20thStDad

I agree. At least in basketball we're whining about the 34th or 35th best team getting robbed, so I don't really care. Much different than the 3rd best team getting robbed.

Ausmus (avg, RBI, run, HR, CS%) 2006 .230, 39, 37, 2, .221 2007 .235, 25, 38, 3, .266 2008 .218, 24, 15, 3, .208 (only 81 games) Pudge 2006 .300, 69, 74, 13, .510 2007 .281, 63, 50, 11, .309 2008 .276, 35, 44, 7, .325 (115 games) I'd say better all around, and I think he's a better kind of leader than Ausmus.

This makes good sense. He's 10 times the hitter Ausmus ever was, even at his current age and on the decline. Toby Hall and Towles weren't the answer either. Rodriguez should also give the many hispanics in the area even more reason to support the 'stros.

Sounds like they need to guerilla-fy bigger places. 117 is pretty limiting.

Thanks for the video, and welcome to HAIF! Did the dust cloud make it to the top of the garage y'all were on? I wonder if it all settled before the rain came through, or if some nearby locations got some nasty coatings.

Some sects of Christianity focus on heaven, others on hell. To each his own I guess. Some baptists think dancing is evil. Basically I think it all comes down to pre-marital sex. Anything (drinking, dancing) that might lead unmarried sex has to be evil. St. Patrick's day, everywhere I've live at least, is an excuse for partying and is no more religious than cinco de mayo. Sure, for a few this might be different, but not in general. Depending on where Mardi Gras falls each year, in LA it's just the next excuse to rebound into drunkenness during lent. Baton Rouge has a damn decent parade in fact.

I'm not a fan of NASCAR at all, but I've heard going to a race is different. I'd go down there, tailgate, and check it out. That could be fun.

I did read it before it was 2theadvocate, it was better. The front page now just seems so disorganized, and most of the links seem like they go to ads or random crap. huh...I haven't been there since I started using ad-block with Firefox (it's turned off for HAIF!!!), it's much easier to look at. I still don't like it. Even the news page is just a very long, unorganized list with headlines and shorts. I like the chron website's categories better.

I agree, but I don't think it's a major conference thing, just an overrated big 10 thing. There are teams in the SEC with better RPI and SOS that aren't even being talked about as on the bubble (MSU, Auburn, and even South Carolina now is considered out). The big 10 gets early, undeserved credit every year because of that ACC-Big 10 challenge thing. Of the major conference 1 seeds, only Louisville has even made it to the finals in conf tourneys. Crazy times, this tournament is going to be way harder than last year to fill out a good bracket for. I like it.

Ha...me too, since I learned to read. I dare you to use The Advocate's website. It is the worst thing ever. Every now and again I try to force myself to go there to find some news back home, but it is so bad. They are nowhere near ready to abandon print.

I haven't put a lot of thought into it, I would need to in order to get my head around that idea. But really it's less insurance than glorified administration, which government can be very capable of doing. If "premiums" were taken directly out of taxes like social security that would seem to be easier than dealing with the uninsured masses. Then again how do you account for dependents, etc. I'm sure there are plans that outline all the details, but like I said I haven't gotten into it.

The only thing I really like about the plan we just switched to this year is that preventive care is 100% paid for, there's not even a copay. I think more companies will go toward this. Of course at the same time the cost of non-preventive care will go up. I have never felt like I get my money's worth out of our health plan. I don't know how anyone could. But that's what you're stuck with, the alternative costs 10 times as much. I'm not sure socializing it will make anything better, but changes to the way it's run and regulated can only help. What possible way could there be for drug companies to be non-profit? The talent in America, by and large, goes where the money is. If that goes away it will put a huge dent in research and progress. And if socialized it would be riddled with bureaucracy and very average people, just like every other government department.

Not until the word jumble (crossword is already there) and all the coupons get put online. That's why we get it now, news is secondary.

Yes I bet that played a part in it as well. We can't know for sure anyway, and I'm sure it's slightly different from person to person in any case.

I'm saying that is a big reason you saw that big of an increase in minority voters, yes. Does the data not support it? No. I only said that your claim that less whites voted didn't support your claim of race motivating them as well. If it motivated them, they would have voted, not abstained. By not voting, it shows they weren't motivated by anything. Yes. Clearly 8 million minorities were not motivated to vote until they saw one on the ballot. Nothing wrong with that, whatever gets people to participate. If that's their sole motivation, then they aren't too bright, but if it's just what wakes them up and gets them to the polls, great. I believe most intelligent people think this way as well. Unfortunately I believe that "average intelligence" is very much overestimated, and then factor in that half of all people are less intelligent than average, and it's not so hard to believe.

Well I guess I disagree with Jeebus statement, but only because I think Obama won due in part to the democratic campaign, and in equal part to the way the GOP handled its campaign. I think race was a bonus that widened that gap even more. As for your second statement, I don't think that's what it shows. I think what it shows is that the GOP ran a horrible campaign and picked a horrible candidate. If race was motivation for all those white people, even more would have come out to vote to ensure that the non-white candidate did not win. Race as a anti-motivation to vote doesn't make as much sense to me. Either that or you're saying that all the non-others who stayed home are racist democrats.

No, but I do think Colin Powell would have won - just not because he's black, but because it would have been a much better plan than trucking McCain out there. I don't think Obama won because of race, I just think a lot more minorities voted this election because of race. I think the route the GOP took guaranteed a dem win.

Right but the difference is a choice between white and white, or white and other. As soon as other landed on the ballot, about 8 million more "other" votes came out of the woodworks than usual. I believe that was Jeebus' original point, which I may have gotten away from between then and now.

Are you anti-Jindal or just lumping him in with the rest of the GOP? Jindal lost the first time he ran for governor, and you can probably chalk that up to race. Instead they went for a woman, possibly the dumbest person ever to hold public office. On the second time around they didn't make the same mistake, Jindal won easily. He's a very smart guy, but he's shown to still be very green in a lot of political plays. I think he really does try to do what's best for the state, or did at the beginning. I'm afraid he may be falling in to the GOP good ol' boy crowd more and more though, which can only hurt in the end. And what Geoff8201 was saying is along the lines of what I was trying to convey before, apparently poorly. I think race was more of a factor in this election than any to date simply because it was actually on the ballot instead of just on candidates' platforms or policies. Regardless, anyone who voted based on race is an idiot.

Here's a breakdown I found, don't know how reliable the site is. 1.18 million fewer whites voted than in 2004 6.96 million more minorities voted than in 2004 http://www.alternet.org/democracy/107472/2...es_set_records/ Of course this shows nothing about each voter's reasoning for who they voted for.

Eh, kind of. In general, the masses don't get involved even in presidential elections until it is down to the final 2. I would say there is at least 10 times more involvement that with the primaries. The point was that a large minority group mobilized for this election due to the fact that one of theirs finally cracked the final 2. They didn't do it to nearly the full extent until after he won the primary. It wasn't about him against everyone else at that point, it was him against that one other guy.

Now that's just about close enough to drive there and bring them back to Houston. I didn't mean to indicate that I go to BR just for crawfish, that's where our families live so it's just convenient that when we head there for a weekend we stop on the way or get them while there. My usual place is between Lake Charles and Lafayette, and sounds just like this place. They come very clean compared to the ones I got at Fiesta last year. Never again. I'm adding that number to my phone now...

I think you are right, to an extent. I also agree with this. But in every other election it has been white/male vs white/male, so your comparison isn't quite perfect. I don't think a non-white candidate would have won any other election, until this one. I think race played a factor, but also "change" - I still say as many people were voting against one party as there were people voting for the other. But this is how politics works, a vote is as much for your selection as it is against another, whatever your true motivation.

Thanks for all of the suggestions, we will be checking them out in the next few weekends. Definitely not paying more than $1.50/lb for live crawfish...and I'd rather see that drop to around $1.25. If they don't get cheaper than that here, I just won't get them here. It's worth a special trip back home to LA to get them cheaper and bigger. Hell we pay less than $2/lb to get them COOKED from a place in Baton Rouge, and they're awesome.

People didn't vote for skin color, they voted for CHANGE! Which to me is basically like an anti-vote...not for something but against something else. And I'm fine with that. It's like the volleyball with "synthetic leather" printed on it. Ok, now we know it's not leather, but still have no idea what the hell it is. But hey, if you know you hate leather, go for it.