Monday Newsbreak: 12/17

--Congress has been quietly working through and passing important legislation concerning home mortgage relief and energy conservation. Thankfully, at least in these areas the customary party-line gridlock and promised Presidential vetoes are nowhere in sight.

--Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrat Barack Obama have surged in their respective parties' polls. I heard one analyst explain this by saying that people were tiring of the "establishment" candidates Giuliani and Clinton. But I believe that it's primarily due to the obvious fact that Huckabee and Obama both are better speakers who connect on a deeper level with their audiences.

--The United States and its allies are reportedly reevaluating their strategies regarding Afghanistan. It seems (to me) that one of the areas that they need to recognize is the fact that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are distinctly different entities and have to be treated in a very different manner from each other. This, I know, is a very bitter pill for many in the West to swallow. After all, the Taliban is known for being very repressive regarding women's rights. Making some type of peace with them which splits them apart from Al-Qaeda, though, will be the only reasonable way for the U.S. and its allies to extricate themselves from an increasingly untenable position without giving up in defeat.

--Some of the alleged drug-abusing baseball players named recently in the Mitchell Report were put on the list because they are believed to have used human growth hormone (HGH) to help recover from injuries, not to build up muscle mass and strength as is the case with steroids. If HGH is effective in helping recovery from injuries, then why is it illegal in baseball? And if it's believed to be ineffective, then why would anyone care whether or not a player uses it? In any event, I believe that those players singled out for HGH use (and not steroids) have been unfairly maligned.

--Wonder of all wonders, the Miami Dolphins finally won a football game, beating the Baltimore Ravens 22-16 in overtime. The way the Dolphins' players celebrated after the game, you'd think that they had won the Super Bowl! Kudos to Miami Coach Cam Cameron for not throwing in the towel for the season and instead playing competent quarterback Cleo Lemon, who played a good game. Now that they're on a "roll" with their win, would it be too much to ask for the Dolphins to ruin the New England Patriots' quest for a perfect season by beating them next week? After all, nobody else seems to be up to the task.