Noah

GAZA CITY — The French fries arrive soggy, the chicken having long since lost its crunch. A 12-piece bucket goes for about $27 here — more than twice the $11.50 it costs just across the border in Egypt.

And for fast-food delivery, it is anything but fast: it took more than four hours for the KFC meals to arrive here on a recent afternoon from the franchise where they were cooked in El Arish, Egypt, a journey that involved two taxis, an international border, a smuggling tunnel and a young entrepreneur coordinating it all from a small shop here called Yamama — Arabic for pigeon.

http://www.nytimes.c...?ref=world&_r=0

WASHINGTON — Since the recession ended four years ago, the federal budget deficit has topped $1 trillion every year. But now the government’s annual deficit is shrinking far faster than anyone in Washington expected, and perhaps even faster than many economists think is advisable for the health of the economy.

That is the thrust of a new report released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, estimating that the deficit for this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, will fall to about $642 billion, or 4 percent of the nation’s annual economic output, about $200 billion lower than the agency estimated just three months ago.

The agency forecast that the deficit, which topped 10 percent of gross domestic product in 2009, could shrink to as little as 2.1 percent of gross domestic product by 2015 — a level that most analysts say would be easily sustainable over the long run — before beginning to climb gradually through the rest of the decade.

For the moment, the deficit is largely repairing itself. Just three months ago, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the current-year deficit would be $845 billion, or about 5.3 percent of economic output.

The $200 billion reduction to the estimated deficit comes not from the $85 billion in mandatory cuts known as sequestration, nor from the package of tax increases that Congress passed this winter to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. The office had already incorporated those policy changes into its February forecasts.

Rather, it comes from higher-than-expected tax payments from businesses and individuals, as well as an increase in payments from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance companies the government took over as part of the wave of bailouts thrust upon Washington in the darkest days of the financial crisis.

www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/business/cbo-cuts-2013-deficit-estimate-by-24-percent.html?ref=economy&_r=0

After winning three BCS titles in the past four years, you wouldn't be crazy to expect Alabama to have a tough schedule heading into the 2013 season. After all, it only makes sense to think that the top team in the nation should be tested by other top teams.

Unfortunately, you'd be wrong.

Nick Saban's juggernaut of a program has what appears to be the easiest schedule of any top SEC team.
In fact, there are only two legitimate tests on the schedule for Alabama in 2013: the highly anticipated matchup against Texas A&M on Sept. 14 and the team's annual matchup against LSU.

Even if Alabama were to lose one of those games, there would be a strong likelihood this team finishes the season with a record of 12-1. This is a program that is loaded with the top players in the nation at every position, as illustrated by The SEC Logo recently:

So you want to win Championships? Alabama Rivals Class Rankings:2007: 10th2008: 1st2009: 1st2010: 5th2011: 1st2012: 1st2013: 1st— The SEC Logo (@SEC_Logo) May 13, 2013

Given the ungodly amount of talent Saban has amassed over the past handful of years, Alabama will be able to sleepwalk through most of its 2013 schedule.

Here's a quick look at the team's opponents this upcoming season:

• Virginia Tech
  
• @ Texas A&M
  
• Colorado State
  
• Ole Miss
  
• Georgia State
  
• @ Kentucky
  
• Arkansas
  
• Tennessee
  
• LSU
  
• @ Mississippi State
  
• Chattanooga
  
• @ Auburn
  
• SEC Championship

How Alabama managed to secure a schedule that only includes four road games out of 12 is something that's hard to understand. Furthermore, only one of those games is against an opponent that will truly challenge this team.

It's hard to imagine the Crimson Tide losing more than one game; it's far more likely that 'Bama will go undefeated.

Looking at the schedules of schools like Georgia, South Carolina and other top SEC teams, it's clear that Alabama's getting off way too easy this season.

LSU—Alabama's top rival in the SEC West—has four contests against top teams. The Tigers will face Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Texas A&M.

Clearly, college football doesn't strive for parity like the NFL. When a team finishes in first place in the NFL, it faces a first-place-caliber schedule the next year.

In Alabama's case, however, the reward for winning multiple championships seems to be a schedule that leads directly to another potential championship.

Something must be done to remedy this situation, because it's not fair to the rest of the top teams in the nation.

http://bleacherrepor...e-for-bcs-title

The Obama administration is doing a far better job making the case for conservatism than Mitt Romney, Mitch McConnell, or John Boehner ever did. Showing is always better than telling, and when the government overreaches in so many ways it gives support to the conservative argument about the inherently rapacious nature of government.

www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/05

Trae Golden’s decision to transfer from the University of Tennessee basketball team has taken another bizarre turn. It was announced early last week that the senior-to-be would transfer from Cuonzo Martin’s program to another school, leaving the Vols without a proven point guard for 2013-14.

Reports at the time cited academic issues — namely repeated acts of plagiarism — as the reason for Golden’s departure. UT’s associate AD for compliance, Todd Dooley, then revealed on radio that Golden did not have the hours necessary to graduate at Tennessee, meaning he will have a hard time finding a new home as well.

By midweek, Golden’s father called such reports “totally inaccurate.”

Now to the present. Yesterday the University of Tennessee fired the director of its Office of Student Judicial Affairs. The school has launched an investigation into whether or not Jenny Wright had improper relationships with student-athletes at UT.