Samson's Flow

I agree with basically everything you said. I guess we will just keep agreeing with each other d4rk. The bolded is what I was getting at with respect to the race discussion that permeated the last page or so of this thread. The minority issues/perceptions discussed are directly caused from the frustration of not feeling like anything you do will get them out of their current situation.

Well he was my choice in the revised Tom Webster contest, so here's hoping he still has a few useful years left in the tank and can put up some points on the third/fourth line.

Did nobody read my economic analysis upthread? I worked hard on that (with references and everything) :( To me it all comes down to economic factors. It is not a race thing to me but more a poor people are way more inclined to commit crime and game the system because they are desperate to improve their situation. Because of the way the current economic wage structure is in the US, they cannot improve their condition enough through legal means to make an impact in their quality of life - so they turn to crime and government programs to subsidize. Unfortunately, young blacks tend to grow up in neighborhoods where poverty and desperation is more prevalent, and these concepts are ingrained in them at a young age. Provide opportunities to meaningfully improve one's life through legal avenues and then you can cast blame at those that do not pursue those avenues. Until then, its a vicious cycle of poverty and crime.

I can't think of anything other than the thousands of "Ralph/Darcy is cheap" memes. Alex Anthropolous is cheap!

Talk about burying the lead then... :bag:

Your comment was 90% about the Blue Jays move with a Bills reference at the end. Me and NS are totally in the clear here.

Why is this in the Bills thread? I just responded to those above without realizing what thread we are in. There's an All Other Sports thread for this... :blush:

No doubt that Castro was part of the cost of getting Tulo. My point was more when you are leading the league in runs scored by a ton, and are struggling with pitching, it doesn't make sense to trade away Castro to get a better SS. I'd have rather kept Reyes and used our trade ammo to go out and get multiple starters for the playoff push. We'll see what happens this week though.

I said it at the beginning of the year that they are trying to win every game 8-7. It certainly sounds like the first of many moves because otherwise we just acquired a better, more expensive, equally injury prone SS so that the Jays can lead the league in runs by even more than they currently do. But with the 13th best AL ERA, you gotta score a lot of runs to win each night. Also, LaTroy Hawkins is 42 and is not really a value add to me at this point. I'd rather have kept Castro who is a hard throwing youngster.

Random aside: anyone know why they are called "livery(s)"? Without looking it up on the googles?

Much like the smartest people in the world were fairly certain for a while that the Earth was the center of the universe. It is inevitable that modern science is wrong on quite a few things that are accepted as fact at this point in time. People x number of years from now will look back in amazement at the theories and things we currently think are scientifically accepted in 2015.

To further my point above, where I point out historical wages in modern buying power versus current wages and buying power, I like to think of it this way: If a President/CEO receives an additional $30k annually that does absolutely nothing for his/her life improvement, in fact I would argue that it has no impact when the total after-tax income is in the 6 to 7 figure range. Now that same 30k given to a family with one minimum wage earner, suddenly that takes their annual income from $15,080 to $45,080 moving that family into the "minimum of subsistence" range. The other added benefit is that it takes away the government burden as this family is no longer on welfare/social security etc. Note that this effect is not as a result of a government handout, it is merely the Capitalism economy functioning as it was designed with a minimum wage truly being the minimum needed to survive. The skilled labor positions such as doctors, engineers, finance etc. would also see a proportionate increase in wages so we wouldn't have the current "McDonald's workers make $15/hr?!? That's BS!!" outrage that we are experiencing in NYS right now. Those that remain poor/underprivileged will be because they are unwilling or unable to work to make a living. (I recognize there are some disabled/mentally ill that actually cannot work and would need programs to help them, that's not the issue) Unfortunately the current economic structure has the vast majority of power in a select few of uber-rich and powerful industry leaders. These market controllers are able to suppress the wages in order to grow corporate and personal profits.

Skeptical but intrigued. Stuff like this is incredibly interesting and sensationalist for the media to report, but without proven data and proof of function, it's just Star Trek fiction at this point.

Someone's on the wrong side of history... :nana:

Thanks NS! I thought that I was done being congratulated for my wedding - but I had not considered my Nova Scotian friend and his fasting. :blush: On another side note, as someone who is not religious at all, I am always fascinated regarding your dedication to these customs and religious events. A lot of your messages and perspectives ring true to me and align with my personal mindset.

I feel that way about most judging based activities. But that is a whole 'nother discussion. I'm only 26. I'm most certainly on the right side of history. :thumbsup:

It could just be Pegula's objective to have reporting and responsibility consistencies within his "One Buffalo" organization.

To me it all boils down to the inability to make a living wage from the majority of work available to lower and middle class workers. Many here have talked about the immigrants that came to this country in the early 20th century and how they were able to work hard to provide for their family. The average wage of the building trades in 1923 was $1.07 /hr. That was enough at the time to support a family on a standard work week for a primarily labor based job. That wage for one person working 40 hours a week is $2,225.60. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106020334675;view=1up;seq=9 Based on similar time periods, the cost of living budget for a family of five was pretty close to that, so one person working in a family of five could basically support "minimum comfort" for their whole family. Let alone a single guy working to support himself. "In connection with the wage adjustments of the war period, W. F. Ogburn, then in charge of the cost-of-living section .of the National War Labor Board, prepared and priced two family budgets as of June 1918—a "minimum of subsistence" budget for a family of five costing $3,386, and a "minimum comfort" budget costing $1,760.6" https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/docs/publications/bls/bls_chcostlivlgcit_1941.pdf Just looking at the inflation adjust prices to get a sense of what value that was back then, the inflation adjusted for current currency values makes the building trade wage above equal the same buying power as $14.93. That would translate the average annual wage to $31,059.22 which seems pretty reasonable to live under. Unfortunately the current minimum wage is $7.25 which is only $15,080 annually. The same inflation adjusted numbers from 1923 above adjusted to 2015 buying power is as follows: a "minimum of subsistence" budget for a family of five costing $47,253.12, and a "minimum comfort" budget costing $24,569.95" http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=1760.6&year1=1923&year2=2015 The jobs that are readily available at the wages offered do not currently allow for a family to "work hard" and make a life for themselves in the US. IMO this difficulty in providing for your family leads to crime and desperation; which further leads to the perception issues we have with minorities in this country currently. If we are able to raise the wage scale for all jobs and careers nationwide, then those who have no choices now can suddenly work themselves out of poverty and the wealth inequality is shifted away from the corporations and CEO's.

I agree generally with what you are saying regarding Bogo, so I won't re-hash it here. However, I will say, with the game on the line protecting a 1 goal lead I would rather have Bogosian out there than Myers 100 times out of 100. That to me makes him more valuable. I want our defensemen to make me feel confident in their defensive ability first and foremost.

I'd hate to have to type that name every day if he were on the Sabres. I have no opinion on the player, just that name gives me concern. Hell we couldn't even spell Pominville around here. Please no more tank. For the love of all things good and right in this world, please let me watch hockey again where the objective is to root for the Blue & Gold.

I'm right there with you ubkev. CrossFit is just something I can't get into. My distinction with the Olympics (which I love) is that it is a pretty defined objective that can relate back as far as I can remember. Most of the track events can be compared to the idea of challenging another to win a race. Heck, even kids growing up have similar competitions with "betcha I can beat you to that light post over there!" type stuff. CrossFit just seems too contrived to me. The events seem to be completely made up on the spot and have limited consistency year to year so you can't set records or compare yourself to past competitors. No child out there is saying "betcha I can run around the block, then do 20 push ups, then climb the flag pole, then lift something heavy a bunch of times before you can". Yeah, my argument is that if a child thinks its stupid then it isn't worthwhile as a sport.

I went to the grand opening of Marble & Rye and I was quite impressed with their rye/scotch/whiskey offerings. Some very interesting and different options from your standard bar offerings. I would definitely recommend to any Buffalo locals looking to try a new place. Downtown on Genesee st. http://marbleandrye.net/ (My work PC won't let me post the bottle list due to the alcohol filter :( )

It's not a young player, but David Legwand will be much better than a lot of people are predicting, and will make the team and play a solid 4th line/3rd line role. Everyone already took most of the choices with any chance of making the team. :devil:

Thanks for sharing this Smell, that was a very interesting read. Very often when I read scientific articles I find myself realizing that nature and its power is so much stronger than anything we as humans can understand, and there is very little to nothing we can do as a species to stop natural disasters from occurring. I love living in Western New York btw. No worry about hurricanes/tsunamis/earthquakes/tornadoes etc.

You guys crack me up. :lol: All i'm picturing is two drunk guys getting rowdy and kicked out. Something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwaroatABu4