NorthSideSox72

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Jun 26, 2006 -> 04:04 PM) These are wildfire battalions right? The bulk of their force would be doing manual labor like digging fire trenches, etc, right? controlled burns, firelines, ditches, chemical stuff, some in-close firefighting too of course.

I would contend this is being done as a combined move to appease not only voters in the U.S., but the major controlling factions of Iraqi government. The gamble they are taking is that they can still control things with a small-scale withdrawal. Given how tenuous things clearly are over there, I'd characterize that as russian roulette with out troops. I'd be pretty unhappy with it if I was in the military over there. Nuke, I'm kinda surprised you are OK with this.

QUOTE(AbeFroman @ Jun 26, 2006 -> 01:43 PM) This might be ripe for a challenge in the courts. As far as I know, there is no jurisprudence on the degree of scrutiny to be applied for lingual characteristics. Language is often a proxy for race. So maybe its subject to strict scrutiny. That would probably render this law unconsitutional. While I don't discount that having foreign language specialists is important (especially for firefighters who may need to communicate with others in a crisis), its pretty rediculous to make it a condition of advancement. Further, as I stated earlier, language can (I believe) be a viable condition of employment if it is job-related. In this case, it is. And if the majority of clients and/or workers are English-speaking (which they likely still are battalion-wide), then the unit can probably require basic English as a condition of employment. Downfall from that though, in terms of practicality, is that I am willing to be these units are already undermanned. If they force 20% of their force to learn English on their own, many will leave, and that could hurt their ability to function.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 26, 2006 -> 02:26 PM) So is everyone ready to pay an extra quarter a gallon for gas by this weekend? That much of an uptick, huh? I haven't seen the Nymex boards lately. Is it that ugly?

That's awesome. Cheers to the Oracle of Omaha! I think its particularly interesting using the Gates foundation, just because of the parallels. Gates himself originally wasn't into the charitable stuff at all, until his wife nudged him into it. Buffett was, it appears, inspired by his wife as well.

I was tempted to make this a new thread, but since there are quite a few on this topic already, I'll add it here... Did anyone see Mariano Duncan's comments from the Trib toda? http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...i-sportsnew-hed Read the entire article. Taken as a whole, I have to say I agree with pretty much everything Duncan said. And frankly, I find Ozzie's response to be bizarre and out of control. I think Ozzie has taken this thing way too far. He's brash, but even being brash, he needs to have SOME control over himself. Some of his defensive comments, such as the ones to Duncan, really do make him look like an a**. And the thing is, he's not. But he's gone past the point of helping the team, or creating us-against-them. He passed that point a while ago. Now he's just flailing out there in the media for all to see. Learn, Ozzie. I know you can do that. Please, just choose to.

QUOTE(minors @ Jun 26, 2006 -> 01:07 AM) Why don't you stay away from this forum, you really have no clue on politics. This is not an insult just so the mods know. But seriously you are so far out of the real world it isn't funny so as a helpful hint please either get some idea on politics or leave the debating to the experts. Again not meant to be an insult You are treading on thin ice. Adding the phrase "Again not meant to be an insult" doesn't mitigate the fact that clearly, those are insults. Next personal attack in this thread by anyone, and its closed. Further actions possible as well. QUOTE(KipWellsFan @ Jun 26, 2006 -> 01:31 AM) You're a f***in momo. There's an insult for you. Um... I have no idea what a momo is, but I'm pretty sure you aren't helping.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jun 25, 2006 -> 04:56 PM) Let's compare the Tigers and Sox position by position, for s***s and giggles. FIRST OFF Catcher: AJ Pierzynski vs. Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez I'd agree with Kalapse, overall, even deal.

Jeez, Ozzie. Just take the damn course and be done with it. :headshake

I'll throw in a couple bits here. One, I'll add another reason why marijuana is in a very different category than meth/crack/coke/heroin or any of the really hard stuff... it doesn't create a dangerous person. Someone toked up on mary jane is pretty harmless. Someone on a speedball becomes violent, in humanly strong and wholly irrational. Two, if Daley really wants to make a change to make marijuana possession a no-biggie, he doesn't need to change a single law or ordinance. He can simply do something well within his purview as chief executive of city government (even in a strong-council system like Chicago)... he can simply order the P.D. to emphasize other enforcement. This sort of thing happens regularly. He can just tell them "hey, I want you to go after X big time. Let Y go by the wayside for the most part." You can't find anything illegal about that, even if you want it to be. The city council would have to explicitly override him, or the Feds would have to do the enforcement themselves.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Jun 23, 2006 -> 05:00 PM) Yeah, sheesh, you give a guy God-like Mod powers and all of a sudden it goes to his head and he gets all thread Nazi. :headshake I'm watching you. I know where you post.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 23, 2006 -> 02:33 PM) http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=493717 Nice to see the Walmart bill defeated. I dislike Walmart with a passion, but that law was just not right. I'm a little disappointed about the other one listed though. I think it would have been good to publish the amounts of money and gifts Doctors receive from certain pharma companies, as part of health care information.

Changes look good, but nothing spectacular. And any comparison between Carver and Hilton is a joke. ISU may not have a ton to brag about in the sports world, but one of those things is that Hilton is a madhouse, and one of the great college BBall arenas. A few years back, watching a game on ESPN, they referred to Hilton as the "center of the college basketball universe". Probably more true geographically than in insinuation, but still made a point. And at least when I was there ('91-'96), the place sold out every game, except a couple of the early-season nobodies like Fort Sill Army Depot and such. Trice Field, on the other hand, was kind of a joke when I was there. Didn't sell out EVER, even against Iowa. But it wasn't as nice then either, and that was in the midst of ISU's football doldrums ('83 to '97).

QUOTE(minors @ Jun 23, 2006 -> 01:10 PM) You Rasmussen who got the 2004 Presidential race down to a tee, If that makes them conservative then that is the way I want to run my business. It is a shame that Zogby made such a fool of him self saying Kerry would win 311 or so electorial votes he also said that Kerry would win VA,CO,OH,FL,NV and NC as well and the closest state to a Kerry win was OH which he lost by what 100,000 votes. And yes the 7 day AVG is 41, but look at the numbers the last 4 days up up up up I would agree that Zogby's polls, at least in the method he used then, are utterly worthless. They are a statistical train wreck, and his methods are substandard. However, I'd be surprised if your 4 day blip turned out to be much.

QUOTE(minors @ Jun 23, 2006 -> 12:50 PM) Job Approval Thank you. Well, there does indeed appear to be a spike. But its a rolling poll, and the average over the current period is still 42 or so. If he finishes the month and goes 44 or higher, I'd call it material.

QUOTE(minors @ Jun 23, 2006 -> 12:34 PM) Bush approval gained the last 4 days and up 44% and the war have also climbes. This is good news and good news for conservative candidates who should win big in November. President Bush Links? Source? Polls? QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Jun 23, 2006 -> 12:39 PM) Spot on, Minors! Republican candidates will be winning big November because of the last four days! Have you ever posted anything in here that wasn't dripping with sacrasm and/or arrogance?

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Jun 23, 2006 -> 11:21 AM) Please do, NS. I'd like to see that report. I'm a big fan of the big ass fresh water fish of the world, nearly all of which are on the brink of extinction from habitat decline. Some of my other favorites are Australia's Murray Cod (Maccullochella peelii) and the American paddlefish (Polyodon spathula[i/]), which may be my most favoritest freshwater fish ever. I like Alligator Gar.

QUOTE(Cknolls @ Jun 23, 2006 -> 11:32 AM) What will it take for the gov't to finally prosecute the N.Y. Slimes? These guys are the epitome of s***bags. I didn't khow we elected Keller the head of Intelligence. He can publish classified programs with impunity? These guys should be in jail. Send them to Guantanamo. They can report on the conditions from the inside. They reported the program is not illegal , but the it is in the publics interest to know about it. This papers demise cannot come soon enough. I think we might all be a little more enlightened if you told us what exactly you were talking about. Was there a specific article that rankled you in some way? A specific action?

QUOTE(mreye @ Jun 23, 2006 -> 09:48 AM) You can't take rocks from a Communist country - it's government workers' pay.

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Jun 23, 2006 -> 08:48 AM) The only thing that worries me is our reaction. And just for clarification about the deal that we struck in 1994 to avoid a war. It was never actually funded and we never followed through on our end of the deal. Why? Because a Republican Congress refused to fund it. Still throughout the Clinton administration, North Korea did not actively begin an enrichment program or seriously advance any nuclear program. That didn't begin until 2001, when the Bush administration took office and started changing the language it used towards North Korea in more stern, isolationist language. Clinton and to a lesser extent the late 90's Congress dropped the ball on NK and nukes. Now its being exacerbated by BushCo. But I place the bulk of the blame for not handling it differently squarely in Clinton's lap.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 23, 2006 -> 08:50 AM) If I had to guess, setting up a special language team could be construed as segregation now adays. Not if language is job-related and critical, not to mention it is an action to comply with state law. Just like other job requirements like being able to run a mile in bunker gear. Both are the case here.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Jun 22, 2006 -> 10:35 PM) That would be the taimen, aka Mongolian salmon, Hucho taimen. And though they get quite big, the 15-foot number is a fish story. In fact, some fanciful literature has the species reaching as much as 15 METERS (>45 feet! ), and weighing several tons. In fact, the natural high-end sizes are more realistically put at 2 meters and 70 kg, and the angling record is actually less than 50 kg. Big as the taimen is, it's got nothing on it's fellow Chinese/South Asian big fish, the Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas) . The record mekong cat, caught just about a year ago in Thailand, was 9+ feet long and almost 300 kg (~650 pounds). There was a news article a few months ago where some University in that region did a study concluding that the fish stories, in this case, may have been not that far-fetched. I googled, but can't find it now. I have the link at home, somewhere, from when I emailed it around. But they claimed it was a heck of a lot bigger, in a specific collection of high-altitude lakes in the Tien Shan, than 2m and 70kg. If I find the link, I'll post it.

There are so many things that come to mind reading that post. But most are so obvious to everyone here that there isn't much point in posting them. So instead, lets go with this. Minors: has it occurred to you that perhaps there is some degree of truth in the points being made in ALL SIX of those articles/threads?

That is just wrong. And not just because it is unfair to the fire bosses - but because that situation COULD be managed better even with the law as-is. Why in the world did the fire teams' management not instead fire the linesman? Or even better, if a whole bunch of the crew was non-English speaking, why not set up (temporarily at least) a new Spanish-speaking squad within the battalion? Kind of like the US and Europe did in WWII with international forces? And have that squad led by someone who is bilingual? Or, even better than that, how about if the state of OR wants that law in place, how about the state pays for English classes for the Spanish-speaking linesman??? So many ways this could have been handled that would be better than this. And regarding the law, I do believe that if you ever do require a single language for any purpose (and this is one of those good purposes), that it has to be English. There is no other logical choice.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jun 22, 2006 -> 02:30 PM) Well, like any good liberal, I guess as soon as I get promoted, I take a 2 week vacation. Or is that like the President. Anywho, I'm off to Xinjiang Province in China for 2 weeks to take a look at the Tien Shan mountain range. Get f***ing Detroit out of first place while I'm gone, PLEASE! Adios everyone. Hopefully have some interesting pictures when I return. Tien Shan, huh? Bring me back one of those 15-foot salmon relatives (forgot the name). or some Takla Makan sand. Have a blast, sir. I'm jealous.