Health Update

In the words of Mark Twain, the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

I'm recovering quite well, to the point that I can travel again. So now we're off to Hawaii for a couple of weeks. Nothing like lolling around in the warmth of the tropics in the dead of winter to fix what ails you.

I'll be back on board in mid-January. In the meantime, thanks to all of you who sent emails and blog comments. They were all greatly appreciated.

-- The F Man

Dodging the Bullet

After many years of laughing in the face of my own mortality, I've finally got my comeuppance. Last Friday I experienced what is being referred to by the medical authorities as a "mild stroke".

Being the master of denial that I am, I of course ignored all the warning signs and went out for my usual Friday lunch of beer and kielbasa, until it all got to be too much to ignore -- the slurred speech, the inability to keep the sausage in the roll or the food in my mouth, etc, and I decided that something may be amiss.

So I went to the hospital and told them I thought I was having a stroke. Actually I said something like "Ahthikkamavashtroke"... but they apparently are expertly bilingual when it comes to these things and checked me in with alacrity.

After a tiring weekend in the hospital (who can get any sleep when nurses descend on you like the hordes of Atilla every two hours to take your blood pressure and your blood and shoot you full of stuff, including shots in both arms and in your stomach? Had they left all those needles in, I would now be doing a credible impression of a sick porcupine) I am home.

I am basically okay, except for a slightly sagging mouth and eyelid on my left side, a bit of slurred speech, and some noticeable -- and annoying -- lack of coordination in my left hand. Typing of course is very challenging, which is why I'm taking a break from blogging for a while.

Don't worry about me. She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed is already planning the lifestyle changes for me which have been necessitated for my by this "unfortunate incident", and signs are good for a complete -- or nearly so -- recovery. See you next year.

The "Afghanistanization" of the Afghanistan War

I gotta tell ya, I didn't watch the speech. I was busy doing other stuff, but by now I've seen and read enough to know this:

Vietnamization of the Vietnam War didn't work 40 years ago, and Afghanistanization of the Afghanistan War won't work now.

I hate to see Obama pouring even more military and money into that rathole. But at this point I don't know what else can be done--there's no easy solution now. We've stepped into another lake of quicksand...

I'm still not sorry I voted for him. I can only imagine what Mad Dog McCain might be doing right about now. Assuming that Sarah Palin hadn't already arranged for that little cardiovascular "accident" and she, god forbid, was the president...

I knew all along that our foreign adventures in the Middle East would become "tar babies" and sure enough, here we are.

It's especially galling to learn that Baby Doc Bush reportedly had Osama Bin Laden in his grasp in late 2001 and let him wriggle away.

Remember when the GOOPers were champing at the bit to pillory Bill Clinton on the same exact charge?

I can't believe that there are still people who are willing to stick up for that fucking liar Dubya Bush and his evil meat-puppet-master Darth Cheney. It boggles the mind. It really does.