MattPie

I wonder how much of it is Reinhart is playing Center now and was on the wing most of last season. That's another big step and surely has some growing pains attached.

Catch up post... I could see a system where trucking starts to resemble old-timey ships at sea in terms of having a pilot. A pilot in shipping was a person that would sail out to a ship approaching port and navigate the ship in to avoid the various hazards. In trucking (and frankly, ocean shipping), it's not unreasonable to think the truck will get itself to the parking lot and the "pilot" walks out and backs it up to the loading dock. You still have an employee for the pilot, but the pilot can probably park 6 trucks an hour, so there are six drivers that aren't needed. Ships would be the same thing; the ship gets to the outer harbor and waits for a minimal human crew to come on-board and take the ship in. The difference there is maintenance; if a ship breaks down in the middle of the ocean, it's a bigger issue than a truck on a highway somewhere. At some point, I wonder if we don't have to start considering either basic minimum income or third-world poverty. I'm not sure if anyone touched on this, but there are surely people who would have voted for Clinton but didn't bother because those states were in the bag too. In a straight popular vote (no EC or an EC system that PA mentioned where states now give their votes to the winner of the popular vote), perhaps the voting totals go up but I'm not sure the spread changes that much. Any time you assign delegates based on population you're introducing rounding error. If one of those counties has 100,000 people, and the other has 102,000, they probably end up with the same number of delegates so a candidate could receive more votes but still be tied. In theory those should average out but you're going to end up every so often with cases where 70,000 people in county A vote for candidate 1 and 51,001 people in county B vote for candidate 2 but they're tied in delegates. Additionally, adding a static number of delegates for each county increases the influence of lower-population areas, just like the US-wide electoral system. There are arguments for doing that (like Neo's post that small states should have a vote in the face of larger states), but I have a really tough time with say "these people's votes matter more than these other people's votes". It grates against my sense of fair play and notion of all men being equal. I'm note sure I'm ready to put weight behind this, but essentially anyone that doesn't live in a swing state has very little power in their vote to change things in the EC system. (re: trains running on time) I hope that's just trolling, and not an intentional nod. Ugh. I don't think it's accidental.

As much as I hope that's the way if goes, the rumors of his cabinet dream-team don't give me much hope. Did I see his kids have been named to the transition team. Link is from Slate; businessinsider won't force ME to turn off my adblocker: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/11/11/trump_names_trump_organization_managers_to_transition_team.html Interesting to note that Trump says his children will also run his business via Blind Trust while he's in office, but as I understand it, blind trust requires an independent person to be named. I think the point is a 35% tax cut (let's say from 25% to roughly 18%) is a lot less that from 35% to 15% (60% cut, roughly). Besides, the Supreme Court ruled businesses have rights now, they can pay on the same tax scale too.

Well, if they're based on the one in the 50s, they better be investigating themselves.

He's also a 7-year vet NHL player that didn't have a lower-body issue. It's certainly possible they'll give Eichel a game or two to get into shape.

Oh good, Newt Gingrich is calling for a new House Committee on Un-American Activities. And that's not just hyperbole, he's actually referencing the one during the 50s and talking about how it was a good idea. EDIT: that's apparently an article from June. Still.

To be honest, I never put the two together until today. But as I think about it, I'm not sure if the Supreme Court could invalidate one part of the Constitution using another part. IN the past, issuing amendments (such as the 18th/21st and 14th vs. slavery) has been the vehicle. I'd have to look, but I think the EC is mentioned in the constitution but the actual operation is determined by acts of Congress. I'd think you could challenge those acts based on the 14th, and then push for acts to essentially make the EC a rubber stamp for whomever got the most votes in the election. I'm no lawyer, of course.

In things like national elections, I don't think states should overrule voters, which the EC in it's current form has the potential to do. I read some of Federalist Paper 68 the other day, and I somewhat understand (presumed) Hamilton's thought process of the EC as a bulwark against the mob. However, I know that I'd have a tough time being a smug as Hank if I had to say, "My candidate didn't get as many votes as his challenger but he got votes in the right places to win." The EC discounts the votes of some and increases the power of others; all men aren't equal when it comes to presidential voting. Hmm, could you challenge the EC operations on the grounds of the 14th amendment? This is the most eloquent thing you've said in this discussion! :)

Fnaar, Fnaar. I agree though with NS though, much less toddler waste with the smaller bananas.

You kids. In my day, it took hours to compile kernels only to find the computer wouldn't boot afterwards. :)

I think I used parts of this: https://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers One that kinda worked for me was when something would give example programs, I'd type it in by hand rather than cut and paste. This is something I never did in the past, but it felt like actually having to enter it meant later when I was writing something I had far fewer syntax issues than normal. Of course, it could just be that I'm old. Actually, it may be that I first learned to program before the internet is what it is today so I was mostly copying from books. This, linked from the above seems like a decent place to start as it looks like it's mostly done in the browser. And being Canadian it's very polite. http://cscircles.cemc.uwaterloo.ca/ EDIT! There's a "Learn Python" Android app that has 4.8 stars. Giving that one a look, I need to get better.

South Philly has a lot of the essential the Flyer fan demographic, meathead white guys. We've discussed here how racist Buffalo can be, and I'll assure you Southern Maryland is more like rural North Carolina and not progressive stronghold. Most of the outright racist things I've heard in my life were people I worked with down there and in Buffalo. Minnesota is another strange one, although the joke, "Minnesota's black population doubles when Prince and his entourage are in town" is apt.

Illegal immigration has been down for awhile, and even then most of it won't be overland. A wall might be nice, but it seems like it'll end up being misused funds that could be better used elsewhere. I promise I'm not invoking Godwin here: Germany spent a lot of time, money, and labor on building super weapons and things like the Atlantic wall in France. If they had poured those resources into existing systems that were already working, the outcome may have been different. Spending Billions (let's face it, Mexico isn't going to pay for it) on a wall to possibly block 10% of illegal immigration isn't as effective as other options. Security on immigrants from the areas you mention are already the most stringent, I believe. I'm not sure where they're going to go with that.

You just summed up the scouting report on me for volleyball.

Ruby is really weird. Give Python a shot, I found it remarkably easy to pick up (spoilers, I have a CS degree) because the syntax is light on extraneous structure and more like writing English directions than many other languages.

Philly, Minnesota, I know Southern Maryland, the KKK in the south, I think you're underestimating how widespread this is. Also, "gay families burn in hell": https://t.co/bWL8FFpTEX EDIT: Oops, wrong tweet, that's just a black man having his life threatened by a white man with a gun. https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/796542537255239681

Re: racism. I have Latino family members that have already seen racist BS since Trump started campaigning in the Buffalo area. They've been told to leave restaurants. The school age kids have been told the Trump was going to send them to Mexico. All but one is a US citizen. You may try to wave it away, but this ###### is happening to people. I haven't seen them posted here, but there's an article in the Buffalo News regarding a swastica and "Make America White Again" and a black baby doll with a noose around it's neck at Canisius. In Philly, there's "Sieg Heil Trump" graffiti. You can say what you want, but Trump has enabled those people. Tell me again how his his fears are hyperbolic and shaped by social media? http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/philadelphia/98767-police-investigate-trump-swastika-graffiti-as-possible-hate-crime http://buffalonews.com/2016/11/09/disturbing-acts-in-wellsville-at-canisius-college-follow-election-day/

Complaint: Gen Xers that whine about Millennials when they are oblivious to how boomers whined the same things about Gen Xers. I'd rather hang out with the Millennials I know; they seem to have a sense of community and non-materialistic way about them that I never saw in my GenX peers.

I assume that's Svenska for "oh well".

??? Last practice before the season opener.

NHL maybe, but I'd bet the tenant agreements give the NBA priority over AHL.

Agreed, that's gold.

Right, if ROR is playing but not practicing they're not going to juggle the lines; they put someone in as a body. I wonder if Fasching is a scratch.

at 1795 Two on the Sabres. +110

Reinhart hasn't played LW other than one or two games this season. He's been at RW or C.