The Massachusetts health reform experiment is dealing with the issue that will trouble any attempt by any government to provide or mandate health insurance...rising costs. In Massachusetts, this means cutting health coverage by $115 million. Let me say it again, at the risk of repeating myself. Health care is a service provided by people to other people. Therefore, the people providing the service need to be paid, just like people providing any other service. Thus, one man's health care costs are another man's income. If taxpayers provide the revenue stream for health care providers, then politicians will be loathe to raise their taxes to pay more for the service, so they will either cut down on the level of service, or pay the providers less, which, of course, is exactly the pattern we see when private insurance companies pay for the service, as they are loathe to cut into their profit margins as costs rise, generally responding instead by lowering the level of service to their customers or paying less to the providers, or both. There is no getting around these facts as long as health care providers are free, like the rest of us, to choose their profession and to have some say in what they charge for their services.

It's good to see the blowhards at Harvard acting like cold-blooded, hard-boiled businessmen. I doubt they will change their hypocritical rhetoric, nor will they decide to act more like socialists, or even compassionate conservatives. When the bottom line is at stake, everyone is a robber baron.

Tom Friedman says we need a Green Revolution on oil use here in the States to encourage Green Revolutions like the one in Iran. I have long believed that we should embark on an effort to ween ourselves off of foreign oil for national security purposes, but I agree with him that this would have beneficial consequences in places like Iran, Venezuela and Russia.

Edward Luttwak says the recent unrest in Iran means that it will never be able to go back to the way things were before the rigged election.

David Ignatius believes the reformers will win in the end.

Robert Kaplan believes a true democracy in Iran would mark a turning point for the region, and our policy in the area.

Finally, a fond farewell to Ed McMahon, who died yesterday at age 86. I have good memories of watching The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. With all due respect to Leno, Letterman and O'Brien, nothing compares to that show when Johnny and Ed were on the top of their game.