Good Wednesday to you all and a cold Wednesday it is.  It does indeed feel like winter has finally arrived.

I agree, Kay, sometimes the future does look bleak.  I often ask myself if the apparent increase in heinous crimes is real or a result of massive media coverage of dramatic stories to garner ratings and/or better reporting of crimes to law enforcement.  I am not at all sure.  What concerns me more is the increased intransigence in among politicians, primarily those I call Repthuglicas.  More and more I get the feeling that there is no 'we' left in this country.  Instead each group sees its own problems as worthy of national attention and financial remediation but everyone else's is solely their own.  Think about that idiot Palazzo from Louisiana railing against the aid bills for Hurricane Sandy relief while milking the system for more Katrina relief.  Hypocrisy seems to be the modus operandi among politicians today.

Often now I find it is better for my moods and emotional health to not look too closely at the news but, instead, focus on things like needlework and my gardens.  I find that more productive and far more satisfying.

I have often argued in the past, in the face of the drive for 'privatization' that is so popular among our politicians and financial elites, that some services should not be left to the so-called free market.  Among those--medical care.  This Washington Post op-ed reinforces my notion.

BBC broadcast this morning had a snippet that Mom read to me yesterday:  two major supermarkets in UK and Ireland have been busted for selling ground beef that may be as much as 29% horse meat.  I know horse meat is legal in some European countries so major problem is the fraud of selling supposedly 100% beef that has a significant portion of horse meat mixed in.  This account posted on the BBC website adds more information but the story is still developing.  Evidently the contamination problem includes some contamination with pork as well and involves some prepared foods as well.  The BBC commentator asked a very pertinent question--how can a consumer trust that he is getting what the label says is in the package.  He also mentioned the problem for observant Jews and Muslims who are prohibited by religious law from consuming pork.

I always enjoy reading Yves Smith's Naked Capitalism--especially when she makes points I have thought about but does so more elegantly.  Her post today on Devolution is a good illustration.  I have often wondered at what point efficiency would cost more or cause more problems that it was worth.  And I have also wondered often about the diseconomies of scale--at what point would the system become so big and complex that it would collapse under its own weight.  I think ours has about reached both points.