Today I find myself stretched rather improbably between the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Patanjali’s yoga sutras, and Byzantium’s Balkan frontier a millennium or so ago. Now I am checking the latest news from America on the World Wide Web, and now I am dipping into one of many books strewn around me. Confusion runs supreme. The First Crusade of 1095 comes along with the latest fatality count in New York. Sixteen so far, and counting. Pope Gregory VII conspired with Slavs in the Balkans against Byzantium in 1078 when he pronounced Michael of Duklja the king of the Slavs. My No. 1 son is okay, but I wonder about my No. 2 son, who is also in New York. According to Patanjali, austerity is an observance that concerns the ability to tolerate all hardships of life, such as hunger and thirst, as well as hot and cold. The Great Schism between Catholic and Orthodox churches of 1054 is actually about geopolitics of the period rather than religion. Barack Obama now faces a catastrophe that will decide his fate as a presidential candidate. As I said, confusion runs supreme. No wonder I cannot come up with more than a few coherent thoughts on any subject whatsoever.