If I wait 'til the intersection of the availability & the inclination to do my grandiose vision of this post justice, we'll all be waiting 'til kingdom come. Like representative democracy itself, let us not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good.

Liberty & Union
The poetry of Rudyard Kipling is a lodestar after any perceived disaster, such as that which befell not just the Republican party but the whole of the United States on Election Day last November—a lodestar, both a comfort & a map of where to go from here.

"If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:"

In more recent days, Ambrose Bierce has sprung to mind, especially this oft-quoted bit from his The Devil's Dictionary:

"Happiness, n. An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another."

The exposure of the cover-up of the nature of the assassination of the U.S. ambassador to Libya in Benghazi on 11 September 2012, the ever-expanding revelations of the abuse of power by the I.R.S. for nakedly political purposes, & the revelation of the abuse of power by the Justice Department in spying on the Associated Press are all troubling developments, the evidence of a plainly creepy tyrannical tendency to Mr. Obama's administration, but they've placed a wry smile or two on my mug. It is so lovely to be vindicated after being so long mocked for speaking the truth.

Switching gears, but remaining within the preserve of "Liberty & Union"--the title borrowed with affection from Senator Daniel Webster (Federalist-cum-Whig, Massachusetts), who declared, "Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" during the Nullification Crisis--I'm to report for jury duty in the morning. The last time I was called, I did not serve on a jury. No one from my pool did, & we were sent some with thanks at lunchtime. Many view jury duty as an imposition, but I would sorely love to participate so directly in our system of popular sovereignty.

Lastly, the sage words of L.L. Cool J.:

"Don't call it a comeback,
I've been here for years."

Project MERCATOR
The Bradman's bachelor party was fun, & exactly what I should have expected from my old chum. More on that later.