Taro T

The candidates couldn't campaign there, but yet Hillary was on the ballot. Why didn't Obama stay on the ballot if he knew his closest competitor was on the ballot unless he either knew he'd get his butt kicked or she had agreed to get off the ballot? Either way, it's a pretty weak argument on your part (which is not terribly surprising).

That's why you "still don't care" whether they can be blackmailed or not. Again, I realize this is a rhetorical question, but are you really as daft as you appear to be?

How does the NBA expand into Europe when the NFL has been unsuccessful and the NHL has been looking at it for 20+ years, also unsuccessfully? Basketball is popular along the Mediteranian but not particularily away from it. I'm not certain how they can capture a market that doesn't appear to exist.

How was it expected of all candidates to be off the ballot in those states? Did Obama have an agreement (verbal or written) from Hillary and the others that stayed on the ballot to leave and they reneged on the agreement? If he didn't, how was there an "unfair situation that favored Clinton"? It was pretty clear at the time, that Obama expected to lose both states and asked people that favored him to vote undecided.

So, politicians should be given a pass on doing painfully stupid things because they'll get dinged on other things? Again, I realize this is a rhetorical question, but are you really as daft as you appear to be?

I realize this is essentially a rhetorical question, but are you really as daft as you appear to be?

No, because if no one knows how anyone is voting then management will clearly coerse the employees into voting the union down. It's only by having every single person having to state publicly in front of all the people they will have to work with every day whether or not they want a union that a coersion free environment can be obtained. What the h*ll was I thinking joining this "discussion".

The provision I quoted specifically states that secret ballots are not necessary. As a matter of fact, w/ the little preamble of "(n)otwithstanding any other provision of this section" it specifically states that as long as a majority sign their union cards then the union is in. If that paragraph were removed, then the rest of the bill MAY be worth considering. But that paragraph CLEARLY provides opportunity for pro-union coersion. Not only does it provide the opportunity for it, but I'd almost guarantee it'll happen. Would you still support this bill minus that paragraph?

Wrong. From the text of the bill: So, since unions can't get a majority of workers to vote for them in secret ballot elections, simply having a petition signed by a majority of employees will now force a company to unionize if this bill is passed in its present form. Gee, I'm certain that there would never be any intimidation or strong-arming tactics used to get people to sign the petitions, right?

Back in the late '80's / early '90's Bennigans had THE WORST SERVICE anywhere. I can't believe it took this long for them to go under.

Scott, It looks very good. Is there a way to let someone skip to a particular date / article for the archived news items? Having them going back to 1999 is pretty cool, being able to look at something from 2003 without scrolling through 1000 pages would be even cooler.

I was watching the game down in Houston and they had to switch to the Eulers game w/ 2 minutes left in the Bills - Donkeys. Donkeys scored in the last 2 minutes and I was definitely sweating that one out waiting for any updates. One other fun game to watch was the Bills 47 - Eulers 41 in '89. Unfortunately it was Derrick Burroughs last game as a Bill. That game also had a controversial call on Houston's last drive in regulation. The Houston receiver caught the ball on the left side of the field, he got tackled by Odomes (?). The receiver immediately lost control of the ball as he was falling backwards and Talley grabbed the ball and ran it back for a TD. The officials said the receiver's forward progress had been stopped so no fumble. Houston scored a field goal on the drive to send the game to OT, rather than the game ending 48-38 Buffalo. Saturday Night Live skewered the call w/ John Goodman playing an addled ref trying to defend the call in a press conference. I was up there as well. Security wouldn't let them throw it over the side. Some strange issue about not wanting to kill anyone or something. But several other chunks of the goal posts did end up in the parking lot.

Can't believe I didn't include 9/7/80 in the list. 17-7 and the goal posts came down.

1990 Bills 29 Broncos 28. Bills scored 3 TD's in ~1:19 to storm back and win. It was the quickest 3 touchdowns in league history at that point. And then the following week: Bills 38 - Raiders 24 with a couple of huge special teams plays to come back. That was the point where the light bulb went on for me that that team was really special.

Fixed it for you.

It absolutely helps the company itself. If a company has too much leverage, it is difficult to get new loans. A company's share price doubling, number of outstanding shares and existing debt remaining constant, greatly reduces the leverage. The stock tanking increases the leverage. A company w/ too much debt has a far greater chance of default. As the company is "stronger", its cost of capital decreases. That is a direct benefit to the company. There are many other benefits to the company of a company's stock trading on an open exchange, but if you can't even see the benefits mentioned above, there is no point in going into them.

But I just gave you an example of when a company sells existing stock. I also gave you an example of where they sell newly created shares of stock. The company is better off either time when they sell this stock if it is at a higher value. If the going rate for a share of stock is $100 and a company needs to raise $10MM, then they have to sell 100k shares to raise the money (neglecting costs to sell). If the going rate is only $10, then they have to sell 1MM shares to raise the $10MM. The company is clearly better off when the stock is worth more. This doesn't even go into how the stock value is what the company is valued at or how the ability to borrow money is tied to D/E ratios or a myriad of other issues. Your apparent inability to grasp that the company does benefit from it's shares trading at a higher value (which is a reflection of the market's view of the company's value) makes discussing more complex issues appear to be pointless.

A very likely reason he is "ignoring" your answer and suggesting you take a course in economics is that your answer displays a painful lack of understanding of economics. An IPO is not the only time that a company issues stock. Companies can and do sell stock after an IPO, oftentimes either through new issues or through release of treasury shares.

Do you really think that someone making $66k is rich? It may have been a rich man's salary in the 20's, but definitely not today. No point in even addressing any of the other stuff in the post if you actually believe that someone making less than $70k (which is ~1/3 over the median) is pretty rich.

MSNBC is rebroadcasting last night's NBC tribute right now.

MSNBC is still running tributes to Tim. R.I.P. Tim. Buffalo's lost a good friend and a good son.

A couple of hilarious (albeit cheesy) ones from the '80's. Beer (not out on DVD yet) It had a very eclectic cast including Rip Torn, David Allen Grier, Loretta Swit, and Kenneth Mars. Head Office (surprisingly out on DVD) Another eclectic cast including Eddie Albert, Judge Reinhold, Richard Masur, Danny DeVito, Jane Seymour, Rick Moranis, Don King, and Don Novello (Father Guido Sarducci).

Balsillie has probably made an offer on at least 10 different teams (not counting Pittsburgh and Nashville). While I will not be surprised when Tom sells the Sabres a few years down the road, I'll be shocked if they go to the owner of R.I.M..

18/20. Knew about 10 of them and guessed the rest.

there was a checkpoint charlie he didn't crack a smile but it's no laughing party when you've been on the murder mile only takes one itchy trigger one more widow, one less white !@#$ -E. Costello