Quick Hits from the Crutch, Part 2

Double the pleasure, double the fun!

Looks like torn meniscus on the right…and on the left, also!  So the only questions left are:

a) Do I get the knees cut one at a time or both at the same time, and

b) Will all the bloggers be sending me flowers?

Quick Hits from the Crutch

Well, I am crutching it these days…I got the left knee MRI’d this AM, and the right knee is set for surgery next wednesday.  It is not that I need the crutches all the time…but OMG when one of these knees rares up is like Calhoun’s bar on Saturday night and the Charge of the Light Bridgade all wrapped up into one…so I keep them near me all the time.

Since the jolts of pain seem to prohibit me from any really deeeeeep thoughts, I wanted to offer some quick hits and thoughts:

• Hillary wins Pennsylvania, but I am really having trouble seeing my way to how she wins the nod without tearing up the democratic party.  She says she has won the states that a democrat has to win in order to take the White House, but does she really think that Obama will lose PA, NY, NJ, MA, etc., to McCain?  Hillary beat Obama in TX, but I somehow don’t think she will beat McCain there in November.
• Folks keep talking about the Dream Ticket, but there is only a dream ticket if Hillary wins the nod.  She will not take on the #2 slot on an Obama ticket.  This is her year for good or ill, and she will ride the wave as long as it swells…and if it dies, go back to the Senate.
• As long as we take count of the Democratic tussle, I just saw an Obama ad over at NLS where Obama’s minister, among other comments, takes the USA to task for using the atomic bomb in WW2.  I do not get why Obama doesn’t distance himself from this guy.  If you don’t want to leave his church, don’t use his words in your campaign ad.  I  understand this is a subject that won’t go away, and that some say the Japanese were about to surrender, but the military planning suggested losses in an invasion of the Japanese home islands that would have pound for pound exceeded Iwo Jima or Okinawa.  The Army ordered so many Purple Heart medals-in anticipation of the landing casualties, and that were then not needed due to the Bomb Drop-that medals from that order were still being used twenty years later in Vietnam.
• I have a hunch that Jim Gilmore would have cleaned out Bob Marshall in a primary…but of course, Jim wanted a convention.  Ironic, ain’t it?
• Keith Femian might want to spend some of the bank he has accumulated to get Leslie Byrne nominated.  A recent conversation with a Fairfax business type laid it all out for me…if Leslie gets the Dem nod, the Fairfax Chamber folks will go with Femian.  If Connolly gets the nod, they will go with Gerry as they are familiar with him and will have access.  So, if Keith knows what is good for him…
• Last I heard, life seems to continue apace in Va-10…Congressman Wolf and Feder raise about equal amounts, and she gets the vast majority of it from out of state.  One interesting new fact is that while the DCCC claims this is a targeted race, Congressional Quarterly ranks Va-10 as a safe GOP seat.
• “The Cooch, the Cooch, the Cooch is on fire…He don’t need no water let the…” yeah, I know, I just felt like typing it.
• One thing to get off my chest, something of cosmic significance-The Food Network (TFN) and their horribly tacky “THROWDOWN” series with Bobby Flay.  Bad enough that they send Flay out in these quasi-ambush settings to go head to head with talented local chefs cooking the cook’s specialty…don’t they have something more constructive for Flay to be doing?  However, TFN has this really shady tactic where they tell someone ( in recent episodes I have seen this done to Diana Barrios-Trevino and Mark Bove) that they are being auditioned by TFN for a new show, and suddenly-BA-DA-BING!…here’s Bobby!…and suddenly you are on TFN, but you do not have any real hope of a new show.  I guess it is consistent with the new focus on entertainment on TFN…but if that is the case, bring back the West Virginia Road Kill Festival!
• If you want to read about a master legislator, pick up Robert Caro’s Master of the Senate, and carefully read how LBj put through the Civil Rights Act of 1957…

 

Well, I have to go have a talk with Dr. Advil about now (my last until after my kneed gets scoped)…so take care!  I will see you around the campus!

Forecast: Bad knees and light blogging

The knee saga has evolved into the knees saga…hence the light blogging…

You may recall my noting a little while back that I have a torn meniscus in my right knee that needs surgery.  The decision was to put it off until some personal matters, like a church players production of South Pacific, was over with.

However, a week ago-almost to the minute-I put a foot wrong on my stairs and had a lightening pain on the inside of my knee…my left knee!

So, I am hobbled, much of the time on crutches.  One day the pain was such that I got to dance with Doctor Vicodin for the first time.

As you can imagine, blogging has not had first dibs on the to-do list…so bear with me and hopefully soon I will be back in the game at a more consistent, insistent, persistent, and productive rate!

Martin Luther King-Forty years ago Today…

Forty years ago today Martin Luther King was shot down outside his Memphis motel room.  He knew he lived in a society that was far from perfect, but was driven to make that society not only free for his people but free for all people.

As we remember his life, let us also remember his final public speech, one that for me speaks more to hope and drive than even the “I Have a Dream Speech”:

It really doesn’t matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us. The pilot said over the public address system, “We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with on the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we’ve had the plane protected and guarded all night.”And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

And so I’m happy, tonight.
I’m not worried about anything.
I’m not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!

…and so shall we all, some day.  May we all have the faith that moves mountains, and a willingness to work to reach our own Mountain Tops

Dem Central offers this account of the event.

Martin Luther King, January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968