finknottle

I agree with you on your synopsis on the role of government. Where we differ is on deciding which problems should be solved and which should not. IMO funding with a definite economic goal - roads, electrification, and perhaps even municipal internet access - is worthwhile, while funding to mitigate the ups and downs of natural fluxuations (whether crops or disasters) is bad when national security is not involved. I simply don't understand why the federal government should help me if, say, a hitherto unknown volcano erupted on my land and destroyed my house. Nor would I understand why it should help me rebuild and channel the potential lava flows away from my front yard in case it reawakens. And yet, even if it did none of the usefull things for me, I would still see the point in having a government.

It would be nice to be able to see him practicing/playing at the position... I'm just not sure whether or not to get excited or not.

I think there has been more rose-tinted praise of what our offensive line coach can do with fodder than basic serious discussion of the players abilities (except for those we were talking about signing...)

Yeah, but they havn't even come close to tie-ing one yet either...

The difference is between personal choice and state intervention. It should not be national policy to use federal money to heat the homes in the Northeast, nor to use federal money to reinforce San Francisco architecture, nor to drain Louisanna. If people want to live in those places, it should be a personal economic decision between themselves, their builders, and their insurers. I see no reason why my tax dollers should go to rebuilding some rich guys estate on the North Carolina coast every time a hurricane passes through, nor pay for the draining of swampland and the building of levee's for some poor peoples farms. Likewise, when I say abandon NO I really mean abandon it *federally*; people and businesses there can do what they want if they think it makes economic sense.

He said that it would not be possible to live in Southern California but for feats of modern engineering. That's different from your saying the current density is only possible with current engineering. In point of fact, no city on earth is inhabitable without the engineering that brings in food, water and power every day. He was addressing calamaties: I still see no reason why, just because we can mitigate some disasters, we should go out of our way to develop in high-risk areas. His point (I think) was that every area already *is* high risk.

The question is why should *we* as Americans fix it up? If they want to, that's their business. I have no more interest in subsidizing a below sea-level city than they probably do subsidizing a submersible casino village I choose to build under Lake Ontario.

That's right, Southern California is uninhabitable. That's why it remained empty until the advent of modern engineering.

I did one a few years ago. There is a small correlation, but it's not what you would expect. I don't remember the details, but it was something like a positive bulge at 2-2, with things looking worse for winless and undefeated teams.

Gimme a break. Everybody is a good egg when they are new on the team. We have no idea what these two guys are really like, and won't untill they've been in the thick of some adversity for a year. Remember TO and McNab doing high fives when he signed? He said all the right things too at the time.

I wasn't aware that Losman came from a stud program... where did he play again? Tulane? As in Conference USA, playing division IA? With schools like East Carolina, Cincinnati, Central Florida, and Army? That's almost UB-esque. Tulane's other great contributions to NFL quarterbacking are Patrick Ramsey and Shaun King. If Losman doesn't prove significantly better than those two then we are in big trouble.

And sometimes potential just doesn't pan out - there have been plenty of qb's picked in the top 5 that failed to be even average. Mortgaging a teams chances on unproven potential at the qb position might not be as good a strategy as watching him run the scout team for a year or so before making that decision.

Do other football players ball up and cry when they are benched? I had no idea we drafted such a fragile flower. Makes me wonder if we shouldn't have kept Bledsoe after all - he may have stunk, but at least he was convinced to the end that he could get his game back...

Lesson: Don't build in Grand Cayman!!!!! If we start guarenteeing stupid insurance policy, then we all wind up paying. If insurers themselve receive an insurance guarantee, it will encourage them to be more aggressive in insuring at-risk properties at below-market prices. This will have the effect of (economically) encouraging people to build in stupid places. It's analogous to to the over-lending that occurs in countries whose central banks are too liberal with guarantees to lenders... you eventually wind up with a banking crisis and a massive bailout.

I don't understand why we (meaning USG) want to rebuild it at all other than out of sheer bloody-mindedness. Especially when you consider that minor rises in sea levels combined with the much bigger effect of messing with the delta will only make the problem worse and worse over time. If a property-owner wants to build below sea-level that should be their problem, not US policy. We've got enough problems keeping man in space - we don't need to be bothered with keeping man in the Gulf of Mexico.

I agree. It's real popular on talk radio to criticize coaches for playing starters in meaningless games, but c'mon... If you go into any situation worrying about injuries you're not going to get anything done. Are we going to start pulling players as soon as possible during regular games? 10 minutes of game playing time goes a long way for players to jell, and they're just as likely to get injured then as they are at the close of a 10 point game...

You don't just build the stuff and walk away - maintainance and improvement is ongoing. This is particularly true in the mississippi delta where drainage for construction is ongoing, changing the flooding requirements over time. The key point is that Army Corp of Engineer funding has actually been cut several times during this administration making improvement impossible and maintainance problematical. (As an aside, it's been somewhat under-reported that housing insurance claims due to hurricanes, flooding, tornados, etc have sky-rocketed over the last 5 years, a reflecton of under-code over-building in dubious areas. Personally, I don't understand why the market doesn't correct for this with outrageous premiums when you build on the carolina coast...)

Frankly I agree. And in this case it sickens me that we have to give money to a bunch of southerners who would otherwise be spending their time blasting the US government generally and northeasterners in particular. I say screw 'em - bunch of gun-toting militiamen wannabes.

Possibly the sanest comment here.

Ah, the presidents energy plan... that must be somewhere between the one which has the budget in surplus by 2011 and manned missions to mars by 2020. Any politicians plan that talks about events after he leaves office isn't worth diddly.

Well, it was more productive than Gibbs last year!

Yes, FL and CA instead of ANWR. In 20 years they'll be too warm and out of drinking water, so who cares about the view. Alaska, meanwhile, will be prime real estate. Don't want to spoil tomorrows golfcourses!

Very interesting.

I too am pro-profiling. The problem is that profiling on too broad information - when millions fit the description - is worthless. You would need a hundredfold increase in personnel to accomidate it. Profiling works best when you have plausible information limited to a time or place - eg, info that some pakistanis (say) are planning on crossing into Texas

It's amazing how this forum (not campy specifically) swings from arguing that a player flat-out stinks to annointing him sainthood as convenient. Url had a several good years, got great press, but is coming off of surgery. On paper his story looks a lot like Lavar Arrington - they can't both be perennial Pro Bowler and probable HoF LB's, can they? I wouldn't count Url in the HOF just yet, and a decent showing by Shelton wouldn't have been out of the question.