It’s about the money, not your health

Obamacare makes perfect sense if you follow the money, because that's what it is about. Our current employer based system was put in place after WWII as a way to attract workers. But now since it is virtually required and very regulated, it is the standard, not the exception as it was in the 1940s. Only 6% now buy insurance through the non-group market.

Employers' spending on health insurance premiums is exempt from taxation for both employers and employees. When my husband was a partner in an architectural firm he had to buy insurance with after tax dollars (owners weren't part of the benefit plan); when I became a regular employee at Ohio State (not contract or part time) I picked up the insurance for both of us and we probably saved/made an additional $300-400 a month 25 years ago.

The federal government isn't happy about "subsidizing" our health insurance, and wants those tax dollars so it can run its own program. ". . .it reduces federal and state tax revenues by $260 Billion per year and is the government's third largest expenditure on health care, after Medicare ($400 Billion) and Medicaid ($300 Billion)." You see, the government thinks it rightfully belongs to them.

http://www.nber.org/bah/2010no1/w15766.html

When Bobby Kennedy snooped on MLK

Even before the Patriot Act, there were exceptions under federal law to our guarantee of privacy under the 4th amendment.

"One was for so-called "pen-trap" orders. To obtain from a telephone company the numbers dialed to and from a particular telephone, officers must get a pen-trap order from a judge. They do not need to show probable cause, but must certify that the information is needed for an ongoing criminal investigation. The reason for the lesser standard is that these records are far less intrusive than wiretaps and physical searches.

Another major exception was for matters before the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court. Congress created the court in 1978 following scandals revealing that U.S. intelligence agencies had spied on hundreds of thousands of American citizens, most notably the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr." [Bobby Kennedy was the AG for this snooping]

(from "The Patriot Act" - Constitutional Rights Foundation)

He deflects the blame from Obama, so he’s still useful

Dry drowning—I’d never heard of it

“According to the Centers for Disease Control, some 3,600 people drowned in 2005, the most recent year for which there are statistics. Some 10 to 15 percent of those deaths was classified as “dry drowning,” which can occur up to 24 hours after a small amount of water gets into the lungs. In children, that can happen during a bath.”

http://www.today.com/id/24982210/ns/today-today_health/t/boys-death-highlights-hidden-danger-dry-drowning/

Signs:

1) Difficulty breathing

2) Extreme fatigue

3) Changes in behavior

In an active child, these signs would be hard to spot.

You get to play the hand you’re dealt—so don’t whine

   “But the real problem with Clinton's sure-to-become-ubiquitous talking point [at the Democratic convention about job creation]  is that it imputes to the President a level of power that he just doesn't have. Presidents don't get to wipe the slate clean and start the economy over from scratch; they must play the cards they are dealt. President Obama inherited a very bad hand indeed, with the bursting of the mortgage bubble. But he is far from alone in inheriting a bad hand.
     His immediate predecessor, George W. Bush, inherited the bursting of the tech bubble that had helped make the late Clinton years seem so prosperous. George H.W. Bush inherited what was, at the time, the worst banking crisis since the Depression, courtesy of a real estate bubble that had left the country dotted with see-through office buildings that had been built on spec and never leased.
     Ronald Reagan inherited stagflation from Jimmy Carter. Had Reagan been fixated on maximizing job creation in his first term, he never would have given political support to Paul Volcker's aggressive interest rate increases at the Federal Reserve, which succeeded in choking off inflation but at the cost of what was, at the time, the worst recession since the Depression.
     Similarly, Richard Nixon inherited the inflation and various other distortions created by LBJ's guns-and-butter policies. Moreover, his elimination of those half million American jobs LBJ had created in South Vietnam was fairly popular, particularly among the men being displaced.”

Senator Blutarsky, blogger

Rice Power

I'll say one thing about the Verizon scandal, it bumped the Rice/Power appointments off front page. Rice lied on 5 national TV shows--if she wasn't lying then she certainly wasn't asking the boss any questions. And Power? What a disaster. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Wire/2013/0606/Samantha-Power-Can-Obama-s-UN-nominee-live-down-Israel-comments

It doesn’t matter what you call it

My borrowed Thursday Thirteen—13 good things about getting older

By Anonymous—as seen at Suddenly Senior

1. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.

2. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.

3. It's harder and harder for sexual harassment charges to stick.

4. If you've never smoked, you can start now and it won't have time to hurt you.

5. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.

6. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them, either.

7. Your supply of brain cells is finally down to a manageable size.

8. Your eyes won't get much worse.

9. Things you buy now won't wear out.

10. No one expects you to run into a burning building.

11. There's nothing left to learn the hard way.

12. Your joints are more accurate than the National Weather Service.

13. In a hostage situation, you are likely to be released first.

Verizon is probably just the tip of the ice-berg

The IRS spending spree

As the Federal budget goes, $40 million for one conference for IRS managers is a pittance (and that’s a different problem).  But it certainly shows that they are blind to the problems of their “customers.”  Also, they apparently were deaf to the worries of lesser paid government employees, and Rep. Trey Gowdy contrasts their spending on $3500 hotel rooms with his own staff in 2010 struggling to pay the bills. . . His recommendation?  Start over—a training webinar isn’t going to fix a culture that is so disconnected from reality.

How many died on D-Day, June 6, 1944?

“In April and May 1944, the Allied air forces lost nearly 12,000 men and over 2,000 aircraft in operations which paved the way for D-Day.

The Allied casualties figures for D-Day have generally been estimated at 10,000, including 2500 dead. Broken down by nationality, the usual D-Day casualty figures (killed, wounded, MIA) are approximately 2700 British, 946 Canadians, and 6603 Americans. . .

The total German casualties on D-Day are not known, but are estimated as being between 4000 and 9000 men. . .

Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. This figure includes over 209,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 dead amongst the ground forces and a further 16,714 deaths amongst the Allied air forces. Of the Allied casualties, 83,045 were from 21st Army Group (British, Canadian and Polish ground forces), 125,847 from the US ground forces. The losses of the German forces during the Battle of Normandy can only be estimated. Roughly 200,000 German troops were killed or wounded. The Allies also captured 200,000 prisoners of war (not included in the 425,000 total, above). During the fighting around the Falaise Pocket (August 1944) alone, the Germans suffered losses of around 90,000, including prisoners.

http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/d-day/d-day-and-the-battle-of-normandy-your-questions-answered

Google and Obama

Google’s (GOOG) executive chairman, Eric Schmidt helped recruit talent, choose technology, and coach the Obama re-election campaign manager, Jim Messina, on the finer points of leading a large organization. “On election night he was in our boiler room in Chicago,” says David Plouffe, then a senior White House adviser. Schmidt had a particular affinity for a group of engineers and statisticians tucked away beneath a disco ball in a darkened corner of the office known as “the Cave.” The data analytics team, led by 30-year-old Dan Wagner, is credited with producing Obama’s surprising 5 million-vote margin of victory.”

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-30/googles-eric-schmidt-invests-in-obamas-big-data-brains

And now Google owns the data and the team that it created.

So, although voters were manipulated, I still say if Christians had gotten over their prejudices and desire to have a perfect candidate, Romney would be the president.  They simply sat out this election.

Black Quill and Ink Blog looks at the NSA/Verizon scandal and how libs still blame Bush

“Looking at Morning Joe's panel today discussing the new revelation of the NSA's massive data collection of phone calls among Americans. They are complaining how Obama's actions are a major expansion of the Bush policies. Arianna Huffington said that she is disappointed in Obama because he said he was against G. Bush doing this stuff and how Obama promised to end these policies but instead how he has massively increased them. They talked about how Obama criticized Bush for water-boarding three terrorist that are alive today but now how Obama uses drones to kill maybe hundreds of innocent civilians who just happened to be near targeted terrorist. They said that they never would have expected Obama to do this sort of thing given his campaign rhetoric and promises.

Conservatives like me are in no way surprised. I remember warning my Obama loving cousin back in August of 2008 that Obama was a radical and could not be trusted. My cousin said that he liked the fact that Obama was against Bush and that he believed that he would do what he promised. I asked him what in Obama 's past would cause him to believe in Obama, OR anything that he said. Obama's past for liberals was completely devoid of any facts. His past for conservatives was rife with radical associations and people which for us portended bad news. If for no other reason, people like my cousin should have been concerned because they knew nothing about the guy except for the fact that he was black, spoke well and was a Harvard lawyer. It is so amusing (although I weep for my country) how these liberals, who told us in 2008 and even in 2012 how wrong we were about Obama, are now getting wind of his radicalism and far left mentality and corruption. Just imagine if Bush were doing half of the stuff Obama has done and is doing, Benghazi, AP, Fast and Furious, Solyndra, James Rosen and IRS. Amazing....simply amazing.

Now in unison we conservatives won't say....WE TOLD YOU SO.”

[Black Quill & Ink (BQI) is a Black conservative blog providing commentary on current events and news topics. We hope to elevate the discussion of conservative values, especially within the Black community.]

Obama’s Watergate

Corruption and cover up. Surely Democrats must be embarrassed by the daily revelations. Yet they stick by him. Forty years ago chagrined, honest Republicans were fleeing from Nixon, a man whose lines about "I didn't know," or "I'm not a crook," are now being used by Obama. Maybe there's time. It hasn't all come out yet.

The Early Church, contraception and abortion

Some Christians think the church has not always disapproved of contraception and abortion (especially if they listen to that well known theologian, Nancy Pelosi). They may think the HHS battle just belongs to the Catholics.  They would be wrong. For the first centuries of the church, we share many of the “founding” documents written after the New Testament gospels and letters.  The earliest, the Didache, which is sort of a catechism for new believers, is very clear on this issue. Abortion and even infanticide and offering children to the pagan gods were not uncommon among the cultures of the early converts, so something needed to be said. Due to the length of this article, I’m only using the high lights, and I suggest you look at the original if interested in this topic.

The earliest reference to contraception and abortion is in the Didache, a document from the second half of the first century or early second century. Didache reads: “You shall not practice birth control, you shall not murder a child by abortion, nor kill what is begotten” (2).

Many translations read “practice sorcery” because the Greek word sometimes has that meaning (see Wisdom 12:4, Galatians 5:20, Revelation 18:23). However, it also means practice medicine or use poison, and the term may refer to contraceptive measures, as is the case in a number of the following texts.

Another early text is the Epistle of Barnabas: “You shall not slay the child by procuring abortion, nor shall you destroy it after it is born” (19). This also shows that the earliest Christians forbade abortion.

In the second century, St. Clement of Alexandria wrote in the Paedagogus (2.10.96): “Women who resort to some sort of deadly abortion drug kill not only the embryo, but along with it, all human kindness.” This passage supports our translation of the Didache by mentioning the use of drugs to induce abortion.

In 177, Athenagoras of Athens wrote in the Supplication for the Christians: “And when we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder?”

.. .Tertullian’s Apology in 197, while he was still in union with the Church, says, “In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth.”

In the third century, Minucius Felix (226) wrote in Octavius: “There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels, and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth” (30).

Around 228, St. Hippolytus wrote about unmarried women, including some reputed to be Christians, who became pregnant from illicit relationships. In his Refutation of All Heresies, he says, “Whence women, reputed believers, began to resort to drugs for producing sterility and to gird themselves round, so to expel what was being conceived on account of their not wishing to have a child either by a slave or by any paltry fellow, for the sake of their family and excessive wealth. Behold, into how great impiety that lawless one has proceeded by inculcating adultery and murder at the same time! And withal, after such audacious acts, they, lost to all shame, attempt to call themselves a Catholic Church” (9.7).

. . . . A document known as the Constitutions of the Holy Apostles reads “You shall not slay thy child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten; for ‘everything that is shaped and has received a soul from God, if it be slain, shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed’” (7.1).

This states the belief that the fetus has a soul and its life must be protected from conception forward.

. . .  St. Augustine wrote On Marriage and Concupiscence (419). . .  “I am supposing, then, although you are not lying [with your wife] for the sake of procreating offspring, you are not for the sake of lust obstructing their procreation by an evil prayer or an evil deed. Those who do this, although they are called husband and wife, are not; nor do they retain any reality of marriage, but with a respectable name cover a shame” (1.15.17).

St. Basil the Great wrote in his First Canonical Letter, Canon 2: “The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder. With us there is no nice enquiry as to its being formed or unformed. In this case it is not only the being about to be born who is vindicated, but the woman in her attack upon herself; because in most cases women who make such attempts die. The destruction of the embryo is an additional crime, a second murder, at all events, if we regard it as done with intent” (374). . .

St. Jerome, Letter 22 to Eustochium (396), said: “Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world, laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ, but also of suicide and child murder. Yet it is these who say: ‘Unto the pure all things are pure; my conscience is sufficient guide for me.’ A pure heart is what God looks for” (13).

Not only did many of the great theologians address abortion and contraception, but so did some councils.. . 

Likewise, the Catholic author of this article says, Luther and Calvin also condemned the practice.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/abortion-contraception-and-the-church-fathers#ixzz2VQhyQsx9

Man Caves for EPA contractor employees

“The warehouse [70,000 sf]contained multiple unauthorized and hidden personal spaces created by and for the workers that included televisions, refrigerators, radios, microwaves, chairs and couches,” the IG report said. “These spaces contained personal items, including photos, pin ups, calendars, clothing, books, magazines and videos."  . . . In addition to the secret rooms, the IG found an incomplete and inaccurate recordkeeping system; numerous potential security and safety hazards, including an open box of passports. . .”

http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2013/06/secret-man-caves-found-epa-warehouse/64202/?oref=govexec_today_nl

I wonder why the EPA needs passports?

Women and Obama

Make a mess in the Obama administration and you get a bonus, a promotion or the revolving door to a top job in industry or a non-profit: Lois Lerner (FEC to IRS enforcement), Susan Rice (U.N. to Nat. Security Advisor) , Sarah Hall Ingram (IRS to Obamacare implementation), Elizabeth Fowler (Obamacare architect to Johnson and Johnson), Lisa Jackson (EPA to Apple, Samantha Power (special assistant to Obama and all around trouble maker in a variety of positions married to Cass Sunstein to take Susan Rice's place at U.N.).

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2011/03/samantha-power-power-behind-gaddafi.html

Star Parker has the CURE for dependency

It's possible you've seen Star Parker on CNN, TBN, CSPAN, CBN, and FOX News, and once you learned she's a conservative Christian, perhaps you picked up the remote and looked for someone else to discuss the news of the day. But if you're a Democrat, you should also know she's had several abortions and been on welfare so she knows your side of the fence too, even if she jumped it and ran to the freedom of Christ, because that's who changed her life. Today she's head of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, a 501(c)(3) non-profit think tank which promotes market based public policy to fight poverty.

I wonder if the IRS has investigated her status--after all, she did leave the system for a better plan and tells others how to do it. That could be a threat to the current administration.

http://townhall.com/columnists/starparker/

ProPublica—left wing 501c3 non-profit investigates right wing 501c3 non-profits

Pot to kettle—your non-profit is not appropriate, but ours is. Yours is political and so is ours, but we’re left wing and you’re right wing.  You are funded by ordinary Americans trying to regain control of the country, and we are funded by rich philanthropists who don’t want to give up control.

“ProPublica began operations in 2008 with funding from the liberal Sandler Foundation. According to The New York Times it was “the creation of Herbert M. and Marion O. Sandler, the former chief executives of the Golden West Financial Corporation.”The billionaire Sandlers “committed $10 million a year to the project.”

In addition to the Sandler millions, ProPublica has received $300,000 from liberal billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations.”

“ProPublica was also the organization that received leaked IRS tax forms related to conservative groups.  Pro Publica admitted “they should not have been sent to us before they were approved.””

https://www.mrc.org/articles/soros-funded-news-operation-helped-build-irs-case-against-tea-party

Sexual assault and the military

Most sexual assaults are male on male.  Imagine the mess we'll have in the military now that don't ask don't tell is history.

"Sexual assault includes rape, nonconsensual sodomy (oral or anal sex), indecent assault (e.g., unwanted and inappropriate sexual contact or fondling), or attempts to commits these acts. Sexual assault can occur without regard to gender, spousal relationship, or age of victim.*

Other sex-related offenses are defined as all other sexual acts or acts in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) that do not meet the above definition of sexual assault, or the definition of sexual harassment as promulgated in DoD Directive 1350.2, Department of Defense Military Equal Opportunity, para E2.1.15.

For the specific articles of sexual assault offenses under the UCMJ, see the Manual for Courts-Martial (MCM).

(*Reference- the DoD definition for sexual assault and other sex-related offenses for all training and education purposes)."

http://www.sexualassault.army.mil/content/faqs.cfm