A New Streak

I had a streak of posting going, and yesterday it ended...alas.  I had a haircut, met a friend for coffee briefly in Lakewood, and then came home with the intention of watching the Duke game.  NOT on the TV, mind you; the cable is on the fritz again (I should call them), but from the comfort of my laptop.  Anyways, I watched part of the game, but about 10:30 I stood up...and immediately felt light-headed.  This was odd, to put it mildly; I drank some water and had a snack (I had not really eaten or drank anything since 5), and felt better after a bit.  But, I just laid down on the couch, shut the lights and the laptop, and went to sleep...woke up at 7:30.  Hm.

In other news, I have a cold.  This is not surprising, I guess, given the lack of sleep, weather change, etc.  But it is no fun.  For one thing, I am... cold.  Sitting under a blanket now and thinking about (not very seriously) turning up the furnace (a bit).  Indeed, sleeping on the living room couch was a bit warmer, at least.  I drank plenty of coffee today, which helped, and I will try to sleep early and more tonight.  Alas.  I am not quite as young as I used to be, despite my efforts to insist otherwise.

The SBF/FTX thing is still pretty funny; at least the new incoming GOP House (phew) may actually investigate this.  To be sure, I don't necessarily think this is fraud -- if morons give a guy lots of money to "invest" in a crazy scheme, and he loses it, it may not be a crime, though I think the spreadsheets will be hard to explain away.  On the other hand, it is awfully convenient that the guy gives millions to Democratic politicians, they hold the Senate, and then the FTX collapse occurs.  Complete coincidence, I am sure.  

I am two-thirds through the Jaffa book.  Interesting take on Stephen A. Douglas, who is certainly one of the more complex and fascinating characters of US history; I would put him and Aaron Burr as the two most interesting characters of the 19th century.  My sense is that Douglas was trying to have it both ways on the issue of popular sovereignty -- Northerners could see it as not allowing slavery in (it could be voted away) and Southerners the reverse -- until people picked up on it.  Jaffa calls him out for the immoral nature of the scheme, and, in turn, promotes Lincoln as the one who (this will shock the Antifa types) who was not only one of the loudest of the critics, but also consistently stood up for the equality of the Negro (to use the period term) in political (and implicitly, social) terms.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/15/us/latin-mass-revival.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20221116&instance_id=77652&nl=todaysheadlines&regi_id=31060267&segment_id=113297&user_id=f914b0e213c5e2b4265494b6d07fe88f

Interesting...first, the parish looks a lot like my parish, always good to see!  Second, it's also good to see people in the pews, even if -- let's be frank -- they are a small share of the Catholic population in the US.  Of course, people going to Mass regularly, living the life of Faith, and being active in the parish and the community as a whole is a good thing (I should think)....but not to Pope Francis.  That's the one thing in particular I don't get about his attempts to crack down on the Latin Mass; it seems to be popular now, and as this is one facet of Catholicism that is growing... why on Earth would you discourage people from the faith?