TheLeviathan

This is the best reason not to sign Hunter. We need a versatile OF to back this group up.

Saying "we shouldn't legislate religion" is a VERY different thing than "we shouldn't legislate morality". The first statement is excellent advice, the second is unbelievably misguided or naive or stupid. Take your pick.

Supervision is irrelevant, that's the whole point. Safe searches are being deliberately circumvented. Just last year we had a kid, through two layers of safe searching, manage to get to a full blown porn site. (That was intentional on the kids part) We had a number of children accidently get nude images on generic search terms. They can be doing everything right and still walk into these things because websites are overstepping to get clicks. They are making it easier and easier to find them with generic search terms. I don't want these things unavailable to adults, what people choose to do is on them. The problem is trying to wedge themselves into areas we don't allow them in any other media. Porn can't advertise on bill boards in a graphic manner. You don't find nude ads in magazines or newspapers that are meant to be mainstream. We have basic laws of decency that we can enforce against companies abusing them. It's holding them to the same level of legal accountability that we do in every other form of advertising/marketing.

Block them from ever visiting Google? You're right, that plan is not in any way stupid. Good talk.

I love solutions that say "let's throw our hands in the air" and abdicate our duty to do right by other people. We have sites and companies deliberately making themselves more accessible to all with only the barest attempt to show responsibility and the solution is to ban the internet to kids? We wouldn't let two people start having sex in a park, but when it comes to the internet anything goes? We legislate morality all the time, the difference is where people draw the lines. Then some pretend they don't have or want lines. That's the most preposterous stance of all.

I for one care about the a Republican field precisely because of her. I'm begging the Republicans to give me someone I prefer to her and yet, somehow, they look to be on a path towards being worse than her. Talk about failing to leap over a low bar.

I personally think federal minimum wage laws are pretty dumb. They should be state driven, but if you insist on making a federal minimum it should be a calculated as a percentage of the cost of living. What it takes to live a middle class lifestyle in Minneapolis doesn't even compare to Chicago, LA, or the East Coast. If you want evidence of how extreme it is just hop on a home buying site and see how far your money goes. If you mandate a business in po-dunk Minnesota to pay the same as one in New York City it's the height of economic stupidity.

I don't know if you're being serious or not, kids need this kind of exposure to the internet at those ages. The problem is that porn sites and soft porn sites are overreaching for clicks. It'd be akin to 20 years ago having Hustler deliberately inserting a few of its pages into a Highlight magazine in every dentist office. The solution isn't to have kids stop going to the dentist.

They're finding ways to tag their content so that basic searches, even with filters, aren't able to stop them. We're not just talking about 14 year olds here, we're talking about kids half that age being exposed to sexual content. Kids are a simple search and a few curious clicks away from full blown porn. We've had a number of issues the last two years with kids finding content incredibly easily around safe search filters. All the frank conversations in the world about internet safety aren't going to fix that problem.

If you weren't talking about Wieters - what the heck were you talking about then? Randomly talking about some other catcher?

Wieters doesn't have concussion issues.

Any money spent this offseason needs to be on RP, C, SS, and versatile OF. In that order.

I thought it was worse than it's overrated first season, so not good.

It's worthwhile to point out in many of these countries they have a much different education system, particularly higher education. The wage issue is further compounded here by the bizarre American belief of sending everyone to college. People are working more for less because we have artificially created so much job market competition at the price of high debt and limited college effectiveness. Just think how much money businesses now dump into doing the training vocational and academic colleges used to do. The American left wants a very weird combo of America, Germany, and Greece that just doesn't work. The right wants Corporatism. We need to blow the whole damn thing up and restart.

I know it isn't quantifiable, but this team has long needed some grit. He brings a dynamic this team just didn't have.

I have no problem with some rebalancing, the problem is that neither side is supporting a reasonable solution.

Great point Bark. We too readily dismiss free swingers, but a guy like a Rosario can do just fine with his plate coverage. Yeah, he could improve his plate discipline, but that weakness alone isn't reason to write him off.

I like making community and vocational schools super cheap, but the tuition reduction plans are pure pandering. Tuition hikes the last few decades are entirely related to the endless trough of student loans.

The Twins appear to have a compulsion for using only 22 or 23 of their 25 man roster spots. The "It's only the 25th man" logic has become far too pervasive in this organization. (And the media reporting on them)

Absolutely, that's a huge part of the problem. Planned Parenthood is a stupid scapegoat.

I'm still waiting to see Sano the Bad Fielder. The kid looks just fine to me.

Many on both sides fit this and yet the national narrative/discussion isn't talking solutions. The problem is the spin of the vocal movements and the huge numbers that fall in lock step. If you're not among them, great! It's people like you and Jim and Glunn that need to drive the discussion. But that ain't happening.

I never said anything about anyone other than women making their own choices. I'm on the record in several of these threads supporting legal, safe abortions because I don't see any other way of handling the current (key word there) situation. But your post is sprinkled with references that show you have been influenced by the manipulative effort. In my opinion, most pro-choice people have become so immersed in some of the talking points that they have lost perspective on what they're saying. Take Psuedo's comment earlier (a common one among pro-choice people) which effectively argues unwanted children are better off dead. Just take a moment to grasp at the profound arrogance of such a position to declare which lives are worth living. But because that argument is common, people throw it around with no thought as to the extent of the meaning. The manipulation is in the narrative and the degree to which it blinds people from forming a thoughtful position in favor of just joining a movement. My point, in context, was about why we can't more actively engage the real problem of unwanted pregnancies. One side won't do it because of stupid beliefs about sex education and contraception. (And their own false narrative) But why aren't pro-choice people working twice as hard to eliminate the difficult choice in the first place? Why is their focus only on the legality of abortion and not on promoting more measures to reduce unwanted pregnancy? Not only is it better for women, but it's the kind of good faith effort that wins over thoughtful people! For me, and maybe I'm wrong on this, the answer is that they don't want to shift the focus. When you are busy going "ra ra" about a "right" it's easier to drum up support and passion. Talking about practical ways to make the whole situation better just doesn't add up to passionate supporters. (This is why those awful pro-life billboards look and sound the way they do - manipulation of public perception) The manipulation is in the presentation of the "fight". The fight should be about unwanted pregnancy, not about how great it is that abortion is legal. That is a huge tonal shift in the argument that would do a world of good at reducing the true issue, but I have zero hope of achieving that when both sides are so hell bent on a manipulative narrative to drive public discourse.

So, move Plouffe to catcher, trade Buxton..... Any guesses on what the hell thread we get tomorrow? Move Mauer to the bullpen?

I agree about the overriding issue, but that's out of necessity. And yes, the ability to have an abortion should co-exist with a reduction in unwanted pregnancies. But the narrative by pro-choice groups is too "ra ra rights!" for my liking.