Thanksgiving, it is, and God! I hate holidays. However, I am rightfully thankful for all that I have in life; a good wife, you stands by me (right or wrong), two good kids, two beautiful grandkids (6 and 11 yo girls), and enough money (for now). I also have my health, except for a few chronic, but hopefully not fatal, irritating conditions. A celebration of fall; everything is dying, hopefully to be renewed a few months hence. Not so tough in Fla., anyway. Later.

Some astronomers recently discovered some planets; large gas giants, orbiting a star on the fringe of the Milky Way, about 500 light years (500,000,000 miles) from Earth. Significance was Hubble was able to actually take pictures of them. Not closeups, but enough detail to identify them as planets. As Carl Sagan used to say, with "billions and billions" of stars, there must be "billions and billions" of planets out there, and some of them must harbor life. Maybe intelligent life, perhaps superior to our own. We are incredibly arrogant to assume we are the only intelligent life in the universe. They why hasn't someone tried to get in touch yet? Thats one of the great mysteries!

On a more picayune scale, I don't think we should bail out the U.S. automakers; let them go bankrupt, and finally make the painful adjustments called for in a capitalist economy, when you manage your company very poorly. Sorry for the pain of the employees, but they will lay off hundreds of thousands anyway.

I still can't stop listening to Neil. Just found a boot of 1995 concert of Neil with Pearl Jam - Great grunge! Love those feedback-laden guitars. Neil is distinguished from may by his songwriting, both melodic and interesting lyrics. Don't know anyone else whose abilities range so widely; from folk, through soft rock, country rock, country honk, r&b, through hard rock. He can also write a "message" song that doesn't chase you away.

I can relate well to this cartoon. Most of us are badly misunderstood. Oh well. Hopefully, Santa will give us a break this year; times are tough! I voted today, for Barack, of course - can't fathom the appeal of that old geezer, McCain, and that witch Palin. She needs to slink back to Alaska, and shoot wolves for fun. It will be a big relief not to be bombarded with politics all day and night. I hope Barack, and company, can get something accomplished, particularly health care for all Americans. Really, we need to get the insurance companies out of it entirely, put it all under Medicare, but that probably won't happen. At least, we need subsidized premiums that are realistic, and requirements for portability, inclusion of pre-existing conditions, and group ratings. There is no excuse for anyone not having access to quality health care. We need to join the rest of the civilized world in this. I am optimistic things will turn around now.