StrangeSox

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Dec 31, 2014 -> 11:27 AM) Granted I haven't been there since 8th grade, but the jousting and stuff was pretty cool to see in person, most of it is staged but they are definitely hitting each other for real. I went as a camp counselor in 2004 or 2005. It was still entertaining. And now that I think of it, I think my 33 year old brother went with his fiance for his birthday last year and had a good time.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 31, 2014 -> 11:20 AM) There are so many places around Woodfield Mall you can take her. Also, the South Barrington Arboretum on Rt 59 and 90 has a bunch of restaurants like Coopers Hawk and Pinstripes, and Lucky Monk is up the road. Another vote for them. I've been to the one in Burr Ridge multiple times.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Dec 31, 2014 -> 11:23 AM) I would still have fun there I bet. I've considered taking my wife there since she's never been, but it'd be a bit of a drive for us. I wonder if they've seen a boost in attendance thanks to Game of Thrones?

I was really into it when I was like 12!

I'm planning on cracking open a few Goose Island Matilda 2012's and a big Sophie 2013 tonight.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 31, 2014 -> 10:50 AM) Wasnt brees a product of the Eli Manning trade? just curious, i know it all happened around the same time No, that was Rivers. Brees ended up going to NO as a result of Rivers coming to SD, though.

A dinner and tournament!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 31, 2014 -> 10:38 AM) What their gripe is shouldn't matter, a police officer's funeral was a terrible place for that stunt. Boo him at the graduation thing that happened this week, that's fine. The best way to show that a person really didn't care at all about the deceased officer was to make his funeral not about him and that's exactly what happened. In turning their backs on De Blasio, they also turned their backs on the officer's family.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Dec 31, 2014 -> 10:18 AM) Soooo, here is a crisis that SHOULD have gone to waste? Come on. Yes, it should have been "wasted" instead of turning the officer's funeral into a political stunt over a bunch of petty grievances or flat out bizarre interpretations of others' actions. One of their main whines is that De Blasio is concerned for his black son.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Dec 31, 2014 -> 10:11 AM) As to the bold, there are a million different incidents where you probably should make an arrest, but you aren't 100% obligated to do so. I'm sure those are what they're talking about. I don't mean to be condescending, but you have no idea what you're talking about. I understand what you're saying, but this is a political battle they're trying to fight and phrasing is important. My point there was more that the police aren't exactly making a strong case to the public here. Sure, but again it's a political fight. If you stop making all of these really low-level arrests and citations and things don't fall apart, maybe people will end up seeing the police as less necessary than they did before, hurting the police position. On the flip side, if there is a spike in crime in the coming weeks, wouldn't the police have "blood on their hands" for refusing to do their jobs?

If the Bears can actually get picks for Cutler you make that trade in a heartbeat.

Meanwhile, the NYPD isn't exactly covering themselves in glory right now. From turning the funeral of a slain fellow officer into a petty protest to a work slowdown that's meant to demonstrate....something?, they're only making themselves look silly. From the NYT So, the city isn't falling apart yet, despite their being 90%+ fewer citations for pretty minor offenses. I don't know that this demonstrates what the police want it to demonstrate. The police have also said that they are not making arrests unless absolutely necessary; uh, shouldn't that be the case always, that you don't make unnecessary arrests? And all this because what appears to be a majority of the NYPD perceives protests and rallies over lack of accountability for specific cases of excessive use of force sometimes resulting in death as being "anti-police," and ending racial 'stop-and-frisk' as being "anti-police." DeBlasio even supports the "broken windows" policing that the NYPD wants. And this follows on the heels of this admission from an ongoing corruption investigation into the NYPD drug units: We fabricated drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas, former detective testifies

#3 House Republican spoke at white nationalist rally in 2002, said he shared many of former KKK head David Duke's "conservative" values in 1999. He also voted against MLK Day in the Louisiana state house in 2004. Off to a good start. edit: also, too, (R-Throw a Reporter off a Balcony), Michael Grimm is resigning after pleading guilty to tax evasion

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Dec 30, 2014 -> 03:18 PM) Yep no surprise they will hire Ballard who is from the Angelo/Emery tree and ex 12 year Bear employee, who will not rock the boat and Phillips survives again. Sucks to expect real change with the McCaskey's that's a stunted tree

my dog kind of sucks at using his bed

and no reason at all to go with the completely atypical "have our current DC interview you!" route if you're just going to ignore him anyway.

QUOTE (LDF @ Dec 30, 2014 -> 06:57 AM) sometime the owners will have to eat the whole contract if they want to clean house. they are eating the contract of those head coach and others, it is the same thing. cleaning house is the right way or in this situation, the only thing to do. the problem is Jay Cutler, but they just paid a crap load of money to him in this past contract. These coaches will not be here next year.

people in poorer neighborhoods have been "stealing" their place, what? earlier you were describing these pre-gentrified areas as "s***holes" rock

Weird that you would bold that part and then make that statement when the part after the bolded is literally the exact opposite of what you interpret me to be saying.

QUOTE (LDF @ Dec 29, 2014 -> 04:37 PM) depending and defining this racially and historically does not mesh. not now, its been how yrs since the 60's and the social hatred? if you want to know why a "there goes the neighborhood" message directed at non-whites would be perceived differently than the same message directed at whites, understanding the actual legacy of that message is pretty important.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 29, 2014 -> 04:56 PM) But for most gentrification, it's not like "someone" is deciding it. It's a market movement. It's a grocery store going in or a new business development going in and then people slowly start to trickle in over time until the area is "nice." Wicker Park, Bucktown etc. It's not like the city decided "this neighborhood here, we're going to force people to buy and sell to kick the darkies out!" And most of the people you're talking about aren't paying rent. They're section 8 folks. So if they get kicked out of CHA housing or CHA paid housing for other people, people who can actually pay the rent/buy the property, and make the land more valuable, and increase the tax base, and blah blah, that's a positive. it's not a positive for everybody, and it's not just section 8 people that get displaced. It often makes things worse for those that are displaced. edit: and gentrification often is done in concert with public redevelopment efforts/projects/funding/goals. again I'm not saying that gentrification is absolutely evil, shouldn't happen etc. just that there are real, legitimate concerns about the effects on the existing population in those areas that should probably be addressed.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 29, 2014 -> 05:48 PM) So yuppies = people who actually can pay rent or buy a property? people who can pay the new, substantially higher rents. gentrification doesn't just happen to run-down slums, it actually seems like it happens more to typical working-class neighborhoods. I'm not making an argument one way or the other, i was just backing up littlehurt's initial summation of why some people are concerned about or even oppose gentrification.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Dec 29, 2014 -> 06:11 PM) I disagree with you on Ted Phillips 100%..........................during press conference it was stated he is very much involved in the upcoming decisions as he was with Emery and Trestman. Below is what Hub Arkush had to say on Phillips. Congratulations to the McCaskey family for acknowledging its mistake and not insisting on wasting another season. Sticking with Emery and Trestman would have made the situation worse. The problem now is two-fold. First, it is critical that Ted Phillips, the principal architect of this mess, be kept completely out of the football side of the operation, specifically the hiring of the new GM and coach. Most importantly, the new general manager should not come from within the organization or have any ties to the Bears last 25-plus years of dysfunction. Rewarding their familiarity with Emery is what got the Bears into this mess in the first place. There is a ton of bright young talent out there ready and dying to take on the challenge of the Bears. Bears fans have to hope George McCaskey knows how to find it Yeah, Ted was very quick to point out that the GM decision was ultimately his, no the consultant's.

you dont fire the assistants because if they get hired somewhere else, at least part of their contract under the bears is paid by the other team. if they just fire them outright today, the bears are on the hook for all of it. simple, standard business decision.

QUOTE (LDF @ Dec 29, 2014 -> 04:31 PM) no one is pushing them out. if they sell, they are selling at a profit. People who are renting don't have anything to sell. If the neighborhood I'm renting in suddenly becomes a lot more desirable, my rent's going to go up and I'm going to be forced to move. edit: it can also happen with ballooning property taxes forcing owners out, but at least they aren't 100% SOL like renters.