Texsox

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 7, 2013 -> 03:19 PM) You're right, I should have said "nearly zero". There is some small bit of supplies and regular maintenance required to keep them lubriCated and running. It's similar to how you have to change the transmission fluid in an electric car even though it doesn't use gasoline - it's not 100% down to zero but the operating costs are several orders of magnitude less for similar power generation. The startup cost is high, the operating costs are minimal. Also, I misread your original post. There is a significant amount of fuel energy that is necessary to power any fuel burning plant. But another point to visuals and how we generate power. The only type of plant I believe some would consider as actually increasing beauty would be a hydroelectric dam. The argument could be made that a large mountain lake is more beautiful than a river running free. I would disagree, but I could be persuaded that it is less obnoxious than some of the others. I just really dislike seeing so much natural habitat destroyed.

That is a good point I was not considering in my reply. I was strictly considering the plant. The overall affect causes me to prefer wind to coal. Although I may prefer solar and natural gas to wind.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Dec 7, 2013 -> 03:02 PM) Yup. We took it all then gave some back. Its their fault for losing the war. Want the land? Win the war. So I understand, there is nothing wrong in fighting a war to take someone's land. You want it, you have the military strength, so go take it.

Here's your prize. A thread all for you. You asked for a prize, you got it.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Dec 7, 2013 -> 01:24 PM) 20,000! Where's my prize? Congratulations! I remember when 10,000 posts around here was a huge milestone.

In a bit of personal irony I am recalling a debate I had years ago with lowercaserepublican here about Kerouac and if he was a great author or not. LCR offered Nabokov as an example of a great author. I am writing a seminar paper comparing the two as outcasts who wrote road novels about the US.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 7, 2013 -> 02:32 PM) The noble savage is an ignorant stereotype How so?

This was the major topic of conversation at lunch yesterday. I'm happy for Mexico, sad for us. Everything has to go our way to advance. I can't wait for the games to begin.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 7, 2013 -> 01:59 PM) His racism wouldn't be any less disgusting if it were "phrased better." His ideas aren't the ones you've portrayed in that post. They're just dumb, ignorant racism from a child. No his racism would not be. I guess I didn't make my point clear. Because he did write in such a racist way we rejected everything that he wrote. If someone who was not a racist had written that Mandela was not always a saint, had done some things that would later be inconsistent with Mandela's own views, it would not have been rejected. or If someone different had mentioned some of the bad stuff Mandela did, we could have discussed it and placed those acts in the context of the man's life. Instead it became a discussion about what a racist ignoramus Duke is. or I guess what I am saying is that I believe it is possible to discuss Mandela's career, both the good and the bad, in a non racist manner. Duke failed at that, someone else could have succeeded. Unless someone wishes to make a case that any discussion of bad things Mandela may have done is by that very action racist.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 7, 2013 -> 01:11 PM) I very much disagree with the claims here. The turbines do break yes on occasion, but they are extremely efficient if they're placed in areas where wind actually blows. They're not cheap to build, but they're incredibly cheap to operate because once they're up the fuel costs drop to zero. Compared to a fossil fuel plant...the plant is cheaper to build, but the plant needs a constant supply of fuel to operate (which, in many cases, comes in via train or ship as well). Drops to zero? That's interesting, I always thought there were electronic controls on them but I guess they could manage them with mechanical brakes. That actually might make more sense.

I think AJ is trying to honor Hawk the Bo Sox player not the modern cartoon Hawk.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Dec 7, 2013 -> 12:56 PM) "I guess what I'm trying to say is, if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change." Except Duke, I don't see that cat changing, ever.

I was thinking of pre-colonization and areas of the world where there were many nomadic tribes who were living in peace. The so called noble savage. But since we probably do not wish to debate the essential nature of man I will stick to north America. In North America I'll agree with Duke and Balta on the physical war between the Native Americans and the settlers. Most of the tribes, especially those west of teh Appalachian Mountains were skilled fighters. I will make the point that the war that the white man won, as much as the fighting, was in the courts and two very different understandings of land ownership. How treaties were ripped up once they were no longer advantageous to white settlers. The native Americans had a terrible understanding of these sorts of legal proceedings and how important the agreements would become. That is the war they had no understanding of. The same class war we fight today.

I guess we'll differ here. The fact that wind farms need to be placed on the most prominent land features also bothers me. But I love the outdoors and natural beauty so I am not happy with any of our energy options at this point. Probably the least objectionable to me is solar. They can be placed low to the ground or coordinated onto rooftops. Again, I am only commenting on the visual. I am near two natural gas powered plants which power much of this area. They can't be seen from more than about a half mile away. They build them right on pipelines that runs through the area. I accept that more so than many miles of a wind farm blotting out the sky.

Balta, how often have you driven past wind farms? After driving past coal mines and wind farms, I will take a coal mine any day if the only environmental impact of the two is visual. I really dislike travelling for an hour and seeing turbines. The past couple summers driving through most of the rocky mountain states has really soured my appreciation of wind power. I don't think most people realize how many turbines are installed and over how wide an area.

How are you defining war?

The question I keep wishing someone would answer is why didn't the clean players rise up? Why didn't the guys who were getting screwed by not taking PEDs not go public in a big way? Absent of any solid information that I can find my answer is that they were intimidated by MLB Inc. That they didn't want to bite the hands that fed them. Now, MLB Inc. decides to clean up the players. I can see a backlash against MLB and empathy for players in all this. It must be infuriating when your employer basically rewards you for rules breaking then suddenly adopts a holier than thou attitude. It sickens me that the game was basically taken over by cheating.

Plus it is difficult to fight a war when you don't realize you are fighting a war or have no understanding in your life of "war".

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 7, 2013 -> 09:30 AM) Nah, I'm just going to take duke's explicitly racist posting history combined with his racist posts itt and his generally horrible ideology for what they are. No need to make excuses or try to play negotiator for his bulls***. He hasn't been saying anything remotely like your hypothetical quote, and what he had said isn't just "slightly"more inflammatory. I agree he didn't write anything close to that. In fact that is my point. That if it was phrased better, and by someone who has not posted ugly racist posts prior, it would not have been so soundly denounced. And I wasn't trying to make any excuses either. What I was trying to point out is the kernel of truth in Duke's ugly racist posts. Mandela was not a saint from birth. I believe Mandela became one. It highlights the remarkable ability and potential for all of us to change.

There is a great lesson in board posting here. If someone who is better respected around here, a level headed moderate perhaps like NSS had posted: Instead Duke wrote a slightly more inflammatory post, then in trying to justify his mostly correct post, went deeper and deeper into ugliness. I do hope in his frenzied attempts at defending his earlier posts Duke distorted his own opinions on humans that share all the same characteristics as himself except for skin pigment. So if we could, let's take a huge step back. Mandela was part of acts that while we can debate if they were justified or not, where illegal and of questionable morals. In fact if whites in the country began today doing the same acts that Mandela's groups did, the world would soundly denounce them. But what Mandela was fighting for most of the world applauds. And whether or not SA is a better country for it, we should simply look at the US south. The economy of the United States south was much better prior to the Civil War and the end of slavery. It took decades to repair and rebuild. But I would rather see free people struggling to build an economy based on equal opportunity for all than a thriving economy where only a portion of the public has opportunity. So while I really do not want to be seen as a defender of Duke's writings, we should consider, as Duke started, all of Mandela's life. I believe it is an amazing journey that shows the potential of change in all humans. I applaud, not attack, Mandela's path and find it inspiring.

I believe we need a short hand reference for "team with the worst record" or as I shall propose the Club Unsuccessful By Standings or CUBS. Now when we refer to the team on the bottom of the standing we can just say cubs. amiright?

I see an issue if I understand the proposed process. Three teams all post $20 mil. The player begins negotiations with the team with the worst record. What happens if they cannot agree to a deal? Does the next team have a chance? If that is the case, then the player can basically say no and wait for the Yankees / Red Sox / Dodgers / etc. If the team with the worst record is the only team the player can negotiate with, that's a losing deal for the player.

I wonder how fast he would get banned if he was posting here?

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Dec 5, 2013 -> 03:15 PM) Amazon Prime is failing me. I purchased that phone case on Sunday night. It's now Thursday and I still don't have it. It's been in Muncie since Tuesday morning. Get it together, UPS. I have a new hard drive for my laptop stuck in Amazon since Saturday.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 6, 2013 -> 03:00 PM) Also worth noting, in addition to the many very good things a new USA did in 20 years... 1. It also did a lot of pretty bad things (but again, just as with Mandela's legacy, that doesn't make the whole thing bad) 2. When the USA became a nation it was economically hanging on by a thread for many decades And much of the economic growth in the "new world" came about from tobacco grown from seeds illegally smuggled out of the West Indies, cotton picked by slaves, and textile mills built from smuggled blueprints and on land that was aquired by ethnic cleansing.