Randomness...

Just a few quick thoughts to start your Thursday. Everyone watch President Obama's speech last night? I thought it was great. There were some highs, mostly when he repeatedly said people do not have to change their current plan - hoping that any assh*le left who says they don't want to change their plan will hopefully be told to be quiet. There were some lows, most notably when he said that he wants to, and I'm paraphrasing here, take a look at medical malpractice reform because it 'might' have something to do with the high cost of insurance. Might? It's most certainly got something to do with it and while I have no facts to back it up, I'm pretty sure it has to be one of the biggest reasons for high insurance costs. Medical malpractice reform is an absolute must.

Other than that, Rep. Joe Wilson is a petulant 5 year old. I would have jumped across the aisle and punched him in his f*cking gourd, then said something to the effect of, "who's lying now?" or something equally action-flick witty. Overall I think it was a pretty positive and necessary speech to make, not so much to the people of congress but to the people sitting at home who believe all the misinformation that was spread about death panels and socialism and government mandating everything. Speaking of mandates, I'm not sure how he got around using that word but he did, and I just don't realistically see a bill being passed that has a mandate on people getting insurance unless it honestly only costs as much as 300-400 a year for the minimum. People can't afford it, especially now - that said, he was right to say his plan won't work unless it's mandated - so I guess you gotta do what you gotta do. Personally I can't afford health insurance but wouldn't mind paying 300 for some basic stuff if I had to.

Moving on. The U.S. Open has been alright despite my boy being knocked out early. It's kind of like watching a golf tournament where Tiger is not in contention. I love seeing good matches but with Roddick gone, I've got no one I'm aching to see win. It'd be nice to see Nadal win. It'd be awesome to see Federer lose. It'd be nice to see Djokovic win. But I just can't really get into it until I see an instant classic 5-set match that keeps me up til 1 in the morning. At least the women's draw is interesting.

Enough about that. Let's talk about me. So today will be pretty important in telling whether I am a runner or just a pretender. It's the first day I've thought about not doing my run. I've been slowly coming down with a cold for the last two days and it finally might have hit me today. I'm a little congested and tired and my eyes feel like they could sleep forever. Aside from that I've got the worst shin splints I've ever had. They burn when I run and then just kind of have a numbing pain all day long. So I'm supposed to run 8 miles today. And I might not. I've already eaten my runners breakfast and have my gatorade and powerbar ready to rock, but it might not happen. I'll keep you posted. Less than 6 weeks til the half and it's starting to get rough...

I'm out. Go big.

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - tfln: "(973): maybe tonight we can turn coloring into a drinking game "

awesome.