Bachelor Getaway

So I had a great surprise this weekend - my buddies flew me to D.C., and met me there for a 48-hour bachelor getaway. Some highlights:

• Ali Baba's dog eating Craig's toothbrush.
• "YOU DIDN'T LET MY DOG OUT OF IT'S F***ING CAGE!?!?!?" Sorry, Ali.
• Dubya and I ambushing Ali Baba in the snow in his t-shirt... and getting tackled in a foot of powder.
• Dubya sinking into depression as he won game after game Monday night... while watching his Fantasy Football playoff lead trickle away into ignominious defeat on MNF.
• "It's afternoon, why aren't we drinking beer?"
• Sucking at Wii MarioKart.
• Alhambra, La Citta, Thurn and Taxis, Antike - all great games
• Embarrassed New Englanders trying to talk about sex.
• One astounding revelation.
• "Hey Jon, what are you doing for dinner - I'm in Baltimore".
• More snow in DC than in Western NY. Say what?!
• M&M's, Pub Mix, corn chips, salsa, kosher franks, cheeseburgers, asparagus, beers, ice cream, peanuts, coffee.
• The junkfood hangover on Tuesday. I barely ate all day long. OK, that's a lowlight.

Thanks, brothers!

Three Cheers

Three cheers to Arne Duncan for starting to cut the financial middleman out of the federal college loan business. Subsidizing higher education for needy students is an appopriate use of taxpayer money, in my opinion (drawing on research by Gonzalo Castex, among others), and I'll take the Sec. of Ed. at his word that the new way is more efficient and gives less welfare to bankers.

The Gore Effect

The Gore Effect is hitting Denmark with a vengeance. Odin is rolling his eyes as Freyr plays his jokes on the earnest scientists and unctuous politicos in Copenhagen. This is the funniest prank in Valhalla in the last several centuries!

Bonus silliness: The Danes have so much time on their hands that they have a government definition of "white Christmas".

Hat tip to Drudge.

Attn: Haters

To all those who see a 1 reception, 1 fumble game from an athlete with a bad reputation and come to the conclusion that he wasn't giving it effort, here's a spirited defense of Randy Moss from some serious football people:

Both Hoge and Cosell lauded Moss for blocking and running routes that freed up Wes Welker, who had 10 catches in the game.

“I saw a dozen big-time blocks by Randy. They ran the ball more in that game than they’ve run it all year,” Hoge said. “That guy had more blocks in the running game, and even for Wes Welker and those screens, than I’ve seen all year . . . so I’m watching this game, and I’m seeing a guy freeing up other guys, making blocks.

Contrast this with conspiracy-theory rantings of some commentators. What better way to make an athlete a selfish ball-hog than to lambaste him as a quitter every time he plays a supporting role in the game. Go Patriots, and go Randy!

Thoughtfully

The best blog headline (and best blog article) I've read about the Tiger Zoo: "Tiger Woods thoughtfully explodes “Halo Effect” myth in development".

Selfish Obama or Selfish Norwegians?

Remember when the world scratched its collective head at the awarding of a Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama? He still had that new-president smell! Now with a hard decision about Afghanistan behind him, he's lost some of his 'Age of Aquarius' cachet with Europeans. And with the prize almost in his hands, another possible reason for the Nobel committee's choice is apparent:

Peace prize laureates traditionally submit to [events] including a dinner with the Norwegian Nobel committee, a press conference, a television interview, appearances at a children's event promoting peace and a music concert, as well as a visit to an exhibition in his honour at the Nobel peace centre.

They just wanted to get face time with Barack!

But Obama, on his busy presidential schedule, doesn't have time to pal around with Norwegians. So he cancelled most of the events except receiving the prize. Of course, he could have scored a lot of points with Americans by declining the prize. After all he is - or should be - too busy dealing with two wars, a major recession, and global carbon talks to spend time being congratulated for presumed future accomplishments.

Instead, Obama's trying to be all things to all people, but ends up pleasing no one. Americans aren't impressed that he got a Nobel Peace Prize (4 or 8 years from now might have been another story), and Norwegians are bummed that he doesn't think their prize is worth a three-day junket. And with the real-life decisions he has to make as president, he's attracting a crowd of 5,000 anti-war protesters to Oslo.

This isn't working out well for anyone.

Mr. Bailout

WaPo has a great spread on how Neel Kashkari, executor of the $700 billion bank bailout, escaped Washington and saved his sanity and his marriage. It's personal, but it's also an instructive look at the interaction of politics and bureaucracy.