Dr. Tom

Birthday salutations and all that.

Jesus Christ. You're a fucking disgusting waste of sperm and egg. So now the President WANTS soldiers to torture and demean Iraqi POWs and ENJOYS it? No, you chronic fuckhead. All he can do is demonize the people responsible and make sure they're punished appropriately. Even in an organization like the US military, there are bound to be some bad seeds, and some jackasses who get off on the misery of others. They'll be dealt with. But the President had nothing to do with Iraqis getting tortured, and it's both reprehensible and monumentally stupid of you to suggest that he did. Fuckhead.

Lou Pinella is at bat, and former ump Steve Palermo is calling balls and strikes. Palermo rings Pinella up on a called third strike. Pinella: "Where the hell was that one at?" Palermo: "Don't end a sentence with a preposition." Pinella: "Ok, where the hell was that one at, you asshole?"

Earl Weaver didn't manage the Orioles in 1983. Anyway, I don't see how the Rockies would do any worse with four starters instead of five. I'd like to see more teams try four-man rotations, actually, since most fifth starters are bums, and it gives a team with a good 1-2 punch ~14 more starts from those two guys.

I thought it was 190. Did an RBI get added to the record recently?

Pedro Martinez, 1997 & 2000. Goddamnit, that was supposed to be a 1.00 ERA. I want to see if someone can be a little better than Bob Gibson.

Al, maybe you can add spelling "Ripken" correctly to that checklist of yours. As for me, I'd like to see another 30-win season. I'd like to see a starter with a sub-2.00 ERA over a full season. I'd like to see a player get 200 points in a season in this era of the NHL. I'd like to see someone (read: JAMAL~!) rush for at least 2200 yards. And I'd like to see another Orioles World Series win before I go blind and die.

Steve Lyons, after sliding into first base, pulling his pants down to get some dirt out of his drawers. He said he just forgot where he was...

How do you know? I don't. That's why I prefaced everything with "IMO." Some people believe in Heaven and Hell, reincarnation, whatever. I just don't believe in the afterlife at all, since the whole thing seems rather ridiculous.

Obviously, everyone wants to meet me. Not that I blame them, of course...

I just wonder what it's going to take for Israel to get really pissed off about this whole mess. If I were the PM, there's no way I would have had this kind of restraint. The fact that we can still talk about Palestinians in the present tense is a testament to Israel's patience. There are times, like this, that I wish they were significantly more hot-headed.

Fair enough. Find me later tonight, then. I'll be around.

-- There's not much point on weighing in on the whole Coey drama at this point. He's writing for the site, he's banned from these forums, and people are going to bitch about both. He'll write for the site as long as he wants to, so get used to ignoring his articles if you don't like him. -- Yes, I called out BPS and Jay. I didn't really want to, and I thought about it for a few minutes before doing it. The reason I ended up doing it is that dirty laundry between staff members or writers shouldn't be aired in a public forum. There's a Staff folder for things like that, as well as PMs, IM, and email. All I did was chide them for a lapse in judgment, and I've since spoken to both of them in PMs about the situation. A lot of you are taking more offense to it than they did. -- TSM writers are rather underappreciated. Read Sass' thread; quite a few of them were starting to feel burned out and a little frazzled. As a still-occasional mainpage writer myself, as well as the guy who's in charge of this place for a while, I'm going to stick my neck out and protect them when and where I can. There's a Feedback folder for article discussion, but there's no reason that a flame party against a TSM writer should be tolerated. I don't care if it is Coey and he's "controversial." I'm still not going to put up with a thread dedicated to bashing any of our writers up and down. Those of you who talk like you're Barney Badass should email the writers in question and take up your grievances with them one-on-one. No, I don't care if you disagree with this practice. Hardcore Discussion does not give you carte blanche. -- I have not consulted Dames on many of the moves and decisions which have been made while he's been gone. There are two reasons for this: (1) Zack has a direct channel to him, so anything necessary can be relayed fairly easily, and (2) I'm the one he left in charge. The decisions are mine to make. If we had to wait for Dames to get back before deciding something, then nothing would have been resolved in the past 9-10 weeks. Sometimes, people have to be yelled at a bit. I fully support BPS and Jay as moderators, and as writers for the site. But I'm not going to put up with internecine squabbles. This isn't the place for that. I do what I think is right. It doesn't matter to me how it's perceived. What's right is not always what is popular, and vice versa. I'm going to do what I think is right to make sure this board and website run smoothly. Disagree if you want, but if you're using that much invective to talk about something that happened on the internet, maybe it's YOU who needs to take a step back. Honestly, folks (and I'm not saying this to be "disgenuous," "condescending," "patronizing," or a "cocksucker"): like Loss said, if you're chronically unhappy with the board, leave. Your life will be better for it without the misery and stress, and we'll have -1 to the negative attitude count here. Everybody wins. I'm firmly convinced that some of you are just terminally miserable people, and nothing I do or anyone else does will make you happy. Your happiness is in your hands, and if you're doing something that affects it negatively, you really should stop. I'll be gone until sometime Sunday, so try not to leave me six more pages to read, mmmkay?

Here's the deal, folks: Chris is a damn good writer, who covers a wide variety of wrestling. He doesn't give you the standard recap you might be used to, and that's a good thing. I'm glad Sass was able to get him to come aboard, and I think it's a good thing for both TSM and for Chris himself. If you have a problem with him writing for TSM, I suggest you get over it. We're not going to get rid of a talented writer because a bunch of people got their panties in a twist because he was mean to them on the internet. If you acted toward him the way many of you have conducted yourselves in this thread, then you bloody well deserved whatever venom and bile you got. BPS and Jay: As staff writers, you both should be ashamed of yourselves for letting some petty dispute cause you to attack a fellow staffer. Have either of you ever heard of the idea of solidarity? A united front? We're all on the same side? Christ, grow up, both of you. Yes, I know Chris said he was better than all the other writers in his CRUN-CH Q&A. It's obviously just bravado and sarcastic shit-talking. I've done it here on the boards and in my own articles, and no one's ever birthed kittens over the fact. But Coey is "controversial," so everyone presumes the worst about him at all times. Folks (this applies to everyone): If you have a problem with Chris, he's posted links to his own board and his email address in his articles. Grow a set and take your gripes up with him personally. Talking shit about someone when you know they can't respond is a cowardly cheap shot. If you want to discuss his articles like mature human beings, do so in Site Feedback. But I'm not going to put up with a flame party against one of our writers. I'll show a united front for them, even if no one else does. This thread is closed. I suggest all of you find something better to talk about.

That's the problem. I didn't mind the catchphrases and antics before, since the anchors were talented and entertaining. Now, the talent pool is VERY thin, and what used to be funny is annoying. I still like Chris Berman and Kenny Mayne, and Dan Patrick is pretty good, but the rest of the SC anchors could die and the TV-viewing world would be no poorer for the loss. I don't mind Fsct or Fiction. Something that engenders debate about a sports event or issue isn't a bad thing, IMO. The Budweiser Hot Seat, though, does indeed suck a big one. I pretty much agree on the baseball and football studio shows. The personalities they have on there now are not nearly as good as they used to be. Maybe John Kruk will become a good studio analyst (I don't think he's bad now), but he'll have to work on it. I always liked Rob Dibble, myself. Jeff Brantley sucked and sounded like a dumb hick. The NFL crew could use an overhaul. I've never noticed anything bad about the production values, but that three-man crew is fucking shitty. I've always despised Joe Theismann as an analyst, since he seems to prefer talking about himself to talking about the game. Paul Maguire was probably more funny and useful when he was a drunkard. Mike Patrick is just kind of there, and I think he'd be better with a better crew around him, instead of the two pieces of shit he gets saddled with on Sundays. Definitely. It makes me wonder why ESPN can't do the same thing with football. There are a lot off former players out there. Audition a bunch of them until you find two good ones, with both presence on camera and an ability to talk about the game clearly, and then pair them with a good PBP man. I also think the hockey crews are very good. Gary Thorne is good, and both Darren Pang and Bill Clement are good, knowledgeable commentators. I don't think ESPN uses John Davidson anymore, but he was good when they did. Yeah, they have their faults, and there are times I shout at the TV and want to pull my hair out. But overall, it's not as bad as some make it out to be. They do have joneses for a few select players, which is irritating, and the anchor talent pool is thin, but I'm not going to stop watching ESPN or anything like that.

I had a Quizno's chicken carbonara sub for lunch. Goddamn, that's some good eats.

It sure does. But the forum moderators are putting in the effort to try and improve the place. I don't blame them at all for expecting the posters to get off their intellectual butts and offer constructive criticism and suggestions. It's easy to say "you suck," but it's not as easy to actually look at things and suggest real ways to improve. Nik and the other forum mods are trying to make things come up aces for everyone, and they have my full support, even during their period of growing pains.

Because Al Harris has better hair, obviously...

It's a very scientific process, I'll have you know...

This is what should have happened: The entire Church hierarchy, from the Pope to the College of Cardinals, to the individual archbishops and bishops, should have unequivocally condemned these men. The pedophile priests should have then been excommunicated and left for the police and the court system. Investigations should have been launched into how far up the chain knowledge of these activies went -- there were cases where problem priests were shuffled around, their activities known by their superiors. If a bishop, archbishop, cardinal, or even the Pope, had a hand in covering anything up, those people should have suffered the same fate. Then the Church should have enacted a policy that there will be ZERO tolerance for this type of aberrant behavior. Instead, you have some fellows who are "under investigation." Tremendous. Some priests were expelled, yes. More were simply shuffled around again. "Three tykes and you're out" took the place of zero tolerance. A lot of lip service was paid, and a lot of hands were wrung, but in the end, the actions taken were wholly lacking. The Church should be ashamed of itself. Their efforts so far appear to be half-hearted and lacking.

Hey now, leave my World Series of Poker alone. I need the fix on ESPN, especially since Comcast is currently the suck and doesn't have The Travel Channel (which broadcasts the World Poker Tour) in my area. Anyway, my ESPN gripes: -- Stuart Scott trying to act all ghetto. Stu, you're a suburbanite who easily makes six figures a year. Get over the fact that you're no longer down wit' da homies in da projects, yo. I found him tolerable on Dream Job, but he's almost unwatchable on SC these days. -- Tom Jackson and his ridiculous drama queen tendencies. He might be knowledgeable about football, but as soon as the topic veers 1 degree from the NFL, someone should stuff a potato in his mouth so he can't talk. -- SC anchors getting their catchphrases over all the time. Sometimes, I just want the news and highlights, and don't need to hear, "Say hello... to my little friend!" in a bad faux Italian accent everytime someone hits a homer. The exception is Kenny Mayne, because he's awesome. -- Playmakers. It sucked. I don't care if some player just did something that was on the show. That doesn't make it "real." It means that the show was a collection of caricatures and stereotypes, and stereotypes exist for a reason. That's about it. I still watch ESPN, but I roll my eyes and change the channel (often to ESPNews) when it sucks.

IMO, reincarnation, like most things that try to explain what happens after death, is complete rubbish. You either rot in a box or an urn. That's it.

Yeah.

To clarify: No one said existing gimmick accounts can't be used. I said new ones can't be registered. There's an important difference. BTW, people who say they're taking time off from the board should take it, and not use some lame gimmick account to get an attention fix in the interim. I'm sure "Mr. Reagan" knows who he is, because I do...

Ah, more good news, courtesy of the Israelis. Now if only we could round up a few hundred "insurgents" and execute them, my day would be made.