Happy New Year. The last week has been incredibly busy. I had exams in all of my classes; the largest section of over 70 students had their final exam so I had to get those graded and all the final scores resolved and turned in. Next week is final exams for the rest of my classes and I'm going to be glad to see the semester end. There will be about a five-week break and that will be most welcomed.
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The Iowa caucuses are January 3, or tomorrow, depending upon what time zone you're in, I suppose. As far as I'm concerned, it's been a foregone conclusion, for a long time, who is going to win the Republican nomination, so the whole thing is only of a passing interest to me. Any time any reasonably conservative Republican makes a move in the polls, the media and Republican establishment have done everything they can to destroy him (or her). Newt Gingrich is the latest casualty. I've noticed that Rick Santorum has made a slight move upwards in the Iowa polls. If he begins to threaten Romney, the "establishment" will bare its fangs and sink them into him next. Wait and see. The media want Romney, of course, because he's mush (McCain II), and they think Obama can beat him (highly possible). The establishment Republicans wants Romney because they don't want a conservative in the Presidency who could make their creamy Washington social life a little uncomfortable. I don't really think they care who wins the election as long as they can remain where they are--within the beltway of power. If they were concerned about country, they wouldn't be pushing Romney so hard.
Frankly, I haven't heard any of the candidates say what they truly need to say: "If I'm elected, I'll go to Washington and mind my own business. And let you mind yours, too." Folks, it's the government in Washington, D. C., that is a major reason why the United States is in the mess that it's in. The politicians created the disaster by all their meddling and intervention; why in the world do we think they can solve it? Does anybody really think that Barack Obama has made the United States a better place in three years he has been President? He's done nothing to improve the country. But as long as a majority of the American people accept this notion that government is the answer to most of the country's problems, those problems will only get worse. There are a few things (very few) that government can do and do well (like kill people). There are just some things--many, many, many things--which government is simply inherently unable to do. But, late in the 19th and early in the 20th centuries, the "intellectual" "progressives" began convincing Americans that government was the answer to most of their problems. Too many people bought into that lie and it has gotten increasingly worse over the decades. Every Republican--including the "conservatives"--has "solutions" to the "problems," and every solution involves more government something. Even "cutting spending" is the wrong language. Quit spending is what they need to do, and give the people their money back. Fat chance on that. There is a whole educational revolution needed in the United States, and I don't see that in the works--especially since the government controls the education system, too. Freedom. Yeah. We buy that lie, too.
Incidentally, Ron Paul has some of the best ideas, but even he's goofball on some things, but more than that, he has no chance of getting the nomination. And that's the main reason why he's largely been left alone by the attack dogs.
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The Dallas Cowboys ended a miserable year by missing the playoffs. Their loss to the New York Giants was wholly expected by anybody who pays even a modicum of attention (which is about all I pay). That idiotic stunt that Jerry Jones pulled last week was determinative. What player wants to go all out for an owner who, in effect, goes down to the field and tells his coach to lose a game? Or, at best, not make the supremest effort to win? If nothing else, it has a subconscious effect on the team. Plus, it's hard to imagine any of the players having any respect left for head coach Jason Garrett. If Garrett had shouted at Jones, "Get your butt back upstairs and let me run the team on the field!", his team might have won the game against the Giants. But Garrett would be looking for a job, too. But then, Jones would never have hired a man who would say that to him, anyway. The Cowboys are in a mess and it's hard to see them being any more successful in the near future than...the Astros.
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The state of California continues its headlong march into banana republicanism. A law will go into effect this year which "authorizes any [college] student, including one without lawful immigration status, to serve in any capacity in student government." In other words, people who are breaking the law are going to learn how to serve in the institution (government) that makes laws. I think only California legislators could come up with something that logically stupid.
If Obama has his way, of course, then the whole country will look like California within a generation.
True history also doesn't matter to the California legislature. Another law "bans teaching materials that reflect poorly on gays." Let's don't tell the whole truth about them. Can't have that.
In all 40,000 new laws will go into effect in the United States this year, the land of the free....