StrangeSox

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 04:41 PM) Which side controlled the Senate until recently? How many votes for everything did he NOT bring to the floor? Until about a year ago, filibustering Executive appointments was still a thing.

Scientists and advocates and political leaders get together in summits/conferences etc for the same reason that businesses still spend a lot of money to fly people to meetings/conferences etc.--face-to-face interaction is still something different than video conferencing. Al Gore having a big house or flying in a jet has zero impact on the validity of AGW science and its impact on mankind. I don't know why anyone thinks that's any sort of argument at all.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 04:35 PM) No it doesn't. If one side says no to anything that's not their 100% ideal, that creates an impasse even if they're given 99% of what they want. such as explicitly and categorically refusing to allow anyone nominated for various positions (e.g. head of the CFPB) to come to a vote in the Senate.

Seeing FDR and Reagan next to each other is a little jarring.

I thought the movie was more or less an adaptation of Chris Kyle's memoir. I didn't realize they invented the main bad guys in it.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 12:42 PM) And still quite inadequate. I'm not sure how much more the executive branch can do without Congressional assistance.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 12:14 PM) What do you mean more specific? What drugs are you on? If you think Obama will be considered on of the greatest Presidents in our history, you must be on something. He's failed miserably at the vast majority of campaign promises he's given in the two campaigns (ending 99% of the Bush war on terror policies, closing Gitmo, going after the wealthy/Wall Street, blah blah). His one crowning achievement - Obamacare - was an embarrassment for 6 months and still hasn't delivered the 30 million uninsured's it was supposed to. A whopping 5% drop in the number of uninsured's. I'm sure the cost the government is spending/has spent will be TOTALLY worth that. there's not much he can do about gitmo with Congress deliberately blocking him. He did end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He's been s*** on prosecuting Wall Street. The Obamacare website was crap for a month or two, not six months. When you change from "30 million" to "5%," you hide that a 5% drop equates to 15 million fewer uninsured people in the first year of the program, and sign-ups are only expected to increase. That number would also be substantially higher if the Medicaid expansion hadn't been gutted. The economy craters a heck of a lot more without the ARRA. They screwed up a lot of things (HAMP was particularly horrible when it could have been very helpful), but his administration avoided much of the austerity that swept and crippled a lot of Europe. In that case, it's more of not actively harming the recovery than helping it. edit: I'm not saying that to credit whatever Reddy's saying or say he'll be regarded as one of the greatest down the road, just that you're either seriously downplaying or misrepresenting some of what his administration has accomplished. edit2: also, the EPA's actions on climate change are pretty important

Second crude pipeline spill in Montana wreaks havoc on Yellowstone River

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 08:39 AM) Eisenhower delivered a great farewell speech at end of his term which I believe was the first time the military industrial complex was mentioned as having gotten too powerful. It has only gotten more powerful since then. The F-35 is a good example of how that can happen. The plane appears to be a total dog, designed to do everything but good at nothing and still very expensive. But it's components come from 45 different states, so almost everyone in Congress has some skin in the program. You can't build a coalition to kill a big project that would negatively impact almost every state.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 08:38 AM) So we're the same as virtually all other modern nations. Except that our warring is relatively new and recent in comparison. We got nothing on the glory* days of the British Empire. *glory for the British, not so much for the indigenous

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 06:47 AM) The Bears have coaches from the last 2 superbowls on their staff, and they arent positional coaches getting their first shot. These are the main coordinators and head coach. This is craziness Whatever lukewarm feelings I had about John Fox at first were quickly erased as he assembled his staff. On to the draft!

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 03:14 PM) Good point on bike tires, I'm just wondering what this actually felt like. I think some people think it would have felt 2lbs lighter. yeah, it's 2 psi less pressure, not that the ball weighs 2 pounds less. The actual weight difference is probably less than 1/100th of a pound.

I wonder if someone really could easily feel the difference between a 10.5 psi ball and a 12.5 psi ball. You don't visually notice your tire's low until it's around 20 psi or so down from 30-35.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 02:27 PM) It parallels a sporting match. Cheer for your team, ignore or boo the other team. Ties instead of face painting is about the only difference. I think you've hit on a huge potential improvement...

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 12:50 PM) I don't really think the GM is more critical to the teams success as the HC. I think both are critical and they need to work well together, etc. In a given season, sure, but a bad GM with several bad drafts in a row can screw a team up for years.

The Bears just hired a 37 year old GM, and that's far more critical to the long-term success of the team than a coach.

When I've got a rental car with Sirius, it's one of the stations I'll flip on.

More importantly, why doesn't the league just control this equipment so this sort of tampering can't happen?

You might appreciate this: http://www.backpacker.com/skills/beginner/...ping/#bp=0/img1

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 08:47 AM) Anyone ever been to Big Bend NP in Texas? Considering a short trip there late March/early April. *ahem* Tex *ahem* eta SoxTalk wilderness get-together?

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jan 20, 2015 -> 03:03 PM) The same people who are freaking out about how this movie 'glorifies violence' or is somehow a recruitment tool for the military sure have no problems liking movies that make the military look bad. I think this is silly anyway, but I'm struggling to see what you think is a contradiction here

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 20, 2015 -> 01:58 PM) What do you mean when you say collaborated? Like all of his killings weren't his own? Or do you mean corroborated? Well snipers usually work in pairs (one's the shooter, one's the spotter), so I think technically both are correct.

Then we have a case of the Federal government sending in the US military to kill dozens of US citizens extrajudicially on US soil. I think it's more likely that the man who appeared to be a pathological liar was telling another self-aggrandizing lie than the alternative.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 20, 2015 -> 01:26 PM) Just curious...how or who would collaborate these Katrina stories, tbh? It's not like the top of the Superdome is some inconspicuous place. Plus there'd be the matter of a few dozen dead bodies shot with high-powered rifles.