Texsox

I was hoping you would chime in. You don't have a choice in a lot of government services, police protection, fire department, neighborhood parks, libraries, etc. Your hometown is your hometown. But we can make it better by giving our time and talents. Volunteer in the school, clean up a park, be part of a neighborhood crime watch.

QUOTE (SleepyWhiteSox @ Jul 29, 2008 -> 01:54 PM) sexual position I thought they already did that for you -- it's called alone I kid because I care™

http://www.cnn.com/ front page of CNN I'd be banned at other sites for posting this

Just came across my screen

I'd go library.

One thing that really caught my eye, which may be the only bright spot in all this With graduation rates on major programs as low as they are, and for star players, even lower, that shows he has some maturity and there is some hope for his future.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 29, 2008 -> 12:11 PM) I guarantee you the Dems would much rather Young and Stevens on the tickets than off them, Tex. I'm not saying that it was the Dems. Sometimes an internal cleansing is in order. Either way, if guilty, I hope they fall fast and hard. This stuff sucks way worse than having too wide a stance or getting a blow job from an intern.

If there ever was a guy that Sox fans should get behind and hope he improves it's Kong. He's been a decent, stand up guy, plays hard, has never in my memory embarassed the team. I'd rather be cheering for someone like that to get healthy and regain his form, then some of the other guys that have wore a Sox jersey.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Jul 29, 2008 -> 09:58 AM) Anything "reality" ding ding ding we have a winner

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 29, 2008 -> 10:12 AM) Can I ask you a question, Tex? (i'm going to ask it before a response) I was recently reading about NCLB, and in it they allow states to make their own test or they could use the national test. In Missouri, they tested kids with both and the MAP test was harder and the kids did slightly better on the national test. 25% passed. In Texas, 24% passed the national test, but on their state test, 90% passed. Now, I am well aware of the huge variations mere wording can have on a similar question for kids from different cultures. And so maybe Texas nailed it. But, did they just give out a completely fluff test? I do not know enough about the national test to draw a comparison. I do know that we have a major controversy here about "teaching to the test" and the many, many, classroom hours that are devoted to "test taking skills" that have no other value other then learning to take standardized tests. There is a lot of pressure placed on schools to have their students do well on these tests. That has been a seismic shift over the past 10-15 years. Careers and made and lost on how well students do on the tests. I'd like to know if the same students took both tests. How large of a sample size was used and how well distributed it was. It would also be helpful to know if either test was administered in Spanish. Bottom line, teachers have curriculum in place that helps kids to sort out answers and other test taking strategies. I fail to find much value in that.

Election year politics

Home Improvement is a good choice, I would also add Friends. Simpsons went from underrated to overrated.

Any team that refuses to speak with Boras clients immediatly cuts themselves out of a lot of quality players.

QUOTE (DBAH0 @ Jul 29, 2008 -> 09:23 AM) I saw a clip on The Soup the other night where 1 woman bids 999, and the next woman bids 998. The price was around 1,000 something, and the woman who bid 998 went crazy thinking she had won. Oops. I love those moments. I saw one on Jeopardy where the person was in first place, heard the correct answer, must have thought he wrote the cprrect answer, and when they revealed his answer, was making a little victory dance. Priceless when he looked down. And the answer wasn't even close. IIRC he said Norway and the answer was Ireland or some s*** like that.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jul 29, 2008 -> 10:10 AM) LMAO Any worse and he'd want to go home to his wife . . . I kid because I care™

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 28, 2008 -> 12:02 PM) Wild. I would have never guessed that. Plus, you were already on double secret probation

There was an article a couple years back that basically showed that a deadline pick up rarely ever made a difference.

^^^^^ He's having fun at the ol' ballpark

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 29, 2008 -> 01:02 AM) Funny how the young guys get called out like that. Coop would be in a world of hurt if he said that about Javy. Or if Oz said that about Paulie. Wait ... Oz could probably get away with that though Paulie would probably be hurt. It's all part of learning to have a career in baseball. Javy knows what to do as does Paulie. Sometimes the new guy needs a little prodding.

Sox Not Likely To Add Piece Williams, Sox Content to Stand Pat Sox Most Agressive Team Which to believe? No matter what, look at the standings and you know the "buyers" from the "cellers". If you are a celler seller, you would have Kenny on your speed dial, even if he is not actively looking, he's going to get plenty of phone calls.

QUOTE (shipps @ Jul 29, 2008 -> 08:09 AM) Their monte cristo could quite possibly be the most unhealthy thing a person could ingest. Absolutely, and smothered in raspberry jam it is about the greatest thing on their menu

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 29, 2008 -> 08:22 AM) School funding is one of the great political conundrums of our time. Who has an answer? Technology. One of the major expenses in schools is textbooks. Keeping up to date text is an expensive chore. Most here have gone to college, we know the worse costs of textbooks, and the cost to schools ain't that much better. The cheapest route would be either a Kindle style device, but they would be stolen or lost and the people who need them the most are the very ones who could not afford to replace them. IMHO, and the teacher unions would go nuts. We need lower education requirements for the younger grades. Private schools are not required to hire teachers with teaching certificates or even college degrees in Texas. The result at one private, religion based school I know of are lower salaries, but 10-12 kids in a classroom. I believe some high school grads can teach second grade with the proper supervision and a little training. There is a crossover point, perhaps 5th grade or so, where advanced training is required, but looking at some of the home schooling data and some of the schools I see here, smaller class size and more individualized instruction is important. The only way to afford that is lowering salaries. To lower salaries, we would need to create another group of teachers.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 28, 2008 -> 10:56 AM) Am I the only one who really hates that "Flip flopping" is considered a bad thing? I for one have no problem at all with the concept of changing one's position based on new information or hell even based on a new piece of polling data...if they're flip-flopping to a policy position I support. I think it's fit to judge each one based on how they act before, during, and after the flip, and which position they're taking on. For example, Obama's cave on telecom immunity...ugh. McCain's flip-flopping on torture and wiretapping, ugh. George W. Bush's unspoken embrace of all things diplomatic which has suddenly dramatically improved our ability to deal with our supposed enemies? (i.e. North Korea, Iran). Yay! The world is changing rapidly and we want politicians who make a decision in 1954 and gosh and golly, they stick with that decision forever. The flip-flop was a brilliant campaign strategy that we will be paying the price for for a very long time. It use to be stubbornness in the face of new evidence or situations was considered a weakness, not anymore. We now believe the words from a politician's mouth over the media and we believe that positions should never change.

And do we really expect a Presidential candidate or Senator to have their children in a public school with the security concerns? If we discovered Obama did have his kids in a public school, he would be attacked for grandstanding and placing his political interests ahead of his children's safety.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 28, 2008 -> 02:30 PM) Not a bad article. Education should indeed be a huge priority, and I am not sure I like either candidate's offerings on the topic. Where will the money come from? The harsh reality is we need a leveling of the system. As noted in the article, parents can move to a neighborhood with better schools, which generally means higher property values and higher housing prices. When we start looking at school funding on a state wide basis, and fund the schools that way, we begin to offer the kinds of services that Winnetka takes for granted and a poor inner city school can only dream. There are pros and cons on both sides, what worries me the most about vouchers and some of these plans is it will take money out of the public system where most of the poor children will be. Their parents will not be able to make up the difference between the voucher and the private school. Also, the whole he believes this because they donate stuff is crap. If, for example, Southsider, Kap, and AlphaDog where offering an endorsement, wouldn't the candidate be a conservative who supports most of what they believe in? Would it then be fair to say that the candidate only supports a given issue because Southsider, Kap, and AlphaDog gave him an endorsement? It's a two way street. Most endorsements are a shared vision or philosophy. They travel in the same circles, attend the same benefits and fundraisers, visit the same churhces.