DrunkBomber

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Mar 19, 2008 -> 07:07 PM) Where do you think this stuff comes from and is fostered? Either way theres nothing I can do about it. I can see why people discuss it as a problem but that isnt going to accomplish anything either. Like I said earlier, this has been an issue for a long time and nothing drastic seems to be happening. If its going to be harped on than it will always create tension. Allocation of funding for schools is set up by the government not by us. I would lump it into the conversation of injustices by the government on people before I would label it a race issue.

QUOTE(lostfan @ Mar 19, 2008 -> 07:00 PM) Social classes and education funding is 100% relevant which is why the conversations always gravitate towards it in these types of conversations. Im not saying they arent relevant, Im just saying that are lots of other issues that are never discussed and thats what I was getting at. Public schools have been discussed in that regard for a long time and we are still at this "stalemate" There are much more important things in this conversation than public schooling because in a sense individuals like us cant control things like that but we can control our thoughts and opinions and thats what needs to be explored more than stuff people have been arguing about for decades.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Mar 19, 2008 -> 06:47 PM) I can safely say that Obama is nothing like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and even Pastor Wright. Now, to what extent he can "do something about it" is debateable. The reason that Jesse and Al are (closet) pissed off at Obama is because he's doing this without their help. Think about it. I wasnt trying to compare Obama to those people. I was just saying that those types of people are one of the biggest hurdles to accomplishing the goals that were the point of the speech.

QUOTE(lostfan @ Mar 19, 2008 -> 06:40 PM) I know you think you're being constructive but you really aren't contributing anything of value, it's just divisive BS. I can't really respond to anything you said without pissing you off. What in your opinion is valuable to the conversation? When ever this issue is discussed it always goes the same route, public schools, poverty etc. Obama did do one thing which was acknowledge we are at a stalemate about this topic and there are underlying issues that are too taboo to discuss so people are scared to. Im not trying to come off as racist or offend anyone myself. Im trying to clear the air. The things Ive talked about are things that have always bothered me and I think if nobody ever discusses the issues they will never be resolved. I dont know where youre coming from and you dont know where Im coming from and I think once people learn to understand others that are different from them is the first step in accomplishing this goal. Im sure there are lots of things that people of every race or religion dont understand or like about other races or religions but if everyone is too scared to ask or talk about it the barrier will always be there. We can all sit here and discuss lack of funding for public schools and whatever else but even though I disagree with what Obama said, I do agree with the idea of trying to end the racial tension that has always existed that people are scared to confront because they dont want to be labeled a racist or bigot.

QUOTE(lostfan @ Mar 19, 2008 -> 06:23 AM) I've explained this at great length already and the context of what Obama was talking about when he mentioned it in the speech. Don't be holding your breath waiting for me to do it again. I dont need a second interpretation of what Obama said in his speech. He didnt say anything. All he did was acknowledge problems and tried to play both ends of the spectrum. If you want to compare this speech to a historical event I would compare it to Houdini making an elephant disappear in a crowded room before comparing it to anything MLK said. The man is surrounded by racists, including his wife, and that reflects upon him no matter how he tries to spin it. He chose to go down this path and bring this discussion back so he better be able to back it up. He might have said he could see why people would be angry about affirmative action but he didnt say he was going to do anything to be apart of the solution. I dont want to hear anything about race from this guy in terms of knocking down barriers until the double standard is eliminated. With idiots like Jesse Jackson, Al Sarpton and even Pastor Wright being able to spew their hate and promote racism without consequence in this country nothing is going to get accomplished.

QUOTE(SoxFan562004 @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 04:21 PM) The X-Sport in Lombard is good, nice section of free weights. It looks like they're opening one up on 83 and North, might want to look into that Ya theyve been building that one on 83 and North Ave for a while. The Elmhurst park district gym has grown on me though.

QUOTE(bmags @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 10:49 PM) And what's the deal with univision and Telemundo! That show Caliente on telemundo was pretty excellent

QUOTE(lostfan @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 10:36 PM) In many cases, yes it is. But that doesn't mean it's always irrelevant. It had more to do with Jim Crow laws than slavery, and that's put a vicious cycle into motion that's hard to stop. Easier than it was 20 years ago but still hard. Whats the relevance of it? We had nothing to do with slavery so why can it be used as an excuse when dealing with people now. How is the country supposed to move forward when theyre always looking back at a dark part of our past?

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 10:28 PM) Thankfully, I can use Obama's own words to respond to you on this issue, because he dealt with exactly that issue today. I watched and read his speech, my point was however he needs to do more than this to get us anywhere. People seem to get so excited after he speaks because he wants to do all these wonderful things but he hasnt laid out any reasonable plan to get us there. I cant believe people still use slavery as an excuse. How long until the statute of limitations is up with that. None of us had anything to do with it and this country didnt start it. They mimicked what more established countries were doing and eventually put an end to it. There is such a double standard on these race issues that will never be able to get fixed because of people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. If Obama wants this utopia he has to get rid of things like B.E.T. or Miss Black America becuase those are double standards. If there was a W.E.T. people would s***. If they want to reserve head coaching spots in the NFL than why not reserve spots for white running backs? Im all for ending the racial divide but this speech doesnt do anything to accomplish that. He used smoke and mirrors to sneak past an issue that hurt his campaign and all of a sudden he is MLK. Id like to see what strides he takes to start repairing all the racial tensions in the US.

QUOTE(lostfan @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 10:02 PM) Obama's not Mexican, and didn't have a Mexican pastor saying inflammatory things. And furthermore, slavery was around for centuries before illegal immigration was a problem. Hence "original." The effects still linger to this day, for a lot of different reasons. Slavery was also started before the US existed. Slavery has nothing to do with anyone alive and and is used as a cop out. Obama is pimping a great idea hypothetically but its not gonna change in the near future. If he wants to get rid of the racial divide its going to take more than a speech. Things like affirmative action and the Rooney rule should be immediately terminated because that isnt equality. Maybe Obama can sit down with the individual who didnt get into Princeton because of the spot that was reserved for affirmative action and then he can explain ending the racial divide and equality to that person. To know what route his wife had to go to get into school BECAUSE of the color of her skin instead of qualification and then to see her senior thesis and to hear her say this is the first time shes been proud of the US shows a great deal of lack of appreciation for the system that got her into college. Even the thought of a 1% possibility that he may deep down harness similar thoughts to the people close to him in terms of race terrifies me that he might get into office.

I used to go to Lifetime and as someone else said that place is incredible. I would love to keep going there but there isnt one by me so I go to the Elmhurst Park District which has a nice facility and its right down the street from my house. My main concern is a nice sized section of free weights

In terms of understanding a sport and strategies I would say experience is number one. However, for late breaking news, trade rumors and stuff like that I would say message boards. A lot of the time stories are broken on message boards before they go to the media.

I agree with everyone else in here. If it is something you want done I think you should do it and not worry about it. Youll be happy you did it for the rest of your life. Like a few others have said it isnt like school where people are assholes for the sake of being assholes so you shouldnt be self conscience about it.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 16, 2008 -> 08:26 PM) Did you even bother reading either of those pieces? Ya, Ive been following the whole story for a while. I just dont believe him.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 16, 2008 -> 03:52 PM) On the Rezko thing...Obama did as well as he possibly could on Friday to deal with that. He appears to have sat down with both the Chicago Tribune and the Sun times for several hours, told them at the start of their interviews that he would answer any question they had on the Rezko matter, and both appear to have come out satisfied. Its another case of him denying everything. He isnt going to go and admit any fault in anything but these are a lot of coincidences.

QUOTE(shipps @ Mar 16, 2008 -> 08:45 AM) I just seen a girl that I knew in grade school a couple days ago and was completely shocked in how she turned out.She used to be such an attractive young lady,she developed earlier than the other girls so she got all the attention from us guys and she new it.But now she weighs about 300 pounds (not an overestimate)and it was so surreal looking at her.I wanted to poke at her body just to make sure it was real fat.This was the first time I have had such an experience being 26. So are you trying to say you were more attracted to the grade school version than the adult?

QUOTE(KipWellsFan @ Mar 16, 2008 -> 03:21 PM) I haven't read the 96 page thesis and I doubt I will but there's nothing offensive from it quoted in the politico article. I have no idea what it's like to be a black person in America, and don't see how exploring the issue as a college student is indicative in any way of the character or substance of an individual. The Obama campaign has done so well at becoming the candidate for President that happens to be black, and not the black candidate, and I think that is genuinely how Barack feels. That's why this story is so disturbing, and harmful to the campaign. I just think its not accurate to call a candidate we dont know of high quality. Not to mention the Rezco stuff. Im not saying he is any worse than any other candidate. IMO theyre all criminals, but he is far from the saint he tries to come across as.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Mar 16, 2008 -> 02:24 PM) There were plenty of legitimate reasons to not vote for a candidate. What religion they are isn't one of them. This isnt even a religion issue. This isnt even a Muslim church. Its a race issue. I dont understand how much people need to see or hear before they step back and question something. Between this and Michelles thesis in college about racial divide, even though she got their because of affirmative action, shows that this might not be a coincidence. Of course he is going to denounce it but for people to think its a non issue is delusional.

QUOTE(KipWellsFan @ Mar 16, 2008 -> 01:49 PM) Chickens really coming home to roost on this one. And just another in an endlessly long list of reasons why I don't trust churches, religion, or the obsessively religious. I have no idea why people like Michelle and Barack, of such a high quality, would go to a church like this. It's maddening. I think youre last sentence is the problem. We dont know enough about them to label them "high quality." Look at Michelles thesis in college and that gives you an idea of what kind of substance were dealing with.

That leprechaun story is legendary. It doesnt get much better than that.

QUOTE(BearSox @ Mar 15, 2008 -> 10:29 PM) I find it tough to believe anything Obama says on this subject since he has been going to this jackass's church for the past 20 years. Not only that, but this racist idiot, who proclaims himself as a holy man, married Obama and his wife, and is the god father of all his children (I'm not sure if he just baptized his kids or is also the godfather, I forget). If Obama did not agree with his views, why the f*** did he stay around listening to him for 20 years? If I heard someone like this racist anti-American Wright talk about how America is evil and have "god damn America", and him blaming the "rich white people" for all the problems in the world, I'd not only never go back to his church, but I might even kick him in his stupid head. Some more of Wright's claims are that the rich white men created HIV to commit genocide against the blacks, and that the rich white men created drugs to give to black people so the white men can imprison the blacks. This Wright fella can rot in hell for the rest of eternity for all I care. But then again, the white man probably created hell to keep all the blacks out so the whites can have all to themselves. This can be crippling to Obama's campaign whether you agree or not. However, since pretty much 80% of the media is in the tank for Obama, he might get away with this. Funny that CBS, CNN, and NBC haven't mentioned anything about this and ABC maybe spent 5 minutes on this subject. Whatever happened to the good old days when journalism was suppossed to be unbiased? Im sure Fox will cover it. I agree with everything you said though and thats the point I was trying to get across. He isnt going to say he agrees with this no matter what because it would kill him in the election but I find it impossible to believe all of this is just a coincidence and he doesnt agree with any of it because if he didnt he wouldnt have stuck around him for so long. Obviously every candidate has skeletons in their closet but Im sick of the media, and people defending Obamas every move, acting like he is different and he isnt capable of something like this.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 15, 2008 -> 08:22 PM) What can he really say, hes trying to win an election?

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 15, 2008 -> 07:56 PM) So like if McCain was on a stage stating how he proudly accepted the endorsement of a guy who could easily be described as an anti-catholic bigot or referred to another guy who said that the main goal of the U.S. was to "Destroy Islam" as his spiritual adviser? McCain has the exact same deals going for him, it's just less of an issue because it's ok to hate on gays, catholics, and Muslims. It was more geared toward race than religion.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 15, 2008 -> 07:06 PM) The difference is...for about the last 10-15 years, as a politician on the south side of Chicago, it's been to his benefit to be seen as on the side of this preacher, because he is a popular figure on the south side who has been a good organizer, who has a strong connection with the people, there, etc. So, one could argue on one side that he had little choice but to be there because of the fact that he was a politician working in that preacher's area who couldn't afford to denoucne him. On the other hand, you could point out that the guy was a key figure in Obama's rise on the South Side, so it's more than just a religious connection, there are political connections there as well. I may be wrong, but for a brief time wasnt this guy going around with Obama and campaigning with him? Stuff like this is so touchy because youre damned if you do, damned if you dont. This might be a little too controversial of as point but can anyone imagine what would happen if the shoe was on the other foot and either Hillary or McCain was involved in something like this. I think the double standard for stuff like this needs to be checked at the door in such a high profile situation.

He might not be as outspoken as this guy but you absolutely dont go to a church for 20 years if you disagree with what is preached there. Theres no way Obama is going to to publicly admit he agrees with it thought because that would be suicide during an election.