Lightning Round - 091211

We're way behind on blogging here because we've had a few things to deal with in recent days. I'm not going to go into detail here but the good news is that things should be back to normal soon. A lot has happened in the world outside our home in recent days. A few very quick thoughts:

• We're at the point now where it starts to make sense to pay attention to presidential debates, but more pressing matters kept me from watching the fun on Wednesday. I guess we're supposed to pick between Rick Perry and Mitt Romney in this cycle. I'd like a better candidate than that, not that there was one on the podium with the two anointed frontrunners. The hour is late, but I think there will be others.
• I also missed the president's speech before a joint session of Congress, but having read what he's proposing, I'd say this:  short-term fixes are fine and some of what he's proposing might even help a little bit, but the underlying problem in the economy is something we've talked about before:  the people who have the money are reluctant to put it out there right now because they sense that this administration will go Juan Peron on them. Whether that's a fair or rational way of looking at matters is entirely beside the point. That's the perception and Obama and his coterie haven't moved the needle on it yet.
• We mentioned the Solyndra story briefly. It got more interesting now that the FBI has raided Solyndra's offices. Solyndra got a lot of money from the feds to prop up their business (making solar panels) and still went belly up. This story isn't going away.
• The NFC North is a tough neighborhood. As much as I enjoyed the opening night performance of my beloved Packers, I must say that the Bears were very impressive on Sunday. It could be a very long year at Winter Park.
• We haven't talked much about the Arden Hills stadium much lately, although things have been happening. We'll try to revisit that topic soon.