The impending winter storm warning makes me just as glad I'm not at Macworld Expo - Apple's announcements were almost entirely unrelated to the Macintosh, I've been absolutely swamped keeping up with everything without being on the show floor, and the storm now makes it unlikely I could have returned home on time anyway.

Also, as I thought I said somewhere but apparently did now, I had a follow-up echocardioagram at the local fix-em-up center on Wednesday. (They only do them on Wednesdays, and I knew Apple's quarterly results were the following Wednesday, and I knew I wasn't going to Macworld Expo - what would I eat?)

As the story I mentioned earlier this weeks says, the original echocardiogram locally on 2006.09.13 measured my ejection fraction at 23%, less than half of the normal value of 50% to 65%. An angiogram on 2006.10.04 confirmed that figure, or at least the range of 20-25%. And, as noted, there's very little chance that it would improve - the story of treatment is to prevent it from getting worse. So yesterday's procedure held the prospect for very bad news, with the best I could reasonably hope for being "it hasn't gotten any worse."

And yet the cardiologist confirmed: my EF is now 30-35%.

Yes, I do feel like I won the PowerBall.

I'll start exercising again in a week or two to help build some strength, but one of the drugs that sometimes helps restore blood-pumping capability is doing exactly that for me. My weight continues to fall apace, my blood pressure is as low as it ought to be on these drugs but not quite too low (though I have to remember to wait a few seconds after standing before moving to avoid getting dizzy, at least when seated in a normal chair and not on the floor or reclining), and I'm learning how to eat less sodium without feeling either deprived, exhausted from cooking, or starving.

My EF is probably never going to return to 50-65% range, but it could get up into the 40s, and that's an extremely manageable place to live for several decades. That echocardiogram was worth about a million iPhones to me.

At the link, Glenn Greenwald discusses the administration's very deliberate increase in bellicosity towards Iran, including the news that the US has invaded the Iranian embassy in Iraq, something most Americans considered an act of war when the Iranians invaded the American embassy 27 years ago. This is all transpiring amidst a domestic debate about whether Congress (or, really, anyone) can prevent the president from escalating his war in Iraq.

What should a constitutionally-empowered Congress do when faced with such a president? How about a clear and unambiguous statement from the congressional leadership:

If President Bush takes military action against Iran without congressional approval, the House Judiciary Committee will begin hearings on articles of impeachment within twelve hours of any such action.

If the president won't consult Congress before he starts a new war, he can explain it afterwards or go back to his ranch and let someone who believes in the Constitution clean up his messes. I'm sure his replacement, whether that's the vice president or whoever comes after him in the order of succession if he similarly refuses to obey the Constitution, can successfully wage and conclude whatever war with Iran the president illegally starts. If the president believes the country will back him as the only person who can get us out of what he got us into, he is as mistaken as he has been about everything else.