Maybe Tiger can buy a coal mine?

Plans for a Tiger Woods signature golf estate, with hotel and sheik-style palaces, have been shelved because of Dubai's financial downturn.   You know it’s bad for the world’s number three golfer when even Dubai pulls the plug on a deal.  No truth to the rumor that Tiger is building a putting green at the Chicken Ranch outside of Las Vegas.

Not even one week after The President said during his State of the Union address "We need to teach our kids that it's not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair." Allen, Texas builds a $60million football stadium for its high school team.  In related news the Allen High School chemistry department just got a new periodic table.

Later this week, the January job numbers will come out.  The expected job gain is between 125,000 – 175,000, a range well below where we need to be to put a dent in the 9.4% unemployment rate.  To make matters worse, the High-wage sectors -- made up of jobs that pay between $17.43 and $31 an hour -- accounted for nearly half the jobs lost during the recession, but have produced only 5% of the new jobs since hiring resumed.

Where is the hidden secret factory that makes Republican lawmakers?  There evil lair must be found and destroyed; picked up this beauty from Mother Jones today.  Legislation introduced last week by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) proposes that the rape exemption be limited to "forcible rape." This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible.  If a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she would no longer qualify to have Medicaid pay for an abortion. As for the incest exception, the bill would only allow federally funded abortions if the woman is under 18.  Further, the term "forcible rape" is not defined in the criminal code, and the bill's authors don't offer their own definition. In some states, there is no legal definition of "forcible rape," making it unclear whether any abortions would be covered by the rape exemption in those jurisdictions. 

Someone needs to tell the NFL that the Pro Bowl died years ago. 

The leading oil companies are drawing up plans to set up an industry safety commission to rebuild public confidence.  Already there is a major disagreement whether the new commission should be part of the American Petroleum Institute, the organization that was ripped in the national commission’s report on the Deepwater Horizon disaster.  While I usually welcome industry oversight, the energy industry is right up there with the financial and pharmaceutical sectors in their absence of self control and their propensity to race to the bottom.

Alpha Natural Resources acquired Massey Energy for $7.1Billion in cash and stock.  Let’s hope the new owners have a better commitment to safety than Massey, the operator of the Upper Big Branch mine site of the explosion last year that killed 29 people

Watched The Kids Are Alright…ehhhh.  Next up Winter’s Bone and The Social Network.