joaquim's profile

joaquim
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Name: Joaquim
Member since: July 01, 2003
Last visit: December 24, 2009

joaquim has posted 0 links and 58 comments to SportsFilter and 0 links and 0 comments to the Locker Room.

Recent Comments

Company Fires Four Employees Over Fantasy Football

Isn't a comapnay that is involved in the stock market and finacial investment having policies against gambling kind of hypocritical? Actually, that's the kind of company where such a policy makes the most sense. If the gambler/employee is losing big, he could be sorely tempted to cover his losses from his clients' accounts. The employees not only have to be innocent, they have to be above suspicion.

posted by joaquim at 02:22 PM on December 18, 2009

House Panel Approves Bill Seeking Demise of BCS Championship

"The bill passed on a voice vote, with the only dissent from Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., who said Congress has better things to do." Can we fix the auto-comment insertion feature? It's redundant.

Joe Barton's salary is a clear example of government waste.

posted by joaquim at 01:32 PM on December 10, 2009

LeBron James: Honor Jordan By Giving Up No. 23

I'm thrilled that you seem to think you've got a handle on how to replace the experience of being there with, uh, "sense" Happy to add to your joy of life. It's too bad you didn't actually understand what I wrote or it may have been even better for you. As for the irreplaceability of your "experience of being there":

1) Can you breathe in the vacuum of space? How do you know if you've never experienced being there? 2) Was being gassed and burned at Auschwitz a good or bad thing? How do you know if you never experienced being there? 3) Did Chamberlain score 100 points in a game? Did he sleep with thousands of women? Were you there?

Basing an assessment of the greatest impact to a particular activity solely on what you've personally witnessed is foolish. It would be like considering Bill Gates a greater scientist than Isaac Newton simply because you weren't alive when Newton was alive. We have the capability of studying history and learning from it, so we should use that capability rather than relying exclusively on knee-jerk reactions to personal experience.

"Grey hair does not confer wisdom." - Thoreau "Thoreau was a pussy" - Chuck Norris

posted by joaquim at 11:18 AM on November 16, 2009

LeBron James: Honor Jordan By Giving Up No. 23

By that reasoning, your twenty-something's choice of greatest president is limited to Reagan, Clinton, Obama, and a couple of Bushes. Ta-ta, Lincoln. Don't even turn around, Washington. (And believe it or not, I wasn't around to vote for either of them.)

Instead of defending your slack-jawed, dull-minded, self-centered, low-attention-span-having youngsters, maybe you should be trying to get some sense into them.

posted by joaquim at 05:49 PM on November 14, 2009

LeBron James: Honor Jordan By Giving Up No. 23

When he was in college, the NCAA introduced the goaltending rule to counter George Mikan's dominance of the game. When he was in the NBA, they had to widen the lane for the same reason. Later, the shot clock was introduced because other teams were slowing the game down to keep the ball away from Mikan. One man: three fundamental rule changes. Oh, and as commissioner of the ABA, he introduced the 3-point line.

His Lakers won 5 of the first 6 NBA championships and he won a couple more in the NBL and BAA before the NBA was formed. He was voted the greatest player of the first half of the 20th century by the AP.

Jordan was the best I've ever seen, but I've got to say that Mikan had more impact on the game. Maybe Lebron needs to study some history.

posted by joaquim at 09:39 PM on November 13, 2009

Florida Linebacker Tried to Eye-Gouge Opponent

he wiped it off and then the very next play was when he smeared it on Ealey's face. look at the footage. Actually, he stored it on the grassy knoll after the first play, then had one of the cameraman from the moon landing put it in a black helicopter on its way to bomb the Pentagon on behalf of the New World Order. The helicopter hovers at 80,000 feet above the field while a man in an invisibility suit climbs down a rope and gives the spit back to Spikes. look at the footage.

posted by joaquim at 12:01 PM on November 03, 2009

Marathon Champ Disqualified for Using iPod

Would there be an issue with some of the other features of an iPod (Pedometer, FM radio)?

I'm not at all familiar with marathon rules (taxies and Uzis are not allowed, right?), so it could be that anything goes. I can see the FM radio feature being used to receive information about the other runners in the race, but then again it could be within the rules for a coach to use a megaphone or hold up signs to provide the same info.

posted by joaquim at 12:40 PM on October 09, 2009

Limbaugh, Blues Owner Make Bid to Buy St. Louis Rams

back in '82 it was a joke, now it is reality Let's do some math. I'll try to keep it simple:

Male: The US Female/Male ratio in 2000 was approximately 51/49, so males as a whole are a minority. The 51/49 ratio has been true for a while.

White: I'm assuming you're talking about those who identify themselves as white alone. In 2000, that was 75% of the population. 75% of 49% is approximately 36%. The preponderance of whites in the US population also has not changed enough over the last few decades to make a difference in the calculations we're performing here. (Anything less than 100% white makes that 49% shrink; there is no number outside of Glenn Beck's head that would make it grow.)

Conservative: A little bit harder to pin down. We'll be generous and call it a 50/50 split. 50% of 36% is 18%.

So, conservative white males make up roughly 18% of the population. I did not see any indications that the CWM segment dropped from 51% to 18% in the last 50 years, so the "new" minority claim is just hyperbole. What's new is the tendency of the extremists on either side of the spectrum to portray themselves as an oppressed minority.

posted by joaquim at 12:03 PM on October 07, 2009

Kim Clijsters Wins US Open

See what happens when Americans try a little gentle sarcasm? Is it because we're the only ones dumb enough to think sarcasm works when written in plain text?

posted by joaquim at 02:20 PM on September 14, 2009

Brett Favre Rents Condo in Minnesota

Say what you will about Favre and no matter where he plays, we Packer fans will never forget our Bert...Brent...Bart. Whatever.

posted by joaquim at 01:17 PM on July 07, 2009

Lawyer Sues for Men Excluded from Oakland A's Mother's Day Giveaway

I have this image of several dozen pink-clad women stapling a "fishing hat" to his head, shoving some fishing poles up his ass, and throwing him overboard several miles off the California coast during a Mother's Day fishing tour. I like this image. It soothes me. It needs sharks, though.

posted by joaquim at 12:25 PM on June 16, 2009

Cubs Retire Number Worn by Two Greats in Combo Deal

I don't quite see the point of a double retirement like this. If you're the first guy who wore the number and they didn't retire it when you retired, it's almost an insult for them to include you in the ceremony at the later retirement. If you're the second guy, it's like the team is saying the number would not have been retired if only you had worn it.

If neither player is considered individually good enough to have the number retired, then the retirement ceremony is honoring a number that's significant in the history of the team, not honoring the players.

posted by joaquim at 11:31 AM on March 25, 2009

Let the Record Be Unbroken

In one respect, Wilt's record of never fouling out of an NBA game simply can't be broken because, well -- he never fouled out. Someone can match that, but the "never" part prohibits any more than a tie.

OTOH, the record could be considered broken if anyone plays more games than Wilt without fouling out.

posted by joaquim at 11:33 AM on March 05, 2009

Covenant School seeks forfeit of 100-0 win over Dallas Academy

As for running up the score, tough shit. Covenant came to play the game, not roll over and do nothing for the second half.
They reached the 100-point mark with 4 minutes left in the game, so maybe they came just to play 28 minutes and then roll over and do nothing. Or maybe it was that 100-point mark that mattered. It certainly wasn't just a matter of winning the game since they were still playing a full-court press and shooting 3s when the outcome was no longer in doubt.

I would have some empathy for the Covenant team if there were more than 6 players. It's always difficult to put in substitutes and tell them not to play the game to the best of their ability. With 6 players, however, everyone is getting PT and there is absolutely no excuse for what happened here.

If Dallas Academy's coach didn't prepare his team for the very real possibility of a royal asskicking, that's his fault.
Please read this. It would seem that the coach and the girls from Dallas Academy have very good understanding of the values of high school athletics.

It's not like they are special needs kids that have autism and things like that.
"...and things like that"? What would be your learned and expert assessment of things that are like autism? Please provide a list of "things like that" that are below the cutoff line -- you know, so we can identify the "handicap kids".

posted by joaquim at 09:38 PM on January 23, 2009

Does the BCS violate antitrust laws?

This lawsuit would not exist if Alabama had won. If this clown is so concerned about the unfairness he perceives in the BCS, why didn't he file years ago? This is a political stunt, just like Joe Barton's proposed legislation.

posted by joaquim at 01:13 PM on January 07, 2009