In his column of a week ago, John Stossel discusses “Sicko,” Michael Moore’s new documentary on health care, and debates with Moore himself. Stossel quotes Moore as conceding that the United Kingdom’s government-run health care system is the sort of thing that cripples creativity and innovation: Moore challenges the Brits he knows to name one thing the country has invented in the past 50 years, and they can’t do it.
Apparently Moore was talking to some really ignorant people, because I can come up with plenty of proof that Britain’s creative spirit is alive and well.
•Harry Potter. The woman who invented Harry, Voldemort and Hogwarts is now one of the world’s wealthiest people. And in the classic free-market fashion, her success has benefited lots of others: Publishers, actors, the companies that market Harry Potter board games, the writers of books about Harry Potter and so on.
•Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Still a classic of comedy almost 40 years after the show debuted.
•The Beatles and their music. Need I say more?
•Punk rock. Not to my taste, but still a significant development in music history.
•Alan Moore. The comic-book and graphic-novel writer who gave us “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” “V for Vendetta” (both far superior to the film adaptations), the soon-to-be-a-movie “Watchmen” and a great many other imaginative works (which I won’t detail since you’d need to be a comics fan to recognize the names).
•Life on Mars, the award-winning police drama that’s currently being adapted for American TV (tell me again which side of the Atlantic is more creative, please?).
I could add more examples, but why bother? Suffice to say, arguments against government-run health care goes, this is a pretty silly one.

Today, I wrote about the death of Jimmy Shirah, a Destin resident who passed away early Monday morning.
It’s the kind of story I dread.
Not because I knew him, but because I feel so awkward approaching people who’ve had a close friend or family member die and asking them to talk about him.
And because I feel a real pressure to do a good job on the story. Not that I don’t normally do a good job, but the last thing anyone needs is to open the Log and see a story that comes off disrespectful to their deceased spouse, kid or close friend.
And, of course, writing about people passing on always makes me conscious that I may not have as much time as I think I do, which is an unsettling realization to have.
Doesn’t make the job of writing the stories any less necessary though.

When you’ve written one of, or possibly the most popular series of books ever, what do you do for an encore?
Along with millions of other people, I’m looking forward to the finishing volume of the Harry Potter series, but as a writer, I’m also fascinated by what this must feel like for JK Rowling herself.
I’d like to think that becoming a fabulously wealthy, internationally famous best-selling author (I’ve read that the New York Times created a Children’s Best Sellers list because publishers were frustrated that Rowling’s books took up so many slots on the regular fiction list) feels terrific, but where does Rowling go from here? What does she write next?
Whatever she writes, I’m sure it’ll sell: Her fan base is in the millions. And as one of the world’s wealthiest people, she has the freedom to write anything she wants without worrying about whether it will pay the bills.
But on the other hand, everything she writes will be judged against the seven volumes of Harry’s adventures: Is it as good? Is it as successful? While HP isn’t my favorite fantasy work, it is for millions of Rowling fans: Even if her next book is amazing, will it capture their hearts if it’s not about Harry?
If I were in that position, I’d find it intimidating to know that the bar was set so high, especially since I’d set it myself.
Some authors have been in that position and hated it: Arthur Conan Doyle would have much preferred one of his historical novels, such as “The White Company” be the work he’s remembered for, rather than Sherlock Holmes.
Then again, I’d certainly jump at the chance to create a character as successful as Holmes or Harry, even if it meant the rest of my books were neglected. Endless “Well, I didn’t like it as much as …” comments in return for one true classic isn’t a bad trade-off.
So what will Rowling do next? She could spin off adventures in the Hogwarts world and probably sell well for years. She could switch to some completely different field, to minimize how much her next book will be compared with the Harry Potter novels. Maybe she has something in mind she believes will do even better than Harry.
I look forward to finding out.

“Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far into the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” — Rainer Maria Rilke.

Weird, but true. Last week, police arrested three men in their late teens for planting a bomb at the Victory Family Church, which is under construction in Burleson, Texas.
The guys’ reason? They belong to a “radical Christian activist group” (their words) that believes society is falling apart, and that one of the problems is that there should be only one church and one denomination (apparently so we can concentrate better on serving God). And their group believes in backing up its position with violence.
Then again, not that weird. Stephen Jordi, who was busted for planning a firebombing campaign against abortion clinics a couple of years ago also planned to bomb churches that weren’t sufficiently pro-life.

From time to time, I’ve heard Rush Limbaugh or one of the other right-wing spokesmen explain how Democrats are secretly hoping for more terrorist attacks on America, so they can use American deaths to make political points.

Wonder if we’ll hear the right-wing make similar criticisms of Arkansas Republican Party Chairman Dennis Milligan who said last month that “all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001 ] and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country.”