I am getting way out of control. I awoke between 11:00 and 11:30 AM today with a desperate need to visit the bathroom a few times. Between visits I decided to check my email, during which time I chatted briefly with my friend Russell via Facebook. Still unsure whether or not my day had really begun, I then decided to call Raleigh and check on my brother, who hurt his back on Sunday. I didn't get to speak to him, but had a pleasant (although quick) conversation with Denise, my sister-in-law. After hanging up with her, I decided I still wasn't awake and went back to bed, putting the phone near my bed in case my brother called back.

It turned out to be one of my 'headache days', sans the headache-upon-arising. I awoke again about 2:30 PM, ready for the day, cleaned up a bit, got some fried chicken at Stater Bros, watched an episode of The Adventures of Brisco County Jr, and sometime between 5 PM and 6 PM the headache moved in. Again, looking back at the symptoms— excessive sleepiness, excessive trips to the bathroom— the surprise was that the headache wasn't immediately evident when I first got up. Fortunately, the standard cure worked: a double dose of ibuprofen about an hour apart with some caffeine and something to eat.

Now it's a quarter-to-three in the AM and I'm wide awake. This would not be a problem if there were a place for me to go nearby, wherein I could sit for a few hours and write. (As I've mentioned before, I have difficulty maintaining focus if I write at home.) Starbucks is good until 11:30 PM most nights, but that leaves me with three or four hours most nights— time which I usually kill with World of Warcraft or some other game. I don't even have a comfortable chair for reading at home. If I could find some place to hang out in the wee hours of the night, that would be marvelous! Of course, San Bernardino being San Bernardino, there might not be any place safe to hang out all night. I would feel less out of control if I were more productive in these hours.

It occured to me the other day that my blog is more like a journal than it is a real blog. Most bloggers have something to say, but I just rattle on like some latter day Samuel Pepys without a plague to report on.

You know, speaking of having something to say, I just want to throw this out there: There was a lot of space given up in the news today to Barack Obama coming down hard against any whiff of protectionism in the bail-out plan. I subscribe to The Economist and there have been mentions over the last several weeks about how the U.S. needs to steer a course away from the waters of protectionism. It seems most of the world wants us to think of the word 'protectionism' as a dirty one. Is that necessarily so?

I am no political or financial scholar. I have stated many times that my own opinions on these affairs are reactionary and emotionally based. But, it seems to me that by repeating over and over how evil protectionism is at a national level, what most people/countries are saying is that they still want America to export money and jobs. From where I sit, we're running short of both these days. I understand that many smaller countries around the globe would be substantially affected by an American withdrawl of money and/or jobs, but where do we draw the line for the benefit of the American people? Afterall, I feel for the poorer peoples of the world, but I pay taxes into my government to take care of Americans first, others second.

The other factor I look at is this: The last time the U.S. was very protectionist in nature was the 1950's— this was also a time of vast prosperity in this country. You could look at it as a period when the U.S. was amassing the wealth that it would then spend the next several decades dispersing around the globe. Maybe for our country to be the great dispenser of wealth and jobs, we need periods of protectionism wherein we stockpile those things.

Feel free to argue against me. Like I said, I'm naive on these subjects. I'm not even sure I believe these things myself— rather they're just thoughts I've had and felt that I needed to express.

Until next time.

"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber."— Plato