It looks like 2012 is shaping up to be a shocking political year.
Our nation is in dire straits and the GOP is simply throwing in the towel. The conservative talking heads have also shown their true colors. They are buying in to the left wing media message about Romney and they’re shoving it down our throats. They aren’t patriots – they’re ego driven salesmen with no consideration for what damage they’ve been doing this election cycle. I used to love talk radio – I thought it was “stimulating.” Now I see I’ve been pawned and taken advantage of. I’ll be heading to the library to check out books on tape from now on. No more talk radio for me. I prefer not to be brainwashed with vitriolic garbage.
The Romney campaign needs to release an ad directed at the right-wing talkers, Santorum, and Gingrich and it should be titled, “Et tu Brute?”
I’m all for the GOP holding to (and even moving toward) its more conservative principles – particularly fiscally speaking. But I don’t see why Romney isn’t the guy to do that. No one has made a coherent argument as to why Romney can’t do that. All I hear is the false flip-flopping charges, and the “he’s not passionate enough” claims. In fact he’s the best guy to champion our conservative values! (Just ask Santorum in ’08 and Gingrich in ’10). And yet the ubber-conservatives want to glom onto what? The candidate who’s supposedly MORE anti-abortion than Romney but can’t win the general? Or the guy who’s supposedly MORE Reagan-esque than Romney but will be raked over the coals by his Democrat buddies come November? Ridiculous.
The funny thing is that I truly sympathize with the Tea Party, and other like-minded groups, yet there is this streak of extremism that I can honestly say makes me quite uncomfortable. Seriously, how else can you explain that in 2008 Romney was the “Conservative Alternative” and won in rural areas all over the country and now in 2012 he’s all of the sudden “not conservative enough”?
I mean really! You’ve got to be kidding me! He’s the same bloody person he was four years ago! And now that the Country is tanking, the primary voters (acting at the whim of conservative talkers and other extremists) are going to abandon our best hope of defeating the most socialist President since Woodrow Wilson?! How can this be rationally explained? It can’t, and that’s why I’m so irrationally upset.
In 2008, Romney had more delegates in his pocket than Santorum does at this point of the race and yet he stepped down on February 7th in order for the party to unite and focus on the General election. In 2012 the remaining candidates are going to do irreparable harm to Romney. They will stay in the race for whatever delusional or arrogate reason and they will suck the GOP funding dry and the GOP will get slaughtered in November!
In the General election, the nominee will go up against the democratic machine already bloodied, bruised and out of money. In a year when the GOP should have been able to trounce the current “occupier” in the White house they are self destructing. The candidates in particular are selling the GOP’s inheritance for a mess of pottage.
Go ahead everyone – take us to a brokered convention! We’ll see how that turns out after the GOP has been milked for every penny and slandered to the ends of the earth. And then we’ll nominate Palin at the convention to go up against Obama and we’ll really see what an ass-kicking feels like! And all for what? Because Romney (though plenty conservative in ’08) wasn’t conservative enough in ’12? Whatever! This election cycle is going to drive me to drink!
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
"Make Mine Freedom!"
There are a lot of bad "-isms" in our world today. And yet they seem to be as popular as ever. When will we remember our founding roots and defend daily the last vestiges of freedom and personal responsibility in the world today?
Friday, January 1, 2010
Faith vs. Fate - Inspiration for a New Year
Hebrews 11:1 - "Faith is the substance [assurance] of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Alma 32:21 - "If ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." The bible dictionary tells us that, “Faith is a principle of action and power. Whenever we work toward a worthy goal, we exercise faith. We show our hope for something that we cannot yet see.” As we are all very familiar with, this is the time of year when many of us make commitments to ourselves and for ourselves that we will hopefully work on throughout the coming new year. New Year Resolutions, while often considered simply cliché, I believe there is a principle of faith that resonates from these resolutions. If we didn’t have hope that those resolutions would better our lives would we make them? If we had no faith that we could achieve those resolutions, would we make them? If we didn’t trust ourselves to be committed to the resolutions would we make them? I’m not talking about those resolutions we make simply so we can participate in the conversation around the water cooler. I’m talking about those resolutions that we make in the quiet recesses of our own hearts and on the blank pages of our private journals. If we had no faith would we make those resolutions?
It is my belief that every person on this planet lives by faith to some extent. Whether it is faith that is realized and understood, or not, we all live by faith. Some of us live lives rich with faith and full of joy. While others of us live lives of minimal faith – just enough to stay afloat. Without faith, would we get up in the morning and take on each new day? Each morning we wake up and we hope our day will be good. We hope that positive things will take place to enrich our lives. We don’t know it will be a good day. We don’t know if positive things will take place. We hope. We hope, and consequently that hope becomes faith as we get out of bed and ready ourselves for the day. While many of us will maintain just that amount of faith to live each day there are others who will magnify their faith and empower themselves to succeed each day. It is our choice of course, whether we are aware of it or not, it is our choice to embrace the enriching, God-given power behind faith or to merely settle for the faith that keeps us alive.
While I was serving my LDS mission in Bulgaria, I had the opportunity to teach countless English Lessons. On Fridays and Saturdays our lessons were just that – English lessons – grammar, verbs, nouns, punctuation, etc. On Wednesdays though, we taught English from a gospel perspective. We covered topics ranging from the attributes of God to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The very first lesson I would teach on a new class schedule was a lesson on faith, and one of the tools I used for this particular lesson was a video clip from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (ask me later how I ended up showing an Indiana Jones movie on my mission – interesting story but not really relevant). I would show the scene where Indiana (Harrison Ford) is being chased to the edge of a cliff. He looks down and sees that the drop-off is so deep he can’t see the bottom. He has to decide quickly what to do and since he is following a treasure map of sorts he begins to recite some of the directions that are on the map. He gets to one that seems to apply and you hear him say something like, “it takes a leap of faith.” He then steps off of the cliff into nothingness and to his relief his foot comes down on a path that was obscured by an optical illusion. He is then able to make his way across. A careful observation of the Bulgarian video shows an interesting, if not ironic error. The translation into Bulgarian was incorrect. They translated “it takes a leap of faith” into “it takes a leap of fate” on the subtitles. I used this example for two purposes, the first being to demonstrate the difference between the “th” sound and the “t” sound. More importantly and much more to my benefit, this clip also allowed us to have a discussion about the fundamental differences between living a life of faith versus living a life of fate.
When I speak of fate in this fashion I am not referring to divine will, providence or even destiny. I speak of the fate that removes us from our purposes here on earth. The fate that denies us free agency. This fate is the fate that gives us the excuse to give up and turn our back to any light, the fate we use to give reason to our unwillingness to endure, accomplish and even thrive. The other word for this fate is doom.
Due to the difficult history that has encompassed the Balkan penninsula for many hundreds of years, many of the Bulgarian people seem to have developed the perspective that they are where they are in their lives because fate has placed them there. They blame their inability to succeed on others – on the guy down the street, on the government, on their ancestors, on the Turks, on the Greeks, on Russia, on Europe, on the USA. Instead of being survivors; they focus on victim hood. While this is certainly understandable based upon their circumstances, it is also extremely destructive to the motivating forces behind faith. I imagine that this is the case in many countries where oppression has been the default tenant of their societies in the past. For so long they have been told that they will get nowhere in this life. They begin to believe these imprisoning and suffocating thoughts and soon doubt overcomes the light of faith in their lives. Only a few find and realize the power behind believing that a little faith can overcome great obstacles. Those few who do have faith in their lives make great things happen. Many times it leads them outside of Bulgaria to England, Germany, and America, places where people tell each other to dream big. Places where people teach their children that with a little faith they can accomplish anything. Places where they can escape the collective thoughts of those around them that creates a virtual wall of impossibility, and soon becomes difficult to overcome. A place where faith in possibility crushes the fate of despair. And for others, hopefully their faith will give them the strength to become leaders for those who are continually struggling over the power of fate vs. the power of faith.
Occasionally we find ourselves, and those around us, falling victim to the loss of faith in their lives. We begin to believe that it is fate that we are who we are, it is fate that we are where we are and even more discouraging, that we can do nothing about it. Some of us begin to label ourselves as victims of fate. We say, “I’m an addict and I can’t do anything about it” or “I’m unhappy and can’t do anything about it.” We begin to blame things on fate and say things like, “I am who I am and I should just learn to deal with it.” These thoughts and attitudes will eventually lead to nowhere but doubt, hopelessness and even despair.
Instead, we need to be allowing hope to dwell within us at all times and say things like, “I might have addiction problems now but I have faith that I can change that” or “I am happy because I have faith that I can change my life.” Instead of being victims of our fate we become survivors, through faith. We are no longer victims of anything but survivors of everything. I’m not a victim of depression, I’m a survivor of depression. We will not be victims of a bad economy, we will be survivors of a bad economy. We will not be victims of our trials but survivors of them. We can apply this attitude to anything we might have to endure in our lives and we will thrive by doing so.
Now, let me take this a step further so that you don’t misinterpret what I’m trying to say. While we are the ones who are ultimately responsible for the decision to change our lives it is not by our own power that we have the ability to do so. Everything we have comes from God, from the food we eat, to the homes we live in, to the talents we possess; every bit of it originates from our creator. This includes the faith that moves us to daily action. In Ephesians 2: 8-9 we read, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Once we realize that the power of Faith in our lives is a gift from our loving Heavenly Father our power to change our own lives for the better will be exponentially greater than trying to do it alone. Faith also means placing our trust in the right source. Alma 57:27 – “Now this was the faith of these of whom I have spoken; their minds are young, and their minds are firm and they do put their trust in God continually.” Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thee for good.”
Then comes the realization that the gift spoken of in Ephesians 2: 8-9 is the gift of God’s only begotten Son Jesus Christ. John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The gift of Christ in our lives gives us the power to increase our Faith through Him, by Him, and even in Him. The sacrifice and atonement of Jesus Christ is the ultimate source of Faith and the power to change. Without the Atonement of Jesus Christ allowing mankind to be redeemed, of all sin and iniquity, there would be nothing but useless fate left to consume us. When we have the courage to step out of the darkness and into the light it is at that moment when we are liberated from all doubt, all fear, all distress and we are filled with the mighty power of God, even the power of Faith.
-Phil Ellsworth
It is my belief that every person on this planet lives by faith to some extent. Whether it is faith that is realized and understood, or not, we all live by faith. Some of us live lives rich with faith and full of joy. While others of us live lives of minimal faith – just enough to stay afloat. Without faith, would we get up in the morning and take on each new day? Each morning we wake up and we hope our day will be good. We hope that positive things will take place to enrich our lives. We don’t know it will be a good day. We don’t know if positive things will take place. We hope. We hope, and consequently that hope becomes faith as we get out of bed and ready ourselves for the day. While many of us will maintain just that amount of faith to live each day there are others who will magnify their faith and empower themselves to succeed each day. It is our choice of course, whether we are aware of it or not, it is our choice to embrace the enriching, God-given power behind faith or to merely settle for the faith that keeps us alive.
While I was serving my LDS mission in Bulgaria, I had the opportunity to teach countless English Lessons. On Fridays and Saturdays our lessons were just that – English lessons – grammar, verbs, nouns, punctuation, etc. On Wednesdays though, we taught English from a gospel perspective. We covered topics ranging from the attributes of God to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The very first lesson I would teach on a new class schedule was a lesson on faith, and one of the tools I used for this particular lesson was a video clip from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (ask me later how I ended up showing an Indiana Jones movie on my mission – interesting story but not really relevant). I would show the scene where Indiana (Harrison Ford) is being chased to the edge of a cliff. He looks down and sees that the drop-off is so deep he can’t see the bottom. He has to decide quickly what to do and since he is following a treasure map of sorts he begins to recite some of the directions that are on the map. He gets to one that seems to apply and you hear him say something like, “it takes a leap of faith.” He then steps off of the cliff into nothingness and to his relief his foot comes down on a path that was obscured by an optical illusion. He is then able to make his way across. A careful observation of the Bulgarian video shows an interesting, if not ironic error. The translation into Bulgarian was incorrect. They translated “it takes a leap of faith” into “it takes a leap of fate” on the subtitles. I used this example for two purposes, the first being to demonstrate the difference between the “th” sound and the “t” sound. More importantly and much more to my benefit, this clip also allowed us to have a discussion about the fundamental differences between living a life of faith versus living a life of fate.
When I speak of fate in this fashion I am not referring to divine will, providence or even destiny. I speak of the fate that removes us from our purposes here on earth. The fate that denies us free agency. This fate is the fate that gives us the excuse to give up and turn our back to any light, the fate we use to give reason to our unwillingness to endure, accomplish and even thrive. The other word for this fate is doom.
Due to the difficult history that has encompassed the Balkan penninsula for many hundreds of years, many of the Bulgarian people seem to have developed the perspective that they are where they are in their lives because fate has placed them there. They blame their inability to succeed on others – on the guy down the street, on the government, on their ancestors, on the Turks, on the Greeks, on Russia, on Europe, on the USA. Instead of being survivors; they focus on victim hood. While this is certainly understandable based upon their circumstances, it is also extremely destructive to the motivating forces behind faith. I imagine that this is the case in many countries where oppression has been the default tenant of their societies in the past. For so long they have been told that they will get nowhere in this life. They begin to believe these imprisoning and suffocating thoughts and soon doubt overcomes the light of faith in their lives. Only a few find and realize the power behind believing that a little faith can overcome great obstacles. Those few who do have faith in their lives make great things happen. Many times it leads them outside of Bulgaria to England, Germany, and America, places where people tell each other to dream big. Places where people teach their children that with a little faith they can accomplish anything. Places where they can escape the collective thoughts of those around them that creates a virtual wall of impossibility, and soon becomes difficult to overcome. A place where faith in possibility crushes the fate of despair. And for others, hopefully their faith will give them the strength to become leaders for those who are continually struggling over the power of fate vs. the power of faith.
Occasionally we find ourselves, and those around us, falling victim to the loss of faith in their lives. We begin to believe that it is fate that we are who we are, it is fate that we are where we are and even more discouraging, that we can do nothing about it. Some of us begin to label ourselves as victims of fate. We say, “I’m an addict and I can’t do anything about it” or “I’m unhappy and can’t do anything about it.” We begin to blame things on fate and say things like, “I am who I am and I should just learn to deal with it.” These thoughts and attitudes will eventually lead to nowhere but doubt, hopelessness and even despair.
Instead, we need to be allowing hope to dwell within us at all times and say things like, “I might have addiction problems now but I have faith that I can change that” or “I am happy because I have faith that I can change my life.” Instead of being victims of our fate we become survivors, through faith. We are no longer victims of anything but survivors of everything. I’m not a victim of depression, I’m a survivor of depression. We will not be victims of a bad economy, we will be survivors of a bad economy. We will not be victims of our trials but survivors of them. We can apply this attitude to anything we might have to endure in our lives and we will thrive by doing so.
Now, let me take this a step further so that you don’t misinterpret what I’m trying to say. While we are the ones who are ultimately responsible for the decision to change our lives it is not by our own power that we have the ability to do so. Everything we have comes from God, from the food we eat, to the homes we live in, to the talents we possess; every bit of it originates from our creator. This includes the faith that moves us to daily action. In Ephesians 2: 8-9 we read, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Once we realize that the power of Faith in our lives is a gift from our loving Heavenly Father our power to change our own lives for the better will be exponentially greater than trying to do it alone. Faith also means placing our trust in the right source. Alma 57:27 – “Now this was the faith of these of whom I have spoken; their minds are young, and their minds are firm and they do put their trust in God continually.” Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thee for good.”
Then comes the realization that the gift spoken of in Ephesians 2: 8-9 is the gift of God’s only begotten Son Jesus Christ. John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The gift of Christ in our lives gives us the power to increase our Faith through Him, by Him, and even in Him. The sacrifice and atonement of Jesus Christ is the ultimate source of Faith and the power to change. Without the Atonement of Jesus Christ allowing mankind to be redeemed, of all sin and iniquity, there would be nothing but useless fate left to consume us. When we have the courage to step out of the darkness and into the light it is at that moment when we are liberated from all doubt, all fear, all distress and we are filled with the mighty power of God, even the power of Faith.
-Phil Ellsworth
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands...
one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Friday, September 4, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
H.R. 3200 - Bill is Set to Self-Destruct
Okay, so here's the scoop: there's a “popular” e-mail going around these days (see quoted material below, names removed to protect the guilty, although I'm not sure why) babbling on about who the "opponents" of the Health Care bill really are. There's also a fairly popular e-mail going around about how the current Health Care set up in the US is resulting in too little for too much. The problem with both of these e-mails is pretty straight forward - they give you only what they want you to have and leave the main course in the kitchen. And while they provide plenty to chew on, the fact is that most of it ends up being blue meat. Who wants blue meat when you can have REAL meat?! If your meat is blue it's either been sitting in the back of the freezer for a decade too long or it's some kind of man-made meat substitute. You know, it's sort of like the difference between real sugar and Splenda. Have you tried a Splenda brownie? The brownie is great to start with, and at first there seems to be no difference, but you can sense something is just not right with it and then comes that lingering bad after-taste, no matter what you eat it just hangs in there a little longer. But you keep eating it anyway and pretend to enjoy it too, if only for the fact that somehow you're convinced that it's better for you. Never mind the fact that the guy next to you is eating a real brownie and weighs 20 pounds less than you. No matter what, whether it's 10 years too frozen or just faking you out, either way it can’t possibly be good for you. So instead, here's some real meat for you to chew on.
The fact is that those who support this monstrosity of a reform bill are terrified that they are losing the argument. They can't (or won't) accept the possibility that real, everyday, hard-working Americans are rising up and finally speaking their minds. After-all, how could that possibly be? How could anyone be against something that "they" the "chosen" party is putting forth? After-all they did win in a landslide just last November - to them that landslide gave them nothing less than a license to kill, or in this case a license to do whatever the hell they want to (a.k.a Chris Buttars Plague). And they honestly expect the rest of America to fall in line. What was it that Obama said when he got back from his tour of Europe and the Middle-East? Oh yeah I remember he said, "I just want to put everybody on notice, because there was a lot of chatter during the week that I was gone: We are going to get this done,” the president said. “Inaction is not an option. And for those naysayers and cynics who think that this is not going to happen, don't bet against us." (Read Here) So you're putting us on "notice" huh? Do we have to sit in the corner too? Are you going to send us to the principals office? And what's this reference to "chatter" Mr. President? Chatter? Do you mean discussion? debate? conversation? freedom of speech? He just can't stand the fact that more than half of America has issues with this bill. Sounds to me like our President is a little too close to 2 years old than we suspected.
So now that the tide seems to be turning, the Democrats' true colors are showing – they become bitter, contentious, elitists and begin to turn to vicious attacks to make their argument. They call the Town Hall attendees "racists" and "mobsters" and paint a picture of utter destruction taking place at the Town Hall meetings. (See Here) They show a couple clips of a few bad apples, leave the rest on the cutting room floor and somehow manage to misrepresent the whole of the debate against Health Care reform. They seem to believe that if they can label the opponents of the Obama Health Care bill as psychos, nut-jobs, mobsters, racists and radicals that mainstream America will go along with it! The funny thing is that these same individuals will sweep more dramatic stories under the rug when it suits their purposes. (Follow this Link) The fact is that the first e-mail example I provide at the bottom of this post is merely another twig on a rather pathetic propaganda fire.
More important than the misrepresentation of the grassroots movements involved in the opposition of the Health Care bill is the misrepresentation of the facts in the debate itself. A prime example would be this arbitrary argument that the American Health Care system is too costly for the benefits that are produced. This argument is just plain dim-witted. Are you kidding me? Can anyone reading this e-mail honestly tell me that, given the choice, they would choose to go to any other country in the world outside of America to have any medical procedure done (let alone a life threatening procedure)? The answer to that question speaks volumes about our Health Care system and the product and services it provides. Let’s also not forget the fact that capitalism itself has been the foundation of all medical advances in the last 200 years. Socializing medicine will kill the last bit of free enterprise element left in the system.
The truth is that capitalism promotes innovative thinking; it drives people to think outside of the box in order to achieve success. In a socialist system the only entity that gets credit for success is the entire populous itself. Ingenuity becomes stifled because people no longer have an incentive to be creative. When incentive disappears so does motivation. Why risk anything when the reward is so small, right? So why, of all aspects of our lives, would we want to stagnate talent and vision in the field of Health Care? We might as well start taking years off of our life expectancy now because we’re about to head back to the middle-ages. (Click Here) Then again, look at the bright side – some of us will get to live in castles and carry around swords and daggers! Wait…did they have open-carry laws back then? Oh well, we’ll cross that draw-bridge when we get to it.
There’s no need to deny that honest reform of the Health Care system in America is a necessity. Most of us agree that the cost of our Health Care system is too high but what we don’t agree upon is what to do about it. To be truthful, the best thing to do would be to leave the public and private options out of the whole system and go back to a system without insurance companies and without HMO’s and without Medicaid. Go back to paying your doctor when you need them, and allow charities to be set up to help those who have major medical cases come up. God forbid we pay for what we actually use instead of these insane premiums every month for medical care many of us will never use. But we all know that there is no way that’s ever going to happen - so now we’re forced to work inside the system to fix it. Three of the highest draws on our Health Care system today are: 1) frivolous litigation 2) unhealthy lifestyle choices 3) prescription drug costs. (See links: HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE) True and honest reform to those three things will bring about an astronomical reduction of the actual costs of health care in America. Medical litigation must be capped, education about preventative measures to keep us healthy must continue, and something must be done about the rising costs of prescription drugs in the US. While we should not be opposed to companies making money (capitalism) we should be opposed to the fact that these companies are charging $1000/month for medication in the US that can be bought in other countries for $200/month. Something needs to be done, but there's no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Let's not tear the founding of the greatest Nation on earth asunder by arbitrarily replacing it with a foundation that Germany, Russia, North Korea, and Cuba have already proven doesn't do anything but oppress liberty.
At the end of the day the biggest reason why most sound-minded Americans oppose the form of reform that the Obama administration has presented us is relatively simple – it smacks of socialism! You can deny it all day long but any time a government takes over a sector of private industry for “the good of the people” that is called socialism. And guess what? It doesn’t work. Germany proved that it the 1930’s. But check this out: Watch this 10 min clip. Nevermind the fact that this country was founded on the principles of freedom. Remember the old school-ground taunt you always heard, "it's a free country you know!" Well I hope you wrote it in your journal somewhere because you'll have to describe it to your children and grand- children because they won't be able to create those memories for themselves. Strange how so many in America have forgotten our roots. And don’t forget - we all know how the government works: if you give an inch…they’ll take your foot. Is that right? Anyway I’m sure you know what I mean. And one final note to Obama and Team: please don’t pee on my leg and tell me that it’s raining! (follow this link) Do these gooseknuckles think we're stupid?
The fact is that those who support this monstrosity of a reform bill are terrified that they are losing the argument. They can't (or won't) accept the possibility that real, everyday, hard-working Americans are rising up and finally speaking their minds. After-all, how could that possibly be? How could anyone be against something that "they" the "chosen" party is putting forth? After-all they did win in a landslide just last November - to them that landslide gave them nothing less than a license to kill, or in this case a license to do whatever the hell they want to (a.k.a Chris Buttars Plague). And they honestly expect the rest of America to fall in line. What was it that Obama said when he got back from his tour of Europe and the Middle-East? Oh yeah I remember he said, "I just want to put everybody on notice, because there was a lot of chatter during the week that I was gone: We are going to get this done,” the president said. “Inaction is not an option. And for those naysayers and cynics who think that this is not going to happen, don't bet against us." (Read Here) So you're putting us on "notice" huh? Do we have to sit in the corner too? Are you going to send us to the principals office? And what's this reference to "chatter" Mr. President? Chatter? Do you mean discussion? debate? conversation? freedom of speech? He just can't stand the fact that more than half of America has issues with this bill. Sounds to me like our President is a little too close to 2 years old than we suspected.
So now that the tide seems to be turning, the Democrats' true colors are showing – they become bitter, contentious, elitists and begin to turn to vicious attacks to make their argument. They call the Town Hall attendees "racists" and "mobsters" and paint a picture of utter destruction taking place at the Town Hall meetings. (See Here) They show a couple clips of a few bad apples, leave the rest on the cutting room floor and somehow manage to misrepresent the whole of the debate against Health Care reform. They seem to believe that if they can label the opponents of the Obama Health Care bill as psychos, nut-jobs, mobsters, racists and radicals that mainstream America will go along with it! The funny thing is that these same individuals will sweep more dramatic stories under the rug when it suits their purposes. (Follow this Link) The fact is that the first e-mail example I provide at the bottom of this post is merely another twig on a rather pathetic propaganda fire.
More important than the misrepresentation of the grassroots movements involved in the opposition of the Health Care bill is the misrepresentation of the facts in the debate itself. A prime example would be this arbitrary argument that the American Health Care system is too costly for the benefits that are produced. This argument is just plain dim-witted. Are you kidding me? Can anyone reading this e-mail honestly tell me that, given the choice, they would choose to go to any other country in the world outside of America to have any medical procedure done (let alone a life threatening procedure)? The answer to that question speaks volumes about our Health Care system and the product and services it provides. Let’s also not forget the fact that capitalism itself has been the foundation of all medical advances in the last 200 years. Socializing medicine will kill the last bit of free enterprise element left in the system.
The truth is that capitalism promotes innovative thinking; it drives people to think outside of the box in order to achieve success. In a socialist system the only entity that gets credit for success is the entire populous itself. Ingenuity becomes stifled because people no longer have an incentive to be creative. When incentive disappears so does motivation. Why risk anything when the reward is so small, right? So why, of all aspects of our lives, would we want to stagnate talent and vision in the field of Health Care? We might as well start taking years off of our life expectancy now because we’re about to head back to the middle-ages. (Click Here) Then again, look at the bright side – some of us will get to live in castles and carry around swords and daggers! Wait…did they have open-carry laws back then? Oh well, we’ll cross that draw-bridge when we get to it.
There’s no need to deny that honest reform of the Health Care system in America is a necessity. Most of us agree that the cost of our Health Care system is too high but what we don’t agree upon is what to do about it. To be truthful, the best thing to do would be to leave the public and private options out of the whole system and go back to a system without insurance companies and without HMO’s and without Medicaid. Go back to paying your doctor when you need them, and allow charities to be set up to help those who have major medical cases come up. God forbid we pay for what we actually use instead of these insane premiums every month for medical care many of us will never use. But we all know that there is no way that’s ever going to happen - so now we’re forced to work inside the system to fix it. Three of the highest draws on our Health Care system today are: 1) frivolous litigation 2) unhealthy lifestyle choices 3) prescription drug costs. (See links: HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE) True and honest reform to those three things will bring about an astronomical reduction of the actual costs of health care in America. Medical litigation must be capped, education about preventative measures to keep us healthy must continue, and something must be done about the rising costs of prescription drugs in the US. While we should not be opposed to companies making money (capitalism) we should be opposed to the fact that these companies are charging $1000/month for medication in the US that can be bought in other countries for $200/month. Something needs to be done, but there's no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Let's not tear the founding of the greatest Nation on earth asunder by arbitrarily replacing it with a foundation that Germany, Russia, North Korea, and Cuba have already proven doesn't do anything but oppress liberty.
At the end of the day the biggest reason why most sound-minded Americans oppose the form of reform that the Obama administration has presented us is relatively simple – it smacks of socialism! You can deny it all day long but any time a government takes over a sector of private industry for “the good of the people” that is called socialism. And guess what? It doesn’t work. Germany proved that it the 1930’s. But check this out: Watch this 10 min clip. Nevermind the fact that this country was founded on the principles of freedom. Remember the old school-ground taunt you always heard, "it's a free country you know!" Well I hope you wrote it in your journal somewhere because you'll have to describe it to your children and grand- children because they won't be able to create those memories for themselves. Strange how so many in America have forgotten our roots. And don’t forget - we all know how the government works: if you give an inch…they’ll take your foot. Is that right? Anyway I’m sure you know what I mean. And one final note to Obama and Team: please don’t pee on my leg and tell me that it’s raining! (follow this link) Do these gooseknuckles think we're stupid?
by Phil Ellsworth, August 2009
Below are the e-mail examples (not necessarily for your reading pleasure).
First e-mail Example:
"It's probably a mistake to lump all opponents of reform in together; different groups are fighting with different motivations. I tend to see them in five different groups:
* The Greedy: There's a fairly small group of people who profit handsomely from the broken status quo. Regular Americans are getting screwed by the system, but The Greedy are getting rich. Reform puts their profits at risk, so they're fighting back to protect their livelihood.
* The Partisans: If President Obama does what many presidents have failed trying to do, it will likely make him more popular and make his presidency successful. The Partisans care more about Republican gains than the national well being, so they're fighting to prevent a major Democratic victory because it would be a major Democratic victory.
* The Tin-Foil Hats: If reform passes, the government will kill their grandparents, create "death panels," lavish benefits on illegal immigrants, and mandate that ACORN volunteers live in your basement. The Tin-Foil Hats have active imaginations, and believe their own ridiculous conspiracy theories. They'll benefit from reform, but the voices in their head discourage them from believing it.
* The Dupes: Probably the largest group in opposition to reform, The Dupes tend to believe what The Greedy, The Partisans, and The Tin-Foil Hats have told them. When confronted with accurate information, The Dupes suspect the media, Democrats, and their lying eyes aren't to be trusted. After all, Sean Hannity wouldn't lie to them, would he? Like The Tin-Foil hats, The Dupes stand to benefit from reform, but are skeptical because they don't know who's telling the truth and who isn't.
* The Wonks: The smallest of the groups, The Wonks are conservatives who actually care about substantive policy details, have read the proposals, and believe there are better ways to improve the system. The Greedy, The Partisans, The Tin-Foil Hats, and The Dupes tend to ignore The Wonks, which is a shame."
Second e-mail Example:
"If the global economy were a 100-yard dash, the U.S. would start 23 yards behind its closest competitors because of health care that costs too much and delivers too little, a business group says in a report to be released Thursday. The report from the Business Roundtable, which represents CEOs of major companies, says America's health care system has become a liability in a global economy. Concern about high U.S. costs has existed for years, and business executives - whose companies provide health coverage for workers - have long called for getting costs under control. Now President Obama says the costs have become unsustainable and the system must be overhauled. Americans spend $2.4 trillion a year on health care. The Business Roundtable report says Americans in 2006 spent $1,928 per capita on health care, at least two-and-a-half times more per person than any other advanced country. In a different twist, the report took those costs and factored benefits into the equation. It compares statistics on life expectancy, death rates and even cholesterol readings and blood pressures. The health measures are factored together with costs into a 100-point "value" scale. That hasn't been done before, the authors said. The results are not encouraging. The United States is 23 points behind five leading economic competitors: Canada, Japan, Germany, Britain and France. The five nations cover all their citizens, and though their systems differ, in each country the government plays a much larger role than in the U.S. The cost-benefit disparity is even wider - 46 points - when the U.S. is compared with emerging competitors: China, Brazil and India."
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