Obamacare: Hazardous to the Health of Marriage

Posted on February 19, 2013


The Affordable Care Act – aka – Obamacare, will forever be dogged by Nancy Pelosi’s infamous comment: “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it.” So true Nan. And naturally, as with all government debacles, the more we find out, the worse it gets.
 
Betsy McCaughey, Ph.D. (author of “Beating Obamacare”) was one of those who already knew what was in the disastrous law and tried to warn the rest of us. And she’s not backing down any time soon;
Wheels coming off ~

The latest news from four federal agencies is that 1) insurance will be a lot less affordable than Americans were led to expect, 2) fewer people than promised will get insurance and 3) millions of people who have coverage through a job now will lose it, thanks to the president’s “reforms.”
Oh, and children are the biggest victims…

 
Especially among low-income families where healthcare costs are actually making marriage economically unfeasible. This, according to Phil Kerpen at the Daily Caller; Obamacare undermines marriage ~

Obama’s signature legislative achievement creates such a powerful “financial deterrent” to marriage that even one former Obama administration official warns that ObamaCare will increase the divorce rate among lower-income families.
 
“Consider a couple with children in which one of the parents earns most of the family’s income. If the couple marries, the family would lose thousands of dollars of subsidies that could otherwise be used to pay for health insurance for the children and the lower-income spouse,” (former Obama Treasury Department official David Gamage said in The Wall Street Journal) said last year. “If the couple is already married, divorce may be their only option for obtaining affordable insurance for their children and the lower-income parent.” 😯

 
Further, as Kerpen points out ~

By accelerating family break-up, Obamacare will also worsen health outcomes. Research has consistently shown that married people have better health, longer lives, and better survival rates for some diseases. Children of intact marriages also have lower infant mortality and better physical and mental health outcomes. There is also a well-documented connection between marital status and child poverty.

 

But never mind all that – the president really cares. The only message that got through to the low-information voter was this Obama soundbite from the SOTU earlier this month:
 
“We’ll work to strengthen families by removing the financial deterrents to marriage for low-income couples.”

 
 

Posted in Mendacity, MSM Malpractice, Unvarnished | 1 Comment

Gun Grabbing Law Didn’t Work in Massachusetts

Posted on February 18, 2013

Liberal lawmakers in Massachusetts must have figured they were one step closer to achieving their utopian dream when they enacted the state’s new gun control legislation in 1998. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. As Jeff Jacoby at the Boston Globe reports, Crime soared with Mass. gun law.

Since 1998, gun crime in Massachusetts has gotten worse, not better. In 2011, Massachusetts recorded 122 murders committed with firearms, the Globe reported this month — “a striking increase from the 65 in 1998.” Other crimes rose too. Between 1998 and 2011, robbery with firearms climbed 20.7 percent. Aggravated assaults jumped 26.7 percent.

 
 

Not easily detered though, the anti-gun crowd says the stats don’t tell the whole story – the firearms are now coming from other states. They claim that;

Crime didn’t rise in Massachusetts because the state made it harder for honest citizens to lawfully carry a gun; it rose because other states didn’t do the same thing.
 
“Massachusetts probably has the toughest laws on the books, but what happens is people go across borders and buy guns and bring them into our state,” rationalizes Boston Mayor Tom Menino.

 
But the murder rate in neighboring states, as well as in the rest of the country, kept going down, while in Mass. it went in the opposite direction ~

Relative to the rest of the country, or to just the states on its borders, Massachusetts since 1998 has become a more dangerous state. Economist John Lott, using FBI crime data since 1980, shows how dramatic the contrast has been. In 1998, Massachusetts’s murder rate equaled about 70 percent of the rate for Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York. Now it equals 125 percent of that rate.
 
Clearly something bad happened to Massachusetts 15 years ago. Blaming the neighbors may be ideologically comforting. But those aren’t the states whose crime rates are up.

 
You know those progressive utopians aren’t about to let facts and figures get in the way of their ultimate goal though. Somehow that annoying human nature always slows them down. Never fear. They’re gonna perfect us if it kills us.
 
Related:
Gun Ownership at All-Time High, Nation’s Murder Rate at Nearly All-Time Low

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

Nerobama’s Freudian Slip

Posted on February 18, 2013

From the Blaze ~

During a Google hangout Thursday night, President Barack Obama was asked about his administration deporting “record numbers” of illegal immigrations during his first term. His poorly phrased response sounded more like something you might expect from Vice President Joe Biden.
 
“This is something I’ve struggled with throughout my presidency,” Obama said. “The problem is that I’m the president of the United States, I’m not the emperor of the United States. My job is to execute laws that are passed.”

 

Translation:
I wish I were Emperor. Then, even though my job is to execute laws that are passed, I could ignore the ones I don’t agree with – like DOMA and immigration laws… Oh wait, I am ignoring those! Maybe I am Emperor!

 

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Progressives Urge the Catholic Church “Forward”

Posted on February 17, 2013

Ever since the Pope announced his abdication, progressives have been eagerly proffering advice about choosing his successor and on what direction the Catholic Church should take. Most of these “social justice” advocates are of the opinion that this is a perfect opportunity for the Vatican to “get with it.” Liberals in both the cleric and lay factions are urging the Church to eschew “tradition” and “move forward.”
(Uh-oh. Where have we heard that before…?)
 
A typical advocate of this morally relativistic approach is our own local Detroit columnist Marney Rich Keenan who weighed in with her wish list this weekend: Wanted: A pope who looks ahead, not backward*.
 
Here are some of her helpful “suggestions” for the College of Cardinals:
 

• Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the new pope could strike a balance between tradition and modernism?
 
• A pope who, rather than advocate a smaller church with more ardent believers, opened the church to more people by being more relevant.
 
• What about a pope who loosened all those Thou Shalt Nots (like reversing its position on contraception) [Gee what a great idea!] and broadened the church’s appeal?
 
• Wouldn’t it be amazing if we had a pope who agreed priests could marry, and opened the path for ordination to women?
 
• Maybe a pope who understood that God’s match for you could mean someone who shares your gender?

 
Father Martin Fox (Archdiocese of Cincinnati), at his Bonfire of the Vanities blog, has a creative response to “small c” Catholics like Ms. Keenan who, darn it all, just wish that there just weren’t so many Thou Shalt Nots.

In his hypothetical dialogue – “Jesus debates ‘Progressive’ Catholics” – Fr Fox features Tom Roberts – editor of the National Catholic Reporter. I’ve substituted a generic “Liberal Catholic” ~
 

Jesus: If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself? [Luke 9:23-25]
 
Liberal Catholic: Um, Rabbi, that won’t sell. That’s not where people are today.
 
Jesus: What? Won’t sell?
 
Liberal Catholic: That taking up your cross business. Don’t you think you should adapt your message to the way people live today?
 
Jesus: I didn’t come to adapt the Word of God to the world; I came to call the world to the Word of God.
 
Liberal Catholic: Well, the Jesus I know and serve loved people and didn’t impose a lot of rules on people!
 
Jesus: OK, well, there are many who claim to speak for God. The Father sent me. I have come to testify to the Truth.
 
Liberal Catholic: What is truth?
 
Jesus: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.
 
Liberal Catholic: Huh. That’s pretty pre-Vatican II stuff there, Rabbi. People won’t like it.
 
Jesus: What are you talking about? ‘Won’t like it’? Dude, they’re gonna crucify me. Have you been listening to anything I’m saying?
 
Liberal Catholic: Hey, this has been nice, but King Herod’s having a “sensual spirituality” seminar this afternoon, so I’ve gotta book out of here. But seriously, you’re gonna need to rethink all this. I’ll be happy to help you, let me know.
 
Jesus: Hm? Sorry, I was just praying. For you.

 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marney Rich Keenan firmly believes that the Catholic Church needs to adapt to the way people live today. She complains that “(t)he Vatican is entrenched in black and white, in absolutes.”.
 
Yes dear, it is. Sorry for the inconvenience but it’s called transcendent Truth. And thank the Lord for that. Otherwise, what’s the point really?
(“It’s all relative.” “We’re evolving.” “Your truth, my truth, whatever.”)
 
Furthermore, the Catholic Church is not a democracy. I don’t recall Jesus asking His disciples for a vote, soliciting their input, or asking if they felt He was being “fair.” (In fact, when they did volunteer their opinions, He generally straightened them out pretty quickly.)
 
That said, I’m not Catholic, so don’t believe in the Pope’s infallibility. BUT – they must be doing something right. 2000 years of (more-or-less) faithfulness to scripture, and a current membership of well over 1 billion members, rather effectively speaks to the strength and TRUTH of Christian values.
 

While Marney and her fellow liberals are floundering in an ever-changing sea of moral relativism, I’m confident that the Church will adhere firmly to the Rock of Ages, the unchanging Word – and the Cross of Christ. They haven’t survived two millennia by compromising with progressives.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*I really recommend checking out Ms. Keenan’s article in the Detroit News for yourself. Just skip right to the Comments Section – some of them are terrific. Encouraging to see so many ardent defenders of the faith!

Posted in Comfort & Joy, Good vs.Evil, Timeless Principles, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Saturday Shorts 2-16-13

Posted on February 16, 2013

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

 
Obama’s Progressive State of Disunion ~ Excellent summary of Tuesday’s SOTU by Mark Alexander at The Patriot Post – more of the same warmed-over crappola we’ve come to expect from POTUS.
 

We Already Have an Election Commission—And Obama Has Ignored It ~ First of all, there wasn’t a problem; the average wait time nationally (last Nov. 6th) was only 14 minutes.
But now – President Obama wants to establish yet another election commission, bypassing the one we already have that has been idle—due to a lack of staffing that he is largely responsible for. Hello? 😯
 

FBI: Elderly ex-con robbed bank in hopes of prison ~ Sad but true. At 73, this guy has spent most of his life in the slammer and;
“He felt more comfortable in prison, court documents allege, and wanted to spend his final years there.” Free housing, free food, free Obamacare – just no Freedom.
Come to think of it – this could be all of us in a few years!
 
$842,000 in stimulus money wasted on LG Chem employees paid to watch movies, play games, volunteer, federal investigation finds ~ Holland MI.
Touted by Obama as another success-in-the-making less than 3 years ago, this manufacturing plant was supposed to create more that 440 jobs and produce enough battery cells each year to power 60,000 electric vehicles by now.

The investigation found that less than half of the expected jobs had been created…
… LG Chem had not yet produced a single battery cell that could be used in a commercially available electric vehicle. The company had also spent $142 million of the $151 million grant — 94 percent — but only completed about 60 percent of the production capacity required.

Oops.
 
“Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership” ~ Seriously.
These are the people who haven’t forgotten when the Nazis confiscated Jewish guns prior to the Holocaust. Nor have they forgotten Torah.

 
Massacre Survivor Tells Senate: I’m Not a Victim of Guns, But of Lawmakers Who ‘Legislated Me Out of the Right to Protect Myself and My Family’ Why the good guys need guns. With video.
 

Cardinals Mull Obama Papacy ~ Don’t panic. Just some chuckles from our favorite satirists at The People’s Cube 😀
 
 
 
 
 

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Reality-Checking the SOTU

Posted on February 15, 2013

Here’s Alfonzo Rachel’s point-by-point refutation of the president’s latest blather – featuring Obama in chipmunk mode – which is much more entertaining than the original verison 😀 ~
 

 

Posted in Timeless Principles, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Marriage on the Rocks

Posted on February 14, 2013

Judging by all the mushy media hype … there’s still plenty of romance in the air this Valentines Day.
I can recall when, back in the day, all those flowers, cards and candy more often than not were a prelude to a stroll down the aisle.
 
At the risk of dating myself, remember that little Frank Sinatra ditty?

Love and marriage,
Love and marriage,
Go together
Like a horse and carriage;
This I tell you brother
You can’t have one without the other!

 
But here in 2013? Forget it. That outmoded progression has joined “Ol’ Blue Eyes” and the horse and carriage in the dustbin of history.
 

In fact, in the past five decades the percentage of married adults in America has dropped precipitously:
 

Chart source: “State of Our Unions” 2012 report
from the Institute for American Values

 
Current trends only indicate further decline. In an article titled “America’s Exodus from Marriage,” Commentary Magazine pointed out last month:

The divorce rate today is about twice that of 1960, though it’s declined since hitting its highest point in our history in the early 1980s. For the average couple marrying for the first time in recent years, the lifetime probability of divorce or separation now falls between 40 and 50 percent. Today more than a quarter of all children live in single-parent families, compared to only 9 percent in 1960. And the number of unmarried couples has increased seventeen-fold in the last 50 years.

 

Still lots of romance going on. Just not too much in the way of commitment.
 
[That old adage from the 50’s and 60’s – Why buy the cow when you’re getting the milk for free? – has gone unisex these days.]
 

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

How did we get here?
Essentially, the contemporary breakdown of marriages and families, with the attendant millions of broken lives, is the fallout from fighting against God’s rule of our lives.
 
Recently I came across an intriguing new documentary called “The Baby War: Defenders and Defectors.” Poignantly dedicated to “all the people who were never born,” the film documents the erosion of traditional marriage and family over the past century. Here’s the trailer ~
 

The full-length DVD is available for sale ($22.00) HERE.

But you can watch the whole thing for free HERE.

 
The film is 1 hr. 42 min., although I’ve watched it twice – pausing and replaying frequently – and it didn’t seem that long at all. Probably because it really held my interest.
 
I was especially struck by a prophetic editorial from the Washington Post. This was in response to an announcement by the Federal Council of Churches of Christ that birth control was acceptable for restrained reasons and within marital bounds.

It’s from March 22, 1931 ~

The committee’s report if carried into effect, would sound the death knell of marriage as a holy institution by establishing degrading practices which would encourage indiscriminate immorality. The suggestion that the use of legal contraceptives would be “careful and restrained” is preposterous.

 
Considering the fact that we now have high schools handing out the morning-after pill to 14 year-old girls in NYC, you can almost believe that the editor had a time travel machine!
 

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

Journeying back through the 20th century with the documentary, it’s plain to see that it was the separation of life from love that led to the eventual decline of marriage as an institution. Sadly, even many Christians have bought into the delusion that it’s OK to have sexual intimacy without commitment. Yet, as the Commentary Magazine article said, it has profoundly negative implications;

… for the emotional and mental well-being of children; for America’s social fabric and “civil society”; for social mobility and the gap in income inequality; and for dependency on government and costs to the state (family breakdown costs the taxpayers billions every year). The collapse of marriage in America, then, has enormous human and social ramifications.

 

Traditional marriage – and family – are nothing less than the primary building blocks of all human societies. Can civilization actually survive very long without these institutions?
 
I encourage you to spend an hour or two watching The Baby War. I hope it may challenge you to think differently. Maybe even live differently.
 

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

The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families. … How is it possible that Children can have any just Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers?
 
~ John Adams, Diary, 1778 ~

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

 
Related:
Marriage Reduces Child Poverty ~ from the Heritage Foundation
Why Marrieds Tend to Be Richer ~ Couples who get and stay married can have as much as four times the wealth of their single or divorced peers.
Excellent 3-part article from Crisis Magazine: “The Long War Against the Family” ~ Part I ~ Part II ~ Part III
 

Posted in Cultural Erosion, Fruits of Their Labors, Timeless Principles | 2 Comments

Happy Valentines Day!

Posted on February 14, 2013

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Minimum Wage Misconception

Posted on February 13, 2013

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride…
 

And if, according to leftists, the government forces an increase in the minimum wage, we would automatically see a rise in “the incomes of millions of working families.” And “(f)or businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets.”
 
Right? Not exactly.
 
Oh it sounds good to the low-information voter, which of course is why the President threw it into the State of the Union address last night. But it’s really a fallacy that hiking the minimum wage will help the economy, or even improve the lives of low-wage earners.
 
Here’s a great little video that does a wonderful job of explaining the reality behind the wishful thinking:
 

 

Like most leftie proposals, increasing the minimum wage sounds great. But it’s really just an empty promise that most often does more harm than good.

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

 
In fact, the very concept actually has its roots in racism…
 
Obama’s Minimum Wage Fallacy: Golden Intentions Does Not Mean Golden Results ~ Interesting article at Mediaite that discusses the historical beneficiaries of the minimum wage movement ~

To wit: back in 1931 when the federal government debated the merits of effectively setting a minimum, union-level wage for government-contracted work, the law’s proponents openly acknowledged that it would prevent black construction workers from competing with the all-white labor unions…
 
…Overtly-racist supporters of the law got their way, and evidence shows that black unemployment began to deviate from white unemployment shortly thereafter.
 
Economist David Henderson notes several other examples of politicians being not-so-subtle about who would be the victims and benefactors of a mandated minimum wage hike. During a 1957 Senate hearing on the matter, Sen. Jacob Javits (D-NY) openly acknowledged that the northern-state industrial white worker often had to “unfairly” compete with the cheaper “colored worker” from the south.

 
Related:
A Simple and Wrong Answer to Poverty: Increasing the Minimum Wage ~ Further explanation from The Foundry – Heritage’s blog.
 

Posted in Timeless Principles, Unvarnished | 3 Comments

Founding Wisdom – Flouted by the Foolish

Posted on February 11, 2013

If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave.
 
~ Samuel Adams ~
 

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“So God Made a Liberal” – Sooper!

Posted on February 11, 2013

If you enjoyed Paul Harvey’s “So God Made a Farmer” Dodge commercial during the Superbowl, you’re gonna love Soopermexican’s “So God Made a Liberal.”
Not quite sure whether to laugh or cry… but it’s destined to become a classic ~
 

 

Posted in Fruits of Their Labors, Good vs.Evil | Leave a comment

Saturday Shorts – 2-9-13

Posted on February 9, 2013

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

 
Sequester Cuts: Navy to Ground Blue Angels and The Coming Defense Fallout ~ Can’t touch entitlements; let’s gut the military. And destroy American pride and exceptionalism while we’re at it.
Don’t worry though. When the next war breaks out we’ll have gays and women on the front lines.
 
Major Networks Ignore News of Increased Costs of ObamaCare ~ Why bother the sheeple with the ugly truth. And don’t tell em what happens when the money runs out either… Obamacare the future? ~ English Hospital Report Cites ‘Appalling’ Suffering
 
Ohio woman: Yeah, I voted for Obama twice… (in the same election!) what’s the big deal? ~ Even better: she’s a poll worker! It’s OK though – she didn’t intend to commit voter fraud.
 
Greatest Living President is Also Fantastic Painter ~ Not too sure about those adjectives, but interesting article. And who knew?
 
Christopher Dorner: When Moderates Go Bad ~ Jack Cashill at the American Thinker is spot-on with this piece. PC mind-control run amok;

With few exceptions, Dorner likes what CNN and MSNBC have told him he can like…
 
What he has absorbed from these news people is less a political philosophy than a generalized sense of moral superiority.
 
As Dorner has proved in the last few days, a moderate liberal, when trained, weaponized and sufficiently outraged, can be every bit as dangerous as the most wild-eyed radical. Smugness kills.

 
The Washington Free Beacon ~ Informative conservative site that’s been up and running for a year now – lot’s of great original content.

Dedicated to uncovering the stories that the professional left hopes will never see the light of day.

Bookmark this one if you haven’t already. 🙂
 
Billions of rounds of hollow points, black helicopters- what does it all mean? ~

To provide some perspective, experts estimate that at the peak of the Iraq war American troops were firing around 5.5 million rounds per month. At that rate, DHS is armed now for a 24-year Iraq war.

Nothing to see here. Move along.
 

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