Saw some of the highlights of the inaugural speech and pagentries of the day.  It was a nice speech and some of the music were great.  But I don't think we need to spend all that money to have an inaugural when it is the same president.   I think the inaugural is a great reminder of our democracy working smoothly when there is change of power from one president to another.  In many countries of the world this is not a given.  But when there is no change in power, I think we should skip all the ceremonies.  This will save a good chunk of money.  Even when there are corporate sponsorships of many of the events, it is not a good idea.  We do not need anyone getting more influence on the president with contributions to a inaugural ball. 

So it is on to the Harbaugh Bowl.  This could have been the U-M quarterback Bowl.  But unfortunately it is not to be.  I will have to conceit defeat to LBOAYM.  Now about that conspiracy theory....

There is an article in CNN written by the head of the school district of Harrold, Texas in which he defended his schools arming certain teachers.  He says the teachers will be well trained and their identity won't be revealed so that a bad guy would not know who to shoot at first.  Also it will be more unlikely for someone to steal the guns since he won't know who has them.  Chances are that in this small rural school district nothing will happen as a result of teachers carrying guns to school.  Chances are also good that nothing will happen in this small school district if nobody carries guns to school.  I will bet, however, if teachers all over the country are carrying guns then the chances of accidental shooting or a teacher going rogue and shooting somebody will be greater than a teacher stopping some gunman with a gun.

This is one step beyond the NRA's idea that every school has armed guards.  Never mind that Columbine had an armed guard and that didn't stop  the tragedy there.  In fact I would bet that a school heavily armed will be a target for someone who wants to go out firing.  In that guy's mind, shooting it out with armed guards and killing will be a final boost to his demented ego.  But beside that, the NRA thinks that to stop bad guys is to arm good guys.  Who decides who is the good guy?  A person may be good today but his mental status may change.  A divorce, problems at work etc can change a person.  Overwhelming percentage of teachers are good people.  But it is not unheard of that a teacher is a criminal.  For example a teacher who had sex with a student may be blackmailed.  If he is facing losing his job and going to jail, he becomes possibly dangerous with a gun.  A few years ago we had a teacher in our area who was convicted of having sex with students and went to prison.  He was considered a very good teacher before this revelation.  I certainly would not want him to be carrying a gun when the police came to his classroom.

The answer to gun violence is not more guns.  Are we going to arm all postal workers to prevent someone going postal?  Some will say that we arm pilots.  I am not sure that will stop hijacks but I am not worry about a crazy pilot using his gun on the plane.  If he wants to kill, he can just crash the plane.  Giving a gun does not make him more dangerous than before.   Ultimately, you have to ask:  when everybody had guns back in the wild west, were we safer than today.  If you think so, you should have ask the Hatfields and the McCoys.

On a lighter note, New England is still alive but GB is out for me.  I will give Jim Harbaugh credit.  It would have been easy to stick with Alex Smith, who had done a good job.  But it took a lot of guts to play Kaepernick instead.  I don't think they would have beat GB without Kaepernick.  So there is a chance for the Harbaugh bowl.  But I think New England will keep that from happening.  New England to win the Super Bowl over SF.

Michigan lost its chance for #1 ranking by  losing to OSU.  But I am not upset.  Michigan came all the way back from a 21 point deficit on the road against a very good team even though their top 4 scorers shot a combine less than 30%.  The comeback is a good sign for the future.  This is a good wake up call and I think in particular the two freshmen, Robinson and Slauskas will play much better next time under hostile conditions.

I think Chuck Hagel is a very good choice for sec. of defense.  I know it will be a tough confirmation fight and I don't know given all the financial battles coming up that Obama should fight this one.  But he is well qualified and brings bipartisanship.  Will see how the hearings go.

Alabama crushed ND which was expected.  As I said before I believe Oregon would give Alabama the toughest game.  Sometimes you have to be lucky just to get to the finals.  ND was certainly lucky this season.  In fact you can make a case that Alabama was lucky this last two seasons, getting in with 1 loss each season.  But you have to tip your hat to them as I believe that ultimately the best team won both seasons.  Given the parity we have now, I predict that neither Alabama nor ND will return to the championship game next year!