Rand Paul did the good old fashion filibuster last week.  I don't agree with Rand Paul a lot but I think it is great that he was willing to stand up for hours speaking to a dwindling audience in order to get his point across.  This is a lot better than have the minority party simply say they are going to filibuster and if they got 40 votes then everything comes to a halt.  If you are going to filibuster, you should actually get up and stand there and talk nonstop, the way it was meant to be.

I don't think there is any chance that a president will order drone strike against American citizens unless there is a reason of extreme national security.  I think the debate instead should be setting guidelines internationally of when this type of weapon should be used.  Make no mistake about it, the technology of drones is spreading.  China, for example, has quite a bit capability in this.  If we use it without good reason, then in the future other countries will say that they are only using it the same way the U.S. did.  And what about terrorists acquiring the technology?  These are all more important debate than Rand's rant.

Let March Madness begin!  I am, of course, talking about the election of the new pope.  I think we should start brackets and see who can come up with the right champion.  I am betting on the guy from Brazil.  With Latin America having the most Catholics in the world, it is about time someone from there is elected.  Plus, I always pick Brazil for every World Cup.

Another election I want to mention is for the mayor of LA.  This took place last week and as expected there will be a runoff as no candidate received 50%.  This outcome was obvious since there were 6 candidates and none of them were that well known.  What ticks me off is that they have this election 4 months after the presidential election.  Why don't they have it in November to save some money?  Not only that, only 16% showed up to vote last week.  The electorate is pathetic but I am sure they would have had a much greater number in November.

The only election this month that is a slam dunk is the Chinese presidential election.  So you thought that had already happened last year?  Well, technically the election is now but it was decided behind close doors last November.  So I can predict the Yi Jinping will be the new president!

People may be making fun of Dennis Rodman's travel to North Korea.  But Kim Jung Un is supposedly a big basketball fan and he just maybe trying to open his country via basketball diplomacy.  Since ping pong diplomacy worked so well 40 year or so ago, who knows if this will be a break through?  At the very least Kim figures he would look respectable to the world next to Rodman!  If this works, I think we should send Hulk Hogan or Jesse Ventura to Iran since wrestling is very big in that country.

Who wrote comment #6 on my previous blog?  I can't make out what it is saying except something about expensive hand bags.  No thanks to that, I don't need purses nor can I afford them.

Saw the Oscar show last night at a party.  Usually I don't watch the whole show, maybe the opening when Billy Crystal is hosting.  But since this was an Oscar viewing party, I watched the whole thing.  I thought that Seth MacFarlane did a very good job.  I think he was certainly way better than Ann Hathway and James France were a couple of years ago.  I think only Crystal has been better among the recent hosts.  But for some reason the reviews were mixed.  It seems that MacFarlane offended some people. I don't see it.  I thought he was funny and his singing and dancing were pretty good.  I think the best performer was Shirley Bassey of James Bond fame.  She must be near 80 years old but she looks much younger and her voice is still tremendous!  I finished an amazing 2nd place among the party guests in predicting the winners.  This is amazing because I have only watched one of the movies nominated!  Unfortunately, first place went to my wife who had only watched the same movie I did!

It appears that no deal will be made before March 1st and the sequestration will occur.  As I said before, let it happen.  Both sides think that it will be to their advantage, so neither side is going to compromise.  So let's see who blinks first.  I don't think that the cuts will mean poor people dying in the streets or our national defense become number two in the world.  The stock market will fall for a while and the economic growth will slow down.  But I don't think those two things will last long.  We will not go back to a recession as a result of this.

The justice department is suing S@P for not downgrading banks in the subprime mortgage debacle that greatly contributed to the downturn of the economy.  I say:  It is about time.  Except for one South Asian guy, no big shot in Wall Street or in the banking industry have been charged criminally.  I understand that the burden of proof in a criminal case is great.  But only one person after all the wrong doings?  In civil cases the burden of proof is much lower.  So I would think the feds and the states would try to get a large sum of money out of these guys.  I don't know how hard it is to evaluate banks and financial institutions.  But giving someone about to go bankrupt a AAA rating?  I find it hard to believe that S@P and others were not sleeping on the job.  So yes, I think S@P should pay big time.

Michigan escaped tonight with an OT victory over OSU.  I think OSU got robbed at the end, not getting a foul call.  But that is the case with home court advantage.  I would say that if a road team loses by less than 6 points, it probably outplayed the home team.  Well, at least Michigan held serve and will see if they can grind one out against Wisconsin this weekend. 

I don't know why Obama decided to release a picture of him shooting skeets.  It really would not change the mind of the NRA supporters.  As expected they express doubt about the authenticity of the picture.  I don't know what is the big deal about presidents able to use a gun.  Clinton also made sure that people knew that he hunted when he was president.  It is not macho.  Anybody can fire a gun.  Six year olds have done it and to tragic results.  So who cares if the president have shot before?  Now, if any president can hunt using bow and arrow, that would be impressive.

As I predicted, by predicting SF would win I have given them the kiss of death.  From almost a blow out to an exciting finish was great.  If SF had won, future Super Bowl coaches will be so paranoid of a power outage stopping their momentum that they will bring their own generators to insure no stoppage!

I am not surprised by Indiana beating Michigan at home.  But now Michigan must beat OSU at home or they will be in real trouble.

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!

I am writing this blog on my new ipad, given to me by my kids for Chrismas. I am now almost up to date with the technological world!  I predict that they will avoid the fiscal cliff by kicking the can down the road further.

My predictions for the Big Ten stay intact with MSU's come back victory.  A good win for them after all those close losses this year.

Happy new year!

When is it going to be enough?  How many more innocent lives have to be lost before we ban all assault weapons and magazines that carry more than 10 bullets at a time.  What are these weapons for except to attack other people?  This is a national security issue.  This is domestic terrorism.  I don't think the freedom to own these assault weapons trumps our freedom from being wire-tapped.  Yet after 9/11 the government can wire-tap citizens.  We kill 4 times more of our fellow citizen each year than 9/11 but we can't give up the freedom of owning assault weapons?

The argument that if good guys can't buy weapons then they can't protect themselves from bad guys is absurd.  It is much more likely that guns owned by ordinary citizen will kill someone innocent, kill someone during an argument, or kill someone accidentally than to have stopped a criminal.  Certainly the guy in Florida who shot the black kid in a struggle would not have even approached the kid if he did not have a gun.  He would have simply called and waited for the police to show up. 

I think we should ban all manufacturing of assault weapons except for those to be purchased by the military and law enforcement.  It is not a right to make these weapons.  After all, I am sure one cannot legally build an atomic bomb.   The line has to be drawn now.