The pundits are all talking about whether the control of Congress will change hands with this coming election. Everybody is making predictions about the outcome. I am going to make the prediction that the result won't matter. Whether the Republicans win one, none or both chambers, we will have complete gridlock over the next two years. Every politician says that he/she will create jobs, change Washington etc. But nothing important will happen no matter who wins.

Things are so partisan now that even with overwhelming majority in both chambers by the Democrats plus Obama in the White House, it was difficult to pass any significant bill. Even if the Republicans win both chambers, they won't have much of a majority, certainly nowhere near able to overcome a filibuster in the Senate. Even if they pass a bill, say repealing the Healthcare bill, Obama will just veto it. So the Republicans won't be able to do anything. Even if the Democrats retain majority in both chambers, they are going to be a lot weaker than before and they certainly are not able to bring out any big bill that will get any Republcian support. So I predict that the next two years we will have a do nothing but bickering Congress. There is nothing legislative wise that Obama can do. He will get re-elected if the economy makes a spectacular recovery. Short of that unlikely scenario, he will need either a big improvement in Afghanistan and/or some progress in the Israel-Palestinian negotiation. Even if he has a great economic stimulus plan that he just thought of, there is no way it can pass Congress and will not have worked in two years anyway. So Obama's fate will basically depend on luck, just as any other president.

I think Juan Williams was just being honest, saying what a lot of people are thinking in private. He said that he is afraid when he sees people wearing Muslim clothes on the plane with him. I believe that he understands that this is an irrational fear because most Muslims are not terrorists and for those that are, they are not going to wear clothes that will bring attention to themselves. I believe that the 9/11 hijackers were not wearing Muslim clothes. Nor were the shoe bomber or the underwear guy. So he has an irrational fear which I don't think is a cause for getting fired. His firing is another example of political correctness which plays into the hands of organizations like Fox News which will use Williams as a victim.

I believe we are so polarized and self-centered that we can't accept other people's right to opinion. Bill O'Reilly's comment about Muslims killed us as oppose to adding the word extremist before the word Muslim, was insensitive. But I don't think Whoopi Goldberg and (I think it was) Joy Behear walking out was appropriate. If you disagree with another person's opinion or facts, debate him, not walk away or calling that person a racist, a socialist, or unpatriotic. This is a problem on both the right and left and if continue, will divide our country more and more.

Sharon Angle, who is running for the Senate against Harry Reid in Nevada, said recently that Dearborn Mich. is under Sharia law. I am pretty sure that if that was really the case, it would be all over the news nationally and my relatives in Michigan would have called me about it. So for her to make up something like that shows not only dishonesty but also stupidity. I don't like Harry Reid but it is mind boggling that she is ahead in Nevada.

The idea that a religion is going to take over this country is actually not new. Early in the last century it was thought that Catholics were not patriotic and that they answered to the Pope, not to our government. Even when John Kennedy ran for president decades later, he had to proclaim that he was American first and that his religion would not determine how he would govern. Obviously those fears were unfounded. I think the more people who subscribe to Angle's view, the easier it will be for the extremists to recruit for their cause and thus make us all less safe.

Being a head football coach is similar to being the president in certain respects. You work very hard and you hire the best people you can think of and hope for the best. If things go well, everybody thinks you are a genius. If things go badly, everyone thinks that you are an idiot. The same with the assistants that you hire. They were considered very bright in their previous employment, but will be bumps if things get worse even if you have worse players now.

I am thinking of Norm Chow who is the offensive coordinator for UCLA and Monte Kiffin, the defensive coordinator of USC. They both have been around for a long time and previously have been considered geniuses in their professions. I am sure they have not become stupid all of a sudden. But now that UCLA can't move the ball against high grass and USC have holes that a truck can drive through, the blame is on them. If this continue then it is not only their jobs are in jeopardy but those of their head coaches as well. Of course, when Chow and Kiffin were successful, they got too much credit. It is unlikely that Chow made Carson Palmer and Ty Detmer great quarterbacks by himself. Most likely the QBs abilities and other players around them made Chow looked great, even though he is a very good coach. Now with more difficult situations, Chow and Kiffin look very mediocre.

The same with Obama. He can't possibly know more about economics than the economic experts that he hired. No president is an expert on everything. He depends on assistants to guide him. When the economy is going well, he and his advisors are geniues. When things are going badly, they are idiots. Economics, like football strategy, is not an exact science. That is why there are completely opposite strategies coming from very smart people. Alan Greenspan was considered a genius by both Republican and Democratic presidents. But I watched a PBS documentary recently where it showed that Greenspan and others completely disregarded the dangers of derivatives. What president would have heed the warnings of lower rank economists over the opinion of Greenspan? The economy will determine the fate of the president. He depends on his advisors. He must hope that they don't make any mistake. The advisors, in turn, need to be very lucky.

Rutger student Tyler Clementi's suicide is certainly a tragedy. His roommate Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, by posting of Clementi's sexual acts on the web, are certainly guilty of invasion of privacy. But this is not a hate crime, as liberal groups are saying. This is something stupid that 18 years old do in this age of the internet. Kids send embarrassing pictures and information about themselves thru the internet all the time without thinking about any consequences. If kids don't even worry about consequences to themselves, why would they think of others? Liberals have complained that young people sextexting should not be charged with pornagraphy. I agree with that. So I don't understand why this case would even be considered a hate crime.

Many lessons can be learned from this. Obviously people should learn about the consequences of posting things. Once it is done, it can't be erased. (Maybe I should think before I write any more!). Second, we must figure out how to tell kids that if something bad happenes, it is not the end of the world. While this invasion of privacy is horrible, it did not kill Clementi. I don't know if Clementi reached out for help but if someone he trusted could have tell him that this would not ruin his life, maybe he woud have chosen to live. The same with the girl who was fooled by an adult woman into thinking that a boy had dumped her over the internet.

One more thing that I thought of. That is, all this worry about Big Brother. Well, we are the Big Brother. Our privacy and freedom may be less restricted by the government than by ourselves! Technology gives, technology takes!