Call it the Massachusetts Miracle. Call it the massacre. Call it the end of the Kennedy dynasty. Call it the shot heard 'round the world. Whatever its name, there is no mistake that Republican Scott Brown's win over Democrat Martha Coakley in the special election for the U. S. Senate is significant. The race wasn't even close enough for the Democrats to justify bringing in lawyers to file lawsuits and keep recounting until the Democrat comes out ahead. But just how significant the win is for Republicans remains to be seen. But no doubt, a Republican win in the most liberal, bluest of blue states is big.

I can imagine Democrats will come up with ways to diminish the significance of the results of this special election, to make it something other than the issues. They will say Martha Coakley was a bad candidate. They will say it was because she called former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling a "Yankee fan". Or maybe they will blame her reluctance to engage in face-to-face contact with voters. They will say the election turned on a clever line uttered by Scott Brown in a debate, "With all due respect, this is not the Kennedy seat. It's not the Democrats' seat. It's the people's seat."

Each of these events were factors, to be sure. But Brown was effective at tapping into frustrations of the people, and conveying to them his resolve to be a vote in the U. S. Senate for freedom and opportunity for the people. Even in Massachusetts, the people know an overreaching government when they see it. And they saw in Scott Brown a refreshing change from the status quo. They saw an opportunity to register their protest against a liberal Democrat leadership in Washington that has lurched too far to the left.

Interesting days in D. C. are sure to follow, leading all the way up to Election Day in November. Republiicans everywhere will remember the Scott Brown, and the GOP rallying cry this fall may very well be, "Massachusetts: If we can do it there, we can do it anywhere!"

According to a recent CBS News poll, Barack H. Obama's approval rating has reached a new low. Only 46 percent of voters approve of his job performance. Obama's support is has sagged the most among independent voters, having slipped by 10 percent in recent months and now stands at just 42 percent. Any incumbent whose approval ratings fall below 50 percent is considered vulnerable. While we're more than 2 1/2 years from the next presidential election, Obama's sagging approval numbers certainly indicate that the public is losing confidence in his proposals and his major agenda items such as health care, jobs and the economy, and energy policy.

Some good folks in Fairbanks, Alaska are turning an annual ice sculpture carving known as the "Frozen Gore" into a national phenomenon. The Frozen Gore website was bogged down today with an overload of curious web surfers. Nearly 1,200 views have hit the youtube video of the frozen Gore ice sculpture. The great thing is the "smoke" coming out of the frozen Gore is vehicle exhaust. No doubt from a large truck or SUV.

People in charge of this Frozen Gore event are raising a littlle money to do some good things in Fairbanks. It's all good, and in good humor. Go to the website and watch the video. It's worth a good laugh.

One of my favorite rituals each New Year is to check the release of Lake Superior State University's (Michigan) list of banished words. The list includes words and pharses that, while trendy, have been over-used, misused and plain worn out over the previous year. So I went to the website and lo and behold, just as I suspected, topping the list is . . . "shovel-ready".