lostfan

Seriously... not sure how stafford didn't get ejected for this (not arguing with ejecting Moore, but it was worth it)

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 10, 2011 -> 08:48 AM) Good things. I was thinking more along the lines of creating anti-matter or something.

What would happen if Brandon Meriweather and Major Wright tried to tackle each other at the same time?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 11:11 AM) Carimi was the best lineman went he went down, even Tice said that. Lance Louis played like an animal last night, if he can keep that up we may see Carimi challenge Webb for the LT position. If Carimi is going to replace anybody it's going to be Webb... but Webb isn't really playing like that needs to happen. He was earlier in the season but not now. This is a good problem to have.

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 10:03 AM) All I'm saying is this, who do you think makes the best 5 for our Oline. In an unbelievable turn of events, I can't think of anyone that really needs replacing right now. 5 weeks ago I would have said they all need replacing. Omiyale tends to make everyone around him look worse. But I really have a hard time benching spencer right now. I'm not so sure that our best 5 wouldn't be: LT-Webb LG-Louis C Garza RG Spencer RT Carimi. It feels funny to not b**** about the line. I think as of right now, Williams is better at LG than Carimi is at RT. Yes, I think that highly of Williams where he is right now... it's not a knock on Carimi. I want Carimi eventually to be a franchise lineman (but I'm only saying this because of his draft status... this once applied to Williams too).

QUOTE (daa84 @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 08:10 AM) Bears just extended Garza for 2 years. Credit needs to be given in a couple of areas here...Martz deserves credit for realizing the fact that Forte is a much better outside RB stretching the field, than he is between the tackles (under turner bears kept trying to run him straight ahead out of the I). Also Tice's MO as a coach is that he likes big, nasty O-linemen that are maulers. Say what you will about the pass blocking (which has gotten better), but this Oline is very good in the running game. They are big, physical and are very athletic with the ability to pull and seal off the edges for forte. I really don't know what the bears should do with Carimi right now, because Louis is playing as well as anyone. While Spencer is playing well, the best option is probably to put Louis at RG and Carimi at RT I came on here basically to say I was totally wrong about that... I thought they'd move Spencer and let Garza go due to his age. Truthfully speaking, Garza is as good as Kreutz ever was or better in the last 5 years. I don't know why people still hate Chris Williams. He's been nothing but solid for basically a full season now. He's a big part of Forte's success too, because he's so athletic, basically a tackle playing guard.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 07:20 AM) How's J'Marcus Webb looking? Didn't catch yesterday's game. If he's still meh, might make it interesting to see the Bears move Carimi back to his original position in college. I think his assignment was Cole, and he looked great. Louis had Babin. I get those two mixed up. Louis pancaked his guy on one play. Webb is starting to come around. Next year Spencer will play center and Carimi will play a position full time.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 07:10 AM) He is by far the best WR on this team. I said that before his injury too. There was about 100 to 150 yards of dropped passes last night. Cutler should've had 300+ and a rating over 100 against the best secondary in the NFL

Spencer and Louis are playing great. I changed my mind on Carimi, no rush getting him back. The Eagles don't have some b**** line either.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 01:56 AM) Reading all the posts from the game tonight, you'd think the Bears lost/were losing the entire time. A few negatives, sure (WR), but the o-line looked really good, as did Cutler. And Forte kept doing his thing. Thank God those fumbles didn't cost us. Hope that doesn't happen ever again. Most importantly, perhaps, was that the defense looked really good. Got some good pressure on a mobile QB while rushing 4 and the LB looked phenomenal. And I'm sorry, but I think Major Wright and Chris Conte did just fine back there. People will blame Wright for missing the tackle on McCoy but that was simply a 50/50 play and McCoy guessed right. I never want to see Brandon Meriweather on the field again. Good: Cutler Forte O-Line (Especially Webb/Louis) Bennett D-Line CB Urlacher/Briggs Gould Graham/Hurd on ST Bad: Williams TE Return Game the safeties were fine, I'd rather have not seen Wright get juked before McCoy even turned around, but meh those are the hardest tackles to make. Williams was hot and cold but if you're going to single out a receiver, I'd point at Hester first. He dropped as many easy passes that Cutler placed right on his hands but didn't make any big plays. Louis was making Cole his b**** moat of the game, that was the best I've seen this line play in about 3 years.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Oct 28, 2011 -> 02:42 PM) Starting lineup: PG - Watson SG - Brewer SF - Deng (who will average 48.5 mpg) PF - Taj C - Asik And this on Sundays... maybe Ozzie will come coach basketball

Eagles play their DEs wide, like the Lions, to rush the QB faster and put more pressure on the ends. This means that the gaps will be wider and leave more room for runs on traps, counters, draws, etc. and 7-step drops need to be kept to a minimum unless there are only 2 WRs going out in patterns, since the DEs will be right where the QB is as soon as he completes his drop without TEs chipping them. The Lions game was a disaster (despite Cutler's stats) because of a combination of Martz's playcalling, Kellen Davis nearly singlehandedly losing the game, and Frank Omiyale's epic levels of suckage. So, it'll be interesting to see what Martz is going to do. He will probably throw 75 times against the Eagles secondary... great.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 3, 2011 -> 10:43 PM) Why do you think Soldier Field gets so damn excited for Hester punt returns??? It's easily the best part of the game. I don't know where exactly you're going with this, but the crowd gets excited for Hester punt returns because they're f***ing exciting

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 3, 2011 -> 09:00 AM) And deservedly so. What kind of a low life makes his cancer ridden wife a central piece of his campaign, and then cheats on her? No argument there.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Nov 2, 2011 -> 10:42 PM) finger nails on chalkboard Bachmann had to put her 2 cents in at the end. she is a f***ing screeching harpy.

QUOTE (Chet Lemon @ Nov 2, 2011 -> 09:37 PM) Speaking of Newt, here is an interesting exchange he had w/ Romney at a recent debate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buuIILk31lI...feature=related Newt got f***ing owned.

QUOTE (SoxFanForever @ Nov 2, 2011 -> 09:46 PM) Too many =/= quality Spencer, Louis, and Carimi are all decent linemen and have played pretty well so far this year. We're not talking about Frank Omiyale, Fred Miller, and Josh Beekman here. Louis in particular, all of a sudden a bunch of bleeding stopped when he stepped in for Omiyale who was sucking terribly.

Spencer will be at RG and Louis at RT against the Eagles... I guess the Bears either are going to keep Carimi on the shelf for now or ease him back in slowly. Having TOO MANY linemen is a nice problem to have for once.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Nov 2, 2011 -> 07:30 AM) I don't seem to recall the press being this interested in a sex scandal when you had a Presidential contender screwing around on his sick wife. There were even details in that one, and no confidentiality agreements to get in the way. Huh? That killed whatever was left of his political career. Everyone knew about it and it was all over the place.

Yeah Rivers has always had a bizarre throwing motion. It's never really affected him. It's kind of unfair to blame a lost game on one player for one blown play, but literally all Rivers had to do there was not drop the snap and the game was over.

Don't really give a s*** that the players want to keep their guaranteed contracts or the soft cap. Too f***ing bad. Bad contracts in the NBA are disgustingly common

Harris was being pretty graceful about the whole thing and cracking jokes. He posted a clip from Friday on Facebook and said he felt like Craig because he got fired on his day off. Then he retweeted someone saying someone had video of Harris stealing boxes from Halas Hall. I asked if he was trying to build a clubhouse.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 10:07 AM) A lot of people preach about re-financing, and in some respects it CAN be a good idea. But what I've observed, most people do it wrong or do it for the wrong reasons. First and foremost, unless your interest rate is dropping by MORE than 1 full percentage point, don't bother. Example: you are going from 5.25% to 4.15%. If it's less than that, it's really not worth doing. Now, add in the fact that you have to have your home re-assessed (this is a few hundred $), you will have to usually pay 1% of the loan amount up front (probably 1000$ more), and then closing costs, which they sometimes hide by rolling them into the loan (but you're still paying them). All told, you'll probably end up spending close to 2000-2500$ out of pocket to re-fi in addition to all the time you'll spend doing it, which is never fun. Also, if you only had 25 years left on your loan you have 30 again albeit at lower monthly payments. Something important to keep in mind about this is it's all based on a bet. Do you really believe the dollar is collapsing or moving toward hyper inflation? If so, is the re-fi really worth it long term? Additionally, why try to pay off your loan early? Reason I ask this is because you're paying to do this with 2011 dollars...which they love. If those things happen, you'll probably notice that in 10 years, you'd be paying them off with money that's worth far less, and much easier to get. If those things don't happen, and the dollars value skyrockets, and money becomes increasingly hard to get, well -- you still didn't lose anything. Always keep in mind that when they tout re-financing, they'll show you a "total dollar savings" in one up-front lump sum, which is disingenuous because the money is actually spread out over a 30 year curve. Will it save you money over time? Yes...but at what up front cost versus what will those dollars end up being worth in 10 years, or even 20? The problem with "home equity" is it's dead money. Why? Huh? Think about it...if you want that money back, YOU HAVE TO BORROW IT FROM YOURSELF. Ever hear of or take out a "home equity loan", which is the biggest fool loan in the history of the world? Funny thing, they're loaning you YOUR OWN MONEY and you're paying them to do it. The only time you need to care about home equity is when you're SELLING. Otherwise, don't worry about where you loan stands so long as you have a good interest rate and the stability to make the payments. Whatever the case may be, so long as you planned on living there for the foreseeable future, in 10-15 years, odds are the housing market will have stabilized and at the very least, you won't sell into a market where you'd take a loss. In my case I would be going from 6.25% to whatever it is today, I guess in the low 4s (I have almost flawless credit). It'd drop my payments by, I'm guessing, $300 or so. That's worth it and I'd start to recover that money after a year or so. I hear you about inflation, but from here to about 2016 is just a dead zone for me. QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 10:30 AM) These are all really good points. I just want to add one more... as Y2HH said, there is a significant upfront cost to refinancing. So one thing you want to watch out for is, what is your time scale? If you plan to sell your place in a year or two, then even that 1% change is likely not worth it, because the upfront points and fees will wipe out your savings over such a short timeline. I didn't buy the house to sell it right away, but I did plan on having some equity after a few years so that I could sell this place and get a bigger place eventually. That's pretty much impossible for me right now. So time frame would be like 3-5 years.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 09:46 AM) I think you're right in that they only re-value homes that need to be re-valued -- such as those people suddenly stop sending payments on. Because that asset gets red-flagged, they re-value/re-evaluate it's worth and would then begin the write down process. However, if there is nothing wrong with the property, and the person is sending in regular payments, there would be no reason to re-value it...because despite what market value might say, the person in question is STILL paying the original amount, thus the asset is worth that amount. My loan, for example, is through US Bank, but they don't actually "own" it, as Freddie Mac bought the loan shortly after it was made. I still send payments to US Bank, but I guess some shady back-alley dealing was done and they send most of the money off to FM. Then again, they may not send any to FM, with how shoddily run that place is, I doubt they'd even know. That's kind of what I was thinking. How often does the bank go out of their way to re-determine the value of someone's house? vs. what the person is actually paying them for it?

Comparing Iraq to Libya is just... lazy. It's not comparing bad to worse, it's more like comparing Wasilla to New York City. I didn't agree with intervening in Libya and I'm not going to hypocritically pretend like I supported it the whole time now that it's been a successful operation, but terms of time, cost, and resources, Iraq was several orders of magnitude bigger than Libya. Iraq took over 8 years, took 3000+ American lives and far more than that permanently disabled, overall cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and had strategic consequences that would take too long to detail here, whereas Libya took a few months, took 0 US lives, and cost like a billion dollars. Also the US did almost everything in Iraq alone with the Brits helping out as much as they could and others lending token help while Libya had the French and British doing a lot of the heavy lifting.