I need some solace tonight...some comforting thought that our individual goodness is going to be spared from this totalitarian regime in Washington. The road to ruin has been long fought by some very sinister characters who have taught their bitter ways to several generations of innocent children in America. The biggest lesson they teach is: collective theft is good, individual success is bad. If at some point I find myself lying at death's door and cannot be granted the life-saving grace of some good doctor who knows how to save me, for a year, or a month, or however long....I will know who to thank for sending me to my grave just a bit too early.
On the eve of diabolical actions from Obama's and the Democrat's government, I wondered what comfort can I find to soothe my worried brow. I found some solace here....
From Ayn Rand: "Do not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives."
And:"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. . "
And:"Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter. "
And:"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force. "
And:"A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims."
And:"It only stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master."
As you think over Obama's rhetorical nonsense over the last year...I hope you can recognize the reality of who he is through Ayn Rand's incredible prescience.
To further bolster the point....
Goodbye Insurance Companies...It's been nice to know ya.....
From John Hinderaker of Powerline: "What strikes me as I read the House bill, however, is how closely it approximates socialized medicine even without the public option. The bill is classic national socialist legislation, in that it takes ostensibly private entities, the health insurance companies, and perverts them into instruments of the state, run top-down and barred from competing among themselves."
Continuing on he assures us that, while private insurance companies may still exist for a short time, they will quickly leave the scene. Bunko...Kaput...Gone...Out of business. What motive would insurance companies have to exist? Their profits would be gone. All those employed in that industry would be either unemployed or co-opted by government bureaucrats. The choices they offer would be gone. The doctor's autonomy, which has been already encroached upon, will be totally usurped. The very definition of "insurance" will be gone. As usual, the Marxists have abominated the word "insurance" so that it no longer means what it did. Redefining health care into an entitlement does not equate with "insurance." Government control of your health care is not "insurance." It is totalitarianism and, mind you, without Constitutional authority.
Scary thoughts on All Hallows Eve. May the ghost of Ayn Rand visit me in my sleep tonight and give me some peace of mind.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
PETITION AGAINST OBAMA HEALTH CARE
Now is the time to go after these @#$$%%%$##@@s.....Do not let them get away with this health care BS. You know they are lying. You know it is a power grab over your life. You know it is going to put thousands more out of work, wreck the doctor-patient relationship, degrade our health care quality, put private insurance companies out of business, create more and more debt for the country....and do nothing worthwhile in the way of helping the uninsured.
You can call your congress representative and demand that they do NOT VOTE FOR THIS NIGHTMARE!!!! They work for YOU!!! Make sure they understand that.
AND...sign the petition below at American Future Fund. It takes just a minute and costs no money....DO IT!!!!
American Future Fund Petition!!! CLICK HERE AND SIGN IT NOW!!!
You can call your congress representative and demand that they do NOT VOTE FOR THIS NIGHTMARE!!!! They work for YOU!!! Make sure they understand that.
AND...sign the petition below at American Future Fund. It takes just a minute and costs no money....DO IT!!!!
American Future Fund Petition!!! CLICK HERE AND SIGN IT NOW!!!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
ON THE GENERAL WELFARE CLAUSE
The power brokers in Congress and Barrack Obama are hell-bent on convincing the American public that they have the right to enact health care and energy mandates based on the General Welfare reference in the U.S.Constitution. As usual they are abusing their power, misusing the language of the Constitution to suit their own power greed, and twisting words to confuse an uneducated public to become dependent on the federal government in ways the founders never intended. This is tragic and a travesty against the very core of our basic rights.
The General Welfare reference in the U.S. Constitution was meant ONLY to provide support for the individual States to have national defense and provide a basis for the States to be able to conduct their own affairs. In the Federalist Papers, Federalist No. 14, James Madison wrote this: .. the general [federal] government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects...[emphasis added] Reference Canada Free Press article In fact, the entire purpose of the U.S. Constitution, with deliberate enumerated powers, is to protect Americans from the exact oppression that the current administration is trying to impose on us. Nowhere in the Constitution does the President or the Congress have any of the powers they have usurped with regard to mandates over-riding the jurisdiction of the States.
So what recourse actions do the citizens have when the federal government becomes Jabba the Hut? At this point I'm not sure if there is recourse. Liberals/Communists/Socialists/Progressives have infiltrated most of the education system and indoctrinated three or more generations of students into the "dependent on government" mindset. 56 members of Congress are proud card-carrying members of the Socialist Party. Both Republicans and Democrats have abandoned the U.S. Constitution for the sake of buying votes and padding their own bank accounts. The corruption is massive. The Constitution has been subverted for decades and the population is now at the mercy of treasonous politicians, whose agenda is not supporting and defending the U.S. Constitution, but solidifying their own money machines and power bases.
Elections come and go. The one true thing you can say is that elections have consequences. Americans need to get smart really fast and figure out how to survive the consequences of tyranny. While we have incrementally been losing freedoms for a very long time, the current administration is wrapping us up in chains and promising to never allow us to be free people again. Your health, your energy use, your ability to communicate, your money system, your ability to move about, your opportunity to buy property, all of this is now being taken away from you and placed under the iron thumb of the federal government.
When Obama said he was going to "transform" America, he wasn't kidding. The question that needed to be asked was, "To what?" Now you know. His answer to all things is domination by federal government in all aspects of your life. The irony is that, because of very clever rhetoric, Obama convinced a lot of people that the transformation was going to return America to its original intent. The people who were fed up with government corruption voted for him thinking they were going to get a more transparent and purely American administration. What we got instead was a Chicago style mafia, complete with Communist thugs, taking over every private industry in our country. A very clever ruse indeed. He could get a Nobel Prize for pulling the wool over people's eyes, if there were one.
Your liberty was guaranteed by the Constitution, not your health care or your energy usage. "The people are the natural guardians of the Constitution," according to Alexander Hamilton. It is now up to us to defend it from the power mad in our government. Call congress and exert your natural rights to defend the Constitution. Tell them, NO NO NO on both Obamacare and Cap and Trade. If we don't stop them, the general welfare for all of us is lost.
The General Welfare reference in the U.S. Constitution was meant ONLY to provide support for the individual States to have national defense and provide a basis for the States to be able to conduct their own affairs. In the Federalist Papers, Federalist No. 14, James Madison wrote this: .. the general [federal] government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects...[emphasis added] Reference Canada Free Press article In fact, the entire purpose of the U.S. Constitution, with deliberate enumerated powers, is to protect Americans from the exact oppression that the current administration is trying to impose on us. Nowhere in the Constitution does the President or the Congress have any of the powers they have usurped with regard to mandates over-riding the jurisdiction of the States.
So what recourse actions do the citizens have when the federal government becomes Jabba the Hut? At this point I'm not sure if there is recourse. Liberals/Communists/Socialists/Progressives have infiltrated most of the education system and indoctrinated three or more generations of students into the "dependent on government" mindset. 56 members of Congress are proud card-carrying members of the Socialist Party. Both Republicans and Democrats have abandoned the U.S. Constitution for the sake of buying votes and padding their own bank accounts. The corruption is massive. The Constitution has been subverted for decades and the population is now at the mercy of treasonous politicians, whose agenda is not supporting and defending the U.S. Constitution, but solidifying their own money machines and power bases.
Elections come and go. The one true thing you can say is that elections have consequences. Americans need to get smart really fast and figure out how to survive the consequences of tyranny. While we have incrementally been losing freedoms for a very long time, the current administration is wrapping us up in chains and promising to never allow us to be free people again. Your health, your energy use, your ability to communicate, your money system, your ability to move about, your opportunity to buy property, all of this is now being taken away from you and placed under the iron thumb of the federal government.
When Obama said he was going to "transform" America, he wasn't kidding. The question that needed to be asked was, "To what?" Now you know. His answer to all things is domination by federal government in all aspects of your life. The irony is that, because of very clever rhetoric, Obama convinced a lot of people that the transformation was going to return America to its original intent. The people who were fed up with government corruption voted for him thinking they were going to get a more transparent and purely American administration. What we got instead was a Chicago style mafia, complete with Communist thugs, taking over every private industry in our country. A very clever ruse indeed. He could get a Nobel Prize for pulling the wool over people's eyes, if there were one.
Your liberty was guaranteed by the Constitution, not your health care or your energy usage. "The people are the natural guardians of the Constitution," according to Alexander Hamilton. It is now up to us to defend it from the power mad in our government. Call congress and exert your natural rights to defend the Constitution. Tell them, NO NO NO on both Obamacare and Cap and Trade. If we don't stop them, the general welfare for all of us is lost.
Monday, October 26, 2009
SICK OF GINGRICH
Am I the only one who is sick of Newt Gingrich? Tonight he was on Fox's 10:00 pm show with Greta declaring that those who are supporting the independent conservative in the NY senate race are just undermining the real conservative agenda of the Republican Party. C'mon Newt.....like you have much to say on that subject. You are buddies with Hilary Clinton. You have climbed onto the Global Warming hoax. You play the conservative while asking voters to vote for someone who runs as a Republican, but whose agenda is liberal.
I'm sick of it. I'm tired of McCain, Graham, Snowe, Collins, and Gingrich. I'm tired of Republicans who have no loyalty or adherence to the Constitution, but play political games with our lives.
Somebody needs to tell Gingrich and the rest of these Rinos that we are not buying what they are selling anymore. We are done with it. Half a loaf is not good enough. Cherry picking the issues and selling out the rest is not good enough. Get off the stage. We used to respect you.....we don't anymore. Sellouts not welcome.
I'm sick of it. I'm tired of McCain, Graham, Snowe, Collins, and Gingrich. I'm tired of Republicans who have no loyalty or adherence to the Constitution, but play political games with our lives.
Somebody needs to tell Gingrich and the rest of these Rinos that we are not buying what they are selling anymore. We are done with it. Half a loaf is not good enough. Cherry picking the issues and selling out the rest is not good enough. Get off the stage. We used to respect you.....we don't anymore. Sellouts not welcome.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
ART FOR ART'S SAKE
As some of you know, I am an artist. This is how I have made my living in various ways most of my adult life. I love to create paintings that are wanted by collectors. Simple as that. It is a drive to capture a vision on canvas or board in oils or acrylics or watercolor.....something that people would want to look at and buy. I would be painting if there were no buyers. But it's more fun when there are. I've written the article below as my reaction to the recent NEA / Obama administration scandal. And as a reaction to what I see around me with our local art community. Even in our small town in North Carolina, there is a cult fever that has penetrated the art atmosphere. It's pretty sad really.....but here is my article. I am submitting it to our local newspaper as well.
ART FOR ART'S SAKE!
Artists are often stereotyped with characteristics and attitudes such as: flaky, flamboyant, ultra-sensitive, having no business sense, dreamers/visionaries, altruistic, and more. Some of these adjectives apply to some artists in one degree or another some of the time. But all artists are not like-minded and all artists do not carry all of those traits.
Art is a business. It is a business that relies on freedom of expression. To be successful in the business of art, the artist has a fine line to walk between the artistic vision and the business of making a living. Recently a news story surfaced about a well known North Carolina artist named Ben Long who was scammed by a ponzi schemer. Ben is very talented and has had a lot of success with his art over many years. But his story on money handlers is not rare among artists. Having said that, artists are not unique in being scammed. Other people in all walks of life get scammed, too. But this story just adds to the stereotype that artists are too distracted from the practical business realities and are easily taken advantage of.
This stereotype becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when artists think they cannot handle their own affairs and that it is too hard to make a living with the career of art. This leads artists to become dependent on income streams from government money. Which leads me to the latest scandals with the NEA, propaganda, and whether or not artists themselves are being politically manipulated out of some desire to keep revenue from the government coming into the arts.
There is a place for some public money for art grants. I have no problem with this revenue stream when it means a deserving artist has an opportunity to create something of beauty to adorn public squares or buildings. The problem arises when that public money gets used to promote a partisan agenda and stifles the creation of art for any other purposes.
The Obama administration has made a big push to politicize everything in our lives and the category of the arts is no exception. Recently, the Obama White House sent its manipulators out to co-opt the NEA to promote the Obama agenda. This was discovered through a taped conference call where the White House operative said exactly that. The directive was that the NEA should use its money and clout with the art community to help Obama spread his agenda throughout the NEA chain of affiliates. That chain includes little towns like ours by money grants from the United Arts Council which then trickles down to the Gaston County Art Guild. The idea promoted by the Obama administration is that those grants should now be judged on whether or not they promote the President's political agenda.
In the divisive political climate we are living in today, I am finding that even the art community has lined up on two different sides of life. One side is pro-freedom, including the freedom to express art in unique and individual ways. The other side is pro-government money, including subverting tax dollars to promote anti-freedom, statist policies. How much more divisive can you get than that? And I might add, this pervasive pressure from the statist is undermining the very tenets of the NEA. That is nothing new, but it has now taken on a new impetus to drive artists to the agenda of big government.
Artists have some hard choices to make in this arena. Artistic integrity can be corrupted by politicians' and government's policies. Some artists I personally know are afraid to speak up and are just "going along to get along." They are seriously afraid to say they are against the tyranny of government interference in the arts for fear they will be ostracized from the art community. These artists may find themselves without the freedom to pursue their unique artistic visions once the statists' views are realized or to make a living without corrupting themselves to do it. To be included or not included into local guilds may rest on whether the artist promotes Obama's Health Care, Cap and Trade, Environmentalism, or any of the other causes du jour. Those artists who sell out to conform to this pressure are misusing their gifts for all of the wrong reasons. I encourage them to speak up and protect their rights to create without government manipulation, within or without the NEA.
Consumers of art have a choice to make also. I am hoping that consumers will be aware enough of the situation to seek out artists who maintain their integrity and refuse to participate in the dilution of art for the sake of grabbing government money. It is the true artist who follows their own vision and not that of some forced political agenda. I hope you will reward those artists who stand tall for the sake of their art.
ART FOR ART'S SAKE!
Artists are often stereotyped with characteristics and attitudes such as: flaky, flamboyant, ultra-sensitive, having no business sense, dreamers/visionaries, altruistic, and more. Some of these adjectives apply to some artists in one degree or another some of the time. But all artists are not like-minded and all artists do not carry all of those traits.
Art is a business. It is a business that relies on freedom of expression. To be successful in the business of art, the artist has a fine line to walk between the artistic vision and the business of making a living. Recently a news story surfaced about a well known North Carolina artist named Ben Long who was scammed by a ponzi schemer. Ben is very talented and has had a lot of success with his art over many years. But his story on money handlers is not rare among artists. Having said that, artists are not unique in being scammed. Other people in all walks of life get scammed, too. But this story just adds to the stereotype that artists are too distracted from the practical business realities and are easily taken advantage of.
This stereotype becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when artists think they cannot handle their own affairs and that it is too hard to make a living with the career of art. This leads artists to become dependent on income streams from government money. Which leads me to the latest scandals with the NEA, propaganda, and whether or not artists themselves are being politically manipulated out of some desire to keep revenue from the government coming into the arts.
There is a place for some public money for art grants. I have no problem with this revenue stream when it means a deserving artist has an opportunity to create something of beauty to adorn public squares or buildings. The problem arises when that public money gets used to promote a partisan agenda and stifles the creation of art for any other purposes.
The Obama administration has made a big push to politicize everything in our lives and the category of the arts is no exception. Recently, the Obama White House sent its manipulators out to co-opt the NEA to promote the Obama agenda. This was discovered through a taped conference call where the White House operative said exactly that. The directive was that the NEA should use its money and clout with the art community to help Obama spread his agenda throughout the NEA chain of affiliates. That chain includes little towns like ours by money grants from the United Arts Council which then trickles down to the Gaston County Art Guild. The idea promoted by the Obama administration is that those grants should now be judged on whether or not they promote the President's political agenda.
In the divisive political climate we are living in today, I am finding that even the art community has lined up on two different sides of life. One side is pro-freedom, including the freedom to express art in unique and individual ways. The other side is pro-government money, including subverting tax dollars to promote anti-freedom, statist policies. How much more divisive can you get than that? And I might add, this pervasive pressure from the statist is undermining the very tenets of the NEA. That is nothing new, but it has now taken on a new impetus to drive artists to the agenda of big government.
Artists have some hard choices to make in this arena. Artistic integrity can be corrupted by politicians' and government's policies. Some artists I personally know are afraid to speak up and are just "going along to get along." They are seriously afraid to say they are against the tyranny of government interference in the arts for fear they will be ostracized from the art community. These artists may find themselves without the freedom to pursue their unique artistic visions once the statists' views are realized or to make a living without corrupting themselves to do it. To be included or not included into local guilds may rest on whether the artist promotes Obama's Health Care, Cap and Trade, Environmentalism, or any of the other causes du jour. Those artists who sell out to conform to this pressure are misusing their gifts for all of the wrong reasons. I encourage them to speak up and protect their rights to create without government manipulation, within or without the NEA.
Consumers of art have a choice to make also. I am hoping that consumers will be aware enough of the situation to seek out artists who maintain their integrity and refuse to participate in the dilution of art for the sake of grabbing government money. It is the true artist who follows their own vision and not that of some forced political agenda. I hope you will reward those artists who stand tall for the sake of their art.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
ALLIGATOR PIE
"Alligator in South Carolina"Photo by H_Roach on Flickr
(
Many thanks for sharing this photo)
Just to put the smile on your Thanksgiving dinner this year, I suggest we begin serving Alligator pie. I'm not sure how much sugar it would take to sweeten Alligator meat, but I'm guessing it would take quite a bit. You see, there is a connection between sugar and alligators.
In Florida there are an estimated 1 million alligators, which translates to 1 alligator for every 18 people. The alligator was removed from the endangered species list in 1987, after making a huge recovery due to hunting bans. Britannica Online It only took 20 years for alligators to proliferate from the 1967 listing on the endangered species protection to 1987 when they rebounded in great numbers. There are alligator breeding farms in many areas of the south where the critters are bred for harvest, the hatchlings grow twice as fast as in the wild, and the hides are shipped all over the world. In short, there is an abundance of alligators in the American south.
Now to sugar. Last year, Charlie Crist, the governor of Florida, forced the buyout of U.S. Sugar to placate environmentalists. In order to put the "save the planet" feather in his cap, he used taxpayer money to buy out U.S. Sugar, shutting them down in order to return the Everglades to the alligators. A University of Florida study at the time projected three counties would take the major hit, Palm Beach, Hendry and Glades. Palm Beach Post article July 2008 The drop of personal income for those three counties was an estimated $553 million per year, and local, state and federal tax revenue losses would total $127 million per year. This is on top of the taxpayer money used for the buyout; $1.75 billion. The estimated job losses? 8,935 people out of work. Include the ripple effect of supporting businesses and a whole lot of unemployment and subsequent revenue loss is the result. But that's O.K. as long as we have more habitat for alligators.
Supposedly we are importing a lot of cheap sugar from Brazil and Thailand which is squeezing the U.S. sugar producers out of business. But the retail price of sugar is rising, not dropping. We can pay shipping charges on necessary goods that we could produce here instead? Why is the price of sugar going up? What is the carbon footprint of importing necessary products? Could it be that environmentalists are pushing the prices by diverting the use to bio-fuels? Maybe it is the obesity police pushing the prices up? Sugar: the new villain.
Corn is being used for bio-fuels instead of corn syrup. The mass production of corn for bio-fuels has caused increased pollution in the Mississippi River delta. But that's O.K. because it is supposed to be for the anti-oil folks. Cane plantations are vilified for taking up wild lands. Sugar is now the fall guy, along with textiles, furniture, car manufacturers, and tobacco. The farmers are next on the hatchet list because those bad cows produce methane.
Have you noticed that the thousands of Americans who were employed in these industries are the ones who take the hit? Hard working Americans who provide products in our country are being sacrificed for the lofty idea of some do-gooders who think they know better than you how Americans should eat, thrive, work, and live. American industries are, one by one, being decimated by regulatory taxes, undermined by environmentalists, and shut down by government officials who are trying to kiss up to some radical constituencies, not because the goods are no longer wanted or necessary. They are being shut down for some fictional ideology that makes no sense whatsoever.
There is balance and common sense to be gained in the issue of environmental responsibility, but not as long as radical control freaks are manipulating the media and the government.
No pumpkin pie, mincemeat pie, or pecan pie this year folks. It's alligator pie for all, if you can find enough sugar to get that to go down the pipes.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
CO2 IS YOUR FRIEND
Basic elementary knowledge.....seems to be missing from our country these days. Let's go back to grade school for just a few minutes, shall we?? Does anybody remember the lessons of how plants live on carbon dioxide? We exhale carbon dioxide and the plants lOVE it! The more carbon dioxide on the planet, the GREENER the planet is. This transfer is called PHOTOSYNTHESIS. IT's A GOOD THING!!!
Definition of PHOTOSYNTHESIS: The process in green plants and certain other organisms by which carbohydrates are synthesized from carbon dioxide and water using light as an energy source. Most forms of photosynthesis release oxygen as a byproduct.
Evidently Obama and three generations of Marxists in charge of our schools have convinced children to learn a lot about social engineering, sex ed, and lies regarding Global Warming....INSTEAD of learning about PHOTOSYNTHESIS. There is a reason Obama, and his buddies, Al Gore and Carol Browner, want stupidity to reign supreme. If people are too stupid to know the laws of PHOTOSYNTHESIS, then these guys can control every amount of human activity and make g'zillions of EXTORTION bucks in the process. Stupid people voted for EXTORTION. And now we will all be marks....ahem....I mean Marxists.
There is sooooo much wrong with "Climate Change" theories that you could never in a hundred years get through all of the lies being spread to an uneducated public. In the interest of helping the unlikely passerby to my blog who might want one solid reason to get off the bandwagon and stop drinking the Kool-ade, I am showing you a video to explain the actual amount of "man-made" carbon dioxide in the air. I found this video at Icecap.us Enjoy!! It is also on YouTube.
As you watch this pay attention also to the reference to methane. That is animal flatulence that our environmentalist wackos think is a good reason to tax farmers out of business. They don't want you to eat meat, folks.....PETA gets its reward here.
Definition of PHOTOSYNTHESIS: The process in green plants and certain other organisms by which carbohydrates are synthesized from carbon dioxide and water using light as an energy source. Most forms of photosynthesis release oxygen as a byproduct.
Evidently Obama and three generations of Marxists in charge of our schools have convinced children to learn a lot about social engineering, sex ed, and lies regarding Global Warming....INSTEAD of learning about PHOTOSYNTHESIS. There is a reason Obama, and his buddies, Al Gore and Carol Browner, want stupidity to reign supreme. If people are too stupid to know the laws of PHOTOSYNTHESIS, then these guys can control every amount of human activity and make g'zillions of EXTORTION bucks in the process. Stupid people voted for EXTORTION. And now we will all be marks....ahem....I mean Marxists.
There is sooooo much wrong with "Climate Change" theories that you could never in a hundred years get through all of the lies being spread to an uneducated public. In the interest of helping the unlikely passerby to my blog who might want one solid reason to get off the bandwagon and stop drinking the Kool-ade, I am showing you a video to explain the actual amount of "man-made" carbon dioxide in the air. I found this video at Icecap.us Enjoy!! It is also on YouTube.
As you watch this pay attention also to the reference to methane. That is animal flatulence that our environmentalist wackos think is a good reason to tax farmers out of business. They don't want you to eat meat, folks.....PETA gets its reward here.
Friday, October 16, 2009
EXPOSE OBAMACARE
What is the difference between "futile care" and rationing? None!
Are you noticing the word "futile" coming up lately with regard to health care? "Futile care" is the new buzz phrase...all over the newspapers and coming from reports supposedly created by the Federal government. I can tell you whose words these are. They are coming from Tom Daschle and Ezekiel Emanuel, the two geniuses Obama appointed to create the new health care paradigm. "Cost effectiveness" is the new criteria for all decisions regarding health care. O.K. fine, but who will be making the decisions on "cost effectiveness?" Who decides who is "futile" and who is not? Who decides how old is elderly? Not your Doctor. Not you. Not your insurance company, which has been problematic in some cases, to be sure. But rather, a panel of bureaucrats in D. C. is being put in place to make the ultimate decisions on your medical care. No matter which bill passes through Congress and lands on Obama's desk, it will contain mandates for withholding care from whoever is deemed "futile."
Some time ago Hospice added the word "Palliative" to their title. Have you wondered where that come from? Doesn't that sound so kind and caring? The joke is that "palliative care" is the same thing that Hospice has been known for anyway, easing the suffering of death when the death vigil has begun and death is imminent. The word "palliative" is completely redundant. While the premise of Hospice is laudable, why do you suppose they felt it necessary to add that $50.00 word to the title? Does it sound any better? Marketing is everything, folks. Hospice wants you to think they have added something new and special, when in fact it is the addition of selling you on "futile care," just so you understand that they are not there to cure you. They never were there to cure you. But the extra $50.00 word is there just the same. This is by design. Get used to it. You are being trained to expect "palliative care" / "futile care" from the medical industry in the near future, included in Obamacare. Hospice and Palliative Care, Inc. is the recipient of billions of government / taxpayer dollars. What began as a volunteer organization, funded by charities, is now on the government take in a very large way. Hey...they need money. They are doing to do what the government wants them to do which is make sure the money isn't spent on "futile care." They are a lobbying group,, just like everyone else dependent on government money.
Here is the Wikepedia definition: "Palliative care (from Latin palliare, to cloak) is any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of disease symptoms, rather than striving to halt, delay, or reverse the progression of the disease itself or provide a cure."
But back to the word, "futile." From the guy who was out there marketing "hope and change," what we get is "futile care." You can't get much more forked-tongued than that. Daschle and Emanuel have written books on how to get rid of "unproductive" citizens. The idea of refusing life-saving cures for the elderly has been years in the planning. The idea of taking the decisions away from you and your doctor have been years in the planning. This is no accident. And this is not an emergency response to some trumped up economic crises. It is a deliberate attempt to take away your personal liberties. And that is my definition of "futility."
Are you noticing the word "futile" coming up lately with regard to health care? "Futile care" is the new buzz phrase...all over the newspapers and coming from reports supposedly created by the Federal government. I can tell you whose words these are. They are coming from Tom Daschle and Ezekiel Emanuel, the two geniuses Obama appointed to create the new health care paradigm. "Cost effectiveness" is the new criteria for all decisions regarding health care. O.K. fine, but who will be making the decisions on "cost effectiveness?" Who decides who is "futile" and who is not? Who decides how old is elderly? Not your Doctor. Not you. Not your insurance company, which has been problematic in some cases, to be sure. But rather, a panel of bureaucrats in D. C. is being put in place to make the ultimate decisions on your medical care. No matter which bill passes through Congress and lands on Obama's desk, it will contain mandates for withholding care from whoever is deemed "futile."
Some time ago Hospice added the word "Palliative" to their title. Have you wondered where that come from? Doesn't that sound so kind and caring? The joke is that "palliative care" is the same thing that Hospice has been known for anyway, easing the suffering of death when the death vigil has begun and death is imminent. The word "palliative" is completely redundant. While the premise of Hospice is laudable, why do you suppose they felt it necessary to add that $50.00 word to the title? Does it sound any better? Marketing is everything, folks. Hospice wants you to think they have added something new and special, when in fact it is the addition of selling you on "futile care," just so you understand that they are not there to cure you. They never were there to cure you. But the extra $50.00 word is there just the same. This is by design. Get used to it. You are being trained to expect "palliative care" / "futile care" from the medical industry in the near future, included in Obamacare. Hospice and Palliative Care, Inc. is the recipient of billions of government / taxpayer dollars. What began as a volunteer organization, funded by charities, is now on the government take in a very large way. Hey...they need money. They are doing to do what the government wants them to do which is make sure the money isn't spent on "futile care." They are a lobbying group,, just like everyone else dependent on government money.
Here is the Wikepedia definition: "Palliative care (from Latin palliare, to cloak) is any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of disease symptoms, rather than striving to halt, delay, or reverse the progression of the disease itself or provide a cure."
But back to the word, "futile." From the guy who was out there marketing "hope and change," what we get is "futile care." You can't get much more forked-tongued than that. Daschle and Emanuel have written books on how to get rid of "unproductive" citizens. The idea of refusing life-saving cures for the elderly has been years in the planning. The idea of taking the decisions away from you and your doctor have been years in the planning. This is no accident. And this is not an emergency response to some trumped up economic crises. It is a deliberate attempt to take away your personal liberties. And that is my definition of "futility."
Sunday, October 11, 2009
The Price of Everything, The Value of Nothing
In Obamaland, nothing is out of reach for anyone. At least according to him. Everything is available to everyone. Houses. Cars. Health Care. You want it...we can afford it, according to our messiah. So how do things get priced in an era where everyone gets everything? Arbitrarily, apparently. This year alone, the price has gone to 1.4 trillion in additional debt on our backs.
There is a slight problem with this. The value of the dollar is now tanking due to the Obama money policies. Simply stated, it's going to take more dollars to buy anything while the value of everything goes down.
So let's say you get an $8,000.00 credit (first time buyers only) to buy a house. What the house was worth just last year is now anywhere from 11 to 25% less than it was, thanks to the mortgage debacle set up by Congress, Carter and Clinton, called the Community Reinvestment Act. You just lost somewhere between $16,000.00 to $35,000.00 in value on the house. The $8,000.00 the Feds are giving away doesn't come close to what they took away from you. Furthermore, the $8,000.00 is coming out of taxpayers pockets, so not only did you lose the value of your house, but you lose the taxes going to pay for someone other person's house. And even one thing more, the $8,000.00 isn't worth what it was a year ago, due to the maniacal printing of gobs of money to supply the Federal debt.
Hmmmm...Let's take another one. You are now owners of car companies that you, as taxpayers, had no intention of buying. Your taxes are being used to build cars you will never be able to afford, thanks to the likes of Al Gore and his Finnish car company that you are subsidizing. You see, your Federal Government just granted a half billion dollar loan to Mr. Gore's Finnish car company to build a $90,000.00 sports car that will go 50 miles on a battery charge. What is the value of that to the American taxpayer? Somehow I think the value of that one landed in Gore's lap and you paid the price for it. How many $90,000.00 sports cars are you going to buy in this lifetime? The price is high to you and the value is nothing to you. Research and development? You couldn't do that in the U.S. without involving Al Gore? Political payback is expensive. This is on top of the union jobs in the U.S. car industry for which you are now paying.
Now you are about to get hit for health care. Supposedly the price of health care is going to go down, so is the stated goal. When did you last pay less money and get more for it? Walmart? Cheap goods from China? Just on the merits, I cannot imagine that anyone in this country thinks that the quality of health care is going to either be as good as it is, or go up while prices go down. This is about your personal body, folks. How much is it worth? And do you really think that taking on all of the extra people this health care is supposed to cover is going to cost less out of your pocket? Factually, this is not possible unless you diminish the quality for all of us. And, just like the mortgage credit, the money is going to come from you. Are you willing to give up quality health care to pay for poor health care for everyone? Or do you actually think you are not going to pay that price? Demand will go up and supply will go down or stay the same. How is that beneficial? That in itself usually pushes prices up, but the Federal Government wants to push prices down by artificial means, just like they pushed the demand up and the mortgage prices down in the housing industry, artificially. Look where that got us. They are in the process of creating another bubble, this time in the business of your private personal health care.
The only fair arbiter of prices is supply and demand. American success was built on this premise and has been undermined by the Federal Government incrementally for years. Obama and the Federal Government are in the business of meddling, redistribution, and paying back political constituencies for votes. These are high stakes games they are playing with your life. The value of your life and your property are being determined by insidious means that increase the price of everything and devalue all that you are and have worked to gain. Bubbles are being blown to enrich some political buddies and you are being had in the process. Just like the Cash for Clunkers bubble burst in short order, just like the mortgage crisis bubble burst after being blown up for years and years, the health care bubble will burst in the same way. And who will pay the price? You, your children, and your children's children. Quality American health care will be ancient history. This will further bankrupt our country which is already bankrupted thanks to the previous bubbles of social programs and centralized government.
Seems to me Obama knows the price of everything, but he knows the value of nothing. That's why his sales pitches sound so hollow. He is selling a pig in a poke with a very high price attached.
There is a slight problem with this. The value of the dollar is now tanking due to the Obama money policies. Simply stated, it's going to take more dollars to buy anything while the value of everything goes down.
So let's say you get an $8,000.00 credit (first time buyers only) to buy a house. What the house was worth just last year is now anywhere from 11 to 25% less than it was, thanks to the mortgage debacle set up by Congress, Carter and Clinton, called the Community Reinvestment Act. You just lost somewhere between $16,000.00 to $35,000.00 in value on the house. The $8,000.00 the Feds are giving away doesn't come close to what they took away from you. Furthermore, the $8,000.00 is coming out of taxpayers pockets, so not only did you lose the value of your house, but you lose the taxes going to pay for someone other person's house. And even one thing more, the $8,000.00 isn't worth what it was a year ago, due to the maniacal printing of gobs of money to supply the Federal debt.
Hmmmm...Let's take another one. You are now owners of car companies that you, as taxpayers, had no intention of buying. Your taxes are being used to build cars you will never be able to afford, thanks to the likes of Al Gore and his Finnish car company that you are subsidizing. You see, your Federal Government just granted a half billion dollar loan to Mr. Gore's Finnish car company to build a $90,000.00 sports car that will go 50 miles on a battery charge. What is the value of that to the American taxpayer? Somehow I think the value of that one landed in Gore's lap and you paid the price for it. How many $90,000.00 sports cars are you going to buy in this lifetime? The price is high to you and the value is nothing to you. Research and development? You couldn't do that in the U.S. without involving Al Gore? Political payback is expensive. This is on top of the union jobs in the U.S. car industry for which you are now paying.
Now you are about to get hit for health care. Supposedly the price of health care is going to go down, so is the stated goal. When did you last pay less money and get more for it? Walmart? Cheap goods from China? Just on the merits, I cannot imagine that anyone in this country thinks that the quality of health care is going to either be as good as it is, or go up while prices go down. This is about your personal body, folks. How much is it worth? And do you really think that taking on all of the extra people this health care is supposed to cover is going to cost less out of your pocket? Factually, this is not possible unless you diminish the quality for all of us. And, just like the mortgage credit, the money is going to come from you. Are you willing to give up quality health care to pay for poor health care for everyone? Or do you actually think you are not going to pay that price? Demand will go up and supply will go down or stay the same. How is that beneficial? That in itself usually pushes prices up, but the Federal Government wants to push prices down by artificial means, just like they pushed the demand up and the mortgage prices down in the housing industry, artificially. Look where that got us. They are in the process of creating another bubble, this time in the business of your private personal health care.
The only fair arbiter of prices is supply and demand. American success was built on this premise and has been undermined by the Federal Government incrementally for years. Obama and the Federal Government are in the business of meddling, redistribution, and paying back political constituencies for votes. These are high stakes games they are playing with your life. The value of your life and your property are being determined by insidious means that increase the price of everything and devalue all that you are and have worked to gain. Bubbles are being blown to enrich some political buddies and you are being had in the process. Just like the Cash for Clunkers bubble burst in short order, just like the mortgage crisis bubble burst after being blown up for years and years, the health care bubble will burst in the same way. And who will pay the price? You, your children, and your children's children. Quality American health care will be ancient history. This will further bankrupt our country which is already bankrupted thanks to the previous bubbles of social programs and centralized government.
Seems to me Obama knows the price of everything, but he knows the value of nothing. That's why his sales pitches sound so hollow. He is selling a pig in a poke with a very high price attached.
Monday, October 5, 2009
DIVERSITY = DIVISIVENESS
Once upon a time in America there was a great feeling of "WE." We were all Americans. I hear politicians make silly swooning statements regarding the days after 9/11, indicating that they thought it was soooo terrific that we had all come together with one purpose. They say, "We were all Americans after 9/11." I don't think so. Not by a long shot. We haven't been united as Americans since the 1960's, the era of hyphens. In the 1960's, out of the progressive black organizations, came the idea that to divide Black-Americans/ African-Americans was suddenly a source of pride. Prior to this, the hyphenated Americans were looked down upon as 'Not quite American,' not fully American. Immigrants who had loyalty to some other father nation were down-graded to be less than 'real' Americans.
Funny, before that, as I grew up in integrated schools in Ohio, we were all Americans. Period. No hyphens. No funny business. No reason to think otherwise. We were Americans....black, white, oriental, mixed, whatever. No one in my entire childhood made any big deal of anyone's ancestral heritage as if they were less than American. My great-great grandparents were Germans who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1800's to escape religious persecution. Believe me, they were glad to be here and proud to be strong, independent, contributors to the American way of life, and free to be whoever they were. The blacks I knew as I was growing up were beside me in school, worked in middle class jobs, owned businesses, and also, free to be whoever they were. In my school, they were tandem with us...athletes, cheerleaders, scholars...side by side. As with any 'group' of people, there were many differences in their achievements, but they were not looked upon as a lesser class of people. Did I grow up in utopia? No. Just a small town in mid-century America. What small amount of discrimination I saw, was just that....small and not tolerated.
The issue of hyphenated Americans was addressed in an earlier time by leaders who saw the hyphens exactly for what they were; divisive. Since I addressed Teddy Roosevelt previously, and not in a supportive way, I will now give you something from Teddy Roosevelt that I support. Here is a yr. 1915 quote from him on the hyphenated American concept:
"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all... The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic... There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else."
From that time until the 1960's, being hyphenated was a derogatory term. Somehow in the sixties, all of a sudden it was the battle cry of blacks to say, "I'm Black, I'm proud." As if whites were walking around just saying, "I'm White, I'm proud." Then PBS showed the movie "Roots," sometime in the 1970's to reinforce the African loyalties of blacks in America. This morphed into African-American hyphenated everything. Blacks in America decided they weren't really Americans, they were African-Americans.
Today, besides being divided up into political polar opposites, our country is divided into every ethnic and country-of-origin designation possible. Is it any wonder that America is at odds with itself? No one seems to know where their loyalties lie. More time is spent on encouraging "diversity" than unity. No consensus can be achieved with this kind of premise. None. As long as children are taught that they are really something other than Americans, that they are Africans first, or Muslims first, or Mexicans first, gay first, gender first, or whatever else first, there can be no consensus on America first.
Compounding the dangerously ridiculous is that we now have one of the hyphenated as President of the United States, who billed himself as a "uniter" but now can easily be seen as one of the most divisive personalities to ever hit the political stage. None of Obama's policies have gained consensus anywhere in America. He has people divided on health care, cap and trade, bailouts, Afghanistan, and everything else he touches. He has divided people up into camps....either socialist or freedom loving American. Everything he proposes is un-American at its core. The irony is that so many Americans were voting based on the hope that his Presidency would end the divide and end the hyphens. They thought Obama would represent the all-inclusive America that we, out here in the middle of America, would like to see. Instead, he is carving us up into hispanics, blacks, muslims, gays/lesbians/transgenders, socialists, big-government, globalists, etc. against the rest of us; whites, anglo-saxon, heterosexual, constitutional, Christian, capitalist, freedom loving Americans. Wherever you look within his government, you find people with an axe to grind, an agenda supporting one group or another, but none who are Americans first.
Obama will never create a consensus out of "diversity." A successful country doesn't celebrate its 'diversity.' It celebrates its common love of the tenets on which the country is based. This is a lesson that evidently Obama and the Marxists surrounding him never learned in the halls of Harvard and Yale. They must have spent more time on "Divide and Conquer" than learning the lessons of American exceptionalism, the U.S. Constitution, and how America's success is based on the respect for the individual, not the "group" think of hyphens.
Funny, before that, as I grew up in integrated schools in Ohio, we were all Americans. Period. No hyphens. No funny business. No reason to think otherwise. We were Americans....black, white, oriental, mixed, whatever. No one in my entire childhood made any big deal of anyone's ancestral heritage as if they were less than American. My great-great grandparents were Germans who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1800's to escape religious persecution. Believe me, they were glad to be here and proud to be strong, independent, contributors to the American way of life, and free to be whoever they were. The blacks I knew as I was growing up were beside me in school, worked in middle class jobs, owned businesses, and also, free to be whoever they were. In my school, they were tandem with us...athletes, cheerleaders, scholars...side by side. As with any 'group' of people, there were many differences in their achievements, but they were not looked upon as a lesser class of people. Did I grow up in utopia? No. Just a small town in mid-century America. What small amount of discrimination I saw, was just that....small and not tolerated.
The issue of hyphenated Americans was addressed in an earlier time by leaders who saw the hyphens exactly for what they were; divisive. Since I addressed Teddy Roosevelt previously, and not in a supportive way, I will now give you something from Teddy Roosevelt that I support. Here is a yr. 1915 quote from him on the hyphenated American concept:
"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all... The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic... There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else."
From that time until the 1960's, being hyphenated was a derogatory term. Somehow in the sixties, all of a sudden it was the battle cry of blacks to say, "I'm Black, I'm proud." As if whites were walking around just saying, "I'm White, I'm proud." Then PBS showed the movie "Roots," sometime in the 1970's to reinforce the African loyalties of blacks in America. This morphed into African-American hyphenated everything. Blacks in America decided they weren't really Americans, they were African-Americans.
Today, besides being divided up into political polar opposites, our country is divided into every ethnic and country-of-origin designation possible. Is it any wonder that America is at odds with itself? No one seems to know where their loyalties lie. More time is spent on encouraging "diversity" than unity. No consensus can be achieved with this kind of premise. None. As long as children are taught that they are really something other than Americans, that they are Africans first, or Muslims first, or Mexicans first, gay first, gender first, or whatever else first, there can be no consensus on America first.
Compounding the dangerously ridiculous is that we now have one of the hyphenated as President of the United States, who billed himself as a "uniter" but now can easily be seen as one of the most divisive personalities to ever hit the political stage. None of Obama's policies have gained consensus anywhere in America. He has people divided on health care, cap and trade, bailouts, Afghanistan, and everything else he touches. He has divided people up into camps....either socialist or freedom loving American. Everything he proposes is un-American at its core. The irony is that so many Americans were voting based on the hope that his Presidency would end the divide and end the hyphens. They thought Obama would represent the all-inclusive America that we, out here in the middle of America, would like to see. Instead, he is carving us up into hispanics, blacks, muslims, gays/lesbians/transgenders, socialists, big-government, globalists, etc. against the rest of us; whites, anglo-saxon, heterosexual, constitutional, Christian, capitalist, freedom loving Americans. Wherever you look within his government, you find people with an axe to grind, an agenda supporting one group or another, but none who are Americans first.
Obama will never create a consensus out of "diversity." A successful country doesn't celebrate its 'diversity.' It celebrates its common love of the tenets on which the country is based. This is a lesson that evidently Obama and the Marxists surrounding him never learned in the halls of Harvard and Yale. They must have spent more time on "Divide and Conquer" than learning the lessons of American exceptionalism, the U.S. Constitution, and how America's success is based on the respect for the individual, not the "group" think of hyphens.
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