Quick Hits for August 19, 2009

* I think Brett Favre is a great quarterback, but in all honesty, I would never want him on my football team. The constant drama of will he come back each year is just not something you build a team around. And while he has had many great moments, he has also thrown away enough bad passes that have cost games that it may offset. I just don't understand this move by Minnesota.

* I am starting to think that the left should start to utilize its own 2nd Amendment rights and see just how comfortable the right feels with armed protesters at their events for their Congresspeople. The problem with that logic is that political debate should NOT be about intimidation but rather the marketplace of ideas whereby the best ideas win the day for the betterment of society. Too bad that some on the right think the 2nd Amendment was about intimidation instead of being about a right to protection.

* I keep hearing questions about health care rationing, but honestly, I don't see how we aren't having it rationed now by the private companies. You can only have so many tests before they just let it drop. You can only have so much to spend before your policy cap sets in. I am not sure how that is not already rationing. Only now, you have an actual vote in how it is run and you can do something about it instead of sit there and do nothing while they profit off of you.

* I have many friends who keep asking me, "how did you learn to cook" and I keep telling them the same thing: Go find something you like, and ask for the recipe. Then replicate it. Once you do it a few times, you can tweak it to your specific tastes but that is it. No great secret. And in this day and age, if you want to learn to cook there is one simple secret: www.foodnetwork.com. All you have to do is search for what sorts of things you want, find the 5 star recipes, read some reviews for any "tweaks" and cook. Follow the easy recipes. It isn't rocket science, it is food.

* I don't know what good health care reform is without a public option. Simply re-organizing the private sector is little more than re-dressing the status quo. Sure, some changes will happen such as dealing with pre-existing conditions, but in general, without a public option, there is no real reform.

* Look for a new section where we focus on doing things to improve energy use in the home. I am not sure what form it will take, but I am doing research on ways to save energy in the home from the most simple of behaviors to trying to do more complex things. It may become a segment depending on how it works out. Send me your ideas to guide this area.