The snow finally arrived.

Looks like we got between three and four inches over night with another three or four yet to come.  Along with another round of sub-zero and low single digit temperatures.

And another military scandal--the second in a little over a week, if you are counting.  So some recruiters gamed the system of bounties offered for service members who brought in new recruits.  Mary has a contrary question to ask:  why the hell do we expect the military to be more honorable and honest than the rest of the culture?  We tolerate banker's frauds.  We "tsk-tsk" at the stories of plagiarism which is just another kind of theft.  We shake our heads when we read about students (or military officers) cheating on proficiency tests.  We are only mildly outraged when teachers are caught fudging their students scores on achievement tests (the results of which may affect the money the school gets from governments and their own continued employment.)  We have become a society that tolerates ethical "lapses" so long as the miscreant appears to be successful (which means having plenty of money or the things money buys.)  Bernie Madoff, you ask?  Well, he is the exception that proves the point.  And his punishment has certainly not been applied to others and has not in any way been a deterrent.

On another note: what has happened to nbcnews.com.  I haven't been able to load it at all.  Didn't even get the notice that Safari couldn't find the server.  Just a blank screen.  Anyone else having that problem.

I hope this part of the Farm Bill will lead to more sanity.  The prohibition against hemp growing was part of the insanity over marijuana.  Hemp is a cousin of marijuana but not one that anyone can use to get high.  But that familial relationship was sufficient to induce zealots to ban its cultivation.

I don't often agree with Al Sharpton but on this issue he is absolutely right.  The struggle we have now is minimum wage vs. maximum greed.

I was intrigued with the title of this article which proclaimed Argentine consumers were up in arms because McDonalds had run out of ketchup.  I was then amused reading that the government (especially their president) are the targets for Argentine anger.  It seems the problem lies with the currency restrictions which limits and taxes conversions of the Argentine peso for dollars.  And the value of the peso has been falling drastically lately.  That becomes something of a problem when you have to get your ketchup packets from Chile.