What Happens when Governments take Control

     I have been paying attention to how large our government is and how most people are just trying to live their lives and think nothing of the changes around them.  A good politician will promise you anything to get elected.
  This month in my town the governing "know-betters" are ruling that no one's trash will be picked up unless a recycle bin is right their standing beside it on trash day.  And please, even if your barrels are blowing in the wind, do not, I repeat, do not take that recycle bin from the curb ( or your neighbor's yard ) unless you want the forces in charge to think you did not put out that bin and leave your trash behind. Oh yes, you say recycling is a fine and an earth conscience thing to do, but is not water a natural recourse to also be of concern when wasting it by washing out empty bleach bottles, creamed corn and tuna cans?  What of the poor elderly and those with hip and back problems or those on blood thinning medicine.  Will falls on the ice and bleeding to death be considered grounds for legal action against the town or even the state?
  I do not want to sound too grumpy, a new year and such.  But some of us have worked hard for many a year and find that our remaining years are not for us at all but are controlled by the whims of the few and those who know no other way and call it progress.
   Please, when you do vote consider the rights we are letting slip through our fingers.  Just like in business, it is harder to get new customers than to keep the one's you have now.  Once a right is gone, it will take generations, if that, to get it back.

Greece 

Deputy Health Minister Michalis Timosidis assured on Wednesday that an agreement has been reached with Greece's pharmacists, who were on strike on Monday and Tuesday in protest at a government decision to reduce their profit margin on medicine sales and social security funds' failure to settle their outstanding bills.
The union of pharmacists had said that they will stop providing customers with medicine on credit unless they were paid back a total of 400 million euros that they claim they are owed by social security funds.
Speaking on Skai TV on Wednesday, Timosidis said that a settlement has been reached on the outstanding debts, adding later that he hopes customers will be able to purchase their medication as usual within the next few days.
Timosidis also said that the staffing of the new national healthcare provider EOPYY is picking up pace, with a rising number of doctors signing with the new body that is expected to cover around 98 percent of the population. He also said the organization will launch the process for hiring 5,500 new doctors within the next few weeks.
Doctors at Greece's main social security fund IKA meanwhile are on a four-day strike until Thursday in protest at the new body, which they fear will lead them to losing their patients to doctors working for EOPYY, putting their jobs at risk. They are also concerned that they will not be able to treat their patients, as the Health Ministry has yet to clarify in writing whether doctors that are not with EOPYY will have the right to see patients and issue them with prescriptions.
Timosidis, speaking on Vima radio said that such concerns are «to be expected,» adding that «we are here... to see whether there is good cause for such reactions."