Hey, Andy, great post. I don't have enough room here to properly respond, so I have posted it here. http://www.4threvolt.com/FreeMarket.html
I explain how I came to conclude that free market systems are what truly help the poor --and that big government systems always fail and end up hurting the poor. I also provide links describing medical care reform ideas that exploit free market principles (which have been successfully implemented in Indiana and Singapore) -- while the big government systems in Canada and Great Britain are failing. Also, at the end of the post, I respond directly to some of your comments.
This limitation will be remedied in the upcoming new API -- developers will be able to specify they want the entire context (entire wavelet) for an event. That should allow for more powerful robots. Stay tuned to the Google Wave Developers blog! :)
That is true. Another option is to just update the blips by hitting 'Edit' and validating. This will send an event to the bot again, so the blip will be analyzed by it.