In the Weekly Standard, Chris DeMuth explains why the dreaded “fiscal cliff” is actually more like a curbstone and the hoopla surrounding it, a “charade.” Near-term, Chris argues, we have to figure out a contingency plan for California’s impending insolvency. We also have to figure out how to align the transfer state that the middle class seems to demand with a transfer state it’s willing to pay for. As it is, we’re simply transferring income from future generations. That cannot last, and it’s grossly undemocratic and unfair.

Speaking of unfairness to future generations, Bill McGurn’s Wall Street Journal column has a brilliant suggestion: during its January 7 for-the-ages matchup with Alabama, Notre Dame should run an ad featuring some bright-eyed undergrad volunteer at a local shelter for unwed women. (If you’ve attended Notre Dame or been to a game there, you’ve met these youngsters.) Thirty seconds, ending with the trademark sign-off: “Fighting for the life of the unborn child. We are the Fighting Irish.”

That might make an impression, right up there with the now-legendary Sports Illustrated golden helmet. It would also require some guts “to call America to her better self,” as Bill McGurn puts it. We’ll see.