The Frankish Reich

My draft grade: C. But that's just because it seems average, and C traditionally is average. With grade inflation rampant, I guess we could call it a B. I don't obsess over drafts, and I'll admit that Rousseau is the only Bills pick I'd actually heard of before this week. And he seems like a fine pick at 30. That's part of finally being a good team - everyone you pick comes with a question mark when you're no longer picking in the top 10 or 15. I guess my sole disappointment is with what the Bills did in relation to the competitive cycle. Beane gets a partial pass because he m

Well, 7 kids? That's on him ...

True. But I think sometimes we get so used to talking about these crazy athlete salaries that we lose sight of how much money that is. He played one year in the NFL, and presumably collected more salary while out (legitimately) injured. So that's $730,000 by the age of about 24. Adjusting for inflation, looking back at my 20s, it took me about 9 or 10 years to earn that much in total. And that came with a pretty significant student loan burden. It's a tough, physically demanding job with a really short lifespan. But it is handsomely compensated.

True. Well, probably true. Plus this: Jimmy G arrived in SF in 2017. Since that time - - Record with Jimmy starting: 22-8 - Record with other guys starting: 7-27 He's the example of "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." He's a good QB. I'm not scared of him, but I don't want him anywhere near the AFC East.

EJ Manuel vs. Kevin Kolb! That was 8 years ago, which is "a while" I guess ...

😁 On the subject of poor Mr. Hilton ... would it have killed the Broncs to have activated him from the PS to play WR/punt returner in Game 16? The kid went out there and took the hit for poor Broncos planning, looking like some kind of high schooler playing QB in an NFL game. Karma, Broncos. Karma ...

I like Bridgewater. He's a fine NFL QB, kind of in that 25th-30th best QB in the world, in kind of a no man's land that guys like him inhabit. Sometimes a bridge (hah!) starter, sometimes a really good backup in waiting. When he started for good teams he was good. 5-0 with the Saints in 2019, 100 QB rating, etc, etc. When he started for bad teams he wasn't good enough to make them playoff-competitive. So he'd be a really nice addition to some teams, but ... not the Broncos. Oh sure, if he plays he'll take that team - which does have talent - all the way from 5-11 to 8-8. Maybe even 9-7!

Well, somehow the federal government's gonna raise money to pay for operations, even if those operations are the kinds of things you probably agree are necessary: the military, border protection, etc, etc. So you've got the usual ways that all countries use: - customs duties (the oldest way in the USA) - estate taxes - capital gains taxes - income taxes - a VAT (never been tried in America) My point isn't about the size of the federal government (I think it's too big by the way), it's about using imagination and economic analysis to determine what blend of these a

You know what's depressing? The only Presidential candidates who've proposed a radical reworking of how the government funds itself in the last quarter century are fringe guys Steve Forbes and Herman Cain. Neither of them were even going to get elected (and for good reasons), but you'd think that some mainstream candidate would've picked up on at least some of the various ideas kicking around the think tanks and universities? I guess we are doomed to this cycle in which every Republican administration cuts the estate and capital gains taxes and the highest marginal rate, and every Democratic a

Hey, don't get me wrong - I never hated Fergy. I guess I was thinking more like this: guys I dreaded seeing trot out on the field because they just weren't competent players either in general (Maybin) or not anymore (Fergy).

I'm gonna give some of the youngsters a little history lesson. 1970s: I was a little kid. I loved everyone in a Bills uniform. Dennis Shaw was my first legit football hero (yeah, really). I couldn't stand Wayne Patrick, the fullback. I just had in my mind that he fumbled every game. And you know what? I think my 8 year old brain was right on the money. I looked it up. He fumbled 18 times in 264 carries. How is that allowed to happen? How does this guy start for 4 years? I think the term "Billsy" should have been invented for things like this, sticking with a guy who has proven time

Nope. In Colorado we were first, and the black market essentially disappeared other than for shipment out of state to mostly ... you guessed it ... NY. I was in favor of legalization but I wasn't really happy about Colorado becoming the test case. And there were problems with being the trailblazer (blazin' it I guess). But now that California (the big one) and NY (the second big one) have joined the party, I don't see much of a future for all the National Forest illegal grows that popped up around the state. Face it, we're not really the right climate for it. Welcome to the party, NY

Mental illness that renders a person susceptible to the grand conspiracy theories of the Nation of Islam, or QAnon, or the International Jihad, or whatever the flavor of the month might be in your particular country and culture. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/noah-green-capitol-attack/2021/04/02/74f75802-93fe-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.html It's a sad story, and it's starting to sound like a suicide-by-cop. This kid was bright, a good athlete, and seemingly poised for success. And then it all unraveled. He started accusing college football teammate

Yep. I stand corrected. That's not much of a rap sheet for a guy who's only 31. 🤪 Who among us doesn't deserve a second eighth chance?

Without going beyond his wiki page ... seriously? On January 28, 2012, Smith was arrested for driving under the influence in Miami Beach, Florida.[33][34] On June 30, 2012, Smith was believed to have suffered stab wounds when attempting to break up a fight at a party at his Santa Clara county residence. Two other people were shot in the incident.[35] On October 9, 2013, Smith was charged with "three felony counts of illegal possession of an assault weapon" relating to the stabbing incident. The charges were later reduced to misdemeanors.[36] On September 20, 2013, Smith w