Good morning, all, on another gloomy day.  We had snow all day yesterday but it was so light and wet and the temperatures warm enough to turn it to slush.  The guys our landlord hires to clear snow have been out clearing the parking areas between the cars and the sidewalks outside the fences.  We have an appointment this afternoon. Hopefully, the conditions for driving will be reasonable.

This is a truly obscene situation: major international drug companies are partially suspending all drug shipments to Greece because they are afraid the low price drugs they are (or were) supplying might be intercepted and sold in nearby countries where the prices are higher.  It rather reminds me of the frequent stories we saw about Americans going to Canada, Mexico or on-line because they could get drugs cheaper than at American pharmacies.  There are certainly times when capitalism is immoral and obscene.

I noticed the story this morning about Sec. of State Kerry's new pledge to the Syrian rebels of $60million in non-military aid.  That's nice but 1) where is the money coming from and 2) where are the Repthuglicans insisting that the spending be balanced by cuts somewhere in the social safety net side of things?

I saw a headline this morning that implied the American public isn't raising hell about the sequester because they aren't really following the issue.  I didn't read the article so I don't know if the author indicated any reasons for voter apathy; however, I think this article gives a very good reason--no body knows what is going to happen.  We have Damnocrats crying that the social cuts are apocalyptic while the Repthuglicans screaming about how the cuts will gut the military at the same time significant minorities on each side are singing 'let it be' (as in let the cuts go forward.)  Most of the economic bloggers and reporters have prophesied a drop of 1-2% of GDP--a pretty safe bet since government spending is a significant portion of the GDP and there is no one out here to take up the slack.

I do love the tit-for-tat games.  Trouble is I think both the tit and the tat are probably true.  Or as an old saying goes: pot calls kettle black.