What did the President know and when?

It’s getting ugly

For Halloween this year. . .

ACA and the abortion trap upon enrollment

It’s no secret Barack Obama is the most ardent supporter of abortion at any time for any reason, including gender, than any president or politician in the history of the United States. The problems with ACA show this.

“To date, 23 states have passed laws that prohibit most abortion coverage through the Exchanges: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.

In the other 27 states and the District of Columbia, at least one of the multi-state plans participating in the Exchanges must be abortion free. However, the secrecy clause in the ACA makes it nearly impossible to identify which plans include abortion and which don’t.

According to the secrecy clause, plans which include abortion may only reveal that they cover abortion in the “Summary of Benefits,” and only at the time of enrollment. Furthermore, materials published by the insurer or the Exchanges are not permitted to provide the monthly cost of the abortion premium—leaving insurance-Exchange participants in the dark about possible subsidization of abortion. Even worse, participants will not be allowed to opt-out of the abortion premium once they are enrolled.”  LifeNews.com

The plan is working just fine

A pain in the neck by Massiv

Hum along if you’ve ever had neck pain.  That’s when you realize everything in your body is connected to your neck!

Feeling exhausted from all the aches
Pins n needles, even wooden stakes
The pain is oh so real
But I try to man-up and deal

Chorus:
My body is in need of some relief
Sumbitch this hurts, good grief
Damn sure pain free, I expect
It's time for needles in mah neck

It ain't easy all of the time
Smoking cigars hurts my spine
No matter the suffering, I must fight
Ima ride my bike n raise my kids up right

Chorus:
My body is in need of some relief
Sumbitch this hurts, good grief
Damn sure pain free, I expect
It's time for needles in mah neck.

Written by Massiv Lorion for my nephew Greg who is receiving neck therapy today. 
Copyright 2013

Falling on the insurance sword is an act of patriotism, Democrats believe

“The millions of Americans who are receiving [health insurance] termination notices because their current coverage does not conform to Health and Human Services Department rules may not realize this is by design. Maybe they trusted President Obama's repeated falsehood that people who liked their health plans could keep them. But Americans should understand that this month's mass cancellation wave has been the President's political goal since 2008. Liberals believe they must destroy the market in order to save it.”

The plans Americans wanted and were willing to pay for have been outlawed and called “substandard,” as though our kindly, benevolent, wonderful leader was saving us from something awful. The purpose of having these expensive policies many don’t want and can’t afford, is to kill the insurance market and drive people to the exchanges. The government needs those bodies!

Fall on the insurance sword in a patriotic act for the most high leader who only wants what’s best for you.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230420080457916354118031265

Pet health care costs will go up

Many veterinarians are self-employed or in small group practices, and have in the past bought health insurance through their professional organization, the American Veterinary Medical Association. No more. That's just one association that has covered the self-insured that Obamacare has put out of business. The American Veterinary Medical Association’s Group Health and Life Insurance Trust will no longer provide medical insurance to its members after 2013. The approximately 17,500 AVMA-member veterinarians who carry the medical coverage through GHLIT will have to seek medical individual plans effective Jan. 1, 2014. Despite lobbying efforts on behalf of GHLIT, the trust will no longer be treated as a “group” arrangement, which means that advantages of the current nationwide coverage and premium ratings will not be available, the trust said in a statement.

Most veterinary practices are small--the law is extremely complex and loaded with bureaucratic fat, making the tax laws almost impossible for the little guy. She’ll have to hire more staff for accounting, inventory, IT, etc.  If you've lost your doctor, your vet may be next.

Veterinarians are in many communities first line of defense in HUMAN health--they are public health officers. The medical device tax also affects the health of your pets. A "device" is just about anything that isn't a medication, needles, catheters, and consumables--they will affect veterinarians, too. The price will be passed on to the animal owner. Most pet owners pay real prices, and don't have the cushion of pet insurance.

If pet care gets more expensive, expect to see more abandoned animals, or pets going without health care. Just another Obamacare fall out.

http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/vet-breaking-news/2012/12/19/avma-forced-to-discontinue-medical-insurance-for-members

Our tax dollars at work

Lisa Tatonetti, associate professor of English and American ethnic studies, Kansas State University teaches and publishes on queer and erotic native American literature (her terms not mine). Must really be a niche market, but she got promotion and tenure. She will be giving a lecture at Ohio State in November for the Sexuality Studies (program?  department? division?).  http://sexualitystudies.osu.edu/events/public-lecture-lisa-tatonetti-kansas-state-cruising-greta-garbo-maurice-kenny-fag-rag-and-nat

Selective information

President Obama knew about Louis Gates, Trayvon Martin, all hip hop performers/celebs and Redskins; he didn't know about Fast and Furious, requests for help from Benghazi, IRS, NSA, the snafus with the roll out, or spying on our allies. He needs to fire his staff. They are obviously shielding him from the truth.  He’s been known to go after “leakers” with McCarthy type zeal; maybe he needs to find those with their fingers in the dike?

 

Gird up your loins

Abby Johnson on Pro-life news in Texas

Good news from Texas! Tomorrow, our new RU486 law will go into effect...drastically reducing the amount of medication abortions performed in our state. Also, the law banning abortions past 20 weeks will go into effect tomorrow.
The law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges will go to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. And the Ambulatory Surgical Center requirements will go into effect September 2014.

Monday Memories—watercolor

When my husband began painting in the 1970s he had a limited palette, burnt umber, burnt sienna, ultramarine blue , yellow ochre, cadmium red, Hooker's green with a few dabs of other blues and reds. He did barns and trees with no leaves, because green is very difficult to master in watercolor. Over the years he got more frisky and added a bird, then a chicken, a cow, and the barns got more red, a...nd the skies more pink. Then he took up sailing and started painting boats that weren't washed up on a beach or rocks. About 5 years ago he painted some flowers. A few years ago he started painting people, like 150 people on the dock at Lakeside and even did one of 5 girls in colorful saris last year. But as far as I can recall, Max is his first dog.

Max is a one woman dog—my sister-in-law Debbie who we were visiting in California two weeks ago.  He would look like he would let you pet him, or throw him a ball, but then would back off.  This will be sent to his “people.”

Free to Choose

I'm reading Milton Friedman's "Free to choose, a personal statement."  It was published in 1980, but reads like today's paper.  I'm in chapter 3, about the Depression, and the origin and problems of the federal reserve system.

"In the realm of ideas, the depression persuaded the public that capitalism was an unstable system destined to suffer ever more serious crises.  The public was converted to views that had already gained increasing acceptance among the intellectuals; government had to play a more active role; it had to intervene to offset the instability generated by unregulated private enterprise; it had to serve as a balance wheel to promote stability and assure security." And that rapid growth and power extended to Friedman’s day (1980) and ours in 2013. And it extended the Great Depression for a decade because the government had failed in its assigned responsibility in the Constitution--section 8, article 1. The Great Depression was not a failure of private enterprise he says, but of government. Unfortunately, both Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt tried to solve it with more of what brought it about, just as Bush and Obama did in 2008-2009. FDR's New Deal was Obama's Hope and Change.

Mike Rowe’s answer to a “fan” who hates Glenn Beck

We enjoyed Mike Rowe’s (Dirty Jobs) appearance on Glenn Beck last week.  He seems a really nice guy with a terrific voice and big heart (kind of like Glenn).  But some of his fans on Facebook weren’t pleased.

“As for your personal characterization of Glenn Beck, I can only assume you have information not available to me. In my time with him, I saw nothing “horrible, psychotic, hateful, or nasty.” I smelled no burning sulphur, no smoldering brimstone, and saw no sign of cloven hooves.To the contrary, I found a very passionate guy who employs about 300 people, works his butt off, and puts his money where his mouth is. Do we agree on everything? Of course not. Am I “disappointed” by that fact? Not at all. The real question, Shannon, is … why are you?

To be clear, I’m not here to tell you what to think or whom to hate. Like everyone else, you’re free to pick your devils, choose your angels, and attach the horns and halos accordingly.

But the guts of your question – even without all the name-calling and acrimony – reveal the essence of what’s broken in our country. You want to know “how I can associate” with someone you don’t like? The short answer is, how can I not? How are we ever going to accomplish anything in this incredibly divisive time if we associate only with people that we don’t disagree with?”

Forever Stamps weren’t

Obamacare isn't the only rocky roll out. Look what happened to the Let's Move series Forever Stamps AFTER they were printed and ready for first day issue ceremony. Depicted children in 15 activities: skipping rope, juggling, bouncing a ball, performing a cartwheel, kicking a soccer ball, playing basketball, skateboarding, twisting in the air, playing baseball, stretching, running, performing a head stand, jumping into water, climbing a rope, and swinging. 3 of them did not show proper safety. http://extramustard.si.com/2013/10/11/just-move-stamps-michelle-obama-safety-canelled/

HT Gayle

Where was the Captain?

“And there is the enduring mystery of why the president, who in his career has attempted to persuade the American people to have greater faith in and reliance on the federal government's ability to help, continues to go forward with an astounding lack of interest in the reputation of government.

He talks but he doesn't implement, never makes it work. He allows the IRS under his watch to be humiliated by scandal, waste, ill judgments prompted by ideological assumptions. He allows his signature program, the one that will make his name in the history books, to debut in failure. In response he says bland, rounded words that leave you wondering what just got said.”

There will be no consequences for Obama—other heads will roll, but not his.

Why would I say Obama will not suffer the consequences of the rollout failure, indeed is the true Teflon president? In 2001, 2002, and 2003 he voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act as an Illinois senator, and was rewarded with the honor of speaking at the 2004 Democratic convention which brought him national attention. This was at a time when probably 90% of Americans would have polled the other way, even hard core feminists. The 2002 federal law had already passed unanimously, making him the only U.S. politician to deny a born alive infant is a human being deserving protection and medical care.

During the campaign of 2008 he lied about his Illinois vote (which was on record), and said others were lying about him (this is a favorite campaign tactic of his) and was rewarded with the presidency. He is "not merely pro-choice, but radically pro-abortion. His voting record indicates that he does not believe infants deserve protection even once they have emerged from the womb if they are deemed to be below the age of viability, and he did in fact, three times, vote to keep a form of infanticide legal." (National Review Online quote)

Really folks, if you have a record like that--denying infants medical care and letting them die--what's the big deal about programs that won't talk to each other?

EMR being updated during a doctor’s visit remind me of texting while driving

Yesterday I had my first appointment with my new internist as a follow up to my hospitalization in Sept. (my doctor is no longer seeing patients). If there's something more off-putting than having a doctor you trust and have known for years staring at a computer screen, it's got to be having no eye-contact and puzzled looks with one you don't know at all while she's reading and trying to figure out what's in your electronic record. It's like trying to have an intimate conversation with someone browsing their smart phone and never looking up. Upon leaving my appointment, I stepped on the elevator with someone reading her phone; she looked up when I spoke to her, smiled, and looked back at the phone and we continued in silence. I think I know her about as well as my new doctor.

Over 80% of EHR systems force the doctor to enter and manage the data in cumbersome, inflexible and artificial fashions that rarely reflect the true nature of the doctor-patient experience. Physicians have often adapted and learned how to be “texting” while driving through patient encounters, but many patients are increasingly uneasy with the situation where they don’t have the full attention of their doctors.

http://focusonthepatient.com/2013/03/10/emrehr-monsters/

Texting While Driving is now the leading cause of death for teens:
1. Makes you 23X more likely to crash – National Hwy Transportation Safety Admin.
2. Is the same as driving blind for 5 seconds at a time – VA. Tech Transportation Institute
3. Takes place by 800,000 drivers at any given time across the country
4. Slows your brake reaction speed by 18% – HumanFactors & Ergonomics Society
5. Leads to a 400% increase with eyes off the road

http://www.textinganddrivingsafety.com/texting-and-driving-stats/

A for real Obamacare ad for Colorado

Keep in mind, Obamacare will only work if young people (who currently don’t have insurance) sign up for it, so all the ads I saw for Colorado were clever and feature that demographic.  In the past, young adults didn’t buy health insurance even when offered by their employer.   Wait till they find out it may cost a pizza and beer.