COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
There are no greater pacifists than combat veterans, not men who would be unwilling to pay the price of war, but men who understand the true costs and sacrifice, because they did.
ReplyDeleteI've only known one man that was in France, the father of a farmer friend of mine. Don't know if he was at D-Day, but during the Battle of the Bulge, his unit got separated somehow, and they had to walk back half way across the countryside.
ReplyDeleteWe owe them all a great debt.
Scroll Down To Stuart Koehl--9:46 AM For A Good Analysis Of The Korean Military Situation--
ReplyDelete-/
Anyway, seems to me he knows what he is talking about.
Yeah, the SouK would "win", they'd only lose a million civilians or so.
ReplyDeleteStuart is right, we ought to leave Korea, giving lil Kim no one to give a shit about his bluster.
By remaining at Camp Casey we empower the NorKs.
*"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) could not reach an agreement with Republicans regarding consideration of a tobacco regulation bill Thursday evening, effectively forcing the chamber to allow more time for the legislation next week after it already consumed an entire week's worth of debate," Roll Call's Jessica Brady reports.
ReplyDelete*Speaking of tobacco, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) wants to outlaw cigarette smoking, The Hill reports.
I do not even smoke cigarettes and I find Tom Coburn to be offensive to my olfactory receptor neurons.
Fuckin' Republicans,
punch drunk busy bodies.
“What we should be doing is banning tobacco,” Coburn said in a recent Senate floor speech he gave during a debate on a tobacco regulation bill. “Nobody up here has the courage to do that. It is a big business. There are millions of Americans who are addicted to nicotine. And even if they are not addicted to the nicotine, they are addicted to the habit.”
ReplyDeleteIt might appear that lawmakers are inching closer and closer every year to an outright ban on tobacco products, passing waves of taxes and regulations that make it prohibitively expensive to buy cigarettes.
A pack of cigarettes costs about $7 in Washington. In New York City, cigarettes have topped $9 a pack, with more than $5 of that price consisting of government fees.
Patrick J. Buchanan , he tells an interesting set of tales, about how power being is wielded, by President Obama.
ReplyDeleteWhere Bush said Iraq's drive for weapons of mass destruction threatened America and the world, Obama calls Iraq "a war of choice," and re-commits to bring all U.S. combat troops home before 2012 and to seek no permanent bases there.
Where Israeli hawks push for pre-emptive U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, Obama says Iran "should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty."
As there is no hard evidence Iran has gone beyond the NPT, this points to a resolution of the nuclear issue, if Tehran can provide solid assurances it has no clandestine weapons program.
Which is clearly the new US position, as it does adhere to process and legalities. President Obama's touchstones.
There are reports that while Defense Minister Barak was in the office of National Security Adviser Gen. Jim Jones, Obama popped in for 15 minutes to tell Israel's most decorated soldier he wants to see an Israeli plan for peace and a Palestinian state by July.
That state would necessarily have a Jerusalem enclave as its capital, as no Palestinian or Arab leader could agree to a peace that did not include part of Jerusalem, the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock without putting himself in mortal peril.
Behind this clash lies a shift of perspective in Washington.
Obama is directly challenging the thesis of Israel and its lobby, AIPAC, that U.S. and Israeli interests are one and the same, that we are partners. Barack is saying that settlements are an impediment and an independent Palestinian state indispensable to peace. And even if Israel believes its interests are being subordinated and security imperiled, the United States disagrees -- and the United States will prevail.
For Israel and the United States, the days of wine and roses are over.
ReplyDeleteOn this 65th anniversary of D-Day, I'm hopeful that Obama will come to the see the exceptionalism of the US. I don't think one can occupy the Office and not see the country in any other way.
ReplyDeleteThat said, world reaction to the man unsettles me. I heard pro-western, pro-Israel, right reaction to the Cairo speech. Then I heard the speech and some Arab reaction.
His rhetoric is mesmerizing. We saw during the election, that Obama can deliver a powerful speech which seems to cause people to hear what they want to hear. The Arabs for instance hailed the speech as ground breaking and said that they now look for him to institute his policies "on the ground."
BTW - Will the Obama administration go for a Clinton like "On the beach" photo op and if he does, does it matter?
As Rick Wagoner of GM can tell Bibi, you take the king's shilling, you play the king's tune.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Obama can make a case that he better represents the Jewish community in the United States than the Israel lobby, as he won 78 percent of the Jewish vote.
Seems to me that Obama is throwing Israel under the bus in order to placate the "RoP" which throughout the umma seems to have a universal hatred for the Zionists.
ReplyDelete"punch drunk busy bodies."
ReplyDeleteI like that.
How many of the 78 percent would take back their vote? None!
ReplyDelete____________
May 1, 2009
Obama Approval High Among Muslims, Jews, and Catholics
Catholics give Obama higher approval score than Protestants
by Lydia Saad
PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup Poll Daily tracking during President Obama's first 100 days in office finds broad support for him among Americans affiliated with most major U.S. religions. U.S. Muslims and Jews give Obama his highest job approval ratings, at 85% and 79%, respectively. He also receives solid majority support from Roman Catholics (67%) and Protestants (58%), and more approval than disapproval from Mormons.
Sure, he can make whatever case for his constituency he wishes. I understand that but I don't have to agree with whatever the majority of the whirled is currently thinking. I understand that the current majority will move in disagreeable, if not downright destructive directions.
ReplyDelete************************************
Re: Paki ethanol. Something tells me that not a drop of it ever reached US shores. It wouldn't surprise me if this was a way to funnel more dollars to the Pakis and there was little or no actual fuel involved.
There are multiple articles, whit, describing the technological upgrades the Paki refineries need to make, to produce more exportable ethanol.
ReplyDelete$1.5 million per plant.
They are expanding that capacity, because the export market is real and viable.
Along with their own internal use in blended fuels, which their oil industry has opposed, tooth and nail.
Compared to the quantities they exported to the EU, the US trade is next to nothing.
ReplyDeleteI Googled it. Sometimes my mind can wander into the cynical, conspiracy theory arena.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like we are entering the ethanol era. Could be bad news for the oil producers.
If Obama's popularity with American Jews has increased since they voted 78% in his favor, what is the problem?
ReplyDeleteThey're Americans that happen to be Jewish, duece.
ReplyDeleteThat does not make them Israeli or Zionists.
In additin to them being rational folk with Israel not amongst their top 20 concerns.
Israel is being thrown under the bus..
ReplyDeleteDR is right...
Israel will be pushed into a corner and will respond..
MUCH to the distain and scolding and punishment by the USA (the new friend of the RoP)
Israel and the non-kool-aid drinking jews are not surprised that in 2009 here arises a modern day black hearted pharaoh that will seek it's destruction.
( I think the reason that american jews supported and support bho is that they cannot or do not want to understand what black hearted evil stands before them)
BHO may be POTUS, but he will not stop Israel of the Jews from the basic right of not committing suicide.
If America (under bho) decides to side against israel? America does at her own peril..... America will slit it's moral throat. Dont take this as a threat from me, take it as a PROMISE from ONE who is actually descended from Prophets...
IF America decides to side with the world against Israel? Israel might get a boot in the ass, but America will loose it's specialness, it's greatness and it will be the nail in the coffin of American exceptionalism... But that IS what BHO wants...
BHO wants to destroy the OLD America, and replace it as JUST another nation on the face of the earth, if unchecked? he will do that...
As for Israel & the Jews? Many to numerous to name all have attempted to destroy us, for over 3400 years we have been... From the Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans, Greeks, Ottomans, Nazis & more... If you really think that after the pogroms, haman, death camps and unrelenting years of arab murderous behavior you think that one floppy earred, community organizer will destroy Israel's right to be? Your sadly mistaken...
Israel has offered to give up MUCH for peace...
If a real peace was in the offering Israel has offered 99.6% of HISTORIC Jewish lands of the Judea and Samaria for peace, INCLUDING SINCE 1967 ALLOWING MOSLEMS TO CONTROL, DEFACE AND OCCUPY THE TEMPLE MOUNT
What more can Israel do for peace, except kill themselves?
649/650th of the middle east has been rendered Juden-free
Except for tiny pockets around the world and America, Jews have been ethnically cleansed from the surface of the earth. Those tiny pockets of Jews that are scattered across the globe are targeted by constant violence by Islamic peoples, these same peoples that BHO now wants to make more concessions to for "peace"...
A concept that BHO is pushing for is that Islam has the right to demand Jews to stop being human and start being Dhimmis.
I am sorry I do not accept that...
If America chooses to, congrats on your new dhimmi state....
Nationwide Price Spread between E85 and Unleaded Up to 18%.
ReplyDeleteFuck the Arabs, and Jews; This is D-Day. Today marks the day America entered Europe, marking the beginning of the end of the mass genocide.
ReplyDeleteWe sacrificed hundreds of thousands of our finest young men in the battle, but we're no longer "special" if we don't kiss the Israelis' asses. Piss on it. I'm tired of it.
While oil prices were steadily rising last month 38 Million Barrels were Coming Out of Floating Storage.
ReplyDeleteThere are 34 VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carriers) still out there with 68 Million Barrels on board.
If the price of crude can continue to rise even while we're drawing down 38 Million Barrels Gasoline probably isn't going Down anytime soon.
Quite likely, Never again.
rufus said...
ReplyDeleteFuck the Arabs, and Jews; This is D-Day. Today marks the day America entered Europe, marking the beginning of the end of the mass genocide.
rufus...
The world has fucked the jews, including america.. America COULD have stopped the genocide YEARS before D-Day without shedding the drop of one sacred American life... America COULD have accepted Jewish refugees from the S.S. St. Louis and saved thousands...
But in the end, it wasnt the Jews that attacked America in 1783, it was the arabs....
and it wasnt the Jews that sided with Hitler DURING WW2 it was the arabs....
and it wasnt the Jews that behead and suicide bomb the world, it is the arabs...
and it wasnt the Jews that flew planes into the world trade centers, it was arabs...
and it was America's 1st moslem President that is destroying America, not the Jews...
Rufus: We sacrificed hundreds of thousands of our finest young men in the battle, but we're no longer "special" if we don't kiss the Israelis' asses. Piss on it. I'm tired of it.
No you misread what I wrote, try again...
Our PRESIDENT says we AINT SPECIAL...
BUT IF America seeks to fulfill the POLICY of it's current President and sides with despots and tyrant it WILL lose it's specialness...
Learn to read...
Diplomacy of Wishful Thinking
ReplyDeleteObama in Cairo.
By Mona Charen
In Cairo, President Obama told (was it for the 100th time?) the story of his African father and American mother. This story has worked well for him in the American context, and he seems to believe that it will beguile the rest of the world as well. We shall see whether this experiment with autobiography as foreign policy has purchase.
But while some of his appeal to Muslims for common ground was certainly benign, there were aspects of the speech that may create more problems than they solve.
Obama has signaled to the Arab world that his administration is willing to pressure Israel about settlements in the West Bank. Asked before his Middle East trip about relations with Israel, President Obama told National Public Radio, “Part of being a good friend is being honest. And I think there have been times where we are not as honest as we should be about the fact that the current direction, the current trajectory, in the region is profoundly negative . . . ” (Whenever someone starts a sentence by advising that “good friends tell each other the truth,” duck.) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spelled out the president’s policy bluntly: “He wants to see a stop to settlements — not some settlements, not outposts, not ‘natural growth’ exceptions.”
President Obama presumably wants Israel to uproot the 300,000 Jewish settlers who live in the West Bank to make way for a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. This is the “solution” to the Palestinian question that has been endorsed, formally and informally, by the last three presidents and most of the foreign ministries in the world. It has even been endorsed by many Israelis, including former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, who offered 95 percent of the West Bank and all of Gaza to Yasser Arafat.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of handing over the West Bank to the Palestinians has lost favor in Israel after Gaza was evacuated (at considerable pain) in 2005, because the area became a launching pad for missiles aimed at the Israeli heartland. But President Obama has a solution to that. It’s nothing much — just the wholesale reversal of Palestinian political culture.
“Palestinians must abandon violence,” the president instructed. “Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed. For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America’s founding. . . . Now is the time for Palestinians to focus on what they can build. The Palestinian Authority must develop its capacity to govern, with institutions that serve the needs of its people.”
Is that all? If Mahmoud Abbas were like Martin Luther King Jr. and the Palestinians were like African Americans at Selma and Birmingham, things would be very different. In fact, if the Palestinians were not wedded to terrorism and violence; did not celebrate as heroes and martyrs those who blow themselves up in shopping malls and restaurants; were not beset with corruption, steeped in anti-Semitism, and drunk on maximal claims, there would be no conflict. Israel would have long since given up huge portions of the West Bank, as it gave all of Sinai back to the Egyptians.
And then there is the small matter of Hamas. One of Hamas’s leaders proclaimed as recently as January that his organization “will not rest until we destroy the Zionist entity.” Hamas’s charter is explicit that “Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement.” The charter also looks forward to the day when “The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” Hamas controls Gaza, and, were it not for the presence of the Israel Defense Forces, would control the West Bank as well.
President Obama, who seems to live in a realm where wishing makes it so, waved his magic wand in Hamas’s direction too. “Hamas does have support among some Palestinians,” he said, “but they also have responsibilities. To play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, and to unify the Palestinian people, Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, and recognize Israel’s right to exist.”
Good luck with that. In the meantime, Palestinian hopes for American pressure on Israel have been ignited — with what conflagrations to come we do not yet know.
— Mona Charen is a nationally syndicated columnist.
whit said...
ReplyDelete-
" On this 65th anniversary of D-Day, I'm hopeful that Obama will come to the see the exceptionalism of the US. I don't think one can occupy the Office and not see the country in any other way.
"
---
Ain't gonna happen.
Our Man Came Pre-Programed.
Hard Wired.
Simpleton
Loan Modifications Another Taxpayer Bailout to the Housing Industry: Mortgage Modification Default Rates over 50 Percent. Over 4 Percent of Subprime Loans First Payment Defaults.
ReplyDelete-
Have you noticed how little the media actually talks about how homes are overvalued? Or how little attention is given to the oncoming Alt-A and option ARM tsunami? Maybe they don’t want to disrupt the fantasy world of those that hold these mortgages. Yet that is not the reality of the situation. I can only shake my head when I hear that servicers are getting “incentives” to modify loans. This is more money down the drain because we already know that many of the modified loans re-default...
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This is absurd. Nearly half the loans after 5 months are back in the default bin because they fail to address the root cause of the problem. Homes are still priced too high in many areas. People conveniently forget that we had an epic housing bubble with unstoppable price gains for a full decade. Now with two years of declines they suddenly expect that home prices are somehow adjusted? They are not. Take a look at the Case-Shiller Index...
“Palestinians must abandon violence,"
ReplyDelete-
Clinton Must Abandon Sex
April Must Abandon Flowers
July 28th, 2008
ReplyDelete-
Crony Capitalism for Dummies: Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. How the Bailout will not Help you and Cost you Money. A Deep Look at the 694 Pages of the Bill.
OBAMA BEACH?
ReplyDelete---
Just learned that a woman I know here was a friend and classmate of Dunham/OBAMA BEACH's mom.
---
HER mom is 104,
the oldest living teacher at the
oldest school in the USA,
west of the Mississippi,
Lahainalua.
So There.
Breitbart.tv » Hillary Clinton Obama’s Charisma & Eloquence Aren’t Enough to Solve World Problems
ReplyDelete---
Hillary on Wellesley LSD Trip.
(my friend refered to above went to Wellesley,
did Dunham?)
ie, where were they classmates?
BUT IF America seeks to fulfill the POLICY of it's current President and sides with despots and tyrant it WILL lose it's specialness....
ReplyDeleteI'm still working on my reading skills, WIO; but, I think I got that about right.
But, I'll tell you what I'm Tired of reading. I'm tired of reading bitching, and whining. Whining, and bitching.
All Israel has to do is quit taking our money. Once they do that we will have NO Control over What they do. If they're so damned Brilliant, and special you'd think they could get by without our paltry little couple of billion.
Why Don't They?
Rufus: All Israel has to do is quit taking our money. Once they do that we will have NO Control over What they do. If they're so damned Brilliant, and special you'd think they could get by without our paltry little couple of billion.
ReplyDeleteWhy Don't They?
Actually the current Prime Minister did just that several years ago... BiBi requested and got a reduction to ZERo all economic aid..
As for Military Aid it's a little different...
You see, we great Americans SUPPORT and give about one trillion dollars a year to the enemies of Israel, we also protect the enemies of Israel economic success by GIVING them BILLIONS in direct aid and protecting the shipping lanes..
Israel has accepted MILITARY aid from the USA, I suspect that if AMERICA did not arm, fund and prop up the enemies of Israel she would not need military aid from the USA.
Personally I agree, Israel should immediately stop all USA aid.
Israel should destroy the economic engine of the persian and arab world without delay, thus relieving it of having to compete with national defense spending against the arabs...
Israel spends 150 billion a year in military spending. The 3 billion America gives israel is sure helpful, but your point is quite well taken...
Israel should tell America thanks but no thanks for the aid and I do suspect that is coming....
But then, they can, without any problem, sell technology and weapons to the highest bidder...
Israel pays for it's own defense without the use of America blood, let's remember that this D-Day...
How many lives has America lost trying to fight against the arab world? Trying to free the arab world, trying to protect and defend the arab world?
But in the end, if you take money from a John, I guess your a whore and have to DO what the John tells you...
Israel is fighting for it's survival.
Literally every day Israel is attacked for being, the values of Israel being a pluralistic, free and open nation USED to be the motivation for the USA to lend a hand to help her against a sea of intolerance...
As moslems continue to stab, behead, shoot and murder Americans the tide will turn again and America will wake up....
hopefully not before it's too late
You see, we great Americans SUPPORT and give about one trillion dollars a year to the enemies of Israel, (That's 7% of our GDP. We only spend 4% for Defense.)
ReplyDeleteThat's ludicrous.
Now, you're just "Making Shit Up."
No, they take our "Aid" for the same reason they sold those Drones to Russia. They can't turn down a "Buck."
I'm tired of it. You'll just have to continue the Israeli Whine with someone who gives a fuck. Cause, I don't.
rufus said...
ReplyDeleteYou see, we great Americans SUPPORT and give about one trillion dollars a year to the enemies of Israel, (That's 7% of our GDP. We only spend 4% for Defense.)
How much do we spend on OIL?
How much do we spend on 2-3 carrier groups?
How much do we spend on Iraq?
Aid to Egypt, Palestinians, Jordan, Arabia?
Factor it together and get back to me/
Rufus: No, they take our "Aid" for the same reason they sold those Drones to Russia. They can't turn down a "Buck."
ReplyDeleteI'm tired of it. You'll just have to continue the Israeli Whine with someone who gives a fuck. Cause, I don't.
Rufus your point of view is quite amazing..
we give 3 billion a year to israel, the vast majority spent in the usa...
do you bitch about the 110 billion a year we give to nato?
do you bitch about the cost of US troops in south korea?
do you bitch about aid to the arabs, but if you were to be HONEST and see how much OIL actually costs us you'd be anger too, but not at Israel
I agree with you, cut Israel off, let them fight their own battle...
But dont bitch when they take out the their enemies, dont stop them like the USA does...
dont bitch if oil goes to 9 dollars a gallon after Iran's oil exporting is destroyed (not to mention arabia's)
Let the Israelis win, but let's be honest.. with or without aid to israel, arabs will still want to murder you...
rufus,
ReplyDeleteI don't recall anyone taking that attitude with you over ethanol or universal health care.
For me I agree with rufus...
ReplyDeleteStop the whinning and start the bombing...
Hit the Aswan dam...
Hit the Iranian oil refineries & military and industrial ports
Hit the major arab and persian electrical generating plants & sub stations
destroy all water treatment plants from Lebanon to Arabia....
Yep, I bet in 48 hours Israel could cripple the entire arab & persian world for about 25 years...
Not to mention an entire generation of arab kids with flippers....
It's simple really match arab violence with Israel response..
tell america to stop supporting both sides of the coin..
"They're Americans that happen to be Jewish, duece.
ReplyDeleteThat does not make them Israeli or Zionists.
In additin to them being rational folk with Israel not amongst their top 20 concerns."
truth.
re: fus', only a tool votes for someone he doesn't wan't to win, regardless of what thier chances are.
you got ptsd?
What I don't get is why everyone across the board seems to think Obama gives a good speech. It all seems like vapor to me, and I can't stand his usual rising inflection on the last two or three words of a sentence. I'm sick of the bastard, that's what I'm sick of.
ReplyDeleteGood clean fun--heheh--
ReplyDeleteThree Examples
WIO, I don't care if they Nuke every country in the middle east. Hell, someone will have to sooner or later, they'll just be saving us the eventual trouble.
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm just tired of the "tit" for "tat." And, the whining. When Hamas send a rocket over, the Israelis should tell the U.S. to "stick it," and pound the hell out of Gaza, women, kids, goats, sheep, all of it.
But they don't. They dick around. Then they let the religious crazies go over there in the West Bank, and build those little, old dipshit "settlements." Then that gives the Palestinians something to bitch about. And on. And, on.
Infinitum. Enough. Fight the Fucking War, and get it Over With.
And, no, we don't "Give" a trillion dollars/yr to Israel's enemies. We are forced, as a result of our own stupidity, to Buy a couple of hundred billion worth of oil from them, and yes, we do spend another couple hundred billion protecting that bad deal. So, looked at that way, you are about half right (probably will be completely right in a few years, though.)
Look, you don't understand. I'm a simple redneck. I don't mind a good fight; I just can't stand the bickering, and nip-schitting. I just want somebody to kick somebody's ass so we can have some peace, and quiet around here. all this arguing is starting to irritate my pig.
Slim, as far as McCain, and Obama, I didn't care for either one. Not even a little bit. I, quite simply, could not get myself to "pull" for either one. First time in my life.
Whit, there hasn't always been "Universal" agreement with my stance on ethanol; and I don't recall ANYONE here agreeing with me on health care.
ReplyDeleteAir France plane crash: two bodies recovered from Atlantic, says Brazil's air force.
Two bodies of passengers from the Air France plane that crashed over the Atlantic have been recovered, Brazil's air force has announced.
...
Debris thought to be from the downed airliner, including luggage and an aircraft seat, have also been retrieved, according to officials.
The bodies of two men were plucked from the sea 550 miles off the main coast of Brazil, apparently the first to be discovered of the 228 victims of the worst air disaster since 2001.
Persistent searching by Brazilians. Good work.
At least you don't have baboons humping on the hood of your car, Rufus. Be thankful of that.
ReplyDeleteHERE COMES HEALTH CARE RATIONING
ReplyDeleteBy DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN
June 6, 2009
The photo op was too good to be true. Health care providers trooped out of the White House and trumpeted their goal of saving $1.7trillion of costs over the next decade in health spending. Now these drug companies, hospitals, insurance companies, medical device manufacturers, labor unions and doctors have laid out their plans in more detail.
And right there, in plain print, is the beginning of medical care rationing. Now that the cameras have been put away and the media is no longer watching, their secret emerges: They are going to cut medical costs by cutting medical care. Right now, they cite four targets. They plan to:
1. Cut diagnostic imaging tests like MRIs and CAT scans.
2. Reduce the use of antibiotics.
3. Perform fewer Caesarean sections.
4. Cut care for management of chronic back pain
These decisions will not be medical but financial. They will not be based on a doctor's opinion of what his or her patient needs, but a bureaucrat's and an accountant s opinion of what the new health care system can afford.
And you will not be able to bypass their rulings and pay for this care yourself. The rules laid down must be followed and private payments will not be permitted to override them. What we now call a private fee for service will metastasize into a bribe.
But this is just the very beginning of rationing. The total of health care spending now runs about $2.3 trillion a year in the United States. Over ten years, that's likely to reach $30 trillion. So a cut of $1.7 trillion is a mere drop in the bucket.
More rationing is coming, and coming soon.
In our new book (coming out on June 23rd) Catastrophe, we explain exactly what rationing will mean and what it has done to patient care in Canada.
It's not a pretty picture and Obama will bring it here soon unless we stop him. Forewarned is forearmed!
And, we all knew this was coming--
ReplyDeletePolygamists Demand Fair Play--
-/
Next up: brother and sister
Look, you don't understand. I'm a simple redneck. I don't mind a good fight; I just can't stand the bickering, and nip-schitting. I just want somebody to kick somebody's ass so we can have some peace, and quiet around here. all this arguing is starting to irritate my pig.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Rufus. Mostly.
Although peace and quiet around here would get dull. Until Trish shows up.
Baboons humping on the hood of the car, eh? Hmmph, wouldn't know nothing about that. heh, heh.
ReplyDeleteGreat Video.
As for Morris's column. I'll just have to find out a little more about their reasons for this cost cutting. Meantime, forgive me if I'm just a little bit "skeptical."
That baboon could sure get it up fast.
ReplyDeleteme too. look it, if the rag heads had no oil i wonder how much this popularity contest would change. upbringing or not, i'll never ingratiate myself towards another so i can have something of theirs i think i need. i rebel against the whole notion of it.
ReplyDeleteIke agrees with deuce--
ReplyDelete"But I do know this," he said in June 1954 meeting with news correspondents, according to a transcript. "That out of it all, the people who know war, those that experienced it _ you writers, the fighting men _ I believe we are the most earnest advocates of peace in the world."
He continued: "I believe these people who talk about peace academically but who never had to dive in a ditch when a Messerschmitt 109 came over, they really don't know what it is."--
-/
Ike's Vision
How Much Is An Old Geezer Worth?
ReplyDeletePat| 6.6.09 @ 12:29PM
Are the answers to the question of how the young folks of today can and will support a generation of old geezers comprising 20% plus of the nation's total population to be found within the pages of Milton's "Paradise Lost"? Can the interminable novels of Tolstoy help you decide what to do with 5 million old men and women dying of cancer and requiring prolonged and expensive treatements? Extensive, complex treatments they can't afford but which must be paid for by the working population - namely you. What would Shakespeare do?
Do you spend the money - money that must come from taxes levied on a dwindling population of younger workers in order to prolong their lives another 6 months, maybe another year? Or do you legally require them to die so as to preserve those funds needed to assist others who can be saved - allowing them to pass from this life in a dignified and loving way like they do currently in the Netherlands?
They won't make your decision easy. They'll insist they earned it, paid taxes their entire life, you owe them some consideration and they want to live that extra year. They'll tell you it wasn't their fault the government squandered the money, they never wanted that to happen. But the money is in fact gone - so what do you say to them?
These are questions of judgment and moral values. How do you weigh the care, feeding and medical treatment of these oldsters against what you and your future children will need? Are the answers to be found within the classics? Probably not pragmatic answers that can be implemented - a source of solace maybe, a sense of shared humanity maybe, but not who should live and who should die. Remember, that in the future, you will still have needs that must be met from government - your children need an education, the country must be defended, roads, police, energy generation, medical research, etc., etc. - every agency in government reaching out for your tax dollars. And you need to experience a well-lived life yourself, conserving what little money the government leaves in your pocket.
Today's young folks will make these choices, the old will be trying to influence them through personal advice as well as through their AARP political organizations. Had these unfortunate oldsters planned ahead, their golden years would truly be golden and their legacy, their estate passed on to you young folks would have been a rich one. Unfortunately, that's not to be and young men and women will be forced to make hard choices they never asked for or wanted. So what conceivable advice would these old geezers have that will make these choices easier for you? Ask yourself, what advice could they possibly have for you now that it's too late to matter?
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stmichrick| 6.6.09 @ 1:21PM
Pat;
Why don't you take a trip to the Netherlands now as you seem to be in great pain caused by those who have gone before you.
Contempt for learning from history and wisdom gained by the previous generation was accelerated 40 years ago when the Faux Enlightenment of the Children of the Greatest Generation made it to college.
In hindsight, it was inevitable that offspring who knew not the struggle of economic depression and war, only the benefits of a society freed from it, would shirk responsibility for maintaining freedom when confronted.
...They’ll ask you, over the long decades after, “what you did in the war.” You’ll think of this day and you will never think of a good answer. That’s because you know just how lucky you were.
ReplyDeleteIf you were not lucky that day you’ll lie under a white cross on a large lawn 65 long gone years later. Weak princes and fat bureaucrats will mumble platitudes and empty praises about actions they never knew and men they cannot hope to emulate. You’ll hear them, dim and far away from the caverns of your long sleep. You’ll want them to go, to leave you and the others to their deep study of eternity. Sixty-five years? Seems like a lot to the living. It’s but an inch of time. Leave us and go back to your petty lives. We march on and you, you weaklings primping and parading above us, will never know how we died or how we lived.
If we hear you at all now, your mewling only makes us ask, among ourselves, "Died for what?"
Weak princes and fat bureaucrats, be silent and be gone. We are one with the sea and the sky and the wind. We march on.
Vanderleun : June 6, 09
Pat Buchanan's an a-hole. The great Catholic, the great anti-semite.
ReplyDeleteAsk him sometime how many Christians have been killed in, say, Lebanon.
He's an embarrassment.
US Attorney Jeffrey Taylor Resigns
ReplyDeleteHe may be all that, bob, but he's right, too.
ReplyDeleteThis time.
Rufus...
ReplyDeleteWe DONT disagree much actually..
The Israelis (under US pressure) DONT kick the ass they need to do...
Maybe with our Israel hating president in power he'll try to "punish" israel and cut aid...
Not something I am actually against... Israel can and will fight for it'sself, but we in america will have a real pain in the ass when the middle east oil supply is disrupted in a major way...
The amazing thing about the middle east is that as time is going on things are beginning to move in a interesting direction..
there was a time, not to long ago, when israel would be hauled up infront of the UN for bulldozing an empty home belonging to a terrorist
Now Israel can fight bank in ever increasing prejudice without fear of international rebuke..
What israel has dont to hezbollah and hamas has been actually quite remarkable, if you read beyond the cnn newsbites.
As the world turns, the islamic nut jobs keep murdering more and more different peoples, it aint ONLY israel's issue...
'
Iran is coming to a head and guess what? If i was an arabian i'd be shitting myself right now..
And if Iran hits arabia, oil goes to 300-400 a barrel...
I think an awful lot of farms, and businesses are going to have something like this some day. E-Fueler
ReplyDeleteA lot of them--Arabs--would sigh a sigh of relief if Israel humbled Iran, I believe.
ReplyDeleteSeems like some people are getting ticked off that the White House has used its web site to sing the praises of a Multi-Cultural Trainer--
-/
We're to be the trained seals.
clap,clap,oink,oink
That looks like a good device, Rufus.
ReplyDeleteI used to have a big thick booklet from USDA from the Carter days about how to make fuel on a farm....but I've lost track of it. Never used it. Had all the diagrams and instructions, though.
ReplyDelete...Since the prototype's unveiling in May 2008, the MicroFueler design and E-Fuel business model have undergone improvements that will enable consumers and businesses to more easily reduce their carbon footprint...
ReplyDeleteI stopped reading right there.
Gorean Myth chanters.
I used to have a big thick booklet from USDA from the Carter days about how to make fuel on a farm....
ReplyDeleteIt's easy, bob.
---------
Get you a copper kettle,
get you a copper coil
Fill it with new made corn mash
and never more you'll toil.
You'll just lay there by the juniper
while the moon is bright
Watch them jugs a-filling
in the pale moonlight.
hick&%*^
ReplyDeleteAmong Americans killed during WWII were thousands of Jews.
ReplyDeleteScattered across Western Europe are numerous military cemeteries of WWI, holding the mountains of dead of the various combatants. Interestingly, in the German military cemeteries are innumerable grave markers plainly displaying the Star of David for all the world to see. Not even the Nazis dared desecrate this sacred ground.
Good Afternoon!!! 2164th.blogspot.com is one of the most excellent resourceful websites of its kind. I take advantage of reading it every day. Keep it that way.
ReplyDelete