FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[janesvilleflash]

My "problem" with the political discussions (arguments)  is I've never seen a winner. Very smart people on both sides argue literally for years, and I've never heard ANYONE say, "hey, you're right, I have changed my mind".

To me, that makes it a waste of time. I would prefer intelligent people find some common ground on an issue where they could try to use that intelligence for some good.

For example, I posted a link to a story about St. Xavier closing the school indefinately because of death threats. Would all these great minds be better used brainstorming an issue like that, or a similar one? I think so.

In the mean time, I enjoy reading these political debates, but remain frustrated in everyones lack of success in changing anyone's mind, making it a waste thought, time and space.

[OzJohnnie]

In the mean time, I enjoy reading these political debates, but remain frustrated in everyones lack of success in changing anyone's mind, making it a waste thought, time and space.

I'm only frustrated with my lack of success.  The other guy's failure suits me just fine. 

In other news, here is some video of Barry Hall of the Swans dropping Brent Staker of the Eagles with a cheap but solid left hook yesterday.  It's been 25 years since play included this stuff - the game is tough enough already.

[Rugman]

I thought and thought and thought and thought about a football topic to bring up and finally came up with one.

If we decide to attack Iran and we have to reinstate the draft and then a bunch of riots break out on campuses and if Hillary manages to steal the nomination from Obama on some technicalities, and a bunch of riots break out in the inner cities and if they don't fix any potholes this spring because we're spending all the highway money fixing bridges and a bunch of riots break out on the freeways, and Mr Bu!!Sh!! has to declare martial law and really does become a king...will the MIAC still have a football season this Fall?

[BDB]

If people are so upset with the board going off topic, I invite them to get a user name and re-direct/re-focus the conversation.

That's what I tell them.

However, they are right, you know.

I, for one, am a very satisfied user of d3.football.com just the way it is. 

EDIT: I even click on alot of the advertiser links to help support the site.



Although I'll need to wait a few years for son of BDB to grow up for this one to be relevant to me.  8)

[Kilted Rat]

What are we going to talk about in the offseason.  By Christmas the playoffs were over and we had beaten the dead on horse on who beat who and why. 

Since d3 has no formal signing day such as the upper levels and they have no formal spring practice what are we to talk about.  If d3 kids singed then we could spend a few months hashing over stealing kids away from other scholorship programs and who is going to make an impact in the spring drills. 

It has been stated on here before and showed up here very recently with ROR went through a procedure, I am talking about family.  It was stated on here that this is family and everyone extended the best wishes.  Families talk about a lot of differnt topics in and out of season. 

You can only make so many top 10 lists in regards who was the best guard in the MIAC over the last 20 years before you get bored and wander into other topics. 

Sorry if I am a horses rear, but I get tired of people complaining about public forum that they do not have to belong to and or read. 

BTW +k KR nice post. 

Thanks. I couldn't agree with you more.

If people want a board that strictly talks football, they can go read all 236 posts of the UMAC board. If you are looking for strictly football talk, I recommend you go to www.d3football.com which is a great website for football information only.

If you want to read only football chatter, only read this thread during football season and even then I can't guarantee that everything will stay perfectly on topic.

This is America where if you don't like something, you have the freedom, the right, and even the responsibility to try to change it. B*tching to PC about it is equivalent to calling your mom to whine when you don't get picked for a job you've applied for instead of making your resume better and taking responsability for yourself.


Here's one of my philosophies on life:
If you don't like something change it. If you aren't willing to make an effort to change it, it really doesn't mean that much to you, does it?

I, for one, am a very satisfied user of d3.football.com just the way it is. 

Exactly, the ones who post and ramble about the non-football topics on here in the off season are the ones who log on the most and bring in the ad revenue.

[footballfan413]

I didn't post any opinions regarding the latest healthcare debate but I read every word.  I became a more informed individual regarding the subject and my belief in an age-old adage was reinforced.  "There are two sides to every story and the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle."  I just find it really ironic that when this board strays off topic which it does on a regular basis, (how else do you get double and, in some cases, triple the pages of the other boards,)  to talk of Hamm's, ice fishing and, (sorry BDB,) Anna Kournikova Friday's, etc, nothing is mentioned but complaints arise when the topic turns into a political debate involving one of the most important issues of our time?     These types of discussions, while often not producing a clear winner, do many times produce ideas.  I will honor whatever PC's  wishes are but I humbly suggest that monitoring these boards to make sure that the topic discussed is always football related seems like an extremely time consuming road to go down. 

[Klopenhiemer]

And to think we have not even started talking about public education yet

Are you SURE you want to open that can of worms?!

I would love to open this can of worms, the question is, does anyone else?

I will begin:
The biggest problem is people trying to reform education that do not know anything about education.  Of course part of the problem is that any vote against education is a vote against kids.  NCLB has been a failure.  It was worth a try, but now we want to try to fix the law.  Any vote against reform is a vote against children according to most voters.  I would also like to point out that charter schools are hurting public schools.  They take money away from public schools, and then fail regularly.  They might as well be for profit schools.  Standardized testing is also a problem since it tends to be biased towards certain groups.  Most schools of education are teaching philosophies that do not work in the public schools.  My biggest problem is that we are over reforming schools instead of giving the power back to local districts.  If you want to fix public education start letting the local school boards determine what students should learn.

I work for a company the develops park and recreational setting for villages and towns.  We sell a broad range of products and have an in house design staff compete with a landscape architect.  Our primary goal is to develop a plan for a community and neighborhood park and is funcitional and fun.  

One area that we get into quite a bit is new school construction.  We are often called upon to come in and meet with principals and PTO groups in regards to creating and education/functional play evnviornment.  Time and time again I pull up to these multi-million dollar buildings (which are very impressive) only to walk inside and hear a sad sad story.  

I get the tour of the school.  Compete with state of the art flash media products, learning tools, lunch rooms, athletic facilties, and music/performing arts centers.  Then I see their are for the playground.  They have a nice wide open area that is condusive to almost any possible play area.  Then they break the news of we only have 10K to spend.  I ask how many kids are in the school.  Their response is grades 1-5 we have 650 kids.  I ask how many recesses they have per day.  They respond with one 15 minute session after lunch.  They they tell me that lunch is broken into 3 shifts so that roughly 200 kids spill onto the playground after lunch.  

Ladies and gentlemen 10K does not buy you anything in my business.  It buys you enough equipment to satisfy roughly 20-30 kids at best.  Then I get into a long discuession regarding the developmental benefits of free play and how this effecting our youth.  I get into the whole deal about how ADD and ADHA are more prevlient in children today and ever before.  With all the flash media we have and all over stimulation our children are receiving at an early age, it no wonder these kids are bouncing off the walls.  

My point in this whole story is how frustrated that I get with the public school system.  The pour millions of dollars into having the best computer system and teaching aids, but they are missing the boat.  Giving children the opportunity of free play makes further strides at young ages than any computer system can ever do.  Its calms the kids down, it lets them burn the energy, it makes them feel good about themselves, and it increases concentration.  

In my elementary school days we were granted 3 trips to the playground every day weather permitting.  There was no excuse for not listening once you got back into the class.  You had plenty of opportunities to get out there and burn your energy.  This is another reason why childhood obesity is another major concern we are facing in our country today.  If you do not provide adequate recreational areas for children the less aggressive and more timid kids will stand on the sidelines.  Thus leading to more and more children not getting the proper amount of exercise per day.  Thus leading to a whole other can of worms.  

I really feel we are missing the boat on letting kids be kids.  You have your whole life the be serrious and worry about your performance.  Shouldnt we be trying to advocate our youth to be youthful and develop both through education and recreational activities?

[BDB]

I just find it really ironic that when this board strays off topic which it does on a regular basis, (how else do you get double and, in some cases, triple the pages of the other boards,)  to talk of Hamm's, ice fishing and, (sorry BDB,) Anna Kournikova Friday's, etc, nothing is mentioned but complaints arise when the topic turns into a political debate involving one of the most important issues of our time?     

But 413, who could possibly complain about these topics? 

[OzJohnnie]

I just find it really ironic that when this board strays off topic which it does on a regular basis, (how else do you get double and, in some cases, triple the pages of the other boards,)  to talk of Hamm's, ice fishing and, (sorry BDB,) Anna Kournikova Friday's, etc, nothing is mentioned but complaints arise when the topic turns into a political debate involving one of the most important issues of our time?      

But 413, who could possibly complain about these topics? 

[footballfan413]

I just find it really ironic that when this board strays off topic which it does on a regular basis, (how else do you get double and, in some cases, triple the pages of the other boards,)  to talk of Hamm's, ice fishing and, (sorry BDB,) Anna Kournikova Friday's, etc, nothing is mentioned but complaints arise when the topic turns into a political debate involving one of the most important issues of our time?     

But 413, who could possibly complain about these topics? 

Well, certainly, not me!   

[OzJohnnie]

Well, I've been sitting here for a couple hours (days now?) thinking about his, vacillating, and have now decided we'll probably kill off this board - at least for a large number of Johnnie oriented supporters - if we keep this up.  And the Johnnie supporters largely make their long term home here, so if I could change my vote above, I would from 'Eh' to 'No'.

So, there you go.  I'm shutting up, numbnuts.  And I've deleted a couple posts intended to give the round of education debate a bit of momentum.  Sorry to those that may have been frustrated with them (I've received no PM's stating as such.  Yet, anyway).

[Mr. Ypsi]

In the mean time, I enjoy reading these political debates, but remain frustrated in everyones lack of success in changing anyone's mind, making it a waste thought, time and space.

I'm only frustrated with my lack of success.  The other guy's failure suits me just fine. 

My sentiments exactly, Oz!

footballfan413 may have summed it up best.  There may be no actual converts, but new ideas may emerge: I'd given little thought to HSAs as a solution, but (being leery of the faults of Canadian and British style systems), I am intrigued (as long as there are backups for those who cannot afford them, or for catastrophic situations, including otherwise noncatastophic situations which occur when someone is too young for an HSA to provide coverage - e.g., my first-born's emergency C-section: NOW a hit but survivable, THEN a likely lead in to homelessness).

But you will NEVER convert me to a system where the business model is "profits depend on denying health care customers thought they had paid for"!

[Mr. Ypsi]

For those who wondered how Mr. Ypsi (a retired educator, afterall ), could have stayed out of the latest debate a full 19 hours after it was launched, fear not!  I'll chime in, but you may be surprised at how mixed my feelings are.  In principle, I believe public schools have arguably been the single most important reason that American democracy survives (and do think that NCLB has been a well-intentioned disaster), yet, for several reasons I may or may not elaborate on, may be sending my younger son to a charter or private school next year.

This teaser is NOT (alas) sponsored by anyone with any money!

[Klopenhiemer]

Well, I've been sitting here for a couple hours (days now?) thinking about his, vacillating, and have now decided we'll probably kill off this board - at least for a large number of Johnnie oriented supporters - if we keep this up.  And the Johnnie supporters largely make their long term home here, so if I could change my vote above, I would from 'Eh' to 'No'.

So, there you go.  I'm shutting up, numbnuts.  And I've deleted a couple posts intended to give the round of education debate a bit of momentum.  Sorry to those that may have been frustrated with them (I've received no PM's stating as such.  Yet, anyway).

Alright OZ I can agree with that.  Ypsi has some tempting words in his lasts posts that make me want to respond, but I am going to hang up this topic as well. 

We are always looking to expand globally, so if you know anyone neending recreational facilties developed, you might twist my arm to take a trip down under 

[OzJohnnie]

Tmerts;

This was snapped at the recent Olympic Torch relay protests in SFO.  And we thought we had problems with off-topic wanderings.