Health care reform has been a prominent issue in this year's presidential election and will be a top priority for the next administration. In spite of the campaign rhetoric, however, a political consensus armed with concrete solutions has remained elusive. The largest push for health care reform has come from liberal Democrats. They claim that working Americans fork over too much money to a health care system that is low in quality and leaves too many out in the cold. To some extent, these critics are correct. Health care costs have been surging for years and there is a disturbing number of Americans who do not have insurance. These trends are especially alarming with the graying of the Baby Boom generation. Unfortunately, the shortcomings of our health system have become an excuse for more government intervention in the economy. Nearly all of the reform proposals in Washington insist on tighter government control over an industry which wields the power of life and death - literally. The new power would then rest in bureaucracies possessing the compassion of the IRS and the efficiency of the post office. For those Americans who support reform but suspect the ability of Washington, this book will raise your conscience and offer real solutions. The theme is that shortcomings in our health care system do not imply that the private sector can not work in this part of the economy. The authors point out that, surprisingly, the private market has never been given a chance to work here. Health care is actually the most regulated industry in America. The authors suggest that instead of imposing more regulation and adding more levels of bureaucracy, policymakers should take a more original approach. They recommend reforming the tax code by injecting an ounce of capitalism and a pound of reality to the system. One specific reform would be to eliminate the peculiar rule that employer contributions to group health insurance doesn't count as taxable income for employees. This tax ruling, an historical accident arising out of World War II, has created a strong incentive for the private health insurance market to be organized around employment-based groups. This preference, according to the authors, is at the root of the many of our problems. The policy distorts the health care marketplace. It undermines cost consciousness by disguising the true cost of medical care. Insufficient health care is subsidized. Further, the current law discriminates against the self-employed, the unemployed, and those whose employers don't offer health insurance. This subsidy, worth close to $100 billion a year, is highly regressive: It provides a generous subsidy for the chief executive of a company and little for a young couple struggling to make ends meets. The authors suggest that the $100 billion should be returned immediately to citizens in the form of a tax credit, deduction, or voucher for purchasing health insurance. By giving consumers more direct control over their health coverage, it would enable them to force change through the market rather through the political system. This reform would give individuals more choice and create new incentives for a consumer-driven market that is more efficient and more dignified. Of course, eliminating the employer subsidy and other reforms aren't a panacea. There are trade-offs involved; some Americans may lose privileges while others gain. But the authors are confident that these policy reforms would cut costs and increase coverage while also removing Washington from another area where it doesn't belong. Clearly, public education is needed. The stalemate over the issue will not continue indefinitely. Either Washington will create more meddlesome and burdensome federal health programs or it will fix the distortions in the private market, as advocated in this book. In this life-and-death matter, the political judgement is much in doubt.

Back Cover description: Desperate to turn her life around, nurse Amanda Reston swore off big city E.R.'s and powerful, deceptive men. Surely working private duty in placid Pine Grove would provide peace of mind...
Alas, Amanda's first patient proved impossible-impossibly handsome, impossibly rich and impossibly impatient to recover from his skiing injuries. Difficult, demanding, yet maddeningly attractive, Sheik Rahman Harun imperiously installed Amanda in his posh ski villa-and seductively insinuated his way into her heart. Yet Rahman was royalty...while all Amanda had to offer was TLC. When he had recovered, would Rahman leave her with a broken heart or would he take a chance on the love of a lifetime?

Not bad. Typical story. Good summer read, not a keeper though. Can someone tell me why all these mid-eastern guys are always sheiks?

"Grace Abounding" is a critical commentary on the book of Hosea in the Old Testament. It analyzes important themes in each chapter of Hosea, breaking the chapters down into verses with a single theme. It is useful in presenting an overall picture of Hosea. It presents different interpretations of some phrases which is useful in getting a different angle on the original meaning of the author. However, for someone who is taking an advanced theology class, this book is not technical enough to be a really good resourse for writing an exegesis paper. It seldom presents the actual Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic words which are controversial in their interpretation.

I think this was a pretty good book, plain and simple.

WR Grace is infamous for polluting the environment in which it does business as seen in the book "A Civil Action" by Jonathan Harr and also by its ongoing asbestos litigation involving asbestos products made from its Cambridge,Mass facility. Grace is a politically astute company and Republican party supporter. In addition, it has had prominent members of the high Finance and Intelligence communities on its Board of Directors.

The author has lived a long life. She is very well rounded. I wanted to know more about her experience being a black woman and the other cultures. I guess I will have to get my hands on a copy of Soul Sister.

This book would probably be fun for a 3 or 4 year old who is learning to associate the time of day with different types of activities (e.g., breakfast at 8am). However, I bought it to help my 6 yr. old learn how to read an old fashioned analog clock (he's quite proficient at decoding the digital ones) and it doesn't do that trick well. For one, the text/story line is very simple and each time is generally 1 hour after the previous one (a few at 1/2 hr intervals), making guessing easy. Also, I didn't realize until after I bought it that each page has pictures of both digital and analog clock faces that relate to the time of day the text refers to. As a result, to use it I have to try to cover the digital clock face with my finger before he can take a peek at it.

Schulman's poetry has a hopeful tone, a tone based in faith, art and the physical. Too often, however, it fails to move me as poetry.
Most notably, the images are rarely fresh. Unlike the poetry of Gavin, the images never led to a "I'd never thought of it that way." The only image that caused second thoughts was of a horse-mounted policeman hugging his horse "until helmet and reins are one." Here I paused because the image didn't make sense - the rounded compactness of helmet with the thin length or reins ... a helmet with a tail? Typical images: sunset's stained-glass colors" or monarch butterflies' wings "orange-and-black stained glass" or "his voice is a rainstorm that rinses air to reveal earth's surprises."
The language leans towards prose in the sense of complete sentences, a quality Shulman often uses to advantage in the more personal poems where it lends a sense of honesty (as opposed to artifact). The language is firmly grounded in detail "wind peel a sand rose," "no hawk swoops down from a TV antenna." Occasionally obscure words are used i.e. "fusilladed" but more frequently it is references "Li Po" or "Tai Chin" that require significant cultural knowledge. She compensates for this with end notes.
There are several poems worth rereading:"God speaks" in which prior versions of the world and many gods are described with delightful humor and serious purpose; "The Dancers" a tribute to her parents dancing in the Depression unaware of what the future held; and several sonnets of the "One Year Without Mother" sequence - "What Can You Believe" which exposes the vacillation in belief/disbelief in God; "Ring Sale" which exposes lingering uneasiness over a family heirloom; "Requiem", Mozart's to be exact.
Not a bad volume, simply, for me, quite forgettable.

In this somewhat autobiographical novel, Linda Grace Hoyer Updike recalls life experiences through the main character, Ada. The work is actually a collection of short stories relating everything from Ada's school days in rural Pennsylvania, to the death of her husband decades later. Most of the stories revolve around life in the farm house where she was born, and is now living out the remainder of her life. There is a beautiful simplicity not only in Hoyer's subject matter, but also in her writing. The novel is easy to read, the stories' lengths keep your attention, and her delicate descriptions make the piece very enjoyable.

This is the first quilt book I have seen that discusses how to make a quilt top and quilt the top. It shows how to put a quilt on the frame, and how to hand Quilt. This book goes as far as to show quilt patterns for quilting. I also enjoyed reading about the history of the patterns shown. I wish It had more colored pictured of the quilts shown.