Jenksismyhero

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 1, 2007 -> 07:52 AM) And we should be happy that we live in a country that is so blessed we can take care of people. The vast majority of countries on the planet would have to stand by and watch people starve. Too bad we waste a lot of this money taking care of people who don't deserve it. It sickens me to watch an old withering person who's worked hard their entire life go without adequate health coverage or adequate retirement money (ESPECIALLY veterans) when undeserving people who are too lazy to get a job contine to reep the benefits of our old, out-dated and entirely too socialistic welfare system. Perhaps I should change my sig from 'Work harder, millions of Americans on welfare depend on you,' to ' Work harder, millions of Americans on welfare depend on you while the old deserving Americans are left out.' I know, doesn't really have anything to do with the thread topic, but this sentence got me thinking.

QUOTE(Mplssoxfan @ Jan 29, 2007 -> 09:57 PM) I read a lot of history too, emphasis on Civil War, Ancient Rome and WWII. But I read anything. Not enough fiction, unfortunately. If you history guys are interestd in colonial period stuff the book Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathanial Phillbrick is my most recent read. I explained to my friends that it's a story told with facts instead of facts molded into a story...if that makes sense. He does a good job of telling the story with a lot of factual information, but not so much that you feel lost. Good read, and interesting. Kinda changes your views on Squanto a bit (at least what you remember from grade school).

Born - Ebony & Ivory - Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder 18th - Maria Maria - Santana Not married yet.

Has anyone read The Tipping Point? I'm interested in reading it after this article. He has a couple more articles on his website that I haven't read yet. Probably will start though.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Jan 28, 2007 -> 02:00 PM) Lee, Westbrook, Sowers, and Byrd in their rotation - which is better than the White Sox. This isn't mentioning a solid bullpen and one of the best offenses in the MLB. They were terrible last year and only marginally increased their arms by signing old has-beens. They COULD be solid, but statistics say they'll be average at best. Just remember folks, Cleveland was supposed to run away with the division last year and they finished near .500, even while outscoring opponents.

Don't worry guys! The UN will stop him with 5,000 resolutions that will never be backed with anything but words. I feel safe knowing that we're bombing him with paper and ink. You should too.

http://www.gladwell.com/2006/2006_02_13_a_murray.html

QUOTE(Damen @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 02:00 AM) Iran does not have nuclear weapons, and is years away. There is a long road ahead filled with plenty of opportunities to prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons. But even if they do, Israel has plenty of their own nukes to respond. I don't see why we need to keep fighting preventative wars for Israel on the far-off, what-if chance that a country decides to ensure its own destruction by launching a nuclear war with the two most heavily armed countries in the world. I don't think his point is that we (or they) will be attacked tomorrow. I think he's saying that even if it's a few years away we aren't ready for it, nor are they. We can keep laughing at the notion of fighting preventative wars, until something happens, then we'll all wonder why we didn't do anything to stop it. It's not like we have zero basis to go on with Iran. It seems daily the nut-job leader they have is calling for the destruction of Israel and the US. Anyone catch the BBC coverage of the State of the Union? They essentially criticized Bush for speaking badly about Iran (always referring to it as a 'regime' instead of a governmnet). It cracks me up that this guy does nothing but spew hatred and violence and destruction and murder of millions of people and no one says anything, but god forbid Bush doesn't pay respect for his political system.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Jan 24, 2007 -> 05:32 PM) I don't think it is possible, or wise, to try and rebuild everything at once. It will be a neighborhood by neighborhood project, The state and local governments aren't doing the actual home construction, that is private industry. I am also starting to wonder what the best response is. We've never had to rebuild a city of this magnitude. Is the best role of the feds to be sitting on the side lines? I could be convinced that mobilizing all available resources, federal to private, is the best approach. I guess I'm just not seeing ANY progress. I didn't think the city would miraculously rebuild in one night. But I expected a little more progress after a year. Who knows, maybe I should be a little more patient, I just don't think the officials in charge are doing everything they can, but instead are focusing a lot of their energy on gaining sympathy or deflecting their responibility towards the federal government. If anything I think the one lesson we could learn from Katrina (besides the obvious recovery mess) is that there are far too many uninsured homeowners out there. I didn't think it was possible to buy a home without getting some sort of insurance coverage (perhaps that's just in IL), but when people down there lost their homes, they got nothing back.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Jan 24, 2007 -> 01:09 PM) Decisions do not have to be made by committee. The President has absolute authority to act. But if you are still concerned, be certain to vote for the Dem candidate in '08 lol, never! I would vote for Newt though. Ive seen him speak on multiple occasions. Very engaging guy, great speaker, and honestly, I like his way of thinking about issues. You don't hear him sugarcoat things and say the obvious political statements, which admittedly could be because there were no cameras, but still. It was refreshing to hear a politician talk about current events and policy debates without resorting to the typical answers.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Jan 24, 2007 -> 04:42 PM) The Army Corp of Engineers Well right. Levee systems I guess I'll give you. But I was meaning the homes and neighborhoods, commercial districts, etc. You look at pictures from the last month and it looks like nothing has changed. Entire neighborhoods look like a tornado just ran through them. This, to me, is a failure of the local and state government. Nagen is too busy gaining sympathy (and face time on national tv) than fixing his city. That's how I see it.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Jan 24, 2007 -> 04:15 PM) LOL. I read this thread and thought 'damn, they're really getting hit down there.'

[quote The federal government is a huge infrastructure builder. They are a huge financier of programs. Right, that would be the aiding portion. The fixing portion would be the local and state government taking that aid and fixing the city. How many hundreds of millions (or we into the billions now?) has the federal government given the state and city? How much manpower has been given (or is still there)?

QUOTE(redandwhite @ Jan 24, 2007 -> 01:06 PM) I'm thinking about buying a PS3 and I'm curious as to what game I should get along with it. I see a bunch of games I want but most of them aren't out yet. What games do you recommend? Resistance for sure. I have NBA 2k7, which is good, but I dunno, it's getting old. Most sports games are like that with me though because it's the same thing over and over again (I get tired of Madden after a couple of months too). I hear Tiger Woods and Fight Night are cool.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Jan 24, 2007 -> 11:11 AM) I forgot to add that the complete lack of even a mention of Katrina or the Gulf Coast still being in a shambles was pathetic. So much talk about not abandoning our friends in Iraq, but what about our citizens right here? I'm getting really tired of this Katrina crap. First the Saints as 'saints' for having a good team (please people, how many more rich ass football players do I have to hear telling me what a terrible tragedy it is. Stop running your mouth and donate a years worth of your salary, which could probably support hundreds and hundreds of families, ya selfish bastards) and now this. I'm sorry man. It's no longer the federal governments job to clean up that mess IMO. They messed up, absolutely agreed there, but its time for the state and local governments to take over and fix the mess that THEY were responsible for. Federal government aids in disasters, they don't fix.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3356103,00.html I couldn't agree more. I have no idea what would happen after such a strike, but I do know that I distrust the governments ability to handle it. Especially now with Congress and the President at odds with policy, I can't imagine how decisions would be made in a timely fashion.

QUOTE(BMac Attack @ Jan 22, 2007 -> 06:39 PM) I don't know, I like Michael best when he's not so totally off the wall, frankly it gets a little unbelievable, and you get those "there's no WAY he wouldn't be fired" moments. It's the moments that are quietly funny and horribly uncomfortable that Michael's the best in, IMO. Agreed

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jan 22, 2007 -> 09:05 PM) Those graphics are freaking unreal. I like the picture of Paulie. I'm excited about the games that will be coming out this year for the ps3. Once they finally unleash the power of that machine I think we'll be even more amazed.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 22, 2007 -> 04:40 PM) Seriously, I need some advice on how to power level. This game gets so tedious. Unfortunately there isn't. I've been working on my guy for like 4 months and just yesterday reached 40. Once you hit about 25 it takes a loooooooong time to level, and it just gets worse the higher you go. If you have any friends online that can run you through some instances that's usually pretty good experience. You'll get half the experience of killing all of the creatures in the instance and the quests objectives are usually red so you'll get lots of XP points. Plus you'll get good drops too. Also if you stick to the hardest quests (orange if you can) that usually helps. Getting 4-500 XP per guy you have to kill is better than the 1-200 for green quests. And if you ever find yourself getting bored go mess around in the battlegrounds. It doesn't get you anywhere with XP and leveling, but you can work on your PVP skills when you encounter the other races in the different zones Are you utilizing rest XP when you aren't playing (always logging out in cities...toolbar turns blue) so that you continue to gain experience when offline?

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 19, 2007 -> 04:43 PM) Well, you should have voted for a Democratic Congress earlier Trust me, had I known Congress would turn into the whipping boy for the President I would have

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 19, 2007 -> 04:33 PM) The Dems finally just passed the huge majority of the actual 9/11 commission reccomendations as part of their 100 hours boom. About time too!

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 19, 2007 -> 04:18 PM) 4. I don't get the argument that its important, but we'll deride Pelosi's committee. I mean, will it actually achieve anything? Maybe, maybe not. But I don't see how you can say you are in favor of doing something about it, but aren't in favor of the House starting work on it. 1. It's the government 2. Any recommendations won't be taken seriously (9/11 Commission what?) 3. It's the government 4. It's become too political. It's posturing. It's the Dems saying 'look at us, unlike those straight-laced money-hungry fascist pig Republicans, we care about the environment, so we're gonna create this panel to look into it.' 5. It's the government 6. The scientific community, on its own, should have ample studies/reports for Congress to use to act. A meeting or two, sure, I'll go for that. A full-fledged committee that will take time and money away from more pressing needs? A waste. 7. It's the government.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 19, 2007 -> 03:28 PM) Simply saying "There are climate changes in the past and there will be again" is totally ignoring the reality of what we're doing. We've increased atmospheric CO2 by something like 50% in the past 150 years. Simplyt saying "oh the climate will change" ignores the abruptness of what we've done, and totally ignores the interdependence of humanity on the climate systems. I think you're ignoring the fact that you have 150 years worth of data out of how many millions? Isn't it possible that CO2 levels have fluctuated due to natural events that are beyond a 150, hell, a 1000 year window? Imagine the fear of the world if we went through a mini-ice age like what happend in the 1620's-1630's, the same time the Pilgrims were coming over here. People think it was strange that it was 60 in Dec, what would they think of blizzard/sub-freezing conditions going on into April like they experienced?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 19, 2007 -> 03:05 PM) I'm glad to see someone else have this kind of perspective. Climate effects everything, and we effect climate. Ridiculous press from movies like The Day After (or whatever that was called), and crackpots saying the world is ending, just make it worse, because they marginalize the validity and importance of the topic. As do moronic ex presidential candidates who attempt to use fear as a means to promote their message (gasp! something he complained that the Repubs were doing!) Here's the problem for me: global warming is a recurring theme throughout the Earths history. To say that humans aren't to blame for SOME of the global warming is asinine. However, to pretend as Mr. Gore does, that humans are single-handedly causing a catastrophic disaster is equally asinine. The problem with most 'scientific' research on the topic is that they try to answer whether human action is a cause. Ok, agreed, it is. Now, the follow-up, and more important question, is how much of a cause are we? There are too many forces at play here to accurately conclude what percent of global warming is caused by human actions. Not enough is known about the cycles of the sun (what I’m leaning towards as a major factor), the earths climate shifts/changes, the oceans effects on climate, etc etc to be able to determine what is causing global warming. To me it's like arguing over the cause of the stock market crash. There are good theories from multiple angles but in the end you still don't know what did it. It's more likely a combination of a lot of different factors. There's no denying that humans aren't helping the situation. But it makes me sick that this issue has become political and now morons on both sides are leading people to believe false information. This panel is a political move that won’t produce any valuable results that aren’t already available in the scientific community (a better place to find the answers anyway). It’s a waste of tax payer money and energy that could be used to solve more important problems like why people keep blowing us up.

Global Warming Panel=Waste of Time/Money/Energy