AxelDC's Comments (399)

“Just like the Electoral College, proponents of the BCS will taut the benefits of the system, and then cannot explain why it has not been replicated elsewhere if it is such a perfect system.

If the Electoral College is so great, why did we impose parliamentary rule on Japan, Germany and Iraq when we wrote their constitutions? If the BCS is so grand, why doesn't the NCAA impose it on college basketball and put an end to March Madness?”

“Why is it that people come up with fanciful arguments for why playoffs are so bad for college football, and then ignore the fact that EVERY OTHER NCAA SPORT HAS A PLAYOFF SYSTEM, INCLUDING FOOTBALL????

If the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB have playoffs, as well as the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball, Soccer, Volleyball, Hockey, Baseball, Lacrosse, etc., not to mention lower tiered football, why is it so bad and ill-suited for college football?”

“You could also reward teams with home playoff games for superior records.

Anyone arguing that the NFL's regular season is meaningless doesn't pay attention to the sport.”

“Just like telling the bankers to lend mortgages will not result in one additional mortgage created.”

“The Gator Bowl chose a 6-6 Florida State over 8-4 Boston College, who had beaten Florida State. The Gator Bowl kindly explained that bowl games were NEVER designed to reward the best teams, but to find the most interesting matchups. Therefore, beating a team and having a better record were insufficient criteria to a strong fan base and an interesting narrative.

College football is not about winning games; it's about telling stories and selling tickets.

They have a word for an event designed to make money; it's called entertainment, not sports.

If college football is more about theater than competition, it should no longer be a sport and it should award Tonies rather than trophies.”

“The Longhorns demonstrated the folly of this argument. By refusing to schedule any team that might pose any challenge, they relied on their high preseason ranking, a purposefully weak non-conference schedule, and an overrated Big 12 to finish the season undefeated but untested for the title game.

Texas' non-conference schedule included UTEP, Wyoming, Central Florida and LA-Monroe. Meanwhile, Oklahoma accepted the challenge of opening in Dallas against BYU and lost its #3 ranking as a result.

When Texas last won the National Title, they proved their mettle by beating Ohio State on the road. This year, they have not one quality to win to brag about. The result for Texas fans was an extremely dull regular season.

If every national team follows this path, then we will not see a competitive game until late November, rendering 75% of the regular season unwatchable. The BCS could not have found a better way to destroy college football than rewarding teams for avoiding competition and turning the greatest sport into one where "champions" follow the coward's path.”

“I took a grad course in health care economics, and he is dead on. The biggest problem with health care reform is that the bill was designed to get 60 Senators on board with no Republicans willing to support it. No where in the discussion was if this was the best, most logical policy approach.

The result is a bill that will pass the Senate and accelerate premium inflation with its illogical approach to the real world economics where real people buy policies from real companies in a highly noncompetitive market.”

“In other words, if you get a job on the other side of the country, just never see your parents and siblings again.”

“I'm sick of being treated like a criminal just because I want to fly home for Xmas.”

“The whole point of the GOP culture war is to focus poor white Americans on issues that have nothing to do with their own economic success. They are told that Jesus wants them to vote Republican to protect America from gay marriage and socialism, not realizing that the alleged socialism would mean that they don't go bankrupt from lack of decent health care, and that higher taxes would pay for better education for their kids.

Americans are not less heavily taxed than Canadians or Europeans except at the highest income levels. The trade off is that the average American pays as much in taxes but gets far less benefit for their inputs, while the American rich pay less and get a lot more.”

“The artists who sell CDs to kids are the ones selected by CEOs at entertainment labels. Artists who encourage children to buy books and decent meals are not going to be the ones supported by CEOs, so you will never see their work at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.”

“That's the Rovian strategy of convincing poor, white Americans that they need to vote against their own economic interests to protect America from gays, immigrants and terrorists. The original intention was to get blue collar workers to vote for Wall Street, but now the populist monster is out of bag and derailing the Republican Party.

Meanwhile, Karl Rove celebrates family values by getting his 2nd divorce.”

“It's the electoral system that is polarizing America. The winner-take-all system means just being better than your rival, and 3rd parties punish their own ideological allies. Add in gerrymandered House districts where the primaries are more important than the general election and you get the most outlandish politicians elected to Congress. Then take the rotten boroughs of the US Senate, where cows count more than people, and you have a Senate where 41 Senators representing 12% of the population can choke any legislation to death. Add to that the Alice in Wonderland creation known as the Electoral College, plus the party-induced Presidential Primary system and America has the most byzantine political system in the world, designed to protect politicians from the voters and separate public opinion from public policy. Into that void place lobbyists, who were trained on Capitol Hill in their low wage staffer jobs to actually write the laws that benefit their special interests, and the American people become a rhetorical ideal rather than real players in the policy making in the US.”

“Blaming bankers for not making loans is empty rhetoric. Bankers make loans with the costs outweigh the estimated risks. Interest rates are too low for them to make a large profit, and the housing market is still overvalued with too many defaults.

If the government wanted to force banks to loan money, they should have made it explicit in their handouts to them. Bankers are acting in their own self-interest and don't care what the President says on 60 Minutes unless he backs it up with regulations or incentives to push them to loan money they would rather hold onto now.”

“After pulling all-nighters studying and partying as a freshman in college, I learned that if I got 8 hours sleep every night, I was more efficient at studying, paid better attention in class, and got sick less. By going to bed by midnight and sleeping until 8 am, I got better grades, studied less and had more time and energy for fun than I did when I averaged 5 hours of sleep.

Ever since then, I've made getting a full night's sleep a priority. I am more efficient, healthier and happier when I get adequate sleep than when I don't.”

“You are better off not eating anything at all.”

“The poison is in the dose. Too much water can kill you, but not enough will as well.”

“Now, if I can just cut out caffeine, alcohol, sugar, dairy, wheat, meat, fish and eggs from diet, I'll live forever, or at least I'll be miserable enough that it will feel like it.”

“And you seem to think tossing aside the Constitution because the President points his finger and calls someone "terrorist" makes you patriotic?

To me, that's a violation of the American Revolution, where we fought to prevent the government from throwing you in prison at their will just because they say so.”

“I'm amazed that Democrats let Cheney get away with saying whatever he wants.

I'm still offended by Cheney's insistence that "no terror attacks occurred" under Bush-Cheney's watch. He acts as though the lives of our allies don't matter, so he can brush aside Al Qaeda attacks in Bali, Madrid and London as thought those people never died the same way Americans died.

That doesn't even touch on the continued terrorist campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. How can Cheney be taken seriously when he makes ridiculous statements like this? Why don't Democrats chastise him for being so cavalier with the lives of the "Coalition of the Willing"?”

“After the health care debacle, resulting in a bill whose main purpose is to divert more public and personal money to the health industry, you actually think that Democrats can take on the banks?

Republicans are loathe to do anything that might make Obama look good, and they are already in bed with the titans who cratered our economy in 2008, so any idea that one Hill Republican will be on board is illusory.

Lieberman and Dodd effectively override Clinton's reforms in the late 1990s that would have prevented that Arthur Anderson/Enron scandal, so you actually think Lieberman will do anything to prevent another economic collapse.

The US has become ungovernable because Reid will not impose any party discipline and go around the 60-vote rule, and Obama will not back him up even if he tried.”

“I haven't used a bank since Bank of America took over my local bank. They were so ruthless in their fees and penalties that I joined a credit union and have never looked back.

Credit unions are the way to go, until banks realize that people are joining them in droves and will lobby Congress to kill them off.”

“I lost a lot of respect for Meyer over his Sunday comments. He said that he had to come back because he wasn't sure what would happen to the Gators program without him.

First of all, does he really think he is irreplaceable?

Second, when you leave a job, your successor takes over. It is no longer your job, it's his.

Finally, does he care more about the program or his daughter? She seemed thrilled he was quitting, but he seems more interested in winning games than being with her.”

“PM Brown has about 4-5 months left in office.

The Labour mandate expires in June 2010. Most polls give Cameron a 10-point lead, more than enough for a Conservative Majority.

If the Scottish Nationalists do well, Labour may become a permanent minority party in the UK. Brown has taken Blair's unpopularity and intensified it. He may be the last Labour PM for some time.”

“The only way to get real reform is to change our electoral system. Winner-takes-all results in exactly the kind of no-choice, race-to-the-bottom, partisan duopoly that we current enjoy.

Unfortunately, the press isn't interested in electoral systems, the public isn't aware of them and both parties have a vested interest in keeping the current system.”