Balta1701

Harry Truman has to be somewhere up there...From the decision to drop the bomb, to the Marshall plan which rebuilt Europe and saved Western Europe from turning Communist, to the outlining or a policy of "containment" as a method of keeping the Soviets from overrunning the world but still avoiding nuclear war, to the massive reorganization of the War Dept. into something which could fight the cold war, to the dismissal of MacArthur over open defiance of the orders of the President, to the Berlin Airlift, the guy did a heck of a lot of good in a very very difficult time when the new post-war presidency was still learning its place. We may very well not have won the Cold War were it not for the way he started it.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Feb 12, 2006 -> 10:11 AM) I believe most of Washington's reputation does come out of his presidency. He did not do much, but that's part of his greatness. He did not attempt to stretch his powers, when the exact workings of checks and balances were still being perfected. Noone was really sure what a president would do, and Washington's immense esteem made his model of a limited presidency very influential. He also delivered a prescient warning on partisanship that was immediately and forever ignored. Washington actually I believe stretched his powers hugely, simply because there was no way for the executive branch to function as it was written in the Constitution and Bill o' Rights. Running the DOD, Treasury, etc., there's simply no way one man could do all of that. Look through the initial writing of the constitution...you'll find no mention of the formation of a "Cabinet" of any sort. He came up with the cabinet so that he could manage things somehow, and created the offices. That was a huge stretch of presidential power right there.

I'm still sticking with Andrew Jackson.

QUOTE(EvilMonkey @ Feb 11, 2006 -> 08:21 PM) Balta, are you saying that domestic spying is ok, as long as there is no law against it? So that would mean that slavery was ok, until there was a law against it? The point I was trying to make is asshat Carter did the very thing he criticized Bush for doing, only worse! Both Carter's and Clinton's administrations defended this very act,but now that it is Georgie-boy doing it, well, it must be the work of the devil! Here's the question you should be asking yourself...was there probable cause in both cases? As far as I can tell the answer is yes...both Clinton and Carter were using wiretaps in domestic situations against a target which would almost certainly have been granted a FISA warrant if FISA was applicable in those circumstances. However, for Carter, it would be extremely difficult for him to have obtained a warrant, since there was no procedure that I know of before FISA to go and obtain a secret warrant to conduct an intelligence investigation consistent with the President's duties as commander in chief. There was no secret court which could be gone to in order to obtain the warrant in Carter's case, and in Clinton's case, FISA was simply not applicable because the law didn't cover the personal search that they did. When there is simply no legal procedure, then there is no way to judge the probable cause criteria, which is why FISA is so important. It creates a method through which the rights granted under the 4th amendment can be protected but where the government can still have the power it needs in order to conduct an investigation. I have no problem with the principle of domestic spying, and in that regard, it is fundamentally different from slavery, as should be obvious to anyone on this board. There is no reason why domestic surveillance is wrong if it follows the guidelines laid out in the 4th amendment to the U.S. constitution - following a probable cause standard. All we're asking is for the President to follow the constitution and the law which allows for it to be applied to these circumstances, or to tell us how to change and improve the law to make it work. That is all.

IU with the deliberate foul on an 89% FT shooter with 1:20 left in the game. Yeah that's some smart B-Ball.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Feb 11, 2006 -> 10:43 AM) Who knows, he has said Davis is the reason he came to IU, but maybe he'd stay. He'd be dumb to sit out two years straight IMO. Then again, a lot of people do think he'll leave if Davis is gone. I bet if he had a good, healthy year next year he'd declare for the draft, but taking an extra year off, and going into your senior year having not played in 2 years and having that 1 season define whether or not you're a first round pick or undrafted? That doesn't seem like a smart plan to me at all. He transfers and gives up next year, then suffers 1 small injury as a senior, and all of a sudden he winds up playing in Europe.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Feb 11, 2006 -> 10:37 AM) Best name I've heard. Jay Wright. Hopefully for IU fans, that will happen after this year. I'm sure they'll name an interim coach and then clean house after the year. Worst thing for them will be DJ White transferring, Vaden possibly as well. But it won't take long to turn things around there, even if those guys do leave. I don't think White would transfer...he'd have to give up a year of eligibilty, and after this year's injury, he probably needs that year to prove to the NBA that he can stay healthy and still play. Edit: of course, if it turns out he's in Frank Thomas's spot with that foot and needs another full year off to recover, then he might as well...if he'd be out for the season with an injury anyway, then he wouldn't be playing anyway.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Feb 11, 2006 -> 10:33 AM) I've heard that the Davis resignation is a done deal from a source. Should happen tomorrow. We'll see if it does indeed. IU has gone from the top 10 to the NIT. That just blows my mind. Well, that would explain his "Flu" today. I just hope they don't just automatically name one of his assistant coaches as his replacement.

Yes, what an asshat. How Dare Jimmy Carter violate a law that wasn't on the books at the time! He should have traveled forward to the time after FISA was passed and gotten a warrant from that court once the procedure for court approval was established, then brought the warrant back in time thus proving he had probable cause! He should be impeached right now! Just send our current Congress back in time to do it!

Man, just sitting here watching Indiana, can't help but feel like this team is on the verge of just giving up on the whole bloody season. They really need a spark somewhere.

"Oh God did I just hit that ostrich"? "He's fine keep going".

Where exactly does that article say that support for the program in question is growing? It asks questions about it yes, but nothing gives any trend lines, and since the question was phrased in a different way from most surveys on the subject (3 possible responses instead of the "Yes or no" do you support this program) I think comparison looks pretty impossible without trend lines.

If you want to call Hillarity stupid for criticizing the Administration for playing the fear card while the Dems are doing the same thing, go ahead, that makes sense. But when the Vice President told us that, to paraphrase, if we voted for John Kerry in 2004 there was a danger we'd be attacked again, I think anyone who supports Bush has given up the right to criticize someone for "playing the fear card". (and you know as well as I do that's just the tip of the iceberg)

QUOTE(Cknolls @ Feb 10, 2006 -> 12:18 PM) Do they talk about Reid's aide, who became a lobbyist, holding fundraisers for his former boss in his lobbying firms offices? Again, I'd be more than happy to throw every single person out of Congress who did that with any lobbyist remotely associated with Abramoff...because we'd have one massive Democratic majority afterwards.

Meet the new boss...

QUOTE(mreye @ Feb 10, 2006 -> 11:59 AM) Like this, I guess. If you look closely, you can probably see that the problem in those pictures looks to me to be that the teeth are actually fracturing near the gumline, and that's what's causing the color problems. This makes sense based on the mineralogy...hydroxylapatite has no major planes on which the grains like to fracture (we call them cleavage planes), while fluorapatite has several decent cleavage planes. So while Fluorapatite has a higher hardness than hydroxylapatite, it also breaks easier once you get it into that structural form. So the idea is that you get some fluoride into your teeth to increase the hardness, but you don't get too much in there because then the teeth can flip to the fluorapatite structure and begin fracturing. Those nearly parallel vertical lines are probably cleavage fractures.

QUOTE(mreye @ Feb 10, 2006 -> 11:53 AM) Yes, it's natural If it is producing "black" teeth like you suggested, that probably means that there is some trace impurity or combination of trace impurities which combines to give a black color when it gets into apatite. That's entirely possible, but the fluoride itself should only contribute to brittleness (and conchoidal fracturing, if anyone cares.)

QUOTE(mreye @ Feb 10, 2006 -> 11:50 AM) Here It may be a natural fluoride. Can't say I ever ran into anyone from Lowell with black teeth.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 10, 2006 -> 11:44 AM) From too much flouride? Are you sure it wasn't some other chemical? That seems like a strange reaction. The only info I could find on too much flouride talked about skeletal problems with too much bone mass (and too brittle). Everything else I found is weird conspiracy stuff about Nazis and Communists. Fluorapatite can run the gambit of colors including Blue, Brown, Colorless, Violet, Green. Hydroxylapatite can be Colorless, White, Gray, Yellow, Yellowish green. While Brown is a color that fluuorapatite can be, I think that most of the colors in those minerals are in fact due to impurities, rather than due to the compound itself. Calcium Phosphate floride shouldn't have anything which would give a very strong color on its own. (The reason you use fluoride while brushing your teeth is to convert some small portion of the hydroxlapatite which is what your teeth are normally produced as into fluorapatite, which has a slightly higher hardness. Too much fluoride however does make the compound excessively brittle).

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Feb 10, 2006 -> 11:37 AM) I may have to ditch RNW's quotes in my sig and put in some new ones. Alot of material lately. SO THAT'S WHO WROTE THOSE!!!

QUOTE(mreye @ Feb 10, 2006 -> 11:37 AM) There's a town near me that had too much flouride in their water for years. All the people from there have black nasty teeth. London?

My gas company tried to give me like a $300 bill when I first moved into this apt. My average monthly bill since then has been roughly $8. Yeah, so I had them fix that one. Slightly off.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Feb 10, 2006 -> 11:21 AM) Oh, it's been reported today that the Mayor was notified by the DHS, by phone, before the speech was given. Now, his problem is that he wasn't notified by the White House. So, when it comes down to it, he's full of it. So the mayor of the city which supposedly faced a potential attack shouldn't learn about those things say, when he becomes mayor, so as to allow for preparation if a potential target is ID'd?

QUOTE(BurlyMan56 @ Feb 10, 2006 -> 10:33 AM) Crazy Carl Everett where are you????? I don't think he left on the worst of terms?? Am I missing something? Maybe Bush is too far to the left for him

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Feb 10, 2006 -> 10:14 AM) So where does ripping off your fans turn into years of sellouts? Maybe that's why the Sox attendance sucked for all of those years, JR was too nice to the fans! A few dozen blunt force traumas to the head due to falling concrete ought to fix that right up!