John Adams

Sorry that for a moment I acted decently and in doing so offended you. The guy has a belief system that I don't begin to share and although I don't mind taking pokes at it, I don't mind withdrawing a post because it went over some line for him. That doesn't mean I'll always do it and in fact, it's rare that I would. It just means I did it this time. Don't worry, I'll come up with other ways to piss of Joe. He's an easy target now.

Is your mic working?

Don't overlook Tom Cruise. Probably the best and most unlikely performance of his career. that's NSFW.

I had to race to post this before Magox. Canadian bubble about to pop? Ahh that Canadian bliss...lasted almost 3 days in this thread.

I don't have paralysis by analysis. I just like things that make sense. I understand that gold is a safe haven in times of currency destabilization. But it still makes no sense. I own a fair amount of it so I'm not ignoring its value (especially on a day like today). It's a part of my portfolio and for the last year, one of the better performing parts as the rest is about break even or down. Meh. I am not retiring for 20 years. By then all the Toyota stock I've been buying should be worth something...I predict they are just a few years from making a real rice-burner.

Ledger was not as good as Downey. If Ledger had lived, he wouldn't have even been nominated. I view that Oscar as a posthumous award for taking it in the ass in Brokeback.

Zombieland was brainless fun. Tropic Thunder is a classic. I'm glad Robert Downey got sober. Pride and Prejudice and zombies sounds awesome. Just Kindled it up for sometime when I'm bored and need an hour or so of light reading in which I can enjoy a bemused trip to Jane Austen's world.

I dunno. I feel like every man can relate to Woody Harrelson's character. He lived his life as kind of a loser and then it turns out he finds his life's calling killing zombies. It's a modern day Zen and the Art of Killing Zombies.

Speaking of which, during some recent bout of the flu, I watched Zombieland and found it to be one of the most mind-numbingly fun 1.5 hours of my life.

Yours changed. You were a mocking disbeliever a few years ago. Now you're not. Maybe you'll be the one changing back into a shiny pearl one day.

2012 is the year of the peak power of the antichrist. He better step his **** up if he's gonna be at peak power in 2012. Regarding the dire predictions, I guess we'll see. Dwight ran away when every one of his predictions turned out wrong. At least yours are in the more reasonable category of doom and gloom. More like "malaise and unemployment" than "build a bunker." If this is a prediction thread, I think we're just going to have more of the same...rockiness with a downturn but not a spiral. Probably a few mini-panics as people recall 2008 but most companies are doing OK these days and have recovered conservatively. 10% unemployment is here to stay. Some other pieces of bad news are on the EU horizon (Spain and Portugal) and that won't be great for the US economy but it will probably keep the dollar level or even trending up. And China is showing some signs of pain itself, which might not be bad for people seeking safe refuge in the dollar. I can't imagine gold going up another vast amount as it's already so high and its value makes no sense (WTF can you DO with gold? You can't even use it to kill a werewolf!) but maybe it will. I own a bunch and never trust it. I feel like it's my least understood investment and yet it keeps going up...unlike a lot of my other things over the past few months so what the hell? I keep riding the wave. I will be the second person off when that bubble pops though--and I do think it will pop. November elections will create uncertainties but with the climate decidedly a bit more "fiscal responsible," Wall Street may welcome the new blood and certainly will welcome a bit more gridlock to get in the way of the Obama spendathon.

And that is all that needs to be said. Parrish would be a stud in flag football.

Even if you were right and you're not, that's over 150M/year attributable to him. Before the Stern show went to Sirius, it was a second fiddle to XM. Sirius had less than a million subscribers to XM's 4 million. I was one--for the NFL only. I barely listened to anything else on Sirius. In the space of 3 years, Sirius acquired XM and now their combined subscriber base is 20 million people. Some of that growth would have happened just because people are buying satellite compatible cars but I guarantee you that no one is buying Sirius or XM for much in the way of specific content other than the NFL (which Sirius already had in 2005), MLB (which XM had in 2005), and Howard Stern. Karmazin isn't playing hardball. He knows Howard has the company over the abyss. If he goes, Sirius--which just finally started turning a profit--will go belly-up in 2 years. Subscribers will flee if Stern leaves and it will be more than 1M people gone. It won't be the 8-10M he brought with him because some people will keep Sirius/XM because they like it but people like me will kill the extra subscriptions and others will leave because you can get the music offerings on Sirius anywhere these days. Stern's departure, should it happen, will prove one of us right. If they only lose a few hundred thousand subscribers and don't have to pay 100M/year for the stern show, the company will be just fine. If they lose more, the company will tank.

It's hard for anyone on defense to shine in no-pad workouts. The corners can show off a little but the physical positions won't get mentions. Same on offense for RBs and linemen. Only the finesse positions get actual notice.

JSP has been reborn.

He was in the mix to replace Simon Cowell on the biggest TV Show in America and probably could have had the job if he wanted it. His departure from the CBS/Viacom radio empire gutted a massive cash cow and that business unit has been in shambles since his departure. Maybe only 8-10M followed Howard to Sirius but that's a $14/mo subscriber base (for those with just 1 subscription...unlike me with 4 in my house...and I drop 2 in a heartbeat without Howard). That's 112M in cash a MONTH! That's a billion dollars plus a year. That is relevant.

And my point was who ever heard of Bill Maher? Everyone has heard of and is still hearing of Hoawrd Stern. He's a huge media figure. Bill Maher is a "Who's that?"

The statistic I've seen (that he's referring to) is that the entire porn industry (movies/websites/fake penises) makes more than the Hollywood Box Office. It's a bit of a apples to oranges comparison but it's one that media outlets love to throw out because people hear it as "Porn movies make more than regular movies."

He's an ideal. Good to have a few in our midst to remind us what's possible. If he passes, next week's Rick Reilly will be a tear jerker to end 'em all. He loves the guy.

Wow is that off! Howard Stern = Bill Maher + talent + success - douchiness

I'm only willing to be so reasonable. I don't find the stats disturbing except for the 122,000 hits regarding searches for "child porn." Obviously that's disturbing. But that people are looking at porn a lot doesn't bother me.

Sorry for offending you. Like the true life John Adams, sometimes I step over the line poking the bear. Trust me that's sincere and though I won't take down my subject line, I'll remove the stuff about your guy in the text of the post.

Which one of those statistics do you fall under? Are you a Sunday guy like most? OR do you swim against the current and get it on Thanksgiving, the lowest porn consumption day.

Look up: That's Tom's post over your head.

But isn't most of this submerged? I would guess burning wouldn't get rid of most of this.