Sam Hunter, the host of Your City Tonight (the local Omaha cable TV show I’m a panelist on) was emailed the following question from a viewer.

"Can you explain the cost factor in the health care debate? I've heard President Obama say the reform being proposed will not add to our national debt but I've also heard fox news report the reform measures will add trillions to the deficit. Which is it? Thank You

Devoted Fan

We used the question on the air as we taped the episode we’ll be showing for the next two weeks. We also decided anyone whose question or comments we use on the air will get a gift from us. In this case, the gift will be a copy of my book. Sam was away from Omaha this week, so I was the host for the two episodes we taped.

Email your questions or comments for the show to Hunter7977@gmail.com and/or me at author@kindremindsent.com.

Once the show airs, Sam and I will post clips on our YouTube accounts.

One other quick media note. I’m pleased to have Max Skidmore as my guest again on Car Concerns this Tuesday morning at 10:00 a.m. EDT (9:00 CDT). I will be asking Max to explain some of the details of the Public Option in Health Care Reform. Listen live or to the archive by going to www.CarConcerns.com.

Debating what to do next in Afghanistan brings to mind a saying and a story. The saying is, "When you’re up to your butt in alligators, it’s hard to remember your original intent was to drain the swamp."

The story is of a Cajun fisherman out for a day’s fishing. While fishing, he barely avoids being bitten by a poisonous snake by grabbing the snake just below its head. The fisherman doesn’t want to kill the snake, but if he turns loose, then the snake will bite him. With his free hand, the fisherman reaches in his hip pocket, pulls out a flask full of moonshine liquor, takes out the cork stopper with his teeth and pours a significant amount of the liquid down through the snake’s open mouth. The snake goes limp, enabling the fisherman to fling the snake away and move to another fishing spot. After some hours, the fisherman feels a tapping at his boot and looks down. It’s the snake, come back for more moonshine.

Our original intent in Afghanistan was to capture the perpetuators of 9/11. An invasion of Afghanistan was necessitated when the then Taliban controlled Afghan government refused to behave as a responsible nation state and give up the terrorists living in their midst. Unfortunately, our invasion has left us in the same predicament as the fisherman. We have a poisonous snake in our grasp who will likely, unless we can find the proper elixir, bite us if we let it go.

In other words, if we leave now, then the Taliban is likely to regain control over Afghanistan. And if the Taliban regains control, then we are back to where we were in 2001 and all we have done so far is wasted. Terrorists will regain a safe haven.

Is this an acceptable risk for us? After all, . . .

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