Restoring the Sacred

Friday, July 31, 2009

Obamacare: A cancer unfriendly plan.


It seems everyone I know has been touched by cancer, at least through a family member or close friend. This article by Myrna Ulfik, a New York writer, warns of the inherent danger for cancer victims in this administration's plan to overhaul our health care. Here's a link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204886304574306693989102298.html#mod=rss_opinion_main

Now, it's "health insurance" reform.


Not Waterloo, Just a Tactical Retreat by Charles Krauthammer on National Review Online

According to Charles Krauthammer, we can thank the independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for putting an end to a total revamping of the best health care system in the world. My thanks, especially, to Doug Elmendorf, the director of the CBO for refusing to be intimidated after being summoned to the oval office to "discuss" his truthful, and damaging, findings.

A Modest Proposal to Lower Health Care Costs


Two days ago, a friend of a friend, Dave Gurner, wrote to President Obama with a novel idea to keep the costs of health care down and thereby obviate the need for a government takeover of the greatest health care system in the world. Dave, by the way, is not a doctor. He holds a degree in History from Cal State University Northridge, is a former VISTA volunteer, and for the past 26 years has made his living in sales. No doubt his proposal will not sit well with many in the legal profession, but as the president likes to say: "we all have to have some skin in the game."

Dave had sent a query to the president asking how the new health care plan would effect him. He received the following E-Mail in response.

Dear Friend,

If you’re like most Americans, there’s nothing more important to you about health care than peace of mind.

Given the status quo, that’s understandable. The current system often denies insurance due to pre-existing conditions, charges steep out-of-pocket fees – and sometimes isn’t there at all if you become seriously ill.

It’s time to fix our unsustainable insurance system and create a new foundation for health care security. That means guaranteeing your health care security and stability with eight basic consumer protections:

No discrimination for pre-existing conditions
No exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays
No cost-sharing for preventive care
No dropping of coverage if you become seriously ill
No gender discrimination
No annual or lifetime caps on coverage
Extended coverage for young adults
Guaranteed insurance renewal so long as premiums are paid

Learn more about these consumer protections at Whitehouse.gov.

Over the next month there is going to be an avalanche of misinformation and scare tactics from those seeking to perpetuate the status quo. But we know the cost of doing nothing is too high. Health care costs will double over the next decade, millions more will become uninsured, and state and local governments will go bankrupt.

It’s time to act and reform health insurance, drive down costs and guarantee the health care security and stability of every American family. You can help by putting these core principles of reform in the hands of your friends, your family, and the rest of your social network.

Thank you,
Barack Obama

Without commenting on the obvious disingenuousness, duplicitousness, and brazen inaccuracies contained in the president's E-Mail, Dave simply responded with his brilliant proposal.

Good Evening Mr. President,

Thank you for these notes detailing your points of view. I would suggest a different approach, however, that I believe would not only lower the cost of medicine in the United States, thus making it affordable for all Americans, but would also help our total economic recovery creating near total employment, more purchasing power for all Americans, and, the growing economic activity would add to the general tax receipts reducing the deficit and may even achieve a balanced budget. I have run this by several people that I respect, including doctors, and they seem to agree that it has merit and it fits in with all of the talk about the benefits of nationalization of industries and professions.

My suggestion is to nationalize the legal profession. This makes sense and I would like to share with you my rationale. We already have precedent with judges already being government employees. Many lawyers are government employees too, working as public defenders and prosecutors. Laws themselves are made by government. It is natural to think of all lawyers, then, as government employees. It would in fact, take the profit motive out of law suits, thus eliminating ambulance chasing lawyers who will sue just to make a lucrative buck. We all know of lawyers like that, don't we?

How would this make health care more affordable? With the profit motive out of the legal profession, doctors would not practice defensive medicine and the amount of expensive and time consuming tests would decrease dramatically. The cost of doctors’ malpractice insurance would decrease and the savings would be passed on to the patients. The costs to insurance companies would also go down and the savings would be passed on to the insured. You can see how this would be applicable to other industries too.

For you politically, this is a real winner. Most Americans do have at least some animosity towards lawyers. Do not get me wrong, I realize the importance of, and have a lot of respect for, the work that lawyers and judges do. Many of our founding principles were written by lawyers, after all. I just wish that we would get back to them.

Thank you Mr. President and God speed.
David Gurner



Thursday, July 30, 2009

Too much to ask?



John Conyers has been representing Michigan's 14th district since 1965 meaning he has won 22 elections in a row, and has served 44 years in the U. S. House of Representatives. He is a lawyer and currently serves as chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary. With that in mind, this couldn't possibly be him in the above video, could it? I think it is, and apparently he's telling his constituents, and the rest of us, that it's simply too much to ask an elected representative to actually read a Bill that will dramatically effect (many say for the worse) the delivery (and, in some cases, non-delivery) of our health care.

The irony is that Chairman Conyers is making the case against rushing into Obamacare. Perhaps even he will be opposed to it if he learns what's in it, but don't bet on that; he's never been opposed to government interference in other people's lives.

Pictures of Pitching Presidents tell us a lot.


Notice the Power-T position before the throw, eyes on the target, pitching hand cocked back so the batter can't see the ball during delivery. Why, his pitching motion looks like...

Now, let's compare:

Notice no Power-T, right hand hanging down towards dirt, eyes and mouth showing fear, pitching hand open so batter can see ball during delivery. Why, his pitching motion looks like...

In case you missed the video, check this link:
http://wwwpopblogger.blogspot.com/2009/07/and-he-throws-like-girl.html

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Inconvenient FACTS for Al Gore


Video: Why Global Warming Policies Are More Dangerous Than Global Warming Itself » The Foundry

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The video in this link is 40 minutes long, so wait until you have that kind of time to watch it, but be sure to watch it. It puts to lie the dire and disingenuous predictions of catastrophe that Gore is using to increase his formerly tobacco-fed fortune.

On Government Granted Rights


Theodore Dalrymple is the pen name of Anthony Daniels, a retired British psychiatrist and keen observer of a nation's culture or, in the case of his home country, loss of culture. He writes for the American Spectator and many other publications, and is a contributing editor of City Journal, the publication of the Manhattan Institute. He believes strongly that multiculturalism and cultural relativism are at odds with common sense and statistical evidence, and has, in many of his writings, provided empirical examples to prove that thesis.

In his piece today in the Wall Street Journal, he argues that there is no "right to health care," the raison d’être for the National Health Service (socialized medicine) in the UK. Here's a link to his very timely piece:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203517304574306170677645070.html

Disaster in the Making by Thomas Sowell


Disaster in the Making by Thomas Sowell on National Review Online

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Another must read by Dr. Thomas Sowell.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Who Will Tell Michael J. Fox He Needs to Die?


This article was on the American Spectator Blog today. It poses some very interesting questions about Obamacare. It's a little long, but anyone with any serious medical condition or who might be considered "too old to save" by the government bureaucrat-in-charge, should read it and ponder it.

Here's a link:
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/07/28/who-will-tell-michael-j-fox-he/

Who's on First?


Time for a break from all the bad news, and a flash back to the 50's and Abbott and Costello's famous routine. Maybe it will take our minds off the threats to our health care - the greatest health care in the world.

The following is from Wikipedia:

In 1956 a gold record of "Who's on First?" was placed in the Baseball Hall of Fame museum in Cooperstown, New York. A video (taken from The Naughty Nineties) now plays continuously on screens at the Hall.

In the 1970s, Selchow and Righter published a Who's on First? board game.

In 1999, Time magazine named the routine Best Comedy Sketch of the 20th century.

An early radio recording was placed in the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry in 2003.

In 2005, the line "Who's on First?" was included on the American Film Institute's list of 100 memorable movie quotes.

A Post-Racial President? by Thomas Sowell on National Review Online


A Post-Racial President? by Thomas Sowell on National Review Online

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Dr. Thomas Sowell is perhaps the clearest thinker we will ever see on social issues. He is a former professor of Economics, who has written seven books on the subject; I own three: Basic Economics, Applied Economics, and Economic Facts and Fallacies. His latest: The Housing Boom and Bust, his 43rd book, is another best seller. He is currently a scholar in residence at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

More information on Dr. Sowell can be found on his website:
http://www.tsowell.com/

Racism is a history lesson, not current events

Racism is a history lesson, not current events

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Monday, July 27, 2009

SPC Channing Moss - American Hero


To watch an amazing video of the saving of Spc. Channing Moss, click on the below link, then enter "Channing Moss" in the search box at the top right and wait for it to load.

http://gannett.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/gannett-militarypubs-21772-pub01-live/current/launch.html?maven_playerId=testplayer&maven_referralPlaylistId=search&maven_referralObject=808163493

While the president is absorbed with his two major priorities: changing the greatest health care system in the world and re-igniting the flap over racial profiling, American troops are still embroiled in a nasty war in a godforsaken place called Afghanistan. The story of Spc. Channing Moss deserves to be revisited because it reminds us that there are still young Americans willing to put their lives on the line so we can live in peace here at home.

Moss is missing about two-thirds of his intestines, part of his pelvic bone and needs more repair to his left hip. A member of the staff at Walter Reed calls him “Rocket Man.” Channing Moss, who joined the Army to help give his family a better life, said he knows he’s alive because of his fellow soldiers. “I don’t think there has been a day...that I haven’t thought about them, that I haven’t prayed for them. They saved my life,” said Moss, “I knew it was love of country and brothers in arms. I hope God watches over them if they get deployed.”

Channing Moss, Dr. John Oh, SFC Daniel Brown, and all those who helped to save Moss's life back in March 2006, are true American heroes. Thank God for them. We owe them all a great debt.

Not So Soaring Health Care Costs


From today's WSJ: Notable and Quotable:

Hedge-fund manager Clifford Asness, writing at Stumblingontruth.com:

Myth #1 Health Care Costs Are Soaring:

No, they are not. The amount we spend on health care has indeed risen, in absolute terms, after inflation, and as a percentage of our incomes and GDP. That does not mean costs are soaring.

You cannot judge the “cost” of something by simply what you spend. You must also judge what you get. I’m reasonably certain the cost of 1950s level health care has dropped in real terms over the last 60 years (and you can probably have a barber from the year 1500 bleed you for almost nothing nowadays). Of course, with 1950s health care, lots of things will kill you that 2009 health care would prevent. Also, your quality of life, in many instances, would be far worse, but you will have a little bit more change in your pocket as the price will be lower. Want to take the deal? In fact, nobody in the US really wants 1950s health care (or even 1990s health care). They just want to pay 1950 prices for 2009 health care. They want the latest pills, techniques, therapies, general genius discoveries, and highly skilled labor that would make today’s health care seem like science fiction a few years ago. But alas, successful science fiction is expensive. . . .

Health care today is a combination of stuff that has existed for a while and a set of entirely new things that look like (and really are) miracles from the lens of even a few years ago. We spend more on health care because it’s better. Say it with me again, slowly—this is a good thing, not a bad thing. . . .

In summary, if one more person cites soaring health care costs as an indictment of the free market, when it is in fact a staggering achievement of the free market, I’m going to rupture their appendix and send them to a queue in the U.K. to get it fixed. Last we’ll see of them.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Sundays are for Beauty - Gabriel's Oboe


"Gabriel's Oboe" is one of those haunting tunes we've all heard, but can't remember where we heard it. Well, it was the theme from the score of the 1986 movie: "The Mission." Ennio Morricone, the Italian Academy Award-winning composer wrote the score. Morricone won an Honorary Academy Award, in 2007, for having written the scores for more than 500 film and television productions. He'd been nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Music and Original Score, but never won. That's Ennio Morricone himself, in the above video, conducting the orchestra at a live concert in Munich, Germany in 2004.

If the symphony's rendition of the piece isn't beautiful enough for a Sunday (but of course it is), I'm embedding another video of "Gabriel's Oboe" as accompaniment for the beautiful figure skating of 2006 U. S. National Champion and Olympic Silver Medalist Sasha Cohen. This should embed the tune in your subconscious for at least a week.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Obama: Victory Not Necessarily Goal in Afghanistan


Obama: 'Victory' Not Necessarily Goal in Afghanistan - Political News - FOXNews.com

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Better not tell the 8,500 Marines slogging through Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. Their goal is the same as always: VICTORY!

Friday, July 24, 2009

Promoting Racial Paranoia by Heather Mac Donald on National Review Online

Promoting Racial Paranoia by Heather Mac Donald on


National Review Online


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American Thinker Blog: Obama's Empathy Backfires

American Thinker Blog: Obama's Empathy Backfires

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Mr. President, Your Chip is Showing.


The press conference, on July 22, 2009, was supposed to be about health care reform, but the last question posed to the president was about race - something the president can't seem to get over despite the horrible state of the economy, the war in Afghanistan, the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea, and other serious problems. The question was from Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times.

Q: Thank you, Mr. President. Recently Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested at his home in Cambridge. What does that incident say to you and what does it say about race relations in America?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I should say at the outset that "Skip" Gates is a friend, so I may be a little biased here. I don't know all the facts. What's been reported, though, is that the guy forgot his keys, jimmied his way to get into the house, there was a report called into the police station that there might be a burglary taking place -- so far, so good, right?...

But so far, so good. They're reporting -- the police are doing what they should. There's a call, they go investigate what happens. My understanding is at that point Professor Gates is already in his house. The police officer comes in, I'm sure there's some exchange of words, but my understanding is, is that Professor Gates then shows his ID to show that this is his house. And at that point, he gets arrested for disorderly conduct -- charges which are later dropped.

Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that, but I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge Police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there is a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact.

That might be a fact, Mr. President, but it is a fact totally out of context. As Mona Charen points out in her column today: "It’s a contentious and emotional minefield. Yes, there has been harassment of blacks by white police departments. But that’s hardly the whole story. Blacks and Hispanics also commit a disproportionately high percentage of crimes."

A fact not out of context is: Mr Gates is a tenured University Professor at Harvard, lives in a city with a black mayor and a state with a black governor, and is friends with the first black president of this country. Why is he still walking around with a chip on his shoulder, and why is his friend in the White House unable to remove the chip from his shoulder?

President Obama has a chance to do something about any residual racism that exists in this country. He can start being presidential, show some pride in America, stop interfering in the lives of Americans, support our military, and, in short, grow up and get rid of the chip.

There's a big difference between acting presidential and being presidential.

Note: See my post of April 5, 2009: "We Should Have Known."

We should have known when he bragged about his time as a “community organizer” that such a person is not one who brings factions together but rather incites grievances, perceived or real, on the part of one of the factions.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Jake Tapper Gets to the Truth.


There has been more than enough written today about the outright lies told by the president during his fourth prime time press conference last night. Thanks to Jake Tapper of ABC News (that's his photo up there), we actually got one straight answer from the "most transparent administration ever." Here's the exchange:

JAKE TAPPER ABC NEWS: You said earlier that you wanted to tell the American people what’s in it for them, how will their family benefit from health-care reform. But experts say that in addition to the benefits that you’re pushing, there is going to have to be some sacrifice in order for there to be true cost-cutting measures, such as Americans giving up tests, referrals, choice, end-of-life care.
When you describe health-care reform, you don’t — understandably, you don’t talk about the sacrifices that Americans might have to make. Do you think — do you accept the premise that other than some tax increases, on the wealthiest Americans, the American people are going to have to give anything up in order for this to happen?


PRESIDENT OBAMA: They’re going to have to give up paying for things that don’t make them healthier. And I — speaking as an American, I think that’s the kind of change you want.

I have two problems with that:

(1) It will be a government bureaucrat, not I or my doctor, who decides what those "things that don’t make them (me) healthier" are, and

(2) Obama may be "speaking as an American," but he is not an American who will be forced into a government run health plan.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Does Ted Kennedy deserve his extended cancer care?


Does Ted Kennedy deserve his extended cancer care?

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Surely there are some who will call this piece by James Lewis on The American Thinker Blog mean-spirited, but it isn't. He raises very valid questions for the president and for Senator Kennedy, both of whom think it's a good idea for life and death decisions (our lives and deaths - not theirs) to be made by a government bureaucrat rather than by us or a qualified medical doctor of our choice. Cost will be the determining factor, of course.

Whose Deficit is it Anyway?


J.D. Foster, of the Heritage Foundation, on the deficit:

“President Obama talks about responsibility, but the budget deficit this year is approaching $2 trillion and the national debt is set to double in just four years. Imagine what he would deem irresponsible! Yes, he inherited a plunging economy and soaring deficit. But then his stimulus and budget plans made a bad picture much worse. Politically and substantively, he now owns the irresponsible deficit — lock, stock and pork barrel.”

Mark Helprin Letter to Somali Pirates



Readers may recall earlier posts on the problem of piracy off the coast of Somalia. The first was on April 15, 2009: http://wwwpopblogger.blogspot.com/2009/04/ships-of-wood-and-men-of-iron-whats.html

The second was on April 29, 2009: http://wwwpopblogger.blogspot.com/2009/04/go-navy-thanks-cmdr-castellano-seal.html

Mark Helprin, my nominee for best living writer of the English language, has written a piece in today's Wall Street Journal addressing the issue of piracy and how, in his view, it could be made to disappear. Here's a link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203946904574300384116675114.html

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Obamacare: You Will Lose Your Current Insurance. Period. End of Story.

Obamacare: You Will Lose Your Current Insurance. Period. End of Story. » The Foundry

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Danger! Obamacare Ahead - Maybe


Disingenuous statements coming from our current president are something, unfortunately, we have all come to expect. The number of such statements he has made concerning his health care reform have probably set an all time record, and the most egregious of those statements are: "If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what."

Perhaps the most disingenuous statement he has made concerning his plan is that it will save money. The Congressional Budget Office last week estimated the cost of his plan to be $1.04 trillion, which raises the question: Where in the world will we get that money?

Disingenuous statements aside, how about hidden provisions in the mark-up of the Kennedy-Dodd health care bill? One such hidden provision would require insurance plans to contract with organizations that perform abortions. Heard anything about that in the mainstream media? The Heritage Foundation found in the bill this provision that would appear to be payback for all the financial support furnished by the pro-abortion lobby to Congressional Democrats. Here's a link:

http://blog.heritage.org/2009/07/17/taxpayer-funding-for-abortion-another-sleeper-issue-in-health-care-reform/

Monday, July 20, 2009

Walter Cronkite - Another View


Walter Cronkite Has Blood on His Hands

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...and he throws like a girl!



The underwhelming volume of applause from the 46,000 fans in Busch Stadium for the 2009 All-Star Game was probably due, in part, to the fact his blooper ball did not even reach the plate. Of course, there were probably a few other reasons for the crowd's reaction - or lack of reaction. If they had let 88-year-old Stan Musial throw out the first pitch (he deserved the honor), he'd have thrown a strike.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Sundays are for Beauty - Ave Maria


This is a clip from my all-time favorite movie: Going My Way, the highest-grossing picture of 1944. Bing Crosby plays a new Catholic priest sent to an old parish, St. Dominic's, that has fallen on hard times. The pastor of St. Dominic's is played by Barry Fitzgerald. The picture won seven Oscars: Bing Crosby won Best Actor; Barry Fitzgerald won Best Supporting Actor. That's American Mezzo-Soprano Rise Stevens (pronounced "REE-sah") singing with Bing and his choir of former juvenile delinquents.

It's a beautiful movie, and one for the whole family.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

What health care rationing looks like (Example 774)

What health care rationing looks like (Example 774)

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According to the above linked piece, the fact that rationing will definitely accompany Obamacare will be the best way to defeat national health care, but another good idea would be to make any public option mandatory for the president and all elected officials, their staffs, and their families, period. On Tuesday, the Senate health committee voted 12-11 in favor of an amendment proposed by Republican Tom Coburn (R-OK), who happens to be a medical doctor. The Coburn amendment would require all members of the U.S. Senate, and their staffs, to enroll in any new government-run health plan. Guess how that vote broke down by political party. Senator Dodd voted for the amendment, but of course he knows he'll be able to quash it before the Bill moves too far.

Want Your Health Care Rationed?

Friday, July 17, 2009

Why Democrats Win, Why Republicans Lose


Why Democrats Win, Why Republicans Lose

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I hate to say it, because I have a lot of respect for Jim Inhofe, but if you watched the video of Barbara Boxer and Harry Alford (see yesterday's post), you'll have to agree that Inhofe had a chance to get involved but didn't. It could be that Inhofe didn't want to intervene because he was afraid it might appear that he thought Alford was incapable of handling Boxer. Alford, obviously, needed no help handling her all by himself. If that was his thought process, Inhofe did the right thing, but it would be nice to see him put her in her place occasionally by criticizing her lack of social skills. Someone has to tell her, publicly, that even though "global warming" is a political sham, that fact doesn't give her carte blanche to spread bad science in support of it.

Detrimental to National Security



This is from the Patriot Post Friday Digest, July 17, 2009.

"Ahmed Omar Abu Ali is serving a 30-year sentence at the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colo., for joining Al Qaeda and plotting to assassinate then-President George W. Bush," reports Fox News. Abu Ali is obviously dangerous, so when he requested some light reading material for his individual quiet time -- two books titled "Dreams from My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope" -- the prison denied the request, saying that the books contain material "potentially detrimental to national security." Maybe someone should alert the CIA that the author of these books is still on the loose. In fact, he has robbed several large banks, swindled two car companies, and runs various other Ponzi schemes through surrogates he calls "czars." He is approximately 6' 1" tall, is of dubious origin and has used several aliases (Barry Soetoro, Barack Hussein), and his last known residence is 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, DC.
________________________________
According to Fox News, the prison officials cited guidance from the FBI in determining that passages in both books contain information that could damage national security.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Thank You, Harry C. Alford


Harry C. Alford is the president and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. The above video shows he is not a man to be trifled with. It also shows He is a man who knows something about the science , or lack thereof, behind climate change. When he had the temerity to disagree with Senator Barbara Boxer, who seems to very much enjoy using her bully pulpit, Boxer became somewhat upset. Alford did not let her racial condescension pass without comment, and his comments were pretty strong. If only the Army General who Boxer took to task for calling her ma'am a few weeks ago had displayed the same courage, she might have been better prepared for the courageous display of Mr. Alford.

Even the Left Recognizes Dissembling

Will the Real Sonia Sotomayor Please Stand Up? » The Foundry

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By now probably everyone has seen this video, but it bears remembering. This was her in a relaxed setting with her contemporary peers - a setting when one's true feelings and beliefs have a way of coming to the surface. This is the real Sonia Sotomayor, and her dissembling before the Senate Judiciary Committee is so obvious and blatant that even her former supporters are surprised.

The words of liberal Georgetown law professor and Critical Legal Studies cofounder Mike Seidman (in the linked piece above) are especially worth remembering: “I was completely disgusted by Judge Sotomayor’s testimony today. If she was not perjuring herself, she is intellectually unqualified to be on the Supreme Court. If she was perjuring herself, she is morally unqualified.”

Somebody ask her, please!


Missing the Most Compelling Issue of All - Water Cooler - Washington Times

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Obama at Notre Dame Redux


That's Michael Voris, a 1983 Notre Dame graduate, who went on to become an Emmy Award winning broadcaster. After viewing "The Da Vinci Code," Voris decided to produce a one hour TV program to refute the distortions about Jesus Christ and his Catholic Church presented in the film. It wasn't long before he realized that his Catholic Church, and his country, were facing daily challenges that needed to be answered. Voris decided to take a substantial withdrawal from his retirement fund and, with the help of friends and volunteers, built a television studio in Ferndale, Michigan. He called it: St. Michael's Media, after the archangel who drove Lucifer from heaven. He named his television program: "The One True Faith." It's been televised in the Detroit area since September 2006. The main criticism leveled at him by his detractors is that he is a one issue advocate, to which I say: If the one issue you advocate is LIFE, you don't need a second issue.

A video made prior to the ND visit could not be embedded, but I'm attaching a link to it on YouTube. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVN2MMuiedI

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Another Phony Scandal


Another Phony Scandal by Andrew C. McCarthy on National Review Online

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Andrew C. McCarthy is the former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York who was most notable for convicting Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman (the blind sheik), and eleven others, for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. He is currently a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, serving as the director of the Foundation's Center for Law and Counterterrorism.

In this article, McCarthy puts to lie the contention of the Democrats on the House Select Committee on Intelligence that former Vice-President Cheney instructed the C.I.A. to withhold information from Congress. The chairman of that committee, Congressman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), by the way, is the esteemed member of the House of Representatives who was unable to distinguish between Sunni and Shia Muslims in the midst of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Obama Flunks History at Cairo University


Frank J. Tipler is Professor of Mathematical Physics at Tulane University. He is the co-author of The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (Oxford University Press) and the author of The Physics of Immortality and The Physics of Christianity both published by Doubleday. This is his analysis of "The Speech" (as it referred to by Barack Obama) delivered to the Muslim world at Cairo University, on June 7, 2009.

Obama Flunks History at Cairo U June 7, 2009 -

by Frank J. Tipler

In his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, President Barack Obama claimed: "As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam. It was Islam - at places like Al-Azhar University - that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing."

Obama is not much of a "student of history" if he believes this. Almost every advance he attributes to the Muslims was due to someone else.

* The non-Muslim Chinese invented the magnetic compass and printing
(Gutenberg invented not printing, but movable type).
* The non-Muslim Hindu Indians invented algebra and the decimal numbering system.
* The non-Muslim European Christians invented the university.

I can't address advances in medicine, but I have studied the history of astronomy and physics. The Muslims contributed nothing.

* All modern physics descends from Galileo (1564 -1642);
* All modern astronomy from Copernicus (1473-1543).

If you study Galileo's works carefully, as I have, you see that he started with the achievements of the Greek mathematical physicist Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287 BC - c. 212 BC).

If you study Copernicus' works carefully, as I have, you will see that Copernicus' great book On the Revolutions is essentially a heliocentric re-working of the geocentric astronomy textbook by the Greek Ptolemy (c. 90 AD - 168 AD). Copernicus mostly used even Ptolemy's data for the positions of the planets.

Note the dates for Archimedes/Galileo and Ptolemy/Copernicus. It is as if the Muslim world never existed. As far as their fundamental contributions to physics and astronomy, it did not.

If one reads history of science textbooks prior to about 1980, one will find very little mention of Muslim "contributions" to physics and astronomy. This is reasonable, because there weren't any. In the past generation, however, political correctness has dictated that Muslims be given credit for discoveries they did not make.

* Certainly, the Muslims were a conduit for the discoveries of others. The word "algebra" is indeed derived from an Arabic word. The books of Archimedes and Ptolemy used by Galileo and Copernicus were indeed translations into Latin from the Arabic. But let us never forget that Archimedes and Ptolemy wrote their books in Greek, not Arabic. They were Greeks, not Muslims.

Most of the names for the brightest stars are of Arabic origin, because the names of these stars given in Ptolemy's textbook were never translated from the Arabic. But do you think that the Arabs were the first humans to observe Rigel and Betelguese, the first and second brightest stars in Orion?

The reason Muslims never developed fundamental physics is because the leading Muslim theologians declared the idea of fixed physical laws to be heretical.

The Qur'an (verse 6:64) states:

"The Jews have said, 'God's hand is fettered.' Fettered are their hands, and they are cursed for what they have said. Nay, but His hands are outspread; He expends how He will."

The standard Muslim interpretation of this passage has been that there cannot be unchanging physical laws because Allah may change the laws at any moment.

In 1982, the Institute for Policy Studies in Islamabad, Pakistan, criticized a chemistry textbook by saying:

"There is latent poison present in the subheading Energy Causes Changes because it gives the impression that energy is the true cause rather than Allah. Similarly it is unIslamic to teach that mixing hydrogen and oxygen automatically produces water. The Islamic way is this: When atoms of hydrogen approach atoms of oxygen, then by the Will of Allah, water is produced."

The implication is clear: for next week Allah may change his mind about water being a compound of hydrogen and oxygen. With this sort of worldview, how could one possibly be a scientist?
* The cosmology of the Qur'an is obviously geocentric, and, as a consequence, Al-Azhar University, which Obama singles out for praise in his speech, still teaches Ptolemaic astronomy.

* There was one truly great "Muslim" physicist, the Nobel Prize winning Pakistani, Mohammed Abdus Salam. I put "Muslim" in quotes, because Salam belonged to the Ahmadi sect of Islam, a sect that accepts modern science. But in 1974, the Pakistani parliament declared the Ahmadi sect heretical, and its members are currently being persecuted in Pakistan. Contemporary Muslim historians generally do not list Salam as an important Muslim scientist. Had he remained in Pakistan, he quite possibly would have been killed.

During the Cold War, it was commonplace for leftist academics to attribute many discoveries to scientists in Communist countries, discoveries that had actually been made in the West. So now leftist academics attribute to Muslims discoveries that had actually been made by others.

I certainly never expected to hear a president of the United States do so.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Sundays are for Beauty - High Society

If you never saw the (1956) movie "High Society" with Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong and others, you should check your video outlet. It's one of those movies (rare today) that you actually can enjoy in the presence of your children. In this clip, two of our now gone national treasures, Bing Crosby and Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong, sing about jazz, that musical art form that sprung from southern communities here in the USA early in the 20th century.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

NEA General Counsel: Union Dues, Not Education, Are Our Top Priority


NEA General Counsel: Union Dues, Not Education, Are Our Top Priority » The Foundry

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National Education Association (NEA) General Counsel Bob Chanin unapologetically provides us in this video the number one reason why parents should actively, and unequivocally, support school choice for their children. Chanin deserves credit for speaking the truth, instead of pretending that the NEA is actually interested in education. The reaction of the teachers attending the convention also is illuminating: they cheer the tacit announcement that their welfare is the number one priority on which hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on union lobbyists.

Victims of Duplicitous Demagogues, Update


DC City Council Supports the Opportunity Scholarship Program » The Foundry

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Previous postings on the "Victims of Duplicitous Demagogues" appeared here on: April 29, April 30, and May 6. It appears now that perhaps sufficient pressure has been exerted on the demagogues by the families of the victims, and maybe, just maybe, right will prevail over special interests and the kids will be given a chance to learn in a safe environment. Now if somebody will tell Dick Durbin to mind his own business we could have a happy ending.

The New York Times tells a whopper about Bush-era Iran sanctions


The New York Times tells a whopper about Bush-era Iran sanctions

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Just goes to show why people who depend on the NYT for "All the News That's Fit to Print," are so woefully ignorant of the Truth.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Abortion for Undesired Populations


Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Sotomayor and Abortion for Undesired 'Populations' - Ed Whelan - The Corner on National Review Online

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Let's see now, when Justice Ginsburg says: "Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of," I can't imagine which populations she was assuming we "don't want to have too many of." Couldn't be Conservative Irish Catholics could it? Surely she couldn't have been thinking of American Blacks, because she would then qualify as a racist (given her strong support for abortion), and liberals - especially liberal justices - can never be called racists.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Start Spreading the News


Heather Mac Donald is a John M. Olin fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor to City Journal. She also is a recipient of 2005 Bradley Prize for Outstanding Intellectual Achievement. She received her B.A. in English from Yale University, graduating Summa Cum Laude. She earned an M. A. in English from Cambridge University thanks to a Mellon Fellowship. She later earned a J.D. from Stanford University Law School. She lives and works in New York City, and writes about it often. This video is based on an outstanding essay (the only kind she writes) by her in the current issue of City Journal, a publication of the Manhattan Institute.



Here's a link to the full essay, entitled: "New York’s Indispensable Institution."

http://www.city-journal.org/2009/nytom_nypd.html

There's also a link to City Journal under My Blog list over on the right.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Video: Obama's Health Care Reform in Costs and Wait Time



For additional similar videos by the same author, Matthias Shapiro, see posts of May 20, 2009, "Speed Limits on Spending," and April 29, 2009, "Perspective."

Choosing Che in Honduras

Choosing Che in Honduras

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Monday, July 6, 2009

A most unusual Fourth of July

A most unusual Fourth of July

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Time to get it Right on Honduras


Mary Anastasia O'Grady is an editor of the Wall Street Journal; she's been a member of that paper's editorial board since 2005. Her expertise is Latin American Affairs, and hopefully someone high up in the Obama administration reads her columns. Here's her latest:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124683595220397927.html#mod=rss_opinion_main

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Sundays are for Beauty - Rick Monday


On April 25, 1976, Chicago Cubs center fielder Rick Monday rescued the American Flag from two protesters who were attempting to set the flag on fire in center field at Dodger Stadium. His saving that flag was later selected as one of the 100 Greatest Moments in Major League Baseball History. Rick Monday played 19 years of major league baseball (he was an All-Star in 1968 and 1978), and he is best remembered as the guy who saved our flag that day. He has no problem with that.

Interestingly, Tommy Lasorda was coaching third base for the Dodgers at the time of the incident, and he also raced to save the flag but got there after Monday. The following season, Lasorda was made Manager of the Dodgers and Rick Monday was his center fielder, having been traded by the Cubs after the season. Beautiful story!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Our Lives, Our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor


IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Colin Powell Jumping Ship?

Colin Powell Jumping Ship?

Does anybody care?

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Helen Thomas Has Had It!


Who would have guessed that Helen Thomas of all people would be the White House reporter to attack the Obama administration on its total lack of transparency. Robert Gibbs of CBS got things started by criticising the stacking of the deck of yesterday's "townhall" meeting at which the questions and questioners were pre-screened so as not to embarrass the president by showing just how little he actually knows and understands about his plan to revamp health care in our country.

The other side is already spinning the attack by describing Helen Thomas as someone who has always been a curmudgeon. They're right, of course, she has always been a curmudgeon, but she's always been their curmudgeon. For one brief shining moment yesterday, Helen Thomas was our curmudgeon, and speaking for all the curmudgeons on our side I just want to say: Thank you, Helen, and God bless you.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

A Commander-In-Chief Should Care


George W. Bush loved and respected the military – especially the wounded warriors – and that affection was returned by the troops.

Things change quickly after an election and, unfortunately, the respect for those who keep us safe, manifested almost daily by President Bush, is yet to be shown by the current occupant of our White House.

The following was posted on the website: “Blackfive.”
http://www.blackfive.net/main/

The message from David Borden’s Dad speaks volumes, and needs no further comment.

POSTED BY BLACKFIVE

“David Borden Jr. was wounded in Iraq on January 19, 2008. A suicide bomber rushed him and detonated, and Borden was hit by over 200 pieces of shrapnel. He lost right leg (below the knee) and his left arm was severely damaged. He was in a coma for over a month.
He's inspired more than a few people while recovering. The NY Giants football team reports that he's the grandson of a NY Giant.
According to the email below from his father, David Borden (Sr.), David Jr. had an uninspiring visit from the President of the United States:”

Since Dave Jr. has been injured he has met and been overwhelmed by many, many political and military "celebs". The list includes Bob Gates, Sec. of Defense, who came into his room and told him 3 or 4 times that if Dave Jr. had any issues to call his cell phone number. It includes Gen. Petereus who sat and talked with Dave Jr. for almost 45 minutes. The General recalled vividly all of the circumstances around the events that led to fighting that Dave was involved in. It includes Sen. McCain who arrived late on a Saturday afternoon during a thunder storm, unannounced, and talked to Dave Jr. about how similar their experiences with fate. It includes George Bush when Dave Jr. was invited to attend the very last Christmas party at the White House for the White House Staff. President Bush and his wife entered the ballroom and immediately went to Dave Jr. President Bush knew Dave Jr.'s name as well as when and how he was injured. Dave Jr. had a picture taken with Laura and the President that he has framed and ill cherish forever. The list goes on and on of people coming in to meet Dave Jr. and the other wounded warriors at Walter Reed and Bethesda.

Yesterday. Dave Jr. was ordered to be at the National Naval Hospital with another 12 soldiers and Marines to meet with Obama. Obama was supposed to arrive at 11:30 AM. He finally got there at 3:00 PM. He entered the room with the wounded warriors and quickly shook each of their hands. He never asked their names, where they were from, or how they were injured. Then he left.

Dave Jr. has met the people who really care about the military. All he remembers from Obama is a weak handshake. The others in the room, younger and less exposed to the people that Dave Jr. has met, were so disappointed. Word about Obama's "insensitive" visit has spread to the MATC (the rehab facility) at Walter Reed and throughout Bethesda. The military sees through his phoniness.

All I can say is that it is such a disappointment that this man is Commander-In-Chief of our Armed Forces. He is an embarrassment to our Nation.

Regards,
Dave

________________________________
Please take the time to read this piece from Karl Rove in today's Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124649175841883047.html#mod=rss_opinion_main

Krauthammer: Obama is Wrong - The Foundry

Krauthammer: Obama is Wrong - The Foundry

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Dr. Alan Carlin - A Modern Day Galileo


That's not Dr. Alan Carlin, who may (or may not) still be employed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for speaking truth to politics, it's Galileo Galilei, (1564-1642) the Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, who was tried by the Roman Inquisition and found "vehemently suspect of heresy" for his support of heliocentrism (the finding that the earth revolved around the sun), which the Catholic Church condemned as "false and contrary to Scripture." Galileo was forced to recant his position and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

Dr. Alan Carlin, unlike Galileo, does not have to contend with the Roman Inquisition for speaking the truth, but he does have to contend with an administration that has bought into Al Gore's belief that
"the science is settled" on climate change. The below link to the Heritage Foundation's Foundry shows the EPA to be a lot more political than scientific when it speaks.


An Inconvenient Voice: Dr. Alan Carlin » The Foundry

http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2014/09/19/interview-alan-carlin-explains-how-politics-infiltrated-epa

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