Yesterday the House of Representatives passed this little Resolution.

Honoring the 2,560th anniversary of the birth of Confucius and recognizing his invaluable contributions to philosophy and social and political thought.

Resolved, That the House of Representatives honors the 2,560th anniversary of the birth of Confucius and recognizes his invaluable contributions to philosophy and social and political thought.

Jeff Flake responded with this press release.

Republican Congressman Jeff Flake, who represents Arizona’s Sixth District, today released the following statement regarding his vote against H.Res.784, a bill “honoring the 2560th anniversary of the birth of Confucius and recognizing his invaluable contributions to philosophy and social and political thought.”“He who spends time passing trivial legislation may find himself out of time to read healthcare bill,” said Flake.

The Resolution opens itself up for such witty repartee.

“I’m sure Confucius would be pleased to know that he has been honored by the U.S. House of Representatives on his birthday, but unfortunately for us and for him, he died 2,488 years ago,” Emerson said in a statement.[…]
Instead of supporting the legislation, Emerson offered her own take on the lessons of Confucius.“Confucius says: ‘An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger,’ but our oppressive government will end the fiscal year $1.48 trillion in debt. [and etc.]

Now, weirdly enough, looking at the roll call, one man you’d expect to go against this bill — Ron Paul — voted “yes.”  Well, here’s a defender of that vote and the man, but it still strikes me as a man who compromised his stated principles on the matter of voting “no” for such frivolous items — the quote I recall from the type of my head was Paul demeaning a resolution about Peanuts creator Charles Schultz.  We now know Ron Paul’s lines.  He’s pro-Confucius and anti-Snoopy.

In other Congressional business, in a seeming nod to the dark days  of the Congressional investigations into Steroids and Bush’s State of the Union speech which focused 99 words on the issue of Steroids…

the House Judicary Committee looked into Football Injuries, and specifically the question of whether head injuries might lead to long term cognitive impairment.

“The N.F.L. sort of has this blanket denial or minimizing of the fact that there may be this link,” Representative Linda T. Sánchez, Democrat of California, said to Mr. Goodell during the daylong hearing. “And it sort of reminds me of the tobacco companies pre-’90s when they kept saying, ‘Oh, there’s no link between smoking and damage to your health.’ ”

I can say with utmost confidence that, yes, constant hits to the head have a decent chance to lead to such troubles.  I’m not sure where this Congressional Investigation is supposed to lead — but probably not anywhere that would deal with past or current leaders of government or finance.

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