RuntheDamnBall

They just don't come around like that too often, do they? Very nice to see. The direct quote is: "I like playing for the Bills and being a part of this organization," "I could have gone to any of the other 31 teams coming out of college, but I picked the Bills because they were my team growing up. For me to have a chance to play for them for a long time is something I'm excited about." For lack of a better word, that's awesome, isn't it? The kind of stuff we dream about and never usually get in today's greedy NFL.

Well, I just don't see him getting it back at that age. If I thought he were a premier guard before the injuries, maybe. But I don't think he's that smart, and I don't think his play's been so good that his job should be considered safe. Best case scenario is that playing for Jauron again inspires him.

Our inside 3 were just atrocious last year, across the board. Period. Teague was dreadful and will lose his job to Mangold before even suiting up this year. Villarrial's best days are over. Mike Williams was a disaster and Bennie Anderson will also be a non-factor this year on a Dolphins squad that's prepared to let him challenge to start again. Not to mention Greg Jerman was manning a tackle position for a short time. If I see that guy on the field again this year I will have a freaking heart-attack. Hopefully Jauron is smart enough to send his ass packing. I don't think Gandy is an all-Pro talent, but I think he is the fourth highest question-mark on this line, Peters being the least of these. Shore up the middle this year, with fingers crossed on Fowler, Reyes and Preston (!). LT will be a luxury upgrade, perhaps next year if these three or a surprise candidate can get it done.

I think you're right on this one, and as much as Bill from NYC might hate to admit, this year's draft is going to help us out nicely when we have the cash to make a run at a Steinbach or a Jones.

Nah, that was all Modrak's doing.

If we know anything about these kinds of characters we know that an HQ doesn't really mean a lot for them. I am not really jumping up and down and cheering about any of this mess. It's just another sad chapter in a terrible history where the warring parties are taking down a lot of innocents with them. I certainly wouldn't refer to it as "good stuff."

happy birthday, dude.

Great news! I'll continue to keep her in my thoughts.

It's a bit of the conspiracy theorist in me, but look how they called the games in the opening rounds and how they called them from the quarters on. If that wasn't trying to eliminate the "riff-raff" with red cards, I'm not sure what it was. In the meantime, Ivory Coast was in a tough group with the Argentines and the Netherlands, Ghana beat out a supposed top-5 U.S. squad and a Czech team that was supposedly superior, and Angola played hard, too. I think African soccer has a future.

I hope not. A Cup in Africa just means a lot more than it does in the U.S. We have it all. This might be the biggest positive event to happen on that continent (yes, Africa is a continent, people, not a country) in years. I'd like to see them have it, and do it well -- and I'd like to see 6 African teams including So. Africa (there were 5 this year). The Euros had plenty of squads and could stand to lose one. Serbia wasn't that great and there were a couple others I could name that could have easily yielded their spots to African squads. I hope Freddy Adu doesn't go play for Ghana, however, just to spite us because Bruce Arena was a dick this time around.

I appreciate that you point out that reasonable people can have different opinions. But I really, really doubt that most pro-choice people feel that abortion during labor would be "just dandy." In fact, most would probably feel there'd have to be a damn good reason for it to be happening, and that it would be a sad, sad affair nonetheless. Generally, I feel that a woman and her partner should have made the decision to have an abortion before the third trimester. However, I feel that laws against such an action are made by people who have never walked a mile in someone else's shoes and don't forsee the limited situations where it may be necessary. And they're generally made with the ultimate goal of eliminating all abortion rights. Still, I don't like it and our family would never do it unless my wife's health was in danger. If, god forbid, someone else attacked her, we would not carry someone else's child. And I feel strongly that that's our right to decide. Not jimshiz's, not the Supreme Court's, not anybody's but ours. Pro-choice people are not "anti-life," and any indication that they are is a result of the stupid dichotomy that has become part of the public discourse. I'm for the choice, but like all choices, I'd like for it to always be made with a lot of careful thought and consideration. I'll agree that a lot of people don't make the choice to get pregnant (or take the steps to do so) with any careful thought, either, but it's a whole new ballgame when you are bringing a child into the equation, and a stupid, spiteful quest for responsibility doesn't seem to be the right thing for a child, IMO.

Yeah-- Get "Either/Or" and then "X/O." Stunning records, both of them. The one thing that keeps these artists living is the great work they created, and new people growing to love and appreciate them. Too bad Elliott didn't realize how many people he affected, how many people cared about him.

My main complaint of both that film and M+M. I feel generally that I've got to have some character to hold onto, or at least some aspect of them that keeps it interesting for me. I'll agree, fine looking film (esp Scarlett ) but bad personalities.

I took classes from Dave and have gotten to spend a lot of time at Tarbox, the studio he and the Lips designed around capabilities for the Zaireeka record. He's pretty low-key, but an amazing musical mind. A lot of people in WNY have no idea what kind of work is coming out of this guy's studio. Funny fact: Dave never graduated from Fredonia, he left with a few credits left to keep working with the Lips, who were one of his class projects. The "In a Priest Driven Ambulance" record was recorded there. I SO wish I could have gone to that Sleater-Kinney show -- esp since they are breaking up. I graduated and worked at BJs too late to catch that one. He did wonders for them, though. That record is louder than anything else out there.

I'll agree that it's a feat. It's just that if he has any ounce of talent at all -- and judging by the few enjoyable moments I've caught in recent flicks, he is capable -- he should put out one great flick every few, IMO. I didn't really like Match Point for the same reasons detailed. I think people bought too much into it just because it was less melancholy humor and more "thriller." I still felt the dialogue was really stilted and unnatural. JMO, yours is certainly (more) valid.

He did live there for awhile while they were working on Yoshimi (they record in Cassadaga).

I'll second MattyT. Anytime something becomes a blanket response to any discussion it's just immediately tiring.

She is definitely gorgeous, which makes it all the more aggravating that she's chosen to do not one but two movies with a completely washed-up Woody Allen. I mean, how many more times can he write a movie where we watch fabulous people go to fabulous places and work terribly written dialogue in really fabulously affected voices? Trying to stomach "Melinda and Melinda" was the last straw for me. I might watch this one with the mute button on though.

I used to hang out with Steven Drozd from the Flaming Lips back in Fredonia, and he was a good friend of Elliott's (played drums on Figure 8). About a year prior to his death, Steven said he had spoken to Elliott on the phone and that Elliott was definitely killing himself with really hard drugs. This was about when Steven kicked heroin (covered in the "Fearless Freaks" documentary that came out last year -- in itself really hard to watch, but amazing that he triumphed over it -- that was when I was just meeting him). It was truly sad, but it did not surprise me at all that Elliott did this to himself. I am somewhat suspicious that it was completely a suicide just because it sounds like something that would be damn near impossible to do, and the girlfriend was very weird about it in reports that came out later, but at the same time, enough drugs and one might be capable of anything. What a sad day and what a waste that was. I'll always have "Either / Or" and the other records to go to, though. That guy had some real songwriting genius in him.

A review: I'm listening to the new TV on the Radio album "Return to Cookie Mountain." It comes out August 1, but I had to get it on import because a month was too long to wait. It sounds a lot bigger than the last, with more live drums, and the vocals more back in the mix than they were on the stellar debut "Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes." The vocals are as intriguing as ever, again recalling Eno and Peter Gabriel, with a healthy dose of falsetto and a lot of soul -- and they're married with really thoughtful lyrics. There are touchstones of classic 80s 4AD material, My Bloody Valentine, Bowie, Massive Attack, but these are simply textures that the band incorporates into a resulting sound that is truly unlike anything you've heard.

Curious, are you pro-life guys pro-abortion in the event of rape, incest, or threat to the life of the mother? Would you sign on to the no exceptions abortions law in South Dakota? Reason being, most people are in favor of those exceptions -- but they in fact undermine the premise most pro-lifers use -- it's a life. Is the pregnancy less of a life if the woman has been forced into one of these ugly situations? If I were to accept the premise that yes, this is human life, I could not say the resulting fetuses were "less life" than any other. Yet, we understand that there's a certain trauma involved in carrying a baby where one of the parents was not at all complicit in bringing it into this world. So we're weighing one vs. the other here. Pro-lifers who aren't for no exceptions say, we want a say in WHEN these rules apply, and when they don't. Pro-choice folks, at least where I stand, say that it's an intense enough, wrenching decision as it is, and the government should not be in this part of people's lives. I am not in favor of abortion as a form of birth control, and I think it's an ugly, ugly thing, but it's reality. It will happen whether or not it is legal. The question is whether it will be safe, and whether a ban will result in a whole lot more unwanted children in our system, and on the social program rolls (which of course most on the right would also like to cut, putting these already disadvantaged kids in a nice double-bind). What all this has to do with Stephen King and the USA Network, I'm unsure, but I'd love to hear a response.

Your tax dollars, working harder than ever for you. Yay, government!

Don't buy it. I think a healthy, dedicated Serena Williams, when she's on her game, could challenge the men. She probably couldn't take a set off of guys like Roddick, who serve about 15-20 mph faster than anything she's ever seen. But I'm certain she could compete.

Rory being used CONSTITUTES an emergency. He does not belong on an NHL roster. Really. What about Tom Poti? He's still available. Don't think he'd sign here to be a backup, though. I still see Paetsch at #7 and then not sure what happens with #8. I guess Jillson.

Oh, I wasn't. I just think that, coming from a sociological position, there are reasons women's sport isn't taken as seriously, and it's because of the double-bind that they're either "trying to be mannish," or they're judged by their looks first and their abilities second. When really, sports in the U.S. is a system that's always been defined by male abilities and it is always cool to me when that line is transgressed -- e.g. women's soccer in the U.S. is more dominant than men's, women tennis players who could probably beat the guys. cablelady has fun doing it.