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 I hope you can forgive the brief hiatus. In a brief and desperate moment of my typical luck I cut one of my fingers off at work. It took me a while to work up the ability to type again. Fear not, friends, for the absent digit belonged to my non-throwing/shooting/masturbatory hand and it isn't slowing me down a bit. I have already adjusted my Madden game to account for the loss and, in case some of you poseurs were thinking of taking a shot at the big belt buckle, I am still THE Bruce Paine. I don't have to tell you the stories, I lived the life.
Before I talk about the Colts I want to throw a few links out there.
This is a nice bit of citizen journalism from Erin at Robots Took My Medicine. I found it incredibly enlightening and a further example that blogs need to get as close as possible to what they cover in order to subvert the mass stream.
This is just another example that most of you should be far more upset about the way things are going than you actually are. Maybe you shouldn't be as mad as I am, but you oughta be getting close. If you are naive enough to think that Change You Can Believe In or Maverick politics are going to do something about it...well, I feel bad for you. The shock and horror you will feel when you stand on your porch and watch them haul your neighbor away because he wasn't the right color, or liked dudes instead of chicks, or called a rich man out for being a villain, or wasn't on board politically with somebody who had a badge for one thing or another will be nothing compared to the shock and horror you feel when you realize that you are next, and you haven't done anything to prevent it. Read your fucking history books, kids. Here, have this instead.
If you want to read a funny story, read this, they named it Margaret.
In further truths regarding TV and movies:
Amy Adams is the best actress in Hollywood right now. Genius level work.
Fringe is not the X-Files. It has its high points, and it has a high production quality, and it isn't total crap. It lacks originality, but I will forgive that. But one of the important things that the X-Files had that made an impact was that it held onto its secrets. Fringe is giving them up to easily.
Mongol isn't bad. If you are expecting an epic scale deal, though, you won't get it. The scope is much smaller than that.
I laughed at Get Smart.
Onto the Colts
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Did the Colts win that or did Houston lose it? Well, I think Houston lost it and the Colts helped a little. Rosenchoke sure looked like a goat with the two huge fumbles but look at it from his point of view. Manning has just worked the Colts down the field almost exclusively through the air in relatively short time. With a touch under four minutes left the Texans take the field with their momentum starting to waiver. Rosenblah hands off twice for a yard and the Colts called timeouts both times. If he can convert the 3rd and 8 then it essentially guarantees a win. That one first down cemented the win, if he could get it. With nothing open he scrambled and decided to take a chance. Bingo Bongo. The Colts are right back in it.
Still, Houston has a chance to end it. In their next possession they were stuffed for a yard on first. Oddly, they chose to throw on the next down and the incompletion stopped the clock. Then Rosenoops coughed it up, scramblin on 3rd and a bunch. Quite simply, Houston should have run it. Sure the Colts were playing tough late in the game, and playing really fast with the gasp of hope in their lungs, but Houston, calling those three pass plays, gave the Colts two minutes they didn't need to give away. Not only that, but they gave up the yardage from the would-be punts. Manning just capitalized. That was some righteous capitaliszation, though.
Things are still bad for the Colts, though.
The Bad
- Defense is exceptionally weak in the middle. Without a legit tackle in the middle there is no one to command the double team. On pass plays this is a problem because opponents get extra guys to block Mathis and Freeney. On run plays it means that the point of attack is always on the defensive side of the line of scrimmage and that our linebackers are getting guards and centers coming clean off the line at them.
- Offensive line cannot run block. At the POA they get no push, they aren't strong enough, they don't get low enough. There is no drive. The lack of a running game is causing more problems every game. Addai is not good enough to produce without blocking.
- The issues seem to be a systemic string of problems based on personnel. Personnel is a result of the draft. The draft is Bill Polian's responsibility. Polian has struck gold so many times I think HE thinks that he can do it every time. Quinn Pitcock was a mistake, the Ed Johnson experiement was interesting but clearly had flaws, and three centers is one heck of a hat trick, but it sdoesn't stop the run (and it might not fix the running game either).
The Good
- Manning, despite the rust and the mediocre numbers at this point, is still Manning. In the last two games, in the waning moments, in the championship rounds, with heels upon the precipice, he has been brilliant.
- Freeney is healthy, and we would see more results if the interior wasn't so bad. Mathis is a playmaker and Brock is a worker. Keiaho is everywhere and Marlin Jackson has developed into a very nice corner. There are players on the defense, they just need a touch more help.
- Marvin made three very nice catches despite taking ferocious hits. Not only that, but they were first down catches and two of them were on third down. Not huge numbers, BUT WE'RE GETTING THERE!
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2008 Cubs Preview
A couple of questions here...
1. Who is hotter, Brooke Burke or Marisa Miller? I'm not sure but we are all winners in that one. Maybe Burke can be the hottest over 30 and Miller the hottest under 30 but who wins in a Championship Match?
2. Did you really cut off your finger? We may need photographic evidence.
3. What would need to happen for the Colts to completely abandon their running game?
1. I have never heard Miller speak, but Burke seems to have a decent mind (for a woman), so that gives her the edge for me. I think a woman who has fully matured and has a confident mind is the best lay. She knows what she wants, she values what she gets. I like a woman that is tenacious. Not only that, but Burke has a dark, exotic quality. I go with Burke in a close one.
2. A significant portion of my left middle finger is now gone. No pictures.
3. A better offensive line. Quite frankly, things are bad and I may be the only one seeing it, but I think things are getting worse. I think things don't look as bad as they did three weeks ago because Manning is adjusting. Ryan Diem has never played as poorly as he is now. Saturday is playing hurt. There is no performance to speak of from the guards and the left tackle position is only serviceable when Ugoh is there, and who knows when he will be back. Johnson is not athletic enough to do it. The penetration on the line is unreal, only Mannings gut-check willingness to step up in the pocket early (and sometimes through the pocket), is keeping him upright. Not only that, but Addai is not as good a pass blocker as James was. They would need a spread package and one more receiver and healthy Clark who isn't concussion prone.
Remember, ammo never loses its financial value.
I think the line has been so blurred between citizen and soldier it is just a matter of time that the military patrols the US. Which, in and of itself, should not be a bad thing, if they did away with the national military and left support to networked community guard units. Flexible and networked. But we have seperated the citizens that join the military into a seperate class of people who are no longer attached to the citizenship at large, hence what you linked to is extremely dangerous.
I am afraid that the line between citizen and soldier looks much different to me. A citizen answers to their own self, a soldier answers to the chain of command. I could go on, but that is the simple point that leads to trouble. Soldiers are conditioned to obey that chain of command and they are conditioned into the righteousness of their service unit and leadership, it is an important factor of the military unit. This is bordering on insanity and not nearly enough peoplea re outraged by it.
Chain of command is not just used in the military, it is used in every aspect of our lives.
A child answers to their teachers or parents.
At work, an entry level worker answers to middle management, who answers to those above him, and so on.
I'd say the insanity really rests within the people and organizations that have allowed this country to continue to slip into economic ruins. And NO, it is not all George Bush's fault as much as people want to blame it all on him. One man can NOT ruin an entire economic system on his own.
You point is partially valid, Mex, and i have always considered your views to be rather reasoned and dispassionate, but you can understand how I cannot take it as entirely objective on this.
Influence and response is one thing, and most of us are in situations where we respond to people at work. But you and I both know that there is a difference between the way we act when our boss at work tells us to go get another box of screws out of the truck and when your squad leader tells you to clear that strongpoint at the end of that T intersection. You also know intimately about the kinds of people, good and bad, that we can find in a situation to carry out that sort of instruction and how far we can trust them to act with reason and discretion.
In the end, if my boss at work tells me to grab an AR and suppress that crowd rushing the bank, I can tell him to eat shit, it ain't my job to shoot people. Other folks, like the ones now in a combat stance on our own soil despite its abhorrence by the men that founded this freaking thing, DO have the job to squeeze when they hear that. Do you trust the guys who are in a position within the chain of command to give that order? No you don't, at least not ALL of them, and therein lies the problem.
I hope your boss doesn't tell you to grab an AR and suppress the crowd!
By the way, I'm with you on Brooke Burke, but mostly because she is a brunette!
I'm not sure if this matters to either of you but Brooke's 'assets' are fake. Miller's are real....and spectacular. Not that you could go wrong with either as they both seem athletic as well.