2007 — 31 July: financial shenanigans
Time to rationalise some accounts that are surplus to our requirements... It's amazing how many bits of plastic one can pick up while travelling Life's highways, isn't it? And they all generate statements (at a minimum) often accompanied by gentle suggestions that one's level of debt could be (un)comfortably higher than it is at present. Usually in the form of eminently shreddable "credit card cheques" or "balance transfers".
(One charmer, who evidently hasn't been talking to the bit of his/her organisation that knows I'm in the middle of closing the account, yesterday upped my credit limit on the associated card by an entirely superfluous — and certainly unasked for — 50%.)
They still only ever seem happiest to lend you money1 when you can most nearly prove you don't need it, though.
Why do we let mad people rule the world...? department
The entirely admirable George Monbiot makes some telling points in today's Guardian that will win him few friends in what Eisenhower termed the Military-Industrial complex:
Because it doesn't yet work, missile defence is the world's biggest pork barrel. The potential for spending is unlimited. First, a number of massive — and possibly insuperable — technical problems must be overcome. Then it must constantly evolve to respond to the counter-measures Russia and China will deploy... For the US arms industry, technical failure means permanent commercial success... The diplomatic cost of this idiocy is incalculable.
Where's Superman (and his heat vision) when you need him?
On the morrow
After first saying "Rabbits" (for luck, on the first of the month), we'll be off to the Chalybeate, to begin Day 1 of the second (three-week) cycle of Chemo. I hope to have Her back in my tender care at home later the same day, of course. Fingers crossed.