UConn James

This.

True enough!

If acrimony w/in a government were anything more than, say, 5% of a reason for a credit downgrade, England would have had a FFF- rating since 1066. The reason for the downgrade is because: 1) We're ing broke. 2) The federal government is continuing to spend more than it takes in and its version of a credit card (borrowing from China) is maxing out. 3) Alexis de Tocqueville's point about democracy* c. 1840 was pin-point accurate. 4) It's going to take major austerity to get through this. 5) Few of the current pols will even admit to No. 4. * - "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years." When do we start getting foreign aid and debt forgiveness?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcaCi4uhyHc&feature=related

I'm a "perennial optimist" most years during camp... so we'll go with this. At least until September, when it turns out they were referencing explosive diarrhea.

You might think that... until the starter rope breaks.

So, what does this prove? That England must give HDTVs and McDonalds foodstuffs to gang-affiliated minorities to keep them from committing arson and theft, and that bobbies must not be able to defend themselves. BTW, it appears that Mr. Duggan just wasn't aware of England's handgun ban. Or... wait.... Is this yet more evidence that if guns are banned (and this includes many police there, who aren't allowed to carry a firearm), only criminals will have guns?

You know how Norfolk got its name (pronunciation-wise)? "We don't drink. Nor f---."

Here's a nice model. Link

Link

Huge fan of David Tennant here, so I'll probably be giving "Fright Night" a whirl, tho it's seriously not my genre.

Maybe TE isn't a focal point for Chan because he's never had one worth a bucket of warm spit.

I liked the Wannstache hiring, but I'm reminded of the old Sherlock Holmes line, "I can't make bricks without clay, Watson." We are more than two positions away from greatness. Not the least of which is depth. I have yet to see anything that fills me with optimism. All I've got is another regime who believes in bringing their bands back together/trying to re-create the past and a glut of talent at a different skill position (WR) than Jauron had serious man-love for (DB). They did get Dareus in the draft, but I'm not going to pretend that he's the answer to all our problems on D. As long as Ralph and Co. is content to run the Bills like we're the Kansas City Royals of the NFL and just hope that we get lucky bounces of the oblong ball rather than win based on overwhelming talent where it matters most (front seven, OL/blocking)... we're not going anywhere.

For me, the show has always been more about Jon Cryer's straight-man than Charlie. His "I am a troll" bit on Conan during all the to-do this spring was friggin' . Other people would have acted differently given all that was said then and the job uncertainty the situation created. Cryer handled it with a lot of class.

Ahhh, the daydreams of August --- the time of year when hope springs eternal in WNY!!! And then they have to go start playing the actual games.

In the recent spate of human population projections, articles say that by 2050, the world population will be ~7 billion and by 2100, it'll be ~10 billion, with 95 percent of that growth being in Africa. Who the !@#$ are they trying to kid? Many African governments are starving their populations, either to give it to their military/elite or as a result of policies like Mugabe violently taking white farmers' land and giving it to blacks who don't have the first clue how to farm. We'd better not be sending them food aid and relief supplies. They made their beds, they need to sleep in them.

I hear that several posters here are pimps, but that's probably a completely different test.

Agreed on the "housekeeping" term for this week. The title usually gives a lot of overarching description / what was most important in that episode. As such, last week was titled "38 Snub" and while it was the type of handgun Walt bought, it also summed up what happened to each of the main characters featured --- they were snubbed re: something they wanted.

So, if I call the State Police and they use my driveway, I get to charge for parking?

I'm well aware of all that. As I was saying, tho, that few-minute flashback does little to show a progression of why Walt is the way he is... how he changed from the guy who got his geek on and had fun with his work and excitedly buying a house with a Jr.-pregnant-Skylar to where he is now. We aren't shown the spark (or was it an extinguishing?) that created this very mechanistic mindset --- we're mostly just supposed to infer that it happened somewhere. As I wrote, I'm OK with that(!) but I was simply refuting the opinion that BB has more character richness/roundness than LOST. It doesn't, because there are huge gaps in their stories.

Mmmm... I wouldn't exactly use the word "eloquent" when describing the characterization on BB. Four seasons in and I'm still trying to figure out the motivations behind the personalities of many of these characters. There's so much stuff we haven't seen, not the least of which is Walt. Why the hell did he turn down a golden health plan when he had cancer? What was the back-story there? Why is there such a high degree of hubris and obsessive-compulsiveness? I understand that it is his personality, but we've got very little on how it it got that way. And, perhaps most of all... why does Walt wear tightie whities?!? Four seasons into LOST, there wasn't nearly this much of a vacuum of information on the basics of characters. It was the island and its past / meta-physical properties that was the biggest mystery. And LOST had so many main characters (and many mid-major ones) to deal with, whereas in BB there's a core of what... six? In a NYT article, Gilligan said that he's intending to wrap up BB with the fifth season. So, there doesn't seem to be a lot of time for further fleshing out. I think that song "If You Don't Know Me By Now..." kind of sums up where we are / where I am with BB. And don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly OK with it if Gilligan doesn't want to get into too much back-story. It's a series that concentrates on the characters 'as is, and moving forward' much more than how they got there. Characterized more than LOST? You're entitled to your opinion. But I'm sorry, it's not even close. ---- "Open House" Another episode of mostly set-up material that should have pay-off later this season. ajzepp, I can now understand how it was when you binged on the first five seasons in a couple of months, and then got to the last season of LOST. Wow, these weeks are just eking along. Painfully slow.

Any crime committed with a handgun --- even shooting yourself in the leg / discharging a firearm in a public place --- is a federal mandatory minimum of 5 years. He also did not have a NY carry permit (he did have an expired Florida permit). He pleaded to 2nd-degree possession and reckless endangerment. Dropped/nollied/pled down --- you say pota(y)to, I say pota(h)to. If the laws on the books were actually enforced, maybe we wouldn't have politicians making hay by pushing for more gun laws that only affect law-abiders.

Well, to be completely fair, no one had a full off-season. Two years off/in the clink for being a ing idiot might have let his body recover a bit. Similar circumstances didn't seem to affect Michael Vick last year. (Just to note: A fan of either of these guys, I'm not. If justice had been served, rather than legal maneuvering and chickensh-- DAs who dropped charges in exchange for plea bargains, they would both still be in jail.)

That set is pretty good. at the Texas one. Doctor shrugs and nods in agreement before continuing to wrap.

For all those clammoring for Andrew Luck at #1 next year, just remember that Brohm would likely have been the #1 pick if he had declared for the draft as a junior. And now, three years on, he's probably out of the NFL for good.