Orton's Arm

That was an excellent article. Thanks for sharing it. I'm surprised that someone with as much wisdom and insight as Biden apparently has isn't the Democratic frontrunner.

Yes, I find this deeply disturbing. But I'm not the only one offended. Here are some choice comments from others: "Hey, even if I did kill Nicole and Ron, I still have standards. I just don't see how anyone can offer American soldiers free political commentary and still live with himself." - O.J. Simpson "I don't know which is worse--the fact the soldiers are getting some material for free, or the fact that other people are paying for it. Where are standards of public decency?" - Ted Bundy "When I heard of this, it just made me sick. What kind of world are we living in if soldiers can read the Limbaugh Letter for free? And that disgusts me. Then I realized I could do something to make the world a better place. I'm going to invite Limbaugh over for dinner. My kind of dinner. " - Jeffrey Dahmer

It's true the Iranians have been supporting attacks against the occupation government of Iraq. From the Iranian point of view, it's better that the American military gets bogged down in Iraq, than gets freed up to go and invade Iran. Also, the longer the Iraq war drags on, the less supportive the American public is going to be about undertaking new invasions in the Middle East. In other words, Iran is simply acting in its own self-interest. It's also in Iran's interest to have nuclear weapons; in order to balance out Israel's nuclear program. My own thinking about the Iraq situation is that we should adopt Biden's plan to divide Iraq into three relatively autonomous regions, with the central government controlling oil, currency, and the military. Biden's plan could significantly reduce local Iraqi support for the present uprising; and thereby help to get the U.S. out of this mess.

Exactly. Look at the starters from the Bills' 2004 defense, which we kept hearing was so good: DE: Schobel, Kelsay, Denney: all here DT: Adams, Williams: gone LB: Posey, Fletcher, Spikes. Status: we can't really count on any of those three to provide value next year. DB: Vincent, Milloy, McGee, Clements: of those four, only one might be here next year. Other than the DEs, there isn't a single starter from that 2004 defense upon whom we can fully rely going into 2007. Either the player is too injured (Spikes), playing poorly (McGee), or has too many non-Bills options (Clements). With Bledsoe at QB and a bunch of old guys on defense, TD built a team that was designed to win now or win never. And he came up short.

Your post is neither fish nor fowl. It's too unfunny to be humor, and too stupid to be serious discourse. Are you honestly unable to grasp the fact that systematic differences in people's cellular microenvironments (if they exist at all) might be caused by something other than the difference between drinking green tea and drinking pop? Or that the research conclusions scientists report might be influenced by the political views of those who grant or deny research funds?

That's the point I was making: if you do too much drinking/etc. leading up to the game, how can you be at your mental best on gameday?

You expressed yourself quite well here, and I agree. It's generally a mistake to sacrifice the future for the present, as TD so often did.

As usual Bill, that was an excellent post. It's terrible that neither Bush nor the Democrats care about keeping this country from being assimilated by illegal aliens; and are only willing to take token actions to stop it. Apparently, the war on terror means invading countries based on faulty intelligence, but doesn't involve the obvious step of securing our own borders.

If statement 1 falls apart, statements 2 and 3 go with it. Sure, if you put a human brain cell in an iodine solution, it isn't going to do as well as a cell that's in a more appropriate environment. Nobody questions that. But by eating right, can you make your own cellular microenvironment different enough from everyone else's that it actually begins to increase your intelligence? I'm sure there are foods that help a little, but research shows that dietary differences aren't responsible for a statistically significant portion of the variation in Americans' intelligence levels.

I also disagree with the logic being used here. Just because a 3rd round pick and a couple 2nd day picks aren't on their way to the Hall of Fame, doesn't mean the Bills should expect a bust if they take a DT in the 1st. Lots of DTs taken in the 1st go on to have successful careers--Warren Sapp, Ted Washington, etc. And last year, the Bills wanted to sign a DT in free agency. We had a clear need, and plenty of cap space, but the best we could do was Larry Triplett. While Triplett hasn't been a disaster, he isn't really what you want as a long-term answer at starter. If the Bills have the chance to sign a better FA DT this year, they should obviously go ahead and do it. But in the likely event the Bills can't sign a first rate DT, I would have absolutely no objection to drafting Okoye in the first.

I can see your point. But then you're left with only Triplett at the speed DT position. Triplett was a backup in Indy for a reason. What's more, Indy's defense looks better without him than it did with him. I'd be thrilled if a McCargo improvement led Triplett to spend plenty of time on the bench. If you leave McCargo where he is, you pretty much have to replace Tim Anderson though.

This is clearly a football thread, and I'm disgusted at whichever mod moved it to Off the Wall. You can't even spell the word "football" without using the letter a.

Due to political considerations, many scientists apparently feel that if they're going to err, they'll err on the side of picking a lower heritability number. Based on the identical twin studies I mentioned earlier, and the fact that unrelated people raised together show no correlation in their adult-level I.Q.s, I feel the 0.8 estimate for heritability is more reliable than the 0.6 estimate. However, either estimate is high enough for a eugenics program to produce substantial benefit. There are a number of assumptions you're making here. 1) There are systematic differences in people's cellular microenvironments. 2) Those systematic differences are directly responsible for differing glucose metabolization rates. 3) Differences in cellular microenvironments are not caused by genetics. Do you have any particular proof for any of these assumptions, or are you just talking out your rear end?

You're a riot, you know that? You said that a cell's microenvironment matters, which I can buy. Then you tried and failed to argue that a more nutritious diet could lead to a higher available glucose level. Your logic would be correct if glucose was something esoteric and found only in certain types of tea. But you can increase your blood's glucose level by eating almost any calorie source. Yours wasn't a "correction," it was a mistaken assumption with no science to back it up.

Astrobot's got his head on straight, and the draft you put together with his input seems a more likely scenario for the Bills than was your main draft. I'm not saying I'm happy about the Bills taking a CB in the 1st round mind you--just that I feel it's a very likely action given the philosophy of the current management, the Nate Clements situation, the poor play of Terrence McGee, and the fact Youboty is still an unknown.

Are you saying you hope McCargo should switch positions? Because right now, he's in the fast pass rusher role behind Larry Triplett, with Kyle Williams and Tim Anderson our two run stopping DTs.

Well, on the one hand I feel a little silly. On the other I feel relieved that I don't have to spend the next ten pages vainly trying to convince Bungee Jumper and Ramius that electronic 40 times are in fact more accurate than hand-measured 40 yard times. I was sort of expecting something like this: Me: according to Wikipedia, hand measured 40 yard times are seriously flawed. Bungee Jumper/Ramius: you're an idiot for quoting Wikipedia. Find real sources which support this. Me: I've now found quotes from Stanford or Duke or someplace, and they support this. Bungee Jumper/Ramius: you're an idiot, and you obviously didn't understand a word of those sources, now did you? Me: Of course I understood them. They said the same thing I've been saying the last ten pages. Bungee Jumper: What's amazing is he thinks he's actually right. Ramius, let me suck on your penis. Ramius: Wow! I know you said Holcomb's Arm is a moron, but man. He's a moron! And Bungee Jumper, let me suck on your penis. Me: Do you or don't you now feel hand measured 40 times are seriously flawed? Bungee Jumper/Ramius: I've already answered that question. Go back and look it up.

Yes, pointing out the flaws with non-electronic 40 times is the very height of troll-like behavior.

You bring up an excellent point. Consider Lithuania, a country so small many of its own citizens haven't even heard of it. It'd be one thing if Lithuania won an individual sport, like a marathon. You could put that down to random chance. But to win a basketball game, you need to find a number of talented athletes; and how can you possibly expect to find so many talented athletes in so small a country? Lithuania has a population of 3.5 million people, as opposed to 10 million for Los Angeles County. I don't care how much they messed with the rules of basketball. I don't care how unfamiliar those American players were with each other. There's no excuse for a country this big getting beaten by Lithuania in basketball. This isn't soccer, where we can say our attention was elsewhere. This is basketball; a sport we literally invented. Just about every decent-sized American high school has its own basketball team. It's one of the two most highly paid professional sports in this country. We're doing everything anyone can reasonably expect to find basketball talent. And to get owned by a country that's been accidentally used as a postage stamp? That's inexcusable.

I wouldn't necessarily take those 40 times at face value. Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders ran the 40 before electronic timing became the norm. 40 yard dash times timed by hand . . . tend to be unreliable in ways that maybe give the athlete the benefit of the doubt.

I'm posting in this thread because I can.

Excellent post. While I think our defense does a good job overall--especially against the pass--I just don't understand why we think we're maximizing value from the DT position. As you've pointed out, our DTs aren't getting sacks. They're not tying up blockers as they did in days past. It's not like we're doing a great (or even adequate) job at stopping the run. Precisely why is it that we shouldn't have Pat Williams/Sam Adams/Ted Washington-style DTs instead? I just don't see what we're getting from DT now that we wouldn't have by going after wall-of-meat style players.

Last year the Bills showed they weren't afraid to start rookies on defense. Not only were both starting safeties rookies, we also got key contributions from a rookie LB (Keith Ellison) and a rookie DT (Kyle Williams). If they think Patrick Willis is a good fit for their style of defense, they won't be afraid to draft him.

Roethlisberger did his share of drinking leading up to that Super Bowl, and look how he played. Maybe you can drink a lot and still do okay with something physical, like that marathon. And maybe that carries over to the times when the game was simpler, like Super Bowl I. But if you're pitting your brain against Bill Belichick's brain, you really want to be at your absolute mental best. And I don't know that that's how I'd describe the Bills.

Not a bad article.