Decline of the Republic

The House passage of the "comprehensive" health care bill is being hailed by Democrats, liberals and the media (there I go, repeating myself again) as an historic event in American history.  They are right, but not quite in the sense they mean it.  It is an historic event alright, but only because we have just witnessed the shredding of our Constitution, the imposition of authoritarian rule and the beginning of the decline of the Republic.

Silly me.  I thought that the powers of the federal government were supposed to be "few and defined" and that any powers not specifically enumerated in the Constitution as belonging to the federal government were to be reserved to the states.  Now admittedly, this has not stopped either Democrats or Republicans in the past from imposing  unconstitutional legislation on the nation, but never in our history has congress expanded the reach of government into the lives of its citizens to this extent against the clear will of those citizens.  The arrogance of a government takeover of  health care,which is opposed by 75% of the electorate who had let congress know in no uncertain terms that they wanted no part of this legislation, is just beyond comprehension.  I guess Rep. Alcee Hastings summed it up when he said, " There are no rules, we make them up as we go along".

That there is something wrong here is evident in the fact that it took tremendous pressure, maneuvering, and deal making  by Obama, Reid and Pelosi  in order to convince members of their own party to vote for this monstrosity.   No one in congress, the administration or the media knows all of the specifics that this 2000+ page monstrosity contains because they haven't read the thing.  As Nancy Pelosi pleaded, "We must pass this in order to find out what is in it".  Say what?

We do know some of what is in it and it is not good.  For the first time in the history, the government will have the power to tax someone for not buying a product, in this case health insurance.  The Dems are calling it a fine, but it is really a tax, because this regulation will be enforced by our friendly IRS and can result in taxes up to 2.5% of a persons income for failure to comply.  If a citizen goes without health care for a month, he will be forced to pay a one twelfth of the tax.  Imagine that the government told you that you had to own an automobile and imposed a tax on you if you refused to do so.

Regardless of how Obama tries to spin it, this bill is going to drive up insurance premiums, require an increase of $570 million in taxes  (and those taxes won't just be on the "rich"), transfer the millions of private doctor/patient decisions in to the hands of government bureaucrats and lower the quality of health care for everyone.  All this without lowering the cost of health care one cent. 

The provision that those with pre-existing conditions are entitled to purchase health care on the open market and not from a high risk pool is madness.  (Why can't I wait until I have a wreck to buy auto insurance?)  The inevitable result of the "pre-existing" provision  will be to drive insurance companies out of business and force everyone into a government run health plan which has been the end game all along.  Once under government control, the only outcome will be  longer waits for treatment and  rationing of health care by government panels.  Exactly what the Canadians have now.  Which brings up the question, "Now where are they going to go for medical care"?

There is no way that the country can afford this.  We are already $1.5 trillion dollars in debt and now we are going to add another $940 billion to that?  China is already balking at further lending and if they refuse to buy any more of our debt, the only solution is to print money, which the government is already doing.  This will lead to hyper inflation, driving up the cost of goods and services and once again putting health care out of the reach of those phantom 33 millions Americans who can't afford it now.  Folks, we are headed straight for third world nation status. 

One thing is certain, Americans should not be surprised at this.  Obama promised change and this is the type of change he was talking about.  Anyone who looked beyond the manner of speech to the actual content in his campaign would have known that he is a socialist.  When he told "Joe the plumber" that he was going to spread the wealth, that should have sent off alarms nationwide, but all it did was produce a collective yawn from the media and Americans.

I have to give the Democrats credit.  They were smart enough to ensure that the pain this bill is going to cause will not take effect until after the November elections with most of it not kicking in until after the elections in 2012.  What they are hoping is that it will have been the law of the land long enough with no adverse consequences and have become so entrenched that citizens will  view government provided universal health care as a right.

The bottom line is that we have now wrecked what was the best health care system in the world for 90% of the population in order to accommodate the other 10%.  The Democrats don't really care, because this whole deal isn't really about health care, it is about expanding the power of the federal government and basically changing our form of government.  Obama has gone on record as saying that he thinks the Constitution limits government too much and that the Founders never intended to lock us into one form of government.

I can see only two solutions to this.  First, remember who voted for this in November, vote them out and try to repeal this mess.  Secondly, don't get sick after this legislation takes affect.

Gay Marriage and Religious Freedom

 From Chuck Colson's Breakpoint

Gay Marriage v. Religious FreedomA Cautionary Tale March 8, 2010
     Catholic Charities in Washington, D.C., has announced changes to its employees’ health care benefits. Normally, this wouldn’t be big news. But this story isn’t only about deductibles and co-pays—it’s about the increasingly fragile state of religious freedom in the America.
     Employees were told that starting March 2, Catholic Charities would “not offer benefits to spouses of new employees or to spouses of current employees not already enrolled” in the health plan. Spouses currently covered under the plan would still be covered.
     The timing of the changes wasn’t a coincidence. On March 3, same-sex “marriage” became legal in the District of Columbia. In connection with the new law, the D.C. Council insisted that, as a city contractor, Catholic Charities had to offer the same benefits to same-sex couples that it did to heterosexual ones.
     In other words, Catholic Charities had to choose between church teaching and ministering to the city’s neediest residents.
     To put it mildly, the Council wasn’t sympathetic to the Archdiocese’s concerns. One Council member called them “childish.”
    It’s also no surprise that the D.C. Archdiocese is being portrayed as the villain. The Washington City Paper’s headline ran “To Avoid Funding Gay Marrieds, Catholic Charities Denies Benefits to All Spouses,” with the emphasis on “all.” In case the reader didn’t get it, the City Paper added a visual reminder: a picture of a rosary.
     There’s no recognition that what the Washington Post called a “bitter debate” between the District and the Archdiocese was, in fact, a profound infringement of religious freedom–an infringement done at the behest of a tiny minority within a tiny minority.
Nor was there any acknowledgment that these kinds of infringements aren’t limited to government contractors. Ordinary people are being asked to choose between their livelihood and obedience to their faith—like photographers, landlords, and caterers.
     You will also search in vain for mainstream media coverage of the indispensible role played by Christian institutions in caring for the vulnerable and marginalized. Almost 25 percent of the world’s AIDS patients are cared for in Catholic institutions alone. Christian hospitals in the U.S. serve a disproportionate percentage of the urban poor.
     All we read about, however, is the Catholic Church’s “stubbornness” or “recalcitrance.”
But it’s not just Catholics. All faithful Christians engaged in charitable work increasingly are being told to choose between serving their neighbors or following the dictates of their faith.
     This threat to religious freedom was one of the driving concerns behind the Manhattan Declaration. Interestingly enough, one of the original signers was Archbishop Wuerl of D.C., who refused to bend to the District’s demand. More than 425,000 people have now pledged not to “comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions” to do that which God has forbidden.
     Christians no longer have the luxury of sitting idly by while religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, and the institution of marriage come under more assault.

Trends for 2010

Excerpts from Chuck Bentley, CEO, Crown Financial Ministries in the January issue of Money Matters:

"1. The federal government will continue to expand and increase:  Although operating dangerously close to insolvency, the financial crisis of 2008 has given way to the "spend our way out of this" strategy currently in use by those who are entrusted with the use of our tax dollars.  As George Bernard Shaw observed, " A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul".

2. Banks will continue to have less loan activity: A correction is underway as the amount of money borrowed by businesses and individuals is reduced so that existing debt can be paid back. This would be a healthy trend if it did not have such an [negative] impact on our economic recovery.

 3.  A commercial real estate crisis: As delinquencies rise on commercial mortgages surge and vacancy rates rise, highly leveraged properties will continue to be in jeopardy of foreclosure.  At present, more than 3,000 banks and savings institutions have more than 300 percent of their risk-based capital in commercial real estate loans.

 4. State budget crisis: At least 48 states have addressed or still face shortfalls in their budgets for fiscal year 2010.  State budgets are built upon tax revenues. With declining residential property values and downward pressure on commercial real estate valuations, more states could find themselves  in a financial bind and in need of severe corrections to their expenditures, increasing taxes or seeking federal bailout money.

 5. Pivotal mid-term elections:  The U.S. government is wildly increasing its indebtedness while the general population is struggling to decrease its indebtedness as rapidly as possible.  The government has threes sources of income: taxes, borrowing, or printing currency.  When taxes and borrowing become insufficient to handle their appetite for spending, they will resort to the final option of further devaluation, printing worthless money.

Our appropriate response, regardless of our political affiliation, is to vote for those seeking office who see themselves as stewards of the resources supplied by the citizens and will commit to see our nation live within our means.  All others are not worthy of holding office.  If the midterm elections of 2010 do not achieve this result, a painful correction is looming large for all of us."

 

 

A Breach of Social Etiquette?

Scott Cost, a local columnist in Fort Mill, SC, has published a column complaining that  anyone who approaches him and brings up the subject of faith is in breach of social etiquette.  It seems that Scott takes great offense at the audacity of someone who would claim to know truth and try to persuade him to a different way of thinking.  I think it illustrates an age old problem of man, wanting to be his own god and not willing to submit to anyone or anything outside of himself.

I wonder if Scott would think me arrogant if we were at a social gathering and I told him not to drink the punch as I knew for certain that it was poisoned.  Probably not, as he would quickly realize that I had his best interest at heart.  You see, a claim to absolute truth is not arrogant in and of itself.  Everyone lives their life under the basic assumption that what they believe is absolutely true.  It is the same with those who spread what they consider to be the Good News of the Gospel.  They assume it to be true and are so convinced that it is indeed "good news" that they want to share it with others.  It is done out of love, not arrogance.

Admittedly, some Christians can come across as being arrogant, but Christianity itself is an invitation, not a command.  In Matthew 11:28-29, Jesus said, "Come unto Me, all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light".

People issue invitations because they want you to share in something that they believe will be to your benefit.  If Scott takes offense, it says a lot more about him than those who invite him to church or into a relationship with Christ.  He is perfectly free to reject the Gospel.  It is a proposal, not an imposition. .

Where's the Controversy?

The headline reads "Controversial Ga. billboards link abortion, race".  In the article by Errin Harris of the Associated Press we find that there is a "Too Many Aborted" billboard campaign in Atlanta by Georgia Right to Life.  The campaign is aimed at reducing abortions within the black community.

The article itself exposes Harris' views on abortion.  The group producing the billboards is referred to as "anti-abortion".  Now they are, and on the surface this may seem innocuous, but it is a psychological ploy.  People are naturally suspicious of any group that is "anti" and Harris could have easily referred to Georgia Right to Life as being "pro-life".  One never hears of  those in favor of abortion  being referred to as "anti-life", it is always "pro-choice".

One has to wonder what is controversial about the campaign?  Are people who tell the truth and bring that truth before the public the ones causing controversy or is the controversy caused by those who do not want the truth to be told?

Planned Parenthood of Georgia spokesman Leola Reis says that "The language in the billboard is using messages of fear and shame to target women of color" and then parrots the party line euphemism that the only way to stop abortions is to provide "quality, affordable health care" to women.  This is the same as saying that the only way to stop abortions is to make them widely available.

The PR problem that Planned Parenthood has is that the billboards expose the truth.  Planned Parenthood was founded by the noted racist Margaret Sanger.  Sanger was a promoter of eugenics and abortion to reduce the numbers of what she considered to be inferior races, notably blacks.  Today in this country, black women make up 13% of the population, yet have 35% of the abortions.  The great majority of Planned Parenthood abortion mills are in black neighborhoods.  So the evidence is there that the abortion industry targets blacks.

Imagine the audacity of pro-life blacks opposing a disproportionate killing of their unborn. Where is the controversy in that?

A scientist comes to Christ

The drumbeat of modernists is that science and religion are incompatible, that only science deals with reality and religion is relegated to the realm of the subjective with no basis in fact.

Well, enter Francis Collins, MD, PhD, former director of the US Human Genome Project.  Collins has an amazing testimony of how science led him to Christ.  He was raised in a non-Christian home and declared himself an atheist in college, having little tolerance for belief in God.  He had developed a belief that science held all the answers regarding ultimate "truth".

It was only after Collins began his pursuit of a medical degree, because of his interest in DNA and RNA, that his worldview began to change.  One day, an elderly patient with heart disease shared her deep faith in God with him and asked him "What do you believe"?  From her innocent question, Collins realized that up to that point, he had rejected God because of intellectual dishonesty.  After all, a scientist is supposed to consider the evidence before rejecting a conclusion and he had never investigated the possibility that Christianity might be true.


Expecting an investigation of the rational basis of faith to shore up his atheism, he began to study world religions.  It was then that a pastor gave him a copy of C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity.  Lewis, who had once been an atheist himself, presented powerful, logical arguments for the existence of God.  A major premise that got to Collins was the idea that we all have an intuitive sense of right and wrong that spans all cultures.  This idea could have no basis in evolution, a philosophy embracing survival of the fittest.  This Moral Law was a signpost, potential evidence of a Law Giver.

Another signpost for Collins was the fact that the physical laws of the universe could be expressed in simple, beautiful mathematics.  And what about the characteristics of our universe, with fifteen constants that determine the behavior of electromagnetism, the strong and weak nuclear forces, the gravitational force perfectly calibrated to make complexity possible.  Any minuscule change in these characteristics would be catastrophic.  The implication of design was overpowering.

The more Collins investigated, the more he accepted God's existence and the more he despaired in being so far away from God's plan.  His despair was resolved when he met the person of Jesus Christ and his promise of forgiveness. In his twenty seventh year, Collins yielded his life to Christ while hiking in the Pacific Northwest. He states that, in 30 years,  he has found no conflicts between what he knows as a scientist and what he believes as a follower of Jesus Christ.

Collins work in DNA has only strengthened his belief in Christ.  DNA is the instruction book for all living things.  It is a marvelous code made up of a double helix, carrying information in a digital code consisting of chemical bases that scientists have labeled A,C, G, and T.  It is arranged in base pairs, that, if read aloud without stopping, it take 31 years to read it.  Scientist have now completed the sequence of all 3.1 billion letters of this human instruction book and Collins believes that anything this complex could have never risen purely by chance.  It points to an intelligence which he believes is the God revealed in Scripture.

So, far from being in conflict with Christianity, Collins believes that science confirms that our universe was made by an intelligent God of order who established fixed physical laws that are ours to discover.

The heavens surely declare the glory of God and life at the sub-cellular level clearly reveals His handwork.

Don't ask, Don't tell

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that ending the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military would be the right thing to do.  

Now I served in the military for twenty-three years, retiring after a squadron command, and one thing I know is that the further up the ladder one climbs in his military career, the more political the environment.  This is especially true after an individual starts pinning on stars and finds himself in Washington. In giving his testimony, I can assure you that Admiral Mullen was speaking as a politician, parroting the position of those in the administration, and not as a warrior concerned with the welfare of his men.

Admiral Mullen stated in his testimony that the policy now in place is forcing young men and women to lie about who they are in order to serve.  He could not be more wrong. Columnists Clarence Page unknowingly framed the argument when he stated that men and women should be punished for what they do, not who they are.  The current policy has nothing to do with forcing anyone to lie about who they are, but has everything to do with forbearance in letting them conceal what they do. What they do is rightfully viewed as a perversion by most of their fellow soldiers.

Whether one believes in evolutionism or creation, the human body is designed to perform a certain way.  No one would observe someone sniffing cocaine and conclude that the nose was designed for the purpose of ingesting cocaine into the lungs. By the same token, no one would align two naked humans of the same sex and conclude that they were designed to fit together sexually.  In both cases, the acts would be a perversion of purpose.  Homosexual behavior is banned because it’s immoral, as Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace said before he was shown the door for violating political correctness. The discrimination is based on actions, not inherited traits. 

As for media treatment of this issue, G.K. Chesterton had it exactly right when he said: “Men always attempt to avoid condemning a thing upon merely moral grounds. ….modern journalism has a standing fear. It will call the action anything else – mad, bestial, vulgar, idiotic, rather than call it sinful.” Unsurprisingly journalists have jumped on the civil rights bandwagon, snatching numbers involving homosexuals who serve and those who are separated out of thin air to support their case, despite the fact that there is not one scintilla of evidence to show that homosexuality is genetic. 

Since the 1991 Tailhook incident, women have moved into roles that were traditionally off limits and the results have been a degradation of combat effectiveness.  Discounting the loss of manpower due to pregnancy, the biggest problem that the services face today is fraternization between the sexes within the chain of command and the inevitable resentment due to favoritism.  Politicians have turned the military into a social experiment, forcing men and women to serve for extended periods in close proximity in the intense environment of deployment, expecting no fall out.  It hasn’t worked.  The military has its hands full dealing with this issue , but as always, it  has adapted and overcome. Now the campaign is to throw another social experiment with a sexual component into the equation. 

Surveys show a majority of service personnel oppose lifting the ban, and at least 10 percent say they would not re-enlist. More than 1,150 retired generals and admirals have signed a letter opposing this radical change.  They know that currently our military is the finest in the world, and anything that even hints of detracting from its effectiveness should be rejected out of hand.  Serving one’s country is a privilege, not a right.