Republicans don't want to appear indifferent to the tragedy unfolding in the Washington area with a sniper on the loose.

CNN: Attacks puts fresh focus on gun control

But Americans appear indifferent to the "sky-is-falling" rhetoric out of Washington with no congressional deal in sight ahead of Friday's deadline to avert the mandatory austerity.

CNN: Suffering from sequester burnout? You're not alone

They understand that it does America no good to appear indifferent to international laws, and have put much effort into softening the cavalier language and policy that have come from the White House and the Pentagon.

ECONOMIST: George Bush's climb-down over the Geneva Conventions

Her instinct tells her to prepare, her hand making renewed, abrupt contact with the knife, even though two of the youths appear indifferent to her and are religiously chewing qaat and arguing, bansheelike, about yesterday's match between Arsenal and Manchester United, and agreeing that the referee made a balls-up of the game by unfairly red-carding the Gunners' captain.

NPR: Somalia's Farah: Humanizing a Broken Place

Bush's claim to be indifferent to such information is nothing more than another of his efforts to appear before us as the anti-Clinton.

CNN: 'The Bush Dyslexicon' author Mark Crispin Miller