Sabel79

I'm pinning my hopes on this WSJ article dispelling, somewhat, the connection between end of season form and success in the playoffs. A few days off, the knoweldge that the Dodgers take playoff choking to the level of performance art, and a good start by DeGrom in game one and we'll all feel better about it. http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-important-is-playoff-momentum-to-a-teams-worldseries-hopes-1443222139 Also, there's a connnected article pointing out that teams with home field advantage actually have losing records in the Division Series and League Championship Series for both leagues over the past 20 years. As home field for the World Series is settled in the dumbest and most arbitrary way possible, no point in worrying about it. http://www.wsj.com/articles/dispelling-the-myth-of-home-field-advantage-in-baseball-1443825563

We have all lived through that nightmare. Never again...

Hmmmm.... I can hear RJ now... "Evander Kane DEPELTED Phaneuf with a hard check in the corner!!!!!' Thank you, Neo, for the moment of levity.

Somehow missed that one, but fixed the other nine. Maybe I should slow down a bit.

There are millions of them. Read this article in re: The Roanoke shooting if you'd like your faith in humanity further depelted. In summary, there are many who believe these are all staged by liberal zionists (thier terms) in order to justify disarming the populace because of reasons. Reading about Chris Hurst having to grieve his fiancee's tragic and senseless murder, at the same time as having untold numbers of tinfoil hat wearing nimrods crushing him on social media about how either he's in on it or, (as the interviewee in the article lamely contends) he was duped by an actress sent by Obama to perpetrate this fraud on the country as a whole. It's unimaginable... http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/13/what-do-you-say-to-a-roanoke-truther.html

I find the split in opinion in what I'm reading out there to be fascinating. Reporters / columnists are all very staunchly pro-Harper. "He's the MVP! He's too good for this!" Players, albeit "Unnamed Players" are disappointed it happened in front of the cameras, for the most part. Kid's got a rep for this kind of thing. The old guys go bananas over stuff like that.

Dude does not run out ground balls / pop ups. Ever. Hence the heat from the dugout. I bet JP isn't the only one who wanted to choke him. Just the only one with poor enough impulse control to do it in front of the cameras.

I'm gonna pull you up there. Both had their issues. Both off the field. Strawberry fought Kieth Hernandez and was shipped to L.A. In short order. Gooden lasted until 1994 with the Mets. Both left everything they had (which varied depending on how high they were) on the field. Harper can't be bothered to run out a ground ball to second, and he doesn't have a crippling cocaine addiction to blame. He's a sublime player with the brain of a petulant twelve year old. Very very different.

In more hilarious news... Ladies and gents, your Washington Nationals playing out the string in a dignified manner.... Wait, what? http://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/839852

And to think, this team was legitimately hot garbage as recently as the end of June / first part of July. It's been a fun couple months. Here's hoping it continues to at least one more.

It so completely condenses the entire ethos of that particular club into one hilarious image. They never disappoint. And yes, I am a Gooner.

Hopefully with the switch to MLB that gets rectified going forward. All sorts of spring training games available. I'm really excited to see how the product improves; MLB.tv is LIGHT YEARS ahead of gamecenter.

Or how he did absolutely nothing about all those Marines murdered by terrorists in Beirut. Orders for which were sent from Tehran.

Of course, it's entirely possible to be a fine auto mechanic even if you believe that cars are made by magical elves working in an invisible shop at the North Pole. The macro view doesn't really matter, as long as you know enough to handle things on the micro level. Cars, brains, what have you. Extrapolating that into politics, especially in an attempt to get yourself elected to the highest single office in what is the most powerful single nation on earth, where the ability to comprehend the macro is essential for success, well... not so much.

Currently listening to tenBBC's Football Daily podcast. Louis Van Gaal Is actually Andy Kauffman. I swear. If he can spend more than a quarter of a billion dollars on players and still have nothing better than "hoof it towards Fellani" then I might as well be in charge. He's lucky Liverpool and Chelsea are also dumpster fires currently. Interested to see what Arsenal do before the window closes. I think it's either City or Arsenal this year. Probably City, but we (I) can always hope...

This brings back vivid memories of one of the worst incidents I've personally witnessed at a sporting event. Bills -Patriots 11/9/97 (looked up the date and score) Pats won 31-10. Todd f***ing Collins. Went with a group from Bonaventure. We were in a corner. Ten rows in front were a bunch of Pats fans. One decked out in all-Pats gear, waving a Pats flag. A rather large one. When they scored, he'd pull down his pants and do a dance in his Pats boxers. I think you can see where this is going. The folks behind us started tossing stuff down in the middle of the fourth quarter. Inevitably, a girl sitting near them, not with them, got clocked in the back of the head with a full beer can. The Pats fans took off. The brawl still happened. Between the Bills fans below us and the Bills fans above. Not pleasant. Probably commonplace, but I just remember thinking: "What the hell is wrong with people?" I've since learned that there is no answer to that question, there are many things wrong.... But seriously, please be good this year Bills....

Great Lakes Brewing Co. (At least 4 varieties) now available here in Roanoke. Saw it in a local store yesterday, asked the clerk behind the counter when this happened. She advised me it's been two weeks, they had some sort of event to mark it. Then I saw it in Kroger this morning. I love Great Lakes, had our wedding reception there. Hopefully in the next month or so Christmas Ale makes it down here. I will buy any and all of it I can find. On another note, anyone into Flying Dog Brewery? Half-decent beer, tried the imperial porter recently. Good stuff. Also, artwork by Ralph Stedman so you know it's good...

From the Monticello website... https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/jeffersons-religious-beliefs

Admittedly, the entirety of my average day consists of hearing from the police, alleged perpetrators / victims of crime and attorneys representing all three. Perhaps my point of view in my "remote corner of the country" is therefore jaundiced a bit. Is there less crime now then at any point in the past? Undoubtedly; statistics bear this out. Is there still an insupportable amount more than there should be (the appropriate amount is, of course, zero)? Is there still a good deal more in the US than in most other industrialized democratic countries? Without question. I'm really not ready to write the lives of two (this morning) innocent people off to "well, we're doing better but we can't win 'em all" Nor should any of us. But we already have. Queue the next one. Nothing will be learned from or done with this, the previous one, or the uncountable future senseless acts of barbarity that we seem to be learning to tune out.

This quite literally hits close to home. I've made mention in the past on this board as to what I do for a living. It has kept me out of this thread. I have to say something now though. I've seen evidence of rapes, shootings, stabbings, viscous assaults of various kinds. I've been played recordings of indivudals hiring "hit men" to kill their spouses and witnesses against them. I've been shown beastiality and kiddie porn. All of it disturbing. All of it a testament to the bottomless pit of human depravity, indifference to our fellow humans and our general disregard of the rights and humanity of others. Nothing has disturbed me as deeply as this. Not since Jack Ruby shot Oswald have wee seen anything as premeditated as this on live TV. Even that can at least be understood yet not condoned. This is simply evil. It can't go on. Yet it will. Someone will top it. Because we can't stop, we can't fix it, and we can't do better. Sorry, had to rant...

Not a good look. I, and I'm sure the other lawyers on this board, have been subjected to many CLE sessions dealing at least in part with social media. Here's the rule to follow when tempted to take to the internets on sensitive subjects involving, or even potentially involving your clients (when not making well thought out and proofread statements for a specific purpose that aren't knee-jerk reactions to something you read in the paper no matter how stupid it may or may not be): NO.

We can at least be thankful the 90's are well and truly over and they're not black.

That's quite the list. I had actually forgotten that Mika Noronen existed until just now...

In the sense that someone is either dead or not you're entirely correct. Both have many prosecutorial hurdles to clear. The dead can not testify as to what happened, whereas rape victims can. The dead do not have to (be alive while) they are disparaged, demeaned, re-live the incident ad infinitum, (be alive while) their families hear the sordid details of their past put on display as of it were dispositive in the present instance. I admit that it is, of course, possible that a false accusation can be made. Make no mistake, however that history / current societal norms tells us that rape / sexual assault is a problem. A large problem. An underestimated problem by wide swaths of the populace. Men and women. No crime can be more heinous than the destruction of the control over one's body by another. Leaving them alive to deal with it afterwards is no positive in the long view, and should be punished no less severely. Which is exactly why rape is "on a pedestal"

Rarely are women told that they have somehow invited or deserve to be murdered, or failed to act in a manner that would prevent their own victimization. As if it mitigates the responsibility of the individual actually doing the violent and dehumanizing act. Can't really say the same about rape.