Brand-name drugs have no competition, since the government grants them very long, exclusive marketing rights.

The pharmaceutical industry isn't the only place where there's waste and inefficiency and profiteering. That happens in much of the rest of the health care industry.

Health care is a need; it's not a commodity, and it should be distributed according to need. If you're very sick, you should have a lot of it. If you're not sick, you shouldn't have a lot of it.

It's not just the right-wing crazies who oppose health reform. In addition, there are many sane Americans who worry about committing a trillion dollars to it.

My problem isn't death but old age. I fret about my lack of balance, my buckling knee, my difficulty standing up and sitting down.

Everybody has their burdens, their grief that they carry with them.

Every mission has life-or-death moments.

In grief, after even the happiest of relationships, we go over things again and again.