Balta1701

I'm sure you can see the underlying critique I'm going to give in reply then. Didn't both sides then make the smart decision for them? Illinois has a budget hole. Enacting that tax will either help close it or will push a competitor for local businesses out of the state. No one forces Amazon to decide not to pay Sales tax...they are clearly fighting to keep that advantage, and they're clearly taking their actions by choice.

QUOTE (SpainSOXfan09 @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 04:56 PM) I guess from a tactical point of view RF would be his more natural position if you could call it that. The question then becomes what do youdo with CQ? There's a reasonable chance Quentin gets non-tendered this season if he's any worse than he was last year. If he comes out and rakes the ball...Quentin/Rios/Viciedo next year might not be the best defensive OF in history, but it could be one of the best offensive OF's in the game.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 04:05 PM) So is there liquefaction actually taking place in this video? Listening to the discription of it, and then seeing what was happening, that's what it sounds like to me. Also watching the cracks open and close was just wild. http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/wo....quake.cnn.html Possibly. If you had a high pressure water line that ruptured underground, it might do the same thing on video. I'd guess you're right, but I can't say for certain.

Did anything in this law actually force Amazon to shut down its affiliates in the state, or is it just vindictively doing that in a way to force a pro-amazon policy change in that state?

QUOTE (SpainSOXfan09 @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 03:55 PM) Very small sample size of 15 at bats but he seems to be concentrating a bit more. Still Kíng way too much with 4K´s in 15 at bats which is about 26.5%. If Flowers could K 25% of the time over a full season, that's 150 K's in a major league season. He'd probably effectively be a right handed, catching, Adam Dunn at that level. His problem is that he's on pace to be a 250 k player, and that guy hits under .200. The difference between 35% and 25% is the difference between being a big league starter and being a career minor leaguer for a guy like him.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 04:04 PM) Not surprising that you'd think that. Why should the government run a surplus (except minimally to pay down the country's debt)? Running a surplus to pay down debt is a reasonable thing to do in a time of economic growth. Running deficits during times of war or contraction are the real thing you need a government have the ability to do. We've also seen governments leveraging surplus funds for all sorts of purchases over the past few years...the "Sovereign Wealth Funds" that became popular after the Asian collapse of '97 became popular because the governments could use them as buffers to prevent additional runs on their economy. It's an interesting case and it's one that I don't know how it will wind up working yet.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 04:07 PM) Um, no. The logic is that the government shouldn't be requiring these things in the first place. Security theater has been my cry for a good long while now. That's a different argument and one we had earlier in this thread. If the systems can't work properly, then I do have to switch sides on that part of the argument. But you don't get to bash the government for using things that are unsafe if the manufacturer and the initial tests said that they were safe. That's on the people who built the things.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 04:00 PM) In this case I have no problem pointing the finger at the private company as well. The problem, of course, is that the private company is merely providing the product, not requiring people to us it. Following that logic, if the scanners were up to specs, then you'd have no problem requiring their use, right?

Really 2k5...if Rapiscan said "These things are safe", produced test models that were safe, and then the production line ones weren't safe, you'd think Rapiscan has zero liability there? Yes, the government needs to catch it, and it appears that they might well have done so. But come on...seriously, what more would they have to do? If they installed guns in the things that shot every other person who walked through, but those weren't in the test versions, you'd still say that the company bears no liability.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 03:31 PM) There is at least one other active rift valley in the US, the Rio Grande Rift. Not sure if that counts as North American trying to "split apart" though. If you want to count that, then I get to count the Basin and Range also. But no one would count that as the continent trying to split apart; it's a crustal spreading area, not anything being driven from below.

There's zero case where you guys will accept the existence of any sort of corporate responsibility for anything. That's what I take from this case.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 03:48 PM) I'd argue the not-for-profit model of not spending more than you have is one to follow. That'd be an awful model for a government to follow.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 03:00 PM) But it's still on the government to know that when it says these things don't emit radiation, they actually know that it's true. If you buy a doll for your kid, and it's laced with lead paint, is it your responsibility as the purchaser to have tested it or is it the manufacturer's responsibility? Especially if the specs for the item say "Does not contain lead paint"?

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 03:42 PM) Nobody knows what you are even talking about. And this bill isn't necessary for the exact reasons we pointed out...because it still didn't do anything. Until all 50 states enact some variation of this bill, it doesn't matter...which is what I said in the first place. "1 state should not enact this bill because the other 49 have not". "But how would you get to the point where all 50 have enacted it if you don't start with individual states?" "Magic".

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 02:43 PM) lol, i guess not. Why did you? Because there happens to be a private company involved in the case as well...Rapiscan, who builds the things. If they sold the government scanners that emit a factor of 10x the radiation that the scanners are supposed to emit and that the original test scanners emitted, that's a product liability issue for the company. But that doesn't even register...

Xanthan gum.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 02:30 PM) Because the government always knows best and never lies to the public. You don't see why I'm asking this at all do you?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 02:13 PM) Most guys play the same position for years. Some guys can't pick it up in a short period of time. Other guys never pick it up. If he can't pick up the position in 3+ months last year, plus all the time he did spend there in KC, then either he doesn't belong there, he ought to be in the minors learning the position, or he better hit the crap out of the ball so that no one cares when he boots one.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 02:06 PM) That could also be that he hasn't had enough reps at one position to ever get comfortable there. That was our thinking going into the season with him as the starting 3b last year, so we gave him all of ST and the first 2 months of the season. We saw how that turned out.

Very.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 02:08 PM) Government saves! How on Earth is that your reaction?

That I am.

Really, you just want me to give up before I catch up to you....

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 01:25 PM) So it could still be splitting? Or not. No. The driving force for a breakup of the North American continent ended over a billion years ago. At present, the core of North America is happily stable.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 10:12 AM) I'm interested to see the relief efforts, which are already underway, from numerous governments and institutions around the world. My prediction: Those asshole American's everyone seems to hate will contribute 95% of all relief work/money to the Japanese, and the rest of the world will contribute the other 5% combined. We are such pricks/bad guys, it's not even funny. :/ Of course, given that Japan is an industrialized country with a large economy of its own, the fact that (counting the meltdowns) this is clearly a disaster on the scale of tens to hundreds of billions of dollars, and the fact that the total U.S. foreign aid budget will come in about $30 billion, with 95% of that already earmarked to things like drug enforcement, Israel, and the IMF, the idea that the U.S. will contribute 95% is laughable. In Haiti, which got vastly less money and still has most of the money tied up, the U.S. sent under $200 million, but larger numbers were pledged through private contributions (globally, not just here of course). Private pledges totaled only about a billion dollars for that disaster, and many of those pledges have not been met.