Fatigue

 Long day....for a bunch of reasons, I helped out at the parish booth at the Polish Constitution Day fest (yes, I can't believe this is a thing, either)... and while it was good, and a boon to the parish, it was...well, so much of an experience that I couldn't possibly do it again next year.  I didn't get home until 7 -- and was rained on twice (why can't we have events inside climate-controlled structures?), which didn't help.  Anyways, after a shower and a spot of dinner, I just decided to go through and largely empty my inbox, and maybe go through a few links.  And it was good!  Restful.  Useful, read some interesting things.  

https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2022/03/the-100-greatest-pop-punk-songs-of-all-time.html

I have been listening to this, intermittently, and finally finished it today... nice.  Interesting; certainly listened to some good and interesting songs; a lot of these were from the salad days of my youth.  Some were trips down memory lane, while others were completely new to me.  Wished I had heard more of them when I was younger; now, of course, one's musical tastes tend to ossify.  That, and a lot of these songs..well, I am certainly getting old.  Sigh.  At least I learned what some of these things are about, which is...always good.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/were-the-stimulus-checks-a-mistake/

Well, yes!  I mean, not in the early days (maybe) but it was clearly not needed later on, I suspect.  Now, I don't think the spending is totally responsible for all of the cost increases now (I still think we have a labor shortage, but the prolonged stimulus and tax credits probably exacerbated that), but it hasn't helped, and as we all know, it is hard to put the inflation genie back in the bottle.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/29/house-republican-freedom-caucus-challenges-00023071

The House Freedom caucus grows up!  More seriously, I think they are right; the size of the GOP majority will dictate their influence, not that we do not want as large a majority as possible...