taking the ad is a self-described RP follower; for some in that group there's very little logic to be found. And no, I've never had sex with Rick Perry.

The only science I've seen wrt beer for tomatoes besides killing earwigs or slugs (and that's putting a half-empty sticking ~1" out of the ground) reports that you're much better off drinking that beer than pouring it on your plant. If anything, the yeast would encourage fungus. My grandfather, who was a farmer in WNY BTW, taught me to pinch off the bottom leaves and plant them deep, and that way they grow anywhere from 25% to 50+% more roots than just putting them in at the shallow potting soil level.

Maybe when he was holding two 20-pound dumbbells. Besides it being water weight loss/gain --- which any athlete (pro or not, paid trainers/dieticians or not) should be able to regulate --- that statement is just out there. It's damn near impossible to lose 10 pounds of non-water weight in 2 days. If true, that just isn't any kind of normal. The only other illness I know of that can do that is ebola. Maybin is trying to sell a tall tale so he can collect a few more dollars. He's a lightweight and I don't think he has the capacity to be 240, never mind 255-260. Even if he could gain that much weight, there goes his only asset --- "speed." you Marv, you Dickless Jauron, you Russ Brandon, you Tom Modrak.

I didn't want Vick either. I'd rather cheer for a loser than for someone who had a part --- sometimes direct, sometimes indirect --- in the killing of 49(?) dogs when they were no longer useful and the abuse of countless others. That was nothing like justice. But as you write, it's the principle of the matter and whether it's happened before or since. The league office steering players away from certain teams by the very people who had suspended him and still seemingly had that power if he doesn't do as he was told.... Well, todd took the words out of my mouth here. It's an accruement of this kind of story that builds into the bigger picture of a league office that tinkers and dams with franchises and uses refs so as to create their master narrative and maximize their viewership/profits by predetermining which city will win, rather than it being an entirely even playing field where teams are allowed to do their bidding for player rights without collusion and where pure sport determines the victor. I am very nearly through with this game. We get glimpses of the seediness from time to time, not the least of which was Goodell destroying the Patriots* spy tape after delivering a wristslap to Belicheat. One more feather on the camel's back....

An uncle who's been all the world on the U.S.S. Midway during and post-WWII (he was the interpreter aka "The Captain's --- and sometimes, the Admiral's --- Pimp" because he spoke to / picked up girls in port for them). He would also accompany the cooks during port food purchases. Anyway. All around the world before he settled in Maine. He said Connecticut tomatoes were the best. Specifically, Burnham farm tomatoes in East Hartford/South Windsor in the Conn. River plain. Gotta agree on that. We usually have optimal weather for them vis-a-vis rainfall, humidity, temperatures, sun, etc. I don't know the minerals involved or what the specific chemical uptake may be, but the upside is, our soil's got it and a lot of other places don't. The **** you get from California tastes like nothing.

What about the baby? I don't see Gus ever counting on Jesse to any high degree. He's only there b/c of Walt's package deal. Right now, Gus is trying to foment an argument of who is more important. Gus knows that Walt's most sensitive pressure point is his pride --- and that pressure point for this particular person goes off at the least little touch. Suggest that someone is above Walt, and it, like, chemically changes his being from stable to complete volatility. Given the swing of things, I would not be surprised if Walt takes out Jesse himself in a cliffhanger season-ender or early-mid S5, then the plot turns to Walt vs. Gus vs. Hank. (To note: I have done NO extra-curricular reading on this show. This is personal speculation.)

It's on my radar now. But it's probably going to wait 'til winter. Recently caught Rose Byrne ( ) in "Adam." Not the best movie ever made, but it was a nice little feel-good story.

So, Jim Calhoun gets 5 games next year because his assistants text-messaged Nate Miles too much. You're allowed a certain discrete number of communications (100?), and apparently typing "lol" counts as one. That ticky-tack crap only proves that the NCAA's rules were devised before modern communications. But here, there's no bones about it. Players took money and services, coaches knew full well about it.... If everything Yahoo is reporting sticks --- and you know there's probably more, provided that the NCAA doesn't shut its eyes while they look into it --- the entire UM athletic department should be shuttered for 5 years and placed on probation for 10 more.

Link

When Obama ***** his drawers, he blames Fruit of the Loom. Worst. President. Ever.

The Bills OT situation can only look up from the gutter and aspire to "middle of the road."

Link It may be more of a 'Hey, remember me next time in case Barry wins' thing, as the GOP prefers previously known / vetted pols, but if either of them goes for it, the previously-termed "unspectacular" pot of candidates would have a fire started under it. I'm supporting Romney, but a wider field of people who bring fiscal-issue bones wouldn't hurt to push the debates away from the social-issues that Bachmann and Perry would probably like to have the fore. Frankly, I could give a sh-- either way on many of the social issues. We need someone who can help turn around the economy as his or her first, second, third, fourth and fifth priority.

Now it comes out that three supervisors from this fiasco have been promoted to senior positions in the BATF. LA Times: ATF promotes supervisors in controversial gun operation; The three, who have been criticized for pushing on with the border weapons sting even as it came apart, receive new management jobs in Washington. I have no doubt that the impetus for this fiasco came from on high. As I wrote, the more that comes out on this, the worse it smells.

All hail DC Tom, the Christopher Columbus of long-distance fast-food! OTOH, did it not occur to this guy that he could... you know... actually make pizza himself? It's really not that difficult to master.

Not only that, but there's many a DE who've said that OTs generally turn the corner at finally being effective from an experience factor (probably combined with reaching a level of fitness as well) at about 5-6 seasons. I'm not saying that Nix has to sign a name. But it definitely couldn't hurt to have him for a visit and/or medical check. If this FO and coaching staff think they can effectively compete all season with the OTs currently on the roster, they are living in a dream world. I'm not holding my breath, tho. Just about all we've seen so far re-affirms our status as the Kansas City Royals of the NFL.

Holy hell. Did you read this in between the lines, or divine it from your tea leaves? Maybe you should try not just making sh-- up.

I saw it that Gus was trying to 1) get Jesse to some place where he gives a sh-- about something again and 2) foster a split between Jesse and Walt. All with the probably goal of getting rid of the person that he didn't want from the start because Jesse's unpredictable persona and criminal history is dangerous for his business. In order to control the situation, Gus needs to get Walt to stop being so protective of Jesse. That started last week with Jesse paying two meth-heads $100 to forcibly remove Walt from the house. Elsewhere, it seems to finally have hit Walt that a full reconciliation and getting things back somewhat close to what they were before he started to cook isn't going to happen. Skylar will have sex with him and go through motions in public, but her thinking of Walt is now mainly as a business partner and having to craft a story to launder drug money. How long will this last? Walt is man who hasn't had success with business partners, legitimate and otherwise. In fact... gird your loins here... lawyer/adviser/leech Saul Goodman may be the most trustworthy person in Walt's circle in 4 seasons. And guys, that's saying something! Soon after this epiphany, Walt proceeds to hit the vino at Hank and Marie's, and it loosens his lips and puts some spring in Hank's step. And so the stage is set for the last season and a half. Walt's almost inviting it from all sides. You look at a lot of different scenarios knowing what we know, and it's really hard to imagine a happy ending here. And it's not like we should want one for many of these characters outside of Walt Jr., the baby and perhaps Hank. Gillian's made his bones thus far on us almost rooting for Walt and Jesse, but I'm not sure he can pull off an ending where we'd be satisfied for them to go unpunished for what they've done. I don't know tho --- he's gotten this far thumbing his nose at Hollywood convention.... And then that Beneke coffee mug right at the close. You know that's still sticking in Walt's craw.

The shoulder striping didn't look like it was in any less a state of limbo. Not being parallel with the sleeve hem looks like ****. That was a total Bush-league "We're going to be different!" design move. They tacked back toward traditional unis as 99% of the fans wanted, but just couldn't go the whole way. Let's hope Nike can clean that up when they take over next year. Also not a fan of the helmet flare. Other than those two bits, they'd be damn near perfect.

At least until QE7 hits, you'll never be able to dream of making that much in your entire lifetime, nevermind pay federal income taxes that amount to .005% of that. Maybe "the rich" have a lower % because at their level the total amount they're paying is so !@#$ing huge. It's not like Warren has his own personal interstate highway that his taxes go to, that the DoD spends more on his safety than yours, or that he benefits more from such federally-funded scientific studies as methods to reduce the consumption of alcohol of Chinese prostitutes... in China. If WB or others want to give their $ for the federal govt to piss away, they're free to write a check. Personally speaking, if you, Pee, birddog, buftex, et al. commandeer a time travel machine and go back to Moscow c. 1975, maybe you'll find happiness there.

Just to note that "Women in Trouble" is the first part. EL is a sequel. You definitely have to watch them in order. Checking right now, WiT is still available on Netflix streaming. If you get all the way through and still wonder "Where the hell was Joseph Gordon-Levitt?" like I did... keep watching. He's got a bigger part in EL. Funny as hell. It's weird. I hated "Boogie Nights." I loved these (and there's reportedly a third in the works). A side project to this, with the same writer/director and several of the actors/actresses is "Girl Walks Into a Bar..." that was the first full-length feature to have its release directly to Youtube. They actually shoot these in ~ a week on a low budget. The strength is foremost in the script and then getting really good actors (Connie Britton, for example) who don't really give a sh-- about making coin, they just want to be a part of it.