For whatever it is worth, the opposite of "ordinary" is not "beautiful," it is "extraordinary." This matters in this sense: beauty and ordinariness are only different superficially. Extraordinary implies something more profound and beneath the surface.

TV hospitals provide a beautiful but superficial service -- the diagnosis and treatment of rare disease. Brillant problem solving may be intellectually impressive (beautiful), but it is superficial because it is not the brunt of real-world medical work. It is not what healing people is all about. Real hospitals provide the more extraordinary service, that is, treatment of common diseases and common people. A garden variety heart attack is too mundane for an episode of "House," but precisely because it is ordinary, it requires extraordinary care by medical people who realize that a common disease is not common at all to the person who suffers from it.

As a doctor, I can tell you that it is the nursing staff and not the doctors that make a hospital extraordinary. An average doctor (I consider my abilities average) can become an excellent one if the nursing is excellent. Nurses are my eyes and ears when I am gone; if they hear well and see much then I know everything. If they are blind and deaf I know nothing.

A doctor and the nursing staff is like a conductor and an orchestra. A brilliant orchestra can make even the sorriest conductor look like a genius. But no matter how good the conductor is, he or she cannot coax brilliance out of an orchestra that does not have the talent to provide it.

I've listened to Cowherd, never really thought he was that bad, but maybe I haven't listened to him enough. I do agree that he has a tendency to latch on to one idea and ride it into the ground, but then, on talk radio, who doesn't?

On the other hand, fighting with bloggers is colossally stupid. It is like taunting a mound of fire ants. Sure, you can crush one or two of them with your superior size and strength, but don't think the ants won't get the best of you. People have died stumbling into anthills. Ants may be small but they still outnumber you 10 million to one.

To Cowherd I say, good luck, sucker. You'll need it.

I thought the outrage was unwarranted also.

When I saw Nancy Pelosi in Syria, my first reaction was, "Thank God we finally have someone over there who is competent." How could anything Pelosi said or did make things worse?

The reason the pundits are so upset is because Pelosi could potentially undermine the president by just being reasonable. It says a lot about the administration's credibility abroad when the Speaker can just show her face outside our borders and destabilize Bush's foreign policy.

If the president had a viable foreign policy, I don't think Pelosi could say or do anything to undermine it on a trip like this.

This story brought to mind one of my favorite "Far Side" cartoons. A psychiatrist is sitting in his office. Lying on the couch next to him is an obviously disturbed individual. The psychiatrist is holding a notebook with the words "Just Plain Nuts" inscribed on it.

Although I admire Vollmann's efforts, and largely agree with his observations, I am concerned that the need to unravel the "complex" problem of poverty may sometimes reflect on the need of the wealthy to rationalize problems rather than the complexity of poverty itself. For example, maybe alcoholism is an understandable symptom of poverty, but let's not kid ourselves and overlook it for "deeper" causes. Drinking may not have caused the poverty, but it is most certainly a serious impediment to getting out of it.

Some people are poor because they are mentally ill, some because they are mentally retarded, some because of substance abuse, and some because they are just plain lazy. That may not be most of them, but it is some. It is important to identify and address the needs of people who are poor for straightforward reasons before we start digging into the psyches of people in the sex trade.

It is also worth noting that in the field of mental health, it is widely understood that a person can be treated for an illness even if the cause is unknown. For example, a patient with a fear of spiders can be taught to overcome that fear even if the underlying reason for it is not known. Schizophrenics are often successfully treated with medication, even though its underlying cause is poorly understood.

In the same way, we can improve poverty simply by finding what works, regardless of the underlying cause. Though there is much to be learned from empathizing with the poor, it is possible to help someone without getting down to their level.