I have to cheat a little....

and start this morning blog the night before.  I have to be at the VA before 9 in the morning and that doesn't give me enough time to write much before I will have to leave.  So I'll start this tonight and finish it in the a.m.

Looks like the fiscal cliff has been avoided, temporarily. We didn't get a real solution, merely a postponement of confrontation with the unavoidable fiscal realities Congress has been avoiding for decades.

If you were to see this headline "Storm hosts Rose Parade show after fiery accident" would you automatically be able to conclude they were referring to Hannah Storm, or would you be thinking that the skies opened up after a float caught fire on the streets of Pasadena?

What's the most dangerous occupation so far this year in CA?  Probably paparazzi.  One was killed by an oncoming car while trying to take a picture of Justin Bieber's Ferrari.  Worse yet, Bieber wasn't even in the car.

Right now teachers, administrators and school districts in the public system should be scared.  Very scared.  Governor Moonbeam is planning to alter how public schools are funded, with an eye toward seeing more of the state's dollars going to lower-income and non-English speaking students.  A lofty if possibly unconstitutional goal.  Jerry, re-read this:  "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."  If Brown v Board of Education made segregated schools unconstitutional, then it stands to reason that this would apply to disproportionate funding based on race.  It would also stand to reason that Governor Moonbeam's desires would run afoul of the "Reasonable Basis Review" standard applied by courts.  It will be interesting to see what happens.

The idiot lawyer who filed a request to sue the state of Connecticut on behalf of one of the Sandy Hook school shootings has tabled his request, for now.  He says he reserves the right to file the request at a later date. 

Things I'm pondering on the second morning of 2013 include:

Why do football players dump Gatorade on the coach when they win?  They don't do that for baseball games or basketball games and can you imagine how the ice would look if hockey players were to dump colored Gatorade on their coach after a big win?

Will K-EARTH, some 30 or 40 years from now, be playing the music of the 90s, oughts and teens?

Does Kathy Griffin trying to give oral sex to a gay man on television make her a faux fag hag?

Why all the fuss about which baby was born first in 2013?  All newborn babies are special gifts from the universe and should be treasured.

Why do women pluck the daylights out of their eyebrows and then draw them back on with pencils?  Couldn't they just trim and shape the ones nature gave them?

Why would you make a stealth fighter jet that's capable of supersonic flight?  Maybe they can't see it with radar, but if it flies faster than Mach 1, they can hear it.

How come no one has adapted stealth fighter technology to the automobile?  Imagine how many cars you could sell if the salesperson was able to tell prospective customers "hey, no cop will ever get to track how fast you're going on radar.  This is a stealth car."

Why is it that the place I live can't get wake-up calls right?  They just came to wake me, an hour after the time I'd asked to be awakened.  Fortunately I only overslept by ten minutes.

Today in History:

On this date in 1788, Georgia became the 4th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
On this date in 1791, the Big Bottom Massacre took place in the Ohio country, marking the start of the Northwest Indian War.  There's a Kim Kardashian joke in there somewhere but I'm trying to put those behind me.
On this date in 1833, British rule is re-established on the Falkland Islands.
On this date in 1871, Amadeus I becomes King of Spain.
On this date in 1935, Bruno Haumptmann went on trial for the murder of the Lindberg baby.
On this date in 1974, President Nixon signs a bill lowering the speed limit to 55 MPH to conserve fuel during the OPEC oil embargo.