Peter

I am going out on a limb here 9-7.

You are exactly right.

Is "Esther" in line for Secretary of Defense? The next thing you know, she is going to have all of the troops wearing red bracelets and drinking Kabbalah water out of their canteens.

Is Drudge liberal?!? Most of my information on the subject has come from HUGE links that he has on his site.

Revision: No one can deny that the British and Australians are our most dependable allies.

I totally agree. They are great allies. We know that we can always rely on them and they can always rely on us. I always thought that it would be interesting to establish an economic union with them, Canada, and Australia - free trade and movement.

So was I. I went with my Dad. It was a Monday night game as I recall.

How many times do I have to remind you that I am not a liberal. Also, I am afraid to say that, in my humble opinion, some of you guys are easily offended.

Thanks mate. I am now going to have a slash and then take a kip after having some chips.

Just to remind people who Paul Wolfowitz is, he is the guy who testified that Iraqi oil revenue would pay for everything. He also is the guy (with Rumsfeld) who basically fired Shinseki after he testified (accurately) about how many troops we would need. Finally, Wolfowtiz was one of the principal neocon architects behind this war. He has no credibility with any other country. It would be a huge mistake to make him Secretary of State given that his job would be foreign relations. Although I do not favor him to take over for Condi Rice, that would be a much better fit than State.

As I wrote when I originally posted this, don't read it if you do not have a sense of humor. You guys are so easily offended. It is a friggen joke. Whether it was circulated four years ago, it is still very funny.

I go by the CBS clock. If the problem is not with your stopwatch, it is with your eyes. As for your last question regarding four seconds, it is fundamental that the goal is to give the QB four seconds -- whether that QB is DB or JP Losman. If you want Losman to prosper, you should start looking our for his interests. It does not serve him (or any other QB) if he does not get the time he is supposed to get. Look at what happened to him at Tulane last year. It is amazing to watch ESPN classic to check out how much time our protection used to give Kelly and Reich. There is a world of difference. It is sad. As I said, however, I think that things will continue to improve with Willis helping out in pass protection.

Guns don't kill people. Zombies do.

1. You have changed your story. In your original post, you wrote about counting it out at a sports bar. 2. Get your stopwatch fixed. 3. Your original post actually proves my point. Even according to your original post, Drew hardly ever gets four seconds. Four seconds is what he is supposed to get. Otherwise, the o-line and other blockers are not getting their job done. P.S. Now that Willis is the starting RB, I expect that DB's protection will improve given that Willis is 100% better at pass blocking than TH.

You are fooling yourself about the time that Bledsoe typically gets. I think that the key word in your paragraph is "sports bar." Perhaps, you and your friends have had a few too many beverages before you started counting. I have spent a lot of time going over sacks on TIVO to determine how much time Bledsoe typically gets between the snap of the ball and the time the play blows up. In fact, I posted my analysis of after the Raiders game of each sack. You would be surprised how many times he gets two seconds or less. And by the way, the goal is four seconds, not three. Some time ago, I re-posted one of the articles from training camp in which MM emphasized what was expected of the line. You can google it and find it if you do not believe me. Four seconds has always been the goal.

You have performed a real public service.

Seinfeld had an episode on this. As Jerry told George, cleavage is like the sun. You can glance at it, but you cannot stare.

I received this in an e-mail from an English friend of mine. Warning - Don't read the following if you do not have a sense of humor: To the citizens of the United States of America :- In the light of your failure to elect a proper President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchial duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new prime minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect: 1. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium". Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour', skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters. You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise". You will learn that the suffix 'burgh is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to respell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up "vocabulary". Using the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up "interspersed". There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary then you won't have to use bad language as often. 2. There is no such thing as "US English". We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize". 3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to Cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents - Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles. While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is "Devon". If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become "shires" e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire. 4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters. British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or "Red Dwarf" will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness. 5. You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen", but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through. 6. You should stop playing American "football". There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very good game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies). We are hoping to get together at least a US rugby sevens side by 2005. You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called "rounders" which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs. 7. You should declare war on Quebec and France, using nuclear weapons if they give you any merde. The 97.85% of you who were not aware that there is a world outside your borders should count yourselves lucky. The Russians have never been the bad guys. "Merde" is French for "5hit". You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public. 8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2th will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called "Indecisive Day". 9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are cr*p and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour. 10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called "crisps". Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat. Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers. 11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself. 12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all, it is lager. From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as "beer", and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as "Lager". The substances formerly known as "American Beer" will henceforth be referred to as "Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine", with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as "Weak Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine". This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in Pilsen, Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion. 13. From December 1st the UK will harmonise petrol (or "Gasoline" as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2005) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon - get used to it). 14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun. 15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

One of the Bush ideas that I liked was the establishment of "savings accounts" for any purpose. In other words, people could set money aside like a 529 plan but it did not have to be restricted to education. Obviously, the advantage would be the flexibility that this would afford people. I have not heard anything about this in the past year or two. Now that GWB has a strong majority in Congress, I hope that they do something like this. Has anyone else heard anything about this?

For a while there, I was convinced that "HANNITY & colmes" was going to change its name to "HANNITY, colmes, & SWIFT BOAT VETERANS.'

Williamsville/East Amherst

That girl with Barbara also is pretty hot. Did you notice that the site where the third picture is supposed to be located is hosted by "Tripod." Hmmm.

I graduated from Cornell in 1983 and have always wanted to go back for a game. What is the best way to get tickets now?

Barbara is the silver lining in this election.

You would be wise to read his two columns every week. Whether one agrees or disagrees with him, he is always an interesting read. He also is one of the more thoughtful writers regarding the Middle East. P.S. GWB and GHWB are very different presidents. One of them is an internationalist. I will let you guess which one.