You’ve heard the old joke about the stockbroker showing a friend all the luxuries he’s bought with the commissions paid by his customers — big house, big car, big yacht. And the friend asks, “But where are the customers’ yachts?”

I recently hired a student to help me get wired into what I’m told is the minimum needed to survive in today’s digital world. So now in addition to Facebook, I am able to link in, tweet, Google Plus and other things I can’t remember because I haven’t used them yet.

Sequestration is not the best time to be doling out foreign aid, surely the most unpopular item in the federal budget. Especially when the recipient is President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt.