The cloning of human embryos has now been accomplished. Is it a viable strategy for creating stem cells to cure diseases? A lot more research will have to be done to find out. While we wait, let's not be frightened by scare tactics into not funding research that may be the key to curing what is currently incurable.

This year, it’s still possible that the country will avoid a full-blown recession.

The main problem now is that the good times are no longer good enough to carry the middle class through the bad times. For much of the last 35 years, the incomes of most workers have been growing far more slowly than they once did. In the current expansion, which started in 2001, the median weekly paycheck of workers has actually fallen 1 percent, once inflation is taken into account, according to the Labor Department.

I don't think that Iran's regime should be under-estimated. It is a highly religious, fundamentalist and dangerously fractured entity. But it seems much more likely that it would use nuclear weapons as leverage to extend its power in the region and world, to counter-balance Israel and the Sunni powers and to enhance its influence than that it would start an apocalyptic battle which it would lose.

There are no easy answers, but the United States can do more to demonstrate to the world that Afghanistan is a priority and help change public opinion in Europe. U.S. officials must move away from statements such as those of Admiral Mike Mullen in his recent Congressional testimony: "In Afghanistan, we do what we can. In Iraq, we do what we must." This only shows NATO populations in Europe and Canada that we are not serious about the mission, and makes them more dubious of the whole enterprise.

Ordinarily, we shouldn't want the government to decide when profits become "excess." But the case of huge profits from the run-up in oil prices is different for two reasons. First, it is unusually clear that these profits have nothing to do with productivity. Diverting them to the U.S. Treasury would have no effect on the incentive to extract more oil from American ground. Second, some or all of these profits are directly related to a situation that is imposing huge sacrifices—financial and otherwise—from others; that is, the Iraq war.

Sooner or later, the U.S. will have to include Mexico in any serious effort to control illegal immigration. By starting this conversation now, the Democrats can wrest the initiative out of the hands of the right wing and build a consensus for a policy prescription that fits the geography of the problem. The alternative is to let the resentment fester and hope that the Republicans will keep their attack dogs leashed. Fat chance.

In my imaginary perfect world, abortion would be (to borrow a phrase) safe, legal, and rare. 1.2 million still seems like too high a number, but I recall data earlier in the decade that showed a bump in abortions during the 2000-2001 recession and afterwards. In nearly every way, the new information is good news. Right up until the last sentence: "Nevertheless, 87 percent of U.S. counties, accounting for 35 percent of women ages 15 to 44, do not have an abortion provider, the report found." 87% of counties? That number is way too high too. I suppose if you're highly resolved on this issue, this post seems contradictory. I want more access for more women and a reduction in the overall rate of abortion.

It turns out they hate us not for our success, as Bush once claimed, but for our incompetence, which he has done much to exhibit. The problem is that few believe that Bush is the least bit serious about addressing any of the region's problems. As an editorial in the Arab News, a Saudi English-language newspaper, put it on the occasion of Bush's visit: " ... no Palestinian, no Arab believes, he will, or can, deliver.... Everything he touches turns to dust and ashes. Iraq, Afghanistan, maybe now even Iran."

In its defense, the Navy does take some measures to prevent damage to whale populations, and its argument about the necessity of sonar training isn't absurd on its face. I suspect, however, that the whales will draw little comfort from the fact that the sonar we're killing them with is protecting their freedom.

We've been tracking Common Sense Issues, the Mike Huckabee-supporting push polling group, closely. They've already made millions of calls and last night, they unleashed another onslaught on South Carolina, where they'll call a million homes over three days. All told, that means they've made approximately 7 million calls so far this election. The group's executive director told me that they're "well within the law." But one thing that hasn't been clear is whether any of the states will call the group's bluff and prosecute them.