W. is no Lincoln

I am watching the History Channel's production of "Lincoln" that aired last night (thank goodness for VCR). So far, there are two things that are resonating with me.

First: "Mediocre Presidents hide from the bad news, good Presidents seek it out."

Second, a comparison was being drawn to how Lincoln did a lot of things that we're dealing with today. During the civil war, habeas corpus was suspended, newspapers were censored, and southern sympathizers were improsioned without charge for years. Sound a bit familar?

Gore Vidal cleared up the one important difference - the civil war had a real enemy and the very survival of the union was in jeopardy. However, the war on a metaphor is not a real war. "Declaring a war on terror is like declaring war on dandruff."

They're going to re-run this Sunday night. Check local listings - watch it.

Two cents

That's about all my privacy is worth these days. Since everyone seems to be expressing an opinion on the authorized wiretaps without FISA, might as well say my piece.

I do believe that the wiretaps are illegal. Use FISA - by avoiding them all together, you make a mockery of the system.

I'm not comfortable with the fact that I could have my conversations monitored without my knowledge or consent. I am a citizen born of this country, and I value my privacy. Not that anyone would find my conversations interesting or worthwhile. But the concept brings images of Communist USSR to mind.

If you want to make it so that anyone knows their conversations may be monitored, make it so by putting it in the constitution. Good luck getting that passed.

In the meanwhile, I'll just move to Russia. Government spying was well understood as happening before the fall of Communism. Chances are, most people there believe it is still going on.

At least there's no pain

(yet)

I have a love-hate relationship with gum. I love the flavor, it gives me something to do instead of brooding on food. However, since the fifth cranial nerve has a branch running across the upper cheek, it's a great way to trigger an episode.

So I gave up gum for years. Two years since my implant to jam the pain signals, there are times when it doesn't bother me to be chewing gum.

Yesterday was not one of those days. I unfortunately needed something to keep me going on the long dark road home. Gum helps keep me awake. Unfortunately by the time I got to Gila Bend, I had to give up the gum all together because each chew was causing my upper cheek to spasm. It wasn't too painful, but enough of a distraction that I didn't want to keep happening.

Today, my upper cheek is still very tight. I just had an episode of spasms again. Again, not painful, but annoying.

So with the cheek spasms and my sore back from all the driving, I hope the muscle relaxant will help tonight.

It's like a Monday...

...but I know it's not. It wasn't until I scrounged for coffee in the cafeteria that I smelled omlettes on the grill. Which means it's either Tuesday or Thursday. Since I was pretty sure it wasn't Thursday, I went with Tuesday.

Yes, I'm one of the fortunate ones that had yesterday as a holiday. So I went to go see boyfriend in San Diego. It was a nice weekend, though it had its sad moments. He's at the airport now, and won't be back for two months.

I learned more details about him this weekend. I'm so honored that he's willing to share such private details of himself to me.

I wished I could have stopped time Monday. I didn't want to leave. So I left much later than I had planned on. Then got stuck in traffic hell of the I-10 widening project. I had been making good time until I got to the construction bottleneck. It took me 45 minutes to drive 3 miles (no joking). So I didn't get home until 10:15PM.

*ugh* That's late for me. Then I can't just drop everything and go to sleep. So I unwinded for a few minutes, and tended to the kitties. Made a small snack and began to unwind from the long day. I got to bed just after 11:00PM, and still managed to get up when I normally do (albeit a bit sleepier than usual).

But thinking of two months and not seeing boyfriend has me feeling a bit blue today. It would be somewhat okay if we could email (like he did in Seattle). But with the time zone differences, that probably won't happen too much. If only a visit were possible, but not when he's working seven days a week, 8-10 hours a day.

*sigh*