The Manning Rule

Peyton Manning (and other quarterbacks in the league) is frustrated with a rule change that slows down the game.

From what I could tell during the last pre-season game I watched, sportscasters don't like the new rule, either, which seems to require a referee to stand in the offensive backfield, rather than the defensive backfield (to protect the refs), and give the QB an OK-to-snap high sign. 

Having umpired my fair share of baseball games, it should be the responsibility of the referees to be in position when the ball is snapped, not the responsibility of the quarterback to make sure the referee is in position.

TSA Screening Goes Overboard

A woman in Philadelphia was headed to Charlotte for work.  She was selected for in-depth search, patted down, bags opened and then the TSA agents started going through her wallet, checkbook, prescriptions and receipts... they found checks written to her and her husband, they accused her of trying to steal money from her own joint checking account, accused her of trying to embezzle money, called the police, called her husband...

Just makes you want to travel by car, doesn't it...

Earth and Moon

Messenger, on its way to Mercury, sends along this photo of the Earth and the Moon from 183 million miles away.

Mosque Triangulation?

Jim Geraghty's readers think President Obama came out in favor of the Ground Zero Mosque to "open up an easy way for Democrats to distance themselves from the administration in a manner that is likely to have minimal long-term consequences."

If true, the danger of this gambit is that it might turn out like the "Spongebob Squarepants" episode, "I'm with Stupid."  Spongebob volunteers to pretend to be stupid for Patrick's parents so Patrick will seem to be smarter in comparison.  Trouble starts when the lame-brained Patrick forgets that Spongebob's only pretending to be stupid and goes on-and-on about how idiotic Spongebob is and always has been.

So, in this case, Harry Reid is playing the IQ challenged starfish to President Obama's sponge-pretending-to-be-stupid.  Once Leader-Reid gets a taste of being the smart one, will he find it hard to stop?  Will the Reid-starfish will go on a tear about how lame the Incentive package is, how stupid the Obama-sponge was to push Health Care through over the will of the people, how moronic the Administration was during the oil spill?  You get the idea... suddenly triangulation becomes a haunting ring of laughter in the President's ears when he's trying to sleep nights.

Just for the record, I disagree with Geraghty's readers... I don't think the President is pretending to be out of touch with the American people.  He's not that good an actor.

A Billion Bushels

The Hoosier corncrop may top one billion bushels this year for the first time ever.

Juanita Waugh gives a gift

"An 87-year-old Hoosier farmer with Indianapolis ties who bequeathed 7,634 acres to an Indiana college after her death in February has made another stunning contribution.

Juanita K. Waugh is giving more than $43 million to the world-famous Mayo Clinic the third-largest gift in that medical center's history."

Repeal the new 1099 Rule

Will Congress repeal the new 1099 rule that forces everyone to fill out a 1099 form for buying $600 worth of anything?

The Taxpayer Advocate, an independent watchdog group within the IRS, worries enforcement of the rule will overburden the agency and possibly cost as much money as it collects. It's skeptical the law will achieve its intended goal of reducing tax fraud.

Democrats tacked this new rule onto the ObamaCare bill, saying it would save the country $19 million in tax fraud, but even the IRS says it will cost them more to process all the forms than they'll ever uncover in tax fraud.  Everyone agrees the new rule should be repealed, but the Republicans want to repeal the whole Health Care Bill, not little pieces of it, and Democrats are afraid a repeal of the new rule will add to the every-growing price tag of ObamaCare.

Spring 2010 ISTEP+ Results

Here are the ISTEP+ results for Spring 2010

Venus, Mars and Saturn

From now until the end of August, look for Venus, Mars and Saturn low in the western sky at twilight.

Government Health Care is already killing us

The federal government pushed American's toward a high carb diet, warning us off meat and eggs in the late 70's and early 80's... since then, our health has gone downhill... and these people want more control?

According to Scientific American, growing research into carbohydrate-based diets has demonstrated that the medical establishment may have harmed Americans by steering them toward carbs. Research by Meir Stampfer, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard, concludes that diets rich in carbohydrates that are quickly digestible—that is, with a high glycemic index, like potatoes, white rice, and white bread—give people an insulin boost that increases the risk of diabetes and makes them far more likely to contract cardiovascular disease than those who eat moderate amounts of meat and fewer carbs. Though federal guidelines now emphasize eating more fiber-rich carbohydrates, which take longer to digest, the incessant message over the last 30 years to substitute carbs for meat appears to have done significant damage.

An interesting article.  Read also, the Scientific American article it's based on.