Yes that was good fun.

The Saints knew he had had a hip tweak in college, but it wasn't major and he was medically cleared. As a rookie, he was one of the best RT's in the game. He's a multiple All-Pro and has the distinction of not allowing a single sack in the 2019 season. Once he injured the knee, it's been diminishing returns. He's been pretty good, at least up until this year, but he hasn't been the old Ram since the knee started acting up. He's tough and has been playing with rest days, gel injections and painkillers, but word is the knee is now bone-on-bone. He's only 29 and should have a half-dozen years left (and the Saints would owe him $32M for the next couple of years). Instead, I don't know what they can do about his knee. Replace it, just so he can walk normally?

Now...Here's a large part of your problem... Was watching part of Levin's Fox show last night. (Yes, I vastly prefer it to his radio program). Much of the discussion revolved around common American concepts and ideals, and when those started to change. Here's where some of the blame was found to be... Americans have abdicated some of their morals, their economic beliefs and their social beliefs to the education system. We've turned into two-parent, two-worker or one-parent households. Nobody seems to have very much of the most precious commodity - time. The old, Andy Hardy-style, man-to-man talk or a daughter's frank discussions with her mother, don't take place like they used to. Not every family sits down to supper together, catching up on each other's activities of the day and more importantly, the parents steering their children onto the best pathways. The education system has become overwhelmingly one-sided in its political and societal views and is not hesitant at all about sharing those views with young minds of mush. And it seems the further up the education ladder, the more radical the views. It's become more strident, where polite argument, discourse and debate is discouraged. Those views no longer encompass what used to be considered hallmarks of the American Dream. The typical college professor no longer thinks a modest home in the suburbs, occupied by a man and his wife, along with a couple of children, is anything any sane person would aspire to. Too many in academe want to equate education with hard work...It's morphed into "I should be paid well, because I have a degree". And since we are now so smart, we shall deign to insist upon our morals, our ideas of social and economic justice...Because we know better. The American Dream? Shared American values? I guess Horatio Alger is dead, John Wayne is, too, and the cavalry no longer exists.

Artists are crazy.

Been on one just like that - a 757 coming in from Dallas. The pilot was applauded.

Group clusterfuck but precipitated by the woman. The cops were there. Had she dropped the knife and let them handle it none of this would have happened. She was moving to attack the man. Did the cop shoot too soon? Maybe. But maybe had they not she might have killed him. I'd like to see the toxicology report.

While there are successful transitioners, and I know one who is very happy, I suspect most of these folks are being sold a fantasy where the world will perceive them as the opposite sex. I doubt very much that happens in the majority of cases.

What about Free Wifi? Does that exist?

@Axtremus said in Happy Kwaanza!: @Aqua-Letifer said in Happy Kwaanza!: Why is celebrating good if anything you celebrate is just a made-up construct? Celebration is overrated. Just go back to your brooding. And you can brood over a made-up construct if you want. Alright.

@Mik said in Slow Horses is back: Too much reliance on shootemups to resolve an otherwise good story. Agreed. The whole season could have been one episode shorter if they got rid of the whole ridiculous shootout stuff. A much better, tighter, story, however. Another criticism is the Lamb character. Seems like they went out of their way to make him a caricature of the person we saw in Season 1. Farts in the car? Really? I get it, he's slovenly and washed up (washed, figuratively, of course). But, c'mon. Tone it down.

@jon-nyc said in More attacks on US positions.: Was I the only one who thought, “wait, we still have bases in Syria?” +1 Who's the attacker? Do we know yet?

@Jolly In the interwar period there were three models of democracy - the British, the American and the French. There was also Weimar Germany but that was hardly a viable democratic model. Following WWII the same three models remained. Peronist Argentina may have begun with the French model but soon devolved into a secular populist muddle (note muddle, not model) that resembled a bit of Francoist Spain and a thoroughly disorganised fascist Italy. It was not anything resembling one of the democratic models of the day.

VPNs, FTW

COEXIST

@Rainman said in No-show, no-call: Hope Mrs. George is enjoying some success with her back stimulator? Did she feel anything different during the MRI? The stimulator's been there since December 2018. It drastically reduced her need for pain meds - cut them by about ¾. SHe's had more than a handful of MRI's since the stimulator went in. Never a problem - other than the clusterfuck this week. It's rescheduled for Jan 11. I mentioned to the tech what the stimulator tech told me, he said that in some cases, they are able to work around the stimulator, but that overall "this will be your last MRI." It depends on the scanner. Some are "stimulator-happy." When she scheduled it, she mentioned that she has the simulator, and they said that only certain locations have a scanner that will be OK.