Obamacare is symptomatic...

Even if one totally disregards the problems concerning the signing up phase of Obamacare, the numbers of Americans that are signing up via the more functional state run exchanges are by and large signing up as Medicare recipients.   I am not trying to impugn those on government assistance, however this seems to be coming as a surprise to some Obama acolytes, but in reality, is just another confirmation to those of us that have been warning that the 7-8% unemployment rate that is constantly touted by team Obama and the media is totally false,   The true numbers should be derived including the people that have stopped searching for employment and entered the roles of government dependence.  If they were included, a more accurate unemployment rate would be closer to 15-18%, depending on whose figures you use.  Again, the point is not to malign the people dependent on government support, just pointing out that like in free market private insurance companies, healthy, working people must be enrolled in sufficient numbers for the system to work.    It’s not a matter of mean spirited insurance companies charging high rates, it’s simple math.  By asking our government to manage, and dispense healthcare for the entire country not only misses the real problem, but in this particular case where our leaders are less than honest about the amount of subsidized recipients in our country at this time is not only dishonest but very hurtful in the long run. Going forward with such an ill-conceived and shoddy plan just to user in a big government scenario will move us in a backward direction from reforming healthcare.  What it will do is take the focus from the problem of high and unaffordable healthcare costs and add a high price tag and inefficiency to the management and delivery of healthcare that is sure to confound the caregivers as well as its recipients, causing even higher healthcare costs that if we had done nothing. (For the record, I am not advocating doing nothing.)

This is shaping up to be a hard lesson for the American people in the dysfunction of collectivism, when contrasted with the free market, and is as un-American as it gets.  Many of my friends on the left like to claim the current condition of the high cost of healthcare is due to capitalism and the free market, but the true student of the markets today will attest to the evidence of too much government intervention and crony-capitalism as the problem.  Our government’s inability to let anybody make a dollar they can’t tax or regulate is at the root of our economic demise.  Coupled with the corruption and deceitfulness of our leaders, it’s no surprise we are awarded boondoggles like Obamacare.  So long as we elect leaders on likeability instead of principle, we will get what we pay for.  A news media unwilling to report the news as it happens, but instead tries to shape opinion rather than being loyal to journalistic protocol is almost as much to blame as the apathetic citizenry in our land.  The only hope we have against the socializing of our land is heavy pushback from its citizens.  No amount of blame or castigation at whom, or whatever the target of the day will make a bad idea work.  And so it is with Obamacare, it is simply indefensible.   

Like the line in the children’s cartoon “Finding Nemo” when Dory and Marlin come to the dark trench she says “When we come to this trench, we’re supposed to swim through it, not over it ...” in order to avoid the poisonous Jellyfish above. In the case of the US and Obamacare, rather than tackling the problem of costly healthcare itself we are taking the go over it approach and bunny trailing into the realms of socialism and condemning ourselves to re-living what history has already taught our European friends as being a socio-economic disaster.

In terms of awareness, younger, healthier people will be hurt the most by a government takeover of our healthcare system.  As the choices diminish, costs will rise and quality of care will drop.  With the administrative costs rising the moneys must come from somewhere, and the most likely target will be first the ratepayer, and when it’s not enough, the caregiver.  With less and less ability for doctors and nurses to attain a decent living from the medical industry, the incentive for the best young men and women to enter the medical industry will drop and the industry will suffer.  I am not making these statements to hear myself complain, as history in Europe and our neighbors to the north attests.  Of course these countries still have functioning healthcare, but the excellence that has been a hallmark of the United States will disappear.  People from all over the world come to our country to get the best medical care in the world, not because of the government’s involvement in any way, but in spite of it.

I it is my prayer and hope that Obamacare is the catalyst that awakens the American people and brings them to a single voice of reason that will change our leader’s direction.  I learned long ago the truth I heard in a saying from a safety seminar I attended:  “ The highest level of performance you can expect from your employees is the least that you demand…”  In our case the “employees” are our elected leaders, and they must know we are asleep at the wheel, judging by their antics.  Our level of political participation will dictate what they do and how they act.  There will always be forces trying to subvert our traditional values and the Constitution, but they will only succeed if good men and women sit by idly. 

My case for Christianity (in my own words...)

     We all have acquaintances whose company we enjoy, but that doesn't mean we agree with everything the other holds as their beliefs.  Even spouses are subject to disagreement in many areas, that’s what makes marriage interesting and wonderful.  I have many friends close and casual, and of the friends I am blessed with, the closer the bond, the less time we spend discussing the areas we disagree on.  However, with the advent of social media, I have other friends that enjoy discussing almost exclusively the things we don’t have in common.

This has become a source of entertainment and enjoyment as I have always been one to wonder what makes things tick, including other humans and myself as well.  Having discussions of religious and political content can become very heated and frustrating sometimes, but the people I share with are very good about keeping the discussions we have from interfering with our camaraderie’s.

One topic that always piques my interest is the discussion of the existence of God.  My fellow social media-ites and I seem to get into an exchange regarding God’s existence, and their insistence He doesn't.  

The discussion usually goes something like this:

 Me: “Our God is an awesome God and I thank Him for saving a wretch like me.”

My social media buddies: “There is no god, only weak minded people need a crutch like an imaginary deity.”

Me: “Bite me you ungrateful wretches, God created and sustains everything.”

Media buddies: “Oh yeah… prove it.”

Me: “the Bible says… “(And I quote off a bunch of verses that remind us God created and sustains everything)

Them: “The bible is a book of inconsistencies” and then they go on to recite the 3^rd law of thermodynamics, or some such pointy headed information as their proof that we came into existence from navel lint, or whatever their argument entails and the discussion is reduced to a battle of each of us regurgitating the proofs we hold to be evident to us, and the claims that the other won’t listen to the “truth”. 

This is frustrating to me as I am not a very adept debater, but I love to talk about and discuss differences between people.  In my observation, in a battle of words, neither person can successfully convince the other that conclusive evidence exists to either prove God exists to the non-believer, or prove He doesn't to the believer.  So it seems to me if that is the case, it becomes a matter of the next best thing or other evidences that either elevate or reduce the position held by either arguer. 

Being of a pragmatic school of thought, I am always interested in what yields the best outcome for the given purpose something has, or what demonstrates the most compatible outcome when being exercised.  This is where I believe God and Christianity prove to be the most logical, and compatible to human existence, therefore bolstering the fact that God’s Word is in fact from God and not just a collection of human ideas that “just work”. 

If you were to set up an amoral society purposely, one of two things would happen: it would destroy itself, or adopt moral limitations that allow it to survive or even flourish.  God’s Word is chock full of specific moral imperatives that if practiced to a tee, would sufficiently enable any society to flourish.  I don’t think the same can be said for amoralism, or an anarchistic approach to moral behavior. 

And since the evidences either side can present are of knowledge that can only be known within the confines of what man can grasp, by weighing the knowledge God’s Word can impart against the knowledge man can know at the time of the argument, only the knowledge that can produce tangible fruit can be trusted as reliable in my pragmatic way of thinking.  To put one’s faith in another scientist’s theory, or perceived knowledge that may or may not be accurate because of the relative “newness” of claims or limitations of knowledge of the given time could be spiritually and morally disastrous.   In addition, the knowledge man calls truth today will surely change in time to come as he gains greater understanding, and insight, of what he is studying. 

 Consider the absolute worst thing that would happen if we lived in a truly theocratic society using the Biblical guidelines.  People would live a moral and productive life by following all the edicts in the Bible.  On the other hand, the lack of adherence to a specific moral code of conduct and the propensity of man to deceive his fellow man for ill-gotten gain is evident in the world in which we live today.

Who is to say that the scientists of tomorrow won’t be faced with even more concrete evidence that we are living in a world designed and maintained by a Creator?  To me it seems ludicrous to claim to be a scientist and completely rule out an entire avenue of thought held by previous generations, as a matter of convenience and rebellion.  It seems as though a specific outcome of thought is the idea, not scientific truth.

My compatriots always throw the idea that religion has been the impetus for wars and murder over the many years of history.  I take this to be a broad stroked claim that lacks specific definition so that in a casual conversation it tries to lay that claim at the foot of Christianity.  Anyone knows throughout the millennia that historical records have been kept that there have been wars and slaughter in relation to many causes, many of which were perpetrated in the name of religion to lull the masses into a false belief that the warring party was supported in their quest for blood.  Even our leaders of today erect false flags to insight our allegiance to their causes for war, and so I believe it has been with many of the so called “Religious” wars.  The world has known many a tyrant that has invoked the name of God or a reference to the Bible as a means to their end.   However, if anyone cares to heed Jesus Words, you can see a much different and far clearer picture of how God would have us interact with each other. 

I wrote this as a way to try to break the verbal “stalemate” I always seem to find myself in when addressing my atheistic friends.  They like to try to set the tone of the discussion as their knowledge being the ultimate wisdom, and the ownness of proof being on my belief in God  being on trial against the pop-cultural wisdom,  but to me their grasp of knowledge is the least reliable and most prone to change over the course of time.

The pragmatic and time tested results are the tangible evidence that God’s Word is true, and continues to remain unchanged.

What is the real conspiracy...

I've read stories and seen videos of people convinced martial law is eminent in the USA and there are FEMA imprisonment camps just waiting for UN military forces to fill with non-conformists rebelling from the implantation of the upcoming “New World Order”.  As a student of the Bible, I am very aware of the apocalyptic description of the end of the “end times”, and the similarities of the claims of the present day prognosticators of doom.  For the most part, I have assumed the “Infowars” type conspiracy guys were well meaning, but a little nuts, and while history is following the cycle it does, just as it has many times before in strong cultures like ours, I had hoped this cycle would be like Hitler, and have a relatively short shelf life, and in a generation or so get back on track. 

But in recent years of not understanding what has happened to the country I love, with much hand ringing and thought, I have come to believe this country is coming to a point that may make it very unlikely to return to the life style that has been afforded my generation as well as the previous ones.  I will never concede defeat, but being pragmatic, I must admit the likelihood of this present culture that refuses embrace the kind of restraint and economic discipline that would be required to return our nation to a state of operation like we have enjoyed in previous years, leaves a slim hope.  Our leaders of late, both Democrat and Republican have not produced leader that doesn't kick the can a little further down the road.

 I realize there are many like-minded people that feel similarly, and also watch seemingly helplessly, as the country we grew up loving, erodes into a land of apathy, low participation, and low information as each generation progresses, at least in terms of the how’s and why’s our country has become the most desirable place on earth for people to immigrate to.

We sit at home (at least I do…) listening and watching the news media as delivered to us in the main forms and outlets on the radio, TV, print, and on the internet, and form our picture of the world beyond us and how our leaders are running our government and interacting with the rest of the world.  The usual  “news” suspects being the network and cable news services and the newspapers that have mostly all gone to the web.  The word “conspiracy” has become notorious as “kooky” or far-fetched, and is used in conjunction with views not aligned with these news stories associated with the main stream media.  Everybody has their “pet” news source, and is comfortable with the delivery of the information they receive from them, even sympathetic to it.  Most information outlets have become very biased in their delivery of the news stories they share.  The people on the right, say the left leaning news organizations are “biased, and vice versa. 

This is my opinion, but I have come to the idea that we as citizens of this great nation can really know very little in actuality of the accurate events and the goings on outside our areas of travel on our own.  I also can imagine that if there were a great force wanting to change our nation’s position of strength, they most certainly wouldn't want to confront us head on, so how would they do it?  How has it been done before?   Looking at relatively recent (in the last couple of hundred years…) historical evidence, one can point to Nazi Germany, Red China, and the USSR, to name a few that have had such radical change in their countries.  I believe, propaganda, and the control of information dissemination is the foothold tyrannical movements have had in common in creating the climate to transform a country or culture to a completely different way of life.  Unfortunately, the other tell-tale ingredient has been slowed, or absent economic activity in those very same cultures as the change was brought to bear.  I find it very ironic in thinking in those terms to watch as our country has under gone and maintained a stifled, and stagnant economic state, like has never been seen  since the 1930’s, with leaders that do nothing to abate the condition.  In fact, in speaking of those wonderful news sources we have here in the states, our leaders are spending money at a break-neck pace with no sign of slowing.  So much so, our dollar is becoming worthless and our Federal Reserve is printing money and charging 0% interest to our government in order to facilitate the continued spending spree and rest of the world is tiring of American dollars that are becoming less and less valuable.

Meanwhile, we, in our conditioned state, are not only entertaining the idea but, repeating that one political group that has drawn a line in the sand are “extreme” for making a stand to stop the insanity.  I use the word “insanity” heavily as the idea of the amount of debt our country is amassing is rapidly coming to a head, that will not end well, unless…

This is where the conspiracy ideology sometimes makes so much sense to me it is scary.  What if our country has been slated by whomever the evil globalists are to be drastically reduced in economic power, and standing in the world, and the need created to not only be governed by a central world government, but be bank rolled by one too? 

As I have become disillusioned by the political parties of today, I have begun to distrust the Republicans as well as the Democrats.  Being pragmatic, I have of late tried to imagine the motivation in modern politics, as I cannot use the same standard for either party as I did before and have turned to my conspiratorial friends to draw upon now.

I wish I had an epiphany, to share for those of you whom have stayed the course reading this long-winded rant, but all I am going to leave you with is my even stronger conviction that God’s Word is more dependable than I  have the ability to understand, and that the world we live in today is filled with deception, so much so, I am losing my will to argue politics as it seems moot, since it is probably all a production to deceive us into a mental wild goose chase of emotion and division.  So if we don’t have sound information being delivered to us what are we to believe?  I have adopted a quote from a Jewish leader of many, many years ago, giving an ultimatum to his people saying: “if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”  In the case of the United States one might well replace “the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites” with the revisionism of our country’s history taught today, or the idea that a collective government of the future is the answer to man’s dilemma.