The Gates affair was an epic clash between two of the most arrogant subcultures around today: the tase-everybody cops and the do-you-know-who-I-am academic elite. Like matter and antimatter, these two pretty much canceled each other out.

But let's all admit that if Gates had not been a Friend of Obama, he would be just another anonymous citizen lying in the brig with his head bashed in, like those poor saps who complain too loudly about bad customer service at the airport.

I see Obama's appeal last November as the perception by Democrats that he would be Rooseveltian, with the ability to rip through established political structures to get major things done. When he spinelessly let the old Luddite guard stay in control of his energy program instead of investing political capital in smashing aside the lawyers and getting a hundred varied projects rolling, a big chunk of his popularity fell away. Last week's cave-in to the pharma lobby is not building public confidence in his health plan, either.

The health plan Obama needs to push through is a spine transplant, and right now.

"Now..Why should we change the greatest healthcare system on the world to insure ~15-40 million people? How about the following:

1. Tort reform

2. Allow all Insurance companies to compete nationally.

3. Make all medical insurance premiums tax deductible.

3. Make medical insurance tax deductible to the consumer, not, as at present, the employer.

4. Consumers get unlimited rights to shop around on the Internet for prescriptions. No regulations, no restrictions, no questions asked, anywhere in the world.

5. Medical prescriptions become advisory, not mandated by any level of government, except where open access to given medications would create a public health problem, such as dispensing of newer antibiotics that would lead to bacterial resistance. Consumers have the right to buy any other medications not covered by this stipulation over the counter, including Type II narcotics. The entire "War On Drugs" apparatus is sold off for scrap. All people imprisoned for nonviolent drug offenses are immediately released, and the prison space they once occupied made available for housing of actual criminals. All of the personnel employed to run the "War On Drugs" shall be fired, and encouraged to start new careers in mall security.

6. Governmental enforcement of healthcare accreditations for personnel ends at once. Certification of personnel gets moved to the private sector and the open market, just as in the computer field. Yes, I do mean including MDs and heart surgeons. All powers now possessed by existing practitioners to prevent new practitioners, such as midwives and nurse-practitioners, from entering the field are hereby rescinded.

7. All governmental restrictions on the number of medical school places are immediately rescinded. Entry to medical schools is henceforth controlled by the open market.

8. All governmental restrictions ("Certificates of Need") on placement of hospitals, number of MRI machines and CAT scanners and other medical equipment are immediately rescinded. The market for hospitals and medical devices in all jurisdictions is thrown open to all entrants. The certification of any such devices os moved to the open private market.

9. An XML-based open standard for storage and interoperability of medical records of all types will be developed, using an X Prize type incentive grant. Once this standard is released, all medical users and providers are granted the unlimited right to use it without any intellectual property liability exposure. All medical records used and/or provided by governments, such as VA, Medicare, and state public health agencies, are required to use that standard by a date certain. All suppliers to government health agencies shall use the standard by the specified date.

Okay, folks: this set of proposals may sound radical, but I've just converted the economic/legal framework of the medical industry into the same framework the electronics industry has been operating under since WW II. Enjoy your newfound future of innovation and lower prices.

Agreed that a lot of the Town Hall disturbances are actually astroturfing by corporations that enjoy special legal privileges to screw the consumer, but can we get some sort of pledge that the left will discontinue using the shoutdown tactic whenever the tenor of a meeting offendsw them? I was standing there at University of California when your parents shouted down S. I. Hayakawa and drove him from the public stage. Their tactics went around, and they have come around.

...saying "Piso Mojado" in Pashto?

The bad news is that liberals still haven't decided what energy sources, if any, we will be allowed to have yet.

"Think of the end of the Cold War. Not a single shot was fired. For decades, the American military was necessary to deter Soviet aggression and expansion. But it was mainly the soft-power elements that penetrated the Iron Curtain and made the people on the other side lose faith in their system."

But of course, you people didn't call it 'soft power' at the time. Though US foreign policy is never the product of just one man, when a Republican is in power a set of events like this is called "imperialism" and "brinksmanship". Now that Obama is using the same combination of military tech and intelligence-agency dirty tricks that Reagan used against the Soviets, he will be lauded as a great peacemaker. This will be the story even if our only way of rooting out the Taliban turns out be to dusting their home provinces with anthrax.

And did you encounter, ROAD UP ? This indicates a construction zone.