Joe Miner

Isn't it time you were banned...again?

Something I want to see in this game is our offense putting up 24+ points. Offense putting up those points. Not total points scored by Offense, Defense, and ST. From the looks in preseason, I'm cautiously optimistic. If we can consistently score points on offense and stop the run this year, we'll be headed for the playoffs.

Do you actually have children?

I'll disagree. She used to be dynamite. She's had too much botox/colegen, or whatever crap that is that makes her lips look all F'd up. I'm not saying she's a dog, just that she's not as dynamite as she used to be.

I was just about to post this as well. What a dumbass.

Obama needs all the nuts he can get.

Should we expect Fine on IR this season then?

If JP was a chick, he might like that sandwich.

I remember seeing the play, and not initially realizing he was hurt, and I was yelling at the TV for him to move and block the guy with a clear lane to the QB. After the throw I saw him grab his arm and went, "Oh shiit". Glad to hear it's a bruise, and wasn't nearly as bad as it initially looked. I'm also glad to know that he'll be A-Ok for the first game.

Yup

Additional veteran depth with Chris Liwienski? He and Whittle can remember the good ol' days.

Truer words have never been spoken.

Well, unfortunately I saw a good portion of the Dixie Chick documentary late one night when I was unable to sleep. They actually said a lot more about Bush in that crappy documentary than what I stated above. Perhaps in the first incident you are right about that being all they said, I didn't see the first 1/2 hour or so. But their biggest problem was that they didn't know when to shut up. They kept saying more and more stuff after that first incident that just got more and more people upset. I (and I'm sure many other people) saw them say Bush was an embarrassment (not just to Texas) and that he was a stupid !@#$, among several other things. Then the funny part was they couldn't understand why their concert sales were down, and they were playing in Canada instead of their usual places. They did a fine job of playing the rebel who was standing up to the man, but they couldn't understand that along with that role there were consequences. It actually forced them to completely change their style of music into a more pop contemporary than country (as if they weren't pop enough already). Toby Keith got upset with them when they bitched about his boot in the ass song. Again, their problem was not knowing when to shut up. But as I said before, it's completely different than Keith supporting Obama, unfortunately Pasta Joe won't be able to figure out why.

I"m not a country music fan, but there's a difference between a country music star supporting a democratic candidate, and saying that the POTUS is an embarrassment and a stupid !@#$. Country music fans won't be as outraged by Keith supporting Obama as a presidential candidate. Country music fans were outraged by the Dixie Chicks calling President Bush an embarrassment to the country and a stupid !@#$, especially during a time of war. In fact, many country music fans are democrats, but somehow they are also able to support the country they live in no matter which party is president. They also take offense to people insulting their country, especially people who choose to do it in public with a large audience listening instead of an appropriate forum. But I'm sure you're right, it was just all about "groupthink" for them, and not at all about decency and respect for the leader of your country. Can you grasp the difference in the two situations? Doubtful. Very Doubtful.

You want to see a teacher freak out from an idea? Ask them how they would feel about privatizing education. After you explain it to them, you'll be surprised how quickly and vehemently they reject it.

Here's kind of a side question for those of you that know more about other countries economies than I do. Even though the Euro is going strong, could the big European countries actually absorb the financial hit that a war would bring? My limited knowledge of their economies says probably not easily. Which makes me wonder if that's a bigger reason they shy away from wars and conflicts most of the time.

This was really the point of my first comment. It's not that Phelps isn't good, but that was a race in which he wasn't the "best", and still had a great performance along with his 3 teammates. Did Gary really mean Phelps was really a "weak link", or did he just mean that he wasn't considered the best at this event? I don't know but I'd probably lean more towards the latter. I think his point (and mine) were that this was a complete team win with everyone blowing the doors off of what was expected from them. That as amazing as Phelps was in this race, his 3 teammates were all just as amazing, and that all 4 had to be amazing to accomplish what they did. As you stated above, picking a "weak link" from 4 people that can all swim 100m in ~47 seconds is pretty impossible to do, and probably a moot point anyway. While relay positions are normally how you described above, I wasn't (and won't ever be) on the men's swimming team to know if they followed a standard setup, or tweaked their relay strategy a bit due to one factor or another. I don't know and don't care, it was just an amazing performance from those 4 guys.

It's this kind of blindness to reality that keeps you from understanding how the situations are different. Read a little past the headlines, and you might be able to spot the differences once in a while.

Those were just a selection of his comments in the game, even around the play I'm talking about. But they weren't all of his comments. I"m not just talking about this one instance either. It seems like a good portion of the Olympics is centered around how great China is at everything. Maybe they are great at many of the events, and maybe they're better than America at most of them, big deal. For me, and many people like me, this is the only time we get to see Americans competing in some of these events. When the announcers of many of these events spend so much time talking about how great China is instead of what America is doing (good or bad), it's a little frustrating. I don't get to see Americans compete in these events very often, and when I turn on the Olympics and the coverage is mostly about another country's team, and what that country needs to do to win, or seal a victory, or comeback, or whatever, I find it a little disturbing. I would like to think that we all are rooting for our own men and women above another country's in any event. But watching some of the broadcasts, it's tough to tell at times.

Look, like many of us here, I'm not an expert at Olympic swimming. I was relating a quote I heard from someone who is much more of an expert than the vast majority of people in the world. His opinion was that Phelps was the weakest member on the team, and for the team to have a chance, he needed to bring his best performance. Kudos to Phelps for coming through with a stellar performance. I related the quote, and was told that it was incorrect. I was just pointing out another source that says his 100m freestyle isn't something he's dominant at. I'm sure the experts on this board know much more about swimming than Gary, so I'm sure he must have been mistaken with his comment. Here's a breakdown of the race: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ua8ycqfc4ok/SKA6...elay+splits.gif So apparently Phelps' actual performance was only the second worst on the team. Making him far and away not the weakest link. Stupid Gary Hall Jr. not knowing what he was talking about. I mean geez, out of the 2 fastest teams (8 swimmers), Phelps had the 5th best time. It must have really been tough for him to carry his team like that.

What an incredibly ignorant way to look at both situations.

Oh, and if Gary Hall can't be believed: http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/col...&id=3524709 Just because he's the arguably the best swimmer in the world, doesn't mean he's the best at every event.

In an interview after the race with Gary Hall Jr., that's exactly what he said. But I'm sure Gary doesn't know anything about swimming and is just jealous that he's not on the team this year.

You are either incredibly stupid or just trolling at this point if you think that's anything close to what I'm saying. Or just an incredibly stupid troll.

From what the announcers and experts were saying, Phelps was actually the weakest link on that team.