StrangeSox

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jun 18, 2012 -> 08:16 PM) R.A. Dickey for NL Cy Young! QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 18, 2012 -> 09:23 PM) He is unreal. B&B were talking about this piece in Chicago Magazine on R.A. Dickey's pitching physics: http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine...ys-Knuckleball/ He's essentially traded consistency in speed and magnitude of movement for increased control and a wider range of speeds. Instead of getting Wakefield's dead-solid 66-67 MPH knuckleball, they're getting pitches anywhere from 73-80, with the amount of unpredictable movement decreasing as velocity increases. So now pitchers are having to deal with both the random ball movement direction, the magnitude that movement will be and velocity of the pitch.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 10:01 AM) And the need to pull the made for TV moment to get all his buddies together in Miami will always be held against him. He will never lose the douche factor for that and the pre-season celebration rally.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 10:01 AM) But, but...but...none of this matters anymore...didn't we just reform healthcare and fix everything? It's true, I've never criticized PPACA as a s***ty band-aid before. Instead of playing dumb and pretending that I've been some uncritical supporter of that, do you care to actually talk about the issue?

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 09:55 AM) So, are you claiming that middle class Americans without insurance that have these health issues are simply dying without treatment? It's a yes or no question. Sometimes. Or going bankrupt. Or not getting preventative care and screenings, leading to illnesses becoming much worse than they might have otherwise been, making them much more difficult to treat, increasing costs and risks. And while it's great that there's some limited access in major metropolitan areas, the same isn't true everywhere. Have you seen the turnouts when groups like Doctors Without Borders hold an annual clinic in Appalachia? http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008...in-borders.html

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 09:44 AM) I never said it wasn't riddled with shortcomings and issues. ER "health care" is only "health care" for certain limited definitions of health care, which was my point. ER's do not treat illnesses like cancer, HIV, mental illnesses, diabetes or anything else that requires routine check-ups and upkeep medication. Some of this treatment can be covered via Medicaid, but there's limitations on qualifying for that (and funding issues).

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 09:40 AM) You can spin this all you want... Free care exists, right here, right now. The issue isn't whether it exists (since it does), the issue is that it's very inconvenient, poorly located, wasteful (ER care), and takes too damn long for what would probably be a 5 minute session. A lot of this is due to uneducated people who go to ER's or doctors because they (or their child) has the sniffles. Then, a lot of clinics do not offer this care...but that doesn't mean there aren't clinics that don't...as stated above, they're just inconveniently located, and when you do go to one, expect to wait 5 hours for someone to look at you for all of 5 minutes. That's not actual cancer (or other chronic illness) treatment. Acute, short-term health problems are handled by ER's and walk-in clinics, not long-term health problems. If you think there's actual affordable health care access for uninsured poor and middle-class Americans for serious, non-acute medical issues, you're nuts.

Can you provide any sort of info on free cancer treatment at Stroger? I can't seem to find anything except some occasional free screenings, and even the funding for those are running out: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-02...rmal-mammograms

Damn, you're right. I don't know why anyone thinks millions in this country don't have access to health care. There's so many free clinics everywhere its a wonder that any for-profit hospitals and clinics can stay in business. eta: have you ever been without health insurance and needed health care?

He's saying that the anti-immigration arguments have been damn near word-for-word identical for over a century (and probably through much of history in many cultures, to be honest) with [insert minority group] blanks filled in differently based on the time period.

Oh ok.

This essay from almost 30 years ago is still very relevant: http://andrsn.stanford.edu/Other/illegal.html

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 08:17 AM) Hence the massive fines for hiring illegal labor. Which has harsh consequences on employers' willingness to hire non-whites for fear that they *might* be illegal. Then there's the problem that you're still using government forces to contradict market forces, namely that there are jobs to be done and people willing to do them but an arbitrary line on a map stopping them from coming together. You're essentially fine with the current rules, you just want stronger enforcement of them. You're not realizing that the current rules are terrible.

In somewhat related news, a federal judge struck down one of Chicago's gun control laws for being unconstitutionally vague. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06...dinance-gun-law more here: http://www.volokh.com/2012/06/19/the-secon...gun-possession/

There are lots of people that should be fired or sanctioned for F&F. It was a bad program with terrible results and people did try to bury it once things went to s***. That doesn't mean it was some crazy calculated conspiracy to make guns look bad. Project Gunrunner was the umbrella project with different operations, including F&F, under it. The operations under Bush were run much better, but the point Balta was making is that the goals and some of the methodology was essentially the same. It seriously weakens the already strained claim that F&F was a nefarious plot by Obama to get gun control support.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Jun 19, 2012 -> 08:47 PM) Being treated by a doctor in a hospital and hopefully getting well soon thereafter, is not healthcare. Must be some liberalese that us right wing wackos can't understand. So if a citizen with insurance goes to the hospital for treatment of a broken arm, it is.......? Emergency care is not healthcare because it is not paid for by the people who utilize it the most. Tell them they are not receiving healthcare and they would laugh in your face. ER's can now treat cancer and other long-term illnesses, it's true!

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Jun 19, 2012 -> 05:45 PM) Illegal alien walks into cook county hospital with a "problem", how much do they pay? 0. how much do you pay? 0 Emergency care isn't health care.

Careful talking about these sorts of things, Jim, there may be ladies around!

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jun 19, 2012 -> 04:13 PM) You have to show an ID to turn in metals for recycling now, no proof required to get paid for work? Not if an employer doesn't ask for it and the work is undocumented, e.g. contractors picking up day-laborers outside of Home Depot and paying cash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gunrunner

To get a job paying cash for a day's labor, you have to show up to work the fields/job site. Your proposal doesn't address that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 19, 2012 -> 03:56 PM) Which is why the Bush administration started it. To make guns seem bad. F&F was an Obama administration thing, but the larger "gunwalker" program that it was a part of started under bush.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jun 19, 2012 -> 03:54 PM) Fast and Furious was hardly 'lack of doing anything'. It was a complete setup to try and make guns seem worse than they are to advance his own agenda. And it got people killed, including American border patrol agents. F&F was a giant disaster of a program from the start. No arguments there. Claims that it was "a complete setup" are paranoid fantasies akin to 'Agenda 21' tinfoil-hat nonsense. Obama has done absolutely nothing on the gun control front and it isn't a plank in the DNC platform. They did not and have not pushed any legislation on this front. Gun control has really taken a beating since the AWB expired and then the Heller and McDonald rulings.

Great specious reasoning in that article. Though Obama can take credit for the paranoia-driven gun purchases after his election.

I'm going to guess a hung jury on a significant number of those charges. "It only takes one."

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jun 19, 2012 -> 02:02 PM) I repeat what I already said. "I wouldn't want to offend a lady's delicate sensibilities with such talk!" is sexist and hilarious given the context of the issue at hand.