StrangeSox

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 23, 2009 -> 03:00 PM) Senator Bunning's office issues a half-hearted apology. I love when people apologize for "if my remarks offended you," and not for their actual remarks.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 23, 2009 -> 07:37 PM) Im just saying, which is worse for the US, this one case where someone slipped through the cracks, or an entirely broken health care system that denies treatment to large numbers of people because its not their "right." I find our healthcare system to be much more bold statement on the disregard for human life that Tex mentioned above than than this one case. I don't believe they can really deny anyone treatment. If you walk into an ER, you're going to see a doctor (eventually), regardless of your ability to pay.

My mom used to be a travel agent for Amtrak trips. She'd usually get at least 3 or 4 calls a month from people wanting to take the train to Hawaii.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Feb 23, 2009 -> 09:59 AM) I could see them implementing similar security measures for a high speed rail system. That would be a waste because it'd be much easier to sabotage the tracks.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 23, 2009 -> 09:04 AM) This problem started long before the layoffs did. Also the value of a house going down has nothing to do with the payment you agreed to make being out of your budget. Plus if a person is unemployed, what housepayment are they going to be able to afford? Hopefully they've planned for such circumstances and have 6-12 months worth of expenses saved up so that in the event that they are unemployed, they aren't missing payments after only a month or two.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 23, 2009 -> 01:39 AM) The thing about CCoBB, it's one of those movies that you can watch or admire, but you don't feel the same sense of identification and "cheering for" Pitt as you do Hanks in Forrest Gump. That, and the syrupy and evolving Jen-nay and Forrest love story was more "touching" to most viewers, and the endings for both, most would agree FG is quite superior. To top it off, there wasn't that one figure that stands out like Captain Dan in CCoBB, although the woman who took him in at the beginning comes close as the moral center of the movie (T. Henson I think her name is). When I first saw CCoBB, I thought it was an entertaining but not great movie. The more praise and nominations it has received, the less and less I liked it. I've seen Forrest Gump probably half a dozen times, but I don't know that I'd ever sit all the way through CCoBB again.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Feb 22, 2009 -> 02:44 PM) Have any of these guys ever gone to Google and typed "obama birth certificate"? They just say that one's a fake.

math puns...who woulda thought that's where this thread was going.

It's my understanding that, previously, you weren't allowed to have any loaded weapons in national parks. Edit: Here's an article talking about the new rule which sort of explains the old rule. Only unloaded and stored/ dismantled weapons were allowed. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...9021601151.html In other Palin news, Bristol Palin said "abstinence is unrealistic" for teens. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/02/16...palin_says.html

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 19, 2009 -> 08:02 AM) Ooh, good catch. What other unfinished business does Ben have? Nothing else comes to mind. I did like how they recreated the flight to the island. Sayid was the prisioner this time. Hugo had Charile's guitar case. Locke was Christian's dead body. It makes me wonder if Kate or Sun is pregnant to recreate Clair. Speaking of Kate and Clair, any theories on what happened to Aaron? My wild guess is that they tracked down Clair's mom. I also wonder where we will see the other dude in first class pop up. You don't see random characters in this show. He means something. I thought Kate's eyes were black and blue. I'm guessing something no-so-good happened to Aaron. How many episodes are left of this show? They still have so many more questions to answer. We haven't even seen the other survivors (not Locke, Sawyer, etc. but secondary characters like Rose) or the rest of the Others in a while.

Just to throw some science into the discussion, race is a social construct, not a biological or genetic one. http://harvardmagazine.com/2008/05/race-in...etic-world.html

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Feb 18, 2009 -> 12:42 PM) ahhh how I love hypocrisy... We will not support this plan... but yea, give us the money!! It's not really hypocrisy. They're being forced to pay for it whether they want it or not, so refusing the money doesn't make any sense at all. It would only hurt them.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 18, 2009 -> 12:32 PM) 1031 projects in Illinois, for $3.1B.... and according to the stim site, not a SINGLE one in the city of Chicago? That can't be right. That website is based on: "Congress and the President are getting ready to spend billions of dollars to try to stimulate the economy. As a result, the U.S. Conference of Mayors has responded by releasing a list of "shovel-ready" projects in cities around the country that the mayors would like to see funded. President Obama, however, has promised to spend stimulus dollars only on critical projects." Daley must not have been a part of that. I heard yesterday that two of Chicago's districts (can't remember which ones) are some of the biggest takers in the bill, along with Judy Biggert's district. Chicago will see plenty of money.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Feb 18, 2009 -> 10:53 AM) It means our representative in congress took the opportunity to sneak in "free money" to a national bill for something that is far from one of the most important things in the area. I mean they arent in pristine shape, and I cant recall what all of them look like off the top of my head but especially the one's downtown I KNOW arent in that bad of shape. Over the past few years I've noticed we've been making roads and intersections "prettier" one at a time. To me, this is being done just to expedite the process. Now is it wrong for our city to be doing this? No. But just as I dont want to my tax dollars to go towards projects out in Iowa or Alabama, why would people there want to be paying for a bill paying for this? How are you going to spend money on roads an infrastructure in a non-local way? I don't think you understand the point of this bill.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Feb 18, 2009 -> 09:15 AM) well, if employment is a driving force behind the wellness of our economy, it would be logical to suggest that high unemployment is bad, while low unemployment is good. And the party in power has great ability to move unemployment rates with the correct fiscal policies. And since 1950, only one republican president has lowered unemployment and only one Dem has raised it (and that was only by a small margin, but shot up shortly after he left office). And yes, there are an infinite amount of outside sources that have an effect on our economy. So, if we are talking about the best policies to govern a countries economic well being... it's been the democrats... with the exception of the GOP golden boy Regan. Correlation =/= causation

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090218/ap_on_...xIpzUrUQiZvzwcF Mixed verdict over migrants' run-in with rancher TUCSON, Ariz. – A federal jury on Tuesday rejected several claims by a group of illegal immigrants who claimed a southern Arizona rancher detained them at gunpoint, but found the rancher liable for assault and infliction of emotional distress. The eight-member civil jury found that Roger Barnett didn't violate the immigrants' civil rights in 2004, and it rejected claims of battery and false imprisonment. For the remaining claims Barnett was ordered to pay $77,804 in damages — $60,000 of which were punitive. Barnett declined to comment, but one of his attorneys, David Hardy, said the plaintiffs lost on the bulk of their claims and that Barnett has a good basis for appeal on the counts he lost. "They won a fraction of the damages they were seeking," Hardy said. David Urias, attorney for the six Mexicans who sued, said his clients were disappointed, "but I think that overall this was a victory for the plaintiffs." Nina Perales, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, called it "a resounding victory that sends a message that vigilante violence against immigrants will not be tolerated." For more than a decade, Barnett has been a controversial figure in southern Arizona. He's known for patrolling his ranch property and area highways and roads, often with his wife and brothers, on the lookout for illegal immigrants. The plaintiffs alleged that Barnett threatened them with his dog and told them he would shoot anyone who tried to escape. Five of the plaintiffs are living in the U.S. with visa applications pending, and the sixth resides in Mexico but was allowed into the U.S. for the trial, Perales said. She declined to say where in the U.S. they're residing. Barnett's lawyers argued that his land was inundated with illegal immigrants who left trash on his property, damaged his water supply and harmed his cattle. His 22,000-acre ranch, about five miles north of the Mexican border, includes private and federal lease holdings in addition to nearly 14,000 acres of state-leased land. Barnett's wife and a brother were dismissed as defendants; in addition, another 10 people initially named as plaintiffs were dropped from the proceedings. Barnett has been known to wear a holstered 9 mm pistol on his hip and upon coming across groups of migrants, to flash a blue and gold badge resembling that of the highway patrol, with the wording "Barnett Ranch Patrol. Cochise County. State of Arizona." The Barnetts detain and turn over those they encounter to the U.S. Border Patrol. In 2006, Barnett estimated that he had detained more than 10,000 illegal immigrants in 10 years. His actions have resulted in formal complaints from the Mexican government against what it considers vigilante actions, and in several other lawsuits, including one stemming from an October 2004 incident. In that case, a jury awarded a family of Mexican-Americans on a hunting trip $100,000 in damages, later upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court. For years, Arizona has been the busiest point along the Mexican border for illegal immigrants entering the United States.

This is the exact same rhetoric I heard (and abhorred) from the right for years.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Feb 16, 2009 -> 04:56 PM) I will faint if she actually sticks to her major, but we will see. Thanks for the tip. I assume most of her first two years will be spent in lecture theaters run by TAs. If she takes a "discovery" course (only available to freshmen, iirc), she'll be in a small class working directly with a professor. The big lectures I had (1000+ students in basic chem. and physics) were taught by prof's, but discussion sections were run by TA's.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Feb 16, 2009 -> 09:57 PM) Fiscal conservatives =/= blindly hawking tax cuts at every opportunity for no reason whether they make sense or not. I don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to that $8/ week we'll be paying back for the next 30 years!

QUOTE (lostfan @ Feb 16, 2009 -> 09:39 AM) Yeah I figured it was a reliever but I couldn't remember who. That was before I registered on this site I think. No glitter: Drive showed Cotts essence of Buehrle April 20, 2007 ATLANTA -- Watching the highlights and talking about White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle's no-hitter brought back Neal Cotts' favorite story about his old friend and teammate. The Cubs reliever was in his rookie year with the Sox in 2004, heading home to southern Illinois for the All-Star break, and Buehrle, who lives near St. Louis, rode most of the way with him. Buehrle's fiancee was supposed to meet them where the highways diverged in the directions of their homes, but she wasn't there when they got to the meeting point. ''I was like, 'I'll drive you,''' Cotts said Thursday. ''He was like, 'No, no. I'll just stay here.' ''I'm like, 'Dude, we're in the middle of nowhere.' There's nothing. A gas station and nothing around it. Nothing else -- no city, nothing.'' But Buehrle, already a former All-Star who would win 16 games that year, insisted. He handed Cotts a couple of beers off his freshly purchased six-pack and said, ''Go.'' ''So I'm pulling out of there,'' Cotts said, ''and there he goes with his White Sox gear and everything that he had from the ballpark. And he's sitting there on the corner, just sitting on the curb, right in the middle of nowhere, with a beer.'' That might make Buehrle the most regular-guy All-Star ever to pitch a no-hitter. ''I got home and told my buddies, 'I just left a guy that's worth millions and millions of dollars, an ace on a major-league baseball staff, sitting on a curb waiting for his fiancee,''' Cotts said. ''And he made me leave. He wouldn't let me stay. It just kind of describes him.''

QUOTE (Pods70Rowand33 @ Feb 14, 2009 -> 05:20 PM) I just recently bought the Isaacson Einstein book on cd. My physics teacher said it's a great book. How far have you gotten in it? I have only listened to the first chapter so far. Just cracked into "the bomb," so I'm nearing the end. It's been a pretty good read.

http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_state See where all of the money is going.

Congrats! It's a great school. What's she going for?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Feb 12, 2009 -> 11:49 AM) I don't remember any lists. What are you referring to? Who they wanted and who they didn't. The Others took several people in the middle of the night after they first crashed. We haven't really seen much of those people, the children or the rest of the Others since the end of Season 3.

Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything Isaacson's Einstein I'm going to crack open my copy of On the Origin of Species in honor of Darwin Day today