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capnamerca

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by capnamerca

  1. Was supposed to be in Scottsdale next fucking weekend, playing Southern Dunes, WeKoPa and TPC Stadium. Omicron is threatening to shitcan that trip - already had 2 of 7 drop out for VERY good reasons, and I might be next. FUCK.

     

    Bandon planned March 2023.

  2. 1 minute ago, TwiceHorn said:

    The point was raised in the context of charities, more broadly stated, altruism.  That is a personal, or collective attribute of a society.

    While capitalism, unregulated, may lend itself to exploitation, and, in that sense is not altruistic, that is not evidence of the altruism of a society, per se.  Whether other people take care of the exploited is evidence of their altruism.

    People can abandon altruism "because the government takes care of that."  Or for other reasons.  But I don't think that the politico-economic system has a great deal of effect on personal or collective altruism, outside the context of government.  Other things do, like the aforementioned sense of community.

    I'm not saying charities or personal altruism should supplant the government, or the other way around.  They're both necessary.

    Ok, I can get behind much of this. Fully agree that they're both necessary, but we likely disagree on the relative weights thereof. 

    The original point where I jumped into this conversation was around how to *actually* reduce the rates of abortion in this country, which revolve around government-driven programs. There's an assumption baked in there that I'm making, too, that a local charity can't step in a provide said programs in lieu of a government program. I am 100% making that assertion - otherwise, it would have already happened. I also assert that it hasn't happened at least partly because our socio-economic construct (capitalism), left unchecked, has no incentive to provide these programs. That's where the government needs to step in an provide a check and a "forced" amount of investment in those programs.

    I appreciate you clarifying the points.

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  3. 3 minutes ago, Sawbonz said:

    You realize all those countries you say are better than ours are capitalist based economies right? 

    With far more socialist leanings and "forced altruism." Which is the original point, that if you want to actually protect your people, and prevent abortion, you need to invest in social programs, education programs, welfare programs, housing programs, etc ... all things which the "Party of No Abortion" fairly steadfastly refuses to do. 

    I'm not knocking capitalism - it's the best economic model the world has ever found. I'm saying that we're not doing enough to controls its more base urges.

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  4. 2 hours ago, Sawbonz said:

    capitalism is why our concept of poverty puts our poor in the top decile of the world in terms of income and resources 

    Comparing our poor to those in China, India and Brazil, for example, is not an apples-to-apples comparison, because no other demographic compares to those countries either, nor do the economies or governmental systems compare. Comparing the US to other 'developed' nations paints a far shittier picture - https://confrontingpoverty.org/poverty-facts-and-myths/americas-poor-are-worse-off-than-elsewhere/.

     

    I'll give you that our poor 'make more money' than "most of the worlds poor" ... but what a shitty, low bar you set for what is supposed to be the greatest nation on earth.

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  5. 2 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

    We have parts Capitalism and parts Socialism. 

    Because we broke up monopolies, let the workers unionize, and firewalled the investment banks away from the regular banks (and a bunch of other shit to stimulate growth and manufacturing) after WW1 and WW2. All of which have been repealed, so we're moving quite aggressively back towards the "capitalism" side of that equation.

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  6. 41 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

    I don't actually believe that to be true.

    It's something else.  Lack of community, lack of conscience, lack of morality.  Not capitalism per se.

    "Enforced altruism" through government taxing and spending is not actually altruism at all.  Although the policy that brought it on might be influenced by altruism.

    You know why we have child labor laws? You know why we have 40-hour/5-day work weeks? Social security? Retirement accounts with favorable tax options? State colleges?  Capitalism doesn't care about the poor, the sick, the elderly, the dying. The government had to step in so that our economy didn't treat actual, living human beings like fodder. Maybe we don't call it capitalism - it's probably more accurately called "human nature." A person or a group of people are perfectly fine and nice. PEOPLE are assholes, and power congregates as does wealth. There MUST be a social construct with governing power to protect rights.

    This isn't up for debate. Look at human rights in any theocracy or dictatorship. They don't exist for any outside of the halls of money and power. Fuck, they barely exist HERE and we're the best the human race has ever invented in trying to prevent that sort of nonsense.

    FOH with your "enforced altruism" label. I willingly choose for my tax dollars to go to the less fortunate, and I want those tax dollars aggregated and then applied where they can do the most good. I ALSO give locally in my community and to chosen causes, but I can't impact how a low-income neighborhood gets access to fresh running water or sewage service, or how electricity is routed, or prevent housing permits from being redlined, without a LARGE aggregation of power and money working towards these goals, driven by my elected officials.

    That last sentence, btw, is NOT me saying it's perfect. It's simply pointing out that "tithe 10% to your church" doesn't do SHIT for underserved communities in this country. NOr, to keep this on topic, does it help prevent abortion.

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  7. 3 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

    And, I do think that delegating or abdicating altruism and charity to the government probably overall lowers it across society.

    Capitalism takes care of lowering the amount of altruism across society. All government does is help ensure access to said altruism isn't reserved for the rich.

  8. Just seeing this. Thank you for sharing, BGH, and that picture with your grandbaby is amazing. These stories are how our forefathers live on.

     

    Hook'em, BGH Sr. Rest easy.

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  9. 2 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

    If they were trying to save a baby, they'd give a single solitary shit about that baby once it's born, and they clearly don't.

    Or about social and welfare programs before women get pregnant. Or education services for under-served communities before women get pregnant. Or access to birth control. Or about a thousand other things that can help reduce abortion. 

     

    But they don't care about those things either.

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  10. Binged 'em all today. Also rewatched S9 in prep.

    I enjoyed them for what they are, and the crew should get several more seasons. That said, they're leaning pretty heavily on the pun/lingo/conversational quirks trope, to their detriment I think. I'd prefer at least a little bit of character development - does Rosie even have a personality? The plots have gotten progressively weaker and weaker.

    Prostate episode cracked me the fuck up, as did the finale. 

  11. On 12/13/2021 at 11:21 AM, jimmyjazz said:

    If people will pay that, good for her, I guess.  I find it interesting that in the modern era of relatively affordable surround sound rigs and excellent big screen TVs that artists can pull that kind of bank, but so be it.

    I mean, I go to VERY few sporting events any more, especially since my season tickets to UT football magically disappeared after the 2005 season.  Baseball?  Sure.  Post-covid basketball, yeah, if we ever get there.  Otherwise, I'm watching in the comfort of my home.

    Truth. Those prices are insane. Who knows how that residency goes. Shes on my bucket list of artists to see before I die - the list is basically her and Stapleton, who are both way too big for it to ever be feasible.

     

    I take solace in this youtube video, which I consider to be the finest single-song performance that I know of. 

     

     

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  12. 1 hour ago, TreatyOak said:

    I watched Ewers play live in the state championship game last year. He is a terrific QB with a really powerful arm. He has all the throws and is really good under pressure. 

    So was Hudson Card.

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  13. 15 hours ago, UTEE97 said:

    SiAP

      Reveal hidden contents
    • The untold story of how Casey Thompson almost became a Sooner not once, but twice.

      The following includes excerpts of Charles Thompson’s exclusive interview 
    •  
    • Thompson’s eye-opening conversation with Brandon Drumm and Parker Thune. If you’re interested in gaining access to all the exclusive news and notes pertaining to the Oklahoma Sooners, you can get two months of OUInsider VIP membership for just $1 by clicking here.

      When Casey Thompson steps onto the hallowed playing surface at the Cotton Bowl this Saturday, odds are that his amalgam of emotions will include nostalgia, gratitude, and a very poignant quandary regarding what could have been.

      After all, long before Thompson ever rose to notoriety as the starting quarterback for the Texas Longhorns, he dreamed of wearing the Sooner crimson.

      And given his heritage, who in his shoes wouldn’t?

      His father, Charles, played quarterback at Oklahoma in the late 1980’s at the tail end of Barry Switzer’s tenure. Casey’s older brother, Kendal, had worn the Sooner uniform for three seasons in the early 2010s before an injury prompted him to jump ship for Utah as a graduate transfer.

      For Casey, the writing was seemingly emblazoned on the wall: if he was good enough to warrant a courtship from Oklahoma, he’d be a Sooner too. And once he stepped onto the gridiron at the high school level, it soon became evident that he was more than good enough. By the end of his sophomore season, the Moore native had picked up an offer from OU, one of two dozen total FBS scholarship offers that he’d garner.


      However, the Sooners were pursuing a pair of additional signal-callers in the 2018 class, and weren't about to play favorites with the three quarterbacks they targeted. In August 2016, some three months after Oklahoma offered Thompson, four-star pro-style passer Cameron Rising committed to the crimson and cream after Thompson initially deferred the chance.

      “Before Cameron Rising ever committed to the University of Oklahoma, Casey was given a courtesy call by Lincoln Riley and crew. Lincoln wanted Casey to commit at the barbecue event [the ChampU BBQ]. Casey, being obviously where he’s been around the game, it’s not that he wasn’t wanting to go to Oklahoma. He wanted to keep his recruitment open and wasn’t ready to commit his sophomore year in high school. And Lincoln [thought] obviously, as they say, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. And he told Casey, ‘Man, I think Cameron Rising’s going to come in and he may commit. But I want to try to give you the opportunity.’ Casey didn’t commit. A week later, after the barbecue, Cameron Rising comes in and he commits.”

      Shortly thereafter, Thompson and his family sat down and weighed the options on the table. They eventually decided that despite their long-standing allegiance to the Sooners, Texas provided the best opportunity for Casey to develop and excel at the FBS level. On April 13, 2017, Thompson announced his commitment to the Longhorns.

      “Everything we did with Casey was calculated. We chose Texas out of a matrix. It’s not like I was jumping for joy like, ‘Hey! Go to the University of Texas!’ We had a matrix. We had a situation where they fit all of the criteria. We decided to strip all the colors off on every university and look at situations. One of the criteria: offensive-minded head coach. Another was the quarterback room; if you go back and look at Texas at the time of Casey’s commitment, Shane Buechele was the only returning player they had. Sam Ehlinger hadn’t even gotten on campus yet; he wasn’t a proven commodity.”

      Thompson and his family felt that the decision was rational and likely final. Nevertheless, Sooners head coach Bob Stoops and offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley continued to recruit Thompson fervently behind the scenes.

      Then, the sands shifted in seismic fashion. Nine days later, on April 22, Rising flipped from Oklahoma to Texas, and the Sooners’ pursuit ramped up.

      “Cameron Rising goes to the spring game, then goes to the Texas spring game and decides to decommit from Oklahoma and go to Texas. And I can tell you there was a hard push for Casey to flip to Oklahoma.”

      Thompson eagerly agreed to meet with Stoops and Riley, and told them he still wanted to be a Sooner.

      However, there was a fatal flaw in the ointment.

      At the time, several FBS programs had begun to kick the tires on Riley as a potential head coaching candidate. Thompson said he’d commit if Riley could promise to stick it out at Oklahoma and coach him for the duration of his collegiate career.

      In a moment of remarkable honesty, Riley admitted that he couldn’t make that promise.

      “Listen, here’s where I’ll give Lincoln respect. Casey had a meeting with Lincoln, and Bob at the time was the head coach. And he asked one question of Lincoln, and Lincoln was very honest with him. And that’s why I will always respect Lincoln Riley for this. He could have said to my son, ‘Casey, I guarantee I’ll be here for the remainder of your time.’ But he was honest. Casey asked him, ‘If I decommit from Texas and commit to Oklahoma, will you commit to being here the entire time I’m here as offensive coordinator?’ And Lincoln said, ‘Much as I’d love to tell you that I could do that, I can’t make you that promise.’ And that was really why that didn’t happen at that time.”

      Title/Alt Text
      (Photo: Jackson Laizure, Getty)


      A few weeks later, on June 1, the Sooners picked up a commitment from four-star dual-threat QB Tanner Mordecai. One week thereafter, on June 8, Stoops abruptly stepped down as Oklahoma’s head coach and handed the reins to Riley.

      Now fully able to assure Thompson that he’d be around for the long run, Riley reached back out, goading him to follow his heart and flip to OU. But once again, Thompson was unwilling to renege on his word, and his father wasn’t about to let his heart of crimson stand in the way of the decision that he felt was right.

      “I’ve had the luxury of having an older son, Kendal, who went through the process. I never knew how much Kendal loved the University of Oklahoma until Bob Stoops offered him. At the time, he was the earliest-offered quarterback that Bob Stoops had offered during his tenure. And I remember him calling me. I was on a trip; he said, ‘Dad, I think I’m about to commit to the University of Oklahoma.’ I said, ‘When did they offer?’ He said, ‘Just this morning.’ I said, ‘Whoa, nelly! Let’s talk about this.’ And he said, ‘Dad, it had been my whole dream my entire life to follow your footsteps at the University of Oklahoma. And I never thought I would be good enough for that. Now that I am, that’s where I want to go.’ And so as a dad, I wouldn’t say I pushed him to it. But I gave him my blessings blindly. … And so we learned a little bit through Kendal’s time of going through recruitment and then his situation in college. At the end of the day, you can go somewhere you’ve always dreamed to go. But you gotta make sure it’s the right fit. Because at the end of the day, it’s about getting on the field and playing. … And so playing trumped the notion, with Casey, [that] ‘Let’s go to OU just because I went, Kendal went, and you’re from Moore and you’re right around the corner from it, and it seems like that’s the natural thing to do.’ I just kind of wanted to take my experiences, my heart, my loyalty to OU out of the equation. And that’s why we decided to make a matrix. We took ten things that we thought were important, and we gave every school that was recruiting Casey a number. And we said, the team that came out with the highest number — if the conversation matched the situation, that’s where we went.”

      Thus, Thompson stayed loyal to the Longhorns until the end of the recruiting cycle, and inked his letter of intent in December 2017.

      Title/Alt Text
      (Photo: 247Sports)


      Fast-forward one year, and the Sooners’ quarterback job suddenly appeared to be up for grabs in the wake of the memorable Heisman tour de force from Kyler Murray. Oklahoma had Austin Kendall and Mordecai already on campus, plus five-star signee Spencer Rattler on his way to Norman. But none of those candidates looked like the surefire answer.

      Thus, on the heels of a largely fruitless redshirt year, Thompson decided to come home. He entered his name in the transfer portal and enrolled at Oklahoma.

      Yes, you read that correctly.

      “If you go [back] after Casey’s redshirt year… during that time, Casey did enter the portal. And I’ll be quite honest with you: we had several other schools that were on the charts for Casey to look at. … And I will tell you, the other places did include the University of Oklahoma. … And I’ll even go a step further and let [out] a bombshell here that nobody knows: he actually enrolled at Oklahoma when he got into the portal.”

      It stood to reason that no one would be more overjoyed to see him in crimson than his father.

      Instead, Charles laid his loyalty aside and talked Casey out of the decision, encouraging his son to remain in Austin and stay the course.

      “During my experiences and my older son’s experiences, there’s a few things that I [came to] understand. Listen: first of all, every QB1 has been, at some point in their career, QB2. So the number-one objective was to get to that No. 2 spot and be the heir apparent for Sam Ehlinger. So our goal for Casey when he decided to go to Texas was that by not the redshirt year, but the next spring, the goal was for him to be the No. 2 quarterback at the University of Texas behind Sam Ehlinger. … I told him, 'It's too early to run out on a plan that we had talked about since you were a junior in high school.' ”

      Persuaded by his father’s spirit of persistence, Thompson withdrew from the portal and returned to Texas. He spent the next two seasons backing up Ehlinger, a rarity in an era that sees very few blue-chip recruits display the willingness to wait for their shot.

      “I thought my son was physically, mentally ready to compete and play at a high level a year ago. And for me, it was tough. But I told him, ‘Man, you’ve just gotta ride it out, bide your time. I really felt like the University of Texas was still the right place for him. And I told him, ‘You’re only one snap away.’ "


      Ehlinger declared for the NFL draft after the 2020 season, most expected Thompson to take the reins. However, new head coach Steve Sarkisian somewhat surprisingly named redshirt freshman Hudson Card the starter to open the 2021 campaign.

      Few would have faulted Thompson for immediately entering the portal upon being denied a job that he’d so long anticipated. However, he continued in his labor of patience, and by the second game of the season, Sarkisian called Thompson’s number in relief of a floundering Card.

      The kid from Moore never looked back.

      After seizing the gig, Thompson led the Longhorns to wins in his first three starts, including a 32-27 road victory over a TCU team that had beaten Texas in seven of their previous 10 meetings. Now, the opponent in the fourth start of his collegiate career is an all-too-familiar one.

      In some former life, Thompson may have fantasized about leading Oklahoma to victory over Texas in front of a jubilant Cotton Bowl crowd. But this weekend, he’ll look to lead the Longhorns to an upset win over the program to which he nearly committed, and at which he briefly enrolled as a transfer.

      “When Sam Ehlinger left, he thought, ‘It’s now my time to be the leader of this program.’ And he never thought any different. So trust me: it was very difficult and a blow to his psyche when he wasn’t named the starter out of the gate this year. But he consistently and constantly believed in his preparation. And listen, I have a saying: What God has meant for you, there is nobody, no man that can stand in your way. And guys, I truly believe [that]. Casey does everything the right way. He’s not worried about going out on Sixth Street in Austin. He’s worried about focusing on the football and the preparation he has. And he has a tremendous amount of belief and faith in God. … I think the way that things went down, with him not being named the starter — ultimately, going through that wilderness and persevering through that, I think now it’s a perfect fit for him.”


      Save for his father’s unexpected exhortation, Casey Thompson might well be a Sooner today. Instead, he may just as well be the Sooners’ undoing.
     
     
     

     

    Damn. That's a great article, and makes me like Casey (and his dad, what even is life that I'm complimenting Charles Thompson?) even more. Thanks for sharing.

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