JesseMartin

I agree it will be close, but I think the O on both sides will still be badass. I'm thinking 31-28, 34-31, somewhere around there.

See, that's the problem all over again... Depending on whether you listen to liberal or conservative economists, policy analysts, pundits, etc., the analysis is entirely different. Because so much is grounded in theory, and the difficulty of tracking which dollars went where after any given policy or economy change, and all of the factors that are involved in figuring out such a complex economy (especially when you figure in both domestic and international money as well as how tax money - both in and out - figures into the whole thing), you can basically make a case for it either way. It's either, "look, our policy worked!", or "well, it was a spillover from the things done X years ago that took a while to work their way through our economy". That's a huge simplification of it all, but when we were doing policy analysis, we had to do studies of both sides and then discuss...and the discussion was basically the lesson, because the point was that you can make a case for or against either side because of the whole "was this our doing, or is it a development that came from so-and-so?" debate.

We both think the airport picture thing is just plain creepy. Colorado is actually one of the states I still haven't visited. The albino squirrel should be fine since it's the unofficial underground second mascot and bestest buddy of Scrappy.

If some of you look into it a bit...most of the Bin-Laden & co. crap started with Reagan and Bush, until Ollie North set them straight but by then it was too late. Because of the differing opinions of economists, it is impossible to know for sure whether the economy did well during Clinton's administration due to his own actions, or if it was a delayed reaction from Reagan. It may have even been because of policy shifts. A "rouge" nation is red. A "rogue" nation is rebellious. I'm assuming euless meant the latter but hey, we had plenty of "red nation" issues in the past, so who knows...? Still crossing my fingers for Ron Paul. His long-term policies would be good for both the right and the left. The best part is that the outcome of many of those would take politics completely out of the equation yet still be sensible an pro-citizen, pro-American, and pro-voter! Freddie looks like the 2nd best Republican, though I'm not entirely certain that he's unlikely to kick the bucket before finishing a term.

I just found out that the show on Saturday will be from 6 till close...normally they close at 10 but if they stay busy the gallery will stay open late. Not sure what date the website will launch, so right now I'm just keeping everything in the folder on my MySpace page, so you can see about 30 pieces and sketches there for right now. I also do fairly cheap commissions if anybody wants portraits or such. I work in lots of different media and sizes, so I provide better and more varied services than most artists!

I'm at 16-14 with 2 games left...logic said to take Cal, WVU, and TCU but I was thinking about a lot of intangibles and was wrong because of them. Otherwise I'd be 19-11 right now.

Let's all support Flyer for President. He'll do things fully-assed.

Forget MacDuff, what about McGruff? Take a bite out of the 'Belt.

I'm at about .500 on my picks. How about you guys?

If you guys know anybody who is into art, buys art, likes art shows, whatever, I have two coming up, both with other artists. The first one is at Studio Fling next Saturday, 1/12/08, 3101 Commerce Suite 104 in Dallas, I have to get the times from the owner. I'm splitting the space with another guy that I don't know. It's going to be a bunch of different stuff from me, and I actually won't know which pieces until they make their decision on Monday...but the submissions are in a folder on MySpace, at www.myspace.com/Aprendiendo ...It's the folder titled, "art". Deep, I know. The second one, even though it's not a spotlight show for me, could be even cooler, because the whole thing is themed for Rock n Roll, all work will be portraits or themes of or regarding various bands and solo artists. I'll have 4 or 5 pieces, and Lord knows how many other artists will have some there. It's at Soda Gallery on 2/16, I'll get the address and time for this one later too. Sorry some details are missing, but I wanted to get this out ASAP for the few people on here that might be interested. And no, none of my design work or comics stuff will be up, though as soon as the comic is ready for publication, I'm hoping to have a release party/show where people can bid on all the original art. BUT...of course details on that won't be available for a looong time (probably at least 2 months, maybe more).

Speaking as a swing voter...is there any way to mutate Ron Paul and Barack Obama into one person? I like them both for completely different reasons. I think Huckabee and Romney are as nuts as Kucinich. We just haven't seen the extent of it yet, because they know how to hide it in public. Notice that that is an unqualified statement...there's just something weird about them that I can't quite put my finger on. Hilary is, scientifically speaking (social science, that is) a borderline Socialist. And just as with the Communist Manifesto, the ideas sound nice but wouldn't execute well in practice. I do think everyone should have healthcare, I just don't think it should fall into the hands of the politicians...and out of the wallets of the taxpayers. There has to be another way to do it, but nobody has figured it out yet. And as far as video game ratings...an "adults only" rating is like a death mark, because none of the major consoles will carry it. I read a loooong article about it early last year, I forget what they were called, but there were a couple of games that were supposed to be really badass and had gamers clamoring for their release, but they were adults-only rated and so no company would license it for their consoles. They offered to license censored versions. I don't know if the designers went back to work to do so or if they didn't want to change the games, but still, censorship sucks...I don't mind ratings and classification systems, but when your methods effectively silence whatever you don't like-be it a video game, a movie, or a lecture-THAT is where it crosses the line into first amendment violations. I wouldn't be surprised to see a Supreme Court ruling on video games in the next 5 years or so. Not that it would help the games that are already "dead", because by then they will probably appear outdated, but it would probably be a helpful "Bright line" standard to which censors, designers, and companies alike could compare the content of a game and rate it without keeping it off of the market. ...okay, now I've brought civil liberties into the discussion, great...like there weren't enough offshoots to this thread already!

I figured I'd get in on the fun too. I was trying to pay a bill a few weeks ago, because it was late and I didn't want my service shut off. After a while I was frustrated but, since calling customer service doesn't count towards my minutes, I decided to experiment. T-Mobile will cut you off after you have been on hold for exactly FOUR HOURS.

I'm in pretty good shape but I can't imagine holding my breath for six years...

With the parity that is beginning to take form in college football, every game seems to be a microcosm. If next year continues this year's weirdness, that will be more of a truism than it was even this year. Who is/is not deserving of XYZ bowl playing MNOP team is becoming pretty irrelevant... And because of the departure of their coach, I picked WVU to lose, and I'm trying to win 100 bucks. Aside from that, I'd always like to see OU lose. Imagine what they'd be without their players that come from Texas. I want to see a Michigan/Ohio attitude here...where it's almost unheard of to leave Texas and play for an Oklahoma school. And where does Mizzou belong? In a better bowl, maybe one that was given to 2 of the teams they beat, that's for damn sure.

They did, but I agree with the point of the "BCS Blowouts" thread. Lots of teams have had bad games in bowls, or just shouldn't have been there. A playoff would have shown if UH was up to snuff before they got to Georgia or a similar team. Who knows, they may have slowly risen to the occasion, or just been eliminated sooner. Either way, cracking the BCS still helped JJ. And having an undefeated regular season...if they were bad, they would have lost to SOMEBODY, but always found ways to win. I think he's a good fit for a school like SMU, with the money to do a lot more than Hawai'i. I'm hoping he goes there and can't wait to see Dodge/Jones teams play each other if he does. I think those will be awesomely exciting games!

That's an awesome idea! Can Optimus Prime be our new mascot? Maybe Steven Spielberg can be our new DC if Mendoza leaves. The Talons can drive a yellow VW around instead of the Model-T.

What if you aren't on the team the first year and are just enrolled?

True, we have a couple of days' worth of NCAA Football left, but I think enough has happened that you can probably name the douchiest person/moment of the year. My vote: Mack Brown's comments before the TCU game. Runner-up: Mack Brown's stepson trying to recover the ball from the sideline. Honorable mention: Both coaches in the "onside kick/middle finger" incident. Positive douche (jerk for a good reason): Gundy. I loved the rant; that's a guy to play for and support, backing up his guys all the way.

What if... Todd took away Riley's scholarship for next year and paid for school himself, then offered him one the following year and gave him a freshman redshirt? We're going up in price, but UNT still isn't all that expensive, especially if you're the coach and get (as a staff member) some waivers that make it cheaper for your kid anyway.

What the heck is on the calendar? Is it nice? I wonder if it might be a limited printing and go out to the first X number of people to pay their membership fees. I haven't renewed since I left my old place, but if "everybody" got one, I'd think mine would have come at some point over those few years I lived there, even by accident! I still always got the North Texan, though. Good way to keep track of how many people I knew die every few months. People drop like flies, it seems.

Ummm...Kansas doesn't look like it needs much rebuilding right now. Nice link on "Sul Ross"...if they knew how to write, their "Who is Sul Ross?" section might have actually made sense. It looks like a nice campus. Why have I/we never heard of it, if it's part of the TSU system? Regardless of who the guy was, it's kind of a dorky name for a school.

Damn...been painting and working and sleeping so much, I missed most of the bowls I really wanted to see, and judging from the scores and what you guys and everybody else has been saying, I missed some awesome games!

Haven't we talked about Mendoza enough already?

Gable, that's right. Yeah, he coached at Iowa for freaking FOREVER. Didn't we win debate nationals recently too? Plus, what, 3 cheerleading championships and...I remember they were close...did Rugby or Hockey ever win nationals? I know it's not NCAA but still impressive. Didn't our Intramurals basketball team win too, in the last couple of years or so? I wonder if there's a "definitive collection" of all "#1 in the country" titles we've won, in Athletics, Club Sports, Intramurals, and academic stuff. If not...I know somebody who might help us research if everybody is interested in helping to throw in any tidbits you know.

At least he tried to be a LITTLE bit more subtle...