RadicalRuss's Comments (38)

“What's this "feels like roulette"... you mean the notion that a #8 team could prove it on the field and upset a team the computers and polls have decided is #1 or #2?

There are 120 FBS teams. To suggest that only 1 2/3% of the teams that played this year are worthy of being considered to play for the "national championship" is a prediction that is slimmer than the margin of error in most polls, especially when five teams end the season undefeated.

You suggest Oregon at 10-2 is worthy of consideration but dismiss the Boise State team that owned them on the field. What good is this regular season for a majority of college teams when their actions on the field don't matter?

And how does your collisions and "what about the children?" argument not apply to FCS, Div-II, and Div-III football playoffs? Are they just not hitting hard enough? Or since most won't be sacrificing lucrative pro futures, they don't matter? C'mon now, players have as justifiable argument for payment now under the billionaire bowl system as they would under a playoff.

Finally, most (85%) of the fans probably agree that the controversy over a neglected two-loss #9 team not making the playoffs is preferable to undefeated #3 & #4 & #6 being neglected over an undefeated #2 that was one second on replay away from losing to three-loss Nebraska team.”

“Right, just like those college kids who can't make those road trips to March Madness games.”

“How does any national champion qualify as legitimate when large swaths of the nation have no chance of ever becoming national champions? If the conferences are truly unequal, then make two different divisions. If they are all "FBS", must then create path for non-BCS-conference teams to qualify for championship. It's not Boise State's fault the rest of the WAC (but Fresno and Hawaii in some years) sucks. It's not their fault nobody from a "big boy" conference won't schedule them, even at home, preferring easy wins against the FIUs and Chatanoogas over potential season-killing losses against a potent Bronco team.

Whoops, my bad. The PAC-10 champion got pwned by the Broncos. I believe it was zero first downs, nine yards of offense for -2 points in the first half, 18 Bronco first downs before Oregon got their 1st first down halfway through the third quarter, Didn't kill their season; they get in automatically even with a two-loss season.

Screw the BCS. We want a playoff.”

“I love the idea that physical bionic improvements to enhance performance beyond human norms are OK and celebrated, but chemical steroidal improvements to enhance performance beyond human norms are unfair and despised.

Wellen nails it with the "churlish" line - because of a disability, we're motivated by guilt to allow something that we won't allow for the able-bodied. It's kind of like medical marijuana that way.

The anti-steroids argument always pivots on the notion that the "natural" athletes won't be able to compete and that pressure will mount on them, and eventually impressionable youngsters, to "juice" in order to stay on the field. So is the difference here that high school track stars are unlikely to sever their legs just to get the newest "Cheetahs"?

If steroids are wrong because they are unfair, then so are bionic prosthetics.”

“Where are the numbers? Perhaps too poor to afford a trip to DC to protest and unable to get time off work to do so and too scared to call in sick lest they lose the crappy health insurance they've got?”

“Yes, a very long line. After all, we need to spend more taxpayer money on our defense (ahem) than every other country in the world combined. If we go about caring for the health of the "unproductive" in this country, we won't have enough money to bomb people in other countries.

Yes, it's the cost of the health care that's the problem. For example, the cost of pharmaceutical medications, kept outrageously high because we don't allow Medicare to collectively bargain (a.k.a. free market actions in grand scale) and we have insane laws regarding drug patents that protect corporate profits over human lives.

For another example, the markups hospitals have to charge the insured patients to cover the losses from the uninsured, who rarely come into the doctor for a check-up, but commonly come into the emergency room as a last resort.

And covering these health care costs are insurance companies, those grand innovators who found ways to NOT cover people's health care costs even when they did purchase insurance for decades.

No the REAL problem is treating human suffering and misery as a commodity to be bartered for profit. Some things we do for the good of society - police protection, fire protection, education, military, and if we were as civilized as every other industrialized first world nation, public health care.

Somebody needs a minimum wage job and a bout of kidney stones for a little perspective on health care and insurance in this country.”

“The point you miss is that under Canadian health care, you're a lot less likely to need that open heart team.

Every 7 minutes in Canada, someone dies from heart disease or stroke. http://www.heartandstroke.com/site/c.ikIQLcMWJtE/b.3483991/k.34A8/Statistics.htmm)

[E]very minute [in America], another heart attack death occurs. http://ezinearticles.com/?Heart-Attack-Statistics&id=4612933)

Another point you miss is that currently in America, there is already a panel that decides whether you get that hip replacement; it's a private health insurance company that denies you coverage for whatever technicality they can find. So of course, you're arguing against a public choice of insurance, because gov't healthcare (Medicare, Medicaid, TriCare, VA) is so awful. Well, fine, if you hate gov't healthcare, don't take it! But stop preventing the rest of us from trying to join the every other nation of the civilized world that actually cares for its citizens!

How I miss George Carlin during this health care "debate". This country is getting the exact oligarchical control it deserves. I can't wait for the follow-up stories in a year or two of these health care protesters facing some sort of catastrophic illness or injury and going bankrupt and/or dying because the health insurance and pharmaceutical corporations they are unwittingly carrying water for deny them coverage. I think Carlin would have found it to be an irresistibly ironic Malthusian solution to deal with overpopulation and undereducation... and would've made me laugh, too.”

“American Idol will never release the voting totals. To do so would show:

A) Texting counts for far more of the votes than phoning. In four hours of voting, how many busy signals will you get before recording a vote? In four hours of power texting, however, there are no busy signals.

B) Texting is only available to AT&T Subscribers, with coverage and users concentrated in the South (see AT&T map http://tr.im/mIGZ vs. Verizon map http://tr.im/mIGW, remember also that AT&T is the former Cingular, which was Bell South and SBC http://tr.im/mIGR)

C) People might put 2+2 together when they realize that of 16 Idol finalists, ten were from the South vs. none from the Northeast, 3 were from Alabama vs. only 2 from California, and six of eight winners are from the South.

Seacrest saying, "THIS.... is Confederate Idol!" would be more accurate. The South has risen again. Fortunately, they only control televised singing competitions and college football.”

“I've often joked that gay people should just form the "Church of Gay" and define sexual orientation as just one of their religious rites. After all, religion (a "lifestyle choice") is a federally protected class. Not letting members of the "Church of Gay" would then be an unconstitutional breach of freedom of religion.”

“Yes, we must ban this unnatural choice of sinistrality, or so-called "left-handedness"! God obviously made us to be right-handed and those who choose to use their unnatural hand for primary dexterity live an ungodly lifestyle.

Furthermore, so-called "left-handed" items like scissors, pitchers, and guitars must be destroyed. Sinistralists like Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney defile the guitar and the bass by stringing them in an unnatural manner. If God wanted sinistrals to play unnaturally, He'd made backwards pianos, violins, and saxophones.

Beware the sinistral agenda! Both John McCain and Barack Obama are sinistrals, so it is obvious how deeply this sinistral agenda is trying to force acceptance of their "leftie" ways down our throat!

(Tongue slightly in-cheek - my grandpa and mother were both forced to tie their dominant left hands behind their backs in school. My brother's young enough to be accepted for his sinistral orientation. This is a fun tack to take with a left-handed homobigot.)”

“It’s not just the patients that Big Pharma is seducing, either. 15 to 20 percent of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) income comes from pharmaceutical advertisements in its journals. Pfizer alone has 4500 people in its sales force, which directly market these drugs to doctors through special promotions and free samples. And while Big Pharma spends $3.7 billion to influence you, they spend almost twice that ($6.7 billion) advertising to doctors through these sales forces and in professional journals.

And it works. $10.4 billion in total advertising is a small price to pay to reap the $227.5 billion spent on prescription drugs in 2007. Comparing the cost of the raw ingredients vs. the retail cost to consumers, the markups on Paxil, Zoloft, Celebrex, Prozac, and Xanax are 2,898%, 11,821%, 21,712%, 224,973%, 569,958%, respectively. The pharmaceutical industry is the third most profitable industry in America, according to Fortune Magazine (trailing only communications and internet industries for return-on-investment), with 2008 profits of 19.3% of revenues. The profits of the three largest pharmaceutical companies were $12.9, $8.1, and $4.8 billion in 2008, respectively.”

“In his book, Death by Prescription, Ray D. Strand describes our “self-medicated society” and how these pharmaceutical ads turn the patient into a drug seeker and the doctor into a dealer:

“Surveys reported in our medical literature reveal that when a patient comes into a doctor’s office and requests a specific drug that he has seen advertised in the media, the doctor writes the exact prescription the patient requested more than 70 percent of the time!”

So, let’s say that a consumer who has been feeling a little sad lately sees a commercial for the antidepressant drug Zoloft. The commercial demonstrates the symptoms for depression and the consumer identifies with them. Suddenly, he or she thinks, “I’m not just sad. I’m depressed, which is a ‘medical condition that can be treated by the prescription drug Zoloft.’” With this in mind, the consumer goes to a medical doctor and says, “I’ve been really depressed a lot lately. I’ve been [the consumer recites the depression symptoms listed in the Zoloft commercial]. I think I need Zoloft.” So, according to Strand, there’s a 70 percent chance the doctor will prescribe Zoloft, the exact prescription the consumer requested. That’s how pharmaceutical commercials really work. They directly influence consumer behavior, yet drug companies claim they only “educate” patients, but don’t persuade them to do anything.”

“How in the world do you make a list of the world's healthiest foods without including hempseed, nature's greatest source of Omega-3s and Omega-6s and most digestible protein?

Maybe because Dole doesn't sell hempseed?”

“For Season 2, while both Ruben and Clay had the God card, don't forget that Clay was "teh gay" for those Christian viewers.

I think the true theory is the Southern AT&T Text Messaging theory, only with the Christian vote acting as tiebreaker. In Idol voting, you're allowed to call or text in ten votes per line. However, calls get you busy signals and you have to keep redialing to get just two votes, much less ten.

Text messaging, though, gets no busy signal and you can send in ten of them in the time it would take to get through one Idol phone call. Now, understand that anyone can call, but only AT&T subscribers can text, and AT&T's subscriber base is largest in the South.

So when watching Idol Season 9, ask yourself, "Who would a 13-year-old girl in Mobile vote for?"

Evidence?

8) Allen (Arkansas) vs. Lambert (California)
7) Cook (Missouri) vs. Archuleta (Utah)
6) Sparks (Arizona) vs. Lewis (Washington) (Religion wins tiebreaker)
5) Hicks (Alabama) vs. McPhee (California)
4) Underwood (Oklahoma) vs. Bice (Alabama) (Religion breaks tie)
3) Fantasia (North Carolina) vs. DeGarmo (Georgia) (Religion breaks tie)
2) Studdard (Alabama) vs. Aiken (North Carolina) ("Not gay" breaks tie)
1) Clarkson (Texas) vs. Guarini (Pennsylvania)

What are the chances you'd get three finalists from Alabama and only two from California? Or that ten of sixteen finalists would be from former Confederate States and zero from the Northeast?”

“You're right. In the Japanese method, prisoners were held upside down and water poured over their bare mouth and nose. In the American method, prisoners were held at a 15-degree angle and water poured over a porous cloth over the mouth and nose, intensifying the feeling of drowning. The American method was far more tortuous; we had fifty years to improve it.”

“Lee, thanks so much for being someone with "Ayn-cred" to state the obvious: Objectivism does not work. "Tragedy of the Commons" and all that.

And thanks for correcting Malkin's mispronunciation.

My first retort to any Libertarian I meet is, "please show me the historical example that forms the basis of your belief that this economic model will work." Then we get to talking about Pinochet's Chile, post-Soviet Russia, and the last eight American years as my examples of "enlightened self-interest" run amok.

To the "taxes are theft by force!" crowd, I ask what their limited gov't should do. "Police and Army and Courts," they say, to which I answer, "how are you going to pay them?" Eventually they get to something resembling a tax, to which I respond, "so, you don't actually have a problem taking funds by force, do you, you just have a quibble about 'how much' and 'for what'?"

Humans started as Objectivists! Three cavemen arguing over a kill, the strongest one gets the best meat. Eventually the hungry cavemen banded together and formed the first government and decided that it shouldn't be just the strong ones with full bellies.”

“No surprise that the countries that have best access to birth control and abortion have the least abortions. It is the Iron Law of Prohibition: prohibit something that adults want and not only will you get more of it, but the prohibition will cause more overall harm to society than what you tried prohibiting in the first place. Supply and demand works the same whether we're talking about alcohol, prostitution, marijuana, or abortion.”

“Here's my question for the baseball purist-types who so revere the "pure" players of a bygone era:

Is the "Tommy John" surgery cheating? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_John_surgeryy)

No, because all players are allowed to access that artificial enhancement. But certainly the records set by pitchers since 1974 would be enhanced by this surgical breakthrough compared to prior eras. So why the hissy fit over how steroids are artificially inflating the game's record books? Why isn't Barry Bonds' three knee surgeries more a contribution to his longevity and therefore his all-time HR record than his steroid use? How much longer and better would Hank Aaron have played with modern surgeries and training techniques?

Why do we approve of modern artificial physical methods to compete (hi-tech training equipment, advanced surgeries, that Paralympic sprinter allowed to try out for Olympics while wearing his prosthetic "leaf-spring" leg) but detest artificial chemical methods to compete?

And even then, we only oppose the chemical methods that enhance; we seem to have no issue with the pharmaceutical cocktails every pro player's team doctor routinely doles out for pain and inflammation. But god forbid the athlete treat pain and inflammation with cannabis!

I agree with a previous commenter. Legalize steroids. Prohibition does not work, it only creates deadlier, more available drugs. Players allowed to use steroids would push the market toward safer, more effective enhancements, and adults should be allowed to do with their bodies as they choose.”

“Your responsible adult marijuana consumers lobby, NORML, is on the case! A serious boycott of Kellogg's calling on consumers to take photos of themselves destroying their Kellogg's products or otherwise expressing disappointment (like holding a sign) over Kellogg's decision to drop Phelps.
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Please do not go buy a Kellogg's product in order to make the photo! That kind of defeats the purpose!
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Send your photos to stash 'at' norml dot org with the subject "Boycott Kellogg's". They will be posted at the NORML Kellogg's Boycott page at http://stash.norml.org/boycottkelloggs
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Russ Belville
Host - NORML Daily Audio Stash”

“The boycott is on!

http://stash.norml.org/flashback-phelps-2004-dui-didnt-cost-him-kelloggs-endorsement/

So let me get this straight:

Michael Phelps was convicted of illegally using a hard drug (alcohol is a hard, though legal, drug and Phelps was 19, not legal age to use it) when caught driving a car, running a stop sign, and pushing the legal limit for intoxication. Michael Phelps could’ve caused a serious accident and injured or killed himself and others. Kellogg’s didn’t seem to have a problem with that being “not consistent with the image of Kellogg”.

Michael Phelps was photographed using an illegal soft drug in the privacy of someone’s dorm room. This action would cause zero harm to others and only temporary, negligible harm to himself (”harm” being “getting high”), and, ironically enough, give Phelps the kind of munchies that are best cured with a Kellogg product. That’s a big enough issue for Kellogg to drop Phelps for being “not consistent with the image of Kellogg”.

Let’s review: according to Kellogg’s, public drunk driving: OK, private pot smoking: unacceptable.”

“Here is the underlying problem:

There are a few hundred million natural persons this kind of spending would benefit for generations.

There are a few hundred corporate "persons" required by law try to boost the bottom-line every quarter.

One of these two groups controls the levers of power, the language of the debate, and the media to broadcast it.”

“Thank you for recognizing the role the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs plays in our burgeoning prison population, and how prisons are lousy rehabs.

Another point I would emphasize is that not all drug use is abuse or addiction. In my experience, I have found the "recovered" addicts to be the most vehement that there is no such thing as a "social drinker" or that occasional responsible use of even mild drugs like cannabis or MDMA is "addiction".

People become sex addicts, gambling addicts, food addicts, and drug addicts, but only drug addiction do we think we can treat with incarceration.”

“"There is no defense for a policy that has enjoyed decades of unadulterated failure."

Yeah, Robert, we activists fighting against the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs have been saying that since about 1972.”

“Yeah, how intolerant of us not to tolerate the intolerant.”

“So you think it's OK to give homobigot Rick Warren a place of honor at the inaugural, because Obama leads a nation full of hypoChristian Evangenitals who hate "teh gay" and we need to "reach out" to them, too. Good point. Obama is also president of a country chock full o' racists. Maybe he could have someone from the Christian Identity church give an invocation. You know, since we're "reaching out".

Some Americans also have a loathing of Jews. Could we get Minister Farrakhan up on the dias for an invocation as well?

Here's the problem most of you "get over it" people are missing: There is a difference between *recognizing* that there are intolerant homophobes out there and *endorsing* intolerant homophobia. To wit: my two examples above wouldn't even be seriously considered for half a second, because racism and anti-Semitism are verboten in the public sphere. No president-elect would ever give inauguration time to those brands of hate.

But when it's "teh gay", "it's my religion" somehow offers a special excuse for bigotry. Somehow, hating gays and actively stripping them of their rights is just an example of us "having a difference over social policy".

The real reason, by the way, is because racists and anti-Semites don't write big contribution checks and haven't infiltrated the leadership of the government and the military like the hypoChristian Evangenitals, and because Obama can turn to the gays and say, "So what, are you gonna vote Republican in 2012?"”