I like to keep a mental list of people I will "visit" when the inevitable breakdown of law and order occurs. It is a nice coping device, and works better for local vendettas, but it is also nice to put some national figures on it just because.
I agree with you. The only thing I might add is that by doing so (committing early and then decommitting) you are banking on the honor of the coach (for instance, we know Hoke has not yet rescinded an offer to somebody who has committed) to keep that spot open for you. But by decommitting, or by continuing to visit other schools after committing, you are basically going back on your word. The non-binding early commitment is most likely the first time in a lot of these men's lives that they make a public promise backed by nothing else but their word. While some of them eventually prove to be incapable of keeping their word in the face of the inevitable options that open up for them down the road, the coach nonetheless has to keep his word or risk serious repercussions in future recruiting attempts. This is what angers me, and it is primarily a flaw of the system itself, for which I see no easy remedy. I realize it is pointless to get angry with these kids, but there is definitely an abuse of a trust relationship that goes on in these situations, albeit perhaps one into which these young men were ill prepared to enter.
Are you serious? Are you really that angry about some perceived injustice being done to Donald Sterling that you want somebody to start punishing everyone who does something anti-social? The fact is, Sterling's racist tirade came dangerously close to costing the NBA many millions in lost revenues (from the narrowly avoided protest strike). That is why he was punished so severely. It was not some imaginary "PC Police" run amok. It was not a result of the wimpening of America or some of the other bullshit I hear from idiots at my office. It was done by his immediate peer group. Do you want all ex-NBA players to ban Shaq from the annual Ex-NBA player cookout for life? Would that make you happy?
It seems like certain people here are upset because a rich something-something old man got his comeuppance for racist behavior that is probably typical in his circles.
Nobody pays tax on scholarships. Nobody pays tax on benefits (health insurance particularly). Should a form of monetary compensation be devised, that would presumably be taxable and withholding taxes would be taken out.
Your comment is the definition of "concern trolling".
Little Brother will neber get old. Staee will never get old. Would you have us refer to them as "THE Michigan State Spartans"? Or perhaps maybe "Our Lords"? No. Little Brother refers to their mindset. They could go 10-0 against us the next decade and the chip would still be on their shoulder. The inferiority complex is not going anywhere, nor is their fear of our inevitable rise.
Just because you say somebody is not an employee does not mean that they are not an employee, for instance under IRS guidelines. The determination of whether or not an individual is an employee depends on objective facts and circumstances, and not on what some half-wit Ohio legislator declares.
I guess it is one of America's top schools....top 100. Pretty nasty place all told. From the high-rise projects feel of Hubbard hall to the 1970s Soviet architecture elsewhere, it has this cold industrialized vibe. They have a number of buildings in the center of their campus which literally appear to be falling apart. Their clock/bell tower or whatever it is they call it belongs on the campus of a community college. The only really nice looking facilities are the ones lining Grand River Avenue. The city of East Lansing is also unappealing. Basically one main avenue with a few sidestreets jutting off of it thronged by an immense student ghetto. Shitty restaurants are all that is to be found. The Red Cedar River reeks of sewage. Their stadium is a joke, much like the guy in the trailer park who has a 65 inch plasma screen on his wall. It is essentially a deteriorating concrete mess with Kowalski sausage signs plastered everywhere and a giant Toro lawnmower sign featured prominently. People are constantly getting killed by the train that runs to the south of campus.I guess Breslin is nice though.
This is a recent reissue, but essentially it was a story line from the early 1980s incolving alternate timelines. Great story, but the alternate timeline stuff really makes it difficult to comprehend the Marvel Universe as a whole.
One of the typical lines of attack on Warren Buffet's supposedly hypocritical opinion on the inheritance tax (he believes it should be increased) is that it forces heirs to sell, amongst other things, their inherited statkes in companies in order to pay the inheritance tax. Warren Buffet, being rich, is then in a position to scoop up those assets at fire sale prices. I find this idea to be laughable.
First, it is not as if Buffet is given first crack at any company that comes up for sale. He could of course outbid all comers for the company, but that is hardly his style. Second (as a CPA), I have seen some instances where a decedent's estate had to sell assets in order to pay the estate tax. However, and this fact has been noted by others besides me, the idea that family businesses are being auctioned off left and right to pay the estate tax is, with one or two exceptions, a piece of fiction. All of the individuals whose estates will owe the tax are worth, at the very least, several million dollars. THese types of people, almost without exception, hold highly diversified portfolios. There are usually plenty of liquid asets around to pay the tax.
More to the point, it seems to also turn out that the heirs want to cash out anyway. They want the value that has built up in these companies, and so it seems like they are most often sold relatively soon after the death of the decedent, after all estae taxes have been paid.
I have not really seen any argument that claims that Buffet is a hypocrite on these matters that really withstands any scrutiny. Do you know any?
Yes. But he owns many many shares of Berkshire Hathaway which are valued at many billions of dollars, amongst other assets. His salary may be lower than one might expect, but if he needs cash all he has to do is unload a few shares and viola, millions appear in his bank account.
I don't think we are that flighty, and he did have a point. It seems as if we hear (such as with Wimbush yesterday) that basically anybody with an Ohio offer is a presumed Ohio lean. I hardly think that we are so presumptuous (at least most of us here, and not the M posters on MLive for instance) as to automatically assume that a Michigan offer makes somebody an instant Michigan lean (assuming they have other decent offers). However, that type of thinking seems to be par for the course for OSU fans.
I would assume that after the $$ is agreed upon, a lot of these contracts are mostly canned language. He will definitely want an attorney to look it over, but he does not have to hand over a good portion of his earnings to somebody who would most likely look at other top d-lineman contracts and negotiate something along those lines. Basically "I am a top d-line player. Other top d-line players get x. I want x or maybe even x times 1.025. Fair enough?"
His analysis of the two programs is the idiotic icing on the nonsense cake. If anything, M is pulling even with MSU after many years in the wilderness, a wilderness they arrived in due entirely to events which transpired under the nose of Steve Fisher. The "family atmosphere" he cites is nothing more than the end result of having the same coach there for over 30 years (counting his time as an assistant). We could have had that too had we not had to shitcan Steve Fisher for Weber's and others misdeeds. He could still be here today for Christ's sake. Jalen feels shafted, and rightly so in some ways. But he needs to be an adult and realize that the glory that he was a part of was due in part to the fact that ineligible players were on the court. He should stop blaming the athletic dept. or whomever and look inside. I am sure he will get his recognition at some point in time, but I am afraid that it wil only come after he has embarassed himself countless times while slandering the University we love in the process.
May be able to arrange something in the Traverse City area this summer. Local M alumni group seems pretty large (judging by their Cherry Festival float) and they have regular gatherings here. Some really nice brewpubs and a few others here may be willing to do the sponsorship if I had the terms (assuming TC is a suitable destination) to present to them.
Not really glad this happened, but I am glad he finally pulled the trigger on the decommitment. The speculation was getting old. I realize we are "#1" or whatever, but hopefully everybody just moves on and we can find a suitable RB who goes all in for MI
It is not just alienating old coots who complain because tickets prices have increased. It is more about damaging the long term interests of the "brand" of Michigan football. Currently, I make more myself than both my parents combined currently make (and therefore more than they made at any time while I was growing up). I am not unwise with my money (I am a CPA), nor am I excessively cheap. Nonetheless, when I try to devise a realistic budget to take my family to AA and take my son to a game (as I recently tried to do for the OSU game), I end up having to scrap that plan. $190.00 for the tickets themselves already makes it a pretty expensive outing (and, in a teatament to the quality of the team, I was unable to entice any of my dude friends to go with me either). Yet my dad, who was travelling from further away, is excessively cheap, and significantly less than me, managed to take me to a handful of games growing up (which cemented my M fandom).
Unless I start making even more money (and the play of the team improves), I don't foresee ever being able to look at the comprehensive cost of taking my family to AA for a game (much less ever buying my own season tickets) and seeing an attractive value proposition. For fuck sake, I could take them to the Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City, buy us all nice dinners, watch the game in a bar drinking premium beers and still come out ahead all told.
The truth is that the "corporate mentality" or whatever you might call it is indeed harming college sports. Increasing revenue in order to create greater facilities or a better gameday experience or whatever you might call it is really just an attempt to build something from which even more revenue can be generated. This makes some sense in business, in that the greater and greater profits can be distributed to ever more shareholders, or invested in myriad other projects. It makes less sense in college athletics, unless the entire goal of the system is to provide $10,000,000 salaries for Nick Saban type individuals. Unfortunately, constantly increasing prices tends to weed out working class individuals first, and to increase the proportion of the dreaded "wine and cheese" stereotyped affluent M fans. While these types of fans are necessary for the donations and other types of funding they can help facilitate, excessively catering to their desires will, in my opinion, most likely tend to somewhat diminish the broader base of M football fans, the kids like me who grew up cherishing our M football memories when my dad could bring me to the Big House and with $10 or $15 in his pocket buy us some pops and hot dogs and a program. The value is not there anymore.
The article above indicates that for S&P 500 companies, board member pay averages $251,000. Hardly a nominal sum. I would also direct you to pull forms 990 (available to the public) from some of your notable local not-for-profit organizations. You might be surprised how much board members on those organizations are getting paid, too. Pretty eye-opening.
A fight is a fight. This was unprovoked aggression. A provocation, that done to the wrong person, could have resulted in some real violence. This was not two frat boys duking it out in front of Ricks after one too many $2.00 tall Coors Lights.
This is mob violence. At 12 years of age I would have known that this type of behavior is terribly, terribly wrong. This man did nothing to warrant this treatment. His harassment was totally unprovoked. I am not a gun activist by any means, but they are lucky he was not armed. Plus, were there not some very dark rumors circulating about Pharoah Brown (or was that Kellen what's his name?)? Regardless, fuck him.
I had tickets available to me at face value three weeks ago, yet I was unable to persuade any of my half dozen M fan friends to go with me, Quite frustrating, and quite a damning commentary on the current state of the team (and on my friend's fanhhod as well I suppose). Nonetheless, I have not had difficulty in the past, even in 2008 and 2009, to get at least somebody to go to even worse games (MACrifices, Del. State) with me.
I would kidnap all of the players to my secret subterranbean lair and make them answer tough existential questions through a series of life and death role playing games. Plus psychological abuse and torture. I would also wage a guerrilla war to send both the NCAA and OSU into disarray and madness in the week prior to the Game. Finally, we would all take the field in Guy Fawkes masks and nobody on OSU would have any idea who it was they were playing against.
I knew this one guy who took a whiz and didn't realize he was whizzing all over his shirt, which then caused the whiz to drip elsewhere including on his pants. That was pretty cool.
I was previously a poster since 2008 who had a good number of points, primarily due to user moderation, but due to a falling out with some posters I changed everything up so that I could contribute constructively without immediately provoking a flaming response. Then, after doing that, I realized that I had very little interest in posting any longer. Now, I rarely visit and/or post. In fact, I have only been checking lately to see if Hoke is going to enact any personnel changes post MSU.
I think a lot of the problems here are, as posters have noted, typical to many other forms of social media and not necessarily an Mgoblog issuer per se. I was sick of the personas of various users and their predictable rants. I was sick of the smugness of others. I really was not feeling the mods and as a grown man in a management position it was hard to take the periodic individualized and mass scoldings that occur. I guess I just got sick of it. I also miss some of the old posters who really made this place feel like home.
I realize this is all very vague, but I am trying to avoid a flame war. Just my $.02 as to why I don't really enjoy this place as much as I used to about 2 or three years ago.
hmmm.....Brian has his hands in his pockets a lot. And, no offense to Butterfield, but Magnus has been tracking ex Wolverine progress in the NFL for quite some time at TTB. Give the man some space. Whats next, pictures of hot girls in bikinis and meticulous recruit tracker updates? I keed I keed.....sort of
Recent Comments
I like to keep a mental list of people I will "visit" when the inevitable breakdown of law and order occurs. It is a nice coping device, and works better for local vendettas, but it is also nice to put some national figures on it just because.
#Ican'tstandwhenpeopleinventhashtagstoexpresssomethoughtthatnobodyelsehassincethepurposeofahashtagistoparticipateinthemomentumofacurrenttrendthenperhapsyoushouldnotjustfashionrandomhashtagsthatnobodyelsewilluse
Yes. Illinois is an excellent school. FOR ME TO POOP ON!!!!!!
I agree with you. The only thing I might add is that by doing so (committing early and then decommitting) you are banking on the honor of the coach (for instance, we know Hoke has not yet rescinded an offer to somebody who has committed) to keep that spot open for you. But by decommitting, or by continuing to visit other schools after committing, you are basically going back on your word. The non-binding early commitment is most likely the first time in a lot of these men's lives that they make a public promise backed by nothing else but their word. While some of them eventually prove to be incapable of keeping their word in the face of the inevitable options that open up for them down the road, the coach nonetheless has to keep his word or risk serious repercussions in future recruiting attempts. This is what angers me, and it is primarily a flaw of the system itself, for which I see no easy remedy. I realize it is pointless to get angry with these kids, but there is definitely an abuse of a trust relationship that goes on in these situations, albeit perhaps one into which these young men were ill prepared to enter.
Just buckle the seatbelt. Your dog can sit on the buckled seatbelt just fine and it won't keep dinging.
EDIT: I just saw below that somebody beat me to this suggestion
Don't need a chick-fil-a. just get the mcdonalds southern style chicken sandwich. same. damn. thing.
Are you serious? Are you really that angry about some perceived injustice being done to Donald Sterling that you want somebody to start punishing everyone who does something anti-social? The fact is, Sterling's racist tirade came dangerously close to costing the NBA many millions in lost revenues (from the narrowly avoided protest strike). That is why he was punished so severely. It was not some imaginary "PC Police" run amok. It was not a result of the wimpening of America or some of the other bullshit I hear from idiots at my office. It was done by his immediate peer group. Do you want all ex-NBA players to ban Shaq from the annual Ex-NBA player cookout for life? Would that make you happy?
It seems like certain people here are upset because a rich something-something old man got his comeuppance for racist behavior that is probably typical in his circles.
Nobody pays tax on scholarships. Nobody pays tax on benefits (health insurance particularly). Should a form of monetary compensation be devised, that would presumably be taxable and withholding taxes would be taken out.
Your comment is the definition of "concern trolling".
Little Brother will neber get old. Staee will never get old. Would you have us refer to them as "THE Michigan State Spartans"? Or perhaps maybe "Our Lords"? No. Little Brother refers to their mindset. They could go 10-0 against us the next decade and the chip would still be on their shoulder. The inferiority complex is not going anywhere, nor is their fear of our inevitable rise.
So....I got $200. Anybody else down? I say we go out and get us the best players money can buy. Seriously, hit me up.
Or the NLRB?
Just because you say somebody is not an employee does not mean that they are not an employee, for instance under IRS guidelines. The determination of whether or not an individual is an employee depends on objective facts and circumstances, and not on what some half-wit Ohio legislator declares.
The only thing that could make this gif better is if there were some Wolverines caught laughing at that shot in real time.
I guess it is one of America's top schools....top 100. Pretty nasty place all told. From the high-rise projects feel of Hubbard hall to the 1970s Soviet architecture elsewhere, it has this cold industrialized vibe. They have a number of buildings in the center of their campus which literally appear to be falling apart. Their clock/bell tower or whatever it is they call it belongs on the campus of a community college. The only really nice looking facilities are the ones lining Grand River Avenue. The city of East Lansing is also unappealing. Basically one main avenue with a few sidestreets jutting off of it thronged by an immense student ghetto. Shitty restaurants are all that is to be found. The Red Cedar River reeks of sewage. Their stadium is a joke, much like the guy in the trailer park who has a 65 inch plasma screen on his wall. It is essentially a deteriorating concrete mess with Kowalski sausage signs plastered everywhere and a giant Toro lawnmower sign featured prominently. People are constantly getting killed by the train that runs to the south of campus.I guess Breslin is nice though.
http://www.amazon.com/X-Men-Days-Future-Chris-Claremont/dp/0785184422/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395698959&sr=1-2&keywords=days+of+future+past
This is a recent reissue, but essentially it was a story line from the early 1980s incolving alternate timelines. Great story, but the alternate timeline stuff really makes it difficult to comprehend the Marvel Universe as a whole.
I thought the same thing. Looked like a mini running back on that final play
Tchad
One of the typical lines of attack on Warren Buffet's supposedly hypocritical opinion on the inheritance tax (he believes it should be increased) is that it forces heirs to sell, amongst other things, their inherited statkes in companies in order to pay the inheritance tax. Warren Buffet, being rich, is then in a position to scoop up those assets at fire sale prices. I find this idea to be laughable.
First, it is not as if Buffet is given first crack at any company that comes up for sale. He could of course outbid all comers for the company, but that is hardly his style. Second (as a CPA), I have seen some instances where a decedent's estate had to sell assets in order to pay the estate tax. However, and this fact has been noted by others besides me, the idea that family businesses are being auctioned off left and right to pay the estate tax is, with one or two exceptions, a piece of fiction. All of the individuals whose estates will owe the tax are worth, at the very least, several million dollars. THese types of people, almost without exception, hold highly diversified portfolios. There are usually plenty of liquid asets around to pay the tax.
More to the point, it seems to also turn out that the heirs want to cash out anyway. They want the value that has built up in these companies, and so it seems like they are most often sold relatively soon after the death of the decedent, after all estae taxes have been paid.
I have not really seen any argument that claims that Buffet is a hypocrite on these matters that really withstands any scrutiny. Do you know any?
Yes. But he owns many many shares of Berkshire Hathaway which are valued at many billions of dollars, amongst other assets. His salary may be lower than one might expect, but if he needs cash all he has to do is unload a few shares and viola, millions appear in his bank account.
I don't think we are that flighty, and he did have a point. It seems as if we hear (such as with Wimbush yesterday) that basically anybody with an Ohio offer is a presumed Ohio lean. I hardly think that we are so presumptuous (at least most of us here, and not the M posters on MLive for instance) as to automatically assume that a Michigan offer makes somebody an instant Michigan lean (assuming they have other decent offers). However, that type of thinking seems to be par for the course for OSU fans.
But what about Malik Mcdowell?
That's good enough for Sparty!
I would assume that after the $$ is agreed upon, a lot of these contracts are mostly canned language. He will definitely want an attorney to look it over, but he does not have to hand over a good portion of his earnings to somebody who would most likely look at other top d-lineman contracts and negotiate something along those lines. Basically "I am a top d-line player. Other top d-line players get x. I want x or maybe even x times 1.025. Fair enough?"
Hmmm...I am going to wait to see what Dickie V thinks before I take such a bold step.
His analysis of the two programs is the idiotic icing on the nonsense cake. If anything, M is pulling even with MSU after many years in the wilderness, a wilderness they arrived in due entirely to events which transpired under the nose of Steve Fisher. The "family atmosphere" he cites is nothing more than the end result of having the same coach there for over 30 years (counting his time as an assistant). We could have had that too had we not had to shitcan Steve Fisher for Weber's and others misdeeds. He could still be here today for Christ's sake. Jalen feels shafted, and rightly so in some ways. But he needs to be an adult and realize that the glory that he was a part of was due in part to the fact that ineligible players were on the court. He should stop blaming the athletic dept. or whomever and look inside. I am sure he will get his recognition at some point in time, but I am afraid that it wil only come after he has embarassed himself countless times while slandering the University we love in the process.
He kind of sounded like Chris Collinsworth on Madden NFL 2011
May be able to arrange something in the Traverse City area this summer. Local M alumni group seems pretty large (judging by their Cherry Festival float) and they have regular gatherings here. Some really nice brewpubs and a few others here may be willing to do the sponsorship if I had the terms (assuming TC is a suitable destination) to present to them.
Not really glad this happened, but I am glad he finally pulled the trigger on the decommitment. The speculation was getting old. I realize we are "#1" or whatever, but hopefully everybody just moves on and we can find a suitable RB who goes all in for MI
Yeah. May as well throw together a search committee comprised of Nobel prize winning physicists. That would be even better!!
It is not just alienating old coots who complain because tickets prices have increased. It is more about damaging the long term interests of the "brand" of Michigan football. Currently, I make more myself than both my parents combined currently make (and therefore more than they made at any time while I was growing up). I am not unwise with my money (I am a CPA), nor am I excessively cheap. Nonetheless, when I try to devise a realistic budget to take my family to AA and take my son to a game (as I recently tried to do for the OSU game), I end up having to scrap that plan. $190.00 for the tickets themselves already makes it a pretty expensive outing (and, in a teatament to the quality of the team, I was unable to entice any of my dude friends to go with me either). Yet my dad, who was travelling from further away, is excessively cheap, and significantly less than me, managed to take me to a handful of games growing up (which cemented my M fandom).
Unless I start making even more money (and the play of the team improves), I don't foresee ever being able to look at the comprehensive cost of taking my family to AA for a game (much less ever buying my own season tickets) and seeing an attractive value proposition. For fuck sake, I could take them to the Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City, buy us all nice dinners, watch the game in a bar drinking premium beers and still come out ahead all told.
The truth is that the "corporate mentality" or whatever you might call it is indeed harming college sports. Increasing revenue in order to create greater facilities or a better gameday experience or whatever you might call it is really just an attempt to build something from which even more revenue can be generated. This makes some sense in business, in that the greater and greater profits can be distributed to ever more shareholders, or invested in myriad other projects. It makes less sense in college athletics, unless the entire goal of the system is to provide $10,000,000 salaries for Nick Saban type individuals. Unfortunately, constantly increasing prices tends to weed out working class individuals first, and to increase the proportion of the dreaded "wine and cheese" stereotyped affluent M fans. While these types of fans are necessary for the donations and other types of funding they can help facilitate, excessively catering to their desires will, in my opinion, most likely tend to somewhat diminish the broader base of M football fans, the kids like me who grew up cherishing our M football memories when my dad could bring me to the Big House and with $10 or $15 in his pocket buy us some pops and hot dogs and a program. The value is not there anymore.
It is not uncommon for Board members on publicly traded corporations to make 6 figures a year.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-30/board-director-pay-hits-record-251-000-for-250-hours.html
The article above indicates that for S&P 500 companies, board member pay averages $251,000. Hardly a nominal sum. I would also direct you to pull forms 990 (available to the public) from some of your notable local not-for-profit organizations. You might be surprised how much board members on those organizations are getting paid, too. Pretty eye-opening.
I had tickets available to me at face value three weeks ago, yet I was unable to persuade any of my half dozen M fan friends to go with me, Quite frustrating, and quite a damning commentary on the current state of the team (and on my friend's fanhhod as well I suppose). Nonetheless, I have not had difficulty in the past, even in 2008 and 2009, to get at least somebody to go to even worse games (MACrifices, Del. State) with me.
I would kidnap all of the players to my secret subterranbean lair and make them answer tough existential questions through a series of life and death role playing games. Plus psychological abuse and torture. I would also wage a guerrilla war to send both the NCAA and OSU into disarray and madness in the week prior to the Game. Finally, we would all take the field in Guy Fawkes masks and nobody on OSU would have any idea who it was they were playing against.
Victory would surely follow.
I knew this one guy who took a whiz and didn't realize he was whizzing all over his shirt, which then caused the whiz to drip elsewhere including on his pants. That was pretty cool.
But I have to draw a line at Olestra
I was previously a poster since 2008 who had a good number of points, primarily due to user moderation, but due to a falling out with some posters I changed everything up so that I could contribute constructively without immediately provoking a flaming response. Then, after doing that, I realized that I had very little interest in posting any longer. Now, I rarely visit and/or post. In fact, I have only been checking lately to see if Hoke is going to enact any personnel changes post MSU.
I think a lot of the problems here are, as posters have noted, typical to many other forms of social media and not necessarily an Mgoblog issuer per se. I was sick of the personas of various users and their predictable rants. I was sick of the smugness of others. I really was not feeling the mods and as a grown man in a management position it was hard to take the periodic individualized and mass scoldings that occur. I guess I just got sick of it. I also miss some of the old posters who really made this place feel like home.
I realize this is all very vague, but I am trying to avoid a flame war. Just my $.02 as to why I don't really enjoy this place as much as I used to about 2 or three years ago.
Actually....OSU did not officially win all of those games.
Boom.....Tressel'd
I just read the comments section in the Star-Tribune article. We here are taking these comments much more seriously than the home audience up there.
Initiate Operation Hive Mind
Haha, funny. Actually, I heard that the Sparty women were giving glazed donut face to the first 5,000 students at the game Saturday.