taks

um, if more teams get in, then it's easier to get to the playoffs (and potentially voiding the results of the regular season). prior to the divisional playoffs, you either won your division or watched the playoffs from the stands. now, not only are there THREE divisional winners, there's one rogue that didn't even have to win his division. that's sort of the definition of "easier." and, for the record, hockey's playoff system is ridiculous, too and i've never liked it, either. at least, best of seven for every series makes an already long season almost unbearable. taks

nothing in that article is contrary to what patzert - and several others, i just didn't post all the links - said. it is not very strong now, nor will it get to be as originally predicted. taks

can't stand 'em. boon to the sport or no, it made baseball "easy," and, more importantly, just like every other sport. besides, since the NL has two more teams than the AL, it is not exactly fair, either. that, too. taks

el nino "started" several months ago and is now holding steady according to the latest reports coming from JPL. el nino screws our weather up, too, though oddly, we had our fist snow of autumn today. our first snow of the "season" was the last day of summer, this past monday. taks

so "liberty" has nothing to do with its actual definition anymore... liberty, and by extension, individual rights, are things that are granted by the state. that one "right" (read: privilege) may conflict with another is OK because people like you are apparently capable of making moral decisions for everyone. you "just know" what is the proper - moral - course for me. taks

this has nothing to do with black and white issues. it is very clear that you must violate one person's liberty if he is forced to pay for another's - it is also inarguable. it only takes common sense, actually. or are you trying to say that i am not actually being forced to give up anything? take your pick... should be logically easy to defend, right? taks

they clinched a spot, but not their division yet. i guess that means if boston comes from behind and overtakes the yanks for first in the AL East (which is unlikely), then the yanks are at least guaranteed the wild card. interesting how that all plays out... personally, i miss the days of two divisions, one playoff for the pennant. taks

3. taks

right. i'm being asked to sacrifice my liberty for someone i don't know, and i'm not happy about it, and i'm a drama queen? get real. taks

you're right. there's no better way to advocate a violation of individual rights than the way theseus outlined. it makes sound so... so... moral to steal from one person and give to another - to force people into slavery for others - when put that way. sigh, almost a warm fuzzy just reading it. there is no "balance" between liberty and equality. liberty is a function of individual rights. in order to implement equality of outcome, you must violate individual rights, and hence, deny liberty. the only way to have liberty is to implement equality of opportunity. the sooner you folks drop the charade and admit that you a) do not believe in individual rights and b) do not believe in liberty for all, then i will start to give you some respect. till then, you are all nothing but hypocritical liars. taks

started a new job today... yay! i'm expected to be a GPS expert in a few months. should be interesting. GPS receivers are identical to CDMA receivers (since GPS is CDMA), and i did a dissertation on a CDMA receiver which should help. in other news, co springs had its first snow on the last day of summer (today). since i work down in pueblo west now, some 2500 feet below where i live, i did not get to see the snow though there was some nastiness coming down there, too. copper mountain, where we will be skiing this year, is expecting snow every night through next thursday. it's going to be a good winter of skiing if this keeps up. taks

looks like the cards will be the first to clinch. magic number is 4! taks

my personal insurance policy is only $185/month for both john and i (though the deductible is high). company plans are ridiculously expensive because they cover everyone working for the company, regardless of medical history. they also include lots of insurance for things people don't need. i don't need maternity care, for example, nor does my son, and hence, my rate does not include such a consideration. our family coverage when i was with DRS was over $1000/month total cost, though i only paid about $250/month. and, FYI, health insurance companies aren't "raping" anybody. they average less profit than most other sectors sitting at only 3.3% last quarter - 86th on the list over at yahoo finance. fraud for medicare/medicaid far outstrips the profit made on health insurance plans. taks

for artsy things, or block diagrams? taks

i was just about to say that. as i recall, the witcher 1 had OK voice acting. i never finished it, however. they mentioned a new engine... what is it, anyone know? taks

i think he was typecast as that character before even playing him. that's just the sort of part that fits the canoe. the only difference now is that there is a name - neo - to attach to keanu's standard character. taks

he's very stiff, not unlike costner, but more likeable, IMO. i thought he did really well in constantine, but that's my type of flick so i'm a bit biased. taks

lof is sort of one track. even if his thread starts out as some random thought, say, the length of rope you need to make a backyard tire swing, there's always a hiddent back door into the virtues of communism. taks

huh... my brothers are my best friends. never had better drinking buddies, never could hope to. i miss them terribly (they live in st. louis). taks

that's how it starts, calax. the next step was 3 days in bed for me. i just got back from the doc myself. signs of gallstones, but if they were there a few days ago, they aren't now since i had a negative murphy's sign. sooo... back to the ultrasound (had one last summer). if it's negative, i get a HIDA scan (had that, too), if it is positive i'm losing my gall bladder for good! out damn spot, out! taks

it's called superposition, a property of linearity: f(x+y) = f(x) + f(y). percentages are linear, so 0.13*(a+b) = 0.13*a+0.13*b, where a and b are your salaries, as amentep and gorgon described. good job for putting the smack down on Gfted1 guys! and for the record, i don't want to pay it either. taks

actually, i bet you wouldn't like that. i wouldn't, either. oh, and for the record, even though your employer cuts the check for your health insurance, you're still paying. same with the euroweenies that think they're getting "free" healthcare. there is no such thing as free. taks

in that quote i was talking about the amount of care per dollar, gorgon, not quality (which could lead to poorer quality overall, but that's not what i was arguing). please, no more strawmen. rationing is a basic problem of socialized anything. supply is limited and for most, if not all products/services, supply and demand are not equal. the free market adjusts by increasing/decreasing the price to the point that demand is reduced/increased to meet supply. socialized systems do not have such a mechanism. demand for health care services far outweighs supply, and as a result, someone has to decide who gets what care. rationing. notice, very little of what i argue is about my "personal conviction," i.e, my "feelings" about this. it is about what can logically work, and what has actually happened. and, for the record, nearly 50% of the US health care system is already socialized (medicare, medicaid, military/government employee* health care plans). those systems cost far, far more than politicians ever thought they would, so it's not like we don't already have evidence in our own back yards that i'm right about this. taks * 47% was the last i saw, and i'm not sure if the government employees fall into this, though i would be surprised if they didn't.

nonsense. his claim is that he knows enough to determine the value of another's labor - that is arrogance. my claim is that nobody knows, and only the market can adjust for that. when someone comes up with a legitimate way for socialist programs to adjust for demand, i will listen. i'd like an original thought, actually, not just the same tired compassion arguments "oh, my, it's the right thing to do" or the crap utopian ideals that so many often spout. not one thing in here cited by theseus is more than the same socialist disproved idea. it cannot work, and will not work. not only is history on my side with this one, but so is theory. hopefully it is not keynesian macroeconomics. if so, i'm sorry. he's yet another economist that does not understand the basic concept of demand. so much so that he actually denied the work that earned him a nobel after the depression and horrible economy through the war failed to prove his theories correct. look up stagflation, an economic quagmire of the 70s brought on by keynsian economic theory (and the reason chicagoan* economists became popular till recently: apparently we forgot our previous lessons). in keynes' defense, it is actually difficult to understand what it is that he was actually saying anyway. as one poster i read once said "keynes was not a good expositor of his own views." you'll note, awesomeness, that nobody ever addresses my actual complaints. the closest so far is theseus posting the per capita expenditures in response to me saying our healthcare is not the most expensive (which was a strawman). nobody can address the demand problem - who knows how much something is worth until the market decides? what is a tomato "worth?" it is worth whatever somebody is willing to pay for it. theseus talks about liberty, yet cannot come up with a good argument how forcing me to pay for someone else does not violate my right to liberty. ultimately, he will be forced to redefine liberty, to a notion that defines the state as an arbiter of what is "fair" (or moral), to accomodate his viewpoint. theseus mentions the right to life, yet cannot explain how that translates to the right to force someone else to keep you alive. a right to the pursuit of happiness becomes a right to happiness - yet what about my happiness when the government steals from me to pay for another? socialist ideals are exactly that: ideals that can only be implemented in an ideal, not real, society. as long as there is free will, such a construct will not (and can not) exist. until then, those that believe in socialism, or believe that socialist systems can work, must somehow get over the contradictions necessary for its/their implementation. taks *technically, i subscribe to the austrian school of thought, not milton friedman's chicago school of thought - though there are many similarities, the differences only seem to lie in monetary policy, which is rather huge. this would include, btw, ludwig von mises, murray n. rothbard, and more recently, george reisman.

thought i remembered you talking about a GF a while back... maybe it was just another lady worth dating. glad to hear you're walking well enough to do things like that. not much different here other than the military stuff. there was an oldie but goodie hustler cartoon once where the guy was standing over a large piece of paper which he had just barfed on. his buddy, standing next to him, said "OK, but is it art?" the pic is too good. i'd have to get something along the lines of a cat gnawing on some body part. danged thing bites me routinely. taks