MichFan

I'm here for you if you decide you need to let it out. Of course, you know what side of the fence I'm on. But I'll at least try to be kind, understanding, respectful, and accepting of your feelings ... at least for the moment it takes me to blast away at them .

Nice restraint, Rubes. I was just waiting for you to launch into an anti-Catholic, anti-Pope monologue.

http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050222/...PE-BOOK-DC.html ... so what does this say about the Pope?

You are saying that people who do not support gay marriage are particularly unkind, not understanding, disrespectful, and unaccepting of gay people. That's a heck of a lot to accuse someone of based on their position on a single issue. As for the rest of your jibberish, it is humorous that you call me juvenile when you are the one acting like a kid at the grocery store who's mother just told him he couldn't have a candy bar. You don't know the first thing about me, yet you think you can define my relationships with people around me who are gay. LOL . You're not even close with your characterizations. Obviously you feel gay people need patronage. I don't spend much time around people of any persuasion with such qualities.

You sure are assigning broad prejudice to people based solely on their stand on a very narrow issue. Kindness? You have no way of assessing whether people on this board are kind to gay people in their day to day lives. Understanding? How can anyone who is not gay understand what it is like to be gay? Respect? Why should people be respected because they are gay? I don't ask to be respected because I'm heterosexual! I respect Melissa Etheridge for her appearance at the Grammy's (my wife just lost her hair from chemotherapy and it was great for her to see that), not because she is gay. Acceptance? On what level? You seem to imply that acceptance is allowing for gay marriage. Well then I fail your litmus test. I accept gay people equally as co-workers and acquaintences, but am also part of the vast majority opposed to gay marriage.

Would the detractors prefer ABC spend their money on something else? Cripes, the one reality show on TV where some good is being done instead of participants getting taken advantage of and people still find something to complain about. ABC gives the families a home maintenance service that covers everything in the house, and on the last show the family was given $100K to cover taxes. Don't you think any of the other issues mentioned are looked at prior to doing the show? I have yet to hear a single beneficiary from this show complain about anything. The way certain audience members and the media responded to the tax revelation from Oprah's car giveaway, if there was something there we certainly would have heard about it by now. Next thing you know people will be complaining about Make-A-Wish taking kids to Disney when all they really need is a trip to the local park.

This is really too bad. As close as both sides seemed to have gotten, hockey had the chance to finally close the gaps on the CBA and then use the next six months to change the sport for the better. They could have gotten the players and team management to meet with fans about how they thought the game could be made better (they probably could have charged $ for tickets to such events). They could have made the changes everyone knows needs to be made. By involving fans they could have created momentum for the '05-'06 season. Need revenue? Roll out the "new" NHL complete with new/updated team logos/jerseys. Get everyone excited about the fan-friendly changes and then soak them for overpriced fan gear. Heck, if the Sabres went back to the gold and blue using one of the designs on that fan website, they would rake it in. I'd be buying jerseys for the whole family as soon as they were offered. If the rumors are true and they salvage the season, it's just going to be more of the same 'ol, same 'ol which is not a sustainable business model for the NHL (regardless of the CBA). In the midst of all this crying over $42m versus $49m, no one seems to hear the cries from fans saying widen the rinks, get rid of the incessant clutching and grabbing, and let us see athletes on the ice. And if this is the way the NHL ultimately "resolves" their issues, then I can think of no greater damage done to the sport by Betteman's failed leadership than to not use this opportunity to truly reform the sport.

You can use the XBox HD hookups or the Monster cables made for the XBox. Monster cables are more expensive but you spent that much on your TV, may as well get the most out of it. If you go Monster, you'll need both the video cable and the audio (fiberoptic) cable. This assumes you are running a Digital surround sound system. If not, just go with the Microsoft HD kit.

Check out www.hdtvarcade.com for a list of XBox games and what features they support. Most games are 480p, a lot are widescreen, a couple of dozen are 720p (note that Soul Calibur 2 does 720p in a cropped 4:3 window -- pure crap!), a couple are 1080i (don't bother buying The Matrix game to see 1080i -- garbage in 1080i just looks like clearly defined garbage). BTW - if you want to see a pretty football game don't waste your money on Madden. Here are some worthwhile games for viewing on your new TV: - ESPN NFL 2K5 - best looking football game on XBox, widescreen support - Amped 2 - only 720p game worth playing, absolutely gorgeous graphics - Rallisport Challenge 2 - best looking racing game, widescreen support - Ninja Gaiden - hands down best looking game on XBox, widescreen support, old-school throw-your-controller-at-the-television difficulty that some love and many hate - Oddworld Stranger's Wrath - no widescreen support, however, cutscenes play in 720p widescreen and are the best cutscenes on the system - Dead or Alive Ultimate - If you like fighters this is the best looking one, widescreen support

Rich, obviously these people don't live in the wonderful State of Ohio or else they'd be feeling the same way today.

RCow only enters debates he thinks he can win. Obviously this one is a loser. In fact, most issues DNC-related are losers right now. Must be hard dealing with Reid and Pelosi as MINORITY leaders (how fitting for the Dems to have white minority leaders ) and Hillary as the only hope for '08.

Re: the strong finish part -- I didn't see most of the games, only listened to them on Sirrus. What games did Drew win for us by giving a standout performance? What games could we have won had Drew made a couple more plays/less mistakes? Seems to me the answer to the first question is none. Even when the Bills were scoring 30+ points a game Drew's passing yards were under 200. To the second question, the most important one was the Steelers game, where he flatout stunk up the place. I like Drew a lot. It was fun to watch that first year when Peerless was still around. It was classy for him to restructure last year. But the Bills defense has been tranformed into a top defense, and the offense is sinking. JP doesn't have to do a lot next year to improve on the bottom line results in QB play. If his mobility leads to a few plays made, that may be all we need to improve upon it. Trust Wyche, Clements, and Mularkey to turn this guy into something.

Check the archives from back around October/November. This topic was beat around so much that I'm sure those involved don't want to contribute more than one sentence anymore.

In McNabbs's defense, for some reason the Eagles seemed to have chained him in the pocket and told him not to run. He is a much more dangerous QB when he shows the defense he'll scramble. That was not a factor last night, so the DB's and LB's only had to focus on their coverages. Still, he is only an average QB. As long as it isn't Rush Limbaugh saying it, people seem to be okay with that assessment

So maybe that explains '76-'80. What's the excuse for '90-today? Does a decent man negotiate independently with the N. Koreans? Does an honest man find no problems with Venezuela's elections but doubt the credibility of Afghanistan's and not even acknowledge Iraq's?

Try Bionic Commando - one of my all time NES favorites.

Dean wouldn't be able to shake "The Scream" if he stayed in power politics. He'd show up to do interviews, and the conservative talking head would mock that scream as soon as they thought he was starting to make a good point. If he got a little intense, they'd throw out some note of caution about not repeating "The Scream". It just killed his ability to be a force on the national scene. I guess the only way to restore it is to start by going to New Hampshire, then go to South Carolina, then go to Michigan, HEEEEEEYAHH! Oops, I guess that wouldn't work.

Dean didn't get the nod. Instead it's some guy I've never heard of who ran Kerry's ground game in Michigan and had heavy involvement in Gore's campaign as well.

Look at OSU's record with Nugent, then look at how many game-winners he made, then look at how many potential game-winners he missed. I guarantee you a lot of teams would like to see a kid like this sitting on their bench.

AVP on radio was great. I liked the knowledge as well as him being a homer fan. Made me feel closer to the game than a lot of stiff play-by-players do. Hate to see him go to the Fish. Can't RW and TD find some development role for him in the Bills organization?

Only heard the girl singing the anthem - for those criticizing her, she got more applause during the anthem than most people get after the anthem. I trust she will remember that moment the rest of her life, and many in attendance at the game will as well. You critical stevestojans will forget the whole thing by next week. I personally found it more enjoyable watching someone like her do a great rendition than I do watching stars butcher it by adding their own signature twang. With regards to the boy (who I missed), I'm so glad the NFL is using events like this to make a difference in people's lives. Let the "stars" have the half-time shows, but leave our national anthem to the talented plain-folk. Francis Scott Key would probably prefer it that way.

John, Dell's are great as long as you get a good one and don't ever need technical support. If you start to notice anything wrong within the return period, dump it rather than deal with their customer support and warranty repair people. A great site to visit is www.handango.com. They have software for PDAs that can really improve the usability of them. I particularly liked using Battery Pack because of the variety of customizable utilities it provided. I can't remeber the name of the software, but I also had a plug-in that let me put to-do's on the Today screen, which was a huge plus for the way I work. Lastly, check out Vaja cases for a slip cover to protect your new PDA. Pricey, but the nicest ones out there. I've had my IPaq cover for 2 years and the Vaja still smells like new leather. I stopped using my PDA because the battery life was so short that it seemed like it died sitting in a drawer overnight and I was restaging it every few weeks. As much as I customized it to make it productive for my use, it took almost an hour every time it died on me. Sounds like your Dell has a much better battery life, just be sure to keep it sync'ed regularly and keep it on a charger when not using it just to be safe.

Motley Crue - Live Wire Even my Grandma can't help but bang her head and play air guitar when this song comes on.

Run, Forest, run! In all seriousness, though -- you can't win her over by being her doormat. In fact, you've probably already been her doormat too long for her to ever take a serious interest in you. Little story from my life, maybe it will help, maybe it will bore you to tears. When I graduated from college I had my heart set on returning to WNY. I prayed every night that I'd get into Kodak or Xerox or some other company to get back to my hometown. I wanted to get back home about as badly as you want to get with this girl of yours. I ended up with a job in North Carolina instead. On my last night out in Ann Arbor before I started the great migration South, this slow dance song came on that I'd never heard before. It was a Garth Brooks song and the chorus was that "sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers" and "some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers". Well, it wasn't a bar that played country music, and because of that the song has always stuck in my mind (even though I can't remember who I was dancing with). As fate would have it I met my beautiful wife in North Carolina, got far enough back north to be able to visit regularly, and have two incredible kids. My advice would be for you to leave this obsession behind and move on with your life. It's difficult to do when you've built your goals and aspirations around her for so long, but I guarantee someday you too will be thanking God for this unanswered prayer.

America remade that song. It's on their greatest hits and is godawful to listen to!