Sometimes it’s hard to recognize some of the things that are happening around us. Sometimes it is easy. Big business has been shipping jobs overseas for the last 30 years. For some reason, there are a number of Americans who believe that giving big business more money will somehow make them keep jobs here in the US. Whirlpool is the latest example of a company that has been slowly but steadily dismantling plants and reassembling them in Mexico.
Well, I was a little busy last night (I was on call for trauma) and never had an opportunity to finish this post. Now, with blurry eyes, let’s do it.
Waiting for the real Joe Flacco to show up
Arizona Cardinals versus Baltimore Ravens – What happened to the Baltimore Ravens last week? To say that they came out flat would be the understatement of the decade. They stunk. They were terrible on both sides of the ball (and special teams and coaching decisions). They certainly have to do better this week. Arizona is rebuilding. This should be an easy victory for the Ravens.
Minnesota Vikings versus Carolina Panthers – Both teams have a lot of problems. Their defenses are porous. Both offenses are struggling. Adrian Peterson should get his yards. Cam Newton should get his in the air and on the ground. I simply believe that the Carolina Panthers should be able to score more points and therefore I’m leaning towards them.
Jacksonville Jaguars versus Houston Texans – Neither team has shown any consistency so far this year. I look for the Houston Texans to begin to make a move to try to get Terrell Owens. They desperately need a big play receiver while Andre Johnson is healing. I’m not sure what the Jaguars need. Their defense seems to be improving. I look for the Texans to win this one.
Miami Dolphins versus New York Giants – Miami proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are one of the worst teams in the league. Their performance in the last two minutes of the Tim Tebow “miracle fest” was more than embarrassing. The New York Giants are playing some extremely mediocre football. In spite of Eli Manning’s outstanding passer rating, he continues to struggle against the blitz. I look for the Giants to figure out a way to win and win big against the Miami defense that doesn’t seem to be able to do anything particularly well.
New Orleans Saints versus St. Louis Rams – look for New Orleans to continue their winning ways. They should roll over the Rams.
Indianapolis Colts versus Tennessee Titans – The Indianapolis Colts got torched by the New Orleans Saints last week. I don’t think they’re going to get torched this week. The Titans defense is playing relatively solid football. Their struggling offense will figure out a way to score points against the Indianapolis Colts defense, which is simply having trouble stopping the run, the pass and anything else that the offense will throw at it. Tennessee should win this one by little but more than a touchdown.
Washington Redskins versus Buffalo Bills – The Redskins started off this year red-hot. Since then, they’ve benched a quarterback, Rex Grossman, and they are continuing to struggle on offense. Their defense looked great early in the year, but they’ve run into some significant troubles over the last two or three weeks. The Buffalo Bills also started off red-hot. Their victory over the New England Patriots was clearly the high point of their season so far. I have no idea what to expect in this game. If the Bills are able to get the running game established with Freddie Jackson, the Bills should be able to win this game relatively easily. Ryan Fitzpatrick must not turn the ball over in order for them to be successful.
Detroit Lions versus Denver Broncos – Every week, from here to the end of the season, some team is going to face a must-win situation. In this case, it is the Detroit Lions. Detroit was thinking of themselves as one of the best teams in the NFL just two or three weeks ago. Now, after back-to-back losses, they really need to prove that they’re not the same old, losing Detroit Lions. They have to be able to beat, and beat handily, a much weaker Denver Broncos team. Detroit has to control the line of scrimmage on defense. They cannot allow Tim Tebow to run, at all. They must force him to throw the football. I think that Matthew Stafford is healthy enough to play. This should be an easy victory for the Lions. If the Lions fail to win this game, look for this team to implode in a huge cloud of infighting.
New England Patriots versus Pittsburgh Steelers – This is clearly the game of the week. Both teams could use a strong victory. A victory by the New England Patriots would clearly cement them as the second-best team in the NFL (behind the undefeated Green Bay Packers). A win by the Pittsburgh Steelers would shake off the nasty taste of the first several games of this year in which they did not play well. It would also put the Pittsburgh Steelers into the conversation as one of the best teams in the National Football League. The key to this game is the Pittsburgh Steeler offense versus the New England Patriots defense. Are the Steelers going to be able run the football? Will there be wide open holes in the secondary? I’m leaning towards the Pittsburgh Steelers because they’re playing at home and I’m not sure that the New England Patriots are as good as we think they are.
Cincinnati Bengals versus Seattle Seahawks – The Cincinnati Bengals have been playing extremely good defense lately. I’m still not sure that Seattle has done anything extremely well. Cincinnati, with their young quarterback, should be able win this game.
Cleveland Browns versus San Francisco 49ers – Multiple different websites have the San Francisco 49ers in the top five or six teams in their power rankings. I tend to believe them. It is not that I believe that the San Francisco 49ers are one of the best teams in the league, I simply believe that they don’t suck. In order to lose to the Browns, you need to be relatively awful. I look for San Francisco to continue their winning ways.
Tashard Choice
Dallas Cowboys versus Philadelphia Eagles – The Philadelphia Eagles have issues on both sides of the football. Their defense has not been particularly good. Their offense has not generated the big plays that we all expected. Yes, they’ve made some big plays. They’ve also had a significant amount of trouble moving the football and keeping Michael Vick upright. If the Dallas Cowboys can consistently find a running game, this may protect some of the weaknesses that Tony Romo shows relatively frequently. I look for the Dallas Cowboys to be able run the football effectively against the Philadelphia Eagles. I think the Dallas defense will make enough plays to keep the Cowboys in the game. This game really hinges on Tony Romo and the offensive line. The Dallas Cowboys will win this game, but it’s going to be close. (The Cowboys released Tashard Choice today. He was an exciting player who was almost good in the wild cat. He was almost good receiving passes out of the backfield. He almost blocked well. He almost ran with power. He was almost fast. He did have the disastrous play in the opening game against the Redskins last year and was the only bright spot in a bad loss to the Steelers two years ago.)
Monday Night Football
San Diego Chargers versus Kansas City Chiefs – The Kansas City Chiefs stopped crying over their misfortune a couple weeks ago and began to play some solid football. Matt Cassel is throwing the ball pretty well. Surprisingly, they’re running the ball fairly well. The San Diego Chargers are missing something. Philip Rivers is throwing too many interceptions. His receivers don’t seem to have the same separation that they did one or two seasons ago. I think that this game will be extremely close. I think there’ll be several turnovers on both sides of the football. I think that the San Diego Chargers, in the end, will pull this one out.
Your thoughts?
Game winning percentages:
| Pwin | GAME | Pwin | |
| 0.24 | Arizona at Baltimore | 0.76 | |
| 0.32 | Minnesota at Carolina | 0.68 | |
| 0.22 | Jacksonville at Houston | 0.78 | |
| 0.26 | Miami at Giants | 0.74 | |
| 0.59 | New Orleans at St. Louis | 0.41 | |
| 0.30 | Indianapolis at Tennessee | 0.70 | |
| 0.51 | Detroit at Denver | 0.49 | |
| 0.38 | Washington at Buffalo | 0.62 | |
| 0.52 | Cincinnati at Seattle | 0.48 | |
| 0.28 | Cleveland at San Francisco | 0.72 | |
| 0.37 | New England at Pittsburgh | 0.63 | |
| 0.47 | Dallas at Philadelphia | 0.53 | |
| 0.52 | San Diego at Kansas City | 0.48 |
Artist: Whitney Houston
Tune: Queen of the Night
More in a second.
Tony LaRussa made the right moves
There is a sentiment that the Rangers are simply losers. You can feel that sentiment on twitter. I’m sorry, but I remember going to Texas Ranger games back in the mid-’70s. That’s when they were losers. They worked hard to figure out different ways to lose a baseball game. The Texas Rangers are close. They played much better this year than they did last year. Last year, they were simply outclassed by the San Francisco Giants. That did not happen this year. The Rangers just need a little bit more pitching. Our closer was shaky in every outing. I feel pretty confident that Nolan Ryan has us on the right path. I think that Ron Washington managed pretty well.
The problem was our pitching staff. There was no one we could go to who could guarantee an out. The game was lost when the Cardinals sat there in the bottom of the fifth. Theroit grounded out to start the inning. Then Feldman walked Craig. Then Feldman hit Pujols with the pitch. Lance Berkman grounded out to first, advancing the runners to second and third. We intentionally walked Freese. Molina was walked on a questionable ball for call (should’ve never been in a situation where you are hoping, praying that the umpire will call a strike). Feldman is relieved by CJ Wilson who promptly hits the first batter, scoring another run. The next batter strikes out. The Cardinals did nothing of any significance in that inning, yet Ranger pitching gave them two runs. You simply cannot play that kind of baseball in the World Series. (The Rangers gave up a World Series record 41 walks. Nothing else needs to be said.)
Congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals. I look at the Texas Rangers as I did the Dallas Cowboys back in the late 1960s. The Cowboys had to knock on the door several times before they were able to kick it in and win the Super Bowl. If the Texas Rangers are able to get a real closer and a real ace pitcher who we can count on to shut down hitters, not with ground balls but with strikeouts, the Texas Rangers will win the World Series next year.
The problem in this country is that making money isn’t enough. In the Wall Street environment that we have now, you always have to make more money than you did last quarter and more than you did last year. This is an impossible task to do forever, obviously, but Wall Street punishes those who don’t crank up the money machine. So, the fact that Bank of America is making money ain’t enough. They need to make more money. So instead of doing something like earning it, they thought that abusing their own customers was a good idea. They decided that they needed to charge their customers (who are nothing more than little piles of money) a monthly fee to use their stupid ATM cards.
BOA CEO was crying to reporters the other day:
“I, like you, get a little incensed when you think about how much good all of you do, whether it’s volunteer hours, charitable giving we do, serving clients and customers well,” Moynihan said during the Oct. 18 gathering. To the bank’s critics, he said, “You ought to think a little about that before you start yelling at us.”
Really? That’s what he is bringing to the table. We spend a couple of million on charity so we should be able to rip you off for a couple billion in stupid fees? That’s his argument.
As I mentioned before, Americans are tired of being ripped off by American corporations. Maybe BOA didn’t read my blog. Maybe they don’t care about the fact that the American people are in a terrible bind. They don’t have any extra money.
From HuffPo:
Fact #1: Bank of America continues to smother job creation by refusing to lend to small-businesses:
Bank of America went from being one of the top SBA lenders in 2006, making $415 million in loans to small businesses, to extending just $46 million in loans in 2010, an 89 percent drop. No wonder that Bloomberg reported that Bank of America ranked lowest in a 24-bank survey of small business customer satisfaction.
Fact #2: Bank of America continues to prefer to kick homeowners out of their homes than do permanent, sustainable loan modifications:
After participating in the HAMP program for two-and-a-half years, Bank of America has made permanent loan modifications to just 136,195 families. Meanwhile, they’ve denied or canceled modification for 683,000 families. This means homeowners have a one out of six chance of getting a permanent HAMP modification with Bank of America. In August 2011, the bank granted HAMP trial modifications to just 1% of eligible borrowers, according to a monthly report from the U.S. Treasury.
Fact #3: Bank of America — and to be fair, the other big banks too — is actually increasing homeowner indebtedness, not reducing it:
A report by the Congressional Oversight Panel last December found that nearly 95 percent of active, permanent loan modifications resulted in homeowners actually having a higher unpaid principal balance than before the modification. Translation: even those lucky few who manage to get a mortgage modification from Bank of America still end up deeper in debt than when they started. Keep this in mind every time you hear Bank of America or any other big bank tout big numbers of homeowners they have helped — 95 percent of them are deeper in debt than when they started.
Fact #4: Bank of America continues to be a major threat to American taxpayers:
And the threat just grew by trillions of dollars. Last week, federal bank regulators allowed Bank of America to transfer the riskiest of its crumbling assets from an uninsured Merrill Lynch division to the deposit-insured and discount-window-eligible Bancorp division. As Simon Johnson from MIT wrote, “The move puts the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on the hook for any losses…because the agency can tap a U.S. Treasury line of credit if the fund runs dry, taxpayers could be at risk, too.” This is an unacceptable shift of Wall Street risk onto the American taxpayers, and some are saying the beginning of another backdoor bailout for Bank of America.
This was a very thoughtful comment to a very nice Vanity Fair article
WW2 spending and debt brought us out of the Great Depression and won WW2. Spending increased to ~35% of the economy and the federal debt was ~122% of the economy at the end of the war.
The debt had been reduced to 33% when Reagan was inaugurated; the debt doubled as a percentage of the economy under Reagan and Bush I as federal spending was between 22 and 25% of the economy, after being under 20% from 1946 to 1980.
Reagan also started the deregulation of the banking industry and the dismantling of the New Deal that has resulted in trillions in job and home value losses. Reagan’s tax cuts for the rich and doubling of military spending led the U.S. from the world’s leading creditor nation to the world’s leading debtor and “blowing an extraordinary economic lead” (Sen Pat Moynihan, 12/10/90 Newsweek), [ed. note - I can't verify this quote. I looked and the internet isn't good finding some data. this is one of those things.] as poor intelligence greatly overestimated Soviet economic and military power. Under Clinton, the debt went down to 60% of the
economy, then back up to 81% under Bush II.Though the Constitution encourages inactivity and gridlock with its division of powers and numerous veto points to hinder decisive action, Obama was able to get health care reform and a much too small, much too short-term and much too non-structural stimulus, which was larded with tax cuts. Not sufficient. Most democracies have a parliamentary system, in which it is easier to pass necessary legislation.
This recession is much deeper than the one Reagan faced when the federal debt that was much less as a percentage of the economy. Vice President Dick Cheney declared in 2002,
‘Reagan proved deficits don’t matter’ –unless a Democrat is in the White House during a deep recession, when deficit pump priming is necessary to get out of a deep ditch.
Several days ago, a series of earthquakes hit Turkey. This has caused the deaths of more than 500 Turkish citizens. When you’re sitting back and wondering about the role of government and how can government do better, look at disaster relief. The survivors of the Turkish earthquake are now having to live without adequate shelter. It is cold, raining and snowing there.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
From the BBC:
Officials say 1,650 people were injured in the 7.2-magnitude quake which had its epicentre in Van province – 185 people have been rescued alive.
Rain and snow are hindering the rescue effort and worsening conditions for the thousands of people made homeless.
Tents and other aid supplies are being delivered after some initial criticism that the response was too slow.
Hundreds of people are still missing under collapsed buildings.
Rescuers in some places are continuing to search for those buried in the rubble, but at other sites they have stopped work and attention is turning to the needs of the survivors.
People in the hardest-hit town, Ercis, have formed long queues to try to get hold of tents but many have been told there are none left.
“Everyone is getting sick and wet,” said Fetih Zengin, a 38-year-old whose house was badly damaged.
“We have been waiting in line for four days and still nothing.”
Rescue efforts are continuing in the worst hit town, Ercis, but have ended in the city of Van
“We slept under a piece of plastic erected on some wooden boards we found. We have 10 children in our family,” he told the Reuters news agency.Another survivor, Zeki Yatkin, lost his father in the quake.
“They say we will get prefabricated houses in one-and-a-half months,” he said, in an interview with Reuters.
“We can’t tolerate the cold, but what else can we do?”
Yesterday was my birthday. One of the good/bad things about Facebook is that if you place your birthday in your Facebook profile, everybody can figure out when your birthday is. As a result, you get lots of birthday wishes. 
This the best video that was posted to my Facebook site yesterday.
Republican Congressman Paul Ryan has vigorously argued that we need to give more tax breaks to the wealthy so they can “grow the economy.” As we’ve seen over the last 30 years, every major tax break provided by several different administrations were given to the wealthy. They were able to grow their incomes while incomes of the middle and lower classes have stayed stagnant. Upper mobility is more difficult here in the United States than it is in many European countries.
The Economic Mobility Project states:
“Most studies find that, in America, about half of the advantages of having a parent with a high income are passed on to the next generation,” their report concludes. “This means that one of the biggest predictors of an American child’s future economic success — the identity and characteristics of his or her parents — is predetermined and outside that child’s control. To be sure, the apple can fall far from the tree and often does in individual cases, but relative to other factors, the tree dominates the picture. These findings are more striking when put in comparative context. There is little available evidence that the United States has more relative mobility than other advanced nations. If anything, the data seem to suggest the opposite.”
So Rick Perry has released his tax plan. It isn’t as flat as Cain’s 9-9-9 plan.
Check out the nuts and bolts of Perry’s plan.
Simply put, cut benefits to the poor and then make the poor pay more in taxes. That’s Perry in a nutshell. This is a sick distortion of Christianity and the American sense of morality. Take from the poor and give to the rich. It is a sad commentary of American society that some people actually take this guy seriously. (By the way, Rush Limbaugh seems to like the plan. Surprised?)
This is exactly what I have been saying about Romneycare. We have to do better.
From Physicians for a National Health Program:
While the Massachusetts health care reform in 2006 reduced the number of people who are uninsured in the state by about half, it did so at a high price and is unsustainable over the long haul because of skyrocketing costs, a group of Boston-area physicians and researchers say in a new report released today. The results do not augur well for the similarly structured Affordable Care Act, they say.
The report, titled “The Massachusetts Model of Health Reform in Practice,” presents data showing how the Massachusetts law has resulted in a surge in the sale of skimpy, inadequate insurance policies with high deductibles, along with a sharp rise in health care premiums for individuals and small businesses.
The authors also document how the law has created a financial crisis for the state’s safety-net hospitals and community health centers by cutting their public funding and redirecting the money to subsidize the purchase of private insurance policies.
The financial burden of the reform has fallen disproportionately on lower-middle-class families, they say. Meanwhile, the number of uninsured is once again on the rise.
Those are just some of the findings in a new, exhaustively documented report released today by Mass-Care and the Massachusetts chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program. The report, which is extensively illustrated with tables and graphs, draws on hundreds of sources, including academic studies, government statistics and surveys, in the most comprehensive compilation of its kind.
Other findings include the following:
- The use of high-deductible health plans more than tripled for residents with private insurance
- Good health insurance coverage at small businesses all but disappeared after the reform
- Most of the gains in the number of insured represented a shift of patients from the state’s former Free Care Pool to costlier private insurance programs, where the patients sometimes face new co-payments and premiums that impede their access to care
- The reform did not reverse the growing use of the state’s emergency departments
- The rate of personal bankruptcies linked to medical debt has not significantly decreased
Benjamin Day, executive director of Mass-Care and the study’s lead author, said, “Based on what we’ve seen in Massachusetts, and given the similarities between our state law and the new federal law, it’s reasonable to expect a similar course for the Affordable Care Act: a significant initial expansion of insurance coverage and a moderate improvement in access to care.
“However, by not addressing any of the underlying problems of the health care system – its uncontrollable costs, high levels of inequality, and high administrative costs associated with having multiple private insurers – we will see a worsening cost crisis for the rest of the population and a failing safety net for the most vulnerable populations,” Day said.
The report finds that small businesses were hit particularly hard by health reform. Quality coverage for small business employees all but disappeared over a few short years after reform – while the share of all insurance plans with high deductibles tripled – and health care premiums for small employers rose more rapidly after the reform than in other states (7 percent faster for individuals and 14 percent faster for families).
Dr. Rachel Nardin, chief of neurology at Cambridge Hospital, assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the study, said, “The Massachusetts reform built on a complex blend of public and private insurers, adding to the administrative complexity and cost of the system. To achieve cost-effective, high-quality and truly universal care, we need a single-payer system.”
Nardin’s views echo those of other Massachusetts doctors. The Massachusetts Medical Society’s newly released 2011 survey of physician attitudes toward health reform showed 41 percent of the respondents would select a single-payer system as their first choice for national reform, versus 17 percent who would prefer the Affordable Care Act model. Support for single-payer reform rose 7 percentage points in the year since the last survey.
Today is day #38. Previous posts – here and here.
From Paul Krugman:
When the Occupy Wall Street protests began three weeks ago, most news organizations were derisive if they deigned to mention the events at all. For example, nine days into the protests, National Public Radio had provided no coverage whatsoever.
It is, therefore, a testament to the passion of those involved that the protests not only continued but grew, eventually becoming too big to ignore. With unions and a growing number of Democrats now expressing at least qualified support for the protesters, Occupy Wall Street is starting to look like an important event that might even eventually be seen as a turning point.
What can we say about the protests? First things first: The protesters’ indictment of Wall Street as a destructive force, economically and politically, is completely right.
A weary cynicism, a belief that justice will never get served, has taken over much of our political debate — and, yes, I myself have sometimes succumbed. In the process, it has been easy to forget just how outrageous the story of our economic woes really is. So, in case you’ve forgotten, it was a play in three acts.
Oh, I truly love this quick and dirty explanation of why we are so distressed. More from Krugman:
In the first act, bankers took advantage of deregulation to run wild (and pay themselves princely sums), inflating huge bubbles through reckless lending. In the second act, the bubbles burst — but bankers were bailed out by taxpayers, with remarkably few strings attached, even as ordinary workers continued to suffer the consequences of the bankers’ sins. And, in the third act, bankers showed their gratitude by turning on the people who had saved them, throwing their support — and the wealth they still possessed thanks to the bailouts — behind politicians who promised to keep their taxes low and dismantle the mild regulations erected in the aftermath of the crisis.
Look I really believe that the deck is stacked against the American worker. As a regular Joe or Jane, we can’t call up our congressman and get a law changed that puts large sums of money in our pocket. We watch free trade agreement after free trade agreement be signed by those in power and then we watch our jobs and factories go overseas. It seems that every time someone talks about opening up capitalism and freeing business from the bonds of regulation, we get the shaft and those in power get to buy a new house in the South of France.
I continue to support Occupy Wall Street because it is a movement about us. It is a movement that is simply asking whether we can get a fair shake in the work place. WE are simply asking that Congress listen to us instead of only listening to the Wall Street fat cats.
Americans can take abuse. You can push us around and you can talk badly about us… for a while. Wall Street darling Netflix was raking in money hand over fist. Who would’ve thought that sending DVDs through the mail could be really, really profitable? Well, the guys at Netflix figured this out. They were on Easy Street. They’d figured out a model for delivering movie content to Americans through multiple different ways – DVDs through the mail, direct download to your TV or direct download to your computer. They had an extremely sweet set-up. Then, during the middle of a recession, they decided to raise prices significantly. They forgot their own business model. They forgot that they were delivering movies to Americans cheaply and easily. Without regard to the cheapness, Americans can go and rent a movie at any number of locations or even buy the movie, at a pretty cheap price. Americans were not happy. We spoke loudly and clearly by canceling subscriptions to Netflix – left and right. The reaction was so swift and sudden that we saw something in the United States that we haven’t seen for decades – a CEO actually apologizing to the American people. It may be too little, too late. (I bet you the board will fire him.)
From Occupy Wall Street
It is been a month of the occupy Wall Street movement. Check this out from the Daily Kos, this is what Occupy Wall Street is:
It is a protest specifically against the members of the financial sector, who were bailed out at taxpayer expense after wrecking the economy with self-perpetuated fraudulent schemes against one another, and who have learned not one damn thing from the experience, but instead have continued on their merry, privileged way. They assert themselves to be masters of the universe, and pay themselves accordingly, and whether the world they supposedly run hums like clockwork or burns to the ground makes no particular difference to them.
It is a protest against the perceived entitlement of the wealthy, for whom any slight economic injury (say, from taxes) is seen as an apocalyptic event, and for whose sake austerity must be imposed on every other group, from schoolchildren to the elderly, from the poor, the sick and the comfortably middle-class alike.
It is a protest against a government that seems to exist solely to meet the needs of wealthy and corporate benefactors, a government that cannot competently even execute routine functions anymore, but which is instead dedicated single-mindedly to the premise of cutting taxes on the rich and balancing the books on the poor. [Read more →]
Steve Smith of the Carolina Panthers
Washington Redskins versus Carolina Panthers – The Washington Redskins have made a change at quarterback. I’m not sure if this is good or bad. John Beck is in as quarterback. For the Carolina Panthers, Cam Newton is playing fairly well in spite of last week’s performance. He has more interceptions than touchdowns passes. I do like the way he plays, but he has to tighten that up. I’m going with the Carolina Panthers in this one.
Seattle Seahawks versus Cleveland Browns – Seattle is playing pretty good defense, especially their front seven. Peyton Hillis, for the Cleveland Browns, has been bothered by his hamstring. I’m leaning towards the Seahawks.
Atlanta Falcons versus Detroit Lions – Last week, I said that Atlanta had to win. I’m going to say the same thing this week. I thought that Detroit’s front seven were playing pretty well on defense, but the San Francisco 49ers’ Frank Gore gashed them for a ton of yards. I look for the Atlanta Falcons to try to do the same. They have to get the running game on track. Detroit? I have no idea what happened last Sunday. They simply didn’t play a good game. Where were all the touchdown passes to Calvin Johnson? It didn’t happen. I think Atlanta will try to pound the ball and will be relatively successful. I’m leaning towards the Atlanta Falcons.
Denver Broncos versus Miami Dolphins – This game would be a snoozer, except… Tim Tebow. Everybody’s been fixated on Tim Tebow for the last two weeks. All I know is that running quarterbacks have modest success in this league. Michael Vick began to have a lot of success once he started throwing accurately down the field. Randall Cunningham had modest success because he was a streaky quarterback who could get on a hot streak. Unless Tim Tebow begins to accurately deliver the ball on time, he will only have modest success in this league. I won’t even go into how many college athletes were extremely exciting in college only to have mediocre careers in the NFL. Neither of these teams really do anything particularly well. I look for Miami to try to get their running game back on track. This game is a toss-up.
San Diego Chargers versus New York Jets – In my opinion, this game is all about the Jets. It is all about the fact that the Jets can’t run the ball and they can’t stop the run very well. Last year they had Kris Jenkins and Shaun Ellis on the defensive line. Both of these great defensive players have left the Jets. The Jets are 11th in total defense and they are ranked 28th in stopping the run. The Chargers should be able to run and throw the football. They’re going to put up 25-30 points. I just don’t see how the Jets are going to be able to keep pace.
Chicago Bears versus Tampa Bay Buccaneers – I don’t know what to expect from the Chicago Bears. Their defense has kind of been up and down. Sometimes Jay Cutler looks like an elite quarterback and sometimes he doesn’t. One thing I have noticed is that Matt Forte is running the ball pretty well. On the other side of the ball, Josh Freeman was mediocre to awful two weeks ago, but played pretty well last week. I’m throwing this came into the toss-up bowl. This one might be fun to watch, as I suspect it’s going to be well played and hard-hitting.
Houston Texans versus Tennessee Titans – So what happened to the Tennessee Titans? Compared to just two weeks ago, Matt Hasselbeck seems to be a little less hot. His passer rating still makes him the sixth best quarterback in the league, which is not too shabby. Can somebody tell me what’s up with Chris Johnson? Currently, he’s rushed for 250 yards. He is behind James Starks and Felix Jones. Felix Jones has been hurt for two games this year. Starks is on a pass first team and shares carries with Ryan Grant. Come on. Michael Vick has run for 120 yards more than Chris Johnson. For the Houston Texans, Adrian Foster is running well. Matt Schaub is doing okay. I think the Houston Texans will find a way to win this one, but it should be close. [Read more →]
Cool video on Dark Matter:
I was kind of surprised that Senator Marco Rubio while talking about the death of dictator Muammar Qaddafi managed to thank British and French troops (warning: this link opens an audio file), but not American troops. I just found that interesting. A Republican thanking foreign troops first – curious.
There seems to be lots of people who are curious about how Muammar Qaddafi died. I’m sorry, maybe I’m just not inquisitive. I simply don’t care. I don’t care if a lightning bolt from Zeus hit him in the head or a sniper took him out at 300 yards with a 10 mile an hour cross breeze. I simply don’t care. From my standpoint, I’m happy for the Libyan people. They needed the dictator either captured or killed so that they could move on. Now they get to the difficult task of trying to make a nation out of Libya. Running a government is a lot harder than overthrowing the government. Running a government that respects all of your people is even harder. By the way, I wasn’t interested in the gruesome photos of Saddam Hussein or the photos of his sons when they were killed. Maybe it’s because I get enough blood and guts and work that I don’t need to see them at home. Maybe it’s because the blood and guts are beside the point.
Charles Blow has been writing some absolutely fabulous articles/op-eds in the New York Times. He has served up another one. This one is about Occupy Wall Street. There are a lot of people who feel a kinship with those who are doing the “occupying.”
Bank failure #84. Yes, there’ve been 84 bank failures so far this year.
According to the Financial Time,s the bondholders of Greek debt are expected to take a 60% loss on their current holdings.
I’ll have a little bit more on this later but I thought I’d start off now. Skeptics of global warming, some curmudgeon scientists, decided to prove once and for all that global warming was nothing but a bunch of hooey. They took a bunch of data than they crunched all the numbers and guess what, they found out what every other climate scientists of any stature has found out, that global warming is for real.
10 years since the anthrax attacks. There have been so many different things going on in the last 10 years, I really have not had a chance to delve into this case. I haven’t looked at the evidence. I know that both Glenn and Jim White have been following this case with more than a passing interest.
As I mentioned several days ago, Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan is nothing more than a fancy flat tax. Robert Reich agrees.
We should enjoy a little music on a Friday night:
Artist: Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto
Tune: The Girl from Ipanema
Today, President Obama has announced that all American troops are coming home from Iraq by the end of the year. I’m sure that there is going to be a lot of discussion and finger-pointing over time tables and such. In my opinion, it is past time for our troops to come home. We’ve lost too many Americans. Unfortunately, after much thought and consideration, it is difficult for me to come up with much that we’ve accomplished. We got rid of Saddam Hussein. Everyone will acknowledge that he was a dictator and a mass murderer. As we began what will no doubt be a protracted discussion on what was accomplished and when should we come home, I think it is important for us to remember our goals. I have to smile because our goals have changed over the last 8-10 years. Originally, our goals were to prevent Saddam Hussein from launching an attack on the United States or our allies with weapons of mass destruction (nuclear weapons, chemical weapons or biological weapons). As everyone now knows, we found no weapons of mass destruction – none. There were multiple other reasons placed out there in the ethernet which included securing Iraqi oil for the United States, freeing the Iraqi people from the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, freeing Iraq from the terrorists calling themselves Al Qaeda in Iraq and finally, the domino effect. By taking out Saddam Hussein and instilling democracy in Iraq, democracy would spread throughout the Middle East.
I’m ecstatic that our troops are coming home. I am deeply saddened that we spent over $800 billion (more than our economic stimulus package) and have so little to show for it. Over 4400 Americans have been killed and over 32,000 have been wounded. I know that our troops have fought bravely. I’m in awe of their sacrifice and dedication to duty.
Mister President – let’s bring them home quickly and safely.
My First Model S Ride from Tesla Motors on Vimeo.
There is nothing boring about the Tesla. Beautiful car. Great lines. Sounds like it handles well. Great acceleration. I need to drive one of these.
I found this very interesting as conservatives are arguing to decrease or eliminate the minimum wage.
From economist Greg Mankiw:
The minimum wage has a much larger role now than it did three years ago, in large part because of the legislated increase in the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. For example, comparing the 2010 data with the 2007 data, one finds the following:
- The percentage of all hourly-paid workers paid at or below the minimum wage rose from 2.3 to 6.0 percent.
- The percentage of part-time workers paid at or below the minimum wage rose from 5 to 14 percent.
- The percentage of teenage workers paid at or below the minimum wage rose from 7 to 25 percent.
Errington C. Thompson, MD, is a surgeon, scholar, full-time sports fan and part-time political activist. He is active in a number of community projects and initiatives. Through medicine, he strives to improve the physical health of all he treats...
