StrangeSox

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 8, 2015 -> 10:48 AM) They just opened up a new brewery in forest park, awesome. I still love going to Founders in Grand Rapids, food and beer and then take a little tour over to hopcat to continue. We did that trip with a couple of friends three summers ago. First night in Kalamazoo at the Beer Exchange (beer prices go up and down based on sales volumes like stock prices) and then Bells. Stopped over at New Holland on the way up to Grand Rapids the next day. Grand Rapids was then Hop Cat and Founders. been trying to get it together again the last two years but just hasn't worked out.

I think they are terrible, generic 'alternative' rock.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 8, 2015 -> 11:41 AM) And let's not pretend like both parties don't gerrymander and/or receive the benefits of it. I'm curious if all things considered each party wins out equally. I'd bet it's close. It's something like a net gain of 7 or 8 seats for Republicans right now. This was enabled by their wave election in 2010 (redistricting is every 10 years after a census).

There's a few dozen countries that use at least one form or another for at least one chamber of their government: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_..._representation

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Apr 30, 2015 -> 11:31 AM) I know, just wishful thinking on my part. I'm never going to fit into American politics because I like several of Sanders' positions, but I like a lot of Rand Paul's positions as well. Britain's elections yesterday illustrate one of the pitfalls of a multiparty first-past-the-post system. The Conservatives got about 37% of the vote, but they'll control pretty close to 50% of the government. UKIP received substantially more votes than SNP (the Scottish independence party), but will have many fewer seats in parliament. There are alternatives to FPTP (instant runoff, proportional representation), and our own system has some issues (e.g. Democrats collectively received a few million more votes for House than Republicans in 2012), but other systems have issues as well.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-commen...od-most-popular

It must have been before the hype built up so much, but back in 2009 I found a 4-pack of Goose Island Bourbon County just sitting on the shelf at Binny's. I hadn't heard of it before, but I gave it a try. I drank one bottle the first night and knew it was something special. I let the other three age 2-3 years before drinking them. Awesome stuff, but no way am I going to wait in a line of 300 people the day after thanksgiving at 6 am.

This isn’t 1968. Baltimore isn’t Watts. And Hillary Clinton isn’t Michael Dukakis. An excellent article from Radly Balko, the same guy who wrote the article last September examining how munincipalities in St. Louis County profit from poverty. It starts out examining two columns critical of Clinton's new-found position on mass incarceration on mainly political grounds before really diving into the underlying issues. If you read his previous article from last September, you'll remember the story of Antonio Morgan, the black guy who is endlessly harassed by the police and courts while running a legitimate auto repair business. And then he provides what I think is a pretty great examination of institutional racism: closes it out with some more criticism of the punditry and media coverage of these issues

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 7, 2015 -> 11:23 AM) Link

I got some of this from my in-laws last fall, and it was delicious: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/430/99058/

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 7, 2015 -> 09:48 AM) Sure, but when it was released it was developed at Coors field as a microbrew alternative for mainstream beer drinkers and helped usher in people's appetites for something different. And in Canada its called Rickards White which is cool. It's a good "intro" beer for people who normally drink Coors etc. Anchor Brewing Company, Sierra Nevada and a couple of other west coast brewers along with Boston Beer Company (Sam Adams) are usually the ones credited with starting and growing the craft beer industry. I didn't get to make it to the Sierra Nevada brewery when I was in Chico a few weeks back, but I hope to hit it when I'm back out there again.

It's coming up on Bell's Oberon season, probably my favorite beer.

Founders and bells are probably my two favorite brewers. Lagunitas is generally solid, really like little sumptin sumptin. Firestone walker is good and generally available around Chicago these days. Not your father's root beer from small town out of Wauconda is really blowing up right now, and it's delicious. Two brothers out of Warrenville producers some solid beers as well

Potential candidate for the Republican nomination and current Senator Lindsey Graham declares war on the word "the"

Daaarrrrrrr-ryyyyyyyyyyyyyllllllll Daaarrrrrrr-ryyyyyyyyyyyyyllllllll

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 6, 2015 -> 08:56 AM) I'm still confused as to why Wild fans were chanting the name of the goalie who was single handedly beating them. Thats not really where the goalie chant came from. That was the weird part. Crawford's been pretty great so far this series, and it was still early in the game at that point.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ May 5, 2015 -> 10:37 PM) I've see it so many times it just made it impossible for me not to notice that. It makes a lot of OF's look awkward when really it's just the fact the fence isn't a flat surface so Sox OF's might not ever be considered great denfensive OF's who score DRS points by robbing HR's . The only way to rob a HR at the Cell is to stay about a foot away from the fence when you jump and go straight up but that's really hard to do because the OFer is usually drifting towards the fence and his momentum when he jumps takes him right into that situation I described . Solid observation.

Crawford with the shut out, well done

My mom just got the surgery with one eye for reading and one eye for distance and has been very happy with the results so far (about a month).

http://carlyfiorina.org/

I dunno. I don't know what the US's actual treaty obligations for protecting a Marshall Islands-flagged ship are, and I don't know the legality of Iran's actions. I'm not assuming what Iran did was legitimate or anything, but this at least explains why they did it. And regardless, sinking an Iranian naval boat and killing a bunch of Iranian sailors would create a huge, terrible s***-storm. Short of them actually attacking a US Navy vessel, it seems like a bad idea.

Apparently this is all over a cargo/debt dispute with Maersk owing Iran $3.6m. As far as a military strike against Iran over "flag of convenience" vessel from the Marshall Islands, I'm glad nobody in the DoD thought that was a good idea.

Yeah, it's been weird seeing my nominally progressive strongly pro Hillary brother insist that Sanders will push Clinton to the right.

Teen who broke patrol car window faces higher bail than cop charged with murder http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/teen-faces-high...-accused-murder

QUOTE (Jake @ May 2, 2015 -> 12:12 AM) Welp, that's why they call it institutional racism.