Category: Politics

…this is an example of what happens with socialized medicine.  It is the natural outcome when someone other than you is in charge.

From the article on the BBC site:

People who are not in an at-risk group should be banned from having private flu vaccinations, the chairman of the Royal College of GPs has said.

Dr Clare Gerada told the Daily Telegraph allowing healthy people to buy the flu jab had compounded NHS shortages and left others vulnerable.

…

The Department of Health said it could not prevent pharmacies from selling the vaccine commercially.

No, the problem isn’t that people wanted it and were willing to pay for it….the problem is that the government didn’t spend the money necessary to get enough. Why? Who knows. Perhaps someone didn’t think they needed another 10 million doses. Perhaps they didn’t have the money. Does it matter?  The government system doesn’t have enough and people who were depending on someone else to do it for them will get left out.

Image from sullyt64 photography via flickr

I don’t think gun control would have prevented the terrible horrible shooting that happened in Arizona.  Why?  Quite simply because criminals don’t buy guns (or magazines, or ammo, or anything else for that matter) from gun stores.  Remember, we call them criminals for a reason (they broke the law).  If they have broken one, what makes us think they’ll respect another.  All gun control laws do is take guns away from law abiding citizens who want the ability to defend themselves and their family.

BTW, it looks like the guy passed a background check anyway.  This guy, just like the VA Tech shooter, had been known to have serious mental problems.  Perhaps, as this writer suggests, there should be a way to collate that data and include it in existing FBI check to purchase firearms.  On the surface it looks good, but great care would have to be exercised to avoid people being reported and denied guns just because someone reported them at one time for something.  That would just be gun control in another way.  

The problem isn’t guns but the criminals.

[Update 2012-07-20 17:20:53]  There has been a shooting in a Colorado theater at the showing of the new Batman movie.  Of course, people are blaming guns.  I’ve talked about the inconsistency of some headlines in this post.

Image from gregory wild smith via flickr

“The fact that we’re here today to debate raising America’s debt is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means the buck stops here” and “Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren.”

Who said that?  When?  It was Pres. Obama back when he was Sen. Obama and voting against raising the debt ceiling for Pres. Bush.

If you haven’t heard, there is a battle looming in the House of Rep. as the US debt ceiling issue is tackled.  What do I think?  Here you go…..

The US is way way way way in debt.  Too much in debt.  The government–and we the people–need to control spending.  We can’t go on spending more than we make every year.

Governments–state, local, and federal–should HAVE to have balanced budgets.  If income–tax revenue–is less than expected, either cuts should be made or increases passed.  I would make one exception to this:  in times of war or extraordinary circumstances, the Federal Government should be allowed to borrow money…for that specific thing.

It is time we the people stood up and made our government act.  Either we want the services and are willing to pay the taxes to fund them or we are unwilling to pay the taxes and, thus, unwilling to fund the services/programs.  We can’t have everything all the time!  

Image from trey via flickr 

First off, let me say that I don’t agree with everything the US Government does.  I have lots of problems with so many things that happen around the world.  BUT, I want to go on record…this is bunk.  The US isn’t perfect–in fact, I’ll go so far as to say we are far from it–but countries like Iran, China, or Saudi Arabia don’t have any business telling the US how bad we are at human rights.  The US should immediately withdraw from the council!

Image from kjd via flickr

Arg!  How long will it be?  How long will it take?  The reasons many Americans don’t like government run stuff is because they don’t work (look at Social Security) and not some sort of racism.

Image from allison chase via flickr.

This is such a crock.  The Democrats can’t have it both ways.  The law was changed to its current state in 2004 when Mit Romney was governor.  Then, the Dems didn’t want him to appoint a Republician once lurch then Sen. Kerry won the presidency.  So, they passed this law.  Now, when it no longer suits their purposes (needing seats in the Senate NOW), they want to change it.  What a crock!

Just to clarify….my issue isn’t with the governor appointing the successor or the people voting.  I don’t care how that happens.  My issue is with the democrats changing the law as it suits their purpose.  Before 2004, the governor appointed the successor.  The law was changed in 2004 so the people would vote.  Now, they want to change it back.

image from takacsi75 via flickr

While I don’t agree with any of his politics, it must still be rough for his family.  Ted Kennedy has died.

Image from diggersf via flickr

About six months ago, many of my conversations here centered around politics.  What did I think?  Who was I going to vote for?  What did I think of Obama?  Isn’t Obama great?  My general answer to all of these questions centered around the following thoughts:  No, I won’t tell you who I will vote for or who I voted for…I don’t even tell Cyndi; I’m always hopeful that the person who wins will be honest and stick to his word; BUT, I have seen too many politicians promise huge lists of stuff and in eight years nothing on that list gets done; and I’m sure they have their reasons–the primary one is that they couldn’t know so many things while they were running for office–but they should have taken that into consideration when they made the promises because a promise is a promise.

Well, it looks like my general skepticism of politicians is bearing fruit.  What was one of Obama’s biggest promises?  Change .  Change everything.  Well…here are just a few of his promises he has already broke (from this WND article ):

1. Sunlight Before Signing
2. Capital gains tax elimination
3. New American jobs tax credit
4. Hiatus on 401(k) penalties
5. No jobs for lobbyists
6. Earmark reform
7. Bring troops home in 16 months
8. Sign Freedom of Choice Act
9. $4,000 college credit
10. Transparency 

Now, some of these, like the Sign Freedom of Choice Act, I’m glad he hasn’t done.  Others of them were missed outright–the Porkulus Bill for example.  Some of them were neat–like the open government and giving people the opportunity to review things before they were made law (but what does it matter then?  The time for review and comment is in the law making process.  The President can’t do anything once he gets it.  We need to tell our representatives and senators about issues before they are passed.  Has everyone forgotten basics?)

ARG!

By the way, if you think WorldNet Daily is biased, how about looking at this article.

Thanks to Steve Rhodes for the picture.

And I thought you guys would like to see it.  When I logged into Rush’s website to listen to his show, I saw this picture of Sarah and Joe on this page.  I thought all of you Star Trek fans would like it.

I’ll let you know if my ballot comes with this option on it.  All I can say is I wish I had as much money as he did in the movie…I’d get my 300,000,000 no SWEAT!  I’d get None of the above on the ballot  🙂

 Seriously, everyone needs to think about what the right thing to do is.  BUT, I don’t like either of the two major party candidates.

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