ConservativeChristianRepublican-Report - 20090813

Motivational-Inspirational-Historical-Educational-Political-Enjoyable

Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!



"Daily Motivations"

Purpose is the place where your deep gladness meets the world's needs. -- Frederick Buechner



"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)

"I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth." (Matthew 28:18)

A judge, above all else, must have authority. Our government endows judges with authority through the oath they take to execute justice. The law enforcement and prison systems back up the judge's authority. The robe that he wears, and having everyone in the courtroom stand as he enters help to emphasize that authority. His gavel and his elevated seat in the courtroom show that he commands the proceedings.

Similarly, God, as the Creator, has the authority to do whatever He deems best with His creation. He is the potter; we are the clay. His throne is high above us in the heavens. His pronouncements are final. There is no higher authority than God.

God will judge every wrong act ever committed, every sinful motive, every evil word. The sentence for these crimes is eternal separation from God and His holiness.

But there are those who will live in safety with God. These are the ones who have accepted Christ's payment for our sin when He died on the cross. Our loving Savior, Jesus Christ, paid the sentence pronounced by the Perfect Judge. God sees these "sinners saved by grace" as righteous in His courtroom. Therefore, they will live eternally in the love, peace, and joy of God's presence.



"The Patriot Post"

"Fear is the foundation of most governments." -- John Adams

"To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of the ignorant." -- American teacher, writer and philosopher Bronson Alcott (1799-1888)



THE DEMO-GOGUES

Summer reading: "What good is reading the [health care] bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?" --Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)

What's in the bill: "We also want to start rewarding doctors for quality, not just the quantity of care that they provide. Instead of rewarding them for how many procedures they perform or how many tests they order, we'll bundle payments so providers aren't paid for every treatment they offer when they chronic -- to a patient with a chronic condition like diabetes, but instead are paid for how are they managing that disease overall." --Barack Obama in a townhall meeting **Exactly how is BO or any of his elite minions authorized or qualified to decide the quality of a doctor's care?



UPRIGHT

"Health care cannot be a right, because rights cannot come from government. At best, they can be protected by government. The founders understood this, which is why our Bill of Rights is really a list of restrictions on the government in Washington." -- National Review editor Jonah Goldberg

"Mr. Obama and the Democrats object to the rationing plan being called a rationing plan, so the only way to get a scheme like this past the public, which doesn't always pay close attention early on, is to do it quickly before a lot of people notice." --Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden

"Every doctor knows, as I did when I practiced years ago, how much unnecessary medical cost is incurred with an eye not on medicine but on the law. Tort reform would yield tens of billions in savings. Yet you cannot find it in the Democratic bills. And Obama breathed not a word about it in the full hour of his health-care news conference. Why? No mystery. The Democrats are parasitically dependent on huge donations from trial lawyers." -- columnist Charles Krauthammer

"We hear a lot of talk about eliminating waste and having more preventative health care. But the most powerful health care initiative we could get is the last thing they will propose: Traditional family values. The same values undermined by the liberal abortion regime and moral relativism they promote." --c olumnist Star Parker

"Be wary of accepting government largesse. It doesn't come free, and often accepting it takes away everything that is free. Melting into Washington's powerful, caretaking arms will just suck incentive to work hard and chart our own course right out of us -- and that not only contributes to an unstable economy and dizzying national debt, but it does make us less free." -- former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin

"Those of us who want to see racism on its way out need to realize that others benefit greatly from crying racism. They benefit politically, financially, and socially. Barack Obama has been allied with such people for decades." -- economist Thomas Sowell

"[T]he president's response to Gatesgate actually sheds a lot of light on his approach to health care and other issues, for this reason: Obama adopts his positions before knowing what he is talking about." -- columnist Mona Charen



"Simple Truths"

What It Takes To Be Number One

http://www.lombardimovie.com/



"The Web"

Obama Falsely Claims AARP Endorsed Health Care Plan

http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-falsely-claims-aarp-endorsed-health-care-plan/



Sri Lankan teen convert in US fears for her life

http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=57659

A Sri Lankan teenager has told a US court she fears for her life after converting from her family’s faith to Christianity. The girl is now in the custody of the US Department of Children And Families, a US TV network reported.

The girl, 17-year-old Rifqa Bary, recently converted from her family's faith to Christianity and she is worried about her family's reaction to her change in faith, News 13.com reported.

"She says her life is in danger and she could be killed in an honor killing," Rosa Gonzalez, the teen's lawyer, said after a hearing at an Orlando courtroom, Monday. "Unfortunately it happens every day in the U.S."

The young Sri Lankan girl has been staying with an Orlando family she met through a prayer group on Facebook for several weeks.

The teen had been staying with Beverly Lorenz and her husband, pastors of the newly launched Global Revolution Church in Orlando. But she is now in the custody of the Department of Children And Families.

Lorenz said the teen hitchhiked to a Greyhound station in Ohio, and then took a bus to Orlando.

The girl asked Lorenz if she could come to her house. Even though she barely knew the girl, Lorenz said it was OK.

The teen, a non-citizen, told Lorenz she was fearful that her father would send her to Sri Lanka.

After the girl arrived in Orlando, Lorenz said they called an abuse hotline and started calling lawyers, asking what they should do.

Another hearing is scheduled on Friday. However, DCF officials say it a matter to be decided by Ohio authorities.

Another option of the victim: http://www..jihadwatch.org/archives/027189.php



Good Enough for Congress

Tell Congress to Take a Dose of Their Own Medicine

If They Vote for Government-Run Healthcare, They Enroll in Government-Run Healthcare
A government-sponsored public plan option continues to be the most contentious issue in the current health reform debate. Proponents of the option believe it provides an alternative. It lets Americans choose between a government-run option and private insurers, while at the same time applying competitive pressure to the rest of the insurance industry. Opponents say the introduction of a public plan would lead to the federal takeover of the country’s healthcare system, thereby restricting patient choice, reducing quality and increasing the power of the federal government.

As health legislation continues to be debated, one has to ask whether members of Congress writing such legislation would actually enroll themselves in a new government-run healthcare option. Current draft healthcare legislation exempts members of Congress from the public plan option, allowing them to keep their existing plans.

Congressman John Fleming (LA-04) is asking this very question noting that public servants should be accountable and responsible for what they are advocating. He has created a resolution calling on members of Congress who support a public option to enroll themselves and encourage their colleagues to do the same. We support his resolution and broaden it to include congressional staff as well.

Watch Congressman Fleming discuss government-run healthcare >> Government Run Health Care You Vote For It, You Use It

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VXo4fc6hFk



ObamaCare and me

By Zane F Pollard, MD

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/obamacare_and_me.html

I have been sitting quietly on the sidelines watching all of this national debate on healthcare. It is time for me to bring some clarity to the table by explaining many of the problems from the perspective of a doctor.

First off, the government has involved very few of us physicians in the healthcare debate. While the American Medical Association has come out in favor of the plan, it is vital to remember that the AMA only represents 17% of the American physician workforce.

I have taken care of Medicaid patients for 35 years while representing the only pediatric ophthalmology group left in Atlanta, Georgia that accepts Medicaid. For example, in the past 6 months I have cared for three young children on Medicaid who had corneal ulcers. This is a potentially blinding situation because if the cornea perforates from the infection, almost surely blindness will occur. In all three cases the antibiotic needed for the eradication of the infection was not on the approved Medicaid list.

Each time I was told to fax Medicaid for the approval forms, which I did. Within 48 hours the form came back to me which was sent in immediately via fax, and I was told that I would have my answer in 10 days. Of course by then each child would have been blind in the eye.

Each time the request came back denied. All three times I personally provided the antibiotic for each patient which was not on the Medicaid approved list. Get the point -- rationing of care.

Over the past 35 years I have cared for over 1000 children born with congenital cataracts. In older children and in adults the vision is rehabilitated with an intraocular lens. In newborns we use contact lenses which are very expensive. It takes Medicaid over one year to approve a contact lens post cataract surgery. By that time a successful anatomical operation is wasted as the child will be close to blind from a lack of focusing for so long a period of time.

Again, extreme rationing. Solution: I have a foundation here in Atlanta supported 100% by private funds which supplies all of these contact lenses for my Medicaid and illegal immigrants children for free. Again, waiting for the government would be disastrous.

Last week I had a lady bring her child to me. They are Americans but live in Sweden, as the father has a job with a big corporation. The child had the onset of double vision 3 months ago and has been unable to function normally because of this. They are people of means but are waiting 8 months to see the ophthalmologist in Sweden. Then if the child needed surgery they would be put on a 6 month waiting list. She called me and I saw her that day. It turned out that the child had accommodative esotropia (crossing of the eyes treated with glasses that correct for farsightedness) and responded to glasses within 4 days, so no surgery was needed. Again, rationing of care.

Last month I operated on a 70 year old lady with double vision present for 3 years. She responded quite nicely to her surgery and now is symptom free. I also operated on a 69 year old judge with vertical double vision. His surgery went very well and now he is happy as a lark. I have been told -- but of course there is no healthcare bill that has been passed yet -- that these 2 people because of their age would have been denied surgery and just told to wear a patch over one eye to alleviate the symptoms of double vision. Obviously cheaper than surgery.

I spent two year in the US Navy during the Viet Nam war and was well treated by the military. There was tremendous rationing of care and we were told specifically what things the military personnel and their dependents could have and which things they could not have. While I was in Viet Nam, my wife Nancy got sick and got essentially no care at the Naval Hospital in Oakland, California. She went home and went to her family's private internist in Beverly Hills. While it was expensive, she received an immediate work up. Again rationing of care.

For those of you who are over 65, this bill in its present form might be lethal for you. People in England over 59 cannot receive stents for their coronary arteries. The government wants to mimic the British plan. For those of you younger, it will still mean restriction of the care that you and your children receive.

While 99% of physicians went into medicine because of the love of medicine and the challenge of helping our fellow man, economics are still important. My rent goes up 2% each year and the salaries of my employees go up 2% each year. Twenty years ago, ophthalmologists were paid $1800 for a cataract surgery and today $500. This is a 73% decrease in our fees. I do not know of many jobs in America that have seen this sort of lowering of fees.

But there is more to the story than just the lower fees. When I came to Atlanta, there was a well known ophthalmologist that charged $2500 for a cataract surgery as he felt the was the best. He had a terrific reputation and in fact I had my mother's bilateral cataracts operated on by him with a wonderful result. She is now 94 and has 20/20 vision in both eyes. People would pay his $2500 fee.

However, then the government came in and said that any doctor that does Medicare work cannot accept more than the going rate ( now $500) or he or she would be severely fined. This put an end to his charging $2500. The government said it was illegal to accept more than the government-allowed rate. What I am driving at is that those of you well off will not be able to go to the head of the line under this new healthcare plan, just because you have money, as no physician will be willing to go against the law to treat you.

I am a pediatric ophthalmologist and trained for 10 years post-college to become a pediatric ophthalmologist (add two years of my service in the Navy and that comes to 12 years).A neurosurgeon spends 14 years post -college, and if he or she has to do the military that would be 16 years. I am not entitled to make what a neurosurgeon makes, but the new plan calls for all physicians to make the same amount of payment. I assure you that medical students will not go into neurosurgery and we will have a tremendous shortage of neurosurgeons. Already, the top neurosurgeon at my hospital who is in good health and only 52 years old has just quit because he can't stand working with the government anymore. Forty-nine percent of children under the age of 16 in the state of Georgia are on Medicaid, so he felt he just could not stand working with the bureaucracy anymore.

We are being lied to about the uninsured. They are getting care. I operate at least 2 illegal immigrants each month who pay me nothing, and the children's hospital at which I operate charges them nothing also.This is true not only on Atlanta, but of every community in America.

The bottom line is that I urge all of you to contact your congresswomen and congressmen and senators to defeat this bill. I promise you that you will not like rationing of your own health.

Furthermore, how can you trust a physician that works under these conditions knowing that he is controlled by the state. I certainly could not trust any doctor that would work under these draconian conditions.

One last thing: with this new healthcare plan there will be a tremendous shortage of physicians. It has been estimated that approximately 5% of the current physician work force will quit under this new system. Also it is estimated that another 5% shortage will occur because of the decreased number of men and women wanting to go into medicine. At the present time the US government has mandated gender equity in admissions to medical schools .That means that for the past 15 years that somewhere between 49 and 51% of each entering class are females. This is true of private schools also, because all private schools receive federal funding.

The average career of a woman in medicine now is only 8-10 years and the average work week for a female in medicine is only 3-4 days. I have now trained 35 fellows in pediatric ophthalmology. Hands down the best was a female that I trained 4 years ago -- she was head and heels above all others I have trained. She now practices only 3 days a week.



Peter Ferrara: The Great Socialist Takeover

This column originally appeared on The American Spectator on August 5, 2009.

http://www.theacru.org/acru/peter_ferrara_the_great_socialist_takeover/

Forthcoming this week from the Heartland Institute will be my comprehensive study on the Obama/Democrat government takeover of health care. That study presents my thorough analysis of the health care overhaul bills supported by President Obama now working their way through Congress.

Despite the talking points we are now hearing to the contrary, the bottom line is that the Obama/Democrat health overhaul legislation would result in thorough and detailed government control over health care, government rationing that will deny you health care, severe loss of freedom of choice and control over health care, disabling, record high taxes that will leave America uncompetitive in the world economy, higher, not lower, overall health costs, and higher not lower federal spending and deficits. The study explains all of these results in complete detail.

This all translates into a major decline in the standard of living for the American people. Today Americans enjoy the most advanced, sophisticated, cutting edge health care in the world, with those deprived of essential health care flocking to our shores from the world over seeking survival. But under the Obama/Democrat health regime, this will be gone, replaced by the outdated, failed, throwback, socialized medicine policies of foreign countries that reflect their lower standards of living.

This will be true most of all for our nation's seniors, who are most in need of high quality medical care. As former Clinton advisor Dick Morris, author of the incisive new book Catastrophe, argues:

Obama's health care proposal is, in effect, the repeal of the Medicare program as we know it. The elderly will go from being the group with the most access to free medical care to the one with the least access. Indeed, the principal impact of the Obama health care program will be to reduce sharply the medical services the elderly can use. No longer will their every medical need be met, their every medication prescribed, their every need to improve their quality of life answered.

Loss of Freedom of Choice: Obama's Public Option Government Health Insurance Plan

President Obama says a cornerstone of his plan is that if you like the health insurance you have today, you will be able to keep it. But under the Obama/Democrat plan, if you have employer provided health insurance, that won't be your choice. It will be your employer's choice. Your employer may decide to dump you into the so-called public option, government insurance plan, and pay the 8% payroll tax. If the employer's work force averages $50,000 a year in wages, then the employer would only have to pay $4,000 per year per worker under the payroll tax, which may well be a considerable cost savings from his current health coverage.

Even if you purchase health insurance directly on your own, you will not be able to keep that insurance if your insurer is driven out of business by the public option, government health plan. One big reason this will happen under the Obama health plan is that the government has the power to dictate what the doctors and hospitals would be paid by the government plan. Medicare now pays doctors almost 20% below market rates, and hospitals more than 30% below market, with Medicaid paying 30% to 40% less than that. The health overhaul bills now pending in fact both say that the government public option will pay doctors and hospitals under the Medicare rates to start, but the government is expressly given the power to change that over time and pay even lower rates, as it has under Medicaid.

Private health plans will not be able to compete with a public government plan that has lower costs because it dictates lower payment rates to doctors and hospitals. Indeed, the current experience with Medicaid and Medicare is that these government plans drive up the cost of private health plans, as doctors and hospitals underpaid by the government health plans try to recover the losses by charging more to privately insured patients. Private health plans trying to compete with the government public option would consequently be at even more of a competitive disadvantage. The Lewin Group, an independent health care consulting firm, estimates that as a result of these factors the cost of the private health insurance options for family coverage under the House bill would be increased by $2,148 a year in 2010 as compared to the public option, a competitive disadvantage of almost 25%.

The public option, government insurance plan is also likely to be subsidized by the taxpayers over time, while the private plans will be subject to discriminatory new tax burdens. The Lewin Group estimates that because of all these illegitimate competitive disadvantages for the private plans, "about 88.1 million workers would shift from private employer insurance to the public plan" to start, about two-thirds. Almost half of those insured in the individual market would soon be forced into the new public option as well. The end result over time is likely to be a government single payer monopoly, with all of the private plans driven out of business.

Choice under Obama's health plan will also be greatly restricted because the government will mandate that you buy the health plan the government decides you must have. You will consequently be forced to pay the costs of all the politically correct benefits the government will require, regardless of whether you want those benefits.

Obama likes to say that he wants a government public option health insurance plan to keep the insurance companies honest. But once the public option has driven those insurers out of business and becomes a government monopoly, who is going to keep the government honest?

How the Obama Plan Will Ration and Deny You Care

The health care rationing under the Obama plan begins with the government public option health insurance plan sharply underpaying doctors, hospitals, and other health providers, as discussed above. Any private plans that do manage to survive will be able to do so only by paying what the government plan pays. So the government will end up dictating all payments to health providers in any event.

Doctors and hospitals will consequently begin to restrict their care to fit what the government will pay. Their practices will shrink to avoid the more expensive medical services and treatments that the government payments will not sufficiently cover.

But this underpayment has a second order effect on investment in the health care industry, which is far more powerful. Investors are not going to finance acquisition of the latest, most advanced equipment and technologies with the government slashing compensation for the services such technologies provide. Investors are also not going to finance expanded or new hospital facilities or clinics, or even the full maintenance of existing ones. This is how the long waiting lines for diagnostics, surgery, and other referrals begin to develop. This is why in other countries with national health plans or socialized medicine, facilities seem old, aged, and deteriorated.

Vast new realms of innovative, new health services and care opened up by modern science will lag unutilized. Drug companies will also cut back sharply on investment in new, cutting edge, restorative, painsaving, or lifesaving miracle drugs. Many people will suffer or die unnecessarily as a result.

We will see the same impact on investment in human capital in health care as well as physical capital. The supply of doctors, surgeons and specialists will decline. When this is combined with the effects of greater demand for health care from the formerly uninsured, and from everyone else due to the incentive effects of the system as discussed below, the severity of inadequate supply of health care becomes even more acute.

Obama repeatedly says that under his health reform plan if you like your doctor you will be able to keep him or her. But the question is whether under his reform plan your doctor will be willing to keep you, when the government refuses to pay adequately for the health care services you want and need.

A recent report from President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), which he has touted as showing how his health plan would reduce health costs, elaborates even more explicit and comprehensive government rationing of health care. The CEA report says 30% of American health care is waste, which government bureaucracy is going to eliminate under Obama's health reforms. What is the difference between waste and the health care you want? Answer: a government bureaucrat.

The CEA says the government will reduce health costs by deciding for doctors and hospitals across the country what health care works and what doesn't. Even worse, it will decide what health care is cost effective, which means the government will decide whether your health care is worth the cost, not you and your doctor. This will be enforced through the payments to doctors and hospitals. Those who follow the government's dictates on your health care get paid, those that don't don't get paid.

The CEA report projects a frightening picture of a health care system run by government bureaucrats, with health costs as the primary concern, not you and your health.

The Black Hole of Socialized Medicine

President Obama insists that his national health plan will reduce costs. But if it is going to reduce costs, why do taxes have to be increased to pay for it? Taxes have to go up under Obama's plan because even with the health care rationing, total costs will go up not down under the plan.

Obama's plan would increase costs first by expanding Medicaid, the government program providing medical assistance to the poor. That program is already projected to cost almost $5 trillion over the next 10 years, reaching $674 billion for 2017. Obama's plan would expand coverage under Medicaid to those earning up to 133% of poverty. That would increase costs for federal and state budgets already mostly in deep deficit.

Obama's plan would increase costs further by providing federal assistance for the purchase of health insurance for families earning up to $88,000 in the House bill, and over $100,000 in the Senate bill. This is a massive increase in welfare with a new entitlement irresponsibly added on top of the runaway, financially intractable entitlement promises we have already made.

Costs for health care will also go up because the Obama plan, like all national health plans, will increase the demand for health care. Expanded health insurance coverage for the uninsured will, of course, add to this demand. But with the government paying for health care or for insurance that pays for health care, everyone will have new incentives to increase the demand for health care. With the government, or an insurance company paid by the government, paying the bill, the incentive is to consume health care until the net benefit from it is equal to zero, rather than equal to costs as in an efficient market. In other words, consume it until it hurts. This increased demand will further increase prices for health care. The Obama health plan will also sharply reduce the supply of medical care, as discussed above, resulting in further price increases.

These increased prices for health care mean the price for insurance that workers and families have to pay will go up as well. New regulatory burdens under the Obama health plan, such as guaranteed issue and community rating, will also sharply increase insurance premiums, as they always have in the past. Health insurance costs will increase even more because the government will be mandating exactly what benefits must be covered, again forcing you to pay for benefits you may not want. Private health insurance costs will also rise because of the cost shifting from the "public option" government health plan paying doctors and hospitals well below market rates.

Employers not providing health insurance will have to pay a new 8% payroll tax, which may cost you your job. This is a heavy new burden sharply raising employment costs for small business, which will result in still higher unemployment. Employers already providing insurance will have to pay the higher insurance costs explained above.

Cost estimates for the Obama health plan from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), have ranged around $1.5 trillion. But independent private estimates have ranged even higher, $3.5 trillion to $4.1 trillion. While Obama says his health plan will reduce federal deficits, even the CBO says it will increase the deficit by hundreds of billions, even with all the tax increases in the plan. This year's deficit is already ballooning over $2 trillion, the largest in history by far, almost 10 times Reagan's largest deficit.

The House bill also includes new income tax surcharges on small businesses and others. Along with the Obama tax rate increases already planned for 2011, the top marginal federal tax rate will soar to almost 48% from 35% today. Counting state income taxes, the average top income tax rate in America would climb to about 52%.

Such tax rates would be almost the highest in the world, higher than in socialist Europe, formerly socialist India, and Communist China. Only three countries, Denmark, Sweden, and Belgium, out of the 30 Western countries measured by the OECD, would suffer under higher top marginal tax rates. If you are a blue-collar worker with a job in manufacturing, say goodbye to it as it moves to South Korea, where the total top marginal tax rate is 38.5%. The U.S. rate would be over 35% higher, completely uncompetitive. The U.S. rate would also be higher than in France, Germany, Canada, and Poland, among 22 others in the OECD.

Indeed, in 5 states politically dominated by liberal Democrats, California, New York, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Oregon, the total top tax rate would be higher than in socialist Sweden. The Tax Foundation reports that 10 states would suffer total top tax rates above 54%, which is higher than in socialist Belgium at 53.7%. Indeed, the Tax Foundation reports 39 states would suffer total top tax rates over 50%.

Moreover, the economically sensitive federal capital gains tax rate would be almost doubled from 15% today to 26.5%. The tax on corporate dividends would be more than tripled from 15% today to 46%.

No one, not even CBO, is taking into account the economic cost of these tax increases, which is an additional cost on top of the estimated costs for the Obama/Democrat health plans. But these tax increases will translate into still higher unemployment, fewer jobs, lower wages, and still slower economic growth.



Dem. Senator's Wife: Don't Read the Health Care Bill

By Tom Suhadolnik

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/dem_senators_wife_dont_read_th.html

Let's face it, most pundits on the left and right (including an amateur like me) produce columns which are largely interchangeable with the rest of their camp. They rarely introduce new insight or change someone's mind. That's not to say we don't try, but it's often an elusive goal. Recently, a headline over a column in my local paper and raised my hopes that I had stumbled across one of those mind-changing columns.

Read the health care bill: It won't kill you - by Connie Schultz

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for The [Cleveland] Plain Dealer and the wife of US Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). Schultz is unabashedly liberal and her columns sometime offer unique insights into the mindset of progressive leaders. If you have been following congressional politics for the last few months the notion that a liberal proponent of health care reform would recommend citizens actually read a bill is extraordinary.

Unfortunately, the column itself did not meet my expectations. Schultz's thesis was conservative commentators were misrepresenting the provision of the bill calling for mandatory end of life counseling and scaring seniors. I would argue Schultz was misrepresenting what the conservative commentators said. Regardless, the column did not contain any language imploring people read the bill.

The fact the body of a column and the headline were not "calibrated" is not very significant. Columnists rarely write their own headlines. Forgetting PR strategies and legislative tactics for a moment, "Read the health care bill" should be as controversial as "Eat more vegetables" or "The sky is blue" or "I love mom". Who could possibly take issue with innocuous throwaway lines like these?

Apparently Schultz took issue with the headline. This update appeared about 9 hours after the column was posted to Cleveland.Com.

UPDATE at 11:18 a.m.: The headline on my column, which I did not write, was unfortunate in that it suggested I was instructing all Americans to read the proposed health reform bill. I don't think it's incumbent upon every citizen to read the bill. My concern, as stated in this column, is about misinformation regarding proposed coverage for end-of-life care.

Regardless of motive, by adding a mere 60 word update Schultz morphed her otherwise average column into a powerfully eloquent argument against current efforts at health care reform. Any person who has leased a car, joined a health club, or watched the Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man" knows that feeling when they suddenly realize not reading the details before committing was a grave mistake.

"Don't bother reading the details" is the modern world's equivalent of hearing the growl of a nearby predator as you refresh yourself at a water hole on Serengeti Plain; the sudden awareness that you have become a key element (figuratively or literally) of someone's dinner menu. No matter where you find yourself on the health care debate Schultz's update should give you pause.



First Lady requires 22 attendants - Cost - $1,626,700/year

One wonders why she needs so much help, at taxpayer expense, when:

Hillary Clinton had three;

Jackie Kennedy had one;

Laura Bush had one.

"In my own life, in my own small way, I have tried to give back to this country that has given me so much," she said. "See, that's why I left a job at a big law firm for a career in public service, " Michelle Obama

No, Michele Obama does not get paid to serve as the First Lady and she doesn't perform any official duties. But this hasn't deterred her from hiring an unprecedented number of staffers to cater to her every whim and to satisfy her every request in the midst of the Great Recession.

Just think Mary Lincoln was taken to task for purchasing china for the White House during the Civil War. And Mamie Eisenhower had to shell out the salary for her own personal secretary.

1. $172,200 - Sher, Susan (Chief Of Staff)

2. $140,000 - Frye, Jocelyn C. (Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Policy And Projects For The First Lady)

3. $113,000 - Rogers, Desiree G. (Special Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary)

4. $102,000 - Johnston, Camille Y. (Special Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the First Lady)

5. $90,000 - Winter, Melissa E. (Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)

6. $90,000 - Medina , David S. (Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)

7. $84,000 - Lelyveld, Catherine M. (Director and Press Secretary to the First Lady)

8. $75,000 - Starkey, Frances M. (Director of Scheduling and Advance for the First Lady)

9. $70,000 - Sanders, Trooper (Deputy Director of Policy and Projects for the First Lady)

10. $65,000 - Burnough, Erinn J. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)

11. $65,000 - Reinstein, Joseph B. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)

12. $62,000 - Goodman, Jennifer R. (Deputy Director of Scheduling and Events Coordinator For The First Lady)

13. $60,000 - Fitts, Alan O. (Deputy Director of Advance and Trip Director for the First Lady)

14. $90,000 - Lewis, Dana M. (Special Assistant and Personal Aide to the First Lady)

15. $52,500 - Mustaphi, Semonti M. (Associate Director and Deputy Press Secretary To The First Lady)

16. $50,000 - Jarvis, Kristen E. (Special Assistant for Scheduling and Traveling Aide To The First Lady)

17. $45,000 - Lechtenberg, Tyler A. (Associate Director of Correspondence For The First Lady)

18. $45,000 - Tubman, Samantha (Deputy Associate Director, Social Office)

19. $40,000 - Boswell, Joseph J (Executive Assistant to the Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)

20. $36,000 - Armbruster, Sally M. (Staff Assistant to the Social Secretary)

21. $40,000 Bookey, Natalie (Staff Assistant)

22. $40,000 - Jackson, Deilia A. (Deputy Associate Director of Correspondence for the First Lady)

Never has there been anyone in the White House with such an army of staffers whose sole duties are the facilitation of the First Lady's social life.

That's $1,332,762.00 assuming the #18. $445,000 should be 45,000, #11. Reinstein should get about $65,000, #14. $90,000 - Lewis would get $60,000 if these are to be in decending order. Then add in Ingrid and Johnny, make up. VP

Note: This does not include makeup artist

Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, and "First Hairstylist"

Johnny Wright, 31, both of whom travelled aboard Air Force One to Europe ..



MOM'S EMPTY CHAIR

A woman's daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray with her mother. When the minister arrived, he found the woman lying in bed with her head propped up on two pillows.

An empty chair sat beside her bed. The minister assumed that the woman had been informed of his visit. 'I guess you were expecting me, he said.

‘No, who are you?’ said the mother. The minister told her his name and then remarked, ‘I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was going to show up..’

‘Oh yeah, the chair,’ said the bedridden woman. ‘Would you mind closing the door?’ Puzzled, the minister shut the door. ‘Thave never told anyone this, not even my daughter,’ said the woman.

‘But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head.’

‘I abandoned any attempt at prayer’, the old woman continued, ‘until one day four years ago, my best friend said to me, Prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus.’

Here is what I suggest. ‘Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair.. It's not spooky because he promised, I will be with you always. Then just speak to him in the same way you're doing with me right now.’

‘So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I'm careful though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm.’

The minister was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old woman to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with her, anointed her with oil, and returned to the church.

Two nights later the daughter called to tell the minister that her mama had died that afternoon. ‘Did she die in peace?’ he asked.

‘Yes, when I left the house about two o'clock, she called me over to her bedside, told me she loved me and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found her .’

‘But there was something strange about her death. Apparently, just before Mom died, she leaned over and rested her head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?'

The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said, ‘I wish we could all go like that.’

Just send this to four people or more, and do not break this, please.

Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive.

I asked God for water, He gave me an ocean.*
I asked God for a flower, He gave me a garden*
I asked God for a friend, He gave me all of YOU...
If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.

Happy moments, praise God.
Difficult moments, seek God.
Quiet moments, worship God
Painful moments, trust God
Every moment, thank God.



Total Expressions

A girl asked a boy if she was pretty and the boy said no. She then asked if he wanted to be with her forever and he said no. Finally, she asked him if he would cry if she walked away and again he replied no. The girl had heard enough and she went to leave. The boy grabbed her arm and said "You are not pretty, you are beautiful. I do not want to be with you forever, I need to be with you forever. And if you walked away I would not cry, I'd die



"The e-mail Bag"

Do They (Fail To) Teach This At School?

Recently, when I went to McDonald's I saw on the menu that I could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets. I asked for a half dozen nuggets. "We don't have half dozen nuggets," said the teenager at the counter. "You don't?" I replied. "We only have six, nine, or twelve," was the reply. "So I can't order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?" "That's right." So I shook my head and ordered six McNuggets.



The Lie Clock

A man died and went to heaven. As he stood in front of St. Peter's desk at the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him. He asked, "What are all those clocks there for?"

St. Peter answered, "Those are Lie Clocks. Everyone on Earth has a Lie Clock. Every time you lie the hands on your clock will move."

"Oh," said the man, "whose clock is that?"

"That's Mother Teresa 's. The hands have never moved, indicating that she never told a lie."

"Incredible," said the man. "And whose clock is that one?"

St. Peter responded, "That's George Washington's clock. The hands have moved twice, telling us that Washington told only two lies in his entire life."

"Where's Barack Obama 's clock?" asked the man..

"Obama's clock is in Jesus' office. He's using it as a ceiling fan."