Taro T

What was wrong w/ Parrella? He looked strong in the last preseason he had here and had a very serviceable career in San Diego. I'm sure somebody here could explain why they let Parrella go, but I always thought he should have been kept.

Depends on whether you're including the cost of shipping them back to China or not.

I heard the day after her speech that the hockey mom line was an ad lib by Palin.

Yeah, I wasn't very clear on that one. This following attempt at a clarification probably won't be much clearer, but here goes. I have always been opposed to abortion. When I was younger, while I still was opposed to abortion, I could see the validity of the argument for many of the exceptions that are proposed by people that favor "limited" abortion rights. I've been convinced through the years, primarily by pro-choice friends, that a lot of the circumstances that would allow for exceptions to a ban on abortion would rather easily be claimed by either a patient or a sympathetic doctor. The argument my pro-choice friends were going for was, since an abortion could still be obtained rather easily w/ limited bans on the procedures there was no point to any bans. The logic of that view (that a slippery slope exists that ends up allowing all/nearly all abortions when reasonable restrictions are imposed; (yeah, I know that term "reasonable" brings all sorts of unreasonableness into the discussion; it's late and I'm tired and can't think of a better word currently)) has made me believe that certain exemptions that I'd have considered reasonable 20 years ago are no longer what I'd consider reasonable. So, since I see fewer reasonable (legitimate?) exemptions to allow abortions, I'd say I have become more firmly pro-life (anti-abortion, whatever). And, at the end of the day, considering where I live, I don't see my beliefs EVER being imposed on anyone as most of the people where I live are far more liberal on this issue than I am. Nor, were I ever to run for office (God forbid) would I consider my opinions on abortion to be worthy of discussion. I'm sure that there'd be far more legitimate reasons for people not to vote for me.

I'd agree w/ that, which I why it seems foolish for SH to claim that they are born of "convenience"; well, if he had any reason for stating that other than getting a rise out of people, it would be a foolish thing to say. Which is actually (unfortunately) the reason that I tend to find my opposition to even limited forms of abortion growing stronger through the years. The more loopholes that are carved out for legitimate reasons, the more often that someone will stretch the rationale for why they want / need one. I do agree that there are (limited) circumstances in which abortion should be an option. And I absolutely am in favor of post-proceedure councilling as there can be very few decisions that are tougher than to intentionally end an innocent life; especially when that life has literally been a part of you. But I also believe the decision of whether abortion is legal should be made at the state level, and this comes from one that lives in a state (and has no intention of leaving that state over the issue should RvW ever be overturned) that will keep it's laws far more liberal than others when it comes to this issue.

Not sure of the reason for the vehemence of your response, unless it's because it is SN you are responding to; that does make sense. I'd agree w/ you that it would be a travesty to have an innocent man be executed. While there have been several celebrated instances of people on death row being acquitted; I don't know of any innocent people getting executed since Gary Gilmore was executed. I'd say the death penalty should be an option but in limited circumstances such as intentionally killing an on-duty cop or prison guard, serial killings, mass murder, and probably a couple of other similar crimes. While I have serious issues w/ an innocent man to be executed for a crime he didn't commit, I also have serious issues w/ an innocent child being executed for the crime of being unwanted. I truly doubt many abortions are products of "convenience", but I'm sure there are a few (which are in the far minority). It's foolish for SH to claim that abortion is a matter of convenience, but not terrribly surprising that he'd say that. Personally, I think abortion and the death penalty are issues that should be decided at the state level but neither one is my deal breaker in this election. I'm far more interested in the economic and foreign policies and I really dislike one candidate's economic policy and an not impressed w/ his opponent's policy either.

What did you expect / want him to say: that he never even considered, even briefly, going into the military? There is no way he'd ever say that. While there are a lot of legitimate reasons to criticize the candidates we have this year, that is an extremely lame one to come up w/.

There will almost definitely be fewer college age voters than Obama would like to see, but I'd expect the turnout to be a little higher than in the past. How much higher it goes will be a function of how well Obama's people do in getting absentee ballots to the kids and how well they followup on making sure they get returned. I didn't expect to see McCain w/ a lead this early in the race. I was expecting post-convention to be essentially a dead heat. If he can hold the lead going into the debates it will make things very interesting as Obama hasn't shown me an ability to "wow" people in debates. If he's behind during / after the debates, I'd expect to see his campaign turn up the negative rhetoric even higher which would go a long way toward cutting into his preferred image of being a "different kind of politician / leader." Either way, it's going to be a real interesting 2 months.

All 5 guys on ESPN's pregame show picked the Bills.

Hey, karma is a witch. While I would never WISH injury on/to an opponent, the Pats* have intentionally gone after QB's knees in the past, so I don't feel too upset that their QB went down on what appeared to be an unintentional hit on the knee. I guess we now get to find out just how much of a genius Bellicheat is w/out Marsha to make it work. It's just a shame that the Cheatriots have more or less 5 bye weeks to start the season.

Can I make a motion that the next WNYTBDGPS meeting be held on ANY Friday other than the 1st Friday of the month? I keep getting hosed. Sorry I missed it; hope all who made it had a good time.

When the heck did we switch this discussion from Detroit to NY?

How are you defining the loss on the sale? Is that against the sunk costs (which aren't recoverable anyhow) or against revenues they could have generated by keeping the plane?

Considering my vote is a throw away anyhow as I live in NY and the chance of anyone beating Obama here is roughly equivalent to the odds of the '07 Bills winning the Super Bowl; I'm seriously considering going for a write in candidate. When one candidate will get 60+% of the vote, you gain some leeway in your own choice.

Wouldn't that be Phil who nearly died for his sins. (As long as we seem to be going for new style Messiahs, might as well set up for the "2 men say their Jesus; one of them must be wrong.") But would a true OT voice over guy allow himself to be filmed w/ a pig (cloven hoof issues)? Maybe they should have signed Don LaFontaine a little earlier in the season.

To answer the 1st question, the distinction is that every "innocent" life is sacred. (I'd like to come up w/ a better word than sacred, but after several beers that's the best that I've got.) There are some people / crimes that are so depraved that our society does need to impose the ultimate penalty on. I'd say those are rather limited (e.g. killers of on-duty, well identified police officers / prison guards; serial killers; mass murderers) and I support safeguards that exist w/in the system to keep innocents spared. You point out the nuance of the pro-choice position, and then use the sledge hammer on the pro-life position. There should be nuance to both sides, but far too rarely does it get expressed for those one doesn't agree with. You also state that there is no definitive answer as to when life begins. I would say that there IS a definitive answer(s) to when viable life begins, but we are too ignorant / stubborn to realize what it is.

I thought the proper wording of the phrase was "heck yeah, I'd TAP it."

Glad that you and your family all survived the storm. Very sorry that your house is @#&$'d. 2nd (or 3rd) what Lori said.

I think that is a bit slower than Obama wants to see. Hopefully, if he does win this November, he has the good sense to heed Petraeus's recommendations. Managing to turn this one back into a defeat would be a monumental mistake.

I don't see any way that he drops her that doesn't blow up into his face. For good or bad, I see her on the ticket in November. I'd still like to see how her speech goes tonight and how McCain's goes tomorrow. A lot of questions have been raised about her, depending on how those questions are answered, this COULD be a long term positive for McCain as you've even got Susan Estrich saying she's amazed at the visciousness of the attacks on Palin. If middle America see the attacks as unfounded or piling on, this could be drive "undecideds" away from Obama.

I'd be surprised to have seen a male w/ 2 years as Governor as the VP candidate, but that doesn't necessarily mean one would have been a bad choice. The flip side to your question is: would a 4 year Caucasian Senator have made it through the Democratic Primary? The answer is most likely no. Either way, interesting though they are, the questions are moot. They've both put themselves in the "right place at the right time" to get to this point. It takes political skill and luck to get there, you need both.

So, that's what caused it?

That makes 11 provinces where the Iraqis are the primary security force. 7 more to go.

Where's the "envy" smiley when you need it? IA was an incredible author. His non-fiction work was equal (or superior) to his sci-fi.

Huh? No offense, but if someone is too lazy or too indifferent to vote, their opinion on who should run the country really doesn't matter. A person that cares can get an absentee ballot if they won't be able to vote on that 1st Tuesday. There is no excuse to not vote other than being ignorant. That is a VERY valid reason to not vote, and I would hope that if a person is ignorant of the issues and the candidates that they don't vote. The Dems appear to be certain that they have a "slam dunk" this time. We'll find out if they are correct in ~2 months. I'm not sure that they thought it was a lock in 2000, but they sure seemed confident in '04. The Republicans self destructed in '06 and Pelosi and Reid have done very little w/ that since then; it looks like Pelosi and Reid will have larger majorities this time but the top spot appears to be a toss up right now. This is setting up a very interesting season.