Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 23, 2010 -> 10:35 AM) Its also a scary sign considering it was the financials that led this rally back from the bottom in the first place. The only other sector that was close was commodities companies, and they have been getting hit with the comeback of the dollar lately. You know as well as the rest of us that the rally was a bubble made out of a mixture of B.S. and soap.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 23, 2010 -> 10:36 AM) Two words. Wal-Mart. So you're saying that private companies like Wal-mart are anti-competitive but semi-public institutions like say, the Swiss Health Care model, are not?

CJ is a RH hitter correct? So we'd still need a LH hitting C behind TFlow? Abbreviate this.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Jan 23, 2010 -> 10:36 AM) Something about batting Thome third just doesn't sit right, but I can see the benefits. It breaks up the RH bats, he gets on base, he hits for power. I just hate to have a clogger on the paths again so high in the lineup. I want Thome hitting 4th or 5th depending on how good he actually is. Pierre, Rios/Alexei, Beckham, Quentin, Thome, Konerko, AJ, Rios/Alexei, Teahen.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 22, 2010 -> 05:10 PM) I read the line of something SS2K5 posted that says they didn't lift a ban on unlimited corporate contributions so I feel better about that... still pissed about the ruling though. It's actually unlimited in the sense that you can spend an unlimited amount as long as you don't directly coordinate with a campaign, I think. Basically it's the slightly more complicated version of soft money that is no longer limted.

I don't like peeing in a trough while bricks fall on my head.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 22, 2010 -> 04:52 PM) But the media looks so cool at the WHCD! They bring celebrities cause they are really hip! And when Bush went around the stage searching for the missing WMD, that was totally hi-larious.

In what I can only figure is a choice as a metaphor for the times in which we live, this year's White House Correspondents dinner, the night where each administration and the people who fellate it in print and on TV so that they can keep their precious access to the cocktail party circuit to the detriment of all mankind...will be hosted by noneother than Jay Leno. The only time this event wasn't an embarrassment for everyone was in 2006, where the host couldn't have come out cleaner.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Jan 22, 2010 -> 03:58 PM) I would think about this the other way around. More likely league pitching makes adaption to Beckham's swing and we will see how he responds. Remember it takes awhile for league to catch up in regards to scouting reports and film. I expect them to attach Beckham totally different this year. There was more than a few stretches last year where it didn't seem to matter how they attacked him, he'd still get a double.

I guess this has become a merged DH thread. A random thought I had. Ozzie wants a guy who can DH and also play the field. And Ozzie loves speedy guys. I want a guy who can hit from the LH side countering Jones. Playing the IF would also be a plus since Vizquel is our only backup there. Isn't Orlando Hudson still available?

Thanks everyone!

Now, again, you may not realize it, but you've just lost the argument and given up. You argued now that it's not the fault of health insurance companies that costs are going up, that the system is fundamentally broken, that there is absolutely nothign we can do to control costs, and we're going to go from spending 17% of our GDP on health care to 25-30% within the next 15 years, as simple extrapolation of current cost growth predicts. You're arguing therefore that cost control is impossible. Therefore, it doesn't matter what we do to fix the system, it's bankrupt no matter what. In that case, it makes perfect sense to just spend the money on this bill and insure another 30 million +, because no matter what we do, we're going to go bankrupt in the end, so therefore, the cost no longer matters. It doesn't matter if the bill is $1 trillion, $500 billion, $200 billion, or $5 trillion. We may as well make sure that we cover as many people as we can, if bankruptcy is the 100% guaranteed end in 10 years regardless of what we do.

Link.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 22, 2010 -> 01:46 PM) Whether the club can get Gonzalez or not is another question, but the Sox have interest in Adrian. But if they aren't able to land Adrian for there DH, I expect Thome to come back in a reduced role. He would still be the primary starter, but I expect him to get less at-bats with Jones and some others stepping in. I doubt anyone would have a problem with that.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 22, 2010 -> 01:40 PM) Can I borrow your DeLorean and get the lotto numbers for the next 10 years? Since you seem to have the exact percentage of increases on health care, you must have one...since it's doom and gloom and the whole system is sure to "break for everyone". Actually, this is quite easy, more than a few people put out those numbers, they're recorded every single year. I gave 8% a year and that's actually pretty low. 10% a year has been more typical. If something goes up at 7-12% a year, it's really not that hard to project that it'll continue going up at 8% a year; I'm likely to have underestimated it rather than overestimated it. Source for raw data

Link

It'd really suck when Quentin breaks his wrist down the stretch of that year

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 22, 2010 -> 12:51 AM) Shane Victorino to sign a 3-year, $22 mill contract. He is easily one of my favorite players in the entire game. Phillies also signed Blanton to a 3 year, $24 m deal.

My money is on Hudson starting as a starter in AAA.

But you've already accepted the tenet that having people rejected for health coverage because they got sick is a bad thing. Thus, the problem is not solved. Throw in a heaping vat of 8-10% a year increases in cost such that in 10 years out the system breaks for everyone, and viola.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 22, 2010 -> 01:17 PM) Wrong. Not what I said at all. I never said they can't reject pre-existing -- I said if you HAVE INSURANCE ALREADY they can't drop you WHEN you get sick. If you don't make less than a certain amount of money, you failed, because they aren't required to pick you up. And pre-existing condition means something you've HAD, not something you just got. If you can't prove you've had it, then no sale. It's pretty simple to tell that, too. Like...show us your rejection papers from an insurance company that said you have a pre-existing condition which is why you didn't have insurance. Oh, can't produce it because you waited to get sick...your loss. So, basically, you've argued yourself backwards to the point where your plan requires determination of a person's intentions. If I got cancer, and then went to an insurance company, and they denied me because I had cancer, now I've met your standard for qualifying for the government plan. Either that, or you have to determine why exactly I was uninsured beforehand for both the government and the private markets to reject me, to make sure that you punish the right people. I don't think you realize how untenable this policy is, and you're stumbling backwards onto an individual mandate whether you realize it or not.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 22, 2010 -> 01:09 PM) Yes, and that's how it should be. Also, if the insurance companies did that, they'd lose customers. Just put a simple mandate that they can't drop people who currently have insurance who get sick. Period, and done. Don't see why that's so hard. Because now you've destroyed the private insurance market. Now you've made it a sound financial decision for me to stay 100% uninsured until I get sick. If I get sick, then either the government will have to take me or the private market will have to take me because companies can no longer reject applications for coverage where they have pre-existing conditions.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 22, 2010 -> 01:05 PM) "might be close to signing"? Seems a bit weak. But if true, depending on the money he gets, I think I'm going to be pissed as well. The Twins upgrade their DH and we downgrade? Yeah, that's a hell of a way to guarantee they take the division this year.

Man, that would make the Twins lineup ridiculously LH heavy.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 22, 2010 -> 01:00 PM) They were willing to put 1+T of government money up for this, but now you say that it would cost enormous sums of government money. Well, ermm...it's going to do that anyway is my point. This would simply make it a lot LESS. Not in the least. You've made one key mistake; instead of mandating that insurers pick up part of the tab for the uninsured, you've said not only that the government will pick up the full tab for them, but they'll also pick up the tab for anyone that the insurance companies can find a reason to dump. You've vastly increased the cost to the taxpayers.