Balta1701

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 11:46 AM) Because next year the price for a similar talent will be severely discounted. But also less available because "outspending teams" for that talent will be near impossible.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 11:10 AM) i don't know, the US pays more for education than anyone and still 'bad results'. plus, what other job will these teachers get? teaching pays big time, compared to most professions, in the Obama economy. Also worth noting other data. The US spends a lot on education, but that doesn't make it to the teacher level. The US is in the middle of the pack in average teacher salary, and has to do more work (more student contact hours per year) than anywhere else in the OECD. The money that gets spent on education doesn't make it to the teacher level.

QUOTE (Felix @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 04:39 PM) Definitely. Certainly doesn't hurt that they've faced the 11th easiest schedule in the Eastern Conference this season (26th easiest overall), but they've done a good job handling injuries. If their schedule was a bit harder, it's pretty obvious they wouldn't be 19-6 right now, however. When your team is winning, injuries or not, there's no reason for any player to ever speak poorly of a coach. That was my main point. QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 04:54 PM) The thing against that is we have played more games than most teams while dealing with injuries and I think played the most road games in the league or close to it. QUOTE (Felix @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 05:52 PM) All valid points, but I've said this before and I'll say it again, I'd rather play 25 games against the Bobcats, Wizards, Pistons or Raptors than play 19 games against good competition. I didn't realize how lopsided the home/road stat was until KC wrote this: Even though the Bulls will be playing some tougher teams more, including the Heat, after next week they'll have a 2 to 1 home to road ratio left

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 11:10 AM) i don't know, the US pays more for education than anyone and still 'bad results'. plus, what other job will these teachers get? teaching pays big time, compared to most professions, in the Obama economy. People with Bachelor's degrees in this country have unemployment rates below 5% right now. Masters degree is below 4%.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 11:05 AM) It is still $7 million we are talking about. That doesn't change. The talent of Concepcion also doesn't change. You didn't get Bryce Harper, you got a 5th starter at best. We're really stretching terms here. Are you saying this is a guy who will put up a 6.00 ERA at best, a normal number for a 5th starter?

1 year, $9.5 mil to avoid arbitration for Garza.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 11:52 PM) No. But the way you posed the hypothetical Y2HH quoted was pretty dumb. Alpha Dog (presumably) wasn't running a non-profit, and he could charge whatever the market paid...a different set up than appropriating tax dollars. Oh, I see, so now you are acknowledging market forces do impact things. So if I then come back to the original claim that dramatically curtailing benefits and increasing workloads for teachers will wind up with worse quality teachers, where we have to play games like teaching standardized tests in order to deal with the fact that the well-qualified people don't go into that profession because it pays below market rates, everyone will agree with me. And, if an executive is doing that to cut taxes for people who won't spend the money anyway, then that would mean that executive is effectively sabotaging his state/organization's future.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 09:49 AM) Because obviously the solution is to charge double and provide less. And for teachers, the solution is to demand double and pay less.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 09:55 PM) Seriously??? Are you asking him why he wasn't a terrible business man who lowered his profits for no reason when the market wasn't demanding it?? You're comparing apples and oranges in the WORST way I've ever seen right here...a private company living in the black versus a tax payer run system running in the red, and you're questioning why he didn't give them pay cuts and lower his prices? BECAUSE IT WOULD MAKE NO f***ING SENSE TO DO SO. That's why. Whatever point you were attempting to make with this one fell flat. I have to believe you did this just to troll, because I know you are too smart to pose this question otherwise...and in that case, it worked... Troll. So say, if an executive were to try to slash the benefits of his workers while reducing revenue in other ways, you'd say that makes no sense and would make him a terrible executive.

QUOTE (SuperSteve @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 10:06 PM) It seems like teaching is a massively popular major in college with colleges creating a large number of new teachers every year. Supply and demand right? I know it's kind of cruel but you're worth what someone is willing to pay you. And yet, how many states have spent years trying to find cheap ways to "improve teacher quality" through testing or standardization or whatever. And how many states have shortages of well qualified teachers (not just the lower level ones) Supply and demand. We want to pay teachers on the cheap, we spend years trying to figure out why we can't attract high quality educators. But hey tax cuts!

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 09:42 PM) Just to reiterate, there is nothing wrong with the concept of paying for a pet. The best breeders rarely make tons of profits off of the animals they sell; they merely love raising well-bred animals and improving the quality and of the breed.just put the effort into making sure you know it is coming from a good breeder if you are going that way.

Small redemption for the Volcker rule fail.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 09:31 PM) I certainly wasnt intending to deter. I did just say that I rescued two bassets myself, but it is a reality of the situation. You should expect some work with rescued dogs, a lot of them are from bad situations and just need someone with patience. If you get a well trained rescued dog, you should consider yourself lucky My big issue is that a lot of those bad situations are the puppy mills that churn out the ones that are sold in so many places. So if you're not real careful about what you're buying, then it just makes the rescue situation worse. So I'm going for a rescue whenever I finally can own a place, I'll encourage rescues if possible, but then really make sure you check where you buy it from.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 09:18 PM) http://www.sportspickle.com/opinion/9843/w...-the-super-bowl Ozzie likes the Heat and Bulls. Eventually he'll have to choose.

Despite whatever was just said...please consider a rescue if you're even remotely willing.

QUOTE (SuperSteve @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 08:42 PM) Yep, too lazy on my iPad. I'll post to it shortly. Then I'll use the "even harder to type on iPhone" excuse rather than finding it. Really is interesting to me that te employment to population ratio never really recovered after the 2001 recession.

QUOTE (SuperSteve @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 06:59 PM) I could support a more progressive tax however I would want it to be accompanied by a true review of entitlements. I'm truly concerned about Medicaid and Medicare expenses. I think that's where our government falters. It seems like the folks in power see it as one or the other rather than a compromise using a combination of revenue increases (taxes) and spending responsibly (entitlement and defense cuts). Jim Bianco's research (Bianco Researh/Arbor Research) had some tremendous commentary on the Buffet Tax off a WSJ article that expectied the Buffet Tax to raise $40b over ten years. That's just a drop in the bucket. I'm gonna call you on a misread here, ecause everything I've found says the so called buffet rule, aka amt2: electric boogaloo would raise $40-$50 billion per year, not per decade. Here's a far rightwing link. Can you add a link saying why that estimate is wrong by a factor of 10?

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 07:58 PM) i never thought of them as a legit charity. They definitely contribute a smaller fraction of their contributions to actual research and treatment than other cancer charities. Very high overhead, well paid staff.

QUOTE (SuperSteve @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 07:10 PM) The real question is how many people fell off from being counted. You realize this isn't hard to find right?

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 07:55 PM) it really isn't, when you think about it correctly Correct.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 06:47 PM) Fewer than I expected too but it makes sense with the contracts. Sold high on Santos and sold probably as high as we could on Quentin. Job well done in my book. But next year we hopefully get to sell higher on Peavy, sell Rios somehow hopefully, and AJ will come off the books. peavy's contract is up after the $17 million he makes this year and a $4 million buyout. He could win a cy young and it'd still be a mistake to pick up his option. The only selling that happens on him is maybe at the deadline.

Possible fire at nuclear plant in Rockford, IL, leads to small but ongoing tritium release.

QUOTE (WilliamTell @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 06:00 PM) Was Loaiza a Non-Roster Invitee in 2003? For some reason I thought he was. And if he was it definitely was a pleasant surprise in an unpleasant year. Occasionally they work out, but you can't say that the team is doomed, DOOMED because of the NRI's.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 05:59 PM) Except that I was the one paying them, not the taxpayers. Big difference. Huge. I wasn't running a deficit, and asking taxpayers to give me more money. But you presumably were asking customers to give you money to pay for whatever good or service you were providing. Why didn't you drop the price of your product and demand your employees take a pay cut?

QUOTE (SOXOBAMA @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 05:00 PM) I'd rather have Pierre, Cameron on our roster instead of Young Is Death an option?