StrangeSox

QUOTE (Texsox @ May 6, 2008 -> 12:45 PM) And that becomes the circular problem. As noted earlier, the primary is for party members to select a candidate. By definition an independent is not part of a party, yet they are voting. So if it is just to see who the top two vote getters are, why not just list all the candidates and go from there? Because its not to see who the overall top two are. Its to see who the top Dem. and Rep. (and other parties) are. In your situation, the "winners" would have a small percentage of the vote since the "pie" would be shared with more people. You'd almost need automatic run offs (3 pts for first choice, 2 for second, 1 for third type voting).

QUOTE (Texsox @ May 6, 2008 -> 12:02 PM) OK. How do they decide who is a party member? Again, Rush can pick up a Dem ballot and Sharpton can grab a GOP. How is that the members picking the candidate? I understand the Dem super delegates. At least down here they are elected officials (current or past), organizers, county party chair, and large campaign contributors. They are truly members of the party. But if the GOP campaign was still close in Texas, I would be a member of the GOP party based on my last vote. And y'all know that would be a wolf in sheeps clothing. I would not be surprised if Kap grabbed a Dem ballot. Not much was in play on the GOP side in Texas. Kap is a knowledgable voter who knew as much or more about the Dem candidates. But his values, and those of who we would call a "dem party member" are probably not the same. Is the system really correct when anyone can select either party nominee? You self-identify with your party of choice. This round of primaries has brought out some flaws in the current system, namely that disingenuous voters can cross over and vote solely to cause disruption. More often than not, however, that is not the case. Republican voters picked the Republican candidate. A closed primary tries to get around disingenuous voters but has the potential to exclude independent voters who may be genuinely interested in a certain candidate.

QUOTE (Texsox @ May 6, 2008 -> 11:28 AM) Why should we vote twice? And why should it be divided between parties? Why not just list everyone running and take the top two? If that happens to be two Reps, why not? If they were the two top vote getters. The primaries are for party members to pick who their party's candidate will be, not for Americans to decide who the President will be.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ May 6, 2008 -> 10:55 AM) No exempt from the love, just above the law. Atleast in this circumstance. The reaction from a blowup doll with baseball bats inserted up its ass will have two different reactions within an office building and a baseball clubhouse. Unlawful and unfair as it may be, the atmosphere associated with a baseball clubhouse should lend people to, atleast, expect acts such as this are possible. You'd never expect hazing, such as RockRaines has been talking about, in an office. well, then you get into the whole argument of why should we continue to allow/ expect it even if we allowed/ expected it in the past?

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ May 6, 2008 -> 09:48 AM) When you are reporting on another business? Maybe if this was in your own workplace, yeah I could see that. But when you step foot into another business to report on what happens there, can you claim sexual harrassment on something that they find acceptable? If a reporter wants to make a column regarding the HBO series "Real Sex" and walks into an office to find a lithograph with the Real Sex opening scene on it, can they claim sexual harrassment because there is a picture of TNA in an HBO office? This blowup doll wasnt intended to offend any specific person. As said earlier, nobody put a nametag that said "Slezak" on this blowup doll. Good point. I'm not exactly sure what the laws/ lines of sexual harassment are, so I don't know how this would fit in. Maybe some sort of "expectations" clause or something -- its fair to expect such a thing if you're reporting in an adult book store, but is it fair to expect it in a clubhouse? Either way, I don't care about this incident too much. I think its stupid and childish, but its not going to stop me from going to the games. Their terrible play might, though.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ May 6, 2008 -> 09:42 AM) What law prohibits a blowup doll from an office? Companies may have policies that prohibit them, but I doubt any law is in place making blowup dolls illegal in a workplace One could very, very easily be considered a form of sexual harassment.

QUOTE (The Beast @ May 6, 2008 -> 09:26 AM) Why in the hell should Owens get playing time over Swisher? Swisher has looked pretty bad lately, both at the plate and in the field.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 6, 2008 -> 09:18 AM) There are some things that should not be reported in the media. You really think the White Sox love the publicity of this particular event? I'm not saying the media shouldn't be in the clubhouse, I'm saying there should be a line drawn on what they can and cannot report. In fact when Ozzie called Marriotti that name, the reports were that he used it all the time, but the media "protected" him. What was the fallout from that? The whole situation would have been avoided if they weren't so stupid as to leave it up for the media to see.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 6, 2008 -> 09:12 AM) I hope one day when you are doing well at a job and your boss calls you in and says, you know you have been doing a very good job, but im frustrated with our company's bad week so you are let go, that you remember thats the only way constructive change will occur. 1 playoff appearance in his whole tenure isn't a very good job. Reinsdorf shouldn't be frustrated with a "bad week," but with a bad 2008 so far, a horrible 2007, missing the playoffs in 2006 & 2004, etc. To equate it to the business world, look at Motorola. They had a HUGE hit with the Rzr a few years ago, but haven't done squat since then (they routinely hemorrhage millions of dollars with the cell phone division while the rest of the company is profitable). Soon, their cell phone division will be split off from the rest of the company. Its predicted that the stock will be worth about $1/ share. You can only get a pat on the back for so long before your otherwise bad performance catches up with you, even if you had a big hit a few years ago. If 2008 ends up like 2007, its time for KW to go.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ May 6, 2008 -> 08:02 AM) We're still talking about a blow-up doll, right? I was referring to some of the comments in this thread. My thoughts on this 'incident' are inline with kap's. Edit: slezak's on Waddle and Silvy right now. She said her problem was with how unprofessional it was. Also, that they defended it instead of admitting a mistake.

QUOTE (lostfan @ May 6, 2008 -> 08:15 AM) Can we really not see the difference between (as of now, hypothetical) child porn in games and R-rated movies? If not then I honestly don't know what the hell we're talking about anymore. Read Tex's post. He wasn't talking about child porn in games, but Mature-rated games that kids under 18 will get their hands on.

QUOTE (Texsox @ May 6, 2008 -> 08:28 AM) But not all parents set the same standards. And it always trickles down. The 18 year old is allowed to play the game, his younger brother is also home, mom and dad are away, do you really think younger brother isn't going to play? Then what if younger brothers' friend comes over. How am I as a parent going to know what video games that family owns? I want a list of all the video games in that house? It is really easy to say, make the parents be parents. But as a society we keep stacking the deck against parents. Imagine a parent of a 17 year old. I want to call your girl friends parents and get a list of movies, video games, and books in their house. Oh, and what premium movie channels they subscribe to and to be certain they are locked out when you are there. The same thing happened with my older brother and R-rated movies. My parents wouldn't let him see them until he was 17. That didn't stop him from seeing the latest Friday the 13th at his friend's house. Should we have not allowed r-rated movies because some under the age of 17 will watch them? We live in a free society. That comes with some costs.

I love the blatant sexism and misogyny in this thread.

What is Ozuna's role right now? He can't hit, can't play defense, and doesn't have the legs he used to.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 5, 2008 -> 09:46 PM) But here's the other side of the token...that type of number will eventually always regress towards the mean. This year's team is hitting .282 overall with RISP. The league average is about .285. They simply will not hit sub.200 in that category for the rest of the year, no matter how much people seem to think they will. Last year, the Sox were the worst in baseball hitting with RISP and still hit .243. This isn't defined probability, though. There is nothing that guarantees a regression to the mean like there is in flipping a coin or drawing numbers. Its possible that the team can suck enough to continue hitting below .200 w/ RISP. Is it likely? No, they'll pick it back up somewhat. But its very possible that they hit worse than last year given how bad they've looked lately.

QUOTE (jasonxctf @ May 5, 2008 -> 09:13 PM) european focused mutual fund. A lot of people are liking international funds (Euro and Pacific/ Asian) right now. He can try picking an individual stock or going with a mutual fund or ETF.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ May 5, 2008 -> 07:48 PM) 1.96 ERA for the series and we get swept. Good job Walk, you and Gellinger are thieves on payday. Thank god we called up Russell instead of a bat for the series. That worked out well. We were one out away from pitching 3 CG's. And losing all of them. Way to go, 2008 White Sox!

Good job, boys!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 5, 2008 -> 07:43 PM) Crede, but he's got a migrane. If he seriously has a migraine, there's no way he would be getting a hit there.

Game. f*** you Ozuna.

Who's even left on the bench? Hall and Anderson have both played this game.

Please balk home a run.

WTF was all that?

QUOTE (Brian @ May 5, 2008 -> 07:32 PM) Get BA ready to PR. Screw that, get BA ready to PH.

Normally you'd love to have you 3-4-5 hitters coming up down only one run. Now it'll most likely be K-K-grounder/ pop-up.