Texsox

QUOTE (lostfan @ Sep 10, 2011 -> 09:34 AM) So I'm having a kind of f***ed up morning. My wife wakes me up early this morning talking about she can't find her car, it was either towed or stolen. This is a big f***ing deal, right? Right. So before calling the cops we go trying to find the number to the towing place for our townhome complex, she calls them and they take forever getting back but they eventually say that yes, they have her car, because it was illegally parked (she had moved her car from the normal place last night). They tell her it's going to be $275 and she is all hysterical and crying, cursing them on the phone about how she doesn't have that money and swore she was parked in the right spot. She has me all wound up ready to fight and s***, thinking my HOA (which I already hate) was letting the towing company gouge us for minor or non-existent parking infractions. Had me thinking about lawyers and s***. I tell her I have the money to get her car - what choice do we have? - but that she needs to ask if they have pictures as proof. They say they do. So I take her there to get her car, we pay. I ask to see the pictures and she is all over the yellow curb, like seriously NOT EVEN CLOSE, basically 100% in the yellow. It's not like she didn't know not to park there either, we've lived here 4 years. The curb is yellow because it's on a corner. In other words, a crisis that was completely, indisputably, totally, unequivocally her fault, but she tried to blame everybody for it but herself, and I'm the one who's accountable for it. Ugh! So f***ing pissed right now! Another towing company that drags cars over a few feet so they can make a buck. Putting this on the scale with the s*** you've done, go thank her for the opportunity to in a small way balance the scale.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 10, 2011 -> 08:01 AM) Would you determine the best guy drafting people is the guy who selected the highest ranked guys or the guy that selected the guys that eventually performed the best? Neither and both.

My next section is on grammar and I've heard so many people say they hated learning grammar in school. What sucked and what did you like? My students are surprised when I tell them I disliked "English" class when I was in middle school. Grammar was what I really disliked. Endless diagramming of sentences for no apparent reason. I've downloaded purchased all of the Grammar Rocks™ videos. Now I'm brainstorming some other lesson ideas.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 10:13 PM) If given the resources someone very ordinary could put together a terrific team on paper. The games aren't played on paper. The real good GMs, while always having their misses are best at projections. KW has been burned by his in recent years, at least when it comes to selecting hitters. Quentin was a home run, the rest the past 3 years, a huge swing and a miss. The games aren't played on paper, but that is the only way a GM can be scored. No one could have projected the kind of season Dunn is having. Kenny went after the best available guys and built a team that should have won this division. There wasn't too many other choices.

Which is easy to say but hard to quantify. If a player said my former coaches did a better job of getting me ready to play, that is why I am hitting 80 points below my career average. What would people say?

9/11 was an attack on Christianity and democracy as much as the Holocaust was an attack against Jews.

QUOTE (VictoryMC98 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 09:24 PM) So the GM handing out those contracts like candy isn't at all to blame? ( yes I know some were acquired via trades, waivers). For some reason you give him a free pass.. Why? IMO, there are ZERO managers out there that could have turned this club into a winner this year.. ZERO, it is just built bad. Kenny spent the money necessary to field a team that should have won the division. He didn't spend X on someone and then was not able to spend Y on another. he put the pieces together and some of them failed beyond anyone's realistic expectations.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 09:20 PM) I can do it easier if you want. 3 years, $325 million payroll, .500 record, 0 division titles. I said all along that's the only way to fairly evaluate the manager was w-l in aggregate. He's utterly failed at his job to win. I'm now trying to figure out why. He's gone because of the losses. Now the job is to figure out what went wrong. That is far better than suggesting that Dunn shouldn't know how to prepare for a season. If my performance was earning me $$,$$$,$$$ I sure as hell would learn how to prepare instead of relying on coaches and manager. The GM put on the field a team that should have won the division. No one could predict how poorly a major piece played. I find it very easy to give KW a pass.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 09:17 PM) Weren't over 100 of those 2700 actually Uk citizens? they don't matter

New York is one of the greatest cities in the world. One of the biggest, most vibrant, centers of modern civilization. A thousand years from now, if someone is studying the history of the earth, New York will be part of the curriculum along with Rome, Hong Kong, Tokyo, London, Baghdad (first city over 1,000,000), Alexandria, or Thebes. To think that the largest attack there since the British invasion during the Revolutionary War would not be a world tragedy is just not accurate.

QUOTE (God Loves The Infantry @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 09:10 PM) Yeah, I remember that. It was nice. The rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at Buckingham Palace on 9/12 was one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. But that doesn't mean that two of their most symbolic buildings were destroyed, another one badly damaged and 2,500+ of their citizens murdered. It's nice that they showed such support, but it wasn't an attack on them and it didn't shake any of those countries to the absolute core like it did to ours. The fact that America was attacked on our soil made other countries feel far more vulnerable. That changed their policies. It did shake other countries, far more than another bombing in (insert small poor country here). To suggest that only one country can be affected by something, is just not realistic. Again, the holocaust shook Germany more than other countries, but the images of the refugees leaving the death camps shook the world. The tsunami that killed a couple hundred thousand people affected the globe, not just one country. There are world tragedies, there are events that shake the world, and 9/11 was one of them. But your world view is foreigners don't matter, so it would be difficult for you to accept it.

QUOTE (VictoryMC98 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 09:06 PM) I don't think we do the right thing when it comes to illegal immigration, we go after them. Why? Go after the why they are here.. employers. If you truly want to get rid of illegal immigration, here is what you do. For every illegal caught at a job site/factory/etc... The CEO/President of the company goes to jail for 1 year.. No deals, no early parole, nothing.. With no jobs, there is no reason why an illegal would want to come here. Sure. Get fooled by a fake ID, go to jail.

QUOTE (God Loves The Infantry @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 09:05 PM) At the expense of letting patriotic Americans like Sarah Snow commemorating 9/11 in their preferred way without worrying about offending a bunch of people who don't matter. Wow. Ok, I'm done. They do matter, the brown ones give you a target.

QUOTE (God Loves The Infantry @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 08:53 PM) I don't understand your question. If Mexican Americans are proud of their heritage, let them fly their flags. I don't care. That doesn't have anything to do with my insistence that 9/11 was an American tragedy and not a world tragedy. Not a world tragedy? Wow. How old are you? I say that because you see the world differently at 40 than 12. The outpouring of support from around the world was amazing. I remember watching the coverage, nations everywhere shared in our grief and outrage. It's like saying the holocaust was a German or Jewish tragedy. People around the globe waving American flags, leading prayer services, lighting candles.

You wrote What expense?

So Dunn isn't expected to know how he best prepares for a season or game, but the manager is?

QUOTE (God Loves The Infantry @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 08:43 PM) If your Mexican immigrant loved one who is an American Soldier comes home from a deployment, go ahead and wave Mexican flags. I'm personally not sure why you would, since he wears an American flag patch on his right sleeve and is fighting in the United States Army. But hey, it's your loved one and if that's how he wants his homecoming celebrated, fine by me. Your claim that I'd go down and rip flags out of peoples' hands is idiotic. Again, you said at the expense of, what expense is there if flags are flown from other countries? And just like some Italian- Americans, Irish-Americans, etc are proud of their ancestry, so too are Mexican-Americans.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 08:46 PM) I believe he already had to repudiate his proposal to allow acrosstheborder earth care sales. Anything he's done that was good for people is a weakness for him. As president he will have to support policies that are good for all/most states, not just one state. So naturally some positions will have to change, and I believe we would want any governor who is elected president to do that regardless of what state and political party s/he came from.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 07:42 PM) Clinton started borrowing and spending? Do you realize how many graphs I can post on how incorrect that is? Americans started borrowing and spending. Sorry, I wasn't more exact. Consumer debt and wealth shot up.

Link Top singer songwriter at the peak of her career. Timeless. Each song still sounds great.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 08:03 PM) Here's gonna be a mind blowing answer. Its the managers job to figure that out for his players. Even the most motivated athlete migt not do what is best to get himself going. A managers (and coaches) job is to figure that riddle out. No, not mindblowing from a macro view, I'll agree with you. but from a micro view, using Dunn, I don't. He's a multi-year veteran. Shouldn't he know and articulate that to the coaching staff? And if it really is up to the coaching staff, and someone who has been playing at the highest level can't figure out how they themselves best prepare, shouldn't we then give Oz another chance at figuring it out for Dunn? I mean if Dunn doesn't know how to best prepare after playing ball for a couple decades isn't it unfair to expect Oz to figure it out immediately?

QUOTE (God Loves The Infantry @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 08:20 PM) Oh shut up. For being a moderator, you're one of the most hyperbolic people on this board. Give me a freaking break and calm down. Ok, I'll accept that. Still what expense?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 08:26 PM) Don't worry, he'll spend the next 6 months repudiating all of that. I'm not too certain he will to a great degree. Remember his roots are as a Dem. It didn't switch parties as much as the Dems left him. And for his career, the switch really came at a great time. He will follow a solid strategy and will not make a mistake on the trail. He's going to be tough to beat.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 08:17 PM) It is also a big part of the big bad statistics that the left is already attacking him with. At that point he just blames it on illegal immigration and the right loves him again. I actually do like his stance on immigration. Prefers personnel to walls. Signed and supported a Texas law to offer in-state tuition to students regardless of their parents legal status. Stuff like that. Now much of his Texas fundraising some from businesses that benefit from these workers, so that may have influenced a little. No wonder Kap hates him, I find him a rather decent nominee on a couple hot button issues for me.

Walmart built a road, well paid for a road, in my town. They donated the land and paid most of the cost of the road. Of course it led to a WalMart but it connected two well traveled roads and really is a nice shortcut to many businesses.