Jenksismyhero

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 15, 2012 -> 05:02 PM) Do you reject the idea of constitutionally protected classes? My response didn't go through last night for some reason. In part, yes I do. I see the historical need for some of those classes (gender and race/ethnicity specifically) and think the rest are rather arbitrary (national origin, religion and sexual orientation in some states). If you're going to have homosexuals as a protected class, might as well add the obese, the ugly and day walkers/gingers. I mean, at what point does it end? Yes, there's a history (and ongoing) discrimination of homosexuals, but the same crap has happened to a lot of groups of people over the years.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Nov 15, 2012 -> 04:54 PM) along with free stuff, i would like to see the hard working middle class become a protected class. With all the entitlements that go along with such a designation. do you think the Democrats would be against it? i am counting on that they will be. Everyone should be a protected class. That would be the most equal thing to do, right?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 15, 2012 -> 04:52 PM) We fought a war over States' Rights to treat people unequally, amended our constitution, passed additional laws and sent in troops to enforce it. I see absolutely no reason civil rights should be federalized. "Vote with your feet" is a method that those with the resources and ability to move can use and only if their political dislike trumps all sorts of other life issues like friends, family and employment. Yep, homosexual discrimination is TOTALLY the same as hundreds of years of slavery. The EXACT same.

QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 15, 2012 -> 11:24 AM) I think his main point was that there is a general movement towards the strengthening of federal government. This isn't authoritarianism or communism (which, by the way, is meant to be zero government) but rather reflective of our changing world. There are fewer and fewer things that only concern the local. This is why the Constitution had to settle the issue of every state having their own currency -- states' rights, woo!! No -- some things can't be left to the states to decide not because Illinois can't make decisions, but because 51 different decisions are not compatible in a world where even national boundaries are easily crossed. State and local governments play an integral role in implementing national policy and can still make decisions that it actually makes sense to make. Does my hometown, Pontiac, need to boost funding to fill in some potholes? Sure, we won't run that one by the President. In 1850, interstate travel was near crazy talk unless there was a very particular and important reason. Now, the federal government necessarily manages the interstate highway system because we cross state borders all the time and honestly, nobody outside of Texas really gives a s*** about what state they live in. The most irksome part of this is that states' rights arguments are almost always made in context of social regulations. We continually leave civil and human rights arguments to the states, like the rights of racial minorities, women, gays, etc. should really vary locally. Bulls***! Likewise, we have a complete clusterf*** with the marijuana issue now. Not only are we now allowing states to make decisions on this, we are letting them make decisions that directly contradict the federal law. In this case, we need to first remove the federal restriction and yield to the states. Further down the line, the federal government needs to make a decision on it once people are more comfortable with the idea. Unfortunately, given the current setup, the only legal thing the federal government can do is crack down on all these violators of federal law in the states. The system is s***. This also applies to all this BS like alcohol regulations -- in one state, kids can drink under parent supervision, in another you can have an open container in your car, in another you can't buy it on Sunday, somewhere else you can only sell certain types of alcohol in certain locations. That's stupid, there is no good reason for that to be different every place you go. Etc. There are better ways to govern efficiently over a collective group of states than to just cede all power to a centralized government. Yes, things like defense, inter-state travel, currency, etc. are all things that are more easily handled on a national scale. But i completely disagree that we HAVE to nationalize every issue, especially by law. If Colorado wants to legalize pot and keep homosexuals from being a protected class, why the hell can't they do that? If you don't like the laws, move out. I don't like Illinois' tax laws, and I should move out if I don't like them. There's no reason that national views (of a select group of people) have to suppress local ones. The EU doesn't work like that. France can be France, Germany can be Germany, etc, even though they are a collective economic and political "nation."

QUOTE (DrunkBomber @ Nov 14, 2012 -> 06:39 PM) I know Im in the minority but I like LA Noire a lot more than RDR. I actually wasnt that big a fan of RDR, too much time spent going from one place to another, it got boring at times. That's a flaw in GTA too, which is why if it becomes more RPG based it'll be more fun. Just doing missions and driving places is fun for a while, but it's not sustainable. My issue with LA Noire was that you did the exact same thing for every case. Walk around, look at clues, push a button, read, walk around, pick up a beer bottle, get angry that the beer bottle meant nothing, blah blah. Occasionally you'd hit a good action sequence but that was about it.

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 14, 2012 -> 01:52 PM) the core purpose of the constitution was to strengthen the role of the federal government. I don't think this is true. As the constitution was written, and for decades after, the role of the federal government was still in dispute. The goal of the constitution was to create the general rules for the emerging nation of collective states. There's a reason it was called the United States of America and not just America. Individual states wanted to retain the majority of the control over its land/citizens. But over 250+ years later that distinction has eroded more and more.

QUOTE (flippedoutpunk @ Nov 14, 2012 -> 03:21 PM) and set it in the southside of Chicago #realism Lol. I'm excited for Watch Dogs. Basically it's GTA + Assassins Creed set in Chicago. Too bad it'll be out in 2-3 years on the next consoles.

People like Paul Konerko because he's good at baseball, not because he's white and good at baseball. If that were true, people wouldn't have liked Frank Thomas, who was good at baseball and black.

QUOTE (RZZZA @ Nov 14, 2012 -> 03:37 PM) Hey there's something to that. People want to cheer for people who look more like them. It's why I consider Paul Konerko a modern day white mans working class hero. It WOULD be different if he were black....and young...er Frank Thomas says hi.

I always feel like the marketing for Rockstar games dwarf the actual games themselves. GTA IV was good, not great. Red Dead was really good but the Mexico portion (about one third of the total game) was just terrible, and then LA Noire basically sucked. Probably in the minority on this though.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 14, 2012 -> 08:29 AM) Cutler better not play on Monday, no reason to have him go. I read prolonged flying can hurt concussion recovery too. Give him the week to rest, get him ready for the next two games at home. I find it interesting that Campbell takes zero snaps during the practice week. That's probably why he was Mr. Check-Down on Sunday. With a full week of practice, he should be better, anyway the Bears offense was 28th in the league with Cutler, how much worse can it get? My ass is flying out to San Fran for this game. I don't want it to be a game managing beat down. I'm praying Cutler is able to go.

I bought the donut house coffee pack at Sams for ours. It's not great, but for .46 cents a cup it's delicious. I was drinking way too much dunkin' donuts and starbucks at 2-3 bucks a pop.

If we win the central, which isn't exactly out of the question, they're a guaranteed 4th or better seed right? Or did the NBA unceremoniously change that rule?

heh, oops: http://weeklystandard.com/blogs/abc-affili...ook_663264.html

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Nov 13, 2012 -> 10:23 AM) Not sure I follow. How do you mean it doesn't fit with the

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Nov 13, 2012 -> 09:49 AM) It's also largely a political ploy, whether some of us agree that the wealthy can afford to play more taxes or not, the fact that raising their taxes equates to about 4 days worth of spending shows how political it actually is. Much more needs to be done than simply raising the top rates and pretending all is well. They need to reform and simplify the entire tax code, both for regular people, rich people and last but not least, corporations. While we have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, the fact is, none of these corporations pay anywhere near that rate, showing that once again, these rates are mostly political pandering, but don't actually mean much. If you tax someone at 30%, but give them an endless amount of deductions, and in the end their actual tax rate is 11%, it doesn't matter if you raise it from 30% to 39%...in the end they'll probably only pay 11.3% despite that bump from 30 to 39. What they need to do is attach deductions to your income rate (regardless of how you make that income, be it via interest, dividends, etc.) If you make 500k a year, you don't need the same amount of deductions that a person making 60k a year with a family of 4 does. But if they want to make an actual dent, keeping everything as it is, but raising the top end rate a few percentage points isn't going to do it. It's as much of a false play as pretending that cutting taxes across the board will somehow pay off all of our debt. The more you make the less those deductions are as a percent of your income. Just about every deduction is capped at a certain point (mortgage interest might be the only one that's not). So in reality i'm fine keeping those deductions the same regardless of income, otherwise the rich would pay less in taxes. But I agree. Reports for the last year have shown that you can tax the 1% at 100% and not get anywhere with the deficit. An increase in taxes has to be met with meaningful cuts. And not bulls*** cuts like "we'll lower the budget X billions over the next ten years." It needs to be immediate cuts that can't be ignored next election.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 13, 2012 -> 08:40 AM) Some numbers on "going over the fiscal cliff" http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2012/1...g_over_the.html He makes the case that you really should break the "cliff" up into the individual issues. Some will be relatively easy to walk back after January 1st, some will be a bit more complicated. Also, related to what ss2k5 was saying earlier: I'm 100% in favor of that. Never understood why we were punishing middle class investors for being smart with their money.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Nov 12, 2012 -> 08:38 PM) I really liked it. Besides a couple of things that were out there (which you expect in a Bond movie), the only real question I had at the end was why Bardem's character didn't kill Albert Finney's character in the church scene. Based on everything that happened up to that point, it only made sense to off him.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Nov 3, 2012 -> 02:05 AM) AC3 is awesome. I played for probably 5 hours today, and I am still not even an assassin. I am having way too much fun running through tree-tops and killing deer with my tomahawk. Really looking forward to slaying my first bear. I'm about 40% done. It's pretty clear they've made every mechanic just a little better from ACII, and the setting is probably the best yet. The beginning missions for Connor were a bit of a bore, but the intro stuff was great and the main story has been great so far.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Nov 12, 2012 -> 08:32 PM) Was anyone else genuinely happy for Richard in that dance scene? I was honestly smiling.

Caught Skyfall over the weekend . Might be my favorite Bond movie ever.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 12, 2012 -> 11:13 AM) I'm one of those people that absolutely hates traveling (going to airports, flying, not actually vacationing), so I just pay the extra $ to be comfortable rather than trying to save $50 and flying all over the place or at weird times. It's difficult to save too much money when you are flying in or out of Chicago...rarely do we see the heavily discounted fares there because there is just so much traffic. As for Vegas, I just have to avoid flying in on a thursday or friday (Tue-Wed and Sat are the cheapest generally) and flying out on Sunday or Monday (as everyone is leaving and going back to their regular life). I think another tip is to avoid booking the flight on weekends (not actually flying, but actually booking the airfare), as it is generally more expensive to do so then. Yeah i'm the same way. I'll gladly pay an extra 50 bucks for a nonstop at a convenient time.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 12, 2012 -> 10:06 AM) He was twitching and making a lot of mannerisms with his face in the last few plays after that hit...there were some indications for sure. That is probably what caused them to recognize something wasn't right. From what I saw he was doing his normal weird ticks - opening his mouth like he's trying to pop the air in his ears and violently moving his throwing shoulder back as if he's trying to shake something off him. I dunno, I think Zaidman reported that no one knew anything was up until they got to the locker room and he told someone he wasn't right. He also apparently told Campbell to warm up.

You can also gamble and try to wait until about a week or two before. If the flights don't sell out the airlines try to get anything they can for them, so there is usually some good savings. But usually those are s***ty flights (1-2 stops) at odd times.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Nov 12, 2012 -> 09:28 AM) @BradBiggs After illegal hit on Jay Cutler, 4 minutes, 57 seconds passed before #Bears next snap w/o concussion evaluation. Can the Bears get in trouble for this? I don't think there was any indication that he was having any symptoms until halftime so I doubt it. This is troubling though. That's concussion #6 I believe for Cutler. Gotta wonder at what point he says I'm gonna go make babies with my hot wife and not be a vegetable the rest of my life.