UConn James

In that case, I think you need to see your ophthalmologist, Bill. And it's waaaay too early to start calling the nominations. A year is an eternity in politics.

I count Boomer Esiason and Pat Kirwan among those. Kirwan's crap in the offseason bordered on racism in his "Please win the starting job, Kelly!" interview/story. Lucas is still sore at the Bills for making him cry. Admittedly, I was a 'doubter' as well before the bye week, but I always (OK... except on those Sunday evenings) thought that JP should be given the whole season. The doubting was not w/o reason. That he turned on/around his game deserves a big . After 10+ years wandering in the wilderness, we now have a QB.

Puntfest.

The "War on Christmas" posse will be at your house @ 8 p.m. to correct you in your usage of the "holiday" word. To me, what certain groups in this country want is akin to 5 people co-writing a book, and one person wanting only his name on the cover. "Happy Holidays" is cognizant of all of the different celebrations w/o singling one out as being 'more equal' than the rest. This is made much more an issue in the do-nothing-and-repeat-yourself media and on political soapboxes to instigate a 'wedge issue' than it is on Main Street. That will never happen again b/c those BIG, BAD stores don't want to spend 5x their budget just to make bags and put up decorations for every persuasion. Let's get them, those damn CAPITALISTS!

I'll be eating non-dolphin-safe tuna fish sandwiches for lunch today.

http://www.gribblenation.net/nflmaps/ I recommend bookmarking this site; he's been doing this for a couple of years now. EII, the FAQs explaination of why an area might have a weird game sceduled for that region: "One of two reasons: Sometimes a popular player is from a certain area, so the local station there likes to show as many games of his team as possible. This is especially true in college towns." and the other reason no longer applies. I don't know who any such player might be for Oregon but they don't play for us. Or maybe that affiliate thinks Miami-Buffalo will be the most exciting game of the day. ... Or perhaps CBS just wants to lure Lana into watching their Big Brother double-sided televisions so they can see what she's wearing.

Congress’ fiscal inaction may have big costs: Lawmakers left town without funding many federal agencies, projects Republicans didn't do their most important job in Congress, and now they're whining about their pork being cut. And, dev/null, all of the earmarks are being suspended, including for the Chuck Rangel Center and AIDS initiatives in SanFran. There's some tough cuts too, and the effects of overspending under this past congress is going to hurt a lot of departments (tho I would hope the more critical ones like the potential layoff of 500 FBI agents get some funding diverted their way) and programs. Someone finally realizes that you shouldn't be spending like a drunken sailor in a time of record defecits. See the article where Bush last year trimmed the budget requests by $2.2B. Whoopty- -in' do! Whoever calls that man a conservative is . I am applauding these intentions. Maybe the Dems have pulled their heads out of their bums a little bit. They will be working a minor miracle just to get us back to a balanced budget.

Quack, Quack!

Just commenting that if the best experience of your life is watching fat, sweaty men push each other around while you watch from a cold plastic seat.... We all enjoy watching the Bills, that's why we're here, but the point is to have some perspective. If you get the biggest jolly of your life pointing at Jests fans and saying "Suck it!" and then whining on an Internet message board that they were mean to you in return, I would say you need to re-evaluate where you're heading. For 99% of people here, the best day of their lives was graduation, wedding, the birth of their children, their first paycheck.... Something they have done that means something big in their lives. Now, for Lori, who got married at a Bills game IIRC --- I would grant an exemption!

FYI, you got back exactly what you gave. And, secondly, watching a fuggin' football game was "the best day of your life" your life must be pretty empty. Not trying to be a d--k here, I'm just saying....

I just know that it takes really, really extensive study to make a diagnosis, and even then ADD is severely overdiagnosed in this country b/c it is a quick answer to parents' concerns about their children in an era where people want quick answers rather than the right answers. Having 'classic signs' doesn't mean much for most any illness/condition, i.e. abdominal pain, nausea, jaundice could be describing like 150 possible things. My brother was in the hospital for 3 weeks this past summer with that before the doctors guessed at a ruptured appendix after having already ruled it out 10 times before. Doctors don't know everything; often it's an educated guessing game.... just remember that 50% of them graduated in the bottom half of their class. And even if it is, ADD doesn't mean your child is destined to be stupid or something. There are medications that have good results, and many who decide not to use the pills and do alternative therapies. Lots of kids manage to do quite well; just takes more patience, discipline and hard work. Good luck.

His spokeswoman says it was not a stroke or a heart attack. Linky. Interesting history at the end of this article. In this atmosphere, it's not infeasible that he might refuse to officially relenquish the seat. Also, I read that Harry Reid had a mild stroke last year... I didn't remember hearing that.

If they caught it "very early" that's encouraging. There's a medication that reportedly totally counteracts any effects, but it needs to be administered w/in a few hours. Lots of people who've had a stroke return to work w/in a relatively short time. The word stroke is not a whipped bananas and strained squash death sentence anymore. Thoughts/prayers for his recovery.

You might amend the title to ask people's "heritage" rather than where they're from.

180 degrees of a change.

There is an element of 'It's all right only if my team wins with it; all's fair in love and football.' But to me, there is a fine line of how to gain advantage over an opponent in the NFL and this crossed it. If they'd figured this out on their own initiative, that's fine --- you put in the work, you get rewarded. If you get information from a former player who's now on your team (i.e. RJ during the Jags game), that's fine --- if a team doesn't change its calls year to year you're asking to be beat. Paying an insider mole (who could have had access other than a Pats employee?) to get tape revealing the line calls.... that is cheating. I don't know if there should be any league penalty or if it's merely another example of the ethical slimeball-ness required to be a Dolphag. But, also, it's up to the Patriots to clean their own house.

American manufacturing was being destroyed before Wal-Mart came along... but they sure didn't help. And the fact that they reduce prices in the short term doesn't console the people put out of jobs where they are compensated for making a tangible product, and put into jobs relying on a whole set of factors that can evaporate quickly -- i.e. new media, real estate, financial.... We export 'ideas' and it's hard to get money in exchange for them. We are fast becoming an economy based in paying each other to buy each other's imported wares. And pornography. Both are examples of circle-jerks. And both sensations don't last very long.

You hit the nail on the head there. I was going to add that 'Hard Work and Long Hours' are American values... But that first part now only applies to about 30% of the population. The rest are either retail, beancounters or gov't employees. The second part, tho, is more true than ever.

It's both. Ralph represents 'small market' and Buffalo has become that 'small market.' Think of Snyder, Jones, Kraft, et al. as people who want the NFL to be in the biggest markets. Just as teams moved from Pottsville, Racine, and Kenosha --- they want the Bills out of Buffalo, and they have leverage that can make it happen after Ralph is gone. It is pure Adam Smith and the 'invisible hand.'

I'd say the average person knows the difference b/w a playful after-the-play slap like that was and an intentional, real slap. Now, the average ref.... Different story, mornin' glory!

Or did the mean regress toward him?

Perhaps the questioner pronounced the word differently.... or if it was a written question, someone left out two vowels and an apostrophe. In other news, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KAN) sez Syria and Iran need to clear out and make room for an extended all-nighter with Dick Cheney and Condi until all the regions' problems are solved. Video Soon-to-be-unemployed Sen. Rick Santorum sez our govt needs to take a tougher stand on Iran by siding with their bus drivers in their labor strike.... which would magically topple that radical govt. Video B/w the 'Party of (Bad) Ideas' and the 'Party Without Ideas' I'll take the guys who sit on their hands. For now.

In today's NFL, many of us simply root for the laundry. That said, we don't want the laundry to look like crap. The TD-Bledsoe jersey is a POS and the new-age designer fudgep--ker consultant from JetBlue sucks. All most people want is to return to the tradition with either the throwbacks or the 90s unis. We're not advocating sh--bag little details or to put a strand of vanilla mocha chockha latte on the nameplate; just want it back to the way it was when it was good and our unis looked like football unis with some simple stripes and not some 'Liberache House of Crap' concoction. Russ Brandon, get 'er done!

It's like Camelot, only without the swords.