Balta1701

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 02:57 PM) Sure - but to vote I had to "like" that facebook page, which I couldn't bring myself to do. This is where a "Spam" facebook account, like a "spam" email account, can be useful.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 02:54 PM) Why isn't this Micah Johnson guy in the clubhouse and in the lineup? He's had less than a month above A-ball?

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 02:34 PM) How about we tax all these endowments sitting out there untaxed, like the Ford Foundation and stuff. And churches too I hope?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 02:10 PM) I need a product that can monitor and save AIM messages specifically. That is the IM client that the energy trading folks use. I don't remember where it is but there is a way to turn on logging in that program, if that helps.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 02:13 PM) Not really that contradictory. There is plenty of wasteful spending, especially at the Federal level, that could be re-routed to mental health services. Like I said. People say that "Oh there's plenty of wasteful spending". I point out "Great, when budget cuts happen, mental health services is at the top of the list". It's happening in state after state, across the country, to the tune of billions of dollars since the crash. The cuts are everywhere. In your state, in your city, regardless of where your state and city are. This is how it works. Mental Health services are exactly what gets cut when you insist that waste needs to be cut out. And then when that gets pointed out, people stick their heads in the ground and scream about the other unidentified waste that they know in their hearts must be there.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 02:09 PM) No, this is what spineless, crooked politicians mean by waste. I am sure that most citizens of either political spectrum would find different things to call waste and cut. It simply doesn't even compute how contradictory the position is that we need all these new mental health services and we have to cut spending everywhere.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 02:06 PM) 200$ per person per what? Per decade? Per year? Per month? How many more bills will they increase or tax to pay for stuff they've stolen from or squandered away? My water bill have quadruped the last 3 years. Has my water service gotten any better? No. And will it? No. This really is impressive. "We need mental health care to prevent these tragedies". "Here's the bill" NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 02:04 PM) Yes, because it's my fault my city/county/state robbed the pension system blind, and now they have to find a way to pay it back...so my taxes should go up 3000% to compensate their robbery. They're gutting these services because they never paid into the pension system which they promised to do, or squandered it on risky investments (which they weren't supposed to be doing), and how they're going to lean on the private citizens to repay it. They have taken steps to get rid of guns, and what's it resulted in? Nothing. How many guns have they bragged about confiscating off the streets the last few years, thousands upon thousands? How's that murder rate doing? So no, NOT fine. Like I said. You're fine with saying how terrible it is that mental health services aren't getting the funding they need, but it's someone else's problem. Mental Health Services are at the bottom of the totem pole. They have no advocates. When you guys talk about cutting waste, this is what gets cut. This is what you mean by waste.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 02:01 PM) No, but I am prepared to sacrifice some foreign aid to help pay for it. Like, all of it. Oh, and here's actual numbers. "In 2005, a total of $135 billion was spent on behavioral health services in the United States." Medicaid is the largest block of that, and it doesn't count prison expenses. The US is currently spending about $50 billion a year on total foreign aid, economic and military. However, more than $15 billion of that is going to countries we recently invaded.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 02:01 PM) No, but I am prepared to sacrifice some foreign aid to help pay for it. Like, all of it. I see. So no more guns for Israel?

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 01:59 PM) ...and I'm already sacrificing enough. My taxes go up every year, in the form of housing, from local, to county, to state, to federal, in addition to outright tax increases, the implementation of higher sticker fees, speed trap cameras designed to milk money from people in artificially low speed zones, etc. Every year they raise taxes on this, fees on that, and every year their deficit find a way to grow more. Show me results with what you have now, after years of successive property tax increases, and THEN I'd be happy to pitch in more, but that's not what they do. They raise taxes, nothing changes, nothing improves, and then they raise them again. And again. So in other words, you think it'd be great if mental health services were improved, but instead your state is gutting them, and given the choice you prefer that. So fine. You refuse to pay for the mental health plan you advocated. Can we take steps to get rid of the guns then?

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 01:55 PM) I don't thinik anyone here said to not spend more on mental health. Nice try. Are you willing to pay a substantial tax increase to do so?

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 11:37 AM) That seems obvious to me. Did it really need to go to a Federal appeals court? Yes

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 12:35 PM) How about no. 90% taxes? I'd be on the streets, as would everyone here. That'd give me about 200$ every few weeks to spend on everything if they taxed us at 90%. But, I see you thought this out. You're an Illinois resident, right? The State of Illinois has cut about $60 million a year from its mental health programs since 2009. And they're getting larger every year. Since we're noting the lack of available facilities for mental health, I assume you would join us in supporting a $200/person additional tax in order to pay for additional prison and mental health facilities, enough to overcome the cuts since the crash and build a solid foundation for additional programs. Right?

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 01:29 PM) Unless they changed the article ,it does mentio the White Sox have payroll flexibility after the Peavy and Rios trades. When you see these scouting reposrts it makes me wonder if they purposely point out his flaws since they work for teams that might have an interest in Abreu in order to try to keep the bidding down. I expect him to get more than Cespedes or Puig because there is a lack of quality 1st basemen in the minors and also in the Majors. I would be surprised if the bidding doesn't reach $9-10M a year. I've said this before but worth repeating, Stone and Hawk were discussing Abreu on the air the day after it was learned he'd defected and Stone said quite clearly something along the lines of "I think the White Sox will be interested if the bidding is in the range of $60 million". I am still skeptical that he would say that without having been told by someone else he could say such a thing, particularly given how specific the number was. It sounded as much like an opening bid as anything possibly could.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Sep 17, 2013 -> 11:27 PM) What are the consequences of leaving it up to people themselves to decide what is best for themselves? I think we should almost never even ask that question. Murder is illegal. Doesn't matter if you shoot, stab, beat, drunkenly run over, shove into railroad tracks or zap them with a laser... if something you did kills someone at the least its manslaughter and at most its murder. Both of those things are crimes. People will commit these crimes no matter what, and really the best defense you have against them is vigilance and preparedness; not the damn government. Banning stuff people use to kill each other is just redundant, and also prohibits people from exercising free will within the boundaries of the law. You do realize the "police" are a form of government right? Again, this is nothing but a crappy "slippery slope" argument, and it's really a terrible one too. Cars kill a lot of people, know what we do? We enact laws requiring manufactures to make them safer even if they increase some costs because they save lives. We then require significant amounts of training, licensing, regular testing of capabilities, insurance, and even keep a registry of everyone who owns a car in each state. Garage door openers are killing people? We don't ignore that fact and yell "freedom!", we figure out what it is about that door opener that keeps killing people and either legislate it away or the manufacturer is bankrupted because they're making a product that keeps killing people. The idea that being able to carry a loaded gun down the streets makes life worth living is something I'll never understand. You call me a state worshipping shilll...I think that "life isn't worth living if I can't have my guns" makes you much more gun-worshipping than anything.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 08:51 AM) This was another guy who either 1) fell through the cracks, or 2) was ignored by everyone around him because we all love giving people an equal chance, even when they have a history of no self control. In this case it was 2, because he had a documented history of mental illness. This is a guy who's heard voices in his head at times, suffered mental breakdowns, and was actively being "treated" for mental illness...and yet he was still walking the streets. We want it both ways, and this is what happens when you get it both ways. When you're hearing voices in your head that's beyond some minor mental illness, that's pretty severe, and such a person need not be wandering among citizens. So if you want to know why? Because, the system/the people in that system allowed it. And now a number of people are dead or injured, because we wanted to let a loon walk among us as if he was "normal". Oh, and I'm sure he was a real nice guy, and a devoutly peaceful . In this case, I believe he was called a "devout Buddhist", which means he didn't really know dick about Buddhism, and wasn't devout at all. You wrote this entire post without adding the phrase "and could buy as many guns as he wanted".

QUOTE (ChiSoxFan05 @ Sep 17, 2013 -> 09:54 PM) Thanks. Sometimes I just prefer the classic fielding percentage. FP just leave out te biggest thing you want to know. If a guy has terrible range, he won't make many errors because he doesn't get to tough balls. Errors need to be taken into account but I'll take the guy with 2x as many errors if he makes a couple hundred extra plays per year.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Sep 17, 2013 -> 09:23 PM) Oh they'll come pouring out. I think you may have missed that I was pointing out the irony of using the term "bleeding hearts" after this latest massacre of the week. When there are actual hearts bleeding.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Sep 17, 2013 -> 09:23 PM) Oh they'll come pouring out. You've yet to really address the argument I'm making about over-legislation though. You misidentified it (almost purposefully) as me saying were creating a slippery slope but the entire post revolved around how were well past that point and have started going full on nanny state through what are now sizeable increments. I just wonder what kind of freedom you think Americans should have? Not what you want to tell other people not to do (you do LOVE insinuating that you just know better), but what should we be allowed to be? Say? Own? Do? I'm going to answer your question with a question...what is te consequence of allowing people to own things, say things, do things? If there's a major consequence to the people around you and society, then maybe its not the best idea. But you then have to take into account other things like enforcement costs as well. I can't imagine the enforcement costs of getting rid of the guns in the hands of everyone today, but the costs of getting rid of assault rifles, high capacity magazines, arresting lunatics who think they need to carry a concealed weapon, not letting a guy who shot a gun at a car 10 years ago keep buying guns until he kills a dozen people, those all are higher reward. Unfortunately the costs of getting rid of them all would be huge, so for now we just have to tolerate the hundreds of kids who die in accidents and the tens of thousands of suicided per year, but there would be a big benefit to more education and stricter licensing on that frot so maybe a few kids won't shoot their 4 year old siblings by accident this week. Oh and since I was asked about new laws, that reminds me of the law in Florida banning doctors from mentioning how an unlocked gun in the house is a health hazard for children, because we need to make sure the kids find the guns. It's the only way.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFan05 @ Sep 17, 2013 -> 09:47 PM) I'm new to all the sabermetric stats. Are UZR and WAR and all of this stuff really indicative of how they're performing in the field. (#TWTW but not really) UZR does a pretty good job of evaluating how a player does in the field, positive UZR means a player is above average fielding, a really good fielder will have a UZR of +10 or more. It varies a lot from year to year with players though so you have to be careful about how you interpret it, but with Beckham UZR agrees with the eye test, he's not getting to as muh as he did 2 years ago. War tries to rate a players overall impact, taking the position they play, their defense, their hitting, and their baserunning all into account. Again pretty good but you have to decide sometimes how you compare things.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 17, 2013 -> 09:16 PM) Is Beckham's defense this year considered below average? He certainly seems to have regressed big time in the field. I checked the other day and his UZR was about 1.5, so basically just slightly above average. The stats definitely show him regressing and getting to quite a few fewer balls this year.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Sep 17, 2013 -> 08:52 PM) CCW is undoubtedly what he's referring to, even if for the past 90 years now we've seen a steady erosion of the 2A for the sake of compromise. For now though America-hating government worshipers seem to be stopped dead in their tracks, finally gun rights people have woken up to the scheme and are unlikely to accept any "deal" from the bleeding hearts. And congratulations on your great victory at the Navy Yard too. I'm sure there were even a few bleeding hearts for you.

QUOTE (Tex @ Sep 17, 2013 -> 05:01 PM) ?? I can not think of any gun laws being repealed. IIRC at no time in the last 15 years have we had fewer gun laws than the year before. We may have seen a slow down in the rate of new gun laws, but I don't believe we have had fewer. Unless you are talking about slight shifts such as certain weapons being allowed, when they previously have been illegal. But even in that nuanced area it seems that we have continued to reduce the types of allowable weapons. At the federal level the assault weapons ban expired as well. That's on top of the enormous number of restricions on the ATF so that they can't track illegal guns, prevention of anyone from doing research or collecting basic data on their use. At the state level it's been embarrassing. Not just concealed carry, open carry, loosening restrictions on training and background check, taking away the rights of private property owners to have employees and customers not bring guns onto their property, stand your ground, removal of liability for accidents, etc. the dismantling of state laws has really helped spur the sales surge over the past few years. Oh and the right to carry guns into national parks. Thankfully we did that otherwise that 3 year old shot in Yellowstone last week might be alive.

“@scottmerkin: Ventura on Hector: "The last few starts he's had, he just looks tired... (More)..” “@scottmerkin: More Ventura: "Pitching as many innings as he has this year, just give him a rest and see what he does next time out."” “@scottmerkin: I would expect Hector to face Cleveland. White Sox also have Leesman and Axelrod as possible final week spot-starters”