southsider2k5

Talk about a guy who scammed the system big time. He got a 5 year $55 million contract because of a the bounce up in his preformance.

The only time I make the bed is when the sheets get changed, otherwise, it is a waste of time.

QUOTE(TLAK @ Sep 12, 2007 -> 07:38 PM) If nothing else, the thought of Ozzie sticking it to Mariotti for 5 more years may have justified the extension all by itself. Reinsdorf himself called Mariotti a Pissant, and Ozzie called him a f***** so I doubt his 'scathing' column upset anyone at 35th and Shields. Pfft. Kotex-boy is probably over-joyed. It means he has writing material for a long, long time.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 17, 2007 -> 02:03 PM) ^^^^^^^^ Exactly. Selig is most definitely complicit. And as you point out the union has very little recourse available to them, which is why I said earlier that the only way they could really fight back would be to strike. Unless Congress were to cancel MLB's anti-trust exemption, the union really has zero recourse. They could strike and hope to freeze Selig into submission, but legally they couldn't do a damned thing. That is the most frustrating part of Bud Selig acting like he has done everything he can to fix the game. He hasn't. He say on the sidelines hoping it would go away, and acting like it was a players problem. Its not just their problem when he alone as the ability to fix the problem.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Sep 14, 2007 -> 04:16 PM) The Union probably won't allow tests. The Union might not have a choice. Being a legalized monopoly, baseball doesn't have to submit to the will of labor. As a matter of a fact one of the clauses that Kenesaw Mountain Landis had put in as a condition of his accept the position, was that he could have the power to make unilateral actions. The comissioner of baseball has the authority to act "in the best interest of baseball" if he deems the situation necesary. Tomorrow Bud Selig could say you will all be subject to olympic style testing, and the union would have no choice but to agree to it, or to strike. If the union chose to strike because they didn't want to be drug tested, they would be fried by the media and fans alike. Its the reason that I have believe that Bud Selig has been just as complicit in the baseball drug problem as any player who took steroids or speed. He could have stopped this years ago, but he chose not to do so. Now he has to live with the results.

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Sep 17, 2007 -> 12:15 PM) but what uni does he go in with? Indians, no doubt.

Great. More things to waste TV news time on...

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 17, 2007 -> 08:53 AM) Article about the fan who caught the ball, gave it back, and donated the prize season ticket seats to a charity of Thome's choice. Classy moves all around. How classy. Instead of seeing dollar signs, he did the right thing

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 17, 2007 -> 10:40 AM) Yeah, its interesting, he should also have some experience dealing with lots of other candidates, which I'd love to hear. Any of he Senators he has probably at least talked with (Edwards, McCain, maybe Obama, Thompson), as well as Richardson from his days as energy secretary. There are very few people on this planet that I would be willing to pay to listen to speak. Alan Greenspan is one of those few. He is such an incredible wealth of knowledge. His interview last night actually gave me more respect for him.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 17, 2007 -> 10:29 AM) Yes it has. And the bad news is, they are much stronger and larger than say, something like the FLDS or some other extremist sect of Christianity or Judaism. But the good news is, they are still the small minority, and that means that if we can get a new, sane policy towards the Middle East in 2008 (one not bent on illegal and poorly planed colonialism), then we may still be able to avert a lot of future violence. Our policy is not the problem, when it comes to extremism. Even under Democratic Presidents we have been under attack by extremists. Heck under the biggest pacifist President we probably ever had, Iran invaded our embassy and took our citizens hostage. Under Clinton we had the first WTC attack, the USS Cole attack, the embassy bombings etc. It might change things with lots of Muslims around the world, but the extremists will always be (for lack of a better discription) extreme. There is no way of changing the minds of people whose sole purpose in life is our destruction.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 17, 2007 -> 10:30 AM) Huh? His "correction" makes it pretty clear he still stands by the heart of the statement. And its still partially true. He then also adds some comments on the Dems, because of course he isn't happy with them either. Like SS said, this guy is a Libertarian, and I think he's pretty disappointed in both parties right now. Seems to me there is plenty of ammo here for both parties, if they choose to use it. Actually I took something completely different from this. I read it as this is how HE saw it. Greenspan thought that for the good of the oil markets, that we should take out Saddam. In his view, the war about about oil. Maybe I am reading it wrong. Speaking of ammunition, I almost forgot about the interviewer asking him about Hillary for President. Greenspan was asked if she was capable, and he basically said yes. Then he asked about what he thought, and he gave a patented non-answer about waiting and seeing.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Sep 16, 2007 -> 05:33 PM) Another line in Mr. Bubble's book. Alan has a bit of a clarification on that statement. Also for those who believe Greenspan is a blue-blood republician, they should know he is actually a self-declared Libertarian. http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1627504220070917

I watched the 60 minutes interview, and it was interesting to say the least. First of all, I am going to buy this book. I don't say that very often, but Alan Greenspan is one of the most incredible people in my lifetime. Not many people realize the all encompassing effect on our lives this guy had. Granted in retrospect he made some mistakes, but viewed against some of the past Fed chairmen, I don't think you could find many better people. One of the interesting points of the interview was where he critisized the orginal Bush for saying interest rates should be lower, as a conflict of the indepedancy of the Federal Reserve, but then attending Clinton cabinet meetings, and spoke out in them. I am not quite sure how one was a conflict and the other wasn't but I do want to read and find out. It was also interesting to hear how much he like Gerald Ford as a person, and not as a President, while totally fearing Richard Nixon.

Ah the oldest trick in the book... How about we go with this really awful option? No? Well how about this option that isn't quite as bad? Anyway, I wonder what the reason to not listen to this guy will be?

Wow. How awesome for one of the greatest guys in all of professional sports to get his own "Natural" moment. That was one of the most incredible moments I have seen in pro-sports, and most of it had to do with who hit it. It was so cool to see every single one of his teammates wait around and give the guy a big bear hug and everything, instead of just the usual high-five and pat on the back. You couldn't have scripted a better Hollywood ending for Jim Thome.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 14, 2007 -> 03:03 PM) Yes, that is true. But here is the thing - those illegal immigrants are still using all kinds of services unofficially. They may not be getting a check, but they are a drain on resources, without paying it. That is far worse than someone at a low wage earning position that at least contributes SOME tax money, and keeps more of their spending and cash in the country. So even if low wage earners end up getting 90% of their taxes back in terms of federal income tax, they are still paying all sorts of other taxes into the system. Economically, the more illegal laborers are hired, the worse things will be later. Its an artificial, short-term cost reduction for businesses that is offset by greater costs to the entire country. That is the point. Even if you don't believe the numbers fully, the point remains that low earning illegals who become citizens will be a much larger drain in the long run on resources versus having a rising wage and paying more for a product in the short term. It falls under the ounce of prevention/pound of cure category.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 14, 2007 -> 02:54 PM) I think that slowly having illegals taken off he payrolls makes it better in the long run. Because then ultimately, businesses either have to hire legal laborers (who then all pay their taxes), and any businesses that can't survive don't, which relieves artificial price pressures. And if they are here illegally, they shouldn't be allowed on any social programs. If those things occurred, they'd go home, or find a way to work here legally. That's the goal, isn't it? If they leave the US. If they don't leave, it is worse.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 14, 2007 -> 02:40 PM) That is only sort of true. For one, not all the 12 million have regular jobs at all. For another thing, if a farmer is currently working 10 illegals in the field at like $3 an hour, and he is then forced to hire legal folks at $5.50 an hour... he might not hire as many people. Just something to keep in perspective. Also, frankly, some businesses are being artificially propped up by illegal labor. Companies that are just scraping by using under-minimum wage labor, in some cases, won't survive without that labor. And that is actually better for the economy anyway, in the long run. Companies that would not otherwise survive their competition don't help the economy, they hurt it. That actually makes things worse, not better. Now those people would be on the rolls of all of the applicable social programs, and not paying any taxes at all, instead of paying a small amount of taxes in someway, shape, or form.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1189725889...=googlenews_wsj

Its really nice to see Poreda pitching so well right off of the bat. Out of curiousity, how far way do the experts think he is from Chicago? 2010? 2011? 2012?

Heads got me thinking in the Catch-All thread... Who is the worst guest star that has ever been on Scrubs, and who is the best one?

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Sep 14, 2007 -> 11:51 AM) Hmm, interesting catch that I didn't see earlier this week. During a Senate hearing Wednesday, the head of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division gave an estimate for how much it would cost simply to deport all 12 to 15 million illegal immigrants currently in the country (not counting any of the costs of finding them, only the costs due to the deportation process). Her answer was $94 billion. That includes only detention costs, travel costs, and personnel fees associated with those parts of the trip. Wow that is a huge number. You know what else is a huge number? The $1.1 million per person (an estimated $22,849 per household/average # of people in a household) over a 50 year adult life span (in other words not counting childhood years, when zero taxes are paid, and multiple deductions and credits are taken) that the average low income earner citizen uses in government services, over and above the taxes that they pay into the system. http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTUyZ...TAxNTZlOWJkNDk= Now take that $1.1 million per person times 12 million for the low estimate of illegals in the US and that ends up giving you 13.2 TRILLION dollars. Even if you take the law of diminishing marginal returns for some costs, and lower it by half to $6.6 trillion that is still only 1.4% of the cost of having them stay here, even without factoring the 20 childhood years into the equation.

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Sep 14, 2007 -> 09:47 AM) Is that an anti-Fox comment??? Man, I didn't think anybody disliked him. No, he has Parkinsons Disease really bad. He can't act anymore, because he has barely any control of many of his basic motor skills.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 03:44 PM) I love the internet. I might never have known this http://ibscrohns.about.com/cs/otherdiseases/a/greenstool.htm I also learned that Lucky Charms is notorious for causing this. Cool! Another reason to eat a bowl. I wonder if there are any other colors I can shoot for. Gatorades can do the samething.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 07:15 PM) lol, i remember boog or the blue jays fan, smirnoffkid or something, who used to always post on the White Sox board because he was pissed about Mike Sirotka trade He was pretty cool at least. There were a couple of other posters from other teams that were always good to talk to.