UConn James

A bit of trivia: the DoI actually wasn't signed by John Hancock, the President of the Continental Congress, until 2 August, and then by the other Signers a few weeks after that and through November. Connecticut's own Jonathan Trumbull took a few liberties in his famous painting of the signing.

Yeah, Nadal just wasn't firing on all cylinders. I don''t know if his left foot injury from the Del Potro match was still bothering him.... Or it may have been that Djokovich was just that fast on the court. He was chasing down stuff that would beat most anybody else, which forced Nadal to go a little wider/into a different style of play and likely contributed a lot to the errors. I'm glad that Nadal came back to win that third set to push the match a little longer, straight sets in under an hour and a half would've been disappointing after all the great finals from Wimbledon the past several years. Anyway, the word today is that Wimbledon is leaving NBC for ESPN. I hope they keep the broadcast team because it's top-notch. But yeah, it kind of sucks for antenna-only people like myself; broadcast variety decreases a little bit more. Things are pushing more and more to cable (which I just refuse to pay for without channel choice/a-la-carte pricing) and the Internet. I really hope ESPN3.com continues to air these kind of events as they've been doing. And it may not be such a bad thing, after all. NBC's coverage selection (all Venus and Serena, all the time) is tuned on the assumption that Americans only want to watch Americans. As such, I caught several matches on ESPN3.com that NBC either decided not to show or cut away from in their 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. "broadcasting window" last week. And the !@#$ move to not show the semifinals live on Thurs./Fri. morning, and anybody who reads Google News or has a sports RSS feed gets spoilers. So in some respects, the move is an answer to the way that NBC has treated Wimbledon for quite some time now.

It goes from 1" to 2 1/2". That's not a very subtle change. All told, this was not unlike the Chargers' redesign a few years ago. Everyone there wanted the "powder blue" throwbacks... but what they got was powder blue with navy-outlined features. They're probably figuring that people will drag their old duds out of the attic instead of buying new $100-$200 pieces of cloth with a name and number on it. The half-hearted approach to throwbacks (most often, returning to traditional color-schemes, striping patterns, etc.) can be OK if it looks good. But there is every chance it can look like crap, come off as gimmicky, or smack of doing something just to be different. This is often the mother of abortions like the Sluggalo, the NY Islanders' Gorton Fisherman logo, Broncos orange side-gussets, Oregon Ducks unis, and the like. One of the few examples I can think of where new components blended in well with old colors/designs was the Vancouver Canucks' return to blue green and white, and changing the colors on newer logos. I would place several of the Bills' redesign elements in the "doing something just to be different" category. It's certainly better than the navy pajamas. But was it everything fans wanted (which, by far, was a "return to a traditional look")? No. I can't think of anyone who didn't like the '64-'65 throwback set. It would've been the easiest thing to change it to the throwbacks --- they were already designed, as for screen-testing... they've been used on TV before, they were/are immensely popular. I don't get why they had to go do something different when a great set was already in place. I'm not going to carry the torch on this topic, but I'm also not going to be buying the new merch.

If the dude didn't get straight after the initial close call, then tried to flit away whatever excuses he could when he got caught in the act until it was game-set-match, he doesn't show the signs of ever stopping. If she doesn't realize he's a !@#$ing liar, if she believes he will now get straight, if she's so confident that the maid's the only one he's schtooping, if she's so damn confident that he won't be giving her an STD, if she doesn't realize that this pattern only escalates, if she doesn't realize that maybe she's got a self-punishment neurosis herself (did her father/mother cheat?)... then it looks like she's going to be stuck in this pattern. And maybe she wants to be stuck in this pattern. She may now feel like she "has hand" in the relationship, but telling by the guy's behavior, he'll do anything to get that hand back, or just cut off that hand. Make no mistake, there's a lot of risk in that relationship right now. You can only hope that it doesn't turn into one of those stories where the lover or husband kills the wife to get her out of the way and avoid a costly divorce/alimony agreement that might cramp the cheaters' style. It happens every day.

+1. I've really grown to love 'Breakfast at Wimbledon' the last several years, especially. Actually, it's kind of convergent now with my declining interest in football. That WSJ article last year that showed there's 11 minutes of actual play in a 3-hour NFL game really soured me on the 'sport' aspect of it. I knew that it was a lot of standing around as time ticked away, but I didn't think it was 11 minutes. Anyway, you gotta appreciate the shape these tennis players are in. Majors tennis is just a grudge match and they've gotta work for every point. Get a drink, get a gel-pack and then the ref announces 'Time' and it's right back to it. Nadal is simply dominant; great power and placement. (As an aside, Tsonga's game was really impressive. He's going to be one to watch if he maintains that power). I don't know what it is, but I don't really like Djokovic. And I will be rooting for Maria tomorrow.

Apparently, the show just got a new swear-word bleep machine, and there was an inside thing that they were going to try it out. And then, when Halperin said that, and someone didn't push the right button (or the right configuration of buttons) it didn't work. And then everyone on set feigned shock/moral outrage. Did anybody watch the presser? Obama was being a richard. The AP guy with the first question was like 'Speaker Boehner has said that he will not pass debt reduction measures that include tax increases, and you're saying that you're insisting on tax increases. ... [shrug] How do you expect to get anything passed?' Then about the 'Gunwalker' scandal (where the ATF delivered 2,500 AK-47s to the Mexican drug cartels (and no, this is not an exaggeration. They were given to the cartels to be "tracked" and then weren't tracked), one of which was used to murder a Border Patrol agent and another, the brother of a Mexican attorney general) he said he "thinks" someone in the ATF "might" be punished when the internal investigation is over.

CT started that recently as well. 'Course, you've always been technically required to declare the purchases and pay the taxes when you file... but who actually does that? Still, most of what it does is bog the economy down a little bit more. Yeh, taxes!!!

To add to the name-calling, Mark Halperin called Obama a "dick" this morning, referring to the presidential demeanor during yesterday's presser. Link. Apparently, they were initiating a bleep machine on MSNBC, and apparently as a joke, Halperin said that. The bleeper didn't work because someone pressed the wrong button or combination of buttons. So, now Halperin is on indefinite suspension. The crap of it is that during the Bush years, this and worse was/would have been applauded by the MSM (especially MSNBC). And besides that, Halperin has the truth on his side --- Obama was being a prick behind the mic.

Proper link. (No, it's not the Peter Pan Man thing)

When you live by the sword, you die by the sword.... I was half expecting to see he was caught with kiddie porn, because that's just how these things seem to go. At least he put in his extracurriculars with someone of age.

With the talent available and as much initial chip-block help as our OTs need, it will be shameful if Nix & Co. don't at least bid for TE. Perhaps the reason Gailey doesn't use the TE is because he never had one worth a bucket of warm spit.

Some people expect that when Republicans are forced to contribute to the making of the pie --- and having spoken out against the Democrat plans for the size of the pie being made --- that they ought to not take a piece... even though it was was made all the same with that state's/district's flour, blueberries, Crisco, etc. Are all 23 still there? The nature of foster child programs is to provide direct care until age 18. Even if they are, if the Bachman family has the will, space and resources to do it, why in the world are you ragging on her? Who the hell do you think you are to judge something as selfless as foster care? At least on this (vis-a-vis her views on abortion), she walks the walk where others talk the talk.

"Green Lantern" was just... nauseatingly formulaic. "Super 8" was a sideways thumb, trending downward. I doubt I will remember this movie in five years.

Yep. Walt has had rage issues from the beginning. Hell, even from before the beginning of the series. He was shafted by his business partner and refused a token job there so he could get decent health insurance. That amount of pride is telling of some serious unvented rage (and BTW, I really hope we get some flashbacks as to what exactly happened there). His gift of a pack of Ramen noodles was understood by the guests as a little friendly joke, and even he played it off as such, but I saw that as Walt giving that guy a little slap across the back of the head and a 'remember who and what helped get you here. And you gave me the shaft.' There's also the bottled rage he's had for a long time regarding Walt Jr.'s cerebral palsy. Special needs children induce a lot of stress on parents. I'm not making a judgment call, that's fact. Walt has never blamed Walt Jr. for anything, and yet (and maybe all the more...), the anger that failed to have something to land on is still floating in there. You can get a sense that his son's condition makes him expect more of people who aren't physically handicapped --- directly referencing Jesse's old report card that has in big red ink and capital letters, "(F) APPLY YOURSELF!!!" As it's said in "Rocky" that anger can heat you up or it can burn you up. Well, at this point, Walt is friggin' engulfed in flames. He's also more than a little neurotic. His loss of control in so many things going on around him makes him seek absolute control over the smallest detail of something he ostensibly does have control over --- his (well... Gus's) lab. But even there, that fly kept getting the best of him. He was risking so much (Jesse standing on a teetering jury-rigged ladder, putting off filling the meth quota) about something that he admitted at the end, mattered very little. These show elements are not there entirely for comedic effect and they're not out of character --- they're defining Walt's character. I know it's soon but when does S4 start?

Can we be REALLY clear here? The Democrat supermajority in Mass. was going to pass health care legislation, with or without Romney. Romney tried to bring some fiscal sanity to it and signed the compromise. It was also a state measure in a commonwealth that had a huge amount of healthcare infrastructure in place, 4 percent uninsured, and he'd turned the state around from being $3B in the hole to a surplus, without raising taxes. In terms of good old state's rights, it wasn't exactly out of line with Republican values. It was not a national measure, it wasn't meant to be a national measure, and anybody who claims they used a two-year-old state plan as a model on which to base a national plan with... what, 15% uninsured?... is decidedly stupid, both in that there's no possible way one can glean enough info in that timeframe (and with such different on-the-ground data, infrastructure, demographics, geography, economies, etc. that exist in 50 separate states) to use it as the basis of a national plan that has a chance of success... or that Democrats didn't have almost the exact same national plan in their back pockets since the Clinton years. It's disingenuous to pin all this on Romney. And the reason the administration keep up with the tack of blaming Romney for the national plan is they're scared shitless about his business and executive experience and a track record of deficit turnarounds without !@#$ing over businesses and the citizenry by jacking taxes.

My brother used to question my dad on why he took a handgun almost everywhere he went (legally, with a concealed carry permit). Then my brother went to the police academy and after ~ 6 months on the job, questioned my dad on why he only had one handgun almost everywhere he went.

It's still ~6 months out.... Once things start to trickle out about the previously unvetted, as they have about Bachmann this weekend WRT a family farm subsidy and such, it'll start to winnow out, just as The Donald saw his numbers jump and then plummet. But still, Pawlenty's gotta be downright depressed over this latest straw poll in the Des Moines Register. He's been dumping his resources into Iowa and it's gotten him a whopping 6%. It may be getting late early for his candidacy.

As I wrote upthread, that BILLS wordmark just unnaturally squashes the front numbers down.

Right. They're probably going to have to have a "Drive Like an *" function, or 40% of drivers won't even consider buying one... because they get jollies from being an *. It'd also be interesting how the car insurance companies will treat this technology.

Read that yesterday. Unbelievable that a box like that can use more than a fridge/freezer. Just think about that unnecessary use x millions of households. Makes me all the more happy we cut the cable cord (figuratively) ~15 years ago. An antenna is good enough, and in turn of picture quality for HDTV, it's better b/c it's uncompressed. I had been looking at a standalone DVR unit, just for the handiness of recording some programs, but I may wait until there's one that draws less power.

Sacrilege!

Well, to clarify that, the context in which he was mentioned was in how Palin pulled him into the conversation with a wink-wink while talking about the sanctity of life and her anti-abortion stance... with the intimation that she didn't abort her baby with DS, so what's with people who support abortion of perfectly healthy babies? As such, Trig was mentioned in context to Palin's beliefs, and iirc she did not shy away from that conversation or say that it was off-limits. BTW, I didn't say I lived under a rock, and I did/do read online news from major e-paper sources. But like I said, I can't speak about what was said on cable news of whichever leaning, b/c I generally steer clear of cesspools. And then again, some of the nastiest stuff to come out in '08 against McCain-Palin was from some people who were pissed that their evangelical minister candidate Mike (Pardon Me!) Huckabee didn't get the nod.

I do believe that this was mentioned in that it is only the latest domino to fall in a short string that may affect the Bills' camp at SJF if the labor situation isn't settled very soon.

The ones who were minors and didn't inject themselves into the campaign? I would give a slightly unqualified 'Yes.' I don't watch much news and don't have cable to watch all that junk.... But I don't remember hearing a terribly much about the younger ones who didn't do much more than stand on a dais and wave. Bristol Palin voluntarily put her life into the mix. Even their older military son didn't get much mention... again, at least of what I heard and read, because he didn't stand up and start talking. Once you do that, you're fair game.

Gay marriage bill passes in NY Satisfied? Amazing how in the other six states, I haven't heard a peep about a gay couple suing to be able to get married in a church. I have witnessed a young cousin of mine (who didn't know the rules) denied communion at my niece's christening, b/c she wasn't Catholic. Religions have been allowed to exclude whomever they wish for whatever reason they wish from their rites for millennia. What makes you think this is all going to suddenly change? The churches are free to turn away anyone, they are free to not recognize the marriage religiously, they are free to call the police if an unwelcome gay couple trespasses on their grounds (albeit, that would be kind of weird, given the Lord's Prayer...). As I've said, I believe in the Constitution. And within that document is an equal protections clause. Equal protections under the law for all citizens. Not equal protections only for certain sub-classifications of citizens.