The Avenger

Tom Brady is a guy who walks on water and changes water into wine. He heals the sick and comforts the leppers. He is light when there is darkness. There are churches devoted to Him. Tom Brady died for our sins.

The only reason this is being talked about is because Ralph is 87. he said he didn't understand the deal and that's why he voted no, and that translates to "I'm on old coot who can't comprehend all these complicated deals because I'm old". What if a younger owner like Snyder had said it? Saying he didn't understand it would have been translated to "It's a complex deal and I didn't feel I had time in 45 minutes to know whether this was ultimately a good deal or bad deal from my club, so I voted against it". Same thing happened with the Patriot Act in Congress - nobody had the opportunity to read the text and understand it before the vote, but they certainly didn't want to vote against it and be pained as someone who was unpatriotic. That's why there's been so much debate about the renewal - because there is finally time to understand the thing before the vote.

Looks like they've changed their mind about the vias and are going to let this kid come get medical treatment - amazing what happens when you shed light on this via the spotlight of a nationally sydicated AP story that gets picked up by Forbes magazine, huh? Uh, OK, here's a visa - man do we look stupid!

I almost hit one in my car as I was driving through Lowell, MA. Lowell is a very urban area - a small city like Utica. More dugs and thugs than coyotes, but sure enough they have coyotes. I was so surprised to see one in that setting that I lloked it up and they've been reported in just about every single town and city in MA. The population has exploded. They are harmful to pets and may tear up your trash but generally don't get near people - they aren't that big and they're very skittish.

Sure - the Columbia tragedy happened because God was punishing the United States and Israel for protecting gays (hey, that's the rationale for protesting Iraq). I really think the game only needs to be one step: "God is/was punishing (insert noun here) because (noun) loves fags". More of a Mad Libs game, really.

Yeah - they also claim that Pope JP II is in hell for supporting gays and pedophiles. It just goes to show that they find or invent a link between any issue and gays - whether they actually believe the link exists and is meaningful is another story, but it allows them to insert themselves into any high publicity issue.

I'm not sure if they truly believe Iraq is a homosexual issues (hard to tell - they are nuts), but they certainly know how to maximize the attention they get by picking that issue. These were the same people who picketed Reagan's guneral procession, among other stunts. Michael Moore on TV Nation did a segment once where he took an RV full of gay chior members to sing outside of Phelp's house - that was damn funny to see...

Please let us know when you're back to NFL Pro Bowl form and ready to make millions being a professional quarterback! Seriously, good luck on the surgery - surgery and recovery is never fun but hopefully all will go well!

Let me start by wishing your sister the best - she's going to a great place and could certainly have a very successful outcome - stay positive! It's hard when you find out something like this and only natural to ask what it means for long term survival. My son has a heart defect and I've had to learn that there aren't any answers about what his chances are of living until 30 or beyond - they just don't know yet. Survival rates in his cae are surgical survival rates for the procedures he has had/will have - these show survival to only 90 days post op. 5 years is kind of the standard in cancer studies - a good measuring stick amoung various types to determine how successful medicine is in dealing with cancer. It also gives enough of a timeframe to determine whether something really seemed to work, not work or only provide some temporary respite from the condition (i.e. - how well it does at keeping people in remission). You probably aren't seeing all that many studies past 5 years because these obviously require a longer term study and these are difficult and costly to do - I'm not sure how many studies there are on long term survival rates for anything. You also have to keep in mind that cancer treatments continually evolve, so there's limited benefit to doing a 20 year study on a therapy that was discontinued after 7 years in favor of something more promising. The best place for info will be the doctors at Sloan - they are tops in the field and ceratinly can point you to all the research - they're the ones doing it. Keep in mind that medicine really is getting better every single day, so anything showing survival rates even 5 years ago may be much improved now - it changes that fast. Time is your friend - the longer you can move forward in time the better the therapy is to treat you - remember that as you stay positive!

Repair guys are like peaches - the good ones are really good and the bad ones are really bad, but you don't know just by looking at them. Just goes to show how valuable it is to know honest, relaible people in the trades - plumber, electrician, HVAC, mechanic, etc. Once you find them you make sure you always use them and recommend them to everyone you know. My furnace had a problem last week and I immediately called the HVAC guys who worked on my AC last summer - the same guys who came the same day I called them and got my 30 year old central AC unit working again with just a cleaning for $55. Once again they showed up same day, were going to replace the main control board in the furnace ($250 just for the part) but opted instead to replace a $20 part that they thought could solve the probelm - it did and saved me $180 plus higher labor charges involved with replacing the whole control board. When you do get hosed on a repair its terrible - you feel like there's not much you can do except try someone else the next time.

I'm not a Stern fan - he stuff just doesn't really entertain me all that much. I have Sirius and I don't listen, but it seems everyone else does (seriously - if you're stuck in traffic in the morning, tune your radio to 89.7, the default for most Sirius radios, and you'll pick up Stern most of the time - you don't even need to subscribe!). I must say that I like the fact that he's not as mean spirited as some of his wannabes. It's one thing to make fart jokes, but I hate it when a metally retarded person or some other hapless soul is just picked on - I hated Opie and Anthony for that. I do respect Stern for knowing his audience and his critics and getting them what they want. He keeps himself at the top by making sure his fans love him, his critics hate him and people are always talking about him whether you like him or not.

This is the ultimate show for Tivo! Seriously, you don't need to hear it at all - all you need to do is see what case the person took, what subsequent cases he/she selected, what values are still on the board, what offer the banker is making and whether the person takes the deal. So... You can actually watch the entire show at triple fast forward speed on Tivo! Try it - you can watch the entire hour show in about 6 minutes! When you don't have time for commercials OR a TV show, this Tivo and Deal or No Deal is for you!

Edie Brickell - What I am More like, where you been?

I know JCBoston got a group from the Boston Backers to go to the game and they'll be there in force. You may want to send him a note - not sure if he's got anything going with the Harp pre or post game.

We may disagree on how feasable it is that the Bills would take a QB in round 1 or whether we can fool any other teams into believing that we might, but the point is that none of it has anything to do with what Marv tells the media. I think that if the Bills go QB in round 1 there will be torch-weilding mobs descending on Ralph Wilson Stadium. It would signal that the Bills yet again picked a bust with a first round pick, or that they aren't patient enought with JP to give him the playing time he needs, or just simply can't force themselves to take players that are needed in the trenches. The only way I see the bills taking a QB is for an immediate trade, and I don't think they're going to get that cute.

I don't think Marv is doing anything by talking to the press other than giving information (or maybe disinformation) to the general public. Listen, if you're a professional NFL front office guy or talen scout, you know what Buffalo is likey to do in the draft based on your knowledge of the league and the needs of the Buffalo Bills, not what you read in the papers about what the GM says. Other teams know the Bills aren't taking a QB in the first - not because Marv said it, but because they know the Bills. Marv can say whatever he wants - other teams aren't gaining an advantage because that's not how they're getting their info on what the Bills will do.

A few things: 1 - Talent evaluation. As has been pointed out, the Bills have had some very poor draft picks since 2000 - Williams, Flowers, Tillman, Reed, Edwards, etc. But some FA picks haven't been so great either - theer were reasons guys like Milloy and Vincent were available, and we steped in and paid them salaries in line with their past glory. Nothing sinks you faster in thes league than evaluating talent poorly and paying guys too much - successive bad drafts can hurt you for many years and spending too much gives you cap problems. I am seriously worried about who we will draft this year - my confidence in finding good players and getting good value is shaken. 2 - Coaching. We gave 2 guys their first shot at being an NFL coach, and neither worked out well. They hired some dubious coordinators (Gilbride, etc.) and failed to address problems quickly. You've seen locker room problems with guys like Moulds and Adams that probably should never have happened - these guys should be productive leaders on the team but are not and I believe that goes on the coaches. 3 - Failure to play with what you've got. Seems like Buffalo always wanted to play a style of football they simply didn't have the personnel to do effectively. We keep hearing about a "power running game" - what makes anyone think we have the guys to make that happen? Biggest example was bringing in Bledsoe. Guy's got a decent arm, but isn't mobile AT ALL. If you can give him some protection he does pretty well, but when you have a terrible line like the Bills what makes you think he could be successful? When you brought in Bledsoe you knew what you were getting, so why did the Bills fail to get him a line? If they had had looked at the quality of their line they should have seen that it would be very difficult for Drew Bledsoe to be successful (although as a PR move he did put butts in seats when he came - that's plus).

To get to a DOS prompt, go to the Start button, go to Run and then type "command" - that will get you to a command prompt. From the command prompt you can see your IP settings by typing "ipconfig". If your IP address is 0.0.0.0 you haven't got an IP address assigned to you and that's why nothing is connecting. To get an IP address you can type "ipconfig /renew" and it will try and get an IP address. Note: there are 2 ways to get an IP address - static and via DHCP. With static you tell your card what IP address you are going to give it. With DHCP your machine asks a DHCP server for an address. Most cable companies use DHCP - you have to point your machine to their DHCP server and use the address it asigns you. If you can't get an IP address using "ipconfig /renew" you probably want to check your ethernet card settings to make sure you are setup for DHCP and the address of the DHCP server you are trying to reach is correct.

Just wondering if anyone knows how thing like incentive clauses, roster bonuses, etc. are accounted for in the salary cap. If a guy has lots of money tied up in incentives tied to on-field performance, how do you know what his cap number is? If he makes most or all of his incentives he probably makes big bucks, but if he doesn't what you pay him is much less - anyone know how they figure that out so they can report an accurate cap figure?

Bills | Ken Palmer of NY Post Sun, 19 Feb 2006 06:26:24 -0800 Ken Palmer, of the New York Post, likely does not have good connections with officials of the Buffal Bills and is only guessing at personnel moves the team might make. By prefacing scenarios with the term "likely" he can't be considered wrong if it doesn't happen.

Possibly my favorite song of all time. When I was in college I was a metal DJ and got to meet and interview many of the bands I loved. I remember I had asked to do an interview with Dio when he was scheduled to play a show out at Darrien Lake (bfore there was a covered ampitheater). So one day my phone rings and my brother tells me there's someone asking for me - she introduces herself as Wendy Dio, Ronnie's wife and manager - I was stunned. We worked out a pre-show interview and I was so thrilled - RJD had been such a hero of mine. Unfortunately, the day of the show brought thunderstorms and lightning and they called it off, so I never got my interview - bummer of a lifetime (that and the time Alice in Chains' manager and I crossed our signals and my Lane Stayley interview never happened).

On the list I'd have to go with Dio - best metal voice of all time. Both with Sabbath and solo, RJD brought the vocals every single time (huge voice for a little guy). Off the list I'd have to say Bruce Dickinson (there's a reason he was nicknamed "the air raid siren"). I'm also a fan of lead singers who took their craft seriously and did vocal training like other singers (shocking concept): -Geoff Tate of Queensryche - listen to stuff from the early days like Lady Wore Black and you can feel the power Tate has (can't wait for the sequel to Mindcrime due out in March - Dio actually sings on the record - he is Dr. X!). -Chris Cornell - Yeah, you can argue about whether he's metal, but the guy has huge pipes. Older stuff from his Sub-Pop days and Badmotorfinger really show how he can sing. -Warrel Dane, lead singer of a band called Sanctuary. Trained with the same vocal coach as Geoff Tate, and he had an amazing voice.

I got you beat - Talas played my ELEMENTARY school! They were using our school to practice for a show they were playing for the high school across the street (Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts). As a thank you to our school they played a small show for us - damn that was loud.

$1.6 billion is peanuts - come on, man! The White House just asked for $72.4 billion for continuing operations in Iraq and Afganistan. This comes on top of the $50 billion already approved for 2006, and the adminsitration has already laid the groundwork for another $65 billion later this year. 1.6 billion is short money - just shy of the $1.9 billion requested to develop better methods to deal with IEDs, the leading killer of our troops in the battle zones.

It's happened that way for the last 5 years - every year I get my hopes up and start feeling good about the team only to be bitterly disappointed. I'm jaded at this point - I'm not going to feel good about this team until they actually show that they are a good team. In the words of the Who, "We Don't Get Fooled Again". I also think that optimists should all be drowned ina half full glass of water, but that's just me...