Crisp fall weather without rain. The forecast says partly cloudy.

I found this piece of idiocy way too early. Why idiocy? Because the U.S. has the largest defense budget in the world--more than the next ten nations in the biggest spenders list. "Sequestration" simply meant the defense budget didn't grow as fast or, at worst, stayed at the same bloated level. Maybe he should be questioning where the money is spent. But then the Pentagon would have to develop a real accounting system that could actually track spending.

I have seen articles on the problems some low income Detroit residents have keeping up with water bills and the trials of being cut off. Not long ago I read a study which said nearly a third of Americans are in that boat now and the proportion will only get worse. This story is closer to home.

There is a bit of irony in the Whitefish/Puerto Rico story. It smacks very much of the kind of "pay to play" corruption which landed a former governor of Illinois in prison. That was Rod Blogojevich in case you have forgotten and I always thought the evidence against him was much thinner that what I see in the Whitefish case.

Jesse's Cafe Americaine has some interesting thoughts that touch home. Those thoughts are the last two of the post. Mom's insurance comes through Aetna. She recently received a letter informing her that Aetna will no longer work with Walgreens in filling prescriptions after January 1. She has had her prescriptions filled at Walgreens for years. CVS, Target, K-Mart, and Walmart are still on their preferred list but we have never liked CVS and all the others are further away. Staying with Walgreens means higher prescription costs. Bummer all the way. We had wondered why until we read about CVS negotiating to buy Aetna. The last observation on the blog is one we have seen underway here for some time. Right now one health organization has locked up most of the doctors and medical facilities in our area.