Good Tuesday morning, all.  A bit of fog but it should burn off soon.  The sky is clear right now.  The containers should dry out and I will get some more planting done.  I also need to get the hose out so I can wash down the patio.  Everything outside looks pretty good--even the plants that looked somewhat beaten down yesterday by the rain that fell over Sunday night.

The first story I found this morning struck me in a raw nerve this morning.  Over the weekend I read a couple of stories about cyberattacks on the computer systems used to control natural gas pipelines.  That has been a recurring them for the last year or so.  Some utility, bank, or government agency somewhere in the country (or another country) subjected to attack by difficult-to-identify hackers.  But that isn't the nerve the story hit.  What irritates me is the notion that private companies seem to have that the government (a.k.a., the taxpayer) should pick up the tab for what should be their business expense.  One of the basic tenants of capitalism is that businesses take the risk and either suffer the loss or pocket the profits.  The modern 'capitalist' instead pushes the risk for the losses off on society and pockets the profits.  Guarding their systems against hacking should be a part of their business plan the expense of which they should bear.  This is nothing short of 'corporate welfare.'  If we can't afford schools, roads and bridges, medicare, or Social Security, we certainly can't afford paying for private companies' cyber security.  And, if these facilities are so important that we as a society should pay for their computer upgrades they are too important to leave in private hands.

Most commercials are just background noise for us.  On a rare occasion one amuses us and we take a closer look.  We just saw a new one this week that is cute.  A young woman and an old woman are eating breakfast at a fast food place and the young one stirs her oatmeal noting that it has blueberries and walnuts in it.  The old woman loos at it with what looks like disapproval and says that in her day oatmeal had 'only two things in it: oats and meal.'  Then she whips out her smart phone, takes a picture, and exclaims "I have to blog about this!"  The old girl wasn't as far behind the times as we thought.  Funny thing--I don't remember which fast food chain was being advertised.

I am sorry the workers will lose their jobs but I am not at all sorry for the company.  'Pink slime' (a.k.a. in the company propaganda as 'finely textured lean beef') will no longer be produced at three plants.

I didn't know this months was Older Americans Month until I saw Ronni's Time Goes By post.  Another essentially meaningless commemorative.  And cheap too--much cheaper than making sure Social Security promises are kept or providing affordable and secure public transport, or adequate housing is available.  A couple of old adages come to mind--talk is cheap and promises are worth their weight in gold.