I have allergies. They started when I lived in L'ville (everyone told me I would develop them there), and they have only gotten worse with my transplant to the land of corn. It feels like I am wearing a Lone Ranger mask made of iron that is pressing down on my face (possibly with spikes near my eyes). I have had a terrible headache for two days now, which is making me really snippy and sarcastic.

Over the past few years, I usually have two or three bad days in the spring when things are coming to life. I hope that this year will prove similar, although this is the end of Day 2 with no relief. Yesterday was worse than today, though. I woke up yesterday morning and it took an extra hour and a half to get out of bed. I was late to work.

Grrrrrrrrrrr.

In other news, tomorrow is the last day of classes for the law school (the rest of campus, I believe, has a couple of more days). Which means that the library is packed full of students, but they are studying and not in need of reference help (the papers are, by now, written). So the next three hours, like the four I spent on Sunday (four hours = two simple questions), are likely to be quiet and uneventful. Not a bad thing, but it can be a little disheartening.

Last night, I watched "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen." I haven't seen it in years, and then I think I'd only seen it once before. It was better than I remember, but "Brazil" is still my Terry Gilliam film of choice.

I feel better today. Our administrative assistant suffers allergies and she's really feeling it today. I still feel a little congested and rundown, but it may be my body fighting the plague that's going around or it may be allergies. My allergies started while I was in L'ville, but they have become amplified here in the land of corn and soy.

Not much else to say right now. Back to work, I suppose . . .

Ugh. I woke up this morning with a pounding headache. I dragged myself out of bed. I missed my bus so caught a later one (not a big deal). It gave me opportunity to watch more on the London subway attacks. Of course, it just makes me feel worse. The advent of on-the-spot reporting is not terribly helpful. You feel obliged to watch as "unconfirmed" numbers of casualties climb, but you really don't learn anything new.

Eating helped, but my headache remains. I talked to our secretary this morning and her allergies are acting up, too. (I assume this is what it is, since it came out of seemingly nowhere and is confined solely to my head.)

While on the bus this morning, I was continuing Paul Krugman's book The Great Unraveling. Reading a collection of columns like this points out how often he harps on the same issue. Anyway, the chapter I finished this morning is called "2-1=4" and it leads me to a question:

How come if I do it it's called a Ponzi scheme, and if the government does it it's called Social Security and everyone would be up in arms if you tried to dismantle it?

I have mentioned to some of my friends my philosophy on Social Security, which is one of my more radical political positions: Dismantle it NOW. Just stop. No more payments, no more withholdings.

(Hence, I am completely unelectable.)

The baby boomers that are getting ready to retire and the generation before them are largely responsible for this mess. I say fuck them and fuck them hard. Cut them off now. I say this because I am unlikely to ever see a freaking dime of the money I put into Social Security (although I don't anyway - a complicated deal through UI's retirement program) because my family is not known for longevity and the program is going to collapse well before the year I can collect (which, no doubt, will be upped before I even get close).

Back to London:
On my international law library listserv this morning, I got an email informing me that many of my London colleagues are okay, although one had a close call. I copy it here:

I was in the carriage next to the bomb blast between Liverpool Street and Aldgate and have seen some awful sights this morning.
We are all confined to our buildings and the City of London is at a standstill otherwise I would go home.
I smell of smoke and burning.
Main thing though is that I am still alive.