Balta1701

Albert Pujols played 3b last night.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 17, 2011 -> 09:33 AM) I wouldn't have expected you to be so enthusiastic about a tax on the poor either. We can make up for it by using 10% of the money we give in those subsidies to improve public transportation.

QUOTE (Lillian @ May 17, 2011 -> 09:31 AM) I hope that Juan doesn't read our comments about him. That could negate anything Ozzie might say to try to bolster his confidence. I'm totally picturing this as Juan Pierre now.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 17, 2011 -> 09:27 AM) Is it not possible that Morel's just not meant to be a regular at 3B because of his lack of sufficient power (same argument as was applied to Sweeney) and that he would never would have come close to being ranked #3 in another team's sytem? Really, no. Morel has solid power, .50 points more OPS than Sweeney ever had, to go along with 10-15 more 2b a season in the minors as well. He's a legitimate bat, he just hasn't gotten the knack of hitting big league pitching just yet.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 17, 2011 -> 09:28 AM) With an elasticity of 15 to 20, almost the entire price hike would be handed to the consumers. It really is that simple. Normally if I suggested we start subsidizing something to save the consumer money, I'd expect you to be the one responding that the American taxpayer is paying for it either way.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 17, 2011 -> 09:20 AM) I must not be making this clear. NO PRIVATE ACCOUNTS. Did you not see the part where I said over and over again, maintain the pooling aspect? Oh, ok, so it's even worse, there's no "mandatory" part left to it except for covering scheduled benefits. So we still spend $30 trillion extra to meet current obligations, but then we cut off Social Security completely for some portion of the population, and then we discover to our horror that once we made Social Security "elective", 2/3 of the people in the country didn't invest in it at all, hit retirement age with nothing, and wind up being supported by the government anyway. The reason that the program actually works is exactly what you said in your last post. It covers everyone. It's a baseline. Everyone pays the same rate and everyone is invested in the program. Individual mistakes can't screw it up. It's simple, functional, and even if you screw everything else up in your life, by the time you hit OASDI, you are not out on the street. Pretending that you can extract savings by making social security optional is just silly, because you should know exactly what will happen. People will fail to invest in it or they'll borrow against it, then the government will wind up picking up the tab for those people anyway.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 17, 2011 -> 09:12 AM) Well ideally, I think they should have been seperate programs. One is retirement insurance, the other is disability insurance. But in the current world, as I said, I am not saying you remove the pooling aspect, because you can't escape that without... ...but this is a silly illustration. First, removing the cap causes the amount of money flowing in to go up enormously. Second, the money you "need" is still coming into the system, as what I am suggesting is NOT a Bush-like plan. Third, this is the key part here - if we are going to have a social security system, then we all need to be in it together. We all need to pay the same rate, and we all need to keep our money in the country's economy, if we want to succeed. Long term, assuming the country is pretty successful, we all win big. If the country falls apart, then really, none of this even matters, because the money is gone in either case. No it doesn't. It increases it some. You get a decent amount, enough to cover the long term OASDI shortfall, because the U.S. income distribution skews so heavily to the top. However, that's no where near enough to cover any sort of phaseout, especially if you intend to cover current scheduled benefits. It's not a silly illustration to point out that putting money in any sort of private account while paying out scheduled benefits means you need 2x as much money coming into the program.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 17, 2011 -> 09:00 AM) Getting out of it takes two steps, and both will take a long time. First step, new money going in is put into market investment vehicles. As time goes on, the obligations are slowly replaced - owed government funds go down, invested positions go up. Once the tables are significantly turned, in a few decades, then you can take the next step and remove the pooling aspect. This will literally take 50+ years to accomplish, by the way. And doing so entirely means raising taxes by $20-30 trillion over those 50 years. Maybe more. You need to have an entire generation pay double their social security taxes for their entire life. Even a partial phaseout like Bush was trying to talk people into back in 2005 means you need $15-$20 trillion. And then, of course, as I keep noting, 2008 hits, 10 million people try to retire and realize they have no retirement savings left, and the government comes racing to the rescue since those retirees actually vote.

Might just take your word for it.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 17, 2011 -> 08:13 AM) The party of family values. I spent most of the recall campaign and his first year in office referring to him casually as governor a**-grabber. I don't know I ever would have guessed I was being kind.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 17, 2011 -> 12:11 AM) I was gonna say Ellis Burks, but Burks was a much better hitter now that I look at his stats. Remember that Burks's stats exploded in the middle of the steroid era while playing at Coors field. If we saw a guy go from hitting 17 HR when he was 28, miss parts of 2 seasons, then suddenly hit 40 HR at age 30 today, he'd get the Bautista whispers.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ May 17, 2011 -> 08:41 AM) Agreed completely, and this is where I have a problem with Ozzie and rookie hitters. He's got a plus UZR right now (though still early) so he's not killing you in the field. It is just disappointing the sox have started off this way. If we were in better shape, I think Ozzie still gives Morel consistent at bats, especially with his defense on the field but since we are under .500, he has to play who is actually hitting. (though Morel is batting .388 in his last 5 games) I haven't caught alot of sox games this year since I work the night shift, so maybe I don't understand the whole issue. This is how it always goes with Ozzie and a kid. The kid gets 60 at bats. 75 if we're lucky. If he hasn't started hitting by then, he enters the doghouse and whatever guy Ozzie likes more starts getting all the at bats, while the young guy lingers.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 17, 2011 -> 02:13 AM) Omar isn't the everyday answer. Tell me again why they moved Viciedo to the outfield? He couldn't beat out Morel or his defense was awful at third? Why move him to the outfield if he can't play outfield better than Juan? They originally tried moving him to 1b to start the 2010 season, but when we brought him up and let him ride the bench for 2 weeks, we started putting him back at 3b so that he would actually play on occasion.

Why on earth would you brin ohman in for these righties?

Compliments to Chris Sale

QUOTE (flavum @ May 16, 2011 -> 10:17 PM) Kevin Garnett. Nah, Kevin Goldstein from one of those prospect sites. Ah recognize the name, but never would have gotten the initials

Did Hawk just say " Murphy" instead of mercy?

Quentin weak popout

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ May 16, 2011 -> 10:14 PM) How is that? I'm not a basketball fan at all. Get out ahead of them and they just break and say "oh well maybe next time"

QUOTE (DirtySox @ May 16, 2011 -> 10:12 PM) Saladino 1-3, HR. His 2nd of the season. I still would like to see more opinions on his defense. KG has called him a true SS, but he's the only one who seems confident in that regard. Who is KG?

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ May 16, 2011 -> 10:11 PM) Man, does it seem like these guys just aren't even trying? It did not look like Dunn even jogged to first on his DP, Peña didn't even attempt to cover 1B earlier, and Beckham didn't seem to try to get that ball. They remind me way too much of the Heat.

Just use your imagination

Yeah, this has been a poor start by about the whole team not just jackson

Thank you Aj now I can stop watching

He dragged it there when he convinced bosh and James to join in