UConn James

Since it might mean illegal immigrants wouldn't be allowed to vote (Democrat).

My brother may have gotten a himnia (hernias are for girls) during the Feats of Strength.

This really is the thing that makes me sit on the fence over whether I should continue being a fan and spend time and $ watching sports. I mean, it's within the realm of possibility that the Bills could improve if they magically hit on 7 guys of All-Pro caliber each draft... or once we lose Scrooge McDuck and his bagmen and actually pay to have competent depth. But, you can't win when the league has it all scripted out to decimate a city's pride and run down the franchise in order to move it elsewhere with less fuss.

Half of those people are probably on food stamps, to boot.

I imagine there will be a few tweaks in the shift to Nike (I'm hopeful that the sleeve stripes will become more standardized rather than having some guys having them in the traditional horizontal -- and some guys having them as a 3/4-over-shoulder slash / ). There may be a return to the Standing Buffalo theme for the allowable two games; I'm not sure about that. At the time of the unveiling, we learned that there weren't any blue pants, but that it was possible they would tag along when the switch to Nike was made. But there won't be a major overhaul. There can't be a major overhaul of the design this soon, per NFL regulations. Teams must wait five years minimum b/w major changes, and any minor changes need to have a good reason (e.g. the Dolphags reducing the thickness of the black shading/striping a few years ago b/c it looked like absolute crap on the new HD cameras). The manufacturer may have some say WRT available material, seam patterning, and they do have some input once a team decides to change but the teams have final say-so when it comes to their branding. There will probably be a few teams who were waiting for this transition to make changes --- it's widely spoken of that the Broncos will be going back to some version of an Orange Crush uni. Those 'Nike Pro Combat' images die hard in fans' collective memories, tho. Rest assured that those were musings, probably as a way to give a couple of Nike interns some busy-work. The manufacturer CANNOT force big changes. For the pricing, well, that's to be expected when they're switching makers. They've gotta sell as much of the existing stock as they can to people who don't give a stevestojan that they're not buying the laundry with the Swoosh on it like the team will have next season.

Brings new meaning to a certain holiday movie phrase "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!!"

I would not be surprised if they use an AutoPen. Sorry if I'm bursting any balloons here....

Possible. Now that teams will be REQUIRED to spend 90% of the cap next year, graduating up to 99% in a few years, there's less reason to keep the bean-counters around --- or at least so many of them. Also, look for Ralph to start going into convulsions and foaming at the mouth once the team HAS to spend most of the TV $. You know... less for his coin silos.

+2. IIRC, Buddy was bent on retiring when he was shown the door in SD, and Ralph talked him into re-upping in B-Lo. As some here said when he announced the Evans trade, it didn't seem like he was very happy with it and the decision came more from the Ralph/Littman/Overdorf squeeze-the-nickel side. We may or may not hear Buddy say "I'm gettin' too old for this stevestojan!" before he opens a chain of Hulka-Burger franchises. The Whaley hire smacked of Ralph's long-time policy of getting someone into the organization, getting comfortable with them, seeing how they work and then promoting them. Similar circumstances got Terry Francona fired in Boston after he won them 2 championships after an 86-year drought. Ralph is going to have to spend serious coin now if he hopes to get fans back. We're not going to be satisfied with one TO type $6M deal, either. There has to be a major commitment. And tightwads get pissed as all hell when they have to burn cash because their tightwad ways backfired.

On Conan last night: Or maybe KJI figured out how to use the seashells from "Demolition Man"....

I missed commenting on the Brandon section. It is a little sad that like those fights during high school/gangs his family didn't show up. (Besides Russell, who said Brandon did "everything" wrong in his gameplay.) But who's really to blame for that? Brandon is the kind of kid that takes stevestojan to extremes; as I've said, he's the most bipolar player (and perhaps, person) I've seen. One second lashing into someone for lying to him, the next, offering them his immunity. He really needs to seek professional help and maybe get on a medication. You can call it what you like, but there's a reason his family didn't show up on Sunday. His whole thing with Mikayla was so like a dude who rapes a girl he lusts over and then murders her because he's ashamed of that lust. It really was creepy. And then, like all his other things on the island, when what he was plotting got blown up during Tribal and, he broke into tears and asked for forgiveness but it didn't change anything in how he thought or what he did. In any church I've ever been to, forgiveness is about letting go of past transgressions with an understanding that someone's learned from their mistake and won't repeat it. Next day, Brandon was still staring at and gunning for Mikayla as the Hot Evil B word Woman who, in his warped mind, would use her curves to control the game. You know, at least Coach had the decency to make up a 'She used a lot of sugar!' pretext when he decided it was her time; Coach at least didn't say 'She has a great ass that I leer at all day to the point I can't get anything done! I wanna (figuratively) kill her!' Brandon's got issues. Albert though he was going to win? Really? REALLY, Coach? You've gotta be kidding me. Everyone and their brother knows Albert was toast after he refused to give the immunity back to Brandon. That was very low rent and no one but no one respected that. The fact that the necklace slipped off of Albert just as Brandon was having his torch put out was kind of poetic. Ozzy kind of screwed himself by revealing his deal with Coach. If he'd kept that quiet, it might've gone differently.... but then again, Sophie's argument that Ozzy'd been whispering in everyone's ear right before he put them out of their misery on RI probably would've ultimately swayed it to the same result. Coach not electing to put it to a make-fire challenge spoke volumes. Whatever his promise to Ozzy was, he did not want Ozzy there. And how can you be surprised that Ozzy wouldn't vote for you after you pull that? Coach based his game on 'honor and trust' and at so many turns, he !@#$s honor and trust in the ass. Again, under the pretext that God told him to. And I resent anyone who thinks the social game is not part of "Outplay" in the words on the buffs. Part of the game is to not piss off people... or rather... to piss off people on the jury just slightly less than the other two sitting beside you. So, Coach screwed Ozzy over and Ozzy did his own little part to screw Coach over. Tit for tat. I guess it needs to be asked: Who exactly is being the "whiny little B word" here?

Seems that way. I was reading on EW that the cast may include people from other (English-speaking) countries --- hence the name "One World." Interesting dynamic to put the tribes so close together. Could form some inter-tribe alliances that will affect the merge. Because let's face it, the merge is the most important part of the game and if you're tied going in and then lose that one challenge round, your tribe is royally screwed and will be picked off one by one. Look at Cochran's move; it defined the season. Looking forward to how it'll play out. I also didn't get the deal with food supplies and how they're going to determine that, but I imagine that can get really personal, really fast. I liked RI and it might be worth revisiting. But it's interesting to see them trying different things to shake up how the strategy game must be played. Yeah. Besides it being completely retarded, fan voting for Survivor is like technically impossible. I was rooting for Ozzy. Just enjoyed how he killed the challenges (up until that last one...) and his attitude toward pretty much everyone that he interacted with because I saw them the same way he did. His fatal flaw was the animosity toward Sophie. Coach basically lost the game from the moment he crushed the egg with blue paint. Got put into a group with enough Jesus-freaks who were so shallow and hypocritical that he was bound to not be able to keep the 80% of the promises he made. No matter how much you invoke Father-God, that doesn't make you a righteous person above the fray of what needs to be done to reach the later days on Survivor. As Probst said... not knocking the religion, but there's a sizable portion of the fellow competitors and the audience who saw it as too over-the-top --- praying for this one to find the idol and then it's orchestrated that Coach 'finds' it. That was a pretty damning reveal by Sophie. Coach's 180 during the last tribal --- in his opening speech that he played the game honorably and with integrity, and then in the Q&A when he admitted that he lied to a lot of people and was sorry --- probably helped turn the tide, esp. WRT Edna's vote at least. I think not playing the hidden idol at the final tribal that he could made Coach look arrogant and gave the impression that (he at least thought) he controlled the game.

Looks like Rasmussen was on the cutting edge of Newt Gingrinch's fall-off once the voting public in Iowa, and in general, found out what he espouses. Link

Even when I put up my Bad Fan 'Randy Quaid in 'Major League'" avatar, I still love the team. I just hate what's being done to it / how it's run, from the top down. As they say, the opposite of love isn't hate. It's apathy.

Link This Frontline reporter intimates that Manning's lawyer is arguing that an actual harm has to be proved by the government --- that the leaked information was used by a terrorist. I wasn't under the impression that this was a requirement....

I'm sorry.... I also am of the belief that this team needs to go back to the 4-3. But even with that line-up at DL, we would get and were getting ZERO penetration. They need to add an elite DE. Not some mid-tier schmoe. An elite DE. The LBers can be mid-tier. (Hell, this team's LBers, besides Barnett, look up from the gutter and aspire to be mid-tier.) And we know with this Owner and FO, that isn't happening unless we trip over one in the draft and he magically gains 5 years experience from great teacher-coaches overnight. Moreover, as I've said all season, with the league neutering defenses, smart teams would put their $ into their offense.... Which means it's going to be another offseason of all defense all the the time for the Buffalo Bills.

Rasmussen poll from the 13th has Newt slipping in the Iowa polls, according to a survey of 750 likely voters. Ron Paul placed second, and it has Romney leading the field by 3 points. Interesting, since Rasmussen was the first to note the upswing for Newt a few weeks ago... maybe he's also the first to note the downturn. Looks like Gingrinch may be the latest Not-Romney to fall by the wayside. In true history-repeats-itself narrative, Reagan wasn't well-liked by the GOP establishment for some of his shifts in policy views (not the least of which were his changed stance on abortion and worries re: his actor's-union presidency) and yet he's now the party's standard. Anyway, this election is looking to be almost a carbon copy of 1980.

Like this?

Yeah, ESPN3.com, which does streaming of live sports events (college football/basketball, majors tennis, every World Cup match among many other sports) has a "Game cannot be shown in your area" message for blackouts, when I tried to watch a UConn football game awhile back. You get that that's illegal, right?

This is why English majors take the stairs. But seriously, that is just incredibly horrible and sad. Lawsuits ordinarily don't begin to make up for the damage caused, but this situation is utterly more-so.

I heard they're going to Hawai'i for a couple of weeks during the holidays.

1. Brandon is totally frickin' retarded. As I've written before, I hope Russell is slapping him upside the head after each episode. You kinda feel sorry for him with that 'The gang would get something going with another, but when it happened, I was the only one standing there.' This kid needs to put down the bible for a moment and seek professional help. Maybe now we can keep the God-talk at an appropriate level. For all his words, Brandon is as constant as Beyonce's stage wardrobe. I missed a lot of seasons, but there can't possibly have been a more bipolar player than him in the history of the game, and the fact that he survived up until now is owing more to people clinging to some sense that they have to be loyal to their original commitments (especially in consideration of jury votes) than in who they really wanted gone. So here we are: two of THE STUPIDEST decisions ever in one season. 2. How !@#$ a move was that by Albert not to give Immunity back? Even if he gets to the jury, there is no way he wins, based on that move alone. The necklace slipping off him at the end of tribal was an appropriate metaphor. 3. Bad form on picking up that log, Rick. Doubling over Drew Bledsoe-style will absolutely KILL YOUR BACK in short order. Bend your knees, keep your back straight, & lift with your legs. Dude is a farmer/cowboy and he doesn't know this?!?!! 4. Sophie had an excellent point WRT Ozzy being the last impression these people get before they each get put to sleep with a soft voice in their ear and go into the jury pool. Of course, the jury is allowed to talk and mingle all the time they're in sequestration at whatever local watering hole, so all the things that happened to them gets watered down, but the fact that they went head-to-head with Ozzy and he's won so many of these things can't be bad in their determination, if they're voting based on who outplayed, outwitted and outlasted. But, even if Coach was speaking truthfully a few weeks ago saying him and Ozzy at the end, the moment Ozzy comes back, he's gotta win immunity or he's out. That line Sophie said to Coach may have influenced a change.

My mum's side of the family is Dutch. I can aver that this article is spot-on, and it goes far beyond just Christmas.

Gingrich Breaks [Another] Commandment And Tom, Gingrinch himself here called Fannie Mae a GSE. Your pedantic side is showing off again.

Wouldn't be a wise move by Freddie, given the concern a knee injury always is for a RB. The team should resign him and give him some recompense for his performance this season, but then again, contracts in the NFL are not based on what a player has done, but what he will do. It's like FJ can't get a break when it comes to actually having leverage in a contract situation. Given that and given Spiller's performance, I would not be surprised to see an early RB pick (2nd or 3rd).