STOP THE PRESSES!!!

I've always wanted to say that.

Actually, there is important breaking news to report: Senator Mitch McConnell says that both sides are "very close" to a deal on the debt crisis. Unless, of course, they're not ... as recent history shows that when one side claims progress on a resolution of the crisis, the other side immediately denies it.

Oy.

So, there may be a resolution of the crisis, or there may not. If there is a resolution, chances are that it will be one which will just prolong the agony so that we can have the sheer joy of watching this ludicrous circus play itself out yet again in a few months. Therefore, I'm not going to get excited just yet. And, of course, as Fareed Zakaria eloquently points out, the damage to the nation and its reputation has already been done, regardless of what our inept elected reprehensives do at this point.

But just to lighten things up a little...

My friend Ed (that would be Ed the attorney, not Ed the professor emeritus of microbiology) shared this wonderful piece on his Facebook page the other day. We don't normally think of the American Bar Association (ABA) Journal as a source of funny stuff, and there's a reason we have the old expression, "sober as a judge," but the ABA journal recently published a comment from Judge Martin Sheehan of Covington, Kentucky, who was pleased that the parties to a lawsuit had agreed to settle out of court. Judge Sheehan said that the settlement

“...made this court happier than a tick on a fat dog because it is otherwise busier than a one legged cat in a sandbox and, quite frankly, would have rather jumped naked off of a 12-foot stepladder into a five-gallon bucket of porcupines than have presided over a two-week trial of the dispute herein, a trial, which no doubt, would have made the jury more confused than a hungry baby in a topless bar and made the parties and their attorneys madder than mosquitoes in a mannequin factory.”

The judge is said to enjoy spiking his comments with interesting quotations ranging from "Shakespeare to Pink Floyd." I think I'd like him.

And that's all for today. Let's come back tomorrow and see if we still have an economy. And jobs. And a country whose legislature isn't a laughingstock.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo