The outside world

Over the years, the comedian Mort Sahl made a living by unrolling a newspaper on stage and making droll, sometimes caustic commentary on the headlines. The routine perhaps has been eclipsed by the public's growing cynicism in general (sometimes droll and always more caustic), and certainly by the ascendancy of TV "news" in which Larry King and his ilk have become more important than the headlines.

However, sifting through the news still is a useful exercise because events take on meaning in the context of other events. We were reminded of this while perusing the biotech news and thinking about the demise of the President's Health Care Task Force, whose charter was allowed to lapse last week. Between the political disasters besetting the White House, the economic summit in Japan next month, and the upcoming congressional recess, prospects for unveiling of any health care reform proposal have been all but banished for the summer...