How to Succeed in Gov't without Even Trying: Join the Republican Party; run successfully for Congress; leave Congress and become a lobbyist. Peter Overby of NPR reports,

[A] crowd of Republicans is spinning through Washington's "revolving door," leaving government positions to work as lobbyists. There is no similar surge of new jobs for Democratic lobbyists

Lobbying is, of course, where the money is. Government jobs barely pay the bills, especially in hyper inflated D.C. And then there is the enormous expense of running a re-election campaign. But lobbying regularly pays six and seven figure saleries, depending on the "expertise" a lobbyist brings to the job. ("Expertise" in Washington is defined as "has influence over" also known as "access to.")

We should all keep in mind that Republicans, for the first time since Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover (can you say, "Great Deperession?"), control the White House and Congress in a dominant fashion. They are working hard to control the courts—they already own the Supreme Court—as well. The match with the Twenties and Thirties is particularly precipitous.

Note the budget with its huge deficit and its corresponding cuts to services that benefit the average citizen. While the government puts each one of us and our children and grandchildren into deeper and deeper debt, the benefits we receive from government are being flushed away.

You get what you pay for.

The NHL Has Been Canceled: The folks at ESPN must be suffering right now. It's February and sports are in the doldrums. March Madness is still a month away—number one Illinois isn't even playing another ranked team until the tourney starts. There are no super stars in boxing at the moment—does anyone even know who the current heavyweight champ is? Spring training won't get underway for a few more weeks, regardless of who reports early—and all the big trades and signings have been completed. Pro basketball is at the midpoint with only the utterly rediculous all star nonsense to look forward to. Is anybody actually entertained by watching professional all star games in any of the pro sports?

My teenage son is astounded by the fact that all of those hockey players can go a year withut earning any money. "They must really be rich," he says. Not to mention the owners who can pay all of those salaries just for the sake of a hobby.

A.I.D.S.: While all the news focuses on a new strain of the deadly disease that has cropped up in the U.S., it is interesting to note that, while the death rate from A.I.D.S. has fallen over the past ten years here in the U.S., the rate of new infections has not changed with c. 40,000 new cases a year being reported. Treatment may have improved, but prevention has not.