NorthSideSox72

I'm gonna go with... Democrat trying to poke fun at Republicans. No way anyone is actually that closed-minded and can still write complete sentences.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Nov 21, 2006 -> 01:04 PM) It's a shame that Daley doesn't use his power to significantly Greenify the City. He certainly has the power to do it. He can do anything in this town. I'd bet that if Chicago gets the 2016 Olympic bid, we'll see that wake back up again. And maybe with some state or federal help.

QUOTE(bmags @ Nov 21, 2006 -> 11:12 AM) OH s*** THIS HAPPENED IN LA? campus police are campus police, they have the jurisdiction of the campus and are routinely called off by the town police dept. whom are better trained and better equipped. and routinely have overuses of force, be it in Madison, columbia, LA, or champaigne. I cannot speak for all departments, but, I can assuredly tell you that your idea of these issues being widespread is false. In fact, local PD's are motivated to NOT interfere with campus departments if they can avoid it, because it makes their jobs easier. And in many states, the campus cops are actually State Police, so they are probably better trained than the locals cops in some small college town. You are sorely misinformed.

QUOTE(bmags @ Nov 21, 2006 -> 10:56 AM) yes, they can huff and puff like they are the real police, but we all know they are glorified meter maids that will take any chance to assert their authority in unneccesary situations. At mizzou they never check id's, only one time at the med library and they said a week ahead of time they would. I think mizzou wants its college to be a part of the community though. I didn't like hearing this as an excuse from the campus cops who worked in my district (which included a major university), and its just as absurd to hear it from students. Either they are cops, or they are not. If they are trained and certified like the rest of us were, then let them do their jobs. If they screw up, then penalize them the same way.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 21, 2006 -> 10:42 AM) Maybe this was just the cops way of responding to being heckled... And that, I think, is where they acted incorrectly. Not illegally, or in violation of policy, or horrifically wrong in some way. Just not the best possible conduct. Which is why, again, I'd say that at worst (especially given the policy they acted within), you give the cop(s) some time off the street, remedial training, possibly a written reprimand, and a little time with the psych for an eval and de-stress.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Nov 21, 2006 -> 10:31 AM) For most cases, this is fundamentally incorrect. The Drug companies have virtually no interest in actually finding a cure for most diseases; it's the least profitable way to treat a sick patient. By far a more profitable action is to treat the symptom, or to find a way to treat the patient's symptoms and keep them alive without curing them, because then the patient is dependent on the drug company for the long-term. There is a reason that a huge slice of the products we're seeing produced by drug companies in the past few years treat things like Acid Reflux disease, erectile dysfunction, and so on; it's much, much, much more profitable to create a drug that a patient has to take several hundred times than it is to create a new cure for something that a patient takes to become fully healthy. Drug company research has a fundamentally different goal than that of research done by the government. Drug company research is done with its priority as: what would be the most profitable, government research is done as: what is the most useful, most high potential research. A drug company will not turn away money of course if a cure is developed, but developing cures is not their business. I see what you are getting at, but I have to disagree. If some company found a vaccine for AIDS, they'd be set for income for eons. No way they don't try to do that. Yes, they ALSO go after the simpler, annoying things that they can treat for life. They do both.

OK, I can't stay out of this. First, yes, the taser was probably too far. I agree. And I wouldn't have handled it that way. Second, what this student may or may not have yelled out is entirely irrelevant to the situation. The police response should not be changed by that. They have to be above that. Third, I know it makes it easier for some of you to make the cops out to be some sort of evil buffoons, but these are not "security" guards. They are real cops, with the same training as state troopers. Read their background. Therefore, in all honesty, I hold them to a higher standard, and think this behavior was less than ideal. Fourth and finally, handcuffing the kid and dragging him out (which I might have done) is JUST AS DANGEROUS TO HIM as a taser.

I'd pretty much agree with Tex. For most purposes, the drug companies are motivated to spend a lot (and do) on R&D anyway - and the patent laws are there to protect that cause. Unless something comes along that is a national epidemic (read: national health/security threat), then the only funding I see needed from the government in that way is high-threat pathogen stuff they do at CDC (hemorragic fevers like Ebola and Marburg, or weaponized bio-weapons like Anthrax, or other such nasty beasties). I'd also be OK with the profit-sharing to help the poor if the government happened upon something valuable as Tex suggested, since everyone would benefit. Excellent idea, sir.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 21, 2006 -> 07:23 AM) How exactly does manditory service work with "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" if I am a selfish SOB who could give a crap less about anyone else? (hypothetically speaking of course.) I don't see how manditory service to your country jives with our constitutional freedoms at all. That is the hard part. I have a lot of respect for the view as Mr. Genius put it, that its not the government's place. Frankly, I think any sort of mandatory service would probably require a Constitutional Amendment. And that won't happen. But if it did, honestly, I'd be OK with it - for me, or my kids.

I'll tell you what. I'd rather see my freedom abridged by requiring me to put a year into the service of my country, then to think that the government is peering into my life without any jurisprudence. Why, you might ask? Because a requirement of civil service is honest, up-front, and has tangible benefits. Warrantless searches and indefinite detainments are subversive and have the stench of imperialism.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 05:25 PM) i don't think the government should have authoratitive power to forcefully mandate service to the coutry unless there is a relevant and immediate threat to the survival of the country. Exactly what I was getting at earlier. Iraq was nothing like that kind of threat, and yet we put ourselves in a position to have to build a nation - a 10 year process by most accounts. And that isn't feasible at current troop levels. I do respect your view on this, and you make a compelling point. Its hard to justify that sort of degradation of freedom. But there are some serious positives too.

I don't think anyone likes the idea of a draft. But I am more than OK with mandatory service along the lines of what is discussed here. As for the present situation, its not a matter of good and bad - it will soon be a matter of necessity. By 2008, if we haven't substantially reduced our forces over there, we would have no choice but to scale down or do a draft.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 04:11 PM) Bull crap. This is just another mechanism to "make it harder to go to war"... And this is bad why? I think Rangel has, in some ways, the right idea. War costs money and lives and we cannot fight a war this huge, plus another way in Afghanistan, for years and years and expect the all-volunteer military to make it through intact. Not going to happen. If this puts people in a realistic mindset about the costs of war, and makes us less likely to go to war, then we are all much better off. By the way, I agree with the other posters about mandatory national service in the military or civil service of some kind. Just a year or two. But it would represent so many positives for everyone.

QUOTE(The Critic @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 03:51 PM) I'm guessing he's in rehab before Thanksgiving. And very apologetic. And still kind of done as far as mainstream Hollywood is concerned. "That's what happens when you interrupt the white man"????? To me, that's every bit as condescending and racist as his use of the Big N. Agree on all points. QUOTE(bmags @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 03:24 PM) and there were people laughing. Ugh. This is as bad as carlos mencia. There were lots of people walking out too, others complaining. I think the laughter was probably that nervous, laugh at a funeral sort of thing.

Its hard to say for sure with that fuzzy video, but looking at the way he was moving and talking, I'd wager he was on something. Or maybe just really drunk. In vino veritas, Mel and Michael. I won't feel too bad if they both fizzle out and disappear from my TV.

QUOTE(knightni @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 01:15 PM) I wonder if this "cop" was tasered before they gave him the taser, so he knows how it feels? Many police departments do that to give officers perspective. Indeed, cops are usually tasered, peppered, handcuffed (forcibly and otherwise), participate in sparring of various sorts, and even in some cases struck with blunt weapons.

REMINDER: You have until Wednesday to submit your platform for entry in the biggest election in the White Sox blogosphere. Give it a shot - you never know what might happen!

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 12:37 PM) I do believe you can pin at least a lot of it onto Daley directly because the bloated size of his government and the corruption costs happening are going on under his watch. Plus if you discount commuters, you have to add back tourists who take their money earned elsewhere and dump it directly into Chicago's economy, both directly through spending, and indirectly through the highest in the nation local tax rates. Highest in the nation? That seems hard to believe. Property tax rates are higher in a number of other places, last I read. I'm not sure about sales taxes.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 09:43 AM) This time they were smart and are moving them as "collectables" feeding off of the state coin frenzy. I guess I don't see how that's smart - the government doesn't make any sort of revenue from it. Its just added cost. I think its a waste.

What is up with the mint's obsession with these things? Have they not yet figured out that they are heavy, inconvenient and unwanted by American consumers? We are getting more and more AWAY from coins, and these clowns are spending money trying to move us backwards through some sort of novelty.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 09:10 AM) And all along we were told it was going to be the Republicians who brought back the draft... For the record, some of us said it would only be necessity that brought back the draft. Both parties will avoid it (with a few individual exceptions) at all costs, of course. But if we stay in force in Iraq for another few years, which I still believe we need to do (and maybe even add some troops), then I think we may have our hand forced in 2007 or 2008.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 08:54 AM) It just blows my mind that this man gets 75-80% of the vote every single time he runs for reelection, and everyone decent is scared to run against this guy. I know the "Daley has done a lot of good" PR machine is big in Chicago, but in reality the guy's administration is incredibly corrupt, and you can't tell me when he tells us point-blank that he knows nothing about it, he isn't lying. It is incredibly expensive to live in Chicago. Sales taxes alone are a quarter tick under 10%, while any food downtown has an additional 2% tacked onto it. Property taxes are astronomical, and yet all we hear about is how broke the city/county is. I don't disagree on any particular point. Chicago is expensive on taxes, and I have zero doubt about the corruption in city government under his leadership. But the guy is a fierce competitor, and does an incredible job bringing business to Chicago. Plus, the city works - potholes get fixed, grafitti gets taken care of, etc. That has made Chicago one of the most liveable cities in the U.S., and has allowed for this renaissance we have seen in Chicago in the past 20 years. So, people look the other way, and are willing to pay a little more in taxes, knowing that the city works better than most, and that there will always be jobs here.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 08:20 AM) Another member of the most ethical congress ever. AKA how to go from impeached and convicted judge to head of the intelligence committee This is another one of those leading indicators I was talking about. Hoyer won the battle over Murtha, which seems to indicate at least a controlled troop pull-out in Iraq, and Hoyer was the better (at least cleaner) choice of the two anyway. So that seems to point in a semi-positive direction, though I would like to have seen someone else entirely. This one is a big indicator about corruption. If this guy, who was apparently guilty enough to be impeached by the entire house, is given the chair of the Intelligence committee... I will be very disappointed. This guy may in fact be a reformed man, but it sends all the wrong signals to put him in that chair in either case.

So a few years back, Mayor Daley set a goal for 20% of Chicago's energy needs to come from green/renewable sources. And it wasn't smoke and mirrors at the time - a deal was in the works for taking power from a wind farm in NW IL, and the city was already in a contract to use methane fume from garbage dumps for part of ComEd's energy. Well, it appears now that Daley and the city council have backed off their original plans. Nary a single watt of energy is currently coming from anything outside the normal nuclear and coal sources. It seems that the windfarm fell through because the company sent the manufacturing contract to Philadelphia instead of Chicago (and of course, Daley is pretty fierce about keeping business in Chicago). And the methane contract ended in 2004 and wasn't renewed. Discussion questions: --Is it the place of municipalities to push this agenda? Or is it national concern, or a state concern, or all the above? --Does anyone think that Daley will ever again get serious about this? --Which is more important for the long term success of Chicago - a turbofan contract, or getting 20% of its energy from green sources?

Not an official announcement, but more of an update on various candidates, including John Kerry showing us again why he lost in 2004. I really, really hope the Dems can convince him to stay home.