Under the current definition provided in Congressional plans, the "non-profit" entities Mr. Hill mentions, such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Kaiser, and all the rest, would qualify as health care co-ops. They would simply rename themselves, and business would proceed as usual. In addition, most states are dominated by one single health care provider. There is no way new health care providers could break the stranglehold of the goverment-sanctioned gorillas. I'd like to see Mr. Hill address that.

Since the 1964 Civil Rights Act destroyed formal white supremacy in the U.S., every attempt to expand traditional social insurance in America has failed.

Except for the creation of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program in 1974 (under Nixon!), the expansion of food stamps on a nationwide level in 1974-1977, and the creation of the S-CHIP program in 1997. And AFDC was not "destroyed," but changed to the TANF program in 1996. A worse program in many ways, to be sure, but it is still functioning.

One might try reading up a little more on the history of poverty law programs before opining about them. They may not fit as neatly into your thesis as you suppose.

Ron Paul and Bob Barr are followers of the anti-abortion movement, which if successful would require a tremendous expansion of government power into private life. I don't see how any true libertarian can be anti-abortion.

When we walk, we kill untold numbers of ants!

I think you need to familiarize yourself more thoroughly with how mortgage-backed securities are created. The fact that there are some solvent mortgages underlying the securities does not mean that the securities themselves are worth anything, or that anyone wants to buy them.

Furthermore, the banks are overleveraged to the tune of having $1 supporting $30 in outstanding debt. It doesn't take too many defaults to wipe out the entire pile.

Valuing the assets is easy -- just put them up for auction, and see what you get. But we already know the answer.

The "assets" are worth nothing on the market, and the entire banking system is insolvent. The only thing that makes this "enormously difficult" is trying to hide that fact while shoveling taxpayer money to the banks as fast as possible, without giving the taxpayer a stake in the outcome through nationalization.

Even the idea that private investors will get involved is simply money laundering, because the government is talking about guaranteeing a floor for the assets -- in other words, giving investors a guaranteed amount of money to buy something we already know is worth nothing.

There are solutions, of course, but none of them are what the elites want to hear.

When is Obama going to give Matt Barber a platform from which to address the nation? It's all about reaching across the aisle, you know.

If Hillary Clinton was the president-elect and she chose the same slate of appointees Obama just did (which she might very well have done), there'd be none of this "wait-and-see" honeymoon business for her. The progressive left would be trashing her with all the joy of Rush Limbaugh on a drug bender.

Shorter Sirota: progressives who believed Obama's pitch are now to blame for having believed him, while Obama himself remains totally blameless.

I saw that too. Have we stepped into an alternate reality?

Michelle Obama is the Mom-in-Chief? I'm a mom, and I don't acknowledge any chief. I also have a career, which Michelle Obama used to have before she made a full-time job out of being married to power instead of wielding it. She might as well be Laura Bush, despite all her "accomplishments."

Ms. Kaplan feels better about her own body because, finally, someone who looks like her will be residing in the White House.

I'd like someone who looks like me to be actually running the White House, not just living there. Now that we've elected a president of a minority race, perhaps sometime we could elect a president of the majority gender. I don't care what color she is, either -- any will do. I'm not picky.

Dear LW, the world is full of people who have experienced loss and you are among them. That makes you not alone.

I understand exactly where you're coming from when you say you're feeling your feelings long after the fact. I know from personal experience that the lag time can get better with practice. Learn to be attentive to the small stirrings in your gut, and pretty soon they'll start coming in stronger and clearer, like a radio getting in tune.

A few weeks ago, Cary counseled a man to leave his girlfriend because he didn't trust her anymore, but had no reason not to other than a letter she wrote to an ex-boyfriend in a drunken haze and never mailed.

Now he counsels a woman whose husband actually did cheat on her to stay. Why the difference?