Just a few thoughts...

Just a few thoughts as I finally catch up from a wild two weeks of state wrestling, poker, broken water heaters and my late-arriving bout with the cold:

-- A member of the Nebraska Legislature wants to make the act of not wearing a seat belt a primary offense, putting it on the same level as running a red light, speeding or any other moving violation.

State Sen. John Harms of Scottsbluff has introduced LB106, which would allow Nebraska to join 26 other states that have seat belt violations as a primary traffic offense. Supposedly, this would qualify the state for more federal funding.

At the present time, you can only be ticketed for a seat belt violation if you get pulled over for another traffic violation. As if cops don't have enough to worry about now, if this bill is passed they will have to keep a closer eye on motorists and try and catch the ones who are riding without a seat belt.

Now I'll be the first to applaud the use of seat belts. Seat belts saved my ass one night when I was involved in a high-speed car crash that caused my car to overturn. Were it not for that seat belt, you probably wouldn't be reading this.

But I'm also one for not having government legislate our day-to-day existence, and I think this is taking another step toward that.

As long as you are not in my vehicle, I feel it is well within your rights to put yourself at risk and not wear a seat belt in your vehicle. You want to put your life on the line and not wear one? Fantastic. Knock yourself out (metaphorically speaking, of course).

If you're in my car, the vehicle doesn't move until you're strapped in. If that's a problem, you have two remaining options: climb in the trunk or get out and walk your sorry ass wherever we're going.

Harms thinks we Nebraskans need to "shed our image as independent-thinking Westerners who don't like government telling them what to do." On the contrary...I think we independent-thinking citizens need to tell those who want to micro-manage our lives through the making of laws such as these need to tell those legislators to go screw themselves.

And I just might get in my car, buckle up, and make the four-hour trek to Lincoln to do just that.

-- Last month, I made over $500 playing poker.

During that same time frame, my IRA lost more than twice that amount.

The stock market has lost more than half its value from a year ago, and has dropped more than 30 percent since Barack Obama took the oath of office as President of the United States.

Right now, I have better odds making money sitting down at a $2-$5 no-limit table with $500 than I do putting that $500 into a retirement account.

Some people take a dim view on games such as poker and the fact that some people can lose a lot of money playing the odds of catching a back-door flush or having a straight run over by a full house.

Comparing that to these financial wizards who keep asking for multi-billion dollar handouts and mismanage company funds to the point that people are losing tens of thousands of dollars every day in the stock market, I really have a hard time telling which is worse for your nest egg.

At this point in time, you have better odds cashing in your IRA and spending the proceeds at the roulette wheel than you do keeping it in the stock market. The only difference is...if you know how certain games are played, you can play the odds and make more money than you do putting your retirement in the hands of some of the swindlers and scumbags on Wall Street.

-- So Alex Rodriguez has copped to using steroids.

How is this news?

The sport that was once known as Major League Baseball is fast becoming the 21st century version of what WWE is to real wrestling...a pathetic phony of the real thing.

Rodriguez' name was among 104 on a list of a group of players who were tested prior to the start of the league's drug-testing program. Those names were not supposed to be released, but Sports Illustrated got a hold of them and outed Rodriguez (while, oddly enough, keeping the other 103 names secret).

I have always loved baseball, but Major League Baseball lost me back in 1994 when the league went on a season-ending strike that killed the World Series. I have not actively followed the sport since then, although I do keep tabs on some of the major stories surrounding the sport.

The league is a shambles, thanks in no small part to its alleged commissioner, Bud Selig. He was the acting commissioner when the 1994 strike took place, and has continued to mismanage the league to the point that it has become a joke.

We have seen so many big-name players succumb to the seduction of steroids. Players like Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite and now Rodriguez have sullied the integrity of this once-great American institution, to the point where we now see somebody pull of some amazing feat and ask ourselves, "I wonder if he's juiced, too?"

Until baseball gets a commissioner with the balls to actually do something about the problem -- permanently banning first-time offenders leaps to mind -- Major League Baseball will be a fraud to the real sport. I'll watch college and American Legion baseball, but the pro game is a fake until they get a real commissioner running the game and doing the things that keep cheaters out of the sport for good.

That's this week's column. As always...If you enjoyed it, forward the website to a friend. And if you didn't enjoy it, forward it to an enemy.

Until next time...