Jake

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 11, 2013 -> 08:41 PM) Mark could have held out for a no trade clause. He had a lawyer, Im sure that his lawyer advised him what a merger/integration clause means. I know what I tell my clients: "I dont care what he said, I dont care what he promised you, you see this clause right here, it says it doesnt matter." Baseball players are far more likely to believe in gentleman's agreements. Perhaps the time of that being okay has passed.

Just another day in the 'Buster

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 11, 2013 -> 12:09 PM) Probably not, but supposedly he was told to his face he would not be traded. Yeah, this is the thing that bothers me. Mark seems like the type of guy that would give his word and mean it and I don't like see him getting burned by a lie. He was reportedly sold on "if we give you a NTC, then we won't be able to have leverage with future good players that might get you a ring" but then promised that he had a de facto NTC because they said so. When it comes down to it, his kids won't care how much money he makes when he doesn't see them for all that time. That's why I feel bad.

I know that he's rich and everything, but Mark is a good guy and he gets kind of screwed here. I assume that the reports that he was "promised" not to be traded are true, and now he has to be apart from his family because the Marlins negotiated in bad faith. I wouldn't be shocked if Buehrle asks out of Toronto before long. Doesn't make much sense at this juncture, but I'd be happy to see him be a White Sox someday again.

I feel better than ever about not getting Dwight. I am just not eager to take on a personality like that. At this point, I'm much happier to have Joakim Noah, especially with the price but perhaps regardless.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 11, 2013 -> 09:13 AM) I'm loving the story about Ron Paul calling on the United Nations to confiscate the domain names owned by his supporters. So many layers of hypocrisy in that one

I guess this is important, according to all the Catholic folks I know. It certainly is strange that no other pope thought to leave the office as his capacity to perform it well declined. I suppose I'd like to see some more geographic diversity in that post, but I can't say I really care that much. It was cool that Benedict was multilingual, though.

I'm happy for Morel to be healthy, but he hasn't earned a chance at the MLB level given the roster's current composition.

Wtf Illinois? Are you good or not? My heart can't take much more of this.

I wonder what Marco's role would be in that case. Marco is probably better at some things, but not enough to make up for that big thing JJ is good at. Neither are good on D. Jimmy looking to get minutes at that spot soon as well as Kirk. At least one of our 2's would have to go if we acquired JJ

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Feb 9, 2013 -> 02:14 PM) Rushing the court elitists continue to be the most annoying people in CBB. Good for Dakich for calling that idiocy out. Amen. I never want to hear about that again. Storm in every conference game for all I care.

I also got the iPhone 4 the day it came out. I got two free replacements from Apple (don't ask me how I got that, connections brah) when I broke it -- both times in a case :| The funny thing is, I still don't feel like I've missed out on anything cool from the past two iPhone updates. I'm going to keep this baby until it gives out on me or one of the new Android releases coming soon really blows my mind like I'm hearing about.

I am doing all of this

Pros/Cons of jailbreaking? I don't know much about it other than people telling me it jeopardized my warranty.

FWIW, PFF had Urlacher as among the worst defensive players in the NFL last year, especially at his position. That said, he was near the top the year before. It isn't unreasonable to think that he could get healthy and be great again, though I'm not sure how much money I'd spend on that bet.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 5, 2013 -> 06:49 PM) Jeff Fletcher ‏@JeffFletcherOCR #Angels finalize Callaspo's 2-yr $8.975M deal. He'll get $4.1M in '13, $4.875M in '14, plus award bonuses. I had been hoping trader Rick could get Alberto to the South Side. Oh well.

I don't watch as much Indiana as their fans do, but they shot over 50%. Can't be their worst game because they were either lucky or good enough to have made a good enough portion of their shots to not have all those turnovers hurt them. Likewise, UI only shot 43% with a bad 3PT% -- not an other worldly game from them. I recall watching IU earlier this season and being certain that Illinois could beat them. I thought that the Illini team that wins big games was gone, though. Maybe we can turn things around? I like winning with seniors.

Well that was pretty f***ing cool.

QUOTE (God Loves The Infantry @ Feb 7, 2013 -> 01:25 AM) I don't believe God made anyone gay. Feel free to point to any study showing otherwise. I think it goes back to the old nature vs. nurture argument. And with the exception of what you physically look like, I think "nurture" determines everything. Was I predisposed to like women? I don't think so. I think my upbringing made me that way. Was I predisposed to conservatism and religion? Nope. My experiences in life made me think this way. So this will probably be a controversial statement, but it is what it is. And why should I not be allowed to think it? I'm not legislating this on anyone. These are my personal thoughts. And that's really why I don't want to legislate my religion on people. I already told you that God gave us free will. If He did that, who am I to take that away from people? God gave you the power to be gay, or to be promiscuous, or to be blasphemous. He also gave you the right to be greedy and hoard your money, even though His Son tells the rich man to give up his possessions and follow Him. Christ didn't make the rich man do that, because in Christianity, you have free will. On the note of homosexuality as a natural phenomenon, more or less all animal species engage in some degree of same-sex sexual behavior. There is little that is universally agreed on in the field at the moment, due to the fact that there are multiple factors. The first thing to understand is there is more than just being "straight" or "gay." Not only is sexual orientation spectral, it is fluid. Women exhibit fluidity more than men, but nonetheless human sexuality can change across a lifetime from a variety of factors. Beyond that, there are several key determining factors. First of all, there is more and more research showing genetic predisposition. Research into the "gay gene" and other related genetic factors seems to explain as much as half the cause for a person being gay. Other factors including the gestation and birth process can have a profound effect as well as life events. Trauma, birth order, natural personality variation can all lead to higher or lower likelihood of sexuality. You can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology_and_sexual_orientation An interesting trend noted in a study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10410197 This was a huge revelation in Christian and political philosophy. If you don't have choices, then you've made no choices. You have to have agency in the selection of your beliefs or else they can hardly be sincere. This is why the USA is the most religious country in the Western world (hard to measure in the Middle East). People came here and were free to choose any of several thriving denominations or even nothing at all. A long tradition of relative religious freedom has resulted in a multi-denominational, very religious society. There are certainly fewer believers than in a state instituted religious society or one that has too recently allowed religious freedom (look at Spain, where the counterreaction to the end of their Catholic dictatorship has resulted in a huge loss of religious persons), but those that believe in the USA are far more sincere about it. They don't just go to church, but they often actually put effort and lifestyle changes forth to live their religion correctly.

Really hope you win!

So...what is the optimum time to switch phones? ATM, I'm on an iPhone 4 and I'm planning to go Android unless Apple blows my mind. Of the phone makers, I probably trust Samsung the most but I'm willing to play the field.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 6, 2013 -> 12:17 PM) Paul Konerko would too and it would end up costing the team, so there. Haha yeah, I pulled a Konerko and played too long as it is. I was out there with no velocity and too much pain to actually think clearly about what I was doing. Luckily I was a sinkerballer so I got away with things a little bit more than a different type of pitcher. Thanks for the kind words everybody. Unluckily for you guys, this only leaves more time for me to be posting on here...at least until I get a part time job.

It does not take some crazy amount of change to have a society that both rewards smart investors and savers AND protects those with only adequate competency or those that lack the means.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 6, 2013 -> 10:53 AM) Whoa. Why are you so incredibly defensive? It's almost as though you tee-up these debates and then the moment someone chimes in, you come in, guns-blazing, looking for a repository for your anger or something. I wasn't speaking personally. I was speaking, in general. You made several assertions in your post as though they were factual, when they clearly are not. You also mentioned how you don't understand how others within your belief system could think certain things. I was merely pointing out that when you're discussing a belief system in which so much is based on faith, you're going to have many different interpretations and nuances of those beliefs, because there really are no clear-cut answers one can point to. These are the hard-line rules I mentioned...you know none of these things to be true. These are merely your beliefs. I haven't read everything here, but that choice of words made me laugh out loud.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Feb 5, 2013 -> 11:15 AM) How on Earth was Chris Spencer making over $4 million? That's hideous. $4 million combined on worthless TEs and $7 million on a returner who could barely do that this year. That's a hilarious waste of $15 million. On one hand, that's terrible. On the other, that means we have more room to bring good players in without sending good players out -- you can cut $15M in dead weight, essentially.