Wow

It's unconstitutional in Arkansas to hold public office as an atheist. Mike Huckabee's comments (here at 1:18, for example) suddenly make a lot more sense. Not sense as in rational, but as in expecting him to say something rational would be about as rational as expecting a dog to do calculus.

Well Hello

You never know who' s going to pop in.

Not so good

Remember when I said some nice things about the administration? Well, today I'm on the opposite side of it. Between the scare-mongering to rush through the 'stimulus' bill, the apparent lack of time to review the bill before it is passed and signed into law, and the lack of getting rid of rendition (99% of the torture problem) when banning torture by US government officials, I am not a happy camper.

Krugman Watch

Just a couple of points here. Krugman calls out Republican irresponsibility. Fair enough, Republicans are probably the only people more irresponsible than Democrats. However, he quotes Arnold Kling comparing the administration's plans to thugs breaking into his house. One problem, Kling is no Republican. Actually, two problems, as Kling also (first) compared the Bush administration to thugs. Hardly being a Republican hack. [Update: Video and partial transcript of what was said. Shockingly, The NY Times didn't fact-check Krugman one little bit.]
One other thing. It may seem like semantics, but I think it's important. Krugman claims the administration's stimulus plan will cost less than Bush's tax cuts. Sorry, but no. Taxes are costs, tax cuts are not. To spend is to tax. Therefore, a real tax cut cannot cost more than spending. Fake tax cuts can (like rebate checks), but I'm pretty sure those were small enough to keep the cost of Bush's tax cuts below this monstrosity that Obama wants. [I want to emphasize here that I'm not a fan of Bush's tax cuts for a few reasons, but I believe that how we use the word cost to describe government actions needs to be correct so that we think about them correctly, or at least better.]

Sure you can have my number, Baby

Obama quoted one of his classmates in Dreams from my Father. One of his more colorful, expletive using classmates. And Obama also was the one reading the book for the audio version. Enjoy.

Get to it

A good piece on procrastination.

Sweet

Lots of interesting stuff happened at Davos, but I doubt anything there was as weird as Putin's lecture to us. The leader of Russia actually red-baited Western governments! What's next, Saudis reminding us not to go back to our anti-semitic past?

XLIII

I went 2-0 in the conference championship games. Woot! Good times. I'm now 6-4 against the spread, 6-4 picking winners. Not great, but not bad.
Ok, so Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals, in Tampa Bay, Steelers favored by 4. You have to give the Cards a lot of credit for how they've played over the last month. And they do have an advantage in Whisenhunt having been the Steelers OC two years ago. However, I think that advantage is overstated, and the Cards play has only mildly surprised me. Yes, they blew out the Panthers, but really the Panthers blew themselves. Meanwhile, the Steelers are really really good. Maybe not an all-time great team, but that defense is tremendous, better than any the Cards have faced. The impact of Hines Ward being hobbled seems overstated to me, he's good but not crucial to their success. So, I think Pittsburgh's D will hold the Cards offense largely in check, probably getting a pick 6, or at least a long recovery of a fumble. Steelers 23, Cardinals 17.