Friday night

I've sometimes thought, on the topic of "deregulation," whether people would think it wise, say, to deregulate automobile traffic by doing away with stop signs and stop lights--that by doing so, we'd all get to our destinations more quickly and more safely and that society as a whole would be better off.

Of course, people know it would be a disaster, and look what's happened on Wall Street and brought the country (and the world) to the brink of ruin. People know human nature. We know there are amoral people among us, sociopaths and criminal-minded people who are out to take advantage. How could we imagine that an unregulated financial system would be a good thing? (It's the opposite side of the same ideological coin as Communism, which has been discredited--but that's beside the point.)

Tonight, Rachel Maddow had a guest who made the same analogy: David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and author of Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill).

Hah! I thought. In wrapping up the segment, Maddow said: "You have a way of making this stuff understandable." (See here.) As Johnston said, regulation is not for the good people but the bad. The people who run red lights and put other people's lives at risk are to be punished (but they'll keep trying to get away with it). The good people accept waiting at red lights since it's in their own best interest and that of society as a whole. And the light soon changes (plus, they can make a right on red).

And speaking of red, "The flow'rs do fade" (as Raleigh said). One of them is on its way out. Poor thing. I love this plant (and I'm not what you would call a plant person).

Stephanie Miller is on Larry King tonight. I listen to her radio show every morning on my way to work. (She's on vacation next week, however.) She's extremely attractive and articulate and does well on TV up against the right-wing bozos. (She used to have a show on TV.) Tonight she was on with James Carville, Tucker Carlson and Amy Holmes. (Stephanie is at top left.)

Bootsy goes back to the vet in the morning. The vet had wanted to see him in two weeks (from his last appointment). His ear is bothering him again. Meanwhile my neck has been bothering me again today. Must have slept funny last night. (Not so funny.) (I've been thinking about going to a chiropractor, but I'll talk to my doctor about that first, when I see him in a few weeks.)

I was back at the gym and the store tonight. Whole chickens on sale for 79 cents a pound. Bought one. Also cubed steaks were on sale. Bought some. I'd still had some (on sale) in my meat drawer, and tonight I marinated them and will grill them tomorrow on the Foreman Grill. They were about to go bad. I salvaged them just in time. Also, lean ground beef was on sale and bought some of that, too, to make chili.

I'm on call to work on Sunday and will have to go in. I'm taking Monday off for vacation. It's been crazy at work.

The other night, Bootsy was playing with Lucky in and about the pillow box. (Bootsy doesn't play a lot these days, but he was having fun with Lucky here.)

When I first introduced Lucky into our household last July, Bootsy would like to have killed him. (I prevented it.) Now Lucky goes for Bootsy's jugular and I intervene.