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'stache

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by 'stache

  1. Would be nice to see UTSA get a stadium on campus. Also, this bowl might be fun at The Star instead of the soccer stadium.
  2. I think it makes sense to recruit from G5 or FCS and in many cases is preferable to people sitting the bench at Bama or Florida. Many 2-3 star players out of high school still have a lot of physical and mental development to acquire over a few more years. If they become standouts at the G5 or FCS level by year 2 or 3, they've proved they are ready for FBS and can contribute right away. Whereas a 5 star athlete out of high school who sits the bench for 2+ years might have peaked in high school and are unable to make the adjustment. OSU has had success this year with our lower level portal transfers. The problem for aggy is that perception means more to them than actually winning. They'd rather pluck a bench warmer from Alabama to say they took a player from Alabama while ignoring that the player couldn't crack the depth chart. The Jimbo thing is a perfect example. They cared more about saying "Got Jimbo" who won a national championship a million years ago and that was enough, despite everyone knowing he was washed up and that FSU fans were happy to replace him.
  3. Okay, so we're not supposed to judge all "Christians" based on the alleged "bad" ones. But as far as I can tell, the "bad" ones, if you want to go that direction, are the ones dominating several state legislatures and passing laws that deprive people of rights based on the lawmakers' religions beliefs. Members of the US Congress regularly propose this crap too. Trump has well-established preachers giving political speeches for him at his rallies and in their churches. That tends to far outweigh peoples' perception than people who practice their religion by serving at soup kitchens and being genuinely nice to other people. Also, the mainstream religions rarely push back, which is tips to scales for me that on the whole, the bad far, far, far, far, far outweighs the good, at least by way of perception (several cardinals for example said that Biden should be denied communion for his support of abortion rights, but I haven't seen a single republican lawmaker denied the same for supporting capital punishment, or you know, being openly bigoted hateful fascist sacks of human garbage). Finally, to the extent many Christians are generally good people, to me, that's the baseline of human behavior regardless of religion, so I don't credit their goodness with their religion. Whereas, the ones being hateful and passing laws openly state it's based on their religion convictions. Maybe they'd be bad people without religion, but the fact that they use it to justify their horrendous behavior stands out more than vice versa. The goddamned Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, second in line to an octogenarian president, is this exact person. To me, that's the overriding problem, and why the so-called "bad ones" drive perception, rightfully so in my opinion.
  4. 'stache

    LBGTQ

    Read the article. It's not really a "blessing" just words that sound like a blessing with numerous limitations. Basically a "bless your sinful little hearts" from a priest. A fancier way of saying "love the sinner hate the sin." The church still considers people who are attracting to consenting adults of their own gender as "disordered," sinful, and hell bound. Fuck all of it.
  5. I just have to roll me eyes whenever people say something like "how do you know someone's athiest, because they'll tell you as soon as you meet" or as someone said above as "debate me bros." Christians literally bring it up everywhere to everyone constantly. Twice this month I've attending a weekly meeting of a non-secular group of about 200-250 people and the speaker decided to throw in their views of Christianity, etc. One even said "I know this group is meant to be non-secular but thank you for letting me share the truth." It's fucking infuriating. I've seen hundreds of "Keep Christ in Christmas" stickers on vehicles and yard signs, haven't seen a single "God isn't Real" signs or stickers. Sometimes pushback is necessary and it isn't asking for a debate or making it known. I rarely say the words "I'm an athietst" and in fact our society makes it such that it would be dangerous for me to do so in mixed company, professional company in particular. Athiests aren't standing outside of parking garages with their little stack of pamphlets or knocking door to door. Athiests aren't Karen'ing up school boards to have their preferred religous takes preached in public schools. An entire political party constituting half of our electorate brings it up every single day at the Capitol and are passing laws prohibiting other people from living their lives because of others' religious beliefs. It's the religious folks who make damn sure everyone knows it at every turn, not the other way around. They're in fact making laws to force others into living by those beliefs. Just another "War on Christmas" fake persecution complex.
  6. This is what drives me crazy. When the PAC collapsed and Stanford/Cal joined the ACC, it should have rang an alarm that this is getting absurd, time to regroup and figure out a better system. But here we are, just nonsense. I think in ten years the top 20 bluebloods will form a league to drop the Big 10 and SEC LEECHES!! from their ranks so that every team makes eleventy billion dollars. I also think that if people act rationally, football will be separated entirely so that the rest of the sports can realign along sane geographic lines.
  7. Rope is cheap Rudy, easy way out. Do the world a favor.
  8. I think Palestinian hatred for Israelis has more to do with their lived experiences than their religious beliefs. The latter would be a luxury for believers who aren't digging themselves and their loved ones out of collapsed buildings every few months. I'm curious though as to the last post. If someone supports the Palestinian people, how do you recommend they express it so as to not be considered antisemitic or a "useful idiot" for said antisemites? From what I can tell, anything pro-Palestinian is immediately shouted down as antisemetic or, as you say, useful to true antisemites. This is a genuine question and I hope it is read as such. Set aside people harassing delis and the like, I think we can all agree that even if those people don't have antisemetic intent that method isn't helpful and should be viewed as antisemetic or useful to antisemites.
  9. I don't think most workers are seeing drastic increases in pay. It goes back to wealth disparity which is still a huge problem and something in which we should look backwards to "make America great again." Back when a high school diploma could get you a good 8-5 job with enough pay to support a family, buy a home, a few cars, and still have enough left over for a big vacation every year or so. Even if pay increases people today are being squeezed for every dollar for housing, healthcare, and education. We vacation on credit cards. A high marginal top end rate and taxes on wealth and inheritance would go a long way to helping every day people. To me, that's the big difference between the Republican and Democratic party. Republicans are dominated by the far right wing which is now full blown facist theocrats. Democrats are still mostly centrists who aren't willing to go as far as the far left flank wants. The young people who are being screwed in this system are getting frustrated and are possibly going to sit out elections (hence Trump, etc.). They also now are largely saying thinks like they are against or anti-capitalism. They really aren't, it's just that the excesses of capitalism have taken over and huge swaths of people, young people in particular, are being left behind. Well regulated capitalism is about where most people would lie on the spectrum, but all we ever hear is the extreme right and left views. It's infuriating to me as I consider well-regulated capitalism as a centrist position that both parties should be able to agree upon with the devil in the details (where do we set the rate, what exceptions are we going to include, etc.).
  10. This son of a bitch is ice cold!
  11. Oh shit, Ollie’s got the Jimmys! He’s earned it. All indications are that we’ve NIL’d him and his OL to come back and he’s waiting for a big announcement. Hope it’s true. He’s a hell of a player and the fans love him. He’ll make bank in the NFL after next season. Get him some good NIL money, get one of those injury insurance policies, and let’s roll!
  12. The economy is so bad that Amazon can't pay its drivers year-end bonuses, customers have to cover it for them, hard times.
  13. I honestly don't disagree with this opinion. The mayor and city council should have pressed a lot harder for more buy-in from the owners. It's also absolutely true that they are living a pipe-dream if they think they can build a "world-class" facility for $900M, especially when they expect it to open in 2029 (so construction beginning in maybe 2027?). I think the owners could have agreed to cover all or a certain percentage of overruns, which I expect will be at least $500M. And it's absolutely true that they ran this on the basis of emotional attachment and the perception that comes with being a "big league city." My only disagreement is that I don't blame Clay Bennett entirely (I honestly know very little about him anyway). Any owner would use the city's low self-esteem to get them to cover all that cost. I think the mayor and city council should have negotiated harder and let them know that the city and the fans would appreciate it much more if they agreed to a larger buy-in and that the city provides the team with some benefits that should be considered. Ultimately, I'm glad it passed, the intangible benefits of a major league franchise are very real, but the economics still stink. Luckily, I won't have to pay for any of it, so good for OKC. The Oklahoma City Thunder successfully extort its way to a new arena The team will contribute a paltry 5 percent of an estimated $900 million for the new facility The Oklahoma City Thunder are getting a new arena and the team’s ownership group is contributing $50 million of the $900 million tab. The reputation of owner Clay Bennett, who was responsible for killing the Seattle Supersonics, preceded him, and 71 percent of Oklahoma City voters didn’t want to call his bluff, so they approved a 1 percent sales tax. In a world where the Los Angeles Dodgers paid Shohei Ohtani $700 million, and LIV golf shelled out nearly $600 million for Jon Rahm, Bennett and his cronies couldn’t contribute more than $50 million to a new arena? The franchise is paying Shia Gilgeous-Alexander and Davis Bertans that much combined this season. Bennett’s group bought the Sonics for $325 million and recent estimates by Forbes now value the team at $3 billion. The people of Oklahoma City voted to keep their team and ensure the continued increase of the world’s income disparity. There’s also $70 million in MAPS 4 funds that could go to infrastructure, or other community initiatives, but instead, will be redirected toward a sports building. Yay! In the memorandum for the deal, OKC mayor and city council claim, “The new arena will be designed and constructed as a first-class, state-of-the-art facility with at least 750,000 square feet.” Forgive me, but I don’t think they know how far $900 million goes when it comes to hoops’ palaces. The Warriors spent $1.6 billion on the Chase Center. Steve Ballmer sunk $2 billion into the Clippers’ new digs that aren’t even opened yet. “First-class” and “state-of-the-art” might be apt adjectives to describe those self-funded projects, but whatever gets built in Oklahoma City won’t be on par with arenas that are actually “first-class,” and you wonder when the cycle will refresh itself. There were a litany of community benefits in the deal that were used to sweeten the pot, including an expected provision for a workforce intermediary, and a “living wage” of $15 per hour. So let me get this right: The quid pro quo with the community was agreeing to pay those who help build the arena $15 per hour? The current minimum wage in Oklahoma is $7.25, but a recent initiative was proposed to raise it to . . . you guessed it: $15. (I’m also of the opinion that $15 is a gross minimum wage, but I’m not an economist, and have lived in high cost-of-living areas for over a decade.) We all know no one is more easily swayed by economic buzzwords and promises of community benefits than local politicians, so this shouldn’t be a surprise. Nor should this gem from Nick Singer, spokesman for Oklahoma Progress Now, the advocacy group that ran the opposition campaign (via the Oklahoman). “Mayor [David] Holt negotiated a terrible deal, and the Chamber and their allies ran a fear-based inferiority campaign about OKC — and it worked. They scared voters and voters supported a bad deal, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a bad deal. It’s a 95/5 deal, and that doesn’t change just because you claim it has all of these positives, but the mayor was willing to go along with it.” To his point, Singer said the Build Your Own Arena spent less than $10,000 on its campaign, while recent documents show the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce dropped at least $478,000 on pro-arena TV ad expenditures since November. The group Keep OKC Big League speaks directly to the inferiority complex that pro-arena forces sought to exploit, and voters happily complied. “We told the nation, we told the world, that Oklahoma City is and shall remain a Big League City,” Mayor Holt said of the decision. Groaaaannnnnn. The Thunder is the only pro sports game in the state and that can create an overprotective yet rabid fanbase (looking at you, Portland and Utah). People love to see their cities represented on the national and, I guess, world stages, so it takes a pretty repugnant person to repeatedly extort that attachment. Just for record, Clay Bennett is that repugnant person. https://deadspin.com/oklahoma-city-thunder-new-arena-nba-1851096627
  14. I just wanted to mention $800K on hookers and blow again, because it's super impressive. He's a hero in any other context.
  15. More of a dealbreaker than the $800K on hookers and blow? Maybe if he converted to Magaism, otherwise, I'm pretty sure the presidency (or any elected office) wasn't on his radar of future endeavors.
  16. He's got revitiligo, the opposite of what Michael Jackson got.
  17. Gundy is usually pretty good in meaningless bowl games. With aggy in chaos and us having lost little to the portal this far as opposed to last year I think we’ll handle them pretty easy.
  18. Yes, I know, I was simplifying for purposes of a message board post, but there was a measure of self-determination among the various groups during part of the Ottoman Empire, including who we call Palestinians today. Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure you're last statement is pretty heavily whitewashed. Israel has never negotiated in good faith to provide Palestinians with legitimate self-rule or self-determination. It's been discussed ad nauseum and you've made clear your position on justification for Israel's actions currently and since it's creation and I have to get back to work, so I'll bow out again.
  19. Not sure what the parenthetical is meant to convey other than justifying the extermination of 2 million people, but the fact is they had a country, until the western powers told them they didn't. That tends to cause hostility towards those who they are told are superior to them and have the right to occupy their former territory.
  20. Pretty disingenuous in my opinion to deny the existence of Palestine as a country and Hamas as a government, then get upset when they don't act like a government. It's because they aren't, they are terrorists, and should be treated as terrorists, not representatives of 2 million people. And just as a reminder, collective punishment is defined as a war crime.
  21. Still don't like the owners pushing them around, but happy the Thunder will stay in OKC, even though I'm not really a fan. It's become a good training ground for emerging stars before being traded.
  22. I still say he'll be the first of these clowns to off himself. Pretty widely liked a few years ago and now a complete worthless piece of shit because of loyalty to the most disloyal human being to ever hold high office. Fuck him.
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