Right Turn Forever

THE DOCTOR IS IN!

February 4th, 2012

Gabriel

Did you find it strange that the Obama did not dwell overly much on his signature piece of passed legislation? Understandable. Why would he want to brag about it when it remains massively unpopular. Many aspects of his Regime total control grab went into effect this past year but far worse is yet to come.

Think the “Death Panels” have gone away? Never happen. These “end-of-life” counseling sessions will be done on an annual basis.

Wasn’t Obamacare going to save bundles of money because way too many people are getting needless care, whether tonsillectomies or hysterecttomies? There was absolutely NO benefit in terms of the health of the entire nation, proclaimed the “Good Dr.” It was once claimed that with this rationale, somewhere in the neighborhood of $700 billion a year could be saved. (How about zilch “saved” and big-time increased expense?)

By now, it is obvious that Obamacare will directly limit people’s health care options. Government bureaucrats, not your Doctor, will evaluate and determine treatment options, not on the basis of whether or not they are effective, but based on if Obama thinks that they are worth it. What value should be placed on pain and suffering? Obamacare will make that determination, not your Doctor.

And the madness continues. Think “Death Panels” were scary enough? Get this. Doctors will be given immunity from malpractice lawsuits, but ONLY if they practice medicine according to government regulations. The pressure will be gigantic. For example, have you ever met a Doctor who wanted to be sued? Think they might comply with this?

Obama is pointing to the National Institute for Comparative Effectiveness (NICE…cute acronym, huh?) in Britain. Want to know how patients are faring under NICE? According to the World Health Organization, around 25,000 British patients die prematurely each year because they do not have access to cancer drugs that are routinely available in the United States.

Under Obamacare the revised Medicare regulations state they will pay more to hospitals who follow a dozen procedures, including administering antibiotics prior to surgery as well as anticlotting medication to heart attack patients. It will pay less to hospitals who do not comply.This regulation will also pertain to Doctors. Those who comply with up to 194 different metrics will get higher fees; those who resist, lower fees.

You can see where all this is going, can’t you? We are closing in on “Big Brother Medical Care.” Remember this phrase: “evidence-based care.” It will be totally in use in the event B Hussein is re-elected. If you are elderly or perhaps disabled, odds are that Medicare will eventually refuse to pay for ANY procedures that are not “evidence-based.” Buying health care on your own? Using your employers plan? Lots of luck with that The only health insurers that will be allowed in Obamacare Health Insurance Exchanges are those who limit coverage to “evidense-based care.” (There is that word again.)

Protocols and guidelines can perhaps be helpful or more worrisome, harmful. Consider carefully that most of what Doctors do has never been subjeted to clinical trials or peer-reviewed studies. (The peer-review folks over at “Global Warming” and charged up by Al Gore, seem experts at this, don’t they?) In an Institute of Medicine study, researchers found that fewer than 20% of the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology heart disease management are based on a high level of evidence. They seem to believe that most of what Doctors do is what they and their colleagues have found to work.

Gee Whiz! Anyone ever suggest this to “Dear Leader”? Apparently a few of the Regime in-group (read Unions) have evidenced these concerns and much more. Know the term, “We have an App for that?” Well, Obama has a “Waiver for that.”

It is truly amazing what a bureaucrat can screw up when left to his own devices. Try this on for size. Obama’s “evidence-based” guidelines are based on “studies.” These studies all too frequently have excluded entire segments of the population. For example, a large number of studies of patients with heart failure excluded elderly patients, even though most of the people who have this problem are elderly. Need we explore this further? No? I thought not.

This brief article is only an overview of several of the more egregious aspects of this farce called Obamacare. There is so much more that should, and will, be covered as we approach the November election. Know this. Obama MUST be soundly defeated and sent back to his Chicago cronies. The alternative on this issue alone, is enough to keep you awake all night and talking to everyone you can find all day.

Please do it.

A Joke. A Gag. An Ignorant Hag.

February 3rd, 2012

MoosOfTheDay

“The Joke”

“The Gag”

Two morons were walking along railroad tracks in Northern Pennsylvania. After a while of walking and enjoying the sights they came to a train trestle spanning a large river. “You think we should try to cross this here river?” Moron One asks.

“Well, if we don’t cross this river, then we ain’t going to get where want to get to…” says Moron Two.

“Yup, I’m guessin’ that’s about right,” responds Moron One. “We’d better get started then. Just be careful whilst we’re crossing over this river – it looks deep and fast-moving.”

So the morons begin their trek across the train trestle to get to the other side. Half-way across Moron Two totters towards the right-hand side of the track. “Look out, you could fall!” shouts Moron One.

Surely enough, Moron Two flails his hands to the sky and falls off the trestle into the dark, fast-moving river below.

Moron One looks at the water rushing below him, shrugs, and continues walking alone to the other side.

Question: WHY did this happen?

Answer: Because One Moron was a little more-on than the other.

(Smooth segue coming…)

“The Ignorant Hag”

Q: How much money would you have charged tocomplete that left-leg flower tattoo???A: Ain’t enough money in the world…

Ah, yes, time for the important news about Presidential Politics and the FIRST real challenge to President Obama…

While Republican Presidential Candidates bludgeon each other in public, a bold figure, an epic leader, and a woman who slept with John Goodman for multiple seasons - steps forward to take her rightful place in history!!!

According to the Associated Press: WASHINGTON (AP) — Roseanne Barr said Thursday she’s running for the Green Party’s presidential nomination — and it’s no joke.

The actress-comedian said in a statement that she’s a longtime supporter of the party and looks forward to working with people who share her values. She said the two major parties aren’t serving the American people.

“The Democrats and Republicans have proven that they are servants — bought and paid for by the 1 percent — who are not doing what’s in the best interest of the American people,” Barr said.

Occupy Wall Street protesters popularized the “We are the 99 percent” slogan in their fight against economic disparity and perceived corporate greed.

…

Barr said she has been fighting for working-class families and women for decades.

“I will barnstorm American living rooms,” she said in a candidate questionnaire submitted to the Green Party. “Mainstream media will be unable to ignore me, but more importantly they will be unable to overlook the needs of average Americans in the run-up to the 2012 election.”

Barr’s hit TV sitcom “Roseanne” aired from 1988 to 1997 and earned her an Emmy and a Golden Globe. She played a wise-cracking mom in the comedy about a blue-collar family. Barr has a 46-acre macadamia nut farm in Hawaii.

(Moos Note: Please pay particular attention to this last line – Yes, she owns a 46-acre ‘nut’ farm in Hawaii. Yet one more reason I pray nightly for the Earth’s Mantle to shift swallowing these sugar-cane-and-pineapple-laden islands back to the watery deep from where they rose. Nothing GOOD ever came from Hawaii…)

But wait, what’s this??? You don’t believe that Roseanne Barr is qualified to be President of the United States?!?!?

How dare you (sir or madame)!!!

Just take a moment to review a few of the insightful fact-filled posts on RoseAnne’s official blog, RoseanneWorld: (And no. I’m not making ANY of these up…)

9-11 firefighters for truth: “Cheney pulled it- and the building was demolished-it had been wired before 911–so that House of Bush and Cheney’s Haliburton could use and hide behind the horror to erase their financial crimes-ie-that they used taxpayer money to build Dubai-the international center of the Child Sex Slave Trade. there you have it. Pedos at the top=Satan.”

war against females: china will deserve what it gets: “too many males–and all that entails-”

brilliant analysis, Jon Gold: “PLEASE READ THIS!” (A deliciously detailed delusion of the 911 Conspiracy)

army corps of engineers’ negligence caused the damage of Katrina (organized genocide?):

Us judges sell children for money:

heritage foundation : pro rape and pedophiles: ” The right wing are predators and talibangelists, who can’t muster even a distant feeling of empathy for any living man woman or child unless they can use it as an excuse to go to war and kill.”

911-er writes me: “Sick of these over educated white men talking about nothing.

RW WORLD RESPONSE: I “HERE” YOU! TOO MUCH EDUCATION IS BAD! 9-11ers are against the wrong people it seems! Attack the right, not the left! Are 9-11ers counter intelligence operatives?”

With this ‘arse’-anal of ammunition at her disposal during a debate between herself, the President, and the Republican Nominee… I’m thinking that President Obama will lose about 60% of his base.

Run Roseanne. Run…

The SEIU is in trouble

February 3rd, 2012

Administrator

“ It’s no secret that Big Labor is dependent on dues and fees automatically withdrawn from the payroll checks of union members and non-members alike.

The automatic deductions funnel millions of dollars into public sector union coffers each year, with a portion frequently going toward partisan political causes and liberal candidates who promise to preserve or expand the unions’ forced dues racket.

But this vicious cycle is finally being challenged in states and municipalities around the nation. Perhaps the most important challenge, Knox vs. Service Employees International Union, was heard earlier this month by the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The case is one of a growing number of examples of how public employees, including public school teachers, are pushing back against forced union dues – something many consider a violation of their First Amendment rights. American citizens should not be forced to financially support an organization or political causes they don’t agree with, union objectors rightly contend.

By forcing members and non-members to subsidize its radical political agenda, Big Labor may have finally cooked its Golden Goose.

SEIU wants to run from the case

The Supreme Court case stems from a “special assessment” that was automatically withdrawn from union and non-union state employees’ checks in 2005 to help defeat a ballot proposal in California that would have made it illegal to force employees to pay dues that would be used for political purposes.

The plaintiffs, who are non-union members who pay a reduced fee in lieu of union dues, claim their rights were violated when they were charged more than their regular fees to support a union political effort.

They filed a lawsuit with the help of the National Right to Work Foundation, and a federal district court ordered SEIU to pay some of their money back, records show.

SEIU appealed the decision, the appeals court sided with the union, and the objecting non-union state employees took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Then a funny thing happened. The union decided that it didn’t want to pursue the case anymore, refunded the employees the full amount of the “special assessment,” and is now arguing that the case is moot because there is no longer a claim, records show.

The NRTWF attorneys representing the employees say the case is still important because it would settle the question of whether union officials must give employees a chance to object to a special assessment before the union sticks its grubby hand in the cookie jar. Plus, the union never really acknowledged wrongdoing or promised not to do it again, NRTWF attorney James Young argued.

During the hearing, several justices keyed in on an important question: Why does the union want to drop its case now that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear it?

SEIU attorneys contend it’s because the employees’ money has been repaid in full, the union has complied with the district court’s original order, and everything is now resolved.

We doubt very much that’s the case.

Union leaders fear legal precedent

We believe that the real reason the union wants to run away from the case is to avoid the chance of a precedent-setting ruling that would inhibit its legal ability to take money from members and non-members to support political causes.

The union probably also fears a more expansive ruling, which could deny the right of public sector unions to automatically deduct dues from paychecks under any circumstances.

It’s not clear when the court will issue a ruling in the case.

“In essence, the union has to acknowledge wrongdoing before a case is moot, and they’ve never done that,” said Young, the attorney representing the plaintiffs.

“They fear what this court will do, and I think they have reason to,” Young said, adding that a ruling could potentially have broad implications for how unions charge members and non-members.

A veteran labor attorney in Wisconsin, who has been representing school boards for decades, recently told EAG that public sector union leaders are mostly concerned with preserving the flow of dues money, and preserving the right to use that money for political causes they believe in.

He noted that many teachers unions across Wisconsin scrambled last year to extend their collective bargaining agreements with school boards. They wanted to get that done before the implementation of Act 10, which made it illegal for schools to deduct union dues from employee paychecks once the union contracts expire.

Union leaders in many districts were willing to sacrifice many employee perks to get their contracts extended. The one perk they desperately wanted to preserve was automatic dues deduction from paychecks, according to the attorney.

“All of a sudden they would call me and say, ‘Let’s settle this contract,’” the attorney said. “It’s all about the kids, right? The kids? Ha! They sold their members out for dues.”

Employees don’t pay when it’s not required

There is a reason union officials are vigorously fighting to preserve the automatic dues deduction system.”

We all know that reason.

THE ACLU…..FEARLESS CHAMPIONS OF “JUSTICE”

February 3rd, 2012

Gabriel

Darwin and his apes WON! Remember the Scopes Monkey trial? The ACLU, although not named that yet, actually won. It is appropriate that an aging overweight actor named Ed Asner played the leading role in a theater remake. He has made a name for himself the past few years complaining that the movie industry is discriminating by not hiring older actors. No Eddie, they aren’t. You were not much good in your younger days and now you are atrocious. I am convinced the ACLU is much the same.

Speaking of atrocious (add dangerous), the ACLU is the poster child these days….and has been for more than a few years. They won a major case in Georgia a year or so ago and forced ANY indication of a supreme being or intelligent design to be stricken from ALL Georgia textbooks. No matter what the Founding Fathers thought and wrote, separation of Church and State is an absolute MUST! Or is that separation of State FROM Church? No matter. The semi “pro bono” ProgLibs are ALL righteous dudes and certainly feel very good about themselves at the end of the day.

The ACLU was founded in 1920 to defend anti-war speech during World War I. I wonder if the end result would have been different had the ACLU prevailed. While they maintain they are nonpartisan, fast forward 92 years and you will find them issuing a “report card” on current politicians. They list Barack Obama as having an “A.” Mitt Romney fails.

One of the urgent ACLU issues these days deals with “voter suppression.” It boils down to Voter ID. According to these former ambulance-chasers, states that require photo ID make it more difficult for “traditionally disenfranchised” populations to vote. You realize, of course, they are talking about homeless people, students, seniors, and all minorities. They worry that many of these folks do not have transportation, nor the money to pay for a legit ID. (Please don’t engage brain on this one. You might have a nervous breakdown.)

A “disenfranchised voter”

These bastions of freedom are all over the states of Arizona and Alabama because they have passed their own immigration laws. The reason, of course, is that Obama and Big Sis are loath to enforce federal laws. (Obama needs all those unreigistered democrats.) In the process of trying to enact these laws, the states are trampling all over the constitution, the ACLU maintains.

Not too many years ago, the ACLU set it’s “Champions of True Justice” sights on the Boy Scouts of America. The issues? Affirmation of God required plus the BSA refusal to allow homosexual boys and leaders within the ranks. This went all the way and the Scouts won the day but were left hurting as many of their charter-partners withdrew their sponsorship.

The whole thing got started in Chicago (no big surprise there) and rapidly spread throughout the nation. Back in 1998, the city of Chicago settled an ACLU lawsuit by ceasing all sponsorship of all Boy Scout programs and functions until the organization dropped its religious oath requirement and its ban against homosexuals. The Scouts refused to cave and found other organizations interested in becoming sponsors. All non-profits require donations/fund raising and Scouting is no exception. They were hurt there also but found other sources of financial support.

Perhaps one of THE major crusades the ACLU pushes is getting all forms of Christianity banned from most everywhere except on church property, and sometimes that too is endangered. No prayers, no signs, no symbols, no meetings in schools, no commencements in churches, no nothing! The ACLU comes absolutely unglued when confronted with the Ten Commandments. You may recall a southern judge who lost his job because of this.

It would seem that a great many situations in which the ACLU is interested in fighting have something either directly or indirectly to do with religion. What I would suggest to these “Champions of Justice” is this:

If you wish to live your life as if there is no God, you had better be right.

“Hey Man, You Got the Stuff???” Part II

February 3rd, 2012

MoosOfTheDay

LAUSD ‘LA Menu’ Healthy Food Choice Items

FRIDAY (THE DAY AFTER THURSDAY)…

Tommy says, “Cheech, can you give me a ride into LA? I need to pick up my kid for lunch.”

Cheech pulls the Chevy hard to the right and stands on the brakes, “No man, you can’t eat your kid for lunch, that would be wrong! What’s wrong with you man?!?!”

“No, I said I need to pick my kid up for lunch – you know, I have to take him to lunch.” Tommy explains.

“Oh, that’s a completely different thing, I guess, right? But wait, why do you have to take him to lunch, don’t they feed him those Free Lunches at school?” Cheech asks.

“I don’t know man, they USED to feed him at lunch – but now he wants to spend time eating with me all the time. It’s kind of weird – I never wanted to eat with my Dad.”

“Tommy, your Dad used to bite the heads off chickens in that traveling Geek Show of his – nobody wanted to eat with YOUR Dad. He made the local kids really nervous…” Cheech says. ”Do you remember what happened to that Beagle puppy you got for your sixth birthday?”

“Snack Wrap?”

“Was that his name?” asks Cheech.

“No. That’s what happened to him.” answers Tommy. “Yeah, my Dad was ‘different’.”

“So why won’t your kid eat the Free Food at the school?” asks Cheech a second time.

“He says they’re trying to poison him there. They give the kids a handful of sticks and twigs wrapped with a celery stalk and tell them it’s lunch.”

“Any mushrooms?” asks a hopeful Cheech.

“Sometimes, but they’re not the right kind of mushrooms.” answers Tommy.

“Bummer.”

“Huge bummer…”

Cheech pulls his Chevrolet back into traffic and drives towards town. Tommy falls asleep moments later and dreams of a Big Mac marinated in Hershey’s Chocolate Sauce with a side-order of Nabisco Sugar Wafers.

In the deep corners of his subconscious - a beagle bays… Then, all is silence with the exception the sounds of a tap-dancing mushroom crunching on a celery stick…
Well, I told you we’d get back to it. Not as quickly as I wanted, but here we are again, nonetheless. I promised yesterday morning that I’d tell you what happens when well-meaning tyrants determine what other people, may, or perhaps, may not be allowed to do as it pertains to their dietary habits.

It’s a story of intrigue, political correctness, starving the poorest Americans, and black market burritos.

It is the story of…

The Los Angeles Unified School District LA Cafe’!

The following excerpts are from the shocked, confused, and ‘not getting it at all’ folks at Natural News Online: (NaturalNews) A massive school lunch menu overhaul implemented by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) in California last year has been met with widespread resistance among district students. CBS 2 in Los Angeles reports that many students are actually choosing to go hungry rather than have to eat revamped, healthier meal offerings like vegetarian curry or quinoa salad. (Moos Note: Vegetarian curry and Quinoa Salad?!?! Yum-O!!!)

Last summer, LAUSD’s school board voted to eliminate unhealthy meal options like corn dogs, processed chicken nuggets, and sugar-laden flavored milk beverages in favor of alternative, healthier meal options that incorporate more whole, unprocessed food items. The decision was inspired by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s show Food Revolution, which at one time featured an LAUSD school on its show, until the permit was revoked.

Many people initially praised LAUSD’s decision to alter its lunch menus as a giant step forward towards improving the health of the district’s schoolchildren. But few anticipated that the students would ultimately reject these new offerings en masse, choosing instead to smuggle in unhealthy snacks from home, and even trade things like ramen noodles on newly formed and thriving “black markets.” (Moos Note: Ah, evil ‘Free Market Forces’ at work again!!! Curse you Bill of Rights and your ‘Freedom to Eat Food You Don’t Hate’ amendment, curse you to HECK!!!)
Reports indicate that many students have been throwing away their entire meals, including their unopened cartons of plain milk product. And those that are unable to snag a high-demand item from the junk food black market to replace those meals were simply not eating, which was leading to widespread malnutrition at many of the district’s schools.

Conditions have gotten so bad that the district is now planning to re-implement many of the menu items that it offered previously, but with supposedly healthier ingredients. A healthier type of pizza will be returning to lunchrooms, for instance, as will hamburgers and cheeseburgers. Dishes like brown rice cutlets and quinoa salad, on the other hand, are getting nixed.

No matter what LAUSD serves, it is required to serve a certain amount of it to students, and those students are required to accept that amount, even if they do not want it.

This is why so much of the undesired food has ended up in trashcans rather than given to somebody else. But ABC 7 News in Los Angeles recently reported that some students are now volunteering to help give these leftover meals to those in need. (Moos Note: No mention here of whether ‘those in need’ are rejecting the sticks and twigs also. But I have my suspicions arethat those ‘in need’ are looking for other folks ’much more in need’ to pawn the “Brown Rice Cutlets” off on… Somebody help me out here but the last time I saw the word ‘Cutlet’ used on a menu it was immediately preceded by the word, ‘Veal’. Veal, of course, is a young cow forced to stay in a box up until the moment of slaughter. If these heartless California Liberals are keeping Brown Rice (do I sense Racial Overtones here??? Hmm?) standing on end in a box, I’m gonna HURT somebody!!! Nobody abuses RICE like this while I’m around! Poor little brown babies all standing on end in a BOX in the DARK!!! I’m angry I tell ya’ – angry!)

The second-largest school district forces kids to eat ‘healthy foods’ (yes, this district is one of the ones which banned Chocolate and Strawberry Milks last year) and the kids? The kids just say, “No,” collectively, resoundly, and resolutely.

Now there’s “Hope” I can believe it.

There’s more, but once again, the time clock’s dyin’ to be punched, and after reading about how Rice is treated in California, I’m a guy in a punchin’ mood. I feel a Part III coming on, but for now, we end this post as the lights of a 1964 Chevrolet Impala drive into the distance as Tommy and Cheech attempt to rescue the boy from the ‘Sticks and Twigs Lunch Wardens’…

Happy trails folks!

“Hey Man, you got the Stuff???”

February 2nd, 2012

MoosOfTheDay

“Hey man, you got the stuff?” Tommy asks.

“Um, what stuff you talkin’ bout man? I don’t know nothing about no stuff…” Cheech responds.

“Come on, you know what I’m talking about – the GOOD stuff. I need it bad man, I got a monkey on my back the size of Paula Deen.” Tommy says.

“Oh, oh, THAT stuff? No way man, I don’t have any of that. THAT stuff will KILL you deader than Taylor Hicks’ singing career.”

“Okay man, you got any virgin-pure-uncut Kosher salt?” Tommy leans in as he asks this last question.

“No way man, this is California. That stuff will get you 3 – 5 in the Big House,” Cheech answers.

Tommy lowers his eyes and asks Cheech quietly, “Transfats? You got any transfats man?” I’m Jonesin’ for some transfats. I haven’t had any since 2010. Come on man, you gotta help out your bro’ on this one…”

“I’ve got no transfats, I’ve got no salt, I’ve got no sugar, you hear me? All I’ve got are these semi-automatic weapons I bought at the high school and a couple of rocks of crack. You want those?”

“Nah, that STUFF will kill you.” Tommy says as he stares down at his hands folded on his lap.

“I think there’s a Smoothie Shack up there, you want a Cucumber-Tomato-Carrot-Dill Smoothie or somethin’?”

“No. I’ll just get out of the car and graze on the grass along the shoulder of the highway…” Tommy says.

“Okay, just make sure you don’t eat any weed…”

The scene fades as today’s post begins

Sugar - The “New Crack”Eat it, baby, eat it!!!

From the San Francisco Chronicle Online: Like alcohol and tobacco, sugar is a toxic, addictive substance that should be highly regulated with taxes, laws on where and to whom it can be advertised, and even age-restricted sales, says a team of UCSF scientists.

In a paper published in Nature on Wednesday, they argue that increased global consumption of sugar is primarily responsible for a whole range of chronic diseases that are reaching epidemic levels around the world.

Sugar is so heavily entrenched in the food culture in the United States and other countries that getting people to kick the habit will require much more than simple education and awareness campaigns, the UCSF scientists said.

…

It’s going to require public policy that gently guides people toward healthier choices and uses brute force to remove sugar from so many of the processed foods we eat every day, said Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF.

“The only method for dealing with this is a public health intervention,” Lustig said in an interview. “Everyone talks about personal responsibility, and that won’t work here, as it won’t for any addictive substance. These are things that have to be done at a governmental level, and government has to get off its ass.”

…

In their paper, they argue for taxes on heavily sweetened foods and beverages, restricting advertising to children and teenagers, and removing sugar-ladened products from schools, or even from being sold near schools. They suggest banning the sale of sugary beverages to children.

Schmidt noted that those policies could nudge people toward healthier choices – but only if, at the same time, healthier choices are made widely available. Such policies have worked in reducing alcohol consumption and smoking rates, she said. There’s no reason they can’t work with sugar too.

Lustig said he realizes that there will likely be heavy resistance to the idea of largely removing sugar from American diets – and resistance not just from the food and beverage industries, but from the public at large. (Moos Note: Hey, did they just slip a PUN in here? “The public ‘at large’?”)

Yes, there is more to this, but I’m out of time. Work calls and I must answer. But here’s something to think about while I’m gone: What happens when you ‘Nudge people toward healthier choices?’ I know. Later today, you will too…

Have a nice day!

Eat at your own risk… Um, while you can.

He Must Have Slept Thru Math

February 2nd, 2012

USPatriot

”As President Obama prepares to raise the debt ceiling — after the Senate waived its opposition last week — $5 trillion hikes evidently are no longer “unpatriotic” as Obama said they were in 2008 while describing former President George W. Bush’s $4 trillion increase over eight years.

The White House requested authority earlier this month to raise the debt ceiling to $16.4 trillion, up $1.2 trillion from last summer and more than $5 trillion from the statutory limit of $11.3 trillion set in October 2008 before Obama took office. The debt at the time Obama entered the White House was $10.6 trillion. The ceiling was raised to $12.1 trillion within a month of his inauguration.

Such increases used to be anathema to Obama, who voted in March 2006 along with all his Senate Democratic colleagues against Bush’s hike of the debt ceiling to $8.9 trillion.

At the time, Obama called raising the debt limit “a sign of leadership failure.” Out on the campaign trail in July 2008, he suggested the move was downright un-American.

“The problem is that the way Bush has done it in the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion from the first 42 presidents. No. 43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome. So we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back. $30,000 for every man woman and child. That’s irresponsible, that’s unpatriotic,” he said.

In April 2011, during the heat of the debt ceiling debate with Congress, Obama expressed regret for his 2006 stance, which he said was delivered from “the vantage point of a senator versus the vantage point of a president.”

“When you’re a senator, traditionally what’s happened is, this is always a lousy vote. Nobody likes to be tagged as having increased the debt limit — for the United States by a trillion dollars. As president, you start realizing, you know what, we, we can’t play around with this stuff. This is the full faith and credit of the United States.”

Under an arrangement reached last summer as the U.S. was about to hit the statutory ceiling, Republicans agreed to let the president raise the limit unless there was effectively a veto-proof majority to disapprove of it. Last week, the House voted to prevent the increase, but the Democratic-led Senate voted to let Obama hike U.S. borrowing capacity.

That would make the fifth increase in the debt ceiling since Obama entered office in January 2009. Under Bush, Congress raised the debt ceiling seven times in his eight years.

On Sunday, House Budget Committee Paul Ryan suggested that it’s time to put a stop to the borrowing.

“We are not getting the kind of leadership we need from the outside. At the time when America needs it the most, we have a debt crisis on our horizon. The Senate hasn’t budgeted for 1,005 days now. The president is not even proposing to tackle this fiscal crisis,” Ryan, R-Wis., told “Fox News Sunday.”

“So, what we need is a new president and a new Senate, and we need to give the country a very specific plan, a set of ideas of how we’re going to solve these problems and let the country choose in November what they want America to become,” he said.”

DISSERVICE TO YOUNG PEOPLE?

February 2nd, 2012

Gabriel

Reading, listening, and watching is how we learn as children and young adults. Is this becoming a lost art because of modern technology? I am concerned that this is the case.

Ten years ago a young lady of seven was a joyous thing to watch. She giggled, she loved to be thrown up in the air in the pool, she absolutely sparkled. She was my step daughter. The years passed. We celebrated her tenth birthday around that pool. There were twelve or so boys and girls there. They were having a great time just being children.

Seven more years have now passed. How things have changed.

A gentleman named Dan Reiter penned this beyond excellent article for “Florida Today” in the Monday edition. Sometimes an article appears in print that needs to be read, considered, and pondered. This article is one.

I will para-phrase and use personal observations where appropriate and direct quote when necessary to make the point Dan wants.

My step granddaughter?

She will now speak when spoken to and say all the appropriate words. Otherwise she will be playing with her cell phone. Friends, weather, jokes, games…..she has it all, with just a few clicks. How sad.

Here is Dan.

“Five years ago, a telephone was something you picked up when you wanted to talk to someone. You couldn’t update your Facebook status, or listen to music, or tweet, or shop, or watch TV, or even find yourself on Google Maps. Those were the dark ages indeed.”

“Today, with more than 100 million iPhone users world wide, and Google’s Android laying claim to another 130 million devices, the instant age has arrived…a world in which to summon up the answer to any of life’s questions, you need look no further than your own fingertips.”

”With our noses buried in our screens much of the day, dinner conversations fall silent; parents forfeit eye contact with their children; drivers smash into each other at alarming rates. Humanity is withdrawing, ever so slightly, into itself”

“A 2011 study found the average youth between the ages of 8-18 spends nearly eleven hours each day online or plugged into entertainment media. When teens are separated from their phones, they exhibit signs of under-stimulation, low heart rates and the inability to entertain themselves”

Cell phones just being cell phones were annoying enough. In banking lines, while driving cars, going off either in church or during concerts, they were annoying. Now, however, they are beyond annoying and becoming worrisome.

“Martin Lindstrom, in a September 2011 New York Times piece, used MRI technology to show how iPhone usage stimulates the insular cortex of the brain. He claims this is proof people are actually in love with their cell phones.”

“Is this really love or are we losing touch with one of the basic principles of the human condition: the importance of existing in the moment, in the present space around us? We no longer look to the skies for the weather. We don’t even consult a meteorologist. Instead, we ask our hand-held devices, and are content with a number and an ideogram.”

Perhaps this link will show how absurd this is becoming. The article focus is using your “new bestest buddie” while on the toilet. I don’t think it is a multi-tasking piece.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=41&sid=2730118

Dan brings this challenge home with this

“We gaze lovingly into our screens….meanwhile light sparkles on the river, egrets stir in the Norfolk pines, dolfins breach the oil-slick surface of the sea….all this is lost to us, simply background noise.”

“We stare into our hands. We fiddle. We repeat the same actions over and over. We’ve become neurotic. Living testimony to the law of diminishing returns. The next time you feel the modern pull of your iPhone, you might do well to consider this ancient piece of advice:

Lift your eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh your help Psalm 121:1″

Kathleen Sebelius Answers to a Higher Authority

February 1st, 2012

MoosOfTheDay

Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the U.S. Department

of Health and Human Services

Letter January 25, 2012 from Archbishop John G. Vlazny on the matter of freedom of conscience and decisions by Health and Human Services…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

It is important for you to know that the federal government has just dealt a heavy blow to the Catholic population and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faithful.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees’ health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception. Almost all health insurers will be forced to include those “services” in the health policies they write. And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their policies.

By this ruling, the Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty. Unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled to violate our consciences or drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so). The Administration’s sole concession was to give our institutions one year to comply.

We cannot and will not comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second class citizens. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom.

In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.

And therefore, I would ask of you two things. First, as a community of faith we must commit ourselves to prayer and fasting that wisdom and justice may prevail, and religious liberty may be restored. Without God, we can do nothing; with God, nothing is impossible. Second, I recommend visiting www.usccb.org/conscience, to learn more about this severe assault on religious liberty, and how to contact Congress in support of legislation that would reverse the Administration’s decision.

Thank you for all you do to build the Church and society.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend John G. Vlazny

Archbishop of Portland in Oregon

The Catholic Church is being “Legislated” into providing Birth Control, abortion, and sterilization services to employees of the Church. This, according to the provisions of ’ObamaCare’ and according to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius.

Haven’t I heard SOMETHING about “The Separation of Church and State” for my entire life? Yes, I believe that I have. So what’s this crap that the Catholic Church needs to provide services for its employees, which are diametrically opposed to the teachings OF the Catholic Church?

Let me ask you this: “Is the Separation of Church and State only applicable when the Church undercuts the authority of the State? Or, perhaps, when a stray manger or something looking even close to a ’Cross-shaped object’ shows up on public land?”

Does this mean that the oft-referenced mantra of the Left (separation of yada, yada, yada), is then, at best, ’50% Universal’ in scope? Or, could it be also then be fairly said that the support is 100% in favor of the Federal Government’s “Whim Du Jour”?

I’m sure that the Most Reverend John G. Vlazny put a lot of time into drafting his letter above. I’m not going to try to restate that which he so eloquently spoke of above. I have neither the patience, nor the desire, to be as thoughtful and well-spoken as he is.

This government was founded upon a belief that there IS a God. Our currency includes the words, “In God We Trust”. This is NOT an accident, not a ‘typo’, or random act of literary license. It was an expression of one of our most basic tenets of our Nation’s founding. There was a period of time in our history when MOST Americans believed that the Great American Experiment was undertaken with the blessings of God. This, of course, is back when we, as a Nation, believed in God.

Just lately, I wonder – does God still believe in US?

As for myself, I believe that the Federal Government believes neither in God, nor US (you can read the latter expression to stand for either ‘the United States’, OR us, as in, you know, the pronoun for you, I, and everyone else we know.) The Federal Government, Obama Administration, Kathleen Sebelius, et al, have broken the trust given to them by US.

I’ve told my kids for years that trust is similar to a bank account. They can make deposits daily to the ‘Trust Fund’ when they are truthful, honest, and when they act consistent with their core beliefs. However, much like a bank account, withdrawals can also be made through a breach of trust, a lie, or a misrepresentation of the facts. If we were to break open the Obama Administration’s ‘Trust Fund’, I suspect that we would find it bankrupt - both financially and morally. A mirror image of the contents of the vacuous mass’s soul currently inhabiting the White House.

In this, as with so many other instances, the Administration has squandered the trust given to it by the American people less than four years ago. This Administration has chosen to go into the 2012 Election Year picking a fight with Catholics and people of Faith across the Nation?

Smooth move Ex-Lax…

Kathleen Sebelius may answer to President Obama as her, “Higher Authority”, but so help me God, there’ll be much for all of the President’s Men and Women to answer for in November, 2012.

Yeah, so help me God.

WHAT NOW?

February 1st, 2012

Gabriel

My old grandfather would have said “it’s all over but the shoutin.” Mitt Rommey swamped Newt Gingrich in the Florida Primary. Do we now have a GOP Candidate to defeat B Hussein in the General Election? Can Romney or perhaps someone else determine if we are to continue the demise of America or restore the America we know and love? Time will tell but my suspicion is that Romney quite likely will turn out to be the GOP nominee.

America watched all the aftermath speeches and were relieved that no one attacted another GOP opponent. America is very much tired of mud-slinging. While we know that it works, we do not at all like it. We realize the stakes are high, but the nastiness is a turn off. It is becoming time to coalesce behind the person who can, and will, send the charlatan community-organizer, Barry Sotero, back to whence he came.

The Romney address was truly Presidential. His wife and family were on stage first…impressive, in that they looked and acted like the all-American family. I would guess the biggest complaint some have against Romney is that he is too “preppy.” Perhaps true but to win as big as he did in Florida, he brought out the big guns and with it the big money. Gingrich never had a chance. The Romney organization was superb in Florida, as it will be in the next 46 states.

The extended family

You would have thought Gingrich won the day. At least that is how his speech sounded. He announced an eight point action plan he would undertake within hours after taking office. I have to admit, I liked each Executive Order he promised to decree. This is one of the neat things about Newt. He gives America what it wants to hear. “Red Meat” big time. I would expect Newt to deliver on his promises. One problem remains however. He needs to FIRST get nominated. He must be wondering where all the ladies have gone. Romney beat him by 22% with females.

The TV audience also heard from Santorum and Paul, although neither were in Florida. Realizing they would not do especially well, both moved West, to Colorado and Nevada. It is always refreshing to listen to Santorum and easy to see why people like him. He is consistent and always the nice guy. It is not refreshing to listen to Paul. He is great on the consistency side but never a nice guy. He is the kind of man that attends family gatherings and you just hope he will keep his mouth shut and not embarrass himself of cause an argument.

Sarah Palin and Herman Cain weighed in with their comments last night. Sarah, as usual wants the primaries to continue, believing that in so doing, issues will be discussed and reclarified, with the participants adjusting their arguments to fit reality. Herman Cain said he felt that Gingrich was simply out-spent.

With Romney’s big win in Florida and the Newt up against the wall, some pundits believe this may make Santorum the last “Non-Romney” candidate. I doubt this and would expect Santorum to last just a bit longer. However, lack of money and failing to actually gain traction in terms of being a truly viable candidate will cause him to cash it in. Ron Paul will stay in the race but not with any real hope of winning. Paul is after delegate count for a modicum of power at the Convention in Tampa.

As we grow closer to the General Election, we need to start coming together and totally backing our nominee. And that means everybody. If Obama and H Clinton can mend fences and work together for the good of their party, surely we of the conservative stripe can do this too.

We MUST keep the goal ever in mind. That goal is to soundly defeat Barack Hussein Obama, sending him back to Chicago to write kiddie books with Bill Ayers and make loads of money on the speaker circuit.

With the Obama defeat, consider with delight the departure of his Czars and his odious Cabinet appointments, slapping down overstepping EPA and Homeland Security, rescinding attempts to reduce our Armed Forces to mere tokens, and eliminating regulations with which he is burdening our economy and our freedom.

Take a second or so and read this. It is worth your consideration.