Jake

Phegley's 8th passed ball of the season tonight. Can't believe he's still having these problems. Cannot be a MLB catcher with the passed ball rate he sports every season

Several scholars have been arguing for years that the USA and Iran have very good reason to be allies with one another, due in large part to their mutually strong interest in Iraq's stability

We don't want to be the Heat because we don't have LeBron. One non-LeBron superstar and no bench/depth does not a great team make

I think the larger point is that we don't want to be the Heat. We can see that the best way to build a team is to have good players outside your mega-salary players

At least before he had TJ surgery, Surkamp's stuff was frequently compared to a young Barry Zito. He is and has always been a better prospect than Axelrod. The season before having TJ, this is what he did in AA: 2.02 ERA, 142 IP (22 starts), 165 K, 44 BB, 10-4 W-L. He won the pitching triple crown in his league. The fact that he has the same K/9 this year (10.4) and an even lower BB/9 (2.2) is encouraging. We'll have to see if the spike in hits allowed is flukey or not.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jun 16, 2014 -> 09:08 AM) It happens a lot in very rural areas where FedEx and UPS don't want to spend the time to deliver to. Since USPS is going there anyway... When I lived in Memphis, FedEx didn't deliver to my place as they gave it to USPS. Makes me chuckle as it was their world headquarters.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jun 15, 2014 -> 12:39 AM) For many people gun owner ship equals safety. You can't discount that, despite the many times anti gunners try to. People DO use guns to protect themselves and their families. All the time. As for a few of the other things you mentioned, I am sure many people would think twice about the license plate scanning and all the camera if they were given a choice. Many times those things were implemented without public knowledge until AFTER the fact. You're right, I shouldn't discount the fact that people sometimes feel more protected by the availability of guns. That's part of the debate. More than just freedom, society has to decide whether the utility of gun ownership justifies their availability. The NRA has tried that with the "good guy with a gun" messaging. QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jun 16, 2014 -> 04:02 PM) Some states have that, at least for concealed carry. You have to pass a test in Illinois. There are several states that are more strict and some that have no restrictions whatsoever. One thing you will never overcome is the slippery slope argument, give them an inch, they take a mile. Because you know they will. Temporary income tax hike? Sure it is. Seat belt laws will NEVER be enforced on their own. Border security after amnesty? Yeah, ok, let's go with that...And on and on. What do you base the proficiency tests on? Police training? Harder? Easier? Who gets to decide? here is what you need just to apply in Illinois: A Valid Driver’s License or State Identification card. A valid FOID card. A head and shoulder electronic photograph taken within the last 30 days. Be able to provide the last ten years of residency. Fingerprints – Electronic fingerprints will expedite your application! Specify to the Live Scan vendor that your fingerprint application is for the Concealed Carry application (ORI = IL920707Z, Purpose Code = CCW).NOTE: Applicants will be assigned a transaction control number (TCN) at the time of fingerprinting and will be required to retain that TCN to complete the application. $150.00 payable with a credit card or electronic check. To obtain the Certificate of Completion, applicants MUST attend their required level of training and successfully pass the live fire proficiency exam. The live fire proficiency exam consists of 30 rounds total with a concealable handgun. 10 rounds at 10 yards, 10 rounds at 7 yards and 10 rounds at 5 yards with 70% of the shots hitting the scoring rings of the B27 target. Is that enough for you? If not, what would you consider to be correct? Serious question, not snark. I don't see why not make that the requirement for gun ownership. At least make the proficiency exam as difficult as getting a driver's license.

Carbonell didn't seem interesting at all, but I would have thrown a million at him.

You guys should do some kind of post that gives a glimpse as to how ST is run. What finances it, who is involved in the technical side, who hosts the site, things like that. And if it is needed, I bet that sort of thing could help you get donations.

We do realize that The Daily Mail is basically what you would get if you let Fox News and the National Enquirer have sex, right?

Well this was fun. Let's start the Duncan/Pop/Manu retirement speculation!

This is some of the best basketball I've seen a very long time

Spurs look ready to win again

Add a zero-contact call to make a three-point play for LBJ

Well there has been one foul called on Kawhi guarding LeBron that was complete BS and one non-call on a LeBron foul on Duncan

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jun 12, 2014 -> 11:01 AM) So here is my rant. Do people not realize that in a free society bad things are going to happen? That the whole entire point of freedom is giving people the choice to make good or bad decisions. That is what being part of a free country is. So even if I think I am right, that I have the best answers, everyone else in America is free to disagree. I hate f***ing defeatists and their mindless followers. You're fixated on what political theorists call "negative liberties." Negative liberties are the types of things where we seek to be free of outside interference. Freedom of speech is considered a negative liberty because it is a natural right to not be prevented from speech. Some feel the same way about property rights, too, for instance (some think property rights are the only natural right and that all others derive from it). Positive liberties are ones that you lack if you lack the societal structures or personal agency to carry them out. For instance, in 1900, women had the negative liberty to free speech. However, they had no real liberty to speech because they were structurally discriminated against and lacked the agency to make their voices heard publicly. In most discussions of women's rights at the time, people would stress those negative rights; hey, they have the right! Their husbands take their opinion into account when they vote! You can never promise all of the rights, positive or negative. But we do have to consider both. At some point we have to ask, "at what does our right to own guns infringe upon our other rights too much?" You can just say "we have the right to own guns and we have the right to do this, that, and the other thing" but at some point, the 300 million guns around this country might start to interfere with our ability to do this, that, and the other thing. When you know that the lived experience of some of our rights are going to be different from our expectation, compromises must be made. How dear do we hold gun ownership in comparison to other things, like safety? You can see how much we sacrifice other rights, like privacy, in cities ransacked by gun violence. Surveillance cameras on every corner? Photographing every license plate that comes into town? Stop and frisk? These aren't necessary measures if the guns aren't there. But we chose guns.

Sox lineup: Eaton 8 Beckham 4 Abreu 3 Viciedo 7 Ramirez 6 Konerko DH Sierra 9 Flowers 2 Garcia 5 No KC lineup on twitter just yet. Screw them anyway. Get a win today, boys!

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jun 14, 2014 -> 11:23 AM) I do this now, on my desktops I've always liked windowing everything, I only like full screen on smaller devices where space is a premium. When I do go 4k, it will be that much nicer (next computer upgrade), which is every 3-4 years or so. I had to sell my desktop with QHD when I moved and I'm currently using a mid-range laptop with 1376 x 768 resolution. It was a rough transition.

Why in the hell did the Marlins call up a guy with 38 BB in 25 IP in AAA?

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jun 14, 2014 -> 07:52 AM) As a previous poster said, they give you more screen real estate (which instantly gives them a real world use case), and the sharpness will be there if you look at a close enough range, but studies have shown that an unaided human eye cannot see above 300dpi unless they're holding the screen closer than it was designed to be held. At normal use distance, MOST people wouldn't be able to differentiate anything above 300dpi, that being said, there are people with better vision than others, but for the average person, the dpi's modern devices use are already higher than we can distinguish. My eyes are no longer good enough to see a difference without having to TRY to see it (ie, holding it closer than I would if using it, etc.) I wouldn't mind a desktop with 4k though, because then I can have a billion windows open in their own space on my screen all at once. Yes. I love having a billion windows open

So the Cubs got a reliever who walks 4.2/9, Mike Olt, and an A-baller with a bad shoulder and they "won" the trade? I'd say they need more time to declare that

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jun 13, 2014 -> 01:31 PM) Cell phones have been like this for a while now -- we also can't see the 400+dpi range they use now on 1080p screens, but people don't seem to care. Any screen below 50" that's 1080p is a waste. I will say that for a while I used a computer monitor that was 27", QHD and it was totally worth it. It increases your usable screen real estate, basically. You can have more properly rendered "stuff" on the same screen. Doesn't really apply to cell phones though

The Spurs aren't necessarily the more talented team but I'd say their overall talent level is generally underrated. MIA has the two best players though and you don't often see teams with two players better than all the other team's players lose.

The notion of a 4K screen on a cell phone pisses me off and I perceive it to be a virtual slap to my face. WE CAN'T SEE THE DIFFERENCE. We will feel the difference in battery life, though. What a waste.

QUOTE (MexSoxFan#1 @ Jun 12, 2014 -> 09:54 PM) Classy Heat fans booing It's okay, they'll all be saying they are Spurs fans soon