Balta1701

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jul 14, 2010 -> 02:11 PM) That person isn't hypothetical. It's a pretty good chunk of the welfare recipients I've seen and worked with. Got no job (or have a s***ty job), their food and housing is paid for, but they got cell phones and tv's and other "necessities" that get them through life. Yup. They should sit around in the dark thinking about how bad their life is!

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 14, 2010 -> 02:05 PM) FanGraphs doesn't have either on their top 10 lists. They're lower level/lower age people, so they're at best a couple years away probably, but I would bet that the Braves liked these 2 guys.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jul 14, 2010 -> 02:03 PM) What does that second point even mean? It's the government's fault that these people aren't provided phones or computers to use? Who said that? Is that a right I missed somewhere? That in the constitution? "We the people will provide every citizen of the United States every piece of technology deemed necessary by the masses?" No, it means that you're insisting the government ought to be saying "It's the right of the wealthy to decide that you can't buy these products." You're the one who started bashing the government on that issue.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jul 14, 2010 -> 12:43 PM) Yeah, unless those two prospects Atlanta got are really something, this is a pretty one sided trade in favor of Toronto. Atlanta must really think they can do big things this year I guess, although I'm not sure I exactly trust Gonzalez to keep up his current pace the rest of the year, particularly in the Atlanta ballpark. And it's not like he's been great, he's right about .259 (as the quote mentions)/.300/.500/.800 IIRC. I don't see him listed by BA or BP, but the Hardball times has Tyler Pastornicky (SS) as the Jays' #4 guy coming into this season. 21 year old SS in high A, 5th round pick. Tim Collins is an undrafted LH reliever that made it to AA by age 19 last year and was an All Star in high A last year as well. BA rated him as having the Jays' org's best curve ball. I think the Braves got some reasonable minor league pieces back in this deal too.

Frankly, yeah, it is pretty awful of you to say that. It's also worth noting that you can't defend your opinion that poor people don't need to make phone calls or use the computer without blaming the government. I thought the whole point was to keep the government out of our lives! Except for where it decides when you're too poor to have a cell phone. That's ok.

I could be wrong in this and it's not based on any inside info other than personal knowledge, but I'm getting the impression, after some thought and waiting, that the reason everything seems to be on hold right now is that someone, probably in the government, is absolutely going crazy screaming that if they try to close the valves and pump up the pressure in the new cap, they're going to blow either the old well casing completely out or they're going to blow out the wall between the original pipe and the relief well.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 14, 2010 -> 01:28 PM) also, cell phone plans are comparable to land lines, so who gives a f***. This isn't 1980. If your income isn't $75,000 a year, you shouldn't need a phone line.

I just love how it's totally ok for you guys to lecture everyone else on how they're wrong in all their financial choices as long as they're not wealthy.

QUOTE (spiderman @ Jul 14, 2010 -> 11:23 AM) Wow. We have some bad prospects. I think there's 2 things missing from our system. We have a handful of guys near the top who look like legitimate impact presences, or at least look like they've got a 50% chance or better of becoming them. Hudson, Viciedo, Flowers, Morel. We've got some talent buried at the lower levels as well, but that needs time to develop. The 2 things we're missing are...1. the sort of in-between, talented, good number guys who have started to establish themselves but who are a while away that KW has been willing to trade before (i.e. Gio, DLS, Carter, Richard, etc.)., and 2., the 2009 draft class. I still think the best bet here is to stand pat unless we get a steal by taking on salary. We don't have the bullets right now.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jul 14, 2010 -> 11:13 AM) I didn't say they don't need it. I said that you think it's a right, and I clearly don't. But it's not a wonder that you think health care is a right given that you apparently think cell phones are so necessary to function in this world. Please explain why a cell phone is a necessity in life. So far your reasons are (1) because it's a necessity and (2) because I live under a rock. I like how just about as many people consider a cell phone a necessity as AC. it's also interesting to me to note that most other items declined substantially after the recession started, except for cell phones. Like it or not, staying in touch is a necessity in this age. People use them while they're at school. People use them as a security measure. You simply cannot conduct business of any sort without a cell phone; they're vital in almost everything, right down to the service industry. You can't find a job without them often any more (let alone finding one without that internet access that you already told me poor people don't need).

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Jul 14, 2010 -> 11:07 AM) I've thought for a while that if you want to collect unemployment or welfare, you should be required to "volunteer" a certain amount of hours at a non-profit or community organization. There's an old saying that goes "Finding a job is a full time job". The idea that we're going to have a single mother on TANF volunteer for a non-profit and have it be a good thing doesn't make much sense to me.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jul 14, 2010 -> 11:03 AM) It will. And if it doesn't change soon, the Bulls are even more screwed than we thought. Because if Derrick Rose isn't better long term than Chris Bosh, this team is REALLY far away. Bah, I think the whole league is screwed so it doesn't matter, but yes, DR1 needs to be better than Bosh for the Bulls to be a conference finals contender.

I love how your standard for arguing that poor people don't need cell phones is "What allows me to survive" and then you immediately jump to health care as another thing poor people don't need.

QUOTE (scenario @ Jul 14, 2010 -> 10:42 AM) I think the odds of that happening are extremely low. They're worried about his innings. But having him available as a reliever could be very interesting. Totally agree on that, our LH Relief has been too weak, if he can help with that I'm all for it and I'd burn an option for that. Next year though, Sale needs to be starting somewhere in the upper minors, AA or AAA, on the off chance that D1 is walking at the end of 2011.

Dovetailing with the other thread a little bit where the old "you're poor, you shouldn't have a cell phone" mantra has come out, I'm somewhat impressed with how in the last month, as the Republicans have successfully blocked unemployment benefit extensions, "You're only unemployed because you're lazy" has become an official talking point.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jul 14, 2010 -> 10:48 AM) Chris Bosh is not better than Derrick Rose (although the Heat are clearly better than the Bulls). At least last year...Chris Bosh was substantially better than Derrick Rose. That could change this year.

So, you're saying that something has changed regarding warming of the climate? Anyway, if you're seriously going to argue to me that a cell phone isn't a basic necessity for both kids and adults these days, then really, I ought to get off your lawn. You're just not paying attention to the world. And Hell, at this point, a standard cell plan is often cheaper than a land line.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jul 14, 2010 -> 10:30 AM) I'm ok with him being in the pen as a loogy, and also having the ability to mop up a few innings if a starter has a short game; like having a Pena from both sides. I just don't see 5th starter happening at all even if Hudson is traded. I still think that's Torres' job. The idea of using Sale as a 5th starter this year is terrible.

I'm going to bet you that Quentin was hurting, and hurting a lot, in April and May.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jul 14, 2010 -> 10:06 AM) I would like to see any information regarding how the soil makes the crops less nutritionally dense. The minerals in the soil will allow the crops to grow properly or not. So they can either be harvested or not. The nutritional value of the crop is in the intrinsic value of the given crop and not what it brings in from the soil, that is primarily for growth. With the catle, there is no feedcorn the has empty calories. The corn will either be heathy enough to harvest and contain the nutrients or it won't be harvested because no one will buy it. Here's a summary study I found by googling. I can send a pdf if you'd like. There's a number of things that affect it. Heavy production using fertilizers and GM crops that grow faster appear to dilute the amount of nutrients that can be taken up during the lifecycle. Artificial selection in favor of more carbohydrate rich seeds produces plants that grow with greater sugar content, but other nutrients aren't selected for and thus aren't going along. Other industrial techniques, like early harvesting and factory preservation of vegetables, similarly cut the nutrient content.

And what's a 5 minute sack lunch going to wind up being? It's going to wind up being a sandwich of some sort, maybe wheat bread if we're lucky, sugar/HFCS loaded peanut butter, sugar/HFCS loaded jelly, and a piece of fruit that has half the nutritional value that it did 20 years ago. Oh, and a pudding cup or something like that for dessert. We haven't become a lazy country. We've become a country that you have to work like a dog just to be able to afford to pay the interest on your credit card bill that you've got left over from the time you were laid off or got sick without health insurance. So you make due as well as you can. And can we please stop pretending that a cell phone isn't basically a mandatory thing to get by in today's society yet?

5 years, $34 million for Al Harrington to join the Nuggets. yeesh. Maybe teams are writing these deals thinking that the CBA will make it so that they can opt out of the last couple years.

KC Reports that the deal for Asik is 3 years, $4 million.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 14, 2010 -> 09:29 AM) Is it not possible to pack your kid's lunch yourself anymore? See previous post about both parents working full time.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 14, 2010 -> 09:20 AM) Private. Worked out well because it was right next to where my wife works in the burbs. And let me tell you, for a good day care / school facility, it is really f***ing expensive. That's what I figured, and I kinda figure that if I ever have a youngin' I'm going to have to figure out how to afford a private school as well. Hard to imagine that any public school could go organic, or hell even consult the parents on lunches, when they have $2/person to play with.