… because I’m mired in a writer’s slump.

♦   President Obama has signed a hold-us-over continuing resolution that does nothing more than kick the really difficult budget decisions (if you consider budget decisions limited to domestic discretionary spending – or just 12% – of the budget “difficult”) for yet another two weeks.  It’s maddening enough that the dolts in Washington – on both sides of the aisle – stubbornly refuse to address significant budget cuts, while so many middle-class Americans make sacrifices in their own lives and after making no movement to force richer Americans to share the pain.  Is it too much to ask that they if they persist in this charade at “budget cutting”, they at least stop playing us for fools? 

For example, of the $4 billion “painfully” cut during this latest continuing resolution, which was passed by both the House and Senate prior to reaching The White House, $1.24 billion was for eight programs President Obama didn’t even propose funding in his 2011 budget proposal. 

Geez … That must have been incredibly painful!

But one small sign of sanity could be gleaned from the story.  The Senate actually approved a bill that prevents lawmakers in Congress and The President from being paid any salary during any subsequent Government shutdown.  Of course this is subject to House concurrence.  So I’m not feeling particularly confident about the bill’s future.

♦   On a semi-related matter, the U.S. Navy announced that it plans to stick with its intention to name its newest amphibious transport vessel the USS Murtha, after deceased Pennsylvania Congressman John P. Murtha.

I can completely understand the navy’s desire to recognize Murtha’s military service, compassionate efforts for wounded warriors, and – more forthrightly – his efforts to fund defense spending.  But he also rushed to judgement in accusing eight Marines of cold-blooded civilian murder in Iraq of which all but one have been cleared of charges.

And with his penchant for pork barrel spending to the benefit of his Congressional district, perhaps the most poetic of justice in his case might be to assign the USS Murtha to serve duty on a lake or river somewhere in Murtha’s former Congressional district, where it would be of no use or benefit to 99.9% of American taxpayers.

♦   I was interested to see that both political parties in Bucks County, PA have nominated female candidates for an open seat on Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court.  Interesting because it ensures that Commonwealth Court will return to a 5-4 female majority among the justices serving there.  Interesting because it maintains a female majority on both of the state’s intermediate appellate courts.  (Commonwealth Court handles legal disputes involving government entities, as opposed to Superior Court which deals in criminal appeals.)  Superior Court is currently composed of nine female justices and six male.

Women in the Pennsylvania legal profession should be proud of these achievements.  And as I have stated in an earlier post here, one of the most impressive candidates in this year’s slate of Republican candidates for  Montgomery County line offices and judicial appointments is Maureen Coggin, who is running for one of the county’s judicial seats.

♦   al-Qaeda now has its own magazine.  The periodical is published by al-Qaeda on the Arab Peninsula, or AQAP as referred to by international anti-terror authorities.  The magazine – whose title will not sully the pages of this blog – is a deliberately westernized approach to direct recruitment of potential jihadists.  It relies on typically American marketing and sales techniques, including reward programs and elements of pop culture to reach young audiences.  It offers bomb-making tips, inspirational quotes, even what to expect from jihad!

It’s the brain-child former New Mexico native and American turncoat, Anwar al-Awlaki who heads AQAP.  According to experts, the magazine employs a comic-book like quality to lower the barrier between violence in the virtual world and the horror of real world terrorism.  The most current issue shows a UPS plane that was isolated and searched at Philadelphia International Airport recently in connection with the recent ink-cartridge bomb scare.  The piece brags about the fact that it cost only $4200 for al-Qaeda to cause a massive disruption in the daily life of the Western world in al-Qaeda’s quest to bring down America through a death of a thousand cuts.

The lesson here being that these Islamic jihadists will stop at nothing; are more than adequately sophisticated in their approach; and are as dangerous today as they were in the 1990’s and on that day in September 2001.  It also highlights the kind of serious threat that justifies President Obama’s inclusion of a traitorous former American (al-Awlaki) on a targeted assassination list.

♦   The City of Philadelphia is pushing to garner the wages of 622 city employees who owe about $1 million of an astronomical $1.5 BILLION in unpaid court fees, forfeited bail, and victim restitution. 

What took them so long?!?  Nevermind … We already know. Which is just one reason so many of us no longer live there.

During a recent food shopping expedition, after I had cleared the self-checkout and was loading up the car, a man who had just parked his old, battered jeep walked past and remarked, “That has to feel rewarding.” 

It was a rather odd comment when I looked back it.  

I had never seen the man before.  He was thin, about my age roughly, of average build with glasses and a Phillies cap.  He was obviously working on a noticeable wad of chew, which is not all that common in my area of the Philly suburbs. 

Being in my own little world of everyday minutia, I responded, “That’s a bunch of crap.  This is a pain in the (nether regions).” 

“No”, he came back as he stopped behind me, “It has to feel good to do things for other people.” 

Another odd remark … Why would shopping for my own family make me feel good about doing things for “other people”.  I do THAT all the time.  But of course, he wouldn’t know for whom I was buying groceries.  Just didn’t make sense to me in the split second it took for me to come back with, “You mean like extra credit?” 

Another odd remark in a strange conversation, this time from my end.  What had made me think of THAT rejoinder? 

He laughed and moved on into the store.

For several days now I have been thinking about how I could turn such a strange interaction into a funny blog post.  Even today as I tried to write a witty list of everyday stuff one does to which one would wish “extra credit” applied.  But the conversation continued to concern me.  Where was that guy coming from?  What were his set of assumptions?  Or maybe I was making a bit too much about a brief, weird give-and-take between two strangers in a cold, dark parking lot.

Then I remembered what had happened at the self-checkout.  Standing there with half a cart of nothing important.  It was the pre-dinner supermarket rush hour.  People scurrying in and out to collect a few things on the way home.  I was in no hurry though, because I knew dinner was awaiting my return with one crucial ingredient … taco seasoning. 

Arriving at the checkout ahead of several other shoppers, I told one guy to go ahead of me as he had only a thing or two.  Turned to my left and pointed an older woman, juggling a few things around a half-gallon of milk, to another self-checkout  as I waited.  And as I stood there and waved one more urgent shopper ahead of me, I thought about whether any of these everyday – admittedly tiny – random acts of courtesy meant anything.

Now that short, weird conversation out of nowhere sends a shiver up my spine.

Just bought my domain rights (or whatever you call them). I am now an internet presence!

I struggle so much with these Hallmark holidays. 

The messages you get in the ads, the commercials and shows on TV, can set you up for one of two things … either depression, because your relationship is so unlike the Shmoopie couples (obscure Seinfeld reference) whose fairytale love bombards you from every commercial angle, or fraud, as you try to emulate the Shmoopies on this day of mandatory romance.

I fall for both.

There comes a time when you look around and realize you have been with the same person for so long, you can barely remember The Before.  It has been 25 years of marriage and – before that – 10 years of prolonged courtship.  (The courtship dance wasn’t a smooth, graceful waltz either.  It was more like a  mosh pit.)  And yes, it’s a bit daunting to acknowledge that 35 years of a 55-year life has been spent with one partner.        

Twenty-five years of marriage can include a lot of emotional blunt force trauma.  Some of it is bad luck.  Some of it is self-inflicted.  Much of it revolves around the uncertain art of parenting.  So much of it is being too busy, too tired, and sometimes too self-absorbed to tend to the regular gardening a relationship needs to keep growing.  (Yes, fans … We’re back to lawn care!)  You forget to fertilize.  The weeds get so high they block out the sun.  And on those rare occasions when you remember to water, it just flows over the hardened earth and right out to the gutter.          

I’m guilty in this.  I’ll admit that much.

But one thing is crystal-clear despite all the disappointments, the brown spots on our weathered relationship, and those annoying Shmoopies.  I would not have of THIS without HER.

She was the one who convinced me we could make it, when many who knew us in The Before probably thought otherwise.  She was the one who pushed me to be someone of whom I could be proud.  She was one who gave me the gifts of three sons I can not see myself without.  When I faltered, she forgave me (once the smoke cleared).  Whenever I needed her, she was there for me.

I can only hope she thinks the same of me.   

Thank you, Carol, for EVERYTHING!

And I hope you aren’t angry with me once you see this, because …

I still love you!

(And if you see a Shmoopie today, please give ’em a smack for me!)