Don't worry little Timmy, Uncle Jimmy's got your trainset

NFL Committed To Cramming Home 18 Games

It doesn't matter if you hate the thought of an 18 game NFL season.

The league is going to shove it down your throat, whether you like it or not.

I am constantly amazed at how little actual support there is among fans for this league obsession.

Here, read this quick blurb headed with "NFL negotiator says 18-game season key to labor talks."

Now, skip down to the comments, and just get a feel for how many fans absolutely HATE this idea. This is not a skewed sample of opinion, either.

In all of my hours on the radio taking calls, both national and local, I have yet to hear any broad, coherent, or passionate support for 18 games.

The league will say, "but of course, who WOULDN'T want to turn two bad pre-season games into real ones?"

The NFL is assuming that demand for their product is infinite, and that the financial will of their customers to finance schedule expansion is a fait accompli.

I think if they get their way on 18 games, they may be in for a shock.

To my view, the average NFL fan is already more than satisfied with the level of consumption available for the NFL "product" as a whole.

Because even though schedule expansion is still the league's goal, they have already engaged in aggressive television expansion for years.

They pried open a Thursday "opening night" game before the first Sunday.
They have a full second half slate of Thursday games.
They have a late December run of Saturday games.
They added a third game on Thanksgiving day.
They even have a double-header MNF game during Week 1.

All of this, with the popular explosion of the NFL's own "Red Zone Channel" by way of cable systems, means that the average NFL fan is well sated with the product as it currently stands.

The demand for 18 games, is much weaker than the league thinks.

Obama's Anger Management Technique

It's rare that you can post a political spoof, in which both sides of the spectrum can actually laugh, and nobody would consider it a "cheap shot." But I think this one qualifies.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street delivers the eulogy for Obamanomics:

Does President Obama like or loathe the two-year tax deal he has struck with Republicans? It was hard to tell from his grudging, testy remarks Monday and yesterday, but perhaps that's because he realizes he is repudiating the heart and soul of Obamanomics as the price of giving himself a chance at a second term.

In accepting the deal to cut payroll and business taxes and extend all of the Bush-era tax rates through 2012, Mr. Obama has implicitly admitted that his economic strategy has flopped. He is acknowledging that tax rates matter to growth, that treating business like robber barons has hurt investment and hiring, and that tax cuts are superior to spending as stimulus. It took 9.8% unemployment and a loss of 63 House seats for this education to sink in, but the country will benefit.

LAST ADD: The most aggravating element of the current tax debate, is the phrase "how are we going to pay for these tax cuts." Pay for them? PAY for them? It's not your fucking money, government! There's no "paying" for something that doesn't BELONG to you in the first place!

Plus, the media keeps referring to these as the "Bush Tax CUTS" or the "Bush Era Tax Cuts." Funny, because when Bush cut taxes, I never recall the media harping on the "Clinton Era Tax Raises" or the "Clinton Tax Raise".

The current tax rates, are just the current fucking tax rates. That's all. Think of tax rates like the thermostat in your home. If you think it's too cold, and you have the votes, turn up the heat a bit. If you think you can save money and be a bit cold in the house, turn it down just bit.

It's not more complicated than that.

There is no magically perfect tax rates, nor any "correct" tax rates.