March 1

 Welcome to March. I might change out the winter wreath today. It hasn't been much of a winter so far and the wreath seems a bit out of synch. Meteorological spring starts today while astronomical spring starts around the 20th. Actually, on the 22nd. I just looked it up. The stores are beginning to put out the spring seeds. So far I have just looked at them. We are about a month and a bit away from when the garden centers will have transplants.

The news today featured some coverage of the Supreme Court arguments in the student loan forgiveness cases. I am totally unsympathetic to some of the argument: one that somehow forgiving some loans is detrimental to those who are paying off or have already  paid off the loans or to those who decided not not to get the loans. Why is forgiving some student loans detrimental to those paying off or having paid off loans? Why is forgiving PPP loans for a Marjory Taylor Green but refusing to forgive any loans for students? It reminds me of a congressman or senator for Texas, I think, who objected to aid for New York after Hurricane Sandy. "Why should Texans pay for relief for New York?" he argued. Maybe blue states, which provide the lion's share of federal funds, should protest paying for red states which receive the largest share of those funds. And those objecting to a program they cannot get any value out of remind me of the retirees who objected to increases in their property taxes that supported schools because they had already raised their kids and didn't want to pay for other people's kids. They didn't remember that other people paid tases to educate their kids.

One of the commentators referred to Will Bunch who wrote a piece titled "After the Ivory Tower Falls." The commentator what would happen if people lost faith in the education system. I think we are long past the "what would happen" phase and we have already lost faith in the many institutions. Several stories over the last several years have described the problems colleges and universities have had as enrollments declined. They are cutting majors and departments. Even the community 2-year colleges are having difficulties and a number of companies are deciding to no longer require college degrees for many of the jobs/careers. 

Well, it looks like Biden's use of the "bully pulpit" has had results. According to the New York Times, Eli Lilly plans to cap the price of insulin at $35. Now let's see if other Pharma companies will follow.