Balta1701

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 21, 2010 -> 03:14 PM) Serious question... I see Balta claiming that these programs are doing what they are supposed to for 90% of the people on them. And I see WCSox saying the opposite. I just did a little Googling, and I see a lot of conjecture out there in the ether as well, but I don't see anything substantive. The question is, what percentage is it really? How many people are gaming the system? Because neither of you are providing any data to support either claim. I don't know if you have access, but here you go.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 21, 2010 -> 03:08 PM) It was a ground rule double cause one of our fans touched the ball, which then becomes a judgment call for the umpires. Juan Pierre could have been standing on home plate when the ball bounced over the fence, and it wouldn't have mattered. By ground rule double...we also mean "Ground rules". Which mean...each park gets to set the rules, right? Can a park say its up to the umpires discretion about giving the guy home, or is it required that it's only 2 bases?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 21, 2010 -> 03:00 PM) No, but how about as a society we teach our young people that YOU CAN'T JUST RELY ON THE GOVERNMENT ALL THE F'N TIME?! Why is that so hard? It's not leaving people on the street to die, it's telling people YOUR LIFE IS YOUR LIFE, SOCIETY ISN'T RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU. Oh wait, the government knows better than the individual right? What's the line? GOVERNMENT SAVES! And you're going to refute what I witnessed in person? That's rich. Be sure to link me to some liberal blog. So, yeah, your answer to what to do with that kid's children is to either take them away from their mother (which we're not allowed to do, you know, property rights) or tell them to get a job. No, I don't care if they're 5. After all, like Rand Paul says, Child Labor laws are an unconstitutional violation of the rights of private business.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 21, 2010 -> 02:50 PM) When I grow up, I want to be a banking regulator. Easiest job ever. Yup. The less you do, the greater the salary GS will pay you as a reward when they hire you 5 years later.

And you know what would be better for society? Throwing that woman's kids out on the street and letting them fend for themselves. That'll teach them a lesson. Without even bothering to challenge the accuracy of the anecdote, which I'm sure can be fairly easily done there.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 21, 2010 -> 02:23 PM) Our best chance is tonight With Buehrle on the Mound?

QUOTE (DirtySox @ May 21, 2010 -> 02:08 PM) We will beat Volstad. With Floyd on the mound?

QUOTE (dmbjeff @ May 21, 2010 -> 02:09 PM) Often it takes a string of strong pitching performances to reel off a long win streak. Rarely do you see final scores of 7-6,9-5,12-8, etc as part of a long win streak, you see alot more 5-3, 6-2, 4-1 type ball games for teams who are streaking. While our pitching as a whole has been much better than the offense, they don't seem to be stringing enough good start together in a row. Buehrle and Floyd have been pathetic the first month and a half. With 2 of 5 guys pitching like crap, it is impossible to go on a streak, especially with an anemic offense. I know the offense catches alot of heat from all of us posters and rightfully so, but other teams with bad offenses are winning and it is because of good pitching. Hopefully something change in the next month for this team on both sides of the ball. If this team is the same after the Cubs series, that is when the firesale will happen I believe. The Current Rays winning streak scores: 3-2 2-1 4-3 6-2 10-6 8-6

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ May 21, 2010 -> 01:58 PM) Marlins will take 2 of 3 Which game will we win?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 21, 2010 -> 01:35 PM) The amazing thing is, you guys think that the lives people on government benefits live are awful, or that only the most destitute of people are on those benefits. Given the effort those people give to get those benefits (none), it truly makes me sick knowing that my hard working, broke, in-debt-up-to-my-eyeballs-ass gets to keep paying for them. And that right there is a great example of why I'm a Democrat. You believe that if a few people take advantage of modest government benefits as a means to avoid working hard, the program is a terrible failure, no matter how many people might actually use it correctly and have major benefits to their lives by having a safety net. I believe that if a program helps a large number of people stay on their feet and avoid having their lives fall apart when something bad happens to them, if a small fraction of people take unfair advantage of the situation, I can live with that, as long as good is being done.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 21, 2010 -> 01:43 PM) You don't think he had that? If he did, then they proved ineffective.

QUOTE (Whitewashed in '05 @ May 21, 2010 -> 01:12 PM) No, not really, unless you want to throw Retherford in there. CJ's been awful at AAA.

The amazing thing is, you guys think that the lives people on government benefits live are so sweet.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 21, 2010 -> 11:20 AM) Mark Cuban is being looked at very closely right now because of comments he made about Lebron, tampering is being discussed. That guy is seriously his own worst enemy. All he does is talk himself into trouble I'd still guess that about 80% of the time there's method to his madness.

Mark Buehrle has lost his last 5.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 21, 2010 -> 10:31 AM) then we need better analysts. We can't really expect a director to know about every threat/investigation can we? Do we expect the head of the CPD to know about every crime investigation going on in chicago? I think the failing of 9/11 and the underpants guy was more on analysts (and even then I think that's partly a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation) than on the DNI. Isn't the job of the DNI specifically to make sure that they have people working on putting things together?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 21, 2010 -> 10:17 AM) I think it's his responsibility to make sure the dots are available for actual analysts to connect. But in both 9/11 and the explosive underpants, the dots were available and were not connected. Getting the dots doesn't seem to be a problem. Getting them onto 1 guy's computer screen somewhere appears to be a much bigger issue.

No offense to Jason et al., but man...I do not miss these.

I'm trying to figure out what the real story is here and I felt like typing it out. There's been talk of conflict between Blair and CIA head Panetta, not-getting along at a personal level, and most of the White House team, including people in the military, seem to be giving the impression that they're working better with Panetta. So, maybe this is just a personality conflict. But let's look a bit deeper here. The whole point of the DNI position, at least as it was created after the 9/11 comission reforms, was to serve as a clearinghouse for intelligence, as a place there the dots coming from the disparate agencies (FBI, CIA, DOD, NSA, TSA, DHS) could go to be connected. We now seem to have a couple examples of dots going unconnected and lives being put in danger because of it. The most notable example is obviously the underwear bomber, where warnings about the guy went unprocessed until the event had already happened. I'm just wondering whether this is a failure of the guy in that position and his underlings, or whether this is an actual case of it simply being impossible for anyone to do the job that the DNI is supposed to do; break down walls between organizations that really like their walls.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ May 20, 2010 -> 08:35 PM) I'm sure it's 50,000,000 bbl. per day, or the number will be whatever it takes to shut down offshore drilling. Why? Screw you, they know better, that's why. Kap, I'm going to make you pay that extra $0.05/gallon in 10 years even if it takes not destroying every ecosystem on the planet.

How well did teams do on their first round picks in the 1990's?

Brett Favre tells Southern Miss's baseball team that "If they can make it to the College World Series 2 years in a row, he can make it through another year in Minnesota".

Favre tells Southern Miss's baseball team that "If they can make it to the College World Series 2 years in a row, he can make it through another year in Minnesota".