It's hard to end my vacation. The news is just as appalling and I haven't gotten any smarter, which promises that 2006 is likely to be another annus horribilis, as the Queen would put it.

When I began this blog, I'd intended to write till the end of the presidential campaign. Now I don't seem to be able to quit. What I dislike about it is that it is remarkably like work, only without the remuneration. One of these days maybe I'll fix the remuneration problem, but I don't know how to mask the work, which gives me hives. When Freud said that "Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanity," he could not have had blogging in mind.

On top of that, you get no respect. In Kentucky, presided over by the corrupt Governor Ernie Fletcher, they don't want to let bloggers get any nearer to the politicians than can be avoided. According to the AP,

State officials are telling [Mark] Nickolas, the operator of the bluegrassreport.org blog, and his fellow bloggers that they aren't journalists and won't be granted press credentials, access to the House and Senate floors or the Capitol entrances generally closed to the public.
....

Nickolas, who regularly attacks Gov. Ernie Fletcher and other Republicans, agreed he's not an objective journalist. But he also does original reporting about state government, digging into records and raising questions about politicians.

Another blogger said,

"They told me they wanted proof that somebody has a — what did they call it? — a tangible work product," Adams said. "All you need to do is pull up my site and hit 'print,' and you've got it."

"Tangible work product" indeed!

Anyway, I did not totally waste my time while I was away. I can now ask "How's your wife?" in Greek and have discovered that my dog suffers from Stockholm Syndrome, as do so many.