Websurfing to Caracas…

It happens to all of us – with reports just out that American life expectancy has hit an all-time high, I finally felt I had to go look at the titanic health care bill for myself. You go to the THOMAS web site, punch in H.R. 3200, and there it is — all 1,017 gory unintelligible pages of the nationalized, centrally planned future that President Obama and his chief comrades in Congress wish for us all (if not for themselves).

I began browsing this thing, and found it reminded me in so many ways of the products of the old Soviet Gosplan that in a fit of nostalgia I turned to Russia’s Itar-Tass wire. There one finds all sorts of odd items, including the news that while President Obama is tying America in knots over health care, fishy emails, and whatnot, Venezuelans have been having much more fun. Venezuela recently concluded a “Week of South Ossetia,” – celebrating solidarity with the Georgian breakaway republic that became the pretext for the Russian invasion of Georgia last year.

Anthems were played, Russian “politologists and diplomats” took part with Latin American “leaders,” and America was slammed by all. It seems that Obama’s extended hand, and even his handshake, have not done much to endear him to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, who recently described Obama as “lost in the Andromeda” galaxy.

How does this connect? The real threat to American health does not reside within our current health care system. Obama — no kidding — would do better to spend time worrying about things like South Ossetia week in Venezuela, or Hugo Chavez’s impending visit to Iran.