All Currency

Weird day yesterday.

Current (three-day) Jeopardy champ (well, as of current broadcast anyway; I don't know how far in advance episodes are taped, although I do know that an entire week's worth of episodes is taped back to back) Roger Craig broke the all-time record for one day in the show with a $77k take.

In fact, he went into final with $47k, so he could have shattered the record, rather than just edging over it. If I remember correctly, he could have wagered $6k or so more without even risking losing. He managed a much narrower victory today, although it was still fairly impressive outside of a missed daily double. Good luck going forward, Roger. :)

Similarly shocking, Christine O'Donnell, one of the tea party ciphers managed to win the Republican primary for Senator in Delaware yesterday. Given that this is one of the few things that could have happened that would allow Democrats to retain the seat (although it still won't allow Kaufman to retain the job; he's doing a very good job of looking out for the little guy), I'm happy to see it.

While, like most people, I haven't been too happy with Democrats in the legislature, the idea of giving Republicans back control just gives me the heebie-jeebies. At best, it will lead to two more years of nothing getting accomplished. At worst, it'll push the fragile economy back over the edge of the cliff that it's been riding for the past year or so.

I just wish good governance was as important to them as as staying in power. Hearing them talk about a government shutdown as if it's a good thing is, frankly, quite disturbing (although not as disturbing as Sharon Angle's suggestion that a loss at the ballot box would be followed by armed insurrection. That's downright scary).

One thing that would certainly result from a Republican takeover of the Senate is that no Obama appointees would ever get approved. Some years ago, Republicans suggested that not giving an appointee an up-or-down vote was unconstitutional. Now, they find themselves filibustering uncontroversial nominees (in at least two cases, nominees were filibustered before being approved 99-0).

There's just no reasonable rationale for that.