StrangeSox

Basically everyone should just watch The Wire.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 28, 2015 -> 10:03 AM) Yeah but if they union wasn't so strong, a cop that's an asshole could be fired for being an asshole. Instead it requires numerous steps and/or serious violations of police conduct to get rid of bad cops. Is that THE reason? No. But it certainly doesn't help. This assumes that the police department leadership would label cops who rough people up as "bad cops" instead of good cops doing a good job and that the only thing standing in their way is those pesky unions. eta for example, the Chicago PD ran (still runs?) a systematic torture program out of secret warehouses. The police union isn't the problem here.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Apr 28, 2015 -> 09:57 AM) Clearly it is the retention of bad cops. How do we get rid of bad cops? Suggestions? The problem is much deeper than individual "bad cops." It's a culture that fosters and protects that sort of behavior.

lol, yes clearly the problem here is unionization.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 28, 2015 -> 09:30 AM) While I agree that police should be held to a higher standard, I have to disagree strongly with your obvious attempts to somehow make them the same as people rioting and looting. Yes, a cop beating a subject and a dude stealing from a broken into store are both violating the law. But the similarity ends there, for better or worse. I would say that the person using the authority of the state to inflict violence on citizens is much, much worse.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 28, 2015 -> 09:26 AM) Because the police are supposed to be better than criminals on the street. That's why they're the police. That's why the "this is so uncivilized" and "these are thugs" rings hollow because you won't apply that same standard to police who beat and kill people and then settle things out of court or get this a covered up because they're the police. As soon as you describe the police as thugs for dozens of cases of abuse of power the. You can do the same. Keep in mind that the millions of dollars paid out to victims of police brutality is millions of dollars that aren't spent on parks, community centers, schools, etc.

Baltimore Orioles hats are already $35 or more. http://shop.mlb.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=707337 I don't think that the COO of the Orioles (who is not himself a billionaire) building charity factories for other multinational corporations is really a solution to the widespread loss of manufacturing and other middle class jobs in this country, though.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 28, 2015 -> 09:19 AM) That doesn't mean he (MLK) actively planned or participated in any riots...just, at his weakest moments, sympathized with the emotions boiling under the surface. It's the reason why his tactics didn't work well in Albany, Georgia, because the police refused to engage or react or provoke. But that doesn't mean King was a traitor to the cause of non-violence. No way. I don't view that statement as a weak moment from King or that makes him a "traitor" to anything. It's once again an explanation, not a defense.

I there anything that the Baltimore Orioles COO can do about where official MLB merchandise is manufactured?

Well....not exactly. eta: also, on MLK:

Nonviolence as Compliance

An explanation is not a defense.

Whether or not you actually have a payroll, I think. Not entirely sure, maybe hh knows.

here's the census data on firm size and number of employees: http://www.census.gov/econ/smallbus.html A slight majority (61M out of 120M) of all employees work for firms of 500 employees or more. Firms with 1-19 employees account for about 5.3M of all firms (out of 6M) but less than 18% of actual employees.

FBI admits flaws in hair analysis over decades

ARE YOU ADVOCATING FOR DEATH PANELS?!!!?!?!?!!!11

Hell of an operation Chip Kelly's running over there.

Lol

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 17, 2015 -> 05:20 PM) If he challenged and lost, then the Sox lost on another bad call they couldn't challenge, if it came out the replay guys told him the tag was clearly missed, Robin would get blasted. This is such a hilarious argument.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 17, 2015 -> 02:56 PM) It looks like he got him on the toe there, but it really is inconclusive. I wonder why they wouldn't challenge. It is done differently this year, but generally it isn't Robin's decision to challenge. Did Alexei put up much of an argument? unless he got shot in the arm at that exact moment or something, the only way his hand jerks back like that is from contacting the runner's foot. clearly tagged out.

The median income nationally for a family of four is right around $50k. $175k puts you comfortably in the top 10%. $75k would put you in the top 1/3rd of all households. "Middle class" is a constantly shifting political definition which is why it's really a crappy concept, but I think it's fair to exclude the top and bottom quintiles of earners from it at least. That would give you a range between roughly $25k/year and $100k/year for the middle three quintiles, and that represents a huge lifestyle difference in that range.

http://kff.org/health-costs/report/health-...dle-class-more/

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 16, 2015 -> 02:59 PM) Out of pocket expenses exploding are also something not being talked about when the premium increases are talked about so glowingly. Yeah, deductibles and co-pays have been increasing for years and that trend unfortunately doesn't show a sign of stopping.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Apr 16, 2015 -> 02:52 PM) You've obviously never worked for a Federal agency. Based off of the latest CBO estimates, the PPACA will cost roughly $100B per year through 2019. Even if we assume a generous average federal salary of $100k, that means we'd have to cut 1,000,000 "useless" federal jobs. That'd be over 1/3 of the government. Which, A) would screw 1,000,000 middle class people out of a job and B) would screw a whole bunch of the rest of middle class out of services provided by those 1,000,000 employees.