New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio is shutting down horse-carriages.

On reading the headline, I thought it was going to be a case of disrupting the public. They hold up traffic or cause disturbances on the sidewalk. Maybe some people got hurt or something. Or the inconvenience of horse poo.

Evidently, he’s more concerned about the horses. This will, no doubt, be old news to most of you with ties to the city. But seriously: Animal rights? What are the statistics for animals injured or killed by this “dangerous” activity? I glanced around and didn’t really see any. Meanwhile, a lot of these horses are either going to be killed or are going to take spots in shelters for other horses that will be killed.

Was there really no way to improve animal safety through regulation? Yes, yes, being an ignoble right-leaning individual I might be rolling my eyes at stringent regulation of this sort of thing. But that would certainly be better than killing the industry, I’d think.

Honestly, I might even prefer that this be about something as frivolous as horse poo. At least that, even if I don’t disagree, I can understand. Or I could even be convinced that “Dude. Seriously. Horse poo everywhere. We mostly want to use this as leverage to make them clean it up.” But the only purpose of this seems to be to make ourselves feel better by not having to watch those poor horses pulling people around.

Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is going pro:

“This was an extremely difficult decision for me,” Bridgewater said in a statement released by the school. “I can’t express how much my time at Louisville has meant to me. These past three years have allowed me to mature as a person and leave the university as a better person and with my degree in hand, which was one of my goals. I will cherish every moment on the field and off the field, and every bond I built.

We’re at that point in the season where these decisions start being made. The big teams complete their bowls and their stars have the opportunity to go to the next level or return to college. It wasn’t that long ago when everyone talked about how they should stay and finish school, though more recently commentators have taken a more sober view.

I am personally, increasingly of the mind that for the players that we find ourselves talking about – the Bridgewaters, Leinarts, and so on – going pro is very often going to be the right call to make. Especially if they are at a high watermark. They make so much in those first couple of years that if something happens they can always go back to college if that’s important to them. Matt Leinart chose to go back to USC for one more year, had a less stellar season, and the decision cost him a lot of money. Which, since his professional football career is likely over and he has child support payments to make, turns out to matter a great deal.

While as far as I can gather, Bridgewater is making the right decision by going pro, I am skeptical that other contender Johnny “Football” Manziel would be making the right decision to do the same. I’m not going to pretend it has anything to do with graduating, though.

While Bridgewater is a certain first-round pick and possibly a first draft overall, Manziel may or may not be. Johnny has a height problem that makes sustained success in the NFL difficult but has enough raw talent that it’s rather unlikely that he would do poorly next season to cost him a relatively high pick. In other words, the NFL will still be there, but another amazing year at A&M is a certainty barring injury. (If you’re wondering what happens if he does get injured, players can insure against that.)

Once he leaves A&M, Johnny Football may or may not make it to the big show. He will likely have a few seasons where he gets paid a whole lot of money (true whether he goes pro now or a year from now), but it’s relatively unlikely that he will have another year in front of 80,000 screaming fans and the experience he’s getting now. This is quite possibly true of any QB that goes pro, but unlike Bridgewater, Manziel has only been a star for a couple seasons. And unlike Leinart circa 2005, he is unlikely to be the first or second QB draft pick or one of the top picks overall.

What it ultimately comes down to me is a suspicion that Manziel is going to wash out of the NFL pretty quickly and that he should milk his current situation for as long as he can. Of course, it’s unlikely that’s what Manziel wants to hear. He’s also a guy who believes that college athletes should get paid. I suspect he’s about to find out that he’s not really a good enough athlete to be paid as much as he thinks. Or achieve the stardom he presently enjoys.

Some of the people that PPACA is guiding towards Medicaid are going to be in for a surprise when they find out their estate can be billed for it.

Marvel is pulling out of bookstores, for its monthlies.

When it comes to global generosity, Americans rule.

Due to a tweak in IRS rules, restaurants may stop adding the gratuity automatically to large group checks, and this is maybe a bad thing.

A recent study suggested that MOOC completion rates are really low. Kevin Carey explains why we should ignore it.

Former Montana governor Brian Schweitzer appears to be running for president. He appears not to be running for Hillary Clinton’s second spot.

Our triumph in South Sudan is falling apart.

Good policy or not, Romneycare did very little to hold down costs. Massachusetts has the highest health costs in the country.

If economists wrote Christmas cards…

Dr. Phi analyzes whether the lottery is a smart bet.

From algae to crude oil. Yay science!

As the 49ers move to Santa Clara, the Atlanta Braves are moving to the suburbs.