Do Americans really want to repeal Health Care Reform? This PDF file is a report from the non-partisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and it notes, for one thing, that polls are all over the place. So whatever your viewpoint is, you may be able to find a poll to cite as proof that most of America sees things as you do. But a fairer view of the situation might suggest that even Americans who oppose H.C.R. like a lot of the changes contained in it. Personally, I think that what a lot of people don't like about it is that it came, albeit indirectly, from Barack Obama. I don't believe that a lot of the loudest folks attacking it would disapprove if the exact same thing had been instituted by President McCain. Not that it would have been…

I instantly understood Twitter and I quickly learned to kinda appreciate Facebook…but for the longest time, I used to wonder what the deal was with LinkedIn? A year or so ago, I started getting these messages from friends that said they wanted to connect with me via LinkedIn so I signed up and clicked the little thing that said yes, my friends could connect with me…

…and that was it. Nothing more happened. It seemed to be a networking site where no one networked or at least, they didn't network in my direction. It was like a lame cyberspace version of "Tag, you're it" where all LinkedIn did was suggest that I connect with more people. And more people and more people. I was supposed to upload my entire address book (that's 900+ people) so LinkedIn could send them all messages about joining LinkedIn. I didn't do this. I was supposed to consider linking to folks whose names they showed me…folks who seemed to be in the same industry as me. This meant that they showed me a lot of people who worked at Freelance. I didn't do this, either. I received a couple of actual messages through the service but all from folks who already had my e-mail address and could have written me that way. So why were any of us on LinkedIn?

I finally developed the theory that LinkedIn wasn't for people like me who are all over the Internet. I mean, yes, I do occasionally hear that someone somewhere is having trouble finding my e-mail address and I marvel that anyone that dumb even knows how to turn on their computer. If Google doesn't get you here in two shakes, you can always try typing www.markevanier.com or even just www.evanier.com…and, Eureka!, you find one of my sites. Then all you have to do is somehow decipher that link at the right that says "E-Mail me." But not everyone is easy to find on the 'net and maybe LinkedIn is just to make sure that those folks have a means of connecting with others of common interest. That's what I figured.

Then today, I got a LinkedIn request from an actress I know named Kelli Maroney. There is no male — alive or dead, straight or gay, horizontal or perpendicular — who would turn down an invite to connect, even via something as non-connective as LinkedIn, with Kelli Maroney. When I went to click on "Yes, oh God, yes" (or whatever it said), I noticed that LinkedIn wanted to also link me with other folks it thought I might want to communicate with…like, as you can see above, Dan DiDio. Dan DiDio is the head honcho these days at DC Comics, an outfit I've worked for since Richard Nixon was honeymooning with the press. So sure, I'd like to communicate with Dan DiDio but I could just pick up a phone and do that.

And then below that, I saw the chance to communicate with one of my closest friends, Steve Gerber — and I thought, "Wow!" Steve passed away in February of 2008 and I've missed him…and it turns out that this isn't one of the 55 other Steve Gerbers on LinkedIn. I went to this one's profile page and sure enough, this is my old buddy, the late Steve Gerber. There's even a link there to his weblog which I've been running for him since he died.

Of course, I want to connect with him again. I can't do that on friggin' Facebook. And now I understand the miracle of LinkedIn. It can connect you with departed friends and loved ones…and for a lot less than that Sylvia Browne lady charges to tell you that your grandmother is in a peaceful place. In fact, I'll bet LinkedIn can get you as close to them as Browne, John Edward, John Van Praagh or any of those "I can communicate with the dead for a price" people can. I am not, however, going to use it to contact my grandmother who died 20 years ago. I already believe she is in a peaceful place and I don't want to ruin that by badgering her with stupid messages from LinkedIn.

Daniel Larison on why no one will ever cut military spending in this country, no matter how much it could be trimmed without endangering our national defense.

Here's Wayne Curtis with a good article about Mt. Airy in North Carolina. The town has patterned much of itself after Mayberry and The Andy Griffith Show and it's boosted tourism and civic pride. It's also provided a great retirement home for Betty Lynn, who played Thelma Lou in the popular TV series. In the article, you'll see it noted that Ms. Lynn lived in a house in Los Angeles for fifty years. That house was right next door to the one in which I grew up…the house in which my mother now lives. Betty was like my unofficial aunt and I still love her dearly and talk to her from time to time. That's when she can tear herself away from her current vocation, which is being the town celebrity and officiating at all the important events.

I still find it amazing that of all the fine TV shows, that one has had the most longevity by some measures. Even though most (the best ones) are in dreaded black-and-white, those shows are rerun and rerun and rerun to the point of exhaustion. The Danny Thomas Show, which was produced by the same company, was on for 11 years and 351 episodes. The Andy Griffith Show, which spun off from The Danny Thomas Show, was on for 8 years and 249 episodes. The two shows received about the same ratings…

…and yet today, nobody remembers much about The Danny Thomas Show and there's no audible demand for reruns, whereas there are few towns that don't air Andy Griffith at least once a day, and most people can quote you memorable lines (most of them from Don Knotts) and tell you their favorite storylines. In the last few years of his life, my friend Howard Morris couldn't believe the money he was making from appearing as his Griffith Show character, Ernest T. Bass — this, despite the fact that he only appeared in five episodes of the series. No one ever asked him about his years working with Sid Caesar on programs that some critics call the greatest comedy show ever on television…but everywhere he went, they knew Ernest T.

I think it's great that Mayberry represents a simpler time for so many people and I understand it being someone's favorite. Absolutely, I understand…and some of those episodes (especially those that spotlighted Barney Fife) are quite funny. I just find it curious that it became so timeless and beloved in such a disposable business.

Hey, remember when Dick Cheney accidentally shot an acquaintance who suffered minor injuries? Well, according to this, the acquaintance wasn't really an acquaintance and the injuries weren't that minor. Another example of the media getting a story wrong.

I link to most Fred Kaplan articles and now I suspect I'm going to be linking to most Matt Taibbi pieces. This one about the Tea Partiers is spot-on, at least according to my observations and encounters. They rally against those who accept moola from Uncle Sam and then deny or rationalize when they do the same. And this one reminds us that the real piracy in our country is not that your neighbor is collecting unemployment insurance but that bankers and others on and around Wall Street are digging us into such a deep hole that they're about to reach China…literally and figuratively.

To show you what an honest guy I am: Last night, I posted an Amazon link for that Johnny Carson DVD set for $108…and as you know, I get a tiny commission if you click on it and order. However, a couple of folks pointed out to me while I slept that the website of my home away from home, Costco, is selling the thing for $70. That's probably the price it'll be when the set is released later this month and they actually have them in Costco stores.

So while I would profit from you ordering via that link, I do feel compelled to tell you where you can get it for a lot less. That's where I'm going to get mine, probably when I swing by to pick up more Turkey Pot Roasts. (Postage, if you order from the Costco site, will add some bucks to that price but it'll still be cheaper than Amazon.) Of course, you could purchase your copy at Costco and then send this site a little donation of, say, ten bucks. That way, we both profit. But you do whatever you like…

By the way: I should have emphasized the point that, sadly, this set does not feature complete episodes of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. 14 of its 15 DVDs run 108-130 minutes and hold four episodes so each episode has been cut down to around a half-hour. That's still got to be great stuff but they're not uncut episodes of the show. Which would have been even nicer.

Fred Kaplan tells us what's going on in Afghanistan. I'm glad he understands it because no one else seems to.

Those of you who are in the Animation Writers Caucus of the Writers Guild of America, West have probably received an e-mail about this but I'll mention it anyway. Next Tuesday evening at the Guild, they're having the last meeting of the year of their little "Schmooze" gatherings. They usually manage to land some dazzling, impressive guest for these but this year, none of the folks they asked were available so they wound up with me. This is true…it's not a self-deprecating joke. Well, it's self-deprecating but it's not a joke. Anyway, I'm not sure what I'll be talking about. I may just discuss Costco and tomato soup for an hour. But if you're a member, come by and hear whatever it is I say. And remember that if I'd turned them down, the next person on the list was probably you.

Joe Conason on certain Republicans' plans to raise taxes. My cynical side believes that any time anyone of any party says "I've got a plan to make taxes fairer," what they've got is a plan to lower theirs and directly or indirectly raise someone else's.

I also think that our national debate on taxes fixates way too much on income taxes and not enough (usually, not at all) on things like sales taxes, property taxes, payroll taxes, etc. It would be so much healthier if we did away with the word "tax" and replaced it with some noun that denotes the money that citizens are required to pay to the government in any form. That is the number that matters to me. It doesn't really matter to me if I pay a thousand bucks less in income tax and then wind up paying a thousand bucks a year more in some other way. Income taxes may even be tidier and more efficient than some other possibility, I don't know. I guess what I'd like is the collection method that (a) cost the least in collection costs and (b) provided the least possibility of someone gaming the system and getting off without paying their fair share. And I think there are so many wealthy folks out there who don't want (b) that it will never happen.