Iron Crotch

About 6.9% of the populations works for a government at some level (federal, state, local). That's down about 1/2% from the Bush administration (smaller military is part of that) and overall has been more-or-less steady for decades going back to the 70's. That figure includes teachers, soldiers, police, fire fighters, etc. So IMHO it is a fallacy to think "government employees" are largely unnecessary (but that, of course, is a matter of opinion). But, as you point out, there are a whole lot of folks who are indirectly subsidized in some way by the government. Yes, that includes contractors, those on grants, etc., but it also mainly includes students and retirees and others who most wouldn't think of as "government subsidized." The irony to me is that so many of the states with the highest percentages of government employees are red states, but that's a whole other discussion.

Well, I'd rather have a guy suck for $800,000 than suck with a $5.5 million cap hit! :P

Again?! This is getting ridiculous... fortunately, it won't hurt the team by not having him in the lineup. We suck with or without Kaleta. :P

At this point no one would take on Stafford's salary. He is basically Brad Boyes from the Blues a couple of years ago and no one would trade for that awful salary... er... oh wait...

Does anyone happen to know why Terry Pegula considers Darcy to be a "hockey genius" when 99.9% of the rest of us can see that he is not?

Good point. I think so as well. Personally, I judge all players on value, i.e. how much do they produce relative to their pay. When people were hammering guys like Hecht and Sulzer on this board, I never joined in. Those guys are/were at the bottom of the pay scale and aren't/weren't paid to be stars. Tyler IS paid to be a star on this team. His cap hit puts him third behind Vanek and Miller. He is being paid to be a Norris-type guy and obviously isn't producing at that level... ...Of course, Tyler's contract is just another example of Darcy's complete failure as a GM.

Big Tyler has no points and is a -4 through 4 games, while averaging almost 22 minutes of ice time per game. I'm tired of making excuses for the guy. He is starting his 5th year with the team and sports is a performance business... get it done or get someone in there who can do the job. As far as I'm concerned, trade him now (if a taker can be found and he will waive his no movement clause) and give his ice time to Zadorov when he comes back from injury.

I was at the game. Goose played really well as the 4th line center. Took all the big draws at the end of the game, of course. Pommer didn't really do much. He got mashed head first into the boards by Weber for coming too close to Rinne after one play (Weber got 2 for roughing). Kind of made me smile. On another note, Seth Jones is the real deal. He led the Preds in ice time for the second game in a row and was very dangerous offensively. He can skate like anything and is a great passer. Made a few "rookie plays" in his own end, but overall was solid. Filip Forsberg looked dangerous offensively in his first game of the year (he scored his first NHL goal). He, of course, was taken right before Grigo in the 2012 draft. Matt Dumba was out there for the Wild (#7 pick last year) and didn't do anything too awful as I recall.

After a couple of days of lag period, the government shutdown now appears to be negatively affecting our financial markets... And, the displayed irrationality of the Tea-liban is fueling fear about the debt ceiling vote on the 17th, which again is negatively affecting our financial markets. For a minority group of hyper-partisan zealots to be holding our economy captive when they don't have the votes to do anything is IMHO the very height of irresponsible leadership. Destroying voters' wealth in a vain attempt to get your way is never a winning strategy.

A German, and Austrian, and a Canadian walk into a bar...

Scroll through the thread... about 1/2 the people on here made the same prediction. :P

He has been interim head coach and has yet to coach his first regular season game as the "permanent" coach. So as far as I'm concerned the current won/loss record is 0-0-0-0 and his job performance is TBD. I'm not voting because I think it is legitimately too early to tell what he can do with this team.

I'm just happy that hockey season is about to start! :D :thumbsup: B-)

I had to listen on radio today, but it sounded like the much maligned Da'Norris Searcy was making a lot of plays in the secondary. Hopefully we'll get a DB or two back for Thursday's game against Cleveland.

The force is strong in young Kiko Alonso. :thumbsup:

Jesus hates the Bills. :(

I think The Hoff deserves a letter more than Myers. I'd go with Vanek, Ott, and The Hoff to start the year with letters.

If we're trying to resign him then Vanek. If Vanek is as good as gone then Ott.

I watched him play a ton at Florida State (I'm an ACC guy) and accuracy was never a big problem with him from what I saw. His worst year in college he completed over 65%. He had a rough game against Florida last year, but otherwise looked good the whole year. I saw him beat my team (Virginia Tech) with a last minute drive, which rarely happens against a Bud Foster coached defense.

Murphy was yelling "and the Bills tie it up!" after the go-ahead extra point... he had to be reminded that the Bills were actually ahead. Oof.

Jesus loves the Bills! :thumbsup:

Jesus hates the Buffalo Bills. ;)

Did anyone see the end of the Arizona State - Wisconsin game yesterday? Bizarre.

A thread about marketing! This makes me happy. :D

USA has a World Cup qualifier in Costa Rica tonight. Game is on BEIN sports at 10pm EST.