Carl Levin: Hawk.

If you worry that the daft Murtha/Pelosi wing of the Democrat Party is going to pursue their disastrous and suicidal policies effectively, wrap your brain around this.

The Nanny State is Coming for your iPod

This is freaking ridiculous.

A state senator from Brooklyn said on Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation that would ban people from using an MP3 player, cell phone, Blackberry or any other electronic device while crossing the street in either New York City or Buffalo.

It is not enough that we can't be trusted to make our own dietary choices. It is not enough that we don't tolerate doofuses riding motorcycles without helmets. It is not enough that we have brightly lit signals that give us visual instructions on when to cross the street. Now, in response to some perceived deadly epidemic of Walking Under the Influence, some well-intentioned idiot is proposing legislation.

The arguments for outlawing behaviors that put one's own self at risk are weak in the libertarian-tinged world I inhabit, but usually they boil down to balancing societal costs against individual rights. So, for example, even though you're poisoning your own damn self with those Marlboros, killing your own damn self with a massive herniating head injury on that Harley, you end up unavoidably using society's resources in your final days in the Intensive Care Unit and/or hospice.

Besides chewing up resources trying to enforce the barely enforeceable, this legislation is a drag on productivity in other ways. Walking around on city sidewalks is essentially unproductive time, and if you can squeeze in an ambulatory conference call during your daily multitasking, why not?

Da Bust.

Thus endeth football season for the Monsters of the Midway and their long-suffering fans, including me. Rain, smudged camera work, and the same infuriating Rex Grossman we had to deal with all year. I took the 12-inch bear logo off of my car, the Bearsmobile, and stuck it on the garage fridge. I'm still going to wear my Bears surgical cap to the O.R. tomorrow, in a meaningless display of defiant and pathetic loyalty.

Living in Tampa I am surrounded by Tony Dungy fans. They thought he was shafted by the Glasers when they fired him and brought on John Gruden, who has since gone on to fritter away the talent of the Bucs to their current level of morbidity. Dungy is a nice man and a great coach and I can't begrudge him this Superbowl, but come on: I am a Bears fan.

The best offense in the NFL thoroughly dominated the best defense in the NFL. Urlacher and the boys played tentative ball; they set up way back and seemed to fear the aerial game in the treacherous footing. When Train Rex got the ball, he either played it safe and gave it away for a run, or he threw those short sideline pussy passes, or he strapped on the balls to throw long passes behind his receivers and into the hands of the Colts D.

Get rid of Rex. He is too inconsistent and shows no sign of growing out of it. Time's up.