Solomon

I'll one up you on that. Read yesterday that a couple of presidential candidates want to add abortions to their universal healthcare ideas. Now, while I am a dog lover, in no way is dog-fighting one-one-millionth as bad as killing another human, much less legalizing it and doing it with taxpayers money. Something is not quite right here.

It's the first thing I have ever bought that I had trouble putting in the back of my Explorer. Had to end up my wife sitting in the back of the car holding it so it wouldn't tip over.

Ended up with the 50" Samsung plasma flatscreen. This is a big TV. Getting it home has been such a headache that I'm not going to get to hook it up until tomorrow night.

Heh, I have a buddy here in Knoxville from out on the west coast who nearly single-handedly caused a strike because he loaded some boxes he wasn't supposed to move during a summer job after his senior year in high school. I don't remember all the details, nor could I do it justice by telling it here.

We'll find out a week from today. 7 games in 6 days against those two at Busch. If they can take 5 of them, they are back in the race.

I started keeping up with them after I saw them play on ESPN last year. If there is a program out there that has their priorities in line even more than Maryville does, it's Byrnes.

Wow, that is a mess.

Exactly. I just don't understand it. Seems to me you are now limiting families to taking vacations during this two week period, which in turns happens to be the busiest two week vacation period of the year. My guess is coaches are now MORE strict during the rest of the summer making sure the players are there instead of having a little bit of flexibility.

I'm merely just a fan who has not played in about a decade (jeez, I suddenly feel old) and doesn't have kids yet. I love the game, but I have never paid a whole lot of attention to the summer workouts part of it. But, from what little I have seen and know, I've not found a coach that has had any issues if a kid goes on vacation for a week. Now, if he doesn't show up for a month or all summer, then that is a different story, but even most coaches I know take a vacation during the summer. Am I completely wrong on this? This seems to be the pro-dead period folks' biggest argument - that coaches frown upon kids taking a week off to go on a vacation. I mean, are there more coaches that I realize who fall into this category?

Cards or Cubs will pull it out. Probably Cubs because Cards are horrible but just stick around somehow. Brewers won't do it. They should have a 7-10 game lead right now and will pay for not putting it out of reach when they could.

That's really cool man. I'm glad for you.

Well, as of now we are eyeing a 50" Samsung plasma. Based on everything I have seen and read, this is the best bang for the buck for what we want. Personally, I like plasma better than LCD. (FTT - reminissing back to your college days there with the LSD comment? ) And I have a VERY handy father in law. Alas, he will be helping me fix up my old house for sale.

I have. These plus sports boards get kind of dead sometimes.

Hate to bring this topic back up, but there has been some real-life application of the minimum wage in Solomon's household over the weekend. My wife manges a retail store that has several stores in Illinois and Missouri. The chain is decent sized, but by no means is it a Fortune 500 company. Well, late last week her district manager contacted her and told her that the following changes were going to happen because of the soon-to-be new minimum wage laws in the above mentioned states and pending federal law: -New managers would be required to work more hours during Christmas for the same salary, -Sales commissions for salespeople would be cut by either 2 or 3%, and -Target sales to trigger commission pay have been raised to where, as she put it, "no one is going to be able to reach them". For her personally, finding compotent salespeople is going to become even harder because it's going to be impossible for halfway-qualified people to work for what they will now be making with commission goals so hard to make. I expect this type of strategy or ones achieving the same end will be employed by many places that use minimum-wage work. So, in summary: -As many of us said, you can enact as many minimum wage laws as you would like, the owners/top managers of businesses will find ways to make their and/or their shareholders profit. Until you can change the mindsets of people, this cycle will continue. -In many cases, you may have "helped" the lowest economic level, but you effectively made life harder on those right above them and/or the lower middle class. My guess is you added more to the lowest level. -What sounds good in theory or on paper doesn't always work when it is put into practice. -And finally to all minimum-wage advocates on behalf of dandy, tex, ERA and all other business-minded people on here, we told you so.

How was the Academy?

Where the heck have you been? And no, for several reasons. What Pearl inherited from Buzz is going to look like a goldmine to what Raleigh inherited from DelMonico. This team does not have a Friday night starter and I'd go so far so say as the best pitcher on the team is a lower tier Saturday starter. I'm not expecting another Pearl-like hire, but I do think Coach Raleigh can make the program more stable and competitive year in and out in the SEC.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...14/wbush114.xml Halfway flabergasted by his comments, halfway infuriated - for various reasons.

I had just finished eating supper when I looked at that..... Thanks coach for being the reason for the first stain on the new carpet from where I just threw up.

Well, finally moved in. A few more boxes, but we're in pretty good shape. Now on the more pressing issues........... The plasma TV. We're looking at either a 42 or 50 inch. Any advice on brands to look at and best stores to check out? (Must be installed by 8 pm EST on September 1).

The sad part is that it never changes. The names and storylines just evolve.

Gotcha. I didn't even know the Pope had come out and said this. I agree with what he says in summary, but yeah, I get your point of CNN providing spiritual guidance. But, I have noticed that CNN has had a lot of articles/programs/etc. about religous stuff lately, especially Christianity. I guess they are trying to win back some viewership.

Why do you find them funny?

Just give us a heads up so we can go register.

Will we get to keep screennames, or get new ones for the Alabama site? I think Plus members screennames should roll over and everything else is fair game.

I don't know if this guy is going to be worth a hill of beans as a coach once the season rolls around, but he knows how to do and say the right things in the off season to excite the alumni, fans, and gain the respect of his players. He's even brought in good assistants as well. Most importantly, we're going to more orange in our uniforms and the Power T on all caps. Woo hoo!