Monday commentary

Confession: I spent Sunday afternoon shamelessly rooting for team Canada. I think it's always a good thing when imperialist powers discover they can't have everything. (Note to China: that's you, too.) Also, it's mere chance that my grandfather decided to to use a friend's sponsorship to come to the USA instead of using a relation's sponsorship to go to Canada. I might have got to that cheering section on my own.

It may be possible that hockey will benefit from this game (one of the best I've ever seen) in the way many people hope. However, I'd suggest the NHL adopt another item from the international hockey rules that govern Olympic play: ejections for fighting. I know that the principal objection many people have to hockey is the fighting and the wrist-slapping that penalises it.

And for my last Olympics reflection: can we just lose that Cold War relic, the national medal count? It's the attitude shift that might make Russia be a bit more philosophical, and possibly not spend money it doesn't have on athletic preparation for Sochi. Maybe PM Harper should send Medvedev a case of Molson and explain about beer and a shot.

Speaking of hockey pucks, the Senate's ranking hockey puck for the second week in a row is Kentucky's Senator Bunning. The rest of the Senate isn't that far behind, for having rules that permit a single senator to block legislation.
He is resigning at the end of his term because of Republican party pressure. That's too long; characteristic of that chocolate eclair, McConnell. Let me offer a couple of points, for Senators who can't do math and think it's cool to grandstand with voter's lives.

1. One American in six is unemployed or unemployed. When you add to that the voting family members affected by that you have the biggest voting bloc in the country, as large or larger than the entire Republican "base."
2. Even Reagan understood that a major element in unemployment benefits was to allow unemployed people to contribute directly to the economy in a modest way. No benefits=no spending=a real possibility of continued or worsening economic crisis.
3. The unemployed can thank Reagan for the fact that they pay income tax on their benefits. No benefits=no tax revenue from 1/6 of the work force.

If Sen. Bunning won't lay off the Jack Daniels long enough to get a grip on reality, then Senate Republicans should lay him off now.