Ok, I am up this late due to stupidity. I had meniscus surgery on my right knee on July 9; things had been going well until I over-pushed the therapy and I have some aching on my "medial" ligaments (side of the knee that faces the other knee).
It isn't serious, (I think) but it means a very easy workout session this morning.
Note: the PT is still doing me some good but I can see why we needed HCR. I had the operation, the doctor's visits, the MRI and the PT appointments (30 dollar co-pay for these, which might be too expensive for some, especially those who are out of work)
I'll post some politics below the fold (yes, the 2010 mid terms)
Politics: I live in IL-18 (Peoria, IL). I attended a "meet the candidate" neighborhood meeting with DK Hirner who is taking on the new darling of the right wing: Aaron Schock. It will be an uphill fight, to say the least.
But walking routes for her will maybe get her foot in the door and perhaps she can do what Melissa Bean did further north; she lost in 2002 with 43 percent of the vote but won in 2004.
Anyway, DK called me last night and I told her about Daily Kos and urged her to contact Markos to get help started on "candidate diaries".
I am a bit distressed over the upcoming mid-terms and I think that President Obama has made some mistakes (here) but overall has fared as well as the past few "no new wars on their watch" two term presidents:
(from here).
Overall, I approve of his performance; I think that history will show him as being under appreciated at this stage of his presidency.
Update: this Paul Krugman article is good; he reports that demand side economics is showing its worth and that he hopes that the President will push for more stimulus spending:
But those who said the stimulus was too small argued that temporary deficits weren’t a problem as long as the economy remained depressed; we were awash in savings with nowhere to go. Interest rates, we said, would fluctuate with optimism or pessimism about future growth, not with government borrowing.
When in doubt, bet on the markets. The 10-year bond rate was over 3.7 percent when The Journal published that editorial; it’s under 2.7 percent now.
What about inflation? Amid the inflation hysteria of early 2009, the inadequate-stimulus critics pointed out that inflation always falls during sustained periods of high unemployment, and that this time should be no different. Sure enough, key measures of inflation have fallen from more than 2 percent before the economic crisis to 1 percent or less now, and Japanese-style deflation is looking like a real possibility.
Meanwhile, the timing of recent economic growth strongly supports the notion that stimulus does, indeed, boost the economy: growth accelerated last year, as the stimulus reached its predicted peak impact, but has fallen off — just as some of us feared — as the stimulus has faded. [...]
The actual lessons of 2009-2010, then, are that scare stories about stimulus are wrong, and that stimulus works when it is applied. But it wasn’t applied on a sufficient scale. And we need another round.
I know that getting that round is unlikely: Republicans and conservative Democrats won’t stand for it. And if, as expected, the G.O.P. wins big in November, this will be widely regarded as a vindication of the anti-stimulus position. Mr. Obama, we’ll be told, moved too far to the left, and his Keynesian economic doctrine was proved wrong.
But politics determines who has the power, not who has the truth. The economic theory behind the Obama stimulus has passed the test of recent events with flying colors; unfortunately, Mr. Obama, for whatever reason — yes, I’m aware that there were political constraints — initially offered a plan that was much too cautious given the scale of the economy’s problems.
So, as I said, here’s hoping that Mr. Obama goes big next week. If he does, he’ll have the facts on his side.
The ice bags on my knee have worked so I'll get in a couple of more hours of shut-eye but will conclude with some videos that cheer me up.
This first one is strident but cracks me up (language NSFW); this is from 2008.
The "ground zero" mosque (language NSFW):
and just for the heck of it: