Well, I am feeling much better. The doctor prescribed a decongestant for me, and I've been faithfully taking it twice a day. I woke up today and had the least amount of gunk in my throat/nose/lungs that I've had in weeks.

Right now the speculation is that Karl Rove will get indicted. Of course, Bush has the potential to screw up the immigration speech, as well. I don't think most people really care about illegal immigration until their jobs are at stake. For now, at least, we are living an OK existence, with any shortfalls between lifestyle expectations and the ability to pay for it covered over by home equity loans, credit cards, etc.

In finance, I see no reason why oil and gold won't keep on going up.

Regarding American empire, here is a post I made on the FNM board: "I do wish opponents of American hegemony would provide better alternatives than police-state PRC, theocratic Iran or wanna-be dictator Hugo Chavez." While the Bushite model, for lack of a better word, sucks, the alternatives seem to be the ones I mentioned, or the de facto isolationism of the European Union combined with the unable to agree on anything United Nations.

Well, I'm about ready to head off to work and deal with the fallout of the backups. I hope no drives got damaged over the weekend.