My Sunday Feeling

I knew something was up when I went to the gym New Year's Day. I got on the treadmill to run an easy mile. I could barely get through a half mile before I had to stop. My legs just wouldn't work. I will usually run an easy mile in about 8:10 and a hard one somewhere between 7:15 and 7:30. Which doesn't make me Roger Bannister but I at least can do a half mile.



I knew I had the sniffles but I believe in working out even with a cold. I got off the treadmill and felt my face. I put my hand under my shirt. This was no cold. I was burning up. The thermometer confirmed what I suspected. I was running about a degree of fever. Great. Happy New Year.



My old doc who retired always told me to go to the doctor at the first sign of a fever. " You asthma people really don't need pneumonia," saith Jim Carey Morse. So I made an appointment the next day with my new doctor.



I like the new guy. He's an old marathoner so he's pretty good with athletic stuff which I know will come in handy sooner than later. He diagnosed me as having some little virus that is going around. He said about all he could do is give me a steroid shot and tell me to lay low. Also he prescribed some Tylenol with codeine.



'This," he said while handing me the scrip. " is strictly 'feel-good' medicine. The Tylenol will help the fever. The little bit of codeine will ease your muscle aches and headache. It will suppress your cough a bit so you won't infect anybody and it will improve your mood. Just don't be doing a bunch of drinking and driving and if you need to do social activities come home early for the next couple of days. No running or golf this weekend and you should be fine."



I love Jim Morse but he would hardly prescribe aspirin. He sure as hell would never prescribe "feel good medicine."



So I have been laying low. I stayed home New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Which was OK by me as I am not a big New Year's person. The only people out past 9 on New Year's Eve are cops and drunks and I have no need of either.



I haven't been sick, apart from my biannual sinus infections, in a couple of years easy. While this episode reminds me that I am a lousy patient it did provide me with a doctor ordered opportunity to lay low and be still. Which I don't do very well being the restless sort of person that I am. It has been kind of nice to just sit and read and watch sports. I've caught up on my magazines and am half way through one of my Christmas books. There's plenty of leftovers in the fridge. There's no need to leave the house. I will get better. Some folks won't. Just got to get through it.



Since I have a lot of time on my hands, I have been following the recent events in the Middle East with a little more interest than I ordinarily would. I do not claim to be an expert by far on this issue. And I am conflicted about the Israelis usual ham-handed approach to security matters. While one cannot deny Israel's importance to Western History, theology alone does not seem a sound basis for foreign policy in and of itself. I find particularly ludicrous the position of some of our more fundamentally inclined brethren who relish the prospect of strife in that region so as to somehow induce the Second Coming of Jesus as purportedly foretold by the Book of Revelations.



If you are going to believe that hooey then you will necessarily oppose any talk of truce. You might as well not open a savings account either, come to think of it.



Having said all of that, it seems to me that Hamas would have done better if it had heard my Grandfather Bivens's admonition against hunting bear with a switch. Because the recent attacks by Hamas upon Israeli civilian targets have provoked a massive retaliation on the part of Israel's military. Can't say as I blame 'em.



From where I sit, I don't know what Hamas seeks to achieve. It couldn't be to persuade Israel to leave the Gaza. It left in 2005. It cannot prevail militarily. It strikes at Israel with mortar rockets and dynamite. The Israelis respond with F-15s. And last Saturday night their time they sent armored troops back into the Gaza. As one of my friends put it, " You know how deeply suspicious of cultural stereotypes I am, but close organizational and administrative skills, as well as disciplined adherence to enterprise goals do not appear to be in the tool kit of Hama's."



But then again, what is Israel's end game? One need only look to Iraq to see that military power alone cannot effect a solution. There has to be a political and/or diplomatic resolution to this matter. Do they think they are going to destroy Hamas? Could happen short term but long term would require the reoccupation of the region and from what I can tell there is not much stomach for that in the Israeli government. Hamas wants the economic boycott which is causing it untold misery to end. The presence of ground troops could induce Hamas to come to the bargaining table. Perhaps that is the plan. Israel could annihilate Hamas from the air. But annihilation is not a useful useful military purpose. We are the mightiest nuclear power on Earth. It cannot be used as a tactical weapon. Israel, for all of it's might cannot impose a military solution especially against a people whose litany of grievance goes back to Vespasian.


Like I said, I do not much blame the Israelis for retaliating. Somebody shoots at my house and I will get high-pissed as well.

I am no expert in these matters. But it seems to me that cooler heads on both sides need to try to get this shut down. Because annihilation is not a useful military purpose. As the United States learned in Vietnam and again in Iraq, once the enemy knows that the big hammer is off the table, a diplomatic/political solution is the only tenable outcome.

Like Barack Obama didn't have enough on his plate on January 20th.

Happy New Year to you too.