Our friends over at RealClear Politics have put together some interesting tidbits that will amuse, confound, and befuddle the imagination.  It's not their fault — people write this stuff and other people publish it.  Let's begin our amble down the maze with a problem that everyone wants to talk about, but no one wants to fix.

Dateline:  Mexico City, 26 December 2006

• From the "Hey Gringo, Ain't We Been Here Before" files:  According to Ezra Klein in an op-ed in the LA Times, "The American healthcare system is, simply put, a mess, but we may finally be ready to fix it."  After rushing through the Eve of Destruction doom scenarios, Klein says there's hope just around the corner.  Members of Congress, CEOs, labor leaders have unveiled (that's always a terrifying word) an "inventive, comprehensive reform plan that would end the employer system forever."  Instead of premiums, businesses pay workers.  And insurers would offer plans through states who would make sure the insurance guys no longer gouge someone just because he's got 3rd stage cancer.  Everybody would have to buy in.  Voila:  Universal Coverage.  Needless to say, the insurance companies think this is a terrible idea.  But, you ask, what does our intrepid reporter have to say?  Not much, to tell you the truth.  Sure, health care sucks, but where doesn't it suck?  When my bride and I once went to Russia, a travel agent said, "If you get sick, get on your hands and knees and crawl to Finland."  I think it's all Richard Nixon's fault.


• From the Watch What You Wish For files:  Senator Hillary, thrilled with being in the majority party in a Democratic Congress must have thought before inauguration day about one implication of winning:  Nancy Pelosi.  Scott Reed, a D.C. insider and Republican political strategist, commented over last summer that the Democrats would be better off leaving Congress with the Elephants and continue to snipe from the sidelines.  Jeff Babbin, at RCP, writes, "Hillary Clinton has a problem. Its name is Nancy Pelosi."  While The Mr. Clinton wove a protective cloak that had everyone guessing whether he was really a liberal, a moderate, or a conservative, The Mrs. Clinton won't be able to use that cloak.  Ms. Pelosi and her cronies will be sticking their head out at every moment.  Between polling data that shows the race tightening to Pelosi's liberal moves, Senator Clinton will need to improve her tap-dancing.  Now let's step back a minute.  Is this dumb or just stupid?  Cast your vote... I've got time.  The problem with politics is that they've got an unlimited supply or tar and feathers, and no matter how you try to differentiate yourself, someone's always running after you with a bucket of tar and a bushel of feathers.  And no one says, "stop, you fools."  What if Senator Clinton said, "Congresswoman Pelosi is the House Majority Leader and fucks that up the way she sees fit.  We need not agree on everything.  I plan to fuck up the presidency in very different ways."  Everyone is so busy watching their flanks that they forget there's a race being run with a cute tape you have to break as you cross the finish line.


• From the Mess That Wouldn't Go Away files:  Ethiopia, which, to date, has claimed that just have advisors in Somalia, used their war planes to attack the airport in the capital of Mogadishu.  The capital is no longer under control of the government, but rather the Islamic... whatever they call themselves.  Thousands of Islamic Somalians, Pakistanis, Eritria, and a host of other Arab countries are making their way to Somalia in a new jihad.  You know, there are too many people with too much time on their hands.  Do these loonies ever look around and see the dead women and children, the blood flowing into little rivers, body parts strewn all over, and think, "What in the world am I doing?"  I'm sorry, but however you define homo sapien, these folks don't meet the criteria.


• Our ever-alert friends at Snopes.com, aka Urban Legends, have demonstrated yet again that calling people stupid is redundant.  Word is racing through high schools around the country that if you smear lip balm on a Scranton test, you'll magically wind up with a perfect score.  What's alarming about this, boys and girls, is not that someone spread the rumor but that enough people believed it that the test sheets that went back to Scranton Testing were so covered in chap stick that all the pages ran together and they're throwing out the entire year's test.  Guess them smart-ass high school kids will just have to try something else.