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statsman

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Everything posted by statsman

  1. I think there are degrees of freedom and regulation in markets. Frankly, there’s a lot of evidence that enforced transparency in markets make them more efficient and productive (people prefer to invest in markets with enforced “fairness”); that’s good regulation. No nation has totally free and undirected economies. It’s a spectrum, and nations can move in either direction, but one direction usually leads to greater economic growth. (That’s not the direction the PRC is choosing).
  2. “What Adam Smith called ‘the invisible hand’ of market choices drives greater economic growth than centrally controlled and directed economies.” Does anyone on this board disagree with this? Personally, I don’t; the truth of the statement seems obvious How funny that the PRC is leaning into central economic control and direction as a tool to spur greater growth. (Of course, most governments around the world try, to varying extents, to direct growth through central planning, despite its shortfalls). I also think their history of economic growth may be credited to some strong demographic policies, as well as the opening of markets started after Mao. They spent a few decades enforcing a one-child policy, which (given the traditional nature of Chinese society, where children care for parents) really forced women to pursue careers. Now, with an aging population and reduced birth rate, they’re kind of double screwed.
  3. Reminder- in the first round playoff game, at home, with a couple minutes left in the first half, Dak was 7-13 for 63 yards, 2 picks, down 0-27.
  4. Interesting that Elko didn’t bring him along. Was John’s hoping to stay with Duke? Duke had a decent offense, and he was OC. The music stopped and there were no empty chairs left?
  5. ***Quick redirection*** I met a guy one time that was an enlisted man down in the silos. He was married to a friend’s sister. I knew they did personality screening for those jobs, but…OMG. This was the single most boring man I have ever met. Eating dinner at a table with him, at a busy restaurant, would sap all your energy and put you to sleep. I guess they’re looking for guys that will do what they’re told to do, when they’re told to do it, without any independent thinking about how they’re destroying the world and ending or ruining billions of lives. Well, they figured out how to do it. ***End redirection***
  6. Why should the U.S. support Ukraine? Because, this war is determining where the western border of a hostile Russia lies. If Ukraine loses, Poland borders a hostile Russia. If Ukraine prevails (or we end up in a DMZ situation), Ukraine borders a hostile Russia. https://www.wsj.com/world/russia-ukraine-peace-deal-2022-document-6e12e093?st=rosq0d8p3oh2ubn&reflink=mobilewebshare_permalink
  7. Well, as Klatt explains it, the SEC and B1G could form their own playoff and most of the world would recognize its winner as the NC.
  8. In his podcast, Klatt says that the B1G and SEC asked for three assigned slots each, with one assigned each for the B12 and ACC (three at large, inclusive of ND). When the lesser conferences balked, the B1G and SEC proposed the 14 team model, with the B12 and ACC getting two guaranteed slots, and still having three at-large. In this model, there would only be two byes, for the SEC and B1G champs. This proposal would keep the B1G and SEC CGs valuable, and devalue the B12 and ACC CGs. He speculated that the B12 and ACC might want to have their CGs between their #2 and #3 teams, so that there would be stakes for the winner.
  9. That TCU game was fun. The week before, Kevin Mar’s crew let KSU mug Worthy. I guess TCU thought they’d get to do the same. Their plan was to single their shutdown corner, Josh Newton, on him, freeing up the rest of the defense to focus on the rest. That plan didn’t work out like they thought it would.
  10. For whatever reason, OU has decided to dominate softball. That’s fine, I guess; I’m happy that Texas dominates girls volleyball. It’s a funner sport to watch. I can’t imagine ever saying, “There’s an important softball game on. I want to watch”. (Near the same with girls basketball)
  11. Who is David Sacks? I’ve seen a couple of takes from him that I disagree with, recently.
  12. Ukraine celebrated when a Russian helicopter pilot defected. It didn’t take long for him to die a violent death—increasingly, the fate awaiting people who cross Putin. https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/russians-keep-turning-up-dead-all-over-the-world-6acc8990?st=nqptxwrqc83l2jm&reflink=share_mobilewebshare
  13. I think it’s common for people in developing nations to have large families. It’s only when the nations are “developed” that birth rates drop.
  14. One thing I won’t be surprised to see: if an 8-4 or 9-3 Big 12 or ACC team plays an 11-1 opponent in the CCG, I bet the lower ranked team wins. These kind of upsets happened already in the past; now with the dynamics of the higher ranked team assured of a playoff spot already (TCU in 2022), they have less incentive to match the fanatical effort of an underdog that can make the playoffs with a bye, with a win. (And the conference officials will be aware of how much it helps to have two teams in the CFP).
  15. Texas is joining tOSU, Bama and UGA as having the nation’s best rosters.
  16. It has been 15 years since my non-defense employer has let us use WebEx, due to security concerns. What is Germany doing? Did they want to be compromised?
  17. Over 30 years ago, I lived across the street from this 17/18 year old kid, named (coincidentally) Jerry. Jerry would come over to hang out, because he wasn’t getting along with his stepdad. One day he came over and wanted to talk about his situation. He had gotten his girlfriend pregnant. He was wondering what to do. I told him, “Well, Jerry, you’ve got a couple of decisions to make. One of them isn’t ‘whether or not you’ll be a father’, because,…it looks like you’re going to be a father. “You have to decide whether or not to marry her. Some people will tell you that you have to, but you don’t. You need to figure out if that’s what’s best, if you two can love and commit and be a good marriage. It may be that you know it’s not right, that it won’t work out. If so, you don’t have to marry her. “You also have to decide whether you’ll be a good father or a bad father, and that’s a completely different decision than whether you marry. If you don’t marry, you’re still a father. Are you going to be a good one or a bad one? That’s up to you”. He ended up marrying her, getting a job, and last I knew was making it all work. Jerry Jones wanted to be a bad father-to have no contact or involvement with his child- but not be known as a bad father. He wanted to pay for silence. He wanted to maintain the image as a doting father for his children with Jean, and not have anybody know of his other child. He has made it clear that he has paid as much as he was going to, and won’t pay any more, that he won’t acknowledge this daughter, won’t let her into his or his family’s lives. He’s a bad father. Maybe the girl has decided she doesn’t want to support this fiction, that it was a deal her mother made, but she’s not signing on. Maybe she doesn’t want to support the fiction that Jerry Jones’s a good father. That’s her right.
  18. The difference is- in 2010, if you tell OSU fans that they’re going to build the team in cycles, and contend every 3-4 years, they’d say, “Sign us up!”, while 2010 NU fans say, “Get the fuck out of here with that shit!” In 2024, they might/should have a new perspective.
  19. Well, that’s his truth. 😂
  20. Ha-ha! You’ve got us figured out, Slorch! UT is just the rich kid that believes he deserves everything he inherited. The Longhorn program was built on leaching off the largesse of the good, hard working people of the state, and it jealously hoards all it can take, not sharing with anyone. It discarded the scrappy programs it had been leveraging for success, as soon as it could! Oh, if only some good, hard working programs like Mississippi State or Arkansas can give UT the comeuppance we so richly deserve! 😂
  21. Maybe it’s as simple as a personal voyage of discovery- she has a father and siblings and nieces and nephews.
  22. Matt Rhule is a good hire, if they let him work on a B12 development cycle, I.e., do a great job of scouting athletes, use redshirts (and not) to get a promising group of athletes paced together, play them early and fight through a couple of 5-7 and 6-6 years, and then make a run when they’re developed. Wadlingtonpodcasted how Rhule, at BU, recruited a bunch of three stars with high SPARQ scores, meaning they’re great athletes, but haven’t learned to play. He put in the time to develop them, and gave Baylor its best year ever. He cashed that in on a NFL job, and is now at NU. Are they ready to be competitive every third year or so, now? It depends on how they perceive themselves now.
  23. I think they’re over analyzing it. It may be this simple: Iran is anti-Israel, anti-Jews. Russia needs Iran.
  24. This is an interesting article that lays out the strategies: Israel trying to eliminate Hamas militarily Hamas trying to hide among civilians and survive until global pressure stops Israel Despite battlefield setbacks, Hamas militants believe the organization will survive the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza. Many Israeli soldiers fear they are right. https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hamas-thinks-it-could-win-gaza-war-with-israel-6254a8c6?st=vwnis115bxor2au&reflink=share_mobilewebshare
  25. Brock has got to get a job with TIMCO; preferably as the guy who tells TT: “Sorry, no PUF for you!”
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