southsider2k5

Who the hell is going to sign a guy who couldn't beat out Scott Podsednik?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 1, 2009 -> 07:59 PM) Weren't you the one who insisted to me a few months ago that because the government started investments in sub-prime mortgages it was guaranteed that every investor in the world was going to jump in to an infinite degree? The reason why people aren't investing isn't that they're scared of something the government might do, it's that they're afraid of taking massive losses. Which right now is a pretty darn good bet. If there's money to be made, people are going to find a way to make it, regardless of whether or not the government is involved. I did, and it absolutely holds true because the government is f***ing bondholders in the ass in this deal, and others, and trying to give the company to labor instead. They are also afraid instead of having influence in the company, the government is going to throw their weight around and force them into company management decisions that they don't want to make, forcing them into smaller future profits, or even bigger losses.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 1, 2009 -> 08:15 PM) You know, I'm just going to laugh at this rant and leave it at that. I'm sure as soon as someone blogs, or makes a comedy routine, about it, you'll have an answer for it.

Great job by both Mark and the pen in locking in down to a very dangerous offensive team. It was also really nice to see a win without hitting a homer.

QUOTE (Reddy @ May 1, 2009 -> 05:52 PM) what the hell does that mean? /defensive Iowan Nolan Ryan was born and raised in Texas.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 1, 2009 -> 07:44 PM) My key point...without the Federal government stepping in, it would wind up in chapter 7. The only reason why it is not in chapter 7 is the actions of the government. No one is buying a car from a bankrupt company if they think there's a 10% chance their warranty is going to suddenly vanish because the car company went up in smoke. But if the government guarantees to keep the company running and guarantees the warranties and uses its funds as the bridge loan that the company can't get otherwise right now because of the credit market, then the company has a chance to survive chapter 11. In other words, the only reason those bondholders are getting anything is that the government stepped in. Otherwise, it was going to chapter 7 and its doors would already have been shut. And why would it end up in Chapter 7? Because no sane investment group would touch an automotive company right now because they know what the governmental interference in this industry could mean for their investments. Going off of the steel example, investors know there profitable potential in the US auto industry, but they want no part of the government in their pocketbooks. It isn't a coincidence when the last GDP numbers were broke down, the area that had by far the largest contraction was investment spending, even with a rebound in consumer spending. That is a huge red flag.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 1, 2009 -> 06:50 PM) You're causing serious harm to a lot of people's lives if you close the border. Which is why it needs to be a truly dire situation. You can't just close it for days and get the effect, you need to close off the country until the epidemic burns out. That's a period of months. And we're not just talking about the Mexican border...you're talking air travel, and you've got to be talking ship travel as well. Imagine no trade coming in to or out of the U.S. for a period of 3 months. How many people die because of the famine that sparks off when we don't have energy to ship around foodstuffs? How many people's lives are totally ruined? Its really interesting that you mention food and energy specifically in all of this. Energy because the Obama policy is to increase the price of all energy significantly, to the point where alternative energy is cheaper, and the people who are going to suffer the most are the ultra-poor. Food is another interesting mention, because if they start tearing down all of the free trade agreements like they made noise about during the campaign, it means that more family farmers, and even the larger factory farms go out of business, food prices increase, and less food gets grown. How many people would die because American farmers go broke and wouldn't plant? The replealing of NAFTA would pretty much cause a defacto border close for months are the trade wars and tariffs escalated in their usual historical manner. I don't think that has stopped the Anti-Mexico trade groups from trying to kill it. Mainly its crap because we make cost/benefit analysis in pretty much everything. Because the Obama administration wants to look "tough" just in case, and not panicking for everyone else, they are trying to play both sides of the fence. If this isn't a big deal, tell people to quit canceling schools and staying home from work. If this is an ordinary flu, don't ask for $1.5 billion that we don't have. If it isn't a big deal, take a trip down to Mexico to meet with their leadership to try to calm the situation instead of letting a crisis go to waste. If this is important, take some real steps and actually try to stop some infections, instead of hoping that no more cases come in. You think some people want border fences now, let some illegals bring a killer virus over and see how nasty it gets.

I think Nolan Ryan is a great example of why you just can't use numbers to evaluate a player. Sometimes the eye test really does matter.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 1, 2009 -> 02:34 PM) 2k5, found an interesting read for you on the effectiveness of border controls if you have the time (it's a good 30 page+ document from the World Bank on flu epidemic containment properties). The conclusions that affect our discussion are; border controls can have a significant delaying impact on the entrance and intensity of a flu outbreak. But a 90% closure is only weakly effective. You literally need to get up above 99% control of the people entering your country, including border crossings and airports, and combine that with a full scale school closing and immediate, heavy treatment program if you want to do more than delay the peak of the flu hitting by more than a week. A 90% effective closure of the borders buys you an extra 10 days to develop a vaccine before the true peak of the flu hits. That's the data they're looking at regarding closing the border. You have to know in advance that it's going to be absolutely a devastating outbreak, because to have a big enough impact that it actually delays the flu by more than a week, and thus buys you time to manufacture an effective vaccine or implement better treatment methods, you have to shut down all inbound air travel and close the border to keep well over 90% of the people currently crossing from entering. For a cost-benefit analysis, it has to be an absolute disaster of the worst sense. Worse than 1918, before it becomes a reasonable option. So lives are now worth a cost benefit analysis? Interesting change of liberal philosophy.

They have something similar at the CN Tower in Toronto. It is incredible, and I will be going to do it as soon as it is open.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ May 1, 2009 -> 03:19 PM) Let me get this straight: Bailing out Chrysler: a mistake. Letting Chrysler go bankrupt: a mistake. Doing nothing and letting Chrysler liquidate: a mistake. They should have gone into bankruptcy from Day One. The entire planet knew they weren't going to be able to "restructure" without cutting costs for real.

Any word on why Bmac got pushed back?

QUOTE (Brian @ Apr 30, 2009 -> 10:55 PM) So the cliffhanger was that 815 was actually going to NY and not LA? My whole theory is that if they never crash on the island, they are not better off. Locke is still in the chair, Kate most likely goes to jail since she never meets Jack who lies while testifying, Sun and Jin's marriage is still crap, etc... So are you saying it was all a dream or that reality was altered back to "normal"?

So its not a big secret that I was probably Brandon McCarthy's biggest fan-boy while he was here. With the Sox facing Brandon for the first time, it got me thinking... Which Ex-Sox player do you look most forward to seeing play against us? Who do you make it a special point to check the box score to follow their progress?

So in this series, these teams have played just under 3 regulation quarters of extra time. Pretty much they are most of the way through game 7 already.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Apr 30, 2009 -> 10:41 PM) This series has been amazing and that was a great win for the Bulls tonight. I thought Rivers made a huge mistake going to Rondo over Allen for that last shot btw. Allen was having just a ridiculous night and Rondo was horrible shooting the ball. I know he is better at getting to the basket but run a play for the guy who can't miss. Really shouldn't be a tough concept. Rivers said in the post game that the play was supposed to be a drive and a kick to Allen, but that the drive never happened.

What an incredible rally, and that one hurts...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 29, 2009 -> 05:06 PM) Marquez was just DL'd. Hopefully an injury was the problem.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Apr 30, 2009 -> 09:51 PM) Nice one Mr. President. Making fun of the hundreds of thousands of PEACEFUL protesters at the Tea Party Protests on Tax Day. I'm losing more and more respect each day for this person I have to call President. That would be the party of inclusion, right?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 30, 2009 -> 09:12 PM) Rick Reilly Wow, I haven't heard Rick Reilly's name in a while. I didn't realize where he landed.

QUOTE (knightd1 @ Apr 30, 2009 -> 10:06 PM) rondo suspension?? Not a chance. If they wouldn't even give him a technical for throwing a punch at Hinrich, they sure as hell aren't suspending him.

What a great block, but a total final four flashback for Derrick. The NBA got their game 7, lets hope the Bulls are up to this.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 30, 2009 -> 09:45 PM) It doesn't help when they have 7 penalties, including 4 double minors against them in the first 35 minutes. It's like the Canucks have razor blades in their gloves to ensure they bleed. The Hawks have been earning all of them. That's part of the problem.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 30, 2009 -> 09:40 PM) ...And the Hawks are getting their asses kicked. Yeah, they seem happy to have just gotten this far. Hopefully this ass-kicking wakes them up for Game 2.

If anyone has seen Derrick Rose, could they please send him back to the game? Thanks. He seems to have disappeared.