Tuesday Morning QB, Weeks 1 & 2

So when I started this whole blog thing, my intent was to rotate topics around theology, funnies and sports.  The first two I've been pretty consistent with, the latter, not so much.  I started the blog in March, while one of my biggest passions, college basketball, reached it's climax, and I had a pretty thorough review on the best post-season in sports.  After a few pithy sports posts in the spring, it was a quiet summer.  Part of it was apathy, but there also just wasn't much to talk about.  I work for a baseball team, so the last thing I want to do is come home and write about baseball.  Yeah, there was the World Cup, but I know nothing about professional soccer, and like most Americans, I only care to watch once every four years (if you disagree with that, you're either a liar or in the national minority).

But I've ingested a lot of football the last few weeks.  So much so, I'm confident I can blog on it once a week for the next 18 weeks or so.  Yes, I realize, I already missed week one, but I just got the idea two days ago, so cut me a break.  I realize the whole Tuesday Morning QB  thing might sound a little cliche, but aren't all weekly football re-caps cliche?

Every Tuesday, my plan is to post a few quick knee-jerk observations about the NFL (this week will be little verbose as I take time to explain format).  This won't focus on college football.  Don't get me wrong, I like watching college football, but I take it in as an appetizer for Sunday afternoons.

If you enjoyed any of my previous, non-sports blog posts: 1.) What's wrong with you?  2.) Thank You;  3.) Don't worry, I'll still slip in some theology & humor between Tuesday Morning QB posts.

So without any further adieu....

What's New?

Every week, I'll give a little reaction to the biggest league stories of the week.  Some will be quieter than others.  This week, however, is already making me regret starting this project now.

Ray Ray Rice.  There's not much I can add to what has already been said about this.  All I will say is that I'm honestly praying for Ray and Janay Rice.  This is a young couple that has been married for less than a year.  For all the turmoil, they still have presumably more than half their lives ahead of them.  They both need counseling - Ray for his anger issues, Janay to cope with the emotional trauma.  There's also clearly some deeper issues in their relationship, so if they truly want to preserve it, marriage counseling is needed as well.  Why do I say all this?  Because I'm a believer in hope.  Ray will have to face some severe consequences for his actions.  Janay has every right to leave him.  But what if they stopped fighting each other, stopped fighting the media, and started fighting for their marriage?  What if they started fighting for their daughter, too young to even know what's going on right now?  What if ten years from now, she could look up at her parents and see a patient, gentle father who exercises loving self-control, and a proud, confident mother who has inner peace?

Peterson Inactive, Now Active.  This situation is still developing/unfolding, but the above sentiments on Rice sum up my feelings on this issue as well.  It is clear that Peterson has admitted going too far in correcting his children.  I'm not a father, so I can't relate.  I certainly don't know what it's like to not have full custody of your kid (or be the child in that scenario), so it wouldn't be fair for me to try to act like I have all the answers in this situation.  I think it's safe to say though, that injuring a defenseless child, regardless of intent, is inexcusable.  Like Rice, there will be consequences to suffer.  At this point, I can only pray that Peterson will accept those consequences and that this situation will motivate him to run with fatherhood with the same passion he runs with the football on Sundays.

Impish or Admirable?

This is nothing new.  Some columns call this hot and cold, contenders and pretenders, etc.  We'll call this impish or admirable.  I'll basically pick a couple of teams each week who I think look good (admirable) or awful (impish).  Please keep in mind this is a snapshot of the respective weeks.  In other words, don't be surprised if a team I label impish one week is admirable 4 weeks later (or vice versa).  Teams change courses all season long.  Number of teams included will vary, depending on how I'm feeling.

Impish - Pittsburgh Steelers. This is embarrassing as a Steelers fan, but right now, it's the truth.  Although the team is only 1-1, the more alarming issue is that if we scored them by quarters played this season, they're 2-6.  For a team trying to break a 2-year streak of 8-8, that's not a good sign.  There are actually many bright spots on offense, but the unit is clearly still trying to gel.  Defensively, their young D-Line needs to grow up in a hurry.  Justin Forsett ran for 56 yards against them on Thursday.  Justin Forsett shouldn't be able to gain 56 yards walking around the Baltimore mall let alone against an NFL defense.

Impish - Kansas City Chiefs. After roaring to a 9-0 start last season, this team has won 2 out of it's last 10 including playoffs.  Pundits will argue that they "hung in there" against Denver, how they "controlled the clock" in the 2nd half, and had a "chance to tie" at the goal line in the closing seconds.  Last time I checked, wins aren't awarded for time of possession.  They lost their first two games, and stunk in the process.  I also couldn't get over Jim Nance and Phil Sims drooling over Alex Smith for his "running around the field to keep the play alive" and "great decision-making in the second half."  Again, these are not the statistics Kansas City signed him to an extension for in the offseason.  If this team continues to pick up more injuries than 1st downs, they'll be lucky to crack 8-8. 

Admirable - Cincinnati Bengals.  I say this with a seat belt, because this seems like deja vu.  Cincy seems to have the same narrative the last few years - great start, hangs on to win the division, lose in first round of playoffs.  But so far, they've done everything asked of them - Andy Dalton has been spreading the ball around effectively (even with an injured AJ Green), Jeremy Hill and Giovanni Bernard have figured out how to each each put up big numbers while sharing carries, and the defense is lights out.  I know I'm not supposed to trust them because they're the Bengals, but until they mess up, I have to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Admirable - Carolina Panthers.  It doesn't matter if it's Derek Anderson or Cam Newton under center, this team is moving the ball well on offense.  No Steve Smith? No problem.  Let me introduce you to a rejuvenated Greg Olsen, Jericho Cotchery, Jason Avant, and early offensive rookie of the year candidate, Kelvin Benjamin.  And we don't hear much about their defense outside Luke Kuechly - but this unit currently ranks in the top 5 in yards/game and points/game.  That's a recipe for playoff success!

Fantasy Watch

I have a problem - I'm addicted to fantasy football.  I'm currently in 3 leagues.  To be fair, I don't seek them out, I just can't say no when invited to a league.  Sometimes I only have one league if I only get one invite, but I guess I was popular this year.  

I don't have clever names for this, and this is already a cookie-cutter piece, so we'll just do like and dislike to keep it simple.  These are players you either want to look into acquiring via the waiver wire or trade, or players you should avoid or drop if they're on your roster.  I'll also do pyrite, more commonly known as fool's gold.  These are players who may not necessarily be good or bad, just use caution with them on your roster.  Like impish or admirable, number of players may vary, and since this post is already waaaayyy longer than I'd like, we'll keep this week's list short:

Like - Terrance West, Cleveland Browns RB.  I promise I'm not on a band wagon - this guy was on my very late round radar in each draft I was in, and now I'm kicking myself that he's unavailable.  While everyone was focused on Johnny Football this preseason, West was putting up solid running numbers.  And anyone who was delusional enough to think that Ben Tate was the next great running back just waiting in the shadow of Arian Foster, well, they deserve what they got if they drafted him.  With Tate hurt, West has shined in the last two weeks, and while it's still a committee backfield in Cleveland, he should eventually merit the bulk of the carries each game.  The only thing that can really stop him is if the coaching staff does something Cleveland-ish.

Dislike - Ryan Matthews, San Diego Chargers RB.  There are probably more significant fantasy disappointments to discuss, such as RG3's ankle, but since it's the beginning of the year, I need to say what nobody has seemed willing to say for the last 5 years: Ryan Matthews is not a great running back.  I'd hesitate to even call him good.  The year after LaDainian Tomlinson left the Chargers, Matthews was hailed a top-10 overall pick, despite not having much of a resume to back it up.  He was awful that season, and yet somehow, the geniuses in the fantasy football world ranked him in the top-10 again the next year! And guess what?  He was still pathetic!  While his projections seemed to have come back down to Earth the last few years, I was still surprised to see him listed as a top-15 running back in some player rankings this season.  Really?  You can't find 15 running backs that are better than Matthews?  If you're a Matthews fantasy owner, don't freak out too much over his knee injury - you weren't going to get much out of him anyways.  If you're lucky, maybe one of your fantasy colleagues will trade you a Jack-in-the-Box Midnight Munchie Meal for him. 

Pyrite - Percy Harvin, Seattle Seahawks WR.  At first, this may seem like a head-scratcher. I mean, he's averaging 9.5 fantasy points through the first two weeks - that's not bad, is it?  No, but remember, pyrite looks pretty, but it's not worth as much as the real thing.  My problem with Harvin is that he doesn't have a defined role, thus I doubt his ability to maintain big numbers week after week.  As a receiver, he's not the best route-runner or the surest of hands - he's just fast.  As a runner, he can't get large volumes of runs inside the tackles - he's used on sweeps and read options in hopes of finding open space to utilize his speed.  Last week's 9 point effort came on 50+ receiving yards and 40+ rushing.  By themselves, those would be terrible numbers for a wide receiver or running back respectively.  I don't think he'll get the number of touches every week to replicate that as well, as evidenced by his 3 touches on Sunday.  Had the referees correctly called him out of bounds on his 51-yard touchdown run, he probably would have had 3 points instead of 10.  Also this might be a little unfair, but he hasn't proven in recent years that his body can hold up through a 16-game schedule.
Is he a great weapon for the Seahawks?  Of course.  Worth having on a fantasy roster?  Absolutely.  But is he a WR2 (as currently ranked by Yahoo! Sports)?  If he's your second-best wide receiver in a draft that was supposed to be rich in wide receiver talent this year, you did something terribly wrong.

My Positivity Challenge

So, I'm sure you all know about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge floating around.  Around the same time, I noticed a smaller, but also very commendable challenge out there - The Positivity Challenge.  The concept is simple:

• 5 days
• 3 things you're thankful for each day
• nominate 3 different people each day

A few weeks ago, my dear Mother nominated me.

I blacked out my Mother's nominator as I did not seek permission to post,
but my Mom, Dad and Wife have no choice!

I wanted to accept, but because I creep and troll on Facebook more than I actually post, I missed the boat.  I still think it's a great idea though, and I thought it was noble of her to nominate me, so I wanted to follow through.  Since there's no way I'll post 5 days in a row and find 15 total people I feel comfortable challenging (Mom nominated most of our immediate family), I thought I'd use this blog to blast out 15 things I'm thankful for all at once (I'm about due for a serious post anyways, as the last 2 were me ranting about pumpkins and my wife judging people who chase foul balls).

So here goes:

1. Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made so I can have the honor of following Him
2. The Bible - more specifically, the privilege of having the very Word of God
3. My wife - I don't know how I did the first 29 years of my life without her, but thankful I get to do the rest of it with her
4. My family - wouldn't be where or who I am today without them
5. My friends - for laughing with me, challenging me and being there for me
6. My health - my body's not perfect, but I'm able to walk and breath, easily taken for granted
7. My education - 3 great schools that taught me how to "do life"
8. My job, especially one I genuinely enjoy going to each day
9. Being in America - there's a lot to complain about, but it could be worse
10. My daily bread - my wife and I have a roof over our head, clothes to wear, and we never miss a meal
11. My Church - not just the one I attend now, but the ones I've been to in the past, and the collective Church worldwide
12. Kung-Fu - it's shaped me, not only as a fighter, but even more so my character
13. Coffee - admit it, you are too
14. Fall - football, weather, pumpkins, beautiful leaves (when I'm up north)
15. Jokes - I enjoy laughing, so I'm glad there's plenty of them

Now this is where I'm supposed to challenge someone, and I nominate you.  No, don't look over your shoulder, you read it right, I want you to think about what you're thankful for.  Not just for five days.  You don't have to make a list.  I don't want it to be some ambiguous ideal like "be thankful every day..."

So here's what I want you to do: between now and Thanksgiving, take some time to every now and again to think about what you're thankful for.  Talk to someone about it.  Say "thank you" when someone does something for you.  Then, when Thanksgiving rolls around, you won't be hard-pressed to name things you're thankful for (I'll admit, I had to think a little about 11-15).

Above all, let's make it a habit to be consciously thankful for what we have so we don't take them for granted.

Thanks Mom! 

'Tis the Season for Everything Pumpkin!

Happy Labor Day!  September marks a magical time of year.  This week marks the beginning of fall, practically speaking (kids are in school, so don't give me that equinox nonsense!).  For the next three months, the most famous of orange gourdes will permeate our restaurants, stores & beverages.  I'm talking about the pumpkin.  Or as Peanuts character Linus more aptly describes it, the Great Pumpkin.  Let's have a look:

When I first saw this as a kid, just like Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Lucy, I thought this kid was a real blockhead.  There's no "Great Pumpkin."  But years later, in my adulthood, I've come to learn there is a Great Pumpkin.  Not a person who delivers treats on Halloween, but rather a spirit and atmosphere that makes all our culinary endeavors extra delicious.  Make no mistake about it: if it were socially acceptable, I would consume pumpkin flavored products all year round.

I don't want to keep this magical flavor all to myself - it's too amazing not to share with the rest of the world.  For the next few moments, I'm going to do a thorough, but not exhaustive, rundown of pumpkin treats you can anticipate this fall.  Let's explore!

Out of the Pumpkin 

Before delving too deep into the deliciousness of pumpkins, I find it necessary to recognize the obtaining of pumpkin taste - pumpkin patches and pumpkin carving.  Those may sound like kiddie activities, but I think as long as I'm able to walk and deemed coherent enough to wield a sharp object, I envision myself at a ripe old age running through an open field of pumpkins, searching for the best one to take home, gouge open it's innards, and cut out a crude-looking picture on the exterior.  As you get older, don't take yourself so seriously that you can no longer enjoy these magical experiences.

From the inside of the pumpkin we the key ingredient for pumpkin pie filling - a staple of the fall.  Pumpkin pie is hands down the greatest pie ever made.  It has just the right blend of sweet and spicy.  It's texture is solid enough where you can take massive bites at a time, yet it's soft enough where you only need minimal chewing to swallow.  In short - it's amazing!  Buy it at your local grocery store.  Get it for dessert at restaurants.  If you don't have a slice on Thanksgiving - move to Russia!  And because everything's bigger in Texas, the state fair offers a deep-fried pumpkin pie.  I'll wait a moment for you to wipe the drool off your screen.  We also get pumpkin bread, which makes great fall comfort food.  If you make a batch at home, don't be afraid to throw a few chocolate chips in there!

And the seeds - don't throw away those seeds!  Hose down a baking sheet with an oily substance, lay out your seeds (after you wash them, of course), sprinkle on some salt, cinnamon or whatever else is laying on your spice rack, stick it in the oven that's been pre-heated to 300-400 degrees (it doesn't really matter, as long as it's hot) and leave it for approximately 15-18 minutes (feel free to flip seeds over at the halfway point, but again, probably doesn't make a big difference), and voila! You know have a delicious, high-sodium fall snack!  My wife might just "pin" that recipe verbatim.

Pumpkin Coffee

Disclaimer: when it comes to coffee, I like Dunkin Donuts (DD) much better for a variety of reasons - I would need a separate blog to explain why DD trumps Starbucks.  For now, I'll just try to celebrate what they both have in common: the goodness that is pumpkin.  But if you are a Starbucks fan, please forgive me in advance if I slip in a few jabs at the popular Seattle-based chain.

Starbucks made a big announcement a few weeks ago that they would release their Pumpkin Spice Latte in late August.  This is a delicious beverage, and while Starbucks is typically over-priced (even some of the most rabid fans would have to agree), it is definitely worth your time and money to make a trip to your nearest Starbucks (for the average American that's like .2 miles from home).  I also remember them offering a pumpkin bread, it wasn't the most amazing pumpkin bread I've ever had, but considering Starbucks pastries are terribly underwhelming, it's your best bet if you need to get food while at a Starbucks this fall.

However, the aforementioned "early" release of the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte is bogus - Dunkin' Donuts has been releasing and expanding the variety of Pumpkin products around Labor Day weekend for years.  Dunkin freakin' Donuts is the capital of all things pumpkin.  First, they offer a pumpkin coffee (Starbucks will still be offering the Pike Place and Verona as the extent of their coffee varieties this fall).  You can get a beverage to drink on the spot or the ground coffee - but there is a difference.  The in-store offering is a pumpkin syrup in the regular coffee, whereas the grounds has an inherent pumpkin flavor.  Have no fear though, both are great!  I drink my coffee black, so I usually grab a bag of the pumpkin grounds to enjoy a smooth fall taste at home.  However, I have a sweet tooth, and pumpkin is magic, so the syrup option at a DD location is like a treat yourself moment!  They also offer the Pumpkin Latte, and it's very delicious.  I can honestly and objectively say I'm on the fence on whether it beats the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte.  It's close, I could literally toss a coin.  But you can get 2 DD Pumpkin Lattes for the price of one at Starbucks, so if the taste is that close, I think price makes the vote for DD academic.

You may be thinking at this point, all this talk about Dunkin Donuts, but where's the donuts?  Slow down cowboy - Dunkin Donuts has not one, but two pumpkin donuts!  The first they've had for years - it's a glazed, cake texture with a strong pumpkin taste. But just when I thought the pumpkin donut had been perfected, last year they go and introduce the pumpkin pie donut.  The concept is similar to a boston creme, except the top is an icing with cinnamon-ish crumbles on top, and the inside has pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin Pie filling in a donut.  It exists, and it's delicious.  Finally, there's the pumpkin muffin.  My go-to, year-round pastry at DD is more often than not their muffins. I make sure to grab the pumpkin muffins as many times as I can throughout the fall, because I know it will be a whole year before I can enjoy it's pumpkin crumbly goodness.  I should also probably mention the pumpkin bagel. Ok... you got me... the pumpkin bagel was disappointing.  I guess one bad option out of 300 bajillion is still good though. 

Frozen Pumpkins

Ice cream is available all year round, but pumpkin ice cream is a special frozen treat to be consumed once a year.  It all starts at your local grocery - get some pumpkin ice cream!   I can't recommend a particular brand.. just about all of them make it, some are better than others, but it's all good!

September usually introduces the Pumpkin Shake at Sonic.  I can't understand why they don't do a Pumpkin Blast, but we can always hope.  In the meantime, the Pumpkin Shake is good, but truth be told, I typically only get it once a year - definitely worthwhile though.

What you really want to mark your calendar for is the month of October when Dairy Queen releases the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard.  Unlike other pumpkin treats that are available all fall, this one is only open for a 31-day window... but it's worth it.  I think the exclusivity makes it taste even better.  Most Blizzard treats have chunks of the respective flavor in them, and the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard is no exception - there are actually  pumpkin pie pieces in it.  Let that settle for a minute.  Chunks of pumpkin pie frozen in pumpkin ice cream. Just stop reading this blog post and go pitch a tent in front of your local Dairy Queen now! (Actually, don't do that.  The lines aren't that long and supplies aren't that limited.  You probably have a job/school to go to.  And there's no bathroom in the tent.  And my ego needs you to continue reading and validate my self-esteem).

Pumpkin Breakfast

If you like pancakes, you need to visit IHOP at some point this fall for the pumpkin pancake.  The taste is just as fun as the alliteration seems to indicate.  When at your local grocer in the frozen section, keep an eye out for Eggo's pumpkin waffles.  It's worth having a box in your freezer when you want to break up the monotony of your morning breakfast.  For the same reason, get a box of the pumpkin Pop-Tarts.  Don't lecture me about how bad they are for you - 8 toaster pastries over a 3 month span won't kill you!

There's a lot of things to get excited about in fall: football, beautiful weather, foliage (at least for our friends up north), but do your taste buds a favor and make room for the delicious flavor of pumpkin! 

Stacy Memes: Baseball

I learned a harsh reality at tonight's Rangers game...

If you're wondering what a Stacy Meme is, click here, here, here and here.

ESPN is the Worldwide Leader in Sloppy Journalism

Yesterday, in the Canadian Football League (CFL), the Toronto Argonauts battled the Saskatchewan Roughriders.  The game was also nationally televised on ESPN2 - either times are changing, or we're just that bored because it's the middle of July.  Either way, good for the CFL!

ESPN promoted the game earlier this week on some of their broadcasts, here's a screenshot:

To the casual observer, there's nothing unusual.  To a CFL fan, they'd at least know that the Toronto Argonauts logo on top was correct.  However, they would be a bit confused about the logo on the bottom intended to represent Saskatchewan.  Here's the Saskatchewan Roughriders logo:

I think somebody at ESPN was asleep at the wheel.  So what logo did they use?  It's the Frisco RoughRiders, AA baseball affiliate for the Texas Rangers.  Here's a closer look at their logo:

Even if the person in the control room was confused about which Roughriders team they were supposed to show, you'd think the word "Frisco" plastered across the top of the logo would be a red flag.  Not only was it the wrong team, it was the wrong sport, in the wrong country.  The color scheme wasn't even the same.  I might have cut them some slack if they used the Michigan State logo.

Maybe the person responsible for proofing logos at ESPN is the same person that fact-checked the College Gameday feature on Manti Te'o's fake girlfriend.

Unicameralism: Half the Government, Double the Fun!

Last week, I took a family road trip to Nebraska.  It was a quiet, relaxing trip.  Perhaps one of the highlights though, was our day in Lincoln, during which we toured the state capital building.  On this tour, I learned one of the most mesmerizing facts about ANY state government: Nebraska is the ONLY state in the union to use unicameral legislature.  "What is unicameralism?" you may ask.  Great question... I sure didn't know.  All the other state governments, as well as the Federal Government, use 2 houses of representatives, or a "bicameral" legislation: a Congress and a Senate.  Nebraska, on the other hand, only has a Senate.  There are 49 Senators each representing about 35,000 citizens.  Why in the world would they adopt such a format?  A unicameral legislation is ultimately more cost-effective and efficient:

• Fewer stalemates between the two houses
• More accountability for representatives
• Reduced staffing costs
• Currently, houses negotiate their differences through "conference committees," a bureaucratic waste of time and resources.  In the unicameral system, this would be eliminated.
• Much simpler process for passing bills
• Fewer opportunities for influence from lobbyists

As the tour continued, I couldn't shake the thought: "what if we applied this model to the Federal Government."

Case Study: New York State

Before we look at the big picture, I think you can appreciate Nebraska's unicameral model better if we contrast it to a state where bicameralism has failed miserably.  I was a resident of New York State from 2006-2009.  As I tried to learn more about my local government, I observed a complete mess, the climax of which, hitting in 2009:

• March 29- Both the General Assembly (what New York State refers to as it's Congress or House of Representatives) and the Senate had been struggling to reach an agreement on the state budget by the April 1 deadline.  Behind closed doors, Governor David Patterson, along with the Speaker of the General Assembly and Senate Majority leader, hash out an outline for said budget
• June 8 - Two Democratic Senate leaders, Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada, form a coup with the Republican members, essentially agreeing to "vote Republican," thus giving the GOP a 32-30 majority rule.
• June 15: Monserrate decided to side with the Democrats again, causing a 31-31 split.  The result was a month-long stalemate, in which both sides resorted to childish name-calling and attempting to lock each other out of the Senate chamber... seriously, Democrats sat in the chamber with the doors locked, and the Republicans were scrambling to find a janitor or anyone with keys!
• July 8: the Lieutenant Governor's seat was vacant at the time.  Patterson had been appointed governor a year earlier because his predecessor, Elliot Spitzer, was busted in a prostitution scandal.  Patterson tried to appoint a Lieutenant Governor to break the tie, but then Attorney General (now Governor) Andrew Cuomo deemed the appointment illegal. 
• July 9: Espada decided to return to the Democrat side, effectively ending the crisis.  For one month, nothing got accomplished, Senators still received paychecks, the General Assembly could not move anything forward, and New York tax dollars essentially went to waste.

I could not believe the utter incompetence I was witnessing.  In September of that year, I attended the Hamilton County Republican Picnic (Yes, that's a real thing; if you're too cool to vote, yes, it's as lame as it sounds; if you're a political junkie, yes, it's as awesome as it sounds!).  I had the opportunity to speak face-to-face with our State Senator at the time, Betty Little.  I asked her candidly how such a debacle could ever be allowed to happen and where the accountability was.  Her answer was underwhelming, but there was one portion of it that has always stuck out as peculiar to me - she referred to New York State Senate meetings as "New York City Council Meetings II."  She flat out admitted that there were segments of the population whose voices were not heard.  Our legislative branch was broken.

I left New York disgusted and in desire of radical change.  Around the same time, former US Congressman Rick Lazio wrote a brief, but compelling piece for the New York Times citing the recent debacle in Albany as an example of why New York could use the unicameral system.  I was unaware of both the article and unicameralism at at the time (I just came across it this week), but had I read it then, I would have been fully on that band wagon much sooner.  Let's take the New York model of disaster, see if we can draw parallels to the Federal government, and look at how Nebraska can be an example for the entire country.

Trim the Fat

In case you haven't noticed, our government is very inefficient.  It takes FOREVER for bills to pass, our spending gradually increases while cost-cutting measures actually decrease, the two houses constantly bicker, and most representatives seem to only have their political careers in mind rather than the interests of the people they are "serving."  It's a mess and disgrace.

New York barely passed a budget on time in 2009, and even then, it was behind closed doors with a lot of pork spending attached to it.  The U.S. representatives are no different.  How many years in a row have we heard threats of a "government shut down" if a budget isn't passed in time?  How many years has it been now where the solution is to raise the debt ceiling, only punting the problem to a later date?  If these clowns were accountants at a Fortune 500 company, they would have been fired a long time ago.  Currently, we have a combined 535 representatives between Congress and the Senate.  That's 535 salaries the US tax dollars are supporting right now to do nothing for this country.  Here's a thought: if they can't come up with cost-cutting measures to get out of debt, we can save money by cutting the number of salaries in half!

Reduce the Chatter

As mentioned before, states and our Federal Government use "conference committees" to negotiate differences between the 2 houses.  Remember the first point in the New York case study?  After months of negotiation between two houses, the final decision came down to 3 men in a closed room.  This happens in Washington all the time.  What that means for you and I is that we go from having a collective body representing the entire population and making the important decisions for our country, to just a handful of people deciding what's important behind closed doors. Furthermore, these snakes tend to solve their differences by making shady deals behind those same closed doors.  I don't know about you, but that's not the kind of cronyism I intended my votes or tax dollars to go to!  

Get 'er Done

As Lazio aptly mentioned, the New York legislature moves at a snail's pace because the two houses can't agree on anything.  Sound familiar?  With one house, a decision gets made much sooner, and once it's passed, it's done!

Critics will argue this will lead to poorly thought out, hastily-made decisions.  Hmmmm.  Poorly thought out, hastily-made decisions.  Where have I heard that before?  I seem to remember our now very-flawed Affordable Health Care Act being passed overnight.  I believe opponents referred to it as "shoved down people's throats."  Keep in mind, the bill was almost 2,000 page long.  Surely all 535 representatives had plenty of time for that leisurely read before voting.... right?  

In this case, I'll take the pro over the con.  I'd rather have fewer representatives able to think more clearly with less chatter, thereby making decisions with less bickering.  In other words - leaders who can accomplish something!

Can you hear me now?

One concern of the unicameral system, is that if we just went to a body of Senators, the individual pockets of voices around the country are no longer heard.  However, in the words of the State Senator I cited earlier, that's already the case.  Let's be honest, how many of you reading this actually feel like you're concerns are being addressed at the state and national level?  Right now, we have too many career politicians (I could write a whole separate blog on term limits) more concerned about advancing their careers than serving the people who voted them in.

In a unicameral system, there's more accountability.  If something doesn't get passed, leaders can't blame members of the other house for not doing their part.  Many people also don't even know who their representatives are these days.  Part of that is due to apathy, but the other part of that is sheer number: 535.  I barely have that many friends on Facebook, more than half of whom I haven't spoken to in years!  How are we supposed to keep track of so many representatives?  I believe that in addition to term limits, a smaller crowd to hide behind and no second house to punt to would make a lot of politicians take the voice of the people more seriously.

How would this work?

I don't know.  But there are smarter people than me that could figure that out.  What I do know, is that if it were to happen, I'd gladly volunteer to hand out the pink slips to the Congressmen and Senators that would get released.  I'd even wear a pink tutu and plastic wings, calling myself the pink slip fairy - prancing up and down the halls of capital hill putting pink slips under office doors.  Bye Bye Nancy Pelosi. Hasta La Vista John Boehner (yes, this is a bi-partisan axing!) Sayonara Barbara Boxer.  Smell ya later Bob Casey Jr.  You get the picture.

I understand that this likely will never happen.  The people in charge have gained too much power to ever prevent a sweeping reform like this from ever happening.  And that's the real problem.  Our government is supposed to be by the people and for the people.  Now it's by the people who bother to show up to the polls and for the politicians.  So let me scale back my previous suggestion.  Why don't we start by getting educated (who is your representative?).  Go vote (when's your next general election?).  And when the people in charge don't do their job, write them a letter.  There may be 535 representatives, but there's like 535 million citizens.  If the squeaky wheel gets the grease, a noisy engine gets full-scale transmission work.

Our Trip to Nebraska told through Stacy Memes

We just got back from a family vacation last night.  We drove to Nebraska and back to visit my sister-in-law.  I thought the best way to sum up our road trip was through some highlights as told by my wife:

Next week's blog will be about my favorite thing I learned in Nebraska. You'll have to check back to find out what it is.

In the meantime, if need the back story on Stacy Memes, take some time to familiarize yourself.