cooperstown

Relistening to Cronin's conference now. I used to not care for him much - without much reason other than I was a huge Huggins fan and wasn't going to like whomever his successor was (not a real legitimate reason, I know) - but he has slowly grown on me. After this conference, I am a full-fledged Mick fan. There is simply no way to not be totally impressed with what he said and how he handled himself. He literally pulled the shirts off a couple of his players after the game apparently. How can you not respect that?

I agree. That being said, I lump Gates into the same category.

Going to make it really tough to turn around if your primary post player isn't around for a long period of time (perhaps the entire season).

Wow. Xavier administration has to be so very proud of Lyons and Holloway. They represented themselves and their school in their interview as classless, disrespectful, immature, ignorant, street thugs . . . . .

Running your mouth like a thug is classless and immature, but start swinging and kicking and you take it to another level of thugdom. I wouldn't think it impossible that Gates and whoever kicked Frease could see criminal charges. I really like the way Cronin handled himself in his press conference.

UC just doesn't play solid enough defense to overcome their shooting woes. A season that looked pretty promising at the start now beginning to look very disappointing.

#8 Kansas State #12 Baylor #14 Oklahoma Yep, saw the game. LSU's defense and special teams won the game. Their offense struggled. I'm sure it did have quite a bit to do with Georgia's defense. Never said otherwise, only that OSU could win if LSU's offense again struggled, as OSU stands the better chance of putting up some points against LSU's defense.

No we don't. Bama didn't show that they can't beat LSU, only that they didn't beat LSU in a very closely-contested game in their prior matchup. Bama can beat LSU and probably has the best chance of any team in the country of doing so. That being said, I'd rather see OSU play the game just to see if their offense could actually put up some points on LSU. If LSU's offense would lay a turd like they did against Georgia for the most part, OSU could win it. OSU played a tougher overall schedule, beating 3 Top 15 opponents this season, while Bama beat only one. I think they earned the right to be there.

Marlins' offer to Pujols is crazy. The dude is awesome, but he's 32 years old and not worth that kind of money that far into the future.

It's not that I don't want to spend money on others, it's just that I won't have any left after buying stuff for myself. Gee, sounds kind of selfish when it's put like that, so tell you what, Clyde. I am willing to scrounge around the couch cushions to find enough money to buy you this ...... I'm assuming XL will be sufficient?

:lol:

Good for you.

Starting to get to the point where some of us that are utterly convinced that he cannot be an NFL QB (I am including myself) are going to have to admit we possibly, maybe, potentially could be wrong.

You're probably right.....these "shady" women are all part of a liberal conspiracy to deny Cain the White House. :lol: I won't bother to say the name of the woman I know. Love to know what's "shady" about her. Bankruptcy? Heaven forbid. And Lord knows there is nothing "shady" about Cain. Nothing the slightest bit suspicious about paying off multiple women who allege sexual harassment, denying any knowledge of it, paying (apparently) large sums of money over a long period of time to a woman your wife knows nothing about, etc.... Dude is just an angel, huh? Too funny. But, hey, we're all entitled to our own opinions. Mine is that Cain is a lying, unethical, clueless buffoon who doesn't have the class or cajones to fess up. Ultimately, though, it doesn't matter - he's an afterthought and will now spend his free time trying to convince his wife that his relationship with White was pure as driven snow.

I need to keep this statement fairly generic for obvious reasons. I am familiar with one of the women who alleged sexual harassment by Cain. I've met her a couple times and know people that know her well. There is no way to know with any certainty she's telling the truth, but I'll tell you one thing - she is indeed a credible person and without any obvious sinister motive. Do credible people lie? Sure. Is she lying? Possibly. But don't so too entirely quick to absolutely dismiss their claims, or at least hers. I am told that it was not her desire to re-visit this issue and was not only not responsible for contacting the media, but tried hard initially to protect her identity. With regard to Ginger White, the woman who has claim the longterm affair with Cain, if you do not find her story to be at least somewhat somewhat credible, especially when compared to Cain's laughable denial, I would submit you have "Cain" blinders on. He sounds and looks like a man caught with his hand in the cookie jar. I think it's a reasonably safe bet that a married man who is giving away money - apparently sizeable amounts of money based on his relucatance to discuss it in detail on the advice of his attorney - over a long term period to a woman their wife knows nothing about is probably up to no good. Every time? No. Most of the time? No question.

Wrestler, also consider Bud's Guns in Lexington. You can purchase from them online, but unless you are already certain which gun you want, I'd recommend going to the store in person to get a feel for the weapon and discuss with them the exact features of the gun. There are many variances between semi-auto handguns - single action only, double action only, DA/SA, trigger pull, external safety, magazine disconnect, decock lever (to safely drop hammer from from single action), all-steel or polymer-based (lighter) gun, hammer fired or striker pin fired, gun finish, style of sight, and on and on and on. The point is that many of these features are personal shooter (or agency) preference and you need physically see and feel - and hopefully test fire - the ones you in which you are truly interested in order to make an informed decision. I've been a federal agent for 25 years, a firearms instructor for 23 yrs, shot competitively for many years (no longer), have Sig, S&W, and Remington armorer certifications, own several handguns, and plink around quite a bit. Certainly no expert, but not exactly a novice either. I've carried S&W revolvers (late 80's/early 90's), Sig 9mm and .357 semi-autos (1992-2011), and now the S&W M&P .40 for duty. In fact, me and 19 other instructors from my agency just spent this past week with S&W to get our armorer certification and ramp up to start the M&P .40 transition training for the field agents. I own or have owned numerous revolvers, a Glock 19, Sig .380, Bersa .380, Colt .45, and a Beretta .32. You've been given some nice options already - Glock is a super gun, no question, but you have to carefully train with it (or with any gun, for that matter) since it has a very light trigger pull that will surprise you if you're used to DAO guns. Nothing wrong with that, by any means, but just one of those feaures that you need to understand before purchasing. I know guys that simply wanted nothing to do with it because of this light trigger pull (BTW, you can put on a different trigger with a heavier pull) or believed (incorrectly) it did not have sufficient safety features. Springfield is a very nice gun also. I've only shot this weapon a couple times, but was impressed. Keep in mind that both Glock and Springfield are pricier guns. Maybe I'm wrong, but I get the feeling you're looking for a nice, relatively inexpensive gun. In that regard, the S&W Sigma is kind of a poor man's Glock. In fact, so similar to the Glock's design was it that S&W was sued by Glock and had to make a couple design changes, primarily to the trigger pull. Sigma has a much heavier pull than Glock (about 10-11 pounds). I like the gun overall, but don't especially care for the trigger pull, probably because I'm used to carrying $750 Sig DA/SA guns for duty. Then again, some people even prefer the heavier pull on the Sigma as compared to the Glock, feeling that they are less likely to have an accidental discharge. All in all, Sigma is a nicely-priced option. I would also suggest you check out the Bersa Thunder Pro. Again, a very competitively-priced gun that shoots quite nicely and also comes in a compact version. It's not a Glock, or Springfield, Sig, or higher-end S&W, but a very nice "cheaper" alternative. Even with this gun though, you have to decide if you like the DA/SA configuration and use of decocking/safety lever. Best of luck. And check out Bud's Guns.

Tall, thin, nice-throwing motion, throws reasonably hard, good control. Assuming he's picked up a little more on his fastball since last season, which would put him into the "hard thrower" category. He will be very tough to hit, especially with the new bats. Midland was very anxious to have him pitch for them next summer.

Left-hander Mark Downs will be ace at Ryle. Recently signed to pitch for University of Cincinnati next year.

I was two months old. Which makes you . . . younger than me?!? Shocking. I look like I could be your son.

Christmas Story and Elf are two absolutely hysterical Christmas movies. I can't imagine I've watched Christmas Story any less than 20 times from beginning to end.

So let's say Santa is willing to spend $1000 on your Christmas gift. What would you have him bring? I wouldn't mind a set of Callaway Diablo Hybrid Irons and a TaylorMade R11 driver. Started to play a little more golf this year than in the past 10-12 years and noticed that I suck. I'm assuming it is because my clubs are outdated.

Anyone been to the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza (former Texas School Book Depository Building where Oswald was located when he shot Kennedy)? Fascinating place. The area where Oswald perched as he fired the shots is behind glass and set up exactly as it was on the day the shooting occurred.

Been a brutally busy past few months at work and a ton of travel. After next week things calm down considerably. Eligible to retire Jan. 2 - not going, but nice to be in the club. Especially since I'm so dang young.

I think "peaceful" is still an appropriate adjective. When you compare this to many of the protests and demonstrations across this country and throughout the world, it's not as if the protestors were throwing rocks at police, turning over cars, looting businesses, attacking innocent bystanders, etc. Those are the types of activities most of us ascribe to "violent" protests and none of those things occurred (that I'm aware of). Were they disobedient in that they violated some rules of the college and ignored police warnings? Sure. But I'm not sure those things would throw this event into the "non-peaceful" category. For me anyways, I think "peaceful protest" still appropriately describes the event.

For the record, I agree with the rest of your original post. I can't say I've read enough information as to all of the events that transpired leading up to the pepper spray incident, so my partially uninformed opinion is to question the governmental/institutional decisions that were made and certainly to question the tactics used by the police at that point in time. There's an old saying that 'discretion is the better part of valor' and perhaps this was a situation in which it would have been more appropriate to lay back and let time work to your advantage, especially given the demonstrators didn't appear to be causing danger to anyone. Of course, anyone can be a solid Monday morning quarterback - it's quarterbacking on Sunday that is the challenge. That all being said, I still have to take issue with two small pieces of your last post and then I'll let this die. You seem to be implying that police use of riot gear is only appropriate when a riot is taking place. Simply not true. It is appropriate to employ even in "peaceful" situations when dealing with large numbers of people in a situation that has a realistic potential to become combative. It's simply not fair to say that "well-trained officers could have handled the situation without all of the riot gear." The best trained, most experienced officers in the world don't automatically have the ability to convince large numbers of highly-motivated people to comply with their verbal demands or to arrest/remove such people without the risk of serious violence occurring. A mob mentality can be a scary thing. Sometimes it truly does require a show of force and, perhaps, the actual use of force. Just part of the world we live in. And while I certainly agree with and appreciate your assessment that police work is one of the most noble professions, this "nobility" shouldn't mean that we take unnecessary risks, fail to acknowledge potentially dangerous situations, or not employ standard and acceptable tools of the trade (i.e., riot gear) in the interest of appearing more noble or heroic. Good debate though. It'll be very interesting to see what exactly took place leading up to the incident, who issued what orders and when.