Do-nothingness

You'd be hard pressed to find a single quote that better encompasses the do-nothingness that is the US Senate than this one, from Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, in talking about producing a plan to get the US budget under control:

I’m not certain that it’s not going to fall to us to put a plan out there for our colleagues on the floor.

Yes, Kent, the Budget Committee might have some say over the budget.  As my congressman in the House was once heard to utter, they oughta get a diaper-changing service in the Senate.

Hippo-crit

As one who has previously railed against the Idiot Tax that is the state lottery, I very sheepishly report that I actually bought a lotto ticket today.  Here was my thinking... the pot is up to about $290 million, but the odds of winning ($1 ticket) are 1 in 175,711,536.  $290,000,000 divided by 175,711,536 is $1.65.  So, clearly, that's a favorable risk/reward.  Of course, you want to avoid splitting the pot with anyone, as I might not even bother turning in the ticket if it was only for $145 million, because now I'm below a dollar using the above math.  Since humans are really bad at statistics and the idea of randomness, and the vast majority of lottery players are, by my definition, idiots, I went with a consecutive string of numbers.  


If I win, I'll be sure to let you know.