Gregory Pratt

I think Free Agency has gotten to Barry Zito's head. and Dude thinks he's worth more than Chris Carpenter and Roy Oswalt. Wow. And he thinks he's capable of leading a team like Koufax? Only two pitchers alive today deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Sandy Koufax and they're Pedro and Maddux, IMO.

Bless those boys.

I know that you can classify stem-cell research in the field of "nuclear medicine". My question is, how, exactly, does it fit?

Bob Dole tells the truth! Bob Dole loves America! (Love to whoever catches the reference.) -- Dole was moderate depending on the angle you look at him from. I always thought he was slimy and dishonest -- from his divorce of his first wife ("I want out") to his flip-flops and dishonesty about, oh, Medicare and his extreme opposition to the program in the sixties, his work against health care in the 1990s. Oh, he might not have been a Holy Holy or Grover Norquist, but damn if he wasn't a miserable man in his own right(-wing). -- (The reference at the beginning is to a passage from the book American Rhapsody. The best satire I've ever read of contemporary American politics.)

http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/NASApp/ml...jsp&c_id=kc Kansas City is coming up!

Oh man, that's amazing.

I don't like the shape of her head. And I hated her on Wonder Years. And she's into mathematics? A trifecta of unsexy. But to each his own.

Brownback is Bob Dole brought back to life.

Damn good game so far. The Bulls.

Bought my girlfriend, who is dearly interested in art and psychology, the book "Presidential Doodles." On a few empty pages, at the very front and back, I drew a few things that she'd enjoy, but overall, I think she'll like it. If not, I'm also adding in a stuffed snowman teddy bear. Insurance.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 19, 2006 -> 10:12 AM) So you're saying the Nobel Peace Prize is like the Gold Glove, or the Heisman. An award no longer given for its intended reasons. I suppose that works. But I'm skeptical of all awards handed out by panels. There's a case for Carter...thirty years ago. Today, it isn't a "recognition" as much as a political prize.

Are you so dense as to ignore the chairman's words that it was a message to the President? Those were his words, not mine. Jesus Christ, mate -- first you act incredulous and smarmy in response to my claim that Carter was given the nod to spite Bush then when the chairman's own words are brought in you say, "Well, he deserved it anyway, and besides, they could've given it to Clinton or Gore to spite Bush!" which of course ignores the fact that Bush and the Clintons get along fairly well, Gore has nothing that merits Peace Prize (and Clinton is a stretch). Whatever, man. Carter's Peace Prize was an award from hacks to a hack. And who gives a s*** whether or not the Peace Prize committee thinks Bush's actions are noble or not? Plenty of deserving people have never won a Peace Prize and Yasser Arafat has. Who cares about the Nobel Peace Prize, and what extra authority does it give Carter when the committee said that they were sending Bush a message with it? Screw that.

I just think you guys are all underestimating the racist tendencies of America. Not just in the South but in Ohio and Pennsylvania (the first being the most Republican swingstate the other being the most Democratic one) and of Missouri, Iowa and Florida, too. If Obama runs he will be trounced. That's about all I've got to add on the matter.

I've read what he's written. I know all about Colin Powell. He's a liar and a scumbag, frankly, and I base that on his role in the My Lai cover-up. I have no doubt that a career military man would lie or EXAGGERATE why he skipped out of the election. If his wife said that, good for her, but the real reason was almost certainly that he KNEW that there'd be some serious problems. You seriously underestimate racial issues. You know about Doug Wilder, right? Democrat from Virginia. Damn good Governor, was going to run in 1992. People love him in name and his achievements but as soon as they learned he was black, through pictures and campaign, he was done. That'd definitely happen to Colin Powell. Definitely.

It was absolutely nothing. The poll was taken in the VERY early stages. He'd have been destroyed and he knew it. That's why he didn't run. (I don't buy the "My wife would leave me" angle. That's more of a clever excuse than anything.)

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 19, 2006 -> 08:03 AM) When Colin Powell was considering a run from the GOP side ('92 or '96, I forget which), polls indicated he was at that time the most popular choice not only in his own party, but nationally as well. He eventually dropped out (at least in part because his wife said she'd leave him if he won), but he absolutely had a good chance to win. I have no doubt that there is still plenty of racism and bigotry in this country. But I do believe that the right person can bust through that, and right now, Obama looks like he might be that person. I just think American is more ready (right now) for a black man than a woman of any race to win the Presidency. None of that should really matter of course, but, it does. Polls indicated -- you're telling me that Powell had a chance because the polls indicated? Please. Polls indictated that John Kerry had a prayer. As soon as the Forces of Politics and Race got a hold on him -- which doesn't happen during the "Honeymoon" of "Will he or won't he?" but only once the race BEGINS -- he'd have been mauled.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Dec 19, 2006 -> 08:18 AM) Are you serious? Yeah, I'm serious. I'm glad that your reaction is LOLHITTING! Mine is, too, oddly enough.

I'd like to know where I said that he "WANTS to re-sign" -- I said that what bothers me is that it appears that the FO isn't even trying. Also: what do you mean that "judging by the comments he has made" he doesn't want to be here anymore? You can see that in his words, too, but you can also see his old words about playing in St. Louis as a distraction and find them noteworthy, too. Reinsdorf ran his mouth about Buehrle's hat; and several articles have suggested that the Sox are done tendering future contracts to our current staff. That's what bothers me.

I'm not so sure he's THAT set on playing for St. Louis. What bothers me is that everything said by the Front Office suggests that they aren't even seriously trying to re-sign him.

Buehrle does and we're going to let him walk.

Where's our Oswalt, man, our Peavy? The closest we've got, Buehrle, is going to walk because the Sox won't go further than three years. Though I'm going to let it go, now, since, ah, it's a little off-topic.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 18, 2006 -> 07:47 PM) I'd wager that the American public is more willing to vote in a black man than a white woman. Neither has a prayer today. Hillary Clinton might because there is plenty of support for Clinton out there but even that's a stretch and a helluva stretch. See: Doug Wilder, 1992; racial makeup of America. Sorry. Honestly, I'm rather amazed that otherwise smart people are willing to pretend that America doesn't have the racial history it has or racial makeup it does -- that Pennsylvania, the most Democratic of the swingstates, would vote in a Black Man even though it's over 90% white (I think it's ninety seven). That a Black Man can win a single electoral vote in the South -- in Iowa, in Missouri or Michigan.

Perhaps. But there are plenty of other pitchers in the history of baseball that didn't break down after given money -- plenty of pitchers who have won twenty games and Cy Youngs and we don't have a lot of them because our organization doesn't understand pitching beyond "We need it to win."

Obama is a black man. He won't win. Don't kid yourselves. He won't even take The Nod. And beyond that, he's a tad mediocre, IMO. A guy with good speechwriters and PR skills. All hat. No shoulder pads. (I say he's a black man and can't win not as an endorsement of racism but an acknowledgement of American racism still, ah, existing.)

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 18, 2006 -> 06:01 PM) Ok, here's a question on Jimmy Carter...was he only the victim of circumstance, or were the problems of his administration his own doing? Could a southern outsider have come in other than Jimmy Carter (purely a hypothetical person at this point) and done any better by making better decisions, or was he totally betrayed by the fact that he was a southern outsider who had to deal with a revolution in Iran and an economy battered by years of war and overspending? Don't have an answer, but figured it would be an interesting question for debate. It's both. No Democrat, IMO, could've really succeeded against Ted Kennedy and Tip O'Neill. That's an angle that isn't explored enough but it's a very valid one. Teddy wanted the Presidency; Tip was Teddy's buddy, BOOM. But that said, Carter was a mediocre President in every sense of the term. No PR skills -- remember, he barely won that election in 76. Barely. He couldn't hold a room; he couldn't talk to Congressmen and wouldn't. He pretended that it was okay for the President to "exercise" by running all over the White House, up and down the stairs, and when he had an opportunity to push for energy independence -- perhaps the one true chance an American President will have in a long time -- he s*** the bed by going out in his stupid sweater. He's a man who decided that it would be a good idea to bring his wife into the Cabinet meetings despite the wishes of his Secretaries. A bumbler in every sense of the word. As far as Iran, that's quite the unexpected circumstance to deal with. But nobody made him take the stupidest military action ever -- the invasion of Iran with a dozen helicopters. And then, there's character. "I won't ever lie to you" -- something that's a lie in and of itself. There's his inauguration as Governor in Georgia where he had run as a Segregationist only to come out after being elected and saying, "There's no room for racism in my state." That's why he only governed for one-term. That's why he only presided for one term. And that's why he'll live on next to Warren Harding and George W. Bush.