Out with the old...

And in with the new. Here we have another staggeringly idiotic nominee for "WTF were they thinking?"

Picture this: You're the coach of a major college football team (Texas A&M). What do you do? You create a newsletter, and sell it to select subscribers for $1200 a pop. Ummm. Maybe not. But hey, the money is useful and can be used (allegedly) for a family run charity. Is that better?

Not so much.

Especially if the newsletter in question discusses things like injuries to players, and also gives evaluations of the players.

Your own players.

Uh huh. This one is really a prime example of where the "WTF were they thinking?" award comes from. It's wrong on so many levels. It violates the privacy of the injured players (given the reasonable assumption that the player didn't give him permission to talk about the injury); it includes information that seems to be geared towards gambling (which he apparently got around by extracting a promise from the subscribers that they wouldn't use the information for gambling); he failed to notify the university that he was doing it, and so on.

But in fairness, once he got busted, he stopped doing it. And pulled out the usual "I didn't realize that it was wrong" approach that works so well.

I'm not sure how this will shake out, though I think I can guess. If the School decides that his actions constitute an embarrassment, then he can be fired without any severance pay. Given that his team isn't exactly in the running for a championship, and people were already calling for his head, I suspect that he's toast. Kiss his $2 million annual salary goodbye.

And frankly, I tend to doubt he's gonna have a lot of success in the job market once he gets canned there. Most reputable schools will be scared off by his apparent lack of both brains and integrity. And since his record on the field is merely decent, it might not be enough to make schools overlook his amazing lack of judgment.

So he'll probably wind up someplace as an assistant coach, until somebody gets desperate enough to offer a shot at redemption. Hopefully, it'll be a while before that happens. Cuz I think he needs a lot of time to think about it.

Anyway, we salute you, Dennis Franchione and happily ask you "WTF were you thinking?"

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In other news of the Stupid, I'd consider yet another Michael Vick nomination, but why bother? I'm tired of this moron, and "moron" is the correct word. How bright do you have to be to get busted for smoking pot when you're awaiting sentencing for Federal charges? Good idea, Mikey. That'll make the judge decide to give you a lenient sentence, won't it?

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Oh, and kudos to pretty much every Democrat in Lansing Michigan, Ground Zero for the Depression that the country is mired in. What depression, you ask? Sorry, I forgot. It's only Michigan that's in a depression. And the governor apparently wants to keep the State in that elite situation for a few more years. Thus, her plan to end the budget deficit problems by raising taxes. And only by raising taxes. Cutting costs from the State budget? Not an option for Jen Jen. Gotta be more taxes, so that the people living there (the ones with jobs, at least) will have even less money to spend on their own foolish whims.

In the words of the infamous Bill Clinton, "We could give you a tax refund. But you might not spend it on the right things".

Ah yes. Know why the Democrats are the party of the poor? Because they keep trying to create more and more of them.

I guess I need to start giving serious thought to where I'm going to move. I don't see New Mexico as a long-term solution, and it looks less and less like returning home is an option either. Perhaps Nevada, or some other place in the great West. Fortunately, I'll have some time to think about it.

I often wonder if the whole world has gone crazy, and only a few select people have caught on. Maybe in another dimension, I'm Neo from "The Matrix" and have been shown that it's all a game. Cuz I just don't know if it's all real....