Is it talk like a pirate day?

No?

Then this patch on my eye must be because I have PINK EYE!

oy.vey.

Warning: what follows is seriously gross.

I've been fighting a sinus infection for nearly a week with anti-biotics. That seems to have disappeared on Tuesday but just past noon yesterday my right eye started itching. I resisted the urge to rub and headed for the ladies room. My right eye was sea of red with a brown pupil in the center. I flushed it with cold water and went back to the office. About three o'clock the pain hit and I went back to the bathroom and there was a dam of pus in the corner of my eye. I went back to the office, called my eye doctor and begged to be seen immediately. By the time I got there, 30 minutes later, pus was draining down my cheek. There were some kids in the office with their mothers and they freaked out a little when they saw me. One mother said "Is that pink eye?" and I said I think so and she literally shrank back and pulled her kid closer to her.

Yes, I am a monster.

I got into to see the doctor and explained how fast this had happened and he was a bit shocked. He cleaned out the eye, did an exam, put in anti-biotic drops in both eyes and put a patch over the right eye.

Probably so I don't scare more children.

The doctor gave me more drops and instructions to use in both eyes for seven days. I went to the pharmacy and go more eye patches and anti-bacterial hand wash and proceeded to drive home.

In the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is King.

Have you ever tried driving with an eye patch on? My perception is deeply skewed at the moment so I'm driving like a little old lady. Not quite curb-crawling, but close.

So I'm putting drops in every four hours. The left eye is slightly red and draining a little and the right eye looks better but it is still horrifying to see. I don't know how I picked this up, especially as I've been on anti-biotics for the sinus infection.

Blech!

Today has been brought to you by the letter P and Zymar (gatifloxacin ophthalmic solution).

Interesting reading in the Atlantic

One World, Under God by Robert Wright:

There’s no denying that this view threatens the claim that Christians, in worshipping Jesus, recognize God’s one physical appearance on Earth and thus have special insight into divine purpose. Still, as debunkings of scripture go, this one is fairly congenial to religious belief, for it does leave open the prospect of divine purpose generically. In fact, it underscores that prospect. The story of early Christianity highlights a kind of moral direction in human history, a current that, however fitfully, has repeatedly expanded the circle of tolerance, even amity. And if history naturally produces moral insight—however mundane the machinery that mediates its articulation—then maybe some overarching purpose is built into the human endeavor after all.

In any event, whether or not history has a purpose, its moral direction is hard to deny. Since the Stone Age, the scope of social organization has expanded, from hunter-gatherer society through city-state through empire and beyond. And often this expansion has entailed the extension of mutual understanding across bounds of ethnicity, religion, or nationality. Indeed, it turns out that formative periods in both Islam and Judaism evince the same dynamic as early Christianity: an imperial, multiethnic milieu winds up fostering a tolerance of other ethnicities and faiths.

Now, as we approach the global level of social organization—and see the social order threatened by strife among these Abrahamic religions—another burst of moral progress is needed. Success is hardly guaranteed, but at least the early history of Christianity and indeed of all Abrahamic faiths gives cause for hope. However bleak a globalizing world may look at times, the story could still have a happy ending, an ending that brings out the best in religion as religion brings out the best in people.

The only nice thing I can say about Chris Dodd is that

he isn't Joe Lieberman.

Is that an example of damning with feint praise?

Hm.

In any event, Time has an article on Senator Dodd: Connecticut's Chris Dodd Faces a Backyard Rebellion by Jay Newton-Small.

On this point Dodd says he too is frustrated in waiting for responses from the leadership on requests for more staff. "We're jammed," he says. "I think we'll need some more people, and we're bringing more people on ... I'm really exhausted. It's overwhelming the amount of work and trying to stay on top of it and listening to people about their ideas and trying to figure out what the solutions are."

Poor man. Perhaps Connecticut should take pity on the Senator and allow him to retire. But please, Connecticut, not Kudlow or Simmons... we have enough problems in this state.

Global Economic Crisis

Icelanders knit crafty response to global crisis

"At least there's a silver lining," says Sara Eysosdottir, owner and head designer of the psychedelic clothing store Naked Ape. "Because of the exchange rate, more foreigners are coming here, and they're buying what we've got in the stores: local design.

"And in a sense, the financial collapse has gotten young people busy," Ms. Eysosdottir says. "They have realized that they can't just be on Facebook all day; that if they want to survive, they're going to have to use their creativity and start making things to sell."

The upside to the current economic crisis is that people are getting crafty - not only finding new ways to save money but digging into old skills to make new money. I don't think there fortunes to be made here but some things are more precious than gold.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Obama: greatest wealth destruction ever

It's been an interesting media week. Rush Limbaugh is being targeted by White House/Democratic insiders and they are, basically, acting like bullying school boys. Limbaugh brought this on himself, but the childishness is reaching new lows. Now Cramer has done an about-face on his Obama-worshipping of last year and has declared that the President has “basically put a level of fear in this country that I have not seen ever in my life.”

Hm. I would argue that was the previous administrations gift to America.

Will the media ever engage in worth-while debate? Are they ever going to get past mud-slinging and deal with real-life issues?

Probably not.

March already

As it's been bitter cold with lots of snow I thought I'd post something to remind myself that spring will be arriving soon.