TUESDAY

My overnight stay at Emmanuel with the Family Promise guests was uneventful, it was a doddle in fact. One family was in bed when we arrived, and the other went soon after.  Sharon and I sat up for a while chatting.    I was just bothered at leaving Bubbles for a large part of the day then going out all night. I don't know if cats suffer anxiety separation but I imagine they do.  On Tuesday I stayed in with her for most of the day.   In the evening I went to see The King's Speech again.  I'd originally seen it with Bruce and Rosalyn but Pattisue mentioned she wanted to see it and I was happy to go again.  I enjoyed it the first time and thought it even better the second.

In the news......I know I give a rather unbalanced view of the news, I comment mostly on what is going on in the US because I know you all see the world events on your own televisions, but that is not to say I'm not looking at the world events, particularly in the Middle East, which is riveting because the whole world is changing and we are seeing it as it happens.  I didn't think Gadhaffi's regime would  come down because he is so brutal he wouldn't hesitate to order the shooting of protesters, but in spite of that however hundreds have died in the protests, and now he is flying in plane loads of mercenaries to shoot them.  But his regime is fracturing; pilots are flying off to Malta to seek asylum; his Minister of the Interior has resigned, urging the military to support the protesters. After being ordered to bomb a Libyan city an air force plane chose to crash instead. The Minister of Defence has revealed, or confirmed, that it was Gadhaffi who ordered the Lockerbie bombing (if captured alive he will be charged with international war crimes)  People are asking why the US is not intervening but there are, or were 600 Americans already in danger in Libya.  All out efforts are being made at the moment to get them out, mostly by a ferry the US is sending there.  When they are safe I think the US probably will intervene.

The news here is also full of the NZ earthquake.  And the four Americans shot by Somali pirates, which I think is going to take this piracy thing to a whole new level.  It is being said here that the US now needs to deal with the pirates from their bases in Somalia, so that will be a whole new war zone if it happens.

The big US news item is still the protests in Wisconsin, which is spreading to other states and this potentially is changing the face of America.  It is not just a local union busting item, all the states debt crises are flying home to roost.  All the Democrat senators have fled Wisconsin so the Budget can't be debated.  The Republican Governor has said if they are not back by Friday 5000 state employees will lose their jobs.