Balta1701

Was watching a much more personal basketball game, but Deng is apparently 4/8 from the field, 2/2 from 3, 4 rebounds in 15 minutes.

Great block Sheehey.

CMon IU, just make a basket.

Political Sci. Professor from Georgia:

Actually somewhat surprised the MVP race wasn't closer. 48/50 for Rodgers.

#1 is kinda good at this.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 07:33 PM) How the f*** does Cris Carter not make the Hall of Fame? All he ever did was catch touchdowns though... Anyway, Andre Reed belongs in there also. The NFL just never has enough slots. Everyone on that list belongs in.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 06:51 PM) MacPherson can actually play 3B, and he's got a bit of pop in his bat. He might actually be a pretty good bench guy for the Sox. He can't really play 3b well though. But with this roster setup and the lack of lefties off the bench, he might take that spot.

LU!

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 03:36 PM) Private schools seem top produce as good an education if not more, for less money per student than public schools. Why is that? Really, I'd love to see data on that one. Charter schools overall are just as hit and miss as public schools from everything I've seen.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 02:31 PM) Perhaps Tennessee could get more money from teachers by reducing the executives pay? Cut some from the admin budget, filter it down to the workers. No reason those CEO's should be paid so much. That's one where you won't get any disagreement from me...but then, I'd apply that same standard to "Any CEO", and then I'd get hit with either "Gotta retain top talent" or "Now that's class warfare!".

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 02:22 PM) I HAVE cut their pay in the past when things were rough. Right after 9/11 when my business volume dropped about 60%, everyone took a cut. You need to face reality. Why do you think teachers shouldn't feel the pain of a state with no money, just like the rest of the people? The state had NO MONEY. They were broke, in the red. Unlike the Feds, they can't just print up money or sell magic unicorn poop on Ebay to get some. You keep throwing tax cuts in here to try and muddy things up, as if I was first of all in favor of those, and also as if those were the sole reason that the concessions were made. You are wrong on both. Cuts were going to be made regardless, so your constant throwing around of tax cuts is a red herring. There was a choice, massive layoffs or a SMALL paycut and start paying a VERY SMALL portion of their very generous benefits package. WHich would you take if faced with a prospect of losing your job? As a result of the changes, the state is now in better financial shape, and almost all the districts that were underwater are not at break even or better. You also brought up earlier that despite our massive overall funding of education that a bulk of it seems to not make it down to the teacher level. I will agree with you there that the top layers are bloated beyond recognition on many areas and needs to be addressed. But those layers are also core Democratic constituencies, so good luck with that. Everyone took a cut in this case...except the high level taxpayers, who got a nice tax cut. Which contributed to the state being in the red and having no money. Maybe not the biggest reason, but you can't say "The state had NO MONEY" when they found money for tax cuts. But then, we demand teachers sacrifice, we demand workers sacrifice, but we never demand the rich sacrifice. And then, things improve for the state, but the "Emergency sacrifices" stay in place. Tennessee is doing this one right now. Massive cuts to the education budgets over the last 3 years, financial situation now improving, first thing that happens...tax cuts.

Yankee GM Brian Cashman's wife files for divorce, day after charges were filed against a woman for trying to extort him over an extramarital affair.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 02:15 PM) boo hoo And that's why education stinks in this country.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 02:13 PM) You must get a workout with all the moving you do. So, if you went back to your CEO days, and you told your employees they were out a thousand dollars a year or so for whatever reason, to cover some portion of the benefits they had before, but you told them "Hey, it's ok, it's not a benefit cut, you have nothing to worry about", it'd go over great, right?

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 02:12 PM) Wheter they cut taxes or not, the districts were still in the red, so money had to be saved somewhere. It was not all peaches and cream until some tax cut came along, the state, like almost all the rest, was floundering under massive debt brought on by idiotic representatives who caved in to union demands over and over again to create environments where the states just simply can't stay above water. Great, so it's an emergency measure. So therefore, there's no reason for the cuts now that the economy is improving, and the extra fees can be removed right? Because that's always how it goes, they won't spend the $ taken away from the workers on new tax cuts.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 02:10 PM) Benefits weren't curtailed at all, they just actually had to PAY something for them like the rest of the country. And asking them to pay 4% when most people who have insurance pay more than that is not asking a lot. So what's worse, having a job with insurance and paying 4%, or being unemployed with no insurance. Hmmmm. So the total financial benefits were cut.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 02:09 PM) Stop the presses. The gov't misallocates resources. Like when it cuts taxes.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 02:08 PM) That's because he was too busy moving the goal posts yet again with a lame hypothetical that he wasn't paying attention. I see, you don't like my comparison between cutting wages to cut the price of a product for no reason and cutting education funding to cut taxes for people who are already paying less than they should be, so it's clearly a lame hypothetical with me not paying attention.

If the Texas area does not get a near-record level of rainfall over the next few weeks, the current drought will effectively shut down rice production in that area. Rice production in the Texas area is a $600 million a year business that supports nearly 10k workers.

Fun.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 01:15 PM) That still doesn't change the fact that the post of yours I was referencing posed, at best, a terribly phrased hypothetical. Which was, however, exactly what a number of states have done, cut back on education spending, cut back on teacher benefits, and use that money to fund upper income tax cuts. The fact that your jaw drops at how silly the concept is would be exactly the point.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 12:27 PM) So basically you are saying every draft pick is extremely underpaid. Effectively, yes. That's why "Developing young talent" is so important for a successful team, because you have players that are outperforming their contracts.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 12:34 PM) The US pays the second most of all countries on education. Money is not the problem. This doesn't disagree with my previous statement.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 12:17 PM) Really. Theo's proprietary advanced metrics must see something in this 18 y.o. Cuban lefty with middling stuff. Dude, you're acting like KW signed him.