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The Daily Dose/April 15, 2011
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around the Human Experience...
I'M SURE HE MEANS WELL: Fresh off of presiding over the tedious, partisan - though certainly familiar - bickering that almost shut the government down, President Barack Obama has put forth a plan that would cut $4 trillion from our national debt in 12 years.
Oh Jesus H: Does anybody really think this is going to make a difference? Unless it comes over the next ten minutes, $4 trillion in savings is so insignificant so as to be virtually meaningless.
Dry, Technical Matter: Right now the nation's national debt is $14.2 trillion, and the prospect of saving $4 trillion by 2023 is so insignificant, that let's project that savings through 2015, when the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects our national debt will be $22 trillion. If we save that $4 trillion by 2015 - which we're not, but we're in a 'just for funsies mode' right now - but should we not spend $4 trillion before then our national debt in 2015 will still be $18 trillion, an increase of $4 trillion over right now.
Surprise! So Obama's plan wouldn't actually save us anything. It would merely reduce the amount of debt we will be going into over the next twelve years.
Fly In The Ointment: Little that is being considered now will significantly help our national debt, either, because few are willing to make any decision that might offend a voter. A CBO report from June of last year said it best:
Under current laws and policies, an aging population and rapidly rising health care costs will sharply increase federal spending for health care programs and Social Security. Unless revenues increase at a similar pace, such spending will cause federal debt to grow to unsustainable levels.
Gee, This Is A Surprise…Seriously! Everything associated with cutting our national debt is just a bunch of posturing, as politicians try to make themselves palatable to the American electorate in time for the coming election. It's the same crap this electorate's been putting up with for ages: being told what we want to hear instead of being told what we need to hear, namely that this country will implode in the next 30-40 years if our entitlement spending isn't reigned in, because that is the time when assorted government agencies predict that Medicare and Social Security spending will take up all of our income and we will have to borrow money to pave our roads and pay our soldiers. It will mark the beginning of the end for this once-great nation.
Get Your Official Writer's Shack Policy Right Here/Stop Us If You've Heard This Before: The purpose of government is to preserve the liberty of its citizens. A government that has complete fiscal collapse - as we do - in the crosshairs is in violation of that duty. It can't provide for our liberty if we've bankrupted ourselves.
GETTING MINE: As they are obliged to do from time to time, the NCAA is dealing with another basketball point-shaving scandal after two former players and an assistant coach from the University of San Diego, among others, were indicted on federal charges this week.
Yawn: Now it's easy to say "who cares?" It is the University of San Diego, for Pete's sake, but USD does play Division I basketball and is eligible, though not particularly likely, to win the NCAA basketball title.
Even though it involves a relatively small school this brings to the surface something any thinking sports fan has to have cross his mind from time to time: is this game legitimate?
Honestly, it probably is, but it's difficult to believe some aren't. NCAA football and basketball athletes are some of the exploited people around, providing the labor for multi-million dollar enterprises in exchange for room, board and the opportunity to go to classes they probably don't really want to take in the first place. They are not otherwise allowed to profit on their talent and it is not unreasonable to think there are athletes who see their coaches living the high life while they're scrambling to pay for date night and find themselves looking to cash in.
Let me tell you something, you don't need to be Jimmy The Greek to get your mind working after getting whiff of a story like this. Consider Butler, who earlier this month found themselves accepting the consolation prize at the NCAA tournament for a second consecutive year. A bunch of scrappy kids from the heartland coming short again, or was it something else? Butler only shot 18 percent from the field for the game, for goodness sake, which might sufficient proof their effort was on the up and up, because anybody throwing a game would sure the hell take care to shoot better than 18 percent from the field.
Talk To The Palm: And I don't want any of you writing to me whining about how I said Butler threw the title game. I said no such thing. I am merely pointing out one possible direction the mind could go once you start thinking in these terms.
Stop Me If You've Heard This Before: This certainly isn't the first time people have fixed official NCAA basketball games. In 1951 four New York City universities, as well as three other schools, had players implicated in a point-shaving scandal, as did Boston College in the late 1970's, not mention scandals in the 1960's, 1980's and 1990's.
THIS IS JIM MCKAY, REPORTING LIVE: The first modern Olympiad, the 1896 Summer Olympics, come to a close in Athens, Greece on this date. They had begun on April 6, and featured 214 athletes from 41 countries.
USA! USA! The Greeks won then most medals, 46, while the United States won the most gold medals, 11.
FunFact: Actually, winners at the Athens Games were given silver medals, while runners-up were given copper medals.
Dry, Technical ,Municipal Matter: New York City is consolidated into five boroughs on this date in 1989, when Manhattan and the Bronx are joined by Brooklyn, then an independent city, along with Queens and Staten Island.
All Aboard…The Lifeboats, Presuming There Are Enough Of Them, Which There Aren't: The RMS Titanic, sinks on this date in 1912. Over 800 passengers were rescued, and about 1,500 died after Titanic hit an iceberg about two-thirds of the way into its maiden voyage, from Southampton, England, to New York City.
Take Me Out To The Ballgame: Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American player in the major leagues in the 20th century on this date in 1947. Playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Robinson goes 0-3 with a run scored, helping the Dodgers to a 5-3 win over the Boston Braves at Ebbets Field. Robinson would bat .297 that year and win the Rookie of the Year Award, and the Dodgers would win the National League pennant before losing to the New York Yankees in the World Series.
Take Me Out To The Ballgame II: The first major league baseball game on the West Coast is played in San Francisco on this date in 1958, when the San Francisco Giants beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-0. The teams had moved from New York City and Brooklyn, respectively, following the 1957 season.
Thought For The Day: (Government) will continue to be about as good as concerned and conscientious citizens make it. - Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The 1910 Philadelphia Athletics had four future Hall of Famers on their roster: Chief Bender, Frank 'Home Run' Baker, Eddie Collins and Eddie Plank. The 1910 Washington Senators had one, Walter Johnson.
Today's Stumper: When was the Congressional Budget Office formed? - Answer next time!
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