MS256

It's a lot easier to just remember $6.2B and throw that amount out there for every problem than it is to actually know how much you actually need. "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you are talking real money." (Everett Dirksen) BTW. It's part of the progressive goal of redistribution of wealth both nationally and globally. Find a problem (often a just and noble cause) and use that cause to redistribute wealth.

Close. I'll concede them enough to protect the country and a little more. I would rather have State and local governments and individuals handle the rest. I'm not into having my tax dollars take a trip up to Washington where half of it is spent on running the bureaucracy, half of what is left over is doled out to people that won't work and would prefer to live off of the government tit, half of the rest is wasted on ridiculous pork projects to pay off political donors, half of what is left over after that pulls a disappearing act, and the people that actually need it can have the crumbs.

I just call it like I see it. There have been other years where I would have told you that I didn't think anybody in the country could beat the best SEC team, or that could beat Alabama. On those years I would have been seen as having "fan bias".

Very Very Good is a step in the right direction. I see the SEC more like: Mississippi State. Pretty darned good and match up pretty well against any style. Hungry. Auburn. Very good but suspect on defense. Ole Miss. Very good and a tough match up for anybody before losing Treadwell. Alabama. Good. Probably could have been the best team in the country but undisciplined line play (coaching?) kills/killed that chance. Not hungry at all. LSU. Fairly good and getting better. Has the athletes to hit anybody in the mouth but were too young starting the season. Don't see anybody else that deserves more than Decent at this point.

You are a lot more generous in your definition of "great teams" than I am. I've seen great teams before but I haven't seen anything this year that fits my definition. Everybody seems to have some problems that could jump up and bite them at any time, especially when a player or two gets injured.

LOL. I watch waaaaaay more college football than I do pro football and really don't have a favorite pro team but I do pay a little bit of attention to the NFL. When I first read your comment about Peyton winning 2 Super Bowls I wondered how I could have completely missed one of them. Thought the first stages of dementia were setting in.

Believe it or not I watched most of it on MSNBC. I turned to channel 200 (on Dish) and CNN had been replaced with MSNBC on that channel. Something about "Turner pulling the channel"? Chris Mathews was about this color when I tuned in and slowly changed colors as the results poured in . By the end of the night I honestly thought the man was going to need medical attention. It brought back my memory of the last time I ever voted for a Democrat. Watching the returns that night on regular network TV after the Democrat I voted for had been defeated one of the reporters said "Well I guess we'll have to nominate somebody from the South that believes in the death penalty for jay-walking." At that moment it hit me that I had been on the wrong side all along, had nothing in common with that group, and would never be on that side again.

I don't really know what to make of TCU yet. I do think K-State has a well coached football team so I'm holding out until I see that game. TCU could have easily lost to West Virginia but I haven't heard anybody use that as a possible negative. Irony of the week for me was when I heard one of the TV pundits say that "Alabama's best win was over West Virginia and that wasn't a very good win." Okay I'll agree with that...But then the same person in the next breath was talking about how "great a win TCU had over West Virginia." Good entertainment anyway. Gotta love it.

I didn't see anything too outrageous or too surprising. I would have preferred to see a few things flopped around (like trading places between Alabama and Michigan State) but they didn't call and ask me my opinion.

It wouldn't. I used to joke that I take one more club for the cold, another club for the wind, and another club because I'm going to hit it like crap. LOL

Nope. I am probably as accurate as some (but not all) of those guys from equal distances but not equal clubs. In other words if they are hitting from 140 and I am hitting from 160 they are going to usually win that fight even though we are hitting the same club. If were each hitting from 140 it would be a fair fight. (Not to mention them hitting "drivable greens" that I can't reach). There's just something about my crappy swing that lets me swing a short club very fast without even trying but doesn't translate equally to a long club.

I hit irons a club or two farther and higher than any of the guys I play with that can consistently outdrive me by 20 yards with a driver. I would trade with them in a New York minute if I could.

No need. Not even worth it. SMH.

Since we are throwing out stats, winning games, how it used to be legal to take the quarterback's head off, and taking into account the awfulness of the teams a quarterback played on, I will take Archie Manning. Just half joking because he really could play. It was a shame that he was always on absolutely awful teams. Watch these defensive lineman going for his head in this video. Funny thing is that the word was that most defensive players liked Archie and took it easy on him (thank goodness).

I certainly hope not!!!!! Don't need it, don't deserve it, and don't want it. It seemed from the first week's selection that maybe the coaches on the selection board carried extra weight because most TV pundits were claiming Alabama was in the top 4 and some (many actually) thought Alabama was the best team in the country. Coaches on the committee that are used to breaking down film will see what Joshua Dobbs was able to do against Alabama and ask themselves what would happen against Dak Prescott. Everything Joshua Dobbs can do Dak Prescott can do better. They will also look at what Arkansas was able to do and ask what will happen against LSU. Similar teams with similar philosophies but everything Arkansas can do LSU can do better. If by some chance Alabama can get past LSU and Mississippi State maybe it will be time to think maybe they are pretty good and maybe deserve to be top 4 (but not until then).

That's not what he said at all. SMH!

I said "I don't disagree with much of that". There has never been a time since I can remember that we haven't done exactly that. Even went as far as military conflict in our persuasive efforts a few times, which BTW I was usually opposed to.

The best thing about it is that you are entitled to your opinions, I am entitled to mine, and others are entitled to theirs. You won't change mine and I won't change yours.

I'm completely serious and it's nothing like ISIS and the Taliban because it explicitly forbids terrorism. Presidents from both parties have already put "boots on the ground" in instances of great oppression or ethnic cleansing so nothing new there. Presidents from both parties have also used aid as a carrot and stick many times so nothing new there. Not much outrageous about thinking that the world would be better off if every country was more democratic so nothing new there. (Pie in the sky but not outrageous). Saving tax dollars and "making it a sin" to squander them is certainly nothing new in conservative circles. Each issue taken on it's own and without the shock language is nothing new. The only eyebrow raiser to me was implanting people in other countries to persuade change but hell some of that may already go on behind the scenes. Much ado about nothing concerning somebody that makes a living stirring the pot, except to left wing bloggers who gasp in horror.

This thread by it's nature is usually a little off of the deep end but tonight the water seems extra deep. Is it a full moon or something?

LOL! I guess so.

As far as I'm concerned the stated goal of picking the best 4 teams is the flaw. Maybe a noble undertaking but too controversial, too hard to do, and not worth it. Conferences are not equal, and schedules are not equal. Every year somebody is going to feel slighted whether justified or not. If the stated policy was that only conference winners could get in the playoff (once everybody got used to it) it would take the constant griping and whining out of the equation. To make it relatively fair I think any independent should be forced to join or at least align with a conference and every conference should be forced to play a conference championship game. That wouldn't completely level the playing field but it would be closer than what we have now. Would the playoff of conference winners necessarily have the "best" 4 teams? No but so what. The "best" team doesn't always win anyway.

We used to do that in high school and for the most part girls could do it and boys couldn't. I could do it either way then and I can do it now (just checked). Don't know what to make of it though.

I should but I won't. Every candidate that I have an opinion on and want to win is going to win anyway. If that ever changes I'll be first in line to vote.

With the expansions of conferences, more regular season games, more money for traditionally under-funded programs from conference TV contracts, and added conference championship games it stands to reason that it's going to become harder and harder to go through a season with less than 2 losses for teams in those conferences. The way it used to be all you had to do was win the games on your schedule. Now you may have to beat the best team twice just to get in the playoff. Even if they weren't on the schedule you are guaranteed of facing another team that has played well enough to win their division. Nothing wrong with that but it's also going to take some time for college football fans to get used to it and teams that don't have a conference championship have a pretty big built in advantage. Remains to be seen how the committee will take different things into account. I happen to think that things like Ohio State's "bad loss" because of who beat them and that Indiana beating Missouri somehow extrapolates to the overall strength of the conferences are equally silly. Ohio State lost because they didn't play well enough to win that game. Missouri lost because they didn't play well enough to win that game. It happens but it doesn't mean much more than that. If either team played those opponents 10 times they would probably win 9 of them. Nobody thinks much about it when a last place team in the NFL beats a first place team. They just chalk it up to one of those flukes that happen during an NFL season.