caulfield12

Dead time in movieworld.... Did anyone see THE GREEN HORNET? Ebert gave it a 1 star, quite unusual for him. Of Gods and Men and Exit Through the Gift Shop...both "high recommends" Tried to watch Season of the Witch online and gave up after an hour...Burlesque was so-so at best and not an Aguilera fan (she has a great voice, you have to give her that much, but as an actress, forget it), Love and Other Drugs was actually better than I thought it would be because I liked Jake Gylenhaal's character (Anne Hathaway, not so much, except for boobs) and Hank Azaria, he's one of those character actors like Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci and Richard Jenkins I almost always enjoy, but never quite rising to Agadore Spartcus in The Birdcage...(even watching the original True Grit, it made me think of Nathan Lane's John Wayne impression, quite hilarious) Conviction you'll like if you are a Hilary Swank or Sam Rockwell fan, based on true story...that role is a "fastball down and in" for LH hitter Hilary Swank, in my opinion Will try to watch Hereafter and She's Out of My League (yes, reaching the bottom of the barrel) and figure out some better ones to watch from the last five years or so that I haven't already seen....any recommendations? Am going to watch The King's Speech, will be interesting to see if Social Network wins the OSCAR, all momentum seems to be pointing that direction.

I think that's a LARGE reason we're seeing the fingers pointed...because of the anti-government rhetoric in movies like the aforementioned one, or Collapse. Of course, there are "conspiracy theorists" on the liberal/radical side (think of JFK the movie, for example)...but I can't count how many times the last two years I've heard that the Federal Government in Washington has no right to impose or levy taxes, about the IMF/World Bank/Trilateral Commission, Davos, World Economic Forum, WTO, George Soros, shadowy world bankers, etc. But the weirdest part of this guy's "world view" was the one of the grammar/mind/thought control...based on the preaching of some guy in Hawaii who I'd never even heard of, I guess the anti-Noam Chomsky as it were.

Did THE Dallas Green, the grandfather/former manager, ever put forth a public quote about this whole situation?

The week of that interview (with Chuck Todd) began with the House passing the health care bill on Sunday. Within hours, on Monday morning, vandals smashed the front door of Giffords’s office in Tucson. The Palin “target” map (and the accompanying Twitter dictum to “RELOAD”) went up on Tuesday, just one day after that vandalism — timing that was at best tone-deaf and at worst nastily provocative. Not just Giffords, but at least three other of the 20 members of Congress on the Palin map were also hit with vandalism or death threats. In her MSNBC interview that Wednesday, Giffords said that Palin had put the “crosshairs of a gun sight over our district,” adding that “when people do that, they’ve got to realize there’s consequences to that action.” Chuck Todd then asked Giffords if “in fairness, campaign rhetoric and war rhetoric have been interchangeable for years.” She responded that colleagues who had been in the House “20, 30 years” had never seen vitriol this bad. But Todd moved on, and so did the Beltway. What’s the big deal about a little broken glass? Few wanted to see what Giffords saw — that the vandalism and death threats were the latest consequences of a tide of ugly insurrectionism that had been rising since the final weeks of the 2008 campaign and that had threatened to turn violent from the start. Giffords’s first brush with that reality had occurred some seven months before her office was vandalized — in the red-hot health care fever of August 2009. She had held another “Congress on Your Corner” meeting, at a Safeway in the town of Douglas. There the crowd’s rage and the dropping of a gun by one attendee prompted aides worried about her safety to summon the police. The Tucson Tea Party co-founder, Trent Humphries, told The Arizona Daily Star afterward that this was a lie, that “nobody was threatening Gabby.” After Loughner’s massacre, Humphries was still faulting her — this time for holding “an event in full view of the public with no security whatsoever.” .......... But that sidesteps the issue. This isn’t about angry blog posts or verbal fisticuffs. Since Obama’s ascension, we’ve seen repeated incidents of political violence. Just a short list would include the 2009 killing of three Pittsburgh police officers by a neo-Nazi Obama-hater; last year’s murder-suicide kamikaze attack on an I.R.S. office in Austin, Tex.; and the California police shootout with an assailant plotting to attack an obscure liberal foundation obsessively vilified by Beck. A few unexpected voices have expressed alarm. After an antigovernment gunman struck at Washington’s Holocaust museum in June 2009, Shepard Smith of Fox News noted the rising vitriol in his e-mail traffic and warned on air that more “amped up” Americans could be “getting the gun out.” The former Bush administration speechwriter David Frum took on the “reckless right” that August, citing the incident at the Giffords Safeway event. But when a Department of Homeland Security report warned of far-right extremism and attacks by “lone wolves” that same summer, Gingrich called it a smear and John Boehner demanded an apology. Last week a conservative presidential candidate, Tim Pawlenty, timidly said it wouldn’t be his “style” to use Palin’s target map, but was savaged so viciously by his own camp that he immediately retreated. A senior Republican senator told Politico that he saw the Tucson bloodbath as a “cautionary tale” for his party, yet refused to be named. What are they and their peers so afraid of? No doubt that someone might reload — the same fears that prompted Gabrielle Giffords to speak up, calmly but firmly, last March. Unless and until they can match her courage and speak out too, it’s hard to see what will change. Frank Rich, nytimes.com

Yes, Balta, I already read that post. That's what I was responding to.

As thorough as C. Amanpour is, I would have thought someone would have had an idea beforehand of the combustible mix they would be putting together with Fuller and anyone representing the Tea Party or Palin on the same panel....I mean, it's sort of understandable if you've been shot and the Congresswoman you supported and volunteered for was almost murdered to look for blame and be a little bit less objective and clear-headed than those of us not involved in the events that day. And to sit on a panel after you've been shot and listen to people who have ZERO bend on ANY ASPECT of gun control laws, it has to be frustrating. I still don't know what has to take place in our country before it becomes "enough is enough" since every school shooting led to this same conversation and even movies like Bowling for Columbine and then faded from consciousness again. At the very LEAST, they should make it clear to gun dealers at shows that they don't have to sell a gun to EVERYONE who clears the background check. Clearly, many reasonable people had suspicions about the shooter (including the person who sold him the gun). Eric Fuller, 63, who was struck by a bullet in the hail of gunfire in Tucson that killed six and wounded 13 on Saturday, claimed Thursday that conservative figureheads such as Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Sharron Angle were to blame for the violence in Arizona. "How many more demented people are out there? It looks like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the rest got their first target," Fuller, a former campaigner for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), told Democracy Now. "Their wish for Second Amendment activism has been fulfilled -- senseless hatred leading to murder, lunatic-fringe anarchism, subscribed to by John Boehner, mainstream rebels with vengeance for all, even nine-year-old girls," he added, reading from comments he said he had written down while being treated for his wounds. huffingtonpost.com

And just imagine if the Democratic Party asked for a lot of the state and Federal monies that have been cut to pay for mental health care and counseling to be reinstated...? Very few people have even mentioned the main cause of the shooting, an individual who was clearly troubled, was identified as such by everyone from classmates to the person who THOUGHT he had to sell him that gun because he'd passed a background check (patently incorrect), to teachers to neighbors to staff at the school....heck, he even had a prior run-in with Giffords in 2007 that put him on the radar screen. And yet it's a very slippery slope to incarcerate someone against their will until they've actually done something heinous/murderous. Obviously, that's the trickiest discussion. Let's say I am a teacher and I meet a parent and think they MIGHT abuse their child...I can't report them until I actually see bruises, and, if I do, I might be wrong and I might end up the victim of a violent crime instead.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Jan 14, 2011 -> 03:26 PM) <!--quoteo(post=2314060:date=Jan 14, 2011 -> 12:06 PM:name=NorthSideSox72)-->QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 14, 2011 -> 12:06 PM) <!--quotec-->Yeah that helps the discussion. I don't agree with BS here, but he's at least trying to make a salient point and defend it. He said it's human nature. It's not. It is a political map from 9+ months ago, targeting Democrats in vulnerable districts who voted for ObamaCare. That's it. That's all. On the map it says, "Let's take back the 20 together! Join me today" On the page with the map it says: We’re paying particular attention to those House members who voted in favor of Obamacare and represent districts that Senator John McCain and I carried during the 2008 election. Three of these House members are retiring…The others are running for re-election, and we’re going to hold them accountable for this disastrous Obamacare vote. We’ll aim for these races and many others. This is just the first salvo in a fight to elect people across the nation who will bring common sense to Washington. Please go to sarahpac.com and join me in the fight. It's not a call to arms. It is all about targeting districts. All politicians use that term. I don't care if the pictures are bulls eyes, targets or cross hairs. To turn around and say that political map, is linked with somebody buying a gun and murdering all these innocent people, is not human nature. To even equate the two is not human nature…it is 100% ludicrous!! It's even worse to place blood on anothers hands without a shred of evidence, but let's be honest here…some people wanted this to be about Palin and the right so bad, it doesn't f***in matter. Just look at how repulsive some of headlines below are. Sick and demented! Deep down in the depths of their black f***in souls, they'd be ok with a few deaths if they could have pinned this on Palin or Beck or Rush or the Tea Party. That's why they're so quick to go there, instead of sorrow. "It was just a matter of time" has been the new battle cry of the left. I saw it on countless, now deleted, tweets, posts and facebook statuses this week. The left just can't wait to lay blame...damn the evidence or consequences. Damn the apologies after proven wrong time and time again. 3 Pittsburgh cops gunned down. - "It was just a matter of time" 13 murdered at immigration center. - "It was just a matter of time" Security guard gunned down at Holocaust museum. - "It was just a matter of time" Democratic headquarters in Denver windows smashed - "It was just a matter of time" Census worker found dead - "It was just a matter of time" Professor guns down three of her colleagues at University of Alabama-Huntsville - "It was just a matter of time" Pilot flys small plane into IRS building - "It was just a matter of time" Firebombing at a democratic congressman’s St. Louis office - "It was just a matter of time" Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shot. - "It was just a matter of time" Truly sad! http://www.therightscoop.com/wp-content/up...ffordsdeath.jpg http://www.therightscoop.com/wp-content/up...dsarahpalin.jpg http://www.therightscoop.com/wp-content/up...pazshooting.jpg http://www.therightscoop.com/wp-content/up...fondatweets.jpg http://www.therightscoop.com/wp-content/up...ordshooting.jpg http://www.therightscoop.com/wp-content/up...1/joanwalsh.jpg http://www.therightscoop.com/wp-content/up...ichealdaly1.jpg Go to Yahoo News sometime and read ANY article about Obama. I don't know if people are pretending or not, but the level of hate/bigotry/racism recorded in those threads is 100X scarier than anything you'll see here. No matter what he does, 10-15% of America (not necessarily the same group who would STILL vote for Palin for POTUS if she ran today) will hate him, with at least half of that group or more using words like Hitler, Anti-Christ, Stalin, Mao, Marxist/Socialist/Communist to "hide" their true feelings. The fact is, that Palin's camp DID remove the crosshairs after the weekend? Why? Wouldn't they know that's basically an admission of guilty feelings? If she had real political courage, she would have left it up, then she's have at least ONE reason I would/could admire her. But no, she had a spokesperson actually throwing out lines like "they're actually surveyor's symbols" like anyone could POSSIBLY believe that one. Sharon Angle is also taking hits for using the "might have to resort to second Amendment remedies" line in one of her speeches. Many politicians used "relock/reload" analogies about taking down the Congress and Health Care law... As Paul Krugman wrote yesterday or the day before in the NY Times, both sides are too entrenched here...the two different philosophies about government. There are many more people who hate Obama viscerally who simply believe taxation is wrong, that any government program like Medicaid or the health care program is pure evil, to redistribute income in any way from someone with more money to less is pure, unadulterated evil, even though there are numerous billionaires like Gates and Buffett who repeatedly say they don't pay enough in taxes. The sad thing is there's not even a WHISPER of momentum to get rid of reloadable magazines with more than 10+ bullets (I think it was 28) like the Glock. What founding father could ever have imagined automatic weapons when they wrote an amendment having more to do with regional militias and protection against Native American populations? It's telling that Congress with their huge majority of D's in 2009/10 didn't even dare to touch this mythical 3rd rail due to the dreaded NRA. Why would a hunter OR someone defending their home need to fire 28 shots? Has that ever happened in the history of home invasions/burglaries? I just hope the GOP does what they did under Reagan, Gingrich and "W" and they go after Medicare and Social Security.

A couple of points...it was deliberately designed that way, as a "uniting" event (by the University of Arizona) for the community and that has something to do with the pep rally aspect of it, a lot of people thought it was a "memorial service" and it wasn't, although there were certainly elements of that as well with the Old and New Testament recitations. Someone made a comment that the hospital was only one mile away where all of the survivors were recovering. With 13-14,000 in McHale and almost the same amount at the football stadium with big screens, there was a sense that "they wanted to be heard" as far across the city as they could...no city wants to be thought of as the "OK Corral" or "Tombstone," and yes, solemnity had its place, and the Native American invocation/pray ceremony was a bit too much, but overall, for anyone in Tucson and Arizona feeling down, it was pretty hard not to be uplifted. And, as I noted, the single biggest cheer was for student Daniel Hernandez and related to his speech, moreso than anything else, the students and community were proud of his actions, and he was a volunteer in Giffords' office, not to mention both Hernandez and the student president were well acquainted with Giffords personally and the fact that one of her aides (Gabe Zimmerman) died, I think that also had a lot to do with the feelings and reactions. Now there's even accusations coming out against John Boehner that he was invited (at the last second) to ride along on AF One and he refused. I don't think it was the administration's intention to embarass him....apparently one of his former aides is in the running for Michael Steele's position and there was a previously scheduled fundraiser on his agenda, and he in all fairness was part of 8 hours of "kind words" in the House and the prayer service at lunchtime. This isn't Newt Gingrich whining over having to sit in the back of the plane. For what it's worth, John McCain was even crying. Not sure about Mr. Kyl, he of the recent attempt to block the Russian/Start nuclear arms agreement.

The Fockers movie was borderline unwatchable....I'm not sure which was worse, I didn't see the latest Reese Witherspoon How Do You Know? "debacle" (James Brooks directed)...or maybe Gulliver's Travels takes the cake?

I thought I was listening to a "compassionate Conservative" Sunday school lesson...rather than the President. It was actually almost the perfect tone. Might have been better had they allowed Kyl or McCain to speak as well, would have taken away from the suggestions it was a glorified campaign rally. Those college campuses ae Obama's bread and butter spots, and his staff knows it. I think MOST of the cheering was because of Daniel Hernandez (the UAriz student who essentially saved Giffords' life) and not so much because of the partisan nature of the speakers (Brewer, Napolitano, Holder). Most of the "speeches" were Bible quotations/recitations. I do think the UAriz president (Robert Shelton) went a bit overboard praising/introducing Obama, but other than that, there were no clear mistakes. Contrasting the victims' roles (grandparents/parents, brother, son/daughter, community servant) with the tapestry of the American community fabric was a brilliant rhetorical flourish at the end...he was in danger of sermonizing too much but then the part about Dallas Green's grand-daughter and how America should be the country as children perceive it, through their eyes, it's the closest he has come to connecting emotionally/viscerally with the American public since I've been listening to him. If he would have lost it or teared up, someone would have accused him of manipulation, but he was as close as he can come to Bill Clinton in a speech, and somewhere between John F.Kennedy/Cuomo/Jackson/MLK/FDR and where he usually resides, obscured by his intellectual distance and cool aloofness.

I dare anyone to admit they've seen Season of the Witch... Meanwhile, Armond White (NY Post film critic) sparred with Darren Aronofsky over recent reviews at a film awards night...White basically argued Kanye West's "Runaway" video was much better than Aronofsky's work, etc. Since Aronofsky brought up the subject, let's look at the record. What did White write about Aronofsky? He said Black Swan was a "ridiculous psychological thriller ." He said, "Nina’s artistic struggle only represents the indulgence of escapist filmmaking. He pretends that wacky thoughts and paranoid hysteria are the stuff of great cinema more so than the concentration and discipline that go into a ballet dancer’s skill and hard work." He said, "This berserk combination of Repulsion and The Red Shoes shows how Aronofsky, since his debut feature Pi, has come to specialize in specious deep thoughts—usually melding them to sentimentality (The Wrestler) or sensationalism (Requiem for a Dream). He’s gotten away from the original ethnic emphasis that distinguished Pi’s story of Jewish paranoia as an exploration of Hasidic arcana. The way Black Swan deprives Upper West Side art maven Nina of any specific ethnic characteristics, makes it a horror story in more than one way. Aronofsky’s ethnic denial and escape into Nina’s psychological trauma actually trivializes her artistic pursuit. Turning art into genre movie silliness is a careerist’s dance." Of "The Wrestler," Aronofsky's previous film, White wrote , "Director Darren Aronofsky has made a literal-minded parable about suffering and mankind’s miserable existence. Aronofsky inflicts as much pain on the audience as self-flagellating Ram Jam does when brutalizing/mutilating himself in and outside the ring. . . .Sanctimony like this appeals primarily to cynics who scoff at Mel Gibson’s sincerity yet cheer Aronofsky’s repulsive, violent nihilism.The message that life is hell is a pseudo-intellectual’s version of professional wrestling bunkum. ...in The Wrestler, Rourke’s tenderness is degraded and made pitiful—another selfexploiting tabloid spectacle. Ram Jam is a distorted white working-class stereotype, but Aronofsky can’t tell courage from vainglory, foolhardiness from sacrifice. Shame on Bruce Springsteen for contributing a self-pitying title song to Aronofsky’s indie artsiness." nypost.com

Catching up on more movies The Company Men 3.25/4.0 (depressing, but quite well done, almost as good as UP IN THE AIR in many ways, Costner looking old but actually becoming a better actor with age) True Grit 3.5 (wish I hadn't just watched the original 2 weeks ago, it would have been much better not knowing what would happen) 127 Hours 3.5 (great job by Franco, I tried hard to watch THE SCENE and couldn't quite stomach it) The Fighter 3.75 (I actually enjoyed Cinderella Man and the last Rocky movie almost as much, all very good movies...The Fighter because of Bale's performance as well as Amy Adams in an unchacteristic streetwise role has to be ranked #1, what was that movie she played in where she ran a cleaning service?) The A-Team 3.0/3.25 (surprisingly better than I thought it would be)....the impersonations were close to spot on, really recaptured the 'feel' of that show in my mind Secretariat 3.75 (probably my favorite of all the movies I just watched, that or Fighter....I know it's hokey and Disney, it's one of those movies like Miracle, Seabiscuit or The Rookie that you can't help rooting even though you know exactly what's going to happen...a lot of people have compared it to THE BLIND SIDE because of the religious overtones, but this was the far superior movie)

Love all the Shaara books (father and son) simply because I was forced by my dad and cousin to become a "Civil War buff." Freedom by Franzen is excellent, to me, better than The Corrections. List of books I'd like to read in 3 weeks when I go back to the States. City of Thieves The Help Swamplandia! Blood's a Rover Last Night in Twisted River Savages I'd Know You Anywhere Infinite Jest (will try again) War & Peace (re-read) The Surrendered Rich Boy The Imperfectionists Matterhorn One Day Skippy Dies The Invisible Bridge Room The Lonely Polygamist Any more suggestions? Just got back from visiting Corregidor Island and my g/f in the Philippines. Very interesting to learn more about the War in the Pacific/WW II.

Obviously, someone's going to say we should have signed Beltre and R. Soriano, since we're living in an alternative universe here. 2006 should serve as evidence that too much tinkering and roster turnover, no matter how good it all looks on paper, isn't always the magic answer either. KHP provided a pretty good summary of the current state of the team...obviously, there's concern about a Konerko falloff, 3B, Pierre and Teahen, Santos pitching like the first 3-4 months of 2010, the bullpen in general (how it will all come together in terms of consistent roles if we can't find ONE permanent closer for the back end) and the fifth starter's role. Every team in baseball has a similar laundry list of question marks, many much longer than ours. There's no glaring hole like CF in 2009 or DH coming into 2010, at least there's that.

I thought Fathom was Mr. Pessimism? At this point. I'd make us slight favorites over the Twins, depending on what ends up being the Twins' final starting rotation and any bullpen additions in the next 3 months to their roster. I'm not as excited as in 2001 or 2006, largely because Peavy's a huge question mark and I'm still not convinced about the bullpen. I think we need a major contribution from Jake to take the division. We also have either a hole in the bullpen (if Sale's starting) or a very iffy stopgap for an indeterminate period of time which could end up reminding many of our 5th starter issues from 2001-2004. We're all projecting Konerko to come back down to earth, which essentially leaves it up to Rios, Beckham and Quentin to determine how good this team will eventually become. And I'm really interested in seeing who ends up with the most AB's at 3B this season, Morel, Vizquel, Viciedo or Teahen.

Other than Jon Rauch, Swisher, Sean Tracey, Orlando Cabrera....and maybe Thome after what was said in the middle of the season last year (but I still doubt it), how many former White Sox players wouldn't come back to Chicago? Obviously, Jenks wanted to stay, that's why he felt "hurt" to be dumped, although when you're talking about a professional athlete making millions (or like Jermaine Dye being "insulted" by the offers he received) it's all relative I suppose. It's not like we have spent a boatload of money on free agents during the KW tenure. For all the negative comments and "worst manager" things, there's a long list of players like Griffey, Sandy Alomar, Vizquel, etc., who have nothing but positive words for the Sox. Omar is one of the most highly-respected players in the game, easily top five. Despite what may or may not have happened in the clubhouse the last 2-3 seasons, it speaks a lot that he came back. Andruw Jones had no issues playing under Ozzie that we know of....heck, veteran players like Erstad, Kotsay, Mackowiak, etc., love to play under Ozzie because he follows the "baseball code" of giving the veterans (like Jenks again) get the benefit of the doubt. Still, he's given Beckham, Sale and Viciedo plenty of chances to prove themselves when they shined....and stuck with Beckham and perhaps handled his slump as well last year as any manager or front office possibly could have with all the pressure on Gordon. And think of all the players like AJ, Konerko and Buehrle who have stuck around all these years. A lot of the players we shed like Lofton, Ordonez, Carlos Lee or D'Angelo Jimenez were simply really bad fits in the end with this organization winning a championship. I'd like to think KW has learned that talent doesn't always win out...that chemistry and intangibles/character are just as important. But they've taken chances with players like Thornton, Loaiza, Wil Cordero (yikes), Dye, Ellis Burks, Bo Jackson, Jenks, Sergio Santos, Hermanson, El Duque, AJ....this list of players who've had a second or third life with Chicago is immense. And players like Pods were basically worshipped when they were on the South Side (because of 2005) and consequently were welcomed back by many fans with open arms. Aaron Rowand, Carl Everett, Frank Thomas, Joe Crede or Brian Anderson could be placed on the roster again and quite a few Sox fans would be elated.

But can't you also make the argument that the Swisher/Mariotti/blow-up doll/Cabrera stories in 2008 took focus away from the players and placed it squaely on Ozzie...? That a team that really had no business making the playoffs was possibly helped as much as 2010's team was distracted? In the end, was that distraction enough to keep us from beating Minnesota? What if Jenks never even pitched for the 2010 White Sox and we spent his $7.5 million on a DH and/or a couple of relievers in the Crain/Guerrier/Rauch mold? If we would have had Thome (and Minnesota NOT had him when Morneau went down) and then fill-in-the-blank reliever/s, it's easy to say in hindsight we would have been better off cutting the cord one year earlier before this all played out the way it did.

I wonder if any legal ramifications could possibly come out of the assault allegations in Arizona? Probably past the statute of limitations? It's really interesting to many because of the confluence of all these new "social networking/high tech" factors, it becomes even bigger than just a sports story. Can Jenks sue Oney for libel/slander and win? Even if everything Oney said is true...and Jenks is definitely a public persona, so the standard is different according to the Supreme Court. As a White Sox fan, I'm not as disappointed with Ozzie here as most. If anything, he bent over backwards to keep supporting Jenks when all signs pointed the other direction. How many times did he remove him from the closer's role only to put him back out there again....2 or 3 times last season. It was almost a joke because you never really believed Ozzie was capable of pulling the plug with Bobby. So I understand Oney being upset about the criticism about not being able to handle a bullpen...there's a huge body of evidence that Ozzie's pretty damned good at that aspect of baseball, maybe one of his greatest strengths. For one, I don't think the White Sox lost the ALCD because of Jenks...but it will the convenient story line now "well, if only Bobby's personal life hadn't spun out of control, we would have won the division in 2010, etc." We just weren't quite good enough, all the way down to the Manny Ramirez acquisition. I'll echo what others have said here. Ozzie and his son bleed black and silver. The idea of someone like Buddy Bell or Cito Gaston defending the organization in a similar situation is laughable. Yes, the "company response" line would have been more appropriate, put out by you typical PR team. Still, it's refreshing that Ozzie ISN'T Bill Belichick. He has his own unique personality, but, in the end, he wants to win just as much as anyone and probably even more because of his connection to the owner, team and fans. In my opinion, all of this stuff was pretty common knowledge around the team. There aren't very many secrets. When I was working for the Pirates, before we even saw Jose Guillen at the A ball (Augusta level), I'd heard a few stories about Jose Guillen that would make the clubby allegation seem like shoplifting. Everyone in the Pirates' organization covered up for him because they knew his talent and potential even then...it's just that 09 and 10, the days of defending and supporting Bobby weren't vindicated by a high enough level of success on the field, where he no longer was worth protecting and coddling to the detriment of the team. I'm sure most of the players in that clubhouse are glad he's gone and perhaps a little light on the dark situation provides insight into the dysfunction of the clubhouse/chemisty over the last couple of seasons.

QUOTE (gatnom @ Dec 25, 2010 -> 08:41 PM) I agree to a degree, but what else was he supposed to ask for beyond Viciedo? Perhaps I don't remember the rumors properly, but I think the final rumor was Jackson + Viciedo for Dunn? I know I wouldn't agree to any deal centered around Tyler Flowers. I think my overall point with our farm system is that it should be a lot better than what it is based upon our payroll. You could get a LOT of impact talent for the money you blow on players like Mark Teahen and Scott Linebrink. This is true, but I'll take any other team in the majors and comb through their payroll for the last 5-7 years and find MANY more players with horrible contracts than KW has been saddled with...just look at the Cubs. Basically, we have/had Teahen, Pierre (arguable), Linebrink (he still was a major part of 2008 team, so you can't say that money was a complete bust like A. Jones in LA with the Dodgers), MacDougal and then Contreras and Konerko at different points over the last half-decade. Now, you might argue Peavy as well, although we really don't know 100% of the behind-the-scenes insurance implications with that contract. You can take the Royals, Cubs, Indians, Tigers (just these last two seasons) and we'll find some atrocious deals that eclipse what KW has done. Livan Hernandez, Adam Everett, Mike Lamb, Brett Boone, Jeff Cirillo, Tony Batista, Phil Nevin, Ruben Sierra, RonDL White, Craig Monroe...just to name a few of the Twins' bonehead moves. They've had more than their share of stinkers. No GM is perfect. You can make the argument that if the Twins would have gone "all in" one of those seasons (2002-2004/2006/2009/2010) and taken all the money going to veteran "stopgaps" and invested that money in a superstar player to put them over the top or traded some of their quality minor league depth (like they finally did for Capps at mid-season), they'd have a lot more to show for themselves in the post-season.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 25, 2010 -> 06:30 PM) What it does do, assuming the rest of baseball agrees with this analysis, is handcuffs them for midseason additions in 2011 unless some of these guys play a lot better. Alsi assuming they will be at the mark they cannot add salary, and with not much impressive talent to deal, it will be next to impossible to acquire anything major during the season without giving up a big piece of your current team. But they do have Viciedo, and the possibility of Flowers, Phegley and Jordan Danks rebounding (at least one of the 3). A lot of scouts are intrigued with T. Thompson, Escobar and Infante/Carter. Combine that with some of the starting pitching from the last two drafts having a Daniel Hudson, Brandon McCarthy or DeLosSantos "breakout" season and you still have enough to trade for an impact player without killing yourself or subtracting from the MLB roster. Sox pretty much have to keep Mitchell to replace Pierre eventually, and the jury's still out with Viciedo fitting into the future picture or not.

I just watched the first True Grit and am hard-pressed to see how John Wayne won the Oscar. I think it was more of one of those "lifetime" accumulation things, where he won a single Oscar based on his entire body of work...and he also was recovering from cancer at that time. You can see how they chose Damon (Glenn Campbell in first film) and Bridges, though. Great fits. It took me a couple of minutes to recognize Robert Duvall as one of the main outlaws/villains in the first version...he's had a long body of work all the way back to To Kill a Mockingbird (boo radley). Very disappointing Christmas for movies. Gulliver's Travels, Tron, How Do You Know?(R. Witherspoon/James Brooks), Chronicles of Narnia and the new Fockers movie have all been ravaged and savaged by critics. There's still The Fighter, The Black Swan, 127 Hours, True Grit, The King's Speech and looking forward to Blue Valentine and Somewhere by Sofia Coppola about Chateau Marmont and Hollywood dissolution...although not a big Stephen Dorff fan, I do like her style. All Good Things....forgot how pretty Kirsten Dunst can be, and Ryan Gosling continue to stretch his versatility as an actor...one of those amazing true-life stories that somehow seem stranger than fiction, and Frank Langella was great as always

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 24, 2010 -> 01:00 PM) Excellent post. I don't think I disagree with anything you said. I don't know how many times I have to say that I don't want a team that features 25 homegrown players. But why can't we be like or close to the Red Sox or Phillies? Teams that have proven you can have a productive farm and be competitive at the same time. We're the Chicago White Sox. Not the Florida or Pittsburgh White Sox. Why can't we devote more to scouting, draft and player development? Why can't we go over slot every now and then? All I'm saying is the philosophy we've adopted during the KW era has produced 2 playoff appearances in 10 years. In our division, that it not acceptable. You can come up with a billion excuses. But in this business, that doesn't fly. IMO, 2011 is absolutely HUGE. If we come up short to the Twins again, that's f***ing enough for me. Either get rid of the manager and staff or change the philosophy or something. Enough is enough. It's fine to say we should model ourselves after the Phillies, although with only one team in that market...or even St. Louis, another "model" franchise, I'm not sure that I buy that. I prefer to look at the Angels, because they're the "second tier" team in a major market (like the Sox) and they've won a World Series this decade and have also made some inroads in taking SOME market share back from the Dodgers, and/or creating a new market of fans with marketing/promotions and simply winning. Clearly, the Angels have had a "good to great" minor league system over much of that time, but, as someone pointed out in another thread, 90% of those guys have either failed to live up to the their promise, gotten injured or they're no longer with the team. I remember all the Reggie Willits discussions the last couple of offseasons. Wood has been a disaster. McPherson, Kotchmann, Kendrick is usually hurt, Morales hasn't stayed healthy, Weaver has been very good but Santana regressed, etc. Then Angels have basically had to do the same thing as the White Sox (making shrewd FA acquisitions and trades) while spending more money to do it. More of a cushion. We also were unfortunate with players like Jenks and Crede we couldn't maximize their value and trade them while they still had worth to other organizations that would net us something promising in return. As pointed out, replacing Pierre with DeAza and Quentin with Viciedo or Gartrell wouldn't be the best...but we all know Dayan has a ton of ability IF IF IF he ever puts it all together. Apparently enough that KW held off on pulling the trigger with a trade in 2010 during the season. With Hudson, we'll see if he's another Brandon McCarthy or ends up becoming an All-Star in the NL. Sure, if he pitched the same for the White Sox, it would have been great...just like it would have been great if Kip Wells or Josh Fogg had done the same, but we'll never know. The huge negative with mixing players from so many organizations together is that they don't play together in the minors, bond and learn how to win a couple of minor league championships with 3-4-5 players all coming up at the same time as part of a "wave" of talent. One of the biggest disappointments has been player development and progression at both the major and minor league levels, especially the last 10 years. We've had numerous arguments about Bell and Ozzie and our team's lack of fundamental/small ball skills, and why that has happened. Ozzie focuses on it occasionally with his "mini-camps" and "back to basics" lectures and then it all goes out the window once the season begins. Then he asks players to do things they're simply not confident enough or capable enough to do, like Brian Anderson or Josh Fields being a "small ball" guy and hitting to the right side, etc. Not having a consistent organizational philosophy (The Twins' Way, the Butler Way, the UCLA Way under Wooden) that starts from the time of drafting all the way up to their first rookie at bat or pitch has partially caused some of our disappointments, particularly 2003, 2006 and 2010. Of course, the counter-argument is that the Twins and A's never did anything more than win one first round playoff series, both against each other...for all their organizational development, drafting, trades and acquisitions, best-selling books and "copy cats" and maximization of budgetary outlays.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 23, 2010 -> 07:24 PM) Daft Punk did the soundtrack, that is probably why you were asked. Personally, I am not going to judge Tron after watching it on my PC, I want the full IMAX 3D experience before I say a word about it. However my buddy, who is on my blacklist at the moment for going to see it without me, told me it is awesome and he was a big fan of the original like me I'm also not sure it was the wisest idea to have Jeff Bridges do kind of a spin off of the Dude character from Big Lebowski...I guess it seems to fit him though, and gave it a bit more personality than playing it straight. As an ultimate frisbee fan, anything that boosts the popularity of frisbee, discs or Aerobies is okay with me. And I'm sure Ducati must have spent some big-time coin using it as a marketing tool. Made me almost want to go out and buy a motorcycle, that and the new Wall Street movie. They had another vehicle whic evoked a simpler version of Batman's Tumbler that will be popular the kids too I think.

Tron soundtrack? I laughed when I heard Journey's "Separate Hearts", thinking back to 2005 again. Actually of all the Journey songs, that's one of the few I actually sort of liked...fast beat, kind of a driving rhythm comparing to their other ballady stuff. More like a STYX song, haha. The other song I remember vividly was Eurythmics...since it was supposed to evoke 1982, those were 2 good choices. I enjoy electronic/techno music, and there were some interesting choices interspersed. Actually, Social Network might have the best soundtrack to fit the film...the Trent Reznor project he worked on for quite some time to get it exactly right.