NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Feb 26, 2009 -> 01:14 PM) Del Toro is the new Jim Henson if you ask me. With quite a twisted side, of course. Did you see Pan's Labirynth? Twisted indeed. I think his first big US film was Mimic, right? Considering that he had to work with a patently absurd and laughable premise, and a horrible script (especially the ending), I was impressed at how effective he managed to be with presenting the creatures as strangely believable.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Feb 26, 2009 -> 12:50 PM) I just saw some neat screenshots from a new horror movie coming out called Splice, here is the description some neat pics here http://screenrant.com/finally-update-splice-images-vic-5742/ edit: dont know why I used the word "neat" twice I normally don't do horror flicks, as most of them are just bad (IMO). But I have to say, this looks intriguing. And I do like del Toro's stuff.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Feb 26, 2009 -> 11:44 AM) I do agree with you here. I just don't think the government taking it over is the solution to cutting costs without jeapordizing the entire system as we know it (and yes, we both agree that the current system needs to change). So... what would work better?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 26, 2009 -> 11:40 AM) The link I saw was a mini article that didn't have any detail. Did it change? What the... yes, it did. It didn't have a LOT of details before, but it had a handful of examples at least, and allusions to other things. Weird.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 26, 2009 -> 11:34 AM) To be fair, that plan came out long before the extent of the problems was evident. In reality, this is going to be the same accounting trick that is always used when spending is "cut" buy the government. Take budget of department A. It is projected to have a 10% increase annually from the $100 billion is is this fiscal year. Cut the rate of increase to say 3%, and call the other 7% percent a "savings" even though you are still increasing the budget of this particular department by 3%. Hopefully I am wrong, and there are some real cuts, and they actually start to cut into the duplicity of government, but history doesn't look good. There will be some of that. But, look at the examples in the article - they are talking about cutting entire departments.

LOL It keeps getting better.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 26, 2009 -> 11:16 AM) oh god I was joking hahahaha, the fact that that was taken seriously is a testament to this wonderful board lol I was aware, but I wanted to take the opporunity to point out how badly this particular team tends to do in ST.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 26, 2009 -> 10:41 AM) will we ever win a game? Its spring training. When was the last time the Sox had a spring training above .500? I can't recall.

Clearly its not going to be easy. Too many interests involved. But, I think its smart to try it now, for multiple reasons: --Obama just spent a s***-ton of money and needs to look more responsible --Lots of people in the public worried about government bloat, so there is more support for this --He can look more bipartisan, and maybe even work with the GOP to get help on it Here is the deal. If Obama proposes these cuts, and works with Congress to get them, but Congress removes them... that is 100% on Congress. And I think Obama knows that, and is putting them on the line, so that he can get a little more juice to get things done with them. He is making them choose waste or not, and he will happily make sure the public knows the outcome.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Feb 25, 2009 -> 04:31 PM) I think Quantum of Solace was very well put together and I'm going to be buying the Blu Ray. I'm not one who minds that the storyline coincides with Casino Royale, nor do I mind that BA chase seen in the beginning of the movie. I'm really one who didn't like GoldenEye though. Heck, I think the only Bonds I could watch are with Daniel Craig. Casino Royale was a very good Bond movie, and a decent, fun action flick overall. I thought Quantum of Solace was a piece of crap masquerading as a Bourne entry.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Feb 26, 2009 -> 10:30 AM) I haven't read the detail, but I do think that Iraq is a significant part of his "savings". Actually, that is seperate and apart form the $2T over 10 years. But yes, it is obviously part of his overall effort to halve the deficit.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Feb 26, 2009 -> 10:28 AM) Balta has been very clear that he thinks the only thing that can save us is government takeover of (health care, banking, education, whatever to prevent deflationary cycle), while posting every chance he gets about "evil corporations" and their misdeeds. That's a translation that "markets" don't work with "abuses" such as these. I've seen post after post after post citing "expert" after "expert" about this coming from there... and frankly, anyone can sound good for a 500 word essay but totally miss the point. This is NOT a knock about Balta, but I think it's dangerous reading all this s*** and then thinking one knows how all this works. Frankly, Timothy Gietner doesn't get it, yet. You were talking markets. Health care, yes, many people have suggested a government-controlled (to at least some extent) system. But you are taking Balta's posting of bad stuff that corporate folks are doing, and assuming that means he thinks the markets are evil and government should take over. He hasn't said that, at all. If one were to make a similar statement about, for example, those who constantly bash Obama... you could then leap to say that they think the Democratic party should be abolished in favor of a 100% GOP government. And yet, I don't think anyone is actually saying that.

So, Obama says his team has found $2T in cuts to make out of the federal budget over 10 years, on what he calls wasteful spending. This article details some examples. Now, $2T seems like a ton, but its really $200B a year. Still a lot. On the one hand, he has a huge uphill battle to get this done. Even if they really did find this much, there are so many people in Congress who won't want to see their pet stuff (and lobbyist faves) get cut. On the other hand, what if Obama is really able to do this, or some significant chunk of it? To me, if Obama can manage to do this, that is a huge win. Further, he'd be doing something that the last GOp administration was never able to do anything like. A democrat (socialist?) actually cutting fat from the budget? How bad would the GOP look then? Add to this the drawdown in Iraq and the money saved there, and you have some idea of how he plans to halve the deficit as he recently promised. Maybe, just maybe, he could actually do that. Discuss...

My first game thread of the year. *cough* *clears throat* GO YOU WHITE SOX!!! I don't know off hand who is starting.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Feb 26, 2009 -> 09:59 AM) Are you kidding me? That wasn't Kaperbole. QUOTE (lostfan @ Feb 26, 2009 -> 10:05 AM) He's jabbing Balta again. I figured. But I haven't heard Balta say that, or much like that. I don't think Balta has posted that the markets are evil, or that governments should have that money. I haven't see that at all.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Feb 26, 2009 -> 09:17 AM) /waits for the capital markets are evil and only governments can save us post. You may be waiting a while. I haven't seen anyone post anything like that.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 25, 2009 -> 09:23 PM) I guess the game thread is closed...first day's thoughts: 1) Flowers is really going to have to work on both throwing mechanics and blocking pitches 2) Nix and Josh Kroeger were the most impressive from a hitting perspective 3) Owens is still getting some bad reads out in CF 4) Who is Willie Anderson (pitcher)? I thought he played for the Spurs and UGA. 5) Brad Salmon is done, stick a form in him. 6) Wasserman and Russell didn't do anything to distinguish themselves...(John) Adam Russell (sorry DJ!) has a quickly diminishing star 7) Richard pitched well, Dotel was his normal unpredictable self and all over the place Salmon was done to begin with. Kroeger had 1 at bat, hard to draw anything from that. Wassermann struck out 3 guys in one inning, that's pretty distinguished to me.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 26, 2009 -> 07:42 AM) Neither mass production, nor assembly lines, were American inventions. They just won the PR battles. Its like this with most inventions. The true inventor is usually obscured in history, by someone who came after and sold it better.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 25, 2009 -> 03:51 PM) Tyle Flowers is struggling behind the plate. Interesting choice. Bring in Flowers for his first time at C for his new team, and you run him out there to catch Wassermann and his goofy delivery.

So, I can only see the box score. How the hell did Wassermann put up a line of 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K ???

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Feb 25, 2009 -> 02:01 PM) ahh that would be meteorology And geology. And hydrology.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 25, 2009 -> 10:59 AM) Didn't the graph I posted yesterday make that point? Am I back on Ignore for you? Dah. What was that? Did anyone else hear something? Sounded like someone banging rocks together, in the distance.

Interesting article from MLB.com about the 5-player competition for backup C.

Donny got an invite to Spring Training. He's theoretically in the running for the backup C spot, but the concensus seems to be that he's got an uphill battle. He signed a minor league contract during the offseason, so he's headed to Charlotte if he doesn't surprise and make the team. His health is the key. If anyone has any word from camp as to his status, health, etc., I'd love to hear about it.

QUOTE (JustWin @ Feb 24, 2009 -> 04:33 PM) Hello, first time poster here. I found this site about a year ago but was always too lazy to post. Anyway, I agree that this division will be competitive this year, although I don't think the Royals will win it. I don't know if the Sox have what it takes to win the division again since there are alot of "if this happens" with our team but I hope at the very least they'll be in contention all year. We'll see. It could be a very fun season or a very frustrating one. Welcome aboard!