1hundredsixty8

Or,  scattered thoughts on a January morning.

- I felt confident that Alabama would defeat Notre Dame. I did not think that ND had faced the type of speed on both sides of the ball that the top SEC teams possess. I did not think it would be a laugher, but the Tide had the edge in my mind. I thought the Irish were fortunate in their regular season closer against USC, who did have speed and gobs of talent (even without Matt Barkley at QB). The Trojans, however, are not well-coached and contributed as much to their own loss as ND's disciplined defense. Observing the futility of Lane Kiffin and his staff,- the poor play selection on the goal-line (twice), the horrendous clock management in the 4th quarter when the Trojans were still in the game- you just knew that there could be no comparison to the Nick Saban-coached Tide. He and his coaches had Alabama prepared.

Disclaimer: I did not watch the game. I do not get ESPN and, besides, I was involved in a technical support issue most of the evening.

- Josh Barro (@jbarro) has teamed up with Joe Wiesenthal (@TheStalwart) and gone off on quite a crusade. They have taken Rep. Jerry Nadler's proposal that the Treasury mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin and deposit it with the Federal Reserve and run with it.  In effect, they are advocating using a loophole in Federal law that permits the President to have a coin of any denomination minted for commemorative purposes to print money to pay the nation's debts and thus by-pass the entire debt ceiling kerfuffle with the GOP House.  Much of the public reaction seems to find the idea ludicrous, but J and J are prosecuting their arch campaign  with convincing earnestness.  What they have achieved thus far is to shine a light on the equally-absurd idea that the House will stand in the way of raising the government's debt ceiling.  The comedy has been extended by Rep. Greg Walden, who announced his intention to introduce a  bill to prevent the trillion-dollar platinum coin from ever coming into existence.  It simply does not get any better than this.

- Why is there a "flu season"? I need to research this.

- My brain has been captured by the Tedeshi Trucks Band cover of the Harry Neilson hit "Everybody's Talking" (from the movie "Midnight Cowboy"). Great rock and roll.