As I survey and talk to the many young people now in our education system, I am disheartened by the lack of core values and basic knowledge. Even many so-called educated adults are the apparent victims of a national educational system that is unable to instill a desire for or even respect for a decent education. It isn’t that the knowledge is unavailable but that the students simply have no interest in availing themselves of it.
Granted, any college education has become increasingly expensive but many are still able (and do) to manage the costs. Not everyone has to go to an Ivy League School and for some subjects, there are certainly better colleges. What is really required is putting in sufficient time and effort to actually learn the subjects they are supposed studying. But, increasingly, our high school and college students are immersing themselves in endless bacchanalias of booze, drugs, free sex (hookups), and hear little in their classrooms but liberal indoctrination telling them they are victims unable to care for themselves and not responsible for their own actions.
Black America has especially vulnerable to this often profane message. “America be damned”, “America is the root of all evil”, “Christianity has killed more people than any other religion in history”, “White men have enslaved every other race they’ve encountered”, “God is dead”, “Government is the answer”, “Conservatives are evil and want you to be their slaves”, “Can’t nobody represent you that don’t share your color”, “Healthcare is the right of every citizen”, etc. etc…
The fact that all the above are demonstrably false means nothing to Godless Socialists infesting our classrooms at every level. Yes, it is an unfortunate fact that socialism in its most virulent forms are being taught our children nearly every day and that our institutions of higher learning have become the Petri dishes of our social disillusions and dysfunctions.
It is even more unfortunate that so many well intentioned teachers and instructors cannot see the very basis of their own rants is false. After more than four generations of Americans have been raised in the increasingly soupy atmosphere of social justice being the sole province of Government, many have come to believe Socialism and bigger governments are the answer to the American Utopia.
The simple fact that our Constitution which was designed to limit government in almost every way and the capitalistic society that grew up around it has been the source of our becoming the richest, freest, most liberal, open minded, highest achieving country in the history of the world. Every single socialistic society has failed or fallen behind its wiser neighbors. Witness the USSR, North Korea, China and many more.
The despotism of socialism destroyed the USSR and Russia is only recently begun to recover from its nightmare. China was one of the most impoverished nations on earth until it relented and began to allow citizens ownership of production and capitalism was birthed. North Korea is starving its citizens while it brother nation of South Korea is prosperous.
And yet America embraces an openly socialist President and elects a socialist congress that blindly follows his lead into an ever deeper, blacker hole of socialism, all in the name of “Hope.” Apparently our schools have sunk so low they are no longer able to distinguish between those things that made us great and those things that destroy civilizations. They can no longer teach positive values and parents raised up in our amoral, socialist bogs no longer have the authority to correct their erring children.
Our new religion is political correctness as defined by the cesspool of our popular media. Since no formerly biblical positive values can be publicly expressed then only those things our sickened media defines as feeling good can have any value. And since socialism promises equality of outcome for everyone, it has become the new destiny.
If you have the slightest interest in the future wellbeing of your own offspring, investigate the books, instruction, instructors, political correctness, and view points expressed in your schools. Don’t send your college bound sponges off to schools steeped in the immorality of most colleges but investigate their qualities for yourself. THERE ARE good schools with good professors dedicated to actually teaching the subjects they are being paid to teach your children. Look for them. Support them.
ByRobin of Berkeley I grew up in a home where God was MIA. I don't remember religion being mentioned except occasional references to some sort of God and a heaven. While my family was proud of their ethnicity, they didn't practice the religion. Aside from the requisite Bar Mitvahs, they never set foot in a synagogue.
My parents did worship at the altar of pleasure. They loved to party; they lived for the times they'd go out with their large, rowdy group, and dance and drink the night away.
I'm not sure why my parents were such party animals. It was probably a way to escape the past, the memories of which were permanently etched on the mournful faces of my grandparents.
The past: Atrocities in Tsarist Russia. Poverty in the U.S. Tiny, noisy tenements in New York City; ghettos of immigrants from Ireland, Italy and Eastern Europe huddled together.
My father's dad, desperate for money during the Great Depression, accepted a dollar to name my father after another man's deceased loved one.
Brazen anti Semitism; recurrent chants of "dirty Jew." WWII; the enormity of the death camps and the guilt of being safely sheltered.
My father, with a little money saved from working 12 hour days, reinvented himself. He changed his Yiddish sounding name to something WASP'y, and moved the family to a look alike, tract house in the 'burbs. While the lifestyle was modest compared to middle America today, my parents were euphoric, a state that continued even into old age.
Escapees from the ghetto, no longer targets, my parents finally felt like true Americans. They were happy as clams in their perfect, sanitized life of black and white TVs, a washer and dryer, frozen vegetables, and luxuries like bottled salad dressing.
When I think about my dad, I remember how he ate. Every morsel, whether formerly boxed or canned, was exquisitely delicious, and he savored each bite, murmuring "Mmm, mmm," like a man just rescued from starvation.
My parents worked hard during the week, and then weekends traveled the cocktail party circuit, dancing the night away. They were in perpetual adolescence, recreating their lost childhood.
Meanwhile, I was a latchkey kid before the phrase was coined. With my only hobby being shopping, I occupied myself with my friends, the Addams Family, the Brady Bunch, Ed Sullivan, and Patty Duke. When I was a teen, it became mind numbing sex and drugs and rock and roll.
Weekends there was so little to do that I slept in until 1 pm. Occasionally I would tag along on a Sunday with my best friend and her family who went on outings. I was astonished that an entire family went out in the car for activities like picnics and museums.
It was a flat, colorless childhood with no strong arms to guide me. I drifted along the best I could, like a lone, unguarded leaf.
College was a blur of hook ups, hard drugs, and parties as I was speeding headfirst into disaster. Mercifully, in my early 20's, I found my way to a few decent boyfriends who had brains and I gained some myself, giving up my untamed habits along the way.
I settled down with my husband, Jon, a bookish type, who came from a family the polar opposite of mine. Jon still jokes (?) that he helped raise me.
Often Jon would drag me to talks by other brainiacs, where I would summarily nod off. But I like to think I absorbed something in between snoozes.
Eventually my life took shape: around my career as a psychotherapist and my leftist crusades to change the world. I found religion, or perhaps it found me.
I had just turned 30, an event that had given me the willies. Perusing a book by Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa in a bookstore, I was entranced by the novel idea that happiness is not the goal of existence, but the byproduct of a life well lived; that the purpose of life was truth not pleasure.
I started studying Eastern religion with a fervor, especially books by Trungpa and Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh), and even called myself a Buddhist until I shed most of my old identities a few years ago. I became more of a heavyweight, able to look at the big ticket items of life -- mortality, illness, and suffering -- because I was safely nestled in the world of the Spirit.
I remember the moment I discovered God, in my 30's, when Jon and I were on vacation. I was reading a light novel, and he, of course, was studying some heavy tome. When I perused it and saw it was a religious book, I asked him, "Do you believe in God?" (Yes I know it's bizarre that it took l0 years for the subject to come up.)
I was bowled over when Jon said, "Yes." (He was also raised secular, and had never previously mentioned the G word.) My eyes welled up with tears. I realized that I did too.
I've been thinking a lot lately about the factors in my life that lured me far Left for so long; what captivated me and held me there even with mounting evidence that the ideology was bankrupt. And why are millions still following the Pied Piper of Chicago, even though he's looking increasingly more corrupt and vacuous?
And I've come to this: the Left is filled to the brim with people like me, who grew up in homes with God in permanent exile and various adults floating in and out in hot pursuit of self fulfillment. With no way to understand life, this realm starts looking like an unmanageable House of Horrors. The result: people turn to someone like Obama to engineer a whole new world.
So we have a situation today with the Left in charge, preaching their religion which is anti-religion. Their dogmas are so harsh that they make the Torah look like a light summer read. The Left's missionaries are trying to tame the savages (stupid white people) just as the missionaries of old traveled abroad to tame the savages.
But, as survivors of Jonestown learned, a religion without a beneficent God firmly in place, is a cult, and can destroy lives. Those spiritual teachers I admired when I was young, Osho and Trungpa? They turned out to be major pervs. They slept with their students, even encouraged violence against them. Both died as a result of their depravity.
Without some type of faith, people can remain in a state of ravenous hunger, as needy and frightened as a little lost child. They're looking for something, but all the roads are blocked off. The only door leading to safety has been shut in their faces by a society that rejects the Sacred.
So the masses flock to Obama because he offers them meaning and a way to organize a chaotic universe. People believe he's some kind of Messiah because they're frantic for a Prophet to create a heaven on earth.
I saw a blog where a young person posts, "I have pictures of Obama on my wall. He gives me a reason to get out of bed in the morning." There are no rational arguments about bailouts and taxes that will counteract this desperation for purpose.
Our culture offers youth nothing of substance to carve out a dignified life. In the place of spiritual and intellectual richness, we pump them up with noxious television shows and films, texting and sexting, addiction to Facebook, and lots of drugs. We may have created a Generation N, for Nihilism.
And it's not just the young. Baby boomers are being dragged kicking and screaming into old age, without any spiritual guideposts and within a culture that fears and despises anything old. In ancient times, elders were revered as the cultural wellspring of wisdom and tradition.
But in most of the First World, older people are as disposable as yesterday's trash. How unacceptable to grow old in a culture that finds no grace, only disgrace, in wrinkles, and wants to hustle you out the door as soon as possible.
Baby boomers are also dancing to Obama's beat, enveloped in feelings of hope and change, holding on for dear life to their long lost youth. But it's not the real 60's with its hard drugs, violence, and exploitation of women, but a fantasy, frozen in time, of peace and flower power.
I understand the draw of Obama and liberalism and changing the world because I know what it is like when life has no other meaning. I understand how unbearable it is when not only one's parents but God is MIA and school is a forbidding place, and drugs only temporarily blunt the pain.
And I know the feeling of being so depressed that you grab onto anything -- whether it's a bottle or a relationship or a guru -- anything that eases the despair, and you won't let go, even when the consequences keep mounting. You won't let go until you find your way to the truth.
And I know what it's like to wake up from the fog, to shake off the dread, and to find that I'm strong enough to walk on my own two feet and that a Higher Power lifts and carries me when I'm too weak to stand.
If we as a culture don't find our way back to those young and old who are lost in space, adrift and unanchored, they will embrace false idols. For as long as Obama is the only game in town, the only way people can feel alive and hopeful, they'll ignore every red flag and defend Obama until their last dying breath. They must believe in him. The alternative is just too unbearable.
A frequent AT contributor, Robin is a recovering liberal and a psychotherapist in Berkeley.
Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/in_obama_we_trust.html at August 27, 2009 - 07:48:25 AM EDT
Could it have been that former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, the adulterer, was actually right about something? Not the haircut business or how to keep his mistress quiet, mind you. I mean about there being two Americas.
There is the vibrant America, the Christian, conservative, productive, working and family oriented America . . . and the stagnant one, the liberal, race-baiting, socialist minded, big government, "I am owed ...something" America of too many politicians.
There is an America of ever-increasing wealth, innovation, creativity, new products and services with choices galore. And then there is the liberal politician's America: regulated, subsidized, earmarked, failing, non-equality minded.
In the one America, it is what you produce that gets you ahead. In the other, it's who you know and what government gives you.
In one America, to earmark money means setting aside part of one's funds (into savings) for a purchase -- a car, house, college, medical, retirement.
In the other America, to earmark is to take from taxpayers to give to cronies, constituents, and donors. It has become the highest rite of career politicians: Buying their votes with other people's money. Oh sure, there have been some reforms, but one recent bill in the House had 32,000 earmark requests. That's monies set aside by politicians for their favorite pork barrel projects, buying votes.
In one America, we decide what we pay for. We choose constantly between little things and big. We call our shots and associate with whom we will. Or we go down the street to associate with someone else. We have faith in those we work with and for to do the right things simply because they are right.
In the other America, we vote for them but we rarely get what we vote for. And too many do as they please without regard to average America nor right and wrong.
Maybe that's why this current Democrat Congress and its leadership just registered the lowest approval rating in poll history. It surely isn't because folks love the Republicans. The last election proved they don't. But the current polls conclusively prove they don't like the Democrats, either.
It is time for a change. Remove them all and start over. Elect a new congress. We certainly can't do any worse!
Please read: Here is just another form of slavery but made worse for its pedophilia!
Mass Wedding of Child Brides Held in Gaza
Mass Wedding of Child Brides Held in Gaza
A picture is worth a thousand words, and the pictures below certainly qualify.
It is difficult for many in the West to understand the culture of militant Islam.
For instance, click here to view a news segment on MSNBC about the desperate plight of women under Islamic law in Afghanistan. This news segment could have been filmed in Iran, Saudi Arabia or any number of Islamic countries throughout the world.
Most in the West know little about the life of Mohammed, the writings of the Qur’an, or the history of Islam. Most are unaware that Mohammed married a six year old girl and consummated the marriage when she was nine, or that he had eleven wives and numerous concubines.
There is evidence that the number of Islamic child brides in Europe and England is increasing. Shariah courts and law are now officially recognized in cities across England, even as domestic abuse of Islamic women increases. We have seen reports that estimate there are now between 50,000 and 100,000 polygamous Muslim marriages in the U.S.
As Europe and England have learned, radical Islamists have a different definition of “co-existing†than we do. “Co-existing†ultimately means our values, traditions and practices must give way to theirs.
Practices like those in Afghanistan. Practices like those below.
Hamas sponsored a mass wedding for four hundred and fifty couples. Most of the grooms were in their mid to late twenties; most of brides were under ten.
Muslim dignitaries including Mahmud Zahar, a leader of Hamas, were on hand to congratulate the couples who took part in the carefully staged celebration.
"We are saying to the world and to America that you cannot deny us joy and happiness," Zahar told the grooms, all of whom were dressed in identical black suits and hailed from the nearby Jabalia refugee camp. [emphasis added]
Each groom received a gift of 500 dollars from Hamas.
The pre-pubescent girls, dressed in white gowns and adorned with garish make-up, received bridal bouquets.
"We are presenting this wedding as a gift to our people who stood firm in the face of the siege and the war," local Hamas strongman Ibrahim Salaf said in a speech.
The wedding photos tell the rest of the sordid tale.
The International Center for Research on Women now estimates that there are 51 million child brides now living on planet earth and almost all in Muslim countries.
Twenty-nine percent of these child brides are regularly beaten and molested by their husbands in Egypt; twenty six percent receive similar abuse in Jordan..
Every year, three million Muslim girls are subjected to genital mutilation, according to UNICEF. This practice has not been outlawed in many parts of America.
The Islamic practice of pedophilia dates back to the prophet Muhammad, who amassed eleven wives and many concubines after the death of his first wife Khadijah in 619 A.D.
Pedophilia was not only practiced by Muhammad but also sanctioned by the Quran. In its discussion of the waiting period required to determine if a wife is pregnant before divorce, the sacred text says, "If you are in doubt concerning those of your wives who have ceased menstruating, know that their waiting period shall be three months. The same shall apply to those who have not yet menstruated"(65:4).
Those who think that modern Muslims have abandoned this teaching should study the pictures and videos that accompany this article and recall the words of Ayatollah Khomeini, the most famous Islamic cleric of the 20th Century:
A man can have sexual pleasure from a child as young as a baby. However, he should not penetrate; sodomizing the child is OK. If a man penetrates and damages the child, then he should be responsible for her subsistence all her life. This girl, however, does not count as one of his four permanent wives. The man will not be eligible to marry the girl's sister. . . It is better for a girl to marry in such a time when she would begin menstruation at her husband's house rather than her father's house. Any father marrying his daughter so young will have a permanent place in heaven.
Bill Smith, Editor: In blatant disregard of the truth, MSNBC follows CBS into the annuals of history (the toilet) for falsifying a news story by controlling or editing camera shots and by preparing and presenting a false narrative that seems be the intent on inflaming racial tensions and casting false allegations of threats. Racial bias was deliberately projected by the MSNBC reporters on to a story with blatant statements impugning whites at a rally as potential racist and threats to a black President.
When in fact, the person at the center of the story narrative was hidden from the public by parlor camera tricks and a false narrative. That person was a patriot citizen who happens to be black. MSNBC actions to falsify this story showed its bias against the general public participating in recent rallies and town hall meetings MSNBC introduced its own form of racial bias and evidenced a willingness to smear Americans exercising both their first and second amendment rights.
MSNBC willingness to advance and promote a false story to pursue either a biased agenda or to boost ratings was indeed despicable. This action opens up to question what other lies MSNBC may have perpetrated on the American public with fictitious or edited camera shots and falsified news story narratives. Americans rely on a free free press to report unbiased and truthfully. Media bias in the past years has become a matter of major concern. However, for members of the press to falsify the news, destroys and jeopardizes public trust and places all Americas at risk.
As identified by Adam Bitely at NetRight Nation, "MSNBC is up to their typical routine of running erroneous reports. One from yesterday was particularly troubling." It is unfortunate that Adam and the rest of the public have observed MSNBC as prevaricator of the truth.
Today, Bill Wilson, President of America for Limited Government sent a letter calling on MSNBC Executive Producer Steven Capus to fire all involved with producing a misleading broadcast that Wilson termed a "nefarious assault on decency." Bill Wilson is right. However, it is also time for the print media, the network media and the cable channels to take seriously false reporting and to police their own actions including calling MSNBC into accountability. A free press will not remain free if society becomes so distrustful that it turns to and trusts in government to monitor the accuracy of the "press." When that happens, the freedom of the press will cease to exist. Cross-posted at the ARRA News Service
President Barack Obama and his administration are now in danger of making the worst political mistake of their lives. Fortunately, they seem oblivious to the damage it is causing them. This may well be America's best reason and opportunity for genuine hope and change.
Since the August recess began, the American Public has been given its chance to speak in high school gyms, church basements, and community college auditoriums throughout the nation. The public soundboard has created our first real chance for accountability for the most tone-deaf administration in living memory. All sorts of people, retirees, stay-at-home moms, yuppies, and even real working people have shown up at town-hall meetings to, first, hear from their representatives, and then to respond to ideas put forth by the democrat sycophants.
The administration's poll numbers are reflecting the concurrent plummet in Barack Obama's approval rating on his signature issue--the universal federalized take-over of the health care system in America. Only 36% of Americans now trust the President on the issue, 53% do not. And those numbers are still higher than for congress as a whole.
Instead of being the patriotic questioners they should be probing the depths of policies, intentions, and the federal agenda, our press has become a public relations extension of this executive branch and thus unable to reflect any genuine accuracy of reaction to such policies. When any administration has had as much beneficial support from what should actually be a skeptical press corps that instead has become a public supporter of its own policies, the risk is that it will believe what that press corps writes, reports, and editorializes upon is true. The press has blinded this administration to its own folly, instead it has fallen into the trap of believing what the press is writing and honestly thinks their messianic bringing of humanist utopia to the planet is a mandate. "We are all Socialists now."
Yet in town hall after town hall none are able to control the branding or messaging of what "We The People" actually believe and it isn't that we need socialized medicine.
BO's administration and our elected members of Congress evidently need reminding of whom they work for. They need help remembering just what their obligations represent and whose monies they are spending. They need to reminded that if they won't do what the (Public) board of directors believe best, we can toss them out can like yesterday's kitchen scraps and start over again. I think we should!
The genuine efforts of citizens just like you and me attending August town halls is personally encouraging. I'm even more deeply grateful that Americans have not become comrades of malaise, but rather still have core convictions that can be offended, and are in fact now angry.
When this White House says, "Let me be clear", it follows those words with vague elusive non-committal language, because it cannot tell us the truth. BO says in prime time press conferences that the "public option" won't change current insurance coverage and that you'll "absolutely get to keep your doctor." But he forgets when he tells the goons, thugs, and buffoons of SEIU and ACORN that the public option will lead the way to a "single-payer" system that those pronouncements are also taped and televised.
This administration says it will have the most transparent dialogue in the history of the nation but they send the SEIU guerillas and the ACORN equivalent of the Sopranos to town hall meetings in order to muscle out legitimate citizen dissent. Then they refer to the "grassroots" public dissenters as artificial "Astroturf."
This administration has said it will not keep or form any database of the snitches they've begged to report on their neighbors disagreeing with their health care plans. But under laws governing federal archival of all communication with the executive branch, they are required to keep the names, e-mail addresses, and correspondence sent to them on any matter. They can't legally erase their own information.
This President campaigned on the idea of bringing people together from all sides to solve the problems facing us. However, when he doesn't think a camera is recording him, he states that he doesn't wish for people opposing his view to do any talking, "Just shutup".
President Obama has repeatedly attempted to deceive the American people. "We the People" have given him the benefit of the doubt but in his first eight months his actions continually betray true intent and we trust him no more.
An overwhelming majority of Americans have listened to the ideas behind the kinds of reform the President wishes to enact on the health care system and have publicly rejected it. They do so while still admitting they would like to see reform, just not the kind the President has proposed.
Should this administration and the sycophantic democrats refuse to recognize the truth in this scenario, "We the People" have always reserved the right to send them to the unemployment line. The Nation is participating in the process of making that option clear to them.
The question remains, who will the administration, believe?
Fiends discuss the importance of "testing" something before you risk it all. This lesson is applied to the health care reform debate in Washington. Check out more videos like this at Not So Sure. [Source]
Addendum to: Slavery in the Modern World, the defacto slavery of the American People by PL Booth
In 1863, the first Republican Party President, Abraham Lincoln, signed the historic Emancipation Proclamation, a document which changed the course of history for an entire group of people, an entire nation and an entire culture. It was intended to end the horrors of slavery by making ownership of human beings by other human beings, illegal. It has become a world famous document widely quoted and studied.
Unfortunately, a great many American citizens do not recognize the current revival of slavery as it is a bit more refined and less obvious enslavement. Unfortunately, more and more Americans are willing to give up certain freedoms in return for promises of government largesse not realizing government can only give them what it takes from others. Most of these citizens don't even realize what they're doing or losing because the news media refuse to perform their role as purveyors of truth and accuracy and our schools are culpable in mis-educating our youth teaching them Socialistic values are the highest goals.
Enslavement is not coming with a bang, but increasing with a slow, relentless whimper. Each day, each week, each month, each year brings us closer to that state of de facto slavery as a result of our greed thinly disguised as "civil rights" and entitlements. Ask most Americans and they will tell you that food, clothing, shelter and other necessities are "rights," not just necessities but rights to which they are entitled and that must be provided by an omnipotent government.
Even when actually warranted, government charity most often morphs into government nightmares. For example, President Lyndon Baines Johnson's "Great Society" poured billions of taxpayer dollars into programs that have done more damage to the American family than any other public handout. The government pays women who bare children a monthly allowance based on the number of children in the household. The program and its underwriters failed to understand that the way the program's requirements were structured, millions of men no longer required for familial support were freed to leave home and in fact decided that the need for marriage was trumped by their need - or desire - for "free" money.
Then, rather than retreat from such obvious government mal-run social programs, succeeding presidential administrations and numerous lawmakers willingly continue to embrace spending programs that at best do not solve the problems they were created to solve. At worst they create additional societal problems. But they do buy votes from their new slaves so those lawmakers can remain in office. The current Free Healthcare Program of Obama and the Democrats is a classic example.
Today, many people live fragile existences in a struggle for financial survival and the American Dream that can be ended by missing just a few paychecks. The carrot at the end of the stick formerly known as "the American dream" has been replaced by a whip best described as our American nightmare. You no longer work just to achieve a better life for yourselves and your children. You work to keep a roof over your head and pray that you don't lose it because of oppressive taxation or bad policies being enforced from Washington. Most Americans are oblivious to the extent of taxation only seeing it happening each April 15. They aren't told by leaders or the media that besides income tax, they are taxed for just about every action they take and item that they buy. Go over a bridge, pay a toll (tax); pay your utility bills, pay surcharges (taxes); buy a product, pay sales tax; buy a vehicle or fuel for a vehicle, pay federal and state taxes. And those taxes are invariably controlled by politicians supporting their favored programs.
Americans become de facto slaves when fear replaces free incentives such as motivations to work for themselves. Our leftist media regurgitates liberal-left talking points generally disguised as news stories about the wealthy living it up while common men and women struggle to feed themselves and their children. The idea is older than Marxism. Create dissatisfaction to the point that people will seek out populist politicians who promise much whether or not they can deliver anything. And then they ask for even more power for themselves and their puppet masters to cure the very problems they create.
The latest promise of a heaven on earth is Obama's "Hope and Change" medical care plan. Though it is dressed up with flowery language and high-sounding platitudes, it is nothing more than a grand power grab of life-and-death decision-making. A friend asked me rhetorically: Why would Americans turn over their health and welfare - their very lives - to a bunch of crooked politicians who spend most of their time covering up, lying, cajoling and cheating, all in the name of power?
Why indeed, are Americans so anxious to turn over life-and-death decisions to governments proven incapable of managing even the smallest of programs? Could it be they prefer enslavement? Is it so much easier than self determination? Is Socialism really preferable to the free market system that once made us the envy of the world, the richest, freest nation in history? May God forbid it.
Nancy Pelagrosi (our moron speaker of the house of dems) may be just about the best politician the GOP has these days. Every time Madam Speaker goes on camera, you can almost hear Democrats' approval ratings drop. Now she's after insurance companies. To hear her tell it, you'd think the insurance companies ought to be in the business of going out of business. Here's her latest gem: "It's almost immoral what (insurance companies) are doing. Of course they've been immoral all along in how they have treated the people they insure. They are the villains. They have been part of the problem in a major way. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening." And the media says all the protesters are mere Insurance Co. shills, of course.
Well, it is a fact that all Americans want the very best healthcare and for someone else to pay for it. However, BO's system would bankrupt us all. Removing about 13 million illegals from free healthcare benefits now being received would go a long ways toward lowering overall costs, Try to keep this in mind. Illegals are the single largest group of emergency room users for healthcare and they rarely pay for it.
Equally outrageous, is the fact that these insurance companies actually object to being put out of business, which is exactly what offering folks lower-cost government insurance (the "public option") at public expense must surely do. How dare insurance companies want to go on insuring folks! Why can't they agree to just to roll over and die as I am sure Madam Pelagrosi and Comraid Obama wish?
Just a cotton-picking minute here. Didn't our president, "The Great Promiser", say that if we're happy with our present health-care coverage -- and the polls indicate that a vast majority of us are -- then we can keep it. As the president says, "Period." Of course that period does come with a little asterisk attached, doesn't it, Mr. President? Followed by 1,000 pages or so of small type not many of us (not even our Representatives) have seen, let alone read.
Buried in there, like a 'gator barely visible under the surface of a stagnant pond, is a plan to organize public insurance pools for families with incomes up to four times the poverty level. Folks with sufficient income who are insured through their workplace couldn't get nearly the same subsidy or tax break so they'd naturally start drifting over to those government-organized pools, or "exchanges." That would drive the cost of the subsidies to the taxpayers way up -- far higher than what the president has told us his plan would cost. This is, after all, a federal program. Like Topsy, it will grow.
Then there is the moron speaker's "public option," or government health insurance. It wouldn't be too long before it begin to absorb those entering the new insurance pools. As more and more people left private for public insurance, the number of people with private policies would shrink. Can you see an obvious trend here? In place of a private insurance market, there would begin to develop a highly centralized, government-administered, system of health care with decisions made by bureaucrats, "experts," and assorted paper pushers. You can think of your doctor as either a new public employee or someone who'll have to report to one.
What MOST of us are looking for in a health-insurance plan is, will it allow us to choose our own doctor and our own insurance policy, will it let those who provide our health care order the tests and treatments they consider necessary, or will it hamper them? Will we get to consult our own physician or is our fate to be in the hands of Doctor Obama's buerocracy with his glib talk of red and blue pills and how there's really no difference between them except in cost? When Comrad Obama talks medicine, he's almost as convincing as some doctors I know talking oh-so-expertly about politics.
More questions: Would this great big new health-care system get all those lawyers off our doctor's back to just let the country's physicians practice medicine instead of having to practice it defensively? Is there anything in this developing thousand-page mass of rules and regs that will lower present medical malpractice premiums driving up the present costs of health-care? Will this bill give individuals the same tax breaks on their health insurance as businesses are now allowed? Will it let us take our insurance with us when we switch jobs or lose one? Will it encourage good health by giving discounts to those of us who practice good health?
I don't hear anyone arguing the current system of American health care is perfect, far from it. There is no imperfect system that, with just the right mix of government mandates and complicated reform, can't be made perfectly awful. See Britain's national health scheme. It is a fact, not everyone makes good choices, even about health, but they should be allowed to make their own choices unhampered by Gov. bureaus. Remember what a good job Congress has done giving us affordable housing through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sub-prime loans (which brought on one heck of a sub-prime economy)? And now Congress is going to make health care affordable, too. May our Lord help us.
Isn't it amazing, considering how sorry insurance companies are, that most of us are satisfied with the coverage we've got now?
Until we get some clear answers about the administration's national health insurance scheme, we're not about to let anybody pry that insurance policy out of our hands, especially not Nancy Pelagrosi. But if Madam Speaker will just keep on barking, there'll be little danger of that. She's got to be the most distrusted politician in the country and competition for that dubious distinction is incredibly fierce.
Here's another point to consider. There IS an actual comprehensive, free market solution that Congress has been aware of for some time and which they refuse to pay attention to because it is a SOLUTION not an excuse to seize control of life-and-death. You can read the solution here: http://www.modernconservative.com/freeandfair.php It reforms Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP, which are all bankrupt. It solves the problem of anyone who wants to be insured and does not contain a TRANSITIONAL government program of CATASTROPHIC CARE. It is MEANS-TESTED and PAYS FOR ITSELF before its phased out in favour of private insurance. Private insurers would not have the yoke of bogus regulations AND they would receive TAX CREDITS to insure the poor and the ill (with pre-existing conditions). That is money companies would be out BUT can use to defray the costs of those who can't pay the full premium and/or who have more NECESSARY medical care than the basics. It SAVES all of us money because those folks don't need to be on a government plan OR who unnecessarily use the ER would have self-paid insurance available
On a slightly different note, you probably wan to know the following. BO voted against ALL health care reforms that came up while he was a senator:
1) NO expanding opportunities for small business medical insurance plans (motion to invoke cloture, May 11, 2006),
2) NO allowing the use of private HSA funds for insurance purchases (HR 2, January 25, 2007),
3) NO allowing the purchase of medical insurance across state lines (HR 976, April 2, 2007),
4) NO requiring immigrants on Z Visas maintain minimum health coverage (S 1348, June 6, 2007), 5) NO preventing the erosion of coverage (amendment, HR 976, August 2, 2007),
6) NO preserving employer-sponsored coverage (amendment, HR 976, August 2, 2007),
7) NO allowing deductions of health care costs (amendment, March 3, 2008).
Conversely, in the Illinois Senate, BO voted NO in 2002 to the newly created "Induced Labor Liability Act", which would have covered live-birth children (after abortion or induced labor) on the child's behalf. In 2001, Big O voted "present" TWICE on two Born Alive Protection Acts that would have assured born-alive abortion infants medical treatment and hospital care and then publicly lied about it.
BO also vehemently endorses FOCA (Freedom of Choice Act, an Orwellian abomination legislating abortion anytime into American law) to the detriment of people of conscience, people of faith, parents of minors, and many state laws of any and all kinds against any type or situation requiring abortion. Like most socialists and communists, BO promotes infant death. PL Booth, http://www.blueeyeview.blogspot.com
I'm sick right now with a bad case of poison ivy. I'm not telling you this because I want the government's help. I'm telling you I'm sick because it explains why I have been sitting at home for days and, therefore, have had time to read the first 500 pages of the new health care bill.
I had no intention of reading the health care bill until a friend of mine – in his second year of medical school – sent me a list of statements about the bill. These statements have been floating around the internet so you may have seen them. After I read the bill, I concluded that the majority of the statements seemed correct. I've rephrased many of these statements and put them in the form of several dozen true/false statements.
I would like for you to take the time to answer these questions for two reasons. First, I've spent a lot of time reading the health care bill. Second, and more importantly, the U.S. Congress has not spent much time reading the bill.
On Page 22, I saw some language, which suggested that the bill mandates audits of all employers that choose to self-insure. Can you tell me whether that is a) True or b) False?
On Page 29, I saw what appeared to be an admission that health care will be rationed under this new plan. Can you tell me whether that is a) True or b) False?
On Page 30, I discovered that a government committee will be established to decide what treatments and benefits I get. However, unlike an insurer, I see no evidence that there will be a process to appeal their decisions. Can you tell me whether that is a) True or b) False?
On Page 50, I read some non-discrimination language, which seems to suggest that all non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free health care services. Can you tell me whether that is a) True or b) False?
On Page 59, I saw some language suggesting that the federal government will have access to all individual bank accounts for health-related electronic funds transfers. Can you tell me whether that is a) True or b) False?
On Page 124, I learned that no private company can sue the government for price-fixing. Furthermore, no "judicial review" is permitted against a complete government monopoly. Can you tell me whether that is a) True or b) False?
On Page 127, I read that the government will now set wages for physicians. Can you tell me whether that is a) True or b) False?
On Page 149, couched in esoteric "contribution" language, it looks like any employer with a payroll of $400,000 or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll as a penalty. This penalty would go a long way towards destroying the private system. It would also seem to violate your campaign promises – specifically those you made during debates I watched. If I read this correctly, it appears you looked me – via the camera – in the eye and lied. So, Barry, can you tell me whether that is a) True or b) False?
On Page 203, I read a very strange sentence: "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax imposed by this chapter for purposes of determining the amount of any credit under this chapter." I know this is supposed to be a true/false test but do you think calling a "tax" by some other name means it is no longer a tax? This seems to be a persistent theme in this bill. Please explain. Attach extra sheets of paper if necessary.
Page 272 has some of the most esoteric language of the health care bill. But it looks like the government plans to ration health care for cancer patients. Can you tell me whether that is a) True or b) False?
On Page 280, I read that hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems to be "preventable re-admissions." Once again, I know this is supposed to be a true/false test but, please, tell me this: How is the government in a better position (than a health care professional) to determine what constitutes a "preventable re-admission?"
Page 317 suggests that doctors will soon be prohibited from owning and investing in health care companies. Can you tell me whether that is a) True or b) False?
The following page suggests that hospitals can no longer expand without government approval. Can you tell me whether that is a) True or b) False?
On Page 429 things get very disturbing unless, of course, I am reading this wrong. It appears that an advance care planning consultation will be used to dictate treatment as a patient's health deteriorates. This can include an order for end-of-life plans – specifically, an order from the government. Can you tell me whether that is a) True or b) False?
It really bothers me, Mr. President, that I can learn a lot more about pending legislation from an internet chat room than I can from my elected representatives. It also bothers me that I have to read pending bills because, in all likelihood, my representatives will not. Regardless, I want you to read this email carefully and answer all of my questions.
If you answer "true" – even to a single question - you will have lost any prospect of gaining my support. If you answer "false" to every question we can move on to pages 500 through1018
Of course, the one thing BO may always be depended upon because he rarely misses a chance is that he will lie, prevaricate, obfuscate, or intentionally "mis-speak". Once upon a time I used to think (and regularly say) that Bill Clinton was the single most adept liar in all of politics. I have since apologized publicly to him. Since Comrade "Barry" came on the scene, Pissant Clinton has to be seen as a piker in comparison. There are a lot of discussions on the I about this healthcare bill and the truth or accuracy of some of the claims is in question. No matter who you read, there are many greatly disagreeable elements in this bill. If your Rep. votes for it, they need to be removed from office, with alacrity. No doubt there are improvements to our nation's Health Insurance system that can be made. One payer government run cannot but become a diabolical disaster.>Personally, I think BO and his fellow travelers (most of whom also belong to the Dem party) are doing their utmost to destroy our nation from the inside and, like many an opinionater, I am opposed to all such efforts. I wonder how long it will be before someone finds reason to file Impeachment Proceedings against BO, not that it could possibly succeed but there are increasing numbers of legal grounds available. I'm pretty sure we will find BO has broken a number of laws and lied to Congress. Of course, lying to the American Public is only grounds to refuse to vote for him again. Voters' remorse, anyone?
by William Warren: Cartoon -- Couple Discusses Using Cash for Clunker Program:
"It's inefficient, drains our budget, and doesn't work well at all. We should trade it in! So how much can we get for this clunker?" - - -> Pointing to the US Congress
by Ozark Guru: Well, in 2010, we (the people) have an opportunity to trade in a large part of Congress. Get involved and work to turn America back from the rampant socialist spending and the destruction of American businesses, jobs and the economy and our health care and our WORKING class. Yes, the working class; those who work! Those who have lived free and choose not to surrender their freedom for a few empty promises that in reality strip away everything they have and make them part of welfare class needing the government to decide when, where and how to take care of them.
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