southsider2k5

QUOTE (The Critic @ Dec 21, 2009 -> 01:58 PM) Huet was named the NHL's #1 Star of the Week. His GA is down to 2.01. Things are going REALLY well right now. Maybe the guy is Alexei's evil twin... he can't play until it gets cold outside?

QUOTE (WCSox @ Dec 21, 2009 -> 12:48 PM) Everybody in the media knew that the Jays were desperate to dump salary and that Rios' contract was well above market value. I don't think that Kenny is dumb enough to have believed that Ricciardi would've had any incentive to work out a trade for Rios, as he has zero leverage once he claims a player off of waivers. Thank you. It was obvious outside of any GMs office what was happening to the Jays, and it was obvious to Kenny and Rick as well.

QUOTE (Tex @ Dec 21, 2009 -> 09:33 AM) Somewhere between our government sucks at everything and can't solve any problems and the government is perfect and can solve all problems is reality. One of the clearest areas that government can help involves scale. When the problem is best handled with scale, that is where the government can, and should, be involved. So a national defense instead of each state having a militia makes sense. Same with health care. Bigger insurance groups survive better than smaller groups. Spreading the risk over a wider area works better than individual. The market tells us that with rates. I believe in America and Americans and know we can make this work. I believe we can create a better system. I also think we need to keep an eye on what helps small business. Most groups plans cost over $500 per month for family coverage, actually closer to $800. That is $4 per hour based on a 40 hour week. That is getting dangerously close to minimum wage. Imagine working 40 just to pay insurance. Imagine being a small business and trying to offer that to employees earning $10 an hour ($20K/year) Fix health care, make working for small business a viable option, reduce dependence on the multinational companies that outsource over seas, makes a lot of sense to me. And are the Iraq and Afghanistan wars unfunded mandates? You do realize by heaping more and more costs on to the classes that actually hire people in this country the government is going to force more jobs out of the country, not less.

QUOTE (G&T @ Dec 21, 2009 -> 08:36 AM) Marlins have made a 5 year $13M offer for Chapman. Link Wow. That is incredibly low compared to the rumors. At that kind of cost, I want to see the Sox interested.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 21, 2009 -> 07:28 AM) Yeah that's exactly what I wrote. Get the chip off your shoulder man, and leave me alone. Alex Rios for 5 years is crazy especially if you cry you don't have any money. The other day I was cleaning up some things and came across a 2007 media guide. Of the 56 players the White Sox had in major league camp, 7 are still with the team. 5 years is a long time. Rios was given away. For nothing. Take him. The Sox did, so apparently they have more money than they told you they have, because don't forget, this was after they picked up Peavy. As to cheap, I have only called them cheap at the beginning of 2009. I said they were sitting on money, and all evidence points to me being correct. There is nothing to suggest Jerry Reinsdorf likes to go deep into the red for waiver claims. QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 21, 2009 -> 07:30 AM) The tag team mods. If I bother you guys so much with logic, just ban me. Now why is it that you love to challenge people, but it bothers you to be challenged so much? If it bothers you so much, you are probably in the wrong place. Besides, you are the one trying to slam the organization for things you criticize them for not doing at other times.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 09:22 PM) And every time we yank out the supports, every time we tell someone "You're ok on your own without rules!" we wind up with another version of AIG. The reason we want to do this is not that we're wanting to destroy this country or stifle innovation. We believe that you make it a lot more likely that people will succeed if failure doesn't ruin their life, if they have a chance to recover. We don't think that a person should lose their health care because their business went under, we don't think that people should work until they're 90 because their financial advisor overinvested in AIG, we don't think that it's ok to tell someone that because their parents are poor they can't get an education, etc. We're not trying to destroy capitalism whether you believe it or not. The rest of the world has learned the lesson, and we knew the lesson a few years ago...capitalism is stronger if people don't lose everything when they take a risk. There's no reason why our citizens should be dying because they can't afford health care. If that's the thing I don't get, I hope I never do. The problem is capitalism dies if no one is left to take a risk. Once you take too much from the class of people that makes the economy go, the entire pyramid collapses. Then you have nothing.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 07:02 PM) So Bradley didn't like D-Lee because he didn't segregate himself like a loser? Apparently racists of a feather should flock together... or something.

Boy this team loves the UC.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 05:33 PM) If they just owed him the $9.7 million or whatever it is for 2010, he's worth the gamble, but considering how they seem to always be up against a wall with their budget and you really can't count on an attendance spike, especially in this economy, $5 years, $60 million is a crazy committment. He obviously has the tools to live up to the contract, and perhaps even make it look like a bargain, but he also seems to be a threat to be a poster boy for people who just deteriorate after they get the money. So they are crazy if they spend, and cheap if they don't. Got it.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 09:13 PM) Then we should stop dong everything possible to keep enriching that small minority like we have been the last 30 years, and work on rebuilding the majority (middle class) that we've been at war with since 1981. Which is fine with me. Dismantle it all. We don't need to work on rebuilding anyone. That is the problem with the mentality that has been forced upon us. It has lead to us rebuilding countries, economies, banks, health care, retirement, and pretty much everything under the sun. It is a disaster.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 09:12 PM) While I don't understand this sentence...note the language being used here and how it is specifically designed to overwhelm logic. Enslaving? clearly this is evil and I don't actually need to consider the case. Do people have a choice to be involved in medicare, medicade, social security, and now health insurance. I think the word is PERFECT.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 05:51 PM) Seriously...this is just sad. You oppose every single effort to bring those costs under control and then rail about how they're unfunded liabilities. You oppose every effort to fund them and then scream about how bad they are. You rail against how much this plan costs when every single independent analysis says it cuts costs, saves the government money, and at least begins to bend the curve to cut into that giant future liability. You scream about that funding gap and then oppose adding things that would bring it under control, like a public option or hell Medicare-for-all. You scream about how inefficient the government system is and then ignore the fact that we pay 3x per capita what the average OECD country does for health care or blame it on the government while every other state where the government runs things it winds up costing vastly less. It's just flat out incoherent. You hate the plan, you hate government, and you refuse to accept any math, numbers, or statistics that say the government could ever do anything right. There's no logic, no argument, just anger. And yes, they've been wildly successful. They've taken the segment of our population that was mired in poverty, the elderly, and given them decent lives. I'm going to steal this graph from the Hoover institution of all places to prove it. The 1960's-1970's trends here are the great society at work. The problem is, just like the other great social utopias of history, it will collapse upon itself because a small portion of the population cannot completely and utter support a majority of a country. They can't be counted on to raise, feed, employ, care for, etc the vast majority of a population.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 05:39 PM) Which are, of course, 2 of the most wildly successful government programs ever, and the only reason either of them have any potential problems is the fact that Medicare isn't aggressive enough and thus it faces a large deficit once health care becomes 50% of our economy. But we've been over that. You think enslaving generations into the dependency of the federal government? Ugh. There really isn't a point.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 08:32 PM) Because we're all better off if we suffer for the rest of the world.

14-7? Man judging by the comments here and on Facebook I thought the Bears were down at least 3 TDs.

QUOTE (SouthsideDon48 @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 03:50 PM) I like the Dolsi acquistion. I think he has a lot of potential, and I just realized that he seems to be the "poor man's Arredondo". We got him for nothing, and he is getting paid about minimum wage. There isn't anything not to like about it. If he sucks, we drop him, end of story.

My thought was of the Bulls, but they seem to have decided to play again for some strange reason.

QUOTE (Tex @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 01:51 PM) I believe the Bill of Rights are unalienable rights that all humans should have. When we travel the globe holding up our form of government and telling everyone this is the best way, we then should apply those rights to everyone we can. Otherwise, we are admitting this isn't the best system. So I am in favor of due process, speedy trials, and all of the rights we hold dear to us. And when we elevate it to all humans we elevate ourselves as well. Shining that light of democracy for all the world to see. When we decide which humans it should apply to, we expose ourselves as self serving hypocrites. Maybe in the meantime they can start collecting taxes from the whole world to pay for all of that freedom?

QUOTE (SouthsideDon48 @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 01:16 PM) it seems like fungible is a fungible word. It is a term used in commodities trading all of the time.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 10:59 AM) I'd take his final totals as long as he plays plus defense in CF which I'm sure he will. Sox fans remember his poor play for us, even though he really picked it up at the end. He hit .333 / 2HR / 5 RBI / 3SB over his last 10. He will be the everyday CF as things are now. Unless something crazy happens in the outfield involving TCQ, that isn't going to change.

Short of Tommy John coming to visiting the starting rotation, there is nothing to worry about from the starting rotation.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 10:32 AM) there's no way they are going to get federal funds for abortions. at least not on the up an up. maybe through loop holes in the legislation. That is how it was planned all along. I have no doubt there will be a way around it, even if legislation seems anti-abortion.

Are all of these guys requiring major league contracts to sign, or is it something where a minor league contract with an invite to spring training would do? The SOx just filled their 40 man roster, though I suppose there is a player or two who could be dropped.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Dec 19, 2009 -> 09:03 PM) Eh.. people still get their shots in with Alex Rios on this board still. Not sayin it's right.. but just sayin... Rios will not repeat his 2009 next year. I don't know how close he will get to career norms, but he isn't going to be horrible again.

QUOTE (Ranger @ Dec 19, 2009 -> 08:32 PM) The tone would be different if Peavy had been acquired during the offseason. There would be a lot more buzz, I think. But since it happened in the middle of a season that turned out poorly, some of the excitement has worn off. This place would be going crazy if we got Peavy.