Most providers don't compete for patients either on price or on quality. Since out-of-pocket payments by patients are well below the true cost of their care, demand exceeds supply and services are rationed by waiting - just like in Canada. In such an environment, quality improvements do not increase provider income and quality degradation does not decrease it. That's why so much of the health care system resembles the Department of Motor Vehicles.

In some specialized markets, however, providers actively seek more customers, often advertising directly to patients - on TV, in magazines, etc., sometimes in other cities and sometimes nationwide. For example, New York's Mount Sinai Medical and Memorial Sloan-Kettering and Massachusetts General in Boston are all aggressive advertisers on cancer care.

On March 1, Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance had expressed pleasure that "Obama and his Drug Czar, Gil, have made it clear that they don't want to talk about marijuana at all." Nadelmann considered the silence to mean assent to his agenda of marijuana decriminalization and legalization. But just three days later, in a dramatic development, Gil Kerlikowske, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), came out in strong opposition to almost everything that Nadelmann and his "progressive" backers represent. 

In a major speech on March 4, Kerlikowske denounced the use of marijuana, including its "medical" version, and cited facts and studies linking the weed to all kinds of health problems. "The concern with marijuana is not born out of any culture-war mentality, but out of what the science tells us about the drug's effects," he said. "And the science, though still evolving, is clear: marijuana use is harmful.

The American people must hear the truth about Islam continually until they are completely aware of its dangers. Sadly, our Churches dare not speak up for fear of being accused of intolerance toward another religion. Our academia, the university professors, left or right, dare not, because, most likely, they would lose their salaries. Our politicians dare not because they are master practitioners of euphemism, hedging, doubletalk, and outright deception, and they need your votes as well as your money.  Our editors dare not because they would lose subscribers. Businessmen dare not because they might lose customers and clientele. Even ordinary clerks dare not because they might be discharged. So I thought I would tell you.

The U.S. Federal Reserve's framework is a corrupt one in that its regional banks are managed by board members who are officers from the very private institutions they are designed to govern, says Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz (pictured). Stiglitz, also a former chief economist at the World Bank, says if a country had come to him looking for aid while running a central bank in such a manner, alarm bells would have gone off.