All Saints Sunday

Today is All Saints Sunday at our church (Upper Arlington Lutheran Church) and at each of our 9 services names of our family and friends we want to memorialize and church members who have died during the past year will be read. It's a beautiful service. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus . . ." Hebrews 12:1

“We give thanks to you, O Lord our God, for all your servants and witnesses of time past: for Abraham, the father of believers, and for Sarah, his wife; for Moses the lawgiver, and Aaron, the priest; for Miriam and Joshua, Deborah and Gideon, Samuel and Hannah, his mother; for Isaiah and all the Prophets; for Mary, the mother of our Lord; for Peter and Paul and all the apostles; for Mary, Martha, and Mary Magdalene; for Stephen the first martyr, and all the saints and martyrs in every time and in every land. In your mercy, give us, as you gave them. the hope of salvation and the promise of eternal glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Lutheran Book of Worship, p. 46

Details on how Obamacare became the law of the land

Another thing to remember about the passage of the PPACA, aka Obamacare, is that Obama had a Democrat Congress his first term, and it passed by ONE vote. Not only did it not get a single Republican, but many Democrats saw it for what it was. One more grab of federal power. Also it was reported even before it passed that as many as 10 million might lose their insurance in the grandfather clause, which in fact was then made even stricter through the regulations added after passage of the bill. He still went on the road with the story that no one would lose their insurance or doctor, even though he knew it wasn’t true. That was not publicized before hand or he might have lost that ONE critical vote. And now it has been revealed that the contract for the failed computer system went to a classmate of Michelle Obama, plus is was a Canadian firm. Michelle’s friend,Toni Townes-Whitley, Princeton class of ’85, is senior vice president at CGI Federal, which earned the no bid contract to build the $678 million Obamacare enrollment website. How many times has Obama demonized American corporations for moving business out of the country? http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/cfw/commissioners/tonitowneswhitley.htm

Transfer of wealth

Just heard a Social Security defender on Fox News say that for every $1 in benefits, Social Security payments generate $2 in the economy. What about the two workers paying in for every retiree drawing Social Security? Some working for minimum wage at Wal-Mart or McDonald’s.  How would they be spending that money taken from them? This is generational transfer from the young to the old, not drawing on an investment or "trust fund.”

Both the working poor and the upper income rich have their wealth transferred to the middle class, the group that is the beneficiary directly and indirectly of most government policies and taxes, many for the misnamed War on Poverty, (but Social Security is probably the oldest and best example). According to the catalog of federal domestic assistance, there are 2,199 Federal assistance programs and most benefit the middle class either directly, or by employment. HHS has 19 offices and 461 programs; each with its own bureaucracy. Please don't blame Obama for this, or any political party.

Does the federal government really need "To maintain and expand existing markets for dairy which are vital to the welfare of milk producers in the United States." We still have "separate but equal" when it comes to Indians and anyone who is 1/4 Indian, with federal grants galore, including Tribal Colleges and Universities. For 50 years the federal government has been funding "conciliation and mediation services" to local groups to reduce "tensions, conflicts, and civil disorders arising from actions, policies, and practices that are perceived to be based on race, ethnicity, or national origin." Imagine the community organizers who live well on that one! And yet 93% of murdered blacks are killed by other blacks, mostly young with no racial or ethnicity motives.

A tiny percentage of federal grant money goes to the poor; most goes to the middle class in the form of jobs, contracts, conferences, travel, research grants, academic salaries, indirect costs to the institution for utilities, staff, overhead (can be as high as 60% of the grant) and that doesn't even include the buildings that are required and the trades and unions who benefit. One Appalachian grant I read through (about $76,000,000 a year) supposedly was training 20,000 students a year; it’s been going on since 1965—why aren’t they all successful and free of poverty at that rate?  Because the money goes to the teachers, social workers, facilities, grant writers, conferences, etc.

I should know--I've made a very nice middle class living on special government contracts funneled through Ohio State or the state of Ohio. I have been employed on USAID funds, FIPSE money, JTPA,  Department of Aging of Ohio; I have published research funded by the state and federal government, which was then purchased by the institutions for which I worked, which were funded in part by the government; I have done some very nice travelling on your dime—Washington, DC, San Antonio, Kansas City, Seattle, Detroit and Chicago.  I also have a teacher's pension which pays far better than Social Security which non-government workers get. Don’t get me wrong--I worked hard, and you got your tax dollar’s worth, however, few poor people were lifted out of poverty.  Primarily the middle class benefited, including me.  Go to this website and type "library" or even something more exotic, like fashion or travel,  into the search window. https://www.cfda.gov/

That attack at LAX

We flew out of LAX on October 13, so the scenes look very familiar.  But apparently, we are much safer in airports than on the freeways taking us there.  "Only 72 terrorist attacks in the United States (2.7%) targeted airports and airlines. The vast majority of the attacks targeting airports and airlines were bombings or attempted bombings (72.2%), 19.4 percent were hijackings or attempted hijackings, and only three of these attacks were classified as armed assaults like the one at LAX on Nov. 1." START Fact Sheet, Nov. 2

Kids today

Party lines were fun, too.  Our number was 59-L.

Meet Sue Klinkhamer

She admitted: “I have now learned that I was wrong. Very wrong.” When voters fired her boss [Bill Foster, D-IL] in the 2010 elections, she had to get another job and that meant she had to shop for health care, too. Three years ago, she got a plan that cost $225 a month with a $2,500 deductible. But then her health care company sent a letter a few weeks ago. “Blue Cross,” she said, “stated my current coverage would expire on Dec. 31, and here are my options: I can have a plan with similar benefits for $647.12 [or] I can have a plan with similar [but higher] pricing for $322.32, but with a $6,500 deductible.” She went on, “Blue Cross also tells me that if I don’t pick one of the options, they will just assume I want the one for $647.  Someone please tell me why my premium in January will be $356 more than in December?”   “And I was excited that previously uninsured people could now get insurance on the open market. But this is not affordable to me.”

”http://www.catholicvote.org/i-spent-two-years-defending-obamacare-i-have-now-learned-that-i-was-wrong/

23 times President Obama promised “you can keep your plan”

And that’s just what’s on tape.  In Boston this week, he explained what he really mean—you can’t.

http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-on-obamacare-if-you-like-your-plan-you-can-keep-it-2013-10

I am the First Amendment

I am a blogger—I support the first amendment.  The democratization of the media is threatened.  http://iam1a.com/   I am protected, and so are you.  I am the First Amendment. To exercise your first amendment rights set up a blog account, but don’t expect me to let you be nasty, insulting and mean here.

Social Security compared to Affordable Care Act

Substitute a few words, and it's a good description of ACA in our era. "We find it hard to conceive of a greater triumph of imaginative packaging than the combination of an unacceptable tax and an unacceptable benefit program into a [health insurance] Social Security program that is widely regarded as one of the greatest achievements of [Obama's first term] the New Deal." Milton Friedman, Free to Choose, 1980.

Just in case you think Social Securty actually is a good deal, remember no one can subsist on the benefit it provides, which I think is maxed at about $28,500.  It takes 2 workers paying in today to support one retiree (there were 17 in the 1950s, 42 in 1945), it's regressive--the low income workers are less likely to live long enough to collect what they paid in, spouses who never worked get the same amount as those who did, millions who paid in (like me) will get nothing because of another government pension, or die before collecting like my sister who began working at 14 and died at 57, and won't be able to pass it along to their children.

Yes, it is a wealth transfer program--from the young to the old. From the poor and the rich to the middle class. Another similarity to the Affordable Care Act.

Five days away. . . five years later

I think Obama was in Colorado when he announced America was close  to being fundamentally transformed, with a back drop of beautiful scenery and weather, speaking to a well heeled population, median household income $57,000. They cheered and swooned. Finally, FDR's dream would come true!  Married families with children in that state had an income over $83,000 in 2008.  But of course, the figure was low for single moms with children many of whom were minorities.  Well, duh. Even in paradise, it seems there are rules for living.

But he was going to change all that--or so he promised--by transferring even more wealth than had been moved since the 60s in LBJ’s  War on Poverty.  But this crowd wasn't poor.  They just wanted more. Here we are 5 years later, minorities and women have made the least progress, labor force participation is at a record low, yet they still love him and know in their hearts that it just isn't his fault.  It was Bush, or the GOP, or the Tea Party, or staff who kept him in the dark so he couldn't achieve all those wonderful things he really wanted with other people's money, so of course he needed to play golf more.

And now many in the same crowd, at least if they are self-employed  or are a spouse of a retiree purchasing her own health insurance, are seeing more of their income being taken so others can have more. That’s the focus this week, but whether you’re talking political polarization, energy, race relations, unemployment, education, etc., he’s pushing the whole nation downward in spirit, in morality, in wealth, and in world opinion in leadership.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/10/01/obama_transforming_america_120170.html

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/popp/100206

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?