Right to Opine

In his address to Congress Wednesday, President Obama asserted once again that his health care plan would not fund abortion. Let’s examine that claim using the most widely quoted current proposal.

HR3200 Subtitle B Section 2511 (p. 992) provides for “School-Based Health Clinics” (SBHC) to be funded with your tax dollars. This sounds great on the surface. Who doesn’t want to provide health care for our kids? The problem is that the language is, deliberately, overly broad and opens the door for groups such as Planned Parenthood, our top abortion provider, to open clinics in our schools.

(c) USE OF FUNDS.—Funds awarded under a grant under this section may be used for—

(1) providing training related to the provision of comprehensive primary health services and additional health services;

What, exactly, are the “additional health services” here? We don’t really know, as the bill does not specify. You can, however, connect the dots. Oversight of the clinics is left to the Secretary of Health & Human Services (SHSS), currently Kathleen Sebelius who is a radical pro-abortion advocate and supporter of late-term abortionists (e.g., the late George Tiller).

(d) CONSIDERATION OF NEED.—In determining the amount of a grant under this section, the Secretary shall take into consideration—

…

(3) other factors as determined appropriate by the Secretary.

This gives quite a bit of leeway to the SHSS. She could, for example, grant greater funding to SBHCs that provide “family planning” counseling of the sort she approves.

(l) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

(1) COMPREHENSIVE PRIMARY HEALTH SERVICES.—The term ‘comprehensive primary health services’ means the core services offered by SBHCs, which shall include the following:

…

(C) OPTIONAL SERVICES.—Additional services, which may include oral health, social, and age-appropriate health education services, including nutritional counseling.

Sounds innocuous enough but what, exactly, are “age-appropriate health education services” under this definition? Would pro-abortion counseling qualify? Given the current SHSS you can count on it.

(3) SCHOOL-BASED HEALTH CLINIC.—The term ‘school-based health clinic’ means a health clinic that—

(A) is located in, or is adjacent to, a school facility of a local educational agency;

…

(4) SPONSORING FACILITY.—The term ‘sponsoring facility’ is—

…

(D) a nonprofit health care agency;

Bingo! Planned Parenthood qualifies. In fact, they wouldn’t even have to operate on school grounds. Any Planned Parenthood clinic near a school would qualify under this plan.

Now back to Obama’s claim that our tax dollars would not fund abortions. First note that nothing in this bill excludes abortion and great leeway is given to the SHSS to determine how funds are meted out. There is no guarantee here that funds would not be used directly for abortion. Assume, for the sake of argument, that none are. Even in that case Planned Parenthood clinics on or near school grounds would qualify for these funds. In practice every dollar they receive for even legitimate purposes frees up another dollar to fund the rest of their practice…being America’s number one provider of abortions.

Republican Congressman Charles Wilson may have been out of line concerning the venue of his outburst, but he was correct. Mr. Obama, you lie.

Abortion, Domestic, Economy, Education culture, Domestic, Economy, Education, healthcare

Why did we keep our daughter home from school today? So we could watch the President’s speech with her and provide corrections where necessary. You can be sure our public schools will not balance their adulation of The One with anything approaching reality.

After last week’s firestorm of protests over the supplemental materials provided to teachers, President Obama gave a rather bland and predictable speech to our nation’s students this morning. (The prepared text can be found here.) The problem with his speech wasn’t what he said, but that he didn’t mean it.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But you don’t really mean it. It’s one thing to claim to set high standards. It’s another entirely to enforce those standards. One of your biggest backers, the NEA, opposes enforcement of standards (i.e., failing students and denying graduation). As a state senator, U.S. senator, and now as president, you have done absolutely nothing to change that. Without enforcement standards are meaningless. Your record speaks for itself.

My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had.

But you know that’s only a half-truth. The fact is, you were largely raised by your maternal grandparents, one of whom was vice president of a bank. You didn’t grow up poor. You didn’t grow up disadvantaged. You grew up in a comfortable neighborhood in Hawaii and chose to waste your time hanging around a Marxist mentor and smoking dope. Puhlease.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

Ah, if only you really believed that. If you did, you’d support eliminating affirmative action and other racial quotas. You’d support reducing government expenditures on welfare and entitlement programs. You’d insist that college admissions and job opportunities be given to the best qualified candidate, not the most racially diverse candidate. But you don’t. Instead you support expanding entitlement programs, encouraging future generations to rely more and more on the government rather than themselves. You have put zero pressure on universities and corporations to give rewards to those who have earned them.

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time.

But we’re not allowed to let kids fail, even when they don’t do their work at all, much less when they do it but poorly. Instead we pass them on from grade to grade and they never learn from their failure because they aren’t allowed to fail.

If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave.

Um, actually, I think that is a pretty obvious definition of a troublemaker. (From Merriam-Webster: trou-ble-mak-er, n., a person who consciously or unconsciously causes trouble.) Quit with the touchy-feely stuff, sir, and just tell them to shape up. Of course, there have to be consequences or they won’t, so never mind. Keep the feel-good slop flowing.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day.

Yes, but the group you ask for help includes Marxists, tax cheats, racists, etc. Hopefully our kids will choose wiser advisors.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation.

And let’s all recall what that revolution was about…taxes! A sobering history lesson for you, Mr. President, as we host our TEA parties across the nation.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Um, why isn’t the ACLU up in arms over this? A high school valedictorian can’t mention God in a graduation speech but you give your homeboy a pass? To quote our fearless leader, “Enough!”

Domestic, Education culture, Domestic, Education

Now that the liberal media has had its chance to fawn over Cronkite, let’s take a real look at his impact. In 1968 he made a little trip to Viet Nam in the midst of a rather nasty and controversial war. Our adversaries had initiated a major offensive around the time of the celebration of their new year—Tet. Cronkite came back and told the American people that we had lost the “Tet Offensive” and were, in effect, losing the war. In order to do that, he had to do one thing a responsible journalist never does: ignore the facts.

The truth is that, though it was costly, our valiant armed forces did in fact turn back the NV and VC attacks and by the time Cronkite returned to the US, our forces controlled *more* territory than before the offensive.

Cronkite somehow determined that his opinion of the war was more important than the facts, and millions of Americans tuned in to learn that we were losing…horribly losing…the war in Viet Nam. This report garnered him accolades from the left, which pushed ever harder for us to leave SE Asia entirely. As a result, quite literally millions of Laotians, Cambodians, and Vietnamese were slaughtered when we withdrew our troops. If Cronkite had reported the FACTS instead of his opinions, things may have gone rather differently for those millions of people.

Cronkite faced the ultimate test of journalism…and failed miserably. His family should mourn him. Millions of Asians do not.

Domestic culture, Domestic

CNN reports an Iowa high school football coach was shot and killed in the school’s weight room. We all know, however, that this couldn’t possibly have really happened because guns aren’t allowed on campus and criminals obey gun laws.

Domestic, Gun Rights culture, Domestic

No pun intended, but our federal government is spending almost $500K to determine just why men don’t like to wear condoms during sex. You have absolutely got to be kidding me! Seriously, have you ever worn one? Did you like it? Is this really that complicated?

Domestic, Economy Domestic, Economy, healthcare

CNN reports that authorites say the rifle used by James von Brunn to commit murder at the Holocaust Memorial Museum can’t be traced back to the original purchaser. What would be the point? The original purchaser didn’t commit this heinous act. Does it really matter who bought the gun? Other than returning the gun to the original owner? Why? It’s likely von Brunn purchased the gun legally and was the rightful owner (though not likely the original owner—it was manufactured between 1908-1928).

If a drunk driver kills someone, do we trace the car back to its original owner? Hunt down the 10 year old who bought the Louisville Slugger used by a street punk to bash the head of a mugging victim? Tracing guns used in crimes is equally absurd. The original owner didn’t commit this crime. Mr. von Brunn did.

In an unrelated note, a visitor to the museum displayed an all too common folly:

“We want to see the museum, and we trust the city of Washington to keep us safe,” he said. “Had we been in that lobby we could have been in the line of fire.”

Your trust, sir, would have been sadly misplaced as von Brunn clearly demonstrated. Had von Brunn chosen to open fire on the visitor, the city of Washington would have been helpless to protect him. Your personal protection is your responsibility. Except, of course, in DC where it’s virtually impossible to legally carry a handgun for self defense.

Domestic, Gun Rights culture, Domestic

You have to watch National Geographic Channel to get this gem, but one of their recent shows demonstrates just why Ben R’s passes are devastating to opponents’ defenses.

As a Steelers fan, I must admit I’m torn about this show. It shows why my boy has won two Super Bowls in just a few years of NFL experience. But that’s a good thing and a bad, scary, thing. Ravens coaches…are you watching this? I hope not! Ignore it! It’s all just hyper-media BS and your defenses can’t possibly learn anything from it. Really. Please?

Domestic Domestic

The European (Socialist) Union has decided to fine Intel Corp. for roughly $1.5 billion for “antitrust” activities. (No, I’m not going to provide easy links this time. Look it up.) This is problematic to traditional Americans on a number of levels.

Anti-trust and -monopoly laws were enacted in order to protect consumers against companies that garnered a corner on a market and then raised their prices. Yes, I italicized and bolded that word. For a number of years I was a big critic of Intel, not because of their success, but because they tried to cover up the mathematical issues with the first generations of their Pentium processors. (Said cover ups are well documented on the web if you do a little homework.) In recent years, however, Intel has done consumers a great benefit by providing processors which provide greater processing power with less electric power consumption at a lower cost.

Reread that last sentence. More power. Less electricity. Fewer $$ out of my wallet. Where, exactly, is the harm to consumers? Do you really understand that the average American company can now construct (out of off-the-shelf components) a computer that would rival the power of a multi-million dollar Cray supercomputer of just 10 years ago at a fraction of the cost? Intel is entirely responsible for that.

Disclaimer: I’m currently employed as a factory automation software engineer by a French/Italian semiconductor manufacturer who stands to benefit if Intel is punitively fined by the EU.

Back to that italicized, bolded word: raised. The fact is that as Intel has made their processors more powerful and simultaneously power-efficient (i.e., more miles less gas). If, in the process, they had garnered a corner on the market and raised prices, there might conceivably be a legal argument that they had violated some anti-trust laws. The fact is, however, that as Intel has made its processors more attractive for technological reasons, they have simultaneously made them cheaper. No matter how loudly AMD may scream that Intel is a monopoly (or whatever) the truth is that Intel has made its processors better and less expensive. (Are there specific applications for which AMD processors are better? Sure. But in general, Intel CPUs are cheaper for the same power.)

Second disclaimer: I’m a long-time Macintosh fan and have both an Intel-powered laptop and an old IBM/Motorola-powered G5 tower. My older G5 machine is used to perform video and audio processes that the current Intel CPUs still don’t match (Apple and Intel propaganda notwithstanding). The Intel laptop is used for the easy, daily stuff (where most consumers live) like email and FaceBook.

So let’s count it up. I’m a Mac fan who works for a company that would benefit from a big Intel fine. Not exactly a good profile for a defender of Intel, eh? But that’s what I am. Intel stands for everything that the lefties in Europe hate & that I love. Performance. Power. Low cost. Hyundai is going to beat BMW & Chrysler/GM/Ford in America for that very reason (they own that trifecta).

Aaargh! I got away from the main point again. The bolded, italicized word was, “raised.” The truth is that, wherever you live on this planet, Intel has made it possible for you to do things with your personal computer (whether you use Windows, Linux or OS X) that you could not have imagined doing just 10 years ago at a fraction of the cost. The only issue this raises is the opportunities for “the rest of us”.

Punish that at your peril.

Domestic, Economy, International Domestic, Economy, International

Only about 50 students are expected to show up for a protest of Obama’s invitation to address the university’s commencement cermonies this year. Generously, that’s only 2% of the graduating class. Very sad note, considering the church which nominally supports the school opposes much of Obama’s social agenda including abortion “rights”.

Kudos to Mary Glendon, a Harvard Law School professor, who declined ND’s Laetare Medal (which honors a Catholic layperson who most personifies the ideals of the church) upon learning that Obama would be honored by the university at the same time. Ms. Glendon, your response only clarifies the fact that you deserve the recognition.

Try a Google search for “Notre Dame Mary Glendon” and you’ll find that the top 20 articles aren’t even from mainstream media sources. Our “media”, which are supposed to provide us with important news, give us more “data” about Carrie Prejean (who admittedly opposes both abortion and gay marriage but whose only real qualifications are two nice man-made globes) than about Ms. Glendon, who is a very serious and respected jurist. If you’re ever in doubt about the quality of your information, consider your sources.

Domestic culture, Domestic

The Senate has approved a credit card reform bill with an amendment sponsored by Tom Coburn (R-OK) which would definitively allow states’ firearms laws to apply to national parks. Just last year over 6,000 felonies were committed in national parks, many of them rather violent (rape, robbery, and kidnapping). The federal government can’t possibly pay for the manpower to provide protection for park visitors. The Coburn amendment would change the current restriction (no handguns, period) so that individuals who are allowed to carry a handgun per state statute would be allowed to carry in national parks.

As a simple example, concealed carry permit holders are convicted of gun crimes at a far lower rate than the US population at large. (Gun grabbers can start their whining now, but it’s true.) Allowing CCW holders to carry in national parks would not only not make our parks less safe, it would allow us to legally provide the protection for ourselves and our families that our federal and state governments simply cannot.

Write your House representative and urge him to support passage of this bill with the Coburn amendment. You can find the contact info for your rep here (if you don’t know your ZIP+4 there’s a link on the page that will give you that number). If, like me, you’re a Republican represented by a rather liberal Democrat, let him know that passage of this bill with the amendment would demonstrate true Congressional bipartisan effort as promised by The Messiah. (OK, I didn’t use that exact terminology in my letter.) Conservatives aren’t thrilled with the credit card bill. Liberals aren’t thrilled (alright, they’re outright terrified) by the Coburn amendment. Passing the bill as is would go a long way toward mollifying the 70%+ of Americans who consider personal gun ownership a Constitutional right. (And ease up the market pressure on those Federal 230 grain Hydra-Shok rounds I prefer. )

Domestic, Gun Rights culture, Domestic