Yesterday I had all sorts of stuff to blog about. Today I’m pretty dry.

The only unusual thing about my life right now (aside from its usual unusualness) is that I feel pretty good.

Years back, I used to jog. I was never a hard core runner, though there was a time when I might have become one. I’d gotten my running up to four miles at a time, and was enjoying it. Then I blew out my knee (due to my own stupidity), which limited me to two miles a day ever after. And eventually I couldn’t even do that anymore.

After a long hiatus (and gaining back a lot of weight I’d kept at bay for fifteen years), I took up walking a few years back, taking half hour walks instead of twenty minute runs. It was better than nothing, but there was very little pleasure in it, and sloughing off was easy. I didn’t know why.

But lately, out of desperation to improve my condition, I started lifting some very light weights (which I bought back when I was running) while doing the walks.

And lo, I discovered what I’d been missing all these years. I was missing pushing it. I was missing actually having a workout that took effort. Now the burn is back, and I feel better than I have in years.

Sorry to break out of the Lars Walker character you know and have come to expect. I’m sure I’ll be griping about something again soon.

As I understand it, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is required by Congress (Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act (TVPA) of 2005) to list the goods produced by forced labor or child labor and the countries which produced those things. At the end of last year, Congress told the DOL to issue that list by the end of 2009 (William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008). Change.org and Polaris Project are asking us to write the DOL to encourage it to make it’s deadline.

I’d think a list like this would be very difficult to compile, even if you did not have businesses arguing against it (which I assume some lobbyist or two is actually doing). There was an informational meeting held on May 28, 2008. Perhaps now, almost five years later, the DOL is ready to finger the companies and products made in unjust conditions. You can join the effort here.

In news reports and discussion of the death today of Sen. Edward Kennedy, I keep hearing references to the “Kennedy family tragedies.” This might suggest to some people that the death of Sen. Kennedy is also a tragedy. It is not. (Please understand that I don’t mean to suggest it’s not sad. I mean it doesn’t meet either the ancient or the modern definitions of “tragedy.”)

The ancient definition of tragedy was, “The story of the violent and premature death of a great man, which he brings upon himself through some flaw in his character.”

The modern definition is, “An early or untimely death marked by a notable loss of human potential.”

Sen. Kennedy’s life fulfills neither of these criteria.

Sen. Kennedy died at an advanced age, fabulously wealthy and one of the most powerful people in the world. Whatever the indiscretions and sins of his life, he managed to avoid suffering almost any temporal consequences for them.

Almost the diametric opposite of tragedy.