Balta1701

As long as Brian Anderson is considered the "Starter" and earns most of the playing time (key word; earns), I will like Erstad fine enough.

Someone can point the GOP only side over here, I'm just tired of having to post updates there for now. Link. Of course, Mr. Drudge doesn't bother to check whether or not Mr. Gore is purchasing CO2 credits from the international markets to offset what carbon he does generate by cutting into other outputs.

QUOTE(Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 27, 2007 -> 12:35 AM) How is this situation any different from mothers who leave childern in abusive homes becaues they're too afraid to leave or parents who abuse drugs with children in the home? Society has decided that we have the right to take children out of those situations and place them in a 'better' one (obviously we can argue whether a foster agency/adoption center is indeed better). Not necessarily disagreeing with you on the merits of your proposal just yet, but here's why this situation is different. 2 reasons. In general, it is a very, very, very bad thing to pull a child away from its parents, especially at a young age. It can damage the child for life. Even in a bad situation, such as a family in deep poverty, it can and often is more damaging to the child to pull them away from their parents, even if placed into an ideal home, than it is to leave the child in the care of the parents. And on top of that, not to insult foster families in any way, but it's not like the child would be moved into the care of Bill Gates here, where they'd have all of the attention, schooling, and benefits that one could ever dream of; the foster system does a good job where it can, but in many cases, the improvement may only be marginal. In the case of a family where one parent is gone and the other is abusive and on drugs, yes, the improvement is worth splitting the child from the parents, but outside of that scenario, you're taking, forceably, children away from the people to whom those children are the most deeply attached and installing them in either a foster system or the boarding-house system you suggest, where the conditions are not going to be those of luxury either. That is a lot of damage you risk doing to a child, even a child whos parents are not in good shape.

Here's a fairly unexpected and decidedly positive IMO bit of Obamania; after that little flap with the Clintons last week, Obama is publicly repudiating the little flap, saying that his staff got into it with the Clinton campaign and saying that their actions were against his stated marching orders to avoid getting negative. I can't recall the last time I saw a candidate publically take his staff to task for going negative. I think that's a positive thing to see as well.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Feb 26, 2007 -> 04:05 PM) I don't want to root against Floyd, but I just have a strong feeling that if he's given an important role on this team, he's going to screw the pooch. I've said it before and I'll say it again; Even if Floyd screws the pooch this season...he gets 1-2 months of a shot before in June Charlie starts taking over his spot, and if Charlie doesn't do the job, by July we see Danks or Broadway up. That's all I want out of those guys if they can't give us good performances; keep the slot warm while Danks and Broadway (and maybe Sisco) have some time to work in AAA. QUOTE(Heads22 @ Feb 26, 2007 -> 02:46 PM) Also nice to see BA get out to a decent start. Nothing I read sounded better than BA going 2/2. He can make such a huge difference to this team just by earning a starting spot and holding onto it all year.

QUOTE(Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 26, 2007 -> 03:43 PM) I don't think the GOP would have problems with this. Why would they? It's in the best interest of the child to get out of that situation. $$$$$. It's a hell of a lot cheaper to leave the kids with their parents on Public housing than to actually go through all of the legal matters to take kids away from parents, set up systems to take care of them, provide for their education, health, and future, etc. What we do now is we throw money at these sorts of problems, but we're really stingy about it, we get angry when we throw the money at it, we fail to make the long-term commitments, the money winds up being sucked up by the avoidable, short-term emergencies, and then people start saying "Oh, what we're doing now clearly isn't working, it's time to cut the funding". That is the cycle that we get thrown into here...and it will take money to break it. It costs a lot of money to start up a firm plan with a solid foundation and potential for success. The long term benefits may be huge, but the government in a huge number of cases such as dealing with those in poverty is unwilling to invest the large assets in the short-term to develop and implement a plan that may not show benefits until 20, 30 years down the road when that generation grows up. Edit: and this is not a GOP only problem, so don't take it that way.

QUOTE(DrunkBomber @ Feb 26, 2007 -> 05:46 AM) I wouldnt be too surprised to see a few changes during the year at the 5 spot. WIth so many viable options it is hard to say whos gonna break out and who isnt totally ready. I agree with you that I wouldn't be surprised to see a change a few times...but maybe for a different reason...I think that there's a good chance that our 2-3 best young starting pitchers spent most of last year at AA ball (Danks, Gio, Broadway, Phillips, Sisco also although for a different reason), so I'd like them to spend some time at AAA before making the final jump to the big leagues. Even if one of them dominates in the spring, I hope they start at AAA just to make sure we don't rush them...and if they succeed for a couple months, then consider who the best option is. I want it to be either Haegar or Floyd to start the season...just so we don't screw with a kid too early. Even if they're not the best pitcher from the group of youngin's, they're in the best position to not cost us more in the long-term.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Feb 26, 2007 -> 05:12 AM) Is the intersquad game today? According to the Sun Times, yes.

QUOTE(thedoctor @ Feb 26, 2007 -> 05:33 AM) i wonder if the families will start spending the holidays together. that would be fun. The question is...who does the cooking?

QUOTE(Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 26, 2007 -> 04:52 AM) But it's not the short term. This experiment has failed over and over again across the country. Every major public housing development, from Robert Taylor or Cabrini to Columbia Point in Boston has failed miserably. To me it's the same faulty logic with our welfare system. The theory goes that if we give it to them now they'll be working towards getting off the system later. But that just doesn't happen. People get money or get a home and then want more or accept what they get and continue to live off of it. These services are meant to help people get back on their feet, not be a permanent crutch. I think a harder line is needed. Kick some people in the ass to do something with their lives instead of living off the government from week to week. Make people accountable for their REPEATED poor decisions in life. Now let's pause here for a second...your advice here is to make people accountable for their poor decisions. What exactly are you suggesting when you say we should make them accountable? So we have in the example we've been running with a family with 10 kids, they've clearly made poor decisions, they're living in subsidized housing while both parents work and still in pretty bad shape. What exactly is considered making this family accountable? Taking away their public housing, and tossing their family out on the streets? They've put themselves into a position where they simply can not get through the day without help. They can not find better jobs because they have no education or training and probably have health care issues as well, the state can't just seize all their children, and tossing a family of 12 out on the street puts them in even more hopeless of a situation than they're in now? How exactly can they be made accountable? What would you advise taking away from them if they don't meet whatever standard of improvement you set?

Flaws admitted in a 2002 study which has been commonly used by anti-embryonic stem cell research advocates to suggest that adult stem cells are as useful as embryonic ones.

If we're discussing how to fix the prison system, is it also worth noting how big of a problem prison rape has become in this country? If one were to try to find ways to actually rehab an inmate for doing something wrong, having another inmate violate and rape that inmate seems to be a terrible way to do things. However, despite that, the numbers of how many prisoners are believed to be raped each year are in the tens to hundreds of thousands according to some NGO's, and it seems to just be something that is tolerated by Americans. "Ha, it's part of your punishment!". And on top of the negative situation it creates in terms of the prison environment, it has also helped rapidly fuel the spread of AIDS within prisons, especially among the African American communities. Just something I wanted to toss into the mix. Do people here genuinely think this is something we should just turn a blind eye to?

QUOTE(Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 26, 2007 -> 03:52 AM) In general I think the big problem with poverty in the country is how we attack it. We think giving people things, like homes, is the way to go, but that doesn't solve the problem. It gets people of the streets, yes. It probably saves lives. But something like 85% of the people that grow up in public housing stay in public housing. On the other hand, I would add that the issues are probably more complex than what either of us would see if we were to take a walk through those types of areas. Yes, for some people, simply giving them things is a mistake. Yes, it has the ability to build dependence on things that are being given, and lead to them just asking for more and more. But on the other hand, ask yourself...how much opportunity is there available in this country for those same people? Growing up in situations where their families can barely squeak by sometimes, where there's no health care at all for anything that crops up, where there's no hope of going to college or building up a better life no matter how hard you work because the odds are almost entirely stacked against you? There's just not a simple solution to any problem like this. For some people, yes, giving them housing is a mistake, but just a few weeks ago here if I recall correctly someone posted an article on how one of the newest ways of dealing with chronic homelessness was to set the people up with actual housing and monitor them, instead of leaving them on the streets, where they wound up constantly going to the Emergency room and costing literally millions of dollars. In that case, simply giving away housing seemed to be a much better option; it's cheaper, it allows for more management of the people, and it gives them a small chance to do something positive with their lives. I'm afraid I don't have a specific solution to offer (aside from pointing out that this is the first economic expansion in history where the povery rate has increased every year and this is a specific issue that can be solved through government action), but I will say that anyone who tries to suggest that one method works or one method doesn't work in all cases is going to wind up proven wrong. Giving away housing and utilities may be a terrible idea for some, and it may be the only way to give hope to others. The only way to find that balance is to have people who's job it is to figure out how to deal with the problem, and that costs money. It's a lot cheaper in the short-term to just throw up a housing project than it is to hire and train people and make long-term monetary commitments to improving impoverished communities, but it's also a lot less effective, IMO.

Bartolo Colon will not pitch until May at the earliest. Bobby Crosby may be ready to face live pitching again.

QUOTE(Cknolls @ Feb 26, 2007 -> 03:34 AM) SHE WAS NOT COVERT PEOPLE. The CIA requested the DOJ initiate an investigation into her outing by Novak. In other words, as far as the CIA was concerned, until her identity was leaked by Armitage, yes, she was covert in the eyes of the CIA.

QUOTE(bmags @ Feb 16, 2007 -> 02:03 PM) i'm estimating that a pretty badass piece by seymour hersh is gonna come out in the next couple of months. Yeah Yeah, like that was such a hard prediction to make. Hersh has been on this topic for what, 3 years now?

Then we have them build windmills. Gigantic windmills. And no I'm not joking. Those places I believe receive more wind more regularly than anywhere else in the country.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Feb 24, 2007 -> 03:42 PM) Wow, that looks like a guy I went to high school with. I thought it looked like Kirk Hinrich...

Chicago Tribune today.

QUOTE(WhiteSoxfan1986 @ Feb 23, 2007 -> 10:21 PM) Yep, Titans knew what they could be getting into when they drafted him. Still, it really is time for the NFL to enact stronger penalties for off-the-field behavior. The stuff we've seen in the last year is really getting excessive, especially when you start piling it in with the Ray Lewis, Jamal Lewis, and other guys' that we've seen in the years beforehand. A few games suspension from the team just doesnt' seem to cut it.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 23, 2007 -> 09:10 PM) Well there are TWO options A. STAY forever B. GET the hell OUT Which one do you like? If you pick B, then you agree with about everyone here. The disagreement becomes when. I think the first option is more like "Stay until even more people agree we should get the Hell out".

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Feb 23, 2007 -> 09:26 PM) If I ever caught the HR ball which eclipses Aaron, I'd do something outrageous like write "Roids" in permanent market then throw it back on the field. What's awesome is no one would know what to do with it. Can't just throw that baseball away, but neither could you send it to Cooperstown. No matter how much I hate Mr. Bonds, I'd have to sell it. I just can't screw my life over that much when handed that kind of gift.

QUOTE(knightni @ Feb 23, 2007 -> 05:11 PM) Hallelujah! Honestly, no matter how good I think Deng will be...if Gasol could have been had for Deng + expiring contracts, I would have made the deal, because the difference between Deng and Noc That said, I'm still not in the least convinced that the offer didn't already have Gordon on the table and that article was talking about putting Deng in there with Gordon, which is what the Grizz kept talking about for weeks

QUOTE(fathom @ Feb 23, 2007 -> 08:11 PM) According to WGN, Ozzie said that the CF position is up for grabs between Anderson and Erstad. Erstad also said he wasn't brought in to be a back-up player. That's pretty much how it should be; if Anderson can't hit .250 or so, or hit with better power, he should be in the minors, unless Erstad's defense is at the Mackowiak level. Out of the 2, Anderson is clearly the better talent, but it is up to him to prove that, and his window should be as small as it can be made on a playoff caliber team.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Feb 23, 2007 -> 02:24 PM) Caption: "Stop popping up the f***ing ball!" QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Feb 23, 2007 -> 01:59 PM) No words are necessary for this one... Words = "Please don't leave"