Where are you, Eliot Ness?

As this Fourth of July has ground to a close, I had the sense that our country had become a part of a late 1950's crime drama. This complete with characters that would do a Mafia family proud: Dick "The Enforcer" Cheney, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, "W". The episode begins when Scooter lies under oath to cover the goings-on in the Enforcer's fiefdom and is convicted of perjury. The Enforcer tells him not to worry because he'll never have to serve any jail time since the appeals will drag on till after the elections and then W will pardon him just before leaving office. But the tough-on-crime judge appointed by W seemed to think that Scooter should start serving his sentence before the appeals process had run its course. Did Scooter threaten to squeal if he had to do jail time? Was that why W commuted the jail time in the sentence? What do the Enforcer and W have to hide? Where is Eliot Ness when you need him?

Reducing the High Cost of Health Care

The following are some thoughts on things that might be done to reduce the current high cost of health care:

1. Increase the number of medical schools throughout the country. This would increase the number of doctors and should help to lower costs.

2. Subsidize the costs of a medical education. Most medical students incur large debts in the form of student loans which forces them into high-priced specialties in order to pay off the debt.

3. Reforming malpractice insurance so that premiums are not excessive (some specialists have left their practices because of these costs).

4. Subsidize technology (medical imaging, specialized surgical tools etc.)

The high cost of medical care is complex and will not have a single solution, but it's something we need to start thinking about.

Paris Hilton and Britney Spears -- Secret Agents

Highly placed unnamed sources revealed today that Paris Hilton and Britney Spears are in fact undercover CIA agents whose assignment has been to divert the attention of the American people from the war in Iraq. Their declining effectiveness in spite of the increasingly extreme measures employed to accomplish their mission is most likely what led to their "outing".

The offices of the President and the Vice President have to date made no comment on this developing story.

"W" Redux

Today's news reports actually sent a shiver down my spine, the kind of feeling that mother would have said was "someone walking on your grave." George W.'s response to the criticism of his "new" Iraq policy seems to be a stepping up of the anti Iran rhetoric which eeriely resembles the weeks leading up to the current fiasco in Iraq. I have the uneasy feeling that "W" is laying the PR groundwork for blaming the potential failure of his "surge" on Iranian agents. And then what, conduct a preemptive war against Iran?