Free kibbles

TAX AND SPEND:

Maybe no matter how cynical I become, I know I still hope for the best because I can't help but laugh at the concept that John Boehner, who a couple of weeks ago didn't give a damn about extending the payroll tax reduction, suddenly rejects the two month extension agreed upon by the Senate as "just kicking the can down the road." As if John Boehner has never voted to increase spending knowing full well that it couldn't be paid for. Do I need to enumerate the outrageous, unsustainable spending programs Boehner supported while Bush was president? I hope not. No matter how evil I believe the leaders of both parties to be, they always impress me by being more evil.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

Thanks to the Fed's low interest rates, the price of farmland has surged while crop prices are falling. Here's another bubble created by the Fed.

HEALTH CARE:

Over half of medical techs report they routinely text during surgery.

FOREIGN POLICY:

The goofy-ass North Korean dictator who supposedly shot 18 or 27 or some stupid score on the front nine of a golf course died at age 69. It's sad that the best doctors and health care in North Korea could only keep this fruitcake alive until 69. What's worse is the US health care system doesn't perform much better. The problem is that his successor will probably wrench up tensions to prove himself to his competitors.

POLITICS:

I warned that if Ron Paul won Iowa, the Republican establishment would mount an unprecedented smear campaign against him. I didn't need any evidence to figure this out. Logic is all I needed. Apparently others have evidence.

"Tim Carney, an honest anti-corporatist conservative and a friend, has sounded the warning in the otherwise Paul-wary Examiner that should Dr. Paul happen to win Iowa, the long knives will be out for him and blood may well flow."

I hate the violent allusions applied to politics. I often challenged Lew Rockwell for calling Ron Paul heroic. I don't think he appreciated it. There's nothing heroic about standing on principle when the only thing you have to lose is votes. No blood will be shed.  That's just raw meat to draw in more readers. I bet the attacks will be unprecedented and unseemly, but they will only be verbal and media-oriented: i.e. they might try to cut Paul out of a debate. There will be no blood and no heroics. But I appreciate that Ron Paul stands up to the powerful, political establishment that controls both parties. Also, I appreciate that politics as we know it replaced the civil wars that came before.

The last poll I saw put Ron Paul within one point of Gingrich in Iowa. Karl Rove - yeah, that Karl Rove - says Ron Paul will do better than his poll numbers because of his organization. He might as well have said Paul will win Iowa. No offense to the Telegraph, and I'm glad to read it highlights the possibility (probability?) of a Ron Paul victory, but I'll trust Rove because he's the premier Republican pollster right now.

MISC:

I'm sick and tired of the mediocrity of the NFL. The NFL has hidden its mediocrity behind pretensions of parity for years now, but I'm getting disgusted with it. The most egregious example is the receiver scandal. It's unbelievable how many receivers, making millions of dollars per year, drop open passes. It's a scandal. the NFL should open investigations into this scandal.