Happy Columbus Day, Yup I said it ....

To EXPLORE … A willingness to set off into the vast unknown in search of adventure, reaping the subsequent benefits of knowledge and yes, sometimes material reward in the form of “treasure”, but I would argue that the general motivations behind the quest to explore are by and large noble in both their origins as well as their subsequent acquisitions.  Witness advances in modern medicine, physics, engineering and technology.  In medicine alone, we have modern-day vaccinations which have nearly eliminated the vast majority of devastating diseases suffered by generations past, and today we have large scale organ transplants, not to mention cancer treatment advances which have prolonged and saved hundreds of thousands of lives.  And could you really live without your smartphone or the internet?  These types of advances were pioneered by the brave explorers who willingly embraced the risk of venturing into the unknown, seeking new insights into the world in which we live.  Moreover, the achievements of these explorers have, more often than not, gone on to benefit the world at large.

I truly believe that a large, not to mention important, part of the human condition is our need to explore in an effort to better understand the world around us.  We are born into this savage world with a natural proclivity for exploration and how brilliantly this desire to embrace exploration burns within us as children.  Yet sadly our modern-day progressive society seems too eagerly geared towards the diminishing of this childhood inclination towards exploration under the guise of “protecting the innocent” and facilitating “the greater good.”  We paint our children into corners, surrounding them with boxes and lines, giving them the blinders of “politically correct answers” instead of giving them the age-appropriate facts and then equipping them with the tools they need in order to sort out the answers for themselves.  We seem to have replaced a need to explore and question with a need to belong, to conform and to not make waves.  So gone are the dodge balls and swing sets on playgrounds, gone are the scoreboards at youth sporting events, gone is the healthy expression of emotion --now we “use our words”-- gone are multiple opportunities for kids to make basic (not long-term detrimentally harmful) bad choices and then learn from them, gone is “Columbus Day”, gone is the pledge of allegiance at the start of each school day and soon gender identity will be gone as well as children will now be addressed as “purple penguins” in many of our nation's public classrooms --are you kidding me?!  It’s no wonder we’re raising a generation of mixed-up followers who can no longer think and reason independently.  

Sadly, I think, our well-intentioned coddling and social manipulating winds up back-firing on us as a nation, in the long run, by producing future generations --if we haven’t done so already-- of apathetic, self-obsessed, instant gratification adults who are ill-equipped to function in an adult world where not everyone gets a trophy, where sometimes the words people use aren't so nice and where life will all too often knock you flat on your ass, not to mention the fact that our method of teaching has become less exploration-oriented and more indoctrination-orientated, thereby stamping out children’s innate ability to question and explore the world around them.  Maybe its just me, but I’d rather have my children face not-so-pleasant facts about the reality of the world in which we presently live --as well as our past history in its entirety-- and then have them sort their way through the facts with my/and or other immediate “in-home” caregivers loving assistance in the here and now.  I want my children to run, jump, sing, scream at the top of their lungs, laugh and play, make lots of messes --which believe me: they do!-- work out social conflicts with their peers for themselves and to learn to strive for victory while humbly learning from the agony of defeat.  I want my children to first and foremost develop a strong sense of self-identity, which they can then merge to into the world at large, hopefully as leaders and not per-ordained followers.  The way I see it, the fall is not so far to ground when you’re a child, so you scrape a knee and you learn --with the loving assistance of family and mentors—that you can get up, face the world again and carry on.   

Information is truly power, but information can all too easily be used to in order to manipulate and misguide.  Two sides there are to every truth and it’s about time, when it comes to our nation’s history, that we begin to teach our children both sides of our history so that our children will be equipped to find their way through to the other side of a more thorough, non-manipulated understanding of who we are as a collective people in this amazing nation. Perhaps from this more enlightened perspective our children will gain new and invaluable insights which may equip them to avoid repeating the same mistakes we, as grown-ups, have made all over again, while realizing that the best way to move forward is to focus on the good we can do for the world in the present day.  And hopefully, a truthful viewing from both sides of our nation’s history will enable our children to reconnect with a now seemingly absent sense of pride in our nation for some of the good things that we have done in the world at large and can yet continue to endeavor to do in service to others (e.g., most recently rendering assistance to Yazidi Christian captives on Mount Sinjar, helping to secure the release of Miriam Ibraham and her family to the United States, sending U.S. ground troops into West Africa to help secure vital infrastructure necessary to contain and treat the Ebola virus outbreak in that country).

So today, let us celebrate by remembering the man, Christopher Columbus, and his crew who embodied the very essence of pioneering human exploration in their willingness to embrace the untetherable desire to set off into the vast unknown in search of adventure, reaping the subsequent benefits of knowledge and acquisition --the merits and detriments of which can, and will likely, be deliberated for generations yet to come.  “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue” and with his discovery he nearly doubled the European view of the world, for better or worse unleashing the inevitable torrents of change.

Tomorrow, or any of the other 364 days of the year, we can celebrate Indigenous People's Day (And I happen to have Native American blood in my family heritage).

If You Build It: They Will Come?

State of the Union ... Why speak to truth and address real problems facing our nation --like creation of long-term jobs not requiring government subsidies to sustain them, coupled with immediately realizable energy independence via the Keystone XL Pipeline-- when you can perpetuate "a global fantasy worthy of the Middle Ages?"

Once again "climate change" and "green energy" were put forth by the President and his administration as a cornerstone to their approach for 'addressing' --or dodging, as the case may be-- the real problems facing our nation, using a perceived truth to dictate a policy where 'environment' will always trump sound business decisions, even at the expense of the creation of (much needed) real jobs for American citizens.  It seems readily apparent, by both the content as well as the tone of this speech, that it will be business as usual moving forward: Smoke & Mirrors will continue its prevalence throughout the remaining years of this administration's tenure.  Perception has now definitively been established as the 'new truth'?  I hardly think "the debate [w.r.t. "climate change"] is settled", Mr. President.

The bottom line is that the current science IS insufficient to translate our current "alternative" forms of energy into a reliable primary source for immediately realizable --and ready for widespread distribution-- energy for our nation. Yes, we should continue to invest in the science to support the potential for large-scale development of alternative (""green"") energies, but the latter should not, in the interim, preclude our pursuing other forms of immediately realizable energy sources toward the end of achieving "true energy independence" for our nation.

And on another point w.r.t. to jobs creation: If you truly want to make 'doing business in the United States attractive to companies':  then why not make the proposition of doing business in the U.S. attractive to potential companies with the tangible ACTION of approval for the U.S. portion of the Keystone XL Pipeline. The latter would undoubtedly result in a substantial lowering of the costs associated with doing business in our country by making energy/transportation costs lower in our nation. Then again, on the flip-side, if Canada gets tired of being strung along by the United States w.r.t. Keystone Pipeline and grants the contract to China, then China will reap the advantages of doing business with Canada and also the subsequent creation of jobs that will undoubtedly follow.

The movie "Field of Dreams", with Kevin Costner, is running through my mind as I type here ... "If you build it: they will come" ... w.r.t. "manufacturing centers of excellence" mentioned in the State of Union speech. Unfortunately, unlike the movies, in the real-world companies who are successful in business actually connect the dots --manufacturing centers of excellence being only one single dot-- and energy/transportation costs are a BIG part of the dot-connecting calculus when it comes to deciding where these companies will actually decide to do business.

But no worries, right? At the end of the day, who needs jobs, when we can all hold hands and sing "Kumbaya", secure in the delusion that we've actually had a significant or meaningful impact upon the chaotic and dynamic (highly complex and unpredictable! ... long before man's input) entity of our planet's climate system. Granted we are entrusted to be good stewards of this earth, but we also have to live and survive here ourselves within the means technologically available to us in the moment currently unfolding. It's all about balance, working with the scientific data we have regarding climate swings in previous eras --unmassaged-- and then using the technology and resources we have available for large-scale energy today while striving to do better --by means of continued alternative energy research in an effort to make our alternative energies large-scale feasible in our future.

On a philosophical tangent, doesn't real and lasting job creation translate into true independence of the individual and the subsequent potential for upward mobility? And the latter runs counter to the environment conducive for an ideology of underlying control "for the greater good" by means of fostering dependence via imposition and excessive regulation, once again all for the perceived "greater good". I mean education only takes you half of the way: just look at all of the college students graduating these past few years who are unable to secure meaningful jobs in their chosen professions. We can continue the accepted narrative of talking points, fueled by the ever-elusive hope of change, but isn't it funny how we've had five years of this "talk" now with no significantly realizable change (improvement!) in terms of lasting, non-government subsidized jobs? Just because unemployment numbers are magically down, doesn't mean the number of jobs is conversely up ... millions of people have just given up looking for work and are no longer being (truthfully) counted in the unemployment numbers.

I say, enough hope of change! Enough recycled rhetoric: show me the $$MONEY$$ in terms of real and lasting (non shovel-ready, non-government subsidized) jobs. Let's start this "year of action" off by taking the ACTION of giving the Keystone Pipeline a green-light, Mr. President.  Give 'We the People' something we can take to the BANK:  It's time to unleash free-enterprise, starting with the approval of Keystone XL Pipeline which will get this stagnant ball of our economy rolling once again for the middle and low income earners who have yet to benefit from our supposed "economic recovery."


Here are some additional noteworthy points of interest regarding the Keystone XL Pipeline:

"With the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline stuck in limbo on the U.S. side, Canada’s Energy Board recently gave a thumbs up to a $6.5 billion pipeline designed to carry 525,000 barrels of oil per day from the oil sands of Alberta to ships on the British Columbia coast. The final destination is most likely Asia. 

The development has the U.S. oil industry attacking the Obama administration over its drawn-out process. 

“It’s taken longer to approve the Keystone XL pipeline than it did to win World War II, longer than it took us to put a man in space, and almost as long as it took to build the Trans-Continental railroad 155 years ago,” said Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute.
The U.S. State Department received the Keystone application in September of 2008. The 1,700-mile project is projected to create thousands of jobs and lessen the need for OPEC oil. Even with domestic production booming, the U.S. still imports about half the crude it uses. "  ~Fox News Article By Dan Springer, Published January 15, 2014 on FoxNews.com

5/15/2014 Interesting info regarding "Anarctic Ice Melt", beyond the hype and spin:  http://www.livescience.com/45571-antarctic-melting-myths.html?cmpid=514627_20140514_23897214 ... though I don't find the "97% percent of scientist to be on board with climate change [--due to man's impact]" to be truthful.  Think "scientist" here is being used in the loosest terms for the purposes of supporting a wholly unscientific (not supported by the unmassaged data) propaganda driven agenda of control and profit by a few key (and well-connected) individuals.   Just follow the money to find the real truth.  The almighty dollar ultimately reigns supreme, doesn't it?  The truth will set you FREE ....
5/14/2015 Newsflash ...Growing Anarctic ice posing challenges for countries sending ships into the area

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

"Snowfinity ..."

@2012 Copyrighted Photograph.  All Rights Reserved: Isabelle Black Smith.

“Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow”

To put to rest a sleepless night
Mother Nature sends our way
A blanket glowing pristine white:
Shimmering fractals interweave
The world about in innocence anew;
Whilst weeping hearts eagerly
Greet a thoughtless reclination,
A sleep, at last, lost to hibernation.
So yield the weary, drinking willfully
From nature’s over-brimming chalice
Of sweetest icy, silver-thorned libation.
And with a single sip the world resigns,
With awe-inspiring, albeit silent
Resignation, to peacefully renew:
Awaiting the robin’s timely return,
With Kiss of Life to sleeping trance undo.

@2013 December, Copyrighted Poem. All Rights Reserved:  Isabelle Black Smith.

Atheist Billboard in Times Square ...

Regarding the atheist billboard in Times Square and other displays of a similar nature, I have only this to say: "What man is a man who does make the world around him a better place?" ~"Kingdom of Heaven" ... and corollary "What man is a man who must tear down others or their beliefs down in order to find his peace?" ~Isabelle Black Smith

Image Source

I have always held that if 'they' can take Christmas away from you, then perhaps you never really had it your heart to begin with.  That being said, I have to wonder why everyone in America --well, from a national media perspective at least-- seems to be so intently focused on "equality" when it comes to celebrating our holidays.  Maybe it's just me, but everyone complaining about the way other people choose to celebrate their holiday is beginning to sound like one big (and very annoying!) chorus of whining children whimpering "what about me?" 

Celebrate the Holiday Season any way you want --if you want-- but by the same token don't begrudge others their own celebration. If you want a Black Santa, Hispanic or whatever, have one.  The same goes for Jesus, and if you don't want to focus on Jesus as being 'the reason for the season' well that's fine as well.  The point is this:  The Winter Holidays --of which Christmas IS a BIG part for many-- are not about 'equality' by any stretch of the imagination!  They are about diversity and our freedom to choose what to celebrate and HOW or even IF we will celebrate.  Ultimately the holidays are about CELEBRATING, and quite frankly all of this silly bickering just diminishes the underlying element of CELEBRATION!  And honestly, how hard is it to just smile and share in the joy of the season in whatever color or form it happens to take?  So can we move on now, please? 

P.S. Regarding the "Santa Claus" controversy, with Megyn Kelly of Fox News:   My daughter informs me that Santa Claus --to her way of thinking-- is in fact a shape-shifter.  Just like in the movie "The Santa Claus", with Tim Allen, where when Santa Claus encounters a home without a chimney (and accompanying fireplace): he just creates one ... likewise, Santa Claus assumes the ethnicity of the family in whatever home he happens to be in at any given point in time.  Problem solved, right?

150th Anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's Historic "Gettysburg Address"

President Abraham Lincoln

Quite a monumental day in our American History, I would have to say.  So what have we learned as individuals, as a nation, since this historic day?  I wonder what Abraham Lincoln would honestly have to say, with respect racial equality, about where we are as a nation today? Definitely something worthy of thinking further on, would you not agree?

It was interesting to me to be reminded on this day, the 150th Anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s historical “Gettysburg Address”, that it was the Republican party, led by a Republican President who tirelessly and fearlessly led the charge that ultimately put an end to slavery in our nation. Lincoln's words remind us that those who fought to end slavery were willing to pay the highest price, laying their very lives on the line in a self-less sacrifice with both white and black –in fact, many different races-- fighting side by side in order to achieve the final victory of an end to slavery in our nation.  President Lincoln continues on to make his most important point: that to lose sight of the high cost which was paid, in order to achieve freedom for all, is to dishonor those who have given their own lives in order to achieve this noble end:  "That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." ~Abraham Lincoln

Upon reflection, I think this 150th Anniversary should serve as a reminder for all us to revisit the truth of our history*, as a nation, as well as a call to recognize that it is ultimately actions which produce results, speaking louder than any mere rhetoric in a war of perception fueled by unsubstantiated words. Perhaps instead of making blanket statements, such as those recently made by Oprah Winfrey to the British media, those in a position with the ‘pulpit’ to do so would do better to address specific incidents –on a case by case basis, starting with the highest profile-- of abuse and disrespect toward President Obama, calling the perpetrators out by name with actual facts/statements to back up their claims. Perhaps then we could truly begin to make some meaningful progress toward the legitimate end of addressing the many problems currently plaguing our nation and its citizenry.


For more interesting reading on this historic day in our American History please visit: 

http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/sites/gettysburg.htm

and  a special documentary put together by Ken Burns at "Learn the Address.org"
http://www.learntheaddress.org/

[* Among those truths, we find the following rather interesting facts:

1) The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which abolished slavery passed by a vote of 100% Republicans in favor, but only 22% Democrats were in favor of this amendment.

2) The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which proclaimed that free-slaves (African-Americans) were now full-fledged citizens of the United States of America passed by a vote of 100% Republicans in favor, but with 0% (not a single one!) of Democrats in support of this amendment.

3) The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which unequivocally gave African-Americans the right to vote in our U.S. elections passed by a vote of 100% Republicans in favor, but again with 0% (not a single one!) of Democrats in support of this amendment. 

... And just in case you were wondering: Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.]  

Happy Veterans Day 2013!!

I was speaking with a veteran today as he reminisced about his time of military service.  Somewhere along the way, he reflected --comparing his life then to now—“You know, most people will never fully understand what the men and women who sign up to serve in our military give up … The freedoms they have to temporarily surrender, the sacrifices they are willing to make in order to protect the freedoms everyone in our nation enjoys today … Freedoms most people flat-out take for granted.” 

And you know, this veteran is probably right; sad but true are his words.  I for my part, however, having grown-up in a military family do happen to know firsthand what life in a military family is like, the sacrifices that the men and women in our military make … the sacrifices the families of military members make.  I remember most of all the year my father was sent to work overseas for a full year, without leave.  I distinctly remember how hard my father’s absence was on my mother, having to be a single parent while worrying about the safety of her husband.  My father’s year of overseas duty was hard on all of us in different ways.  I remember wondering sometimes, myself, if he would in truth ever come back home to us again.  But my father did eventually come back home, walking on two legs, with open arms to hug and hold.  That was a surreal day for me.  I can still see my father’s homecoming vividly in my mind, as if it had happened only yesterday.  I suppose that is why I am always seem to find gentle tears seeping from my eyes when I witness a father, or mother for that matter, being reunited with his/her children and family on television, or in person --we have gone to a few of the welcome our troops home rallies at airports.  So God Bless them, one and all:  the men and women who serve today, those who have served in the past and especially the families --children, wives, spouses and all-- that love and support our service men and women.  As a nation, we are ever grateful not only for your service, but for your many sacrifices.  You are the biggest part of what keeps our nation strong and allows our hard-won freedoms and American way of life to endure.  God Bless our veterans and God Bless the U.S.A!!

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P.S. And may God Bless those impacted by the powerful typhoon that struck the Philippine Islands over this past weekend!

 

How's HOPE Working for You Now?

"If you like your health insurance plan, then you can keep

your plan.  If you like your doctor: you'll be able 
to keep your doctor."

That "Hope" thing not working so well for you these days? Lucky for you, your opportunity to enact meaningful change is rapidly up & coming: this Tuesday, Nov. 5th, at your nearby polling station: Your VOTE has the potential to usher in some serious> CHANGE!! Out with the old, ineffective, non-representative, and in with the new.  Time to restore true accountability in government once again, I think.

Personally, I'm hoping to see  a lot of INFORMED voters at U.S. polling stations this upcoming Tuesday!*

==> For me "Change" is going to equal a VOTE FOR MANY REPUBLICANS.<==

(*Unfortunately, the mid-term elections for Congressional seats won't be until Nov. 2014.  That's when REAL CHANGE can occur!)

You know, if nothing else comes out this entire healthcare law fiasco:  I would hope that our lawmakers have learned never again to pass any law without first knowing "what is in the law" (i.e., the important details of the law --like the fact that millions of Americans would likely lose their existing healthcare insurance coverage under a new set of bogus* health insurance standards).  Furthermore, it is my sincerest hope that the voting citizens of this nation will from this point moving forward hold their congressmen (and women) to the latter standard in the future.  That is to say if you don't know the details of what's going to be in a proposed law, then you (members of Congress) have no business whatsoever to move forward with said law's passing.  This has got to be one of most basic, common-sense tenants of elective representation.

It will be interesting to see if the number of people, previously "uninsured", who actually opt to sign up for healthcare plans on the Obama-care exchanges --as opposed to paying the nominal penalty for declining insurance coverage-- actually winds up coming close to the number of people who previously had affordable coverage prior to ACHA and wind up losing their coverage.  Will also be interesting to see how rapidly the quality of healthcare in America declines in response to the large influx into a system ill-equipped to handle this influx. Socialized medicine here we come?

[* Like a 60 year-old woman needs maternity coverage? Or even more outrageous: a 60 year-old man's individual policy  --or any man for that matter-- needs maternity coverage? And people with grown or no children need pediatric coverage? We're not all stupid you know:  these ridiculous standards had to be 'added to the law' via back channels, in 2010, after passage of the initial AHCA healthcare law in order to create (thereby forcing insurance companies which offered policies that did not include the latter types of coverage to cancel said policies for being supposedly 'sub-standard') the large and varied exchange pool needed in order to make this AHCA system capable of having any real chance of working.  The upgrade to these 'new standards' was deemed necessary by the administration so that insurers would be forced to cancel existing policies, thereby forcing more people (i.e., young and healthy individuals, with stream-lined, low-cost existing coverage plans) into the exchanges for Obama-care plans.  The latter would, in theory, work to keep the overall costs down for everyone participating in the exchange pools.  Also keep in mind, if an insurer made any change to an existing plan after the 2010 passage of AHCA (even a change as simple as a $5.00 increase in the required patient co-payment for medical services) then that plan would be required to be cancelled per the CMS directive as well.  The problem is these 'new standards' were not implemented by means of standard congressional channels.  They were written and implemented after the initial law was passed by Congress (late in 2010), by means CMS directives written by the Health and Human Services Secretary.  Furthermore, the information regarding the grounds for health insurance policy terminations was not given directly to most members of Congress or to the general public until now: during the implementation of the actual 'mandated' phase of the law --in October 2013, as the 'individual mandate', with the 'employer mandate' implementation phase to begin in October 2014 due an executive order delay issued by President Obama.  

The above is why we have the present chaos unraveling with respect to 5 million++ (and climbing daily!) Americans losing their individual healthcare plans (and these are just the preliminary numbers for people losing plans in the 'individual' market, some analysts predict these individual numbers will pale in comparison to the number of people losing group plan insurance plan coverage when the employer mandate kicks in next year.  Experts estimate the number of people likely to lose healthcare coverage when group plans are cancelled, next October 2014, may well exceed 50 million people losing coverage.  And we should keep in mind that all of these cancelled plan policy holders were repeatedly promised by the President himself, members of his administration and by Democratic members of Congress that they would be able "to keep their plan if they liked their plan" ... But sadly, now these poor people are scrambling to try to find new coverage --during the holiday season no less-- while having to contend with a ticking clock as this year draws to a close and in many cases trying to find new healthcare providers as many doctors are not participating in the exchange plan networks, and bonus: the federal healthcare exchange website is still not yet fully functional or secure. I guess, it's up to you to decide, for yourself, whether such a glaring omission of fact constitutes an outright lie. 

11/15/2013 Despite the questionable constitutionality of his statement today, it appears as if the President has issued a new CMS directive allowing insurers to re-instate their cancelled policies for an additional year.  Of course most State Insurance Commissioners, if not the actual insurance companies themselves, will likely challenge this directive for obvious logistical, legal and cost reasons.  Thus it would appear as if the President and his administration are likely hoping to merely shift the blame from themselves onto the insurance companies, without providing any real substantive help to people who have had their health insurance policies cancelled (and they can't get new policies because the government-run websites aren't yet fully functional! And bonus, new policies via the exchange with new standards will likely cost more than the policies they will replace in most instances) :  the net result being the exchange pools will likely have a better shot at attaining the large and varied --w.r.t. to age and health (i.e. young and healthy)-- numbers of enrollees necessary to make the exchanges actually work.  In sum, the people who have lost healthcare policies effective Jan. 1, 2014 are simply 'acceptable casualties of war' (an ideological war) in the eyes of the Obama administration. And don't feel too bad for the insurance companies either, who will now likely shoulder the majority of the blame for cancellation of policies: if you read a little further on down into the CMS directive, you will see that the insurance companies will be getting some hefty subsidies which should more than make any up shortfalls in their revenue or perceived damage to their reputations moving forward.]

Happy Halloween 2013!

Goblins, spooks and spirits alight, chasing unprepared away in fright this enchanted Halloween Night.


Our Halloween carvings for Jack-o-lanterns this year ...

That pumpkin on the far left must have weighed over 60 lb.!  The kids were goop-scooping on that one for over an hour at least, but they had a blast carving these.  Pumpkin carving is one Halloween tradition that we will never surrender.

Hope you all had a FUN and safe Halloween!

First came "Hope", then came "Change" ....

 

This is just too good not to share!  Love Charles Krauthammer's way with words.  The man definitely has a gift:  God Bless him!

http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/24/charles-krauthammer-squares-off-against-jon-stewart-on-the-merits-of-conservatism/

Humor, wisdom and salesmanship: all in under 10 minutes. Most impressive!

Think I'm definitely picking up a copy of his new book:  "Things that matter:  three decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics", By Charles Krauthammer.

Kaleidoscope Autumn ...

My Autumn needed some electrifying.  Late night painting ... playing with photographs.  Color your world, right?  Happy Autumn:  Love this time of year =)

"Kaleidoscope Autumn"

 

@2013 Copyrighted Image.  All Rights Reserved:  Isabelle Black Smith.

Music:  "Smoke & Mirrors", By Lifehouse 

The Pinnacle of Hypocrisy!

The nation is in the final hours leading up to the United States officially hitting the debt ceiling and where do we stand?  What have we learned?  What have we gained during these 15+ days of government shutdown?  Is perception really our new truth in the United States of America?  The best media campaign wins out over empirical truth?  I suppose, it helps immensely to have the media bias in covering recent events on your side.

How’s this for perception:  President Obama has said that he will veto any bill which includes the Vitter Amendment (previously passed in the Senate, but yet to be voted on by the House).  The Vitter amendment would require that all members of Congress, the Vice President, the President and members of the Cabinet be bound by the new healthcare law and enter into the exchanges without the 72% subsidies the Obama Administration unilaterally (without a legitimate vote of Congress) added to the healthcare law after it had been passed into law. 

The above has got to be the pinnacle of hypocrisy!  President Obama and Democratic members of Congress absolutely refuse to be bound by a law which you and I, the ordinary citizens of this nation, are being forced to comply with.  What does that say about the quality of the product being delivered by Obama-care????

In my humble opinion, if members of Congress are willing to sign-off on this hypocrisy then America is as good as gone.  We will no longer be a true democratic republic.  Quite frankly, I’d rather flirt with default on the national debt –which will not happen for at least another month according to leading economists— than capitulate to the demands of a would be group of tyrants (i.e., who will not negotiate, period and furthermore have repeatedly demonstrated --with aide of a blatantly biased liberal media-- that the current administration thinks they are above any accountability to the American people*).  Obama-care is at best “taxation without equal representation” and at its worst it is the crossing of a line which will forever-more fundamentally transform our nation, as the momentum of this unruly behemoth drags our nation further on the down the road toward socialism and control of the individual for the “greater good.” 

To Democratic voters who repeatedly (mindlessly) state “We won the election and Obama-care is the law of the land”, I have only this to say.  Winning the Presidency of the United States does not establish the President as the supreme monarch.   Furthermore we are not a true democracy, we are in fact a Democratic Republic.  That is to say that “we the people” elect representatives to act on our behalf in government, via the Congress (House of Representatives and the Senate).  The latter provides a layer of insulation to prevent the uniformed masses destroying our nation.  The latter being said, it is readily apparent that way too many members of Congress these days are seriously neglecting to listen to  'the voice' of the constituents who put them in office.   Furthermore, as for this “law of the land”:  if you truly understood government in any meaningful way, shape or form you would readily acknowledge the fact that there is a distinct difference between a law that is “passed by Congress”, “signed by the President” and “upheld by the Supreme Court” and the healthcare law that has been subsequently modified by President Obama and his administration – thereby subverting a legitimate vote of Congress— in order to exempt the President, Vice President, the Cabinet, members of Congress, Big Business and Unions from being legally bound to participate in the new healthcare law in the manner which you and I –ordinary citizens—will henceforth be required to partake.

 

* It should be noted --since the mainstream media didn't do its job in relaying the entire story to the American people-- that in the early days of the government shutdown Republicans passed numerous concurrent resolutions to fund critical parts of government, sending them over to the Senate for a vote --in hopes of implementation-- but these concurrent  resolutions never saw the light of day on the Senate floor thanks to the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, acting on order from the White House/President.  So in essence it was the Democrats who were choosing to maximize the hurt inflicted upon the American people by keeping government shutdown (in particular the denial of death benefits to be paid to military families of U.S. soldiers killed recently in Afghanistan) ... though in truth, the shutdown was only a partial shutdown as 83% of government remained operational during the course of the "shutdown."

It should also be noted, regarding the denial of death benefits for surviving family members of soldiers killed in Afghanistan:  The President could have immediately rectified the Pentagon’s error in denying death benefits to these grieving family members with a simple stroke of his pen via an executive order. The latter case of death benefits being denied to surviving military family members is a perfect example of a situation where the use of the president’s power to use the executive order is entirely appropriate. The President, however, chose not to use his power of executive order, opting instead to wait for the U.S. House of Representatives to pass additional legislation that would clarify the intent of the previously passed “Pay Our Military Act” --which the House had passed in the early days of the initial partial government shutdown.


11/10/2013 Found another great petition ... LiveByYourLaws.com

United You Stand: Divided You FALL ...

If you're going to inflict a "pin-prick", guess it helps to know which parts of the body bleed the most profusely?

Is it just me, or do the Republicans lose all credibility moving forward if they cave yet again?  Can you say 'lame-duck' Congress?  In a game of chicken, the Democrats will always win? 

To my way of thinking, Republicans folding now (being divided yet again) forfeits any future bargaining power, because this was the BIG test, the last stand and Republicans capitulating to a lesser set of token compromises doesn't equate to any sort of meaningful victory for the American people.  If you, Republicans, weren't willing to see this fight for the American people through to its end, then perhaps you should have never started the fight?

The Democrats will now run the entire show from here on out --not that they haven't done so all along during the course of the Obama Administration thus far.  At least history will show a few fearless Republicans were willing make a stand -- that is, if our history isn't rewritten.  Wonder if the American people will remember this final stand looking back on the long lost days of our democratic republic? 

Well, aside from contacting your elected government officials, in order to voice your concerns, maybe signing a petition can be your final stand?

http://dontfundobamacare.com  (this petition has over 2 million signatures thus far)*

*Note: I haven't verified the legitimacy of this campaign yet (saw an ad on TV), so I am not certain that I would be confident in making any financial donation at this time., but you can still sign the petition.

Lightening Strikes Twice ....

Photo art render of a recent photograph taken while visiting home.  While it was nice to visit with family, the parched North Texas landscape really tugged at my heartstrings.  So much loss due to drought.  I had told my family that I'd bring the rain, so prevalent here in the Pacific Northwest, with me when I visited and I'm happy to say that I delivered ; )

"Lightening Strikes Twice"

 

@2013 Copyrighted Photograph.  All Rights Reserved:  Isabelle Black Smith.

 



The Current Government Shutdown is But a Pin-Prick ....

... compared to what will follow if Big Government is allowed to continue along its intended trajectory un-checked.  I am usually about peace, love, respect and compromise ... So perhaps what follows may surprise you?  What can I say ... Big Government has been acting in a void of respect and compromise for quite some time now and this void has now hit critical mass.  Therefore I say "No more Mister Nice Guy!"  It's time to take the gloves off and get down to business.

How do you negotiate with someone who has shown time and again that he and his party will not negotiate, period?  With someone who announces to the press in advance, via his press secretary, that the President has no intention of negotiating w.r.t. Obama-care even though the President himself had staged a 'meeting' with Republicans … A meeting to what end?  Another PR-stunt?   To my way of thinking it seems apparent that the only way to get this administration’s attention, with the ultimate goal of bringing them to the negotiating table in good faith, is to shut them down.  The shock just hasn’t worn off yet; give it time:  it will.

America is standing in the sand, staring at The Line.  The line that once we cross over, America will be forever more irrevocably changed.  Up until now it has been a series of little steps, PR-conditioning and media wrangling … smoke and mirrors, while our elected officials chase after a barrage of chaotically dispersed carrots.  Divide and conquer.  Government is in our email, phone conversations, texts, on-line interactions and transactions –and we only know this thanks to someone  our government has labeled as a ‘traitor’.  Government tells us what to eat and how much.  Government tries to tell us which tin-can, green cars to buy and which PC-‘green’ products to use.  Government espouses energy independence, but then shoots America right in the knee-caps when it comes to realizing immediate, large-scale energy independence available in terms of North American natural gas and domestic oil.  Meanwhile, Government sends much needed American jobs overseas with its excessive regulations.   Government even goes so far as to try to discourage political opposition via the government agency responsible for collecting taxes, the IRS … and thus far they seem to have gotten away with it, just like every other scandal perpetrated by this administration (i.e., Fast and Furious, Benghazi).  And now, the final straw:  with the launching of Obama-care, Government will now be in perhaps the most personal and private aspect of our lives:  our personal health (and by extension our sex lives?) and the IRS will be charged with oversight of the insurance portion of the system.  I don’t know about you, but this scares the hell out of me!  Oh, and bonus:  under Obama-care all medical records must now be kept in digital format, opening medical records up to potential NSA spying and other on-line hacking.

Our Government has shown us time and time again that they think they know better than us, that we should just trust them and blindly follow, while they speak with two faces  and string us along on a line of half-truths (e.g., “We have to pass the law before we can find out what’s in it.”, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." … drafting, passing, and signing Obama-care into law through constitutional channels, while subsequently unilaterally --bypassing a vote by Congress-- modifying the passed legislation to exempt themselves and their staff from being financially bound by it, and then giving Big Business a one-year waiver from mandatory participation in the new healthcare law).  Of course Big Government is smart enough to sweeten the deal with lots of “free stuff” and predictably the cattle among us have fallen right into line. 

But since the government has been shut-down, Big Government is singing a new tune:  that of an extremely spoiled, unhappy child.   How else can you explain the unnecessary expenditure of manpower and resources in order to close-off outdoor, open National Monuments like the WWII Memorial and the new Martin Luther King Jr. Monument?  Attempting to turn away 90 year-old veterans who have been gifted a once in a life-time opportunity to visit the WWII memorial in person.  Can you say "media circus" at the expense of our veterans?  You can clearly see the frustration in the faces of Big Government, hear the unnerved cackle in their voices when they speak publicly these past few days, since the government has shut-down;  they just can’t understand why, at this point in the conditioning process, everyone won’t just shut-up and get in line. … Get in line?  This when our highest elected officials have unequivocally demonstrated their contempt for accountability, as dictated by the U.S. Constitution, to the American people (e.g.,  NSA large-scale spying on U.S. citizens, Benghazi, and subsequent unilateral modifications to the Obama-care law, in the form of subsidies and waivers) – sorry, I just can’t bring myself to say the laughable phrasing “Affordable Care Act”.  I’m surprised the OMB hasn’t requested that the law’s name be changed, given OMB’s budget/numbers predictions for this unruly behemoth.  Socialized medicine here we come!

Republicans, you drew this line … The Line … in the sand, please don’t give in yet again!!  Too much is at stake!  Big Government is banking that given enough time and media pressure you will fold once again.  This time, I urge you to hold your ground, stand firm and in due time (i.e., as debt ceiling deadline draws nearer) Big Government will own its fair share of the current unrest.  The End, in this instance, does truly justify the means, because once this cumulative mass of “change” crosses The Line and begins its downhill motion, the momentum it will attain will become all but unstoppable.  The current government shutdown is but a pin-prick compared to what will follow if Big Government is allowed to continue along its intended trajectory un-checked.


"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy." ~Martin Luther King Jr.


10/9/2013  With U.S. about to hit its upper limit for credit and borrowing money, you'd think members of Congress and the Obama Administration would be looking for any and every way to reduce costs and save/re-allocate revenue wherever possible, right?  Well that's what logic should dictate.  In the line of looking for ways to save money, here is another reason to delay the individual mandate portion of Obama-care for at least a year:  Doing so could save the U.S. Treasury an estimated $35 Billion (with a "B", 9 zeros!) dollars, according to the Congressional Budget Office.  Definitely a BIG push for delaying the individual mandate, I would say!

http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/09/cbo-obamacare-individual-mandate-delay-would-save-35-billion/


On-line Petition:  We need an on-line petition specifically targeted at delaying the individual mandate portion of the new healthcare law by at least one year.  I did find other petitions on-line that are broader in their scope (e.g., delay and defund), but these may not meet with widespread approval.  That is to say many who would currently be on-board with delaying the individual mandate portion of the law, might not necessarily want to entirely defund Obama-care.  Check out the petition I found for yourself and see what you think?
http://aclj.org/obamacare/delay-defund-defeat-obamacare
http://dontfundobamacare.com  (this one has over 2 million signatures)
 

Irresistable Force Met the Immovable Object ....

A government shutdown is looming here in the United States.  Time to put up or shut up?

When Charles Krauthammer thinks that an objective observer for events currently unfolding in Washington, D.C., is a "Martian", you know that things must be really, really bad in our nation's capitol. Would that the American people were able to make the distinction between the legally passed (by Congress), signed (by President) and upheld (by the Supreme Court) portions of Obama-care and the unilaterally amended (politically motivated) waivers subsequently handed out by President Obama's Administration. But thus far, President Obama's Administration has been adeptly skillful in waging (and winning) the battle of perception, time and time again ... Sadly, perception seems to be the new American truth.

Personally, I have to applaud the Republicans who are willing to stand up in order to speak and act for justice on behalf of their constituents.  Enough of this prevailing double standard!  What's good enough for the goose ought to be good enough for the gander.  If members of Congress, their respective staffs, and Big Business get a one year delay (and/or government subsidies) which exempt them from being bound by Obama-care's legislation (and penalties thereof), then this one year delay should apply across the board to individuals as well -- and it should be noted that all of the latter modifications to the originally legislatively passed healthcare law have been made unilaterally, by the Obama administration, in the absence of a legitimate congressional vote.  Sometimes, in order to be truly heard you have to be willing to have the courage of your convictions --in spite of name-hurling and negative media bias-- and be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to fight the hard fight. 

To my way of thinking, Republicans making this stand against the immediate implementation of the "individual mandate" portion of the Obama-care law are waging a modern-day version of the Boston Tea Party:  "No taxation without equal representation!"