Ban ROTC from colleges – get a BA in peace instead

ROTC insignia

McCarthy compare’s our soldiers and the ROTC with the Taliban and encourages more studies of peace on college campuses.

Yeah — that’s the ticket! Peace through apologetics and submission!

From Colman McCarthy/The Washington Post

[…] At Notre Dame, on that 1989 visit and several following, I learned that the ROTC academics were laughably weak. They were softie courses. The many students I interviewed were candid about their reasons for signing up: free tuition and monthly stipends, plus the guarantee of a job in the military after college. With some exceptions, they were mainly from families that couldn’t afford ever-rising college tabs.

To oppose ROTC, as I have since my college days in the 1960s, when my school enticed too many of my classmates into joining, is not to be anti-soldier. I admire those who join armies, whether America’s or the Taliban’s: for their discipline, for their loyalty to their buddies and to their principles, for their sacrifices to be away from home. In recent years, I’ve had several Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans in my college classes. If only the peace movement were as populated by people of such resolve and daring.

Work slow-down to protest NYC budget cuts? Someone is saying yes.

Two people are dead and they want people to join their union? They want people to be sympathetic to their cause?

This is disgraceful! And could be criminal.

New York’s Strongest used a variety of tactics to drag out the plowing process — and pad overtime checks. . . 

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/sanit_filthy_snow_slow_mo_qH57MZwC53QKOJlekSSDJK#ixzz19dGrdMW0

Death Panels Part II – a personal story

This is personal because this is my blog and because I can speak on this topic based on my own experience.

In October, my elderly mother was admitted to the hospital from her assisted living facility. I had been up to see her a couple days in a row and noted that she was not herself – mentally or physically. On the second day, she was most definitely  “out of it.”  My mom’s arms and abdomen were really edematous (swollen) and she was mentally out to lunch. So I called an ambulance.

After 2 days with no improvement, in fact she was worse, they did a CT scan and determined she had a small bowel obstruction. I am her medical POA (power of attorney) and she was, I thought, lucid enough to know and make the decisions regarding her care. At one point she said to me “I think I’m strong enough for this surgery, don’t you?”

I agreed.

They did surgery and she spent a couple days in ICU. By the time she was released to a med-surg floor, she was awake and alert.

She could not remember anything that had occurred or that we had spoken about since the night before her admission from assisted living. She did not know why she even had an 6 inch abdominal incision. She did not remember our discussions about the surgery or her surgeon’s visits to her room before and after the operation.

Are you following where I’m going with this in regard to death panels and end of life discussions with physicians and patients?

Now, where are the liberals who are so quick to defend Obama and defame my critical thinking skills in my previous posts?

Where are they defending him and his medical czars?

They can’t argue death panels and non-elected, appointed positions in the White House. They can only come here and accuse me of “drinking the Fox News Channel Kool-aid.”

Did the democrats really believe that they could slip this by over Christmas and no one would be the wiser? None of us would be aware of what they were doing? Their arrogance is mind-numbing.

What fools! They have to know that the clock is running and we have just about had enough of them. These corrupt politicians will be rooted out with every single election cycle if it takes us a generation to do so.

The return of Death Panels

“Life as a whole has no meaning. Life began, as the best available theories tell us, in a chance combination of gasses; it then evolved through random mutation and natural selection. All this just happened; it did not happen to any overall purpose.” Dr. Peter Singer

As the grandmother of a new baby, this kind of statement makes me physically ill.

If you do nothing else today, please, please, please read this article at the American Spectator.

None of this is news to us, who read and keep up on current events. We are all aware of the regulation that was put forth over Christmas and reported in the NYT on Christmas day.  It’s disgusting how the Obama regime is trying to make an end run around not only Congress but the American people.

Jeffery Lord at the American Spectator puts it all in order for the reader to understand, and adds some interesting twists and comments along the way.

History will note that Obama and his supporters ushered in the decline of America

Obama has no mandate at home, and he has even less of one abroad. America’s enemies do not fear him. Only our allies do.

Daniel Greenfield/Eurasia Review

I read this column, linked from FoxNation this morning.  Boy, this guy has really nailed the Obama administration and the world view of his regime and America.  It’s depressing to think that we are headed for another term of irrelevance and indifference from the entire world all at the expense of Obama trying to become the cool kid at the UN.

The 20th century was the century of America. The 21st will be the century of our decline, I’m afraid, if we don’t stop this man and his regime.  The first decade has ended poorly for us, as a nation.

If you haven’t already, please read when you have the time.

Merry Christmas – ENJOY!

A great Christmas house

I get these in my email every Christmas and so admire people who have this kind of Christmas spirit. I’m lucky to get  a wreath on the door!

The price of hope. The FDA says it’s too high.

I wrestled with this post because it’s Christmas and maybe not a time for this kind of topic.  But for many, it’s the price of their lives and their numbered days that should be talked about.

The FDA recently stopped the use of Avastin for the treatment of breast cancer.

By choking off the blood supply to a tumor and causing it to wither, it’s been effective in at least 50% of the patients who’ve used it and added months to their lives. Those months hold a glimmer of hope to the patients and their families that a cure might be found.

The cost of Avastin is $88,000 a year – not cheap by any means. But what is the price of the life of your mother or wife or sister or daughter? What is the price of hope?

I was on Temodar for 18 months. (As a side note, this drug is only given for up to 12 months but the doctors weren’t paying attention and I was on it for 6 months longer than recommended.)  It’s a chemo drug that is effective in about 75% of those who take it. It shrinks brain tumors like mine, except I was in the 25% group and it made no difference for me.

The price was $125/month because my insurance picked up the remaining tab- about $2200/month. You can do the math for a year on this drug.

The capsules came to me in the mail, once a month in a biohazard bag. 5 bottles with 3 pills in each one. I took 3 pills a day for 5 days a month. Like clockwork: about 5 hours after the first dose,, I started vomiting and did so for 2 straight days. I tried everything to prevent the nausea and vomiting: not eating before I took them, eating before I took them, eating dry popcorn or crackers, even tried smoking pot (which only made me feel more nauseous.) I took compazine and phenergan – with absolutely no results except I’d go to sleep for awhile just to wake up in time to reach the trash can beside my bed.

Doctor prescribed me a very expensive drug – Zofran. I remember going to the pharmacy to buy it and having the druggist tell me that it was going to cost me about $3000.

I started bawling right there in WalMart. What a scene I made of myself.

Throwing up 2 days a month was going to be my fate because we could not afford to pay for this drug.

So every month I got the medication, poured them out and stared at them for a while before I took them.  I’d tell myself that this is going to possibly save me – give me more time with my family – give me a chance at being a grandmother – afford me more time to right all the things and people I’d done wrong – buy me time for a cure to be found. I told myself it was worth it and it gave me hope. It gave my family hope, too.

Who are these 13 people on this FDA board to decide what is worth the risk and the  price and what is not?  The FDA claims that this is about risk but it’s not. It’s about the price of Avastin: $88,000/year.  This is the cap they are putting on hope. And why does anyone think they will stop at this drug and this price? When will it be Temodar or other chemo drugs that offer hope to patients and families enduring these types of life altering crisis?

They don’t care because with the new health care laws, we are only numbers and statistics.  Once our health information is put in a national data base (courtesy of Jeff Emmelt and GE) we are faceless, nameless case numbers. Our misery, our fears, our diseases, our hopes no longer exist.

Hope is not a factor to the FDA, the bureaucrats, the medical data entry personnel. Hope and a vision of the future is what makes humans different from all other creatures on this planet.  Take away our hope and what are we? What do we have left?

The answer: binary numbers in a computer data base.

DHS boss Napolitano addresses criticisms from Terry family – KGUN9 On Your Side, Tucson News, Weather & Sports

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FCC votes today to regulate the internet

Why does the government insist on screwing up things that aren’t broken?

There was nothing wrong with DADT. Does any employer ask about the sex life of any prospective employee? No one has ever asked me if I’m a heterosexual during a job interview. They can’t ask that question.

So now it appears that we are going to see the internet regulated by the government. The goal is to stifle conservative thought and speech but they are saying it’s to make it more fair to the consumer. Where in the Constitution does it say it’s the government’s job to make things “fair” in the markets or for the people?

The FCC says that big corporations like Verizon and ComCast aren’t being fair to it’s customers by slowing connections or not allowing connections to certain sites. If that’s the case then the customer has the option to change providers. And when enough customers drop the company, the failing company will either make changes to appeal to the population or they will fail entirely. That’s how the free market works. It’s called competition.

But the government can’t stand something that works well and is unregulated. Regulation means, in the end, more money for the government, as well as control over the content or production.

The FCC wants to make the internet available to everyone in this nation. Where is it not available? There is nothing that is holding anyone back from access. It’s free in every library in this nation and available in almost every school. It’s cheap in most markets. Is it the goal of the FCC to soon provide every household in this nation with a computer?

The FCC is violating a court order and the Congress by this action. Where does the FCC stop with this? Once one regulation is put in motion, nothing stops it from further regulations.  We all know that government has never stopped at one goal line. They keep moving the goal and keep regulating further. The real goal is to quash conservative thought and speech.

The day will come when I will have to pay for this blog or end it. That’s one of the FCC’s goals – another way to make money for the government and another way to stifle conservative speech. That means that conservative bloggers like me, will not be allowed this free speech forum. It’s already being done in Pennsylvania where a person has to pay $300 for a license to blog.

A license to blog – think about that. We will need permission by the government to exercise our free speech right. There will be countless sites that you will not be able to read or post your opinion to because there will be countless blogs that will no longer exist. It stifles the free speech of readers, as well.

This is going to be a boondoggle for lawyers. Litigation will rule the day and the free market and free speech will be in the dumper.

We have not even touched the surface of what this will do to small providers like Lariat in Wyoming which provides service to rural areas. They are looking at their demise at the hands of this behemoth regulatory agency.

The FCC is making an end run around the Courts, Congress and the Constitution. This is the only way the Obama Regime can erase the first amendment from the Constitution and that is what they want.