Dan from Madison – Page 86

Chicago’s Pain, My Gain

April 12, 2009 by Dan from Madison

Looking at the latest Intrade figures, Chicago is looking like the odds on favorite to get the racket known as the Olympics at this point. As an interesting footnote, it only took three comments to figure out why Steven Levitt’s neighborhood was looking so clean as of late.

This is great news for me, as the City of Chicago will absorb all of the debt, traffic, and mayhem that the Olympics will bring and I will get the benefit of being able to watch three of the Olympic cycling events from here in Madison. I will also not need to buy a ticket for either of the road events, which pleases me greatly as I never want to give any money to the Olympic racket. No new facilities will need to be built, and there will be minimal traffic hassle here in Madison. I will also get to watch the athletes train, and ride the courses, an added bonus.

Cross posted at LITGM.

Vote For The EFCA Or Else…Nothing…

April 8, 2009 by Dan from Madison

I am on vacation in Florida, and sadly, I have decided to blog a bit.

While the wife gets the sand out of the kids hair and whatever other areas they have sand packed in (we have had some seriously glorious beach time), I have had the pleasure of watching a bit of the Ed Show, which has as its host far lefty loon Ed Schultz. As I was downing a couple of Yuengling’s I was amused so much that I laughed out loud. And that is saying something for me…I need a Really Good Joke to make me laugh out loud, especially when watching the usual crap on TV.

So Mr. Ed was lamenting the fact that the EFCA seems to be losing Democratic Senator support. Of note, he crucified a senator from Arkansas and somewhere else. Mr. Ed went on to say that the unions spent all kinds of money and that they were the real reason that Obama won the election, and also the reason that many Senators won their seats in the last election, blah, blah, blah. But Mr. Ed never got to the logical end of the conversation. Which is…what do the Unions do if the EFCA goes down in a ball of flames?

The answer I was yelling at the TV in between my semi-intoxicated chuckles was NOTHING. They will keep supporting Democratic Senators no matter what they do.

I apoligize in advance – I am going to pull a “Shannon” and probably ignore this post for a few days until I get back from this glorious weather.

Gutter Ball

March 20, 2009 by Dan from Madison

So read the headline on the Fox News website when I woke up this morning.

Leno complimented Obama on the score, but the president quipped, “It was like the Special Olympics or something,” which prompted laughter from the audience.

Really? The President of the United States said that?

I guess he did.

Frankly, I am disgusted and saddened. And I will be sending a donation to the local Special Olympics people today. All of the howls about how Bush couldn’t form a sentence ring pretty hollow when you hear things like this. I can only assume there is more to come.

Legalizing Sports Betting

March 14, 2009 by Dan from Madison

For a long time I have wondered here and elsewhere why there is no state sanctioned sports betting. It isn’t like gamblers aren’t betting on sports in areas where there is no legal way to do so.

From what I have heard, you can simply walk into pretty much any bar and get “parlay cards“, or bet on games online.

Since these activities are already going on, why have states been so anguished about setting up organized betting for them? We all pretty much have lotteries where we can bet on RANDOM numbers, so why not on sports games? Vegas has dialed in the sports betting ratios and how to run a sports book long ago; there aren’t any real secrets in that realm. Set the spread so you get half the bets on one side, half on the other and collect the “juice” or “vig“. Simple as that.

Joke of the Day

March 11, 2009 by Dan from Madison

A minister was raising a young lad. The boy was approaching his late teen years and had no idea what he wanted to do with his life, a situation many young men find themselves in. The minister decided to try a little experiment to see exactly just what the boy would do with his life.