Peevo

The argument about taking negative Bills/Sabres articles personally has raged on this board for weeks. I know people dont like hearing negative things, but I think Harrington makes a very fair point. They farmed out the the so called "biggest" team rivalry game to TORONTO. I barely remember the Marino/Kelly games. Even the playoff game in 1998 is fuzzy, I was 11 at the time. Are we gonna have News burning parties like they did when they ran the story about how a majority of the City Grill shooting victims had criminal records? The News should never have apologized for that. It's a relevant story that was important, and based in fact. I'm sure it wasn't what the families' suffering wanted to hear, but it doesn't make it less true. While I concede that the comparison is a bit apples/oranges, considering that News story was fact based, and Harrington's column is opinion, but I think you guys get the point.

Man, this is really, really good. This paragraph describes exactly my problems with the "mainstream" conservative right. I couldn't have said it better: "Notwithstanding the return of libertarian rhetoric, the right today is a fundamentally illiberal and authoritarian movement. It endorses the systematic use of torture. It defends unchecked presidential power over matters of national security. It excuses massive violations of Americans’ civil liberties committed in the name of fighting terrorism. It supports bloated military budgets, preventive war, and open-ended, nation-building occupations. It calls for repressive immigration policies. Far from being anti-statist, it glorifies and romanticizes the agencies of government coercion: the police and the military. It opposes abortion rights. It opposes marriage equality. It panders to creationism. It routinely questions the patriotism of its opponents. It traffics in outlandish conspiracy theories. If you’re serious about individual freedom and limited government, you cannot stand with this movement." The neo-conservative movement needs to fail.

A Master's degree in Economics, History, or Political Science I do not have, but I have an honest question about the effectiveness of infrastructure spending/repair. The WPA and other public works programs essentially built our entire current functioning infrastructure we still use today. With the exception of the Interstate highway (50s) and obviously internet infrastructure (arpanet of the 1970's), we're still using, especially here in old ass Buffalo, the same hospitals, schools, roads, bridges and sewer systems, and power grid erected in the 1930's and before. The NYC subway was finished in the 1930's. My high school was finished in 1939 and still going strong. That thing is so well made its ridiculous. When at Kenmore West in 2002 the kitchen and cafeteria burnt to the ground, they had to use dynamite to blow up the wall because a wrecking ball simply bounced off it. A huge wrecking ball couldn't take the wall down. My point is that this stuff has a shelf life. I've read parts of the northeast's sewer system is over 150 years old. Don't you think it's time for an upgrade? What's wrong with that? Put people to work and literally rebuild our country. Stuff breaks. We could use new bridges, new roads, new hospitals, a new power grid. Call me a liberal weirdo but isn't that really what our taxes should be spent on, our infrastructure? Is there ANY candidate on either aisle talking about how our power grid is almost maxed out, how we're steadily running out of IP addresses, our crumbling highway system?

You had to know the second that this was posted that the slew of "Clayton stinks, he's an idiot, how does he have a job" posts would come out. So I guess he can be added to the list of "terrible professionals that write about sports or talk on the radio or talk on the tv about sports" because he made an honest, critical and reasonable assessment of the 32 starting quarterbacks in the league. Where are we at now? Tim Graham John Clayton Jerry Sullivan Bob Dicesare ALL NFL Network employees ALL ESPN employees Colin Cowherd Jim Rome Mike Schopp Chris "Bulldog" Parker Howard Simon Jeremy White Paul Hamilton Brad Riter Mark Gaughan Allen Wilson Peter King Dr. Z from SI Gregg Easterbrook Rick Reilly Jim Kelley John Vogl John Wawrow Did I miss anyone?

Sullivan is not paid to cover the team. That's Mark Gaughan and Allen Wilson's job. And no, I don't think you can get the same level of analysis on this board that you can through a learned writer because, simply, professional writing is hard. Active voicing, keeping it simple. It's not as easy as you'd think, and I'm not a journalism student. And let's be honest, not everybody on here has to follow the AP style guide to make their point, but I'd rather read something that Mark Gaughan wrote than "GoBillzz5708143omglolz" did. Sorry. Sullivan is paid to write opinions. That's what a columnist does. He writes about the Bills and the Sabres. He also writes personal interest stories that I don't even read because I really don't care about the women's UB rowing coach who overcame tragedy and found success. Sorry, I really don't care. It's not his fault the two pro teams in this town have been pretty bad to downright awful for almost 10 years running. There are honest questions to be made about both organizations' leadership/ownership structures. Why do we as fans gets so defensive about that? WE don't own the teams, or run them, or decide on their players or coaches. It's not some personal attack at us, the fan, so why do so many get so angry? He's paid to write his opinion, and almost always, its a valid, informed, skeptical one. Call him out when he's wrong about something, like I did referencing the 2007 draft as "the first post-Donahoe." That's incorrect. But it seems we take his negative columns about the Bills personally. I think that's really stupid. That is all.

I'm a big Sullivan fan, he's a great writer. But, I must take him to task on this "But Ralph Wilson was heavily involved in that draft (the first post-Tom Donahoe) and wanted a running back." That's just simply factually incorrect. 2006 was the first draft post Tom Donahoe. Nit picky, but that seems like an obvious oversight, his editor should have caught that too.

I, like others, just fail to see the big deal. The "Muslims build mosques on sites they conquer" argument is ridiculous. It's not even at Ground Zero. Muslims (excluding the terrorists) died in the 9/11 attacks too, suffering is not limited to Jews and Christians. Let them do what they want, they're not gonna raise a new generation of terrorists. I actually think that when the military does a major "whoops" and mistakes that terrorist hideout for a school, or a house, or a factory and kills hundreds of innocent people, that probly would make more kids pissed off at the US than a mosque built by Americans to worship freely as their right enumerated in the 1st Amendment.

Awakenings with Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams is probably the most depressing movie I've ever seen. True story, too. Offers a really depressing question-if you were afflicted by that disease, and you had the chance to snap out of it only to know you would eventually revert back, would you want to be anyway? It's one thing to be shut out from the world, but to know that you were back and then slowly lose control again is brutal.

If the Republican party is going to be the party of less, and I mean, truly less spending, less government, they HAVE to mean it. You can't just run on "extend the Bush tax cuts and cut Obamacare." I don't buy that. I want DRASTIC, hardcore, meaningful cuts in ALL federal programs. Yes, that includes the biggest bureaucracy of them all the US Military. Basically I want a Ron Paul Republican. I'm sure there'll be plenty of criticisms to that take. Fine. I want any foreign conflict to be immediately pulled out. NO war without a Congressional declaration-per the Constitution. I don't care about the "modern war" we live in. You can't hammer Obama for shirking the Constitution when we haven't declared war since 1941. I'd love mandated drug testing for entitlement programs-Welfare, unemployment, etc. You need the safety net? You're not spending tax dollars on drugs. Sadly none of this is gonna happen, and by 2012/2014 we'll be in a "vote them out" again mode. The 2 party system is broken.

I don't know what the big deal is. If you don't like it, don't listen in. What do you want them to do? Talk about pitching strategy and NASCAR pit strategy for 4 hours? It's August, before preseason. July-early August is sports talk radio hell, and even Colin Cowherd would agree with that. We don't have a big league baseball team. They cover training camp everyday. The Sabres don't exactly make blockbuster moves, unless you count cutting a 3rd line player for a really cheap arbitrated deal.

Well put.

I fail to understand what's such a big deal about gay's getting married. Seriously, how does it negatively affect any one else? I think they deserve to be just a miserable as the rest of us. The only negative thing that might end up empirically affected in my opinion? The national divorce rate. I, like many of my generation, fail to see the benefit and tangible realistic expectations of marriage. Being with the same person for the rest of your life? Seems far fetched from a child of divorce. I dunno, that's just me. The days of the male/female/2 kids/dog nuclear family are WAY over, if ever they really existed in the first place.

A good article. Well written and to the point. Fred Smerlas is decidedly before my time, so I can't really comment either way on him. However I don't understand why a lot posters here take such personal issue with any media figure making honest criticisms of the Bills. It's as if they're personally attacking us for their opinion on the NFL team that happens to play in western new york. Sullivan is a good example, too. His job is to write opinions about local sports. He says it on the radio all the time, "honest, informed skepticism." The Sabres and Bills have been, for the most part of the 2000's, pretty bad. What do you expect him to do? He wants people to read his column and buy the paper. That's his job. Do you really think Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh are so successful because they're talking about how much money they're making and how good their book sales/ratings are? No. Fear sells. Hopelessness sells. Anxiety sells. I'm not accusing John Warwow of mongering fear for profit, by the way. I'm just saying that there isn't an easy way to put a positive spin on a product that has been terrible for a decade and offers little hope to a jaded and disaffected fan base. There is very little hope left.

Couldn't agree more. The bulk of my touring was from 2005-2008, and on our biggest lineups, we were only getting $100 in a guarantee and a $7/per diem for food. I remember like it was yesterday- Feb 3, 2007, heading north on I-65 from Indy to Chicago, and boom, our rear axle cracked on the highway. Poof-$3,900 repair bill. We had to rent a van to finish the tour-no trailer allowed. Unlimited mileage-that was $1,200. Plus all the gas, tolls, and living expenses. It set us back over 10 large, easy. Morale couldn't have been at its lowest point. And at the end of the day, all I wanted was to play music. It's really, really, really hard to do that and even function these days. Most bands, myself included, don't need to be the Foo Fighters and sell out Wembley stadium at 80,000 people a night. Just a meal, a decent crowd, a few bucks for gas and on to the next show, and hope nothing important breaks. Unfortunately this is impossible. Either you get a sincere break and really catch on, or you end up jaded, cynical and miserable. But hey, that's just my story. http://www.myspace.com/speakerfire

Thanks for your help guys. I'm in a weird spot, cause I feel the only reason I need to take on credit is to build my score. I can afford rent/car/utilities with my budget as it is. But at my age its important to build one's credit, I just to do so carefully. I'm obviously not gonna buy a $5,000 HDTV ya know. Even though that'd be sweet haha.

I'm honestly confused at the system itself. I'm 23, and have 0 credit. 0 debt, but that's just as bad isn't it? My parents luckily helped me and my brother out with college. They didn't want me drowning in debt at an early age. But honestly, I pay all my bills with real money. Cash money right out of my checking account, I pay everything with it. Is that so bad? What's wrong with buy now, pay now? Isn't the whole "buy now, pay later," system part of what brought our whole system down in the first place? People don't pay their bills on time. Not that that's ok, but its how it is. I fail to understand the necessity of the credit system in this country. It seems self-conflicted and dangerous. Credit card companies don't make money if people play all their bills on time, compound interest, right? Isn't in their best interest to have people accrue interest and keep paying on it for as long as possible? I realize this is slightly off topic, but I would love for someone to explain how a young person can build safe, responsible credit. A bank is NOT going to issue me a low limit, low interest card. Something that can be paid off easily. What should I do? I'm only getting older.

So where are we at? Magox is doing a really good job of spelling out the situation. If neither side is willing to compromise, how bad could it really get? Are we talking severe depression? Like, say 30% unemployment? What comes next? Global warfare? Literally the end of the world? I'm not trying to monger fear here, but how bad will/could it be?

"our chief export is crippling depression." amazing, cause its Buffalo. I struggle with justifying fan anger/believing free agents "owe" something to the city. Lebron had a right to free agency and he used it. I feel for Cleveland fan though. It's sad that the people that really care, really love their teams, are the ones left behind. Pro sports is a cold weather thing. Do people REALLY give a **** about Miami sports? When there's beautiful weather, beautiful women, vibrant night life, South Beach, and a bunch of other awesome things to do in a sub-tropical climate? Buffalo prides itself on few things-its food, its arts/music scene, and love for terrible sports teams. It's one of the few things we got left. I just wish for once the Rust Belt catches a break.

We can argue till we're blue in the face about effective monetary policy, but under all this is a country with real people and real problems, struggling day to day to make ends meet for themselves and their kids. Can't we all agree on that? People are in trouble here, and other parts of the country deeply affected by this mess. But no one seems to be offering solutions, or jobs. Is it all Obama's fault that major corporations are hoarding cash and not hiring people? What I'm asking is, if there are any, pragmatic, altruistic solutions to these problems? Seriously. I'm not trying to be difficult or smarmy. What are the solutions? Do we cut ALL discretionary spending? That means no military, no roads/bridges or infrastructure spending, no help for kids my age with college spending. No nation building, or "war on terrorism," "war on drugs," etc. How about mandatory spending? You really wanna piss off a MASSIVE elderly voting bloc and cut Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid? Good luck getting reelected on that platform. What i think we need to do is cut spending and RAISE taxes. I'm struggling to pay my bills, so i got another job and cut out some bad habits that cost money. I cut spending and raised revenue. How do else do we fix this mess? Seriously.

Incorporation is an interesting if not confusing debate. I think the "conservative" wing of the court made an uber liberal swing yesterday. On certain issues, conservatives want to devalue national/federal power, as in the immigration debate. You hear Hannity talk all the time about how Arizona should deal with its own immigration problems and not have to go through the federal government. But on the 2nd amendment rights, its the EXACT opposite. Local cities and municipalities, like Chicago, Buffalo, Detroit, Baltimore, etc, have serious, serious gun violence problems. Can you blame their local leadership for at least trying to do something about the problem? Sure, maybe their restrictions don't get rid of all the gun violence, but at least local leadership is doing something. I think Stevens is right. The conservative wing evokes history-justifying how newly freed slaves had to have guns to protect themselves and the 14th amendment by extension incorporates gun ownership to the states. I get the argument. But at the end of the day, "The reasons that motivated the framers to protect the ability of militiamen to keep muskets available for military use when our nation was in its infancy, or that motivated the Reconstruction Congress to extend full citizenship to freedmen in the wake of the Civil War, have only a limited bearing on the question that confronts the homeowner in a crime-infested metropolis today." -Justice Stevens' last dissent before retirement. Say what you want about old men/women on the SC, but that guy at 90 is sharp as a tack.

I'm all for this too. The preseason is a complete joke and you NEVER see Gibran Hamdan play any time other than against Detroit in preseason game 4 anyway. 2 preseason games, 18 regular season is a great idea. Yes, injuries are a reasonable concern. But the league won't suffer as much as Tom Brady and Ray Lewis say it will. These elite players rarely get hurt. When has Peyton Manning ever missed a start? Brett Favre? The best of the best, which is what tv and the NFL is most concerned with anyway, won't be affected by this. Furthermore, coming from a bitter jaded Bills fan perspective, it most importantly makes the playoffs easier to qualify for. 2 more games means a diluted playoff pool, and you can still have a shot at the playoffs with 7, maybe even 8 losses. Simply put every game is just too important with only 16 in a year. Each game needs less value so that more teams can have a chance to qualify for the postseason. Only speaking on a Bills fan perspective, it sucks being completely out of the running by early November. It just starts the vicious cycle of waiting for the draft, waiting for training camp, getting pumped for the season, they're terrible, and it's "whens the draft?" in November again.

After all the dust settles, what's gonna happen with the names of these conferences? Sorry, Colin Cowherd I am not, so I'm not just gonna go along with the big money super BCS conferences just because they tell me its important and best for the "level of play." I really think that a "Big 10" with 12 teams and a Big XII with 10 teams might possibly be one of the stupidest things in sports. It won't make any sense. Also, Colorado's closest road game will be Arizona State. Last I checked Colorado is land locked, nowhere near the Pacific Ocean. It just doesn't make any sense. I get that the "Big 10" is a brand (read-Michigan and Ohio State). But you're gonna run into problems with unchanging the name when you're building the conference. It really should be the "Big 11" as it is already. I'm a UB student, so I'm a UB fan, by extension a MAC fan. The MAC is actually very solvent and competitive. I can live with crappy defense and "mid major" talent. At least the games are high scoring and entertaining.

I hope Marshawn speaks at practice and he's like "we sittin' heyah, I'm supposed da be franchise playa, and we in we in heya talkin' bout practice."

Unfortunately one of the only true Bills playoff games I vividly remember. I was 11 at the time. The Bledsoe years really all just blend together for me. The only game I can think of off the top of my head from that era was the blowout loss 35-5 Kansas City Sunday night game circa 2003, i think.

Man, I was just about to post this. I'm not very religious at all. But if there's one thing that I remember from Sunday school is that the rich man was going to have a very, very hard time getting into heaven. Christ himself was poor and was an advocate of the poor. So, yes, I'd agree that Christ would find corporatism, excessive greed, and oligarchy a sin. And yes, we're still growing at a rate where the top 1% of the country still earns and possesses more than the bottom 95% of it. http://www.scribd.com/doc/6674234/Citigrou...y-Report-Part-1 - say what you want about how "socialist" this may sound, but this memo might be the most disgusting and prideful boasting of greed, excessive wealth, and income disparity i've ever read. I wholeheartedly disagree with the biggest Fox News talking point railing against progressivism. At the end of the day, the most Republican president in our history, in my opinion Teddy Roosevelt, championed progressive tax legislation-tax the rich to give to the poor. Regressive taxation, like sales tax, hurts the poorest the most. As a Political Science major I do study this material empirically, just for your information. Call him a king of socialist entitlement programs, but even in my "liberal indoctrinated" education at UB, I NEVER once, ever read about this until I saw it in Michael Moore's latest film. I earned a 5 on the AP US History exam in 2004. I've aced all my political policy classes. I never, once, heard about FDR's "Second Bill of Rights." Call it socialism. But is every American with a job, an education, and decent healthcare such a bad thing? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Bill_of_Rights And yes, I do understand that entitlement programs cost money. And for the record, I'm sure every member of my generation won't see a dime of Social Security. But I'm glad I got a good public education. It costs money. Taxes. We can't have it both ways people. You want good infrastructure (roads, bridges, hospitals) it costs money. How about good teachers? Where do you think they get their paychecks? At some point, it has to come from the taxpayer. I'm sorry, but spending $50k plus on a HIGH SCHOOL education is retarded. I got a great one for free.