New information indicates the recession is worse than we thought.

The British Ambassador says the British public still supports their military presence in Afghanistan. Still, with casualties on the rise, so much so that British medical teams were overwhelmed and had to call on the U.S. for help, isn't it likely that support will wane?

India's government has an aggressive plan to expand their navy.

Ralph Peters says President Obama's naivete when dealing with foreign leaders is dangerous.

A U.S. adviser sends a blunt memo to his superiors, which is leaked to the press. In essence, he says it's time to bring our people home.

A sad day in Red Sox nation as The New York Times breaks a story that lists David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez as two of the more than one hundred MLB players who flunked a drug test in 2003.

Paul Krugman believes our health care system would not be as good as it is were it not for government involvement, and he implies that more such involvement would make it better.

Charles Krauthammer says the President's health system reform plan is dead, but he will come up with something, so that he can declare victory. I agree with that assessment.

MORE HEALTH CARE FOLLIES

The President concedes that there will be no final vote on a health insurance reform bill until the Fall. The process is slowing down because, according to this piece, the President has failed to bring in more Conservative Democrats and Moderate Republicans. It is also slowing because new polling data shows an increasingly skeptical public. Republican opponents of the plan are also winning the public relations debate.

I well remember the Clinton health care debate in 1993 and 1994, and I recognize the patten. A President who campaigned on changing our health insurance system sets the parameters of a plan, then has others hammer out the detail. In Clinton's case it was Hillary and a group of advisers, in Obama's case it is Democratic members of Congress. In both cases, as the details of the plan (or plans) became public, more Americans had reasons to dislike the proposals. Thus, public support for change eroded over time. In 1994 this process resulted in the ultimate defeat of the plan and was a major factor in the GOP takeover of Congress that Fall. I expect the plan we ultimately see will either fail outright, or it will be so watered down as to be unrecognizable. President Obama is a smart politician, and he may sign the weak bill and declare victory. In any event, I now expect a GOP resurgence in the Fall of 2010.

So, perhaps it was a hot Irish temper that caused the ruckus on the Gates porch, but not from the Irish cop.

Could computers generate another financial panic?

They might not have a vote on the health reform bill in the House before the August recess.

A Bipartisan Senate panel may report out a health reform bill that Obama won't like. Harold Meyerson says they should be ignored.

Michael Gerson says the President's policy of engagement with the regimes in North Korea and Iran is dead. I suspect the only engagement that will work with those fellows is when an American warrior engages them with his weapons, which is why I am not optimistic about a happy outcome in either case.

HEALTH CARE FOLLIES

Robert J. Samuelson continues to hammer President Obama (justifiably, in my opinion) for his failure to speak truthfully about the costs of his health care reform proposals.

What is most frustrating about the debate is the unwillingness of so many people to recognize that we already ration health care on the basis of price (which is how we ration so many things in our capitalistic society), but the rationing of care on the basis of price is made infinitely more complex than other transactions because of the presence of a third-party payer (the insurance company, or the government insurance program), and the fact that the third-party payer is chosen for most of us by yet another party, our employer, or the government. When I need a plumber to fix the pipes in my home, I call one, he gives me an estimate, if I don't like it I can haggle, or call around for a better price, or I can just hire him and pay him when the work is done. When the plumbing in my body needs fixing, I go to a primary care physician, one I picked from a list of such providers that my employer's insurance company chooses for me, he diagnosis the problem and either sets a course of treatment, or refers me to a specialist for treatment. I pay a small portion of the bill for his services (a co-pay), but the majority is picked up by the insurance company. I don't haggle with him about price, nor can I shop around for a better price. The plumber who fixes my house plumbing is in competition with other plumbers in his area, but he also has lower overhead because he does his billing directly with the customer. Thus, his prices are kept in check. The doctor's fees are kept in check only by the third-party payer, not the customer directly. It is the complexity of this system (and I haven't even addressed the doctor's insurance costs, his overhead, the cost of his training, the amount he spends on handling the paperwork for patients covered by various insurers or the government, etc.), along with the increasing expense of more technologically driven care (more MRIs, more drugs, etc.) that causes our health care costs to continue to rise, without any of the direct market restraints provided in other areas of our economy by consumer behavior. Add to this the fact that, unlike my house plumbing, I'm much less likely to be able to live without fixing my internal plumbing (if it can be fixed) for any extended period. So health care costs rise, the people who are really paying most of the bill (the insurance companies, the businesses that buy those insurance plans for their employees, the bureaucrats who run the government insurance plans, and the representatives of the taxpayers who pay for them) resist paying for services they don't get directly, and thus the tug-of-war between the providers and the payers, with the actual recipients of the services (you and me) caught in the middle.

Wouldn't it make more sense to simply let individuals pay directly for the medical services they receive, and buy insurance plans to cover them for the more expensive services? Wouldn't it make sense to get our employers out of the business of covering our health care, and the government too, for that matter, except for the most destitute among us? Wouldn't that re-establish the relationship between the providers of the service and their customers when it comes to paying for the services?

Perhaps that just makes too much sense to ever come to pass.

As the Black Cambridge police officer who was at the scene defends his White colleague, President Obama seeks to make amends for his clumsy foray into the situation by inviting the White officer and the Black professor to the White House for a beer. "I'm OK, you're OK".

Some new pictures are now available of Jupiter's big black eye.

India's government officials are even more emphatic about not adhering to any carbon emission reductions that would limit their economic growth.

Negotiations break down in the House on the Obama health reform legislation, with some tough words coming from some Blue Dog Democrats.

I hope they never get back on track, at least with the current bill, which seems like pretty bad news to me.

The Cambridge Police Commissioner defends his officers and his department against the criticism directed against them in the wake of the arrest of an African-American Harvard Professor, including criticisms from the Governor of Massachusetts and the President of the United States. He also promised to create a board of review to look into the matter. That is probably the best he can do for the moment. As for me, I certainly understand that there is racial profiling and racism that happens in police-citizen interactions. I also know that many times police officers encounter belligerent individuals, some of whom have not committed any crime, as was the case with Professor Gates and Officer Crowley. From what I have read about the incident, it sounds more like a classic, "Do you know who I am?" moment, rather than a "if it's a black guy, he must be guilty of something" moment. I predict that much energy will be expended, words written, talk show minutes used, on this incident, to no effect, other than more publicity for Professor Gates and his projects.

William Safire writes a terrific piece about his participation in the great "Kitchen Debate" between Khrushchev and Nixon.

Charles Krauthammer believes Obamacare is sinking.

GLOBAL WARMING TALK IS A LOT OF HOT AIR

A believer in man-made global warming says the Al Gore solution, cutting CO2 emissions by some sort of cap-and-trade system, is the wrong way to go.

George Will, who is a global warming skeptic, believes, as I do, that the international conferences being held on the issue will do absolutely nothing, since the developing nations like China and India will refuse to do anything to slow their own carbon-based economic growth.

What both men understand is that it is more important to allow the developing nations to bring their millions out of poverty than to spend money on solutions of minimal utility, or to waste time pretending to solve the problem by talking it to death. As people become wealthier, they become better stewards of the environment, and their societies become more innovative and, therefore, more capable of inventing and implementing solutions that will, eventually, replace carbon-based fuels as the primary energy source for the people of the world.

For once I'm surprised by a vote in Congress, as the Senate votes to strip funding for additional F-22 fighter jets. The President and the Defense Secretary don't want them, but they provide jobs in many congressional districts, so I expected Congress to fund them. Of course, when it comes to funding pet programs, the game is never really over.

Speaking of Congress, the writer of this op-ed piece advocates changes in the congressional health plan. Since the changes would result in less service at a higher cost for the members, I will be shocked into utter stupefaction if they ever make them.

As astronomers turn their telescopes to look at the results of a big impact on Jupiter, other scientists are wondering about the lack of sunspot activity and whether or not it has any impact on our short-term climate conditions. After reading the articles I can only conclude that it's scary how much we don't know about the basic forces inside our own solar system.

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman salutes the men and women of our military who are, in his words, "The Class Too Dumb to Quit", meaning that they refused to lose in Iraq, and are applying that same stubbornness to Afghanistan. I, for one, have never doubted that our military would, after many mistakes, eventually hit on the right solutions. I have, however, often expressed doubts about the fortitude of the folks on the home front, and the politicians who represent them. So far, mostly because our casualty levels have been so relatively low (as compared to the Vietnam War, for instance, where we were losing on average 150 soldiers a week) the folks on the home front have maintained enough support to keep the troops in the field. Will it last long enough to get the job done in Afghanistan? I have my doubts.

NO RETURN TO THE MOON IN OUR LIFETIME

Healthy skepticism about the possibility of man's return to the Moon is the theme of this story in The Boston Globe.

Simply put, great exploration is driven by the quest for knowledge, sure, but it is funded by the drive for wealth and power. The great exploratory expeditions of history were usually funded by governments or private companies in order to steal a march on a competitor, or acquire resources. The reason the world was explored by Europeans (and the reason the Europeans eventually colonized and dominated across the globe) is because they were involved in an intense, and oftentimes violent, confrontation with each other over wealth, resources and power. Spanish, Portuguese, English, French and Dutch explorers sailed forth from their continent and opened up new worlds not because they desired to expand mankind's horizons, but because they were dueling with each other for the wealth of the world, in order to use that wealth to achieve dominance over their rivals. In the 1950s and 60s, the U.S. was involved in a great global competition with the Soviet Union for wealth and power, which led each side to attempt to outdo the other in space exploration. When the Soviets took the lead with the first satellite, Sputnik, America was terrified. Then the Russians put the first man in space, and in orbit. This led to the frenzied push for space exploration, and the goal of beating the Russians to the Moon. Once it was done, and it became apparent the Russian space program had failed miserably at their own attempt to go to the Moon, there was no longer any incentive to spend the money to go farther, so the Moon program was cancelled, and we were left with an agency, NASA, without a purpose. So, like every good government bureaucracy, they kept inventing new missions for themselves to keep members of Congress happy enough to keep funding them.

Well, the party may be over. While their might be great wealth and resources in space, it is monstrously expensive at the moment to get at them and exploit them. Only a government can raise the funds necessary for the exploratory expeditions, or the expeditions that would follow to exploit the resources once discovered. There is no political will, or international competitive environment, to drive such funding at the present time. I hate to be so pessimistic, but there it is. As they said in that fine movie about the early space program, The Right Stuff, "No bucks, no Buck Rogers".

Young people aren't listening to the radio anymore to hear new music.

Obama's foreign policy is taking some hits. India tells Obama to buzz off on limiting greenhouse gas emissions and Israel tells him to buzz off on the issue of building more settlements. If this is how our friends are going to treat him, imagine what our enemies will do.

Meanwhile, here at home, Obama's approval ratings fall according to a new poll.

Robert J. Samuelson says the President's stimulus plan was wasted.

Wealthy New Yorkers will feel the pain if the House health insurance reform bill becomes law.

Meanwhile, a Massachusetts hospital is suing the state over its health reform law.

Here is a cogent argument for health insurance reform that includes rationing of health care by government bureaucrats, rather than simply by price. I like the piece because, unlike so many statements by lying, scheming politicians, it tells the truth. Health care is rationed in this country today by price, via a third party payer, either a government or private insurance program. In Britain and Canada, it is rationed by direct government control (Britain) or a government third party insurance program (Canada). Australia has a mixed government-private insurance system. I urge you to become educated about these systems, and listen to good, truthful arguments made by people on all sides of the issue, like the author of the linked article, so that you may get beyond the simplistic story lines fed to us by our politicians.

Buzz Aldrin says we need a new challenge in space exploration...a mission to colonize Mars. I agree with him, but I do not think it will happen. His Moon program was driven by the Cold War. Barring some great incentive such as that, I do not see the governments of the Earth spending the money necessary for such a program.

One man thinks 2010 will be a smashing year for Conservatives and the GOP.

President Obama is willing to sign health insurance reform legislation that passes without any Republican votes. I don't have a problem with that, since I believe that elections, and party affiliations, should have consequences.

House Democrats want to fund an expansion of health insurance by raising taxes on the 'rich'. As I said, elections have consequences.

CBS Radio pulls the plug on legendary Boston radio station WBCN-FM. I grew up listening to the station, but it has been a shell of its former self for many years now, and the ratings have been in a long, slow decline. CBS intends to put a new sports talk station on the air, which makes sense.

As record low temperatures are set here in the Northeast, some gaps in our knowledge about global warming trends from the past are prompting questions.

Amir Taheri has some thoughts about the situation in Iran.

Thomas Friedman has some thoughts on the situation in Iraq.

The Russian Navy is in an irreversible decline.

Ralph Peters warns President Obama about the foreign policy trap. I fear we will learn once again the lesson we should have learned with Johnson, Carter and, to a lesser extent, Clinton. Liberal Democrats, due to their flawed view of human nature, are not well equipped to deal with the dangers of international politics. Not since Roosevelt and Truman have we had a Democrat in office who really understood how to deal with the bad guys of the world (Kennedy did appear to be on the road to that realization, after a number of near-fatal missteps, but his life was cut short before he could prove it).

A student realizes that almost all his professors are Democrats, and why that is a problem. He also receives a lesson in the intolerance of the campus left.

President Obama's poll numbers are starting to slip.

Those numbers will get worse as people realize the economy is in even worse shape than we think.

The new flu virus resembles the deadly 1918 variety. Not a happy thought.

George Will says we should be prepared for higher taxes.

Ben Stein says perhaps the President would be better served if he just treated the bad economy, rather than try to do everything else all at once.

Robert J. Samuelson says we face a huge expansion of government, and the debt and deficits that go with it.

The unseasonably cold, wet weather here in the Northeast saves money for some folks, and loses money for others.

Nouriel Roubini analyzes the recent unemployment data and concludes that the recession will continue into next year and unemployment will rise to at least 10.5% by the end of this year, with a further rise to 11% in the cards. Robert Reich believes that the old economy will not recover.

People with good credit cannot get a home loan anymore, just another example of the human tendency to run to an opposite extreme when a prior course of action, in this case, lax lending standards, proved disastrous.

Disillusioned environmentalists turn on Obama, just another example of the human tendency to believe whatever fits their preconceived notions, in this case the notion among environmentalists (and others) that Obama is 'their guy' when, in fact, he is a Chicago politician who will throw anyone under the bus when it suits his needs.

Peggy Noonan hopes Sarah Palin will go away, because she believes Palin is unfit to lead the GOP in the tough times ahead. I think she may be right about that.

Health insurance reform is a difficult proposition when you are unable to face the intrinsic facts. So, it is not surprising to me that the Democrats are at odds with each other over the health insurance reform bill.

David Brooks bemoans the fact that the politicians will not face one of the intrinsic truths about our current health care system, which is that costs are rising faster than the rate of inflation.

Scientists discover mysterious tremors deep within the San Andreas Fault. The 'Big One' is coming...it's just a matter of time and pressure.

The Kurds in Iraq continue to move toward eventual independence.

General Motors has discovered a model people want to buy.

Ralph Peters explains why it has been so difficult to build effective security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The reason all this talk about capping emissions to slow the rate of "Global Warming" is really just so much hot air (pardon the pun) is because nations that are industrializing and, thus, pulling their people out of poverty, will not be willing to slow down the process. Our only hope is that the "Global Warming Theory" is wrong because, in the end, the governments of the world will not do anything about it.

Cyberattacks jam some websites here and in South Korea. Our government officials are unwilling to state the obvious, which is that the attacks originated from North Korea. My guess is that these attacks were a test in preparation for more robust action.

John Fund explains the real reason why Sarah Palin quit, which is that she was being inundated and crippled by "Freedom of Information Act" requests and ethics complaints from her political opponents, as well as being personally assailed by the media. She was no longer capable of being an effective governor.

Mark Penn says that if we cross the 10% mark for unemployment it will mark the crossing of a political tripwire. I agree. We are already seeing erosion in the President's popularity numbers, and increasing concern from voters about the rising debt and deficits, as well as growing government control of various sectors of the economy. Could 2010 be a good year for the GOP? Quite possible.

Famously, here in New Hampshire we do not have a mandatory seat belt law for adults. Yet, curiously, our seat belt compliance rate is higher than in Massachusetts, where there is such a law. As a person who was raised, and lived for many years in Massachusetts, but has now lived for many years in New Hampshire, I believe the answer is simple. There are more smart people here than there, thus, as smart people, we don't need a law to tell us to do what makes sense.

The unemployment rate could hit 14%, because the labor market is worse than you think. As a job seeker myself, I am not heartened by that news.

Amir Taheri describes the new conspiracy theory that is being promulgated by the rulers of Iran, which is probably a prelude to an even bloodier crackdown on dissent. Why not? The Butchers of Beijing continue to prove to all who would listen that tough-minded, merciless crackdowns work.

More proposals for regulations from those inside the Obama Administration, this time on the oil futures markets. This time, I might actually agree with them.

George Will ponders the passing of Robert McNamara.

Derrick Jackson believes Afghanistan may become Obama's 'quagmire'. Seven Americans were killed in the fighting there yesterday, the deadliest day in almost a year. With troop levels rising, we are now moving into a new phase in Afghanistan. Politically, the war is now 'Obama's War'. If the increase in troop levels and the new commanders with new tactics succeed, then Obama will get the credit. If they fail, Obama will get the blame. Still, casualty levels will have to go a great deal higher before the American public really takes notice. Even then, as I have often argued in the past, without a draft, the public may not care much, anyway.

Robert S. McNamara, one of the prime architect's of the Vietnam 'quagmire', is dead. He deserves his share of the blame, but the buck, in my opinion, stops with Lyndon Johnson, who knew the war was a bad idea, but did it anyway.

Ralph Peters believes President Obama was taken to the cleaners by the Russians. I agree. Will the American people realize they elected another Jimmy Carter by the time we get to 2012? I hope so.

Bloomberg's Kevin Hassett says that California's example will help kill Obamanomics. I would like to think so, since Hassett's argument is that centrist Democrats in the Senate will find the public option for health insurance reform hard to swallow. But, never underestimate the ability of people to live with illusions, even illusions that keep them on the road to disaster.

Jennifer Rubin says on the issue of nuclear arms control, Obama has had it wrong for 25 years. Obama's illusions about nuclear arms and arms control are a clear and present danger.

Ross Douthat says Sarah Palin should have declined the VP spot on the McCain ticket.

The Times of London reports that the Saudis have given the Israelis permission to overfly their territory in a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. A plausible story, so far as I can tell, since it would be in the interests of the Saudi rulers to see the Iranians taken down a peg or two.

Robert J. Samuelson says a lack of focus on history was the reason so many economists missed the coming financial crisis. That is true enough, and it is the main reason why so many economists fail to understand the oftentimes irrational aspects of human behavior that lead to so many problems.

Sarah Palin resigns as Governor of Alaska.

Dan Balz of The Washington Post attempts to analyze her actions.

Bill Kristol thinks she might be crazy like a fox.

Mark Steyn thinks the simplest answer is probably the right one, which is that she is sickened by the way her family is being treated, and she realizes she can no longer accomplish anything of substance in Alaska.

I agree with his analysis. Who needs trying to explain to your 14-year-old daughter why she is the punchline of a joke about rape made by a comedian on national television? Would you subject your daughter to that kind of exposure and treatment? I wouldn't, and the only sure way to get away from it is to leave public office at once. Now, Sarah Palin will still be a celebrity. She can spend the next two years cashing in on that celebrity by getting paid big bucks for speeches. Amongst the paid speeches, she can do unpaid events to help GOP candidates around the country. When it becomes clear that she will not be a candidate for President in 2012, or any other office, her celebrity will fade, and so will the income opportunities, but she will have made her pile, and she can return to the quiet life in Alaska.

The jobless rate climbs to 9.5%, the highest since 1983. Even worse, the number of jobs lost has wiped out all job gains of the last nine years, which is the first time since the Great Depression that all the jobs gained in the previous business cycle were wiped out in the downturn.

'The Black Swan' says were still in the middle of a crash.

Liberal economist and columnist Paul Krugman believes that Obama has missed the lessons of the 1930s, which is that not enough stimulus was pumped by the Federal Government into the economy.

Some think the job picture is still bad because government is doing too much.

Larry Kudlow thinks the economy could be improved with tax cuts.

You may have heard the Wal-Mart has come out in support of the President's health insurance reform plan, which includes an employer mandate. Why would they do this? Perhaps they see a way to crush their competition.

Ralph Peters still does not like the strategy in Afghanistan, and he believes it will not work.

Amir Taheri says that despite the fact that President Ahmadinejad of Iran seems secure in his seat for the moment, there is evidence that he no longer has any credibility with his own people.

The apparent victory of the regime in Iran, both in the election and against the protests that followed, now means the Israelis must decide soon whether or not to strike the Iranian nuclear facilities, according to this piece by John Bolton, who believes they should strike.

It was fear of Iran that led Saddam Hussein to pretend his nuclear and chemical weapons programs were still in existence, according to Hussein's last interviews with the FBI before he was turned over to the Iraqis for hanging.

Dick Morris hopes the GOP will stand fast against Obama's energy, tax and health reform plans.

John Sununu will not run for Judd Gregg's U.S. Senate seat in 2010.

David Ignatius says President Obama should read The Brothers Karamazov before he goes to Russia in order to better understand why the people love Vladimir Putin.

Jeff Jacoby says there IS disagreement about 'Global Warming', which is among the reasons why he opposes the "Cap and Trade' bill that just passed the House.

Tom Friedman obviously believes in the 'Global Warming' theory, which is why he urges readers to support the bill and work to force the Senate to pass it.

Michael Gerson also seems to buy the theory, as he praises the eight Republicans who voted for the bill.

I think skepticism is in order, as I sit looking out my window at another foggy, cloudy, rainy cool day.

Al Franken, United States Senator from Minnesota.

Christopher Hitchens says we should join France and ban the burka.