Balta1701

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Feb 8, 2006 -> 07:21 AM) I heard this on Democracy Now this morning and was quite pleased. This was the BushCo hack appointment story in microcosm. How many decades of extertise in the intelligence, natuonal secirity, defense, and science fields have been lost as career staffers have been ousted in favor of hacks whose only job qualification is unlimited and unquestioned support of BushCo policy? I don't think any of those staffing changes compares to the job we did in sending folks right out of the College Republicans and Heritage foundation to go and orchestrate the rebuilding of Iraq.

Why is it I get the feeling Sosa could use the money?

QUOTE(whitesox1976 @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 10:28 PM) That made my month! Pitchers and catchers and Thome reporting will do that for me.

QUOTE(Punch and Judy Garland @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 10:47 PM) Yeah I can't see them moving. It'd be even more bad PR for MLB and I think there is no real solid alternative as Vegas is years away from ebing big league ready I think Montreal and San Juan have nice stadia.

QUOTE(WilliamTell @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 10:29 PM) Yeah I saw the stat before they've lost their last 2. They'll still get into the upper 60's in wins. That depends a lot on what San Antonio/Phoenix/Dallas wind up doing. If Dirk/Nash/Duncan go down for while, there'd be little reason for them to slam on the accelerator at the end of the season when they could give people a week or two of limited playing time, extra rest, and Darko. I mean, you'd have to feel pretty damn stupid if you wrapped up home court advantage and then a few games later one of them 5 starters comes down with a nagging injury like Shaq had in the playoffs last year.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 09:56 PM) House Republican Who Oversees N.S.A. Calls for Wiretap Inquiry http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/politics..._r=1&oref=login Conveniently, just today, a new poll came out in that district showing that the re-election race for the fall currently is a statistical dead heat, 44-43 versus the Democratic challenger. Linky.

The independent newspaper "The New York Press" just had its entire editorial staff quit after the paper refused to publish some of those comics.

The Administration hackjob who was forcing NASA to add the word "theory" to any paper referring to the big bang and who seemingly lied about graduating from Texas A & M Has resigned. I'd have posted this in that thread...but some mean person closed it for no obvious reason.

Washington Post, tomorrow. Here's the question...if the guy from the WaPo who wrote that piece were to read it out loud...would he do air quotes on the word "rents"?

QUOTE(WilliamTell @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 10:14 PM) I haven't been paying much attention to the Pistons record, I didn't know they were up to 8 losses. They've now lost 2 games in every single month this year. 2 in Nov., Dec, Jan., and now Feb. Difference is, they've only played 4 games in Feb., while they were averaging like 14 games in each of the other months.

QUOTE(samclemens @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 09:18 PM) bush cant run anymore. who is left to compete? thats what i thought! Um, there are plenty of people in basically the same place where Bush was in 1998. The smart money right now in insider circles seems to be on former Virginia Governor George Allen, depending on who all actually winds up in the race.

QUOTE(samclemens @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 06:04 PM) and what is your problem anyway, picking out the 17th person to say what a joke that funeral was for a debate. Only 1 person I saw thus far in this thread had the gall to say "If I was a member of the King family". That's why you caught my attention.

I spent several weeks getting ready for it as much as I possibly could...like sitting around every night spending a coupel hours with those flash cards, doing at least 5-10 practice tests, etc. But then again, I was hoping to wind up getting into MIT or Caltech, so my requirements were probably a little more stringent than yours. And I'm no Rocket Scientist...I'm a rock scientist.

QUOTE(samclemens @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 05:43 PM) put yourself in their shoes. if you had a family relative die, how would you feel if the funeral was turned into a stage for politics(for example, that comment on WMD's by that old reverand; absolutely shameless and unrelated to the funeral)? you apparently would be OK with your realtive's funeral being turned into a mockery. i would not. and i dont need to say after every post that it's just my opinion- that goes without saying for what anyone says on this board unless they link some article or facts with their post. but you're right, i must be as ignorant as you imply, since i dont agree with you. Why do I need to put myself in their shoes? You've already put yoruself in their shoes and told them what they should do and how they should feel. Mrs. King worked for many causes during her life. She believed in many things. She spoke at an anti-Vietnam-war rally 3 weeks after Dr. King's assassination. Her family was close personal friends with the preacher you're calling absolutely shameless. He formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Dr. King in 1957, and served as its vice president. And you're trying to tell me that you believe beyond any shadow of a doubt that they found the words of that reverend inappropriate? If my relative was a powerful political figure and wished for those political views to be expressed at her funeral, then I'd be damned if I was going to allow some random person out there in the middle of no where to tell me that the service was inappropriate. It'd be much more of a mockery if the wishes of the deceased weren't followed. If the family finds it inappropriate, then it was inappropriate. If the family believed in every word and wanted it to be said and heard, then who the Hell are we to tell them they're wrong? Give me an actual statement by some of her kids that they found the sermon inappropriate, or stop trying to tell the family what they should feel.

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 05:44 PM) I highly doubt that health insurance benefits are valued at $70,000 per worker annually. Congrats...beat me by that much...

$35 an hour...for 1 button pusher...times 40 hours per week, times 52 weeks in a year....so you're telling me that GM's health plan costs $72,000 a worker? Um, something tells me you're just a wee bit off in that number.

QUOTE(samclemens @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 05:32 PM) if i was a member of the king family i would have been outraged. It's good to know that you are in such a position as to know the exact thoughts and feelings of the king family and lecture all of us about how we should feel from your position of knowledge. Or, alternatively, it's good of you to tell the King family how to feel. They're clearly fools if they feel anything else other than what you say they should feel, and your wise advice will certainly be welcome to them in their time of mourning.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 12:03 PM) It wont cost that much for a LF with only half a year left on his contract thats due a big payday..... But, if the Brewers are anywhere close to contention, or even around .500, they'll still be close enough to the wild card race that it'll take a lot to turn them into sellers. Remember, they know for a fact that they'll get draft picks from whoever grabs him, so they won't be walking away empty handed, even if they hold onto him and try to make a run. If Prince Fielder and the other young guys struggle to start the year...then maybe they dump him to a contender.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 05:08 PM) I hope he signs with Boston, would just prove what we knew all along, his "I want to go back to Texas to play and be with my kids" s*** was just that, a bunch of s***. What a loser, I can't wait to b**** slap him when we see him pitching for whatever team he ends up with. Well, at least for the first year, he signed for a ton less than he could have earned. Last year though...well...he likey the green.

Took the GRE a couple of years ago. 800 math, 680 english, 6/6 on the writing. My advice on the Kaplan book - the one I got was garbage. Absolute garbage. I believe a company called Barrons or something like that puts out one that's significantly better. Gigantic word list inside, practice exams, etc. Basically what I wound up doing was taking every word I didn't know from their gigantic list and putting them on flash cards. I believe it worked. The math part wasn't hugely difficult for me, but then again I was a math minor, so most of the random tricks they test you on I still remembered because I was using them. The writing part...well, just take a look at some practice writing portions. They'll show you pretty quick what's involved in making a good essay. I believe one other company put out a book that was 100% practice tests. I used that & it also worked well.

One of Exxon's execs told us today that the U.S. should stop trying to work towards energy independence, because it's both a bad idea and impossible. Thank God we have these non-partial observers to give us this sage advice. Reuters.

Um...Tlak...West Germany? South Vietnam? Um...yeah...it's been a while since those were countries...

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

QUOTE(AirScott @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 03:18 PM) no doubt there were some bad calls, but two that weren't were Darrell Jackson's pass interference and Big Ben's TD. Jackson had his arms fully extended, to me that constitutes a push-off. Big Ben's TD was very close, but look at that picture that was put up here; it hurts my eyes and looks like a little of the ball still could have crossed the plane. now every other call people have brought up was a bad call, no question. I think I 1/2 agree with you. Those 2 calls fit my definition of "questionable". I can't see the ball on the Roethlisberger one, so I can't say for sure whether or not it slightly pierced the goal line at any point. If it did it was very slight, but I haven't seen evidence that convinces me either way (we should try putting GPS tags on those balls). Probably the right thing to do was just go with the ruling on the field. Problem is...I think the ref on the field ruled based on the fact that Ben stretched out after the play was several seconds past over and pushed the ball over the goal line...that's when he signaled, so the ref didn't signal anything based on the stop itself. So who knows. The Jackson one...I think that one's even more questionable...that depends on how tightly the game is being called. If you're calling that much of a push, then the odds are you could have called that same push off 4-5 other times during the game. Almost every receiver out there is saying "Yeah, it was a pushoff, but there's no way they ever call one that's so weak". So maybe it was a pushoff, but there's just no uniform standard for what constitutes a penalty for a pushoff. If I apply 1 newton of force, is it a pushoff? what about 10? etc. The others...yeah those were really bad. But the thing which probably bothers me the most is not that they were really bad, but that they all went against 1 team. Not only the questionable ones...the bad ones too.

QUOTE(G&T @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 03:13 PM) What I quoted was to show there was, in my opinion, political posturing. My point is I think that should have been saved for another time. It would appear that nobody there cared either The question should be...was that what Mrs. King, and her family, would have wanted? If the answer is yes, then I don't mind at all. If the answer is no, then to hell with the people who broke with their wishes.