Letters to Holly

Wednesday, August 30

Back to the Treadmill

I ran two miles yesterday at the gym. This took as much time as about four songs on the iPod: "You Never Even Call By My Name," one of the Beastles/Beastie mash-ups, "How I Could Just Kill A Man," and "Cochese." After the three runs since Saturday, I'm already developing the tell-tale muscle divots on my hips. My ankles hurt today, oddly enough. I expected to feel it more in my shins and calves. I'm excercising on alternate days to give my body a chance to rest up. I returned home to make fried chicken, and we crashed a little early.

Picture of the Day


The above is part of a campaign to build a 911 memorial.


In the News
From The New York Times: "Richard L. Armitage, a former deputy secretary of state, has acknowledged that he was the person whose conversation with a columnist in 2003 prompted a long, politically laden criminal investigation in what became known as the C.I.A. leak case, a lawyer involved in the case said on Tuesday." The prosecutor is not charging anyone with disclosing the identity of the operative, so Armitage will face no charges unless he lied to a grand jury.

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Two million dark chocolate M&Ms are offered in exchange for The Scream.

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Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are taking an offensive stance in their current speeches, claiming we are at war with fascism, and war critics are harming America. The term "Islamo-fascism" grew through talk-radio use as hosts tried their damndest to paint a struggle with terrorism as the Third World War or, at least, compare the current administration favorably to Churchill (but, interestingly enough, not FDR, the Democrat president at the time). I don't buy it. Terrorism is not an enemy but a tactic. You may as well wage war on pessimism. None of this can be shocking given that we're two months from the midterm elections. It also helps the above guys that the fifth anniversary of 911 occurs between now and those elections. But waving that bloody shirt also reminds people that Bush himself said last week that Iraq had nothing to do with 911. The election is forecast as a barometer of consensus toward the Iraq occupation, but even if Democrats take over the Congress, there's no suggestion that Bush will change his administration's tactic of sidestepping Congress to continue its policies.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm. I read your post, citing the m&m reward for the return of munch's iconic work, and then the next day, the painting is recovered. Coincindence? Gregory, when do your tasty chocolate candies in their brightly colored candy coats arrive?

Holly

Gregory said...

I'm not sure 2 million is enough to satisy Your Sister.