Jenksismyhero

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ May 2, 2013 -> 04:33 PM) Here's a video of a 747 freighter stalling shortly after takeoff, presumably due to cargo shift- although that hasn't been confirmed. It happened at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan on Monday. The video is very intense, so heads up. Really frightening. Crew of 7- RIP. Someone beat you by 2 pages.

Damn she looks good for just having a kid. My wife didn't bounce back that quickly!

How could they not bring charges for wasting tax payer money like that. There's gotta be something on the books to cover a situation like this.

A 75% Derrick Rose is still better than anything the Bulls can throw out on the court sans-Hinrich. Come on Derrick, stop being such a puss.

NBC has to air SOMETHING

Why the hell is his death making national news? They had one hit! 20 years ago! Don't producers stop and think about covering the story when the ONLY footage they have is from the time the person was 13 years old?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 2, 2013 -> 09:50 AM) FWIW this has happened before with gas companies and turning off people's heat around here. IIRC four or five years ago a 90+ year old man froze to death in Indiana because his gas was turned off after several months of non-payment. It happens, but it's rare. I'd guess more people actually get killed trying to reconnect the power after ComEd disconnects it (you'd be amazed the balls/stupidity people have around electrical equipment) than people dying because they have no power.

Speaking of electricity, apparently I've been chosen to participate in an "electric aggregation" program, whatever the hell that means. The Village I live in has signed a one year deal with another electric company whose rates are approx. 20% less than ComEd. I also have the option to pay slightly more and the company will buy Renewable Energy Certificates to cover 100% of my electricity usage. I don't really understand how or why the Village or the electric company are doing this.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 30, 2013 -> 02:48 PM) Vikings was excellent again. I can't wait to see if Rollo goes through with fighting against Ragnar. Agreed. I didn't realize that was the season finale. Sucks we have to wait another year to see what happens.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 1, 2013 -> 04:57 PM) "I'm not racist, I've got a black friend!" isn't actually a legitimate defense I don't really care to hear Broussard's or any other sports commentator's theological views on other peoples' alleged sins. I think Broussard's views are bigoted and that having gay friends does not magically change that. But that doens't work. You wouldn't be friends with a black person if you were truly racist. How can you be a bigot ("one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance") if you're friends with them? Logically that makes no sense. Again, I think you're bastardizing the definition here. By this very definition you are a bigot.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 1, 2013 -> 04:49 PM) It's only a problem for bigots trying to cherry-pick religious texts to justify their bigotry though Well, I don't think it's a "problem" that really affects his life. Especially since he apparently is a friend of someone who is gay. Gee, someone can think someone is living in sin and not a Christian life and not want them to burn in eternal damnation! Nope, just a bigoted asshole, right?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 30, 2013 -> 12:42 PM) These conversations about whether some athlete was "living in sin" and in "open rebellion against God and Christ" who isn't a real Christian because they committed adultery don't happen outside of religious settings if they happen at all. The bigotry and exclusion and condemnation is reserved for the LGBT crowd and not other sinners. For the sake of completeness, I got around to actually watching Broussard's full comment, and it included this: So, yeah. He talked about that as being a problem on national TV (gosh!). And frankly, his entire statement read in context is about as "light" and respectful as you can possibly be in saying you don't agree with a homosexual lifestyle. It's no different than saying you don't agree with someone having sex outside of their marriage and you think it's a sin and not a Christian act.

Ugh, SS, your bleeding heart is too much for me. I'm done wasting my time with this crap.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 1, 2013 -> 12:26 PM) Everyone make stupid decisions in life. There's much less margin for error for the poor when they do, or maybe none at all. I could make dumb decisions in life regarding drugs, crime and kids and probably come out okay; my older brother did on the first two and is doing alright. Had my family been poor, he would probably have spent at least a few months in prison. Your whole view of poverty seems to be centered on a minority of people who do not work even though they could; the working poor and lower-middle class don't even enter into the picture for you. I fully admit that I don't care about some concern-troll "moral hazard" fringe cases that do not represent a majority of poverty. But those stupid decisions kill any shot you have at becoming middle class or more! That's a HUGE component to this. How many poor people do you know/hear about that are single or married with no kids. Very few! Bulls***. By the simple fact that the absolute poorest of poor in this country HAVE succeeded proves my point. I think the problem here is your view of "success" is a socialist dream world where everyone gets the same luxury lifestyle. You're arguing what's being provided isn't adequate enough to make someone Bill Gates. I'm arguing we provide enough to not be poor and live a modest, middle class American lifestyle. OMG. The majority ethnicity in this country for the last 200 years self identifies itself as American. THE HORROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 1, 2013 -> 12:12 PM) Source? Common sense? The fact that there are a number of CPS schools doing just fine? The fact that they just closed a bunch of schools because they were being underutilized and wasting money? I didn't say it wasn't A problem, I said it wasn't THE problem. And to the extent it is a problem, the leadership isn't a bunch of rich white yuppies from the north side making all of the decisions on spending/allocating resources. And your upbringing clearly exposed you to all of those poor people who work 80 hour weeks and hate being on welfare? GMAB. I took a public housing law/poverty class in law school, and nothing about the way Chicago handle's the poor made me change my opinion on this. As always, there are people that get a bad draw in life and just can't get ahead. But I literally met people who went from Cabrini Green to the new mixed housing buildings and b****ed for 2 hours about not getting more and for having to pay 1/5 of their electric bill. Absolutely anecdotal but I'd bet a lot it's a common feeling. Again, mainly from learning about how Chicago's office handles public housing, my cop buddies who work in the s***tiest neighborhoods and tell me how those kids act, and the news. It's not difficult to conclude that a 20 year old with 4 kids doesn't having education as a top priority. And I've responded to this argument a thousand times and said I agree generally. But that doesn't mean what I'm pointing out isn't a problem. I acknowledge it, you ignore it.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 1, 2013 -> 12:06 PM) We can't get smart policy enacted until we move away from political discourse that blames poor people for poorness. Since it is fathomable that a poor person can become rich, the discourse pretty much stops there. Racism is over, poverty would be over if those assholes worked harder. And it would be equally beneficial for your side to actually admit that SOME poor people REMAIN poor because they don't want to work at it. It's fathomable that a poor person that gets their food, shelter, health care, education and personal property handed to them would rather just say "i want more" instead of spending the time/energy to become educated, get a job and get off the system. Or worse, that people who make stupid decisions in life (drugs, crime, kids) actually have some blame. Maybe. Just maybe, that's a possibility? Except for an upbringing, society provides you everything you need to succeed. That is incontrovertible fact. That was my only point. That doesn't mean it's going to be an equal life. That doesn't mean it's not going to be harder. But it's absolutely possible in 2013. The rich white racist boogey-man doesn't exist.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 1, 2013 -> 11:44 AM) It is? We have a majority-black state legislature that decides how schools are funded? No, not really. A central issue was how under-resourced they were, both in terms of building conditions, classroom supplies and the ability to attract good teachers because of salary and benefits. Do you really want to pretend that schools in Austin have the same resources as New Trier or Naperville 203? TAL noted that Harper was receiving special supplemental funding because they had substantial issues and that this funding was going away shortly, which meant they would have to lay off social workers, which means there are going to be a lot more unhandled issues there. You can give the wealthiest of the wealthy the best of everything for education and access and if they don't have any sort of will to better themselves, they might end up as President of the United States after failing in business multiple times. Or they could start up multi-million dollar investment funds based off of their dad's money and contacts. The margins for error are huge; the road to success is paved and smooth and might even have a chauffer should you go off-course a bit. For the poor, the roads are in ill-repair, crumbling on the edge of a cliff that might collapse through no fault of your own, and your car is 20 years old and might break down at any moment. It's really appalling to see the assertion that the poor are poor because they don't have any "will to better themselves," especially from someone born onto third base. The people with the real control of the CPS are local, not the state. From CPS leadership to the unions. Funding isn't the majority of the problem for CPS. In some cases, sure. But the lack of funds or the condition of buildings etc. is not the primary cause for CPS failing. We didn't listen to the same podcast. Nowhere did they talk about the kids not having what they needed to get a good education. They talked about the concern of losing a school counselor or a guard or whatever. The school wasn't run down. They had books. They had computers. They had the tools to learn it's just the neighborhood/culture is awful. I wasn't born onto third base. I wasn't poor either. But wtf does that have to do with anything? I see a culture that doesn't value education and worries more about other, inconsequential crap. That's not THE cause of the ghettos/generational poor, but it's sure as hell a problem that you pretend doesn't exist. And really that's where the solution lies. Again, pumping money into the system isn't going to change anything. It hasn't for the last several decades. Edit: and that last paragraph isn't specific to blacks or minorities. There are plenty of poor whites who have the same s***ty mentality with regard to their future. And 95% of it starts with their home life and upbringing, not whether they were provided the newest and fanciest textbooks/tablets/teachers.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 1, 2013 -> 11:28 AM) What's our modern urban housing policy besides gentrification? How equal are the educational resources between poor and middle-class or wealthy neighborhoods? Or the economic resources? The social resources? How do you correct generations of systemic, intentional impoverishment? There are still millions who lived through these recent policies or who are the children of those who did. Hell, racist housing/mortgage lending is as recent as the last decade. How can you pretend that people are given equal opportunities to succeed? It's not as if the systemic inequality issues caused by poverty have recently disappeared; they've only gotten worse in the past few decades and are barreling right along that same track. You're really projecting the classic "born on third base and thinks he hit a triple" mentality. Well, if your answer is throw money at the problem, we've been doing that for decades and all that does is cause more problems. If you're going to analyze the prior systematic efforts that created ghettos/generational poor, the CURRENT policy of just providing those people with a way of life is equally detrimental and does nothing to solve the problem.

But those problems aren't because white people in power are systematically choosing to keep black people down. You think education sucks in black neighborhoods? What's the ethnicity of the leadership making those decisions? Oh yeah, it's black. And when the CPS just had their strike, wasn't there all sorts of stories that those failing schools actually had everything they needed? That This American Life piece talked about how the Harper High School was doing just fine in that regard (even if future budget cuts caused concern of future lay offs). At the end of the day this becomes a community and individual issue. It's a family issue. It's an upbringing issue. You can give the poorest of poor the best of everything for education (or housing, or anything) and if they don't have any sort of will to better themselves it won't matter.

I don't think anyone would argue that this stuff didn't happen in the past. But it doesn't happen today. It doesn't happen in Chicago where a great deal of the political leadership is black. People in this City and most of the country are given every opportunity to succeed.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 1, 2013 -> 10:44 AM) Shock? Living in a country that's been torn about by violence for his or her entire life? I read elsewhere that some where thinking it was a police or military vehicle. Even still, you'd think he would mutter at least a "whoaaaaa" at some point.

Far Cry 3 was a good time. I'm sure this just continues that. I picked up the GoW PS3 bundle a week ago. It's about 8 times lighter and half the size of my original 60gb launch ps3 that died. Pretty crazy how much tech changed in 5-6 years.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 28, 2013 -> 10:59 PM) Tywen Lannister is an absolute scene stealer That was such a perfect casting job. That dude nails it. The scene from season one when he's butchering the elk/deer was the first of many awesome acting jobs. Also really liked Jaime's confession scene. Well done with the direction and acting.

QUOTE (juddling @ May 1, 2013 -> 08:28 AM) A few nice gags in this weeks HIMYM......Barney's Bachelor party....... People still watch that show? Caught up with The Borgias from last week. A LOT of moving parts so far in two episodes. And the scene with Cesare and Lucrezia was super creepy.

Global warming leads to prostitution: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/hous...ansactional-sex