Welcome to the working week

Welcome to the working week, welcome to August. Here's a picture that seems appropriately languid and summery, although I took it last April in Lisbon.

I try to stay away from politics here, preferring to leave it to the many expert bloggers on the topic, but this entire debt hostage situation -- where a President who is more of a centrist conservative than the flaming socialist the wingnuts have taught us to fear has been insisting that the legislative branch of government do its fricking job and legislate already, has conceded more than the Republicans dared to dream of and still been rebuffed, while the Tea Party insouciantly leads the global economy towards disaster -- has had me singing Dylan all weekend.

Idiot wind, blowing like a socket around my skull
From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol....
Idiot wind, blowing through the dust upon our shelves,
We're idiots, babe.
It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves.