On the State of Things:

While politicians and government officials bemoan the high cost of medical care in the U.S., medical schools have adopted a quite different attitude:

doctors have become so interested in the business side of medicine that more than 40 medical schools have added, over the last 20 years, an optional fifth year of schooling for those who want to earn an M.B.A. degree as well as an M.D. Some go directly to Wall Street or into health care management without ever practicing medicine. (The New York Times 11-27-06)

And Black Friday:

ShopperTrak RCT, which measures purchases at 45,000 mall-based stores, found that sales for the day after Thanksgiving rose 6 percent from last year, to $9 billion. On the same day last year, sales at stores monitored by ShopperTrak dropped 0.9 percent. (The New York Times 11-27-06)

"Americans hate paying taxes. They'd rather give their money to the Chinese." — Anon.