I've never cared about the birth certificate stuff. If it makes him legally ineligible, fine, otherwise meh. The rule was put in place specifically to keep Alexander Hamilton from gaining the presidency, since his power at that point terrified a lot of people. You could also argue that it refers to the problem of a foreigner not keeping the interests of this country (i've heard that anyway, and I have sympathies with the view), but in the end leadership matters, and that's where he's been faulty. I can't stand idiot screeching protests, but for context, I still have to deal with "9/11 truthers" protesting or wearing their stupid shirts, or my favorite teacher (a philosopher and Roman Catholic) always dealing with people calling him a supporter of child molesters, and those are much bigger, uglier acts of dishonest protesting stupidity, so I guess you have one, you have to have them all. Apparently the Broncos are considering putting Elway in the higher offices. Great, he can teach them how to cheat salary caps and get blown out in superbowls.

Monday Night Football was the best I've experienced in a while. I headed to a bar at Texas Roadhouse for the game and my first chewing meal in over 5 weeks. I was dying for a burger, so my destination was a mistake there (Texas Roadhouse has a lot of good food, burgers are a pretty big exception), but the game was fabulous. The Saints defense was phenomenal. Its been a top 10 defense all year regardless of turnovers, and that's with the offensive turnovers from Brees and whatnot getting returned skewing the numbers. They held a great offense with a great running back and great line to 7 points, totally shut down Turner. Ryan made some big completions but near the end the pass defense turned smart and simply got the ball down, no going for interceptions, just stop the play. Brees was great down the stretch, they need to focus more on that sharp pass play calling, balanced offense, not so much creativity and confusion. Strange how many of Brees' interceptions this year came by Defensive linemen. Maybe it has to do with his size (or lack of it) plus the lack of good line play this year and monday night. Big linemen can get in his way easier. Good to see him go after the second guy though, no more letting the defense score on a turnover like in Cleveland. Atlanta played a great game, had some fluke turnovers but were compensated in every other facet, so no excuses. They were beaten at home by an equal if not better team. Hopefully the Saints can use this to move forward, I doubt Carolina is getting another wacky win so Saints will be in the Wildcard visiting a losing team. It'll be tough but possible. Mike Vick returns to his old ways and gets whacked by Joe Webb from Dragnet. Just the sacks ma'am. The civil war is one of the most complex and mysterious events in all of history, still controversial and still oversimplified by either side. Slavery was far too profitable to go anywhere on its own, though the industry in the North wasn't a lot better and the racism there was just as deep. The Northerners saw the power slaveholders held in government, and their exercising of it with the gag rule on mail going south, as a threat to their own well being and rights. The land grab to the west resulted, the Great Experiment of England failed horribly, The South won the Land grab with Texas, so, war be damned, they weren't going to change. You can make an argument that the war was, in context, a war between state rights and federal power. It was the growing pains of a new nation that couldn't let this issue sit at the side any longer. Many people believed in states rights that fought, many believed in freeing slaves that fought. At its core, it was a fight between the Northern desire for power and Southern desire for slave economy as tradition, and its true people try to mess around with that but that wasn't the end of the story. Also, you could say it was the first industrial war, including the first successful submarine and first machine gun. Barbour though is an idiot anyway. I have less issues with historical views (he's not a historian, it would be nice if he kept his mouth shut but you can't ban his views really) as with his actions. Apparently he pardoned violent criminals from prison, a prison that possibly holds innocent people, because those criminals did work on his house. Aw, how nice. It depends on who those 99ers are, I know and worked with many people who proudly talked about gaming the unemployment and welfare systems. Not everyone does it, we are a welfare nation because its better than a Laissez Faire system, that doesn't mean people don't do it, and that we shouldn't have rules that keep parasites out so they don't steal from honest people who hit hard times and need that cushion.