Friday, November 18, 2011

All over the map

Brilliant fed. govt. story of the week. The commission in charge of finding fraud and waste in Medicare and Medicaid has been found to have enormous amounts of fraud and waste. They have been falsly reporting stuff to cover hospitals they like and other devious stuff. So, now there will be a commission to check the commission. I kid about the last part, but it is pretty bad at the federal level.

Tangent 2 (Piggy backing off tangent 1)
I would like all the Democrats and/or independents reading this to think about this possibility. I probably won’t change your idea that you think the government should provide services that I think are better provided by a free and independent people. And I sure won’t tell you the Republicans are any better, because they are both awful options. But, regardless of your ideology, can we all at least agree the federal government is inept and borderline criminal in its usage of our tax dollars? Yes, the federal government is the only one who can fund a standing army and regulate trade and some other things. But, do they really need to be running billion dollar health care programs or No Child Left Behind in every school or funding mortgages for people who have no business trying to finance a house. Do they need to give aid to every country under the sun, which usually just props up corrupt governments instead of the money actually getting to the people who need it?

I guess what I am saying is, if you want to be a democrat, be one at the state level. Be one where at least the government program isn’t so enormous it has no chance of oversight. Be one where at least big business would have to lobby 50 different legislatures instead of one to get policies which further rip off the middle class. All this scandal about lobbying and buying votes is sad, but the real problem is that one house of legislature has the power to control so much of our lives. Almost every founding father feared this tyranny. They feared trading 1 tyrant a thousand miles away for many tyrants a few miles away (Yes I stole that line from Mel Gibson in The Patriot). The more you can spread out the power, the better for everyone. I think it is arrogance and pride that always comes before the fall (in this case the fall of the great idea that is America). I think the people in Washington don’t think people at the state level are smart enough to run their states. That, and they are just power hungry, and as long as their power goes unchecked they will continue to grab for more.

Tangent 3
Oh yeah, and Clemson has a big game this weekend:
Clemson 27 NC ST 24 Cold weather, injuries to Sammy and left tackle and a complete looking ahead to next week will keep this game close. But what do I know? I’ve only been right half the time.

Tangent 4
Did any of you see the end of the Boise State game? I used to think Bob Knight was a little off when he said you shouldn’t worry so much about what it takes to win, but more about avoiding the things that get you beat. I didn’t think you should focus on playing not to lose. But that isn’t what he is saying. You still play aggressive; you just focus on fixing the little things that will get you beat: turnovers, not rebounding and lack of focus. Same goes for football. Each team did so many things to get themselves beat down the stretch. Boise is up seven with two and a half minutes to play.

Boise huge mistake 1: Boise’s tailback fumbles. Inexcusable.

Boise huge mistake 2: Boise corner gets beat for a long touchdown on a double move.

Boise huge mistake 3: After TCU decides to go for two and the win (love the decision), the corner has every opportunity to easily knock the ball down. Instead he goes to cradle an interception and it goes right through his hands. He either wasn’t smart enough to understand time and score OR too selfish to care. Either way…HUGE MISTAKE.

TCU huge mistake 1: TCU kicker kicks the kickoff out of bounds. TCU QB with Mohawk and logo branded into his scalp is shown on the sideline mouthing the words, “You f&*%ing idiot!” I can’t make this stuff up.

TCU huge mistake 2: Corner gets beat deep and has to grab player for penalty. Penalty was better than getting beat, but still a free 15 yards with the clock stopped when all you have to do is keep people in front of you and in bounds.

Referee huge mistake 1: on 4th down, the TCU corner has his hands on the back of a receiver but is neither pushing nor holding AND the ball is ten yards over receiver’s head so…… obviously a pass interference. An awful call or as I like to call it, a Ron Cherry. So Boise is still alive.

Boise huge mistake 4: Playing for field goal with 30 seconds left on the 20 and one timeout and a Heisman candidate quarterback. I am not saying this in retrospect. At the time I thought it was stupid to leave it up to the kicker, because like my buddy so eloquently says, “COLLEGE KICKERS SUCK!”

Boise huge mistake 5: Not having a better kicker on the roster. Plus, only having three attempts all year. How does that happen? You would almost want to intentionally stall drives as a coach to get him more reps.
And the kicker pushes it right and Boise’s title hopes go up in flames because of a kicker in back to back years. They deserved to lose though since that penalty was such a Ron Cherry.

Just a wild finish. So exciting. Clemson just needs six or seven more crazy games like that and to win out and they could be playing LSU for the national title. It is like a one in a thousand shot including the ridiculous idea of Iowa St. beating Oklahoma State, but we will know a lot.

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