Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Hat Trick. I hope your holiday was enjoyable and filled with joy as well as a nice visit from Santa.

The Hat Tricks Christmas will be memorable for some of the negatives going on. One of our Little Hat Tricks has been in the pediatric ICU with a very bad case of pneumonia. Luckily Santa did visit the ICU but didn't help his overall mood.

And if this wasn't enough the cherry on the proverbial sundae was Christmas morning when the Hat Trick discovered his hot water heater had blown over the night, flooding our basement. Needless to say that was not how I envisioned spending Christmas morning...

Still, it's important to remember that a lot of other people are in much worse shape compared with our family. Still, it wasn't the Christmas we had hoped for in our new state and new home. I think we are really ready to put 2010 behind us!

Class Warfare | The Weekly Standard

An interesting article in the Weekly Standard discussing the recent deal President Obama made with Republicans to extend unemployment benefits in exchange for a one year extension of tax rates that were enacted in 2001 and 2003. The big issues in this is that many Democrats are "morally opposed" to extending these tax rates for the "perceived wealthy"... those making over $250,000 a year. But Republicans remained united that all Americans should benefit from extending these lower tax rates. It will be interesting to see how this plays out politically but the enclosed article...granted from a conservative magazine...brings forth some interesting arguments that challenges the philosophy of Democrats opposed to the extensions.

Class Warfare | The Weekly Standard

Hat Trick Returns

I've been offline for a little while and haven't even commented on the 2010 midterm elections...although I do have a post drafted. Unfortunately a combination of family illness and computer woes have "infected" (ha ha ha...pun intended) the Hat Trick household over the past few weeks. The computers are fixed (yes, both had issues) and we are back on track to some regular posting soon.

On a happy note during the hiatus...did anyone notice the Detroit Red Wings have compiled a 12 - 3 -2 record since the beginning of the 2010-11 season? Let's Go Red Wings!!!

2010 Mid-Term Election

This post is a little late but unfortunately some travel and some sickness going through the family has interrupted my ability to post on the November 2 elections. Needless to say it was another "Vote for Change" to borrow a phrase.

As expected the House of Representatives flipped back to Republican control with over 60 seats switching back to the GOP. Three very senior Democratic chairman were part of the GOP's tally (John Spratt, Chairman of Budget, James Oberstar, Chairman of Transportation and Ike Skelton, Chairman of Armed Services) as well as many moderate to conservative Democrats who could not survive the onslaught. The Senate tally was equally good to the GOP although not good enough to get to the 60 votes needed to stop a filibuster...although most political writers felt that 60 was out of reach, the Hat Trick included.

In January President Obama will now face divided government with the House firmly in the control of the GOP. We'll see what happens...will he be like Bill Clinton and learn to work with this new scenario or will he still insist on forging ahead with a liberal agenda? Only time will tell.

Once not so positive post-election occurrence if you are a Democrat (and a positive one if you are a Republican) was the election of soon-to-be former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as the Democratic minority leader in the new Congress. Although there was some objection to her running for the top leadership post by some surviving conservative Democrats, she won handily and will continue to be the face of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives. Given that she was the face of what many voters voted AGAINST in the 2010 Mid-term elections I'm not sure of the logic of electing her leader...except for delusion among the liberals in the House combined with a sense of entitlement on Pelosi's part. We'll see where this goes but I suspect this will be helpful for the GOP as they were able to label Pelosi in the last election as the "face of the problem" of expanded government and a health care law that many did not want.

Needless to say there have been some big changes but Republicans should go forward with caution compared with 1994. After the colossal 1994 change in power the GOP thought for sure they would take the White House in 1996 which did not even come close to happening. Two years is a long time to recover politically and the GOP now has some responsibilities to govern now that they control one of the Congressional chambers. Still, it was a good night for conservatives and those in the center-right who have had some significant concerns about the way our government has operated in recent years. Hopefully some good will come out of this change...we can always hope.

Obstructionism reaps its reward

Interesting commentary by conservative Patrick Buchanan on the current political state and the 2010 Midterm Elections. I'm not as conservative as Mr. Buchanan but he does bring up some interesting points that are worth thinking about, especially for Republicans.

Link: Obstructionism reaps its reward

Wings Lose 4-2 in Phoenix

Giving up three goals in the first period while not scoring any goals yourself is not a recipe for a win and the Red Wings proved that Thursday night with a 4 - 2 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes. Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard was out of the game with back spasms so that didn't help the situation as Chris Osgood wasn't able to stop the onslaught.

You can't win them all but this one was kind of ugly...glad it wasn't broadcast nationally so the Hat Trick didn't have to watch it!

Next up: The surprisingly hot Nashville Predators at the JLA Saturday at 7:00pm.

Women's Hockey Will Return for 2014 Games

Despite concern that Women's Olympic Ice Hockey is dominated by Canada and the United States it looks like the sport will return for the 2014 Sochi Games. Apparently the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is worried about some of the scores from the Vancouver Games...like a 18 - 0 beat down of Slovakia by Canada.

For the Hat Trick it's alarming to hear that the IOC is willing to consider eliminating a sport simply because some countries aren't as successful in the sport. Got to love the mantra of "making it fair for everyone" and punishing those athletes who are successful in their given sport. Wonderful. How about this idea: Get Better? If we have learned anything about the Olympics it should have been in 1980 when the U.S. men's team beat the Soviet Union in their run for the Gold Medal.

Obviously some sense of sanity is still with the IOC and women's ice hockey will return.