Open carry is hit and miss depending on the state.

Even in states where it's completely legal it can be a big pain in the ass. People are conditioned to fear the sight of any gun and call police right away. You will be stopped and questioned. If you get a cop who is 'cool' it's probably not an issue but of course you might not and then they'll go out of their way to make your day difficult. Best case you get the 'cool' cop and he sends you on your way. Ten minutes later another cop shows up because of someone else who called.

Generally open-carry isn't worth the trouble, hence the reason for an explosion of concealed-carry license requests.

Absolutely. Had Josh Hamilton hit just one more home run, or maybe not have missed a couple games during the season, or maybe the yen did this, or maybe the weather in Pamplona been just a little better, Cabrera woudn't be a Triple Crown winner. What if, but he did.

It's not a problem, it's just the way it is. It just shows another reason why it's so hard to accomplish.

Mike Trout is a great player, no doubt. He should definitely be on the short list for MVP. The problem is that this isn't just a statistical/quantitative award, there's a qualitative measurement as well. Were you just 'good' but on a terrible team? Were you 'great' but on a great team? These things matter. Felix Rodriguez got the Cy Young award even though he had barely a winning record as a pitcher. His team gave him ZERO help but he was the best pitcher in the AL that year.

What is all comes down to is the Triple Crown. The last guy to do it was Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. Of 16 Triple Crown winners, only 14 players have ever accomplished it (two of them did it twice). In this age of hitters that are specialists, it's incredible that someone accomplished the feat. I honestly never thought I would see it in my lifetime.

So unless Nate Silver can put some weight on the psychological importance of the title - Triple Crown - then his calculation will be flawed. Knowing that Nate Silver is a baseball fan, I assume he is well aware of the importance of the feat.

CABRERA 2012!

News flash, the Pac-12 refs suck. They've sucked for years, easily back when it was the Pac-10, and most likely when it was the Pac-8.

We have those - privatized by unions mostly, but typically with additional education in community colleges. Welders, electricians, plumbers, HVAC, etc., are all apprenticeship jobs that can pay well for those who want them. It's just people tend to be lazy and want jobs just handed to them now.

No protest about the video? 'Muslim Rage' was being reported for a long time before and after the Benghazi embassy attacks. Protestors took down the embassy flag and burned it hours before the attack that killed the ambassador. Do you have any sources as to the mishandling of the situation other than the Romney camp's insistence that Obama was 'apologizing' after the attack? 16 hours is nothing - I'll give the administration time to find out what exactly happened before just throwing out blame (the way Romney did).

Don't be an asshole. I'm sure he planned to be fundraising while our embassy was attacked, just like Bush planned to be at an elementary school having a nice photo op on the morning of Sept. 11.

A few months ago, EA released an updated SSX. The original (PS2, probably one of the best launch games ever) was great and the following 2 sequels (Tricky and '3') moderately good. There were a few incarnations in between but they were lacking.

The newest edition is visually stunning but they left out the one thing that made the first 3 so fun to play - split-screen, local multiplayer. Everything you want to do against an opponent is either from a 'ghost' (a recording of a previous run) or online against a friend. You can't just jump in and race against a friend sitting in your living room, they have to be connected to the internet on their own machine.

Thankfully my wife and I had only rented it. We were huge fans of the first ones with the local multiplayer / party game type action as most significant reason. Sorry EA, you broke something that didn't need to be fixed.

My wife and I were watching a documentary series called 'Wild Pacific' (which was called 'South Pacific' in the UK) which describes islands in the Pacific starting at Indonesia and working eastward. The common theme in the series is that the islands become more spaced out and less and less wildlife gets to each territory. Starts with monkeys and crocodiles, then birds, then just about nothing. What you end up with is Hawaii before humans. If I remember correctly, very few insects, fewer birds, no mammals and no reptiles. A normally loud rain forest in Indonesia is quiet and desolated of life in Hawaii. The estimation for new species showing up before human population is once every 35,000 years.

And this is where Mars is: surrounded by absolute nothing with no way for a species to reliably get there. It may take a long time (and let's hope not 35,000 years) but we will get there.

Maybe he was thinking more of the Old Testament, fire and brimstone God. You know, the one who killed everyone with a flood, destroyed cities for being too 'unclean', wanted a guy to kill his own son to show his faith, or turned a woman to a pillar of salt just for looking at his work. OT God was a pretty big asshole.

Yes, the 'baby Jesus' remark makes an OT God reference a little difficult.

Couldn't they have just turned on the lights in the bathroom?

(Face it, you knew an ass joke was imminent.)

I wasn't aware that Asics made space sneakers.

That's not being very nice to mosquitoes. One is a blood sucking insect that carries disease and pestilence and is almost impossible to defend against - the other is a mosquito.

Yeah, I wouldn't say 'hideously rich'. While Mojang's revenue is relatively high, their EBITDA is relatively low. I believe they are making a much higher margin on their pocket editions and XBox 360 version (linked article is before these) so that's good. If it was just Notch still working on these then I'd agree but he's got a fair-sized business running now with all the associated costs. Not to say he's poor, I think he's just in the 'extremely comfortable' zone right now.

It doesn't have to be. The Hawaiian people did pretty well long before Captain Cook ever knew it existed.

But, I get your point. And Mars ain't Maui. If one to run out of food you can't just go fishing or grab a coconut off of a tree.

Obligatory PVP?

http://pvponline.com/comic/2003/05/12/mon-may-12