Y2HH

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Jun 2, 2010 -> 02:00 PM) Just imagine if we did this in school. "Well little Johhny, you actually failed this class but since everyone else passed it's not fair for you to fail so I'll pass you too." I think we do. Which is why American children are getting dumber and dumber. While the movie Idiocracy is off the charts, it's becoming more and more evident that that's the way this country is headed.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 2, 2010 -> 01:04 PM) And now let's imagine there's 6 teams. So, you try to come up with different levels, and you figure out rapidly that you can't...you wind up with ridiculous splits like 2 teams in 1 league who always play each other and 4 in another. No matter how you want to look at it, you've let your major, overarching principle of "teaching them a lesson" go, and so I can keep coming up with scenarios that will make the rules you require more and more complex/unworkable. Not all skill levels are the same -- understand that first and foremost. You will never have "one" league where everyone fits, this goes for school, jobs, etc...some people are just better. That doesn't mean you can't learn the values of winning and losing and trying harder after failure regardless of this natural inequality of the evil evil world. The lesson of winning and losing and getting up after you've fallen remains intact, regardless.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 2, 2010 -> 12:53 PM) So, basically, you come up with a rule that teaches the exact lesson about winning and losing that you decried a few posts above, about how if you're not good enough to win, you should go cry to someone else and try to get the rules changed. See how it's not as open and shut as we'd like to think? I don't like the solution they came up with. But let's not pretend that under certain circumstances, we might not follow the same course of logic they did. No, not quite, but way to try to twist words. You failed, but you tried. Just like there is a A, AA, AAA, Japan, MLB, etc. There CAN be different skill levels at the same age group. That doesn't mean winning and losing cannot still be done and done with class. These are still valuable lessons, and fun can still be had while keeping score and understanding both victory and defeat. But keep pretending otherwise, seems to work for you. Not all skill levels are the same -- understand that first and foremost. You will never have "one" league where everyone fits, this goes for school, jobs, etc...some people are just better. That doesn't mean you can't learn the values of winning and losing and trying harder after failure regardless of this natural inequality of the evil evil world.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 2, 2010 -> 12:41 PM) So, then my question in reply would be...if you're in charge of a league where one or two teams have been running rampant and blowing everyone out and running up the score, to the point that half the players on your team don't want to even show up because it's no fun to face off against the team that has Bryce Harper at catcher, what do you do? Do you sit by and let half the league's players quit because no one wants to put up with that any more and no one is having any fun, or do you try to come up with a rule that makes things more workable? I come up with a rule that doesn't allow a team of black belts to compete against white belts.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 2, 2010 -> 12:21 PM) So...the only lesson that matters is win at all costs, and sportsmanship should be laughed off as an antiquated useless idea? At *all* costs? Err, not quite. This is akin to being Muslim and being a radical Muslim. There is a difference, so saying at "all" costs is what I'd consider extreme. But there is a happy medium when it comes to winning and doing it right.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 2, 2010 -> 11:38 AM) You get punched in the mouth, you come back stronger and more prepared the next go around. Every team that loses those games gains something in the process. To be great, you have to fall down first, you have to be embarassed, you have to suffer a huge hit on your pride. Anyone who has played a sport as a kid has experienced that. You feel like crap afterwards and you tell yourself that it's not going to happen again. The mercy rule in baseball has more to do with efficiency than anything else (at least in my little league it did). When a team can't get off the field the whole schedule for the day gets out of whack. And if Glenn Beck (or whoever) says this type of thinking will lead to our country's demise, I would agree with him. We're becoming a bunch of softies who are afraid to offend/disrespect/put any sort of negativity on anything. People like this have no backbone or thick skin to deal with anything anymore, and that's a horrible lesson to teach a teen. Then they'll complain when a foreign student comes here and takes their job -- legitimately, not illegally, mind you -- because unlike the future we are building here, they still understand why you have to be fiercely competitive in this world. "The entire class was getting F's, and I found it too easy -- so I stopped at a B, because getting an A might make them all feel bad..." Meanwhile the foreign student got an A++ and didn't care what the rest of their class did or didn't do. I know this is directly related to sports, but these lessons of winning and losing go beyond sports.

I don't care what they spend money on, so long as they spend it and continue to spend it. I wouldn't support the product any other way. No way I'd support the Sox if they were content being losers and spending 50M a year when the league average was over 75M (and I don't know what it is), regardless of where I grew up or how long I've been a fan. Whether this is wasting money or not, at least they're trying. And I don't care about them building for the future...who knows if I or any of us will even be here in the future. Hell, I don't care if they're the worst team in the league if they find a way to do it in an entertaining way.

Aside from opening day, this has not been a fun season...at all. Thank goodness for the Hawks.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 2, 2010 -> 08:58 AM) As long as he saves the extra $.03/gallon.

Rios absolutely deserves this. He's done everything right to turn his game around, and it's paying off for him, despite the fact that he already had a fat contract whether he performed or not. It's been a great turnaround, and I'm happy to have him...we finally have a dominating center fielder we've been searching for all these years...too bad the rest of the team fell apart around him.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 2, 2010 -> 08:51 AM) I don't believe what I'm going to write but it's time for someone to play Devil's advocate here. Go watch a 59-0 NCAA football game. And I mean really sit there and watch it. There's plenty of them every year. How does the side going down feel on that one? How much of a difference do those last 20 points make to the bottom line? How can anyone possibly argue that games like that are a positive for anyone. Horrible sportsmanship, basically you're taunting the other team. Or, go to baseball. Ever play in a game with a 10 run mercy rule? I know I have. By the time it's 17-0 in the first inning, do you really want to keep playing so that one side can run up the score or do you want to quit and go drink a beer and swear at those guys for being such crappy sports? That's part of what I'm talking about. Learning to win or lose with grace and class. Obviously these 59-0 NCAA football coaches/players have none. But removing scores from the game isn't going to fix that issue.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 2, 2010 -> 08:50 AM) At the 4 to 5 year old end it works because most of the kids don't even know how to play the game. After that, it is worthless. Yea, when they're that young it doesn't matter because they don't know the game, the rules, or what they're even doing. Keeping score at that age is pointless because they don't even know what they're playing yet. But after they do know what they're playing, it's modern lunacy.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 1, 2010 -> 09:52 PM) As expected, the moment there's any possible liability for destroying the livelihood of millions of people, you're immediately providing the defense. I also note that you didn't mention wall street as unpunished. Again, unsurprising. So you honestly think that Kap enjoys watching millions of people get their livelihoods destroyed while the people who do it get off free? I mean...really?

I've been against this no winners/losers movement since it's inception -- because as that kid said, it's dumb and stupid. The fact is, there are and always will be winners and losers, and learning how to do both properly as a child is of pivotal importance in growing as a man or woman. These are lessons we are robbing modern children of when winning and losing is removed from the equation. Such as being gracious. Such as learning to get up when you've fallen and try again, to try harder, and to reaffirm yourself. I've long felt that learning to live in this world begins at a very young age, and every time we try something like this to protect our children, the reality is that parents are only trying to protect themselves. Parents can't handle watching their children fail and cry because of it...it's easier to not keep score and tell them the world is inlaid with gold and everything's going to be all right and it's just about having fun, not learning anything valuable. This has never been about the kids...it's about weak modern parenting. I never knew it as a kid, but when it came to winning and losing, something was being instilled in me that would make all the difference in the world in competing in this world as an adult. It's sad that some people choose to rob their children of this because it's easier in the short term.

Higher taxes won't solve this problem, either. They'd have to take that added tax money and actually spend it on infrastructure and not their friends, families, and contributers, which won't be happening anytime soon, no matter what the tax rate is. Oh, it also won't matter who's in office, Democrat or Republican, you aren't seeing that money used as it should be...because we don't do things that way. Besides, roads and bridges are all being repaired by the Obama bailouts...I saw it when driving down south on my last camping trip...the only problem is I see these same roads getting repaired every year, whether it's with bailout funds or not. The sooner all of you stop blaming one party or the other, the sooner you'll realize that neither of those parties are on your side, whether you vote for them or not. They're on their own side, a side you aren't a part of, and never will be.

QUOTE (Tex @ May 28, 2010 -> 01:03 PM) I think we need to be very careful before reaching the point where we all have to carry ID papers with us at all times. That is the logical sequence of events and the slippery slope we are venturing out on. I tolerate the interior checkpoint when I head north from my house, but that is one location. I don't think the rest of America wants roadblocks and citizen checks. Then the people breaking the laws need to stop...otherwise it's going to happen one way or another. Nobody wants this, but it appears to be inevitable since we can't seem to figure out a way to keep illegals out of our country and then supporting them in many ways when they do come here. They not only harm Americans, but they harm those who do things the right way in trying to get here, as would be expected of a common criminal. Then, if/when they do something real bad, they just leave and whoever had said bad thing done to them gets nothing but loss. One way - Everyone carries papers/proof of citizenship. I figure this is coming anyway, so we may as well just get a head start on the technologies that'll be used for this. Another - Illegals continue to pour into the nation and bankrupt the country in which they have no stake in, move on like insects leaving the scraps behind to those of us who DO have a stake here, who pay taxes here, etc. No matter what is done about this situation, big brother state is coming, hell, it doesn't even matter if you completely remove all illegals from the equation -- the barcode/personal identification (retinal, hand print, dna scan, etc.) is coming here either way. I'm hoping to not see this in my lifetime, but I wouldn't bet on that...we are closer and closer to a completely cashless society than ever before.

Turning this into an American political argument for government regulation or for power to business is ridiculous. When you dig through all the reasons (and I will cite some below), what it comes to is human rights in China...and they have none. This has everything to do with the way the Chinese do things, the way their governments do things, and the lack of rights of their people and what they have to do to survive in such conditions. There is give and take in everything, and that includes the fact that they're willing to take these jobs. As Americans we want our computers, iPhones, Androids, TV's, etc...and we want them as cheap yet as high quality as possible. And it's unfair of me to say "Americans" in regard to this because any non 3rd world nation benefits from these cheaper prices, including the Eurozone, Canada, etc...so it's not just an American thing helping cause this. Take that 2,000$ plasma television and make it here instead...whoops, now it's a 5,000$ television. No thank you, Sony is selling that same technology for 60% less! While this sucks, and is bad, as someone said above, it's like pissing into the wind. Why? Because if it weren't for such sweat shop jobs, these people would have no jobs, and would simply starve to death (such as many are), or turn to child prostitution (which is big there) because their government wouldn't jump to help them. Next up in this -- India. But hey, it's ok...they own 850Billion of American debt and their economy is growing at a pace never before seen!@$#@!

QUOTE (Tex @ May 27, 2010 -> 03:16 PM) Oops, I was too quick http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100526/wl_time/08599199162000 Sounds like suicide to me. Using Apple in the title is misleading, and the original article using it is equally misleading, as HP, Dell, Sony and many others also use Foxxcon.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 26, 2010 -> 03:13 PM) Frankly, at this point, yes. Um, no. Not at all.

Bobby Thigpen gave me a heart attack out there today...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 26, 2010 -> 12:15 PM) So, from now on, you both will agree with me 100% of the time that pro-oil company policies are entirely driven by who gets the most money from them, and we shouldn't be voting for the people the oil companies support after this disaster? Great, I'll be thrilled to see you both voting Democrat this fall. John McCain ® $2,402,937 Barack Obama (D) $898,251 Or, does campaign funding only influence Democrats? Since republicans are pro-oil, it would make sense for them to get such contributions. People like Obama, who claim to hate big oil, yet take money from them on the other hand... You have to keep that in mind...you may disagree with McCain for taking oil money in an industry he believes in, but it's worse that Obama is a hypocrite in that he claims to dislike big oil, yet they're money is a-ok with him.

This sucks. :/

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 26, 2010 -> 10:10 AM) Someone called you crazy? I don't remember that. I have to admit that I didn't think the Euro would get hit THIS hard (or that the debt crisis would work in quite this way), but the inherent weakness was clear. I tried to find the post where I said a EU crash was inbound -- I couldn't...but I recall people asking me why I would say something so absurd. The problem with the EU from the start was that there was no way this could survive forever. They have no enforceable monetary policy and a number of nations using that as their base currency, which could, in effect allow one members carelessness to completely alter the value of the currency, which is what's happening. 50 separate governments (example) using the US dollar and while 45 of them are fiscally responsible, the other 5 can and will have a negative effect on it's value just by overspending and setting bond rates to lower/higher, etc...without one controlling body, if one guy messes up, it falls on everyone else (uninvolved in their affairs) to bail them out, even if they can't actually bail them out. What we have here now is Greece asking for a bailout (amongst others) -- so now German citizens (or whoever helps bail them out) get to bail out a country that funds age 40 (or something absurd) retirement packages. Not for nothing, but there are people performing the SAME jobs in Germany until 60 years old, and now they get to fund/bail out a country that allows their citizens performing the same exact job to retire with pension/medical/etc at 40. I'm sure that'll work long term!

I don't think it's valid to compare Katrina and this. Though both are disasters, one of them was an "act of God", and the other was something we allowed a company to do, only out of what appears to be ineptitude or carelessness, they didn't follow proper safety procedure and this occurred. Blaming republicans or democrats in this case is just stupid. This is BP's fault, or whoever BP hired to drill and maintain this rig. One of the underlying factors/risks of doing such drilling all falls on BP, IMO, since they're the ones that reap the rewards out of said risks. Also of side note, those of you who rated me as a 1 star out of 5 stars poster , this is something I just noticed in my profile!

QUOTE (SouthsideDon48 @ May 26, 2010 -> 10:05 AM) I would really worry about leaving electronics in a hot trunk for days like that, that might do more harm than good. :-/ One of my friends had a similar situation, where he had a camera but had to find a way to store the footage so he can clear up space in the camera so he can film more. What he ended up doing is something you sound like you don't want to do: he lugged his laptop around (well, left it at the hotel) and transferred the data from the computer onto his laptop. :-/ I'm not technology-savvy, but it sounds like it would be a lot easier if you just had one of those cell phones with a camera and internet access so you can send the files from your cell phone to whatever file storage site that allows you to upload mobilly. :-/ Unless it's turned on, and in direct sunlight/heat, it won't do anything. Computers can operate at pretty insane temperatures these days.