Month: February 2012
Jesus’ Life Based on Osiris and Horus Myths? Zeitgeist Refuted by Professor of Philosophy & Religion at Liberty University, Dr. Mark Foreman (Serious Saturday)
Obama’s Algae vs. Oil Speech Destroyed! (Prager & Krauthammer)
An Apology to President Karzai on Behalf of Americans
Charles Krauthammer Article About Leftists Taking Over Religion and Medicine
Via HUMAN EVENTS:
Give him points for cleverness. President Obama’s birth control “accommodation” was as politically successful as it was morally meaningless. It was nothing but an accounting trick that still forces Catholic (and other religious) institutions to provide medical insurance that guarantees free birth control, tubal ligation and morning-after abortifacients — all of which violate church doctrine on the sanctity of life.
The trick is that these birth control/abortion services will supposedly be provided independently and free of charge by the religious institution’s insurance company. But this changes none of the moral calculus. Holy Cross Hospital, for example, is still required by law to engage an insurance company that is required by law to provide these doctrinally proscribed services to all Holy Cross employees.
Nonetheless, the accounting device worked politically. It took only a handful of compliant Catholic groups — ObamaCare cheerleaders dying to return to the fold — to hail the alleged compromise, and hand Obama a major political victory.
Before, Obama’s coalition had been split. His birth control mandate was fiercely opposed by such stalwart friends as former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and pastor Rick Warren (Obama’s choice to give the invocation at his inauguration), who declared he would go to jail rather than abide by the regulation. After the “accommodation,” it was the (mostly) Catholic opposition that fractured. The mainstream media then bought the compromise as substantive, and the issue was defused.
A brilliant sleight of hand. But let’s for a moment accept the president on his own terms. Let’s accept his contention that this “accommodation” is a real shift of responsibility to the insurer. Has anyone considered the import of this new mandate? The president of the United States has just ordered private companies to give away for free a service that his own health and human services secretary has repeatedly called a major financial burden.
On what authority? Where does it say that the president can unilaterally order a private company to provide an allegedly free-standing service at no cost to certain select beneficiaries?
This is government by presidential fiat. In Venezuela, that’s done all the time. Perhaps we should we call Obama’s “accommodation” Presidential Decree No. 1.
Consider the constitutional wreckage left by ObamaCare:
First, its assault on the free exercise of religion. Only churches themselves are left alone. Beyond the churchyard gate, religious autonomy disappears. Every other religious institution must bow to the state because, by this administration’s regulatory definition, church schools, hospitals and charities are not “religious,” and thus have no right to the free exercise of religion — no protection from being forced into doctrinal violations commanded by the state.
Second, its assault on free enterprise. To solve his own political problem, the president presumes to order a private company to enter into a contract for the provision of certain services — all of which are free. And yet, this breathtaking arrogation of power is simply the logical extension of Washington’s takeover of the private system of medical care — a system Obama farcically pretends to be maintaining.
Under ObamaCare, the state treats private insurers the way it does government-regulated monopolies and utilities. It determines everything of importance. Insurers, by definition, set premiums according to risk. Not anymore. The risk ratios (for age, gender, smoking, etc.) are decreed by Washington. This is nationalization in all but name. The insurer is turned into a middleman, subject to state control — and presidential whim.
Third, the assault on individual autonomy. Every citizen without insurance is ordered to buy it, again under penalty of law. This so-called individual mandate is now before the Supreme Court — because never before has the already inflated Commerce Clause been used to compel a citizen to enter into a private contract with a private company by mere fact of his existence.
This constitutional trifecta — the state invading the autonomy of religious institutions, private companies and the individual citizen — should not surprise. It is what happens when the state takes over one-sixth of the economy.
In 2010, when all this lay hazily in the future, the sheer arrogance of ObamaCare energized a popular resistance powerful enough to deliver an electoral shellacking to Obama. Yet two years later, as the consequences of that overreach materialize before our eyes, the issue is fading. This constitutes a huge failing of the opposition party whose responsibility it is to make the opposition argument.
Every presidential challenger says he will repeal ObamaCare on Day One. Well, yes. But is any of them making the case for why?
Chevy Volt Spoof
After the First Ladies 16th Vacation in 3 Years, Class Warfare Is Top Priority for Michelle Obama
Keep in mind also that Obama played more golf in his first two years than Bush did his entire 8-years in office! Gateway Pundit riley notes,
Michelle Obama bashed the rich during a big donor luncheon today in Cincinnati. She just returned from the family’s 16th vacation in three years.
The Examiner reported:
First lady Michelle Obama has joined her husband’s bandwagon to hit the rich and spread the wealth, questioning how well-off families can feel good if others are struggling.
To about 300 supporters wealthy enough to pay $300-$10,000 to attend the mid-day event, the first lady said, “If a family in this country is struggling, we cannot be satisfied with our own families’ good fortune.”
She also rapped the rich, as has her husband. “Who do we want to be?” Obama asked. “Will we be a country where success is limited to the few at the top? This country is strongest when we are all better off.”
Fundraising in Cincinnati, Ohio as her husband raised cash in Florida, she also said that the change President Obama offered in 2008 “does not come easy.” And she added, “change is slow, but we will get there,” according to a pool report of the event.
Didn’t Michelle come from humble beginnings? Then why is she lecturing Americans on a country where “success is limiting to the few at the top?”
This reminds me of a small portion where David Mamet is explaining how the irrational is defended by the left. He gives an example of taxes and jobs:
Here is an example. President Obama, in a speech in July 2010, declared that the Government should be ready to support Green Business—that if anyone wanted to create these jobs, the Government would be there to help.
What was the help? He was offering rebates. But what are rebates but tax cuts?
To suggest that giving back (to approved entities) some of the money drained from them in taxes, and to characterize this as “help,” is like a mugger pausing in administering his beating and characterizing this pause, to his victim, as assistance.
If, as President Obama announced perceptively, cutting taxes creates jobs (as it does; as anyone not blinded by theory knows: when taxes are raised, businesses close), then why not cut all taxes?
This inconsistency is ignored only by those who benefit from it (the administration), and the confused (Liberals).
David Mamet, The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture(New York, NY: Sentinel Publishing, 2011), 113.
Chris Christie’s MSNBC’s “Gay Debate”
Via HOTAIR:
Media Harped Gas Prices 4-Times more Under Bush than Under Obama
1st Person View of Wingsuit Jumper`s (Jeb Corliss) Conection with Cliff ~ All In HD!
- (Daily Mail) American daredevil Jeb Corliss, 35, broke both of his legs and was airlifted to hospital following the horrific 120mph smash last month in Cape Town.