jackie hayes

QUOTE(Steff @ Jun 1, 2006 -> 04:20 PM) Last year the cap was $97K, the year before $94K... It's indexed to the CPI, so it's only being changed in nominal terms, not real dollars.

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Jun 1, 2006 -> 04:16 PM) So the government is gonna blindly make decisions on the subject or will they just not make public the studies done? The CBO is a good government study. Maybe not exhaustive, but good and unbiased. Just ignore all the thinktanks and use the link Balta put up.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 1, 2006 -> 03:36 PM) There is a benefits floor, which means it gets to the point where no matter how much less you earn, you can't get any less in return. Yeah, but very few recipients get the minimum. Plus, it's REALLY minimum. Living in poverty minimum. Immigration will not crush SS, the numbers aren't there.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 1, 2006 -> 03:30 PM) I can definately agree on the last part. Preemptive health care is a big part of life expectancy, and it just isn't there for poor people anywhere in the world. As for the first part, I totally forgot about the caps, which in this case actually makes the situation more dire. Because the rich are limited to how much they can pay, unlike income tax, that means it take more high wage earners to offset additional poor entrants. While it does lower the average (for lack of a better term) the make or break number, it also still means that the people we are talking about adding to the system for the most part are going to be under this number, as we are talking about a group that is largely illiterate and working at very low paying menial jobs. So in reality the system only grows if the people putting in more than they take out grows faster than the people who are taking out more than they would pay in. Eventually the payouts would have to be lower, SSI taxes would have to be increased, or a combination of both to keep up with new enrollees. Also remember that benefits are indexed by earnings, so low-earnings people would not require as much as high-earnings people.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jun 1, 2006 -> 02:53 PM) I think you're right, although the CBO gobbledygook is some of the worst I've read in a long time at making that clear. Their marginal tax rate may be negative, but they're still paying out into Social Security and Medicare, along with state taxes, so they'd still likely be paying out somewhere around 5-10% of their income depending on the state rates. I'm pretty sure that's the average rate, not the marginal rate.

I didn't realize Webb had so many ip. One more point. He's just been unreal. 7 more ip, 5 more k tonight.

In the thread about the Miller "Man Laws" commercials -- QUOTE(Kalapse @ May 23, 2006 -> 12:40 AM) Yeah seeing that same damn "you poke it, you own it" commercial over and over againg during Sox games isn't annoying at all. If I see that f***ing commercial again I will throat punch Burt Reynolds. QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ May 23, 2006 -> 09:05 AM) I thought "you poke it, you own it" was already the man-law mantra descrbing the negative consequences of an ill-advised sexual hookup.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ May 31, 2006 -> 02:30 PM) Good questions. The short news story obviously is sketchy on a lot of details. And unfortunately there is no reference to a more complete communication in a refereed scientific journal. But the story's claim that the cave was completely isolated from the outside system is most certainly an overstatement. There is no indication that this is an chemotrophic system, so there have to be connections linking the cave system to external primary production. If the mysterious scorpion-like animals are similar in habit to most scorpions, they are ambush predators that are feeding on a prey base that is in turn grazing on something else. It's not a closed system from a trophic standpoint. There also seem to be some so-far flimsy arguments suggesting [at least teh way the news story presents it] that the animals found are there as a result of prolonged reproductive isolation and resulting allopatric speciation events within the cave. The likelihood that that is actually the case is vanishingly small. Much, much, much more likely, the cave system represents a suite of relict populations whose members were all much more widespread in the geologic past but apparently only survived to the present in this isolated and ecologically accomodating cave system. Lol, if you seriously believe that a periphronastic cistern does not have the ameliorative ability to regulate funicular vegetation, then you really are a bimbo. And a semihydrogenous one, at that. All this scienceporn makes me so jealous.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ May 26, 2006 -> 06:47 PM) Guaranteed loss. For s***s and giggles? Or is he doing this until Cora returns?

Usual course of a thread: Small item on BMac's arm angle balloons into raging discussion of Sox farm system and Rule 5 pickups, eventually resolving into a bitter 10-page flame war about Mike Caruso. Now: Small item on BMac's arm angle gets placed here, and everyone takes it in the proper perspective, as a minor bit that we'll forget in an hour. Conclusion: PHT is doomed.

I say this thread should be moved to the Filibuster immediately, since that's where all threads discussing the failure of American education and social promotion end up.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ May 25, 2006 -> 02:33 PM) Hmm, who takes his place on the beat? I know, I know, Bruce Levine! Nah, Levine would just give them bad trade rumors. They're gonna get someone who gives them the angle they're looking for in a column, and they're looking for a rah rah kind of guy. Or should I say a woo woo kind of guy? Eh? I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

Could be. I would think a writer would just zip up and refuse to say anything about it, instead of participating in his own demise, but that's just a guess. I hope the celebrity is Lee Elia...

I doubt that. Why would he write about it, and mention returning in "a few weeks", if he were really being s***canned?

Watching the Braves game, cuz it's on TBS, and I haven't had enough baseball today, since I've really, truly had enough of Yanks-Sawks (take note, ESPN)....Reitsma is 'rebuilding his confidence', acc to Braves announcers. Let's all have a good cry for Chris Reitsma and his s***ty, inaccurate arm. Sorry, I'm just really sick of psychologizing baseball. Unless you're seriously f***ed up (Mr Knoblauch? Hi...) I don't want to hear about your confidence, your state of mind, your composure, your joie de vivre, or any other goddam thing you're thinking about. Just pass the peanuts and please shut up.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ May 25, 2006 -> 12:18 AM) You're god damn welcome. ^^^^^^^ Ya, f*** you too, Heads.

Well, it got our attention, didn't it?

Agreed, the baseball draft is such a crapshoot -- unless everyone is clamoring for a no-brainer draftee, and you reach for someone who looks like a 3rd rounder, it's hard to put much blame on a team. Except with Donald Lucy... You just think, Pujols in the 13th round, goddam.

QUOTE(Queen Prawn @ May 22, 2006 -> 09:37 PM) I had forgotten how entertaining these threads can be. Uh, QP, you really aren't allowed in here. Sorry -- I thought Keith Hernandez had told you something.

QUOTE(ShoeLessRob @ May 22, 2006 -> 09:32 PM) How many more seasons till he hits 500 if he stays healthy? Apparently, that depends. Will he be playing in the Central?

QUOTE(fathom @ May 22, 2006 -> 09:31 PM) Well, kudos to not repsonding to it. (Snicker.)

Frank's trying to get to 500 by the end of this series.

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ May 22, 2006 -> 09:02 PM) Bring out the choke avatars... Naw, you got it backwards. Chokes come much later. Tonight Judy'll be out in force.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ May 22, 2006 -> 08:41 PM) So, how many baserunners are gonna be on for Brian's home run this inning? 3. For the second homer. Only 2 for the first.

QUOTE(qwerty @ May 22, 2006 -> 08:28 PM) Entire off-season people would just b**** when someone said garland would revert... ooops. Reversion would mean he's no better than a couple years ago, not much worse. Eh, I don't expect a 3.5 era, but I still think he'll recover to something like a 4.5 for the season.