Jake

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 8, 2015 -> 11:39 AM) It's more like a reverse parole system, they can extend the sentence indefinitely Is it basically just reversing the burden of proof? Assume the person is rehabilitated unless the state can prove differently?

I actually wonder if we as a country may end up electing, ever so incrementally, to get rid of the death penalty. A lot more states have been doing away with it or de facto banning it by never using it.

QUOTE (LDF @ Aug 7, 2015 -> 04:16 PM) find it, b/c a lot of time the victims gets really embarrass on this and drops the charges. More often they don't speak up at all because they fear the repercussions, reliving the trauma with the police/courts, and many times feel so ashamed that they spend time believing that it was all their own fault

Also worth noting that the most influential gun advocates dislike most forms of control over who can buy and carry and under what conditions. I have fairly little confidence that a person concealed carrying is competent at anything beyond not accidentally shooting themselves when they holster their weapon before going out in the morning. It's not exactly easy to just sit in a day-long class and walk away with a cool head under pressure and sure aim in a volatile situation.

I think Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace's are FOX's best talent and they did a pretty good job. Only clunker of a question was the "word from God" bit, which Kelly clearly thought was stupid as well as she laughed her way through it and started tacking on extra topics as she went on.

QUOTE (beautox @ Aug 7, 2015 -> 12:56 AM) grantland did a nice piece a while ago about their core here they've got 57M coming off the books going into next year so it'll be intresting to see where all that money gets alocated. As someone rooting against the Cubs, there's nothing better than giving Theo Epstein money with the expectation that he spends it in large chunks on free agents

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 7, 2015 -> 02:06 PM) Huh? I was talking about the impending legal case. WIth alcohol and little to no physical evidence the cases almost always get thrown out. There are lots of jurisdictions where a drunk victim is itself sufficient evidence. If the victim is past some threshold of drunkenness (some places it is 0.08, others a fuzzier standard, others there is no consideration given), the sexual aggressor whether drunk him or herself or not is held accountable for having sex with someone who cannot provide consent. You would presumably still have to convince a court that victim was not the one initiating the encounter, though. According to this website, it would seem that would not apply in New York as alcohol could facilitate date rape there but apparently only if alcohol was provided w/o consent (unclear how you'd go about doing that).

I always figured Soto was a steroid guy with his strange statistical fluctuations and quick dropoff of productivity

The reason I take interest in some of these guys being bad with their personal finances is because they are the same people who pretend that managing a state/federal budget is exactly like a household one, which is of course used as justification for never accepting a budget deficit. I have no philosophical problem with a presidential candidate having some level of debt, but I do notice and care about doublespeak.

I'm going to wait for the facts to come out to the extent they can, but I'll let it be said right away that I'm not about to contort myself so I can tell myself favorite team's star didn't commit a crime if that's what the record ultimately suggests

For the record, blowing a 5 run lead over the course of 9 innings isn't the same as what usually happens when you blow a 5 run lead

Good job by Avi there. Having good at-bats (regardless of outcome) is not something he does often. With how much he has been struggling, he had to really feel the heat in that AB considering the two IBB in front of him. I figured he'd be ultra-aggressive trying to end the thing but he had a good smart at bat where he laid off a couple of close pitches.

This team has a lot of good pieces that are all relatively young and under team control. Nothing is promised, but you don't need to intentionally lose to get where you need to go. It is worrisome that our front office has had a really hard time giving out free agent contracts that don't look terrible in retrospect because you're going to have to bring in veterans that don't fall on their face to ultimately put things together. 2005, for example, was all about adding a bunch of solid players on market level contracts to a core that was already pretty good (particularly the starting rotation and a couple of hitters). If we can't at least start signing players who just meet expectations, we're in trouble. With that said, we need to fit Alexei and Abreu into the equation of evaluating this front office somewhere. These are either essentially amateur players we've turned into integral assets (eliminating the "Beckham is the last position prospect to pan out" argument) or they are free agent signings that have gone fabulously well. You can choose which way to think about it, but you can't pretend they don't count.

Scott Walker seems to do pretty well with Republicans of various stripes, both the far-right and the more typical ones. With that said, he is not at home in situations like a debate where he has to ad lib responses to things. I could see him blowing up in popularity as time goes on or really flopping and falling by the wayside.

I emphatically support Bernie Sanders. He is an imperfect candidate insofar as one might worry about "electability" and such, but he's clearly not on the same kind of fringe level of support that guys like Ron Paul had IMO. I don't hate Hillary and I would almost certainly vote for her in the general if it shakes out that way, but she's not my ideal candidate to be sure. I would of course be a big fan of Elizabeth Warren, but she won't be running.

The taxation as theft argument is all well and good, but pretty much nullifies any and all functions of the government.

Relievers are notoriously fickle and you aren't paying him that much. Get him out of these situations for now, see if he pitches better, put him back into high leverage spots when/if he pitches better.

I don't like to hang out in game threads and complain about every last thing, but Zach Duke is literally the worst player on the team. I do not say that to exaggerate. Please quit using him in situations like these.

NFL is not a big priority to me, but there's nothing I care less about than college football. The bowl system in particular kills my enthusiasm for it, but in general I just don't get that excited to watch a bunch of not-the-best-players-in-the-world play

Cubs and Astros haven't done anything yet except have an alright half-season. Twins haven't done anything at all unless you're talking about something that happened a long time ago. Royals missed the playoffs for a quarter century. Do you want that?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 2, 2015 -> 10:57 PM) Forgive me. Didn't understand the joke. I can be slow. There was all kinds of speculation about whether she was lying about having sustained a concussion during some Benghazi hearings. First it was all about her faking it and later it was about her being permanently brain damaged and therefore being unfit for office.

QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Aug 4, 2015 -> 05:26 PM) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/06/c..._n_7738724.html Proof of that in practice in Colorado... Edit: The funding for this program was cut... go figure. For those who don't like to read the links, that is a 40% reduction in births among teens and a 42% reduction in abortions among teens in just 4 years(!!!), largely attributed to a program that provided IUDs free to women. The reductions were nearly identical for another key demographic, single women under 25 who have not finished high school. It's truly astounding how large of a drop that is at comparatively little expense. The Obama administration recently told insurance companies that IUDs must also be provided free under the ACA, not just cheaper, oral options.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 4, 2015 -> 05:25 PM) They are potential lives. That being said the part I dont get about the Republican anti-abortion sentiment is the cost of abortion is far less than the cost of supporting someone for 18 years. Potentially 300k+ mouths to feed each year would be a significant burden on social services which would mean higher taxes just to keep similar services. At the end of the day abortion is a personal decision and no one seems to be stepping up and saying "Ill pay for those 300k+ potential lives each year" and that is not even counting all of the medical bills that go into having a child. I think a good first step is providing birth control for free. Well those who are anti-abortion are probably not fond of placing a dollar value on what they feel is a human life every bit as viable and important as yours or mine. And that is also of course why most don't feel that it's just a personal decision.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 4, 2015 -> 05:16 PM) It makes me sick to see how high that abortion number is. Someone might go, well our population is huge so relative, but man, that is 327,000 lives. Okay...I am probably assuming high since some won't end up going full term and miscarriage, but even then, you are talking about 300,000 lives. I won't force the hand of other people and what they should do, I just wish 327,000 people weren't in a position that they were doing that. And lets be honest...number probably isn't 327,000 as I'd presume their are some repeaters on that list (sadly). I don't really see it that way, but I included it because I knew that number would be important to those who do. I'm not sure, for the record, if that number is indicative only of completed procedures or if it would include consultations or what. I doubt they'd report it in a way that inflates the number, but I don't know for sure. For the safety of those involved and for clearer moral decisionmaking, I'd love to see the number go down (but only as a result of fewer unwanted pregnancies). As StrangeSox mentioned, Planned Parenthood spends a great deal of resources on sex education and that is no small part of the organization's societal value.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Aug 4, 2015 -> 04:49 PM) So what do they do there that can't be done elsewhere thanks to Obamacare? And I like the way you counted the STD tests at the top. So if they run a test for several of the most common STDs, does that count as 7 services? One test, one count. Basically, every time you visit PP counts as 1 for the most part. If one service required multiple visits that would just count as one. It does appear that HIV tests are done separately and are not part of the standard battery of STD/STI tests, probably due to cost. They served between 3 and 4 million people, so on average people don't come just once. ACA should reduce the need for places like PP and they have never provided one-of-a-kind services (other than the price factor). PP provides value beyond just that there are services performed there that might be available at a doctor's office and maybe at similar expense. If you want to get tested for STD or pregnancy or need birth control (especially Plan B) in short order, you can rest assured that you can go to PP and get it taken care of without a ton of paperwork and waiting. Planned Parenthood is almost everywhere, tries to locate in high-need areas, and has the benefit of name recognition and reaching out specifically to people who wouldn't be likely to know how to get these services without being told about it.