Balta1701

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 11:04 AM) Because people who can find jobs they don't want like to admit it... This can't be cited or sourced because if they admitted it, they'd lose their unemployment benefits. Considering that, unlike every recession since the depression, we allowed a whole large chunk of people's unemployment benefits to dry up before the return of anything resembling full employment...if people are sitting at home unemployed in this recession and they actually received unemployment benefits...those are long gone. Those ended, for that group, 2 years ago.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 11:03 AM) Don't be. I bet every last person here knows a 20 something that's not working BECAUSE they can't find the job THEY WANT. They can find jobs...just not the exact job or pay they're looking for...so they CHOOSE to not work instead. I'm one person and I can produce 5 people I know doing this right now. I'd bet you could name a few yourself...and so can everyone else here. So please, let's not pretend otherwise. And do you know how many 20somethings I can name who are working their asses off in school or in positions where they are way underpaid because that's all that they could get?

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 10:47 AM) That's the thing...we aren't attributing ALL poverty to lack of personal responsibility. We are ONLY talking about that which is caused by lack of personal responsibility in today's society. I, at least, am talking about a micro level component here, and you are expanding it to a very macro level. Nothing ever gets solved by trying to take a macro level look at something...not everyone has the same opportunities, not everyone has the same station in life. This post went from my discussing job opportunities with people and trying to enter that market with a useful skillset to somehow becoming something of a discussion of poverty...I wasn't discussing poverty in the first place. I was merely discussing job opportunities...and the fact that they exist IF you do something the world needs. 1. What gets solved by the lecture about how people need to buck up and take more responsibility? 2. It's worth pointing out this graph...of job openings versus applicants, to note that thanks to the destruction of the economy, we still have more than 2x as many applicants per job as there was before the implosion. Job opportunities do exist...but you can have a ton of great skills, marketable ones, and still have extreme difficulty in this economy.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 10:46 AM) I'm still shocked by those decisions. If there is any coach in the NFL who would go for it there, it's Belichek. Not sure what he was thinking. My guess was that the conditions really had him spooked... But those same conditions would make it really hard to pin a team with a punt, and if it was hard for your team to throw one way, it might be easier for the other team to throw when you punt.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 10:10 AM) Honestly, you and Balta are the ones that are always assigning blame to some larger cause, rather than actually expecting people to show some kind of responsibility on their own. If we had a safety net that was actually somewhat adequate, if the weak safety net of 20 years ago hadn't been being slowly dismantled since then...then you might have a point. But with as weak as our safety net actually is, when people start saying how wasteful it is, or how it makes people lazy and should be cut further, then yes, I'm always going to be on the side of pointing out how we haven't addressed the larger issues. When I weight things like "people having to choose between housing costs and health care costs" versus "people need to be coddled less by their parents", I find the former to be a much more serious, systemic problem, and I find that people who focus on the latter do so because they are finding excuses not to deal with the real societal issue that would take time and money and effort to fix. They're, to borrow a term..."Wussing out" from attacking the real problem and focusing on the one that takes no effort or sacrifice from them to correct.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 09:52 AM) Not after that they won't be. The problem with banning that type of hit is...if you're in a position where the running back or receiver is established, the RB/Receiver have the opportunity to drop the top of their helmet towards you as well...and if you try good tackling technique, with your head up, in that case, now you as the defender are in the vulnerable position.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 09:54 AM) DeWayne Wise had a .700 OPS with the Sox. If that is catching lightning in a bottle, then Hahn needs to shoot a little higher on the electric totem pole, perhaps even attempting to harvest a thunderstorm or hiring Zeus as a special consultant. There's virtually no harm in signing a guy for the small amount the Sox did, and Wise is a great bench player to have. There's nothing wrong with letting him be the backup outfielder while Danks continues to get regular playing time. I could be wrong on this, but I believe Jordan Danks is out of minor league options.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 09:39 AM) Well, we agree on that. I like living in a country that will help you back onto your feet when you need it, or a country that affords our young people the opportunity "to find themselves and what they want out of life", because if they were born in the wrong country, there is no such opportunity for anything like that. If used properly, the system can be your shoulder to lean on when you need it most. Unfortunately, that shoulder can also become your ability to "wuss your way out", and instead of trying to get back onto your feet...simply leaning on it, because it's easier than the alternative. Like I said earlier...If you're building a bridge...you don't decide "If I put a net beneath it, some people might jump just to see what it's like" and decide you're not putting up a safety net. A good safety net is going to always have freeloaders. You can take steps to minimize it, and you should. Work requirements for TANF (which, yes, exist). etc. But you still put the net there, because you're better off if anyone who falls...gets caught before impact.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 09:38 AM) The Ricketts have offered to pay the $300 million out of their own pocket, as long as the city eases up restrictions on advertising, night games, concerts, street fests, etc. The neighborhood has such a stranglehold on the Cubs' nuts it's not even funny. Is $300 million enough to bring that stadium up to code? (Serious Q?)

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 09:34 AM) I never said it makes them wussies. But if you squander opportunities, it's your own fault. Very true. But you know another thing that also makes us better people and makes us a better country? When people squander opportunities...they can get more. Oh sure it can cost them dearly, and it does so. Sometimes people go pretty far down the rabbit hole before they come back. Sometimes people are lost forever down it. But we're all better off when a person can spend 20 years as an addict, as a lost soul, and still come back and become a productive member of society once they deal with their demons. Or when a person who decides to live with his or her friends after college is given the chance to figure out what is important to them. That's not making excuses. That's life. And it is not an indictment of the American system, it's not making people wussies, it is a strength.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 09:28 AM) Then they have other choices to make, don't they. That's not a question, it's a statement. I made the most of my opportunities, when I could have just as easily squandered them. Some people have it better, some people have it worse. And life isn't fair, but it goes on with or without your excuses, or your permission. But this entire thread is taking it a step further. Yes, some people get more opportunities and squander them. You know what? That doesn't make them wussies. That doesn't mean society is going down the toilet. You think there weren't 20-somethings who made bad decisions in the 20's, 30's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, and so on (omission intentional)? That somehow "OMG we're all doomed because people are making bad choices early in their lives" is a new phenomenon?

Solid

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 07:05 AM) In my actual career path, first job I accepted was a non-paying IT internship at city hall, downtown Chicago. Note I said NON paying. Great. Serious question in reply. How did you afford that? Savings? Parents helping? The ability to take an unpaid internship and still survive, be able to afford to have a roof over your head and food in your stomach without a paycheck, is a serious benefit that a lot of the people being lectured about being wussies...simply don't have. What would have happened to you if you'd gotten sick? Did you have health insurance at the time?

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 20, 2013 -> 08:24 PM) They also don't have jobs because they have a useless skill set. A skill set most of them actually chose. Again, nonsense. The number of people with skills appropriate for the available jobs is huge...because the number of available jobs collapsed when people lost all their money.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 20, 2013 -> 08:21 PM) i honestly didn't know we were having a discussion about the economy. i brought it up because that's an easy-to-cite excuse for why 20-somethings don't have jobs. 20 somethings don't have jobs because the economy imploded. Not because they were turned into wussies because they weren't bullied enough by someone or because their parents didn't criticize them enough. And we're having this conversation on "the economy" because people are saying how "oh my American Idol guests look silly" and pretending it's somehow a symptom of a larger, unidentified problem. I asked "what problem" and got the economy as an answer.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 20, 2013 -> 08:17 PM) again, what argument are you HAVING here? That maybe the problem with the economy isn't that we're not mean enough to kids, or that our society is somehow becoming a bunch of "Wussies". That maybe...that isn't even happening at all, but people just feel good about calling everyone else wussies. That maybe the economic problem, for example, which you cited, comes from a much more systematic exploitation of the political system.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 20, 2013 -> 08:14 PM) i agree with both sides on this, and both sides are at fault. stupid people should have more personal responsibility, and the government shouldn't let it be so easy to take advantage of those stupid people. Of course, the one group that we never call on for responsibility are the investors who dismantled the rules about loans, actually dumped tens of trillions of dollars into the loans, then walked away rich after being bailed out by the government. They're the true heroes.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 20, 2013 -> 08:08 PM) This is my personal observation. These days it seems the default is, "no, not my kids...they'd never!", when the fact is, yes, they would...and probably did. If you've never failed at anything, it's because you never really tried anything. I know...your not fat because you eat garbage...your fat because, somehow, someway, McDonald's forced you too. Or the people you eat lunch with eat at bad places. I mean, it's not like you have any actual choice. And of course, the personal responsibility only falls upon the people you want to heap scorn on, not on the people who spend billions of dollars marketing that crap, getting the taxpayers to subsidize it, and so forth.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 20, 2013 -> 08:08 PM) the fact that - beyond the bad economy - kids have grown up to have no idea how to take care of themselves, and as Y2HH said, we've become a country of excuses. the first thing a parent says to a kid that fails? "it's not your fault!" well... yeah... usually it is. No, the bad economy has nothing to do with that and the suggestion is quite ludicrous. The bad economy is what happens when the financial industry inflates a $10 trillion dollar bubble based on enormous, systemic fraud and then that bubble implodes.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 20, 2013 -> 07:46 PM) there's nothing about me that qualifies as "big time". I'm a struggling actor in NYC. lol also this post is a bit incoherent. you're arguing that the mentality Y2HH and I were talking about doesn't contribute to the problem? this overprotective pampering of kids that's going on these days? What problem?

One commonality amongst all the people who are calling everyone else in society "Wussies"... Note how it's all just an argument based on how they feel. Note the lack of data. They know that society must be getting weaker...because they're big time. They're strong. They never need help with anything. And so they have the right to call everyone else out on their failings. And there's totally no positive emotional reaction gained by knowing that you're better than all those other wussies.

That was the loudest bang of a football off an upright I've ever heard. Was wondering why they were setting off fireworks for a second.

Former Bulls Player/coach Lindsey Hunter will take over the Suns coaching spot.

Te'o slated to appear on Katie Couric's talk show on Thursday.

QUOTE (soxfan49 @ Jan 20, 2013 -> 04:17 PM) Are you not allowed to look on your phone during a football game? He's too busy watching the 49ers come storming back