RuntheDamnBall

I'll buy that. I doubt the guy who is going to spray rounds around a college campus is going to think, "wait, is my registration all in order?" He's thinking that this is his last hurrah anyway. It's the person who's worried about getting caught that these kinds of things might stop. Then you wonder if you're just making a better criminal -- someone who can fake registrations, etc. Anyway, to the point gun advocates are making, I'd think it would matter -- it's another instance of the problem being someone who breaks the law, not a gun-owner with a conceal-carry permit respecting that law.

Did he have a conceal carry permit?

Interesting fall there, especially the JaMarcus Russell one. Something tells me that if he's falling to 4-5 someone will try to scoop him up by trading into those slots. But without any trades -- which will happen -- this is about as good a mock as I've seen. I do not think Leonard, even if he sees a big rise, will be a first-round pick.

Rational arguments from law-abiding gun owners have certainly turned my opinion a bit, but I have to ask this, seriously: Is a law-abiding gun owner going to save people from a determined schizophrenic on a mission like this, or a suicide bomber -- someone who clearly doesn't value his own life enough to worry at all about the repercussions? I don't feel like the threat of vigilante justice really serves any deterrent effect in these situations. These people will still take out as many as possible before going down in their blaze of glory. Another serious question: while you certainly want to trust the law-abiding gun owner, who's to say he won't be viewed as an accomplice in this situation and taken out by another one, in the heat of gunfire? I'm not writing this to get flamed. I'm doing it to encourage a rational discussion, not to accuse anyone. It seems we all live in hypotheticals until a moment like this really happens, and then we're defined by these moments, like the teacher who took the bullet to save some students' lives. It's sad beyond belief that it was his last moment.

I'd be curious to see over a few years how he's done. Last year was sort of out of the ordinary the way the Reggie Bush/Texans thing shook out. Nobody thought twice that Bush was not going to Houston. This changed a lot, IMO.

Amazing film. And, um, nice avatar.

I'd love to see the numbers, but it's my impression that it took a great deal longer for the AL to become more integrated.

A couple of nice photo galleries of the festivities and all the #42s out there: Gallery #1 Gallery #2 It's just awesome to see so many greats of the game honoring a guy whose contribution to sports and society was immeasurable. After all the BS of the last week this is really something about sports to feel good about.

I've got a feeling Cutler's whole family is going down.

Isn't "co-ed" usually a reference to college students?

Nothing. He worked for ESPN. And absent the politics, his football viewpoints were as retarded as those of [insert any ESPN whipping boy here].

Oooh, Sunny's. Just thinking about that place can give you an STD.

Being in the Jamestown area would make just about anyone want to drink heavily.

I'm not sure why Okoye and Branch and Landry are on there as any more possible than Peterson. A real poll would include any of the top 20 prospects excluding the QBs, Calvin Johnson and Joe Thomas.

It seems to me like you're saying you'd like to see the Bills put a bulk of the chips on Peterson. I wouldn't have one problem with that. But is that what you're saying?

It depends. Marv has shown that he (or at least his staff) will trade future picks if they feel really good about a player -- see Cornelius Bennett. But it'll take a really good cost-benefit analysis. How good is Peterson compared to what you might get in the second round? Can the RB position be a by-committee proposition for this year with a second/third round RB in the mix, and addressed further in next year's draft (or with a UFA Turner, presuming he isn't traded) if the talent is right? Lots of decisions make this an unpredictable and exciting draft for us.

My choices in this order, recognizing that a couple are unlikely: 1) Adrian Peterson 2) Amobi Okoye 3) Patrick Willis I'd probably be happy with any of them, LB just seems like a less sexy pick.

I wrote better lyrics in a friend's yearbook in sixth grade. Sheesh. My theory is that a lot of these groups that are popular with kids in their teens like Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins at their time, Linkin Park in theirs, are popular because their words are coming from dudes with the lyrical minds of 16-year olds. "This pain I feel inside" and other such tired tropes, good lord. That doesn't discount snappy production, which I can be a fan of, and which keeps me coming back to bands like NIN and SP that I liked 15 years ago, but calling any of these 'great' is sort of insulting to greatness.

I'm looking forward to reading Pynchon (have only read the bite-size Crying of Lot 49) but I think Infinite Jest is a masterful work about three diseases: addiction, entertainment and consumerism -- and the intersections thereof. It took me several tries to get through the first 150 pages but I was off to the races after that. Couldn't put it down. I'm curious to know why you really don't like DFW... Have you read IJ in its entirety? His essays (the one about the cruise ship is hysterical)? I have read "White Noise" and enjoyed it immensely also. A more modest and understated, but also very lovely post-apocalyptic novel also came out recently. I know Oprah gave it her seal of approval, but nonetheless I'd recommend Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

Right, but WB officials have been grumbling about this for awhile. That's all I was saying.

Pretty fascinating piece in last week's New Yorker on Wolfowitz. He was indeed a true believer and I'm surprised that this situation with his lady, which has been known about for awhile, is leading to his downfall just now.

It's worth crying over. You could find a place to sleep for two dollars Canadian. Can't beat that.

LaRouche had me thinking about this: As it's been pointed out, the third party candidates can be legitimate whackjobs. For example, a man ran against Bloomberg in the last mayoral election under the "Rent is Too Damn High" party line. He was batshit crazy. Like, scaled-the-Brooklyn-Bridge-with-a-machete-in-his-mouth-and-halted-traffic-crazy. Sometimes you wonder where the hell these people come from.

To be truthful, it's the drum sounds that make the new stuff all but unlistenable for me. But then again, I've said that already in this thread and I don't want to be perceived as crusading. Listen to 2112. Drums don't have to sound like the boomy kettles of the Gods to sound good. And with a three-piece it's just way out of balance if they're so overstated. OK, now I'm crusading.