Obama's Health Care destruction

I have refrained from delving into the political debate regarding this subject, because I get just too darn upset. But I can not resist anymore. I read this article and thought that it was pertinent. Please read!

Democrats Committing Political Suicide with Massive Overreach

By Dick Morris | 07/22/09 | 12:09 AM EDT |

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If the Democrats obey Obama's commands and pass health-care reform legislation by the August recess, they will be committing partisan suicide, akin to lemmings going over the cliff en masse.

Obama's insistence that we completely make over our health-care system -- and that we do it two weeks after the first bill was marked up in the first committee -- is too arrogant by half. It smacks of the same kind of overreaching as doomed FDR's second term in 1937 after his landslide victory in 1936, when he proposed to pack the Supreme Court to reverse their anti-New Deal rulings.

Americans are increasingly turning against his program, in any case. The Washington Post poll has public approval of the plan below 50 percent, and Rasmussen has it trailing in approval 46 percent to 49 percent. Doubts are mounting. For Obama to ride roughshod over their concerns about a matter so intimate will be too much for them to take.

What is the rush? Americans will ask. The bill is not even slated to take effect until next year! We passed the stimulus package, they will note, in a similar rush during the first week of his presidency only to see it fall flat amid administration reinventions of history. Now, spokespeople for Obama opine that the package was never intended to have much effect this year.

How, voters will ask, can we cover 50 million new people without any new doctors or nurses? The answer is to ration health care, with the U.S. government deciding who will get hip and knee replacements, heart bypass surgery and all manner of medical treatments. And what does rationing mean? It means that the elderly will be denied care, which they can now get whenever they want it.

The Obama plan effectively repeals Medicare. It puts a Federal Health Board between the elderly and their doctors. The board will instruct public and private insurance carriers on what procedures are to be approved, at what cost and for what patients. The bulk of this rationing will, of course, fall on the elderly. We will have to revisit the idea that the elderly have, in the words of former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm, "a duty to die."

The more word gets around about what the bill contemplates, the firmer opposition is going to become. That's why Obama wants to push it through now, while he still has some popularity left.

And, if the bill passes, then what? The howls of protest from the elderly the first time they are denied health care will be something to behold. It will become evident that immigrants -- legal and not -- are being given the health care now reserved for the elderly, and the anger will be enormous and instant.

Most Americans are not sick and don't use medical facilities frequently. But the elderly are in constant touch with their doctors and medical providers. The curtailment of that access will become immediately apparent -- in more than enough time for the 2010 elections.

There are some votes that live on and on. They don't go away. People remember. From the time Bush Sr. passed the Kuwait resolution for military action against Saddam Hussein until Bush Jr.'s Iraq War began to go south in 2004, the gold standard for an appropriate attitude on national defense and security policy was how one voted on the Kuwait war resolution.

Clinton chose Al Gore for his ticket in 1992 largely based on his vote in favor of the invasion. It sent a signal that Gore and he were "new kinds of Democrats." This health care vote is a matter of similar consequence, and the impact of this vote will last long and linger for years.

Randomness

I have the greatest dad in the world. Among other things, he helped me clean out my rented storage unit yesterday at 6am (when it was only 96 degrees). He is always willing to help, and never complains. I think, because I'm single, I rely upon him much more than my other siblings, and he offers his service with a smile. I am sooooooo grateful for him.

Speaking of cleaning out my crap...I think that I have finally reached the time where I can give-up my college stuff. I've been hanging on to hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of pounds of material related to my graduate work. I have binders and binders and files and books all with material related to Great Basin studies, subsistence strategies, mobility patterns, Freemont activities in southern Utah, and floral and faunal analysis of subterranean pits. I've just been unable to get rid of it, because it represents such a HUGE (emphasis on HUGE) portion of my life. I put blood, sweat, tears, and prayer in to the two years I spent working on my Master's degree. I just couldn't bear to part with any portion of it.

However, yesterday as I was lugging around the giant bins of school stuff, for the 4th time (I've had to move them 4 times since I graduated), I finally accepted that there was no earthly reason why I should continue to lug this stuff around. I'm pretty sure at this point in my life I'm not going to go back and get a phD. However, should this change, everything I'm dragging around with me can be found in a library, somewhere. None of it is original work.

SOOO, big epiphany time (drum roll please)...I will be dumping all my archaeology/grad school stuff. BUT WAIT, lest we get too carried away, I will be hanging on to all of my original research, and all of the books I bought -- I haven't received any blows to the head that would completely alter my personality. I am still a hoarder of books.

With this new edict, I should be able to purge at least 150 lbs of junk for my collection. Now I just have to tackle the mission stuff. Do you think 10 years is long enough?

Random Archaeology Pictures

Clovis artifacts from the Gault Site, TX. I worked at the Gualt site during my last year of undergraduate school.
Because of the clay in which all the materials were embedded, we had to wet screen all the soil removed from the excavation pits at the Gault site. Here my crew is taking their turn at the screen...Katie, Rob and our crew chief ??? I built up some serious arm muscles that summer from lifting the buckets filled with water and clay up on to the screens, not to mention some serious bruises on my thigh because the buckets had to make a pit stop there on the way up to the chest high screens.

During my final year of grad school I went back for a few weeks to work at Kay's Cabin, a site in Goshen Valley, UT where I had worked as an undergraduate. It was a Fremont site with two pit structures that we excavated. Here I am taking F1 Notes (a record of all activity on the site) and logging artifact bags.
My best-friend at BYU, Sarah Baer, and I went through the whole program together. Here, she and I are creating a profile map of the end of this vent shaft.I can say that I desperately miss archaeological field work -- the discovery, the attention to detail, and feeling of success and accomplishment that I had when I looked back to see what I had done. However, I don't miss working outside during the months of June, July and August, nor the black crickets, nor sleeping in a tent for months and only having two showers a week. :)

Vote for Jasmine!

My friend CJ's super cute dog is in the top 10 of Mighty Dog's Amazing Dog contest. She needs your vote to win. Check out Jasmine's amazing tricks and head over to Mighty Dog to vote for Jasmine!



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A True Hero - Irena Sendler

I was forwarded an email about this remarkable women. I was so impressed I did a little research and found that the tales of her heroism and charity were true.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever, and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." Moroni 7:47

Irena Sendler

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irena_Sendler)
Irena sympathized with Jews from childhood. Her great-grandfather had been deported to Siberia by Czarist Russia. Her physician father had died in 1917 of typhus contracted while treating Jewish patients. She opposed the ghetto-bench system that existed at some prewar Polish universities, and because of this she was suspended for three years from Warsaw University.

World War II

During the German occupation of Poland, Sendler lived in Warsaw (prior to that, she had lived in Otwock and Tarczyn while working for urban Social Welfare departments). As early as 1939, when the Germans invaded Poland, she began aiding Jews. She and her helpers created over 3,000 false documents to help Jewish families, prior to joining the organized Żegota resistance and the children's division. Helping Jews was very risky—in German-occupied Poland, all household members risked death if they were found to be hiding Jews, a more severe punishment than in other occupied European countries.

In December 1942 the newly created Żegota (the Council to Aid Jews) nominated her (by her cover name Jolanta to head its children's section. As an employee of the Social Welfare Department, she had a special permit to enter the Warsaw Ghetto to check for signs of typhus, something the Nazis feared would spread beyond the Ghetto. During these visits, she wore a Star of David as a sign of solidarity with the Jewish people and so as not to call attention to herself.

She cooperated with the Children's Section of the Municipal Administration, linked with the RGO (Central Welfare Council), a Polish relief organization that was tolerated under German supervision. She organized the smuggling of Jewish children out of the Ghetto, carrying them out in boxes, suitcases and trolleys.Irena also smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box that she carried with her. She also had a dog in the back of her truck that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the noises of the kids that she would smuggle out. Under the pretext of conducting inspections of sanitary conditions during a typhoid outbreak, Sendler visited the Ghetto and smuggled out babies and small children in ambulances and trams, sometimes disguising them as packages. She also used the old courthouse at the edge of the Warsaw Ghetto (still standing) as one of the main routes for smuggling out children.

The children were placed with Polish families, the Warsaw orphanage of the Sisters of the Family of Mary, or Roman Catholic convents such as the Little Sister Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary Conceived Immaculate at Turkowice and Chotomów. Some children were smuggled to priests in parish rectories. She hid lists of their names in jars in order to keep track of their original and new identities. Żegota assured the children that, when the war was over, they would be returned to Jewish relatives.

In 1943 Sendler was arrested by the Gestapo, severely tortured, and sentenced to death. Żegota saved her by bribing German guards on the way to her execution. She was left in the woods, unconscious and with broken arms and legs. She was listed on public bulletin boards as among those executed. For the remainder of the war, she lived in hiding, but continued her work for the Jewish children. After the war, she dug up the jars containing the children's identities and attempted to find the children and return them to their parents. However, almost all of their parents had been killed at the Treblinka extermination camp or had gone missing otherwise.

In 2007 Irena Sendler was nominated for a Nobel Peace Award. In 2007 the Award did not go to Irena Sendler, it went to Al Gore for his work on Global Warming. Truly one of the greatest injustices on record.

I did it! My first sprint-triathlon.

I only have this sorry little picture of my race number with my tennis shoes that I took tonight. I knew that I couldn't go to bed (yes, it's only 8pm and I'm getting ready to go to bed) without recording something about this day. Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn't have a camera with me today so I was unable to record anything with it. However, if I did have a camera this is what I would have taken pictures of at my first sprint-triathlon race:

My Transition Space
I set my bike on the bike rack with the approximately 200 other bikes and set up a blue clean-sheet about 2 feet wide by 3 feet tall on the ground to the left of my bike. On it I folded my towel, placed my running shoes (precisely unlaced) and in each shoe was my sock with baby powder in it. Above my shoes were my bike helmet and riding gloves and sun glasses. And at the top was my backpack and an almost empty bottle of water (NOTE TO SELF: bring more water bottles next time).

The Cool Smooth Water of the Pool and It's 10 Lanes at 5AM
The race took place at the Jewish Community Center in Scottsdale, AZ. Their pool was cool and beautiful. It's amazing how much longer the lanes looked than the lanes I had been training in. At 7:16AM as I was in the water at the start of the first lane I heard, "One, two, three. Go" and I pushed off from the wall in an underwater glide to start my first sprint-triathlon race.

The Timing Pads
We wore timing chips around our ankles and so I had to make sure and cross the timing pad after I climbed out of the pool to run to the transition area and then once again after I returned from biking 9.5miles to transition into the 2 mile run. The final timing pad was under the finish line.

The Sea of Athletes Milling Around the Bike Racks
As I mentioned earlier there were about 200 adults and about 30 children competing in today's sprint-triathlon. The children ran first in their own modified race (there were kids there who could totally whip me). The gamut of athletes ranged from truly, full-time professional triathletes and ironman runners to people like me and there were as many women as there were men. It was amazing to see all the expensive equipment, special tri-suits, and toned bodies and then there was me. However, we all endured the same trials and ultimately we all crossed the same finish line.

Me Crossing the Finish Line
I did it! In fact as I was completing the final 1/4 mile of the run (mostly walk on my part) I actually got a little chocked up. I've busted my butt to do this and I did it. I kept thinking to myself , "I can do hard things." I think that may be my new life's mantra.

I CAN DO HARD THINGS.

If you don't believe me, I'll show you my number.

BTW: final "unofficial" race time 1hr 24min.

God Lives At the Post Office

This is one of the kindest things I've ever experienced. I have no way to know who sent it, but there is a beautiful soul working in the "dead letter office file" of the US postal service. Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she dictated these words:


Dear God,

Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick.

I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her. You will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.

Love, Meredith
_________________________________

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, 'To Meredith , ' in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, 'When a Pet Dies.' Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

_____________________________________

Dear Meredith,

Abbey arrived safely in heaven.

Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away.

Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by.

Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you.

I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much.

By the way, I'm easy to find, I am wherever there is love.

Love,
God