Update on my friend and brother Marine John Payne, who got
his new lung Wednesday morning. He is awake, alert (though he nods off often) and
writing notes to his wife. He asked to see us, so we stopped by after PT this
morning. I was surprised they let me in, with my cough, but stayed clear in
case. He recognized us, but is not yet too responsive. They say he is doing
well. We passed greetings on from many of you. The surgeon told his wife it was
good a lung came along, as he may have only had a couple of months without it.
Thanks for everyone's prayers and good thoughts for him--and for me. A blessing
in all this trouble is becoming friends with John and Donna--very good folks.
Today & Tuesday at PT, I did 32 minutes on the
treadmill at 1.7 MPH, or 9/10th of a mile, plus three sets of four other
exercises. If it doesn't sound like much, try doing it with a scarf wrapped a
couple of times around your face restricting your breathing!
Obamacare News at the End--for a change. ~Bob
Frightening Must Read: 83 Numbers From 2013 That Are
Almost Too Crazy To Believe
Excerpt: During 2013, America continued to steadily march
down a self-destructive path toward oblivion. As a society, our debt levels are
completely and totally out of control. Our financial system has been
transformed into the largest casino on the entire planet and our big banks are
behaving even more recklessly than they did just before the last financial
crisis.
Peace Prize Quote
"Dignity does not consist in possessing honours, but in
deserving them." - Aristotle
Hamas man killed, 6
injured, in Jenin firefight with IDF
Excerpt: A 22-year-old man was killed and six more were
injured when the IDF exchanged fire with Palestinians during an operation in
the West Bank city of Jenin
Wednesday night.
Non-Citizens Caught
Voting In Key Swing State
Excerpt: Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced
Wednesday that his office found 17 non-citizens illegally cast ballots in the
2012 presidential election — and has referred the case for possible
prosecution.
Barbara Walters On
Barack Obama: 'We Thought He Was Going To Be ... The Next Messiah'
Excerpt: "He made so many promises. We thought that he was going to be - I
shouldn't say this at Christmastime, but the next messiah. And the whole
ObamaCare, or whatever you want to call it, the Affordable Health[care] Act, it
just hasn't worked for him. And he’s stumbled around on it and people feel very
disappointed because they expected more."
‘Massive Seizure Of
Power’: Climate scientists, economists challenge EPA
http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/18/massive-seizure-of-power-climate-scientists-economists-challenge-epa/
http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/18/massive-seizure-of-power-climate-scientists-economists-challenge-epa/
Excerpt: A group of climate scientists and economists are
challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate
greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other stationary sources. These
critics see a “massive seizure of power” by the agency.
Obama's Recovery:
$1.3 Trillion Below Average
Excerpt: It also means that Obama's recovery — now more than
4 years old — remains the worst since WWII. That's despite the fact that, by
this point, half the previous recoveries had been interrupted by another
recession. Had Obama's recovery been only as good as the average of the past 10
recoveries, the economy would be $1.3 trillion larger. That's $4,038 for every
person in the U.S. ,
or $10,451 per household.
The Insiders: Obama’s
‘Indiana
Excerpt: Nothing about corporate earnings or broad-based
business confidence suggests that we are experiencing real economic growth. All
the president is doing is further endangering his fellow Democrats, who already
have the dead weight of Obamacare hanging around their necks as they prepare
for the 2014 elections. This president may be one of the luckiest politicians
of all time, but believing he can replace the government-supplied growth in the
stock market with real economic growth when he and his Democratic allies
continue to champion no-growth policies is unrealistic.
"Duck
Dynasty" Star Phil Robertson Also Under Fire for African American
Statements. By Suzy Byrne
http://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/-duck-dynasty--star-phil-robertson-digs-his-hole-a-little-deeper-by-also-stinging-african-americans-173821415.html
Excerpt: "I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once," the reality star said of growing up in pre-Civil-Rights-eraLouisiana . "Where
we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with
them. I'm with the blacks, because we're white trash. (the fact that I
think the race baiters like Obama, Holder, Jackson and Sharpton have made
things worse for blacks doesn't mean I don't think there has been real
racism--I've seen it. But creating a give-up-you're-all-victims mentality in
blacks, or encouraging counter racism, makes things worse. ~Bob)
http://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/-duck-dynasty--star-phil-robertson-digs-his-hole-a-little-deeper-by-also-stinging-african-americans-173821415.html
Excerpt: "I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once," the reality star said of growing up in pre-Civil-Rights-era
War on
Subsidies: Brussels
Excerpt: As part of Germany 's switch to renewables,
industry has been exempt from paying higher prices associated with solar and
wind energy. The European Commission, however, believes the practice distorts
competition on the Continent. Huge penalties could be in store. (The problem
with the transnational elites' policies is that they are like a snake
trying to eat its tail. Or rather a snake trying to
eatitself starting with the tail. The ideology-bound Left invariably
ignores one major thing: reality. And now reality is breathing down their necks
like never before. It happened in Detroit ,
and it is pandemic in the West. Consider this: The EU has long expected Germany to bail
out all of the rest of the EU countries that get into serious financial
trouble. Yet the EU bosses, trained as they are in socialism-Keynesianism, have
no understanding of Economics 101. They literally do not know, or refuse
to believe what the Soviets learned the hard way, namely, that
propaganda, laws and decrees alone can't control supply and demand.
Supply in this case refers to the ability to provided bailouts. Germany is the
last country standing after an all-out assault on national economies using as
weapons over-regulation and taxes, the usual economic wrecking balls of the
Left. Yet, even this engine of the European economy is now the target of the
EU's campaign against prosperity. Demand here refers to the need for such
bailouts-the need by central or oversized banks and nations, like Greece , for a
perennial creditor to pay their bills. This demand is created by the EU itself,
in large part by its tacit guarantee to rescue irresponsible governments, who
as a result of this guarantee, indulge in irresponsible fiscal behavior-just as
bank customers often indulge in irresponsible borrowing as a result of the
banks' recklessly liberal lending policies (which are in turn encouraged, even
enforced, by a global epidemic of fiscally reckless government
policies-encouraged by wraithlike figures behind the curtain). So let's see.
The EU created this fiscal monster and then needed a money source to pay for
its debauchery. Germany was
the main source, but as the reckless policies took their toll, Germany became
the only country left that could pay for the unbridled spending spree. That in
itself is dangerous. But it gets worse. Now their lethal lack of common
sense comes into play: Germany ,
that same sugar daddy that paid for the irresponsibility is being punished for
the fact that it is in a position to do so. This insanity cannot last long.
Once the EU and Germany 's
own Left--e.g., the increasingly powerful Greens--have finished picking the bones
of its industry, there will be nothing left to prop up the deranged EU wizards
and pay for their bacchanalian brawl. --Don Hank)
Al
Qaeda's Courts in Syria
Excerpt:
Islamic law. It’s everywhere you
don’t want to be. The
Islamic State in Iraq and
the Levant (ISIS), which has seized control of territory in northern Syria , has
reportedly committed horrific abuses in its prisons in the region. Sources told Amnesty that some of those
imprisoned by ISIS are as young as eight years
old.
Special Report--Chinese
Military's secret to success: European engineering. By David Lague
http://news.yahoo.com/special-report-chinese-military-39-secret-success-european-134407260.html
Excerpt: If the People's Liberation Army went to war tomorrow, it would field an arsenal bristling with hardware from some ofAmerica 's
closest allies: Germany , France and Britain China
http://news.yahoo.com/special-report-chinese-military-39-secret-success-european-134407260.html
Excerpt: If the People's Liberation Army went to war tomorrow, it would field an arsenal bristling with hardware from some of
Obama ‘cavalier’ in
hiding foreign aid order, judge rules
Excerpt: A district court judge ruled that President Obama
can’t lawfully keep hidden a foreign aid order he tried to shield via a claim
of executive privilege, characterizing the move as a
“cavalier” dodge of the Freedom of Information Act. The Justice Department had argued that a foreign-aid
directive that Mr. Obama signed in 2010 should remain secret, because it was
part of the Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development and fell under
the umbrella of executive privilege — despite its unclassified status, Politico
reported…("Keep your plan" may be his biggest lie, but "most
transparent administration in history" ranks right u there. ~Bob)
Excerpt: The London School of Economics (LSE) has today
issued a long-awaited apology to students Chris Moos and Abhishek Phandis,
representatives of the student Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society
(LSEASH), who wore t-shirts featuring the popular Jesus and Mo cartoon at the SU Freshers’ Fair on 3 October,
and who were asked to cover their t-shirts or face removal from the Fair. The
incident, covered
first by TrendingCentral.com at the time, was described as an
“effective blasphemy law”, and said to be indicative of a wider trend around
various university campuses across the country, wherein minorities are singled
out and targeted under the guise of “political correctness”.
The
Democratic Party is a Cult Worthy of Jonestown. By Daniel Greefield
Excerpt:
If Jim Jones were around today, there’s little
doubt that he and his
cult would still be campaigning for Democrats just like they used to. “What you had here was a
ready-made volunteer workforce,” said Agar Jaicks, who was chairman of the
county Democratic Central Committee, the governing body of the Democratic Party in San Francisco. “And you also had in Jones a man who
touched a component of the consensus power forces in the city, such as labor
and ethnicity groups, and he was very strong in the Western Addition. So here
was a guy who could provide workers for causes progressives cared about.”
Worth Reading
Excerpt: This is from Slate so there are more caveats than
from a dozen lawyers being forced to sign a contract with the devil, but it
knocks down the lie that the Welfare Queen was some sort of imaginary racist character that
Reagan made up to make freeloaders look bad: “In Chicago, they found a woman
who holds the record,” the former California governor declared at a campaign
rally in January 1976. “She used 80 names, 30 addresses, 15 telephone numbers
to collect food stamps, Social Security, veterans’ benefits for four
nonexistent deceased veteran husbands, as well as welfare. Her tax-free cash
income alone has been running $150,000 a year.”
Lawsuit: Lesbian boss fired gym teacher because of his
‘traditional family’
http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/18/lawsuit-lesbian-boss-fired-gym-teacher-because-of-his-traditional-family/#ixzz2nwS0XWwp
http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/18/lawsuit-lesbian-boss-fired-gym-teacher-because-of-his-traditional-family/#ixzz2nwS0XWwp
Excerpt: A gym teacher
in New York City has filed a lawsuit claiming that his lesbian
boss at a posh private school sacked him because he is straight, happily
married and has three children with his heterosexual wife. Plaintiff Gregory
Kenney taught physical education for 16 years at the Trinity School, a
fancypants K-12 school on Manhattan’s Upper West Side where tuition is over
$40,000 per kid per year….He asserts that gay athletic director Pat Krieger
despised him for his “traditional family status” ever since she took over in
2009. (Don't know the facts; I'm tolerant of gays, but tolerance must go both
ways. Just as some blacks are racist--and encouraged in that by the race
baiters--some gays are biased towards straights. Have encountered both kinds.
~Bob)
Global warming will
kill us all, warns Common Core-aligned homework
http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/18/global-warming-will-kill-us-all-warns-common-core-aligned-homework/#ixzz2nwR70w2D
http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/18/global-warming-will-kill-us-all-warns-common-core-aligned-homework/#ixzz2nwR70w2D
Excerpt: Fifth grade students
at Fremont Elementary School in Colorado were assigned
a reading
' border=0 v:shapes="_x0000_i1025">
passage that describes global warming as a dangerous,
man-made phenomenon that will destroy civilization in a few hundred years. The
reading assignment was found inside a workbook aligned with the controversial
national Common Core curriculum guidelines, and was titled “Homework from the
Future.” It tells the fictional story of a visitor to the year
2512 who discovers that the eastern United States is under water and
the country’s population greatly reduced, all thanks to man-made global
warming: (Gov in education=brainwashing. Hitler knew it; used it well. So did
Soviets, etc. --Barb. The fact that the "warmists" only allow one
side to be presented tells you all you need to know about their case. ~Bob)
' border=0 v:shapes="_x0000_i1025">
passage that describes global warming as a dangerous,
man-made phenomenon that will destroy civilization in a few hundred years. The
reading assignment was found inside a workbook aligned with the controversial
national Common Core curriculum guidelines, and was titled “Homework from the
Future.” It tells the fictional story of a visitor to the year
2512 who discovers that the eastern United States is under water and
the country’s population greatly reduced, all thanks to man-made global
warming: (Gov in education=brainwashing. Hitler knew it; used it well. So did
Soviets, etc. --Barb. The fact that the "warmists" only allow one
side to be presented tells you all you need to know about their case. ~Bob)
Excerpt: It’s not unusual for the United States and a Muslim country
to be on the opposite sides of the War on Terror. It is unusual for a Muslim
country to take a stand against terrorism while the United States backs the right of a
terrorist group to burn churches, torture opposition members and maintain
control of a country with its own nuclear program.
Excerpt: A newly released designation by the US Treasury Department
identifies two alleged al Qaeda supporters who have raised funds for the terror
network. The fundraising has benefited multiple al Qaeda branches,
according to Treasury, and has at times totaled millions of dollars per month. Some
of this money has been funneled through a longtime al Qaeda operative known as
Abu Khalid al Suri, who served as one of Osama bin Laden's most trusted
couriers prior to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and is now Ayman al
Zawahiri's main representative in the Levant .
Al Suri is also a founding member of Ahrar al Sham, an al Qaeda-allied
extremist group in Syria .
Orwellian Denver
Excerpt: It’s one of the most blatant examples of
Soviet-style media disinformation and manipulation I’ve ever seen, here in the
West, in my life: A prominent, big-city newspaper deliberately
distorting/omitting a salient detail of an important news story, in order to
provide cover for the evil school of economic thought that their editors share
with yet another crazed, violent attacker of innocents. It’s bad enough that
we’ve already seen numerous examples of the democrat-run mainstream media
trying to smear the Tea Party & conservatives by falsely, shamelessly
attempting to associate various mass-shooters and terrorists with conservative
philosophy and politics (while, in fact, they are almost invariably leftist,
Obama-supporting democrats who carry out such attacks)
Hosni Mubarak allies
cleared of corruption charges
Excerpt: An Egyptian court has acquitted the two sons of
former President Hosni Mubarak, and his last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, of
charges of embezzlement.
Slaughter of Christian Women and Children in Muslim Lands.
By Raymond Ibrahim
Excerpt: Two of the most tragic Islamic attacks on
Christians, killing several women and children, took place in the month of
October, one in Syria
another in Egypt .
Judge Orders Removal
of San Diego War Cross
Excerpt: A judge on Thursday ordered that a war memorial
cross atop a San Diego
mountain be removed from federal property in 90 days but said the ruling would
be put on hold if it is appealed. (They could make it inter-faith. Put add a
Budda, a Star of David and maybe hang a few gays or stone a rape victim for the
Muslims. ~Bob)
How Free Is North America ?
Excerpt: The most-free jurisdiction in North America is in Canada , according to a study by Dean Stansel, a
professor at Florida
Gulf Coast
University
Developing Countries
Need Coal-Fired Power Plants
Excerpt: Coal has lifted 680 million people in China out of poverty over the past 30 years,
says Bjørn Lomborn, director of the Copenhagen
Consensus Center
Syrian fighter
defects to Qaeda-linked group
Our ally. Did he take his Obama-guns with him? ~Bob.
Excerpt: In November, however, he announced his "repentance" for his
membership in the battalion and the FSA, dubbing them "apostates".
Quote
Make yourself indispensable, and you will move up. Act as
though you are indispensable, and you will move out. --Jules Ormont
http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech/science/yellowstone-s-magma-lake-much-larger-than-previously-thought/article/364131#ixzz2ntMzBEUj
Excerpt: The heart of Yellowstone National
Park Yellowstone 's
caldera as being 55 miles long, and 18 miles wide. …This revelation puts
the size of the magma chamber at 2 1/2 times larger than previously
thought.
The Obamacare Train Wreck
Good Column: The Obamacare
Generation: The ACA depends on Millennials picking up the tab —
as they already are for other entitlements — in the midst of a bad
economy. By Victor Davis
Hanson
Excerpt: Among these unanswered questions, the most
disturbing pertain to the demand that millions of so-called Millennials must
purchase health insurance — estimated at about $1,700 a year — that they will hardly
use. Their premiums supposedly will subsidize older, in-need Americans who
cannot pay the full costs of coverage that they will draw on frequently. (If I
understand the progressive position, the laws of mathematics and economics are
racist. ~Bob)
Pajama Boy: The
Obama Machine’s Id. The new face of Obamacare is a man in a
plaid onesie. Of course. By Charles C. W.
Cooke
Excerpt: Oh dear. The Obama administration isn’t doing very
well with putting an empathetic face on its calamitous health-insurance law, is
it? First, we had Julia, the creepy, eyeless, vision-of-horror from Brave
New Worldwhose life was run from cradle to grave by the federal government.
Then, we had Adriana, the painfully neutral and carefully ambi-racial
stock-model-from-everywhere whose face became so synonymous with
HealthCare.gov’s hilarious launch that she had to be replaced with a graphic
plugging an 800 number. And now, courtesy of Organizing for Action, we have
Pajama Boy, a metrosexual hipster in a plaid onesie who wants you
to spend your precious Christmas days talking to him about the president’s
vision for health insurance.
Taking Pleasure in
Obamacare's failures. By Jim Geraghty, Morning
Jolt
Morning Jolt is
worth subscribing to. I can only give you a taste from time to time to
encourage you to do so. ~Bob. Excerpt:
From the beginning, Obamacare fans inside and outside of government insisted
that they were right, that we were wrong, and that we were motivated by all
sorts of malicious and callous motives. They insisted our skepticism was fueled
by ignorance and outdated ideology. Our warnings and dire predictions were
dismissed as sour-grapes negativity and pessimism. Most of the ideas from the
right -- medical malpractice reform, interstate sales of insurance -- were
ignored or dismissed. We said you couldn't require insurance companies to cover
a lot of new expenses -- i.e., pre-existing conditions -- without driving up
costs, and that higher costs inevitably would drive up premiums. Obama's promise that his plan would lower premiums by $2,500 per year
for families was always industrial-strength snake-oil, and yet somehow
we were the bad guys for saying it couldn't possibly happen, short of covering
the costs from the discovery of the Leprechaun's pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow. Now it is exceedingly clear that one-sixth of the nation's economy is
being fouled up beyond recognition by a convoluted, complicated, poorly-planned
Rube Goldberg of a law that has been implemented by hacks whose overestimation
of their own abilities is on an astronomical level. So we're not enjoying any
of the problems from Obamacare, but spare us the insistence that we not take
any satisfaction in seeing our assessment of the world, the limits of policy,
the capabilities of government, and the possibility of grandiose, utopian
promises reaffirmed, verified, underlined, highlighted, and footnoted in
high-definition, day after day.
Poll: Many uninsured
haven't explored Obamacare options. By Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony
Salvanto and Fred Backus
Excerpt: More than two months after the health care
exchanges opened, a new CBS News/New York Times poll reveals most uninsured
Americans - 58 percent - say they have not looked up information about applying
for insurance, while four in 10 have done that.
Breitbart Poll: 70%
Do Not Trust The Media To Inform About Obamacare
The other 30% read only the sports and comics pages--if they
can read. ~Bob
Funny:
Obamacare Is The Gift That No One Wants: The 12 Days of Obamacare
This is
good! ~Bob
Obamacare Tech Hurdle
Looms Right Before Enrollment Deadline
Excerpt: Switching hosts is not in and of itself a huge risk
if it is done carefully and with lots of preparation, according to technical
experts interviewed by Reuters. It is the timing of the highly complex maneuver
that is risky. If there are problems, the website could become sluggish or even
unusable for anyone trying to enroll. The government is tempting fate, they
said.
Some Illinois
Excerpt: Illinois
officials are e-mailing and calling some 30,000 people, advising them to start over
on their health insurance applications.
NMHIX group
enrollment so far: 291
Excerpt: As of Wednesday, the New Mexico Health Insurance
Exchange had spent at least $2.5 million on marketing and outreach campaigns to
get people to buy health insurance.
And as of Wednesday, 291 people had enrolled for coverage
beginning Jan. 1 on NMHIX’s small business exchange. ($859k each. ~Bob)
ObamaCare's Troubles
Are Only Beginning: Be prepared for eligibility, payment and information
protection debacles—and longer waits for care. By Michael J. Boskin
Excerpt: The White House is claiming that the Healthcare.gov website
is mostly fixed, that the millions of Americans whose health plans were
canceled thanks to government rules may be able to keep them for another year,
and that in any event these people will get better plans through ObamaCare exchanges.
Whatever the truth of these assertions, those who expect better days ahead for
the Affordable Care
Act are in for a rude awakening. The shocks—economic and
political—will get much worse next year and beyond. Here's why:
Excerpt: Since the passage of Obamacare in 2010, many of the
President’s famous promises have been routinely broken. As he so ironically
threatened in 2009, “If you misrepresent what’s in this plan, we will call you
out.” To that end, here are 10 promises of Obamacare that have already been
broken.
Excerpt: Peter Lee is going to need a copy of The
Happiest Life, and very soon, because his 2014 looks like it will be
miserable, though not as miserable as he will have made the start of the new
year for hundreds of thousands of Californians whom Lee has failed. Lee is the
number one guy at what may prove to be the biggest failure of many big failures
in the state Obamacare exchanges.
The News in
Zingers: By Argus Hamilton
Excerpt: President Obama's approval rating fell to thirty-eight
percent Friday while Toronto
mayor Rob Ford's approval rating soared to fifty percent. The conclusion is
plain to see. President Obama would have been better off smoking crack than
passing Obamacare.
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