Happy August 1st!

The circus over the debt reduction plan continues, but it appears - once again - that a deal has been struck. Of course, said deal must be passed by both houses of Congress, where House Republicans and Senate Democrats will still have their opportunities to block it, but one must be positive. I, for instance, am positive that - no matter what the outcome - Congress will end up looking totally stupid. Quote of the day: Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri referred to the deal as a "sugar-coated Satan sandwich." Congressional budget negotiators posed for a group photo to demonstrate that they're working in a sober, bipartisan fashion to resolve the crisis:

Oh, and the deal apparently features the Republican "it's all Obama's fault and we can make him say it" element which allows the President to raise the debt ceiling again, Congress to vote against it, and the President to veto the Congressional resolution.

If you still needed any proof that this is a politically-manufactured crisis, there it is.

$%#@! politicians.

Well, anyhow, welcome to August! Today is August 1st, the beginning of the month here in Disneyland-on-the-Potomac which is traditionally the hottest, not that you'd know it this year. Between the miserably hot weather and the great waves of hot air rolling down from Capitol Hill, it seems we've been living in a sauna since about April. It just brings us that much closer to the time of year when we'll switch to complaining about the snow, ice, and cold.

On the coping-with-modern-technology front, I have successfully bested the combination of hardware and software hurdles to check out and download the first electronic library book to my iPad. While I'm still a confirmed lover of traditional books, the ability to travel with a half-pound iPad instead of a ten-pound bale of books does have some appeal. I'll let you know how the electronic reading thing works out.

Speaking of books, the slow death of our local Borders Bookstore goes on. Agnes and I visited the sad remains of the store yesterday, and bought several bags of books for ourselves and for stockpiling as Christmas presents. The demise of Borders means that we now have only one traditional major bookseller in the area - Barnes and Noble. I hope that B&N sticks around, because I really enjoy the experience of browsing amid the shelves of books and exchanging capsule reviews with other customers ... an experience you just can't have at Amazon.com.

And so another week begins. I'm still employed, the debt ceiling circus goes on, and it's still hot. Here's looking forward to ... whatever.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo