China has socialized medicine. And sure, it costs only $1.2 to see a doctor. But it sucks.

I am a believer in socialized medicine. And I believe it works well in some other countries.

You all keep saying its cheaper...prove it. Or, prove that it can be done, without overhauling our tax system. Prove that it can be done without providing socialized higher education. Prove it can be done without further eroding America's economy. Prove that it can be done in a country where everyone is over-weight, where people sit in a car for 2+ hours each day instead of getting basic exercise from walking.

Why will socialized medicine be cheaper? Because the government will put price controls on Big Pharma? How long will that last? Will it be cheaper because the government will pay doctors less? And who will pay 150K+ for medical school? (and how will this address the current shortage of doctors in most of the US?) Because the government will limit the amount of money claimants, lawyers, and technical analysts can get in lawsuits?

You people are talking bullshit. You're not thinking.

Prove that this can be done without a complete overhaul of the structure of the US Economy.

Hi Andrew, all,

I'm so glad you brought this up. I was thinking about this topic for the last week.

You are about 4 - 6 years older than me (I assume) 6/4 affected my live greatly, but in a different way which I will not get into here. I was at UC Santa Cruz at the time, undergrad in politics and Chinese studies. We had a candlelight vigil, during which, the the question which many of the affluent UCSC students were asking was "what does this have to do with us here in the US?"

Lets focus on Iran now and China in 1989.

If you believe in Materialism, you would assume that the underlying cause has something to do with money. Ultimately, both countries had economic problems. China had inflation caused by growth, which was scaring a lot of people. Iran has (to my understanding) a completely messed-up economy with 20% unemployment, and most wealth controlled certain cligues which support certain religious and military elites.

Both conflicts started from a struggle among elites or potential elites which widened into a protest over general issues. In Beijing, it was the Beida students who wanted better jobs within the CCP, who's cause was taken up by various political elites and "wannabe" elites (Fang Lizhi comes to mind). In Iran, its a struggle between religious elites, who are backed by by supporting related parties.

OK. Now. My belief is that the student movement fell appart in Tiananmen after protesters started to over-reach. The protesters modeled their movement after student protests in the past ie. The Great Cultural Revolution (GCR). And like in the GCR, near the end, different student groups were busing into Beijing everyday, claiming to be the new leaders of the revolution.

I do wonder if there are similarities between the "model" of the protests of today and the Iranian revolution of 1979.

The government did not move in to crush protesters until after the student movement was already fragmented. Remember, the vast majority of protesters were not students, but common citizens who joined the student movement to protest corruption and the economic situation. These common people at first refused to allow the army to enter the city. Beijing residents, who had no interest in democracy or seeing the CCP ousted, started to go home when the the student leaders started to fragment. And that is when the tanks rolled in.

Ultimately, most Chinese people -then and now- believed that their economic well being and the stability of their country is best served by keeping the CCP in power. Through this, the CCP maintains a legitimacy based upon ability to show material performance. Not to mention keep away "chaos". Chinese people do not have fond memories of the GCR.

And please note, Tienanmen had nothing to do with democracy. The student movement was not a pro-democracy movement...this is some stupid lens that Western media puts on it.

In Iran, a large percentage of the population believes that the elected government no longer has any legitimacy. The election was rigged. So these protesters really are pro-democracy protesters. But more importantly, they believe Ayatollah Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad are not going to set Iran onto a better economic path which would spread the wealth and create jobs for people not aligned with the power elite. The government has no legitimacy from creating material performance.

The tanks will role in Iran as you fear. And that is because it is the entrenched class of (certain circles of) mullahs and the military which has everything to lose. However, there is no reason for the protesters to stop. There is no "Plan B". Not like in China, where most of the 6/4 protesters are now the corporate managers and economic elite of China. The Iranian protesters will not stop until they succeed, or the Army moves in to kill so many of them that there will be a reign of fear in the cities of Iran that would make the Tienanmen massacre pale in comparison.

"This Flash module would make it possible to play streaming video inside the browser, a capability smartphones have been sorely lacking."

It is my understanding that Symbian S60 v3.0 (and above) OS browsers can all play flash. Please correct me if I'm wrong. This would mean the Nokia 5800 and the N97 Touchscreen smartphones, plus many more models...can all play flash.