Tuesday, January 15, 2013

THIS AND THAT — JANUARY 15


STEELERS TO INVESTIGATE RASH OF INJURIES 


Photo from Steelers.com


For what it's worth, the Pittsburgh Steelers announced they will "investigate" the rash of injuries over the past three years, particularly to their offensive line, that have decimated that unit. President Art Rooney II believes it's cyclic, commenting that he was glad it was not the Steelers suffering from players being forced to go on injured reserve when the Indianapolis Cots suffered a similar fate a few years back. Conditioning is one thing that will be looked with Rooney adding "we'll look into all of that." I just hope they don't employ Inspector Clouseau.


THE TRILLION DOLLAR COIN SOLUTION* 


Photo from The Objective Standard

It sounds like a new episode of TBBT but "various economists, pundits, and politicians have, with a straight face, endorsed the minting of a trillion-dollar coin to escape the debt limit.

"In endorsing the idea, Professor Economics Paul Krugman explains how it would work:

'The Treasury would mint a platinum coin with a face value of $1 trillion... This coin would immediately be deposited at the Federal Reserve, which would credit the sum to the government’s account. And the government could then write checks against that account, continuing normal operations without issuing new debt.'

"In other words, opines Krugman, there’s no reason for the federal government to go deeper into debt; it can simply declare that it has more money."

Jimmy Kimmel commented on it last night joking that the U.S. should simply mint eight or nine of the coins, hand them to China and say, "We're even." Unfortunately, anybody with a modicum of intelligence or understanding of how the world really works knows that this plan is not only pure hocum it's down right stupid. 

Coining money in no way creates actual wealth for the purposes of settling debt or creating a viable economy. It simply continues what Washington has been doing for decades, printing money that is backed by nothing but a promise. And we all know how good Washington is at keeping its word.



BASKETBALL GAME —  WHEELCHAIR GUY —  HERO

Photo from Sports on Earth

After the North Carolina State men's basketball team upset Duke the other night the home crowd rushed the court in celebration. But wait. At the head of the crowd was a guy in a wheelchair being pushed at full sprint by another individual (video). In the ensuing fete the aforementioned individual was knocked from his chair and had to be rescued by one of the N.C. State players lest he be crushed in the mele. The player was later called a "hero" by some which brings me to my point.

The term "hero" is tossed around like tissue paper in this day and age. One is called a "hero" if he picks up a coin for an old woman. I think it all really started with the crazy things adults now do to artificially-promote children's self-esteem, like giving everyone a trophy or not keeping score in sports contests. 

A Hero (capitalized), in almost everyone's estimation prior to about 2002 was someone, in a situation with OBVIOUS THREAT TO HIS/HER OWN LIFE for doing so, performed an act to assist or save another individual. People in the military, police and firefighters automatically fall into this category with civilians included on a case-by-case basis. Let's stop the non-merited nonsense. That is all.


JARGON - "BITE ME"

I'm not entirely sure what the expression “Bite me” is supposed to convey. By interpreting context I gather it’s use is intended as a put-down to someone that has offended you. But I’m wondering just who is being insulted. Taken literally it sounds like an invitation for the offending party to cannibalize you since I believe it derived from the 1950s-1960s expression “Eat me” which was usually exchanged between males referring to their junk. Now that women have starting weighing-in with popular vulgarity the “Bite me” version has taken hold as “Eat me” can also be an invitation but albiet a pleasant one for both parties.


GENIUS MOVE OF THE YEAR


It was by San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Harbaugh, yeah I know. Himself a former NFL quarterback, he took the opportunity of starting quarterback Alex Smith's injury to play rookie Colin Kaepernick and then leave him in for the rest of the season (thus far). What made keeping Kaepernick in as a starter controversial was that at the time of his injury Smith had the third-highest quarterback rating in the entire NFL. 

Kaepernick has a strong arm to stretch the field vertically as they say, and is a potent runner. Last week, against the  Green Bay packers he set the NFL record for rushing yards by a quarterback in a game EVER and ran away from even Green Bay's defensive backs on one touchdown.

Harbaugh knew his team was going to need the added talents that Kaepernick possesses if his team was to reach the Super Bowl. That makes him at least a football genius in my book. 



*Major quotes from The Objective Standard.


No comments:

Post a Comment