NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 25, 2011 -> 11:29 AM) The NYT has an excellent long article this morning on the use of tax shelters by General Electric and how it has pretty much keeps them from having to pay a dime in federal income taxes...and gets a few billion back as well. The fun part? President Obama has a "task force" right now tasked with overhauling the nation's corporate tax code, to cut the overall rate but also remove some of these deductions so that the tax base is widened. The leader of that task force? Wow, posted three times in two threads.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 25, 2011 -> 11:18 AM) That means a whole lot of baby boomers started retiring around age 45-55 though. During the 10 year period 2000-2010 is when the first big wave started retiring. And recessions in 2001-2003 and 2008-> forced more to retire early. So yeah.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 25, 2011 -> 09:03 AM) Starting around 2000 though? Give or take, yes. And look carefully at what I said - PART of it.

Does anyone actually still believe we invaded Iraq because of WMD's being present there?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 24, 2011 -> 06:11 PM) This is kinda a scary graph. Keep in mind too that some of that drop has been predicted for decades, because of the baby boomers retiring.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Mar 24, 2011 -> 10:53 AM) Wait, seriously, he's having difficult bowel movements? Could this be related to a groin pull? Ptac? He just came off a stomach bug, I'd think that would do it. Wait, why am I even analyzing this?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Mar 24, 2011 -> 12:09 PM) If Only We Could All Be Treated As Well As ... Native Americans John Stossel on Fox: "Why is there a Bureau of Indian Affairs? ... No group in America has been more helped by the government than the American Indians." Oh my lord.

Sox #10 in value, #7 in OI, and one of the lowest in debt ratio at 8%. QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 24, 2011 -> 11:46 AM) That is an amazing number for a team that has the oldest stadium in baseball. If they ever need to do capital improvements, they are screwed. They will do what they are doing right now - asking the state and city for money. When they get turned down, its going to get very interesting for them.

That's weird, I can watch the MB/Hawk one, but when I try to play the AJ one, it doesn't load.

I think there is a very good chance that Flowers has a big year in Charlotte, and shows that 2010 was an aberration. The ideal scenario is, he does that, and guys like Phegley/Gonzalez/Blanke continue to develop nicely... and Flowers becomes a nice trade piece. If you feel that at least one of that trio I mentioned is a legit prospect, then you can let AJ play out his contract and have an heir apparent ready to go. The problem with waiting on Flowers that long is, then he has no trade value, and he's like 28 or 29 years old when he reaches the majors. I'd bet Flowers gets traded within the next year, probably as part of a package of some kind. Possibly for some need near the deadline.

QUOTE (Tex @ Mar 23, 2011 -> 06:49 PM) At what point is it morally justified to ignore another human's suffering? Everyone ignores other humans' suffering. Do you spend your entire day mourning for every person suffering, somewhere?

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Mar 23, 2011 -> 02:39 PM) Well nice of you to justify that. How sliting a baby's throat child and murdering two siblings and thier parents, like these scumbags did last week. Does that warrant any comment or is that the priceof living with a bunch radical s***bags who need to be wiped off the planet. OK hold on... you are saying that the President, regardless of party, needs to comment on every murder and atrocious act that occurs? I mean, what you just described is obviously awful, but it probably happens hundreds of times a day around the world. I really don't expect Obama, or Bush, or any other President to issue a statement every single time, because then that's all they'd do all day.

Check out the "Big Board" thread for some discussion on this. Typically the rosters are settled in early April, a week or two before play begins.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 23, 2011 -> 12:25 PM) If cost is the primary concern, they forget about any green power initiatives. But that's not correct either. Its been studied and estimated that $1T invested in green tech over 10 years would get enough of it up and running that, when combined with existing nuclear and fossil fuel sources, the US could be energy-independent. But here is the real reason why green sources are better on cost than nuclear... the costs of solar, wind, geo, hydro and other renewables has been in consistent decline, and a massive investment like that would push them way, way down (and that doesn't even include the immense benefits in terms of jobs and the overall economy). The ongoing costs for them are tiny compared to any other source. Nuclear, on the other hand, needs much more constant funding. So they really aren't comparable on cost in the long run. If SHORT TERM cost is the primary concern, then forget about green OR nuke stuff, and just keep going after oil and coal and gas. That is, if you are willing to throw away the future entirely, and focus on the next couple decades only. If you want to save money now but put the US on the path to an economic collapse not ever seen here, then by all means, stick with fossil fuels. This theme has repeated itself over and over again throughout history. Civilizations and countries find cheap food/energy/water, and despite their finite limits, use it full bore until its gone, and then they die a quick death. We need to be smarter than that.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Mar 22, 2011 -> 01:43 PM) Nothing says optimal value like a 60 pitch limit by your $16-17 million dollar a year pitcher going into the second month of the season. Peavy won't sniff the White Sox roster until June at the absolute earliest. Dude seriosuly, you really are like that crazy guy in the picture someone posted a while back. "June at the absolute earliest"? Come back to earth, man.

QUOTE (flavum @ Mar 22, 2011 -> 01:22 PM) Teahen will start at 1B tomorrow. Just trying to show other teams how versatile he is. They're really going all out to try to move him. It actually works either way. If they want to trade him, great, this is a nice show. If they want to use him as a utility player, he needs work at multiple positions. Its a good idea in any case.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 22, 2011 -> 07:19 AM) I don't know about you, but I measure success by wins and losses versus expectations. Pretty sure he was being sarcastic.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 22, 2011 -> 08:03 AM) He isn't talking about those taxes, as was outlined in his post. There was a specific reference to federal income taxes, so I really didn't feel I needed to repeat federal income taxes to make it obvious that I was talking about federal income taxes. That's why it should be low and limited away from essentials. And because you still have income taxes, you can essentially get rid of the regressive nature of it. Now, if I had advocated REPLACING the income tax with sales tax across the board, I'd agree, there would be no way that taxation wouldn't be highly and unfairly regressive.

I've noticed that since having a child myself, its a lot harder for me to even read stories like that. I mean, they were always appalling. But now, I can barely even get through them. I know this may take away some macho points, but there were times shortly after my daughter was born that I had to stop reading or watching this sort of story because I was on the verge of tears. I just can't even fathom how a human being could do something like that to their own child.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 22, 2011 -> 07:50 AM) But as Tex has pointed out, those "locations" do a small enough amount of business that Amazon doesn't hesitate to close down 10k of them. Oh they hesitated - but its simple math. They can lose a bunch of affiliates - most of whom direct very small amounts of business to them - or they can lose a heck of a lot of customers among the entire state population because they are now being taxed. They chose the lesser evil. Still not what they want (they'd rather the law just not change at all), but its better than the alternative. I don't blame them for making that choice at all. I will say though, there's a good chance that lots of states will enact similar laws in the next few years. So eventually, this will be a non-issue. Sure there will be a few states that consistently avoid it, but if a majority of states (particulary if they are key, large population states) do this, then it will in essence level the playing field. So I don't necessarily blame Illinois either. But here is what I'd love to see happen (I know it won't)... have the US government enact a national sales tax, solely on non-essential goods (excludes store-bought food, clothing for example)... lower the federal income tax by that amount for all brackets, but specifically targeting the lower ones more significantly... and then allow the states to decide whether or not to increase their state income taxes to fill that gap. What this does essentially is, without adding any more net tax dollars, shift the national nature of shopping online to the federal level where it is more effective, and give the states back the revenue via a transfer of burden.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 21, 2011 -> 03:16 PM) "Contender" is loosely used there. Remember Mike Gravel? Gravel had the best ad, and the best quote, of any candidate from either party during that election cycle. I'm glad he ran, he was entertaining.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Mar 21, 2011 -> 12:57 PM) The U.N. is involved. Problem is we're doing 99% of it all on our own. QUOTE (knightni @ Mar 21, 2011 -> 01:27 PM) By "involved" I mean a higher percentage of the U.N. What are you guys talking about? Lots of countries wanted intervention, they went and got a UN concensus to act. This IS the UN. The UN doesn't have a military, they UN military is a combination of its constituent nations. Furthermore, we are not doing anything like 99%, we're doing less than half from what I've seen. I can see lots of good arguments for not acting here, but let's make sure we are dealing in facts in the discussion.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 21, 2011 -> 08:09 AM) I'd say that makes just about as much sense as believing airstrikes alone can bring down a government. Which no one has said, that I've seen.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Mar 18, 2011 -> 10:49 PM) Don't know if it's been posted, but for everyone's information, the players out of options are Philip Humber, Sergio Santos, Brent Lillibridge and Jeffrey Marquez. Santos and Humber are guaranteed jobs at this point. Lillibridge has an outside shot, but is likely to lose out to Milledge, so they will probably try to put him through waivers and send him to Charlotte. Marquez now may start the season with the team, and then get waived to go to Charlotte as well, and he will probably pass through just fine.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 21, 2011 -> 07:34 AM) Edwin Jackson will not make the playoff rotation. That's actually two predictions. I like.