Dr. Who

Unlike last year, I surmise this view has become the consensus on the board. If Oline and WR are not given priority, most folks will be upset. (All that said, I'm worried they want to go safety in the first.)

It obviously does, but the premise of the comment you are disputing is focused on the #1 seed and that is uniquely within the control of the Bills.

I live near Athens. You may conclude my own sympathies . . . and if you look at the early recruiting results, Bama and UGA were #1 and #2 on five star recruits. I think Alabama got 22, Georgia 19. I can't remember how many OSU got, but Michigan I believe had 5. There's just a tremendous imbalance there, so it's an uphill battle for the non SEC Conferences. The transfer portal has balanced things out a bit, but it doesn't obviate the recruiting advantage: college football is king in the South.

Yes, it's too harsh on Day. Dawgs brought their C game on defense, but part of that was OSU had them flummoxed for much of the game.

Yes, I suppose that is possible. It implies a radical disjunction between an "inner core" and "public ministry." All that is psychologically plausible, though the metaphysics of nature and grace that ought to ground Catholic anthropology should posit greater synergy, imo. Happy New Year.

Understood. I was just trying to find a sacramental analogy that might suggest a way to look at it.

Did you have a special name for Confirmation? In the Bible, Abram becomes Abraham after spiritual initiation into a new mission. Christ names Simon Peter. Those are just some scriptural precedents. The idea is that one would choose some saint or predecessor whose mission spoke to you as one enters into a deeper sense of vocation. Surely none of that equates to a witness protection program -- consider that identities are more than the modern sense of what it means to be an individual. The person is constituted as much by relations to the other as by an inviolate and incommensurable "substance." As opposed to a kind of buffered, atomized self separate from other equally isolated selves, person is more porous and historically entangled. In that respect, choosing a new name is also recognition that one's actions participate in that of others who have helped frame one's understanding and future hopes.

He was a fine pope who solidified the legacy of John Paul II. As a person, he was a kind man, intellectual, and he liked cats. Those who consider him a villain are welcome to their opinions. That, too, is evidence of character, and I return the compliment.

So unfortunate and sad.

Excellent points. Like your Meditations as well.

I'm concerned about how much preparation for the game will be affected by extreme weather. Bengals are a difficult test, but I do think outside of the victory over the Chiefs, the Bengals have largely benefited from lesser competition.

@MrEpsYtown is the fella on this board who seems to know oline pretty well. He thinks Bates is a superior C and that is his natural position long term. Of course, if he's replacing Morse, you need someone to step in at G.

You are like a cooler in a Las Vegas casino who enters a room to destroy any good luck. Enough of your relentless negative juju. Coal in the stocking is too good for you. I think McD will probably want to target a safety. Beane should tell him no.

Banged my head. Bad headache. Decoder is in your wallet.

You're Filthy Beast's identical twin, aren't you?

Grew up on a farm in a small rural community. Checks a lot of boxes.

Reporter often equals lazy groupthink. Everything you mentioned is a genuine consideration, but will be dismissed as an "excuse" by those unwilling to entertain a complicated thought.

Nothing is more important than giving Allen a much improved oline, followed by adding weapons. You do what is necessary to lengthen the career and magnify the value of an MVP qb. In any event, this is not a regime that can resist spending high ticket resources on D, but everything else is a lower priority to helping Josh Allen. It would be an absolute crime to keep asking him to carry the team as much as he is currently being asked to do.

That would be nice, but what would be nicer is if folks would stop bellyaching after a W.

Somehow it pleases me that the Alabama players did not opt out. I understand the financial calculations, but there is an old school integrity to offering to play the game.

You're always a pleasant fellow. You're responding to a fella who is hoping for a big hit. You respond "are you kidding" and the conclusion that Tua will be shattered into many pieces. My comment was a joke intended to rhetorically imply that Bills' fans would not be upset with such an outcome . . . because obviously such a result would not really happen so a caustic acceptance of said result is within the range of football humor. I do hope this clarifies things.

And your point is?

That truism is demonstrably false. Words can create wounds that last a lifetime -- though, of course, I know what you mean. The snowflake generation has taken the need for civility in dialectical discourse and turned it into a weapon of insularity and intolerance. And the real wisdom in the classic aphorism is that one ought to be indifferent towards the insults of the wicked and the dim. In short, don't worry about what Fin fans say.