Bread & Circuses

You should be happy to know that faced with crushing debt, war, swine flu and a myriad of other problems your federal government is considering taking up the most pressing issue of our time- the debate over a college football playoff system.

I kid you not.

College football was one small slice of my life not regulated by the government. Now the feds will not only inspect my turkey, tax my cable television and regulate the standards for my television they will also determine who Penn State plays on New Year's Day.

Bastards.

Representative Joe Barton (R-TX) is responsible for this abomination and I hope the good people of Texas will vote his ass out of office shortly before they declare themselves a Republic. Barton proved the minimal IQ requirements for our elected representatives when he used the analogy of federal oversight of the telecommunications industry to prove his point of the need for federal regulation in college football-

""With telecommunications, you're dealing with AT&T and Verizon and Sprint, and in this case you're dealing with the SEC and the Big 12 and the Pac-10," Barton said. "It's the same basic economic model."

Huh ?

Even as an anarchist I can kind of see the point for some oversight of telecommunications. Telecommunications standards need to be established so that systems can interface with each other across state lines and oversight is needed to make sure that radio and television station signals do not interfere with local communications, with each other etc. But college football ? The article notes that critics say the current system is unfair. Too bad, go form your own Bowl playoff system. Now pass those nachos.

If you want to spend a few minutes reading the legislation, click here. The intent of the bill is-

To prohibit, as an unfair and deceptive act or practice, the promotion, marketing, and advertising of any post-season NCAA Division I football game as a national championship game unless such game is the culmination of a fair and equitable playoff system.

Okay, therein lies the twisted logic behind this complete waste of time. Barton argues that you can't call the game "a national championship game" unless it is the culmination of a fair and equitable playoff system. What about the NFL ? Are the Steelers truly "World Champions ?" I don't remember them playing teams from Europe or Asia last year during the playoffs. Same goes for baseball, which would actually be competitive because there are some very good teams outside of the U.S.

And with every bill, comes more regulation.

Enforcement Authority- A violation of section 3 shall be treated as a violation of a rule defining an unfair or deceptive act or practice prescribed under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)). The Federal Trade Commission shall enforce this Act in the same manner, by the same means, and with the same jurisdiction as though all applicable terms and provisions of the Federal Trade Commission Act were incorporated into and made a part of this Act.

A final note. Last time I checked, I noticed that the University of Texas is playing for the national championship. Will Mr. Barton lead the charge to invalidate their claim to be national champions if they win ?