What You Need To Know About Health Care

With all of the lies and hype in the media, there are some things that we need to make sure that people understand about what we will end up with if we allow a Government takeover of health care, and that they are lying in order to try to ram it through.

First of all, the number of uninsured that we hear about every day on various news outlets. Probably the number most often thrown around is 47 million, although you do also hear 50 million, 46 million, 46.5 million, and so on. You must understand somethings about this number to see that it is a complete lie. First of all, they use the 47 million figure to try to make you think that there are 47 million American Citizens that are chronically uninsured and simply have no hope of ever being covered. The truth is that some of this number, around 9 to 12 million, is illegal aliens, and not citizens at all. Another large chunk of this number comes from people who were without health insurance for less than four months while they were out of work, but had no serious long term lapse. Another large chunk is young people who can easily afford health insurance, but choose not to buy it, because they simply feel that they don't need it. So when the numbers are analyzed and understood, the fact is that there are somewhere from 10 to 15 million chronically uninsured American Citizens. Still an issue, but clearly something that doesn't require a Government takeover of health care to solve.

Another point is that in the United States being uninsured is not the same thing as not having access to health care. Because of laws in this nation, anyone who shows up at an Emergency Room must be evaluated and treated until they are stable, without regard to their ability to pay. By saying this I'm not trying to make a claim that the issue is solved, simply that we do not have millions of people dying in the streets because they don't have health care. Are there still some horror stories? Sure, but they do not arise from the fact that people are uninsured, and therefore, overhauling the insurance industry will not affect them in the slightest.

Furthermore, it must be understood that the claims made by the proponents of a Government takeover of health care are simply not possible. They claim that they will cover more people (47 million by their own claims) and expand services, while at the same time reducing costs. That is just utterly ridiculous on it's face. The only way that they can reduce costs is by rationing the care. That is to say that for each year there are X number of dollars available for each area of care, and once those dollars are gone, they are gone, and we don't do any more of that until next year. That means that they have to assign priority to different people to see who they will spend some of those precious few dollars on, and if you are old, or have some condition that renders you unable to hold down a job, and thereby pay taxes, you will not be the priority, you will simply be left to die, so that you won't burden the system for the "productive members of society." I'm not kidding, one of the main advisers on health care to the Obama Administration has stated in the past the Health Care dollars should not be spent on people with dementia or some other debilitating disease, and that he doesn't think that age discrimination is wrong because, now listen to this reasoning, everyone who is 65 was once 25.

If this plan gets pushed through, it will not be doctors and patients making choices about health care, it will be faceless, nameless, bureaucrats in cubicles, thousands of miles away, to whom you are nothing more than a number and a formula. These people who are pushing this plan accuse the Republicans of being the "party of No," claiming that we simply say no, and don't offer alternative plans. Of course this is another big lie, we have some plans that would actually work to make Health Care better, but even if we didn't, there would be nothing wrong with standing up and saying "NO" to making it worse.

I Really Feel Safe Now

Earlier this week in one of the over hyped press conferences concerning the over hyped swine flu bug... err... outbreak... err... epidemic... err... pandemic... err... hide the women and children! But don't panic! Anyway. I thought I would talk for just a moment about something that I saw on the news.

They were having a press conference with the new Secretary of Homeland Security, you know, the failed Governor of Arizona? Anyway, she was talking about all that the Federal Government is doing to help to get us through this potential pandemic, because, you know, we didn't know to wash our hands and steer clear of sick people until she spoke up... again, back to the point. She was talking about the distribution of some of the drugs that the Federal Government stockpiled under Bush, just in case this really becomes a major outbreak. Actually, I don't have a problem with that, it's probably smart. Anyway, in talking about the anti viral medications she said that these drugs helped to lessen the symptoms to make people feel better. Um... No. That's what some medicines do, like NyQuil and other such over the counter drugs, but most people can run down to the drug store and get that themselves, and there's not much chance of there being shortage of such things. The drugs that she was talking about are fairly new drugs that attack the viruses themselves and help your body to kill them, making you not sick anymore.

Honestly, we are supposed to trust in these people who can't even get the most basic facts right? Do you feel safe now?

Taking The Blame? Didn't Think So.

While in Mexico, our President said, among other things, that the problems that Mexico is having with the drug cartels are because of demand for the drugs in America. In other words, he was blaming the US for the failure of the Mexican Government to maintain order in their own country. More to the point though, he was blaming drug users in the US for this problem. He couldn't have been blaming me though, because I've never used illegal drugs of any kind, nor had any dealings with them, aside from whatever my patients might have been using back in my EMT days. However, President Obama has admitted in his own books that he has used illegal drugs in the past, so is he taking personal responsibility for Mexico's problems? Yeah right. He's happy to blame the vast majority of us who don't use drugs, but taking personal blame just isn't in his nature.

One more thing I would like to explain is this. Obama also (mis)quoted an oft (mis)quoted statistic with regards to the guns used in the Mexican drug wars, stating that 90% of the guns recovered there came from the US. This also is a flat out lie. This comes from testimony given before Congress last year (or was it '07?) that 90% of the guns that the Mexican Government turned over to the ATF for tracking had come from the US. That is to say, of the guns they gave to the ATF because they already thought that they came from the US, 90% actually did. There is no statistic available, so far as I know, that tells us what percentage of recovered guns in Mexico have been turned over to the US, but we do know that it is not all of them, but only the ones that they suspect of coming from the US in the first place. Kinda changes things when you know the truth, doesn't it?

Not Again

The Obama Administration is now looking at plans to make Volunteer work mandatory. Besides the obvious oxymoron at play here, um, we've been down this road before. It's called Slavery, and we fought a very bloody war to end it. Do we really want to go back? I don't.

Dishonest Indignation

Last night the local news had a report about a gambling operation being raided and shut down by the State in Orlando yesterday. The reporters, the law enforcement officials, the state officials, and pretty much everyone else was indignant about how this place was operating against Florida's anti-gambling laws, and that they were ripping people off, because so many people played and lost money, while so few people won anything at all.

A few things about this story bothered me, though it seemed to all be lost on the news reporters and such. First, they talked about the people who ran the operation as if they were armed robbers, forcibly stealing money from unsuspecting innocent people. While I certainly don't approve of what they were doing, and it could almost certainly be classified as stealing, the so called victims were hardly innocent bystanders. These people went to this establishment looking for some easy money, and thinking that they were the ones that would get lucky and strike it rich, knowing full well that in all likelihood, they would leave with less than they came in with. In fact, it looked like most of the people who went there were regulars. Now, I'm not defending the operation in any way, they were preying on the desperate, but let's face it, they did not take the money at the point of a gun, the people handed it over to them willingly.

The other thing that really bothered me was the utter dishonesty on the part of the reporters and the State officials. They were all claiming, be it implicitly or explicitly, to be outraged and disgusted that such an operation is going on in Florida. They were just indignant that there was a gambling operation designed to take advantage of desperate, low income people, where those people would be nearly certain to lose their money and end up with nothing to show for it, or, at best, win back far less than they would lose over the long haul. But maybe I'm being too harsh, maybe they really are outraged, maybe they've never heard of the Florida Lottery!

That's right, the Lottery, in any state, but today I'm talking about Florida, is based on the same principles as the operation that was shut down by the State yesterday. They prey on desperate and low income people, who stand a very low chance of winning anything, and if they do, most of them lose far more over the course of their lives than they will ever win (let's face it, if the Lottery were a good way to make money, rich people would play it too, and they don't). The state makes huge profits off of the Lottery, supposedly for Education, but don't worry, sticky fingered politicians find ways around that (yes even here in Florida, it's not just a New York problem). And that is the real source of the outrage. You see, the Government officials and the reporters and all of them aren't upset because this is going on in Florida, they are upset because somebody was encroaching on their turf. Like a mob boss who is angry when another mob tries to operate in his territory, he's not angry that there crime there, he's angry because he's not getting his cut. It's the same with the State.

Wait, what? Did he just call the State a bunch of Mafia thugs?!? Yes, I basically did. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not that I want places like this operating all over the place, it's just the horrendous display of dishonesty I saw in this news report. Let's be honest about it, the State doesn't want this going on unless they are getting their cut, and that's the truth.

Sticky Fingers

Millions of people have bought into pre-paid state college funds in order to lock in today's price for college, even if it's 18 years or so until their child will, hopefully, be attending college. I had looked at these at one point, as there are some sure benefits to them, but the thing that held me back was very simple, I would have to entrust that money to a Government overseen account, and trust politicians to keep their grubby hands off of it. For very good reasons, this was not something I felt I could do.

Now, with 8.8 Billion Dollars in the pre-paid college trust fund here in Florida, and a budget shortfall looming, the State Legislature is drooling over that money. These politicians seem unfazed by the fact that this isn't their money to mess around with. It is there for one purpose, and one purpose only, to pay for college for the kids whose parents have put the money into this system. Oh sure, they say they will pay it back, but how will they do that? Where will the money come from the pay it back? If they are such terrible money managers that they can't balance the State Budget now, how the heck are they going to balance the budget and pay this money back down the road? Of course they can't. They will either have to raise taxes at that point, or turn this into another Government run Ponzi scheme where there is only the illusion of security in the system.

What the Florida Legislature is considering here amounts to theft. Think about it. If I sneak into my neighbors house and take a thousand dollars from under his mattress (I'm not claiming my neighbor keeps money under his mattress, I have no idea) no matter how much I swear I'll pay it back in time for him to use it, I would be a thief. What we are talking about is really that simple. Because the State Government, like most Governments, is out of control and can't effectively manage what they have, they intend to steal from others, with the empty promise that they will stand good for it. Well, dummy, if you can stand good for it down the road, how come you can't pay your bills now?

The answer is simple of course, if you don't have the money for something, do without it, don't steal from people so that you can have whatever you want, just learn to live on less than you make.

Wrong Focus

It is unbelievable to me that some people are focusing on what Michelle Obama wore to her husbands speech. As far as I'm concerned, I couldn't care less what she wore, if her dress was too formal, or not quite right for this particular occasion. She could have worn Jeans and a T-Shirt, or a bathrobe for all I care. The focus should be on what President Obama said.

We are screaming toward socialism at breakneck speed, and people are worried about the First Ladies dress. It's that kind of nonsense that allowed all of this stuff to happen in the first place.

Funding Terrorists

Compared to the Trillions of dollars that our Government is throwing around in an obvious attempt to increase the size and power of itself the amount seems fairly small, a paltry $900 Million. That's how much the Obama administration is planning to send to the Middle East to rebuild the Palestinian territories after Israel "invaded" the West Bank. Of course Israel took action against the Palestinian territories after the terrorists living there used them as cover to attack Israel and kill Israeli people and Soldiers.

We are told not to worry, that the money will not reach the hands of the terrorists, which is a bunch of bull. If the money goes to that part of the world, it will get into the hands of terrorists because the entire region, outside of Israel itself, is controlled by terrorist organizations, which is what led to these problems in the first place. Then they tell us that the money will have to be distributed through the UN... right, because they have such a great record of doing things right. I guess we can take solace in that though, because at least less money will reach the terrorists because as it moves through the various departments of the United Nations most of it will be pilfered off and never reach the intended recipients anyway.

In short, this is just more of our money being thrown away by our own incompetent Government, except that this time it will be used to attack one of our greatest allies on the World stage. This is a sad day indeed.

Let's Call The Whole Thing Off

There is an old song that most of you are probably familiar with where the issue is the pronunciation of the words potato and tomato, and the point being that, since we can't agree, let's call the whole thing off. This is how I feel about the so called stimulus bill that is being rammed through Congress at amazing speed. The Democrats in Congress and the President call it stimulus, those of us who see through the nonsense call it out of control, pork barrel, Government spending which will stimulate nothing other than bigger and more powerful Government, so, let's call the whole thing off.

You also hear a lot about how this bill has no earmarks at all (although I think that some got added in the Senate, so I guess now they want to say, very few) but even that is misleading. Normally an earmark is added as an amendment to a bill, for an example, you have put forth a bill to make water filtration in your state better, and I look at you and say, OK, I'll support that as long as you support my amendment to build a bridge with my name on it in my home state. The bridge is an earmark. That's just one example, but hopefully you get the point. It's a process by which members of the House and Senate get all of their little pet projects taken care of. That did not happen to this bill, so technically saying that there are no (or maybe very few now) earmarks attached to this bill is true, but the reason for that is that the entire body of the bill is made up of funding for every body's little pet projects. So, in reality, almost the entire bill is earmarks.

They also like to claim that the bill includes tax cuts, but this is a flat out lie. The bill includes another refundable tax credit, meaning that people who make under a certain amount of money will get a check from the Government, regardless of whether or not they paid any taxes. This is very similar to the plan that was pushed by the Bush administration last year that simply didn't work. How like Government, it didn't work last time, so we're just going to go ahead and do it again, surely it will work this time, but of course, it won't. Here's why. Let's say you own a small business selling widgets, and everyone loves your widgets and really wants one, so the Government sends everyone these checks in the mail, and lots of people come down to your store and buy a widget, so business is great right after the checks come out. Now, according to what the Democrats are trying to sell us, because business is up, you're going to turn around and hire a couple more widget makers to keep up with demand, thus creating jobs. The problem with the plan is that you, as a small business owner, are not a moron. You understand that this uptick in sales is nothing more than a minor short term blip, so maybe you work some longer hours and pay the people you already having making widgets overtime for a couple of weeks to meet the demand, but once the checks from the Government stop rolling in, sales fall back to normal. The smart businessman will try to put some of these profits aside for a rainy day, but certainly will not hire more workers based on an artificial boom.

Real tax cuts, on the other hand, that is, allowing people to simply keep more of the money that they make, will cause a smaller, yet much longer term increase in sales, that will be sustainable over time and will cause you to need more widget makers in your business, thus increasing jobs.

Besides the false tax cuts, there is also the case of hugely increased spending in a large variety area's, and where is that money going to come from? Debt of course, that's the only place it can come from at this point. That means that we are putting our nation into a position that will require our grandchildren and great-grandchildren to pay that tab, and that assumes that we stop the out of control spending sometime relatively soon.

There are more problems with this bill, including the provisions moving us along the line toward Socialized medicine, which will, as I've explained before, amount to nothing more than the rationing of Health Care, with some Government bureaucrat deciding if you get the medicines and treatments that you need.

This is one of the worst bills ever to have come before Congress, and if it can still be stopped it needs to be. We simply can't afford to let it go forward.

Can't Even Believe This One

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is out pushing really hard for her huge pork barrel spending bill, which she, and other Democrats, are calling a stimulus package. Now there are plenty of places you can look and see all of the nonsense in this bill, and I've talked about the flaw in the entire premise here, but Speaker Pelosi really stuck her foot in her mouth, and you have to wonder if she even knows it. At press conference she told the assembled group that every month that we go without a (massive pork barrel irresponsible spending package) stimulus bill 500 MILLION Americans lose their jobs! I'm stunned. How does that even roll of the tongue without realizing that you've said something that is clearly untrue? Just to illustrate, in July of 2008 the US Population was estimated to be 303, 824, 640. So, according to Speaker Pelosi, every month that we don't go crazy spending on nonsense, nearly 200 million more people in the US lose their jobs than actually live in the US. Of course, even if you figure that the estimate is low, and say that maybe there are 350 million, you would have to remember that this includes everyone, from babies to the elderly, in other words, millions of people who don't even have jobs to begin with.

And we should trust this woman? I don't think so.

Who Needs The Constitution Anyway?

Have you ever noticed that Liberals hate the very idea of States Rights when there is an issue that clearly falls under the domain of the Several States? And yet, when something comes up, like it now has, with individual states wanting to set their own emissions standards for cars, which would clearly fall under the Interstate Commerce Clause of the Constitution, the Liberals all cry out for States Rights.

It is the legitimate duty of the Federal Government to regulate such things, being that a car will be built in one state and sold in every other state, or nearly so, and so the elected officials of one state should not be able to impose their will on the people of the other states in which they were not elected. And in the case of emissions standards, that is what will happen, the auto makers will, out of necessity, comply with the most stringent standards, because they won't be able to afford to make 37 different engines for the same model of car, so the most extreme State Government would decide for the entire nation what the standard would be, and this would jack the price of a car up well past what is reasonable, just to comply with Government mandates, and those mandates put in place by people elected in only one state.

It's too bad that the Obama Administration is already looking to tighten the Federal Governments strangle hold on the auto industry, by cranking MPG requirements even higher than they already are, at a time when they have just given them billions of dollars because they can't make ends meet. Who, exactly, thought that it was a good idea to take actions that will make cars more expensive and less safe? Yes, that's right, less safe, the current standards cost thousands of lives every year, the evidence is clear, every time the MPG requirements are increased highway fatalities increase also. That's not to say that there are more accidents because of this, but that the accidents are less survivable. Why is that? It's because you reach a point, and we have been there for some time, where the only way to increase gas mileage is to make the cars lighter, and that means that they do not offer as much protection in a crash, because some of the safety features were sacrificed in order to get the MPG rating up. The Liberals are literally willing to risk killing you and your family in order to "save the planet."

So, let's take an industry that the Government has regulated nearly into oblivion, that we the people have been forced to give billions of our hard earned dollars to in order to keep them afloat, have the Federal Government kick them while they are down with MPG requirements, and then sucker punch them by allowing each state to require different levels of standards from them. How long is it before our Government beats the auto makers into another bailout? I fear it may not be long.

The great Ronald Reagan once said, "Governments view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

Pigs On No-Doze

Economic Stimulus, Rescue and Recovery Package, Bailout, Reinvestment, or Massive Pork Barrel Spending. To paraphrase Shakespeare, what we call pork, by any other name, would still be pork. And that's what the Obama administration is pushing through Congress, a massive Pork Barrel bill that will do nothing to boost our economy in any way. In fact, what they are trying to do will be a massive drain on our economy. You simply cannot spend your way out of a recession. In a recession revenues drop off, which means that you have less money to spend, so, when in a recession, if you wish to spend, there are only two options, you must a) increase taxes, which history has proven over and over again is an economy killer, and/or b) you must borrow that money from somewhere which is also an economic killer, if not now, then down the road.

There was a Liberal Democrat on Hannity last night (and I forget her name) who kept repeating over and over again, the same line we here from Democrat politicians, "But we have to do something." As I have said many times in the past, and will continue to say, doing the wrong thing is worse than doing nothing.

Many times we have heard Democrats, from President Obama on down, talk about setting up "New Deal" like projects, because they worked so well for FDR. The fact of the matter is that they didn't work so well for FDR. When FDR took office the unemployment rate was 17.4%, after five years of his "shovel ready projects" and economic policy, and massive pork barrel spending to stimulate the economy and create jobs, the unemployment rate was 17.4%. FDR was a complete failure when it came to dealing with the depression. It was our entry into WWII that finally got our economy going again. Obama wants to go down the FDR road, does that mean that he wants to start another Global War? Or is he after something else?

The answer is quite simple, he's after something else. Social change. Like most other liberal democrats, Obama cares only for furthering the cause of the far left, which is Socialism, in some form or another. From listening to Obama, he personally favors Marxism. Now I know that most people don't want to hear such talk, but the fact is that either you listen, get motivated and get involved, or one of these days you wake up in a Country that you don't recognize at all. You're liberties will be gone, the Constitution will be no more, and it will be too late. So wake up, start to listen, start to read, don't just accept what you are told by the media, do your own thinking. Read the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, read the Communist Manifesto, and look at the raw facts of History. Don't be a drone, be an American.

Such A Centrist

I just wanted to take some time to talk to all the idiots who kept proclaiming that Obama is really a centrist, and he won't be as bad as everyone was thinking. Let's take a look at all the "Centrist" things he's done so far.

He appointed far left ideologue Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Now I know, lots of people want to say that she's a centrist to, but that's also crap, she's as big a liberal democrat as they come.

He appointed another big lib, one who fought hard to get pardons for Terrorists under President Clinton, because he's a favorite of the far left.

He appointed another favorite of the far left for the Treasury department, and who cares if the man who will be running the IRS couldn't be bothered paying his own taxes until after he was caught. And it clearly wasn't an honest mistake, the guy is a liar and a deliberate tax cheat, but let's assume for a moment that I'm wrong, and he really did make a mistake, do we really think that someone who is so stupid that they can't do what millions of regular folks do every year is really the one to take over Treasury?

He signed an order to close Club Gitmo (as Rush Limbaugh calls it accurately) where no one has ever been tortured, defining torture as 1/1000 of what the terrorists themselves do to innocent people every day, we didn't even come close. But since we were keeping the terrorists locked up where they couldn't kill us, it had to be shut down, you know, in the interest of getting them back on the battle field where they can start killing Americans again.

Despite the fact that last years "stimulus" package did nothing to help the economy, and the emergency bailouts of the past couple of months have been total disasters, he and the other dems are pushing hard to do both of these things again.

Despite the fact that socialized medicine has failed horribly everywhere on earth that it has been tried, and despite the fact that anyone with any common sense knows that what it really amounts to is rationing of medical care, and not care for everyone that needs it as it has been pitched, he is still pushing hard to have it imposed on the American people.

Barack Obama has been President for less than a week and he's already the most Marxist President in the history of our great nation, this is not good, and it certainly is not centrist.

President Big Bird?

It is sick to see how the media types are fawning over President Obama. They don't seem to want to have anything to do with actually reporting any news, as long as they can talk about how wonderful Obama is.

On Tuesday my wife wanted to see if there was local news on in the evening, and of course there wasn't. But while she was checking it out I hear supposed news people on CBS talking about how much kids love Obama, and how Obama is such an easy word for them to say, as if they got all tongue tied trying to say Bush? Then he says, oh yeah, Obama is so wonderful to them, he's like Big Bird. I was like, wait, what? Did this guy just hear himself? President Big Bird? Really?

how about if we get over all the nonsense, this man is the President, what he does will affect all of us, so how about we actually take a hard look at where he stands, and what he will really mean.

History Matters

Did anyone else (I'm sure lots of other people did) catch President Obama open his inaugural Address with a flagrant historical inaccuracy? He stated that 44 men have taken the oath of office. That's wrong. While our 44th President was busy doing Cocaine some of us were learning History, and learned that Grover Cleveland served two non consecutive terms and is considered to be both the 22nd President and the 24th President.

I know that some people are asking why this even matters, or thinking that I'm just nit-picking, but it does matter because it shows a complete lack of knowledge, or even concern about the knowledge, of our national history.

Obama has stated on more than one occasion that we need to break from our History (or fancy words which mean that) and now we find out that he doesn't even know the History that he wants to break from. Nor does he care.

I don't much care what anyone else thinks, I think it's disgusting.

Sea Kittens

The PETA people are at it again. They want to change the name of fish, wanting them to be called "Sea Kittens" instead, because they feel that people would reject eating something with a name that reminded them of their beloved family pet. Total lunacy you say? Well, maybe, but I think it might be interesting to go along on this one and see if it backfires, it is at least possible that instead of making people stop eating fish it actually encouraged them to start eating cats. More likely though, it would simply cause the less nuts among us to simply roll our eyes while we enjoy some fish, whatever the name.

Now, if you should happen to run into to one of these PETA nut jobs, and you feel like having a little fun say this, "Oh, PETA, yeah, I thought about joining once, until I found out it didn't stand for 'People Eating Tasty Animals'." You may want to have your guard up when you say this.

Seriously though, the groups' name, "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals" doesn't even make any logical sense. This is a radical group who believes that animals are fully equal to humans in every way, so how do they justify differentiating them in the name of their group? Doesn't their very name imply that humans are superior to animals? Shouldn't they call themselves "Human People for the Ethical Treatment of Non-human People"? Not as pretty and acronym, but at least it would accurately reflect what they believe.

Some Leader

President Elect Barack Hussein Obama (it's OK, he's now decided that he likes his middle name) has stated that we are just going to have to accept that we will run Trillion Dollar per year deficits for the next several years. So, out grossly irresponsible Government has put us in a deep hole, and very, very deeply in debt, and he's telling us that the answer to this problem is going to be to dig this hole so much deeper that we will never be able to get out of it. Wonderful, just wonderful.

He also stated that this problem is so big that only the Government can solve it. Of course he fails to mention that the problems we are facing as a nation are primarily Government caused. This would be akin to a builder who did such a poor job of constructing a building that it was on the verge of collapsing on a school and a nursing home and the builder saying, yes I know we screwed this up, but this problem is so big that only I can fix it... and I'm going to fix it by putting massive weights on top and blowing out the foundation!

No, Government is not the solution, and we don't have to accept Trillion dollar deficits (that means debt people, with interest) for years to come. We need lower taxes, lower spending, and for the Government to get the heck out of the way of the American people and the free market. And please don't give me that nonsense about the free market having caused this crisis, Government interference in the free market caused this crisis, and more Government interference will only make it worse.

Not Proportional

I am really sick and tired of hearing people saying that yes, Israel has been attacked a little, but their response has not been proportional. Well, that statement is half true, while being completely false. Let me explain.

To say that Israel has been attacked a little is a horribly gross understatement. In the last 6 months the terrorists who reside in Gaza have fired over 6,500 rockets into Israel, destroying property and killing innocent people. Besides that, these attacks have been going on for many, many years.

As for the second part of the statement, that they have not engaged in a proportional response, well, that is true, but not the way these morons mean it. Since these terrorist cowards fire their rockets and then hide behind their women and children, and manufacture these rockets in schools and orphanage basements, Israel has been stunningly restrained and careful about their response, trying to keep civilian deaths to a minimum, but at the same time realizing that they have no choice but to take action to stop the attacks on their civilians.

All of these people who support the terrorists in this conflict should be very thankful that Israel has not engaged in a proportional response, because to respond proportionally to what they have been subjected to would mean the complete and utter destruction of all the peoples in Gaza and the West Bank. I have stated before, and I still hold this position, that it would be impossible for Israel to over react, given what they have been put through, not only since the official formation of their nation in the modern age, but also over the past 5,000 years of their history. I can't imagine that I would show such amazing restraint in the face of such attacks. The Israel haters should be really happy that I'm not in charge of the IDF, because there would be nothing left of the terrorists by now.

American Royalty?

With Hillary Clinton looking to be Secretary of State, the unelected Governor of New York is looking for someone to appoint to fill her remaining Senate term. Of course, we don't know all of the names that he is considering, but we do know one person that seems to be high up on the list, and that is Caroline Kennedy Schlosberg. Of course, she can't go by her married name, Schlosberg, because that would take away her fame, and that may well be all that she has. Of course, she also has absolutely zero qualifications for the job, she is simply trading on her name, and because of that, she feels that she deserves the office. Being elected with no qualifications is one thing, then at least the people are the ones making the really bad decision, but for a Governor to appoint someone who has no qualifications is really beyond reprehensible.

The media are also treating her as if she is some kind of Royalty, even though we once fought a war to remove ourselves from such a system, they act as though she really does deserve the position, based only on the history of her family, not even anything that she has ever done herself. These are the same people who were screaming that Governor Palin wasn't qualified to be Vice President, even though she is a sitting Governor, has served on Government boards, been a Mayor, a city councilwoman, and run a small business, besides being a wife and mother, but none of that was good enough for them. Of course, Mrs. Schlosberg is also a wife and mother, but other than that has never held a job. The media says that she has worked for New York City in the education department, but that only involves some fund raising, never "working" more that just a very few hours a week. Not only does she have no experience in Government service, she has also never held an actual full time job of any kind at any point in her privileged life.

This is part of a letter written to a newspaper in New York State regarding this issue:
"Say no to Kennedy

"In response to Ellen Goodman's Dec. 23 commentary on Caroline Kennedy, and the headline, "JFK's daughter shows reawakening to public service": To be reawakened, you must have been awake in the past. The term "public service" usually means elected official - not just fundraising. What public service has Caroline ever done to be reawakened to?

"I was angered to read about her "coming home to the family business". The Kennedy's don't own the government. We, the people, own it. Senators, even presidents, are our employees.

"If Paterson is so interested in her "draw" that he gives her the seat, I'll offer to perform any upcoming surgery he might need. After all, I'm qualified because my father was a surgeon, my grandfather was a surgeon, my uncle was a dentist, my mother was an operating room nurse, my two sisters are nurses. Even though I have no medical training or experience, I must be qualified. Medicine is my family business!"


This was a great letter, and I hope that Patterson will understand that Schlosberg is not a Princess, is not heir to this Senate seat, and should not be appointed to it. We don't have royalty in America, people do not come to power based on their parents having been in power. Our system is not based on having an aristocracy, or an oligarchy, that's just not how things are done here.

No Sympathy Here

A man in New Jersey is upset because a Bakery refused to put his son's full name on his Birthday cake, and he just doesn't think that's fair. Of course, if he hadn't named his son "Adolph Hitler" it probably wouldn't have been a problem.

So, to anyone stupid enough to brand their kid with such a moniker, make your own stinking cake.