Balta1701

Statement from the National Rifle Association officially opposing any ban on high-capacity magazines and the guns-away-from-congress bill.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 15, 2011 -> 10:38 AM) Not true. Everyone who goes to a combat zone gets hazardous duty pay. I had a combat support role and combat wasn't my job but I saw it and my DD214 has a Combat Action Badge on it (this was made about 5 years or so ago because infantrymen had the Combat Infantryman Badge, but that's outdated because in modern warfare infantrymen aren't the only ones who see combat) You're correct I misunderstood what I was reading/citing. My apologies. More specifically, even if they're in combat, the fact that they're not officially listed as in combat units can prevent them from moving up the chain of command to higher rank.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 15, 2011 -> 10:30 AM) Fifth, I dislike this continued theory of "Thome" is old, he can't possibly do this again argument. Show me something, other than the fact that he gets older every year, that points to this huge dropoff in his production, assuming that fact that he is a player who you won't give everyday PA's to. And Derrick Lee is 35, the same age PK will be when the season begins. The best argument I can give is that no one has ever done waht he did last year.

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QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 15, 2011 -> 10:31 AM) Women can be "in combat" in the literal sense (after all, they have guns) but they aren't allowed in pure combat-arms roles like infantry, armor, or special forces. In the Army there are 3 types of jobs, there is combat (the ones I listed that exist only for direct combat and are the ones women aren't allowed in), combat support (intelligence, supply and logistics, medical, etc. jobs that aren't directly related to combat but get close to it and sometimes directly in it), and combat service support (clerical jobs that have nothing to do with combat, and while it's possible for them to be in some kind of combat, they almost never leave the big basecamps) Problem with this logic is...it really doesn't work any more, considering that combat support people, especially in these last 2 campaigns, have been heavily involved in actual combat, as I'm sure you know. The nice benefit for the army though is that they don't have to offer them combat/hazard pay even though they're in combat, because they're not combat troops. Thus saving the taxpayers money and helping balance the budget.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 15, 2011 -> 10:22 AM) "The night before the rampage, authorities say, Mr. Loughner, 22, dropped off at a drugstore a roll of 35-millimeter film containing images he had shot of himself posing with a Glock semiautomatic pistol while wearing a red G-string." Am i the only one that read this part of what Balta quoted? I kinda thought that was the money quote.

Which part of this should have been the first red flag?

Everyone will catch Reince Priebus eventually, there isn't a vaccine for it.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 15, 2011 -> 12:44 AM) I just think considering the age of the roster and the contract situations of some of our pitching staff, should we not win this year or next year, we could reach a point wherein it is most prudent to rebuild and take the route they considered this offseason, but ultimately decided not to take. And at that point, having Adam Dunn around really isn't going to help us. I would, however, have been willing to take the risk in committing to Beltre because I feel adding him, as well as Lee and Thome would have given us a better team on the field for the next two years than the Dunn/Konerko combo will. Given the total money commitments, and the fact that 3b is the one position on the diamond where we're actually kind of deep with youth, I gotta disagree. I think both this year and for the next 2, we're better off with Dunn/Konerko/Morel than we would be with Lee/Thome/Beltre. Lee/Thome/Beltre is sort of the worst of the scenarios that you just outlined. It might work well for one season, but the odds of it continuing to work for 2 are pretty poor given Lee and Thome's health status and ages. Topping that off...to get Beltre, you're committing to him with long-term money, so that whole "mandatory rebuilding" part you're talking about would need to take place but it would happen with a much longer deal on the books.

So...I'd be content if Boozer and Rose each decided to drop 50 tonight, how about you?

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Hiding your own stretch of oiled marsh? Now that's how you run a photo op. Awesome.

QUOTE (Felix @ Jan 14, 2011 -> 10:16 PM) I don't disagree with you that Love isn't a top 10 player, but I don't think you can blame him for his team's inability to finish down the stretch. Maybe if his usage rate was higher and the ball was in his hands more down the stretch, but the team hasn't won because they're thick in the head, not because Love hasn't done every-goddamn-thing possible to try and will them to win. Isn't he one of those guys though that if you tried to push his usage rate up, it probably wouldn't exactly wind up creating more wins?

Can Reince Priebus give syphilis to someone?

Why Dragic Why?!

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 14, 2011 -> 05:13 PM) Its not been some continuing curve, or a single new trend. Levels of anger and bulls*** are always there to an extent, and then ebb and flow at different times. Things are angrier now than they have been in a while, but they've also been much angrier at other times. Also, the interwebs amplifies this stuff. I long for the good old days, when I could run a campaign based entirely on how Jackson's wife is a pipe-smoking woman of ill repute.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Jan 14, 2011 -> 05:36 PM) How will he get anything close to that in terms of playing time. Thome really took off in the 2nd half last year when Morneau went down with that concussion. That opened up a spot for Thome to play everyday. He even said it himself that the ability to go from a bench player in the first half to an everyday player in the second half really helped him fresh and at the top of his game. That wont happen this year unless someone else goes down for the entire 2nd half again. Look at what Thome did last year in the same at-bats when he went from a fill in role to more consistent role. Pre All Star: (145 AB) .255/.377/.552/.929 10HR/39RBI Post All Star: (131 AB) .313/.448/.710/1.158 15HR/30RBI Here's the thing though...there's what, 5 different guys that Thome can sub for, since they can move Cuddyer around? Delmon Young, Cuddyer, Kubel, Mauer, Morneau?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 14, 2011 -> 05:00 PM) It won't work when we reach the tipping point though. Eventually we will reach a point where enough people determine this kind of thing is no longer acceptable. And the party that foresaw that will be there to scoop them up. Really, I don't see it ever happening.

Although you have to admit, that does sound like a holiday.

You should celebrate Reince Priebus.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 14, 2011 -> 02:51 PM) It appears that your new RNC chair, replacing Steele, will likely be Rience Priebus.

Wait, so there is actually a Dr. House?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 14, 2011 -> 04:45 PM) Yes. For any of this crap to ever end, one party is going to have to end it by refusing to participate in it. They're going to have to risk losing support in the short-term for a chance at a much larger gain in the long term. I have enough confidence in our system of democracy and I think I have enough confidence in the citizens of this country to recognize, at some point, that things cannot continue down this current path. Problem is...the party that disarms won't gain in the long-term. The other side will be thrilled, they won't amp down their rhetoric, and the disarmed side will still be facing second amendment solutions to their policy disagreements. There's not going to be anything but muted praise for about a quarter of a day if a party unilaterally and wholeheartedly backed off. The problem continues to be it works. Yeah if I tell everyone Bush is Hitler a few people are going to pick up guns. If I tell everyone that Obama is a Socialist Muslim out to kill grandma after taking away your guns and gay marrying you, a few people are going to pick up guns...but the rest are going to get the message that he's evil and something outside that's taken away his country and you should give money to the good side.

I have to go to one "Stephen Colbert" for the best point on this topic. What we need to do is keep ramping up the rhetoric until it actually does directly lead to someone getting killed. Once we're at that point, we know where it is, so we take one step back, and we'll know that we're at the perfect level of violent political rhetoric.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 14, 2011 -> 12:59 PM) And Franco was an absolute freak of nature. How many hitters in the modern era have been able to put up better than average offensive numbers playing full time from age 40 up? Well...do you add the "Clean" player caveat?