There but for the grace...

Having a television on today pretty much guaranteed nonstop coverage of Hurricane Sandy, especially since it threatens a chunk of coastline that is not part of what some residents of that coastline refer to, disparagingly, as "flyover country" (and by extension, not awfully important). Such coverage is doubtless welcomed in some quarters, as any news that distracts from any mention of the sewer of incompetence (speaking charitably) that is our government's official handling of the events in Benghazi last month must be a welcome respite, indeed.

To hear Leon Panetta explain why nobody lifted a finger to help our people in Libya, I am overcome with gratitude—in an ironic way—that Leon is not a police commissioner or a fire chief in some American city, since who knows how much "additional information" he might require be available before, say, sending cops "into harm's way" to the scene of a domestic dispute or dispatching firefighters to a blazing inferno. One gets the feeling that there is a lot more substance here than there ever was to the Watergate break-in or the outing of CIA desk-jockey Valerie Plame, events that dominated media headlines for months and weeks (and yet involved no loss of life, as happened in Benghazi).

So, paraphrasing Seinfeld's Soup Nazi, "No television for me!" At least not during the day.

Work proceeded slowly today, and it was late afternoon before I realized it. As the outfit I do most of my work for is in the D.C. area, there wasn't much correspondence today, either.

Here's hoping that those in Sandy's path experience a minimum of discomfort and loss.