When I first heard reports of the armed man outside of Obama's townhall in Portsmouth, NH, I had a feeling that we would see an escalation of this behavior.  Today there were estimated to be a dozen armed outside of his appearance in Arizona.

It's a tricky situation.  Technically, these people are acting within their rights.  Realistically, they're bringing loaded weapons to incredibly tense gatherings.  As the tension and the number of weapons increases, so does the chance that something unwarranted occurs.

I am baffled.

I don't have a whole lot of time to write this, but I'm hoping that the core questions I'm going to forward here will be compelling enough to stand on their own.  As I prepare to leave for the day, I'm listening to NPR.  I've been quite busy lately and haven't had the time to read as much as I like, but I've been trying to follow the political developments of health care reform.  It seems to me that this week we've gotten down to a new meme: "How will we pay for it?"

This Bill Moyers interview is a must-watch for anyone who cares about meaningful healthcare reform:

Washington's abuzz about health care, but why isn't a single-payer plan an option on the table? Public Citizen's Dr. Sidney Wolfe and Physicians for a National Health Program's Dr. David Himmelstein on the political and logistical feasibility of health care reform.