Tank

i don't put them up on a pedestal but i greatly respect the risk they were willing to take. every signer of the declaration of independence had a bounty on their head, and many of them lost property and their wealth during the revolutionary war. those were big things to wager. imagine today a group that is so fed up with the way gov't is being run - too many lobbyists giving out gobs of perks and money for votes, politicians who don't have to follow the same laws they hand down to us, lifelong politicians who no longer serve the public good outside of how it benefits them personally - that they decide to risk it all and not only declare war on the feds, but take up weapons and start an actual war. just imagine what they're risking by doing this. that's the same general scenario as the guys in the late 1700s, who then wrote a new completely new system of gov't, one that wasn't being used anywhere else and was often called the great experiment. it worked, and has worked pretty well for decades. but we have now reached a point where corruption is done right in front of us and hardly anyone raises and eyebrow. we receive so many empty promises about "reaching across the aisle", knowing that none of those promises are going to kept on things that truly matter. the approval rating of congress has reached all time lows, and the president is seen by many as a distrustful leader. this is not the system the powdered wig guys left for us. it's been twisted and crushed and reshaped to something that no longer works in the best interests of the citizenry. to characterize the work of the founding fathers as a simple money grab is pretty lame (although there's some truth to it, but you've completely dismissed the lack of a representative gov't).

i kicked you out at halftime and immediately threw some nice all beef hot dogs on the grill. your loss, but if you want to stay the whole game next time, then stop sitting there on my couch making funny noises and smells with your body. it took the serve pro people two days to clean up after you.

was surprised to learn that all nfl qbs before a game get to pick which footballs they want to use during the game. if that's the case, then i have no doubt that all nfl qbs want some kind of alteration to the footballs they're going to use. the NFL needs to put a stop to this - nothing wrong may actually happen, but it's the appearance of evil that needs to be stemmed here. so who takes care of the footballs before the super bowl? who inflates them, who watches over them, who supplies them?

never heard of it.

this thread has made me wish i had a dog again.

i always watch the game and the commercials. have a few friends over and make an evening of it. just fun to hang out with my friends, so it's worth it, unless one of them is a dork and keeps talking through the commercials. p.s. we don't invite him anymore.

my dad's a tv repairman. he's got this ultimate set of tools. we can fix it!

they seem to be giving up a ton of deflected goals, also. shots have taken really weird bounces and made their way in, not something you can really defend. not sure how you would deal with something like that.

on sportscenter last night, barry melrose said no one is going to catch the ducks. he also is standing by his prediction of black hawks vs. penguins in the finals.

this is not good. the beard broke off and was improperly reattached. http://io9.com/king-tuts-burial-mask-has-been-irreversibly-damaged-1681085211

without a doubt they had their faults. but their greatness comes from standing up to tyranny and coming up with a better system that allowed people the ability to live without worry of gov't intrusion or interference. to say we've strayed from that would be a gross understatement, but at least they gave us a pretty impressive set of tools to live how we choose, and to live without fear. i suppose we could always go back to a system of serfs and nobles, but i'm not really interested.

if you read the gospels in the new testament, it's pretty clear that the jews had it out for Jesus from the start. the romans happened to be the ones to carry out the execution so that the jews could avoid blame. they also wanted Jesus taken down from the cross before Sabbath started so they wouldn't be guilty of any sin.

close. i was thinking mostly of the injuns.

that's a great story, NJ.

many of them would have thought the same thing. it's so bizarre to me that so many slaveowners looked upon africans as so vastly inferior, yet had no problem doing with them the most intimate thing two people can do.

i'm having lunch with her tomorrow. i'll tell her you said "hey".

had a dog with a hip displacement problem. wasn't a cheap fix, plus the dog was over 10 years old. was very relieved that i was away at college and didn't have to deal with it in person, but it was tough the first time we came home and she wasn't there.

it's an innocent question, tobias. take a deep breath or two. we've talked quite a bit in this forum about how corrupt the system has become and how the new boss is no different from the old one. when the framers were putting the plan together, they envisioned a republic that would function efficiently, not something that would be as broken as what we have now. just throwing out a rhetorical question about how they would view what we've done with what they left us. haven't you ever wondered what your great grandparents would think about modern technology? same kind of rhetorical idea.

i wonder what our founding fathers would say about the way the republic is being run these days. i imagine they'd be pretty pissed at what we've done with their plan.

given cleveland's poor performance the last decade, you have to question the wisdom of this demand.

ha, that was the first thing i thought of. gonna have some stuff that can't be replaced, and that's going to be toughest for him to deal with. you can always buy new clothes and furniture.

jerome bettis was on espn and said the under inflated ball made it easier for a running back to hold on to it, and therefore less likely he would fumble. he said it was also easier for receivers to catch. i don't know if the pats have any RBs with fumbleitis, but if they do, that might be a reason this was done. i expect the NFL will fine the pats heavily for this and that it will spark a discussion of who supplies the footballs for each game, taking control of that away from each team (like in all other major sports).

during the SOTU, i kept wondering how many times there was a some sort of signal or cue for dems to stand and applaud, and likewise for repubs to sit on their hands. i then wondered how many of them were going to go out for a beer together after the speech and discuss how well they made the public think they were enemies via tv. it's no longer possible for me to think any of their actions are not scripted ahead of time. i don't think anything that happens in washington is a surprise to the people involved; it's a surprise to us, however, because so many of us want to believe that the people working "for us" have our best interests at heart. clearly, that is no longer the case. it's time for some kind of revolution to wrest control of our country out of the hands of the tri-lateral commission, the world bank, the IMF, and the bohemian grove people.

one hundred pages!

yeah, there's just no way to sugar coat it. they fall behind early in so many games, and they don't clear people well from in front of the net. they don't look like the same confident team they've been the last few years.