They always make us put an “away” message on our e-mail at work if we’re gonna be out of the office for a while. What I’d like to do today is put an “I’m back – don’t f*ck with me” message on, telling people that this is my first day back after a few days off, and I need a day to deal with it, so leave me the hell alone. The people I deal with tend to be needy and whiny, and having a holiday weekend just seems to charge up their whine batteries, getting them all gung-ho to come in and want, want, want. Well, screw them. I need a day to chill out and try to finish all the shit I was doing last week before they add more of their crap to my pile. No such luck.

The curse of the “Number 3” strikes again, as a predator drone supposedly killed some guy they’re calling the Al Qaeda #3 dude. I don’t know – beard, turban…. Would it be wrong of be to suggest that these guys all look alike? For all I know, they keep killing the same guy over and over again. Which only seems to piss off the people who want to blow up buildings a little bit more (like they needed any extra motivation).

Speaking of people who didn’t need any extra motivation, expect to see a new rash of impotent, random rocket launches from Gaza into Israel, thanks to the Israelis, um, whatever you want to call what they did over the weekend. This of course will lead to attacks in Gaza by Israeli helicopter gunships, which will no doubt lead to suicide bombings, which, well, go on and on and on. In other words, business as usual.

I was thinking that our Peace President ought to send US ships in to escort another flotilla ships carrying humanitarian aid and see if Israel wants to fuck with the US Navy, but, then again, one of the people aboard this weekend’s flotilla was a USS Liberty survivor, so maybe we already know the answer to that question. Besides, doing anything beyond mindlessly mouthing “the US recognizes Israel’s right to defend itself” is political suicide in this country for some reason. It’s kind of like saying we ought to just kiss and make up with Cuba already, or that pot ought to be legal.

Oh well, time to get ready to go back to work. This is gonna suck.