StrangeSox

Al Gore has made himself very wealthy off of this whole movement.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Mar 4, 2009 -> 11:55 PM) I liked the episode a lot... However, 2 weeks until a new episode? You can't do that to me! I really hope they don't go too far into the Sawyer-Kate-Juliet love triangle. I don't care, though I guess that would help appeal to the female audience. It's the Sawyer-Kate-Jack-Juliet love rhombus.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 4, 2009 -> 02:03 PM) As for starved rock -- meh -- tourist attraction, nothing more. They need to keep these places on the wild side and not so overbuilt with pop-machines and easy services...it attracts the wrong people. :/ That's why I usually stay away from the main areas and go in the back.

Pig odor research is important if you live anywhere near a pig farm. http://www.epi.state.nc.us/epi/mera/iloodoreffects.html

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 4, 2009 -> 01:55 PM) Another good reason to protect more wilderness and green space. But how do you do that with record numbers of people using public lands? Do you limit access to national and state parks somehow? (this is a "tragedy of the commons" argument)

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Mar 4, 2009 -> 01:49 PM) Pretty much. No country should be called the "best". Isn't that just a position of moral relativism? If we can accept something like "America is better than North Korea," then it should also hold true that some nation is objectively better than the rest on the whole. That would probably be impossible to quantify, but our lack of knowledge/ metrics doesn't change objective truths. This also doesn't mean that any one country is perfect or better than all the rest in every way.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 4, 2009 -> 12:51 PM) Yea, it's pretty commonplace for people to talk about how into the "green movement" they are, but they waste more energy than anyone around them. Things like leaving the heat on when you aren't home, or leaving lights on...I see it all the time. It's like they think they're into this movement because they bought a more gas efficient car, but they do nothing else in their lives to respect the environment, including simple things like not littering. Or they think they're helping because they buy the water bottles that use 30% less packaging instead of not buying bottled water in the first place. True, but the more use, the more wear and tear on the area. They had to put boardwalks up over much of Starved Rock park because of erosion.

If you keep waiting for "the bottom," you'll probably miss it.

Congrats!

I would like to add an amendment making Twittering illegal. And not just in Congress. Edit: Also, I've attached a $100M earmark to your bill for my home district

QUOTE (bmags @ Mar 4, 2009 -> 09:32 AM) http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politic...0,2464157.story The comments section is hilarious/ sad.

Several of my friends who went to U of I started teaching in and around Chicago for the 07-08 school year (Plainfield, Joliet, CPS) at or above $40k a year. A family friend makes over $75k in his 6th year of teaching graphic arts at Argo (he makes extra for doing things like coaching). The lowest-paid teacher at that school makes over $55k. It really does depend on where you go. You can go to The Champion to find all public school teachers' and administrators' salaries.

Improbable doesn't mean impossible. It was unlikely that the Bulls would get it, but they still could and did. No conspiracy imo.

Should the government never release documents like this? I don't recall the Obama administration making a big to-do about this or calling for prosecutions. It may not be a good or workable solution, but they did just pass almost a trillion-with-a-T dollars worth of economic solution.

Our tax system is progressive. They'll still make more money making over $250,000 than making $249,999 because its marginal, right?

QUOTE (Texsox @ Mar 3, 2009 -> 04:25 PM) I believe it is perfectly reasonable at that point in time for the President to know what were *ALL* of his options. That's what I see in ths, and I honestly am not too worked up over it. The point is that those shouldn't even be options.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 3, 2009 -> 02:50 PM) As much as people like Rush Limbaugh HATE to admit it, the GOP cannot sustain any sort of relelvant power without gaining moderate votes. And as long as the GOP caters to Rush Limbaugh, they will not win the moderate vote. There are simply too many moderate voters (like me, and I hate to speak for anybody, but I feel safe in doing it here) who realize that Rush Limbaugh is a dumb hack and will not stand to listen to his nonsense. It is pathetic that he is the most powerful and relevant voice in the GOP right now, but that really is the case at the moment and it's sad to see the party has fallen that far. I agree with this 100%. He may be able to galvanize the base (or at least parts of it) into a stronger group, but in doing so he's going to push out an awful lot of more moderate people. You won't win national elections that way.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 3, 2009 -> 01:48 PM) I'm going to be honest, that's what came to mind for me, too.

Great to hear. If these two are able to come back healthy, it will definitely change my expectations for this season.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 3, 2009 -> 09:21 AM) I agree with some of the individual points made in the article. I do think the system needs to work through some things naturally. However, the overall implication that Obama "is running out of people to blame", or the idea that we can now say for sure that some of these things are failures, are incorrect and way too early IMO. How many of his policies have even taken effect yet?

The Silver LEED rating isn't even that big of a deal.

Vacation packages/ airlines/ hotels are dirt cheap right now.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 2, 2009 -> 01:20 PM) As long as you are a long term investor, just remember, this is a buying opportunity. You are buying everything cheaper now than it will be later. Actually, if you are just starting in the work world around now (not you, in general), I'd suggest putting as much as possible into your 401k right now. Just lost 401(k) matching for this year At least it wasn't my job.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Mar 2, 2009 -> 01:03 PM) I feel like I might as well burn my money every time I look at my 401K balance. That's why the last time I checked it was November.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/business...=AIG&st=cse An interesting read on AIG and the monumental mess we're all in. On a personal note, we have an "all staff meeting" at 2 today about "to provide employees with important information about recent activities at [company]." Yearly raises were supposed to be effective starting today. That's never a good sign.