National Death Service - Now coming to a hospital near you !!!

Britain's National Death Health Service has a target date of treating all patients within 18 weeks. 

Yeah.  18 weeks.  In the U.S., we can grow a cotton crop within 18 weeks. 

Here's The Guardian:

New NHS performance data reveal that the number of people in England who are being forced to wait more than 18 weeks has risen by 26% in the last year, while the number who had to wait longer than six months has shot up by 43%.


In March this year, 34,639 people, or 11% of the total, waited more than that time to receive inpatient treatment, compared with 27,534, or 8.3%, in March 2010 – an increase of 26% – Department of Health statistics show.

Similarly, in March this year some 11,243 patients who underwent treatment had waited for more than six months, compared with 7,841 in the same month in 2010 – a 43% rise.

Despite rising demand for healthcare caused by the increasingly elderly population and growing numbers of people with long-term conditions, the NHS treated 16,201 fewer people as inpatients in March 2011 compared to March 2010, the latest Referral To Treatment data disclose.

In other words, their government-run medical system is accomplishing less, and taking much, much longer to do it. 

Sound familiar?  Like the post office, the public schools, the department of motor vehicles, the federal government, the state government, the county government, and the city government?

If you feel a cold coming on, better get in line now. 

The Grouchy Old Cripple makes it into The Urban Dictionary

My friend Denny has made it into The Urban Dictionary. 

The first time I read Denny's stuff at his "Grouchy Old Cripple" site, I knew that I was going to start a website.  I've now had the privilege of partying with Denny twice. 

If you disagree with Denny's politics, you are free to comment and argue with him.  A couple of rules, though....
You have to stay on-topic, and you have to address Denny's points.  Otherwise, he edits your comments and you'll wind up telling 5 or 6 thousand people how much you enjoy eating boogers, or that you still wet the bed during thunderstorms, or worse. 

His site, his rules. 

So here's the Grouchy Old Cripple entry in the Urban Dictionary:

An ultra-partisan blog where posts that contain dissenting opinions are distorted by the administrator in order to buttress the shaky foundation on which his simplistic world view is founded. In this twisted microcosm, the humiliation of dissenters is achieved by distortion rather than by a display of superior logic or a greater mastery of the facts. The resultant dearth of posts with opposing viewpoints preserves the echo chamber that is essential for maintaining a thriving culture of ignorance. In this enclave of ill-informed demagogues, people with a shaky grasp of science and history take undeserved pleasure in congratulating themselves on being smarter than professionals who possess advanced degrees dealing with these subjects.

I'm guessing that whoever wrote this is working on a Masters in Sociology.  Just a guess on my part. 

Let's take this definition one sentence at a time, shall we? 

An ultra-partisan blog....

Of course it's ultra-partisan.  CNN is ultra-partisan.  So is Fox.  So is the Sunflower County Weekly Wiper.  That's why they have an audience.  That's why Denny has one of the top 100 Conservative Blogs. 
It wasn't until the 1990's Republican Revolution that people started using the word "partisan" as an insult.  Before then, the Dems pretty much controlled Congress.  When the Democrats finally got some opposition, "Bi-partisanship", or "working together to screw the citizenry" became the new ideal. 

....where posts that contain dissenting opinions are distorted by the administrator....

Not if you stay on point, and not if you know how to argue. 

....in order to buttress the shaky foundation on which his simplistic world view is founded....

Denny, as best I can tell, is a right-leaning libertarian. 

His opposition, the Statists, have us in 5 wars, 14 trillion in debt, with a school system that turns out illiterates, a Post Office that can't deliver Sports Illustrated, a Federal Reserve that is printing money to pay debts, and a desire to take over our healthcare system (since they've been so succesful at everything else). 

And Denny's worldview is shaky and simplistic? 

In this twisted microcosm....

Five or six thousand hits per day (for a one man operation) isn't a microcosm, dude.  Get linked by Denny, and you get something called a Crippleanche. 

....the humiliation of dissenters is achieved by distortion rather than by a display of superior logic or a greater mastery of the facts.

See everything written above. 

....The resultant dearth of posts with opposing viewpoints preserves the echo chamber that is essential for maintaining a thriving culture of ignorance....

No, no, no. No.  People post opposing viewpoints all the time.  Some of them become legends.  And they keep coming back.  They're like kittens who keep hopping into a cage with the Pit Bulls. 

In this enclave of ill-informed demagogues....

Bullshit.  I've gone to Blogger Meetups with these ill-informed demagogues.  (And BTW, you don't really call a blogger and his commenters "demagogues".  A blogger would be the demagogue, and his followers would be "disciples" or "toadies" or something.  But I'm quibbling about semantics here.)  If you want to talk politics and history with well-informed people, hang out with Denny's friends. 

....people with a shaky grasp of science and history take undeserved pleasure in congratulating themselves on being smarter than professionals who possess advanced degrees dealing with these subjects.

Oh for the love of God. 

Ben Bernanke, who is screwing our economy eight ways from Sunday, has a Doctorate in Economics. 
Timmy "The Tax Dodger" Geithner has a Masters in Political Science. 
She Whose Name Is Not Spoken has a degree in Political Science. 
Al Gore has a B.A. in Government. 
The Teleprompter Jesus has a law degree, and at one point actually taught Constitutional Law.  You either think that's funny, or you don't. 

Those people could screw up a brass donkey.  Whatever they learned in school is deeply and profoundly wrong.   

Anyway, I read this definition and thought it was the funniest sprinkling of Smart Words over a thin layer of stupid that I've ever read.  Especially to the people who know Denny. 

One other thing.....  I usually get together with Denny and his friends in Bandera TX for a Blogger Meetup every year.  But our economic and political situation, because of professionals who possess advanced degrees dealing with these subjects, is so screwed up that a lot of us can't afford to go this year.  We've had to cancel the event. 

If our country could be run by this particular enclave of ill-informed demagogues, I don't think we'd be having these problems. 

Yes, they walk among us

A very nice lady comes into my Starbucks almost every morning.  We've made small talk a few times. 

Today she showed up wearing this: 

Yeah, she's one of theTrue Believers who thinks that Judgement Day will be tomorrow. 

I asked her about any possible backup plans, just in case God/Jesus/Spirit didn't descend on Jerusalem and start holding court. 

She said that they don't even think about that possibility, since that would be "doubting God, and doubting God's word." 

She left me with some helpful tracts. 

I've scraped the main page from their website, mostly because you lazy folks NEVER hit links.  Don't bother reading it.  Just get the general flow of the thing. 

I can promise you this....  When the world doesn't end tomorrow, the Family Radio scaremongers will remain in business.  They'll drop back and punt to a later date.  The donations will continue to flow. 

Just like the Global Warmists will continue trying to panic the populace when the glaciers haven't melted in 2013. 

Just like the Warmongers kept banging the drum for more invasions after we didn't find WMD's in Iraq. 

Just like the early church kept going after the disappointment of not having Christ return within their lifetimes.

Just like we keep pumping money into so many things, rather than admit we need to start over. 

Here's the site.   Sorry for the lack of formatting.  If all of you readers are taken up into the sky, and I'm left behind to take care of the dachshunds, I'm going to spend my free time improving my HTML skills. 

**********************

The purpose of this tract is to inform you of the great
urgency there now is in the world for each and every person to be reconciled to
God. The Bible is the Word of God! Everything the Bible declares has the full
authority of God Himself. Now, at this time, information is coming forth
from the Bible which clearly reveals God’s plan for Judgment Day and the end of the
world itself. The Bible has opened up its secrets concerning the timeline of
history. This information was never previously known because God had closed up
His Word blocking any attempt to gain knowledge of the end of the world. We
read about this in the book of Daniel:

Daniel 12:9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for
the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

However, now in our present day, God has opened up His Word
(the Bible) to reveal a great deal of truth concerning the end of time (and
many other teachings). Also, in the same chapter of Daniel, it says:

Daniel 12:4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the
words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and
fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

God is now opening up His Word because we have arrived at
the time of the end. For this reason, it has become very obvious to the serious
student of the Bible that we are now living in the last few days of earth’s
history. As a matter of fact, because we are living at the end of time, God is
now revealing to His people the following information:

THE BIBLE’S CALENDAR OF HISTORY

The Lord has opened up His people’s understanding to the
“Biblical calendar” found on the pages of the Bible. The genealogies of the book
of Genesis, primarily in chapters 5 and 11, can be shown to be a precise
calendar of the history of mankind in this world. The Bible’s calendar of
history is completely accurate and trustworthy.

Since this Bible calendar is given by God in His Word, it
can be trusted wholeheartedly. In this brief pamphlet, we will share some of
the conclusions derived from the Biblical calendar and from other studies in the
Scriptures. However, the amount of information available is far too
abundant and complex to get into much detail in this short pamphlet; but we
can and will give precise and compelling dates. These dates can be trusted
entirely because they come right out of the Bible. (EBiblefellowship has no affiliation with Family Radio; however, we highly recommend that you obtain a free copy of the book “We Are Almost There!” by writing to the following address: Family Stations, Inc., 290 Hegenberger Rd., Oakland, CA 94621. This book goes into far greater detail regarding the timing of Judgment Day and the end of the world. Also, you can read or download “We Are Almost There!” online at:
http://www.familyradio.com/).

TIMING OF IMPORTANT EVENTS IN HISTORY

11,013 BC—Creation. God created the world and man
(Adam and Eve).

4990 BC—The flood of Noah’s day. All perished in a worldwide flood. Only Noah, his wife, and his 3
sons and their wives survived in the ark (6023 years from creation).

7 BC—The year Jesus Christ was born (11,006 years
from creation).

33 AD—The year Jesus Christ was crucified and the
church age began (11,045 years from creation; 5023 calendar years from the flood).

1988 AD—This year ended the church age and began the great tribulation period of 23 years (13,000 years from creation).

1994 AD—On September 7^th, the first 2300-day period of the great
tribulation came to an end and the latter rain began, commencing God’s plan to
save a great multitude of people outside of the churches (13,006 years from creation).

2011 AD—On May 21^st, Judgment Day will begin and the rapture (the taking up into heaven of God’s elect people) will occur at
the end of the 23-year great tribulation. On October 21^st, the world
will be destroyed by fire (7000 years from the flood; 13,023 years from creation).

ONE DAY IS AS 1000 YEARS

The child of God has learned from the Bible that the
language of Genesis 7 has a twofold meaning:

Genesis 7:4 For yet seven days, and I will
cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living
substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

Historically, as God spoke these words, there were seven
days remaining for Noah, his family, and the animals to get into the
safety of the ark; but spiritually (and the Bible is a spiritual book), God was
speaking to all of the people of the world and was declaring that sinful mankind
would have 7000 years to find refuge in the salvation provided by Jesus
Christ. How can we know that? We know this is so based on what we read in 2
Peter, chapter 3:

2 Peter 3:6-8 Whereby the world that then was,
being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are
now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of
judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the
Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The context of 2 Peter 3 is extremely important! In the
first few verses, God refers us to the destruction of the world by the flood
during Noah’s day. Then we find an interesting admonition that we ought not to be
“ignorant” of one thing, which is, 1 day is as
1000 years, and 1000 years is as 1 day. Immediately following this bit of
information is a very vivid description of the end of the present world by
fire.

What could God be telling us by identifying 1 day along
with 1000 years?

Since we recently have discovered the Biblical calendar of
history on the pages of the Bible, we find that the flood of Noah’s day occurred
in the year 4990 BC. This date is completely accurate (for further information on the Biblical timeline of history, please go to:
http://www.familyradio.com/). It was in
the year 4990 BC that God revealed to Noah that there would be yet 7 days until the
flood of waters would be upon the earth. Now, if we substitute 1000 years for
each one of those 7 days, we get 7000 years. And when we project 7000
years into the future from 4990 BC, we find that it falls on the year 2011 AD.

   4990 + 2011 = 7001

Note: When counting from an Old Testament date to a New Testament date, always
subtract one year because there is no year zero, resulting in:

   4990 + 2011 – 1
= 7000 years exactly.

The year 2011 AD will be the 7000^th year from
the flood of Noah’s day. It will be the end of the length of time given to
mankind to find grace in God’s sight. This means that the time to find refuge
in Christ has grown extremely short. We are only a little ways off from the
year 2011 AD!

It is not unusual that God’s people have been given
insight into the timing of the end of the world. Actually, the Bible tells us
this is normally the case. In times past, God has warned His people of
approaching periods of judgment:

Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing,
but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of
things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his
house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the
righteousness which is by faith.

JUDGMENT DAY: MAY 21^st, 2011

We know that the year 2011 is the 7000^th year
from the flood. We also know that God will destroy this world in that year.
But when in 2011 will this occur?

The answer is amazing. Let’s take another look at the
flood account in the book of Genesis:

Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's
life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same
day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of
heaven were opened.

Faithful to His Word, God did bring the flood 7 days later
in the 600^th year, on the 17^th day of the 2^nd
month of the calendar aligned with Noah’s lifespan. It was on this 17^th
day of the 2^nd month that God shut the door on the ark, securing
the safety of its occupants and also sealing the fate of everyone else in the
world outside of the ark. They would all now certainly perish in that
worldwide catastrophe.

Genesis 7:16,17 And they that went in, went in male
and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.
And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare
up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.

Earlier it was mentioned that the church age came to an
end in the year 1988 AD. It so happens that the church age began on the day of Pentecost (May 22^nd) in the year 33 AD. Then 1955 years later, the church age came to its conclusion on May 21^st, which was the day before Pentecost in 1988.

The Bible teaches that the end of the church age would
occur simultaneously with the beginning of the great tribulation:

Matthew 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation,
such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever
shall be.

On May 21^st, 1988, God finished using the churches and
congregations of the world. The Spirit of God left all churches and Satan, the
man of sin, entered into the churches to rule at that point in time. The Bible
teaches us that this awful period of judgment upon the churches would last for
23 years. A full 23 years (8400 days exactly) would be from May 21 ^st, 1988 until May 21^st, 2011. This information was
discovered in the Bible completely apart from the information regarding the
7000 years from the flood.

Therefore, we see that the full 23-year tribulation period
concludes on May 21^st, 2011. This date is the exact day that the great
tribulation comes to its end, and this is also the most likely landing spot for the
7000 years from the flood of Noah’s day.

Keep in mind that God shut the door on the ark on the 17^th
day of the 2^nd month of Noah’s calendar. We also find that May 21 ^st, 2011 is the end of the great tribulation period. There is a strong
relationship between the 2^nd month and 17^th day of Noah’s
calendar and May 21^st, 2011 of our Gregorian calendar. This
relationship cannot be readily seen until we discover that there is another
calendar to consider, which is the Hebrew (or Biblical) calendar. May 21 ^st, 2011 happens to be the 17^th day of the 2^nd

month of the Hebrew calendar. By this, God is confirming to us that we have a very
correct understanding regarding the 7000-year timeline from the flood. May 21 ^st, 2011 is the equivalent date to the date when God shut the door on Noah’s
ark. Through this and much other Biblical information, we find that May 21 ^st, 2011 will be the day when God takes up into heaven His elect people.
May 21^st, 2011 will be Judgment Day! This is the day God shuts the door of salvation on
the world.

In other words, in having the great tribulation period
conclude on a day that identifies with the 17^th day of the 2^nd

month of Noah’s calendar, God is without question confirming to us that this is
the day He intends to shut forever the door of entry into heaven:

John 10:9
I am the door: by me if any
man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

The Bible is very clear that Christ is the only way into
heaven. He is the only portal into the glorious kingdom of heaven.

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any
other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we
must be saved.

Once the door (Jesus) is shut on Judgment Day, there is no more salvation
possible on earth:

Revelation 3:7 …These things saith he that is holy,
he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man
shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;

The Bible teaches that on May 21^st, 2011, only true believers elected by God to receive salvation will be raptured
(taken up) out of this world to meet the Lord in the air and forever be with the
Lord:

1 Thessalonians 4:16,17 For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump
of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and
remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in
the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

All the rest of mankind (billions of people) will be left behind to experience the awful judgment of God, a horrible period of 5 months of torment upon earth:

Revelation 9:3-5 And there came out of the smoke
locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the
earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass
of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men
which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given
that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five
months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh
a man.

THE END OF THE WORLD: OCTOBER 21^st, 2011

By God’s grace and tremendous mercy, He is giving us
advanced warning as to what He is about to do. On Judgment Day, May 21^st, 2011, this 5-month period of horrible torment will begin for all the inhabitants of the earth. It will be on May 21^st that God will raise up all the dead
that have ever died from their graves. Earthquakes will ravage the whole world
as the earth will no longer conceal its dead (Isaiah 26:21). People who died as saved individuals will experience the resurrection of their bodies and immediately leave this world to forever be with the Lord. Those who died unsaved will be raised up as well, but only to have their lifeless bodies scattered about the face of all the earth. Death will be everywhere.

The Lord also emphasizes these awful 5 months of destruction
in the final verse of Genesis, chapter 7:

Genesis 7:24 And the waters prevailed upon the
earth an hundred and fifty days.

Five months after May 21^st, 2011 will be October 21^st, 2011. It so happens that October 21^st of 2011 is also the
last day of the Biblical Feast of Tabernacles (held simultaneously with the
Feast of Ingathering). Tabernacles is held in the 7^th month of the
Hebrew calendar. The way God speaks of this feast in the Bible is very
significant:

Exodus 23:16 …the feast of ingathering, which is
in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of
the field.

Exodus 34:22 And thou shalt observe the feast of
weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at
the year's end.

The Feast of Tabernacles / Ingathering was said to be in
the “end of the year” even though it was observed in the Hebrew 7^th

month, which is not the end of the year. The reason for this is that the
spiritual fulfillment of this particular feast is the end of the world. The date October 21^st,
2011 will be the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles and the
last day of earth’s existence. The Bible describes what will take place on October 21^st, 2011 in the following passage:

2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as
a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great
noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the
works that are therein shall be burned up.

Along with the entire world and universe, all those who
have sinned against God and were left behind will likewise be consumed by this
fire and be eternally destroyed:

2 Thessalonians 1:8,9 In flaming fire taking vengeance on
them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the
Lord, and from the glory of his power;

On October 21^st, 2011, God will completely destroy this creation and all of the people who never experienced the salvation of Jesus Christ along with it. The awful payment for their sinful rebellion against God will be completed by the loss of everlasting life. On October 21^st, 2011, all of these poor people will cease to exist from that point forward. How sad that noble man, made in God’s image, will die like a beast and perish forever:

Psalm 49:12 Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.

There is much more to share. But please, dear soul, be warned that the time for salvation is drawing to a rapid close! God
has given the world 7000 years from the flood, and now only a few days remain
until we reach May 21^st, 2011. Before we know it, time will have run
completely out. The few grains of sand remaining in our hourglass will have
elapsed and be gone forever. Although little time remains, there is
still wonderful hope for anyone today:

2 Corinthians 6:2 (For he saith, I have heard thee in a
time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now
is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)

It does not take God much time at all to save someone. In
the last hours of a terribly sinful life, the thief on the cross was saved by
Christ:

Luke 23:42,43 And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily
I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

Our prayer is that you will receive this tract in the
spirit of genuine concern in which it is being offered. As you read this
pamphlet, please carefully consider the verses quoted from the Bible, for they
are the Word of God, and as such, possess absolute power and authority. Our only
hope for salvation is through the reading of the Word of God. It is now that
the door of heaven (Christ) is open. It is now that God is saving a great
multitude of people from around the world outside of the churches and
congregations:

Revelation 7:9,13,14 After this I beheld, and, lo, a
great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds,
and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed
with white robes, and palms in their hands; …What are these which are arrayed
in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest.
And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation,
and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

God saves through the hearing of the Word of God and no
other way:

Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God.

Read the Bible with all your family (especially your
children); and along with your reading, pray for mercy. Pray to the merciful and
gracious God of the Bible that He might deliver you from the approaching
destruction. We learn a little about God’s tremendous compassion in the book
of Jonah. God also gave advance warning to the people of Nineveh regarding the
destruction of their city:

Jonah 3:4-9 And Jonah began to enter into the
city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall
be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast,
and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For
word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid
his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he
caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the
king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste
any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered
with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from
his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God
will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

God did not destroy the people of Nineveh. Although there
is no possibility that God will not follow through on His intention to destroy
the world in 2011, we can know from His dealings with the people of Nineveh that
God is tenderhearted and full of mercy. This should encourage each one of us
to go to God and beseech Him for His great mercy.

Psalm 86:15,16 But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and
gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. O turn unto me, and
have mercy upon me;…

**********************

Yeah.  What he said.  If Judgement Day is tomorrow, I don't think I'm going to be posting any longer.  I'll be too busy being tormented.  Or looting, depending on how one interprets the Book Of Revelation. 
  
On the upside, I think God will probably End The Fed. 

What Would Willie Do?

Willie Nelson has endorsed former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson for president. 

GOP Presidential hopeful and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson has gained the first endorsement of Willie Nelson and The Teapot Party. Known for his outspoken stance in favor of marijuana legalization, Governor Johnson was a logical choice for Willie’s “grass roots” party, now almost 68,000 strong on Facebook.

Willie supported The Teleprompter Jesus in 2008, but is probably disappointed that the hypocritical dope smoking and coke snorting dipshit hasn't done more to stop black people from being locked up in steel cages for dope smoking and coke snorting. 
 
Here's the great Bruce Robison, singing "What Would Willie Do?"


 

Nancy Pelosi's district got 20% of the latest ObamaCare© Waivers !

Nancy Pelosi, who once said that "we have to pass the (ObamaCare©) bill so you can find out what's in it"....



Nancy Pelosi, whose statement that "we have to pass the bill so you can find out what's in it" guarantees her an entry in Bartlett's Quotations....  (Remember when The Teleprompter Jesus promised to put all bills on line for five days before a vote?)

Nancy Pelosi, who made the famous ObamaCare© grand entry/victory lap walking into Congress, with her arms linked with those of civil rights legends....



Yes, THAT Nancy Pelosi....

Of the 204 most recent exemptions from ObamaCare©, 20 percent of them ARE FROM HER FREAKIN' DISTRICT !!!!

Gag me with a dirty diaper. Here's The D.C. Caller:

Of the 204 new Obamacare waivers President Barack Obama’s administration approved in April, 38 are for fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent hotels in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Northern California district.

That’s in addition to the 27 new waivers for health care or drug companies and the 31 new union waivers Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services approved.

Pelosi’s district secured almost 20 percent of the latest issuance of waivers nationwide, and the companies that won them didn’t have much in common with companies throughout the rest of the country that have received Obamacare waivers.

Other common waiver recipients were labor union chapters, large corporations, financial firms and local governments. But Pelosi’s district’s waivers are the first major examples of luxurious, gourmet restaurants and hotels getting a year-long pass from Obamacare.

For instance, Boboquivari’s restaurant in Pelosi’s district in San Francisco got a waiver from Obamacare. Boboquivari’s advertises $59 porterhouse steaks, $39 filet mignons and $35 crab dinners.

Then, there’s Café des Amis, which describes its eating experience as “a timeless Parisian style brasserie” which is “located on one of San Francisco’s premier shopping and strolling boulevards, Union Street,” according to the restaurant’s Web site.

“Bacchus Management Group, in partnership with Perry Butler, is bringing you that same warm, inviting feeling, with a distinctive San Francisco spin,” the Web site reads. Somehow, though, the San Francisco upper class eatery earned itself a waiver from Obamacare because it apparently cost them too much to meet the law’s first year requirements.


The reason the Obama administration says it has given out waivers is to exempt certain companies or policyholders from “annual limit requirements.” The applications for the waivers are “reviewed on a case by case basis by department officials who look at a series of factors including whether or not a premium increase is large or if a significant number of enrollees would lose access to their current plan because the coverage would not be offered in the absence of a waiver.” The waivers don’t allow a company to permanently refrain from implementing Obamacare’s stipulations, but companies can reapply for waivers annually through 2014.

If you're ever feeling queasy and can't quite puke, but really want to get it over with, hit the D.C. Caller link above and read the entire article. 

Here's Ed Morrisey, commenting on the value of ObamaCare© to politicians.  They pass a burdensome law, and then sell exemptions to it:

The odds of one Representative getting 20% of a batch of waivers from the Obama administration as a coincidence seems rather high.  Once again, we have to wonder exactly how waiver applications are judged and approved.  With its high percentage of unions and party leader constituents, this is looking more and more like a mechanism for political payoffs.

Here she is one more time, just in case you still haven't quite tossed up all yer cookies.  When Townhall Protester/Tea Party-types oppose ObamaCare©, it's because they're extremist Nazis.  If Democrats in San Francisco oppose it? 
Here's an exemption.  For the special people. 

The Mainstream Media's bias against Libertarians

A few days ago, Mark Halperin created this chart for Time magazine. 

Ok, it's his chart.  He doesn't have to include anyone that he doesn't want to. 
But he's got Newt on there, along with Palin and Bachmann. 

At the time this was published, Newt was polling at 10%.  So was Ron Paul.  Where is Ron Paul on the chart?  Where is Gary Johnson? 

I watched Meet The Depressed last Sunday.  All sorts of Republican long shots were mentioned during the panel discussion, but with little or no mention of Paul or Johnson.  I noticed the same thing on The McLaughlin Group.  I think Eleanor Clift mentioned Paul in passing, saying something like "Ron Paul is in there, but he's really a libertarian". 

I could list dozens of other examples of an anti-libertarian bias in the media, but I'll go ahead and get to the point. 

The Mainstream Political Media, as a general rule, cannot stand libertarianism.  IMHO, here's why:

To make it to the top in political journalism, one must cultivate contacts in government, and guard and cherish those contacts above all else.  
Political reporters have to understand the political system, and how things get done in government.  The better their understanding, the better their salary, prestige, and status. 

But here comes a group of people who think electing a new president should be no more important than choosing a new lawncare service.  If libertarians were elected in large enough numbers, government wouldn't be nearly as important.  Therefore, political media wouldn't be as important. 

After the initial spending cuts of 55%, and the bulldozing of various Federal buildings, and the closing of overseas military bases, and the decimation of the bureaucrats, and the release of our Drug War POW's, and the public flogging of Paul Krugman, the Mainstream Media would have very little to write about.

Imagine the following fantasy news article.....

Washington (CNN) -- A group of military contractors, lobbyists, and manufacturing trade associations met with Senator John Spivey (L-Texas) to secure funding for a new BR549 bomber, a defense program guaranteed to create jobs for working Americans, help our economy, and protect our border with Canada. 
Senator Spivey said "No".
The group then met with Senator John Jay Myers (L-Texas) who told them "Not just no, but HELL no."   
Not much happened after that. 

Imagine you're a professional typist/reporter.  What had you rather type and report about? 
Government leaving people the hell alone? 
Or Obama's efforts to save the economy, Libya, Egypt, Social Security, education, the dollar, and everything else the government has screwed up? 

Develop your own plan for balancing the U.S. budget.

Go here.  Play with this machine. 

The levers are set at the current U.S. spending and taxation levels. 

Cut the spending and raise the taxes until spending equals taxes.  Pay attention to what year the nation once again becomes solvent.  Experiment with taxing the Evil Rich and the Evil Corporations to the max for a year.  Then ask yourself how hard the Evil Rich and Evil Corporations are going to work to provide you with more money. 

Remember, every time you raise taxes, you're taking away money that Evil Corporations or your Evil Neighbors use to create jobs in THEIR favorite industries. 

Every time you cut government spending and government jobs, you're taking away some politician's donor base. 

We are so, so, so screwed. 

Like so many other good things, I first saw this on Instapundit. 

Things that we need a word for

There are economic and political concepts that almost everyone understand at some basic level: Inflation, Socialism, Cost Of Living, Democracy, Constitutionality, etc. 

There are others that are fuzzy to many voters:  Regulatory Capture, Monetary Policy, Federalism, and the like. 

And then there are the ones that I don't believe we have a good word for.  For instance....

* When the idjit Fox News debate moderator recently asked the Republican presidential candidates to raise their hands if they would support waterboarding "under certain circumstances that you can imagine", Ron Paul and Gary Johnson didn't raise their hands.  I don't know what this proves.  The point of the question eludes me. 
I'm against waterboarding, or any other form of torture.  But if aliens from the planet Nekthor were to invade us, and they said that they had Chairman Mao on board and that unless I waterboarded the murderous bastard for a few minutes, they would destroy the earth?  Yeah, I would waterboard Chairman Mao under those circumstances.  But what does that prove? 
We need a word for that type of question or debate exercise.  It's not a False Dichotomy, or the Either/Or Fallacy.  We need a word that implies that the person asking the question is playing "gotcha". 

* We need a new word to define this situation:  when politicians talk about how many jobs a new government program will create, but then make no mention of who the money to create the jobs will be taken away from?  Or how many jobs will be eliminated or never created because of that theft?  We need a new word for that situation.  "Stealing" is accurate, but takes too long to explain. 

* Ok, say you are in a romantic relationship with a whore.  She claims that she's a reformed whore, but every couple of weeks you catch her turning tricks outside bus stops, in No-Tell Motels, and with biker gangs.  She always starts crying and says that she's never going to do it again.  You accept this as truth, and continue the relationship. 
Take that concept and apply it to the debt ceiling.  We've raised it 70 times since it was invented.  Seventy.  No matter how much money we give to Washington, they're going to spend more than that.  They swear that they're never, ever, ever going to raise it again.  You accept this as truth, and continue your relationship with the Democrat and Republican parties. 
We need a new word meaning "steadfast refusal to admit that someone is a whore". 

* There are some very smart people who wouldn't dream of using the U.S. Postal Service to deliver an important document.  They use UPS of FedEx.  But they claim that government option is the best for education, healthcare, retirement, and a stable money supply.  We need a new word for their mental condition.  "Cognitive Dissonance" doesn't quite cover it, and "Gullible" is too broad.     

Those are the vocabulary needs that immediately come to mind. 

One million hits

Sometime in the last few days (it's hard to tell because of the unfortunate Blogger/Blogspot programming meltdown) this little site got its one millionth hit. 

I'm glad this thing has found a little bit of an audience.

Please remember, other people are not your property.  Their property is not your property.  In the words of this guy:

They are not yours to boss around. Their lives are not yours to micromanage. The fruits of their labour are not yours to dispose of.


It doesn't matter how wise or marvelous or useful it would be for other people to do whatever it is you'd like them to do. It is none of your business whether they wear their seatbelts, worship the right god, have sex with the wrong people, or engage in market transactions that irritate you. Their choices are not yours to direct. They are human beings like yourself, your equals under Natural Law. You possess no legitimate authority over them. As long as they do not themselves step over the line and start treating other people as their property, you have no moral basis for initiating violence against them – nor for authorising anyone else to do so on your behalf.

Now I've got to go to work.  It's time to boss some people around. 

The sign was lifted from The Idiot Speaketh and Pedalith site. 

What if the Evil Oil Companies got the same tax breaks as the Wholesome Green Companies?

West Texas is slowly being covered with windmills. 
They're built to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and our own reliance on evil, polluting, non-green, greedy corporations. 

You may have heard that the evil, polluting, non-green, greedy oil companies get a massive subsidy from our government.  This is because our government would give a subsidy to prevent alien invasions from the planet Nekthor in exchange for campaign contributions. 

All that aside, what if the oil companies got a subsidy similar to that received by the windmill producers?  (Windmills, ironically, are now called an "industry of the future".)  Here's The Foundry:

With the current debate over ending oil producers’ subsidies the question arises as to what subsidies do the producers actually get. It is a surprisingly complicated question. Wind producers also get subsidies that take complex forms—investment tax credits, production tax credits, mandates, property tax exemptions, etc. But the major federal subsidy for wind producers is the option to take a 30 percent investment tax credit or to receive a 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour production tax credit.


“2.2 cents” doesn’t seem like much, but, depending on the time of year, it falls somewhere between 25 percent and 100 percent of the wholesale price of electricity. Forty percent if frequently used as the average.

So, what would an oil-production subsidy look like if it were the same magnitude?

Deepwater drilling rigs can cost over $400,000 per day. With other costs, a rough per-well figure would be $100,000,000 per well. If an oil company could get the same 30 percent investment tax credit as wind producers, the government would write the company a $30,000,000 check for each well completed. For the lower cost, shallow-water wells, the government would write a check closer to $3,000,000 for every well drilled.

If on the other hand, the oil company opted for a production tax credit (and it was set at 40 percent of the 2010 average price of about $75 per barrel) then the government would write the oil company a check for $30 for each barrel produced (onshore as well as offshore).

If a subsidy like that was the deal oil companies had, then cut away. But the $4 billion per year that oil’s detractors keep repeating works out to $0.60 per barrel, and upon closer examination they do not even qualify as oil-industry subsidies.

Heritage’s Nick Loris and Curtis Dubay have sorted it all out. Of course, there are subsidies for the oil and gas industry, but they come from the Department of Energy, not from unfair tax benefits, and they work out to about a nickel per barrel. So, leave it to Washington to misidentify and exaggerate the problem.

Yeah, you can paint a windmill green, but you can't make it as efficient as oil. 

 

Ron Paul on Envy

I'm trying to finish Ron Paul's latest book "Liberty Defined".  The difficulty, for a Libertarian, is that some of his sentences, paragraphs, and chapters are so outstanding that I stop and re-read them over and over just to internalize what the man is trying to tell us. 

The book is a collection of 50 short essays on topics ranging from Abortion to Zionism.  The bibliographies alone (which follow each chapter) make the book worth purchasing. 

Here's the chapter on "Envy". 

Envy is the painful awareness of another's good fortune.  It is usually associated with the desire to bring an end to that good fortune through some means.  Thus is it worse than jealousy, which is wanting what another has.  Envy seeks to take away what another has out of spite and hatred, and is driven by the desire to destroy.  It is an extremely destructive emotion, one that cannot bring personal happiness and is sure to bring social harm.  the exercise of envy only ends in satisfying a kind of lust for bad to come to others.  All the world religions condemn the impulse.  It is one of the seven deadly sins.  It is something we train our children not to feel.  No good can come of it. 

I raise it in this context because envy is one of the driving forces of redistributionist politics in the United States, an emotion and motivation endorsed every day on the editorial pages.  It is the secret motivation behind the unrelenting attacks on the rich heard every day inside Washington, a town whose population includes some of the most well-to-do people in the entire country.  The emotion that is behind the attacks on the justly rich, and the emotion that such attacks seek to stir within the population, is envy. 

Envy is sometimes called the green-eyed monster.  Many religious traditions have given rise to charms and methods for warding it off.  That's because the envious will stop at nothing in order to achieve their goals of harming those who succeed, even when achieving that goal is itself personally harmful.  Policies driven by envy, such as the progressive income tax and inheritance tax, do not help society.  They gather revenue but arguably less than would be gathered if all taxes were low and friendly to overall production.  But such policies do accomplish the goal of harming people who are rich and successful. 

There are dangerous social consequences to the private exercise of envy.  People fear driving a nice car or living in a nice home because these behaviors might elicit reprisal.  So it is in public policy.  Policies rooted in envy discourage the accumulation of wealth, punish success, and cause people to pull back from doing great things.  People who might otherwise pursue wealth think twice, knowing full well that the force of law stands waiting to crush success. 

To hate is always injurious to the soul.  To hate because another person or class of people has done well for itself compounds the injury.  But that is precisely what policies that survive solely to punish people for making money, or for living well, are really all about.  It's been going on for a very long time.  It strikes me as a form of institutionalized immorality.  Under ideal conditions, our law should elicit from us the best that we have to offer, always appealing to the highest impulses of our nature.  Policies that harm people solely because they are winners in life appeal to the lowest impulses in our nature. 

It is hard enough for people to come to terms with success, especially in a market setting in which superior traits such as foresight and prudence and good judgment really to lead to profitability.  we should learn the virtue of celebrating success or, as the ancient philosophers said, learn to be inspired by the success of others.  We should try to emulate success, not punish it.  This is the American way and a major reason for the wealth and success of Americans. 

It is the same with international politics.  We don't have to be number one and we sure don't have to regard every country that does well (think China here) as a threat to be kicked and punched.  In a true market economy, gain does not come at anyone's expense.  We can all win together, provided we keep the green-eyed monster at bay. 

Almost every essay in Dr. Paul's book is at good as the one above.  I hope you'll buy it. 

The Envy demotivational poster came from here.  The pic of the little green monster came from here.  The cartoon of success being punished came from here.   

Update:  Shortly after laboriously pounding this chapter into the internet, I discovered that THIS BASTARD beat me to it.  I hope he's taxed within an inch of his life.  I hope the government spreads his wealth of readers to "the less fortunate".  Especially me.