simonzelotes

Well, I guess a good way to call attention to one's self on a web site forum is to start some sh!t with the moderator... So is that what Pawtucket says this place is?...an anti twi website?...If so, then all opinions are NOT welcome and discussions should NOT be encouraged...You can't have it both ways...If this is an anti twi site then members should be required upon joining to swear to uphold the tearing down of twi...I'd like to hear what Pawtucket has to say--Is this an ex-way site or is this an anti way site?...Unless you're his new spokesperson, Groucho... If this website is only welcoming to those who wish to ascribe only the bad and evil of twi, without the challenges of opposing viewpoints, then this site loses a great deal of it's credibility...If that's what Pawtucket wants, that's certainly his privilege...In my observations, I have not noticed Pawtucket treating any of the "Wierwille worshippers", as you like to call them, any different than the rest of the members here...Pawtucket does a great job of letting the site run itself...It's the crazy-a$$ed greasespot 'mob' that scares the hell outa me....

Barry Bonds' agent is whining about collusion among the owners because nobody's signed him to a contract this year...I wonder if Sean Chacon's agent will say the same thing if Chacon doesn't get picked up on waivers...

Message boards are like the old CB radio days---people cuss and swear and talk smack 'cuz there's no accountability...I don't mind a little insight, but to wade through all the junior-high nonsense is too much a waste of my time... Every fandom of every team has their bad apples...There was a guy in town here a few years ago that got killed in a bar fight over the ASU--U of A rivalry...Some people are always looking for a fight over who's better---Ford vs. Chevy; Catholics vs. Protestants; Curly vs. Shemp....One of those wierd human nature things, I guess...Cubs fans are probably ready to explode---it's only been 100 years...And fans know that their season can always turn on a dime...People forget the "curse of PFAL '77"...There we were---Cubs 47-22--enjoying life and and first place in June---only to have to go to that goddamn class...Cubs were 51-30 by the time we got out of there and ended the year 81-81...If you want to know how bad it has been historically for Cub fans, just tune in WGN during a rain delay and see how they kill time showing old Cub highlights...A few weeks ago, they showed the last few innings of Jim Maloney's 187-pitch, nine walk. ten inning no-hitter AGAINST the Cubs.... Some fans generally carry different reputations than others...The first Dodger fan I ever met was a guy in the corpse from LA...I remember how dumbfounded I was when he told me he went with his dad to Sandy Koufax's perfect game---but left in the seventh inning to beat traffic...Then there's those 450 or so Marlin fans who showed up to witness Junior's 600th homerun... Baseball never was the crowd draw like it's been the last decade or two...In the old days, when Billy Williams was pitching mufflers on the radio or Ernie Banks was plugging Nickey Chevrolet, all home games were televised and were played during the day...And no matter how bad the Cubs stunk, the first question asked when you got home from school or work was "What'd the Cubs do today?"... Looks like Willie Randolph got his walking papers in the middle of the night...Kinda strange that he was fired while on a road trip...I hope Manaya gives him a ride back to New York on his own jet...

I thought about instant replay a little bit, and the only way I could see it implemented is if they used it strictly to enforce ground rules...I guess it does make sense that an umpire cannot always get a good view of a ball landing 200 feet away from him---especially in these goofy designed stadiums where the ball bounces back on the field and he has to decide if it landed to the left or the right of a yellow line...But during the action, the ump would still have to make the call---if a guy thinks he hit a homer and trots around the bases and the outfielder thinks it's in play and they throw him out at third base then you could really have a fiasco on your hands...So the question then becomes, who makes the call for instant replay, the umps or one of the managers?...Do they penalize the manager who called for the replay if the ump got it right?...I am totally against instant replay for any on the field calls regarding out or safe calls, balls and strikes, interference, fair/foul calls,dropped third strikes, balks, runners tagging up or pitchers doctoring the ball... Also, it was brought up here during last year's playoffs, about the home crowd not being shown on the big scoreboard screen replays of a controversial call that went against the home team...I believe there is an agreement between MLB. and the umpires union to not show replays of close calls on the big screens---to avert tumultuous crowds, I guess...

I think I'm starting to be ok with interleague play, in spite of the issues with the designated hitter...Bob Brenley always makes references to the "162 game schedule" and how things balance out in the end...When you think about it, ten interleague baseball games is about equal to one NFL game...If a division or a wild card title is lost over those handful of interleague games, or scheduling with too tough of an interleague foe, then maybe the team didn't deserve the title, anyway...However, I am totally agin' the all-star winner determing home-field advantage in the World Series...

I vote for Bobby as well---Played for the Cubs too, back in the day, but it would nice to have a Yank do it that doesn't just represent their glory years... All this talk about pitcher's names reminds me of a horse race I saw years ago with one of the runners up being a thorobred named "Hoof-Hearted"...The announcer had a good time with that one..."Hoof Hearted coming around the first turn!...Hoof-Hearted coming down the stretch!...and Hoof-Hearted at the finish line!!"....

[quote name='mstar1' date='Jun 4 2008, 01:21 PM' post='415127' I dont know if Id ever choose to be a pitcher with a name like that... If there was ever a name that is bound to be in a baseball story someday.....thats one... Well, Bob Walk did have a pretty decent Major league pitching career...

Not sure how to answer the poll yet, but I just read a headline on Yahoo news this morning that said chicks dig guys w/ alternative fuel cars moreso than guys with sports cars...Where can I buy one cheap?....

Thanks for linking that, Rock...I figured Mstar would get a kick out of it...Sure, I'm old fashioned and slow to accept change---but baseball doesn't need to keep up with the fast-paced, high-energy sports to be enjoyable...In fact, the more amped our culture becomes, the more baseball is needed---sit back, relax, eat some pistachios, bullsh!t about the game or anything else that comes to mind in between the action...Although, I'd also add your guy, Julian Tevares as another one of those guys that could grind the game to a screeching halt when he came in and relieved...

I think there's a Bible verse somewhere that goes something like " ...it is better to dwell on the corner of a rooftop than with a brawling woman in a wide house..."

Donnie Fugit---Witnessing and Undershepherding: Donna Randall---Keys to Research and I seem to Remember Bob Mathieson doing one...

Really, mstar, you longsuffering beantown fans deserve to do your gushing...You've paid your dues---except for the goddamn Celts, of course... Little different subject, but I just got done telling Rocky by e-mail that I rarely read political opinion pieces, but just this morning I did read Dan Bickley's opinion piece in the Az. Republic (Rocky, technical yeoman that he is, could probably link it if he opts to) about speeding up the game of baseball...I unequivically disagree with any crazy thoughts about making and enforcing rules for players to speed up the game...Shorten the commercial time---fine---but leave the game the way it is...If the cell-phone talking, text-messaging, mouse-clicking, channel-surfing, joystick squeezing, "Wrigley Stadium"-calling A.D.D. crowd can't sit down and enjoy a baseball game the way it is than let them stay the hell away from the ballpark...They can watch arena football or mud wrestling or go extreme bowling...For Pete's sake, the game's been around for well over 100 years without all the fast paced bells and whistles to try to make it more entertaining than it already is...If people are bored with the pace of baseball---good---stay home...It'll eventually lower ticket prices for the true-blue fans...

Yeah, Manny...Goddamn--Celtings in the finals,---has that ever happened before, one city in the finals of all the big three championships?...'Tho technically, I guess the Bosox championship was last year...

I wasn't, in particular, but I know a poster who cleaned toilets at a whorehouse...Maybe, they'll come clean...

Holy cow,...stRanger...Where did this Josh Hamilton come from?...I never heard of him 'til last week...58 ribeyes after 54 games?...Look out, Hack Wilson...What's the story with him?...They said he battled a drug problem...before he hit the bigs?...Who's setting the table for him?...

There must be something wrong with it if he's letting it go that cheap...

And I give you kudos for that...I remember about ten or fifteen years ago, a very high government official (I think she was a cabinet member) was discovered to have hired an undocumented, live-in au paire to care for her small child...If I remember right, she was making about $600,000 a year in her job, and her husband was making about $200,000 in his job...Her reasoning behind hiring the illegal au paire was something like 'it's hard to find good help'...I remember thinking, at the time, if my wife had a prominent job making $600K a year and we had a small child at home, I'd send her off to work with a thermos of coffee and ask her what she wanted for dinner when she got home...

[quote name='lindyhopper' date='May 26 2008, 01:00 AM' post='413486' A lot of this stuff came out of things like the sexual revolution, the women's movement, women's reproductive rights, and the homosexual revolution. You know all those evil leftist things. If we could only get back to the good old days of women being stuck in abusive relationships, having fewer rights, no voice, fewer options, and could be raped by their own husbands with no recourse. Gay people were way way in the closet, many times starting families the "old fashioned way" while slowly going crazy in an unhappy home. Bored and depressed housewives were inventing things like methamphetamine. Teen moms were stigmatized. While teens had less sex in general out of the fear of shunning, the wrath of their parents, and the fact that they literally would have no options as a teen mom. Ah yes, the good ol' days. Perhaps it is not a leftist agenda but maybe society is just progressive. I think society always wants to move forward and evolve and it has. As we learn new things about the world around us, other people, and ourselves, we all change and collectively evolve and society pushes and changes bit by bit, with an occasional burst, while dragging the naysayers kicking and screaming. The less we learn the more we stay the same. It is the nature of a free society. As I said, there are much greater threats to children and society than the unwed mother. You're not the only person on these threads who's attempted to "stigmatize" the traditional family,but the easiest to quote, I guess...Between this thread and the 'God bless California thread' it seems that the traditional mom and pop family is getting quite the bum rap...I don't know where you're getting your information about bored and depressed, raped and abused housewives inventing things like methamphetamines in that old backwards society we call 'the good old days', but in your progressive mind how is our society now rid of all of those evil things, or are we?...I know on the other thread, you are very much for gay marriage(which, by the way, I'm not particularly agin'), but how are we progressing by opening the door to another faction of our population to engage in such an abusive practice as marriage?... I am all for de-stigmatizing any group of people for whoever they happen to be, and in general, I think we've progressed in that department...Maybe folks learned that when they protested the Viet Nam war by calling returning vets "baby killers" and "murderers" they were not actually addressing the issues... Anyway, I wanted to point out here that not everything that we would call "progressive" is without it's downside...This may be tangentical(tangical?), ok, off on a tangent, but I found some interesting U. S. Census figures from 1968 to 2006 that might explain the downside: 1968....Median house price.....20,100 Median income for all families was $8,632 or 2.32 x annual income Median income for families with two income-earners: $10,686 Median income for families with one wage earner: $8,215 2006....Median house price.....$219,000 Median income for all families was $58,407 or 3.64 x annual income Median income for families with two income earners was $82,788 Median income for families with one income earner was $45,757 Now, obviously, in 1968 there was no such thing as equal pay for equal work among the sexes and minorities, but an interesting thing I noticed about 1968, besides the fact that median houses cost much less proportionate to one's median income, was not much disparity between the median income and that of a single wage earner...Mom and dad both working was a little over $2000 a year more...In 2006, note the disparity between the median income, the single earner income and the dual earner income... Now, of course there are other factors involved, but it seems to me that slowly adding millions of women to the work force that are required by law to receive equal pay as men has had the effect of overall keeping wages lower to the cost of living...In short, in today's dollars women's incomes went up and men's incomes went down to meet the demands of prevalant wages and the law...It took some time, but companies no longer have to meet the demands of a single wage earner to maintain a workforce... Now, I'm not going to offer commentary here about the working mom versus the stay-at-home mom because this thread isn't about that, but I do remember a time when our society was very split on that issue...And while there really is no stigma attached to a working mother, anymore, I have to wonder if there isn't a connection somewhere to overall wages not keeping up and the increased divorce rate...Are we better off?....

Actually, I think there is a Federal income tax break for one who files "single, head of household"...While that status can and does provide tax relief for single moms and such, it can also serve to discourage some people from getting married... I think the issue about marriage is more about social security benifits, rights of survivorship and things like insurance coverage...I don't know if the federal social security program would recognize survivor benifits in a marriage that was allowed in certain states but not in others...If California is a community property state, then a gay spouse would have the same rights of survivorship---such as inheritances--as man and wife...For health insurance coverage, I pointed out earlier in the thread that most likely, gay couples who are now living together will have to get married to qualify for spousal health coverage... I kind of think when all the dust clears, that not too many changes are going to take place in the world as we know it because of the California ruling...My community is rapidly becoming the artsy-fartsy district, and I know plenty enough gays to know their lifestyle is not all seashells and balloons...They can be just as prone to bitch-slap their lover as anybody else; just as afraid to make a commitment as the next guy...I don't know if they're all going to run down to the courthouse and get married and procure babies just because they could...

Well, Brandon Webb suffered his first loss of the season after nine straight victories to start the season at the hands of the Florida Marlins...Can somebody out there explain to me why Florida has a Major league baseball team?...I didn't see Webb's loss, but the night before I was flipping between the Cubs game and the D-backs/Marlins game...Now here you got a first place team, squaring off against the division leader in the NL West and 10,000 fans show up for the game?...That was the announced attendance, anyway, but every 'crowd' shot I saw---and I use the word 'crowd' generously--It looked like a gathering for a poetry reading...I doubt if more than 7,000 were in the house...Tonite's attendence was announced as 11,000---I know, I know---it was a school night...So you have a low-payroll first place club--playing in front of 5000 ushers, beer vendors and program salesman, who will probably weasel their way into their third championship in about ten years while long suffering generations of fans of the Phils, Mets, Pirates(why aren't they in the same division as the Phillies?) can only hope...I think it's time for some retraction--put the Marlins in the Carolina league and take the Devil Rays with them...Florida is for spring training... Meanwhile Shawn Chacon of the Astros, in as many starts as Brandon Webb, finally gets a decision...In his tenth start of the season, including 7 quality starts, Chacon beat the Cubs 5-3, improving his record to 1-0....

I think what they should do,is if a govenment official, such as a Justice of the peace, oversees the ceremony, be it a heterosexual or homosexual couple, then call it what it in fact is---a civil union...If a church refuses to marry a couple because one is divorced, or they are the same sex or the groom drinks too much, that should be the church's privelege...When the couples' leave the courthouse, they can call themselves whatever they wish---wed, betrothed, married or civilly unionized---and the churches can fight among themselves instead of with the gov't as to whether they want to recognize the couples or not...

I have no inclination to join this debate, but I think this statement is an important reality that often gets lost in the argument..I think, at best, a gay marriage with full adoption rights and so forth is an experiment...It's one thing to look at young'ns that are well nourished, and doing well in school, etc. but these young'ns become adolescents, teenagers and adults...What will be the impact on a person who realizes his biological father is a donor in some sperm bank, or their mother was a paid surrogate?...Amost every young person I know who grew up without one of their biological parents, upon reaching adulthood wanted to connect with the missing parent--even if only to provide closure...

Actually, the more immediate effect may be current same sex 'partners' to lose their subsidized medical benefits unless they actually get married...In Arizona, where same sex marriage is not legal, a live-in hetorosexual partner must be married to the employee for them to qualify for insurance benefits, but since same-sex couples cannot be legally married, and employers cannot discriminate against same sex couples, the live-in 'domestic partners' of gays qualify for bennies...So, in effect, in California, employers will now be able to force the hand of gay couples---either get married or the live-in partner loses his/her benefits...

I just have one question...If this tragedy with Sandra Ann Sullivan went down the way Karl Kahler said Del Duncan said it went down---which was sometime in 1974--why did Mr. Duncan continue to take on prominent way ministry positions for years after 1974?...I know he coordinated the family corps as late as 1977 and was either working security or as a bodyguard at PFAL '77...Maybe the question is irrelevant, but the whole basis for this now six page thread dicussing murder, manslaughter and the like seems to be that one paragraph from Del Duncan, who at the time didn't think it tragic enough to blow any whistles or sever his ties with VP or Howard...

I only played on a big diamond once,--when a bunch of us weekend 'keggers' thought we were good enough to compete against the local community college...After a few practices, there we all were that Saturday afternoon, wearing blue jeans, tennis shoes, smoking cigarettes in the dugout, then having our a$$es handed to us on the field...I think I was a little late on my first swing at a 90 mph fastball---If I remember right, my bat crossed the plate just as the catcher was throwing the ball back to the pitcher... I remember when my kid played on a big diamond for the first time---Weekend tournament, the whole team just finished up the Little League season and the pitchers had to deal with runners leading off for the first time...I think our pitchers got called for about 20 balks that weekend...Pitcher would be in his windup, somebody would yell "he's going!", pitcher would stop, turn around and say "Who? Where?"...Ump would yell "Balk!"..."Course, those poor pitchers were also walking about 20 guys a game...