VA (and Obama) Suffering from “Moral Blindness”

Posted on May 22, 2014

The ever-expanding scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs didn’t just materialize out of thin air in the last few weeks. Problems with inadequate care and life-threatening waiting lines have been reported for years, and the prevaricator-in-chief damn well knows it: Obama warned about VA wait-time problems during 2008 transition ~

Veterans Affairs officials warned the Obama-Biden transition team in the weeks after the 2008 presidential election that the department shouldn’t trust the wait times that its facilities were reporting.

“This is not only a data integrity issue in which [Veterans Health Administration] reports unreliable performance data; it affects quality of care by delaying — and potentially denying — deserving veterans timely care,” the officials wrote.

 
VAshinsekiSix years ago!
 
So whatever feigned indignation and false promises he’s peddling today, it’s all smoke and mirrors. If the president were serious wouldn’t he have addresssed this issue when he first took office? And in the face of these new allegations, wouldn’t he be encouraging anyone with evidence of healthcare abuses and cover-ups to come forward so we can get to the bottom of this debacle and solve the problems? Instead, it appears that just the opposite is happening… intimidation ~ More Whistleblowers Detail VA Abuses, Suffer Retaliation ~

The allegations of wait times, delayed care for veterans and cooked books began in Phoenix, but new revelations by two more Veterans Affairs whistleblowers in two different states suggest the VA problems are endemic.
 
“What really bothered me was that this delay was a direct result of this extremely low sense of caring for the patient,” said Dr. Jose Mathews, the chief psychiatrist for the VA Medical Center in St. Louis starting in Nov 2012 […]
 
According to Mathews, he noticed that the doctors he oversaw who were responsible for seeing veterans with post-traumatic stress and other acute mental health issues were working just a few hours a day. They were seeing about half the patients they could, Mathews alleged in a federal whistleblower complaint filed last year. Meanwhile, there were mounting suicides among veterans being treated at his facility — and officially, the St. Louis VA was reporting to its headquarters in Washington that its productivity was among the highest in the nation.
 
“They all got bonuses — that’s the sad part. Because in reality we were not really doing a good job, but it shows up on paper as if we are,” Mathews told Fox News.
 
When Mathews complained, he was removed from his job, assigned to an isolated office to oversee pensions and compensation. He was told not to contact the other doctors or patients.
 
“I think they have some form of moral blindness or something. They’re not able to see that this is not right, what they’re doing is not right,” said Mathews, a soft-spoken psychiatrist who says the veterans would have to wait a month or more for mental health treatment.

 
In West Virginia, another doctor claims patients on VA waiting list committed suicide (Fox News – with video). And she was ignored as well ~

(Dr. Margaret Moxness, who) was employed at the Huntington VA Medical Center in Charleston, W.Va., from 2008 to 2010, told “Fox & Friends” on Monday that she was told to delay treatment even after she told supervisors (patients) needed immediate care. She said at least two patients committed suicide while waiting for treatment between appointments(!)
 
Moxness said when she complained to her supervisors that it was harmful to partially treat patients, they stopped talking to her.
 
“I was functionally silenced,” she said.

 
So whatever line the O’ministration is tossing out these days, just know this: they don’t care, they never did, and nothing concrete will be done to improve the decidedly UNhealthy situation at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

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Judge Jeanine sums up this outrage nicely – loud and clear: VA Deaths Are Criminally Negligent HOMICIDE ~
 

 

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Related:
Never mind, Obama really cares about our vets. Remember this (from 2009)? Obama VA: Let’s charge vets for care on service-related injuries
 
VA scandal exposes danger of government-run health care ~ Fox News must have read my post ~ VA Healthcare Scandal: Preview of Coming Attractions
 VAdeathpanels

Posted in Mendacity, MSM Malpractice, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Founding Wisdom [Flouted by the Foolish]

Posted on May 21, 2014

founders-quote-washington
“The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.”
 
George Washington

Posted in Timeless Principles | Leave a comment

2014 College Grads Clueless on Benghazi [- and most everything else]

Posted on May 20, 2014

Juxtaposed in the current news cycle, against the now-annual collegiate tradition of ban-the-commencement-speaker, is this video from Dan Joseph of MRC-TV ~
 

Final exams at George Mason University
 
Q. Why is Benghazi in the news?
A. Ummm…
 

Video via: CNS News
 
“We’re not gonna make you look like an idiot – you did that all by yourself.” 😀

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The reason these kids are so uninformed about world affairs and current events is that today’s colleges, once proud bastions of academic freedom, have gradually become unenlightened institutions of intolerance. These days students on most every U.S. campus are subject to an un-written thought-conformity code. The sad result is that, after four years of indoctrination, they’re actually “offended” by any contrary opinions. As evidence of the totalitarian atmosphere, especially at elite universities, here are a couple of this year’s “unacceptable” commencement speakers:
 
• International Monetary Director Christine Lagarde ~ IMF Protests Drive Away Smith College Graduation Speaker
• Condoleezza Rice ~ Pulls Out Of Rutgers Commencement Ceremony After Protests
• State Senator Michael Johnston (D-CO) ~ Harvard latest school moving to oust graduation speaker

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Not only are the students on Joseph’s video living in a reality-free zone, they seem blissfully self-assured in their ignorance. Remember, this generation is a product of that unfortunate self-esteem-is-all-that-matters trend in education. Bret Stephens discussed this phenomenon in today’s WSJ decribing; “the dismaying inverse relationship between that (class of 2012’s) self-regard and its command of basic facts.”
 
That was from a 2012 Stephens column. In today’s, he continued ~

Well, Class of 2012, I did you a (small) injustice. At least the pretense of knowledgeability was important to you. For the Class of 2014, it seems that inviolable ignorance is the only true bliss.
 
It’s not just the burgeoning list of rescinded invitations to potentially offensive commencement speakers: Ayaan Hirsi Ali at Brandeis, Condi Rice at Rutgers, Christine Lagarde at Smith and Robert Birgeneau at Haverford.
 
In February, students at Dartmouth issued a list of 72 demands for “transformative justice.” Among them: “mandate sensitivity training”; “organize continuous external reviews of the College’s structural racism, classism, ableism, sexism and heterosexism”; and “create a policy banning the Indian mascot.” When the demands weren’t automatically met, the students seized an administration building […]
 
gradclassof 
This is the bind you find yourselves in, Class of 2014: No society, not even one that cossets the young as much as ours does, can treat you as children forever. A central teaching of Genesis is that knowledge is purchased at the expense of innocence. A core teaching of the ancients is that personal dignity is obtained through habituation to virtue. And at least one basic teaching of true liberalism is that the essential right of free people is the right to offend, and an essential responsibility of free people is to learn how to cope with being offended.

 

Demanding not to be offended, do these graduates realize they’ve relinquished all consequential autonomous thought?

 
So long as our colleges and universities are more concerned with preventing diverse opinions, and prefer censorship over debate, today’s young people may be familiar with “Happy” – but they won’t know jack-s**t about the world around them.
 
Rather than end on a despairing note, Stephens offered the Class of 2014 some helpful advice (Let’s hope they’re not too offended to take it) ~

You can still take charge of your education, and of your lives. The cocoon years are over; the micro-aggressions are about to pour down.
 
Deal with it. Revel in it. No consequential idea ever failed to offend someone; no consequential person was ever spared great offense. Those of you who want to lead meaningful lives need to begin unlearning most of what you’ve been taught, starting right now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 
Related:
Campus Thought Conformity
Dude, Stop Microaggressing My People – The Plight of German Americans ~ The College Fix mocks the hypersensitivity of “Mexican national-holiday-legitimacy defenders.”

Posted in Arrested Development, Unvarnished | 1 Comment

Illegal Invasion Up-date

Posted on May 19, 2014

You can tell that most Americans oppose this latest amnesty push (– it would be an overwhelming majority if the media ever did any honest reporting) by the dearth of opinion polls on the issue. When the Left – and increasingly their RINO associates – are confident that they’ve sufficiently brainwashed, bullied or intimidated the sheeple into falling for their latest oppressive objective, they’re proud to showcase the fruits of their efforts by polling the flock (At which point they also begin to ruthlessly demonize the opposition).
 
illegalpsswrdBut so far, they know most of us haven’t fallen for scamnesty – so no polls. And no mentioning the ugly reality about the illegal alien invasion and the lawless Obama administration. Gotta bury any story that doesn’t support the progressive agenda.
So in case you missed them, here are the latest outrageous developments on the illegal alien front ~
 
 
• ICE Document Details 36,000 Criminal Alien Releases in 2013
• Lamar Smith Calls ICE Release of 36,000 Criminal Immigrants a President-Sanctioned Prison Break
• ICE Ordered to Stay Silent on Release of 36,000 Criminal Illegal Immigrants
• Obama: I will allow illegals to continue to sexually assault American children until I get what I want

It’s a sad day when the President of the United States, sworn to uphold the law of the land, scorns it instead at the cost of the lives of American citizens and their children.

• Drunk Illegal Alien Driving on Wrong Side of Highway Kills Arizona Officer (16,000 of those criminal alien released were convicted of drunk diving)
• San Antonio: Lackland AFB to House Unaccompanied Illegal Alien Children (There’s a surge of unaccompanied children illegally entering the US – an estimated60,000 kids will cross the border by themselves this year.)
 
Maybe most of us still instinctively understand what Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) knows: Senate Immigration Bill Would Harm American Workers ~

Extreme is trying to pass an immigration bill that would double the flow of new guest workers into our country—and triple the grants of permanent admissions—when 50 million working-age Americans are out of work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Related:
“Bishops Without Borders”
With Obama and our new one-party system “legal” Americans get the shaft

Center for Immigration Studies ~ Low immigration; Pro-immigrant
Limits to Growth

Posted in Fruits of Their Labors, MSM Malpractice, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

No – you’re not nuts; you’re just being “Gaslighted”

Posted on May 18, 2014

kalfa3Do you sometimes feel as if you’re living in the “Twilight Zone?” Or like you’re one of the last humans left in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers?” Wonder why almost no one else seems to see or understand what’s really going on in America? Feel like you’re ready for the looney bin?

Calm down. You’re not going crazy. It’s all part of a nefarious plan (executed by a pack of sociopaths) to make you think you are. It’s called “Gaslighting.”

 
Don’t doubt your sanity.
Relax, and let Bill Whittle explain ~

 
 


 

“Go forth and spread the word.”

Posted in Fruits of Their Labors, Good vs.Evil | 1 Comment

Saturday Shorts – 5-17-14

Posted on May 17, 2014

sshorts4-28-12

Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:

 
Former Abortion Clinic Owner: We Pushed Sex Ed on Kids to Create a Market for Abortion ~ Interesting admission from a Texas woman confirms something many have suspected all along – although stunning in the details. Carol Everett is now a Christian who started a foundation to help women and girls facing crisis pregnancies.

 
End the War on Racism ~ Excellent essay by Daniel Greenfield – aka – Sultan Knish. America’s post-modern its’s-all-relative worldview hinders our ability to actually deal with reality – and will eventually be our downfall.

 
2+2=What? Parents rail against Common Core math ~ Convoluted curriculum seems deliberately designed to frustrate younger children and dumb-down older ones ~

Stanford University mathematician James Milgram calls the reform math-inspired standards a “complete mess” […]
 
“You are asking teachers to teach something that is incredibly complicated to kids who aren’t ready for it,” said Milgram, who voted against the standards as part of the committee that reviewed them. “If you don’t think craziness will result, then you’re being fundamentally naive.”

 
Are Christians losing the battle for traditional marriage?
Well, Notre Dame seems to have surrendered ~ Notre Dame refuses to recognize pro-marriage student group. (Is the country’s “premier Catholic University” even Catholic anymore?)

And progressive deconstructionism has reached the point of insanity on the Left Coast ~ California moves to let gay men cite selves as ‘mother’ on birth records; lesbians as ‘father.’ 😯

But at least this story, from my state of Michigan, is encouraging…
 
Decrying gay marriage, black pastors join legal fight (This is on the USA Today site; seems the rest of the media is pretty much ignoring it) ~

Representing potentially millions of worshippers in the state, the Michigan Catholic Conference, the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., and a national coalition of Baptists, Lutherans, Mormons and evangelicals led by Catholic bishops filed three separate briefs Wednesday in the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. The briefs back Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette in his efforts to defend the state’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, which was overturned earlier this year by a federal judge in Detroit.

 

barackthedoper
Shocking new study: relaxing marijuana laws leads to… increased marijuana consumption ~ Which in turn leads to an increase in abuse and dependency.
Yeah, who saw that one coming? 🙄

 
 

Welcome To The NFL: National Fascist League ~ A nation founded on freedoms – of religion, and speech, will very soon have neither ~

When fascism arose in America it came wrapped in a rainbow flag and banning a cross. Men used to turn to the sports page to escape from news, business, and “Cultural Insider.” People could escape in movies or sports but now, both entities have been dragged into the PC gutter. Apart from the movie theater and the sports arena, there really is no modern escape for the typical man. Yet, isn’t that exactly how Orwell foresaw it?

 
St. Louis French Hospital opens its doors for a brief gaze upon ornate paintings and statues of chivalric seals, crests and saints ~ In Jerusalem, a fleeting glimpse of some rare artifacts from the Crusades. Amazing (miraculous?) that these works have survived for so many centuries in that corner of the Middle East.
 
Saudis Protest Camel Kissing Ban by Kissing Camels ~ Kind of a hoot – except that there’s a good chance they’re helping spread the deadly MERS (Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome) virus.

Posted in Everything Else | Leave a comment

VA Healthcare Scandal: Preview of Coming Attractions

Posted on May 16, 2014

healthcare-skeleton
Four or five years ago when several of we horrible racist-sexist-bigot-homophobes types were busy trying to get our elected representatives to reject ObamaCare, one resolute couple showed up at nearly every protest in southeast Michigan with a unique display in tow. ➡
Their grinning pal in his wheel chair never made a sound – but his message was loud and clear: “people are gonna die waiting for government healthcare.”
 
Funny at the time. Now, not so much.

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In 2010, the dysfunctional nationalized health systems of our Canadian neighbors and their cousins in the UK, were already sufficient proof that any attempt by Central Planning/Big Government to co-opt healthcare was never going to work. Long lines, incompetence – and yes, eventually – death panels, were simply unavoidable.
 
And now sadly, we have our own evidence here in the U.S. at the Veterans Administration. As Investors Business Daily reported last week ~

Government-run VA health clinics have been caught falsifying records to hide obscenely long and sometimes deadly delays in treating veterans […]
 
Colorado: While delays for many of the 6,300 veterans treated at the clinic stretched out for months, clerks there were told to falsify dates so it appeared that everyone was being seen in a timely fashion. Those who didn’t play along ended up on a “bad boy list,” according to USA Today, which obtained a copy of the report […]
 
Arizona: (It’s been reported that) 23 veterans relying on the VA died due to delayed cancer screenings. At least 40 others died waiting for appointments at a VA system in Phoenix. A retired VA doctor said many were on a “secret waiting list” designed to hide treatment delays.

 
Similar allegations have emerged in at least two other states ~

It’s pouring rain in the Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare scandal, with a fifth location now accused of gaming the system to conceal unacceptable wait times. Allegations and whistleblowers have emerged in Arizona, Colorado, and at two Texas facilities. Now add Wyoming to the list.

 

Congress is currently running another production of Kabuki Theater, feigning outrage over the VA’s criminal negligence (Some lawmakers call for heads to roll). But once the furor dies down, the story will disappear (just like every other O’Ministration scandal) as the mainstream media ignores it, and the sheeple go back to “WWE Raw,” reality-TV and “Game of Thrones.”
 

As long as our fellow Americans are content to sit on the couch – even as military veterans are left to die from neglect at the hands of their own government – there will be no one to thwart the death panels when the rest of us are forced to go before them and beg for our own lives.
 
woodwardcomposite
 Back in ’09 and ’10, we evil Tea Partiers tried in vain to communicate the inevitable effects of socialized medicine. But believe me, when it comes to matters of life and death, there’s no satisfaction at all in “told ya so.”
 
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Related:
NBC Finally Covers Veterans Health Care Scandal, Still Ignores Obama ~ The Praetorian Guard is ever vigilant.
 
Obama acts like he doesn’t care about growing Veterans Affairs scandal ~ Ya think?

Judging by the throngs of veterans, families and whistleblowers who keep courageously stepping forward, VA’s delays in care problem is growing in size and scope by the day. That’s why I am asking for President Obama’s personal involvement in helping fix this crisis. For nearly a year, we have been pleading with top Department of Veterans Affairs leaders and the president to take immediate steps to stop the growing pattern of preventable veteran deaths and hold accountable any and all VA employees who have allowed patients to slip through the cracks. In response, we’ve received disturbing silence from the White House and one excuse after another from VA. Right now, President Obama is faced with a stark choice: take immediate action to help us end the culture of complacency that is engulfing the Veterans Health Administration and compromising patient safety, or explain to the American people and America’s veterans why we should tolerate the status quo.
~ House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller R-FL ~ May 13, 2014

 
VA Health Scandals Foreshadow Life Under ObamaCare ~ Here or abroad, socialized medicine is hazardous to everyone’s health ~

As ObamaCare’s tentacles reach further into the nation’s health care system, so too will come schemes to ration care, along with the inevitable political pressure to cover it all up.

Posted in Fruits of Their Labors, Good vs.Evil, Mendacity, MSM Malpractice, Unvarnished | 3 Comments

Whack-a-Drone #20

Posted on May 15, 2014

Here is another cogent, concise and convincing
example of the rightness of Conservatism.
Whack your favorite drone(s) with the TRUTH:

[There’s a high probability it won’t penetrate their thick
armor of denial – but hey, it’s worth a shot.]

 
 
Why Does 1% of History Have 99% of the Wealth?
(Hint: The present didn’t “exploit” the past to obtain it.)
 

 
Unlike the faux-graph of AGW, the economic hockey stick describes a true phenomenon.
 
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Related:
LearnLiberty.org

Posted in Timeless Principles, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Our British cousins are fed up with their elitists too

Posted on May 14, 2014

Whatever continent they may be on, central planning elites have one thing in common: they’re addicted to power. This obsession makes them a direct threat to the freedom and liberty of individual citizens. Like the Tea Party here in America, UKIP (United Kingdom Independent Party) is fed up with their authoritarian ruling class – and they’re fighting back ~

 

Video via Laura Ingraham

 

UKIP’s primary goal is to free the UK from the clutches of the European Union and its authoritarian controls over that country. Their issues sure sound familiar. An elite political class has stolen all power from the “peasants” and now controls every aspect of their lives.

ukip-logoThese are anxious and troubled times. As crisis follows crisis, our politicians do nothing in the face of dangers rearing up all around us ~
 
• Taxes and Government debt rise. Energy and transport costs soar. Unemployment is too high. The NHS and state education strain under a population increase of 4 million since 2001.
 
• Another wave of uncontrolled immigration comes from the EU (this time Bulgaria and Romania). Yet the political class tells us the EU is good for the UK.
 
• A gulf has opened between the ruling elite and the public. Because they must all follow Brussels diktats, each of the establishment main parties is now so similar voters have no real choice.
 
• The EU controls Immigration, Business and Employment, Financial Services, Fishing, Farming, Energy and Trade. It seeks now to control Law and Order, Foreign Affairs and Tax. Only outside the EU can we start to solve the problems our country faces.

 
The EU Parliamentary election is May 22nd. Godspeed UKIP!
 
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Related

Welcome to UK-Eurabia, where quoting Churchill is now illegal

Posted in Timeless Principles, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Disconcerting liberal theologians, Pope affirms Scripural Truth about Satan

Posted on May 13, 2014

In our post-Christian civilization, fewer and fewer westerners still believe that the devil actually exists. From the tone of this May 10th article it appears that the Washington Post is among the skeptics, and finds it interesting that Pope Francis would affirm this transcendent truth; A modern pope gets old school on the Devil ~

exorcising1Since its foundation, the church has taught the existence of the Devil. But in recent decades, progressive priests and bishops, particularly in the United States and Western Europe, have tended to couch Satan in more allegorical terms. Evil became less the wicked plan of the master of hell than the nasty byproduct of humanity’s free will. Even Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, a lofty German theologian, often painted evil with a broad brush.
 
Enter the plain-talking first pope from Latin America, where mystical views of Satan still hold sway in broad areas of the region. During his time as cardinal of Buenos Aires before rising to the papacy, Francis was known for stark warnings against “the tempter” and “the father of lies.” Now, his focus on the Devil is raising eyebrows even within the normally unquestioning walls of Vatican City.

 

Today’s universal “Church of Nice” includes many of those in the Catholic faith, even -yes- within the Vatican itself. Reluctant to risk offending parishioners, this post-modern version of the faith diligently avoids mentioning any unpleasant realities. These liberal pseudo-Christians believe that any mention of fire, brimstone and the prince of darkness would simply be too off-putting. As the post explains it ~

But by focusing on old-school interpretations of the Devil, some progressive theologians complain, the pope is undermining his reputation as a leader who in so many other ways appears to be more in step with modern society than his predecessor.
 
(Um, hello? Were early Christians in step with Roman society?)
 
“He is opening the door to superstition,” said Vito Mancuso, a Catholic theologian and writer. 😯

 

Was Jesus Christ opening the door to superstition?!

“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” ~ Luke 10:18-19

 

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exorcising2smlr

“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” ~ John 8:44-45

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Satan of course, is all too happy to let people think he doesn’t exist ~ “The devil is content if people don’t believe in him” says top Exorcist in revealing interview.

“The sad truth is that there are many bishops and priests in our church who do not really believe in the Devil,” said the Rev. Gabriele Amorth, the 89-year-old priest who is perhaps the closest thing the church has to a Hollywood-style exorcist. “I believe Pope Francis is speaking to them. Because when you don’t believe, the Devil wins.”

 

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Related:
Deliver us from Evil
 
Exorcism conference underway in Rome
 
Even Harvard University had a flash of sanity and decided it was better not to yield to temptation last weekend ~ Planned satanic mass at Harvard canceled
 
Rick Santorum spoke at Ave Maria University in 2008 about the devil’s evil influence on America. Scoff at your own risk…

Audio file via MRC TV

Listen to full 30 minutes and you’ll find that his overall message is very encouraging.

Posted in Good vs.Evil, Timeless Principles | Leave a comment

Live Life REAL

Posted on May 12, 2014

Smart phones; dumb people
Where is technology taking us?
 

Posted in Cultural Erosion, Timeless Principles | Leave a comment

A Mom is…

Posted on May 11, 2014

orangs-mom&baby

Posted in Comfort & Joy | Leave a comment