OK, I’ll try to keep it down, but the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany started today. ESPN is carrying the games on cable and on the ‘Net. It is really good football [soccer for Americans], with more finesse than the male version.

It was Germany 2-1 Canada and Nigeria 0-1 France in Group A today.

There are only 16 teams, so it doesn’t take as long as the Men’s version. There are only four groups, and in the first round each team has to play the other three teams in their group, with the top two teams going on to the next round which is single elimination.

I was extremely busy yesterday and missed posting for the first time in months but a few things stuck with me.

Elayne has a great chart on the Effects of Gay Marriage, in reference to the recent vote in New York that said that any two people may enter into the partnership agreement known as marriage.

There will be a nice secondary effect of the law – a lot of weddings. From an economic standpoint it is a great stimulus program. People don’t understand how much is actually spent on weddings until they have to come up with the money for one. This will be very good for business in New York, and New York needs all the help it can get as it is in the grip of austerians.

I was thrilled to learn that people in California finally did something useful with the power of the initiative. CBS reports that Amid budget impasse, Calif. pols lose paychecks.

Apparently the voters were fed up with the politicians playing games with the budget process, and passed an initiative that costs them their pay and expenses for every day the budget is late. This is a pure loss; there will be no lump sum payment when they pass a budget. The legislature now has a real stake in doing their job and the state saves money every day the budget is delayed.

Of course, it would be better if they treated politicians like the public employees in New York. If a public employees in New York go on strike, they lose two days pay for every day of the strike.