The debate over health care reform has entered an unreal world where facts can always be shouted down. Several letter writers have said they don't want the government choosing their doctor, but do we have a right to choose our own doctors? When I went to work for the City of Fort Lauderdale years ago, I was given a list of doctors I was allowed to go to if injured on the job. More recently, I worked for an international conglomerate. My health benefits could indirectly be set by a board of directors that met in another hemisphere, whose minutes are circulated in an ideographic language. Actually, that company gave me a free annual checkup, one of the best benefits I've ever had. My employer chose the doctor, of course. On a temporary job, I once collapsed while wearing a maladjusted gas mask. I was taken to a doctor chosen by the employer. A nurse put a thermometer in my mouth and said that I had a temperature of 120 degrees. A few minutes later they figured out that their newfangled electric thermometer wasn't working. ...more

November 2, 2009

A leading Human Rights Watch monitor who was abruptly put on the first plane leaving Venezuela early Friday said his expulsion shows the intolerance of President Hugo Chavez's government to criticism. ...more

September 20, 2008

Last week we became historic witnesses to what once seemed remote and unimaginable. Immediately a few uninformed critics began trying to spin our brightest moment into something dark and cynical. ...more

June 29, 2008

Dale Gottschalk of Hudson says Iraq invasion had nothing to do with terrorism. ...more

November 24, 2007