What Caught My Eye Today

Economy - The White House warned that the country could face a long and painful financial recovery, even with major government intervention to stimulate the economy and save financial institutions. At the end of the Obama administration's first week, Democrats sought to lower expectations for a quick fix despite legislation expected to pass by next month that would pump billions of dollars into the economy. Speaking strictly for myself, I'm not sure my expectations for a quick economic recovery could be much lower. I've been digging for days now, and I still have gotten to them. Congress is working on an $825 billion economic recovery package that dedicates about two-thirds to new government spending and the rest to tax cuts. The goal is to infuse money directly into the economy in the hope of bringing the nation out of recession, while creating 3 million to 4 million jobs. It would be largest economic recovery package ever enacted; the White House says the scope rivals the construction of the interstate highway system after World War II. The irony here is that much of that recovery package will probably be spent on fixing that same highway system, much of which hasn't seen any attention since it was first built nearly 60 years ago. Republicans want the recovery package tilted more toward tax cuts and have questioned whether government spending programs will revive the economy in the short-term. This is another interesting angle to this story and illustrates a fundamental divide in how people view government. Is it best to leave taxpayers to their own devices and trust the markets to do what needs to be done--which is what most Republicans believe--or is the concept of free markets basically a myth at this point, and is giving more control to government the only way to dig out of this economic downturn--essentially the position of Democrats. One might argue that the Democrat plan effectively changes a nation that has thrived on capitalism into a socialist state. Perhaps, but in the same vein, we're no more of a capitalist society than we are a democratic one. Seriously, if we were truly democratic than little things like the Electoral College and the notion of having two Senators per state, regardless of population, would never have come into existence in the first place.

Pope - Pope Benedict's rehabilitation of four traditionalist bishops may heal one festering Catholic wound at the expense of opening a wider one with Jews because one of the prelates is a Holocaust denier. The four bishops re-admitted to the Church over the weekend lead the far-right Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which has about 600,000 members and rejects modernizations of Roman Catholic worship and doctrine. One of the four, the British-born Richard Williamson, has made statements denying the full extent of the Nazi Holocaust of European Jews, as accepted by mainstream historians. In comments to a Swedish television broadcast and widely available on the Internet, Williamson said "I believe there were no gas chambers" and only up to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, instead of 6 million. "I believe that the historical evidence is hugely against 6 million having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler," he said. Yeah, I can see how the Jewish community might not react very favorably to statements like that. Just out of curiosity, what version of history is this guy referring to where he procured this so-called 'historical evidence'? The Society of Saint Pius X leader, Bishop Bernard Fellay, said, "Catholics attached to tradition throughout the world will no longer be unjustly stigmatized." But Fellay made it clear they still had "some reservations" about the teachings of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which modernized the Church and is accepted by most of its 1.1 billion members, as opposed to the 600,000 traditionalists. I'm a numbers guys, and while I would freely concede the point that you cannot boil matters of religious faith down to a bunch of numbers, I have to question the decision to alienate the entire Jewish population in order to bring 600,000 traditionalists back into the fold--traditionalists who are pissed off about practices that the other 99.95% of Catholics have come to terms with. I'm just not seeing how this works out well for the Vatican or all us Catholics that the Vatican represents.

Football -Superbowl week is upon us, yet again. So how many of you had the Pittsburgh Steelers facing the Arizona Cardinals in Superbowl XLIII? Yeah, right. me too. No one has picked the Cardinals to win any of the playoff games so far, and neither will I. Give me the Steelers by at least a touchdown.

Tennis - Let me begin by saying, Roger Federer is slowly but surely rising above the ranks of mere mortals and transcending into the realm of...wait for it...LEGENDARY. World number two Roger Federer fought back from two sets down to seal a dramatic 4-6 6-7 6-4 6-4 6-2 victory against Tomas Berdych, retaining his hopes of winning a 14th grand slam title at the Australian Open. While not on par with the Wimbledon showdown against Rafael Nadal, this was still an epic match. And remember what I said about there not being much of a chance for a dark horse winner? While that still holds true for the men--the top 9 seeds are still alive, including two Americans, James Blake (#9) and Andy Roddick (#7)--on the women's side of the draw, things are a complete mess. Only five of the top 10 seeds will have moved on to the second week. #2 Serena Williams is to highest remaining seed and last American women still alive. It's also worth mentioning that while Venus Williams lost in the third round, she's into the quarterfinals of the women's doubles with sister, Serena.

Cycling - Australia’s Allan Davis won the Tour Down Under finishing in the main pack in the final stage of the event highlighted by seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong’s comeback. Davis won three of the race’s five previous stages to open a 25-second lead entering the 56-mile final leg. He’s the only rider to have contested all 11 editions of the race and finished second place twice before his breakthrough win. Armstrong finished 29th overall in the Tour Down Under, 49 seconds behind. Props to Davis for a dominating performance, but to be fair, the 144,000 spectators who turned out for the final stage, were probably more interested in Armstrong's performance.

Next up for Armstrong is the Tour of California in mid February. Dude rides through my 'hood on my birthday. How cool is that? And guess how else will be starting his comeback in Cali? None other than our good friend, Floyd Landis. His two year suspension is done, and Floyd is back in the saddle. While we're on the subject of comebacks, anyone seen Tyler Hamilton?