Morning Coffee (50)

Good morning to you. It was sort of nice to have an extended weekend, even if a lot of it was spent in a vehicle. Hope everyone had a good weekend as well. And thankfully, the week's almost over now, though I doubt the upcoming weekend will be as enjoyable.

State of the Union address was on last night. I didn't watch it. I remembered it was on earlier in the day, but by the time I got home I had forgotten completely. From reading the transcripts, it seems like it was a pretty good speech. The President even departed from his script and paid homage to Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House. Apparently, though, she blinked 25-30 times a minute throughout the speech. I don't know what average is, but that seems like a lot.

The President spoke a lot about "convictions." Everyone has conviction and such, etc, etc. The implication when speaking about convictions is that it is good simply to stand up for your convictions, no matter what they be. That it is somehow honorable and virtuous to do so in the face of opposition. Well, Hitler had convictions. Convictions are great provided you can compromise with other people, because they have convictions too. Health care, immigration, the conflict in Iraq, these are things in which Republicans, Democrats and Independents (and others) have vastly differing convictions. I'm not saying that they need to suspend their convictions, but sometimes there seems to be too much ideology and not enough pragmatism in Washington.

That's all I've got the energy for today. Pathetic, huh? Give me your take on the SOTU address if you saw it. Until tomorrow.

Word of the Day: Supine (adjective): 1. lying on the back, or with the face upward; 2. indolent; listless; inactive; mentally or morally lethargic.

On This Day in History: Roman Emperor Caligula is assassinated by the Praetorian Guard (41 CE). Petrograd, formerly St. Petersburg, is renamed Leningrad (1924). Today is also the first day of Sementivae, the Roman festival of sowing, held in honor of Ceres and Tellus (goddesses of agriculture and Mother Earth respectively). And lastly, today is International Xenu Praise Day, brought to you by the First Church of Xenu. Seriously, I couldn't make this stuff up.

"After all is done, and we're still alone, I won't be taken. Yet I'll go with my hands bound. I will walk with my face blood. I will walk with my shadow flag, into your garden of stone."