WCSox

QUOTE(mreye @ Jan 10, 2006 -> 09:26 AM) You said this is an AP class. Will it hurt your diploma / transcripts to drop an AP class. Will that be on your record? Ask your counselor this before dropping it. Excellent point. AP credit can save you A LOT of money. It saved me an entire semester of tuition.

I suppose it's only fair that one church out there is a "parrot for the Republican party," since most of the national media is a tool of the Democratic party. But according to LCR, we shouldn't go to church at all (especially if we're Catholic) because organized religion has done so many terrible things. :rolly

QUOTE(soxman352000 @ Jan 9, 2006 -> 08:56 PM) No, this is Mr. G (I don't know how to spell his actually name) My friend told me that he has been told by the administration to ease up little. Another friend told me he is retiring after this year to help his wife with her business. I'd inform an administrator that he's still pulling this crap. Don't get into an argument with him about it.

QUOTE(Pauly8509CWS @ Jan 9, 2006 -> 02:45 PM) I've heard different things, because I too am looking into journalism and am planning on going to U of I or Grand Valley State. Both fit me well, but I think I can play D2 club hockey at U of I so I may choose there. If all other things are equal, pick the school with the higher overall degree of academic prestige. As you'll see later, employers favor job candidates with the more impressive academic "pedigree."

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 9, 2006 -> 02:01 PM) I understnad what you're saying in that it's just 1 justice being replaced here, but when the court is basically sitting 4-4 with a notorious swing vote in the middle...replacing that swing vote with a person from either side could very well produce a massive ideological shift. Still, the overall ideological shift is minimal. Alito is probably a little more liberal than Rhenquist was. Roberts is a little more conservative than O'Connor (a Reagan appointee). Bush could've easily nominated two far-right conservatives, but didn't. I think that his approach was pretty fair, even if it means that liberals no longer have O'Connor's swing vote.

QUOTE(whitesoxmurph @ Jan 9, 2006 -> 01:40 PM) By listening to the Dems I guess I missed that part of the U S Constitution that states that the Supreme court must be divided evenly and that an outgoing Justice must be replaced with a Justice of the same politcal beliefs. I guess I better pull out my copy and read it again... Oh wait a minute I seem to recall that Justice Ginsburg (Left leaning counsel for the ACLU) replaced Justice White (Right of center for sure), that can't be right can it? Dems can't really complain about John Robers, a moderate conservative who replaced Rhenquist (a very staunch conservative). Alito is obviously much more conservative than O'Connor, but it's not like Bush has gone out of his way to swing the Court way over to the right ideologically.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jan 9, 2006 -> 11:23 AM) Edit: As an afterthought, I also suggest it be moved "The Filibuster" forum. How appropriate, given that the Dems just might do the same.

QUOTE(jasonxctf @ Jan 9, 2006 -> 11:29 AM) it's bad for those buying their first home (think 20-somethings) Yep, and some of those people are paying $400,000 for 1,600 square-foot homes just because they want to own a house. There are a number of young people in California who are spending 60% or 70% of their income on their mortgages. Amazing... :headshake This is a great time to rent and put off buying a house. I'm not even going to think about it until the prices come down.

QUOTE(jasonxctf @ Jan 9, 2006 -> 10:58 AM) all i know is what i heard this morning on CNBC. Personal Income rose 3.1% for 2005 Inflation rose 3.5% for 2005 Net loss to consumer 0.4%. AND... the inflation rate does not include gas/utility prices and housing prices. Imagine the bloodbath if they did. Does the inflation rate include the excessively over-priced housing market?

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jan 8, 2006 -> 11:39 PM) SIU is actually the best school in the state if you want to go into journalism or broadcasting and that's why I'm there right now. I enjoy it and I'm not a heavy drinker so there is other stuff to do. A better journalism program than U of I? Did not know that. If it's the best school in one's major, that certainly changes things.

QUOTE(Nokona @ Jan 8, 2006 -> 02:35 PM) NIU-Business. Col - Artsy stuff. SIU - Alcoholism. I'd x SIU off the list personally but thats just me. No offense to anybody who went to SIU, but they don't have a good academic reputation (although, IIRC, their forestry program is excellent). Unless you're getting a significant amount of scholarship money from SIU, I agree with the above poster. Pick the school with the best program in your major.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jan 8, 2006 -> 12:50 PM) Wow. Leave to a couple guys in Oregon and Iowa to make claims of severe reverse racism. The poor white race. We have it so bad. Boo hoo I went to a high school in the Chicago area that was probably 30-40% black when I was there. There, saw my best friend get the crap kicked out of him because of the color of his skin. I also saw several race-realted fights in the locker room and was the target of racist verbal abuse at the hands of several African-American students. Don't tell me that I don't know anything about racism.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jan 8, 2006 -> 12:43 PM) One of my biggest pet peeves is how some white know-it-all thinks they can deal with race issues when the chances are they have never in their life experienced racism on any level that a black person does on a daily basis. I've experienced reverse racism on several occasions.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jan 8, 2006 -> 12:40 PM) One of my biggest pet peeves is how some black people think their actions are above reproach due to their skin color. Yep, there's certainly an "entitlement" mentality in many cases. To be fair, I'm sure that there are a lot of poor white trash who are complaining about the lack of permanent handouts from Uncle Sam as well. They're just as worthless, IMO.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jan 8, 2006 -> 12:18 AM) Some of them were taxpayers. Some of them didn't pay any taxes because the didn't have enough income. Yet, they felt entitled to receive money from the Fed even though they payed zero taxes. They are so used to hand outs, that they couldn't accept being left out. f*** 'em. FWIW, there is a ton of poor white trash in LA and MS that manage their money just as irresponsibly. However, I don't see any of them playing the race card to try to pry money out of the government's hands.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jan 6, 2006 -> 02:48 PM) Is it just me or is there a segment of American society that seems to enjoy being pieces of s*** then whining about how horrible they have it at every opportunity? I think it's fair to say that there's a certain segment of American society that doesn't want to take any resonsibility for their actions and expects the government to give them things that they've neither earned nor deserve.

And I'll bet that if one of the homes collapsed and killed its residents, one of the demagogue "community activists" would immediately file a lawsuit against the city. "White folk owe us!" :rolly

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Jan 6, 2006 -> 01:59 PM) Because his radio show does well for some unknown reason. Well, I guess there are a lot of bigots out there.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 6, 2006 -> 12:48 PM) It's interesting, this article talks about many of the things we've discussed here regarding Dem leadership. How the Dems seem to have a big gaping whole to drive through with Bush beaten down and his party fractured, but they just don't seem to have the leadership to punch through. I think that they do have the leadership, but they're putting the wrong people in the leadership positions.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 6, 2006 -> 11:58 AM) A conversation between two private parties over a phone line is the property of the conversants solely (unless someone over hears one end of it in public). That's why you can't wire tap someone else's phone (but you can tap your own). Same with email, unless it's on a company email account (then it belongs to the company). Unless the company carrying the signal (ISP, telecom) were to specify in their contract that they could use the data being transmitted, they can't own it either. Therefore, the conversants have a reasonable expectation of privacy under the law (meaning, it can only be monitored via warrant). I'm aware of what the law says. But if, God forbid, a few thousand people die in another terrorist attack, that might change. Given that privacy in e-mail and cell phone communications aren't specifically protected in the Constitution, a strong case could be made for a change. Hopefully it'll never come to that.

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 12:33 PM) The Savage Nation! on MSNBC. It got the axe because he said something about I hope that gay person catches AIDS and dies or whatever. But it was gonna get the axe because it was flatlining in the ratings anyway, getting 0.1s. That's always more fun to watch. Michael Savage is an idiot. Why MSNBC even bothered with him is beyond me.

QUOTE(mreye @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 12:27 PM) How come it's OK for a Union to strike, or lefties to march against...well, just about everything, but it's censorship when a religious group speaks out against a TV show?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 6, 2006 -> 11:05 AM) Correct. But if you are under surveillance, that could be any mode of communication, including in-person. See my previous posts. If this was JUST email, while I would still think it was wrong, it would be les scary (for the aforementioned reason of choice). But as these are warrantless, unregulated surveillance operations, it could literally be monitoring anything. And that makes it that much scarier. So why is e-mail screening less "scary" than phone screens? It would be very unethical to wire-tap somebody's property (home, vehicle, etc.) without a warrant. But, IMO, all others could be construed as fair game. Internet and phone networks aren't the property of the user.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 6, 2006 -> 10:11 AM) what exactly is out there which stops them from saying that the election of John Kerry would be a threat to national security that must be stopped? Now that's just silly. :rolly I agree that definitley needs to be addressed. There would definitely need to be some "check and balance" via the Judicial branch to keep the Federal government from acting in a totalitarian manner. But I think it's wrong to automatically assume that screening phone calls or e-mail without a warrant is, by definition, a threat to our rights and that the idea is inherently un-American.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 6, 2006 -> 09:33 AM) Good question. I, for one, am not. I agree.