lostfan

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 12:22 PM) To be clear, I WAS a cop. That was 10 years ago now. As indicated by the "used to be" part of my question.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 12:02 PM) haha, do you all remember how poisonous that 94 strike was? My dad didn't watch a single game until Ripken broke the streak, then he took another few years off. edit: so my point is that isn't a great analogy. I didn't watch any baseball until 1998 when I went to a Sox game with my HS baseball team, then not again until 2000. I paid passing attention to the Sox, and to players I liked like Griffey. There is a giant black hole in my baseball memories thanks to the strike.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 12:16 PM) That's the last time I pay cash You don't have a receipt? That's what you get for trying to have privacy and stuff.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 12:12 PM) You are the cowboy in a Village People tribute band? Who knew? I'm actually a tranny stripper/call girl. BTW, one of my co-workers gave told me to remind you that you still owe payment from the last appointment.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 11:58 AM) I disagree. You don't put up games with 300+ yards and 3+ td's unless you have talent. Plug Orton into the Patriots offense and you wouldn't get that kind of production. And their running backs were not solid - they were hurt all year. Kevin Faulk isn't exactly a quality back. Moss was big, but name me another big time threat they have? I'm not saying he's the next Tom Brady, but give the guy a decent line with some decent passing threats and I think he'll be a winner. Yeah... you probably would actually. Not identical numbers but 3000+ yards, 20 TDs, and a decent QB rating. Nobody's confusing Kyle Orton's jersey number with Peyton Manning, but even Orton can complete deep passes to Randy Moss when he has all day to do it, and did you forget about Wes Welker, who always seems to be open? edit: also, that last statement kind of contradicts because the Bears don't have anything like that... an average line at best (with holes, but in fixable condition), good running game, good TEs, but horrible WR corps.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 11:55 AM) Yup. I've mentioned in here before I think, or certainly hinted at it. Oh, I guess I never caught that. I think I've only ever directly mentioned what I do one time although I make references to it in the Buster a lot. It's not like a secret or anything, just not something I want to plaster all over a message board for random people to see.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 10:35 AM) For $6 million over two years, I'd rather go with Owens at $400k. Hell, me too, if our standards are that low. There is not nearly enough difference between them statistically to justify that.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 11:08 AM) No, he has moss, a pretty good stable of running backs, one of the best lines in the league, and a team around him that went undefeated through the regular season last year. Cassell is gonna be getting paid, I pray that the Bears are not writing those checks Yes, thank you, beat me to it. I said the week after Brady got hurt to my boss and another co-worker, both Patriots fans, that Cassel was going to do fine filling in for Brady, for all those reasons. The Patriots are like a machine, take out one cylinder and as long as the other cylinders are firing, a replacement won't be as good, but it'll still work fine. If I'm the Patriots, I'm hoping I can keep Cassel another year or two somehow, since it's starting to look like Brady's setbacks will keep him out for part of '09. I really doubt Cassel will do anything on the Bears, or do much anywhere else for that matter.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 10:38 AM) I always started with "sir", up until they decide to be an asshole. Then the greetings move progressively downhill. Occasionally, they were assholes before I could even get a word in. You used to be a cop?

I've had quite a bit of interaction with federal employees to say the least, and although there is the joke/stereotype about them being lazy or whatever, most of them are just like anyone else who has an office job. They go to work every day, they have set tasks, they have performance reviews, they deal with the same kind of bureaucratic bulls*** other people have to deal with at work. I won't vouch for overall competence though, because there's a lot of factors that affect that and there are certainly some dumbasses running the show here and there (and nowhere do you see that more than in the military).

QUOTE (RoyHobbs @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 10:17 AM) Why do you guys think Kenny didn't pull the trigger and get Willy Taveras to fill the lead off and center field void....can't argue with 68 stolen bags and a decent defensive center field Because he signed with the Reds, fortunately. And it can be argued, and it has been argued pretty much to nausea here (to the point where I just gave up on certain threads).

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 10:12 AM) Yeah we've got those DUI ads coming on all the time too. I love the cop's line of questioning; "Excuse me Sir, have you been drinking tonight?" I don't know if it's an American Thing or not, but back home, there's no way that a cop would call me "sir". If anything, it'd be the other way round. It depends on the cop and how you act. Most of the time if you're cooperative and don't give them a hard time, they'll call you sir. It's just a basic respect thing. If I was a cop, I'd do it too. Some cops are just dicks in general though.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Dec 30, 2008 -> 09:05 PM) It shouldn't amaze me anymore, but the continual defense of the George W. Bush-like tactics of our incoming President being "defended" by the same people who constantly blast Bush for exactly the same thing is just simply hilarious. It's becoming delicious irony, to say the least. Who are you talking about exactly, Balta/Rex (I'd hope not, because neither of them are doing that), or are you just making a statement about the behavior of lefties in general?

They have the DUI commercials on the radio here, I dunno if they're across the country. I don't drink and drive (well technically I do as everyone does, I don't drive drunk, obviously) but the way they do the commercials really gets your attention. They start off sounding like a normal commercial, they'll be talking about a girl or guy with music playing in the background and it sounds upbeat then suddenly the music goes off and says something like "and later tonight, Julie will have her legs severed, a fractured skull, massive internal bleeding, and will die by morning. Will you be the one to kill Julie?" Pretty jarring.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 30, 2008 -> 08:42 PM) I don't see a thread here about the Israel/Gaza matter either . For me, it's like Groundhog Day (that coincidentally is my birthday but that's neither here nor there). This s*** happens like every 6 months, it just gets old to talk about.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 30, 2008 -> 04:48 PM) So today I was able to pull without much effort almost every movie from my 2 PC's in my house. I also swapped out my 80 gb HD for a 320 in about 5 min. You can copy DVDs to the PS3's hard drive? That's legal? If so, that's pretty bad ass.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 30, 2008 -> 04:39 PM) Not speaking about the corruption part...but you know what I think the best argument is for why Burris is an unacceptable choice for this seat? Because he accepted the nomination from Blago. Knowing everything else that is public already, knowing about the Dems statement already, knowing about the impeachment procedure, etc., he still accepted the nomination. That alone makes him an unacceptable choice IMO. Well, I mean, if you were a politician and got nominated for the Senate, what would you say? The windows for opportunity there don't happen often. The only higher position in government is to either get electeed President, or get appointed as a SCOTUS justice.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Dec 30, 2008 -> 04:18 PM) I suppose the new revelations being that what many of us have known for a while is now on tape. I believe it changes things for much of the states population when there is concrete evidence and national media coverage. Ok, I can buy that then. It's funny to me how many people ask me questions about this when they find out I'm from IL. All of this stuff seems like common knowledge to me.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Dec 30, 2008 -> 04:09 PM) I'm sure there were 'non-bribe' fundraisers put on for Blago; but with the current revelations regarding the activities of the office, all fiscal benefits given to the governor are going to be suspect. Well, I wouldn't call them current revelations, since everybody who follows IL politics has known this was going on for about 3 years now but nothing was proven.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Dec 30, 2008 -> 03:58 PM) Blago was selling the senate seat for fundraising money. It's a common bribe scheme in the Blagojevich administration. It's how the money is handed over, through fundraisers. A type of money laundering scheme, as to not seem like a direct bribe. In gerneral, yes fundraising can be considered common, but when dealing with the Blago crew it's not that innocent. All true statements, but I mean a lot of people gave Blagojevich campaign money for various reasons so we can't just look at everyone who did and think "oh, they must be as corrupt as he is." All of us already knew Blagojevich was corrupt, and I can't just look Burris making donations and jump to conclusions. It's a pretty inaccurate gauge of corruption just by itself which is why I put the caveat "in and of itself."

I don't care about fundraising in and of itself, that's a pretty normal political activity.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 30, 2008 -> 02:20 PM) How many interventions on TV have been focused on Weed? How many livers and lives has it destroyed comparatively? Its not even comparable to alcohol as far as dangers to humans. Basically, yeah. I mean, when's the last time you heard about a guy getting stoned and then beating his wife?

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 30, 2008 -> 01:06 PM) Really? Have you missed the print, television, Internet, and everywhere else non-stop advertising of the 360 having over 200 family titles? They are trying to compete with the Wii, but their only family games suck ass and are crappy cartoon movie ports. A $15 game available through Wii's download service (World of Goo) is more original and fun, in my opinion, than any sort of exclusive XBOX 360 can come up with. I think you missed my point, both Sony and Microsoft know that they're getting their asses handed to them by Nintendo on all fronts in that market and they're not going to make up the deficit this go-round so Microsoft's focus is on keeping ahead of Sony and Sony is focused on gaining ground vs. Microsoft in 2009 (which they will but the economy is probably gonna hurt their sales).

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 30, 2008 -> 12:29 PM) Well, I guess the point is that the Yankees were much better off as a team when they had complementary/role players and weren't comprised solely of superstars. Heck, you can say the same thing for the 2005 White Sox versus the 2006-2008 versions. Spending money guarantees a "chance" to compete but not success, certainly in terms of winning the World Series. Most experts aren't even ready to pick the Yankees over the Rays or Red Sox yet. More and more teams are studying the path which teams like the Twins, A's, Marlins and Rays have taken in terms of developing their own players. The fact is that even the Red Sox have only signed Drew and Dice-K to pretty huge FA deals. They spend generously on their own players, but more and more, they're looking to develop internally, and the results bear that out (despite trading Hanley Ramirez), with 2 championships to none for the Yankees since 2001. Or like at the Cowboys with 13 Pro Bowlers and a huge payroll missing the playoffs. Why do you mention the Hanley Ramirez trade like it was a mistake that they wish they could undo? I mean, granted, he's Hanley f***ing Ramirez and probably the best position player in baseball (a strong case is made for someone like Pujols or A-Rod though). But they got (and still have) Josh Beckett out of the deal who basically directly led to a World Series, and Mike Lowell who wasn't exactly chopped liver for them.

The best console FPS ever would be Call of Duty 4, not Halo. Only Halo fanboys think it's the best FPS ever. I'm kinda disappointed in myself that I bought that overrated game, all of its ratings were based purely on its name IMO. The 360 is not done with exclusives, I don't know who is saying that. They are focused on Sony as their competition, not so much Nintendo, and they're going to stay competitive. 2009 is going to be a better year for Sony, but it had better be since they are still getting out-sold by Microsoft by something like a 2 to 1 margin. There's other exclusives planned, I can only name Mass Effect 2 off the top of my head as a confirmed game though. I think there is another Halo (not that I care), and Square Enix is supposed to be doing something.