On...Money and Health from Newsweek

Maybe Newsweek is getting better with their new format. These 2 articles are very well done.

British and Harvard guru Niall Ferguson takes on the impact of deficits, debt, and inflation (and Paul Krugman) on an empire like the USA An Empire at Risk

Then Newsweek looks at the groundbreaking medical work of the Cleveland Clinic. The Hospital that Could Cure Health Care
A key part of the article talks with Dr. Cosgrove who operated on my mom when he was a surgeon. He's now president of the Clinic.

On...Trials, Greg Craig, & Third Parties

Three Articles on Three Different Topics of Note

First Charles Krauthammer disagrees with Attorney General Eric Holder's decision on the KSM trial in New York City. He makes some damn good points that need answering, especially about how these are looking like show trials. We all know he's not walking free.

Second, Politico looks at the Chicago-style hit Obama has made on his consul Greg Craig that has a number of his supporters taking another look at their Man of Hope.

Third, Mort Kondracke looks at the deficit and how that brings out the rumblings of a third party. I think this will be avoided if one party actually starts to be fiscally responsible. Hmm. maybe it will happen.

PS: Just wanted to add on VDH's quote on the KSM trial as well.
"Punishing KSM" means giving the liberal community a world platform for legal gymnastics designed to repudiate the past administration and demonstrate that community's "tolerance" — without much worry about justice for KSM or the adverse effects of giving such a monster a public megaphone.

PSS: Mickey Kaus (see to the right) makes comments on both the Health Care Bill and the Greg Craig controversy. HERE

On...The Constitutionality of Mandated Health Insurance

George Will brings to our attention the much neglected debate about the constitutionality of Federal Mandated Health Insurance. Will Obamacare (if passed, which looks more likely every day) succumb to the Supreme Court as being unconstitutional? Interesting. Are we in uncharted water? Certainly the Founding Father's never envisioned the expansion of the state into personal lives such as this. But unfortunately that hasn't stopped us before.

Could a possible scenario be that Obamacare passes and is activated, then the outrage against it makes 2010 look like 1994 all over again and in the midst of that flip in power the Supreme Court nullifies the law? Will an amendment be needed? Or could it merely pass and the nation assimilates over time to the new taxes and mediocre healthcaregrab? Man I love the possibilities of history.

GEORGE WILL HERE

On...200th Post...The Day the Wall Came Down

20 years of Freedom

This is a glorious anniversary, and one that become more and more distant. And with it the pure impact fades. This is a saddening truth of history. I was thirteen when the Iron Curtain began to shudder and creak. I imagine people younger than me don't have the same sense of what communism was (is) and the havoc it unleashed upon the world. Americans born right around 1976 may be that last group of citizens who can begin to understand the significance. Younger than that might not grasp the conflict. I know I have trouble relaying the magnitude of the Cold War to my students. Though certainly not as strong as those kids growing up in the 60s, anyone say born after 1981 never realized how it felt living on a planet where World War III was not merely fiction, but something very real. You lived under that realization that the whole world might be gone any minute. Movies like War Games, Red Dawn, The Hunt for Red October, Red Heat, The Day After, etc were locked into that era. But they will slowly seem like time capsules from a weird age.

This week is an appropriate time to reflect and relearn what really went down in Berlin twenty years ago and feel the powerful echo of liberty casting aside tyranny one more time--learn how free expression and free markets are longer lasting than state planning and single vision. Lessons many Americans need to think more deeply on.

I do regret that President Obama is not in Berlin just as Presidents Kennedy and Reagan were. What a missed opportunity for inspired leadership. I guess the Olympics and Greenhouse Gases are more important to him than universal examples of freedom.

The current issue of the Economist covers the anniversary and the History Channel is playing a couple of good specials on the event.

Here are other similar themed posts:

After the wall fell: Central Europe's success deserves more attention by Anne Applebaum, Washington Post

The Berlin Wall fell and a new Europe rose: Daily Telegraph UK Edition

The Lessons of 1989 by Christopher Hitchens, Slate.com

Why Berlin Mattered by Fred Kaplan, Slate.com

Reagan and Leadership

Tear Down This Wall Speech

Four Little Words by Anthony R. Dolan, Wall Street Journal

Ronald Reagan's unyielding style won the Cold War by Rudy Guiliani, NY Daily News

Video Highlight
ABC NEWS Breaking News November 9th, 1989 with Peter Jennings

NY POST Agrees that President Obama not going to Berlin is a missed opportunity.
Berlin Wall Blunder

On...Heroism

Get choked up reading about the tragic events at Ft. Hood. Here are a couple of the snapshots of heroism and the call of duty.

The Mother who brought down the Fort Hood killer Daily Telegraph UK

But for the heroes, bloodbath could have been worse Breitbart

Heroic civilian police officer 'walked up and engaged' shooter Washington Post

On...Afghanistan Insight

Real Quick (Everything is Real Quick These Days)


The best analysis on the Afghanistan conflict and the future of American forces there has been coming from David Ignatius of the Washington Post. He is always bringing new, honest angles from the debate without all the partisan rant. Also he has spent a lot of time on the ground there among the people, politicians, and soldiers of AfPak as well as Americans. Here's his latest to mull over.

The Real Afghan Strategy

In addition his posts from the last week or so as well.

On the War's Frontlines

In Waziristan