Good morning to you all.  And no I am not shopping today.  I have never engaged in the Black Friday madness.  If I were still giving Christmas gifts as I did ten years ago, I would probably have finished it already.  But I soured on the consumerist version of Christmas long ago.  However, one holiday at a time--I hope your Thanksgiving was pleasant and satisfying.  Ours was.  We joined my sister and her partner for dinner.  Our brother and sister-in-law, nephew and his daughters joined us.  It was a nice gathering: good company and good food.

Just when I think I have heard a story that illustrates how low we have fallen as a civilized society another pops up that has me shaking my head in disbelief.  Like this one.

As many of you may realize, I am an extreme skeptic on anything political and I think with good reason.  I always have questions in my mind when I read political articles and blog and take any pronouncements with a ton, rather than a pinch, of salt.  This Burning Platform post indicates why.  I never now whether those idiots are talking about real absolute cuts in the total spending or just a reduction in the increase in total spending.  One would think that the automatic 'cuts' required with the failure of the (faux)-supercommittee would reduce our troops to eating dog food and fighting with broken bows from the bleating coming from Leon Panetta's mouth.

We have all said that the weather has been weird this year and the year isn't over yet.  Check this out.