GG

This is the part that burns up people who understand the difference between health insurance and healthcare. It's idiotic to mandate that insurance carriers take on somebody new with a pre existing condition. That's why insurance portability is an important feature. If you carried insurance in one place while you were healthy, then got sick and had to move, it wouldn't be fair to lose that coverage because you've been paying for that risk all along. On the healthcare side of things, there's already an existing system that provides for people who are uninsured or underinsured, it's called Medicaid.

I agree with that. I think he's been the best talent evaluator this franchise has had in a long time. But when you look at the collection of the players, there doesn't seem to be an overarching strategy. A big part of course is the coaching turnover, but that's also contributed to his demise. Other than Cleveland few franchises go through the lather rinse repeat players cycles like the Bills. Very good players should prosper in any scheme.

Pre existing conditions are the biggest red herring in the discussion. Insurance portability is a far more important item than covering pre-existing conditions, which by then not insurance, but a giveaway. If you have true portability, then it's another incentive for people to get coverage early when they're healthy and then there would be no such thing as a pre-existing condition.

It would be interesting to know exactly where matter's friend's info is wrong about OBD, especially since its corroborated by Tim Graham's reporting.

My interpretation is better than your interpretation. The previous laws provided the FBI Director or his "designee" the authority to obtain the identifying information. You'll note that since "designee" isn't capitalized an aggressive interpretation could mean that the FBI Director could have designated anyone he wanted to request that information Now with PATRIOT, that designee is clarified to be of rank no lower than Assistant Special Agent in Charge. To me, that's curbing FBI's previous powers. Of course, the whole thing is another exercise of political hypocrisy from the self-professed guardians of Americans' liberties. Nobody batted an eyelash when the broader government powers were used against US citizens who were alleged mobsters, drug dealers, money launderers and tax cheats. But boy, once the lesser powers of the Act extended to minding terrorist activity, then our world came to an end.

Does the house come with an electric fence?

That's who my post was directed at. Some people have a hard time letting go of ingrained beliefs. That's why is was surprising to read Kryk' s piece. Thanks for the reiteration.

NYT just hired Brett Stephens from WSJ. Predictably his first column didn't go over well in snowflake land. He urged people to consider both sides of the global warming debate.

Making that two GMs in a row that were over their heads.

And here I thought you'd bring up the blind epileptic squirrel as the example of a friendly hit. Which has been made abundantly clear for a while now by anyone who's been reporting on the team.

I'll drink to that.

Over the last two years Bills have averaged 160 yds/game on the ground. Without TT the average goes to 105 yds/game. TT contributed about 35 rush yds/game, while EJ accounted for almost 30 yds/game. So TT's sheer presence adds another 25 yds per game, which you can attribute to the threat of him running or believe it or not passing the ball on scrambles (where he prefers RBs or TEs)

You said it "Gave FBI agents the authority to create secret 'National Security Letters' It did not do that. It clarified who in the FBI can provide NSLs. Prior legislation allowed FBI director or his "designee" to create the NSLs. PATRIOT actually limited FBI's NSL powers.

How well did the run game go when TT & top WRs were out?

Yo can't run if you don't have a good threat of a passing game.

Bills asleep as always.

Surprised that they didn't reintroduce Hank when DEA was raiding the ice cream store.

Funny how you employ fearmongering about the evils of the PATRIOT act because Bush's administration used fearmongering to get the act passed. Pot meet kettle. Still waiting for the jackboots' parade following the passage of PATRIOT. Any day now. Maybe instead of using the same tactics you complain about, you can point to the relevant statutes and amendments in the act that fundamentally reinterpret existing laws. Maybe you can point to all the successful Constitutional challenges to the Act, since it's been declared an absolute abomination of our personal liberties. One would figure that over 15 years of the act's existence and persistent challenges, we would see a field littered with carcasses of the defeated passages. Unless you want to take a position that it wasn't just Bush & Cheney rammed the Act through (they didn't), but they also hypnotized the Legislative & Judicial branches to ignore the Constitutionality of the law even after they left office. I have plenty of time for you to provide the real data to back your claim. PS - I'm surprised that Dexter didn't do the fundamental research on NSLs (hint, they weren't created in PATRIOT, nor did PATRIOT give FBI new powers regarding NSLs)

Then the enlightened ones can point to the exact sections and clauses in PATRIOT that were new laws and regulations, as opposed to consolidating existing laws and regulations in PATRIOT.

I understand the qualifier. But you also can't ignore the periods of dysfunction many franchises went through before they stabilized things.

I know where Meazza was going with his question

Again, if you ignore a decade worth of Jerrah's distractions, it's a tightly run ship. Many franchises go through growing pains upon ownership transfers, and people forget that Pegulas inherited a franchise that was run by Ralph Wilson, not the Maras or Rooneys.

And you were probably one of the posters who was gushing about an old Yahoo article how everything came together when Marrone was hired, followed by the Rex hiring, etc. If you believe the third hand accounts about Pegulas becoming infatuated with McD, then you also have to believe the stories about Whaley being on thin ice for the last 2 years. It also paints a fresh perspective on Polian's reluctance to be involved with the Bills if Whaley remained. Now if you want to go down the rabbit hole of comparing McD to Jauron, in this draft alone there's ample evidence that McCoach is more in tune with the roster needs, because he hasn't yet drafted an undersized one-year wonder with a top 15 pick, hasn't overdrafted a mouthy safety in top 10, hasn't reached in the first round for the 3rd best OL on a mediocre NC team. Every single pick this draft made a lot of sense, if they were of the mind that there was no QB worthy to waste a 1st rounder on. They added a pick in another deep 2018 draft. They are building the core, and will have lots more flexibility when the cap eases next year. You know, strategically thinking ahead.

How is that happening now?