lostfan

QUOTE(iamshack @ Mar 24, 2008 -> 03:21 PM) Yeah, I've heard/seen the trend to some degree. But to me, it seems like the most obvious (and realistic) steps that can be taken to reduce transportation costs, reliance on oil, stress on mass transit, traffic, quality of life, etc. And yet it doesn't seem to be an option discussed nearly as much as it should (IMO). This is what made me so mad about the political haggling over the funding of the CTA, and I don't even live in Chicago anymore. It's common sense to me. I just wanted to barge in on one of those meetings and say "Good god just give the CTA its money and STFU, don't ask questions why, just do it, if you can't see the obvious benefits and necessities you are a moron and should not be in any level of political office"

There is still time for whatever Democratic nominee to fix a lot of the damage, after all, McCain seems to be having no trouble doing it. But it looks increasingly unlikely the longer Hillary's scorched earth nonsense goes on. The thing that upsets me is that Hillary's supporters are completely blind to it and they say "But Obama is doing it too!" Not really, Obama is forced to play defense, and after all the baiting he's gotten he still won't go negative on anyone in the Democratic party. He'll go after issues, inconsistencies in statements, exaggerated claims, sure. But he's not been fighting below the belt and then turning around and whining about the media. That's all been Hillary and it doesn't take an Obama supporter to see that.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Mar 20, 2008 -> 05:45 PM) Yea, there is no way a GOP candidate should be a favorite in Nov. With the economy the way it is, an unpopular sitting GOP president, and massive Democrat turnout / enthusiasm in the primaries. This is an election for the Dems to lose, not the GOP to win (if that makes sense). McCain is pretty much the only chance the GOP had at winning this as he can remain neutral enough to allow the far left wing corrupt the election and paint the Democrat party in a bad enough light to blow this election. I have full confidence in the Dems to blow this - there really are no capable Democratic leaders in the party, a few of them show flashes but nothing too concrete. You have the Old Guard turds like Hillary, Kerry, Kennedy, etc. that nobody outside of hardcore Democrats actually likes and Republicans absolutely hate, after that just a bunch of trash with a few decent ones sprinkled about. Obama was the exception for a while but they are blowing it for him too. Hence why I'm not a registered Democrat and it looks to stay that way indefinitely unless they develop a collective spine.

QUOTE(JFields27 @ Mar 24, 2008 -> 01:14 PM) Josh Fields is better anyways. ^^Unless you are actually in fact Josh Fields himself, in which case I say "f*** yeah, go Josh, go out and dominate them Tigers" or some words to that effect

QUOTE(Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 24, 2008 -> 01:34 PM) Sorry. I'm just saying your statement that there is not a good reason for people to have it isn't a good argument for why it shouldn't be allowed. Instead of saying there's no good reason for it and therefore the government should ban it, the argument should be that the government has an interest in X, Y, Z and therefore they are justified in making it illegal. It's been a rough day, that probably doesn't make sense, but oh well. On with the thread. It's all good. off top of my head: Arguments in favor - self-defense, being more heavily armed than any criminal or organization, safety of the community, etc. Arguments against - not enough criminal activity to justify need for high-cailber weapons in a relatively safe society (i.e. not like an out-of-control warring African nation), too much risk for collateral damage, waste of ammunition and inability to control direction of fire

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Mar 24, 2008 -> 01:29 PM) I think his point was this: You shouldn't have to justify a use for something for the government to allow it; the government should have to justify an overall benefit to ban something. Yeah, I mean I got his point, I just wonder how he arrived at that conclusion. Honestly I cannot think of a reason why Joe Citizen needs a fully automatic assault rifle. I could almost see a submachine gun but even that seems to be a bit of overkill. (Plus, although I wasn't intending to go there, if anyone wanted to justify banning it, it really wouldn't be hard at all)

QUOTE(Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 24, 2008 -> 01:03 PM) So? You arguing to me why the government shouldn't allow something is the complete opposite of how this system should, and I'd argue was intended, to work. It should be: give me a reason why the government should ban my right to do X, Y, Z. lol what? I have no idea how you figured that's what I was saying, in fact I think based off that you're completely misinterpreting my stance on the whole issue. That statement made no argument, it was intended to stand at face value.

QUOTE(rangercal @ Mar 24, 2008 -> 11:32 AM) My opinion of Noah is the same as Tyrus Thomas, They do not get enough minutes. The Bulls have NO IDEA how to develop young players and will eventually trade them for crap ( Like they did with Tyson Chandler) . Lopez will not change anything if he comes to Chicago. Now that Wallace is gone Noah gets plenty of minutes and he's been actually developing at a pretty encouraging rate. I don't think his ceiling is ever going to be that high but now that he's gotten a genuine opportunity, he routinely is in double figures for rebounds or points, and has a good nose for the ball. Thomas, on the other hand, yeah that's completely different. When they give him minutes he actually does look like he's producing at a faster rate but then his numbers go waaaaaay down for every time Boylan only lets him play for 8 minutes. I don't understand it. Just let the guy play, damn, you knew what the deal was when you traded away what would've been a linchpin on your team. If you don't he's never gonna amount to anything.

lol, I hate to have to invoke this comparison again, but saying Brian Anderson has not been held accountable for his actions by the White Sox fanbase is like saying Rex Grossman hasn't been held accountable for his action by the Bears fanbase. I can't think of any single topic that's generated more arguments and discussion outside of winning the WS in '05.

I actually can't think of very many reasons the average person needs a fully-automatic weapon though.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Mar 24, 2008 -> 11:25 AM) Yeah, and how many committed with illegally owned automatic weapons? Thousands? The key word here is "illegal." Criminals are already breaking the law by default, so I'm not sure what putting extra restrictions on people who do follow the law is really supposed to accomplish. Actually I am sure. It'll accomlish nothing. Nothing real, anyway.

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Mar 24, 2008 -> 08:59 AM) They are mad that the Cardinal hasn't been more outspoken about the war, and that he and Daley met with Bush when he was last in town and didn't 'demand' something be done. Plus, if I recall, the services at that church often have TV cameras there, so maybe hoping for a little TV exposure as well. Instead, I hope it is jail time and a record. I guess I am silly for thinking that the church is right to focus on religious issues and not political ones?

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Mar 24, 2008 -> 12:00 AM) Even a world track speed star can generally only get from 1st to 3rd on a single. And a lot of the time, even slow players can get from 2nd to home on a single. That's what that extra base does. Jerry Owens is overrated and should be a 4th OFer at best, and while his speed is nice, it labels him as a leadoff hitter in Ozzie's mind for some reason. bwahaha overrated by who? Ozzie I guess. But how can you be overrated when so many people are saying you suck?

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Mar 23, 2008 -> 11:39 PM) You must believe Bill James to be insane then. It's also why I prefaced my statement with the word technically. Well I don't hang off the words of sabermetric geeks that put no stock whatsoever into stolen bases if that's what you mean. You can say that he can't be considered a "good hitter" in spite of his .320 average I guess, but any sabermetric guru worth his salt should be able to see the value of a guy with a OBP in the high .300s and who runs really fast.

lol, war protesters are starting to get on my damn nerves. If you want to use your 1st amendment rights to criticize the government go ahead and do that, I'm with you 100% if that's what you want to do and whether or not I agree is irrelevant. But sometimes it's just like... who exactly do you think you're reaching? When you do things like block traffic. Ok, you made me take an extra 30 minutes to get home from work, what did that accomplish? But yeah, no blood for oil! Right?

Dye is a notoriously slow starter for his career though.

QUOTE(BearSox @ Mar 23, 2008 -> 07:06 PM) The funny thing is, why didn't anyone tell within the organization tell him this 2 years ago? Um, they did, it's not like something that just fixes itself overnight.

QUOTE(AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Mar 22, 2008 -> 10:43 PM) nor the injuries to Crede, Pablo, and decline years of Dye and Count didn't play a factor into last year. Also the experiment gone wrong with Brian Anderson and missing Thome for over a month. Missing Hall meant nothing last season. The "experiment gone wrong" was Darin Erstad, especially considering Anderson had... what... less than 20 ABs?

QUOTE(knightni @ Mar 22, 2008 -> 10:16 PM) Losing Hall last year was big enough. It opened the door to Gustavo Molina, which in turn caused Andy Gonzalez and Luis Terrero to look good in comparison. That poor guy was SO overmatched by MLB pitching. I kind of felt bad for him, he was just kind of thrust into the bigs way before he was ready.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Mar 22, 2008 -> 10:27 AM) I remember they did have a RZR up for Anderson previously, but for some reason they took it down, and I think it was over .900 back in 2006. Yeah BA's zone ratings were sky-high, like nearly in record-setting range. I can't recall the exact number. Plus he had that whole thing going where it looked like he would finish the season without committing a single error.

What I'm trying to say is that the vast majority of his pitches are fastballs and changeups, and that you'd think there would be a lot more breaking pitches but there really aren't. edit: nevermind the original edit if you saw it

QUOTE(sayitaintso @ Mar 23, 2008 -> 01:28 AM) Bartolo Colon only used his fastball back in his hay-day, and i think that he was pretty successful. Johan throws a ton of fastballs too. He uses the changeup as that go-to pitch. I don't hardly ever see him throw the slider, maybe a handful of times a game, he really doesn't even need to.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Mar 23, 2008 -> 02:20 AM) Jerry Owens could hit .320 and be technically considered an offensive liability. That's how little power he has. If Owens was hitting .320, we could assume his OBP would be like .370 or .380, and he'd be stealing about 70 bases and scoring 100 runs depending on the 3-4-5. Obviously he would be no Ichiro but I know of no sane person that would call him an "offensive liability" just because his OPS is in the low .700s.

Hinrich makes me the maddest when he dribbles around aimlessly for 12-15 seconds before awkwardly and desperately heaving the ball up from 22 feet away and hitting the bottom right side of the backboard. Something he does at least 2-3 times a game it seems.

QUOTE(knightni @ Mar 22, 2008 -> 09:56 PM) I think they need a PG more than another big guy. Hinrich isn't horrible but he isn't really that good either. On this team he's a linchpin unfortunately, which shows our glaring lack of a go-to guy. On a championship-caliber team he is a role-playing complementary piece like Ron Harper was. Same applies to Gordon, when he gets hot he can score like almost anyone in the league, but he still can't guard ANYONE. I think we can all agree definitively that Noah is better for this team than Wallace was, no? And Drew Gooden at least resembles a step in the right direction?