It’s the end of the summer, so I’m taking a long weekend (off Thursday – Monday). I haven’t written much lately, but I figure most of my ‘regular’ readers are traveling and only checking in intermittently. That’s summertime for ya.<\/p>\n
I spent yesterday taking care of errands, including my belated\/extended taxes, which I’ve been procrastinating on since we filed the extensions. More errands to get done today, unless I decide to spend my time finishing a book, watching a movie, or trying to write a longer piece for the 9\/11 anniversary. I have something in mind, but I’ve been kinda uninspired of late.<\/p>\n
The week-long dreary weather is probably the biggest contributor to this malaise o’ mine. Last week, I chalked it up in part to my “wheels-within-wheel paranoia” about how world events have been unfolding. A day or so later, I realized that paranoia wasn’t an appropriate term. After all, I don’t feel like these machinations are targeting me<\/em>, nor that there’s a single overarching cabal organizing events to suit its needs.<\/p>\n Nah, my mental paralysis is caused more by my trying to understand the multiplicity<\/em> of forces in action, not One Central Plot. It reminds me of something I said in the weeks after 9\/11:<\/p>\n “Somehow, this president has to figure out how to work in concert with Pakistan but not anger India, without placating India to the point of angering China, without assuaging China so much that Japan and South Korea get nervous, and I’m pretty sure that I could beat him at tic-tac-toe.”<\/p>\n I don’t work in international relations or foreign policy; I’m just some schlub from New Jersey. My biggest problem is that I’m trying to make sense of things.<\/p>\n Fortunately, football season is coming up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s the end of the summer, so I’m taking a long weekend (off Thursday – Monday). I haven’t written much lately, but I figure most of my ‘regular’ readers are traveling and only checking in intermittently. That’s summertime for ya. I spent yesterday taking care of errands, including my belated\/extended taxes, which I’ve been procrastinating … <\/p>\n