Couldn’t Help But Notice (092407)

How far has fan behavior at sporting events devolved? So far that Old Media could almost justifiably shrug off what Brent Bozell describes in his Saturday Townhall column about the Navy-Rutgers football game the two weeks ago.

But only almost, since a team from one of the service academies was the target. The behavior was so bad that Rutgers’ President sent a letter of apology to the Naval Academy. However, it appears, based on the Washington Post’s brief coverage, that the apology might never have taken place if New Jersey sports reporter Mark DiIonno hadn’t ripped into fans’ conduct in his September 11 column. There was no mention of fan conduct in ESPN’s game recap.

The sportsmanship of Rutgers’ football team also open to question. In last week’s game, the Scarlet Knights, up 45-0 on a hapless opponent, called three defensive timeouts just before the end of the first half (scroll down to “SHOULD BE SCARLET-FACED”) in hopes of padding the lead (very slight defense: the starters didn’t play the second half).

Given that the “life lessons” learned there are all too often “Bad behavior is acceptable when it’s in large crowds” and “Hit your opponent when they’re down,” it’s unfortunate but true: You take your kids to major sporting events at their peril. It may not appear that way now, but this has potentially dire implications for the long-term prospects of major sports.

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Don Luskin sticks to his guns, telling us that he believes the Fed’s cut last week was an overreaction to an overstated problem, and that as a result, inflation will be a bigger problem than it would have been down the road. That’s what he said last week (first item at link) when hoping for only a quarter-point cut instead of the half-point that occurred.

Even if you don’t read Luskin’s column, you absolutely must see the accompanying graphic (opens in new window) for perspective. The graphic illustrates just how relatively unimportant (to the economy as a whole, obviously not to the individuals involved) the subprime mortgage problem is.

Oh, and the next time you hear about “millions” of affected people who are about to be thrown out of their houses, Luskin, who should know, says that “We’re talking something like 200,000 to 300,000 people here.”

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Luskin’s points, and graphic, in the item above make what’s revealed about proposals to “solve” the subprime mortgage problem in this past Saturday’s Wall Street Journal editorial that much more maddening:

We wonder if either end of Pennsylvania Avenue grasps the irony of what they are proposing. At the very moment when private mortgage lenders are under pressure from regulators, rating agencies and shareholders to tighten underwriting to avoid another mortgage meltdown, the FHA is relaxing its standards so it can insure more questionable mortgages. If that is permitted to happen, America’s newest and largest subprime lender will be Uncle Sam. Don’t expect this story to have a happy taxpayer ending.

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Courtesy of Bill Sloat’s sleuthing — Hamilton County employees learn that there are consequences to tax-and-spend, as people have voted with their feet (April 1, 2000 population - 845,303; June 1, 2006 population - 822,596).

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I not surprised that an Ivy League bookstore is the one trying this (HT Boing Boing via Techdirt):

Taking notes in class may be encouraged, but apparently it can get you kicked out of the Coop.

Jarret A. Zafran ’09 said he was asked to leave the Coop after writing down the prices of six books required for a junior Social Studies tutorial he hopes to take.

“I’m a junior and every semester I do the same thing. I go and look up the author and the cost and order the ones that are cheaper online and then go back to the Coop to get the rest,” Zafran said.

“I’m not a rival bookstore, I’m a student with an I.D.,” he added.

….. (Coop President Jerry) Murphy said the Coop considers that information the Coop’s intellectual property.

That doesn’t pass the stench test, let alone the smell test. This behavior is consistent, as it comes from an institution with a history of collusion in allocating financial aid and admissions.

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Speaking of not passing the stench test — New York State’s Medicaid program currently spends $47 billion a year (7th paragraph) on about 4 million recipients — about $11,700 per recipient, or over $46,000 for a family of four. The system has about $4.7 billion per year in flat-out fraud (based on a 10% rate cited here).

As was the case when he was the state Attorney General, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has more important priorities than fighting Medicaid fraud — like implanting new fraud into the Driver’s License Bureau, so it can then spread to the voting booth:

Fulfilling a campaign promise, Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced today that residents will be able to apply for state driver’s licenses without regard to immigration status. Applicants for driver’s licenses will no longer be required to provide a Social Security number or show that they are eligible for one. Instead, they will be allowed to provide foreign passports, previous state driver’s licenses and “other valid and verifiable documents” to prove their identity.

“Valid and verifiable” — riiiiiiight.

Bogus driver’s licenses are a great way to game the voter ID laws that are becoming more prevalent.

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From IBD Editorials — Georg Soros 101 (HT Instapundit). Read. Save.