What’s interesting out there today?
The 3 women rescued from captivity in Cleveland continues to be the headline. On the good side of this story the women have been reunited with family. What a joyous occasion that must have been. After it seemed all hope was lost, the families finally get to be together. And Cleveland dishwasher Chuck Ramsey is being hailed as a hero.
But on the bad side of the story, the details can be hard to read, so a CONTENT WARNING!!!
This is a pretty good summary of the details so far, with numerous links to different sources. From WeaselZippers
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If you’re interested, here’s a link for the live stream of the Benghazi Hearings from the House Oversight Committee It starts at 11:30AM EST
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Mark Sanford has defeated Elizabeth Colbert Busch in the S.C. special election for a House seat. From NBCNews
“Once the disgraced and tearful figure at the epicenter of an embarrassing scandal, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford will return to public life as a U.S. congressman.
The Associated Press has projected Sanford to be the winner of Tuesday’s special election in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District race.
Sanford, a Republican, defeated Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch after a race that captivated national media attention despite the district’s solidly Republican record. The win caps an unlikely ascent to political redemption after Sanford’s extramarital affair and subsequent divorce made him fodder for national headlines and late-might comedy sketches.”
The comment section is full of upset Dems, so be warned.
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These next 2 are on the danger, hostility, and difficulties facing brothers and sisters in the Mid East and Africa. From FoxNews
“A mass exodus of Christians is currently underway. Millions of Christians are being displaced from one end of the Islamic world to the other.
We are reliving the true history of how the Islamic world, much of which prior to the Islamic conquests was almost entirely Christian, came into being.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recently said: “The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year.” In our lifetime alone “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.””
The next one is from CBN
“Last year more Christians were killed in Nigeria than any other country. The onslaught of bombings gave Nigeria the sad distinction of being the nation with the highest Christian death toll.
More than 900 Christians reportedly were killed in Nigeria in 2012, all victims of the Boko Haram group and other Islamic militants.
“They are so radical they don’t even spare Muslims. If Muslims are sympathetic to any cause at all…if they are sympathetic to the Christians cause, or the minorities cause, they are also termed as infidels,” Mark Lipdo, program coordinator for the Stefanos Foundation, said.
In 2013, radicals have killed more than 120 Nigerians, most of them Christians.”
And yet in many instances in the Mid East and Libya, our govt. supports those perpetrating the violence against them.
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Next we have Biden and Democrats attempting to use churches to push their agenda. He’d like churches to make a gun control, and immigration argument for them from the pulpit. No mention of separation of church and state here though. From CNSNews
“Vice President Joe Biden wants pastors, rabbis and nuns to tell their flocks that enacting gun control is the moral thing to do. But another vote may have to wait until Congress wraps up work on an immigration overhaul.
Biden met for two-and-a-half hours Monday with more than a dozen leaders from various faith communities — Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh, to name a few. Both Biden and the faith leaders encouraged each other not to give up on what has been an arduous and thus far fruitless effort by Biden and President Barack Obama to pass new gun laws in the wake of December’s schoolhouse shooting in Connecticut.
Around a large, circular table in a conference room on the White House grounds, Biden waxed optimistic about prospects for passing a bill, according to four participants who spoke to The Associated Press after the meeting. Biden’s chief of staff, Bruce Reed, joined the group, as did a handful of Obama aides who work on faith-based outreach. The meeting closed with a meditation and a prayer for action.”
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And I wonder if that has anything to do with this, or if it’s just a coincidence? Either way, it’s good news. From HotAir
“Obama administration retreating from contraception mandate?”
“At least in one instance, and it’s an important one. Last November, Tyndale House Publishers won a third injunction against the Department of Health and Human Services to block enforcement of the HHS mandate, while the Obama administration took the absurd position that a publisher of Bibles didn’t qualify for a religious exemption. Yesterday, HHS threw in the towel, at least for now:
In a huge victory for pro-life advocates taking on the controversial HHS mandate, the Obama administration is giving up its effort to force a Bible publisher to obey it.”
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And this last one, he’s still one of the few good men willing to stand on, and up for, his beliefs. From CNSNews
“Amid increased reports of a policy for courts martial over so-called proselytizing in the military, Coast Guard Rear Admiral William D. Lee recalled giving a Bible to a distressed serviceman who had previously tried to kill himself.
“Yet, if I do something, such as I did several weeks ago when I was looking into the face of a young man, 20-something years old, who had 18 months before put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger and survived, when I looked at that young man and I heard his story, the rules say send him to the chaplain. My heart said, give this man a Bible,” Lee said last week during a speech on the National Day of Prayer on Capitol Hill.”
““The higher you are, the more vulnerable you are to being taken down,” Lee continued. “You get in the cross hairs of those people who lay and wait outside the gate, waiting to take us to task for expressing our faith for so much as whispering to a young man who is on his last hope that ‘there is hope. Take it home. We can talk about it if you want.’ The lawyers tell me that if I do that, I’m crossing the line. I’m so glad I have crossed that line so many times.””
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Wandering Views 
Lawmaker: Military Developing Culture Hostile to Religion
http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/lawmaker-military-developing-culture-hostile-to-religion.html
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“The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year.” In our lifetime alone “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.””
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We may see this in our own Military.
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Biden met for two-and-a-half hours Monday with more than a dozen leaders from various faith communities — Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh, to name a few.
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What type of Christian would join forces with men who are at Spritual War with God’s Standard?
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Chuck Ramsey is a trip.
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Alultery may be a career enhancement in Massachusetts, but most South Carolinians won’t tolerate it. Thus, Sanford had to resign. But he was better than the alternative. He will probably be a good congressman. He’s been there before and has seniority.
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Sanford, ugh. These politicians have no shame.
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The kidnapping story is horrendous. Those poor girls, what a nightmare that must have been. None of that will be easy to come out of in terms of readjusting to a normal life. 😦 😦
How could that have gone on for 10 years without someone finding out? Sounds like police were called out on occasion but never saw anything that prompted a closer look?
I don’t know … hindsight is 20-20 and these guys apparently were pretty good at hiding the truth while keeping their noses outwardly clean enough not to attract undue attention from authorities.
But still, seems like something would have/should have tipped someone off that something was drastically wrong there.
They need to throw away the keys when the finally lock these guys up for good, assuming no death penalty can be successfully pursued. Could be murder charges from the sounds of it and, if so, this is the kind of case that I’d say warrants death.
These girls were kids when they were taken, after all.
Talk about men with absolutely seared consciences. Shudder.
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From Wes Pruden on the Benghazi affair. I would post the link, but it’s in my e-mail and I’ve had experiences where a link took us to my in-box.
Mr. Hicks watched the Sunday talk shows after the attacks on the consulate in September and was astonished by the claims of Susan Rice, the ambassador to the U.N., in five appearances, contradicting the emphatic assertion of the president of Libya that he had “no doubt” that the attacks were the work of terrorists, not mere community activists. “The net impact of what has transpired is that the spokeswoman of the most powerful country in the world has basically said the president of Libya is either a liar or doesn’t know what he’s talking about. My jaw hit the floor as I watched this,” he told investigators for the House committee. “I’ve never been as embarrassed in my life, in my career, [as I was] on that day.” He is expected to repeat that to the committee this week.
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Looks like the US has a new diplomat.
Dennis Rodman.
Crazy right? But hey, so is the NK leader, so it just might work.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/dennis-rodman-tweets-kim-jong-un-do-me-a-solid-release-american-050813
“Former NBA star Dennis Rodman is tapping his friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to ask for the release of a Korean-American man sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in the North.”
“”I’m calling on the Supreme Leader of North Korea or as I call him `Kim’, to do me a solid and cut Kenneth Bae loose,” Rodman said on Twitter. He later called the tweet a direct response to a Seattle Times editorial that dared him to ask Kim for the release if the two are really buddies.”
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LOL at CNN. Did you guys see this yet?
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/05/nancy-grace-ashleigh-banfield-cnn-parking-lot/64965/
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tweet from wapo:
Washington Post @washingtonpost
Who’s tweeting about Benghazi? Rich, middle-aged men and Chick-fil-A lovers http://wapo.st/18YFgKP
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Solar
😆
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Interesting article about billing practices of hospitals …. the uninsured cash customers pay the most. Lack of transparency is the real problem and the ACA won’t entirely fix it. Single payer might make it more equitable but even I wish my government would send a yearly bill to Ontario residents so they know how much their medicare actually costs and it might even catch some extra billing by doctors.
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HRW: “the uninsured cash customers pay the most.”
Not the uninsured people I know. Two friends of mine are part of a Christian health-sharing ministry (which is not insurance), so they are uninsured self-pay customers. Both get discounts on their medical bills (at both clinics and hospitals) because they are self-pay. I do not know how much of a discount the one friend gets, who lives in a different part of the country, but the other friend who lives near me gets a 10% discount at the medical institution from where she has sought medical care for many years. And when she needed care at the other medical institution in our area recently, she received 50% off!
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In the article, it did mention that it pays to press the issue and ask questions. Ask them to itemize the bill and I’m sure discounts will start to appear. I’m also sure it helps to have some insight into the local institutions.
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I think part of the reason for the discount is because there is less paperwork and hassle the medical institution has to deal with, since they don’t have to file insurance for the uninsured. At least that was the reason given by my dentist for the modest discount we got when we went off dental insurance. I imagine it’s similar with clinics and hospitals too.
It’s interesting what you say about asking them to itemize the bill and then probably receiving discounts. The health-sharing ministry my friends are a part of does require itemized bills to be submitted. I’m not sure that specific items on the bills are more likely to be discounted, but I think it may be more likely that whole charges may be removed if the necessity of certain items/charges are questioned.
When my youngest child was born five years ago, we requested an itemized hospital bill, and we saw a charge on it for over $1000 for a postpartum room the day before she was born! We had gone to the hospital the day before her birth, but because I wasn’t in labor yet (my water had broken, but nothing else had happened) and they didn’t have a labor/delivery/recovery room ready, they put me in a postpartum room for maybe about 30-60 minutes until they had an LDR room ready for me.
Imagine our shock when we saw the bill for that postpartum room I had been in when I hadn’t delivered yet! We called them on that one, and they took the charge off the bill. I think it’s helpful for patients to request itemized bills, and question the necessity or dollar amounts of dubious charges. It does help keep them accountable, IMO.
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Explain to me why the “Slavers” in Cleveland should not be executed?
Prison? Not even.
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