Good morning, all.  We have a wind warning today.  I thought I heard it pick up last night.  That takes a bit out of the warmer temperatures expected today.  I have to sweep another bunch of leaves but that will wait until another day when the wind is calm and everything has dried out a bit.  The patio is a bit wet so we got some rain last night with more later.

We just turned off the TV and put in The Fellowship of the Ring.  We will make it a Lord of the Rings day.  Mom asked if I didn't want to finish off Good Morning America but I really don't.  I am rather ticked off with the news media generally.  I didn't see the Repthuglican debate last night but I am not surprised by the reports of what was said.  We haven't even extricated ourselves from Afghanistan and Iraq and these idiots think we should go into Iran to keep them from building a nuclear weapon.  And they all endorse torture.  Instead of focusing on those issues the blathering idiots moved on to whether Rick Perry could recover from his gaff last Wednesday.  They glided over the issues of Iran, nuclear weapons, and torture as though they were inconsequential.  What does it say about us that the press lets pass the moral obscenity of a bunch of 'serious' candidates for 'leader of the free' world get a pass on advocating war and torture?  I will take honest entertainment over entertainment dressed up as news any day.

The news readers did notice that the price of Thanksgiving dinner has gone up and that gas is expected to pass $4/gal (again) by spring.  That, however, is hardly news to those of us who visit the grocery stores on a regular basis.  Or who have watched the prices at the gas stations.  This Washington Post story headline tells us that the Thanksgiving dinner has increased 13% over last year.  But, of course, the government has massaged the inflation data to minimize the effect of food and energy in the calculation.

Well, China has certainly come a long way in a short time.  The first cohort of only children have come of age and many don't want more than one child themselves.  In some cases they don't want any.  I have read some reports that indicate serious social problems from the first iteration of the one child policy:  serious shortage of marriageable women, serious problems with an elder generation without many social supports.  Anybody want to conduct a thought experiment where this is headed?

And considering where things are headed is exactly what this opinion piece posted this morning is all about.  I like the notion of tangible assets.

I have seen stories like this one for a couple of years now.  It is rather unsettling because it is so reminiscent of stories out of the 1920s and 1930s and the Nazi rise to power.