BruiserKC

A proposed Palestinian state would be the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and a portion or all of Jerusalem.

When Israel was created by the UN in 1948, the Palestinian Arabs were given a homeland to them as their own country. They didn't want Israel to exist, and that is what this war for the last 60 years has been about. They were given their own country and they wanted all of the land. As for the idea of moving the Palestinians to Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, etc...those countries don't want the Palestinians either except to basically be their warriors by proxy. If the other Arab nations really, truly, deeply gave a shit about the Palestinians they would have helped them out a long time ago. I understand people don't want war and they feel for the Palestinian people. I get that...but what people ignore is the fact that Hamas wants to wipe Israel off the map. If you gave them everything they wanted, it wouldn't be enough. Arafat was given 98% of what he wanted for a Palestinian state in 2000, and he still rejected it. If they moved to Alaska, they would declare jihad and send rockets into Fairbanks and Anchorage if given the chance. Radical Islam wants to take over Israel and the world, and it doesn't matter what they do to achieve their goal. For those who say that ragtag terrorist groups can't spread Sharia law all over the world...once upon a time they said Hitler wouldn't amount to much and look what it took to stop him. Until the Palestinians reject Hamas (which BTW they elected to run their land) and their terrorist ways, I would be in favor of them NEVER receiving their state.

General Interest Questions 1. Who are you and what's your business here? BruiserKC...I came here in 2005. Before then, I was a regular at 2xzone, the Yahoo Wrestling chat rooms, and a private board called Horsemen's Paradise which involved some very serious wrestling discussion. Redjed led me to this board from those days at HP. 2. When did you discover an interest in wrestling? 1979...saw wrestling for the first time at a friend's house. I was 5 years old and his brother and girlfriend flipped on Georgia Championship Wrestling and I saw first Tommy "Wildfire" Rich. I have watched ever since. 3. The Company Line: A. Which companies have you actively followed in your tenure as a wrestling fan? WWF/E, NWA (Central States, JCP, and Georgia mostly), Mid-South/UWF, World Class, ECW, AWA, and TNA. B. What have some of your favourite companies been? Your least favourite? (In theory, your answer can be the same - if you were growing up a fan of the technical wrestling WCW brought to the table but thought the end of the line for them was some of the worst television this side of My Mother The Car, that's cool). Favorite companies growing up were the UWF/Mid-South of the mid-80s, NWA/Jim Crockett from '85-89, and ECW of the mid-90s. My least favorites were WCW at the end, as well as WWF in the mid-90s also. C. What is your favourite company right now? Any reason why? I enjoy TNA the most. A handful of these wrestlers have turned down WWE opportunities, such as AJ Styles and Hernandez of the LAX. They are less handcuffed than WWE performers so they can do their thing. 4. (Not So) Favourites: A. Who were your favourite wrestlers (or gimmicks) growing up / when you first started watching wrestling? Road Warriors, Fabulous Freebirds, Four Horsemen, Stan Hansen, Bruiser Brody, RVD, Jerry Lawler (before he acted like a kid that just discovered puberty). B. Who were some guys you couldn't stand? Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Dusty Rhodes, The Cat Ernest Miller (I turned off the TV everytime I saw his mug on WCW) Hogan and Flair I found boring...Flair has grown on me a bit but I still hate Hogan with a passion. C. Who are your current favourites (if applicable / different from A.) Samoa Joe, Jericho, CM Punk, Christopher Daniels, MVP Specific Questions about your Interest 5. How would you gauge your current interest level in the product? Currently I do watch...I make it a habit of not reading the spoilers for TNA, ECW, and SD so I can just watch to see what happens. I would say I am interested and will eventually get my son and maybe my daughters to watch (although they're at the age right now it's not something they should see yet.) 6. At what point in wrestling history (if it's not now) would you consider your interest to have been at it's peak? When were you compelled to watch every second of televised wrestling AND shell out money on PPVs, get excited about the release of video games, have TV/PPV parties with friends, etc. For me it would be in the mid-80s to late 90s, when I was in high school, college and shortly after. Many Saturdays spent watching wrestling in the morning instead of cartoons and then watching NWA wrestling before heading out with my friends. 7. At what point could you tell your interest was dipping and why do you think this happened, or what specific event(s) triggered the decrease? I don't talk on wrestling boards and the like as much as I used to but I still watch and pay attention. It's also harder to talk about it as most of my friends don't watch and my wife thinks I'm out of my gourd for watching. 8. Have you ALWAYS stuck with wrestling even during times of low interest, or are there any lengths of time you stopped watching for a period only to come back at a later date? For the most part I've watched during the down times, but there were a couple of times I stopped watching for a length of time. One when Bruiser Brody was murdered, I stopped watching for several months until the Flair-Steamboat series of matches. Then when Hogan turned heel in WCW and became champion I stopped watching them for almost a year. Interesting Questions of a Somewhat Random Nature 10. What style of pro wrestling best resonates with your personal tastes? I was a huge fan for the basic, tough-guy style of wrestling that the UWF/Mid-South put out, plus enjoyed the hybrid of technical and hardcore ECW and MLW put out. 11. Where do you "draw the line" with the whole "suspended disbelief" deal? To me, it's like watching a play or a movie. I know it's not real, but if it catches my attention and has me riveted it's done its job. 12. Do you attend live events? I usually try to attend at least one a year. It sucks though TNA doesn't come to Iowa, although on a couple of occasions I sneaked up to Minnesota to take in an ROH show. 13. If applicable, what are the best and worst experiences you've had going to a show live? Being at the SNME taping when Hogan superplexed Big Bossman off the top of the cage, plus I've seen both the NWA World title and WWF title change hands at shows I've been at. Least favorite...I believe it was in 2002 or 03, the night before Backlash. It was a house show and the whole thing lasted less than two hours. It felt rushed and I felt ripped off. 14. What are your favourite matches, moments, or events? Flair-Steamboat at Clash of Champions VI, Masato Tanaka vs. Mike Awesome, and Taz-Sabu at Living Dangerously '99. 15. Freestyle I have very strong views, both with wrestling and other issues, but I enjoy the business and I enjoy this board.

The Big Ten school presidents have always wanted to end the season before Thanksgiving break so that they believe that the players can concentrate on their studies and be ready for their finals. For that reason they also usually don't have any sporting events taking place during a school's finals week. Unfortunately I think that this hurts them when it comes time now for the BCS, as the Big Ten champs become almost afterthoughts. 2007 was a perfect example...Ohio State loses their next to last game to Illinois, then had to beat Michigan in the last game and basically then was needing a lot of help to get into the BCS game, which happened with everyone losing from Kansas, Missouri, West Virginia, etc. The impression was OSU backed into the national title game.

Personally, I would think with an economy in the toilet and radical Islamists out to destroy us or convert us all to kneel before Allah, I figure the government has much more important stuff to deal with than whether Cena is roided up. The only way this is going to work is if Congress would go out of their way to subpoena Vince, Dixie, and other top wrestling execs to appear on Capitol Hill. Much like we've seen baseball's steroid policy growing teeth since Selig and Fehr were raked over the coals.

As a diehard Iowa fan and a Big Ten apologist, it strikes me part of the reason the Big Ten gets no respect this time of year (aside from getting their asses kicked by the big-time programs) is that their season is over about 2-3 weeks before everyone else wraps up. The big thing used to be not having a conference title game, but the Pac-10 especially gets away with it by playing right up until the last week of the regular season (including USC-UCLA playing in between the ACC and Big 12 title games on ABC). They might be more noticed if they stretch the season out...people would watch Ohio State vs. Michigan on Thanksgiving or the weekend after. Finish up the weekend of the conference title games. No it wouldn't cure all their woes but would make things a bit easier.

I liked the old Mid-South North American title...supposedly this belt weighed almost 20 pounds.

As a Bears fan, I'm a bit disappointed but there were at least three games (Carolina, Tampa Bay, and Atlanta) that they pissed away which could have given them the division title and possibly a first-round bye. Orton did look really good near the end of the year and Forte looks to be a far cry from the great legacy of running backs like Cedric Benson, Anthony Thomas, and Curtis Ennis. For the draft the Bears need major help with the OL, the secondary, and linebacker. We need depth to eventually be ready for the day Uhrlacher and Briggs are gone, and Mike Brown staying healthy only half the season anymore doesn't cut it. Da Bears need help getting a big-time playmaker at WR, but they can get that with an FA. As for the Patriots, if it's true that Brady is behind in his rehab...what are the chances that Belichick and NE say adios to Brady and name Cassel starting QB for 2009 and beyond. Yes, it's unthinkable that Brady would no longer be running things in New England, but back in 2001 when Bledsoe got benched for Brady people thought Belichick was out of his mind then. Plus, Cassel most likely is headed elsewhere otherwise and to franchise tag him would be dumb move as you would have two millionaire QBs, and Cassel isn't going to want to be paid $9 million to hold a clipboard.

As long as the gay community works within the system while trying to change things I don't have an issue with it. The thing I'd be concerned about is the judicial system legislating from the bench. With the comparisons to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, people like Dr. King worked within the system and helped get the votes needed to pass such legislature such as the Civil Rights Act. Plus much of what Jim Crow laws were doing was illegal as they violated the U.S. Constitution and denied them rights. Another thing going back to this being a clobbering of the Dubya...a local conservative talk show host hammered Bush for being an apologist for radical Islam (in spite of Bush realizing what a threat Islamic terrorism is to the world). He mentioned the fact he entered mosques and refused to change the name from the War on Terror to the War on Radical Islam. I just found it funny that while most of the world sticks their heads in the sand to this threat the way they did to the Nazis that some of Bush's supposed own ilk accuses him of being an apologist or appeaser.

For anyone who doubts whether the UWF (either Bill Watt's or Herb Abrams' version) was a World title...I would throw "Dr. Death" Steve Williams into that category.

I figured this was better off here as far as I'm interested in how sports right now is being effected by the state of the economy. On the one hand, you have CC Sabathia just sign for $161 million and Mark Teixeira being offered $160 million by the Angels over 8 years. On the flip side, the Houston Comets (WNBA's most successful franchise) folds up, Arena Football might be finished for 2009 and for good, and Tiger and LeBron both lose massive sponsors. Where does sports go from here? Will people go to the games and keep them successful since they need something to forget where they are right now or will it be a matter of time before the big sports start taking more of a hit?

To me, gauging the whole economic situation started by the large number of small businesses and banks that were closing. Yes, they close every day but they were closing at an alarming rate. Eventually, people started to realize it once the larger companies started to head south, like Wachovia, Lehman Brothers, etc. And really I don't think I was intending to compare two fringe leagues to MLB. I'm just asking whether it will be a matter of time before MLB, the NFL, and the NBA really start to feel the pinch, especially if the recession continues to linger and/or worsen. As Cheech put it, free agent $ is down, not to mention we don't have as much movement in the FA market. Manny would have been a slam-dunk sign in the past, ditto with Teixeiera. They would have been inked already and they're still job searching.

Disagree if you want...but Bush right now has the government overextending itself into the role of the economy in ways not even FDR did. At least Roosevelt used the government to create jobs and help people out. Bush is throwing money at corporations, asking the government to invest in failed mortgages, stuck its hands out into the financial industry, and now even though the Senate (and a good amount of Americans) have said no to the bailout as is to the automotive company, he's now going to just give money to the automotive industry. I understand something has to be done to halt the slide into another Great Depression, but there has to be better alternatives than just handing out money to everyone, especially money our country doesn't have right now. Plus, it almost seems to me the government is hand-choosing which companies to prop up and which ones to let slide. Citigroup and AIG get to survive, and they allowed Wachovia, Lehman Brothers, and Washington Mutual to go by the wayside. The government and especially the Treasury have way too much power right now and are way too involved in the economy to be considered capitalist. Plus, it's clearly not working. So Obama will have himself one hell of a mess when he gets in.

The way things are going now with Christian looking like he's going back to the WWE I think doing the big "heading back north" angle was in retrospect a bad idea. However, overall the MEM vs. the Frontline has the potential to be good as long as you make sure the Frontline starts getting some licks in and some victories. I remember how the NWO seemed to get over all the time and made everyone else look weak that faced them. Plus, reading about Chono wanting to join...don't let the MEM get too big. They have about the right number now IMO to make this work. Big enough to be a formidable unit, but not so bloated that it loses its focus. Don't put half the roster on the MEM...leave it as is.

It's already there. Bush's letting the government bail everyone out allows him to go into history as the first Socialist president of the United States. Great going, comrade...will the Dubya Presidential Library have a copy of the Communist Manifesto for all to see?

I remember some time back I was a Mike Gallagher fan until he allowed the WBC on his talk show to have an hour of unrestricted airtime in exchange for them not picketing the funerals of the Amish school girls killed in Pennsylvania. I stopped watching his show after that for pandering to these lunatics. The only way to really stand up to this group is to find a way to put this church out of business. If you have government people that want to go after Joe the Plumber, certainly they can look for ways to just go after this church and keep coming after them with such overwhelming numbers and force until they're done. I'm a huge advocate of free speech, but Fred Phelps is a bully and the only real way to deal with bullies is to knock them out. In his case, you'd have to knock him down and stomp a mudhole in him as he wouldn't learn otherwise.

Amen to that. When I saw the comment, I admitted I laughed. It's not the first time we've heard it in a locker room or its been said in any forum. The only reason it was that huge a deal is the fact that he called reporters over to hear it. To be honest, it's another reason I stopped caring about the NHL. I love hockey, but Bettman would have been better served letting this be settled on the ice.

FWIW, in the book, "The Stone Cold Truth", Austin said if there's one thing he could go back and change, it's that he wouldn't have turned heel. He said if he had to do it over again, he would have had things go the way they did, but as soon as the match ended, call an audible, toast Vince, then immediately drill him with a Stunner. I was in disbelief over Hogan being the 3rd man, but he really set a new standard for heel turns. The Hogan heel turn worked because of the fact he was THE big hero at the time. All those years of training, prayers, and vitamins, believing in yourself, and children worshipping the ground he walked on made it that much harder to swallow when he told the fans to stick it. The fact is no one expected it, that's what gave it the oomph to work.

Never, never...EEEEEEEEEEVER did I see this coming end-wise. A rather Pyrrhic victory for Vic, really. He beats the system, only to become part of the system. I noticed when he was thinking about his kids and so on about how it was almost like he was at first straining for a tear to come out, then sucked it back in to his eyes. Great ending to one of the truly greatest shows of our time.

Everything we're seeing so far seems like a rehash of the start of the Great Depression. Obama talks about raising taxes of the upper 5%...which is what Hoover tried to do. He raised the wealthiest tax bracket from 20 to 55%. Congress keeps screwing up themselves, continually re-altering this bailout which shows more and more it was a bad idea. Meanwhile, they just throw money at companies who just do whatever they want with it, but deny money to those that just want a loan? It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better, folks. Batten down the hatches now.

My God...these folks are spending like a drunken sailor on shore leave on their way out the door. I'm trying to understand with AIG especially...the government gives them money so they can take executives and prospective clients to spas for massages with happy endings and we then give them more money? WTF? If we have to be helping these companies out, loan them the money, don't give it to them. There is a precedent with Chrysler in the 1980s when the Treasury loaned them money to get out of trouble and they paid it back. Give these companies a reasonable interest rate to pay this back and a reasonable amount of time. And then set stipulations on it, as in if you do something that is not right with the money you have to give it back immediately or go under.

The telling point will be this Sunday at the PPV. If TNA was smart, they'd book Joe to just completely destroy Nash, marking the return of him as the monster and badass he was when he first started. Then we can see if Joe's rep can still be salvaged.

At the start of the season I figured that Vic was going to get away scot-free. Now I'm not so sure. His actions seem to be of someone who's starting to get real sloppy as the dragnet closes in on him. Of course, Ryan has never been known for wrapping things up in a neat little bow. Couple of ideas I've thrown around...I could see Dutch running the Barn at the end as the tension becomes too much for Claudette's health and she falls by the wayside much like Kavanaugh did. Also, if Vic does go down, what about Aceveda being the one who does it. I go to the matter with Crowley which did happen on Aceveda's watch and with Vic and him fighting over being the point man on the ICE investigation of the cartel, what if Vic tells him to back off or he'll bring up the night Aceveda was raped and forced to give head to the gang-banger? That would be enough for Aceveda to try to finish him off to save his political career.

from http://corner.nationalreview.com/ CORRECTION (imagine that, the National Review got something wrong) Real exit poll results for Prop 8 here; http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#CAI01p1 Spoiler: I'm genuinely surprised. Regarding the spoiler: I'm not. When it comes to those issues, blacks do have a tendency to vote conservative especially in regards to family issues. Many blacks also tend to be against abortion as well. I know I've been a harsh critic and am concerned for the way we're going as a country, but I do extend my congrats to Obama. He was very classy last night and so was McCain in his speech. And I think Obama seemed to send a message with the way he talked to the extreme leftist Democrats to not go overboard and start overreaching. If they start doing that, people are going to not stand for it. I also found it amazing how closer things really seemed to be. Of the swing states that shifted from red to blue, only about one or two counties provided the shift, especially in Indiana, Florida, Ohio, and Virginia. So I would say in football terms, Obama wins 27-13, but the game was actually closer than the final score indicated. I did get a chuckle out of when I voted. Iowa mentions in its state constitution that people that are "Idiot and insane" are not allowed to vote. They want to change the wording to say that people that are mentally incompetent can't vote. I had a Carlos Mencia moment there and if I could would have written in to switch it to people that are "DEE DEE DEE!" can't vote. Another thought I had...if Obama was to reach across the aisle for a couple of Cabinet members. If he wanted to lay the smack down on Wall Street and these CEO's who ripped people off and then got golden parachutes, I'd go for Giuliani for Attorney General. He was a bad-ass as a lawyer in New York who had the Mafia scared to deal with him. Plus, definitely have Powell as Chairman of the JCS.

The Ivy League office doesn't allow their teams to compete in the football playoffs. The Pioneer League and non-scholarship Division I schools hold their own championship game. As for I-A...the presidents don't want a playoff because the lion's share of the money would go to the NCAA, it has nothing to do with the kids since they have a 12th game now regularly. I've felt you can do 24 or 32 teams in I-A. You have 11 conferences, 11 auto bids and the rest at-large. You have to include everyone in a football playoff to make it work.