NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Jul 21, 2010 -> 08:00 AM) People who don't live in NY seem way more sensitive about issues concerning 9/11 than people who live in the city actually are. I think its pretty simple. NYC has a lot of muslims living in it, from many countries and cultures. People see them every day, they are part of the fabric. So, despite 9/11, New Yorkers are probably a lot more capable of understanding the difference between radicals/terrorists and every-day Muslims than, say, rural folks whose only exposure to Islam is pictures of terrorists on TV. Ergo, some dude from small town X in a midwestern state is more likely to get up in arms about this than many New Yorkers would be.

I just want to say that I was wrong about Alexei's defense at SS. Last year, he didn't seem to improve at all as the season went on, and I was convinced he wasn't going to get any better. He'd just be the same guy - occasional flashy plays, but too many stupid mistakes and bad angles. I was wrong. Alexei has gotten significantly better. And it is good.

Happens almost every baseball game, and it kills me. There is always some fan in the upper deck, a ways down the line, 20 rows up, who spends the game shouting at the umpire about balls and strikes. Really? From 400' up and over here, you can see the strike zone that well? Are you half owl? Shut your yap.

The article doesn't really do anything for me. I will have to just watch the video. Seems to me she took a racist angle in doing her job, then later decided she was wrong and tried to correct it. In the overall sense, that's good that she grew as a person. But that doesn't change that she did her job using race as a basis for action, not to mention she still said things in public that an official like her never should. Still should have been fired, I think, but I will watch that tonight and see if it gives me a different perspective.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 20, 2010 -> 08:02 PM) Lindsay Graham is a whore. And a cheap one at that. I wonder what Joe Biden offered him last week in their "secret meeting"? You know, you just the other day screamed about the extremism in politics being a problem. Now a guy who crosses party lines is a whore?

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 21, 2010 -> 07:33 AM) Those projections were probably made before the city had huge deficits though. And that was in fact the exact use they had pegged it for - money in down times, to avoid tax increases. Also, this is vastly different from what was said only a few months ago, so I am curious to read more. I'll look around I guess.

Norris Hopper is a former Sox farm hand.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jul 20, 2010 -> 05:50 PM) from what I'm seeing on the news, she should get her job back and is owed an apology. Seriously? I'm open to seeing the full context, but regardless of that context, I can't see how her words would be acceptable.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 20, 2010 -> 04:47 PM) The Indians the first European settlers encountered were the equivalent of backwoods hicks, but yeah, what you're saying sounds about right. The Indians had advanced societies and major cities but when people hear "Indian" I'd guess they usually think about teepees, bows and arrows, and muscular shirtless warriors (like Indians were really running around in Massachusetts in November with nothing but loincloths and tribal decorations on). However, I do think that talk about how the Europeans arriving here destroyed the Indian culture or how the Indians should "return" to some other way of live is kind of overblown. Besides the wars of conquest, and smallpox and plagues (which weren't nothing by any stretch, but aren't what I'm talking about), the colonists didn't ruin anything just by being here. The settlers took some things from the Indian culture and the Indians took some things from the settlers' culture. Also it's been like 400 years and it's kind of silly to suggest that Indians should be living exactly how they were in 1721 or whatever. They'd be using guns, electricity, driving cars, have running water, and so on, just like we do now. The longest paper I wrote in undergrad, which was for a grad level Poli Sci course on Federalism and Federation, covered the Dawes Act, the Reservation System and its effect on the modern AmerInd. Harsh as it may be, at this point, my conclusion was that the best thing we could do is get rid of the Reservation System and the BIA entirely, over a period of time. They got screwed and hard, but the current situation does no one any good.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 20, 2010 -> 04:47 PM) Using a picture that wasn't real. um... well yeah, that was my point.

By the way, I may have some of the years wrong, I didn't look them up to remind myself. Just giving a general idea of timeframe.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 20, 2010 -> 04:20 PM) I have no doubt it was on purpose. what was on purpose?

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 20, 2010 -> 04:21 PM) Probably the most unfortunate outcome of teaching history that way, where the Indians are marginalized to just an inconvenient obstacle and slavery and oppression of blacks is treated like just another thing that happened a long time ago, is that it builds this illusion of white supremacy (for lack of a better phrase to use). I don't mean white hood and robe and skinhead type of white supremacy, I mean the idea that white Europeans are just naturally better, intelligent, and move advanced than other societies, and always have been, and that explains their position in the world today. In reality, Europeans spent a bunch of time screwing around fighting with each other, oppressing others through religion, being in the Dark Ages, etc. but otherwise weren't any different than other societies. Africans for example had already done some of the sailing accomplishments that the Europeans had centuries ago (going around the Cape of Good Hope, probably finding the New World too). But in history books everything is Euro-centric so it's the Portugese and Spanish that are given credit with all of the discoveries, then it wasn't until the New World made all the colonial powers rich that Europeans really started dominating the world. Thing about most societies, including European ones, during the last two millenia, is that they ALL went through waves of technological and societal success, and troughs of near anarchy. In the case of the Americas, people know vaguely of the Incans, Mayans and Aztecs, though often don't know that during those periods, those civilizations were in some ways far more advanced than their European counterparts. But even less well known, is that another wave had started later than those in what is now the American southwest, with the Anasazi and Chaco Cultures. By ~1200 AD, they had a sophisticated and regionally planned road system, complex workings with multiple metals, and agriculture well beyond what most of Europe understood. Then, oddly, around 1250-1300, those cultures basically collapsed. This caused a massive shift of native cultures and tribes between 1300 and 1500 AD, all over the continent, so when Europeans started arriving, many of the tribes they encountered were themselves new to those regions. No one really knows exactly what caused the collapse and shift wave, though drought is considered at least a major factor. Point is, cultures have not tended to be linear in progression for more than a few centuries - they more typically ebb and flow in waves, and a major reason why one conquers another is really just a matter of timing.

LOL @ BP morons.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 20, 2010 -> 03:31 PM) I will check that out. I love unique looks at history. Its one of my my fave history books. QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 20, 2010 -> 04:02 PM) NSS, make sure you get the most recent edition (2008 I think), he's updated it several times. Will do.

Context may show the extent of the racism, but, I fail to see how it can remove it. What she said, in public, as a public official, is unacceptable, and she deserved to be fired.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 20, 2010 -> 12:59 PM) I'll go to my grave saying that if Rob Mackowiak hadn't played CF for the 2006 Sox after June 1, 2006, that Sox team makes the playoffs. I can't prove it in the stats, so don't ask me to. But every bloody game, every time there was a big inning, one of the first 2 runners on got there on a misplay by Mack, or the biggest hit came on a ball Anderson would have caught. Every time he played in CF he was worth 2 runs and 25 extra pitches on the starter. OK, you are welcome to feel that way. I disagree. Anderson's offense was SO bad, that Ozzie had no choice but to play Mack out there every second or third game, IMO. The real problem with that team was the pitching implosion in the second half, the fall off of certain players on offense. Those were the big keys. or hell, blame Anderson. But its off-topic, and as you say, it can't be proven one way or the other.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 20, 2010 -> 01:10 PM) Sale just gave up a homer. cut him.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jul 20, 2010 -> 12:14 PM) http://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/19008624404 Hm, I was hoping Berkman was still in the discussion. But really, which of those three the team wants is dictated by what they want for them, and we have no idea what the other teams are asking.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 20, 2010 -> 07:34 AM) He's picked it up in the walks department, but this season has been a huge dissappointment offensively thus far. To give any blame to Kroeger when you are on a pace to strikeout almost 200 times in 500 AB in AAA seems a bit silly. He's just struggled. If you look closely, I was referring specifically to the low average and high walk rate. Also, while his season has been disappointing, he is still getting on base, and hitting for power. This combo suggests one possibility is that he's not getting much to hit, and he's getting himself out chasing bad pitches. That's why the Kroeger theory. Also note I said A factor, not only.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 20, 2010 -> 10:56 AM) I'd love to build a package around Flowers, Danks 2, etc. But I know that won't be even close to enough. Flowers has been the most disappointing prospect for me this year. Which is why you maybe don't trade him as readily. His value, like Morel's, might be higher to the Sox than other teams. I'd be Flowers comes back nicely as the year goes on. Then again, I really like me some Viciedo. Ugh, can we just fast forward to August 1st?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 20, 2010 -> 08:35 AM) A 90+ win team, a pennant race, some really exciting baseball, and a team that was a couple of Mackowiak benchings from a playoff team. Wait, did you just intimate that the 2006 Sox missed the playoffs because of Mack in CF? Seriously? I know this is off topic, but it couldn't be ignored. That is insane.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Jul 20, 2010 -> 10:51 AM) How dumb are people? If you are in a position like that, you should assume anything you ever say to a group or in public has the potential to be recorded. Exactly. And she should be fired. Also, this is not racism caused by the media, or the government. Its just a racist, showing what she is.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 19, 2010 -> 05:25 PM) Well to be fair, the federal government's response in both this and the gulf has been the same... cover their eyes and act like it doesn't exist. I don't agree, on the carp thing. They are spending a metric f*** ton of money and time and study on this, for a fish that will likely have a lot less negative impact than the many waves of stupid interventions already done in recent decades in the Great Lakes.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 19, 2010 -> 10:25 PM) We would have had to go on shore D-Day style to make something happen. And even then we would have gotten no native cooperation, unlike with the mass dyings, where the natives had no choice but to help as there was no where else to go. yeah, I can't wait to get through this book. This particular aspect of history - European interaction with the AmerInd, and the American march west - has always been a favorite of mine. I've read a ton of books, wrote papers in college. The history children are taught about that time is laughable. In this space, I recommend the book Blood and Thunder, if I had to pick just one. Though that one doesn't cover the early stages of encounter - its more in the 19th century, primarily. I also added this book you guys have been talking about to my Amazon list, I'll have to pick that up soon.