They (whoever they are) say all good things must come to and end and, today, the US military presence in Iraq officially does just that (in fact, it’s right there live on my teevee as I write this – they’re alternating between that and a “live shot” of a water main break, because there are few things more compelling than watching people dig a hole in the street right there in real time). Oh, there are still a few thousand troops there (in Iraq, not at the water main break, which only requires a crew of half a dozen or so), and we plan to have 15,000 people in our enormous Iraq embassy, but, still, this is a rather momentous milestone (and after a mere 8½ years). So, now what do we do with ourselves?

I don’t think there are enough missing blonde chicks and perverted college assistant coaches (and their wives) to keep our attention properly diverted, Michelle Duggar lost kid #20 (at some point your uterus must just get too worn out to function properly, no?), the Republican Presidential campaign is even more ungodly boring now that we’re down to a race between White and Whiter (I think of it as a contest between a guy that should be starring in Cialis commercials vs. the Efferdent spokesmodel), and I don’t think there’s a new version of the iPhone/iPad coming out for at least a week, so whatever shall we do to keep ourselves amused?

Clearly, the only thing left is drinking. But now I see they’ve actually outsourced moonshine production to India. I guess that’s ‘cuz all our toothless hillbillies are too busy cooking up meth.

Speaking of toothless hillbillies, I heard a new ad that the Newt Gingrich is running in Iowa or something (despite being king shit GOP frontrunner, he only recently came up with enough scratch to hit the air with commercials – no wonder, since a third of everything he takes in goes to Tiffanys), that says we need to put an end to “Obama’s war on religion.” Have you noticed Obama warring with religion? ‘Cuz I haven’t. Not that I’ve been paying attention, really, but this just seems stupid to me. Are people in Iowa really that dumb (or is it just the Republicans)?

Another government shutdown or budget crisis or whatever the f*ck it is is looming on the horizon. This time it’s because House Republicans are insisting on the rapid approval of an oil pipeline from Canada in order to extend the payroll tax cuts.

One of these days you’d think We the People would see how tiresome Republicans are.

Time to resurrect the Whig Party, I think.

Another warm day today (supposed to get damn near 60°), but rainy and windy, ahead of a temperaure drop later on tonight. There still isn’t any real snow on the horizon, but I did put the plow on the tractor to at least get it out of the driveway. I don’t wanna have to dig it out when the time comes.

Happy Birthday to Tim Conway today, plus Dave Clark (who is apparently no relation to Dick Clark).