Jake

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 9, 2013 -> 04:33 PM) good lord. You like Politico? You should probably bear in mind that I read a variety of things like Breitbart, Fox, National Journal. I try to get a full spectrum of reporting and I really have no issues reading Politico. On the other hand, Breitbart and Fox usually get my anger switches going off so quickly that I cannot read for long. A site like ThinkProgress might give me the news the way I see it to be true, but I often feel when reading news material from Politico that there is an honest attempt to report from multiple partisan viewpoints.

I can't believe Biggio got so many votes. If Biggio got 70%, it would follow logically that Frank would get 95%. Now, there are too many variables involved in this case to predict so accurately...but IMO Biggio is not a HoFer at all and even if he is, Frank has a far better resume. Frank may be harmed by Maddux/Glavine, his position, a change in feelings towards steroid users, and lord knows what else.

I actually like Politico. Most of their reporting tends to be pretty much down the middle when I read it (I don't necessarily read all of their stuff, especially not their opinion).

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jan 9, 2013 -> 03:07 PM) But they did lack the sense of moral responsibilty and so on due to the way they have been pandered to during their football careers. They did it because they thought they were better than her, better than others and above the rules normal people follow. The coaches, teachers and parents taught them that. The whole town should be ashamed. Totally agree. These acts, and I would say most rapes, come out of a sense of learned superiority. This is probably usually gender-based, but I doubt these football players would be against committing other crimes out of a sense of privilege. QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 9, 2013 -> 03:39 PM) Absolutely, but I don't know that they could be accurately diagnosed with an actual psychological disorder. Agreed. I don't think these people were predisposed to this sort of behavior in the sense that they had a mental disorder waiting to be triggered, they were simply given the reins to do these things without fear of punishment and they did them.

The exploding phablet market?

Illinois' ability to bounce back and get a tremendous comeback win after such a bad loss is something I haven't seen from them in years. I was pretty down after the Purdue loss because we looked like the Bruce Weber team. Against OSU, we actually adjusted and played well in a high pressure game. I hope we can be just as resilient tonight.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 9, 2013 -> 08:28 AM) I like how you lumped "taking phone calls from big money donors" and "Talking to constituents" together into the same item, when there's clearly a very big difference. Those are often intermingled. Part of cold calling these people is hoping for more than their vote in the end run. They also will schedule meetings with lobbyists around these times. The lobbies are just as important, really. Most congressmen learn the most about issues of concern from the lobby groups.

Time for a Congressman is very precious. Spending half the day fundraising and talking to constituents isn't uncommon at all, many do it more.

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They've been talking about Lovie to Philly on ESPN all morning. Not a bad fit IMO

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 8, 2013 -> 05:05 PM) So? I thought we were talking about ways to spend less money. I can get on board with that. Of course, we now have made permanent a tax code that doesn't pay for our most precious programs. Perhaps more importantly, the deficit goes as unemployment goes.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 8, 2013 -> 05:00 PM) Yeah...why does it seem these info graphics are almost always poorly put together. They compiled different data from different time spots, and used a confusing "person" graphic. Just silly. Well, it's impossible to have conclusive data. They did research, exercised judgment on what they believe to be accurate, and went with it to help the issue gain more attention. It is an exceptionally hard crime to measure when so many go unreported. How many people are robbed and don't report it? There are very significant hurdles to feeling comfortable reporting what happened to you in this case and it just makes it difficult to say definitively, quantitatively the amount of unprosecuted rapists out there. Estimating is okay in my book when it isn't far out there and the methods are transparent.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Jan 8, 2013 -> 03:44 PM) The teams letting them interview may not think so. You think Mike McCoy could be a little distracted by this when he has a game plan to implement. Now what if he interviewed every day last week and this week? Interviewing them for s***s and giggles will make a GM look bad. They can only interview once per week, on a day and place approved by the coach's current team.

QUOTE (Joxer_Daly @ Jan 8, 2013 -> 01:39 PM) Interesting. When you say "hail from", was he actually born there himself or just that the family's origins were there. Yeah, it's near Limerick alright. A small enough spot, as you say. Amazing it never came up in conversation all these years. You must've been absolutely buzzing when you found out. The baseball player was born in Chicago. His father (we call him "Grandpa Finny" though he's my great-great grandfather) was born and raised in Cappamore and was a prize fighter who fought in Chicago and the surrounding areas. http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/bfinuc.htm I came across this picture of Clare playing for some team in Minneapolis: http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff417/...ps2ed6ae12.jpeg And here he is, behind the plate in Pasadena for the ChiSox: Anyways, I suppose it doesn't accomplish much to know these things but it makes me proud regardless. The story everyone tells at the Finucane family reunions was about the prize fighter, so I never realized there was someone with a connection to a sport (and team) much closer to my heart. The kicker is that he was supposedly a Cubs fan

QUOTE (Joxer_Daly @ Jan 8, 2013 -> 03:56 PM) Interesting stuff, though, all the same; the evolution of aspects of the game. What would the feeling on here be - does more homers equate to a more interesting spectacle? I find myself attracted to the idea of the focus being on skill and strategy. Maybe that's just because I'm reading about the victorious Hitless Wonders of 1906 at the moment. Generally speaking, it seems that the average baseball fan is brought in by the big boppers. Folks don't necessarily like blowouts or what would be the equivalent of two American football teams running up the scores on each other, but the more home runs the merrier. During the steroid era when home run records were being routinely threatened, baseball was getting much more scrutiny and interest from people that don't necessarily consider baseball an important sport to follow than it does now (at least IMO). A common critique of the sport from people that are not fans or not big fans is that "nothing happens." It moves slow, scoring is often not frequent, etc. Nothing breaks up that inaction better than a home run. In general, folks don't appreciate a well pitched at bat or even a strikeout unless they actually like baseball unconditionally. You can see how soccer isn't big in the USA -- it has the two things Americans don't like: very low scoring and ties. Hockey only barely survives because people like big hits and fights.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 8, 2013 -> 12:20 PM) What are the odds smokey the bear is between us and an explosion of camp fires. What about we encourage states to have 1 quarter of phys ed cover outdoor education. Seems worthwhile. That would cost significantly more than the proposed cut costs. May improve efficacy, but not efficiency. You're looking at many teacher hires, supply purchases, curriculum research, etc. On the note of cost cutting that refuses to happen, the defense budget summed up in charts. After seeing that, you may realize that we don't have a spending problem, we have a military spending problem.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 8, 2013 -> 04:20 PM) Slate links to RAINN's data, but I have no idea what data Enliven was using. http://theenlivenproject.com/the-challenge-of-data/

QUOTE (Joxer_Daly @ Jan 8, 2013 -> 01:49 AM) That's a very cool thing to find out. Also, he and the rest of that part of my family hail from Cappamore, Ireland! Apparently that is in the general vicinity of Limerick, though it appears to be a really small and rather isolated community from Google Maps.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 7, 2013 -> 07:12 PM) It's the most under-reported serious crime As I've gotten close to many women through friendship, dating, work, etc...it is astonishing how many have been victims of some sort of sexual assault. I can think of three girls within my circle of friends that lost their virginity via rape. None of them made attempts to bring their rapists to justice. One of them doesn't have a clue who the perpetrators were. Even the assaults that aren't like the horror film depictions are often life shaping events.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Jan 8, 2013 -> 08:58 AM) RGIII has a short self life no matter what, Cousins and Shanny may work pretty well with one another. If so, that's a hell of a draft.

Just found out that my great-great uncle, Clarence (Billy, Clare) Finucane played with the White Sox during their ST in Pasadena in 1938. He also played for a few minor league affiliates. We have some pictures at home of him wearing the big league club's uni and stuff at home. Real cool and I can't believe I didn't know it, proud to be a Sox fan

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 7, 2013 -> 03:48 PM) Someone really overplayed their hand... Bob Klapisch ‏@BobKlap Told Scott Boras asked #Yankees last month if they'd consider taking Rafael Soriano back on a 1-yr deal. Request flatly denied. Only Scott Boras can make teams ask for more years

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Jan 7, 2013 -> 09:03 AM) I recently bought a new Smart TV with apps like Netflix and Amazon Instant Video built in. So, after signing up for the free month of Prime and Netflix I've been watching movies that I just never rented. Limitless was pretty enjoyable. I never had a desire to see it, but I was pleasantly surprised. I also watched a half-decent horror movie called The Pact. Oh, and I had re-watch Piranha (the one with Elizabeth Shue and Jerry O-Connell...not the horrible sequel 3DD). That movie is awesome. I enjoyed Limitless as well. I work for a dietary supplement company and our focus/memory enhancement products got a ton more interest. For about a year, that general category of product in the industry exploded. We're now discontinuing some of ours because of how precipitously that interest fell when people found out that we haven't yet created NZT.

37 Congressmen voted against Sandy aid despite asking for relief in their own states/districts

Sounds like he's probably not having issues, but they have to be tempted to have both Q and Santiago on the Opening Day roster. You can play it safe with John while figuring out who your fifth starter is by having a 2-4 start tryout. This is assuming we don't move Gavin.