Saturday, February 28, 2009

Weekend Reading Assignment

According to Fred Barnes in the Weekly Standard, Obama told television journalists last week that he really liked being president and "it turns out that I'm really good at it."
Read Barnes assessment here.

Interestingly enough, at the same time Joseph Rosenberger at American Thinker believes it's time to re-read Dr. Sam Vakin's article from last August that studies narcissistic traits in Obama's public persona.

Across the border, The Canada Free Press once again carries an interesting article about Obama's presidency and his infatuation with flying Air Force One. J. R. Dieckmann, the author also spends time on the fourteen seemingly innocuous documents that President Obama refuses to make public.

Food for Thought and Discussion

Fr. Longenecker has an excellent entry today in his Blog, Standing On My Head. Contraceptives and The Economic Collapse is something that I recommend everyone read. Scroll down until you find it.

Are You Now or Have You ever been A Fetal Container?

Obama has nominated Dawn Johnsen for Office of Legal Counsel. Here is an excerpt from a brief she filed before the Supreme Court in 1989:
"Statutes that curtail [a woman’s] abortion choice are disturbingly suggestive of involuntary servitude, prohibited by the Thirteenth Amendment, in that forced pregnancy requires a woman to provide continuous physical service to the fetus in order to further the state’s asserted interest."

"[The woman] is constantly aware for nine months that her body is not wholly her own: the state has conscripted her body for its own ends.”

Thus, abortion restrictions “reduce pregnant women to no more than fetal containers.”

Is this the kind of thinking that most Americans support? Does this describe your emotions or beliefs about your children? Your mother? Your family? What has become of the America I thought I lived in?

When questioned before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Ms. Johnsen tried to dance around the fact she had argued pregnancy and motherhood were involuntary servitude although she had to admit that the above quotes were part of her brief.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Atlas Will Shrug

According to the U.K.'s Telegraph today, Obama's projected 2010 budget will cost each American taxpayer $25,573.48. This figure divides $3,552,000,000,000,000 by the 2007 figure for the number of taxpayers, 138,893,908.

Drudge reports that the budget will cost each and every American, whether they pay taxes or not, at $11,833 from a Reuters news story.

According to Jake Tapper, there will be $989,000,000,000 in new taxes over the next decade.

"The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.” Vladimir Lenin

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Read This Blog While You Can

From Canada comes the warning:

Big Brother Obama Supporters On the Internet Are Watching You
By Judi McLeod

While the Obama-led Democrats control the future of the United States of America, the grassroots on the Internet (The Obama Forum) are in the process of turning in “enemies of Obama”, including the parents of children who are Obama supporters. Click here to read the rest of the article.

The website is: The Obama Forum.

Discouraged?

Americans are action people. We like to see the results from our efforts and the sooner the better. Prayer is a stronger force, but it requires more effort. And it usually takes much longer than we think necessary to see the results. On top of that, the results often come disguised so that we hardly recognize them.

Use the impetus of Lent to pray for the conversion of our political leaders -- after you've phoned and/or emailed them.

Pray by yourself, start a prayer group, or join a virtual group. Here are two possibilities:
Obama Prayer Team led by The Rev. Charles Moreland
Change Worth Praying For

"More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of."
Alfred Lord Tennyson

Shameless

I have shamelessly copied 3 paragraphs from Rep. Paul Ryan's report on the House Omnibus Spending Bill, which the House shamelessly passed yesterday on top of all the other spending by government at our expense.

1.Deepening the Deficit
. With this year’s deficit already estimated at more than $1.3 trillion, and likely to remain at record levels for at least the next 4 years, the omnibus bill adds another $19 billion in appropriations ($13 billion in outlays) this year alone (compared with the annualized rate in the continuing resolution [CR]); and it will increase the deficit, compared with CBO’s nonemergency baseline, by $108 billion for the 2009-19 period, according to a House Budget Committee Republican staff estimate.
2.Earmarks. The bill contains 8,696 Member-sponsored earmarks totaling $11 billion. These include $15 million for California Emission Reduction Grants; $1.8 million for swine odor and manure management; $200,000 for tattoo removal; $1.9 million for a water taxi service in Connecticut; and $2.2 million for grape genetics (see Table 3). There are also 85 earmarks for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration which already received $1 billion in the “stimulus” bill. Counting both the CR and the omnibus, there are 11,297 earmarks at a cost of $25.6 billion.
3.Gimmicks. The gimmicks in the bill include $28.8 billion in “advance appropriations” – spending loaded up for 2010; $100 million in “emergency” spending (after the Majority already spent $787 billion for the emergency “stimulus” bill); and $3.2 billion in rescissions of highway contract authority that will produce no expenditure savings.

For the full report, go to http://www.house.gov/budget_republicans/ and click on "Still More Spending and More Debt."

There aren't enough Americans to pay for the current spending spree, much less enough "rich people."

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The Distilled Version of Obama's Speech

For a hilarious visual summary of Obama’s speech last night, go to The Ryskind Sketchbook. He even includes a tidbit that illustrates the inadequacy of Obama’s Harvard education. But then, maybe American history is not important there.

It's just Monoply money to them,

But it's blood, sweat, and tears to us.

Economic Stimulus Bill of 2008 (tax rebates) $170,000,000,000
TARP of 2008 (save the banking system bill) $700,000,000,000
American Recovery Act 2009 (the “stimulus" bill) $820,000,000,000
2009 Budget (under Bush) $3,100,000,000,000
Omnibus Spending Bill (House has passed) $410,000,000,000
Mortgage Affordability Plan (estimate) $ 75,000,000,000
Health Care Proposal (estimate) $650,000,000,000

That adds up to $5,925,000,000,000.

It does not take into account the present deficit or the interest on the coming deficits, if we can convince someone to buy our debt. All except the last two items have already been voted into law.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Does He Know Anyone Who Is Honest?

Tax Cheat Geithner
Corrupt Richardson
Tax Cheat Killefer
Unethical Solis
Tax Cheat Daschle
And now, Gary Locke who may be his third attempt at filling the Commerce Secretary slot, has ties to Chinagate/Buddist Temple, according to Michele Malkin.
Then there’s Biden, his gaffe prone vice president. Yesterday both Blooomberg and the
Wall St. Journal tied him to R, Allen Stanford, who is accused of massive fraud.

Spiritual Boot Camp

Tomorrow, more than a billion Christians around the world will begin a 40-day period of intensified prayer, alms giving, and self-denial. The purpose, like boot camp for inductees into the army, is to prepare for warfare except that Christians are engaged in conflict already, while inductees have not yet entered into actual battle.

Most of us who call ourselves Christians and claim that we love God still find ourselves falling for the empty promises of Satan, just like our ancestors, Adam and Eve. Throughout our lives, we find ways to distrust God’s love and provisions for us and convince ourselves that, just this once, in this very tiny manner, with these most unusual circumstances, we can proceed on our own without exactly following His lead.

During Lent we return to the basics, repent of our stupidity and faithlessness, exercise our flabby faith muscles, and learn to match our actions with our ideals by helping the “least of these” in our midst. The goal is to emerge on Easter Sunday as a new, improved version of ourselves, closer to the person God had in His mind when He created us.

We may never reach the mark, but, like St. Paul, we press on toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

If you are interested in reading more about the purpose of Lent, I suggest Fr. Philip Powell’s Blog, Domine Da Mihi Hanc Aquam (Lord, give me this water). Today, he has posted a short Lenten Prayer and reasons for Thanking the Devil. If you want a compendium of practical Lenten information, go to Aggie Catholics.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Time Magazine vs Catholic Church

In a recent issue of Time, Amy Sullivan suggests that the “well-oiled” Catholic Bishops’ Postcard Campaign against the deceptively named Freedom of Choice Act is jousting at windmills. The "well-oiled" campaign primarily consists of average parishioners who volunteer time and effort to get the post cards signed and mailed to Senators and Representatives in Washington, D.C.

As for the snarky claim that Pro Life Catholics oppose “a piece of legislation that doesn't exist and wouldn't have much chance of becoming law even if it did,” she ignores two easily verified facts. One is that such a bill has been lingering in the wings in Congress since 1989 waiting for a veto proof majority in both houses to pass it. The other is that Obama promised Planned Parenthood last summer that one of the first items on his agenda as president would be passing and signing FOCA. And, he has Democrat majorities in both houses to make it easier than ever before.

You won't see much press coverage of FOCA, but if you want to know the truth about this bill, check out these facts:

• FOCA will be the most radical abortion legislation in the history of our country.
• FOCA will become a federal law insuring the right to have an abortion during the entire nine-month gestation.
• FOCA will compel taxpayers to fund abortions.
• FOCA will eradicate all state laws that limit abortion in any way.
• FOCA will allow technicians, not just physicians, to perform abortions.
• FOCA will establish abortion as a fundamental right with no restrictions.
• FOCA will eliminate laws forbidding partial birth abortions.
• FOCA will stamp out parental notification laws for minors seeking abortions.
• FOCA will overturn state abortion reporting requirements.
• FOCA will negate laws protecting right of conscientious objection to performing abortions by medical providers, such as: physicians, pharmacists, nurses, hospitals and clinics.
• FOCA undermines the free practice of one’s religion, as stated in the Bill of Rights.
• FOCA will do away with state laws requiring counseling or ultrasound before an abortion.
• FOCA will remove informed consent laws regarding abortions.

Even if you believe that abortion should remain legal, please contact your senators and representatives by phone, email, or letter expressing opposition to FOCA. This act removes all choice except abortion and infringes on our personal liberties.

For more information, click here.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Racial Cowards in "Academentia"

When I was advising university students on the courses they should take, a young black student came in who only wanted to take one course for the summer term. I told him that the tuition for summer school covered two classes and encouraged him to take another one to keep from wasting his money. He left in a huff and I went on to the next student in line.

Within 15 minutes an imperious black female professor insisted on interrupting my schedule to discuss a “very important matter.” She was there to tell me that I had insulted the student by assuming he could not afford to “waste” money because he was black. She came to my office to get me to apologize to him for my racial insensitivity.

I told her that all advisors were instructed to remind all students to take two courses for the summer term, unless they had an important reason to not do it.

I also informed her that of my four children, three were married: one to an Hispanic, one to a Caucasian, and one to a Black. If I were racist to any degree, that would not have happened.

She left hurriedly before I could explain that my children’s friendships and marriages resulted from judging people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. And furthermore, it happened without affirmative action, quotas, or lessons in politically correct behavior.

If Attorney General Holder is correct that we are a nation of cowards, it is because we have been taught to be cowardly by political correctness. In fact, it has been pounded into us until it’s almost impossible to discuss anything frankly and it only causes trouble.

Friday, February 20, 2009

An A for Effort

In its latest issue, The New Republic mentions a study by the University of California, Irvine that concludes many students expect a good grade just for showing up at class.
The article includes a quote from a junior English major:

"I feel that if I do all of the readings and attend class regularly that I should be able to achieve a grade of at least a B."

Had they interviewed me, I could have given them similar statistics just from the students I recently taught. Although I kept grades posted on the web so each student could track their progress, or lack thereof, daily, every semester ended with a string of conferences involving both parents and students. Invariably, they would recite class attendance or turning in homework as evidence they deserved A’s no matter what the homework or test grades were.

I found the quote from a senior kinesiology major even more egregious.

"If you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point?" he added. "If someone goes to every class and reads every chapter in the book and does everything the teacher asks of them and more, then they should be getting an A like their effort deserves. If your maximum effort can only be average in a teacher's mind, then something is wrong."

Such an attitude, not to mention the poor reasoning skills, frightens me no end. First of all, how can anyone else, especially a professor who only sees you for three hours a week, know whether you had put forth your best effort? But more important, do these students not realize that competency is absolutely necessary in most, if not all, fields of study.

Which one of them would choose a surgeon who got through med school and internship with good grades because he made the effort, not because he learned anatomy?

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Beware of Bumper Stickers

An Oklahoma City police officer wrongly pulled over a man last week and confiscated an anti-President Barack Obama sign the man had on his vehicle. The officer misinterpreted the sign as threatening, said Capt. Steve McCool, of the Oklahoma City Police Department, and took the sign, which read "Abort Obama, not the unborn."

Read more here.

Investigations for Thee, But Not for Me

Sen. Patrick Leahy recently issued yet another call for a Truth Commission to investigate the crimes of the Bush administration. With the assistance of the Democrats in office, it may yet happen. Throughout his eight years as president, Bush faced repeated attempts at investigations, impeachment, and removal from office, primarily because of his leadership of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I am curious about the fact that no one has called for investigations, indictments, and Truth Commissions into the following politicians who seem to have been heavily involved in conflicts of interest, if not outright crimes.
1. Sen. Chris Dodd
2. Sen. Harry Reid
3. Sen. Hillary Clinton
4. Rep. Barney Frank
5. Rep. Charles Rangel
6. Rep. John Conyers
7. Rep. Jack Murtha
8. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner
9. Former Sen. Tom Daschle

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Motherhood and Apple Pie

In my lifetime the phrase about motherhood and apple pie has slipped from basic truth to bemusement to derision. Coincidently, the role of mother also slipped in favor, so I don’t think the change is due to a changing appreciation of apples.

In my twenties, I was unusual because I received a B.A. before marriage. Most of my friends earned their M.R.S. within two or three years and dropped out of college. I was also unusual in that I had four children at a time population alarmists self-righteously assaulted me in the mall or on the street with, “Whatever were you thinking?” Others more subtly made vague references about Southern women staying barefoot and pregnant. Both friends and strangers raised eyebrows whenever the six of us appeared together in public.

By thirty, I began to meet feminists at cocktail parties who wondered aloud why I wasted my potential as an educated woman to stay home and change diapers. They seldom allowed me to explain how much I enjoyed teaching my children and how little time I actually spent changing diapers.

By my forties I noticed that young girls were afraid to mention that they really wanted to get married and have a family. Only prodding from a sympathetic listener could get them to admit that a life spent as a computer programmer, for example, was not really their hearts’ desire. But society demanded that they approach life with career foremost in their mind.

As I approached sixty, I met more and more young women who had pursued the lucrative jobs as prescribed by our culture, but with fertility clocks ticking, wanted to get pregnant more than anything else. Of what value are two Mercedes in the garage if there is no baby to cuddle in your arms?

Now that I have turned seventy, I can look back on several careers: high school teacher, homemaker, publicist, software trainer, university lecturer, and advisor. Without doubt the most challenging, most compelling, and most fulfilling one was that of homemaker. It allowed me to develop, to experiment, to create, and to teach with few constraints.

It offered more rewards than annual raises or recognition at faculty meetings. I left the university with several students telling me that they learned more from me than anyone else during their college career. As great as that accolade was, nothing compares to watching my four children and knowing that I helped give them their start in life.

My only regret now is that I didn’t have eight.

Motherhood and Apple Pie, Part Two

The feminists used to hold consciousness-raising sessions in churches and Y’s across the nation to explain to women exactly how oppressed they were. They denounced women “trapped at home changing diapers” on ungrateful children. For a while their ideas made sense as society gradually adopted a form of their attitude. But they forgot that women are “hard wired” to be mothers.

So more and more women never returned to the job from their eight-week maternity leave. Others gladly sought part time work so they could spend more time with their children. Lately, we have witnessed an explosion of young women choosing motherhood, even without a husband. And most recently, there is Nadya Suleman, defiantly choosing to have fourteen children alone.

Choosing to have children without fathers present in the home is perverse and not to be applauded, although it is far better than abortion. But it does prove that nature will not be denied. Women are happiest bearing and nurturing children, physically and/or spiritually.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Vote of No Confidence

On November 4 when the polls closed, the following had been recorded for the day:
Dow Jones Average: $9,625
NASDAQ: $1,780
S&P 500: $1,005
After four weeks in office, the same indexes were:
Dow Jones Average: $7,552.60
NASDAQ: $1,470.66
S&P 500: $789.17

The Dow Jones Average is down $297.81 since the passage of the purposeless spending festival, officially named the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 on Friday.

I am sure that the reason Michelle Malkin and I are mentioning the same phenomenon is because great minds think alike. Ahem! I thought of it last night, but waited until the markets closed to post.

Israel Thrown Under The Bus

Before the November election, Obama reassured American Jewish leaders that he would not participate in Durban II, a dishonestly named Human Rights Conference to be held in Geneva next April. The Durban I conference, 2001, became a notorious forum for anti-Semitic, anti-Western, anti-Israeli speeches and proclamations. The second edition, led by Iran, the country that officially denies the holocaust and calls for the complete destruction of both the Great Satan (US), and the Little Satan (Israel) promises to be no better, and possibly worse than Durban I.

Obama reportedly said that he understood the dangers of participating, implying that he would abstain. After inauguration, however, he has agreed to help plan the conference, as well as participate in it.

The implications of this are vast, although the American media has ignored it.
1. He has withdrawn support from Israel the country that stands alone in the Middle East as a democracy and a country that actually respects human rights.
2. While our troops are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, he has insulted our major ally in the area.
3. America’s closest allies and trading partners, Canada, Israel, and The Netherlands had expected the US to bolster their decisions to abstain. Instead US participation will make proceedings appear legitimate.

He promised Change and has delivered more change in four weeks than either friend or foe expected. I wonder what the tally will be after four years.

Monday, February 16, 2009

More Censored Photos

Once again I have received photos from Iraq. They have been added to the Secret Photo
Slideshow. Just double click on the top photo to see all 19 in a larger format.

Thou Shall Not Covet

Am I the only adult in the US who remembers the luxury tax of 1991 on yachts, cars, airplanes, furs, and jewelry? Its proponents, like Ted Kennedy (D) and George Mitchell (D), crowed about how it would make the “rich” pay their fair share into the tax system and relieve the poor working man’s burden. Others eagerly joined the opportunity to get back at the wealthy.

In reality, it caused a lot of workers to lose jobs. For example, one yacht company had to downsize from two plants employing 1,500 to one plant employing 89. Multiply that by all the other small businesses catering to the luxury market and you can confidently predict a downturn since luxury purchases, by definition, can be postponed or eliminated.

Tax revenues dropped drastically since fewer goods were sold. More unemployment benefits had to be paid out. The newly unemployed paid less in income taxes. And the net effect on the tax system in 1991 was a net loss of $7,600,000 instead of the promised $31,000,000 gain, according to a report by Republicans on the Joint Economic Committee.

A mere 17 years later these same august politicians preen while castigating large companies for using corporate jets. They ignore the facts, such as:
1. The jets were probably ordered 2 or 3 years ago, before financial difficulties.
2. The jets probably save the company money because they make the corporate officers become more efficient.
3. The companies lose their deposit on the order when "encouraged" to give up the new jet purchase.
4. The manufacturer, suddenly having excess inventory when the company defaults on purchase/delivery of the new jet, will have to cut back on employees.
5. All the way down the line, the pilots, stewards, mechanics, and airports will lose revenue and be forced to cut back on employees and/or salaries as fewer jets are purchased and used.
6. More unemployment and lower revenue from income tax will lower tax revenues while delaying economic recovery.
7. The blatant hypocrisy of their own numerous, expensive, airplane junkets both at home and abroad that do little, if any, to make them more efficient. They appear to believe that the money for their perks grows on trees instead of coming from the taxpayers’ pockets.

Whatever happened to common sense and basic decency?

The luxury tax was such a flop that most of its provisions were rescinded in 1993. Apparently Kennedy and Mitchell discovered that both Massachusetts and Maine had large yacht industries.




Saturday, February 14, 2009

Ooooops!

In the post below, I should have said that I have new compassion for the students and a new understanding of their behavior. My compassion is for the people, not their destructive behavior. Sorry.

What’s Going to Become of This Younger Generation?

Last night I watched an interview of Dr. Philip Ney, a Canadian psychiatrist, as he described a woman who had come for treatment with her obstreperous seven-year-old. Despite being an only child, the little girl suffered from repeated nightmares of playing with three other children, but in each dream, the other children were killed and she would awake screaming. In addition, she became extremely difficult to manage and seemed to resent her mother.

When talking with the mother alone, Dr. Ney discovered that she had had three abortions before her seven-year-old child was born. The child had never been told of the abortions, yet somehow she knew anyway.

The young girl suffered from survivors guilt, a phenomenon first studied with Holocaust survivors who suffered immensely because of the seemingly randomness of their survival while friends and family were killed. In recent decades it has come to be associated with survivors of any traumatic episode; Dr. Ney and others find it also affects at least 50 percent of the people born since the advent of easy and legal abortions.

A home where the parents have already exercised the power of life and death over their own children creates complicated relationships between the parents and the surviving children. The children want and need to be close to their parents, yet deeply fear them. At some level the children want to flee, but can not because of their emotional and material dependence.

Because they survived by being “wanted,” these children become insecure, not sure how to remain “wanted.” Often they desperately hope that having money, things, power, popularity, sports prowess, and/or good looks will make them wanted and insure their continued survival.

Hearing him speak gave me new revelations about the behavior of the young people I taught at a state university. I have a new compassion for some of the self-destructive behavior I often witnessed. But until our popular culture becomes willing to admit that abortion has any negative consequences, I have no hope except the prayer, “Lord, have mercy.”


Could Not Have Said It Better Myself

The American Thinker nearly always has thought provoking articles. Today I highly recommend The Law Liberals Always Break by Edmund Wright.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Blog Reader vs Big Shot Media

A Blog reader has done the research on Henrietta Hughes that the media and the President did not consider important. It turns out that Ms. Hughes, who tearfully begged Obama for a bathroom and a kitchen at the Townhall meeting in Ft. Myers, FL last Tuesday, really knows how to work the system. To start with, how did she happen to have a front row seat in an overflow crowd? Then a Republican Representative handed her the keys to a home rent-free. To find out more about the extent of her expertise, read the two articles about her at http://sweetness-light.com/.


Transparency? About As Clear As Mud

My mother always taught me to beware of salesmen who spent more time stressing the urgency of the purchase than they did extolling its benefits. That alone makes me very worried about the "Stimulus" Bill. We've been told much more about the need for immediate action than about what's actually in the bill.

So our noble leaders have come up with legislation that is reportedly more than 1000 printed pages. They intend to vote at 1 PM today on an agreement that was only reached last night. So much for the new era of transparency and the promise of having every piece of legislation on the Internet for at least 48 hours before the final vote.

To compound the problem, the lobbyists on K Street received their copies before Congressional staffers, according to U.S. News and World Report. No matter who got the bill first, no representative can possibly have read it, much less reflected on its implications, before the vote. And, as usual, those of us who have to pay for this, are left out in the dark -- until the tax bill comes.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Censored

My uncle sent the slide show from Iraq in the left column. He and I presume that the pictures are far too graphic to be shown in the mainstream media. Enjoy your secret glimpse into the current conditions there. Double click on the slide show to see enlarged photos in a new window.


Lincoln and Obama

In honor of Lincoln's 200th birthday, we turn to one of his quotes;
“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my ax”

It is too bad that Obama has not followed his hero's advice since assuming presidency. Executive orders, legislation, and public statements give the impression that he is more interested in acting quickly than in deliberating on the best course of action.

For example, take his suspension of military tribunals for terrorism suspects. According to families of American victims, he revealed his lack of understanding of the consequences last Friday when he met with them. Read more here.

Then there is the one thousand or so page "Stimulus" Bill that he demanded be passed immediately whether or not anyone has read the whole thing, much less debated it. It gives me a bad case of the Lincoln era "vapors" just to think about it.



Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Health Care for Me, But Not for Thee

Since the emergence of the health care reforms hidden in the “Stimulus” Bill, I have been reflecting on the similarities between Sen. Specter and me. Actually, we both have a lot in common. We’re from the same generation of babies born during the Depression. Both of us were fairly healthy until the nineties. Since then, we’ve have hit a few bumps on the road. Each of us has fought cancer 4 times and had a major operation in the last 17 years.

We both received excellent, up-to-date medical care that enabled us to win over amazing odds.

Fortunately of me, my illnesses occurred in the past. Were they to happen after the “health care reforms” hidden in the stimulus bill, I am certain that given my expected life span and the cost of cancer treatment, the authorities would order “Palliative Treatment Only."

But, because Arlen Specter is in the Senate, he will continue to receive medical care at the taxpayer expense without regard to those ugly mortality tables versus the cost of treatment.


Footnote:In the nineties Arlen fought off brain cancer twice, then had to endure cardiac bypass surgery in 1998. Then in 2005 and 2008 Sen. Specter had to be treated for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

I had breast cancer in 1992, ocular melanoma and a tumor on my colon in 2005, lung cancer in 2006, and a kidney operation in 2007.


Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Orator???

I hate to be the naysayer in the crowd, but I find it hard to admire Obama's eloquence when he repeatedly lies to emphasize his point. To me, that demeans the speaker and destroys the message. For example, he has said numerous times that we are in the worst condition since The Great Depression. But, both the misery index and unemployment were higher during the Carter administration than they have been at any time in the last four years. The year that Carter took office, the Misery Index was 13.55% and when he left office, it was 20.76. The index, a sum of unemployment rate and inflation rate, during Bush's two terms ranged from 7.37 to 9.61.
The unemployment rate in 1932 was 23.6%, on February 4, 2009, it was a mere 7.6, quite similar to the rate during the Carter years. Except for the last four months of Bush's two terms, the unemployment rate was below 6%.

Now We Know . . .

In the last couple of days, as more information has come to light about the “Stimulus” Bill, we finally see how it will create some new jobs -- the new federal infrastructure to monitor and control health services in America.

Using Tom Daschle’s book as a blueprint, the new department will access all medical records for every person in the U.S. The same party that railed against monitoring phone calls from Al Quaeda suspects to people in the US as an invasion of privacy now wants federal office workers checking out your weight, blood pressure, and medications. It doesn’t take much to imagine “accidental” leaks of embarrassing information, given the proper situation.

Other functionaries will keep tabs on the physicians to be sure they quit acting like solo practitioners, concerned only with the health of their patients, and train them to accept the federal guidelines for practicing medicine. Direct intervention by the government in the management of every patient will be easy with the records available online.

Statisticians will be employed to figure out the cost effectiveness of each treatment on each patient. If the cost compared to what they decide is your expected longevity is too high, then the proposed treatment will be denied.

In other words, the emergency "Stimulus" Bill brings us socialized medicine by stealth.



Monday, February 9, 2009

Drill Here. Drill Now. Create Jobs. Boost Economy.

My pain free solution to the economic malaise is to start allowing Americans to make use of the natural resources that we already own. If sanctions against drilling for our own oil, building nuclear power plants here, mining and processing our own oil shale, and using our own coal were immediately lifted, the economy would surge. Think about the number of jobs that would become available, not to mention the increase in consumer and investor confidence. Understand that we would become far less vulnerable to foreign attacks or blackmail because we would be energy independent.

Frivolous lawsuits would have to be disallowed or settled within six months. This is no time to fight the energy companies.


ACORN Stimulates The Economy?

Have you heard any arguments that support the notion that supporting ACORN will stimulate the economy? I haven’t either. So why does it receive a bailout in the “Stimulus” Bill? If it belongs there, then “Stimulus” supporters should tell us how it would magically cure the economy.

It was also protected in the September TARP bill through Bank of America donations. By June, the amount is supposed to be $2,000,000. This is the same ACORN that faces charge of voter fraud and improper accounting practices in fourteen states.

Support for the "Stimulus," as currently written, now rests at 34% versus 62% who oppose it, according to Rasmussen. Five percent are undecided. Whatever happened to government of, for, and by the people?

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Harry Reid's Figures

Are you ready to add $3,333.33 for yourself and every member of your family to your present tax bill? Harry Reid has stated that the cost of the Stimulus package would end up being around $1,000,000,000,000. That is $3,333.33 per man, woman, and child, whether employed or not. Then, it increases as we have to pay interest and/or inflation decreases the value of our dollar.

Once some of these spending programs are in place, unfortunately, many of them will become regular budget items. Have you ever known of a government program that withered away of its own free will? Government functionaries always find many reasons why the funding should continue, often with increased budgets.


Saturday, February 7, 2009

Slave or Free?

Sometimes I get the feeling that we're paying our government to turn us and our children into indentured servants.Since the "crisis" in the banking industry, our elected officials have steadily insisted on appropriating more money to solve the problems they created. Tax Freedom Day used to come sometime in May, but who knows when it will be after all the bailouts and stimulus bills get passed.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Time to Face Facts

The leaders in Washington keep telling the public that their so-called Stimulus Bill must be passed immediately or the country might face “irreversible” decline. Never does anyone in favor of it explain why each expenditure is in the bill or how it will make the economy suddenly work better.

They insist that most people want a stimulus bill passed immediately, but few people have any understanding of what’s involved.

Let’s take a look at the math:
Pretend that some entity began spending $1,000,000 US dollars on the day that Jesus was born. And, for the sake of argument, pretend that Jesus was born on December 25. Since that time 2009 years and 44 days have passed. Including 502 extra days for the leap years, the total number of days is 733,831. So, under these circumstances, the total spent by today would be a mere $733,831,000,000 or $196,169,000,000 LESS that the $930,000,000,000 currently included in the Senate “Stimulus” Bill.

2009 X 365 = 733,285
Plus 502 extra days for leap years + 502
Plus 44 days since Christmas + 44
TOTAL DAYS 733,831

$1,000,000 per day $733,831,000,000

Approximate total on Senate Bill $930,000,000,000 (at 11 on Friday Morning)

HOW MUCH GOVERNMENT SPENDING CAN WE TAKE?


Another way of looking at it is that the Senate wants to spend $930,000,000,000 over and above the regular budget (based on 2007 figures) of approximately $2,730,000,000,000, and the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of $700,000,000,000 that was passed in September despite public disapproval. These items adds up to:

Senate Stimulus Bill $930,000,000,000
Approximate Budget $2,730,000,000,000
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act $700,000,000,000

TOTAL EXPENDITURES $4,360,000,000,000



That is $5,941,422 for every day since Jesus was born based on legislation passed or in the process of passing since September. Or, it works out to be $14,533.33 for each man, woman, and child of the 300 million people in America.

And we still don’t know what happened to the first $700,000,000,000 and see no evidence that it has helped the economy at all.


WHAT ELSE IS IN THE PIPELINE?


Unknown to most are the proposals that Mr. Obama has in the pipeline, such as Universal Health Care, expansion of the welfare state, or the Global Poverty Act that Obama introduced to the Senate in 2007, and mentioned on the campaign trail. Plus the costs of Social Security and Medicare increase every year while fewer workers contribute.

I firmly believe the citizens need to take a deep breath and quit wringing their hands. Legislation passed in haste is seldom done well. First we need true accountability for the $700,000,000,000 from September. Where did the money go? Did it help in any way? How can we best spend what is left? Why are records not available to the public who is paying for it?

HOW TO RECOVER FROM FINANCIAL CHAOS


Every person and every organization that find themselves in financial difficulties know that the only way to get out of the problem is to increase income and/or cut expenses. For individuals, one usually takes on an additional part time job to increase income and cut back on expenditures until the crisis is past. Organizations do the same thing by selling assets, increasing prices, and cutting overhead. The fact that the US government is a very large organization does not change the equation.

The way to increase income to the government is to cut tax rates. It has been proven by the actions of Kennedy, Reagan, and Bush. Tax revenue increases do little good unless there is also a reduction of expenses. Failure to rein in spending was George W. Bush’s downfall and eroded the base of support he did have. Adding a trillion dollars of new expenditures will not help Barack Obama either.

Absolutely no financial analyst would argue that an organization should increase spending by borrowing so much money that it will require generations to repay, as the Stimulus Bill will.