NYU

Mets down 10-0 to the Mariners in the bottom of the sixth. And they've only mustered together one hit so far. I'm standing on the ledge here.

I'm tremendously disappointed they didn't include "Janie's Got a Gun." My second-most preferred Aerosmith song just behind "Dream On."

Hey NYU, it looks like you failed to acknowledge the last page or two of the thread before you posted this. Hey VX, Jerk never gave his thoughts. I asked him to give his opinion on the matter since he tends to brush away anti-Obama material as inconsequential to Barack's overall campaign -- i.e. the Wright matter. I'm asking for his take on this. Believe me, I'm well aware the issue was already discussed. In fact, the only person who tried to defend Obama and didn't skirt the issue here was Jingus. It seems funny that for a page and a half, certain people just swept it under the rug by not referring to it. You, included.

Hey Jerk, you failed to acknowledge the significance of Barack's team denying those two Muslim women the chance to sit behind him at his rally. It's okay to mention that his hypocritical stance here may actually *gasp* make him just as much a politician as anybody else is. "Sure, I want change, and yes I want hope, and you better believe I want everybody to come together.....but if you're Muslim, support me from afar."

Hank Steinbenner is right. God damn the NL for not instituting a DH. Just look at this list of NL pitchers who have also injured themselves running the bases:

Velveeta Macaroni and Cheese is, without a doubt, the best brand of mac and cheese out on the market. So I'm going to have to disagree with this one.

And again, this is why Omar Minaya needs to go. Considering how horrid the bullpen was last season, and the only major addition was Matt Wise who has so far spent more time ON the DL than off of it, he made a miscalculation of gigantic proportions. And Wagner, Wagner, Wagner. Now three consecutive blown saves. His record was five for Houston back in 2000. At the very least, maybe he can add a milestone to his career this year.

Oh Christ, Billy Wagner did it again. I don't care what his ERA is. This guy has never come through when the Mets have needed him. Two blown saves in the past three games. Unbelievable.

Al, it looks like you're starting to fall into the trap of becoming overconfident in your team holding first place by noticing how the other teams in the division are falling further and further back. Take it from experience, that's something that could bite you hard in September.

Schoeneweis was horrid tonight. Absolutely ridiculous. Between this game, and the one two days ago against the Giants when he gave up a three run homer in the ninth, he's quickly losing his magic touch and regressing to become the same unreliable bullpen pitcher he's always been.

Nice of the Mets to get spanked by the Giants tonight. Oliver Perez is beginning to reach that point when he starts to become a liability as a starter -- are his few great starts this season really enough to outweigh his dreadful ones like tonight...giving up six earned runs without getting out of the first inning? He was supposed to be a solid #3 starter. Solid #3 starters don't tend to acquire 5.70 ERAs.

You started with her. She tried warning you by letting you know they did not come together so that, when the check came, you wouldn't start complaining and refuse to pay it. You personally attacked her by criticizing her job and acting as though she was beneath you. You shouldn't be surprised she would then make you wait longer for your food then.

Good God, Aaron Heilman must go. And why did Willie stick with Heilman for so long tonight? To give up four consecutive hits and three runs...the guy is a nightmare, plain and simple. At this point, if they're not going to send him to the minors, he should only be used in blowout situations. At this point, for any Mets fan, Heilman is the one you clearly cannot trust with the game -- just as Mota was that guy last year -- but Willie has always been too stubborn to accept those realities. Carlos Muniz has been phenomenal this season whenever he has been called up...why not place him in that situation instead? Sure, there's a possibility he might have done just as badly, but the move would have strategically gauged his ability to handle pressure situations. Heilman has been proven to be inept in those scenarios, and he has been that way for years now. Placing Muniz in the game in the ninth with the Mets already down four runs is useless for all parties involved. If there's any reason Randolph should have been fired earlier this week, it's that he has consistently mismanaged his entire pitching staff from starters to the bullpen.

Excellent finale, I thought. Some of the scenes were handled just so well -- the boat exploding, the island disappearing. This absolutely had the feel of a big-time climactic finale that could have served as the series finale for all I care. Penny and Desmond reuniting was unexpected but handled very nicely. Yunjin Kim's reaction to the boat exploding was tremendous and further convinced me she deserves an Emmy after this season. And as for Locke being in the coffin...come on Jingus. First off, next season is supposed to focus on WHY all of them want to get off the island. Jack has reached that point but we have yet to see why the other five have. Conversely, they're going to want to show what is taking place on the island. They talked about bad stuff happening once Jack left -- they will undoubtedly be showing what bad stuff actually happened. How Locke does as leader of the Others, what happens with Sawyer and Juliet, etc. It seems clear they're going with a dual setting for next season, with half the characters being shown off the island and half the characters being shown on. They won't just drop what is taking place on the island since that still remains the central root of the show and might make things too difficult to bring together in Season 6. So yes, I think next season will focus on what happened TO Locke on the island. And as someone said earlier, once they get back, I would be shocked if they don't go the Christian Shepherd route with him. He becomes a spirit on the island working through Jacob that guides Jack on how to become the new leader for those there. It just seems plainly obvious to me he is not dead, dead, dead but will continue to serve as one of the central characters the show is built around. If he is dead, I'll be very shocked. And not to toot my own horn but looking at my predictions two weeks ago concerning who was going to die... Check. I hit that one dead on. On first glance, it looks right, but obviously Jin might not necessarily be dead if the island doesn't want him to be dead, so this is still a toss-up. But either way, I'm not wrong here. And I think Charles Widmore is the second person Sun blames, so her plans for revenge will likely figure into next season with it starting with their meeting tonight. Yes, I hit this one too. Well, they didn't show what happened to him once the island disappeared, which is kinda odd. So I'm going to call this a question mark. He didn't die but he DID toss himself off the helicopter to save fuel like I thought he would. So I'm giving myself half credit.

Agreed. Carlos Delgado has it coming much more than Ross Ohlendorf does.

This movie is essentially Austin Powers IV -- except it isn't Mike Myers playing an English sexaholic. It's Mike Myers playing an Indian sexaholic! And this time, his character doesn't have a wacky British accent. It's a crazy Indian one! And Verne Troyer isn't playing Mini Me. Instead he owns the Toronto Maple Leafs! Or something. Who cares. And Myers isn't making Freudian slip jokes about moles. This time, it's about midgets! Yeah, he's doing the same "says something awkward and looks around shiftily" act that Austin did...and the same "says something silly then gives a cheesy smile for the camera" that Austin did as well....but he's not an International Man of Mystery. He's a guru. Entirely different character! The movie looks terrible. If Mike Myers was going to make a movie using the same exact setup as Austin Powers, he might as well have just made a fourth movie for the series. I guarantee it would have made a lot more money than this bomb is going to make.

Dynamite Kid has always sounded like one of the biggest pieces of shit you would find in a locker room. He had talent, but his sadistic attitude was just way too much. I'm interested in getting this too, although I'm not sure when I'll actually do so.

So with losing six of seven this week -- getting swept in a four game series with the Braves and dropping two of three to the Rockies -- and the Wilpons still furious with Willie Randolph over his comments about purported racism in SNY coverage, what happens in the meeting tomorrow between Randolph and Mets management? I still think there's zero possibility of Willie getting fired before the end of the season, so I imagine this all will amount to little more than a verbal tongue lashing and an implied threat that Randolph could lose his job if the Mets do not make the playoffs this year. But hey, stranger things have happened.

Jerk, let me ask you a question. With the way the political climate is now, you really think Obama is not going to have a difficult time beating McCain in November if he doesn't share the ticket with Hillary Clinton? You don't think her avid supporters right now, who have been polling recently as unlikely to vote for Obama if he obtains the Democratic nomination, will opt to simply sit out in November or vote for McCain instead of giving their support to a man they've been trained to distrust for almost a year now? I still think Obama will have a tremendously difficult time winning the presidential election with the splintered state of the Democratic party, and I think the people who are insisting he not give the Vice Presidency to Hillary are being very short-sighted when it comes to giving him the most electable ticket in November. It is absolutely the only way to unify a party that is essentially, although this fact is often downplayed by Obama supporters, split down the middle. To do otherwise would actually be detrimental to his chances.

I would classify that as The Dark Knight, but to each their own. Again, I felt the generational gap was too big for the movie to have such a stellar opening weekend. I was obviously wrong

Made $31 million on Friday. The unbelievably strong opening weekend is a little surprising to me -- I thought it would be one of the biggest blockbusters of the summer, sure, but not have one of the highest opening weekend grosses ever. Seems like 19 years would be too long a gap between the movies of a franchise. Oh well, shows what I know.

How could everybody forget "The Blob"? The obese high school girl wrestler with the heart of gold that had a heart attack during one of her matches and died.

Yeesh. I had to stop that Olbermann rant. It's self-serving beyond belief, and the sheer rambling that goes on with his "We forgive you for blah, blah, blah" was intolerable. Anybody could turn around and do the same speech, inserting Obama or McCain into the slot instead, and come up with an embarrassing laundry list of inconsistencies for that particular candidate.

After watching the Mets get swept by the Braves in a humiliating fashion over the past four games, I wish I could fall 150 feet at Turner Field too.

For the record, Michael Emerson (Ben) and Yunjin Kim (Sun) should both earn Emmys for their performances this year. Both have been fantastic and really have carried Season 4 tremendously. If we're talking specifics, the producers should send the voters "The Shape of Things to Come" for Emerson and "Ji Yeon" for Kim -- the final scene with Sun crying besides Jin's grave was phenomenal.