Balta1701

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 29, 2013 -> 05:42 PM) You do realize that if it was today Germany would call the Jews "terrorists", "enemies", etc. Im not sure why it matters what the pre-text for killing civilians is. If Germans said they were killing Jews for trying to overthrow the govt, then its okay? No intervention because thats just a civil war? And so if Germany just used chemical weapons on the Jews in ghettos, that wouldnt be a problem either, because thats not a concentration camp? This is going beyond absurd. Either you protect people from regimes that kill them, or you dont. There is no "Well if the conditions are perfect then maybe well get involved." That line of thinking is what led to more than half the jews in the world being eradicated. ITS NOT OUR PROBLEM!!! To play your game, if the Jews also had an army and were regularly massacring German civilians, would you support their elimination as well?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 29, 2013 -> 05:37 PM) I find it interesting that the white house was claiming that it was a "slam dunk" that Assad was behind the chemical weapons attack but are now backtracking (along with with the British). Why the need to rush that judgment before all the facts were known? The AP published descriptions of some intercepts a day or two ago that made it seem like it was definitely government forces who launched this attack, but as soon as it was realized what happened the higher-ups were screaming "Why did you do this!". Basically it seems like no one is in control of anything and it's entirely possible that Assad himself did not order the attack even though the use of chemical weapons by his forces is an absolute slam dunk. That also should illustrate the difficulty of doing anything in response...how do you conduct a revenge strike in this case? You can't kill the people who launched the assault if they're lower level soldiers, you can't attack the weapons themselves without dispersing them and killing a lot more people, if you attack Assad's forces you're choosing sides so you better be willing to continue fighting on that side but we're not willing to do that.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 29, 2013 -> 05:30 PM) So how does it account for concentration camps? Declaring a full scale war on Germany didn't stop that. In fact, it sped it up. They realized they only had so much time and so they happily diverted resources from the war effort, such as the trains, to make sure that work was done.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 29, 2013 -> 02:37 PM) I don't see how any of that justifies not paying the athletes, though. Wasn't trying to make that case, just wanted to make it clear that these programs aren't necessarily pouring in money when everything is counted. In some ways it's the Red Queen phenomenon; you have to run as fast as you can just to stay in the same place. If you're a major state school and you don't have a sports program competing in a major conference, you're at a major loss in competing for students because those students grew up watching your competition for 3 hours a week on saturday or filling out their name in the NCAA tournament brackets. That's one of the places where it really counts for these programs; the other is in alumni outreach.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 29, 2013 -> 02:35 PM) http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/colle...sidies/2142443/ http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/schools/finances/ OSU made $17mil last year. Most Big10 schools either break even or make a slight profit. As I stated, typically those numbers do not count the cost of the stadium or bonds on the stadium, which are considered university resources, among the many other things on campus they may use.

Professor Bruce Murray, co-founder of the Planetary Society and former director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 29, 2013 -> 01:23 PM) So we only save those who are fortunate enough to get out? Leave the rest to their own devices? That just doesnt sit right with me. I dont believe its an acceptable solution. But I will admit that I am likely more interventionist than others, even if it is means intervening on behalf of people who may one day want to kill me. "Save as many people as you possibly can" sits better with me.

QUOTE (SexiAlexei @ Aug 29, 2013 -> 01:26 PM) Most of the major schools make all their money on Football and Men's Basketball. They then have to use the money they make there to fund their other programs. How many people pay to go see women's field hockey? I'd bet not enough to fund the team. So that money comes from the money the school makes from Football and Basketball. This is actually much more complicated than how you present it here. It's generally believed that the largest programs (Ohio State, Alabama, Texas) do in fact make money on their football teams overall, but the bookkeeping is very complicated because of issues like stadium construction and upkeep which in many places have been paid for out of bonds or construction fees taken out by the state or the school. For example, I have a giant, 100,000 person stadium sitting outside my window that gets used literally 6 times per year. That's an enormous stadium cost that someone has paid for, and that cost for most schools isn't shown in the yearly net revenue for football teams. The cost of things like workout facilities, offices, buildings on campus that are used by the people, those things are taken up in many cases by being part of the campus. But, there's a counterpoint also...it's hard to put an exact price on the alumni relations and loyalty that the sports programs bring. They're free marketing for the school, and they're a great way to make alums give money to the school as well. That money doesn't get counted as revenue for the school and the marketing of having millions of people watching a game involving the school is almost impossible to put a dollar amount on.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 29, 2013 -> 01:03 PM) So what? I dont really get where you are going with this. You act outraged that 100k people are dead, then you turn around and say that bad things can happen with interference. At some point you need to make a decision and stand by it. Bad things are going to happen, no matter what we do, no matter how good our intentions may be. But you cant let the possibility of bad things dissuade you from doing what you believe is right. Now that is up to every individual, if you dont think its right to interfere, thats your call. And the decision we should make is to stay the f*** out of Syria and pump a fair amount of money into humanitarian aid to help the refugees. Hell, figure out the exact amount that would be spent on the bombing campaign and send that money; it'll save 20x the number of lives.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 29, 2013 -> 12:59 PM) I dont know where that line is. I do think evidence of chemical weapons being used against civilians is probably a "strong case", considering that weve attacked countries just because they allegedly had chemical weapons. And that worked out incredibly well.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 29, 2013 -> 12:39 PM) I dont know Im kind of sick of the defeatist attitude. Just because bad things have happened in the past, doesnt mean that they will happen in the future. You cant let people be purposefully murdered just because there may be some collateral damage if you try and stop it. We get to worked up about looking through crystal balls to try and guess what will happen. Sometimes you just need to do the right thing, and then let the chips fall where they may. You may not always be the hero, but it doesnt mean you shouldnt try. Maybe we are damned if we do and damned if we dont, but id rather be damned and do. We've let 100,000 people already be murdered in that country. So yes, we can let it happen.

Yup, pretty much spot-on.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 28, 2013 -> 05:15 PM) All it takes is one guy with the ability. Saddam targeted Jerusalem with Scuds during the Gulf War for example. It has also been targeted in past terror campaigns. You realize that the word "Targeted" and "Scud" are like "productive" and "Congress" right? You shoot them off "west" and they land where they're going to land. The V-2 was probably more accurate.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 28, 2013 -> 04:51 PM) So whats the violation the led to a half game? Without any other knowledge of the situation, I think the appropriate response is: "Next question".

QUOTE (SexiAlexei @ Aug 28, 2013 -> 03:40 PM) What the heck is that? Either he took money and should be suspended, or he did nothing wrong... Why 1/2 a game? I browsed the ESPN article but I didn't see anything that said why he had a 1/2 game penalty. Source: Manziel gets 1/2 game penalty

Manziel suspended for the first 1/2 of the game against Rice.

Morgan Freeman reads the definition of the word twerking:

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 28, 2013 -> 01:55 PM) I'm much more excited for this season than I have been for any season in the Derrick Rose era. This is the first time pre-season in the Lebron-Miami era that I don't think Miami is going to win it all and I really think the Bulls can be the one to dethrone them. I'm hoping actual basketball can get me back to that point. I feel like I'd have given a 5 minute standing ovation during the introductions for a Rose return in March, and I feel like I'll give a polite golf clap today.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 28, 2013 -> 11:38 AM) There was nobody that was more pissed off with Derrick than I was last year but damn, I'm getting so excited to watch him play again in a few months. I'm ready for basketball. I'm the opposite. I'm much more "Blah" about the Bulls than I have been the last 2 seasons even though I think they have a legit shot. #thereturn totally drained me.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 28, 2013 -> 10:04 AM) He has 16 home runs this year. Here are his 8 longest 476 460 459 442 433 425 421 421 He doesn't hit a ton of them, but when he gets a hold of balls, they aren't cheapies He plays in San Francisco for a large chunk of his games right? Is it possible to hit a cheapie there?

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Aug 27, 2013 -> 11:00 PM) I had to spend yesterday watching the 3 major news networks coverage of Syria for a newsroom shift to do research. I don't know what's been discussed but... China and Russia will frown on an international coalition against Syria, but will do nothing if it happens. Military generals were meeting in Amman to discuss such a coalition. The Assad regime is shady as f***. Lots of US congressmen are worried about the chemical weapons making their way to US soil somehow. A lot agree a precision strike on chemical weapon caches is the best plan. 4 Navy Destroyers in range, two aircraft carriers could be there in days. I'd say the US needs to wait for a coalition to happen if it does before doing anything. I agree this is the best plan. Now as soon as we can transport Harry Potter in and have him magically make them vanish with zero collateral damage, and then use spock to mind meld with everyone to figure out where the remaining caches are, we're set.

6 IP, 6 hits, 0 walks, 4 ks for Thaddius Lowry the day after I met him

QUOTE (danman31 @ Aug 27, 2013 -> 07:51 PM) I think the Sox are just trying to figure out what they have with Semien. He was such a surprise this season that they probably just want more evaluation time. Moreso they also need to see what he can do against near MLB competition, because it will impact whether they take offers on Alexei this offseason.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 27, 2013 -> 05:27 PM) The other consideration is that these guys CAN stagnate, but so long as someone believes they are still a rising star, they will still have value and they can still capitalize on that value. But if they want to compete in 2015, the only way they're going to turn that value into performance on the field is to trade most, if not all of these guys.