Happy Holidays to all...

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday week and a great start to the new year.

Couple of things

"Finally, I'm right about something": A quote from a chat with Washington Post health-care blogger/wonk Ezra Klein:

Brooklyn: Looking back, how much of the backlash right now is attributable to having framed private insurance as the biggest bogeyman? Was there an option? Should Pharma have been brought out in front as well?

Ezra Klein: It's hard to say, but inside the process, people worked hard to keep Pharma on board because they have so much more money than any other interest group. The thinking was that insurers don't really have enough to launch a lethal attack. Pharma does, and did. So I'm skeptical that picking a direct fight with them would have been appealing.

Yet another data point in my "Who's going to take one for the team?" series.

Office of Depressing: I'm not sure there's anything to be said about Tiger that isn't stupid, obvious or both, except, dude, we'll always have the 16th hole at Augusta.

Week 12, a.k.a. Jim's terrible predictive powers

On September 10, I posted boring NFL predictions, as follows:

"1. The Colts? 9-7 and do not win the AFC South.
2. The Patriots do not go to the Superbowl.
3. The Vikings? Do not make the playoffs."

Well, that didn't work out so well. Basically, all three are incorrect. Well, that's why I don't put money on these sorts of things.

That being said, I have a really hard time imagining that the Colts will go to the Superbowl, much less win it all.

A New Generation of Patriots...stronger, whiter, more fiscally responsible.

It's Not Charlie's Fault!

According to a letter to the editor in the Cincinnati Enquirer. Personally, I would blame his inability to "game coach", inspire young men or his prominent F.U.P.A.

Pittsburgh Week

Got to love how sober, attractive, and educated the Steelers fanbase is.

I like this.

President Obama's recent education speech had a story about his daughter's science test grade. I'm not sure that it was a great idea in that, as a father, I'd be uncomfortable telling stories about my family to the general public.

Those minor concerns aside, this is exactly right:

“So she came home yesterday, she got a 95,’’ Mr. Obama said. “But here’s the point: She said, ‘You know , I just like having knowledge.’’

The moral of the story, in the president’s view: “Don’t just expect teachers to set a high bar. You’ve got to set a high bar.”

The President continues, in my opinion, his strong push on changing American culture on excellence in student performance. I like it.

Housing Tax Credit?

So here's what I want to know: who thinks this $8,000 tax credit is a good idea? At best, it's a sop to new homebuyers. Ack, it's just a terrible idea.

Net Neutrality

This is what will happen if John McCain (i.e. Cpt. Telecom) gets his way. Why would anyone trust a man who openly admits he knows nothing about the internet to make policy for it?

This year's "Trilogy of Terror"

Part 1. Set the stage...

Part 2. Increase the tension...


Part 3. Combine what 'really scares' with a bit of the truth...

Silverdome Auction

No one is willing to buy the Pontiac Silverdome, so now it is being put up for auction. Would anyone actually have a use for this massive structure? Who could buy this and make it functional?

Tracy Morgan

Forget Going Rogue. This is going to be one of the most entertaining memoirs ever!

Who's taking one for the team?

As I've said all along, it's the insurance industry.

"In unusually harsh terms, Mr. Obama cast insurance companies as obstacles to change interested only in preserving their own “profits and bonuses” and willing to “bend the truth or break it” to stop his drive to remake the nation’s health care system. The president used his weekly radio and Internet address to push back against industry assertions that legislation will drive up premiums.

“It’s smoke and mirrors,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s bogus. And it’s all too familiar. Every time we get close to passing reform, the insurance companies produce these phony studies as a prescription and say, ‘Take one of these, and call us in a decade.’ Well, not this time.”

Rather than trying to curb costs and help patients, he said, the industry is busy “figuring out how to avoid covering people.”

“And they’re earning these profits and bonuses while enjoying a privileged exemption from our antitrust laws,” he said, “a matter that Congress is rightfully reviewing.”

The president’s attack underscores the sharp break between the White House and the insurance industry as the health care debate moves closer to a climax. When Mr. Obama took office, he and his advisers had hoped to keep insurers at the table to forge a consensus. But as the months passed, the strains grew — until this past week, when an industry-financed study attacking the Democratic plan signaled an open rupture."

Why they didn't cut a deal faster, earlier (or didn't stick to the backroom bargain they may have gotten) is beyond me. When you're politically unpopular, it doesn't take much to become the whipping boy (especially when everyone knows that you're the most likely candidate.)

Dittoheads Unite

So it was all of those liberal millionaires in the ranks of the NFL owners that kept Rush from being an owner. Atleast according to Red State. In no way am I fan of Rush's divisive rhetoric, but I have no problems with him being an owner. However, the NFL knows how to run a business, and Rush being involved would have been bad for business.

A football fan's guilt

This article about concussions in football is disturbing to me. I really like football, and I am especially fond of watching linemen. But it may be that long-term (or even short-term) careers in professional football can be damaging to players' brains.

How guilty should a football fan be? Assuming the science is correct, one thing is for certain: in about 20 years, players that we are fond of now will be falling victim to these chronic brain injuries.

Simple question

The President's Nobel Peace Prize -- deserved?

Conservative Bible Project

The crazy bastards at Conservapedia would like to remove the well known liberal bias from the Bible by removing liberal passages. So I guess they will have to remove Jesus completely?

And now, for some actual Communists...

Happy Birthday to the People's Republic of China (and to its Taylor group citizens!)

Dear Fellow Conservative,

This video just came to my attention. I'm so outraged and stunned by its content that I had to share it with you.

Watch the video now and see the indoctrination of our nation's greatest treasure -- our children.

In the video, impressionable youngsters at a public school in New Jersey, most of whom are no more than six or seven years old, have been instructed to sing the praises of "Barack Hussein Obama." One song is even set to the tune of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

This is the type of propaganda you would see in Stalin's Russia or Kim Jong Il's North Korea. I never thought the day would come when I'd see it here in America.

This is the type of fanaticism Republicans are up against as we fight to stop the Obama Democrats' radical leftist transformation of America. The only way our Party can defeat their liberal ambitions is by electing more Republicans in the upcoming 2009 state elections and the critical 2010 mid-term elections.

Do your part today by making a secure online contribution of $10, $25, $50, $100 or whatever you can right now to the RNC. Your gift will provide the resources we need to reveal the Obama Democrats' true leftist intentions for our country and carry our Republican candidates to victory this fall and beyond. Please help us win this fight for the future of America.

Sincerely,

Michael Steele
Chairman, Republican National Committee

P.S. The indoctrinating of the most impressionable members of our society is unbelievable unless you see it with your own eyes. Please watch the video of young school children literally singing the praises of Barack Obama that their teachers have taught them. Share it with your friends, family, neighbors or anyone you think may be concerned by this. Then make a donation of $10, $25, $50 or $100 to support the RNC's efforts to fight this leftist propaganda and elect more Republicans this year and next. Thank you.

I couldn't agree more...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
America: Target America
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

It appears that the writers of "The Daily Show" read our blog regularly.