Lani my Niece is here for a day and I showed her around. She is attending a medical conference in Prague and toddled off to Wien for a day.

I went for my first Fiaker ride. Cate would never let me do this but Lani thought it would be fun – so we took the 20 minute ride. The commentary was pointless because the man spoke very bad English and we could barely hear him above the clip clopping of the horses hooves – but I knew pretty much what we were looking at.

Anyway I was too busy discussing my medical issues with Lani so she wasn’t really able to focus on the scenery. I was able to correct a couple of her diagnoses. You would think she would know more than she does after 8 years of Medical School, clinical work and Postgraduate study but I guess there is no substitute for the experience I have had with self-diagnosis over many years.

So Lani has seen some of the City, had lunch at Café Central and has seen the Wien skyline from Kahlenberg. It was a glorious day and we had lots of fun – including buying cheese at Naschmarkt, Coffee in Alt Wien and Porridge in Bobby’s.

You know the depths to which the Republican Party has sunk when you hear that recent Conservative Political Action Conference had Glenn Beck as a keynote speaker. This is one of the maddest people in America and is probably certifiable – nay – criminally insane!

If you are in any doubt at all I invite you to watch – at random – any Glenn Beck video at all on You Tube. You will be convinced!

The scary thing is that this guy and people like Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin are setting the agenda for Republicans.

Ah tell y’all we got some shit storm coming our way.

Something else that caught my eye

“Baylor University announces that Kenneth Winston Starr, J.D., current dean of the School of Law at Pepperdine University, has been named the 14th president of Baylor University.”

May I remind you the Kenneth Starr was the person who corruptly used his position investigating Whitewater. He took on this position after Robert B. Fiske – the person originally appointed – found absolutely nothing to indicate impropriety by either Bill or Hillary Clinton so decided to purse something more useful.

Starr could also find nothing in Whitewater - but at the urging of corrupt senators – including one of the all time greats - Newt Gingrich - Starr used his position to start investigating the personal life of the President – and pursued him relentlessly for years at a cost of many millions of dollars.

At no stage did Starr find anything – other than that the President could not keep his pecker in his pants (and this was NOT news).

But if I tell you that Baylor is a ‘Christian University’ you will understand why someone like Starr is ideal for them. And - I can say with some glee that Gingrich who was also caught with his pecker outside pants – but has recently converted to Catholicism so can now go to confession for forgiveness.

I am not sure if the bad taste award for this decision should go to Newt or to the Pope.

And I know the English can’t play tennis or Cricket or most other things – but for goodness sake – at this stage of the Winter Olympics Australia has twice as many medals as Great Britain. You would think they would at least be good at cold weather things.

And – have you noticed that William has a Flag Counter on his Blog. What is going on here?