Lightning Round -- 123113

It's almost over, this 2013. Good riddance.

• As expected, the Vikings ash-canned Leslie Frazier yesterday. There really wasn't any chance he would survive this season, but I remain convinced that the real culprit is GM Rick Spielman, who assembled the clown car of quarterbacks that ran the Vikings offense this year. Under the proper circumstances, the job in Minnesota could be an attractive one, but there's much work to be done on the defense, especially if Jared Allen decamps for a new location. As for Frazier, the consensus around town seems to be that while he is a quality human being, he's not much of a head coach. That seems right. I liked Frazier a lot, but that might be for the same reason that Big Ten basketball fans from other schools used to heap praise on Steve Yoder, the thoroughly decent guy who ran the Wisconsin Badger basketball program through a decade of second division finishes back in the 80s.
• Walter Russell Mead is continuing to keep his eye on the public pension crisis and has another good dispatch on events in Chicago. As Mead notes, Chicagoans are looking at a tough choice -- cut the pensions that were promised to policemen and teachers, or raise property taxes up to 150%. This won't end well.
• Meanwhile, Obamacare's Minnesota division continues to have troubles. KARE 11 television reports that less than 20,000 people have actually been able to get insurance through the MNsure exchange, although they've managed to steer about 35,000 people into other gubmint programs. Those numbers might sound substantial, but remember that over 5,000,000 people live in Minnesota. This story isn't going away in 2014.