We weren't alive in 1836 or 1872, so the election cycle of 2016 was the craziest in our lifetime.  The nation voted on November 8, 2016 and Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in assumed delegates 306 - 232, while losing by a large margin in the popular vote. At press time, Hillary Clinton had a […]

Every time an Olympics wraps up, we've got a silly tradition here on DQYDJ where we calculate some of the more dubious adjusted medal counts proposed to 'level' out the successes of various countries. There is some value with taking a shot(put?) at this - a proper adjustment would be great, and we're not going […]

Here on Don't Quit Your Day Job... we like to defend people from absurdity – even people who can stick up for themselves. That's the case today: we'll turn our attention to an unfair tax paid by professional athletes. Let's tackle duty day taxation. What is Duty Day Taxation? Duty Day Taxation – sarcastically known […]

Let's discuss the 2014 Sochi Olympics and who won. Who Won the 2014 Sochi Olympics? Let's get the easy comparisons out of the way: total medal count and golds. The following chart shows the total medal count and number of gold, silver, and bronze medals won by all of the countries that competed: Russia was […]

On Monday, we convinced you guys that the NCAA is an unneeded organization.  That's pretty uncontroversial nowadays, and even though I first argued against the NCAA (and argued athletes are underpaid) back in 2011 you still might think I'm hopping on the bandwagon.   I'm not - I'm here to discuss the concept of amateur status, […]

The NCAA is a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham. Crime and Punishment I probably don't have any Russian in my lineage (the Finnish part of me might start a war), but either way I feel qualified to talk about arbitrary punishment […]

In the episode of the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror VII, you can find one of the most poignant cultural references ever made by a cartoon:

Homer: America, take a good look at your beloved candidates. They're nothing but hideous space reptiles!
Kodos: It's true, we are aliens... but what are you going to do about it? It's a two-party system; you have to vote for one of us!
Man1: He's right, this is a two-party system!
Man2: Well, I believe I'll vote for a third-party candidate...
Kang: Go ahead, throw your vote away!

Of course, Ross Perot is then show punching a hole in a "Perot '96" hat.

So, let's say that you aren't completely happy with either Democratic President Barack Obama or Republican Candidate Mitt Romney. What's a budding protester to do?

Sports are a funny thing, especially on an international stage. All sorts of sappy lines have been spilled about international sports - that they are a base of the global community, they foster goodwill between nations, they celebrate the world coming together. Let's cut to the chase - sports were originally a pretty solid tool to develop better, stronger, faster soldiers, at least before automation and weaponry closed the gap. Even look at the word which denotes a follower or supporter of a team - 'fan'. That word, of course, is short for 'fanatic', which describes excessive devotion to something - whether religion, politics, or yes... sports. Yes, if international sports is good for one thing - it's as a proxy for war. I'd much rather Ireland and Great Britain battled it out on a track than a battlefield. Same goes for China and the US, the ultimate rivalry of the last two games.

What, am I crazy? Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts is probably a doubtful start for the rest of the 2011 season, and perhaps has made his last start of his Colts career (The Colts would owe Manning $28 million if they exercised his contract for another year at the end of 2011 - crazy to think about). He is also due to make at a minimum $23.4 million this year - $20 million as a signing bonus for his new contract and $3.4 million in guaranteed salary. Luckily I left myself an out - the problem with painting every sports contract with the "overpaid" brush is there is an army of athletes who will never touch the salaries which make us do a double take. As Frédéric Bastiat wrote in his essay What is Seen and What is Not Seen, "Let us accustom ourselves, then, not to judge things solely by what is seen, but rather by what is not seen."This article requires a special shout-out to Nelson Smith at Financial Uproar who planted the seed - sorry I waited until the third week of NCAA football to write this!

It's October and fantasy football is in full swing. Fantasy football, for the neophytes out there, is a game played by fans of the NFL who select players to fill a simulated team and then are awarded points based off of their real life performance. It has left an indelible mark on the viewing patterns and marketing techniques of NFL firms. Over 27 million people play today, leading Jake Plummer to claim that "it has ruined the game".