NorthSideSox72

KC already up 5-0 in the 3rd against DET. Edwin Jackson taking a beating, and Greinke is rolling (2 IP, he's struck out 5, given up 1 hit). If the Sox can win a game tonight, we're back where we were 24 hours ago (5.5 out).

This team struggled mightily with fundamentals this year, across the board. I'm all for more training on that stuff in ST - bunting yes, but also baserunning situationally, hit and run, basestealing (smartly, not just to do it), and more important than any of those, situational hitting to get more productive hits and outs with runners on. The thing that scares me most about 2010 though, is defense. Alexei needs to improve, which he didn't do at all this year. TCQ and Pods (if he is around) need major work too, and so does AJ.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 17, 2009 -> 09:58 AM) NSS, those patients are already in the system, only when somethign serious happens to them. If changed, every sniffle, cough or sore wrist will result in another visit to the doctor. I think reality is somewhere between. You won't have them all suddenly becoming systemic abusers - there is no logic in thinking that would happen. A few would, but mostly, they'd go more often for things, when they need it. The public option still would carry some sort of costs to the patient. I don't see anyone here suggesting a truly nationalized, fully tax-dependent social medical policy.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 17, 2009 -> 09:57 AM) Yet 45% would consider quitting if congress gets its way. http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/A....aspx?id=506199 Interesting. So 63% want a public option... Congress tries a plan with a public option, but the GOP'ers and some Dems don't want it, so they remove it... resulting in 45% of doctors saying they will quit early based on the plan that does NOT have a public option? Sounds to me like the medical community would actually prefer a more liberal, socialzed approach, than is being proposed.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 17, 2009 -> 09:55 AM) I didn't know snakes had spines. So here is an odd question. For people who are FORMER members of Presidential administrations, or of Congress (federal), do they get that fancy insurance coverage for life, after they leave? Just wondering.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 17, 2009 -> 09:47 AM) Where have I heard this idea before... And that is without 10/30/45/50/80 million new patients. Those won't be new patients - not sure why people keep saying this. Those patients are already in the system. Now, one can make an argument that some of them will go more often - but if you are insuring 30M (for example) more people, that is not 30M new patients. It is probably some % of that with no change in behavior, and some % with an increase in visits. So yes, you will see an increase, but it won't be anything like the total number of new insured. Also, you seem to be ignoring the reality that Balta has pointed out continuously, that by insuring these people, you actually help the existing providers save some money. That is why so many doctors and providers actually support a public option.

So, here is my admittedly paranoid thought on this. I am not sure I like the idea of any of our Cuban defectors playing anywhere near Cuba. If people can escape Cuba to the DR, or Haiti, or wherever, then I am not sure its out of the question that Cuba might not try to take them back. It would create a PR nightmare for Cuba, but I don't think they'd care too much about that. Probably not worth worrying about, but it came to mind.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Sep 17, 2009 -> 09:02 AM) I will post a blurb in a bit with numbers in the 400k range IIRC; the person citing these numbers contacted the transportation dept. and used their numbers for public transportation use to come up with a crowd estimate. They compared 9/12's #'s to innauguration day and I believe million man march day. Give me a few and I will post. I think the capitol police number, 60 to 70k, is most likely to be accurate, just because I doubt they have any motivation to skew it either way. If anything, when PD's give out numbers like that, they tend to exagerrate up, just to make the point about how much work they had to do. But whatever, seriously, it almost doesn't matter. I mean, the 2 million number was so absurdly silly, that its worth pointing at and saying "uh, yeeeeeeeeahnnnnooooooo", but if its 100k, or 200k, or 80k - whatever.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Sep 17, 2009 -> 08:41 AM) I'd argue its not that you're a center left guy, but rather that the GOP powerbase has gotten so extremist that they've moved their goalposts far enough to the right, that centrists have become "center left." That's probably a better description.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 17, 2009 -> 08:04 AM) What? The Obama platform has been all about getting into people's private lives. What do you think the health insurance debate is about? What do you think Cap and Trade is about? I know I am posting in the Dem thread, but if you guys think the same thing that motivates the Republican crazies and shapes their policies isn't happening to the Democrats, there is a lot of self-examination that needs to take place. Actually, the key difference is that the Obama platform wants to intrude less into your private lives, but wants to take more of your money. I'd rather not give up more of EITHER, but if I have to choose one or the other, I'll choose giving up a little more in taxes, over more in freedoms.

Of course race plays some part in these rallies, its only a question of how much. Yeah, there are racists in each party. Yeah, not all, not most, probably not even a majority of these tea partiers are motivated in any significant way by race. But some chunk of them are definitely motivated on that factor, and I think its pretty silly to think that racism isn't more common among white, southern conservatives. It absolutely is. That is NOT to say that all people in that category are racist, or that everyone not in that category are not - just that the frequency is higher. No doubt about it. And I think Rex is right - the GOP as a group are more influenced and guided by these whack-jobs than the Dems are by the lefty whack-jobs. This is why I have gone from being a usually-Republican voter to a usually-Democratic voter - I have no patience or tolerance for the hate and the social crusading into people's private lives. I have issues with both parties' platforms, but the GOP's decision to follow the crazies off a cliff meant that I went from being a center-right guy to a center-left guy.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Sep 16, 2009 -> 04:19 PM) No, they don't want it, of course not. But the choice is get subsidized (taken over) or put out of business. Your arguments on this topic have become circular.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Sep 16, 2009 -> 03:59 PM) No there's not... but that's of course why they're doing it. Well, we'll see if they actually do it. If they do, it will be for what they consider good reasons, but I'll disagree.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 16, 2009 -> 01:27 PM) Unless you think like a democrat. Zing! I'm here all day. Please no busterizing non-Buster threads.

QUOTE (GO CHI SOX! @ Sep 16, 2009 -> 03:14 PM) This opens the door for Big Frank to return and retire as a member of this team. Should help ticket sales as well. I'd go for that. I doubt it happens, though.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Sep 16, 2009 -> 03:49 PM) Seriesly? You can't understand getting rid of something that's in their way to implementing "global warming" or "cap and trade (aka tax and kill)" policies? Not "can't understand" like "I'm naive", but "can't understand" as in "I can't think of a GOOD reason to do that".

QUOTE (lostfan @ Sep 16, 2009 -> 01:39 PM) I started that networking thread a few weeks ago and this is what I've been doing. I've been ripping my DVD collection to digital copies and building libraries of TV shows. They don't cost as much as you think they do. You can get some like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16833124345 OK, I'm seeing you can get a 2 TB U-ATA HDD for about $250, so that's $500 for two of them. And 4 TB should do the trick. So that would be spending $700 total. Better than the full-on units for purpose I've seen, but still more than I am willing to spend. Thanks for that though, seems like things are headed the right direction. I'll probably sign onto some sort of digital service (as long as it allows me to buy and OWN movies, not just rent), then eventually get some sort of media hub/storage like that.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Sep 16, 2009 -> 03:05 PM) http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/26/war-o...chopping-block/ Nothing to see here, move along. Well, on the one hand: They don't seem to know what a whistleblower is. Dissenting opinion is not blowing the whistle - nothing illegal was being uncovered. But on the other hand, to me the real story is getting ride of that NCEE office, and there I'd have an issue. The EPA should indeed make sure it makes real estimates (as real as projections can be, anyway) of anticipated costs of regulations. Seems stupid to remove that.

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 16, 2009 -> 01:13 PM) http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2009/...acial-bott.html christ. no idea this is what's going on at home. What do you do with this guy? You ignore it and it festers. You confront it and you are an illegitimate source because his followers are so bats*** crazy. Both sides of the aisle have their bat-s*** crazies. But the difference in the past decade, is two-fold. One, the crazies on the right (Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Buchanan) have a much bigger, much more fervent following than those on the left (Olbermann, not sure who else really qualifies). And two, the ones on the right are driven much more by anger and hate than the ones on the left. Its sad and desperate, and makes me cringe to watch it. The only good news is, the crazies in that right-wing mode are generally older, and will be fading from existence, as society matures and becomes more open-minded.

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Sep 16, 2009 -> 11:20 AM) People will say Obama failed us either way. Well OK, yeah, welcome to being the President.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Sep 16, 2009 -> 11:33 AM) Saw an interesting stat during the Rangers game last night. Apparently we have the 2nd lowest team ERA in the AL. Didn't realize that. Kinda pathetic to think that our record is what it is despite that. And our average w/ RISP is middle of the pack, and the overall average, SLG and runs scored are also near middle. Amazingly similar to 2005 that way. So you'd think our offense would be better. IMO, the three huge factors in the balance here, which are often not looked at, are defense (which we all know is bad), hitting w/ RISP (not AVG mind you, but also PRODUCTIVE outs that we NEVER seem to get), and finally, the team's mental approach (the team seems to get way too tight when the game is on the line, and play accordingly).

I have to admit I haven't reasearched this a lot yet, but, here is what I am waiting for. Since movies take up a lot more disk space than music, its hard to find a blu-ray or DVD player that allows you to save everything to memory (like iTunes is for music). These hard-drive based modules exist, some with a couple terabytes of space, but those still cost 4 figures. But I really am tired of having to keep and store a bazillion disks. So what I'd love, is for a service to essentially host my collection. You buy movies from them, or upload your own, to shared space they host, and your machine just hooks to the internet or cable to go get what you want to watch. I think the problematic part is the stuff I already own. For buying new stuff, I'd bet this sort of thing is coming soon, if it doesn't exist already. Maybe the best bet is to hook up to a service like that when it comes out, then wait for the big disk drive players to get cheaper, to put my disks onto. I can just wait until then to throw out the ones I already have.

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 16, 2009 -> 10:19 AM) Oh you were wondering? They are slashing the subsidies that will help poorer people pay for the mandated insurance. REFORM yayyyyy Your guess? Or do you have a source on that?

Alright, now we actually have something new to discuss. Baucus unveiled the Senate's much-awaited compromise plan today. Highlights: I'm very curious as to what the new taxes are, but equally curious what they plan to cut by $507B - that was an unexpectedly large number. So no true Obama-like public option, but something else, akin to things I was suggesting. So that addresses the two big controversial issues, hopefully, but we'll see. Looks like the bipartisan thing just isn't happening, at least not to any great extent.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Sep 16, 2009 -> 09:41 AM) KC is playing really good ball right now. I wouldn't be suprised if they win a couple more vs Detroit. That being said, we really need to take these next 2 vs Seattle. I prefer to think of it as a differential. We have 2 more with SEA, and DET has 2 more with KC. Gaining one game would be good - that could be the Sox going 2-0 and DET going 1-1, or the Sox going 1-1 and DET going 0-2. Either one works. Meantime, we need to hope MIN can lose a few as well.