No Nanny State - Molon Labe!

The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.
--Malcolm X

I had a great day with my biz yesterday, but it kept me from seeing what was going on in the world. Maybe that's not such a bad thing. I did a scan of the major news outlets this morning to get caught up, and here's what I found:

Michele Obama is descended from slaves.

What?! Stop The Presses! Can you believe it?! Slaves?! It must have been horrible living with that burden all these years. Didn't the slave masters know she was going to become the first-lady of the US? What WERE they thinking?!

OK, how could the New York Times spend more than 10 seconds on this? I'm surprised they didn't do a companion piece on some prominent Republican to show that he/she was a descendant from slave owners. Oh, the horror!

Maybe they could put in a half hour or so, and do a piece on something that actually matters outside of Obama's family.

Hey look! Here's something they could run with:

Beverly Gossage, Research Fellow for Show-Me Institute and founder of HSA Benefits Consulting wondered which insurance companies rejected the most claims. She found her answer in the AMA’s own 2008 National Health Insurer Report Card. The chart below appears on page 5 of the 16-page report.

Any guess which health care insurance provider had the highest claims rejection - both in terms of actual numbers and as a percentage of claims?

You got it - It's Nanny!


Click the image to see the chart. For those of you who are "click challenged" (a medical malady?) the biggest denier was Medicare. They rejected 6.85% of their claims for service, which equated to 475,000 claims.

Aetna was the only insurer that was even close, at 6.8%, but that only represented 43,000 claims.

The biggest "bitch" against the current system is that the insurance companies deny claims or don't give you insurance if you have a pre-existing condition. I'm assuming Medicare has some regulation that mandates it to accept everyone, but if you can't get care once you're on The Nanny Plan, what good is the insurance?

The White House and Congress want to put Nanny in charge of the whole shooting match? Are they insane?!

Why wouldn't the Times have this information plastered all over their front page? Yeah, yeah, we all know the answer. Michele Obama's family tree is much more important to the health and welfare of the nation...
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Having lived in the Land Of Fruit And Nuts (that'd be California) for my entire life, I've written a number of times that all the rest of the nation needs to do is look at us for what's going to happen to the country in the future.

We've long been trail blazers in socialism. Basically, all you need to do is ask for money from the state, and you'll get it. That goes double if you can insert, "for the children" or "under-privileged" into your proposal.

Well, it seems as though things aren't working out so well. For some reason, when you tax and abuse the Producers for the sole benefit of the Looters, the Producers tend to leave.

Big time -

Now, incredibly, California, which has been a natural target for immigration throughout its history, is losing people. Between 2004 and 2008, half a million residents upped sticks and headed elsewhere. By 2010, California could lose a congressman because its population will have fallen so much – an astonishing prospect for a state that is currently the biggest single political entity in America.

It's getting so bad, even the Looters are FINALLY getting cut off from the teat-sucking:

Outside the Forum in Inglewood, near downtown Los Angeles, California has already failed. The scene is reminiscent of the fallout from Hurricane Katrina, as crowds of impoverished citizens stand or lie aimlessly on the hot tarmac of the centre's car park. It is 10am, and most have already been here for hours. They have come for free healthcare: a travelling medical and dental clinic has set up shop in the Forum (which usually hosts rock concerts) and thousands of the poor, the uninsured and the down-on-their-luck have driven for miles to be here.

The bottom line is, it's bad here. It's failing because this state has bent over backwards to wipe the ass of anyone who asks. These policies have made it painfully clear that is can be more profitable to NOT work. Nanny will take care of all your needs, regardless of your education or skill - or most importantly, regardless of your motivation. You don't need to have any.

Why would the tax-paying Producers stick around?

Some other reasons this shit-hole of a state is failing?

At the start of summer the state government was so deeply in debt that it began to issue IOUs instead of wages. Its unemployment rate has soared to more than 12%, the highest figure in 70 years.
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California's schools are ranked 47th out of 50 in the nation. Its government-issued bonds have been ranked just above "junk".
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If it was an independent country it would be in the G8. And if it were a company, it would likely be declared bankrupt.
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California's attorney-general, Jerry Brown, recently sued one county government for not paying enough attention to global warming when it came to urban planning.

Sound like the direction any country you know is heading?

So, where did this very extensively researched article come from? The LA Times? SF Chronicle? San Jose Mercury News? Oakland Tribune (OK, that was thrown in there for chuckles)?

No. It was The Observer/Guardian in England. For some reason, THEY have the time to do an article about what is likely to happen to the entire US unless we change our spending and taxing ways.

Apparently, no one in America wants to hear news like that.
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Buy gold and silver while you can still afford it. Seriously.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Ethics, Fascism, Global Warming, Health Care Fraud, Media Bias, nanny state, Propaganda, Self-Reliance, Taxes, welfare state

As the ostrich when pursued hideth his head, but forgetteth his body; so the fears of a coward expose him to danger.
-- Akhenaton, King of Egypt, 14th century BC

I purposefully didn't watch Barry and his PR machine running around to all the networks selling his snake oil. I hear his lies enough so that I don't need to hear them again on all stations.

I didn't even watch Fox, although I figured they'd at last ask him some real questions regarding the health care debacle-in-waiting.

I found out this morning that Barry purposefully snubbed Fox. They were the only major broadcast or cable network that was not given an interview with Barry. Univision got an interview, for goodness sake. I must say, I was shocked.

There isn't even a pretense that the Administration is doing something newsworthy. It's all about the propaganda -

The president's week-long media blitz has left no other network behind. The president has appeared on CBS's "60 Minutes," Bloomberg and CNBC and will appear on five public affairs talk shows on Sunday: ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," CBS's "Face the Nation," NBC's "Meet the Press," CNN's "State of the Union" and Univision's "Al Punto, con Jorge Ramos." And he's doing CBS' "Late Night with David Letterman" on Monday.

When Fox bitched about it, here was the White House's response -

"We figured Fox would rather show 'So You Think You Can Dance' than broadcast an honest discussion about health insurance reform," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told ABC News.

You gotta be shittin' me. What 'honest discussion'? They chose "news" outlets that would play nice. Aside from disgusting me, it sure says a lot about Barry. He doesn't have enough confidence in his ability to publicly justify ObamaCare - sans Teleprompters - and the associated costs. Why are none of the "news" outlets pointing THAT out?

Fucking coward.
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Don't shoot the messenger (that'd be me).

As much as it pains me to say, Congress needs to re-instate funding to ACORN - at least until they can follow the Constitution to stop sending them money.

Back in March, I railed against Congress when they were passing laws specifically targeting the employees of AIG. It's called a, "bill of attainder", and it's un-Constitutional.

A bill of attainder (also known as an act or writ of attainder) is an act of legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a trial. Bills of attainder are forbidden by Article I, section 9, clause 3 of the United States Constitution.

The House overwhelmingly passed the Defund ACORN Act. Could there be a more obvious example of a law targeting a specific group of persons?

IMO, ACORN needs to be de-funded because of the apparent criminal and Un-American activity that is prevalent throughout the organization. But only after they have been proven to have broken the terms that are placed upon them as a condition of receiving federal funds.

The Constitution is sacrosanct. We cannot bypass it simply because we detest a person, place or organization. Even the left-wing, commie, America-hating groups are protected by it.
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OT: Before the start of the NFL season, I predicted that the Raider quarterback, Jamarcus Russell would only last 4 regular season games. He has all of the "tools" to be a great quarterback, except one: He has no heart.

This dude is 6'5", 260 pounds. At quarterback. But he plays like a frilly-pantie clad school girl (no offense meant to frilly-pantie clad school girls!).

He needs to go elsewhere if the Raiders want any chance of having a winning season this year.

My morning radio show had the best line: Al Davis needs to trade him for a 14th round draft choice and a bag of footballs.

Ouch.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Fascism, Health Care Fraud, Media Bias, nanny state, Propaganda, welfare state

I'm only grouchy and moody on days that end with Y.
--Unknown

I just had a "lively" exchange on the role of government over at Pearl's place. The broad topic was about when private industry and government are in the same "business," private industry ALWAYS does a better job.

Hell yeah!

Still, I took issue with one paragraph she posted -

Here is where I am. Everyone wants people to get the medical treatment they need - EVERYONE. You have to be a rotten SOB to deny medical care - seriously. Thats why in this country you can walk into any hospital and get treatment. Yeah, we roll like that here in the USA.

My issue was that I don't believe health care is a right.

Health care, like any other service, requires the skills of another person and the assets of another organization. You don't have a right to require that they divest themselves of their skills and assets.

Meadowlark (of whom I'm a big fan!) took issue with me taking issue (click Pearl's link above to see the exchange)!

In my eyes, it all boils down to morality. I don't want the federal government imposing its definition of morality on my pocketbook.

As an example, in my discussion with Meadowlark, I noted that in the eyes of the federal government, a poor child needing health care is exactly equal to a heroin addict that has chosen to pump himself full of drugs. Both of them get exactly the same level of care, because Nanny says so.

I think that is immoral.

In yesterday's post, I grumbled about being pissed off because Nanny is giving away 10% of our national supply of Swine Flu production.

Why are they even involved in this in the first place? Shouldn't this be handled at the local hospital, or perhaps at the state level? The Feds have no Constitutional right to be doing this (only the brute force power), but in one fell swoop, they not only do so, then some bureaucrat in DC decides it's the "moral thing" to give a huge chunk of it away.

WTF?

Where's it going to go? Who's going to get it? Who decides who gets it? How much is this going to cost us for the vaccine AND its administration? If one single American dies because he or she could not get a dose, who will be held responsible?

If we want to encourage compassion, maybe Barry could squeeze in a public service announcement between his ObamaCare speeches, and ask American's to give to their favorite charity to send some vaccine abroad.

Ahhh, but then he loses the power and prestige of spending YOUR money for you. His compassion is coming out of your hide.
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Perhaps I AM a mean, grumpy SOB. I don't care. I've been a silent partner to this disgusting abuse of federal power for much too long. No more.

I know we're too far gone to get this to change - at least in my lifetime - but that doesn't mean I have to quietly go along for the ride. Maybe my kid's kids can reminisce about, "that old grumpy SOB, Grandpa Other Mike", and have things different for their lives.

Labels: American Spirit, communism, Constitution, Corruption, Ethics, Fascism, Health Care Fraud, nanny state, Self-Reliance, Taxes, welfare state

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
--James Madison

Yep, today back in 1787, the first cut of the Constitution was signed by 39 freshly-minted Americans. It would take a few more years to get the whole thing re-worked and then ratified by all of the 13 former colonies, but it all started today.

I'm guessing they'd all be pretty disgusted to see what's become of their work of art today.
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I poached this from Gun Rights 4 Us. Spot on.

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I haven't had the time to dig into the newest iteration of ObamaCare put forth by the Senate, but this caught my eye - let's tax innovation!

This new tax will eventually be passed through to patients, increasing health-care costs. It will also harm innovation, taking a big bite out of the research and development that leads to medical advancements. The core of the industry (excluding a few conglomerates like Johnson & Johnson) spent about $9.6 billion on product development in 2007, according to Ernst and Young. The Baucus tax is nearly half that, and also exceeds $3.7 billion, the total venture capital invested in device makers that same year.

Let's turn our country into a third-world shit-hole, one tax at a time.
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A green shoot?

Housing starts climbed 1.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 598,000 in August from the previous month on an increase in multifamily home construction, the Commerce Department said Thursday. But single-family homes, which accounted for about 80% of all housing starts, fell 3% to 479,000.

I don't think so. What's this information tell us?

More people need multi-family living quarters - apartments and the like - and fewer need their own homes, or can afford one.

Plus, the builders know that the banks are holding millions (literally) of homes on their books from the gush of foreclosures. There is going to be a glut of homes available for a very long time. Unless the builders can put something together for less than what's on the market now, I don't see how they can stay afloat.

I don't know that I'd want to buy a new home built by a contractor with razor-thin margins...
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Clear this up for me: The US government works for us, right?

The United States will donate 10% of its supply of vaccine against pandemic H1N1 influenza virus to developing countries that do not have the resources to procure it on their own, a White House spokesman said today. The U.S. has ordered 195 million doses of the vaccine, which means it will make nearly 20 million doses available to the World Health Organization for distribution.

So, we have 300+ million people in the US. Nanny has ordered 195 million doses - enough for 2/3 of the people that are paying for it. We're going to give away 10% of our stash, so we're now closer to only having 50% of the needed doses.

How do those bastards in DC figure on explaining any deaths of US citizens that could not get a dose?

I don't want my taxes paying for a flu shot for an American citizen - they can pay for their own shot - let alone paying for someone in another country.

But then, I don't have much say in the matter. Neither do you.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Fascism, Health Care Fraud, nanny state, Self-Reliance, Taxes, welfare state

I would never lie. I willfully participate in a campaign of misinformation.
--Fox Mulder

I read - slack-jawed - article after article yesterday that Uncle Ben Bernanke says the recession is over. WTF?

"I've seen some agreement among the forecasting community that we are in a recovery," Bernanke said, "But the general view of most forecasters is that the pace of growth in 2010 will be moderate."

This disingenuous SOB is playing it cutsie - he qualified his statements by saying that it may only be a "technical recovery". If we have one single quarter with growth, we are technically out of the recession.

Let's see, is there any chance we might have an "up" quarter? Maybe one artificially 'stimulated' by, oh, I don't know, handing out $3 billion to people to buy cars? Hmmmmm?

The problem is, this was an artificial 'blip' - the stimulus brought people that would have bought cars in 3, 6, 9 or twelve months down the road, and front-loaded them into this past quarter.

What's going to happen in 3 to 12 months with the auto industry? All of those people already have their cars, so the auto manufacturers are going to take a shot to the nuts.

Since it "technically" takes 3 consecutive quarters of contraction before the next recession officially begins, Barry and Company have bought themselves at least a year of respite from the financial press.
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Gold and Silver continue to climb (which actually surprised me, as I expected some profit-taking to temporarily drop prices).

Gold ended yesterday at $1,008 and silver ended OVER $17.
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A buddy of mine sent me a link to a recent interview with Gerald Celente. He's the top dog over at Trends Research. He's one of the few folks out there that have been screaming that we're going to take it in the shorts unless we stop artificially messing with the markets.

This interview is a bit long but is well worth the time.



This thing isn't over until jobs steadily rise - not just end up being better than the number of job losses the government predicts. Until people are working, economic growth will be hampered since they have no money to spend. It's really a vicious circle.
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OT: My wife had made a comment about the ObamaCare scam - she didn't understand why a law being passed in 2009 would not start until 2013. You understand why that date was picked, right?

Barry and Company can claim a victory for getting it going, but nothing will happen to our economy as a result of the law. Barry can restore his reputation, get re-elected, etc. No one that voted for it has to be burdened at election time - in 2010 and 2012 - by what happens to the country when it goes into place.

By the time the shit starts hitting the health care fan in 2013, they'll all be comfortably re-elected. It's a great plan.

If the Repubs were smart, they'd throw a fit saying that if it's so good, it should start right NOW. Get right on it to keep poor babies from dying. Barry's a man of action!

At least they would then have a couple of years of this thing killing the country and seeing it reflected at the polls.

But they're NOT smart, so they'll just play along...

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Ethics, Fascism, Health Care Fraud, Media Bias, nanny state, Propaganda

Bouncing around a bit...
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Astroturf? Headline on CNN online:

Tea party movement has anger, no dominant leaders

Shockingly, the headline hits the Tea Party movement squarely on the head. It is buckets of people, from widely differing backgrounds, from every state in the nation, that are pissed off. Pissed off enough to get off their butts to protest what is happening to our country.

And they're doing it all on their own. No conservative equivalent of ACORN or SEIU or any other major organization are coordinating this. It is the epitome of grassroots.

Isn't that a story in and of itself? Of course it is, but since the story runs counter to the MSM agenda, it is denigrated and marginalized.
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Have you folks heard of Scribd.com? Holy crap, what a great resource. They have zillions of documents available online. If you sign up for a free account, you can download most documents in PDF or Word format. Again, for free.

They sure seem to have a lot of stuff that says "copyright" all over it. I was looking for some information on knife making, and they have a number of books that I have purchased in bookstores available for the taking.

Seriously, pick a topic and see what they have. It's quite impressive.
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Tonight is either the start of a new era, or the continuation of a steady decline.

Am I talking about American freedom? Socialism and fascism creeping into our way of life? Taxes crushing the very soul of citizens for generations to come?

No. I'm talking about tonight being the season opener for the Raiders.

I'm off in a while to try and find parking for our tailgater. I'm bringing a 5-gallon keg of Amber Ale to help numb the expected pain after we play San Diego in front of the nation (although I'm guessing those of you on the east coast will be tucked in bed when the game starts at 7pm here on the left(ist) coast).

We'll try and set up camp in our usual place (the BART parking lot across the street from the Oakland Coliseum). We'll be eating brats and tri-tip while we watch the early game on rabbit ears. I just picked up one of the digital converter boxes, so this should be interesting.

It will be very difficult for anyone to explain why the Raiders don't win a butt-load of games this season. We have some incredible talent. Serious talent.

But we also have Al Davis. 'Nuff said (plus, I don't want to get sued by the leader of Walking Dead).
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ACORN popped again?

First Baltimore, then DC, now NYC.

I swear - I thought I heard the ACORN scum emphatically state that the Baltimore incident was isolated. Two bad employees that were dealt with quickly.

Hmmmm..... seems to be a bit deeper than that, huh?

Not surprisingly, the MSM is barely covering this. No questions of a massive, rotten organization - just excuses and (not so) subtle hints of prosecuting the reporters for doing their job.

Whistle-blower laws protect conservatives too, right?

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Ethics, Fascism, Health Care Fraud, Life and Times, Media Bias, Propaganda, Taxes

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
--Mark Twain

Quite busy of late - sorry for the light posting.

I swear, you could make millions of dollars if you launched a news source that just reported the news. Leave out the left wing and the right wing, and just give us the facts. The Joe Friday Gazette, perhaps?
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I'm taking a break, watching some TV. I clicked on Fox News, and they're showing images of somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 people who have marched on Washington DC.

Out of curiosity, I flipped to MSNBC, CNN and Headline News (HLN).

MSNBC - Images of a gathering in Minnesota for Barry to continue with his con job on health care. They are showing the place filling up. They actually had a headline on the screen describing the images they were showing as, "Awaiting Obama At Healthcare Rally In Minneapolis".

They're not covering the news-making event that is ACTUALLY HAPPENING in DC - they're showing people taking their seats at one that will start in a few hours. I guess they don't have enough cameras to cover both events.

HLN - Running a piece on the Kennedy brain cancer - and how he was a 'champion' of health care. They followed that up with a stint about Larry Gelbart - the guy who produced MASH - and how he just croaked. They then showed a hard-hitting piece on a website that CNN has just developed where you can speak your voice if you're a veteran. Wow! A blog - who'd a-thunk it? Apparently, they ran out of cameras as well.

CNN - Doing a piece on boxer George Foreman - "Rolling with the punches" - about how to weather the bad economy. Oooooo, George shadow-boxing. Gripping stuff. Hey, maybe we could reduce taxes! They then went to some guy that makes hot pepper sauce - with prisoner labor. OK.....

On all three networks, I watched the rolling ticker of breaking news. Not a single one mentioned what's going on in DC. Not one.
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Cindy Sheehan and a half-dozen protesters sit outside the president's personal residence, and they get world-wide press attention. Upwards of 100,000 people gather in the nation's capital, and a single network covers this? Amazing.
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Did you see that another ACORN video has turned up? This time it was the DC office that was working to set up a whore house with our tax dollars.

Hmmm. I thought ACORN said the Baltimore incident was an "isolated incident". Apparently not.

The Census bureau has shockingly dumped ACORN to do the census next year. Really, I'm shocked. Call me cynical, but I'd bet a good number of dollars that they'll be involved when the actual census starts. Any takers?

What is it going to take to get Congress to start an investigation on these scumbags? Do they actually have to be filmed as they RUN a whore house? It's not enough they're using our tax dollars (with $8.5 billion MORE in the pipeline) to fund a whore house?
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Wow, gold ended the week over $1,005 an ounce. Silver was at a bit below $17 an ounce.

Squirrel some away while you still can...

Three more banks bit the bullet yesterday, bringing the total this year to 92 failures. These three will cost us a cool $2 billion.

Those green shoots just keep poppin' up all over the place...
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LOL! Fox is now showing Barry's health care con job in Minnesota. He's in the middle of a story about getting, "fired up". It's the exact same story he told the union members in Ohio on Labor Day!!

C'mon, Barry - get your speech writers to give you some new folksy, aw-shucks stories. We enjoy being treated as mouth-breathing, drooling idiots.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, criminal, Ethics, Health Care Fraud, Media Bias, Propaganda, Taxes

You lie!
-- SC Representative Joe Wilson to Barack Obama

Barry did his health care speech last night. I could not listen to it live. I had the same problem when Dubya would talk. I knew that if his lips were moving, he was lying to me, one way or the other. I knew that it would cost me either money or freedom, or both.

It's the same with Barry.

The TV and radio were both playing clips of the speech, and I had it in my head to discuss his comment that marginalized Americans who are exercising their right to petition the government for a redress of grievances as "bickering".

I spent a part of this morning reading the transcripts of the health care speech. I wanted to see what he said, not be influenced by how he said it.

The transcripts took me down another path.
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What is a 'right'? I found a definition that most matches with my beliefs on FreeRepublic.com -

A right is the sovereignty to act without the permission of others. The concept of a right carries with it an implicit, unstated footnote: you may exercise your rights as long as you do not violate the same rights of another—within this context, rights are an absolute.

I like that. You can do as you wish as long as it doesn't stop another person from exercising the same right. For example, I don't get to exercise my right to keep and bear arms, then use my guns to stop someone else from doing the same.

This concept of exercising rights while not infringing on the rights of another goes deeper, though. Your ability to exercise your rights cannot place a burden on another individual.

Simply because you want to exercise your first amendment right to free speech, does not give you the right to require a newspaper to spend their money on paper, ink, presses and manpower to print your words.

If you want your words in print, you must bear the burden of getting them printed.

Again, FreeRepublic said it very well -

A right must be exercised through your own initiative and action. It is not a claim on others. A right is not actualized and implemented by the actions of others. This means you do not have the right to the time in another person’s life. You do not have a right to other people’s money. You do not have the right to another person’s property. If you wish to acquire some money from another person, you must earn it—then you have a right to it. If you wish to gain some benefit from the time of another person’s life, you must gain it through the voluntary cooperation of that individual—not through coercion. If you wish to possess some item of property of another individual, you must buy it on terms acceptable to the owner—not gain it through theft.

The only legitimate claim or burden placed upon another is through taxes paid to the government to enforce your rights. Using the example from above, the government is not in place to provide you with printing presses. They are there to ensure you can operate your presses.
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fascism - a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

So, I read through Barry's speech, and I was horrified. Plain as day - with no qualification or excuse - he is conferring a right to a select few individuals, and requiring that I pay for it.

Now, even if we provide these affordable options, there may be those -- especially the young and the healthy -- who still want to take the risk and go without coverage. There may still be companies that refuse to do right by their workers by giving them coverage. The problem is, such irresponsible behavior costs all the rest of us money. If there are affordable options and people still don't sign up for health insurance, it means we pay for these people's expensive emergency room visits. If some businesses don't provide workers health care, it forces the rest of us to pick up the tab when their workers get sick, and gives those businesses an unfair advantage over their competitors. And unless everybody does their part, many of the insurance reforms we seek -- especially requiring insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions -- just can't be achieved.

In one fell swoop, he is granting a right to health care. It's actually more than that - he's requiring you have health care insurance if you live in the United States. Most importantly, it will be a crime if you don't have health care insurance.

In the good old days, before a new right could be granted, the congress and the states had to agree to it. It used to be called the 'amendment process' as detailed in Article 5 of the Constitution.

Now, we just pass a law, and it's called, 'progress'.

Suppressing dissent. Regimenting industry and commerce. Aggressive nationalization.

Sounds like fascism to me. What else could it be called?
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Look at what he's saying, and the implications -

If there are affordable options and people still don't sign up for health insurance, it means we pay for these people's expensive emergency room visits.

He's using a federal law that prohibits a hospital from refusing treatment to anyone that shows up on their doorstep, as rationale for requiring we all continue to pay for this treatment, but in a different way, and somehow it will be less expensive.

How about you allow private hospitals to turn people away, or to at least transfer them to the county hospitals that were established for the indigent?

But far and away, this was the single most frightening aspect of his 'vision' -

If some businesses don't provide workers health care, it forces the rest of us to pick up the tab when their workers get sick, and gives those businesses an unfair advantage over their competitors.

I thought he was all about 'competition'. Why not just be right out front and say you are nationalizing all business in America?

There are a million things that go into a company business plan. Price, product, quality, location. A huge component is employees.

A business makes a decision on how to least expensively produce its product or service. It may decide that it doesn't give a damn who fills the jobs it has. Quality and customer service are irrelevant - it just wants to produce the most products for the lowest cost and charge the highest prices it can get. The market will decide if their business plan is correct - they'll either buy the product or not.

Another business may wish to pay a salary of 150% of the market, offer flexible scheduling, a great 401k plan, but no other fringe benefits. They may believe they can retain the best employees for their particular business with that model. Their employees can decide to spend the higher wages on health care insurance or on crack cocaine. Or leave and take a job with a company that DOES offer benefits. It's their choice. Again, the market will decide if their business plan is correct.

Barry's plan takes those options away. If a business is mandated to offer benefits, IT is now placed at a competitive disadvantage. It will either have to cut salaries, cut employees, cut retirement benefits or cut quality to stay competitive. Or go out of business.

Is Barry going to tell them what to cut as well - or allow them to make any cuts at all?
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I'm telling you, if this passes, there will be one way, and one way only to survive: Get out of the tax paying business.

The 'public option' will destroy the private insurers. Despite Barry's assurances that not a single tax dollar will be spent on the plan, do even the most parched Koolaid drinkers believe that?

Pretty soon, Nanny HealthCo will be the only game in town, and your tax dollars will be paying for it.

The end result will be crappy, rationed health care for all. If you're going to get the same care whether you pay for it or not, why pay?
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An Atlas Shrugged Moment of Zen -

"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it...

There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt.

Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."

Labels: American Spirit, communism, Constitution, Corruption, criminal, debate, Ethics, Fascism, Health Care Fraud, Media Bias, nanny state, Propaganda, Self-Reliance, Taxes, welfare state

Most of what we object to as misconduct in children is a natural rebellion against the intrusion of an unimaginative adult despotism in their lives.
--Floyd Dell

Busy last couple of days.

Saturday, I was supposed to brew up some beer with one of my brothers and another friend. Instead, my buddy bailed on me [some weak story about a romantic weekend with his wife up in Tahoe - yeah right! ;-) ] and my brother and I did some emergency repairs to my backyard sprinkler system.

We got lucky and found two plumbers to speak with at Home Depot while we were looking for a part, and got it done very cheaply.

My brother also crawled up on my roof and sprayed WD-40 up under some eves. I have a HORRIBLE pigeon problem, and one of my next door neighbors told me he started with the WD-40 and hasn't had a problem since.

So far, not a pigeon to be seen!

I then went over to my brother's house to help him install a new stove, oven and range hood. It took us a good 6 hours or so, but it looks very nice.
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This whole weekend, we seemed to talk about Barry's speech happening today, and the health care scam.

The health care thing has gotten so divisive - I'm not sure I know what Barry is trying to fix. Tell me if there are any issues other than these:

• The poor need to have access to health care.
  
• Regular working folks need to have access WITH pre-existing conditions.
  
• Gotta bring the cost of the insurance down.

Easy peezy.

Item one is already in place. Let them choose either their local county hospital (THAT is why they are built in the first place), or allow them access to Medicaid. Have congress pass a law to change the eligibility standards for Medicaid. The program is ALREADY IN PLACE!

Good health is important to everyone. If you can't afford to pay for medical care right now, Medicaid can make it possible for you to get the care that you need so that you can get healthy – and stay healthy.

Medicaid is available only to certain low-income individuals and families who fit into an eligibility group that is recognized by federal and state law. Medicaid does not pay money to you; instead, it sends payments directly to your health care providers. Depending on your state's rules, you may also be asked to pay a small part of the cost (co-payment) for some medical services.

While they're at it, pass a simple law that says -

It is illegal for insurance companies to deny coverage for pre-existing medical conditions.

To allow insurance companies to spread their risk across a greater customer base, the prohibition against insurance companies offering their product across state lines is hereby rescinded.

With those three things - Medicaid, no pre-existing conditions and opening up the entire country to insurance companies (as is the case with life and auto insurance already) the problem is fixed.

If they really want to make a substantial change, they can introduce tort reform so that doctors aren't encouraged to cover their asses by testing you for every damned possible ailment under the sun so they don't get sued. The problem with health care costs isn't with "greedy insurance companies", it's with greedy trial lawyers.

Guess who has the better paid lobbyists?
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Hooch update: After sitting for 10 days in my freezerator, the hooch has cleared up considerably -
While not perfectly gin-clear, it is getting there. There is still just a hint of haze from suspended yeast, but it's much better than the grapefruit juice clarity from right after the fermentation. I transferred the liquid to a secondary container and will let it sit for another week or so.

I'll then put 1/3 of it on the rest of the blackberries I foraged to make a fruit brandy/wine of sorts. One-third will be left as-is to be used as a mixer for "girlie" drinks, and the last one-third will be used for experimentation. I'm just going to leave it at that.
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I read the speech Barry will be giving today. In general, I like the message. Stay in school, work hard and you'll achieve your dreams. Good stuff. He slid in some inferences to health care and other crap, but in general, it was OK.

(Did you notice all of the product placement ads included with the speech? Ipod, Xbox, Google, etc? I wonder if they had to pay for the mentions like they do when their products are shown or mentioned in movies.....).

I read the speech out loud to my brother and his kids. We had a little discussion afterwards about volunteerism and service to your community. My brother and I disagreed quite sharply.

My brother feels it is appropriate for schools to have a requirement that kids perform some sort of community service before they graduate (BTW, Mrs. TheOtherMikeS agrees with him). He feels it shows them what volunteerism is all about.

I have a HUGE problem with it. I have a problem with any required service to the state or at the direction of the state, for free people. It is nothing less than indentured servitude. It plants the seed that it is OK for the state to tell you what to do with your time.

I'd be OK with a civics class where volunteering got you extra credit, but not as part of the requirement to graduate.

The idea of civics is to want to make your community a better place to live. It isn't to make it a place conceived in the mind of some bureaucrat. Until people see with their own eyes that unless THEY do something for their community, it will rot, no real change will be made. If Nanny continually "rides to the rescue," people have no incentive to improve their community.

We're not teaching civics, we're teaching dependence on the state.

Labels: American Spirit, communism, Constitution, Corruption, Ethics, Fascism, Health Care Fraud, nanny state, Self-Reliance, Taxes, welfare state

What matters is not what any individual thinks, but what is true. A teacher who does not equip his pupils with the rudimentary tools to discover this is substituting indoctrination for teaching.
--Richard Stanley Peters, Ethics and Education

The administration is pulling out all the stops in getting America to march to Barry's beat.

I see this stuff coming from our Department of Education, and it sends a bolt of anger and disbelief through my head.

Barry is going to be making some speech to kids this week. Here is some of the stuff that the DOE thinks would be good for the teachers to do before, during and after the speech:

Before the speech, ask your students:

Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?

The technique they're using is to plant the seed in your child's mind that what elected officials say is the gospel. If someone from the government asks you to do something, you should do it.

During

Students can record important parts of the speech where the President is asking them to do something. Students might think about: What specific job is he asking me to do? Is he asking anything of anyone else? Teachers? Principals? Parents? The American people?

After

Students could discuss their responses to the following questions:
What do you think the President wants us to do?
Does the speech make you want to do anything?
Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us?
What would you like to tell the President?

They are planting the expectation that what Barry is saying is important. The speech hasn't even been given, and we already have it "graded"!!

"Before" for grades 7 through 12:

Brainstorm or Concept Web: Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us? How will he challenge us? What might he say?

The DOE is again planting a seed. If Barry speaks, it must be inspirational. Follow The One where he leads you.
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Where are the questions about the role of government? Why is there nothing that suggests a challenge to what might be said? Where are the critical thinking skills development?

This is nothing more than Barry's opening salvo to get kids to sign up for his National Service program - United We Serve. The theme has gone from volunteer to service.

I would love to see how a child is treated who says that they were not inspired. They were not moved to action. They want nothing to do with a government that expects its citizens to all fall into line.

The kid would be chastised and belittled, and most likely given a failing grade. Billy has difficulty with class participation.
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Last night, Glenn Beck had a film producer on his show that had received an invitation to participate in a conference call - from the National Endowment For The Arts (NEA) to discuss what artists could do to spread The Word Of Barry.

Yeah, our tax dollars paying for propaganda.

The film producer, Patrick Courrielche, said he was one of roughly 75 artists, musicians, writers, poets and others on an Aug. 10 conference call hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement and United We Serve, a nationwide initiative launched by Obama to increase volunteerism.

Courrielche said officials on the hour-long call -- including NEA Director of Communications Yosi Sergant and Michael Skolnik, political director for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons -- encouraged the artists on the line to create works of art in their respective fields related to health care, energy and the environment.

The organizers of the hush-hush event are all denying the intent.

"The service that we are encouraging through United We Serve is taking place with no direct tie to any policy initiative, but instead focuses on the areas of the greatest need of our nation and our neighborhoods," Dugan said in a statement to FOXNews.com.

Yeah, it was just a freaky coincidence that the subject matter just happened to be the very pieces of legislation that Barry is trying to get enacted. How lucky was that?!

The film producer recorded the entire conference call. My, my, my - isn't that a bit of Inconvenient Truth?

There is a section of it where the host of the conference call questions the legality of what they are doing (it's near the end of the clip). Amazing.



They are hitting us from all sides. They understand the power of propaganda.

Where is our response?

Labels: American Spirit, communism, Constitution, Corruption, Ethics, Fascism, Health Care Fraud, Media Bias, nanny state

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe.
--Albert Einstein

It appears as though my Raiders - once again - suck dirty dog ass. Someone remind me: I'm a season ticket holder BECAUSE....?
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I had to actually buy beer today for an upcoming event. Normally, I bring along a 5-gallon keg of my homebrew (equal to 2 cases and a 6-pack), but I'm hoarding it for the upcoming football tailgater season (the highlight of the games) and our upcoming Oktoberfest party.

So, I went to BevMo (I don't know if these are national - they're kind of like liquor warehouses). The beer I wanted was $11.99 for a 12-pack - a half case. I needed a total of two cases.

They had two of the twelve packs. I asked some mouth-breather if they had any more in the back, as there was nothing left in the aisle.

" Uhh, no. We only have wuts out there."

So I asked if I could get the same 12-pack price if I bought four 6-packs.

"Nope. You gotta pay 4 times the 6-pack price." Six-packs were $7.75 a piece.

Fucking asshole. So I put back the two twelve-packs and started looking for another beer. I found another acceptable brew for the same $11.99 per 12-pack.

You guessed it - only two of them left. I looked up top, and spied a whole, boxed case on the upper-most shelf. Sweet! I grabbed it and was off to the checker.

She scans the twelve packs just fine. When she gets to the case, she starts cracking open the box. I tell her I want the whole case.

"Sorry. This is a case of 6-packs. You gotta pay the 6-pack price." Also, 4 times $7.75 each. Fuck me hard.

I'm guessing I turned very bright red in the face. The clerk looked a bit worried.

As I was turning to walk away, to offer me consolation, she said, "Don't worry. You don't need to put the beer away. I'll do it for you."

I don't know if I've ever produced such a loud belly laugh!
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WTF? It's not like people were in there throwing elbows to get at the last 6-pack of beer. Me and one other guy were the only people in there. Aside from the 6 employees that were shuffling their feet to look busy.

So instead of making a $50 sale, they've got one pissed off customer that just made the decision to shop elsewhere (and Yes, I hold a grudge).

It's not like their prices crush the competition. I don't know if this was some sort of loss-leader promotion or if they're just incredibly inept. But they ain't gettin' my business any more.
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Get this: A while back, I wrote about how a childhood friend of my wife - an avowed communist - was invited to a "special people only" event with Diane Feinstein. They kept the lid on it so none of the Town Hall protesters would cause a ruckus.

So this woman has a couple of boys. They are both half-black (from their now-dead father - long story). The oldest boy was a big old bubba. Very good football player, but dumber than a retarded earth worm.

He went to a JC and somehow, he got an athletic scholarship to attend USC (can anyone say, "Diversity"?). He never played a down in his two years there, but he was smart enough to actually get his degree. Awesome.

Not knowing what to do with his life, he decided he wanted to become a doctor. Not of philosophy or literature, but of medicine. Really.

He now attends Harvard Medical School on yet another "diversity" ticket. I shit you not.

Dumber than a retarded earth worm, and he's going to be telling you to turn your head and cough, or be adjusting the stirrups for your pelvic exam. Oh Lord.
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The teacher's union-member commie mom is a big Barry supporter (shocking, I know). After the Di Fi get-together, she called my wife to say her son is having some sort of meeting with someone famous. My wife tells me she thinks it was some politician.

Someone named Henry Gates.

I damned near coughed up a lung.

I explained to her that Gates was not a politician, per se. He was that Harvard racist, Black Studies professor that cried, 'RACISM' when he was arrested by a white cop a while back. The cop that taught the Racial Diversity training for his police department.

The guy that then had a brew with Barry and the cop on the White House lawn.

Oh.

It's good to be connected and the right ethnicity, I guess. I gotta go get me a tan...

Labels: communism, Corruption, democrats, Health Care Fraud, Life and Times, welfare state

There is no week nor day nor hour when tyranny may not enter upon this country, if the people lose their roughness and spirit of defiance.
--Walt Whitman

I poached this article from Bitmap's site.

In a move some fear is a reprisal for opposing President Obama's health care plan, Democrats sent 52 letters to health insurers requesting financial records for a House committee's investigation.

Reprisals? Ya think?!

Challenge, 'The One' and you're suddenly hearing the rubber glove snapping onto the bratwurst-sized fingers of the examiner, with the reassuring, "This will only be uncomfortable for a moment."

An open letter to the health care insurance industry -

Welcome to 'The Show'.

I read that a couple of pinheads in Congress have sent you guys a letter asking for some pretty detailed financial information. They want you to disclose who has made over $1 million for the past few years, what kind of conferences and events you have attended, and how much you're spending on gifts and hookers entertainment.

Tell them to shove it, or you'll be sorry.

Tell them that as a publicly traded company, you dutifully follow the same rules as every other publicly traded company. You publish the salaries and other compensation of your senior executives. You provide an income statement and balance sheet, and all of the other minutia required by law.

Those laws do not include the disclosure of confidential personal information of your rank-and-file employees - regardless of how well compensated they may be. You refuse to break the myriad of confidentiality laws simply because they want to use your companies as the latest pinatas at the Health Care Reform party.

Tell them you won't participate in their grandstanding. You won't participate in their public witch hunt. You won't participate in their egregious abuse of power.

Let them know that, if they don't like it, they can change the laws. Warn them to be very damned certain that their new law had better apply to every publicly held company in this nation. If they abuse your Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under the law, you will come at them tooth-and-nail.

You will literally spend your very last dime fighting them. You will sue them. You will give money to every single political opponent of theirs that pops their head up. You will produce national advertising exposing every facet of their personal and professional lives. You will smear them, just as they are attempting to smear you.

Tell them that you realize that if you capitulate to their demands, your demise is at hand anyway. You will not sit by and watch all of your hard work and effort be robbed from you for some political experiment. Tell them, "Not on our dime! Not on our backs!"

Now, you are reasonable people. Tell them you do have a compromise to offer. If they will require a full and detailed financial exposure of the Federal Reserve Bank, the Office of The White House, Americorp and every single "community organizing" entity that receives our federal tax dollars, you will consider their request. But only after you've seen that the American people actually get the disclosures. You're un-trusting, but have reason to be.

So, there's your offer. They can take it or leave it. Fight or don't fight. Disclose or don't disclose. You don't care. You've had it with their shenanigans, and you won't play by their lopsided rules any more.

Sign it,

Hugs and kisses,

The Evil Health Care Insurance Industry

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HA! They'll cave.
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OT: I wrote a few weeks ago about fraudulent cashiers checks popping up all around the country. This trend has INCREASED. I'm getting email notices from the FDIC on an almost daily basis about new fraud cases.

If you accept cashiers checks, either personally or in your business, take a minute and call the bank to verify that the check is legit. You are assuming the check is as good as cash (chuckle) but you may get left holding the bag.

As Ronnie said, "Trust, but verify."

Labels: American Spirit, communism, Constitution, Corruption, Ethics, Fascism, Health Care Fraud, nanny state, welfare state

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.
--Thomas Sowell

Today will be interesting.

The Federal Reserve meets today to discuss what they will be doing in the very near future with regards to printing up more money. As a reminder -

When stock markets plumbed new lows in March, the Federal Reserve responded with nearly every tool in its box. It announced it would create new money to buy $1.25 trillion in mortgages and $300 billion in government debt.

They set a deadline of 6 months to git 'er done.

The good news is, the 6 months is almost up. The bad news is, they have almost spent every fucking dime they promised they would.

So, out of thin air, they "produced" one and a half trillion dollars. Nearly a quarter of that went from one pocket of our government, into the other, in the form of them buying Treasuries. Stunning.

The natural result would be spiked inflation (adding more money to the money supply cheapens those already in circulation). Inflation generally also results in higher interest rates. One of the reasons is that when banks have fixed-rate loans during inflationary times, the interest they are earning is less valuable - costs are rising, but income is not. That needs to be made up somewhere.

During the past year or so, the Fed has artificially controlled both inflation and interest rates, but they've been playing a very dangerous game.

If they continue to print money, hyperinflation WILL be the the result. But if they stop the presses and go to the market to borrow money to pay for BarryCare and the rest of the socialist agenda, they will have to raise the rates paid on Treasuries. That, in turn, will lead to higher taxes needed to pay the increased debt load, which leads to inflation, which....

Yeah, it's a vicious circle.

See Zimbabwe and Argentina for further clarification....

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A BarryCare Moment of Horror -

So Barry is walking around, sportin' wood because yesterday no one challenged him in his own extra-special Town Hall meeting. Funny, my invitation must have been lost in the mail.

If I had been there, I'd have asked him about the following -

Barry, baby! - you keep repeating the lie that we will always be able to choose the health care plan of our choice.

Retooling his message amid sliding support, he addressed some of his remarks to a vital and skeptical audience: the tens of millions of people who already have health insurance and are generally satisfied with the care they get.

He said the overhaul is essential to them, too, contending it is the way to keep control in their hands.

Barry, could you do me a favor and 'splain this to me? This is part of the Health Care Bill and starts on page 16, titled, Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage.

Snazzy title there, Barry.

The problem is, you are taking our choice away. Here's the actual text (FYI: Y1 is 2013, Y2 is 2014, etc.) -

(a) GRANDFATHERED HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE DEFINED.
—Subject to the succeeding provisions of this section, for purposes of establishing acceptable coverage under this division, the term ‘‘grandfathered health insurance coverage’’ means individual health insurance coverage that is offered and in force and effect before the first day of Y1 if the following conditions are met:

(1) LIMITATION ON NEW ENROLLMENT.—

(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day of Y1.

So, Barry, let me see if I have this right - If I have the coverage in place before the start of 2013, I can keep it, ONLY IF, my carrier agrees not to enroll any other people into my plan - right?

Sounds like you're trying to cut the legs off of my carrier. If they can never enroll another person into the plan, how are they going to stay in business?

Here's a "for instance": I work for Company A. In the middle of 2013, I quit that job and go work for Company B. Company A hires a replacement for me that currently doesn't have health care insurance. My old insurance company is forbidden by law from offering my replacement the same plan I had.

If Company B does not offer the same coverage I had, I will have to select from the plans they offer, but they'll all HAVE TO BE BarryCare options.

How many years do you think it will take before my old insurance company goes out of business? What kind of business can survive if it is unable to replace lost customers?

But that's part of your plan, ain't it, Barry? It'll take a few years, and you'll point back to the parts of the bill proclaiming Choice For All. But the end result will be one big stinking Medicare-like hell hole of a health plan.

Uh, don't take this the wrong way, but go fuck yourself, Barry.

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An Atlas Shrugged Moment of Zen -

The wads of worthless paper money were growing heavier in the pockets of the nation, but there was less and less for that money to buy. In September, a bushel of wheat had cost eleven dollars; it had cost thirty dollars in November; it had cost one hundred in December; it was now approaching the price of two hundred - while the printing presses of the government treasury were running a race with starvation, and losing.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Fascism, Health Care Fraud, nanny state, Self-Reliance, Taxes, welfare state

The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare.
-- Daniel Patrick Moynihan

A buddy of mine sent me an email that purportedly originated from some MD. It contains a massive list of items that we are going to have to live with if Barry gets his way with the health care bill.

I have found a number of inaccuracies with the list, but there are a couple of gems.

Until this whole festering pile of crap gets sorted out, I'm going to sign-off on a number of my posts with actual text from the health care bill. So as to make sure I don't end up on Barry's 1984-esque list of people supposedly telling lies about the bill, I'll provide the actual text of the section, a citation of the page where I got the information, and a link to the actual bill so the White House goons can actually go to read it to verify the accuracy of the information (YOU can go there too, be you a goon or not!).

[Full Text of Health Care Bill]

First up, health care choice - or lack thereof - page 167, line 18 to page 168, lines 1-4:

SEC. 59B. TAX ON INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT ACCEPTABLE HEALTH CARE COVERAGE.

(a) TAX IMPOSED.—In the case of any individual who does not meet the requirements of subsection (d) at any time during the taxable year, there is hereby imposed a tax equal to 2.5 percent of the excess of—

(1) the taxpayer’s modified adjusted gross income for the taxable year, over
(2) the amount of gross income specified in section 6012(a)(1) with respect to the taxpayer.

Subsection (d) mentioned above lists all kinds of plans that are acceptable to Nanny. But, YOU CAN'T OPT-OUT!

If you decide you don't want health care coverage, YOU STILL HAVE TO PAY FOR IT VIA YOUR TAX INCREASE!

Oh, there are a couple of exceptions to having to pay the non-use tax.

On page 170, line 1, I found this:

(2) NONRESIDENT ALIENS.—Subsection (a) shall not apply to any individual who is a non-resident alien.

Nice. Illegal aliens have the freedom to refuse government health care coverage (LOL, like they'd do THAT), but actual red-blooded American's can't make that same choice. Glad our representatives are looking out for our best interests.

Bastards.

Labels: communism, Corruption, Health Care Fraud, Taxes, welfare state