I always wanted to write for the WWN too. I never was lucky enough to see an ad for reporters. Instead I'd stare at its cover in the grocery line wanting to buy it. Occasionally I did and laughed my ass off as well. I imagined a room full of doobie smoking writers reading their work out loud to each other before making the final cut.

"Oh, yeah?...well listen to mine..." and the howls ensued as each reporter twisted life into stories that made as much sense as the wild place America has become. Peeing one's pants or turning red in that near silent adolescent boy study hall laugh and pointing at the others in the room was sure to get the story in print. Ah, this is a life I told my wife week after week I wanted. I could be complete writing and laughing all day...to say nothing of the doobie.

Seeing the big headline that this was the last issue, I felt this statement was as trustworthy as the existence of bat boy. I am no longer scared. Tomorrow, Sunday morning, I will fore go the New York Times at the checkout, take my fancy muffins and designer cups of coffee right up tot the cashier with a copy.

Hey, maybe you won't disappoint me. Maybe you'll be back, more cultist than ever...come on...tell me....aliens have commandeered the presses to send a message to the world that Dick Cheney is a transvestite dancer in a posh club for trans-galaxy leaders.

Please come back next week...please.

Think about it. This team is a unit. Each player and coach seems part of a whole. It isn't just amassed talent to the millions who attend and love the Yanks.

It could be that the gross margin return for dollars is now more important than the team. Clipping Torres opens the door for other trades. Money will not flow out so quickly with some fiscal restraint...ah, but neither will the money flow in.

My best to the Yankees and Joe Torres. I hope they stay the team we love to see.

...long before Bush and Co. I am a rabid capitalist, politically independent leaning right on fiscal matters and left on social matters, so I am not a reactionary from either corner of this argument. I can say this: the reduction of health care in this country to a return on investment should be a crime.

Many years ago in my, mindless youth, I was recruited by an insurance company. I took the bait, but left within a week when I was tricked into giving up the names of friends and relatives, all of whom became sales leads. During that initial training there was a statement that stuck with me and one that had me thinking the insurance industry was an OK industry. Simply put: the policy holders (a collective) willingly contribute their money to protect themselves and those other policy holders in time of need. The masses protecting the individual. Great! Maybe even a very socialist ideal!

Over the years though, exclusions mounted. The very thing I was told while the American flag was practically waved in my face was abandoned as though it never existed. Now we exclude those in need, by design, to enhance the net return on investment so that shareholders can make a profit. Forget it! It should be illegal.

I really don't care if we give health care executives big money as long as they use the funds collected to protect the people insured. We can put a simple, quick fix on this by removing Wall Street from the equation concerning health care providers.

Every excess penny earned should be held with interest for those in need of care. Nothing more, nothing less. we'd be better off with this kind of privatization. My Canadian friends do attest to the negativity of thier health care in general as compared to ours, but we have once again allowed the wolf in the chicken coop as it relates to our care.

The problem is that the fix lies between a socialist program and our run-afoul system. Since the pundits left and right can't see past their collective orthodoxy, we'll probably never get a hybrid fix that works. Too bad.