via Kansas City Star

I know this is kinda breaking with the political/economic/booze oriented posts, but sweet baby Jesus, the Kansas City Royals are killing me.  Last night’s loss to the Blue Jays makes 11 in a row, all of which have been at home.  I’m not sure if I can make it out of April at this rate.  Even the Kansas City Star is yucking it up with their slogan for the season: Our Time.

But here’s a great article by Rany Jazayerli, ‘the world’s most famous Royals fan’, that pretty much sums it up.  Hopefully things picking up for my boys in blue.  And hopefully that makes for more interesting blog posts in the future.

via Getty Images

The Supreme Court just had hearings over the Affordable Care Act to determine its constitutionality.  The biggest question they will stew over is that of the mandate to buy health insurance.  Those questioning the bill’s constitutionality site that the federal government mandating that a citizen purchase something is ‘unprecedented’ in our Constitution.  The bill’s defenders propose that the judicial branch has, in the past, deferred to Congress on the regulation of interstate commerce.

But for me, a huge part of the argument against the bill is mostly built upon semantics. If the mandate to buy insurance is ignored by a citizen, they will face a penalty to be paid to the government unless they cannot afford insurance.  In that case, their insurance will be subsidized by the government.  Now, if instead of using the language ‘penalty’, if the Dems had called it a tax, there’s simply no case.  The court has long held that the state is free to levy taxes on its citizens for the common good.  But likely out of fear, and partially out of naivety, that language was avoided.

Why? First, the GOP loves slamming any and every tax hike the Dems roll out, no matter how practical or popular.  Secondly, I’m sure some within the administration thought that since the Affordable Health Care Act is an old page from the GOP playbook (see Mitt Romney), that this would give the bill broader appeal.  In other words, the last thing they thought would be another politically motivated witch hunt on the scale of the Clinton years which would wind up with the bill being debated at our highest court in the land.

If the bill is overturned, it will likely again be on party lines in a 5-4 vote. It seems strange to me that the party crying about judicial activism for decades might be exploiting the judiciary for the same purposes.  Many contend the smart money is still with the bill being allowed to stand along with the mandate, but the direction of the proceedings has me a bit worried.

via the-real-breaking-news.com

Our correspondent reports from the world’s most beautiful city:

Day 2 from Paris: Gout attack. Hobbling home from the Latin quarter we stopped at the River Seine where they were preparing to film a daring movie scene in which a motorcyclist drove along the bank of the river with a car chasing close behind. The bike started to wobble, then it fell sending the man and the motorcycle careening into the river. People ran frantically to the river side to pull the injured driver ashore as the bike sank to the bottom. The silhouette of a very large fish was illuminated by the sunken headlights of the lost motorcycle. Just another day in Paris.

It is our hope that our correspondent will recovery completely from gout complications and regale us with stories of inebriation and ineptitude.  Stay tuned.

For a short while, The Inebriationist will have a correspondent in Paris.  “Why?”, you may ask… “Why not?”, I would reply.

So check out Zach ‘Z-Blast’ Williams’s play-by-play adventure in gay ol’ Paris on facebook.  Here’s a link to his page.

PS… He’s gonna have to friend you first, but it will definitely be worthwhile.

photo credit AP

One thing is for certain during this primary: nothing’s for certain.

The media had written off Newt Gingrich before the race even started, and to be honest, for good reason.  His campaign was incredibly disorganized, and Mr. Gingrich seemed more interested in cruising the Greek islands than running for president.

But that all changed quickly after Rick Perry and Herman Cain’s individual implosions.  The GOP faithful needed anyone other than Mitt Romney and immediately latched onto Mr. Gingrich. And at first things went well. His forceful presence in the South Carolina debate endeared him to the Southern base. And his attacks of President Obama as the ‘food stamp president’ won him a sturdy base of followers.

But this bellicose nature eventually is what did him in. Many of his former colleagues began stumping for Mr. Romney.  His willingness to say or do anything to garner a vote became evident, not to mention his prior backing of programs like health insurance mandates and his work for Fannie and Freddie began to drag his campaign into muddy waters.  Oh, and he had a plan to replace janitors with school children.  The jig was up.

And rightfully so. Mr. Gingrich has turned his campaign for presidency into a ‘Mitt Romney must not be the next GOP nominee’ campaign.  His infatuation with Mr. Romney’s chances of winning has sprouted a disease from within the party.  The lack of a clear candidate at this stage of the race has issued Pres. Obama the biggest gift he’s been afforded since he entered Washington, D.C. Well, at least since the McCain/Palin ticket.