The votes are in, and The Konformist readers have spoken. Jerry Sandusky is your choice for the 2013 Beast of the Year - a choice that is well deserved.
If there is any lesson to be learned in this year's BOTY victory, it's this: people don't like child molestors. That succinctly explains how Sandusky won an award normally garnered by someone or something heavily inovled in control of the political or economic system. Not that political control is completely missing from the Sandusky sex abuse scandal: left uninvestigated are allegations that wealthy individuals were involved in sex abuse as well, which would explain the unusually speedy trial Sandusky faced.
Runner-Up: Justin Bieber
In the unlikely event that Sandusky can no longer fill his duties as Beast of the Year, Justin Bieber is ready to take over the crown. Rest assured the BOTY trophy is in good hands either way.
In any case, we salute you, Jerry and Justin. Congratulations, and keep up the great work, dudes!!!
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Robalini's Week 17 NFL Picks
Here's my results for Week 16
W-L-T record: 7-3
Season record: 78-84-5
Atlanta Falcons (+6 1/2) over Carolina Panthers
With Atlanta at home, this is a good bet for them to at least keep it close.
Chicago Bears (+3) over Green Bay Packers
Aaron Rodgers will not be 100 percent, and the Bears are at home.
New York Giants (-3) over Washington Redskins
The Skins have checked out, and the Giants are playing for pride. That should be enough.
Baltimore Ravens (+6 1/2) over Cincinnati Bengals
If this is a tough fight (and it should be) the Bengals should check out, as they're in the playoffs either way.
Jacksonville Jaguars (+11 1/2) over Indianapolis Colts
Take the points, the Jags will keep it close.
Philadelphia Eagles (-6 1/2) over Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys without Romo? Forget it.
New York Jets (+6 1/2) over Miami Dolphins
Dog number 5.
Detroit Lions (+3) over Minnesota Vikings
Dog number 6.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+12 1/2) over New Orleans Saints
I love the Saints, but this is just too many points.
Oakland Raiders (+12 1/2) over Denver Broncos
Dog number 8, again with too many points.
San Francisco 49ers (-1) over Arizona Cardinals
This is a small spread for a very hot team in SF.
Kansas City Chiefs (+10) over San Diego Chargers
Where is the respect for an 11-4 team?
St. Louis Rames (+11 1/2) over Seattle Seahawks
Take the points in Dog number 10.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
W-L-T record: 7-3
Season record: 78-84-5
Atlanta Falcons (+6 1/2) over Carolina Panthers
With Atlanta at home, this is a good bet for them to at least keep it close.
Chicago Bears (+3) over Green Bay Packers
Aaron Rodgers will not be 100 percent, and the Bears are at home.
New York Giants (-3) over Washington Redskins
The Skins have checked out, and the Giants are playing for pride. That should be enough.
Baltimore Ravens (+6 1/2) over Cincinnati Bengals
If this is a tough fight (and it should be) the Bengals should check out, as they're in the playoffs either way.
Jacksonville Jaguars (+11 1/2) over Indianapolis Colts
Take the points, the Jags will keep it close.
Philadelphia Eagles (-6 1/2) over Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys without Romo? Forget it.
New York Jets (+6 1/2) over Miami Dolphins
Dog number 5.
Detroit Lions (+3) over Minnesota Vikings
Dog number 6.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+12 1/2) over New Orleans Saints
I love the Saints, but this is just too many points.
Oakland Raiders (+12 1/2) over Denver Broncos
Dog number 8, again with too many points.
San Francisco 49ers (-1) over Arizona Cardinals
This is a small spread for a very hot team in SF.
Kansas City Chiefs (+10) over San Diego Chargers
Where is the respect for an 11-4 team?
St. Louis Rames (+11 1/2) over Seattle Seahawks
Take the points in Dog number 10.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Monday, December 23, 2013
Who is The Konformist Beast of the Year?
Please note: if you have already voted via the website, please vote again, as the Yahoo vote count was reset.
Who is The Konformist Beast of the Year?
To vote for your pick go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/konformist/polls
Or send email to: robalini@aol.com
It's time for the annual pick of The Konformist Beast of the Year.
One nominee was chosen each month from May 2012 to April 2013. Here are the choices:
May 2012: Rupert Murdoch
Let's forget for a minute that Murdoch runs the most ruthlessly dishonest right-wing media empire in the world. Let's forget also that while it's been uncovered that his outlets have been engaging in widespread computer hacking while he has hypocritically pushed for tougher laws against cyber criminals. Just ask this: if the names "Murdoch" and "News Corp" were taken out of the story, and the evidence of the widespread hacking were reported in the news, would this guy be in jail?
June 2012: Nicolas Sarkozy
While losing his re-election campaign for France's President, Sarkozy became the face for the failed austerity movement in Europe and the voter backlash against it. That may be a tad unfair (the real culprit isn't Sarkozy, it's the IMF) but he's been such a toad to both Bush and Obama, he deserves little sympathy.
July 2012: Jerry Sandusky
There really is a slam dunk choice in BOTM with a guy who engaged in serial pedophilia for well over a decade, aided with a coverup by institutional leaders of one of the most powerful colleges in the US. That is scandalous enough, but left uncovered is allegations that Sandusky was providing kids to others richer and more powerful, allegations that indicate Sandusky is a scapegoat in his own right.
August 2012: Justin Beiber
Perhaps this pick doesn't need to be elaborated on. The question is simply this: "Why is this guy still around?"
September 2012: Dan Cathy
It seems strange that the question of eating a chicken sandwich would hold so much political importance. But as Cathy has pushed an anti-gay agenda through his Chick-fil-A profits and even used the company itself to promote his views, it has become a ground zero in the battle of gay rights and gay marriage.
October 2012: Innocence of Muslims
Rarely has a movie made such an impact on politics as this one, although here the term "movie" is used loosely since there's no evidence this film actually exists. Nevertheless, the excerpts of this "film" on YouTube make this an attempted October Surprise apparently organized by far-right CIA operatives, anti-Islam Fundamentalist Christians, and Israel through it's Mossad espionage outfit.
November 2012: Todd Akin
Why did the Republicans get their asses kicked in the 2012 election? Sorry, Mitt Romney wasn't the real problem, the real problem was the GOP candidates just plain scared most Americans. And nobody perfectly represented this scariness like Akins, who led off a "Rape Brigade" of rogues who just couldn't stop talking about rape in a stunningly offensive way.
December 2012: SuperPACs
For all the Democratic victories, the real winner of the 2012 election was still money and the corruptive influence of SuperPAcs on democracy. And it seems that the negative influence of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling will only continue in the coming years.
January 2013: Benjamin Netanyahu
Okay, The Konformist concedes the complexitites of Middle East politics can't be fairly reduced to a snarky paragraph placing all the blame on one bad "Beast" character. Still, Bibi, the current Israeli Prime Minister and head of the Likud Party, is the ideological equivalent of the Neocons that drove the US to Iraq War disaster. Meanwhile, it's time to acknowledge that when comparing the treatment of the Palestinians to apartheid-era abuses, Israel could be fairly described as little more than South Africa with bagels.
February 2013: Piers Morgan
Let's pretend for a second that the establishment media caricature of Infowars.com star Alex Jones as a paranoid nutjob is essentially correct. (And as entertaining as his surreal performance on Piers Morgan's show may have been, we concede he made the case very easy.) Even if that was true, he still came off better than Morgan in the gun control debate. Meanwhile, Morgan is as heavily involved in the British tabloid hacking scandal as Rupert Murdoch, a fact that has been unreported.
March 2013: Zero Dark Thirty
Sometimes Beastly art is just poorly made. (If you need examples, watch a few Pauly Shore films.) And sometimes Beastly art is well made but offensive. Case in point: Zero Dark Thirty, the cinematic glorification of the alleged Osama bin Laden assassination, which dabbled in apologism for torture and traded artistic integrity by becoming a mouthpiece for the CIA and Pentagon.
April 2013: Cardinal Keith O’Brien
Less than eight years after assuming the papacy, Benedict XVI called it quits, amid widespread evidence that his rise in the church hieracrchy was linked to his coverup of pedophilia among priests. The corrupt nature of selecting his replacement is highlighted by O'Brien, who only was excluded from the conclave by his own choice after revelations of abusing his position for demands of homosexual sex. This despite Cardinal O'Brien pushing the Catholic Church's anti-gay agenda publicly.
To vote for your pick go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/konformist/polls
Or send email to: robalini@aol.com
Who is The Konformist Beast of the Year?
To vote for your pick go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/konformist/polls
Or send email to: robalini@aol.com
It's time for the annual pick of The Konformist Beast of the Year.
One nominee was chosen each month from May 2012 to April 2013. Here are the choices:
May 2012: Rupert Murdoch
Let's forget for a minute that Murdoch runs the most ruthlessly dishonest right-wing media empire in the world. Let's forget also that while it's been uncovered that his outlets have been engaging in widespread computer hacking while he has hypocritically pushed for tougher laws against cyber criminals. Just ask this: if the names "Murdoch" and "News Corp" were taken out of the story, and the evidence of the widespread hacking were reported in the news, would this guy be in jail?
June 2012: Nicolas Sarkozy
While losing his re-election campaign for France's President, Sarkozy became the face for the failed austerity movement in Europe and the voter backlash against it. That may be a tad unfair (the real culprit isn't Sarkozy, it's the IMF) but he's been such a toad to both Bush and Obama, he deserves little sympathy.
July 2012: Jerry Sandusky
There really is a slam dunk choice in BOTM with a guy who engaged in serial pedophilia for well over a decade, aided with a coverup by institutional leaders of one of the most powerful colleges in the US. That is scandalous enough, but left uncovered is allegations that Sandusky was providing kids to others richer and more powerful, allegations that indicate Sandusky is a scapegoat in his own right.
August 2012: Justin Beiber
Perhaps this pick doesn't need to be elaborated on. The question is simply this: "Why is this guy still around?"
September 2012: Dan Cathy
It seems strange that the question of eating a chicken sandwich would hold so much political importance. But as Cathy has pushed an anti-gay agenda through his Chick-fil-A profits and even used the company itself to promote his views, it has become a ground zero in the battle of gay rights and gay marriage.
October 2012: Innocence of Muslims
Rarely has a movie made such an impact on politics as this one, although here the term "movie" is used loosely since there's no evidence this film actually exists. Nevertheless, the excerpts of this "film" on YouTube make this an attempted October Surprise apparently organized by far-right CIA operatives, anti-Islam Fundamentalist Christians, and Israel through it's Mossad espionage outfit.
November 2012: Todd Akin
Why did the Republicans get their asses kicked in the 2012 election? Sorry, Mitt Romney wasn't the real problem, the real problem was the GOP candidates just plain scared most Americans. And nobody perfectly represented this scariness like Akins, who led off a "Rape Brigade" of rogues who just couldn't stop talking about rape in a stunningly offensive way.
December 2012: SuperPACs
For all the Democratic victories, the real winner of the 2012 election was still money and the corruptive influence of SuperPAcs on democracy. And it seems that the negative influence of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling will only continue in the coming years.
January 2013: Benjamin Netanyahu
Okay, The Konformist concedes the complexitites of Middle East politics can't be fairly reduced to a snarky paragraph placing all the blame on one bad "Beast" character. Still, Bibi, the current Israeli Prime Minister and head of the Likud Party, is the ideological equivalent of the Neocons that drove the US to Iraq War disaster. Meanwhile, it's time to acknowledge that when comparing the treatment of the Palestinians to apartheid-era abuses, Israel could be fairly described as little more than South Africa with bagels.
February 2013: Piers Morgan
Let's pretend for a second that the establishment media caricature of Infowars.com star Alex Jones as a paranoid nutjob is essentially correct. (And as entertaining as his surreal performance on Piers Morgan's show may have been, we concede he made the case very easy.) Even if that was true, he still came off better than Morgan in the gun control debate. Meanwhile, Morgan is as heavily involved in the British tabloid hacking scandal as Rupert Murdoch, a fact that has been unreported.
March 2013: Zero Dark Thirty
Sometimes Beastly art is just poorly made. (If you need examples, watch a few Pauly Shore films.) And sometimes Beastly art is well made but offensive. Case in point: Zero Dark Thirty, the cinematic glorification of the alleged Osama bin Laden assassination, which dabbled in apologism for torture and traded artistic integrity by becoming a mouthpiece for the CIA and Pentagon.
April 2013: Cardinal Keith O’Brien
Less than eight years after assuming the papacy, Benedict XVI called it quits, amid widespread evidence that his rise in the church hieracrchy was linked to his coverup of pedophilia among priests. The corrupt nature of selecting his replacement is highlighted by O'Brien, who only was excluded from the conclave by his own choice after revelations of abusing his position for demands of homosexual sex. This despite Cardinal O'Brien pushing the Catholic Church's anti-gay agenda publicly.
To vote for your pick go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/konformist/polls
Or send email to: robalini@aol.com
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Who is The Konformist Beast of the Year?
To vote for your pick go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/konformist/polls
Or send email to: robalini@aol.com
It's time for the annual pick of The Konformist Beast of the Year.
One nominee was chosen each month from May 2012 to April 2013. Here are the choices:
May 2012: Rupert Murdoch
Let's forget for a minute that Murdoch runs the most ruthlessly dishonest right-wing media empire in the world. Let's forget also that while it's been uncovered that his outlets have been engaging in widespread computer hacking while he has hypocritically pushed for tougher laws against cyber criminals. Just ask this: if the names "Murdoch" and "News Corp" were taken out of the story, and the evidence of the widespread hacking were reported in the news, would this guy be in jail?
June 2012: Nicolas Sarkozy
While losing his re-election campaign for France's President, Sarkozy became the face for the failed austerity movement in Europe and the voter backlash against it. That may be a tad unfair (the real culprit isn't Sarkozy, it's the IMF) but he's been such a toad to both Bush and Obama, he deserves little sympathy.
July 2012: Jerry Sandusky
There really is a slam dunk choice in BOTM with a guy who engaged in serial pedophilia for well over a decade, aided with a coverup by institutional leaders of one of the most powerful colleges in the US. That is scandalous enough, but left uncovered is allegations that Sandusky was providing kids to others richer and more powerful, allegations that indicate Sandusky is a scapegoat in his own right.
August 2012: Justin Beiber
Perhaps this pick doesn't need to be elaborated on. The question is simply this: "Why is this guy still around?"
September 2012: Dan Cathy
It seems strange that the question of eating a chicken sandwich would hold so much political importance. But as Cathy has pushed an anti-gay agenda through his Chick-fil-A profits and even used the company itself to promote his views, it has become a ground zero in the battle of gay rights and gay marriage.
October 2012: Innocence of Muslims
Rarely has a movie made such an impact on politics as this one, although here the term "movie" is used loosely since there's no evidence this film actually exists. Nevertheless, the excerpts of this "film" on YouTube make this an attempted October Surprise apparently organized by far-right CIA operatives, anti-Islam Fundamentalist Christians, and Israel through it's Mossad espionage outfit.
November 2012: Todd Akin
Why did the Republicans get their asses kicked in the 2012 election? Sorry, Mitt Romney wasn't the real problem, the real problem was the GOP candidates just plain scared most Americans. And nobody perfectly represented this scariness like Akins, who led off a "Rape Brigade" of rogues who just couldn't stop talking about rape in a stunningly offensive way.
December 2012: SuperPACs
For all the Democratic victories, the real winner of the 2012 election was still money and the corruptive influence of SuperPAcs on democracy. And it seems that the negative influence of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling will only continue in the coming years.
January 2013: Benjamin Netanyahu
Okay, The Konformist concedes the complexitites of Middle East politics can't be fairly reduced to a snarky paragraph placing all the blame on one bad "Beast" character. Still, Bibi, the current Israeli Prime Minister and head of the Likud Party, is the ideological equivalent of the Neocons that drove the US to Iraq War disaster. Meanwhile, it's time to acknowledge that when comparing the treatment of the Palestinians to apartheid-era abuses, Israel could be fairly described as little more than South Africa with bagels.
February 2013: Piers Morgan
Let's pretend for a second that the establishment media caricature of Infowars.com star Alex Jones as a paranoid nutjob is essentially correct. (And as entertaining as his surreal performance on Piers Morgan's show may have been, we concede he made the case very easy.) Even if that was true, he still came off better than Morgan in the gun control debate. Meanwhile, Morgan is as heavily involved in the British tabloid hacking scandal as Rupert Murdoch, a fact that has been unreported.
March 2013: Zero Dark Thirty
Sometimes Beastly art is just poorly made. (If you need examples, watch a few Pauly Shore films.) And sometimes Beastly art is well made but offensive. Case in point: Zero Dark Thirty, the cinematic glorification of the alleged Osama bin Laden assassination, which dabbled in apologism for torture and traded artistic integrity by becoming a mouthpiece for the CIA and Pentagon.
April 2013: Cardinal Keith O’Brien
Less than eight years after assuming the papacy, Benedict XVI called it quits, amid widespread evidence that his rise in the church hieracrchy was linked to his coverup of pedophilia among priests. The corrupt nature of selecting his replacement is highlighted by O'Brien, who only was excluded from the conclave by his own choice after revelations of abusing his position for demands of homosexual sex. This despite Cardinal O'Brien pushing the Catholic Church's anti-gay agenda publicly.
To vote for your pick go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/konformist/polls
Or send email to: robalini@aol.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/konformist/polls
Or send email to: robalini@aol.com
It's time for the annual pick of The Konformist Beast of the Year.
One nominee was chosen each month from May 2012 to April 2013. Here are the choices:
May 2012: Rupert Murdoch
Let's forget for a minute that Murdoch runs the most ruthlessly dishonest right-wing media empire in the world. Let's forget also that while it's been uncovered that his outlets have been engaging in widespread computer hacking while he has hypocritically pushed for tougher laws against cyber criminals. Just ask this: if the names "Murdoch" and "News Corp" were taken out of the story, and the evidence of the widespread hacking were reported in the news, would this guy be in jail?
June 2012: Nicolas Sarkozy
While losing his re-election campaign for France's President, Sarkozy became the face for the failed austerity movement in Europe and the voter backlash against it. That may be a tad unfair (the real culprit isn't Sarkozy, it's the IMF) but he's been such a toad to both Bush and Obama, he deserves little sympathy.
July 2012: Jerry Sandusky
There really is a slam dunk choice in BOTM with a guy who engaged in serial pedophilia for well over a decade, aided with a coverup by institutional leaders of one of the most powerful colleges in the US. That is scandalous enough, but left uncovered is allegations that Sandusky was providing kids to others richer and more powerful, allegations that indicate Sandusky is a scapegoat in his own right.
August 2012: Justin Beiber
Perhaps this pick doesn't need to be elaborated on. The question is simply this: "Why is this guy still around?"
September 2012: Dan Cathy
It seems strange that the question of eating a chicken sandwich would hold so much political importance. But as Cathy has pushed an anti-gay agenda through his Chick-fil-A profits and even used the company itself to promote his views, it has become a ground zero in the battle of gay rights and gay marriage.
October 2012: Innocence of Muslims
Rarely has a movie made such an impact on politics as this one, although here the term "movie" is used loosely since there's no evidence this film actually exists. Nevertheless, the excerpts of this "film" on YouTube make this an attempted October Surprise apparently organized by far-right CIA operatives, anti-Islam Fundamentalist Christians, and Israel through it's Mossad espionage outfit.
November 2012: Todd Akin
Why did the Republicans get their asses kicked in the 2012 election? Sorry, Mitt Romney wasn't the real problem, the real problem was the GOP candidates just plain scared most Americans. And nobody perfectly represented this scariness like Akins, who led off a "Rape Brigade" of rogues who just couldn't stop talking about rape in a stunningly offensive way.
December 2012: SuperPACs
For all the Democratic victories, the real winner of the 2012 election was still money and the corruptive influence of SuperPAcs on democracy. And it seems that the negative influence of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling will only continue in the coming years.
January 2013: Benjamin Netanyahu
Okay, The Konformist concedes the complexitites of Middle East politics can't be fairly reduced to a snarky paragraph placing all the blame on one bad "Beast" character. Still, Bibi, the current Israeli Prime Minister and head of the Likud Party, is the ideological equivalent of the Neocons that drove the US to Iraq War disaster. Meanwhile, it's time to acknowledge that when comparing the treatment of the Palestinians to apartheid-era abuses, Israel could be fairly described as little more than South Africa with bagels.
February 2013: Piers Morgan
Let's pretend for a second that the establishment media caricature of Infowars.com star Alex Jones as a paranoid nutjob is essentially correct. (And as entertaining as his surreal performance on Piers Morgan's show may have been, we concede he made the case very easy.) Even if that was true, he still came off better than Morgan in the gun control debate. Meanwhile, Morgan is as heavily involved in the British tabloid hacking scandal as Rupert Murdoch, a fact that has been unreported.
March 2013: Zero Dark Thirty
Sometimes Beastly art is just poorly made. (If you need examples, watch a few Pauly Shore films.) And sometimes Beastly art is well made but offensive. Case in point: Zero Dark Thirty, the cinematic glorification of the alleged Osama bin Laden assassination, which dabbled in apologism for torture and traded artistic integrity by becoming a mouthpiece for the CIA and Pentagon.
April 2013: Cardinal Keith O’Brien
Less than eight years after assuming the papacy, Benedict XVI called it quits, amid widespread evidence that his rise in the church hieracrchy was linked to his coverup of pedophilia among priests. The corrupt nature of selecting his replacement is highlighted by O'Brien, who only was excluded from the conclave by his own choice after revelations of abusing his position for demands of homosexual sex. This despite Cardinal O'Brien pushing the Catholic Church's anti-gay agenda publicly.
To vote for your pick go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/konformist/polls
Or send email to: robalini@aol.com
Robalini's Week 16 NFL Picks
Here's my results for Week 15
W-L-T record: 6-5
Season record: 71-81-5
New Orleans Saints (+3) over Carolina Panthers
Yes, I know the Saints are not a good road team. But do I expect Drew Brees or Cam Newton to underperform in a big game?
Dallas Cowboys (-3) over Washington Redskins
The Cowboys still have something to play for, so expect a win.
Philadelphia Eagles (-3) over Chicago Bears
Look for Philly to recover from a bad loss at home.
Indianapolis Colts (+7) over Kansas City Chiefs
This should be a close game, so take the points.
Minnesota Vikings (+8 1/2) over Cincinnati Bengals
The points make Minnesota a good bet.
Denver Broncos (-10) Over Houston Texans
Look for Peyton to pound the lowly Texans.
Arizona Cardinals (+10) over Seattle Seahawks
Going with the points against the Seahawks.
New York Giants (+10) over Detroit Lions
Dog number five of the week.
San Diego Chargers (-9 1/2) over Oakland Raiders
I will give the points when it involves the Raiders.
Atlanta Falcons (+14) over San Francisco 49ers
Two touchdowns? Give the Falcons some respect!
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
W-L-T record: 6-5
Season record: 71-81-5
New Orleans Saints (+3) over Carolina Panthers
Yes, I know the Saints are not a good road team. But do I expect Drew Brees or Cam Newton to underperform in a big game?
Dallas Cowboys (-3) over Washington Redskins
The Cowboys still have something to play for, so expect a win.
Philadelphia Eagles (-3) over Chicago Bears
Look for Philly to recover from a bad loss at home.
Indianapolis Colts (+7) over Kansas City Chiefs
This should be a close game, so take the points.
Minnesota Vikings (+8 1/2) over Cincinnati Bengals
The points make Minnesota a good bet.
Denver Broncos (-10) Over Houston Texans
Look for Peyton to pound the lowly Texans.
Arizona Cardinals (+10) over Seattle Seahawks
Going with the points against the Seahawks.
New York Giants (+10) over Detroit Lions
Dog number five of the week.
San Diego Chargers (-9 1/2) over Oakland Raiders
I will give the points when it involves the Raiders.
Atlanta Falcons (+14) over San Francisco 49ers
Two touchdowns? Give the Falcons some respect!
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Robalini's Week 15 NFL Picks - Sunday
San Francisco 49ers (-4 1/2) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The 49ers have stumbled this year, but they are still a solid team.
New Orleans Saints (-5 1/2) over St. Louis Rams
The Saints are on the road, but it is an indoor stadium, so bet on Brees and co.
New York Giants (+7) over Seattle Seahawks
Take the points and bet the Giants will lose close.
Buffalo Bills (-2) over Jacksonville Jaguars
Update: still don't take the Jaguars seriously.
New England Patriots (+1) over Miami Dolphins
The Patriots an underdog? I'm taking that bet!
Philadelphia Eagles (-4 1/2) over Minnesota Vikings
The Eagles are just too frightening right now to have such a small spread.
New York Jets (+11) over Carolina Panthers
The Panther are very good, but this point spread is out of whack.
Kansas City Chiefs (-4) over Oakland Raiders
After getting the three-game losing streak off their back with style, the Chiefs should dominate the Raiders.
Dallas Cowboys (-6 1/2) over Green Bay Packers
I still respect Tony Romo, even if most gamblers don't.
Baltimore Ravens (+6) over Detroit Lions
The spread is an insult to the Ravens, who, despite their problems, are over .500 this season.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
The 49ers have stumbled this year, but they are still a solid team.
New Orleans Saints (-5 1/2) over St. Louis Rams
The Saints are on the road, but it is an indoor stadium, so bet on Brees and co.
New York Giants (+7) over Seattle Seahawks
Take the points and bet the Giants will lose close.
Buffalo Bills (-2) over Jacksonville Jaguars
Update: still don't take the Jaguars seriously.
New England Patriots (+1) over Miami Dolphins
The Patriots an underdog? I'm taking that bet!
Philadelphia Eagles (-4 1/2) over Minnesota Vikings
The Eagles are just too frightening right now to have such a small spread.
New York Jets (+11) over Carolina Panthers
The Panther are very good, but this point spread is out of whack.
Kansas City Chiefs (-4) over Oakland Raiders
After getting the three-game losing streak off their back with style, the Chiefs should dominate the Raiders.
Dallas Cowboys (-6 1/2) over Green Bay Packers
I still respect Tony Romo, even if most gamblers don't.
Baltimore Ravens (+6) over Detroit Lions
The spread is an insult to the Ravens, who, despite their problems, are over .500 this season.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Robalini's Week 15 NFL Picks - Thursday Special
Here's my results for Week 14
W-L-T record: 7-5
Season record: 65-76-5
San Diego Chargers (+10 1/2) over Denver Broncos
Take the points.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
W-L-T record: 7-5
Season record: 65-76-5
San Diego Chargers (+10 1/2) over Denver Broncos
Take the points.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Robalini's Week 14 NFL Picks
Here's my results for Week 13
W-L-T record: 4-6-1
Season record: 58-71-5
Kansas City Chiefs (-3) over Washington Redskins
Yes, the Chiefs weren't as good as their 9-0 record would suggest four weeks ago, but they are too good to lose a fourth game in a row.
Baltimore Ravens (-6) over Minnesota Vikings
Weather will play a factor this week, and the Ravens will dominate the indoor-home Vikings.
New York Jets (-2 1/2) over Oakland Raiders
Jets at home versus the West Coast Raiders? I'm betting on the weather again.
New Orleans Saints (-3) over Carolina Panthers
The Saints are just too dominating at home for this spread.
Philadelphia Eagles (-2 1/2) over Detroit Lions
Even without the freezing Philly weather, I'd take the Eagles with the hottest offense in the NFL.
Pittsburgh Steelers (-3 1/2) over Miami Dolphins
The Steelers have toughed out a difficult season and may make the playoffs. Look for them to get closer to the goal after this game.
Tennessee Titans (+12 1/2) over Denver Broncos
I'm betting against Peyton in the cold, even at home.
Arizona Cardinals (-6) over St. Louis Rams
The Cards are quietly becoming a playoff threat, and should soundly beat the Rams minus Sam Bradford.
San Diego Chargers (-3) over New York Giants
I just never bought in to the Giants this year. The Chargers, for all their inconsistencies, are the better team.
Seattle Seahawks (+2 1/2) over San Francisco 49ers
I've been skeptical of them all year, but the Hawks should be 12-1 after this week.
Green Bay Packers (-3) over Atlanta Falcons
For all the Packers problems (actually, it's just one: Aaron Rodgers is injured) the Falcons are looking far worse.
Dallas Cowboys (+1 1/2) over Chicago Bears
The Cowboys are a team nobody is paying attention to, even though they are one team who can knock off the Seahawks on the road. Look for a W against the Bears.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
W-L-T record: 4-6-1
Season record: 58-71-5
Kansas City Chiefs (-3) over Washington Redskins
Yes, the Chiefs weren't as good as their 9-0 record would suggest four weeks ago, but they are too good to lose a fourth game in a row.
Baltimore Ravens (-6) over Minnesota Vikings
Weather will play a factor this week, and the Ravens will dominate the indoor-home Vikings.
New York Jets (-2 1/2) over Oakland Raiders
Jets at home versus the West Coast Raiders? I'm betting on the weather again.
New Orleans Saints (-3) over Carolina Panthers
The Saints are just too dominating at home for this spread.
Philadelphia Eagles (-2 1/2) over Detroit Lions
Even without the freezing Philly weather, I'd take the Eagles with the hottest offense in the NFL.
Pittsburgh Steelers (-3 1/2) over Miami Dolphins
The Steelers have toughed out a difficult season and may make the playoffs. Look for them to get closer to the goal after this game.
Tennessee Titans (+12 1/2) over Denver Broncos
I'm betting against Peyton in the cold, even at home.
Arizona Cardinals (-6) over St. Louis Rams
The Cards are quietly becoming a playoff threat, and should soundly beat the Rams minus Sam Bradford.
San Diego Chargers (-3) over New York Giants
I just never bought in to the Giants this year. The Chargers, for all their inconsistencies, are the better team.
Seattle Seahawks (+2 1/2) over San Francisco 49ers
I've been skeptical of them all year, but the Hawks should be 12-1 after this week.
Green Bay Packers (-3) over Atlanta Falcons
For all the Packers problems (actually, it's just one: Aaron Rodgers is injured) the Falcons are looking far worse.
Dallas Cowboys (+1 1/2) over Chicago Bears
The Cowboys are a team nobody is paying attention to, even though they are one team who can knock off the Seahawks on the road. Look for a W against the Bears.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Robalini's Week 13 NFL Picks
Here's my results for Week 12
W-L-T record: 4-2
Season record: 54-65-4
Detroit Lions (-6) over Green Bay Packers
Football math: Green Bay Packers minus Aaron Rodgers equals Turkey Day loss.
Indianapolis Colts (-4) over Tennessee Titans
Is Andrew Luck elite yet? Nope. But he's good enough to lead the Colts over the Titans.
Denver Broncos (-4) over Kansas City Chiefs
Sorry KC, but this point spread is too low to pass up on Peyton Manning.
Cleveland Browns (-7) over Jacksonville Jaguars
Sorry Jags, but giving you only sevn points is too low to pass up on the Browns.
Carolina Panthers (-8) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Sorry, Tampa, I'm not buying your three game win streak. I am buying the Panthers' seven game win streak though.
Philadelphia Eagles (-3) over Arizona Cardinals
AZ is one of the really hot NFL teams right now. So I'm gonna go contrarian and say the Eagles will trounce them back to size.
New York Jets (-1 1/2) over Miami Dolphins
There's a good chance of snow, and the Dolphins have a bad record in snow conditions over history. That's besides still missing two starting offensive lineman.
Buffalo Bills (-3) over Atlanta Falcons
For all their flaws, the Bills are a competitive team. The Falcons look like they've just given up.
St. Louis Rams (+9 1/2) over San Francisco 49ers
This spread is too high for the inconsistent 49ers to cover.
New England Patriots (-7 1/2) over Houston Texans
I'll bet on Brady with this reasonable spread.
New Orleans Saints (+6) over Seattle Seahawks
Seattle isn't as good as their record suggests this year. I'll take the Saints to keep it close.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
W-L-T record: 4-2
Season record: 54-65-4
Detroit Lions (-6) over Green Bay Packers
Football math: Green Bay Packers minus Aaron Rodgers equals Turkey Day loss.
Indianapolis Colts (-4) over Tennessee Titans
Is Andrew Luck elite yet? Nope. But he's good enough to lead the Colts over the Titans.
Denver Broncos (-4) over Kansas City Chiefs
Sorry KC, but this point spread is too low to pass up on Peyton Manning.
Cleveland Browns (-7) over Jacksonville Jaguars
Sorry Jags, but giving you only sevn points is too low to pass up on the Browns.
Carolina Panthers (-8) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Sorry, Tampa, I'm not buying your three game win streak. I am buying the Panthers' seven game win streak though.
Philadelphia Eagles (-3) over Arizona Cardinals
AZ is one of the really hot NFL teams right now. So I'm gonna go contrarian and say the Eagles will trounce them back to size.
New York Jets (-1 1/2) over Miami Dolphins
There's a good chance of snow, and the Dolphins have a bad record in snow conditions over history. That's besides still missing two starting offensive lineman.
Buffalo Bills (-3) over Atlanta Falcons
For all their flaws, the Bills are a competitive team. The Falcons look like they've just given up.
St. Louis Rams (+9 1/2) over San Francisco 49ers
This spread is too high for the inconsistent 49ers to cover.
New England Patriots (-7 1/2) over Houston Texans
I'll bet on Brady with this reasonable spread.
New Orleans Saints (+6) over Seattle Seahawks
Seattle isn't as good as their record suggests this year. I'll take the Saints to keep it close.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Robalini's Week 12 NFL Picks
Here's my results for Week 11
W-L-T record: 1-5-2 (OUCH AGAIN!)
Season record: 50-63-4 (Double OUCH!!)
New Orleans Saints (-7 1/2) over Atlanta Falcons
The Saints are still looking great, and the Falcons are looking shockingly bad.
Carolina Panthers (-3 1/2) over Miami Dolphins
The Panthers are hot, and the Dolphins are the most disfunctional team in the NFL, so I'll bite.
Pittsburgh Steelers (+2 1/2) over Cleveland Browns
Despite the bad start this season, the Steelers have proven they are a competitive team, and will deliver against the Browns.
Dallas Cowboys (+2 1/2) over New York Giants
Don't believe the Giants four-game winning streak for a second.
Denver Broncos (-2 1/2) over New England Patriots
Finally a reasonable point spread! Take the Broncos if Peyton Manning is getting less than a field goal spread, even if it's the Pats.
San Francisco 49ers (-5) over Washington Redskins
They may have lost two in a row, but the 49ers are still formidable against mediocre teams. Enter Redskins.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
W-L-T record: 1-5-2 (OUCH AGAIN!)
Season record: 50-63-4 (Double OUCH!!)
New Orleans Saints (-7 1/2) over Atlanta Falcons
The Saints are still looking great, and the Falcons are looking shockingly bad.
Carolina Panthers (-3 1/2) over Miami Dolphins
The Panthers are hot, and the Dolphins are the most disfunctional team in the NFL, so I'll bite.
Pittsburgh Steelers (+2 1/2) over Cleveland Browns
Despite the bad start this season, the Steelers have proven they are a competitive team, and will deliver against the Browns.
Dallas Cowboys (+2 1/2) over New York Giants
Don't believe the Giants four-game winning streak for a second.
Denver Broncos (-2 1/2) over New England Patriots
Finally a reasonable point spread! Take the Broncos if Peyton Manning is getting less than a field goal spread, even if it's the Pats.
San Francisco 49ers (-5) over Washington Redskins
They may have lost two in a row, but the 49ers are still formidable against mediocre teams. Enter Redskins.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Robalini's Week 11 NFL Picks
Here's my results for Week 10
W-L-T record: 2-5 (OUCH!)
Season record: 49-58-2 (Double OUCH!!)
Atlanta Falcons (+1) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Falcons have lost three in a row, but should recover against the lowly Bucs.
Detroit Lions (-2) over Pittsburgh Steelers
Attention: the Lions have quietly taken over the lead in the NFC North.
Washigton Redskins (+4 1/2) over Philadelphia Eagles
I expect a close game, so take the points.
San Diego Chargers (-1 1/2) over Miami Dolphins
Never mind the serious locker turmoil, the real problem right now with the Dolphins is they're missing two starting offensive lineman.
Baltimore Ravens (+3) over Chicago Bears
Until Jay Cutler gets better, the Bears are a bad bet.
Kansas City Chiefs (+8 1/2) over Denver Broncos
The Broncos are the better team, but this is too many points, especially with a slightly injured Peyton Manning.
New Orleans Saints (-3) over San Francisco
This would be a close game... if the Saints weren't at home. They are simply scary good at home.
New York Giants (-4) over Green Bay Packers
The Giants, after going 0-6, have won three in a row. Oh wait, the Packers are using their third-string QB? Make that four in a row.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
W-L-T record: 2-5 (OUCH!)
Season record: 49-58-2 (Double OUCH!!)
Atlanta Falcons (+1) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Falcons have lost three in a row, but should recover against the lowly Bucs.
Detroit Lions (-2) over Pittsburgh Steelers
Attention: the Lions have quietly taken over the lead in the NFC North.
Washigton Redskins (+4 1/2) over Philadelphia Eagles
I expect a close game, so take the points.
San Diego Chargers (-1 1/2) over Miami Dolphins
Never mind the serious locker turmoil, the real problem right now with the Dolphins is they're missing two starting offensive lineman.
Baltimore Ravens (+3) over Chicago Bears
Until Jay Cutler gets better, the Bears are a bad bet.
Kansas City Chiefs (+8 1/2) over Denver Broncos
The Broncos are the better team, but this is too many points, especially with a slightly injured Peyton Manning.
New Orleans Saints (-3) over San Francisco
This would be a close game... if the Saints weren't at home. They are simply scary good at home.
New York Giants (-4) over Green Bay Packers
The Giants, after going 0-6, have won three in a row. Oh wait, the Packers are using their third-string QB? Make that four in a row.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Robalini's Week 10 NFL Picks - Sunday
Philadelphia Eagles (+2) over Green Bay Packers
If you got in on this game on Tuesday, the Eagles were still getting points. With Aaron Rodgers out, they won't need 7 touchdown passes to win this week.
St. Louis Rams (+10) over Indianapolis Colts
The Rams should keep it closer than the point spread suggests.
Atlanta (+6 1/2) over Seattle Seahawks
The Seahawks are 8-1, but have had trouble covering. They're also travelling to the East Coast, and the Falcons have a great home advantage.
San Francisco 49ers (-6) over Carolina Panthers
The Niners have won 5 in a row in double digits. Make that six.
San Diego Chargers (+7) over Denver Broncos
The Chargers should keep this close at ome.
Dallas Cowboys (+7) over New Orleans Saints
Even when Tony Romo loses, it's close. Take the points.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
If you got in on this game on Tuesday, the Eagles were still getting points. With Aaron Rodgers out, they won't need 7 touchdown passes to win this week.
St. Louis Rams (+10) over Indianapolis Colts
The Rams should keep it closer than the point spread suggests.
Atlanta (+6 1/2) over Seattle Seahawks
The Seahawks are 8-1, but have had trouble covering. They're also travelling to the East Coast, and the Falcons have a great home advantage.
San Francisco 49ers (-6) over Carolina Panthers
The Niners have won 5 in a row in double digits. Make that six.
San Diego Chargers (+7) over Denver Broncos
The Chargers should keep this close at ome.
Dallas Cowboys (+7) over New Orleans Saints
Even when Tony Romo loses, it's close. Take the points.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Robalini's Week 10 NFL Picks - Thursday Special
Here's my results for Week 9
W-L-T record: 4-7
Season record: 47-53-2
Thursday Night Football:
Washington Redskins (-2 1/2) over Minnesota Vikings
Skins are starting to look good.
More games coming Saturday or early Sunday...
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
W-L-T record: 4-7
Season record: 47-53-2
Thursday Night Football:
Washington Redskins (-2 1/2) over Minnesota Vikings
Skins are starting to look good.
More games coming Saturday or early Sunday...
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Robalini's Week 9 NFL Picks - Sunday
Atlanta Falcons (+7 1/2) over Carolina Panthers
The Falcons have been losing, but they've been losing close. Take the points.
Dallas Cowboys (-9 1/2) over Minnesota Vikings
Look for a great performance by Tony Romo in a decisive win.
New Orleans Saints (-5 1/2) over New York Jets
Drew Brees is on a roll.
Tennessee Titans (-2 1/2) over St. Louis Rams
The Titans have been overlooked all year by most, including myself. Look for another win for an under-the-radar team.
Kansas City Chiefs (-3) over Buffalo Bills
The Chief undefeated run will continue.
San Diego Chargers (+1) over Washington Redskins
The Chargers are another overlooked team, and look for them to win against the Skins.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+16 1/2) over Seattle Seahawks
I don't like the Bucs, but 16 1/2 points? I'll take 'em.
Baltimore Ravens (-1 1/2) over Cleveland Browns
I still don't take the Browns seriously. Sorry.
Indianapolis Colts (-1 1/2) over Houston Texans
Despite the overhype, Andrew Luck has been playing consistently good this year, and should take care of the Texans.
Green Bay Packers (-10 1/2) over Chicago Bears
I'll take Aaron Rodgers and the Packers at home against a highly injured Bears team.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
The Falcons have been losing, but they've been losing close. Take the points.
Dallas Cowboys (-9 1/2) over Minnesota Vikings
Look for a great performance by Tony Romo in a decisive win.
New Orleans Saints (-5 1/2) over New York Jets
Drew Brees is on a roll.
Tennessee Titans (-2 1/2) over St. Louis Rams
The Titans have been overlooked all year by most, including myself. Look for another win for an under-the-radar team.
Kansas City Chiefs (-3) over Buffalo Bills
The Chief undefeated run will continue.
San Diego Chargers (+1) over Washington Redskins
The Chargers are another overlooked team, and look for them to win against the Skins.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+16 1/2) over Seattle Seahawks
I don't like the Bucs, but 16 1/2 points? I'll take 'em.
Baltimore Ravens (-1 1/2) over Cleveland Browns
I still don't take the Browns seriously. Sorry.
Indianapolis Colts (-1 1/2) over Houston Texans
Despite the overhype, Andrew Luck has been playing consistently good this year, and should take care of the Texans.
Green Bay Packers (-10 1/2) over Chicago Bears
I'll take Aaron Rodgers and the Packers at home against a highly injured Bears team.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Robalini's Week 9 NFL Picks - Thursday Special
Here's my results for Week 8
W-L-T record: 5-7
Season record: 43-46-2
Halloween Thursday Night Football:
Cincinnati Bengals (-2 1/2) over Miami Dolphins
The Bengals at 6-2 are exceeding expectations, and the Dolphins are winless in October. Look for the trend to continue tonight..
More games coming Saturday or early Sunday...
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
W-L-T record: 5-7
Season record: 43-46-2
Halloween Thursday Night Football:
Cincinnati Bengals (-2 1/2) over Miami Dolphins
The Bengals at 6-2 are exceeding expectations, and the Dolphins are winless in October. Look for the trend to continue tonight..
More games coming Saturday or early Sunday...
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Robalini's Week 8 NFL Picks
Robalini's Week 8 NFL Picks
Here's my results for Week 7
W-L-T record: 6-6
Season record: 38-39-2
Carolina Panthers (-6) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
I'm planning to bet against the Bucs for awhile.
Jacksonville Jaguars (+17) over San Francisco 49ers
As bad as the Jags are, 17 points is too much for their future division opponent in San Francisco (when the Jags move to Los Angeles.)
Dallas Cowboys (+3 1/2) over Detroit Lions
Tony Romo and the Cowboys still don't get enough credit. Look at them to cover in Motown.
New York Giants (+6 1/2) over Philadelphia Eagles
The Giants may not win in Philly, but expect them to keep it close in an ugly game.
Kansas City Chiefs (-7) over Cleveland Browns
A lot of experts believe the Chiefs have no business being the only undefeated team in the NFL. They will stay undefeated another week.
New Orleans Saints (-11) over Buffalo Bills
Are 11 points a lot? Yes. But the Saints score a lot, and the Bills don't.
Miami Dolphins (+7) over New England Patriots
News flash: Tom Brady has only 1 TD pass in the last 3 games (albeit a great one.) The Pats should win, but expect a close game.
New York Jets (+6 1/2) over Cincinnati Bengals
The Jets and Geno Smith are better than they are getting credit for. Take the points.
Washington Redskins (+13) over Denver Broncos
I'm returning to my "Denver shouldn't be giving so many points in spread bets no matter how amazing Peyton Manning is" stance and betting on the Skins to keep it close.
Atlanta Falcons (+2 1/2) over Arizona Cardinals
Wait, the Falcons are the dogs here? Really?
Green Bay Packers (-9) over Minnesota Vikings
Oddly, this game is getting a tighter spread despite how bad Minnesota played Monday night. Whatever the spread, the Packs are my pick here.
Seattle Seahawks (-10 1/2) over St. Louis Rams
The spread is high, but the Seahawks are amazing and Sam Bradford is out.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Here's my results for Week 7
W-L-T record: 6-6
Season record: 38-39-2
Carolina Panthers (-6) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
I'm planning to bet against the Bucs for awhile.
Jacksonville Jaguars (+17) over San Francisco 49ers
As bad as the Jags are, 17 points is too much for their future division opponent in San Francisco (when the Jags move to Los Angeles.)
Dallas Cowboys (+3 1/2) over Detroit Lions
Tony Romo and the Cowboys still don't get enough credit. Look at them to cover in Motown.
New York Giants (+6 1/2) over Philadelphia Eagles
The Giants may not win in Philly, but expect them to keep it close in an ugly game.
Kansas City Chiefs (-7) over Cleveland Browns
A lot of experts believe the Chiefs have no business being the only undefeated team in the NFL. They will stay undefeated another week.
New Orleans Saints (-11) over Buffalo Bills
Are 11 points a lot? Yes. But the Saints score a lot, and the Bills don't.
Miami Dolphins (+7) over New England Patriots
News flash: Tom Brady has only 1 TD pass in the last 3 games (albeit a great one.) The Pats should win, but expect a close game.
New York Jets (+6 1/2) over Cincinnati Bengals
The Jets and Geno Smith are better than they are getting credit for. Take the points.
Washington Redskins (+13) over Denver Broncos
I'm returning to my "Denver shouldn't be giving so many points in spread bets no matter how amazing Peyton Manning is" stance and betting on the Skins to keep it close.
Atlanta Falcons (+2 1/2) over Arizona Cardinals
Wait, the Falcons are the dogs here? Really?
Green Bay Packers (-9) over Minnesota Vikings
Oddly, this game is getting a tighter spread despite how bad Minnesota played Monday night. Whatever the spread, the Packs are my pick here.
Seattle Seahawks (-10 1/2) over St. Louis Rams
The spread is high, but the Seahawks are amazing and Sam Bradford is out.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Robalini's Week 7 NFL Picks - Sunday
Back at .500, here's my picks:
San Diego Chargers (-7 1/2) over Jacksonville Jaguars
Some people think the Jaguars may keep this one close. They're wrong.
Kansas City Chiefs (-6) over Houston Texans
The Chiefs should clobber the Texans without Matt Schaub, even if he can't throw a interception returned for a touchdown.
Detroit Lions (-2 1/2) over Cincinnati Bengals
The Lions giving less than a FG at home against the Bengals? I'll bite!
Miami Dolphins (-7) over Buffalo Bills
A TD is a lot of points, but the Bills are a troubled team.
Chicago Bears (+1 1/2) over Washington Redskins
I know the Skins are at home, but making the Bears a dog earlier this week was a Vegas goof, and I jumped on it.
Dallas Cowboys (+3) over Philadelphia Eagles
Never mind the haters, Romo. The Cowboys will settle they are the class of the NFC East in Philly.
St. Louis Rams (+7) over Carolina Panthers
A TD is too huge in a game involving two underperforming teams.
Atlanta Falcons (-6) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Bucs are good to bet against, so this is a good game for Atlanta to start recovering this season.
San Francisco 49ers (-3 1/2) over Tennessee Titans
Where's the respect for the Niners? This spread is too low!
Green Bay Packers (-9) over Cleveland Browns
Nine points are a lot, but this is the Packers, and they are facing the Browns.
Denver Broncos (-6 1/2) over Indianapolis Colts
I almost don't care about the point spread here. Peyton Manning will taste his revenge.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
San Diego Chargers (-7 1/2) over Jacksonville Jaguars
Some people think the Jaguars may keep this one close. They're wrong.
Kansas City Chiefs (-6) over Houston Texans
The Chiefs should clobber the Texans without Matt Schaub, even if he can't throw a interception returned for a touchdown.
Detroit Lions (-2 1/2) over Cincinnati Bengals
The Lions giving less than a FG at home against the Bengals? I'll bite!
Miami Dolphins (-7) over Buffalo Bills
A TD is a lot of points, but the Bills are a troubled team.
Chicago Bears (+1 1/2) over Washington Redskins
I know the Skins are at home, but making the Bears a dog earlier this week was a Vegas goof, and I jumped on it.
Dallas Cowboys (+3) over Philadelphia Eagles
Never mind the haters, Romo. The Cowboys will settle they are the class of the NFC East in Philly.
St. Louis Rams (+7) over Carolina Panthers
A TD is too huge in a game involving two underperforming teams.
Atlanta Falcons (-6) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Bucs are good to bet against, so this is a good game for Atlanta to start recovering this season.
San Francisco 49ers (-3 1/2) over Tennessee Titans
Where's the respect for the Niners? This spread is too low!
Green Bay Packers (-9) over Cleveland Browns
Nine points are a lot, but this is the Packers, and they are facing the Browns.
Denver Broncos (-6 1/2) over Indianapolis Colts
I almost don't care about the point spread here. Peyton Manning will taste his revenge.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Robalini's Week 7 NFL Picks - Thursday Special
Here's my results for Week 6
W-L-T record: 7-4
Season record: 32-33-2
Thursday Night Football:
Seattle Seahawks (-6) over Arizona Cardinals
The Seahawks should dominate the Cards. Give the points.
More games coming Saturday or early Sunday...
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
W-L-T record: 7-4
Season record: 32-33-2
Thursday Night Football:
Seattle Seahawks (-6) over Arizona Cardinals
The Seahawks should dominate the Cards. Give the points.
More games coming Saturday or early Sunday...
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Robalini's Week 6 NFL Picks
Here's my results for Week 5
W-L-T record: 6-7
Season record: 25-29-2
Philadelphia Eagles (-1) over Tampa Bay BUccaneers
Whatever the problems with the Eagles right now (and there are many) they got nothing on the Bucs. This looks like an easy win.
Green Bay Packers (-3) over Baltimore Ravens
I got this as a +100 payout and that's still available in multiple casinos. The Pack has struggled, but thanks to Aaron Rodgers, they're still a fundamentally sound team.
Detroit Lions (-2 1/2) over Cleveland Browns
I'm still not buying the Browns. With Reggie Bush back, I am buying the Lions.
St. Louis Rams (+7 1/2) over Houston Texans
The Rams are better than their record suggests, and the Texans (led by Pick-Six Schaub) are worse. Look for St. Louis to at least keep it close.
New York Jets (-2 1/2) over Pittsburgh Steelers
The Jets are silently looking good under Geno Smith: look for them to prove it against the Steelers.
Cincinnati Bengals (-6) over Buffalo Bills
When this fell below a TD yesterday, I bit. Yes, it's still a lot of points, but the Bills are not the same team without EJ Emanuel.
Tennessee Titans (+13 1/2) over Seattle Seahawks
The Titans aren't as good as their record suggests, but this line is complete disrespect. Take the points.
Jacksonville Jaguars (+27 1/2) over Denver Broncos
This is solely about the point spread. As good as Peyton Manning (who probably will be Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year) and the Broncos are and as bad as the soon-to-be Los Angeles Jaguars are, I have to take the points.
San Francisco 49ers (-10 1/2) over Arizona Cardinals
Expect the Niners to romp.
New Orleans Saints (+2 1/2) over New England Patriots
The Patriots armor chink was exposed last week. Look for Drew Brees and the Saints to exploit a team that shouldn't be 4-1.
San Diego Chargers (+1 1/2) over Indianapolis Colts
I'm still not buying the Colts and Andrew Luck this year. Take the Chargers at home.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
W-L-T record: 6-7
Season record: 25-29-2
Philadelphia Eagles (-1) over Tampa Bay BUccaneers
Whatever the problems with the Eagles right now (and there are many) they got nothing on the Bucs. This looks like an easy win.
Green Bay Packers (-3) over Baltimore Ravens
I got this as a +100 payout and that's still available in multiple casinos. The Pack has struggled, but thanks to Aaron Rodgers, they're still a fundamentally sound team.
Detroit Lions (-2 1/2) over Cleveland Browns
I'm still not buying the Browns. With Reggie Bush back, I am buying the Lions.
St. Louis Rams (+7 1/2) over Houston Texans
The Rams are better than their record suggests, and the Texans (led by Pick-Six Schaub) are worse. Look for St. Louis to at least keep it close.
New York Jets (-2 1/2) over Pittsburgh Steelers
The Jets are silently looking good under Geno Smith: look for them to prove it against the Steelers.
Cincinnati Bengals (-6) over Buffalo Bills
When this fell below a TD yesterday, I bit. Yes, it's still a lot of points, but the Bills are not the same team without EJ Emanuel.
Tennessee Titans (+13 1/2) over Seattle Seahawks
The Titans aren't as good as their record suggests, but this line is complete disrespect. Take the points.
Jacksonville Jaguars (+27 1/2) over Denver Broncos
This is solely about the point spread. As good as Peyton Manning (who probably will be Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year) and the Broncos are and as bad as the soon-to-be Los Angeles Jaguars are, I have to take the points.
San Francisco 49ers (-10 1/2) over Arizona Cardinals
Expect the Niners to romp.
New Orleans Saints (+2 1/2) over New England Patriots
The Patriots armor chink was exposed last week. Look for Drew Brees and the Saints to exploit a team that shouldn't be 4-1.
San Diego Chargers (+1 1/2) over Indianapolis Colts
I'm still not buying the Colts and Andrew Luck this year. Take the Chargers at home.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Robalini's Week 5 NFL Picks
Here's my results for Week 4
W-L-T record: 3-5
Season record: 19-22-2
Ouch...
Kansas City Chiefs (-2 1/2) over Tennessee Titans
The Chiefs are living up to the hype as most improved team. Watch them continue against the Titans.
Miami Dolphins (-2 1/2) over Baltimore Ravens
Look for the Dolphins to rebound against the Ravens at home after being beaten up by the Saints.
St. Louis Rams (-11) over Jacksonville Jaguars
I don't care if it's eleven points. It's the Jaguars we're talking about.
New England Patriots (+2 1/2) over Cincinnati Bengals
The Patriots (at 4-0) a dog against the Bengals? That was the spread earlier this week. I take.
Seattle Seahawks (-2 1/2) over Indianapolis Colts
The Colts aren't as good as their record suggests, and they'll learn that against Seattle.
Green Bay Packers (-6 1/2) over Detroit Lions
Look for Aaron Rodgers to start dominating this week.
New Orleans Saints (+1) over Chicago Bears
When I saw the Saints were dogs on Tuesday, I took it while I could.
Philadelphia Eagles (+2 1/2) over New York Giants
The Giants, at 0-4, still have too much love.
Carolina Panthers (-2) over Arizona Cardinals
Call me stubborn, but I still find the Panthers to be a highly undervalued team.
San Diego Chargers (-4) over Oakland Raiders
The Raiders are doing better than expected, but so are the Chargers, who should dominate.
Denver Broncos (-6 1/2) over Dallas Cowboys
Wynn had it under a TD on Sunday, so I bit early. Even at eight, this is a great bet.
San Francisco 49ers (-6) over Houston Texans
The spread has already dropped, but I'm happy giving less than a touchdown with the 49ers.
Atlanta Falcons (-8 1/2) over New York Jets
The Falcons will punish the Jets in revenge for their loss against the Pats.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
W-L-T record: 3-5
Season record: 19-22-2
Ouch...
Kansas City Chiefs (-2 1/2) over Tennessee Titans
The Chiefs are living up to the hype as most improved team. Watch them continue against the Titans.
Miami Dolphins (-2 1/2) over Baltimore Ravens
Look for the Dolphins to rebound against the Ravens at home after being beaten up by the Saints.
St. Louis Rams (-11) over Jacksonville Jaguars
I don't care if it's eleven points. It's the Jaguars we're talking about.
New England Patriots (+2 1/2) over Cincinnati Bengals
The Patriots (at 4-0) a dog against the Bengals? That was the spread earlier this week. I take.
Seattle Seahawks (-2 1/2) over Indianapolis Colts
The Colts aren't as good as their record suggests, and they'll learn that against Seattle.
Green Bay Packers (-6 1/2) over Detroit Lions
Look for Aaron Rodgers to start dominating this week.
New Orleans Saints (+1) over Chicago Bears
When I saw the Saints were dogs on Tuesday, I took it while I could.
Philadelphia Eagles (+2 1/2) over New York Giants
The Giants, at 0-4, still have too much love.
Carolina Panthers (-2) over Arizona Cardinals
Call me stubborn, but I still find the Panthers to be a highly undervalued team.
San Diego Chargers (-4) over Oakland Raiders
The Raiders are doing better than expected, but so are the Chargers, who should dominate.
Denver Broncos (-6 1/2) over Dallas Cowboys
Wynn had it under a TD on Sunday, so I bit early. Even at eight, this is a great bet.
San Francisco 49ers (-6) over Houston Texans
The spread has already dropped, but I'm happy giving less than a touchdown with the 49ers.
Atlanta Falcons (-8 1/2) over New York Jets
The Falcons will punish the Jets in revenge for their loss against the Pats.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Robalini's Week 4 NFL Picks
Here's my results for Week 3
W-L-T record: 6-8
Season record: 16-17-2
San Francisco 49ers (-3) over St. Louis Rams
Look for the 49ers to rebound after two humiliating losses with a drubbing of the Rams.
Cincinnati Bengals (-4) over Cleveland Browns
The Browns looked good last week, but it's a fluke.
Indianapolis Colts (-7 1/2) over Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jags are looking as bad as everyone thought. Maybe they'll be better when they're the Los Angeles Jaguars.
Seattle Seahawks (-2 1/2) over Houston Texans
The Texans appear to be a paper tiger, and the Seahawks are the team that will prove it.
Chicago Bears (+3) over Detroit Lions
The Lions look like they're cursed for bad luck another year.
New York Jets (+4 1/2) over Tennessee Titans
The Jets, with Geno Smith as QB, look much better than expected. Even when they lose, they lose with style. Expect at least another close loss.
Philadelphia Eagles (+11) over Denver Broncos
Call me a masochist, but there's no way Peyton Manning can keep covering these ridiculous point spreads. Right?
Atlanta Falcons (-1) over New England Patriots
Believe it or not, this game had even points at one time, because of pro-Patriot bias (deserved) among bettors. But the 2013 Patriots are (despite their 3-0 start) clearly not the Pats we know, and the Falcons will prove that at home.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
W-L-T record: 6-8
Season record: 16-17-2
San Francisco 49ers (-3) over St. Louis Rams
Look for the 49ers to rebound after two humiliating losses with a drubbing of the Rams.
Cincinnati Bengals (-4) over Cleveland Browns
The Browns looked good last week, but it's a fluke.
Indianapolis Colts (-7 1/2) over Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jags are looking as bad as everyone thought. Maybe they'll be better when they're the Los Angeles Jaguars.
Seattle Seahawks (-2 1/2) over Houston Texans
The Texans appear to be a paper tiger, and the Seahawks are the team that will prove it.
Chicago Bears (+3) over Detroit Lions
The Lions look like they're cursed for bad luck another year.
New York Jets (+4 1/2) over Tennessee Titans
The Jets, with Geno Smith as QB, look much better than expected. Even when they lose, they lose with style. Expect at least another close loss.
Philadelphia Eagles (+11) over Denver Broncos
Call me a masochist, but there's no way Peyton Manning can keep covering these ridiculous point spreads. Right?
Atlanta Falcons (-1) over New England Patriots
Believe it or not, this game had even points at one time, because of pro-Patriot bias (deserved) among bettors. But the 2013 Patriots are (despite their 3-0 start) clearly not the Pats we know, and the Falcons will prove that at home.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Robalini's Week 3 NFL Picks Addendum
Miami Dolphins (-2) over Atlanta Falcons
I usually don't add picks after making my final postings, but at -2 and an even payout, I can't resist picking the Dolphins...
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
I usually don't add picks after making my final postings, but at -2 and an even payout, I can't resist picking the Dolphins...
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Robalini's Week 3 NFL Picks
Here's my results for Week 2
W-L-T record: 5-5-1
Season record: 10-9-2
Kansas City Chiefs (+3 1/2) over Philadelphia Eagles
Look for Andy Reid to at least keep it within a field goal (if not outright win) in his return to Philly.
San Diego Chargers (+3 1/2) over Tennessee Titans
The Chargers may indeed be much better now the curse of Norv Turner is removed.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+7 1/2) over New England Patriots
The Bucs are better than their record suggest, and the Patriots are worse.
Houston Texans (-2 1/2) over Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens rebounded in Week Two, but will fall back against the Texans.
Dallas Cowboys (-3 1/2) over St. Louis Rams
Look for the Cowboys to dominate at home this week.
Washington Redskins (-1 1/2) over Detroit Lions
The Lions are already beat up, and RGIII should return with a roar at home.
Green Bay Packers (-2) over Cincinnati Bengals
I'll take Aaron Rodgers if you take less than a field goal.
Carolina Panthers (-1) over New York Giants
I still think the Panthers are undervalued this year and expect Cam Newton to prove it at home.
Indianapolis Colts (+10 1/2) over San Francisco 49ers
Look for Andrew Luck to keep it close in his return to the Bay Area.
Jacksonville Jaguars (+20) over Seattle Seahawks
I don't care how bad the Jags are: give me 20 points in an NFL game and I'll take it.
Buffalo Bills (+2 1/2) over New York Jets
I think the Bills looks vastly improved this year, and they will deliver against the Jets.
Chicago Bears (-2 1/2) over Pittsburgh Steelers
The Bears offensive line has improved, and their defense has maintained quality. Neither is true about Pittsburgh.
Oakland Raiders (+15 1/2) over Denver Broncos
The Raiders are competitive this year. 15 1/2 points? Great bet, even with the Peyton Manning factor.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
W-L-T record: 5-5-1
Season record: 10-9-2
Kansas City Chiefs (+3 1/2) over Philadelphia Eagles
Look for Andy Reid to at least keep it within a field goal (if not outright win) in his return to Philly.
San Diego Chargers (+3 1/2) over Tennessee Titans
The Chargers may indeed be much better now the curse of Norv Turner is removed.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+7 1/2) over New England Patriots
The Bucs are better than their record suggest, and the Patriots are worse.
Houston Texans (-2 1/2) over Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens rebounded in Week Two, but will fall back against the Texans.
Dallas Cowboys (-3 1/2) over St. Louis Rams
Look for the Cowboys to dominate at home this week.
Washington Redskins (-1 1/2) over Detroit Lions
The Lions are already beat up, and RGIII should return with a roar at home.
Green Bay Packers (-2) over Cincinnati Bengals
I'll take Aaron Rodgers if you take less than a field goal.
Carolina Panthers (-1) over New York Giants
I still think the Panthers are undervalued this year and expect Cam Newton to prove it at home.
Indianapolis Colts (+10 1/2) over San Francisco 49ers
Look for Andrew Luck to keep it close in his return to the Bay Area.
Jacksonville Jaguars (+20) over Seattle Seahawks
I don't care how bad the Jags are: give me 20 points in an NFL game and I'll take it.
Buffalo Bills (+2 1/2) over New York Jets
I think the Bills looks vastly improved this year, and they will deliver against the Jets.
Chicago Bears (-2 1/2) over Pittsburgh Steelers
The Bears offensive line has improved, and their defense has maintained quality. Neither is true about Pittsburgh.
Oakland Raiders (+15 1/2) over Denver Broncos
The Raiders are competitive this year. 15 1/2 points? Great bet, even with the Peyton Manning factor.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Robalini's Week 2 NFL Picks
Here's my results for Week 1
W-L-T record: 5-4-1
New York Jets (+13) over New England Patriots
Thirteen points? That was the line Monday night, and I jumped on it. For all their problems, the Jets deserve more credit than that, and the Pats don't look quite so dominating this year either.
San Diego Chargers (+8) over Philadelphia Eagles
Another too high spread. The Charger are a good bet.
Tennessee Titans (+9) over Houston Texans
Dog number 3. Nine points are too much.
Carolina Panthers (-3) over Buffalo Bills
I got this on even pay rather -110 at the Station Casino. Cam Newton and the Panthers are oddly overlooked so far this year.
St. Louis Rams (+7) over Atlanta Falcons
Dog number 4. The Falcons should win, but expect a close game.
Washington Redskins (+7 1/2) over Green Bay Packers
Dog number 5. Expect the Skins to at least cover.
Kansas City Chiefs (-2 1/2) over Dallas Cowboys
The Chiefs, everyone's team to watch, is still worth watching.
Minnesota Vikings (+6 1/2) over Chicago Bears
Dog number 6. Expect the Vikings to at least keep it close.
New Orleans Saints (-3) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
I'm riding the Saints this year.
Detroit Lions (-1) over Arizona Cardinals
The Lions are the superior team here.
Denver Broncos (-4 1/2) over New York Giants
Expect Manning to crush in the battle of the Mannings.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
W-L-T record: 5-4-1
New York Jets (+13) over New England Patriots
Thirteen points? That was the line Monday night, and I jumped on it. For all their problems, the Jets deserve more credit than that, and the Pats don't look quite so dominating this year either.
San Diego Chargers (+8) over Philadelphia Eagles
Another too high spread. The Charger are a good bet.
Tennessee Titans (+9) over Houston Texans
Dog number 3. Nine points are too much.
Carolina Panthers (-3) over Buffalo Bills
I got this on even pay rather -110 at the Station Casino. Cam Newton and the Panthers are oddly overlooked so far this year.
St. Louis Rams (+7) over Atlanta Falcons
Dog number 4. The Falcons should win, but expect a close game.
Washington Redskins (+7 1/2) over Green Bay Packers
Dog number 5. Expect the Skins to at least cover.
Kansas City Chiefs (-2 1/2) over Dallas Cowboys
The Chiefs, everyone's team to watch, is still worth watching.
Minnesota Vikings (+6 1/2) over Chicago Bears
Dog number 6. Expect the Vikings to at least keep it close.
New Orleans Saints (-3) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
I'm riding the Saints this year.
Detroit Lions (-1) over Arizona Cardinals
The Lions are the superior team here.
Denver Broncos (-4 1/2) over New York Giants
Expect Manning to crush in the battle of the Mannings.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Robalini's Week 1 NFL Picks
New Orleans Saints (-3) over Atlanta Falcons
Look for the Saints revenge year to start great at home against the Falcons.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-3) over New York Jets
The Bucs are a lot better than they're getting credit for. The Jets are as bad as they say.
Kansas City Chiefs (-3.5) over Jacksonville Jaguars
A good warmup game for the up and coming Chiefs.
Cincinnati Bengals (+3) over Chicago Bears
I expect the Bengals to rise in 2013 and the Bears to fall, so this is a good test game to see how right I am.
Oakland Raiders (+10.5) over Indianapolis Colts
I passed on this game last Sunday, but the point spread kept rising and now is too tempting. Luck will have a sophomore slump of sorts, and though they should win, it will be close.
Arizona Cardinals (+5) over St. Louis Rams
The Cards have the same defense plus Carson Palmer, so they are a good bet with 5 points.
Green Bay Packers (+5) over San Francisco 49ers
Give Aaron Rodgers five points? I'll take that!
Dallas Cowboys (-3) over New York Giants
I'm putting my money where my mouth is on backing Tony Romo and the Cowboys to win the NFC East.
Houston Texans (-4) over San Diego Chargers
Whatever problems the Texans have are nothing compared to the Chargers.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Look for the Saints revenge year to start great at home against the Falcons.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-3) over New York Jets
The Bucs are a lot better than they're getting credit for. The Jets are as bad as they say.
Kansas City Chiefs (-3.5) over Jacksonville Jaguars
A good warmup game for the up and coming Chiefs.
Cincinnati Bengals (+3) over Chicago Bears
I expect the Bengals to rise in 2013 and the Bears to fall, so this is a good test game to see how right I am.
Oakland Raiders (+10.5) over Indianapolis Colts
I passed on this game last Sunday, but the point spread kept rising and now is too tempting. Luck will have a sophomore slump of sorts, and though they should win, it will be close.
Arizona Cardinals (+5) over St. Louis Rams
The Cards have the same defense plus Carson Palmer, so they are a good bet with 5 points.
Green Bay Packers (+5) over San Francisco 49ers
Give Aaron Rodgers five points? I'll take that!
Dallas Cowboys (-3) over New York Giants
I'm putting my money where my mouth is on backing Tony Romo and the Cowboys to win the NFC East.
Houston Texans (-4) over San Diego Chargers
Whatever problems the Texans have are nothing compared to the Chargers.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Robalini's 2013 NFL Football Predictions (Plus Opening Game Pick)
NFC
NFC North
The Bears will regret firing Lovie Smith. The Vikings made the playoffs thanks to a ridiculous performance by Adrian Peterson which should not be repeated: even with Christian Ponder improving, expect them to go down. Yes, the Lions were undisciplined and underperforming in 2012, but they made perhaps the best acquisition of the year with Reggie Bush at running back. In any case, the Packers, led by Aaron Rodgers, should dominate this division.
NFC South
The Bucs would be competing in nearly every other division, but it the NFC South, expect them to go last. The Falcons were a play away from the Super Bowl last year, but rather than motivating improvement, expect them to have the choker label stuck in their head. Cam Newton may not have had the Fantasy Football points last year like he did in 2011, but he's quietly developing into a smart QB with talent, and expect the Panthers to get a wild card. That leaves the Saints, who have the 2013 MVP at QB in Drew Brees, the return of the best coach in football with Sean Payton, and a talented team with a chip on its shoulder for feeling screwed by the NFL last year.
NFC West
The Cardinals now have Carson Palmer, which should improve them, but they are still in a really tough division. The Rams have great coaching, great defense and an offense that is conservative but smart, but that won't be enough this year in the division either. In the end, I'll pick both the Seahawks and the 49ers to make the playoffs, with Seattle winning the division simply because Colin Kaepernick may not be so injury free playing his style over 16 games.
NFC East
These teams are pretty much all the same: talented but not talented enough to be champions. This will be a learning year for the Eagles under a new system, while the Giants have done little to improve themselves. The team with the best upside is the Redskins, but as that upside is tied to RGIII and his health, I have my doubts this year. So I'm going with the Cowboys, simply because Tony Romo will be the most consistent in a mediocre division.
Division Winners:
Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints, Seattle Seahawks, Dallas Cowboys
Wild Cards: San Francisco 49ers, Carolina Panthers
NFC Championship:
New Orleans Saints over Green Bay Packers
*
AFC
AFC North
In theory, the Browns should eventually improve, but not this year. The Steelers are too old and too beat down to make another run. The Ravens will miss two of the greatest defensive players ever leaving their team. That leaves, by default, the quietly consistent Bengals as division winners.
AFC South
The Jags and Titans: nope. The Colts and Andrew Luck should not be so lucky this year with a tougher schedule, though they could be a wild card given the overall weakness of the AFC. That leaves, by default, the talented but underperforming Texans.
AFC West
This is one division which may be stronger than given credit. The Chargers, sadly, have fired Norv Turner way too late, and now their once immense talent has been sucked away. The Raiders may be a surprise this year, especially if Terrelle Pryor delivers. The Chiefs would be the surprise team to look for if every NFL expert wasn't declaring them to be the surprise team to look for. Still, the Broncos should be the class of the division under Peyton Manning once again.
AFC East
Bills, Dolphins, Jets: moving on. For all the problems facing the Patriots, they still should coast in this division.
Division Winners
Cincinnati Bengals, Houston Texans, Denver Broncos, New England Patriots
Wild Cards
Kansas City Chiefs, Indianapolis Colts
AFC Championship:
Denver Broncos over Kansas City Chiefs
Super Bowl
New Orleans Saints over Denver Broncos
Bonus Pick: NFL Kickoff Opener
Baltimore Ravens (+9) over Denver Broncos
I just predicted the Ravens to miss the playoffs and the Broncos to make the Super Bowl, but nine points is still nine points. That's how much the Ravens were getting Sunday when I placed my bet, and though the spread has dropped to eight, it's still a good bet for Baltimore to at least keep it close.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
NFC North
The Bears will regret firing Lovie Smith. The Vikings made the playoffs thanks to a ridiculous performance by Adrian Peterson which should not be repeated: even with Christian Ponder improving, expect them to go down. Yes, the Lions were undisciplined and underperforming in 2012, but they made perhaps the best acquisition of the year with Reggie Bush at running back. In any case, the Packers, led by Aaron Rodgers, should dominate this division.
NFC South
The Bucs would be competing in nearly every other division, but it the NFC South, expect them to go last. The Falcons were a play away from the Super Bowl last year, but rather than motivating improvement, expect them to have the choker label stuck in their head. Cam Newton may not have had the Fantasy Football points last year like he did in 2011, but he's quietly developing into a smart QB with talent, and expect the Panthers to get a wild card. That leaves the Saints, who have the 2013 MVP at QB in Drew Brees, the return of the best coach in football with Sean Payton, and a talented team with a chip on its shoulder for feeling screwed by the NFL last year.
NFC West
The Cardinals now have Carson Palmer, which should improve them, but they are still in a really tough division. The Rams have great coaching, great defense and an offense that is conservative but smart, but that won't be enough this year in the division either. In the end, I'll pick both the Seahawks and the 49ers to make the playoffs, with Seattle winning the division simply because Colin Kaepernick may not be so injury free playing his style over 16 games.
NFC East
These teams are pretty much all the same: talented but not talented enough to be champions. This will be a learning year for the Eagles under a new system, while the Giants have done little to improve themselves. The team with the best upside is the Redskins, but as that upside is tied to RGIII and his health, I have my doubts this year. So I'm going with the Cowboys, simply because Tony Romo will be the most consistent in a mediocre division.
Division Winners:
Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints, Seattle Seahawks, Dallas Cowboys
Wild Cards: San Francisco 49ers, Carolina Panthers
NFC Championship:
New Orleans Saints over Green Bay Packers
*
AFC
AFC North
In theory, the Browns should eventually improve, but not this year. The Steelers are too old and too beat down to make another run. The Ravens will miss two of the greatest defensive players ever leaving their team. That leaves, by default, the quietly consistent Bengals as division winners.
AFC South
The Jags and Titans: nope. The Colts and Andrew Luck should not be so lucky this year with a tougher schedule, though they could be a wild card given the overall weakness of the AFC. That leaves, by default, the talented but underperforming Texans.
AFC West
This is one division which may be stronger than given credit. The Chargers, sadly, have fired Norv Turner way too late, and now their once immense talent has been sucked away. The Raiders may be a surprise this year, especially if Terrelle Pryor delivers. The Chiefs would be the surprise team to look for if every NFL expert wasn't declaring them to be the surprise team to look for. Still, the Broncos should be the class of the division under Peyton Manning once again.
AFC East
Bills, Dolphins, Jets: moving on. For all the problems facing the Patriots, they still should coast in this division.
Division Winners
Cincinnati Bengals, Houston Texans, Denver Broncos, New England Patriots
Wild Cards
Kansas City Chiefs, Indianapolis Colts
AFC Championship:
Denver Broncos over Kansas City Chiefs
Super Bowl
New Orleans Saints over Denver Broncos
Bonus Pick: NFL Kickoff Opener
Baltimore Ravens (+9) over Denver Broncos
I just predicted the Ravens to miss the playoffs and the Broncos to make the Super Bowl, but nine points is still nine points. That's how much the Ravens were getting Sunday when I placed my bet, and though the spread has dropped to eight, it's still a good bet for Baltimore to at least keep it close.
To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:
http://www.vegasinsider.com
Friday, May 31, 2013
Suspicious death of two FBI agents creates controversy
Mon May 27, 2013
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/27/305627/death-of-fbi-agents-creates-controversy/
Two well-trained Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents who were involved in the killing of a Boston bombing suspect have suspiciously died.
The FBI said in a statement that 41-year-old Christopher Lorek and 40-year-old Stephen Shaw were killed on May 17 as they fell out of a helicopter into water during a training mission off the coast of Virginia Beach.
US officials have blamed bad weather for the tragedy but some have questioned the credibility of the official account, considering it a cover-up.
They say the agents’ death adds to the suspicious death of a friend of the Boston bombing suspect, Ibragim Todashev, who was killed in his own apartment by an FBI agent.
Lorek and Shaw were part of the bureau's Critical Incident Response Group and were both members of the team investigating the Boston Marathon bombings in mid-April.
“You could always take it as one of an endless group of coincidences. We have so many [of them], when you look at the Boston investigation that these two individuals were involved in, everything had the stamp of CIA and FBI on it, from the first steps,” Gordon Duff, senior editor of Veterans Today, told Press TV.
“What we have in the US is that we don’t report, we don’t have the least free press here. There are powerful dissident elements within our military, intelligence services and government that are under the control of... I’ll call them organized crime on a worldwide basis. If you refer to hundreds of billions of dollars worth of narcotics and trillions of dollars worth of financial crimes, it is simply organized crime, it is the understatement of all time,” he added.
The incident has reminded many of the dramatic death of top US commandos in Afghanistan, who lost their lives three months after their involvement in the alleged killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011.
On August 6, 2011, the helicopter of the Navy SEAL Team VI was shot down in Afghanistan.
The families of Navy SEAL members have blamed the government for the tragedy, saying the shooting down of the helicopter and the subsequent cover-up was planned by the government.
They said that US President Barack Obama turned the SEALs group into a Taliban target after the administration revealed they had conducted the bin Laden raid.
The families also claimed Taliban militants had received leaked information from the US government regarding the landing site of the commandos’ helicopter.
Moreover, the SEAL Team VI members were reportedly flown to the landing site with a Vietnam-era Chinook helicopter rather than with their customary Special Forces choppers.
“There is absolutely nothing that is credible about that; this is not a mission they would have been on, this is not a helicopter they would have been on,” Duff pointed out.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/27/305627/death-of-fbi-agents-creates-controversy/
Two well-trained Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents who were involved in the killing of a Boston bombing suspect have suspiciously died.
The FBI said in a statement that 41-year-old Christopher Lorek and 40-year-old Stephen Shaw were killed on May 17 as they fell out of a helicopter into water during a training mission off the coast of Virginia Beach.
US officials have blamed bad weather for the tragedy but some have questioned the credibility of the official account, considering it a cover-up.
They say the agents’ death adds to the suspicious death of a friend of the Boston bombing suspect, Ibragim Todashev, who was killed in his own apartment by an FBI agent.
Lorek and Shaw were part of the bureau's Critical Incident Response Group and were both members of the team investigating the Boston Marathon bombings in mid-April.
“You could always take it as one of an endless group of coincidences. We have so many [of them], when you look at the Boston investigation that these two individuals were involved in, everything had the stamp of CIA and FBI on it, from the first steps,” Gordon Duff, senior editor of Veterans Today, told Press TV.
“What we have in the US is that we don’t report, we don’t have the least free press here. There are powerful dissident elements within our military, intelligence services and government that are under the control of... I’ll call them organized crime on a worldwide basis. If you refer to hundreds of billions of dollars worth of narcotics and trillions of dollars worth of financial crimes, it is simply organized crime, it is the understatement of all time,” he added.
The incident has reminded many of the dramatic death of top US commandos in Afghanistan, who lost their lives three months after their involvement in the alleged killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011.
On August 6, 2011, the helicopter of the Navy SEAL Team VI was shot down in Afghanistan.
The families of Navy SEAL members have blamed the government for the tragedy, saying the shooting down of the helicopter and the subsequent cover-up was planned by the government.
They said that US President Barack Obama turned the SEALs group into a Taliban target after the administration revealed they had conducted the bin Laden raid.
The families also claimed Taliban militants had received leaked information from the US government regarding the landing site of the commandos’ helicopter.
Moreover, the SEAL Team VI members were reportedly flown to the landing site with a Vietnam-era Chinook helicopter rather than with their customary Special Forces choppers.
“There is absolutely nothing that is credible about that; this is not a mission they would have been on, this is not a helicopter they would have been on,” Duff pointed out.
FBI Spiked Chechen Jihadi Investigation
Palast reports from Kazakhstan
Greg Palast from Vice.com
Friday, 3. May 2013
[Astana, Kazakhstan] Following the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, I received documents marked “SECRET” from the files of the FBI’s Washington field office. The information in those files will make you sick.
When the bombs went off at the Boston Marathon, I grabbed those FBI files – and a plane for Kazakhstan, bullying cameraman Rocco D into joining me. [Rocco, no fool, won’t let me print his full name.]
After we landed, word came that two Kazakh teens, friends of the bombers, had been arrested by Boston police and, yesterday, charged with hiding evidence of the bombers’ guilt.
Here in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital, televisions everywhere run endless loops of the bombs going off at the Boston Marathon, the screams, the blood, the victims... and the questions.
And first question: How do a couple of wholesome Call-of-Duty-playing American kids get the idea they should murder and mangle their neighbors to avenge the Muslims of Chechnya—whom the victims probably couldn’t find on a map?
The second question: How did America’s trillion-dollar intelligence apparatchiks wave off warnings from Russia about one of the bomber’s connections to the Chechen militants?
The answer regarding the intelligence failure is, to paraphrase the famous journalist Yogi Berra: it’s amazing what you don’t see when you don’t look.
And that’s related to the how young Muslim-Americans came to kill other young Americans over Chechnya.
According to the secret memo, long before the Boston bombing, even before the September 11 attack, the FBI shut down an investigation of a group that ran a summer camp in Florida for America’s Muslim teenagers.
No, we shouldn’t be spying on Islamic campers. However, besides the usual swimming and soccer, these youngsters were encouraged to join the Chechen jihad. The kiddies were treated to videos praising Chechen bombers (who seized a school and hospital then killed their hostages). The group also produced an educational film praising, “that compassionate young man, Osama bin Laden”.
Hey, it was a family affair. Camp Jihad was run by the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), whose operation just outside Washington DC was directed in the US by a man the FBI called “ABL” – Abdullah Binladden, Osama’s brother.
When the Kazakh friends of the Boston bombers were arrested, I went back to that “SECRET” memo. It fell into my hands in November 2001, just two months after that “compassionate young man” Osama killed thousands in my office building (I once worked at the World Trade Center).
Why would my own government spike an investigation that might have saved lives in New York in 2001 [and in Boston in 2013]?
My producer at BBC Television called the FBI. They did not deny the authenticity of the secret documents. Well, then, if the US government has evidence someone may be illegally recruiting killers for Chechnya (as well as the Bosnia war), why in the world would you shut down the investigation and hide the findings?
The official answer was even more chilling than the secret memo itself. The spokesman told us at BBC:
"There are lots of things only the intelligence community knows and that no one else ought to know."?
Well, what else are we not supposed to know?
We got the answer on November 9, 2001, when I received a call at BBC's Newsnight desk in London from a US intelligence agent via a “clean” phone. The spook confirmed that, beginning as early as 1995, the CIA and other US spy agencies were told to stand down from investigating the bin Laden family in both the US and in France.
Several insiders repeated the same story: US agencies turned a blind eye to the bin Laden-terrorist-Chechen-jihad connection out of fear of exposing the US government’s half-assed—and half-illegal—support for these terrorists.
Our government gave ABL a pass (and safe passage back to Saudi Arabia) because Presidents Clinton and Bush were more than happy that our Saudi allies were sending jihadis to Afghanistan, then, via WAMY, helping Muslims to fight in Bosnia then, later, giving the Russians grief in Chechnya.
The problem is that terrorists are like pigeons – they come home to roost. As Joe Trento of the National Security News Service, who provided crucial help to our investigation, told me, “It would be unseemly if [someone] were arrested by the FBI and word got back that he'd once been on the payroll of the CIA… What we're talking about is blow-back. What we're talking about is embarrassing, career-destroying blow-back for intelligence officials.”
It’s utterly unlikely the young Boston bombers were on the CIA payroll, but it’s more than likely the elder brother’s connections here in Central Asia could be traced back to US-protected killers of years past.
The sleight-of-hand to keep public eyes off the US juicing Chechen terror is almost fun to watch. There’s surprisingly little official scrutiny of the media’s new heart-throb, Ruslan Tsarni, the bombers’ uncle. The Washington Post, praising Uncle Ruslan’s “I LOVE AMERICA” schtick, noted,
“[Ruslan’s] performance will be sewn into the rotation of TV news from here on out. Later, on MSNBC, Tom Ridge spoke highly of the message of ‘promise and hope’ sent by Tsarni.”
I would venture to guess that this was not the first time Mr. Ridge, first director of the US Department of Homeland Security, had heard Ruslan’s messages given Ruslan’s founding the Congress of Chechen International Organizations and his lucrative work here in Kazakhstan as a USAID contractor and oil industry lawyer.
There is zero—and I mean zero—evidence that Uncle Ruslan or the CIA hired these two sad-ass kids in Boston to blow up their neighbors. The point here is that the FBI is too concerned about making sure that “no one else ought to know” about our government plays footsie with terrorists—and too unconcerned about the blow-back that blows up in Boston.
Greg Palast investigated terror attacks on the US for BBC TV.
Readers can download Bush Family Fortunes, Palast’s BBC documentary, without charge, at www.gregpalast.com/bffdownload/
Palast is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Armed Madhouse and the highly acclaimed Vultures' Picnic, named Book of the Year 2012 on BBC Newsnight Review.
Greg Palast from Vice.com
Friday, 3. May 2013
[Astana, Kazakhstan] Following the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, I received documents marked “SECRET” from the files of the FBI’s Washington field office. The information in those files will make you sick.
When the bombs went off at the Boston Marathon, I grabbed those FBI files – and a plane for Kazakhstan, bullying cameraman Rocco D into joining me. [Rocco, no fool, won’t let me print his full name.]
After we landed, word came that two Kazakh teens, friends of the bombers, had been arrested by Boston police and, yesterday, charged with hiding evidence of the bombers’ guilt.
Here in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital, televisions everywhere run endless loops of the bombs going off at the Boston Marathon, the screams, the blood, the victims... and the questions.
And first question: How do a couple of wholesome Call-of-Duty-playing American kids get the idea they should murder and mangle their neighbors to avenge the Muslims of Chechnya—whom the victims probably couldn’t find on a map?
The second question: How did America’s trillion-dollar intelligence apparatchiks wave off warnings from Russia about one of the bomber’s connections to the Chechen militants?
The answer regarding the intelligence failure is, to paraphrase the famous journalist Yogi Berra: it’s amazing what you don’t see when you don’t look.
And that’s related to the how young Muslim-Americans came to kill other young Americans over Chechnya.
According to the secret memo, long before the Boston bombing, even before the September 11 attack, the FBI shut down an investigation of a group that ran a summer camp in Florida for America’s Muslim teenagers.
No, we shouldn’t be spying on Islamic campers. However, besides the usual swimming and soccer, these youngsters were encouraged to join the Chechen jihad. The kiddies were treated to videos praising Chechen bombers (who seized a school and hospital then killed their hostages). The group also produced an educational film praising, “that compassionate young man, Osama bin Laden”.
Hey, it was a family affair. Camp Jihad was run by the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), whose operation just outside Washington DC was directed in the US by a man the FBI called “ABL” – Abdullah Binladden, Osama’s brother.
When the Kazakh friends of the Boston bombers were arrested, I went back to that “SECRET” memo. It fell into my hands in November 2001, just two months after that “compassionate young man” Osama killed thousands in my office building (I once worked at the World Trade Center).
Why would my own government spike an investigation that might have saved lives in New York in 2001 [and in Boston in 2013]?
My producer at BBC Television called the FBI. They did not deny the authenticity of the secret documents. Well, then, if the US government has evidence someone may be illegally recruiting killers for Chechnya (as well as the Bosnia war), why in the world would you shut down the investigation and hide the findings?
The official answer was even more chilling than the secret memo itself. The spokesman told us at BBC:
"There are lots of things only the intelligence community knows and that no one else ought to know."?
Well, what else are we not supposed to know?
We got the answer on November 9, 2001, when I received a call at BBC's Newsnight desk in London from a US intelligence agent via a “clean” phone. The spook confirmed that, beginning as early as 1995, the CIA and other US spy agencies were told to stand down from investigating the bin Laden family in both the US and in France.
Several insiders repeated the same story: US agencies turned a blind eye to the bin Laden-terrorist-Chechen-jihad connection out of fear of exposing the US government’s half-assed—and half-illegal—support for these terrorists.
Our government gave ABL a pass (and safe passage back to Saudi Arabia) because Presidents Clinton and Bush were more than happy that our Saudi allies were sending jihadis to Afghanistan, then, via WAMY, helping Muslims to fight in Bosnia then, later, giving the Russians grief in Chechnya.
The problem is that terrorists are like pigeons – they come home to roost. As Joe Trento of the National Security News Service, who provided crucial help to our investigation, told me, “It would be unseemly if [someone] were arrested by the FBI and word got back that he'd once been on the payroll of the CIA… What we're talking about is blow-back. What we're talking about is embarrassing, career-destroying blow-back for intelligence officials.”
It’s utterly unlikely the young Boston bombers were on the CIA payroll, but it’s more than likely the elder brother’s connections here in Central Asia could be traced back to US-protected killers of years past.
The sleight-of-hand to keep public eyes off the US juicing Chechen terror is almost fun to watch. There’s surprisingly little official scrutiny of the media’s new heart-throb, Ruslan Tsarni, the bombers’ uncle. The Washington Post, praising Uncle Ruslan’s “I LOVE AMERICA” schtick, noted,
“[Ruslan’s] performance will be sewn into the rotation of TV news from here on out. Later, on MSNBC, Tom Ridge spoke highly of the message of ‘promise and hope’ sent by Tsarni.”
I would venture to guess that this was not the first time Mr. Ridge, first director of the US Department of Homeland Security, had heard Ruslan’s messages given Ruslan’s founding the Congress of Chechen International Organizations and his lucrative work here in Kazakhstan as a USAID contractor and oil industry lawyer.
There is zero—and I mean zero—evidence that Uncle Ruslan or the CIA hired these two sad-ass kids in Boston to blow up their neighbors. The point here is that the FBI is too concerned about making sure that “no one else ought to know” about our government plays footsie with terrorists—and too unconcerned about the blow-back that blows up in Boston.
Greg Palast investigated terror attacks on the US for BBC TV.
Readers can download Bush Family Fortunes, Palast’s BBC documentary, without charge, at www.gregpalast.com/bffdownload/
Palast is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Armed Madhouse and the highly acclaimed Vultures' Picnic, named Book of the Year 2012 on BBC Newsnight Review.
Was Boston Bombers ‘Uncle Ruslan’ with the CIA?
Posted on April 22, 2013 by Daniel Hopsicker
http://www.madcowprod.com/2013/04/22/was-boston-bombers-uncle-ruslan-with-the-cia/
The uncle of the two men who set off bombs at the Boston Marathon, who struck the only grace note in an otherwise horrific week, worked as a “consultant” for the Agency for International Development (USAID) a U.S. Government Agency often used for cover by agents of the CIA, in the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan during the “Wild West” days of the early 1990’s, when anything that wasn’t nailed down in that country was up for grabs.
“Uncle Ruslan” Tsarni of Montgomery Village Md., whose name was the top trending topic worldwide on Twitter last Friday for his plain-spoken condemnation of his two nephews, has had a checkered business career, that began well before he graduated (as Ruslan Z Tsarnaev) from Duke Law School in 1998.
Tsarni, a well-connected oil executive, is currently involved in an international criminal investigation into a Kazakh billionaire banker-turned-fugitive alleged to have absconded with $6 billion from Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank.
The story begins with The London Sunday Times on May 8, 2011, which reported the sale of the personal home of England’s Prince Andrew to billionaire Kazakh Oligarch Timur Kulibayev, who “controls that country’s oil industry and happens to be married to the daughter of its autocratic President Nursultan Nazarbayev.”
What does that have to do with "Uncle Ruslan?" Let's take a look.
"Can't tell your Oligarchs without a scorecard"
Headlined "Prince's home in 'laundered cash' inquiry," the story raised several red flags.
One was that the President-for-Life’s son-in-law had paid $5 million over the asking price to purchase Prince Andrew’s home, which raised eyebrows.
Red flags and eyebrows were raised still further, in these times of global near-depression, at the conspicuous oligarchic consumption (read: bad taste) exhibited when the Kazakh President-for-Life’s daughter-for-life Goga Ashkenazi celebrated her 30th birthday with a lavish party before the scandal hit.
Goga, who made her appearance in a Swarovski crystal-encrusted, backless lace dress, attended by Prince-for-Life Andrew, was entertained by fire-eaters, peacock-feathered stilt-walkers, and a girl swinging on a trapeze pouring vodka into ice sculptures shaped like naked male and female torsos.
There was even a woman suspended in a bird cage (true) who was there to direct guests to strategically-placed vomitoriums (alas, not true) strewn about the mansion grounds.
Enter "Uncle Ruslan"
But the biggest red flag, the one pertinent to murder in Boston, was Oligarch Kukibayev's use of money laundered through a network of offshore companies to attempt to hide his purchase of Prince Andrew's crib, which emerged during a legal battle between another billionaire Kazakh oligarch, Mukhtar Ablyazov, and BTA Bank, from which Kazakhstan claims Ablyazov embezzled a very cool $6 billion dollars.
And this is where “Uncle Ruslan” Tsarni comes in.
The purchase of the Prince's estate was put together, according to prosecutors in Italy and Switzerland, by a group of oil executives who comprise “a network of personal and business relationships” allegedly used for “international corruption," reported The London Telegraph.
Tsarni, called “a US lawyer who has had dealings in Kazakh business affairs,” by the Sunday Times, clearly appears to be a member of that network.
The Sunday Times reported, “A statement by Ruslan Zaindi Tsarni was given in the High Court in December, claiming that Kulibayev bought Sunninghill and properties in Mayfair with $96 million derived from a complex series of deals intended to disguise money laundering.”
“Tsarni alleged that the money came from the takeover of a western company, which had been used as a front to obtain oil contracts from the Kazakh state.”
A Big Big Sky's the Limit
The “western company” used to launder the money which the Sunday Times referred to is Big Sky Energy Corporation, where Ruslan Tsarni was a top executive.
Big Sky, which used to be known as China Energy Ventures Corp, is a now-bankrupt US oil company run by S.A. (Al) Sehsuvaroglu, a long-time executive of Halliburton, which had oil leases in Kakakhstan’s Caspian Basin.
Tsarni was Big Sky’s Corporate Secretary and Vice President for Business Development. He joined Big Sky in 2005.
A press release announcing his appointment stated:
“Mr. Ruslan Tsarni, a U.S. citizen, has over 10 years of professional experience in oil and gas legislation and corporate law. Previously, Mr. Tsarni served as Corporate Counsel of Nelson Resources Limited Group as well as Managing Director of several of its operating subsidiaries.
“From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Tsarni worked as Head of Legal Affairs of Golden Eagle Partners LLC.
Big Sky was on somebody's watch list
“From 1994 to 1996, Mr. Tsarni served as a consultant contracted by USAID for projects aimed to develop securities markets in Central Asia, where he trained corporate governance and corporate finance principals in state and private companies.”
According to a source who worked for many years as a journalist at Platts Oilgram News, a respected oil industry trade publication, good corporate governance was not a Big Sky priority.
“Nelson, Big Sky, Ablyazov, Kulibayev and the rest were all on my watch list for intelligence connections and pay-offs of various kinds at Platts,” stated the source, who requested anonymity.
The news corroborates other reports beginning to emerge about the family and its abundant connections.
A "connected" family?
Before the Tsarnaev family moved to the United States a decade ago, they lived in the northern Kyrgyz town of Tokmok, near the border with Kazakhstan, which is home of the country's largest ethnic Chechen community.
The day after the massive manhunt in the Boston area that led to the death of Tamerlan and the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Radio Free Europe and Kyrgyz Service correspondent Timur Toktonaliev traveled to Tokmok.
From there, he reported that the extended Tsarnaev family is well-known there, even beyond their local community.
“It is not known if there was anything more than a personal connection,” the story reported, “but organized crime boss Aziz Batukaev, who is also an ethnic Chechen, lived next door to the Tsarnaevs. Batukaev grew up and lived in Tokmok, but is now in Chechnya.
Halliburton executives, suspected CIA assets, Chechnyan crime bosses, oligarchs stealing billions from banks and laundering money with seeming impunity, fire-eaters, peacock-feathered stilt-walkers, and a girl swinging on a trapeze pouring vodka into ice sculptures shaped like naked male and female torsos…
If there hadn't been two of them, the investigation would already be pointing to a single misfit, a lone nut bomber.
Those of you who read the stories published here know their value better than I can describe.
The investigative reporting on the impact of drug money on US political life and our economy found here are taboo subjects in the mainstream media. Without your help the effort cannot continue.
Order our books and documentaries, and donate what you can!
About Daniel Hopsicker
Daniel Hopsicker is an investigative journalist dubious about the self-serving assertion of U.S. officials that there are no American Drug Lords.
http://www.madcowprod.com/2013/04/22/was-boston-bombers-uncle-ruslan-with-the-cia/
The uncle of the two men who set off bombs at the Boston Marathon, who struck the only grace note in an otherwise horrific week, worked as a “consultant” for the Agency for International Development (USAID) a U.S. Government Agency often used for cover by agents of the CIA, in the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan during the “Wild West” days of the early 1990’s, when anything that wasn’t nailed down in that country was up for grabs.
“Uncle Ruslan” Tsarni of Montgomery Village Md., whose name was the top trending topic worldwide on Twitter last Friday for his plain-spoken condemnation of his two nephews, has had a checkered business career, that began well before he graduated (as Ruslan Z Tsarnaev) from Duke Law School in 1998.
Tsarni, a well-connected oil executive, is currently involved in an international criminal investigation into a Kazakh billionaire banker-turned-fugitive alleged to have absconded with $6 billion from Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank.
The story begins with The London Sunday Times on May 8, 2011, which reported the sale of the personal home of England’s Prince Andrew to billionaire Kazakh Oligarch Timur Kulibayev, who “controls that country’s oil industry and happens to be married to the daughter of its autocratic President Nursultan Nazarbayev.”
What does that have to do with "Uncle Ruslan?" Let's take a look.
"Can't tell your Oligarchs without a scorecard"
Headlined "Prince's home in 'laundered cash' inquiry," the story raised several red flags.
One was that the President-for-Life’s son-in-law had paid $5 million over the asking price to purchase Prince Andrew’s home, which raised eyebrows.
Red flags and eyebrows were raised still further, in these times of global near-depression, at the conspicuous oligarchic consumption (read: bad taste) exhibited when the Kazakh President-for-Life’s daughter-for-life Goga Ashkenazi celebrated her 30th birthday with a lavish party before the scandal hit.
Goga, who made her appearance in a Swarovski crystal-encrusted, backless lace dress, attended by Prince-for-Life Andrew, was entertained by fire-eaters, peacock-feathered stilt-walkers, and a girl swinging on a trapeze pouring vodka into ice sculptures shaped like naked male and female torsos.
There was even a woman suspended in a bird cage (true) who was there to direct guests to strategically-placed vomitoriums (alas, not true) strewn about the mansion grounds.
Enter "Uncle Ruslan"
But the biggest red flag, the one pertinent to murder in Boston, was Oligarch Kukibayev's use of money laundered through a network of offshore companies to attempt to hide his purchase of Prince Andrew's crib, which emerged during a legal battle between another billionaire Kazakh oligarch, Mukhtar Ablyazov, and BTA Bank, from which Kazakhstan claims Ablyazov embezzled a very cool $6 billion dollars.
And this is where “Uncle Ruslan” Tsarni comes in.
The purchase of the Prince's estate was put together, according to prosecutors in Italy and Switzerland, by a group of oil executives who comprise “a network of personal and business relationships” allegedly used for “international corruption," reported The London Telegraph.
Tsarni, called “a US lawyer who has had dealings in Kazakh business affairs,” by the Sunday Times, clearly appears to be a member of that network.
The Sunday Times reported, “A statement by Ruslan Zaindi Tsarni was given in the High Court in December, claiming that Kulibayev bought Sunninghill and properties in Mayfair with $96 million derived from a complex series of deals intended to disguise money laundering.”
“Tsarni alleged that the money came from the takeover of a western company, which had been used as a front to obtain oil contracts from the Kazakh state.”
A Big Big Sky's the Limit
The “western company” used to launder the money which the Sunday Times referred to is Big Sky Energy Corporation, where Ruslan Tsarni was a top executive.
Big Sky, which used to be known as China Energy Ventures Corp, is a now-bankrupt US oil company run by S.A. (Al) Sehsuvaroglu, a long-time executive of Halliburton, which had oil leases in Kakakhstan’s Caspian Basin.
Tsarni was Big Sky’s Corporate Secretary and Vice President for Business Development. He joined Big Sky in 2005.
A press release announcing his appointment stated:
“Mr. Ruslan Tsarni, a U.S. citizen, has over 10 years of professional experience in oil and gas legislation and corporate law. Previously, Mr. Tsarni served as Corporate Counsel of Nelson Resources Limited Group as well as Managing Director of several of its operating subsidiaries.
“From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Tsarni worked as Head of Legal Affairs of Golden Eagle Partners LLC.
Big Sky was on somebody's watch list
“From 1994 to 1996, Mr. Tsarni served as a consultant contracted by USAID for projects aimed to develop securities markets in Central Asia, where he trained corporate governance and corporate finance principals in state and private companies.”
According to a source who worked for many years as a journalist at Platts Oilgram News, a respected oil industry trade publication, good corporate governance was not a Big Sky priority.
“Nelson, Big Sky, Ablyazov, Kulibayev and the rest were all on my watch list for intelligence connections and pay-offs of various kinds at Platts,” stated the source, who requested anonymity.
The news corroborates other reports beginning to emerge about the family and its abundant connections.
A "connected" family?
Before the Tsarnaev family moved to the United States a decade ago, they lived in the northern Kyrgyz town of Tokmok, near the border with Kazakhstan, which is home of the country's largest ethnic Chechen community.
The day after the massive manhunt in the Boston area that led to the death of Tamerlan and the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Radio Free Europe and Kyrgyz Service correspondent Timur Toktonaliev traveled to Tokmok.
From there, he reported that the extended Tsarnaev family is well-known there, even beyond their local community.
“It is not known if there was anything more than a personal connection,” the story reported, “but organized crime boss Aziz Batukaev, who is also an ethnic Chechen, lived next door to the Tsarnaevs. Batukaev grew up and lived in Tokmok, but is now in Chechnya.
Halliburton executives, suspected CIA assets, Chechnyan crime bosses, oligarchs stealing billions from banks and laundering money with seeming impunity, fire-eaters, peacock-feathered stilt-walkers, and a girl swinging on a trapeze pouring vodka into ice sculptures shaped like naked male and female torsos…
If there hadn't been two of them, the investigation would already be pointing to a single misfit, a lone nut bomber.
Those of you who read the stories published here know their value better than I can describe.
The investigative reporting on the impact of drug money on US political life and our economy found here are taboo subjects in the mainstream media. Without your help the effort cannot continue.
Order our books and documentaries, and donate what you can!
About Daniel Hopsicker
Daniel Hopsicker is an investigative journalist dubious about the self-serving assertion of U.S. officials that there are no American Drug Lords.
The Boston Bombing & The KGB
Robert Sterling, Konformist.com
Almost immediately after the bombing at the Boston Marathon, many people on the Internet (most notably Alex Jones of Infowars.com ) proclaimed the event to be a "False Flag" operation masterminded by US intelligence. This is certainly a plausible scenario, if one examines history. Still, if you ask "Cui bono?" to the events in Boston, the idea that the bombing was a KGB operation to justify a deeper push in Chechnya seems plausible as well. And if you dig a little deeper, the ulterior motive would appear to be oil.
Here is an article from National Journal titled "What You Need to Know About Chechnya":
http://www.nationaljournal.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-chechnya-20130419
The most important sentence of this entire report: "Today, Russia continues to maintain a vital interest in the region for economic reasons: Access routes from Russia to the Black Sea and Caspian Sea go through Chechnya, as do oil and gas pipelines connecting Russia with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan."
This was a pretty important story from March that didn't get the coverage it deserved:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/03/21/russias-rosneft-surpasses-exxonmobil-to-become-worlds-biggest-oil-co/
Rosneft, the state-owned Russian oil company, became the biggest oil company in the world (exceeding ExxonMobil) after their latest huge acquisition of TNK-BP. The CEO of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, is a "former" KGB spy.
This Atlantic article doesn't conclude conspiracy (probably because, according to establishment thought, conspiracies by powerful organizations don't happen) but it does show all the dots that need to be connected:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/what-you-should-know-about-chechnya-as-the-boston-story-unfolds/275156/
Here's the most important quote:
"To allow the Boston attacks to cast all Chechens as violent religious zealots is exactly what Putin needs. That will allow him to keep his deadly arrangement going. The supreme irony of Putin's PR strategy is that most Chechens share the democratic values of a Western civilization that completely disregards, and misunderstands, their struggle."
So here's the general model: Rosneft, the state-owned Russian oil giant, has just become the world's biggest oil company through mass acquisitions. The end goal of the acquisitions is the big prize, the oil in the Caspian Sea, which Russia (like the US, Europe & China) wants to dominate. The problem, of course, is that Chechnya stands in the way of the oil. In order to get it, they must crush Chechnya. To stop any PR defense of Chechnyans, the bombing turns Chechnya into an officially sanctioned demon. Look for Putin to declare sympathy for America and support of the War on Terror, then launch an even bloodier offensive of Chechnya. Then look for Rosneft to make even huger and bigger deals over the Caspian oil.
Almost immediately after the bombing at the Boston Marathon, many people on the Internet (most notably Alex Jones of Infowars.com ) proclaimed the event to be a "False Flag" operation masterminded by US intelligence. This is certainly a plausible scenario, if one examines history. Still, if you ask "Cui bono?" to the events in Boston, the idea that the bombing was a KGB operation to justify a deeper push in Chechnya seems plausible as well. And if you dig a little deeper, the ulterior motive would appear to be oil.
Here is an article from National Journal titled "What You Need to Know About Chechnya":
http://www.nationaljournal.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-chechnya-20130419
The most important sentence of this entire report: "Today, Russia continues to maintain a vital interest in the region for economic reasons: Access routes from Russia to the Black Sea and Caspian Sea go through Chechnya, as do oil and gas pipelines connecting Russia with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan."
This was a pretty important story from March that didn't get the coverage it deserved:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/03/21/russias-rosneft-surpasses-exxonmobil-to-become-worlds-biggest-oil-co/
Rosneft, the state-owned Russian oil company, became the biggest oil company in the world (exceeding ExxonMobil) after their latest huge acquisition of TNK-BP. The CEO of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, is a "former" KGB spy.
This Atlantic article doesn't conclude conspiracy (probably because, according to establishment thought, conspiracies by powerful organizations don't happen) but it does show all the dots that need to be connected:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/what-you-should-know-about-chechnya-as-the-boston-story-unfolds/275156/
Here's the most important quote:
"To allow the Boston attacks to cast all Chechens as violent religious zealots is exactly what Putin needs. That will allow him to keep his deadly arrangement going. The supreme irony of Putin's PR strategy is that most Chechens share the democratic values of a Western civilization that completely disregards, and misunderstands, their struggle."
So here's the general model: Rosneft, the state-owned Russian oil giant, has just become the world's biggest oil company through mass acquisitions. The end goal of the acquisitions is the big prize, the oil in the Caspian Sea, which Russia (like the US, Europe & China) wants to dominate. The problem, of course, is that Chechnya stands in the way of the oil. In order to get it, they must crush Chechnya. To stop any PR defense of Chechnyans, the bombing turns Chechnya into an officially sanctioned demon. Look for Putin to declare sympathy for America and support of the War on Terror, then launch an even bloodier offensive of Chechnya. Then look for Rosneft to make even huger and bigger deals over the Caspian oil.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Stoner Cooking 4-22-13
Ten Soda
http://www.tengetboth.com
Can't decide if you want a soda sweetened by obesity-causing high fructose corn syrup or poisonous Nutrasweet? Well, now with the Ten soda label, you don't have to choose!!! It's the best of both worlds!!!
*
Pizza Hut Debuts 'Crazy Cheesy Crust'
Niki Achitoff-Gray
APR 3, 2013
http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2013/04/pizza-hut-introduces-crazy-cheesy-crust.html
Remember how jealous you were when Pizza Hut Middle East launched the Cheeseburger Crown Crust? Or when a photo from China, of the Hot dog-encrusted shrimp tempura pizza, began to circulate earlier this year? Well, worry not! America just got one step closer to crazy pizza land, with Pizza Hut's latest stuffed crust invention.
The limited release Crazy Cheesy Crust ($12.99 with 1 topping) features 16 detachable "pockets" of bread filled with a five-cheese blend. Disappointed? Execs sure hope so! Spokesman Doug Terfehr explains that "by not making it an over-the-top indulgence... people would buy the pies repeatedly rather than just trying them once as a novelty." Needless to say, we'll be Chain Reacting all over this thing.
Pizza Hut introduced its first stuffed crust back in 1995, and they've been riffing off it ever since. There was the Stuffed Crust Pan Pizza of 2009, followed just a couple of years later by the release of The Ultimate Stuffed Crust.
So, if you've ever wondered what ontological category comes after "Ultimate," lesson learned. It's "Crazy Cheesy," of course!
*
Even the NY Times is now rejecting Monsanto GMO science
Jon Rappoport
April 9, 2013
NoMoreFakeNews.com
http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/even-the-ny-times-is-now-rejecting-monsanto-gmo-science
This isn’t a leak. It isn’t a timid flow. It’s a flood.
I’m talking about about the criticism of Monsanto’s so-called science of genetically-engineered food.
For the past 20 years, independent researchers have been attacking Monsanto science in various ways, and finally the NY Times has joined the crowd.
But it’s the way Mark Bittman, lead food columnist for the Times magazine, does it that really crashes the whole GMO delusion. Writing in his April 2 column, “Why Do G.M.O.’s Need Protection?”, Bittman leads with this:
“Genetic engineering in agriculture has disappointed many people who once had hopes for it.”
As in: the party’s over, turn out the lights.
Bittman explains: “…genetic engineering, or, more properly, transgenic engineering – in which a gene, usually from another species of plant, bacterium or animal, is inserted into a plant in the hope of positively changing its nature – has been disappointing.”
As if this weren’t enough, Bittman spells it out more specifically: “In the nearly 20 years of applied use of G.E. in agriculture there have been two notable ‘successes,’ along with a few less notable ones. These are crops resistant to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide (Monsanto develops both the seeds and the herbicide to which they’re resistant) and crops that contain their own insecticide. The first have already failed, as so-called superweeds have developed resistance to Roundup, and the second are showing signs of failing, as insects are able to develop resistance to the inserted Bt toxin — originally a bacterial toxin — faster than new crop variations can be generated.”
Bittman goes on to write that superweed resistance was a foregone conclusion; scientists understood, from the earliest days of GMOs, that spraying generations of these weeds with Roundup would give us exactly what we have today: failure of the technology to prevent what it was designed to prevent. The weeds wouldn’t die out. They would retool and thrive.
“The result is that the biggest crisis in monocrop agriculture – something like 90 percent of all soybeans and 70 percent of corn is grown using Roundup Ready seed – lies in glyphosate’s inability to any longer provide total or even predictable control, because around a dozen weed species have developed resistance to it.” Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup.
Just as the weeds developed resistance and immunity to the herbicide, insects that were supposed to be killed by the toxin engineered into Monsanto’s BT crops are also surviving.
Five years ago, it would have been unthinkable that the NY Times would print such a complete rejection of GMO plant technology. Now, it’s “well, everybody knows.”
The Times sees no point in holding back any longer.
Of course, if it were a newspaper with any real courage, it would launch a whole series of front-page pieces on this enormous failure, and the gigantic fraud that lies behind it. Then the Times might actually see its readership improve.
Momentum is something its editors understand well enough. You set your hounds loose on a story, you send them out with a mandate to expose failure, fraud, and crime down to their roots, and you know that, in the ensuing months, formerly reticent researchers and corporate employees and government officials will appear out of the woodwork confessing their insider knowledge.
The story will deepen. It will take on new branches. The revelations will indict the corporation (Monsanto), its government partners, and the scientists who falsified and hid data.
In this case, the FDA and the USDA will come in for major hits. They will backtrack and lie and mis-explain, for a while, and then, like buds in the spring, agency employees will emerge and admit the truth. These agencies were co-conspirators.
And once the story unravels far enough, the human health hazards and destruction wreaked by GMOs will take center stage. All the bland pronouncements about “nobody has gotten sick from GMOs” will evaporate in the wind.
It won’t simply be, “Well, we never tested health dangers adequately,” it’ll be, “We knew there was trouble from the get-go.”
Yes, the Times could make all this happen. But it won’t. There are two basic reasons. First, it considers Big Ag too big to fail. There is now so much acreage in America tied up in GMO crops that to reject the whole show would cause titanic eruptions on many levels.
And second, the Times is part of the very establishment that views the GMO industry as a way of bringing Globalism to fruition for the whole planet.
Centralizing the food supply in a few hands means the population of the world, in the near future, will eat or not eat according to the dictates of a few unelected men. Redistribution of basic resources to the people of Earth, from such a control point, is what Globalism is all about:
“Naturally, we love you all, but decisions must be made. You people over here will live well, you people over there will live not so well, and you people back there will live not at all.
“This is our best judgment. Don’t worry, be happy.”
The author of two explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED and EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at:
http://www.nomorefakenews.com
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Beef Stew with Bacon and Butternut Squash
3 pounds beef chuck
Kosher salt and black pepper
Olive or vegetable oil
6 slices good quality, lean, smoky bacon, chopped 1-inch pieces
2 carrots, chopped
2 to 3 ribs celery, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 to 4 cloves garlic, sliced or chopped
1 tablespoon fresh marjoram or 1 teaspoon dried
3 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped, divided
2 fresh bay leaves
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 12-ounce bottle hard cider or 1 cup sweet vermouth
2 fat strips orange rind
1 quart beef stock
1 medium-large butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
A little freshly grated nutmeg
About 2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
About 2 tablespoons grainy Dijon mustard
Warm crusty bread and butter, to pass at table
Yields: 6
Bring meat to room temperature and pat dry. Cut into 2-inch pieces. Just before cooking, season with Kosher salt and black pepper.
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Heat oil, 2 turns of the pan, over medium-high heat in a large Dutch oven. Add the bacon and stir until crisp; remove to a plate. Cook meat in batches, caramelizing on all sides. Remove to a plate and repeat with remaining meat, adding additional oil if necessary.
To meat drippings, add chopped carrot, celery, onion, sliced garlic, marjoram, half the thyme, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Partially cover pot and cook 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in tomato paste, cook for 1 minute, then stir in hard cider or vermouth and a few fat strips of orange rind; deglaze and reduce liquid by half. Add stock then slide meat and bacon back into the pot, bring to bubble, cover and transfer to oven. Roast 2 1/2 hours.
Remove the stew and let it stand, covered, while you roast squash.
Raise heat to 425°F. Coat squash with oil and toss with remaining thyme, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Roast 30-35 minutes, turning once, until brown at edges.
Once the squash is done, remove bay leaf and orange rind from the stew. Skim fat with a spoon or paper towels.
Place meat in a large shallow bowl or serving dish and stir honey and mustard into sauce. Stir in squash and serve in bowls. Pass crusty bread at table for mopping.
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Strawberry Honey Butter
1 pint strawberries, hulled
3 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, or to taste
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
In a food processor purée the strawberries and force the purée through a fine sieve into a saucepan. Add the honey and the lemon juice and boil the mixture, stirring, for 3 minutes, or until it is thickened. Let the strawberry mixture cool to room temperature. In a bowl cream together the butter and the strawberry mixture. Let the butter stand, covered, in a cool place for 1 hour to allow the flavors to develop.
This butter is delicious, especially on whole grain bagels!
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Baked Eggs in Avocados
http://www.bbbseed.com/
1 Avocado cut in half, pitted
2 eggs
Salt and pepper, to taste
Topping of choice (some suggestions: parmesan, chili flakes, balsamic, oregano, basil, turkey bacon, etc.)
Preheat oven to 375°F. Using a small piece of aluminum foil, create a 'bowl' or 'boat' in which to bake your Egg in avocado. Scoop out a small amount of the avocado to create a larger hollow. This will prevent your egg from overflowing completely (a small amount of overflow is normal). Place avocado in your foil 'bowl' and crack the egg into the hollow. Top egg with salt and pepper, and add toppings of your choice. Bake until egg reaches desired doneness (about 15 minutes should give you a tender yolk without runny whites). Serve warm.
GROW, ENJOY, SHARE.... the beauty and the bounty
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Breakfast Delight
http://www.sargento.com/recipes/1231/grandma-macks-breakfast-delight/
1 tube (8 oz.) refrigerated crescent rolls
2 cups (1 lb.) cubed ham
2 cups frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed
5 eggs
1/2 cup milk
Dash of salt and pepper
1-1/2 cups Sargento Shredded Cheddar Jack Cheese
Arrange rolls on bottom of 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Top rolls with ham and potatoes. Beat together eggs, milk, salt and pepper in medium bowl. Pour egg mixture over potatoes. Top with cheese. Bake in preheated 375°F oven 30 minutes or until eggs are set.
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Italian Grilled Cube Steak Sandwich
http://relish.com/recipes/italian-grilled-cube-steak-sandwich
Yield 2 servings
1 pound Black Angus Cube Steak
1/2 cup Italian Salad Dressing
4 slices Fresh Sourdough Bread
2 dashes Worcester Sauce
2 pieces Swiss Cheese
Place cube steaks in a large sandwich bag along with the Italian Dressing and allow to marinate for at least one hour. Four hours would be best.
Grill steaks about 4-5 minutes on one side, 2-3 minutes on the other.
Place between two slices of fresh buttered sourdough bread. Add cheese (optional). Slather with worcester sauce for extra spice (optional).
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Potato, Asparagus & Mushroom Hash
WebMD Recipe from EatingWell.com
Made with asparagus, roasted red pepper and mushrooms, this hash has a fresh and light, springtime taste. Serve with hearty whole-grain toast and an egg or two on top.
Prep: 40 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes
1 pound new or baby potatoes, scrubbed, halved if large
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 bunch asparagus, (about 1 pound), trimmed and cut in 1/2-inch pieces
4 ounces shiitake mushroom caps, or other mushrooms, sliced
1 shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chopped jarred roasted red peppers, rinsed
1 tablespoon minced fresh sage
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Fresh chives, for garnish
Place a steamer basket in a large saucepan, add 1 inch of water and bring to a boil. Put potatoes in the basket and steam until barely tender when pierced with a skewer, 12 to 15 minutes, depending on size. When cool enough to handle, chop into 1/2-inch pieces.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large (not nonstick) skillet over medium heat. Add asparagus, mushrooms, shallot and garlic and cook, stirring often, until beginning to brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove to a plate.
Add the remaining 2 tablespoons oil to the pan. Add onion and the potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally and scraping up the browned bits with a metal spatula, until the potatoes are browned, 4 to 8 minutes. Return the asparagus mixture to the pan along with roasted red pepper, sage, salt and pepper; cook, stirring, until heated through, about 1 minute more. Serve sprinkled with chives, if desired.
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CREAM CHEESE CHICKEN ENCHILADAS
5 oz. reduced fat cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup light sour cream
10 oz. can of enchilada sauce
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese, divided
2 cups cooked shredded chicken
1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed (canned corn works just fine, but drain it first)
4 oz. can diced green chiles
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin
Salt and pepper
4 scallions, thinly sliced
8 (8-inch) whole wheat tortillas
1.Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 9×13 dish with cooking spray.
2.In the bowl of your mixer cream together the cream cheese, sour cream, and 1/2 of the enchilada sauce. Stir in 1/2 cup of each type of cheese.
3.In a second bowl toss together the chicken, corn, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper, green chiles, and half of the scallions. Add the chicken mixture to the cheese mixture and combine well.
4.Spread about half of the remaining enchilada sauce in the bottom of the baking dish.
5.Spoon the filling into each tortilla, roll the tortilla up, and place in the baking dish with the seam down. Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the top of the filled tortillas and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Sprinkle with the remaining scallions and serve.
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Vietnamese Noodle Soup
http://www.miraclenoodle.com/t-vietnamese-noodle-soup.aspx
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
3 cups organic reduced sodium chicken stock.
1 clove garlic, minced.
1 tsp minced ginger.
1/4 tsp cardamom.
1- 7oz bag of Miracle Noodle Angel Hair Noodles.
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast sliced crosswise into 1/8 slices.
1 cup bean sprouts.
2 scallions, sliced into 1/4 inch pieces.
1 tsp chili sauce(optional).
1/2 lime, cut in half.
1/4 cup chopped cilantro.
1/3 cup of mushrooms-any variety (optional).
1 thinly slice chili pepper with seeds removed (optional).
In a 3 quart saucepan, bring chicken stock to a boil over medium-high heat. Add garlic, ginger and cardamom and let simmer for 10 minutes.
In a colander rinse noodles with warm water for a couple of minutes, pat dry with a small hand towel or paper towel to remove excess water. Divide noodles into two bowls.
Add chicken to stock and let cook for 5 minutes(until completely cooked)
Pour soup into bowls over the noodles. Divide bean sprouts between 2 soup bowls then top each serving with half the scallions and chili sauce. Garnish bowls with a slice of lime and pieces of cilantro.
I could swear I was at the Vietnamese restaurant, but without the calories!
Nutritional Info: 2 Servings
Calories 180
Total Fat 3.6g
Saturated Fat 1.0g
Cholesterol 73mg
Total Carbohydrates 6.2g
Dietary Fiber 1.7g
Protein 31.1g
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McBitty's Bean Burgers
Originally published with Eat: Recipes for the Semi-Vegan
MARK BITTMAN, April 7, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/12221/McBittys-Bean-Burgers.html
TOTAL TIME 35 to 45 minutes with cooked beans
1/4 cup dried stemless porcini mushrooms
2 cups cooked or drained canned black beans
1 teaspoon roughly chopped garlic
3/4 cup rolled oats, or more if needed
2 teaspoons smoked paprika or chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Salt and black pepper
Bean-cooking liquid, porcini soaking liquid or water
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons olive oil
Soak the mushrooms in hot water for 5 to 10 minutes; roughly chop.
Put the mushrooms, beans, garlic, oats, spices and soy sauce in a food processor with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Let the machine run until the mixture is combined, not puréed, about 30 seconds. (Or use a potato masher.) Add oats to thicken, or liquid to thin, as needed.
Stir in the cilantro, and let sit for 5 minutes.
Shape into 4 large or 8 small patties; let them sit for 5 minutes.
Put the oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Cook until crisp on one side, about 5 minutes. Flip and cook until the burgers are crisp on the other side, another 5 minutes or so. Serve with the usual fixings.
YIELD 8 small burgers, 4 supersize
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Chicken Chipotle Burger
http://angsarap.net/2013/04/02/chicken-chipotle-burger
These burgers are a good alternative to your usual beef burgers as this uses chicken dressed in creamy chipotle sauce which gives this dish a different dimension in terms of taste. If you love things spicy then this is for you, a simple chicken burger with tomatoes, cheese and chopped lettuce infused by smoked Mexican chillies.
Ingredients (Chicken Cutlet Patties)
2 pcs large chicken breasts
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 cup flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
salt
freshly ground black pepper
oil
Ingredients (Chipotle Sauce)
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
4 tsp pureed chipotle chilli in adobo
juice from 1/2 lime
1 clove garlic, minced
salt
Ingredients (Others)
8 burger buns
1/2 head lettuce, chopped
1 large white onion chopped
2 large tomatoes, sliced
8 slices smoked cheddar cheese
Method (Chicken Cutlet Patties)
1. Cut chicken breast into two then thinly slice each side into 2 pieces yielding 4 pieces for each breast. Using a meat pounder, lightly pound each piece until they are flat. Place in a container that can be covered then set aside.
2. Season chicken breast with salt and pepper chicken breasts then set aside.
3. Mix together flour and corn starch, place in a flat container.
4. Place eggs in another container.
5. Place bread crumbs in another flat container.
6. Lightly dip chicken pieces into the flour mixture, then dip it on the beaten eggs then into the bread crumbs. Set aside and do it with the remaining chicken breast.
7. Prepare a deep fryer or a wok with enough oil for deep frying, heat oil until hot but not smoking (ideally 180C) then deep fry each chicken piece until golden brown, this will take around 5 minutes.
8. Once cooked place in a dripping container to remove excess oil.
Method (Chipotle Sauce)
1. Combine all ingredients then place in the refrigerator, chill before using.
Method
1. Place chicken, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, onions and a generous amount of Chipotle in between your burger buns then serve.
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Cheeseburger Macaroni and Cheese
J. Kenji López-Alt
APR 4, 2013
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/04/cheeseburger-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe.html
Note: Ro*Tel tomatoes can be found in most supermarkets in the tomato section, or ordered online from Amazon. If you can't find them, substitute 1 (14-ounce) can of diced tomatoes and 1 (3 1/2-ounce) can of diced chilies.
Every recipe we publish is tested, tasted, and Serious Eats-approved by our staff. Never miss a recipe again by following @SeriousRecipes on Twitter!
serves 4
ACTIVE TIME:
30 minutes
TOTAL TIME:
30 minutes
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
2 eggs
Kosher salt
1 tablespoon vegetable or canola oil
1 pound ground chuck
4 scallions, finely sliced, whites and greens reserved separately
1 (14-ounce) can Ro*Tel tomatoes (see note above)
Freshly ground black pepper
Half pound dry elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 ounces grated American cheese
8 ounces grated cheddar cheese
Combine cornstarch, evaporated milk, and eggs in a small bowl and whisk until homogenous. Set aside.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over high heat until shimmering. Add beef and cook, breaking it up, until no longer pink, about 8 minutes. Add scallion whites and cook, stirring, until softened, about 1 minute. Add Ro*Tel tomaotes, stir to combine, season to taste with salt and pepper, and set aside.
Cook pasta in a large stock pot in salted water according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1 cup pasta cooking water. Return to stock pot and add cooking water, butter, evaporated milk mixture, and both cheeses. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until cheese is melted and pasta is creamy and smooth. Stir in beef mixture. Transfer to a serving bowl, top with scallion greens, and serve immediately.
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Mad Men has returned for Season Six. Celebrate the Roger Sterling way: with a Dirty Martini...
http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/cocktail-guide/dirty-martini
2½ oz gin
1½ oz dry vermouth
½ oz olive juice
3-4 green olives stuffed with blue cheese
Add dry vermouth to the martini glass, rinse, and pour out. Pour gin, olive juice and ice into mixing glass and shake until chilled. Strain in the martini glass and drop the 3 to 4 olives as garnish.
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