GLOBAL WARMING SEA LEVEL RISE A LIE

If one thing more than any other is used to justify proposals that the world must spend tens of trillions of dollars on combating global warming, it is the belief that we face a disastrous rise in sea levels. The Antarctic and Greenland ice caps will melt, we are told, warming oceans will expand, and the result will be catastrophe.
Although the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) only predicts a sea level rise of 59cm (17 inches) by 2100, Al Gore in his Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth went much further, talking of 20 feet, and showing computer graphics of cities such as Shanghai and San Francisco half under water. (Click title to read full article)

OBAMA VS THE FOUNDERS

Slow down, you move too fast. You got to make the republic last …
That line paraphrases Paul Simon's song that recommends moving slowly. President Obama stated that he will not accept delay in passing health care reform. What's wrong with a little delay? This country has done quite well without health care reform for 233 years, so what are a few more months? Other leaders have said that they would not tolerate delay, but they've generally been from countries we didn't like very much. (Click title to read full article)

THE GOVERNMENT FUNDED $10 TOMATO

How could we end up with a $10 tomato? The prices of tomatoes, potatoes, breakfast cereal and other commodities are generally kept fairly low because consumers control what they buy. No matter what we do in our current system of shopping, we will not see a $10 tomato until Obamanomics causes hyperinflation and we begin using tomatoes as currency.
(Click title to read full article)

CANADIAN 'SINGLE-PAYER' CARE = Sometimes it just doesn't pay

With all the talk these days about the pros and cons of government health care systems, especially on the Canadian or British models, there have been a couple of topics that I've never heard come up in the discussion -- something which perhaps is not discussed because it's kind of unimaginable.

First, let's make the distinction between the Canadian and British models. In Britain there is a "two-tiered" system, in which public and private medicine are practiced at the same time, with certain doctors, clinics, hospitals, and services operating in the private sector for fees that they determine for themselves. This means there is faster and more efficient medical service available to those who can pay for it. Persons of a left-wing bent find this as unfair as they find any and all things that money can buy for those who have it. In my view, all it means is that where there's a line-up for services in a public health system, private care helps to swiftly and dramatically shorten the queue.

In Canada on the other hand, with rare exceptions, private provision of publicly-funded services is not permitted. Or, if permitted to operate, may not charge more than the state is prepared to reimburse. In recent years, absolute desperation for MRI services has eroded the state's monopoly on them, allowing private clinics in some provinces, but that is the exception rather than the rule. Unless, of course, you're looking for an abortion. Abortion is considered an essential service which must be funded and available in every province, and private for-profit clinics operate in most provinces. Abortion advocates are quick to point out that private clinics deliver services more cheaply and efficiently than hospitals, but one is not allowed to apply that logic to most other medical procedures.

Dentistry, cosmetic surgery, and many therapies are not covered by the government, so practitioners may charge what the market will bear. In more prosperous times, non-critical procedures like electrolysis were once covered by the public system, but became casualties of cost-saving measures. Okay, fine: electrolysis an "essential service" yesterday -- not essential today. That seems reasonable enough. But what will be next on the chopping block when money gets tighter?

There was a time when independent specialists, like pediatricians or obstetricians, could determine their own fees, and the government would reimburse the patient according to its approved fee schedule. This was referred to as "extra billing" on the part of the doctor.

When my first child was born in 1980, doctors were still allowed to extra-bill, and my obstetrician charged a total fee of $500 for 9 months of pre-natal care, any type of delivery (normal, c-section, whatever), and all post-natal visits. She informed each patient that she charged what she thought was fair, and if anyone had trouble meeting that fee they should speak to her and she would work out some arrangement. The government fee schedule in 1980 considered all those services to be worth a mere $350, and we willingly paid the extra $150 for the services of one of Toronto's most dedicated obstetricians. By the time my second child was born two years later, extra-billing was illegal, and the doctor had to charge no more than what the government prescribed.

What this means is that all doctors become government employees. They can see as many or as few patients as they please, but their fees are determined by a government bureaucracy, as are the services to be covered. My experience is confined to the province of Ontario (each province runs its own health insurance scheme, within certain perameters dictated by the feds in exchange for federal funding -- effectiveness of provincial systems varies widely, especially as concerns wait times).

In Ontario, GP's are paid according to the number of patients they see and medical procedures they perform. This means that if you need a prescription renewed before you have a chance to see the doctor, the doctor can no longer issue a bill for speaking to you and your pharmacy on the phone. For awhile after this service was disallowed, doctors would renew and the patient would pay a fee the next time they came into the office. However, the doctors experienced long delays or even non-payment for services by phone (can you imagine a lawyer being prevented from collecting on these "billable hours"?). Before long doctors ceased to provide telephone services at all, except perhaps in an emergency.

Other services either ceased or were provided only for individual fees -- need a vaccination record for your kid's school or camp registration? That will be 25 bucks, please. It's not "extra billing" because the government doesn't pay the doctor anything for it, so he's on his own. Some pediatricians devised a plan whereby you could pay an annual fee per family (e.g. $100) for all such non-medical services, which is a big help to people with a number of young children. If your kids are older and less in need of such things, you can choose to pay a set fee for each service as it comes up.

And remember: you are paying these fees on top of a monster payroll deduction (a "premium") for your provincial health plan, plus the cost to yourself or your employer for private secondary coverage which might give you dental and orthodontic coverage, semi-private hospital room, prescription drugs, eyeglasses and annual eye exams, etc., none of which are covered by the province. [Standards change: annual eye exams were once covered, but in recent years were cut back to every second year for most of one's adult working life. Ontario grants women a mammogram every second year after age 50 -- I believe the American recommended standard is annually after age 40.]

There's something else that happens when doctors and nurses are all government employees. Every so often they decide it's time to STRIKE.

What this usually means is not a total collapse of the system, but a work-to-rule regime in which all elective surgeries are postponed (and since the patient may have waited months or years for such surgeries, like knee replacements, this could be both dangerous and crushing). Or in which the ordinary routine of TLC can go by the boards.

In 1989 I had what is called a "missed abortion": an embryo died not long after conception but instead of naturally miscarrying it remained attached in utero for another six weeks or so. Eventually the process of miscarriage began, and it was necessary to remove the conception by D & C (dilation and curettage). This occurred during a period of "work to rule" by hospital staff. My ob/gyn, true to form, did everything with her usual attention to detail -- even her kindest bedside manner was in full force (normally she was a crusty old dame).

But the nurses were at minimal staffing levels, and kept pretty much to their station, doing only the barest required rounds. Naturally, there were hardly any patients around because only emergency procedures were being done, but that didn't mean I got any real attention from them. Despite the fact that I could be expected to continue bleeding for some period of time, if I wanted a change of sanitary pad I had to ring for it, and then it was brought in and set down on my dining cart. The nurse then turned on her heel and made a fast exit, and I had to sit up and reach for the cart in order to get it. Had there been any unanticipated mishaps, such as excessive bleeding, perhaps even causing unconsciousness, they would never have known because they never looked and they never asked.

At some point my husband and I came to understand that my hospital stay was finished, though we were quite unclear as to what the check-out procedure should be. I got dressed on my own, gathered my goods, and headed for the desk at the nurses' station. We stood there perplexed, muttered something to the effect of, "Is that all there is?" and were abruptly sent on our way. Discovering that our pregnancy was dead, and having it surgically extracted, all within less than 72 hours, had been a numbing experience. The only thing that could have made it worse (and did) was feeling like the forgotten diner stuck at the dark corner table by the kitchens.

My obstetrician (bless her) learned that I had felt neglected during the work-to-rule, and wrote me a letter of apology. That's the thing -- I really have no complaints about Canadian doctors and nurses on the whole. They're as qualified and caring as anybody in the profession. We've been blessed with some fantastic personal physicians. But there are not enough of them, and they work, damn hard, under the constraints of an under-funded, over-managed, and over-stressed system. A staggering proportion of medical school graduates see no future at home, and high-tail-it to the U.S. to practice under freer conditions. American hospitals regularly attend Canadian job fairs and advertise in newspapers to recruit nurses with higher pay and better conditions than they could ever get in Canada. When it comes to both timely medical services and jobs, the flow is one-way: southward. If the United States adopts Obamacare, where will all these folks go???????

They won't go to Britain. Private practice is expensive to set up. And public hospitals -- well, let's put it this way: when I arrived in Toronto 35 years ago, I used to remark that the subway platforms and trains were so clean they were probably more sanitary than many a public hospital in the big cities of both Britain and the States. Public transportation infrastructure in "Toronto the Good" ain't what it used to be -- much of it is so grubby and run-down that you'd think it was a British public hospital. I have that on eye-witness authority.

The first thing most people think of when it comes time to tell horror stories of Canadian single-payer medicine is the wait-lists for both diagnosis and treatment. These are very real, much worse in some provinces than others, and, yes, people die marking their time in the queue for service. But the waits are not the only drawback. As Americans ponder the prospect of adopting a similar system and having the government attempt to manage it for a population TEN TIMES the size of Canada's, they should give some serious thought to how it feels to be nickeled and dimed by physicians trying to figure out how to juggle their overhead and make a decent living. And then they should give even more serious thought to how they will fare every time the doctors STRIKE.

TRUTH AND TYRANY-THE POWER OF WORDS

I am awed by the power of words and how, when properly utilized, a minimal number of words can convey great ideas and have lasting effects. Gifted speakers and writers often use a select few words to maximum effect. As evidenced by the length of this article, I am not one so gifted.

Words reflect ideas, and when ideas are confused the words themselves become confused. When truth, freedom and decency are lost, convoluted thinking and contradictory words result.

"I've got two daughters. … I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby." Barack Obama

STOP THE "PEDOPHILE PROTECTION ACT"

Call your representatives and stop them from passing the new "Hate Crimes" legislation. It is not a hate crimes bill, but a plan to afford perverts greater rights and to suppress our own right to be protected from them. Act now!

The Truth About Government

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DioQooFIcgE&feature=player_embedded

THE NEW GM (GOVERMENT MOTORS)

The Obamamobile. Lean, green motion machine. Floor opens up so you can pull a Fred Flintstone up hills. 100 miles per gallon on flat ground. 2 miles per 1000 calories up hills or with a passenger. Comes with 5 free physical therapy visits for back and leg pain. Warranty good for 10,000 miles or 60,000 steps, whichever comes first. Top speed 15 mph. Also comes with Gore on the floor and a whole car airbag, surround bubble sound, optional pull cart for groceries. Solar panels will operate vehicle for a full 50 feet at a time on sunny days. Cost of this new go cart?-$5000. Feeling you get from driving it? Cramps. (Priceless).

GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE WON'T FLY

It is a common misconception that the free enterprise system is at fault for the current high cost of medical care in the US, a misconception that the current administration has no desire to refute. However, the government's regulatory and control practices are really at fault. Ever increasing and more punitive government and Medicare regulations set the standards for the actions of the private insurance companies. Sometimes, these can best be understood by analogy.
Let's look at the airline industry hypothetically as it would operate if the government had as much control over it as it does over health care. To see how complex Medicare is we can turn to over 130,000 pages of regulations and penalties and contrast that with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations numbering about 1,000 pages. (Click title to read full article)

YOUR'S TRULY ON JANET PORTER'S RADIO SHOW

CLICK TO LISTEN

OREGON SOCIALIZED HEALTH CARE-ROUND 2

On Monday, June 8, 2009 the Oregon Legislature will begin debate on HB 2009-C, “Oregon’s 21st Century Health Care System”. Of course, Oregon’s brilliant governor and the liberal yahoos in the Oregon legislature completely ignore the fact that the Oregon Health Plan, “Oregon’s 20th Century Health Care Plan”, was a complete failure. Liberals are very constructive. They construct each new failure on the foundation of preceding failures. They drive ever forward, looking straight ahead, never looking back. Pedal to the metal all the way, damn the brakes and never look at the reflection in the rear view mirror. They never have the baggage, or the benefit, of hindsight. I honestly believe that my dog can reflect on how his past actions have affected his current situation better than liberals can. I thought of Ronald Reagan when he responded to Jimmy Carter: “There you go again.” (To read full article click on title above)

WE CELEBRATE FR. THEODORE LANGE'S ORDINATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD OF GOD 06/13/2009

I was given the honor of being the MC and also speaking at the ordination banquet of our beloved Fr. Theodore. His spiritual father, Fr. Jonathan Decker (Abouna) and his spiritual mother, Mother Adela Galindo, SCTJM , spoke of the beauty and joy of the priesthood. We all love Fr. Theo and we are proud that he is truly living out: "Thy Will be done".

REAL FREE MARKET HEALTH CARE SOLUTIONS

President Obama made it clear this week that he was not going to settle for any delay in reforming health care. There are several proposals on the table ranging from government controlled "private" health care plans such as the Wyden-Bennett Health Reform Plan to the plan Mr. Obama prefers, fully government funded health care. All of the proposals are designed so that private insurance will be squeezed out of the market. Mr. Wyden's plan may seem more palatable initially but we must remember that ideologically the plan is the same as Mr. Obama's plan. The end result will therefore be the same; single-payer government controlled health care. Read entire article.

RED-BLUE STATE DIVORCE

PURPORTED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY A YOUNG LAW STUDENT.

DIVORCE AGREEMENT

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:

We have stuck together since the late 1950's, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.

Here is a model separation agreement:

Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.

We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them).

We'll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have your beloved homeless, homeboys, hippies and illegal aliens. We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood .

You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security.

We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N.. but we will no longer be paying the bill.

We'll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find.

You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors. We'll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right. We'll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the National Anthem. I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute Imagine, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World.

We'll practice trickle down economics and you can give trickle up poverty your best shot. Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you ANWAR which one of us will need whose help in 15 years..

Sincerely,

John J. Wall
Law Student and an American

P.S. Also, please take Barbara Streisand & Jane Fonda with you.

COMMANDER IN THIEF-Obama is Biting the Hand that Feeds Him

Those of us in who have studied the sciences are familiar with big numbers. For instance, Avogadro's number is the number of atoms in a quantity of an element known as a mole. For Carbon 12, there would be one mole in 12 grams of Carbon and that would contain Avogadro's number of atoms. This number is unbelievably large: 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. A Googol (not Google) is the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. Another familiar constant is the speed of light, which is 299,790,000 meters per second. Traveling at this speed light can cross the U.S. in .026 seconds.

I propose a name for a new constant in economics to represent the sum of $1 trillion ($1,000,000,000,000): the "Obama's Number." All three are of unimaginable scale. The first two were created by God and discovered by scientists, the third is a conceptualization. The fourth was created by Chairman Obama and will be imposed on us all. Read full text.

OBAMA CARE-ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL

THE MYTH OF LOW COST OBAMA CARE

TILLER THE BABY-KILLER GUNNED DOWN IN CHURCH

TILLER THE BABY-KILLER GUNNED DOWN IN CHURCH
[updated: sorry, half-baked post went up with big gaps the first time]

Now there's a headline for the ages.

I wish Dr. George Tiller had not been gunned down, anywhere. It doesn't change the fact that he was a baby-killer, a regular practitioner of the most grisly and barbaric form of abortion on the late-term viable unborn baby (for a healthy fee of five grand). But killing him is counter-productive, to say the least.

I'm slightly at a loss for words about this, which is good because I'd probably find the wrong ones. Robert Stacy ("The Other") McCain speaks well at this difficult moment:

Sometimes, when the stubborn wickedness of a people offends God, the
Almighty withholds His divine protection, permitting those sinners to have their
own way, following the road to destruction so that they are subjected to evil
rulers and unjust laws. Never, however, does the wise and faithful Christian
resort to the kind of lawlessness practiced with such cruelty today in
Kansas.One reason I so despise such criminal idiocy is that, as a student of
history, I cannot think of a single instance in which assassination has produced
anything good, no matter how evil or misguided the victim, nor how
well-intentioned or malevolent the assassin.

From Brutus and the other republican Senators who slew Julius Caesar to Charlotte Corday, from John Wilkes Booth to Gavrilo Princip, and so onto Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan and James Earl Ray, assassination seems inevitably to work against the purposes of its practicioners.

Those who slew Caesar did not save the Roman republic. Marat's death only incited the Jacobins to greater terror. Booth's pistol conjured up a spirit of vengeance against the South more terrible than war itself. Assassination is an act of nihilism. Whatever the motive of the crime, the horror it evokes always inspires a draconian response, and involves other consequences never intended by the criminal.

From Brutus and the other republican Senators who slew Julius Caesar to Charlotte Corday, from John Wilkes Booth to Gavrilo Princip, and so onto Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan and James Earl Ray, assassination seems inevitably to work against the purposes of its practitioners.Those who slew Caesar did not save the Roman republic. Marat's death only incited the Jacobins to greater terror. Booth's pistol conjured up a spirit of vengeance against the South more terrible than war itself. Assassination is an act of nihilism. Whatever the motive of the crime, the horror it evokes always inspires a draconian response, and involves other consequences never intended by the criminal.

The alleged assailant, Scott Roeder, is about as "typical" a pro-life advocate as the the Reverend Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church brood are typical Christian believers. I guess it's fitting that the Phelps clan wasted no time in showing up to support the murderer. They deserve each other.

Roeder began his career as a nutjob by joining up with the "Freemen" movement, an anti-government anti-tax cult that instructs poor dupes how to declare themselves "sovereign men" so they can dodge their taxes and legitimate creditors. (Hard to find a link to this bunch that isn't completely suspect.) He was also charged with possession of bomb-making materials, but acquitted due to procedural irregularities on the search -- according to his ex-wife this just made him more self-righteous.

So in other words, whatever flirtation he may have had with mainstream pro-life groups, he is one of those people who has always been of no use whatsoever, unwilling to do the kind of hard-slagging shoe-leather work that stays within the law and tries to change minds. It appears that stewing away in his little rage-bubble in the end proved unsatisfactory, and it appears that when he finally lifted a finger it was wrapped around a fire-arm. Lazy sod.

So in one blast of a gun, a murderer has shot the legs out from under every reasoned argument and every reasonable person who deplores abortion and works for the day that every child will be welcomed in life and protected by law.

Thank you so much, idiot.

Dr. Tiller joins the very short list of abortionists who have been killed for their profession. This list remains an infinitessimal fraction of the number of abortionists killed on episodes of Law and Order: Criminal Intent and in other television and film fantasies regularly conjured up by the artistic supporters of "a woman's right to choose."

And that, as Forrest Gump would say, is all I have to say about that.


FLOTUS: NO CHEAP DATE

President Obama and wife Michelle did a quick hop down to The Big Apple to catch a Broadway show, then back home again the same night. Needless to say, it cost more than that similar jaunt taken by Sky Masterson and Sarah Brown to Havana, in Broadway's timeless "Guys and Dolls". Cost estimates have run anywhere from $24,000 (Ha! are you kidding me?) to 75,000 (getting warmer) to $250,000 (at least, I'm bettin').

Now, as the mother of a certain Marine who flew a 100' helicopter from California to Wyoming, as part of a Normandy-style landing operation to facilitate Dick Cheney playing a round of golf during the last administration, I have no illusions about what it costs for the President to go safely anywhere for any purpose, and Lord knows we don't expect him to live like a monk while he's in office.

Or do we? At least we can say for sure that Cheney did not follow any of his well-escorted vacations with a speech scolding the American public into regarding the prospect of their personal economic train-wreck as a "sacrifice" they are "called to make." (Very Biblical language for describing the Obamandated downhill slide on the poverty wagon -- appropriate enough, I guess, considering the Divine Source.)

So normally I wouldn't give the cost of a Presidential date night a second thought. But I'd be pretty surprised if any president in my memory ever did something similar on the public buck, that is, the drive-by drop-in for totally private entertainment purposes, to another city in another state, and home again that night. We've had some jet-set presidents who woulod be quite comfortable doing such things, but usually for fund-raisers or some public event, and likely coupled with some sort of official business. Other presidents (the Bushes come to mind) would not have been temperamentally inclined to this brand of rather decadent jetting about for private fun.

But whatever their personal habits, most of them lacked the rare kind of gall it takes to promise exceptional purity, preach sacrifice, enforce hardship, and live like a frickin' sultan.

All that without bothering to put on a tie.

I don't know about Michelle, but when I get all duded up I do NOT want to be escorted by a guy in an unbuttoned shirt. As usual, Michelle managed to screw up an otherwise good-looking ensemble with something inexplicable, in this case an electric blue clutch purse. But at least she had a "finished" look, complete with sparkly jewels. So POTUS, put on a damn tie. FLOTUS should have kicked your butt.

This is the first time I've ever heard the First Lady referred to as "FLOTUS", which is only logical but somehow still funny. It's probably just me -- the word is too reminiscent of my first childbirth confinement, when the Last Nurse in the Nation to bother wearing a little white cap and using proper technical terms kept asking me if I had passed any "flatus." She was actually a nice break from the presumptuous informality of her [our] generation, and I should never have referred to her as "Nurse Snippet."

THE KILLER OF BARBARIAN Dr. GEORGE TILLER HAD NO RIGHT TO CHOOSE MURDER