What the Supreme Court will decide

“In March 2010, Congress passed, and President Obama signed, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA was never implemented as written. The ACA authorizes subsidies to health insurers operating in state-established exchanges, but not the federal exchange. Some 37 states opted not to establish their own exchanges. Nevertheless, the Administration has been paying subsidies to insurers in those 37 states.

On March 4, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in King vs. Burwell. At stake is the Administration's payment of subsidies to health insurers operating in states which use the federal exchange. The Supreme Court is expected to announce its decision by July. A decision to uphold the ACA, as written, will surely cause millions of people to stop paying premiums that will double, triple, or more after the Supreme Court strikes down the illegal subsidies.”

“. . . According to the Congressional Budget Office, there will be 2.5 million fewer full time jobs in 2017 than if Obamacare had not been enacted.

Congress has four options . . .

 http://healthblog.ncpa.org/obamacare-versus-the-affordable-care-act/

How America bikes

I thought riding my bike at Lakeside last summer would be a good option because my bursitis hurt too much to walk.  On the first day I rode my 1968, no-speed bike to a program, I fell.  Actually, I just tipped over and hit a stop sign.  That was the end of my biking for summer 2014.

U.S. Bicycling Participation Benchmarking Report

• Thirty-four percent of Americans ages 3+ rode a bicycle at least one day in the past year.
• Of those who rode a bicycle, 30% rode five days or fewer.
• Those who rode for transportation are much more likely to have done so to get to and from social, recreation, or leisure activities (70%) than to have commuted to and from work or school (46%).
• Forty-eight percent of adults in the U.S. don’t have access to an operational bicycle at home.
• Fifty-four percent of adults in the U.S. perceive bicycling as a convenient way to get from one place to another and 53% would like to ride more often. However, 52% worry about being hit by a car and 46% say they would be more likely to ride a bicycle if motor vehicles and bicycles were physically separated.

Download the Report
Methodology
FAQs

A joke submitted by friend Mary

Subject: FINISHED

The dictionary has ever been able to define the difference between "complete" and "finished." However, during a recent linguistic conference, held in London, England, Samsundar Balgobin, a Guyanese linguist, was asked to make that very distinction.

The question by a colleague in the erudite audience was this: "Some say there is no difference between 'complete' and 'finished.' Please explain the difference in a way that is easy to understand."

Mr. Balgobin's response: "When you marry the right woman, you are 'complete.' If you marry the wrong woman, you are 'finished.' And, if the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are 'completely finished.'"

His answer received a five minute standing ovation."

Before and after Obamacare

Massive tax scam

Don’t ever respond to the phone calls (or e-mails) supposedly from the IRS.  They are phony.  SCAMS!!  Reported on CBS this Morning.  This is not how the IRS works—although it’s a pretty heavy handed organization since release of information on investigating and harassing Christian and conservative organizations.

Just keep hanging up when you get such a call.

“Another major telemarketing scam starts with a threatening phone call supposedly from the IRS demanding money.

Tim Poulakis says he responded to a voice mail message from a man who said, “I am officer Andy from Internal Revenue Service.” The caller warned him “don’t discard this message” and told him to return the call before we take any legal action against you.

Poulakis said when he heard the message, “I panicked.”

He called back and was told he owed the IRS money for errors in four years of tax returns. Poulakis said he was told he had to pay the money that day. “Otherwise you will be detained. Sheriffs will come to your office,” and he would be arrested.

“They put the fear of God in me,” Poulakis said and he followed their instructions. He was told to pull money out his account, go to stores and load up prepaid cash cards to pay off the $3,489 debt. They had him scratch a number off the back of the card, read it to them, and kept him on the phone until the money was apparently downloaded to an account.

Then Poulakis was told they had some type of error and the amount was incorrect. He actually owed an additional amount ultimately bringing his total to $20,177. He followed the same instructions using prepaid cash cards explaining that he always tries to “do what’s right,” and “I just wanted this to go away.”

After learning from his tax preparer that this was a scam, “I was crying. And I couldn’t believe it. I was so angry.”

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/02/17/2-investigators-sophisticated-fast-growing-scams-costing-victims-millions/

This woman knew it was a scam and decided to scam the scammer. Watch what she does—leads them on (they barely speak English), then tells them what they are doing is illegal, so they hang up on her.

Mayo Clinic BMI calculator

Just barely squeak into the normal zone. I’ve lost 18 lbs since Christmas. http://www.mayoclinic.org/bmi-calculator/itt-20084938

Yes, it’s the old tried and true ELMM method—eat less, move more. Works every time, but it does take longer as we age. I’m “embracing” healthy eating with no crazy changes or diet books. Just more fruits and vegetables, more salads with a variety of greens, eating all the colors, steaming, no sandwiches, making a lot of soup from home made broth, avoiding all my triggers—potato chips, crackers, cheddar cheese, processed foods in general and no glass of red wine with dinner.

Yesterday I made baked meatballs out of canned salmon—got them nice and brown, really delicious.  It’s easy to warm them up for a meal.  Even my husband liked them. Also I make up a mess of black beans, brown rice and grilled onions with a smidgen of either bacon or hamburger, divide into 4 packages, and then use that warm on my salad greens with some pieces of fat free feta cheese. I could waste away to nothing before I’d develop a taste for feta, so I think it is pretty safe. If made in Greece, it’s a brined white cheese made from sheep or goat milk, or if U.S. made, may be from cow’s milk.  I can’t tell from this label.

Also more exercise—4-6 miles on the exercyle, spread over 4-5 times a day on the bike so I don’t reinjure my bursa. I’m also using my husband’s finger strengthener for his guitar while I cycle, trying to improve my grip which had become so weak I needed help to open jars.

My leg pain of the last 3+ years was gone after the first 10 lbs., but I’m still being careful.

And yet the IRS found the time and resources to harass conservatives

“The Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) fiscal year 2015 appropriation ($10.9 billion) and staffing levels (81,279 full-time equivalents, or FTE) continue a decline that has occurred over several years and are now below fiscal year 2009 levels. Since fiscal year 2010, IRS’s annual appropriation has declined by $1.2 billion, and staffing has fallen by about 11,000 FTEs since fiscal year 2009 while the agency’s workload has increased for reasons such as a surge in identity theft related refund fraud and the implementation of key provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). In response to budget cuts, IRS has taken steps to reduce staffing costs including extending a hiring freeze and limiting seasonal employment. According to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, IRS may also furlough employees for 2 days later in fiscal year 2015. IRS is concerned about filing season performance, and anticipates it may face some challenges processing returns that claim the Premium Tax Credit—an advanceable, refundable tax credit designed to help eligible individuals and families with low or moderate income afford health insurance purchased through the Health Insurance Marketplace. As a result, IRS expects that some refunds may be delayed. IRS also projects significant declines in telephone level of service—only 38 percent of taxpayers who seek help from a live assistor will receive it and wait times will average almost one hour. IRS cites resource constraints and increased call volume as primary factors contributing to the decline in telephone performance.” GAO “Observations on IRS's Operations, Planning, and Resources “, GAO-15-420R: Published: Feb 27, 2015. Publicly Released: Mar 3, 2015.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/irs-admits-targeting-conservatives-for-tax-scrutiny-in-2012-election/2013/05/10/3b6a0ada-b987-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/14/lawmakers-say-irs-targeted-dozens-more-conservative-groups-than-initially/

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324659404578501411510635312

10 reasons Muslims join ISIS

ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, was the first name that was given to the organization since its territory was in Iraq and Syria. The acronym in Arabic "Dae'sh," has four Arabic letters, D, A, E', Sh. D stands for al-Dawla (state), A stands for  al-Islamiya (Islamic), E' stands Iraq and  Sh stands for Sham (Levant). Sham nowadays stands for Damascus or Syria but in its historical Islamic context Sham or Levant included Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Palestine. So a more accurate name for the organization is ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. As ISIL's vision grew larger it changed its name to IS which stands for Islamic State. Their vision is far bigger than Iraq and Levant. They want to expand into Asia, Africa and Europe.   Nabeel Jabbour

http://www.nabeeljabbour.com/Blog/February-2015/ISIS-10-Reasons-Muslims-are-Eager-to-Join

Dr. Nabeel Jabbour, author, lecturer, and expert on Muslim culture, will be teaching at UALC on Monday, April 13, at 4:00 PM at Mill Run campus of Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, Hilliard, Ohio. He is a frequent speaker at churches and seminaries, and is a lecturer for the Missions Perspectives course. He is originally from Lebanon. He lived with his family in Egypt for fifteen years. He and his family moved to Colorado Springs in January 1991. Since 1997, the Jabbours have been U.S. citizens. Although Dr. Jabbour comes from an Arab Christian background, for the first fifty years of his life, Muslims were his neighbors, teachers, friends, roommates, and students

Don’t believe the leftist chefs cooking the economic soup with jiggered figures about the suffering middle class

“Measured in 2013 dollars, after-tax median income rose briskly from $46,998 in 1983 to $70,393 in 2008 but remained below that 2008 peak in 2011. The sizable increase before 2008 is partly because the average of all federal taxes paid by the middle fifth has almost been cut in half since 1981—from 19.2% that year to 17.7% in 1989, 16.5% in 2000, 13.6% in 2003 and 11.2% in 2011.” Because people have lost income under Obama, he wants it to look like a 40 year tradition. Nonsense.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/alan-reynolds-the-mumbo-jumbo-of-middle-class-economics-1425340903/

My 100% remission from Rheumatoid arthritis, by guest blogger Gerhard Maroscher, Circleville, OH

In the summer of 2006 I suddenly came down with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).  The only warning I had that something was amiss prior to 2006 is that several years before, for a nine month period I had muscle pains and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I started anti-inflammatory drugs in 2006 and did my best to stay active from 2006 to 2012, but always had some pain.  At times the pain was debilitating. 

In July of 2012 I contacted a woman whose RA had gone into remission through a special diet.  She told me she had gone 100% dairy free and 100% gluten free, and within a short period of time she was pain free.  I believed her story, and I had nothing to lose and decided to follow her diet.

July 25 of 2012, which was one of my cycles with severe pain, I began a new diet.  I eliminated all dairy and gluten from my diet.  Regarding dairy, I even avoided anything where dairy was even a minor or even minuscule ingredient.  I stayed on my meds because I did not expect the diet change to have any impact.  Amazingly I was totally pain free in two weeks.  I then began to taper off my medicines over the next three months.  I continued to improve until about December.
 
I began to educate myself and read two books she had recommended.  From my reading I think the most likely reason I am in remission is the elimination of all dairy products, but I‘m not willing to risk adding back in the gluten. 

In December 2012 my joints were in better shape than one can expect at 69, but I felt there was room for improvement and I modified my diet again.  Of course I stayed dairy free and gluten free.  I then went on The China Study diet which is a whole plant food diet.  No processed foods and no animal protein.  The change was not dramatic, but my joints improved nevertheless.  I am now 71 and have zero joint issues and zero joint pain.  I have now been blessed for almost three years with 100% remission from RA.

My current diet is 95% in keeping with the China Study diet.  The whole plant food diet is modified a bit by me occasionally eating fish or meat, but never very much.  By the way the China Study diet does not see a problem with gluten in the diet. What it does recommend is whole plant foods and of course zero dairy.

The take way from all this?  Diet is more important than we realize.  One is never too old to make a good decision. 

For anyone considering a diet change test, based on my experience and my reading, if there is going to be a positive result, it will be seen within four weeks.  Such a diet change as mine will not help everyone, and certainly will not help many as dramatically as it helped me, but even it there is a little bit of improvement, that is a good thing. 
My qualifications for discussing the above?  I have absolutely no nutrition training and no medical training.  But I have the real life experience of a miracle healing.  
 
I recommend reading “The China Study” by T. Colin Campbell.    There are a number of opportunities at this website for more research. http://www.thechinastudy.com/the-china-study/about/

Dr. Pamela Popper wrote a book suggesting whole food plant based diet with very little fish and meat. http://wellnessforum.com/
 
Dr. McDougal also wrote several books.  McDougal recommends eating no animal products.  http://www.drmcdougall.com/health/education/health-science/featured-articles/articles/diet-only-hope-for-arthritis/

After reading the above I also recommend reading “The Inflammation Free Diet Plan” by Monica Reinagel and she also has a blog and is on Facebook. http://inflammationfactor.com/monica-reinagel-ms-ln-cns/

La Raza’s has always lobbied for open borders and amnesty—long before Obama—their goals meet

President Obama’s stunning reversal of his own views on deportation policy is only the most prominent example of influence enjoyed by the National Council of La Raza, which calls itself “the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.” In addition to its sway with the president, the group has seen its government revenues rise with help from a high-level White House staffer and also seen a former member be named to the Supreme Court.

http://capitalresearch.org/2015/02/la-razas-growing-influence-gaining-clout-and-tax-dollars-in-all-branches-of-government/

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2011/06/nclr-funding-skyrockets-after-obama-hires-its-vp/

For Democrats it’s about votes; but for La Raza it’s about Reconquista.

Obama goes after the second amendment

General Eric Holder's Department of Justice has used its "Operation Choke Point" to manipulate banks and third-party payment processors to drop whole categories of businesses the Obama administration disfavors, such as online arms and ammunition sellers, tobacconists, and payday lenders. Left-wing nonprofit allies of the Administration like the Center for Responsible Lending and Americans for Financial Reform have provided media support.

“This is not law enforcement. It is intimidation backed up by the might of the government.” http://capitalresearch.org/2015/03/operation-choke-point/

Manipulating lending institutions to achieve social ends.  Who would have thought?  Isn’t that how we got the housing bubble and bust beginning with the Community Reinvestment Act in the 1970s and ending in the Great Recession of 2008? (Actually, it isn’t over; you can still get zero down home loans).

And isn’t that how we’re accumulating mounting college loan debt—to achieve social ends by paying universities through the back door while unprepared students enter through the front? Sallie Mae is like Freddie Mac.  Equal opportunity.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/01/29/fdic-retreats-on-operation-choke-point/

http://dailysignal.com/2015/03/02/newt-gingrich-choke-point-beginning-real-tyranny-united-states/

http://spectator.org/articles/42211/true-origins-financial-crisis#!

http://www.inc.com/mark-cuban/video-student-loans-bubble.html

The wall of shame has 60 names

Sixty Democrats didn’t show up (may have been one Republican—not sure) to hear Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who had been invited by the House Speaker to address the Congress of the U.S. Democrats made up this yahoo charge that it was political and Israel was having elections. What a crock. What isn’t political these days? Since when have we cared about anyone else’s elections? Do we even know when Canada or Mexico is having an election, and they are our next door neighbors!

Why would any leader of a modern, non-Islamic country under threat of extinction refuse such an invitation? Why would he insult Congress by saying, “Well, I’ve got to run this past your president to see if it’s OK.” Or,  “Maybe I’d better wait until after the elections when Iran will be an even bigger threat.”

According to our 3 part system of government, the House is the most powerful part of Congress, and Congress is a bigger deal than the presidency. Yes, it’s become screwed up in the last 100 years, but that’s the way our Constitution is written. Article I, Section 1 starts with Congress, not the Executive or Judicial branch. Section 2 of Article I begins with the House, not the Senate. The idea of those crazy founders climbing out from under a Monarchy system was that the people, through their elected representatives from their communities, should have the biggest say in governing other Americans. They would originate the laws and apportion the taxes. The Senate was supposed to represent the interests of the individual states, so it was further removed from the people.

Through the leader of our most important branch of the government the people of the U.S. wanted to hear what the tiniest country in the middle east had to say about the threat to its existence. And wow. What a speech. It could make me cry (and almost did) to hear what a real leader sounds like.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31716684

Meeting Jesus, Matthew 25

At UALC this past month we’ve been meeting Jesus as he promised us in the Gospel of Matthew by feeding the hungry .

• Souper Bowl Sunday 2015; thank God for a successful event at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church that resulted in $5,716 in cash and 2,796 donated cans of food being collected for Lutheran Social Services food pantries. That translates to 242,868 cans of food for hungry people!
• Community Meal Packing Project;  thank God for anointing those who gathered last week to pack 763,320 meals for hungry people both locally and in Haiti, and for the opportunity we had to share Jesus with those who came to Mill Run to help pack food.

We worked in groups of 10-12, in 30 shifts, packaging, weighing and sealing 3 different types of meals that will be distributed by Meals from the Heart.   Close to half the meals will go overseas to programs like the Andrew Grene School near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The remaining meals will stay in this country to be distributed through the Mid-Ohio Food Bank, Lutheran Social Services and the Salvation Army. Each bag contains enough dried food for 6 meals.

“Meals from the Heart is a division of Mano Amiga, a 20-year-old 501c3 non-profit company organizing and facilitating mission trips for youth organizations from churches and schools is based in Minnesota. Mano Amiga works to help people in need. Homes get roofs, schools get built, lives get changed. Workers return from the trips with a new outlook on life.”

Spineless, gutless Republicans—a challenge for the electorate

I noticed this editorial comment in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (outspoken opponents of Obamacare).

“On Nov. 4 the electorate spoke and awarded the Albatross Award to President Barack Hussein Obama and his socialist colleagues in Congress who voted for “ObamaCare.” The midterm election was not just a referendum on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but a referendum on the President’s other harmful and failed policies, and the bureaucratic incompetence that is the hallmark of his administration.” Obviously, written before January and passing the baton.

Now that the Republicans have the House and Senate they are dithering as though they lost. I don’t know why they can’t take advantage of their win—it never stops the Democrats from playing dirty and smart. The Net has been neutered; the illegal gifts from Obama to the illegal immigrants are still in place; softening opposition to Obamacare; Hillary’s being given a pass on her illegal behavior and lack of a record; Keystone—on and on.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/17/us/congress-budget-debate.html?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/technology/path-clears-for-net-neutrality-ahead-of-fcc-vote.html?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2015/03/02/obamas-claim-that-keystone-xl-oil-bypasses-the-u-s-earns-four-pinocchios/?

http://poorrichardsnews.com/post/112342727813/repealing-obamacare-not-included-in-jebs-list-of

There are so many scandals and bad, anti-American policies in this administration, it should be a piece of cake, but instead the Republicans just have egg on their faces.

Buck v. Bell Supreme Court decision, 1927

Some of the most egregious moral errors in U.S. history have come through the Supreme Court. Dred Scott. Separate but equal schooling. Interracial marriage outlawed. Japanese internment during WWII. Sodomy laws upheld. Dirty words ruling. Roe v. Wade.  Obamacare is legal because it is a tax.  And then there is sterilizing people thought to be substandard humans—like Carrie Buck.

“The plaintiff, Carrie Buck, a 17-year-old girl from Charlottesville, was the first person chosen for sterilization. Carrie had a child out of wedlock—likely as the result of a rape by a friend of her foster family. Since her mother was a prostitute, the Virginia Colony Asylum decided that Carrie should be institutionalized because she and her mother Emma shared the hereditary traits of “feeblemindedness” and sexual promiscuity. . .

“On appeal to United States Supreme Court, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., a student of eugenics, wrote the formal opinion for the Court:

Carrie Buck is the probable potential parent of socially inadequate offspring, likewise afflicted, that she may be sexually sterilized without detriment to her general health and that her welfare and that of society will be promoted by her sterilization…. It is better for the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes. Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”18, p 208

School records prove that Carrie’s daughter Vivian was not feebleminded. Her first grade report card showed that Vivian was a solid “B” student, received an “A” in deportment, and had been on the honor roll.8, p 190 Sadly, she died at age 8 from enteritis—probably a preventable childhood disease. Carrie was released [from the asylum] and became a housekeeper and an avid reader, and she married a carpenter in 1932.

The Buck v. Bell precedent allowing sterilization of the “feebleminded” has never been overruled.”

Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 19 Number 4 Winter 2014,  The ‘Science’ of Eugenics: America’s Moral Detour Marilyn M. Singleton, M.D., J.D.

Rasheed Sulaimon—where is the crime?

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, neither female student at Duke filed charges or talked to the police.  Sulaimon may be a scum bag, but aren’t there some rules to follow here?

Separate allegations of sexual assault by Sulaimon came from two female students in the 2013-14 academic year. Both students voiced allegations publicly, but neither filed a complaint through the Office of Student Conduct or took legal action through the Durham Police Department. The students declined to discuss their allegations with The Chronicle.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2015/03/02/duke-reportedly-knew-of-sexual-assault-allegations-against-rasheed-sulaimon-since-march-2014/

http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2015/03/02/rasheed-sulaimon-center-sexual-assault-allegations-prior-dismissal

Neither paper gives the names of the women who heard the allegations at a diversity retreat not the names of the women who said it happened.  In another life with fewer stakes we’d call that gossip or bullying. How does an employee of Duke report an assault that wasn’t reported?

Christianity by the numbers

Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians:  There were 981,000 of these souls in 1900; there are 643,661,000 of them today; and there are projected to be over one billion Charismatics and Pentecostals in 2050. In raw numbers, then, Charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity is the fastest growing phenomenon in world religious history.  And there are many more numbers in this First Things article.

Our aging brain—you’ll need about 70 minutes to watch this

Free radicals, anti-oxidants, mitochondria, effects of exercise, energy, toxins, role of stress, different nutrients and so forth. Dr. Russell Blaylock writes The Blaylock Wellness Report newsletter and has authored four books, Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, Health and Nutrition Secrets That Can Save Your Life, Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients, and his most recent work, Cellular and Molecular Biology of Autism Spectrum Disorders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49RRFs8qIVE#t=962

Writes a column for Newsmax.

Food additive excitotoxins and dementia

Kitchen sink spirituality

The new kitchen counter tops are in; the appliances are working after several false starts and installations; I’m planning on some different accessories and paintings.  We also had to do some kitchen repair at our lake house, which I haven’t seen yet.  We don’t have a dishwasher there, and we enjoy the time we spend doing dishes together (my husband likes to wash). And although I certainly didn’t appreciate doing dishes with my Mom when I was a child (a rotated task for 3 daughters), I look back on that time fondly now and the talks we had.   Now what? Perhaps some prayer and praise while cleaning up?

http://www.lisadeam.com/kitchen-sink-spirituality/