Balta1701

Lets cut your caffeine supply a bit.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ May 16, 2011 -> 03:59 PM) I think that's why he combined him with Vlad since Vlad has been known to swing at anything. While any comparisons to a player like Frank are premature and ambitious, the ball certainly jumps off his bat like Frank. I can deal with a Vlad comparison, but making statements that ignore or denigrate #35's legendary eye and knowledge of the strike zone grinds my gears.

So, back on topic. So far 3 people have voted "Don't raise it". That effectively means that Medicare, the Army, and Social Security will stop being funded come about Aug. 1, or that the U.S. government will default on its debt. (Edit: and I should note, you'll still be paying the taxes for those programs. The money just wouldn't go out). Which do you prefer, shutting down all of those or defaulting?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 16, 2011 -> 03:50 PM) aka, how are you going to continue to prop up the pyramid. Well yeah. Are you going to say that you're sorry out of luck to current seniors or are you going to raise taxes to account for the additional funds you need? Feel free to treat that as a pejorative. It isn't.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ May 16, 2011 -> 03:48 PM) D Tank V has a season changing bat. Yes he could bust out, but man, that bat is frickin electric. I'll take Tank's .305 OBP over JP's career OBP even though it's probably 40 points worse. Shoe string homers? Caaaaaaaaaaamon already KW. Let this Vlad/Thomas hybrid play some ball. Comparing DV to a guy with Thomas's eye for the strike zone is flat out unfair.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 16, 2011 -> 03:47 PM) You then give people options on what they want to invest in: US gov't debt, fixed income, a few different options, all of which would need to be conservative. Where are you going to get the $15 trillion you're going to take out of current obligations?

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ May 16, 2011 -> 03:39 PM) Eliminating Social Security should NEVER get that response from anyone. Because anyone who thinks about it for a second will realize that as soon as a generation starts going through that doesn't have Social Security, where the whole generation is suddenly in poverty, we'll be right back to figuring out how to recreate Social Security again, and it will cost a ton more to end it then restart it than to just keep it going. Same thing with any giveaway to wall street private investment scheme...as soon as a large investment shock hits, the government will have no option but to step in to make up for the gap in people's retirements. And anyway, it has nothing to do with the current deficit anyway.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 16, 2011 -> 03:37 PM) No worries. All these GOP'ers lately are labeling themselves Tea Partiers. Names can be changed easily for this purpose. I think you're being difficult here, but I can't tell for sure. In terms of being an official candidate for a national political position from one party, registration as a member of that party can be really important.

Btw, different topic but dealing with something many pages earlier in this thread. Solid legitimate scoop from the Washington Post today.

Faster!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 16, 2011 -> 03:12 PM) Yes, listening to people speak is no longer a reason to believe. Well clearly the statements of her office on the matter aren't enough to convince you otherwise, so yeah.

Prove me wrong, Edwin

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 16, 2011 -> 03:01 PM) So you are telling me you don't think Glenn Beck is a racist? Ok. I haven't a clue what goes on in his head. He's said some eminently racist things and I hear those things...but if he's said any redeeming things, I wouldn't have heard them. Has he said any? You've just been confronted with a couple statements that you completely brushed off and said "everything I have heard..." in response. Feel free to convince me otherwise.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ May 16, 2011 -> 02:00 PM) I know that Morel has historically struggled at first offensively at each level of the minors. Can someone with more knowledge of prospects tell me how long those struggles usually lasted? Last year it took him about a month to get going for both his arrival at AA and his arrival at AAA. FWIW, he's also only had 6 AB's over the last week.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 16, 2011 -> 02:50 PM) Better halftime adjustments by Thibs and his staff? I think there's more to it than that. The Heat started getting out to early leads last night because they were able to trap the Bulls and force some turnovers early. But you can't play a high-energy trap defense the whole game unless your roster goes 10 deep of guys who can play that D, otherwise even the best players get exhausted. The Heat thrive on turnovers because that gets James and Wade into the open court where no one can stop them. If they don't generate those turnovers, then they have to be penetrating and getting to the foul line, but that's a harder game to win because Wade and james will take a pounding trying to do so against a good team. The Heat can only force turnovers so long if you're not making mistakes, but then the lack of depth starts to kill them.

Don't stop

If anyone's up for an enormous read on flood control in Louisiana, here's a 25 year old New Yorker article that will be totally worth the time if you have it to spare.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 16, 2011 -> 02:23 PM) And lost, so now he's available for the job. The fact that he challenged the party under another party's flag makes it exceptionally difficult since he'd have changed his party registration to do so.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 16, 2011 -> 02:39 PM) Like I said earlier, nothing I have seen or heard from Jan Schakowsky over the years indicates she makes a mistake like that. As NSS and I just pointed out...because you only hear the words you want to hear. I could probably say "I haven't heard Glenn Beck say anything which doesn't indicate that he hates and fears black people" and be just as honest...because I haven't heard all that much from Glenn Beck (and I have no intention to).

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 16, 2011 -> 01:58 PM) Someone get Balta some tickets to games 2 through 4. The Bulls respond well when he's in attendance. I wasn't there last night?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 16, 2011 -> 01:52 PM) No, not really. I couldn't tell you how many times over the weekend, there were chances for Oakland to run, and they didn't. Both of the times Crisp stole 2nd yesterday, he went on first move. If our pitcher had thrown over to 1b, he'd have been meat, but both times he picked out that the pitcher was going home. One was on Buehrle, one was on Crain.

Well, I'll give Ozzie credit..."He's got to play everyday" is 100% the right statement, even if its said for the wrong reason.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ May 16, 2011 -> 01:42 PM) However, if you look at the Lakers with Shaq and Kobe or the Bulls with Jordan and Pippen, etc. those teams still had a significant amount of off the ball movement and cutting which got their role players easy looks at the basket that weren't just created by their stars. Did the Heat have a single half court offensive possession yesterday that wasn't a pick and roll or isolation? The Heat's role players like Jones and Chalmers literally pass the ball to LeBron or Wade and then stand at the three point line and never move from that spot. I think at some level, this is why these 3 guys came together in the first place. They've all been isolation guys, and that's hard work. If you go from 1 to 3 isolation players in the same roster, then the defense can't double down on the iso-guy and things should get easier. The issue is...that works against 90% of the league, which is who the Heat beat easily th is year. They beat up on the teams that didn't have solid talent, good coaching, and good defense, but that strategy rarely if ever works in the playoffs. Once you get to this level, you run into teams like what the Bulls have faced, where someone's going to take you to the floor if you try that stuff. The Heat haven't faced that yet in these playoffs.

By the way, off topic but NBA, if you haven't read this article about the guy in the Suns front office who opened up about being gay over the weekend, you should. He's the guy who came up with the idea of the "NBA All Star Weekend" in the first place.

To be fair, last year's Bulls weren't bad on the defensive side of the ball either, for example they were #3 in the league in opponent's FG %age