Quick Hits

Just another (usually unsuccessful) attempt at some brief thoughts on several subjects: I'll do the sports last so you can read until your interest wains.

President Obama: I'm realizing more and more just how much like Lincoln Barack is trying to be. This fully came to light when I looked at who Lincoln had in his cabinet. Lincoln was opposed by two other candidates during the general election and he was the underdog when it came to his own party's nomination. What did he do once he won? He appointed the man who opposed him in the primaries and the two men who ran against him in the general election to his cabinet. Now where have I seen that recently?

One major difference between Lincoln and Obama is that Lincoln seemed to realize that he was a steward of the country and its finances. It was his duty to properly manage the sacred trust bestowed upon him by the American people. He wrestled day and night when the war appeared imminent and continued to do so even during the conflict. The current president seems to believe he is the owner, rather than the steward of America and her fruits. He appears almost flippant about handing out billions of dollars that we don't have that don't belong to him. He is not being a conscientious steward of America's finances. History has proven that simply dumping money into the economy does not rescue it from a recession. For as much of a student of history as he is, it disappoints me that he doesn't seem to be aware of this. Perhaps he is acting simply to act because he would take much more criticism if he did nothing, even though Rutherford B Hayes and other statesmen have shown that sometimes doing nothing is best.

The Stimulus: The Stimulus package will not create jobs in the way we are meant to think it will. The jobs it is going to "create" are temporary and will be filled by people already working. There will not be 200 job interviews because they are extending highway 20 to intersect with I-25 in Colorado Springs. That work will be done by people already doing that work. The people out of work will remain out of work, the people working will work more.

Wells Fargo: It came to light recently that months after accepting a $25,000,000,000 bailout (I think the zeros help us understand just how much money this is) Wells Fargo cancelled a week long luxury trip to Las Vegas for some of its employees. This is the right thing to do, right? Well, it would have been had they not been pressured into cancelling when the trip came hit the media. And it would have been the right thing to do had they not then spent a ton of money taking out a full page New York Times ad whining about the fact that they felt forced to cancel their trip and oh their poor employees who deserved to be rewarded and now won't be. Yeah, because the only way to reward employees is with a week long luxury trip to Vegas. I guess with all the years I've been employed I've never been rewarded.

Newsflash to mortgage companies: It will never be like it was before. The sooner you learn this the better. You can't be so close to bankruptcy that you take $25 billion from tax payers and then decide that you have enough funds to have a lavish party. If you can have the party I want my money back.

Favre retires again:
Brett Favre announced recently that he is retiring for the fourth time. He didn't really mean it the first 3 times. During his interview a reporter apologized for her scepticism and he replied, "You don't need to apologize, you have no reason not to be sceptical." So, is it for good this time? He's injured which helps the yes side. But it's not career ending. Smart money has him announcing that he's playing for Tampa Bay by August.

A Rod tests positive for steroids:
There's some controversy surrounding this issue. In 2003, Major League Baseball did "anonymous" tests to see what percentage of players were using illegal performance enhancing drugs to see if there was a need for a comprehensive player testing program. The number was over 30% and due to some pressure from Congress because of MLBs special anti-Monopoly exemption they implemented the test.

A-Rod has not tested positive (as far as we know) since the official testing began. However, he was one of the players tested in 2003 when he was with the Texas Rangers and information has been leaked that he was one of those that tested positive. In a well scripted interview he admitted that he knew he was taking an illegal substance but did not know fully what it was.

People are saying that he shouldn't really be held responsible because the test was supposed to be anonymous. I heard Mike Golic of Mike and Mike in the morning on ESPN radio say, "What if you were taking what you thought was an anonymous test about how you felt about your boss? The information of what you said gets out and they fire you! What happened to the anonymous part?! This never should have come to light and A-Rod should not be punished for taking illegal steroids." Ok, here's the problem with that: A-Rod wasn't putting tacks on his Manager's chair, he was taking illegal steroids. The appropriate analogy would be "What if you were taking what you thought was an anonymous test about whether or not you were embezzling money from the company?" A-Rod wasn't just displaying poor sportsmanship, he was breaking the law.

Kudos to Commissioner Selig for considering altering the record books to no longer reflect those players that have tested positive for steroids. A co-worker said to me, "Consider this: You know that you can drive 90 on the freeway and there's no punishment. Not only that, but you'll get a huge chunk of cash if you do it. Are you gonna do it? Of course you do it. It's human nature." A punishment needs to be in place. So many baseball players are "stats guys" that this just might deter most of them from sticking a needle in their butt. "If I'm caught, it's as though I never played the game... No thanks."

There seems to be a pattern: a few days away from posting equals a multi subject post.