...it's not fair to compare America's healthcare system to those in Europe unless we remove all gun and car accidents from our healthcare statistics.

I live in Europe (Sweden), and I haven't noticed any lack of cars, or people driving them. Which means that a fair fraction of Eurpoean healthcare resources goes into treating traffic injuries. I wonder whether Sen. Ensign is subtracting American traffic and gun injuries and comparing with all European healthcare.

Cars and guns don't explain why America, for example, has double the infant mortality rate that Sweden has. A more likely explantation is that here we have free, quality pre-natal care, and our children were delivered at the hospital at no cost. So we had no financial reasons not to take good care of our unborn children, or avoid a hospital delivery.

Wonder what pro-life people think about the government paying to reduce "pre-born" mortality rates. Or do Christian and GOP values end at the pocketbook?

Our neighbors have a big patch of stinging nettles, and don't mind at all when I harvest a few for this traditional Swedish dish:

2 quarts fresh nettles

1 quart water

1-2 cubes vegetable bullion

2 tbs butter (softened)

3 tbs flour

100 ml (about 1/3 c) cream

2 hard boiled eggs

Boil the nettles covered for about 15 minutes. Let cool, press out (and save) the water.

Chop the nettles. Knead together the butter and flour into a "ball" Boil the nettle water again and add the bullion cube(s). Add the flour-water ball and simmer until thickened (about 5 min). Add the chopped nettles and cream.

Serve with a halved egg in each bowl. Serves 4.