Harry Chappas

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 10, 2011 -> 04:39 PM) You're simply not going to get very far arguing that teachers and firefighters are vastly overpaid. Where did I ever say they were vastly overpaid? I was pointing out the fact that pensions are literally killing state economics. The fact someone can work for 20 years and retire making 100% of the salary they were making after working for 15 years is not a good system. Look at the link below and tell me that these are not good paying jobs which will allow you to retire at 55 years of age and then let me know what I am missing. Teachers with 20 years of experience can make roughly $80K. That is not grossly overpaid but not bad for 8 months of work which also covers you for therest of your life when you retire.....and I know that CPS is not an ideal workplace but the suburbs are worse as far as the salaries go. The teachers union in the state of Illinois are out of control and have been for years. School districts pick up 95 to 100% of the benefit cost in certain districts....who pays for this, not the district that is negotiating the contract...at least they are not covering all of it. http://www.cps-humanresources.org/Employee...eachers38.6.pdf

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 10, 2011 -> 03:31 PM) I think you just made my case for me. Without the ridiculous pensions, the salary compensation of these folks will look much lower in the long run (full career) than those in the private sector. Teachers in CPS might make $25k or $30k a year to start, which is a good place to start, but most never make more than say $40k or a little more. People with college educations almost always make more than that as their careers progress. You can easily find the salary structure of a Chicago Public School Teacher simply go to cps-humanresources.org. The 52 week teacher, yes one that decides to work year round, 6 hours a day and not take the summers off starts off at well above $40K. It almost hard to find a teacher that makes less than $40K. Teachers are rewarded for going to school and continuing their education with guaranteed raises. Nowhere in the private sector is there such a guarantee. If the education system in America worked, I would be all for it. The systems sucks and we continue to fund the hell out of it. It is also why we in Illinois will never see the federal tax break for this year.... Chicago Firemen can make well over $80K as this is essentially a part-time job. Being hired for this job is akin to winning the lottery, I understand there are risks involved. These are risks that make that job rewarding on many fronts. By they way, these pensions have provided nicely for many relatives of mine.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 10, 2011 -> 11:56 AM) I actually agree with some of your points, but think for a second about part of the long term impact here. If you make the pension system a lot less "special" for teachers, firefighters, cops, etc., you will have a much harder time recruiting for those jobs. You will either get lower quality, or have to increase pay or other benefits (401k match is a good start), or both. That means higher costs of public service and/or lower quality results. I'm actually OK with paying a little more in taxes for those folks to be of higher quality, but many people won't be. A choice has to be made. That was the case 50 years ago when the private sector paid more than the public sector. That is no longer the case. Government jobs are secured positions for the most part. Hiring may be cut back but layoffs are mostly nonexistant. The fact a person can retire at 50 and collect in some cases 100% of their average final 5 years of employment is disgusting...thereby they than can go get another government job because of the connections they have made working for 20 years in government and then get another pension after putting in, this time, 10 years. There is no guarantee you are getting higher quality people.

QUOTE (IamtheHBOMB @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 05:35 PM) It is also worth noting that Byrdak is a southsider. (He went to high school with my older sister.) So, that might be a motivating factor in playing for the Sox. He still lives in the southwest burbs. Sox offerd him a ML deal earlier this winter that they turned down and are hoping for an MLB deal. With the left handed bats in the division a good amount of LOOGY's is not a bad thing.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 05:36 PM) I'd say it differently. I'd say that if a political figure going to use gun imagery in a campaign against a person, and then at some point that person gets shot...some people will try to blame her regardless of whether or not she's at fault (and those people should be criticized)...while others will just think she looks like a complete jackass. At this point, I'm not going to go any farther than thinking she looks like a complete jackass...Like a person making a totally inappropriate joke about someone who really got hurt. I think you have to be really careful about how you try to assign blame for words in these cases, because it's so hard to really interpret the thoughts of a person who would do something like this. I think the point is that there are some people that are really unintelligent and listen to the political talk and take it as gospel. Is Palin or Rush to blame, no but the over the top one sided view causes those that are not bright enough to understand that there is an other side to react irrationally.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 05:34 PM) Well, this level execution we're seeing right now is ridiculous. You cannot going to make throws like this every game. Seahawks are a vastly different team at home.

Goooooooooo SeeeeeeeeeeeeeHawwwwwwks.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 04:18 PM) The Saints got away with a ridiculous hold around midfield. I have no clue how the side judge missed it. Otherwise Seattle just can't stop the Saints. Saints aren't doing much to stop Seattle

Can't wait for the day when Ohman is pitching in the 12th inning as nobody is left to be used against the Royals in mid-July This move allows them to move Sale into the rotation or have Thorton close. Nice low risk move.

I find it funny that the Juan Pierre trade is not brought as the cubs got throughly hosed in that deal.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 09:58 AM) Sam Fuld is bad. If anything, the fact that the Rays have guys like Jennings, Zobrist, and Joyce make Upton expendable. They were saying Fuld was a good 4th OF option and a young package for Upton would restock them well along with the cub trade

MLBN during the Hot Stove show basically said it like this. It is a good move for the cubs next year to keep the fans interested but then what? In the long run Garza will not produce enough to make up for the lose of the prospects. They think Fuld makes Upton more expendable. Bowa thinks the cub will try and move 'Z' to the Yanks. Personally I think they have a better shot of moving Garza to the Yanks. I really wonder why the Rangers did not get in on this?

cubs got a younger version of Javier Vazquez.

LIMA TIME!!!! Isn't he dead? I hope Dale Murphy and Jack Morris make it. I love 80's baseball.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Jan 5, 2011 -> 10:02 AM) It's official, I got the thumbs up to go! She goes to Florida in the winter and you were hoping to get permission to go to Cleveland in early April........

I think Jackson will be a Type A free agent and I think Hudson comes back down to earth ala John Ely. In the end Jackson will mean more for last season and next than Hudson would have and the Sox will get some nice picks in the draft following Jackson's 20 win year and WS ring.

I am only a Sox fan because I have an unhealthy appreciation of fireworks and churros.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 4, 2011 -> 02:05 PM) Not a surprise. Hope that doesnt mean Harbaugh is in the fold. I thought it was a forgone conclusion that Harbaugh was going to the 49ers or Michigan.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 3, 2011 -> 03:55 PM) Mine is 0% interest. If you agreed to 0% interest and didn't get 0% interest, I would have went ballistic on the dealer or the auto finance company you are using. However, I don't negotiate based upon monthly payment. I just agree on the price of the vehicle and than my rate. In this case, it was easy because Toyota Financing had some great incentives. So you take the rate and terms, plus the price you pay and the actual monthly payment is simple math. I also know my credit score so I know I can qualify for the lowest financing available (in this case after doing research I learned that while Toyota didn't advertise 0% financing they were allowing dealers to give it so I made sure to negotiate that in at the end of the day). Internet is a really really amazing tool to purchasing a vehicle (you can get stats on what cars were being purchased for in your area and when, plus all kinds of other great info). Than again, I was in the loan business through college so I'm well aware of all of the s***ty games a finance guy/dealer can throw on unsuspecting people. And its pretty s***ty. Prior to buying this car through my friends dad, I was looking at another vehicle and they tried every trick in the book and I just got up and walked out. Never get duped on a warranty, them needing to run your credit super early in the process (be aware of your score) and don't just take any rate they give you. Have an idea of what a good rate is, what isn't. See what other places can give you that way you know what is going on. And I say don't get duped on a warranty because on all new vehicles you have up until 3 years or 36,000 miles to do an extended warranty and the vehicle and you can purhcase it (if you are buying one through Ford, GMC, etc) through any dealership. Check the web, find the cost, and you'll find out you probably pay double if you buy it through your finance guy. You can also look to 3rd parties. And this is if you want to get a warranty. The internet is killing most of their pretty games. I had a guy try to sell me a car over sticker price once. I made quite the scene on my way out.

1 year $10M is all in. The bullpen, rotation and line-up would each be top 5 in all of baseball in my mid. Sale would be a LOOGY/spot starter for when Peavy is on the DL. There is no way he can not be in the pen for the season as of right now. I fear a heavy reliance on Tony Pena coming up.

0% interest is not actually 0% interest in all cases. The financed price of the car is usually adjusted to get to the monthly payment that you agree to. I bought a car for $28K for 0% interest but the actual financed amount was $24.5 with an interest rate of 4.5% or something like that. This was 10 years ago when these were hot. Jason try and go into the loan and see what the current payoff of the loan is compared to your purchase price. It may be different now.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jan 2, 2011 -> 06:30 PM) Playing the starters the whole game in a completely meaningless game = as stupid a football move as I've seen in a while. If that was anyone but the Packers, I bet they wouldn't have played more than a half. So stupid. In the press conference Lovie bascially said that they were not playing well enough to take what would have been 3 weeks off. Martz apparently needed a reminder that the offense is not a juggernaut. This team is unable to pick up short yardage situations.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 2, 2011 -> 06:26 PM) Really? Thought I saw Harris playing late in the game. Got hurt on the last drive. 20 Runs 39 Passes In a game they were winning that was really bad play calling by Martz.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 2, 2011 -> 06:06 PM) Oh well. Good effort guys. I have a feeling we might meet this team again in the NFC Championship game. If Cutler plays like today the Bears are not getting by the Saints. johnny knox should be the 5th option. He really seems scared of the weather. Nice beard though.

miss Earl bennett a nice 2 minute drive would have been nice....really Cutler, that was a terrible game by everyone but Forte on offense.