WITH FRIENDS LIKE THAT, WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?

Our president has just completed a quick trip to Afghanistan where he saw the troops and had a private meeting with Prime Minister Karzai. I hope Obama gave him a good verbal whacking--- or even a physical one. Our wonderful ally, Mr. Karzai, is increasingly delighted to flaunt anti-American sentiments whenever possible in public. And, in addition, he extends the red carpet treatment to Premier Ahmadinejad of Iran who is invited to Kabul where he promptly delivers an inflammatory anti-American tirade. Add to that the corruption in Karzai's family, especially his brother.

Any efforts to clean up the opium mess and the graft rampant in that country is immediately undermined by the corruption of Karzai's government. He added further fuel to the fire by abolishing the independent commission set up to investigate fraud in the last election. I bet you can't guess why he abolished the commission?

I'm starting to reach the point where I am questioning even more than usual our commitment to this historical cesspool where any "foreign invader" has lost or pulled out. Prime Minister Karzai adds more fuel to that fire.

GRETA GARBO WAS RIGHT

My wife, visiting daughter and I were walking on our Florida beach this Palm Sunday afternoon. I don't know how many people we passed on the beach talking on their cell phones. My wife commented, "Why don't they just relax, why do they always have to be entertained?" I think she's right: why can't people just take a nice walk and forget the instant communication with the outside world? Don't they ever want to be by themselves or with special loved ones and enjoy the moments of privacy?

I think so many today are hooked on technology that they forget about private time. To watch the kids (and a lot of adults, too) texting each other , is frequently much ado about nothing or prattle that could be shared at another time.

I don't always want to be entertained. In this fast-paced, increasingly impersonal world, there is enought stress and anxiety that I would think it should be great for many people to walk alone with their thoughts or share them with intimates.

Greta Garbo, in her delightful Swedish accent, would say, "I vant to be alone!" I think she had something going for her.

15 BLOODY ROUNDS AND A SPLIT DECISION

After a bruising year, the House of Representatives narrowly passed the Health Reform Bill by seven votes, not one of which was Republican. I believe eventually historians will view it as an historic moment when America did the right thing and provided the beginnings of universal health care for most Americans. I predict that a majority of Americans in the next five years will appreciate what a major and necessary reform of medical coverage this bill represents. The doomsayers are bleating it is the end of the world and the decline of America, a theory to which I do not subscribe.

Certainly it has flaws and shortcomings and, as I said in a recent blog, I'm sure revisions will be made, I hope, on a bipartisan basis after it has been in effect for some time. Once the political posturing and misconceptions begin to clear away, maybe we can have some cool level-headed thinking and analysis from both parties.

I have to admire the obstinacy and devotion of President Obama to the cause. I, for one, began to question whether he should have bitten off smaller chunks and settled for less as a start. I understand even his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, was thinking that way. But, in the nick of time, the President threw his whole weight and energy into the passage of the bill and pulled it off. Whether you agree or not with his first priority to health care, when many thought he should have put his full effort into job creation, he thought this passage deserved top priority and stuck to his principles. I, for one, don't think he has neglected job creation, but the problems are so chronic and deep within the system that immediate magical results just won't happen.

The House passing of the bill is Act I. Now we open the curtain on Act II in the Senate. Act III will be the President signing the legislation into law. A lot of drama may enfold in the Act II, but I do believe Act III will end the play. All we can do now is sit and watch, but I think I know the ending now.

HEALTH CARE: TO BE OR NOT TO BE

I wish I could say I was pleased with the health care reform business and the course of action being pursued (or wooed might be a more accurate term) in Congress. I have often used the old saw to describe the proceedings for health reform: the definition of a camel---a horse designed by a committee. If the health reform bill squeaks through by reconciliation, it will still be something of a camel.

I'm all for doing on a local level what can be done efficiently. I don't love layers of federal commissions and watch dogs, but for certain functions federal supervision is needed. Watching those sly dogs in the insurance business is one such area requiring federal supervision.

But even a camel is better than nothing at all. I'm simply afraid that if we reject this opportunity to repair our ailing health system, it will be years before another attempt is made. We need to extend coverage to the millions of uninsured. We do need to find a way to retard the escalating cost of medical care which should include tort reform. Let's face it, one of the major items in the escalation of medical costs is the premium doctors pay for malpractice insurance to cover their asses in the event of a law suit. Congress keeps ducking tort reform, probably because most of them are lawyers, but, until some caps are put on injury/negligence suits, the problem intensifies.

At this point in time, reconciliation of political differences seems impossible. Too many positions are set in concrete. No national health system is perfect anywhere in the world, but efforts can be made as time and reason dictate to make repairs to the system and try to improve it.

Let's get a plan. In time perhaps a bipartisan committee, after the plan has been in effect for some time and political hotheads have cooled, can study and make recommendations for needed changes. I still get hung up that the number one power in the industrialized world is the only nation without a health system. Something is better than nothing.

The clock is ticking.

GEORGE ORWELL, ARE YOU LISTENING?

Frequently, the innovations in technology begin to frighten me. Shades of George Orwell in "1984" with "Big Brother" watching over us. My friend, Grumpy (grumpy-olddog.blogspot.com), commented in a blog today about ChatRoulette, a new website where you can communicate with total strangers and do all kinds of weird things, if you choose, like sex acts or dissing people. I suppose you can do good things as well, but the potential of such a website for the weirdos of the world to perform is tempting to deviated mentalities.

I'm old---and I know it---but some of the new tech stuff just doesn't grab me. I've not even joined Facebook or Twitter. I really don't want or need five hundred new friends. I have enough trouble keeping up with those I really care for. In true friendship, bit by bit as you come to know a person, you reveal your true feelings gradually as trust develops and common interests reveal themselves. I feel no compulsion to advertise those feelings on a website; I want to pick and choose those who appeal to me to be friends. I don't want to make a running diary of my days that would probably bore people to death. If I really like a person, he or she is in my address book and I communicate by email and, I confess, even snailmail. Very old-fashioned, I know, but there it is...

Blogging is quite enough of myself to expose in public.

I wonder what George Orwell would say today.

HASTA LA VISTA, BABY!

I read that "The Mouth that Roared", Rush Limbaugh, has threatened to move to Costa Rica for his health care if the proposed health care bill passes through Congress. If I ever heard an incentive to pass the health care bill, that's it. I might even contribute to a campaign to pay Rush's way (a one-way ticket only) to Costa Rica. I'm almost surprised he would choose to go to a country with universal health care since that smacks so much of leftish, socialistic, big-brotherly interference.

Now if we can get Glen Beck to do the same, wow, things would really look up!

In the meantime, back at the ranch, I hope Congress can seriously work on a health care solution, but I'm afraid the nay-sayers of the G.O.P. will put every possible roadblock in the way.

TIME FOR A REALITY CHECK?

One of my sons-in-law sent me an update on the number of committees involved in the proposed Health Care Bill----all 2733 pages of it---which came to 159 "watchdogs". See this link to view them: http://donyoung.house.gov/UploadFiles/Healthsum.pdf.

I said in an earlier blog last year that I feared, in view of the contentious nature of the health care debate and the eternal wranglings in Congress, the end product would be a camel---a horse designed by a committee. Alas, I may be right.

Is it time to start over? We need health care desperately, but we also need a plan that is workable.