Random Thoughts 1/28/10

• Longest… State of the Union… Speech… in 45 years. *snore* It's said that the camel is a horse designed by committee. Likewise, a State of the Union speech that long is probably written by committee, which explains the rambling, disjointed feel a lot of it had.
  
• I was playing basketball last night, rolled both ankles and hurt my knee. The ankles are fine, I've sprained and broken my ankles enough times over the years that they have quite a bit of play in them… but my knee… I've never had a knee injury before and today I've got a pretty good limp going on. I don't think it's serious but if it's still hurting like this after a few days, I'm going to the doctor.
• Since when are all banks automatically evil and in need of our President to punish them? "Everyone hated helping the banks," our President said. Really? I thought the banks provided a way for regular folks to access large sums of money for buying homes and starting businesses. Private banks are one of the key elements of a free and growing economy. But I guess the local banker makes a good bogeyman for everyone to hate. When the government owns all of our banks, and some government bureaucrat has to sign off on your next business venture, we'll have finally killed off entrepreneurship in America.
• People for whom Apple's iPad might be a good tool: students (especially to replace those heavy textbooks), doctors, traveling sales people, etc. Anywhere where you don't quite need a full-blown laptop, the iPad could replace a whole backpack full of books, notes, forms and presentation material with added internet connectivity.
• American Idol winners apparently are really good at singing the national anthem at big NFL games. Now that Carrie Underwood is singing at the Super Bowl, that makes three-for-three for the last (and most important) three NFL games of the year.
  
• Our President really needs to stop blaming everything on the evil George W. Bush.
  
• I thought I'd seen that before! The new ebook reader for Apple's iPad shows the book covers arranged on virtual shelves. It turns out that is almost identical to library program called Delicious Library (which is a great program; I've always wanted it).
• Elder's meeting tonight. I'm so glad for the type of Elders we've had here at Wyandotte. Even when the Elders and ministers deal with the most difficult of subjects, it's done with such love and consideration and wisdom.
• I don't think the President likes the Supreme Court much. I wonder if he realizes that the Court doesn't answer to him? FDR had issues with SCOTUS, too; Roosevelt kicked around the idea of changing the number justices so that he could "pack the court" sooner. I wonder… if the President's popularity stays low, would Obama do the same? Would he pressure some to retire during his first term or call for impeachment? Surely not.
• Note: the number of justices on the SCOTUS is not specified in the U.S. Constitution.