Thursday.

Anyone surprised by this should remember that Germany had a social security system fifty-odd years before we enacted it.  And anythings similar would go against our society's habit of monetizing everything and forcing those who can't pay outright to put themselves into hock forever to provide profits to the finance and (mis)education industries.

Friday.

Lazy day yesterday.  Didn't do anything on the patio and didn't feel like commenting on anything.  Let's see if my get-up-and-go has come back home.

As usual, I follow a bit of the news on ebola but I have noticed a tinge of hysteria in quite a number of sites (news and other.)  I am amazed at the level of strident concern because we have far more urgent threats that are already present in this country.  This is one of those more urgent problems.  Unfortunately, I have a feeling that some of us have recognized the problem too late to do anything about it.  We already have strains of disease causing bacteria that are resistant to all antibiotics.  They aren't going anywhere.  The rest of us are either denying any need to change our business as usual procedures or have an almost religious faith that science will save us yet again.  On that religious faith--what ever science comes up with bacteria will adapt to.  Perhaps we need to think outside the science box.

I have been following, in my usual casual way, the stories about Greenberg's suit agains the government claiming that he was robbed when the government bailed out AIG, the company he was running at the time.  I think this piece on the Agonist describes the situation very nicely.

Oh, yeah--the pink drill bits are a real cute touch.  They make a lot of money on fracking with chemicals that are known carcinogens and then try to buy forgiveness by donating a small amount to finding a cure for the cancers their process helps cause.  I thought the pink drill bits were a joke but it is right there on their web site bold as brass.