We also need to stop thinking that "high tech" or "technology" means computers. Computers are a maturing technology today. Technology means products and services based on new developments in science and engineering.

New developments can occur in many different fields, from dental care to hair styling to power generation to gardening, etc. Anyone can guess where the jobs will be generated, and we could all be wrong.

One area where there are almost unlimited possibilities is design. Almost everything we buy today is very poorly designed. Look at cell phones for example. Nothing about their operation is intuitive, as it should be. Apple has been a highly successful business entirely because of their design skills. Apple products tend to be intuitive products which work as they should. The possibilities for US products to be highly competitive may well depend entirely on good design.

Electronics? Forget it. Automobiles? Excuse me while I stop laughing.

Do you suppose our celebration of collecting money instead of education is beginning to show results? Just not the results we would prefer, unless we are a successful money collector.

Our country needs to coexist with the other nations in the world. The nature of the governments of those nations is a subject that only the UN has any authority at all to question. I get nervous even when Obama makes encouraging remarks about the protesters in Iran. Silence would really be golden at this time.

First, the medical schools are making as much money as they can squeeze out of their students, making obtaining a MD degree obscenely expensive.

Then, hospitals are working MD graduates as long as they can stand up without losing consciousness, thus reducing their expenses and making as much money as is possible.

Pharmaceutical companies market their prescription drugs with the goal of getting all patients to demand the most advertised "super drugs" no matter how much they cost, and thus making as much money as is possible.

Insurance companies exist for no reason at all other than to make as much money as is possible.

Hospitals are profit making businesses, who compete with each other to have the latest, sexiest, most expensive equipment, and charging as much as is possible for the use of that equipment.

Ronald Reagan won.

While we are at it, the president gets only a limited number of hours of prime time TV to talk to us. Wasting a single second of that time talking about secondary stuff should stop. No one can work effectively on a dozen things at once. That is why the word "prioritizing" was invented.

As far as the insurance/pharmaceutical industries owned senators are concerned - grab their balls and squeeze. If that doesn't work, squeeze harder.

You might also note that Baucus is letting the Repubs run the show in his coalition of the purchased.

Gee, do I have to spell it all out for you?

I'm just speculating here, and wondering if I should try my hand at writing the script for the Made-for-TV version of the story.

Now, what should we work on?

I continue to wonder if the FBI makes any effort at all to rein in the right wing nut terrorists, or is it still doing as old J. Edgar had them doing, ignoring the Mafia - in this case an equally criminal group.