Bankers Rake in Millions While You Hunt for a Job:

Reform is just another word that doesn't apply to the rich and powerful. Louise Story describes how the players who brought the economy to its knees continue to exploit taxpayers in today's New York Times. The name of the game is stock options.

House Passes Health-care Bill:

Will the bill provide the instruments to do the right thing with health-care? Will it drive costs down while improving access? (See The Washington Post story.)

How Do You Take Your Republican Party?

To Palin or not to Palin, that seems to be the question. If the New York 23rd district is an example of what the Republican party has to offer, our friends on the right seem to be about to split into two equally ineffective factions.

In the meantime, the Obama-ites must be chomping at the bits in anticipation of a 2012 election that could feature the incumbent against the Alaskan gubernatorial quitter. A best guess is that would provide about an 80-20 split. (See Dan Balz story in today's Washington Post.)

Violence in America:

Mass murder is always bizarre, but the recent events at Fort Hood have got to take the cake. Who would ever anticipate a psychiatrist going bonkers and murdering a dozen people? While the victims of this tragedy mourn their terrible losses, the sad part for the rest of us is that it will provide a distraction from the events that matter most to the millions of the rest of us, health-care and the economy being chief among them.

If anything, the lesson to be learned is that violence seldom if ever accomplishes more than begetting more violence. Ultimately, we will come to the conclusion that the shootings at Fort Hood were nothing more than a weird aberration of a nation already too long at war, with little concept of how to extract itself.