LTS

A few quick things. I highlighted ability because I think it's an inappropriate word to use here. There may be a division in what members of the military are willing to do but I do firmly believe they have the ability to do so. I would like to think that upholding the spirit and existence of the Constitution would be something that military would want to preserve but I wonder how many different opinions exist within the military on what that means. I certainly do not know, but I have to imagine it's much like the general population in which there are a wide range of opinions. So while some may feel the same, there are probably some who feel differently than you and the people you know. Would that be accurate? However, I don't think the United States needs to use its military for this purpose. We're doing an admirable job of attacking each other and tearing ourselves apart from within with little pushes along the way.

Let me know what you think. He has a long stride and my son noted he skates somewhat like Eichel in that regard, more upright and longer strides. I think the problem is that he doesn't have the same leg and core strength that Eichel has to get his body moving. I do know this. When he had a few of those one-timers on the PP I was thinking, that's a pretty good role for him right now. He was blasting.

Good to know about his story. I had no idea what happened to him until someone had mentioned his issues a few days ago.

I understand where you are coming from in this post. But the problem is that this is no longer a government "OF" "BY" or "FOR" the people. The American population has decided it's more interested in celebrity news than politics. The American population is what allows for this to continue to happen. The 2nd amendment is irrelevant. It's a dying dream of those who believe that somehow a bunch of armed citizens can stand a chance against what the military and its defense contractors could bring in to battle against them. Your AR-15 is every bit as insignificant as the AK-47 held by someone in ISIS. That said, there's no need for guns when citizens have shown the propensity to act against each other. The intelligent person would let the people destroy themselves by manipulating them, not attacking them. As for the use of federal agencies to monitor and target US Citizens, this has been going on for far longer than the names you've mentioned. This is what our government has become because the citizens have turned a blind eye to it. I'm not sure why you believe that Trump is not using them either. Trump is a figurehead, just as past Presidents were.

The problem with the concept of deterrence is that you can't ask people about it. No one raises their hand and says, "I would have shot up that place but because there's a guard there I chose not to." There is a perception that it stops violence. I don't know that it's proven. Certainly the concept is based on military demonstrations of force that lead to opposition not attacking as they could. Perhaps it's similar when applying it to a single lunatic, perhaps not. The illogical are impossible to predict. In any event, the statement encourages an escalation of violence to prevent more violence which is not the right solution. Having an armed guard just means that person will be the first to get shot. Then the answer is two armed guards? If you put enough armed guards there then it's easier to just blow it up. Maniacs will attempt to create violence. The answer is trying to stop it before they ever get there. The answer lies in the events and way we treat people for all the days prior to the day they decide they want to destroy. Even then, violence will never be stopped entirely. At least not unless we develop some kind of brain insert that can monitor when a person is about to commit an act of violence and neutralizes the threat.... but I don't see people signing up for that.

My quick hits: It was good to see the Sabres come back again. This kind of battle demonstrates the mentality we've been looking for as fans. Scandella needs a few maintenance days. Ristolainen perhaps should play forward. He was more impressive in the offensive zone carrying the puck than he was on the back end. Ullmark proved why he should NOT be the starting goaltender yet. When CBJ jumped up a few goals he began pushing too hard and quite a few times was overcommitting to the play. Nick Foligno almost beat him on one. I like Ullmark and he's showing signs of what he will be, but he's not there yet. Thompson is slow. Very slow. Jack appears to be picking his spots and not trying to overdo it. I think he'll grow back into his game but he continues to be out there playing hard, using his body, and making the timely play when needed. In the past I would have walked away when they were down 2... not anymore. We were rewarded with the effort to come back. OT sucked, but that's the way it goes.

Once used a word someone didn't understand. They didn't like it. Got the anticipated "Where'd you learn that word? <insert stupid comment here>" When I responded "Thesaurus" they thought I was referring to a dinosaur and mocking them. I died, more than a little, that day.

Well, the answer to stopping violence is violence right? Also, encouraging armed guards supports his private defense and gun lobby friends. Oh,, and yeah, better if he never opens his mouth... ever. Although, to be honest, he's just proving his an everyday joe.. just because he's President doesn't mean he shouldn't be able to act like your average Internet forum commenter right?

Well, socialism and some real nutjob leadership...

You know, I keep trying to put LTS on ignore too and the damn software won't let me do it. I sent a message to SDS but he just laughed at me. I'm not sure why. This place is toxic.

You certainly made it past that when you quoted the post. ?

He's pretty happy when his team scores. You know what I learned from this video? 1. There are people in this world named Chuffy (his mother). 2. Dude had flow.

Does he mean soft suede? I bet he does. Everyone loves soft suede.

After freezing my arse off tailgating for a Bills game I was standing in the corral waiting to be herded through the gates to the impending Bills slaughter when some fool decides that he wants to do his best hail mary attempt on the dumpster that is full of glass bottles. From somewhere waaaaay downtown a bottle comes screaming in and crashes perfectly into the dumpster full of beer bottles. Well, quite predictably, a dumpster full of glass being impacted at high speed by more glass will probably end up causing some damage. Lucky for me that it hit the side of my head only 1/4 inch behind my right eye... I mean, I got to pull a piece of glass out of my head and get it "fixed" at the stadium medical center so I had that going for me. It was pretty much at that point in life I stopped paying attention to the team or its "die-hard" mafia. I don't remember what year it was.. perhaps around 12-15 years ago. I've turned down free tickets to attend games since then. No thank you. I went to one game since then and it was "required" as a "business" trip. I hated every moment of it and soon thereafter found myself a new job for that and many other reasons.

Looking forward to kicking back tonight and enjoying the game. It's a craptacular day outside, I drove to Buffalo for a hockey game this morning and am back. I'm ready for this.

@Randall Flagg- I appreciate all the research and work you put into things. You can choose to not believe without more detailed evidence which will probably never be shared because the public should not get the full picture of everything that goes on. Perhaps you have extensive locker room experience and have never run into the situation, but unfortunately I can tell you that I have. Naturally I don't have statistics to back all of this up. In college when I played volleyball we had a situation where one of our best players was also a person the rest of the team really didn't want to be around, for a multitude of reasons. Naturally we all want to win, but playing volleyball just didn't seem as fun with him around. We're off to a less than mediocre record to start the season. We're not great, but we're definitely better than what we were showing. About 1/4 way through the season he lands funny and messes up his ankle. In theory we should be worse because the replacement player is definitely not in the same class of player as this guy. Basically, this guy drops off the planet and we don't see him anymore. We went on to improve our record dramatically, pretty much overnight. We were all having a lot more fun playing. I've also witnessed similar things when coaching youth hockey. A single kid in the locker room is just a routine problem causer. The kids really don't like him and as such they don't look forward to being in the locker room. Practices are annoying because this kid just brings everyone down. He gets injured and is away from the team and there's an immediate improvement in every aspect of the team. We can say these guys are professionals, but I've worked in an office space where we had a person who just dragged the office down despite being a good worker. Their performance never looked bad but the rest of the office just didn't perform the same. They left, everything got better. Just because they get paid a ton of money to play the game it certainly does not mean they can just ignore the impacts certain players may have. Bottom line I am not sure it matters what's true. The Sabres, at the moment, do not miss ROR, that's the real bottom line. St. Louis with ROR does not appear to have improved much over how they ended last season. Will it change? Who knows...

It's not a perfect solution by any means, but it's fair to say that being less educated makes it easier to radicalize people. There is certainly a problem with people who are being educated while also being subjected to an institutionalized radical cause or being a racist or something similar. If their education only reinforces that way of thinking it's unlikely they will question their ideals.

Yeah.. he scored that goal but just before it he took a shot. His celebration was quite muted and he was blowing real hard to get through the fist bump line...

Here's an apocalyptic statement. I 100% agree with you here. For this season, this will likely be the line that gets used. However, as they build towards being a team built for a deep playoff run they will need players who have the ability to put it in the net when they get the chance while still shutting down the other teams top players.

McDavid has only ever played on one team who has a history of completely sucking. So, its not the same as ROR who has played on two teams who have not accomplished much while he was on them. The St. Louis Blues experiment is underway. You can point to the goaltender but they've a ton of talent. If you are offended by this, then I would agree with you. You keep going back to the numbers game but you said it yourself. The pieces that are making a difference this year were on the roster last year. ROR is a really good hockey player and no one is denying that. However, teams that he's been one have not had great success and there's no denying that. In the world of statistical correlation and causation it might not be possible to map, but that does not change reality. It's very possible to have a great player on the team who looks like he's a real boon to the team but still annoys everyone else so much that they don't realize their full potential (or don't necessarily want to). If you cannot accept that other players who are still here care more because O'Reilly is gone then you are completely dismissing any concept of psychology. There's no reason to doubt what d4rk is saying. It also fits with what is happening right now on this team. There are other things that are contributing to it as well without a doubt. One last thought, there's no way to prove that this team, right now, if it had ROR instead of say... Sobotka & Berglund would be playing better. You can't point to what he is doing in St. Louis as proof because that's a different team with different dynamics. Bottom line, this year the team has a different mindset and on the ice it shows. Losing ROR has certainly not hurt the team one bit and there's no proof they would be better if he were still here.

That's the same thing Billy Connolly said... first thing that pops up if you search it. ? I miss George Carlin.

Thanks for the link. I feel like I read that article back when it came out as so much of it seemed familiar but it was good to revisit it (unless I hadn't read it and just read something similar). In either event, I agree with it. My personal opinion is that our education system has been engaged in a policy of dumbing down the population such that we are no longer taught to think critically but just to learn information and regurgitate it without thinking. The questions surrounding what companies like Pearson do with the data they receive along with how they create standardized tests and books for education concern me greatly. A population that is trained not to think will be easier to control. Raising two kids over the past 14 years I have had nothing but disdain for the overall trend in public education. Kids are not trained on how to analyze situations and solve problems. I have been working hard to teach my kids problem solving skills they so desperately need. Yesterday morning, Jeremy White retweeted someone who was mocking another tweeter who posted about the bombs. In it the guy spelled rhetoric as redderick. I've seen similar things like this from Democratic and Republican backing people. It's easy to mock someone like that but what purpose does it serve? Do we need to antagonize someone who is clearly undereducated? We should be disgusted that we've failed to educate our citizens. The less educated people are the easier they are to control. It doesn't take a master degree to pull the trigger of a gun or to mail some bombs. In fact, it might be harder to get someone like that to do it. But if you go out and find those who dropped out of school at 12... well they're a lot easier to influence and incite. We're in for a rough ride, but if we don't get back to enforcing a higher level of education and helping those who are prone to dropping out of school get educated it will only get worse. We don't need to teach people to be the next Nobel prize physicist, but we do need to teach them necessarily life skills.

I don't feel that way. I think he thinks it should have been Jack.

The poutine was lacking but everyone was speaking French. Just kidding.. I wasn't there. I hope that if the Sabres continue to play well the value of seeing the game versus selling the ticket will change and we'll see less visiting fans in the seats... or if nothing else, a Sabres fan buys the STH seat rather than a Habs or Leafs fan.

I never stopped believing... welcome back.