Month: October 2013
Our Daily Thread 10-24-13
Good Morning!
On this day in 1632 scientist Anthony van Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft, Holland. He created the first microscope lenses that were powerful enough to observe single-celled animals.
In 1788 poet Sarah Joseph Hale was born. She wrote the poem “Mary Had A Little Lamb.”
In 1830 Belva Lockwood was born. She was the first woman formally nominated for the U.S. Presidency.
In 1901 daredevil Anna Edson Taylor became the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel. She was 63 years old. And crazy if you ask me. 😯
In 1929 investors dumped more than 13 million shares on the stock market. The day is known as “Black Thursday.”
And in 1939 nylon stockings were sold to the public for the first time in Wilmington, DE.
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Quote of the Day
“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.
Henry Ford
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Today is composer Luciano Berio’s birthday. So here’s a piece of his, performed by the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra.
It’s also composer George Crumb’s birthday. Here’s Sonata for Solo Cello, performed by a very talented young man named Austin Huntington.
This one is just because it’s fun.
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Anyone have a QoD?
Prayer Requests 10-24-13
Who has a request to share today?
Psalm 68:32-35
32 Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth; O sing praises unto the Lord; Selah:
33 To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old; lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice.
34 Ascribe ye strength unto God: his excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds.
35 O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places: the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed be God.
News/Politics 10-24-13
What’s interesting in the news today?
Looks like the White House will finally admit a delay in the individual mandate is necessary.
From MarketWatch “The Obama administration will delay enforcement of the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance mandate, extending how long Americans may go uninsured before facing a penalty under the law, MarketWatch has learned.
The health care law requires most people to have health insurance by Jan. 1, 2014 or face a penalty, but the Administration may postpone when those penalties will go into effect. The law allows for “short coverage gaps” of up to three months before imposing the penalty, which is $95 or 1% of an individual’s income (whichever is greater) next year. Under the current rules, someone would have to be covered by March 31, an official with the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed, which is the final day that people will be able to purchase health insurance on the public exchanges, or marketplaces, created by the ACA.”
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Maybe a four year delay is in order?
From Forbes “For people who have been following the story closely, it’s been clear for months that Obamacare’s exchanges were not ready to go live on October 1, and that their implementation needed to be delayed. The Obama administration insisted otherwise, claiming that everything was hunky-dory, and that reports to the contrary were simply the work of partisan saboteurs. But earlier this week, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted the truth. “We didn’t have enough testing…for a very complicated project,” she conceded to the Wall Street Journal. The exchanges needed five years of construction and one year of testing, and instead had only “two years [of construction] and almost no testing.” That leaves us with an obvious question: Why, then, did Sebelius insist on rolling out the exchanges four years ahead of time?”
“The answer may be that she was under direct instructions from the White House. According to a letter sent to White House officials by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, CGI Federal—one of the key contractors involved in the project—said that officials with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the government agency tasked with running the exchanges, “constantly mentioned the ‘White House’ when discussing matters with CGI. For example, CGI officials told Committee staff that the ability to shop for health insurance without registering for an account—a central design feature of the health insurance exchange—was removed ‘in late August or early September.’”
It’s time to drag her in front of Congress, with a subpoena if necessary.
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Who are the ObamaCare Navigators, and how much are we paying for them?
From WeaselZippers “1. Millions and millions of dollars It is important to understand that all the navigators listed are not just helping steer people through the Obamacare maze out of the goodness of their hearts. Each group/person listed has been awarded a grant (translate: tax payer dollars) to “navigate” people through the process.
For example, the Community Action Network of Nebraska (CAN) which has a few chapters amongst the listings, was awarded a grant for $562, 457.
There are 454 listings other than CAN.”
“There are also multiple “community action” groups, many of which sound like ACORN reborn. Amongst those, there is Seedco. Seedco has a “seedy” past. Seedco was under investigation by both NY State and the Federal government for fraud for falsely reporting jobs they supposedly had obtained for workers pursuant to a grant. The U.S. Attorney brought a civil fraud charge against them and they paid $1.725 million in a settlement in December 2012. Despite this, President Obama gave them a multi-million dollar contract for Obamacare. Or should I say, we paid the settlement at least in some measure, since they received more tax dollars for training for Obamacare. “As a result of these and other operational changes, we strongly believe that Seedco has the experience, integrity and commitment to carry out this work,” a Seedco statement said when queried about their involvement in Obamacare.”
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The Army keeps saying this isn’t official policy and these are “rogue” instructors doing this, and yet it keeps happening.
From FoxNews “Soldiers attending a pre-deployment briefing at Fort Hood say they were told that evangelical Christians and members of the Tea Party were a threat to the nation and that any soldier donating to those groups would be subjected to punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
A soldier who attended the Oct. 17th briefing told me the counter-intelligence agent in charge of the meeting spent nearly a half hour discussing how evangelical Christians and groups like the American Family Association were “tearing the country apart.”
““The American public should be outraged that the U.S. Army is teaching our troops that evangelical Christians and Tea Party members are enemies of America, and that they can be punished for supporting or participating in those groups,” said Berry, a former Marine Corps JAG officer.”
“And while a large portion of the briefing dealt with the threat evangelicals and the Tea Party pose to the nation, barely a word was said about Islamic extremism, the soldier said.”
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Maybe that has something to do with this.
From TheBlaze “Nine senior commanding generals have been fired by the Obama administration this year, leading to speculation by active and retired members of the military that a purge of its commanders is underway.
Retired generals and current senior commanders that have spoken with TheBlaze say the administration is not only purging the military of commanders they don’t agree with, but is striking fear in the hearts of those still serving.
The timing comes as the five branches of the U.S. armed forces are reducing staff due to budget cuts, and as U.S. troops are expected to withdraw from Afghanistan next year.
“I think they’re using the opportunity of the shrinkage of the military to get rid of people that don’t agree with them or not tow the party line. Remember, as (former White House chief of staff) Rahm Emanuel said, never waste a crisis,” a senior retired general told TheBlaze on the condition of anonymity because he still provide services to the government and fears possible retribution.”
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Next up, the Unemployment Rate is down, the number of Americans not in the workforce is up, and fuzzy math rules the day.
From CNSNews “The number of Americans who are 16 years or older and who have decided not to participate in the nation’s labor force has climbed to a record 90,609,000 in September, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS counts a person as participating in the labor force if they are 16 years or older and either have a job or have actively sought a job in the last four weeks. A person is not participating in the labor force if they are 16 or older and have not sought a job in the last four weeks.
In from July to August, according to BLS, Americans not participating in the labor force climbed from 89,957,000 to 90,473,000, pushing past 90,000,000 for the first time, with a one month increase of 516,000.”
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And because of the above, you get this as one of the results as well.
Also From CNSNews “In the fourth quarter of 2011, 49.2 percent of Americans received benefits from one or more government programs, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.
In total, the Census Bureau estimated, 151,014,000 Americans out of a population then estimated to be 306,804,000 received benefits from one or more government programs during the last three months of 2011. Those 151,014,000 beneficiaries equaled 49.2 percent of the population.
This included 82,457,000 people–or 26.9 percent of the population–who lived in households in which one or more people received Medicaid benefits.”
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And the cost for all this continues to rise. But remember, we don’t have a spending problem. 🙄
From TheWeeklyStandard “New research from the Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee shows that over the last 5 years, the U.S. has spent about $3.7 trillion on welfare.”
“We have just concluded the 5th fiscal year since President Obama took office. During those five years, the federal government has spent a total $3.7 trillion on approximately 80 different means-tested poverty and welfare programs. The common feature of means-tested assistance programs is that they are graduated based on a person’s income and, in contrast to programs like Social Security or Medicare, they are a free benefit and not paid into by the recipient,” says the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee.
“The enormous sum spent on means-tested assistance is nearly five times greater than the combined amount spent on NASA, education, and all federal transportation projects over that time. ($3.7 trillion is not even the entire amount spent on federal poverty support, as states contribute more than $200 billion each year to this federal nexus—primarily in the form of free low-income health care.)”
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And this should scare everyone, but especially the youngsters who will be left holding the bag.
From ZeroHedge “Did you know that the U.S. national debt has increased by more than a trillion dollars in just over 12 months? On September 30th, 2012 the U.S. national debt was sitting at $16,066,241,407,385.89. Today, it is up to $17,075,590,107,963.57. These numbers come directly from official U.S. government websites and can easily be verified. For a long time the national debt was stuck at just less than 16.7 trillion dollars because of the debt ceiling fight, but now that the debt ceiling crisis has been delayed for a few months the national debt is soaring once again. In fact, just one day after the deal in Congress was reached, the U.S. national debt rose by an astounding 328 billion dollars. In the blink of an eye we shattered the 17 trillion dollar mark with no end in sight. We are stealing about $100,000,000 from our children and our grandchildren every single hour of every single day. This goes on 24 hours a day, month after month, year after year without any interruption.
Over the past five years, the U.S. government has been on the greatest debt binge in history. Unfortunately, most Americans don’t realize just how bad things have gotten because the true budget deficit numbers are not reported on the news. The following is where the U.S. national debt has been on September 30th during the five years previous to this one…
09/30/2012: $16,066,241,407,385.89
09/30/2011: $14,790,340,328,557.15
09/30/2010: $13,561,623,030,891.79
09/30/2009: $ 11,909,829,003,511.75
09/30/2008: $10,024,724,896,912.49″
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Our Daily Thread 10-23-13
Good Morning!
On this day in 1910 Blanche S. Scott became the first woman to make a public solo airplane flight in the United States.
In 1915 approximately 25,000 women demanded the right to vote with a march in New York City, NY.
In 1929 the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged, starting the stock-market crash that began the Great Depression.
In 1956 NBC broadcasted the first videotape recording. The tape of Jonathan Winters was seen coast to coast in the U.S.
And in 1973 President Richard M. Nixon agreed to turn over the subpoenaed tapes concerning the Watergate affair.
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Quote of the Day
“Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas.”
Johnny Carson
You have 2 months and 2 days left. 🙂
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Today is Shawn Craig”s birthday.
It’s also so Bob Farrell’s.
And it’s “Weird Al’s” too. 🙂
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Anyone have a QoD?
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A Note From The Blog Administrator
Without naming names (since they know who they are) I must remind folks that it’s never OK to mock others or God on this blog. Some mocking, and just downright nasty comments were made last night on yesterdays daily thread by one individual. Those comments have been removed. This individual’s comments will now go to moderation and will only be posted if I approve them. If it happens again, even once, you will be blacklisted. (Yes, WordPress has a blacklist, and I’m not afraid to use it.)
Prayer Requests 10-23-13
Who has a request or praise to share today?
And it’s Wednesday, so don’t forget The Gambia and those working there. And I know you’ll all join me in continued prayers for Ajisuun and her family. Thanks folks.
Psalm 68:1-19
¹Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him.
2 As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
3 But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.
4 Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name Jah, and rejoice before him.
5 A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.
6 God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.
7 O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah:
8 The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
9 Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary.
10 Thy congregation hath dwelt therein: thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor.
11 The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.
12 Kings of armies did flee apace: and she that tarried at home divided the spoil.
13 Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.
14 When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Salmon.
15 The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan; an high hill as the hill of Bashan.
16 Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever.
17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.
18 Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.
19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.
News/Politics 10-23-13
What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread.
Say it with me now….
If you like your insurance, you can keep it…… or not.
From KaiserHealthNews (Who supported this plan by the way and is now canceling policies because of it too) “Health plans are sending hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters to people who buy their own coverage, frustrating some consumers who want to keep what they have and forcing others to buy more costly policies.”
“An estimated 14 million people purchase their own coverage because they don’t get it through their jobs. Calls to insurers in several states showed that many have sent notices.
Florida Blue, for example, is terminating about 300,000 policies, about 80 percent of its individual policies in the state. Kaiser Permanente in California has sent notices to 160,000 people – about half of its individual business in the state. Insurer Highmark in Pittsburgh is dropping about 20 percent of its individual market customers, while Independence Blue Cross, the major insurer in Philadelphia, is dropping about 45 percent.“
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This would be nice, but after the way the Supreme Court ruled, I’m doubtful that this judge will do the right thing either.
From TheDailyMail “Bombshell: Federal judge suddenly green-lights lawsuit that could stop Obamacare in its tracks
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Small-business plaintiffs say the government is treating all 50 states the same even though Congress allowed them to opt out – and 36 did
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The IRS is granting insurance subsidies to taxpayers in the ‘refusenik’ states, even though the text of the Obamacare law doesn’t allow it
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A federal judge denied the government’s motion to dismiss the case on Tuesday
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He also refused, however, to issue an injunction barring the Obama administration from implementing the law while the case moves forward”
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Well at least Congress is finally gonna be briefed on the rollout fiasco. Well…. some of them will. Some pigs really are more equal than others, even in Congress.
From TheWaPo “Mike Hash, who directs the Office of Health reform at the Department of Health and Human Services, will brief House Democrats Wednesday about implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
The closed-door session, which will start at 8:50 a.m., marks the first time the administration will have briefed members of Congress on the online enrollment system since its troubled rollout on Oct. 1.”
“House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) office is crying foul that House Republicans aren’t included in the briefing. It is asking that the same briefing be provided to the GOP.
“Far too much information about Obamacare’s rollout is being concealed from the public,” Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said. “All members – as well as the American people – deserve answers for this debacle. That’s why we have asked the administration to provide the same briefing to House Republicans. This snub is all the more offensive after Secretary Sebelius declined to testify at a House hearing this week. It’s time for the Obama administration to honor its promises of transparency and face some accountability.”
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It appears that the people hurt and killed in the Boston Marathon bombing weren’t the bomber’s only victims.
From MSNNews “Slain Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was named as a participant in an earlier triple homicide by a man who was subsequently shot to death while being questioned by authorities, according to a filing made by federal prosecutors in the case against his brother, surviving bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.”
“According to the filing made Monday, Ibragim Todashev told investigators Tamerlan Tsarnaev participated in a triple slaying in Waltham on Sept. 11, 2011.
In that case, three men were found in an apartment with their necks slit and their bodies reportedly covered with marijuana. One of the victims was a boxer and friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.”
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What if there was a govt shutdown, and no one missed them, or even cared they were gone?
From CNSNews “A large majority of Americans say they did not miss the federal government when it was partially shutdown during the first half of October, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released today.”
“78 percent said that they were not inconvenienced by the partial shutdown of the government. Of the 22 percent who said they were inconvenienced, 11 percent said it was a major inconvenience and 11 percent said it was a minor inconvenience,”
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Our Daily Thread 10-22-13
Good Morning!
On this day in 1746 – The College of New Jersey was officially chartered. It later became known as Princeton University.
In 1797 Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first recorded parachute jump. He made the jump from about 3,000 feet.
In 1836 Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first constitutionally elected president of the Republic of Texas.
In 1907 The Panic of 1907 began when depositors began withdrawing money from many New York banks.
In 1939 the first televised pro football game was telecast from New York. Brooklyn defeated Philadelphia 23-14.
And in 1962 President Kennedy went on radio and television to inform the United States about his order to send U.S. forces to blockade Cuba.
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Quote of the Day
“Well, being as there’s no other place around the place, I reckon this must be the place, I reckon.”
Curly Howard
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Today is composer Franz Liszt’s birthday. So you know what that means…
Bugs Bunny!
Ha! Just kidding, here’s something more fitting.
And it’s TobyMac’s too.
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Anyone have a QoD?
Or try this one. I have a theory that nothing good ever happens on a Tuesday. Prove me wrong. Tell me why should I change my mind?
Prayer Requests 10-22-13
Who has a request to share today?
Psalm 67
¹God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.
2 That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.
3 Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.
4 O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.
5 Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.
6 Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.
7 God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.
News/Politics 10-22-13
What’s interesting in the news today?
Open thread, as always. Here’s a few to start off with.
This first one is a couple of weeks old, but we will start off with it because it’s where the story begins.
From TampaBay.com “This had been his idea. He’d heard something about God helping people who help themselves. So here he was, on a Sunday in September, surrounded by strangers, taking his future into his sweaty hands.”
“Davion always longed for a family. His caseworker took him to picnics, put his portrait in the Heart Gallery. But he had thrown chairs, blown his grades, pushed people away.
When he learned his birth mother was dead, everything changed. He had to let go of the hope that she would come get him. Abandon his anger. Now he didn’t have anyone else to blame.
“He decided he wanted to control his behavior and show everyone who he could be,” Going said. So someone would want him.
“I’ll take anyone,” Davion said. “Old or young, dad or mom, black, white, purple. I don’t care. And I would be really appreciative. The best I could be.”
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Well I’m happy to say it looks like this young man will get his wish. 🙂
From Yahoo/GMA “A Florida orphan whose church plea for a family to “love me until I die” has received about 10,000 requests from people asking to adopt him and will “without a doubt” be getting a family, his caseworker said today in an appearance with him on ABC’s “The View.”
Davion Only, 15, took the opportunity of being on national TV today to thank the group homes and foster homes that have “taken good care of me.” He also apologized for being a “butthead” to some of them when he was younger.
Only has been in foster care his whole life, but has never had a family. On a recent Sunday, he stood in front of St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in St. Petersburg, Fla., and made a public plea for a family.”
“”Without a doubt, Davion will have a family,” his caseworker Connie Going said on “The View” today.”
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I wish the young man the best. After reading his story though, I read another story on adoption which shows this young teenager is smarter than some adults. It seems some would deny Davion his wish simply for the prospective parent’s political views. How truly sad. They need to grow up and consider the children instead. They should take these words from Davion to heart.
“I’ll take anyone,” Davion said. “Old or young, dad or mom, black, white, purple. I don’t care. And I would be really appreciative. The best I could be.”
From Rare.us “Last week, I wrote about a strange phenomenon we experienced firsthand after adopting our daughter from Ethiopia: Liberals think adoption is great, unless white, Christian, Republicans are the ones doing it. It was odd and sad to have strangers questioning and criticizing our family composition. The same crowd who emphasizes that there are all kinds of families — gay, lesbian, straight, divorced — suddenly got the vapors when they saw my black child on my hip at a GOP convention.
Apparently, according to the comments on my blog, many people believe conservatives have no business adopting a black child. The New York Times has occasionally jumped in the fray, questioning whether black kids might be better off without parents at all if their only option is of the white variety.”
“I got many comments from liberals accusing me of exaggeration, claiming I’d created a straw-man argument, and that my “persecution complex was showing.” Then, as if on cue, Ann Romney tweeted out a photo of their newest grandchild, adopted by their son Ben and his wife Andelyne:
“The response from the liberal Twitterverse was swift, predictable and damning. Here is a selection of the responses:”
And then it gets as bad as you would expect.
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Next up a reminder that voter fraud is a myth.
From TheHill “A former chief of staff to Rep. Joe Garcia (D-Fla.) is heading to jail for his role in organizing an online absentee ballot-request scheme in the 2012 elections.
Jeffrey Garcia, 41, who isn’t related to the congressman, will spend about three months in jail as part of a plea deal reached with the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office, the Miami Herald newspaper reported Sunday.”
“Prosecutors found Jeffrey Garcia had requested hundreds of ballots without voters’ permission, the Herald said. None of them, however, were mailed, forged or cast.
Florida law prohibits anyone but voters or their immediate family members from requesting ballots online.”
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Since the ObamaCare website is so riddled with errors and problems, the President decided to tell folks about the 800 number to call where you could get help with problems.
And that doesn’t work either…….. 🙄
From NationalReview “President Obama emerged on Monday to assure Americans that the “kinks” surrounding the federal and state health-care exchanges are improving and urged consumers to call the exchange hotline if they continue to encounter problems online. Shortly after he made the suggestion, Twitter lit up with reporters and others who attempted to do so but failed to get through to a navigator as promised. After dialing the number, some callers got a busy signal, others received an automated message, and yet others were referred back to Healthcare.gov.”
You couldn’t make this stuff up even if you were trying to write a tragic comedy. I shouldn’t be laughing when it’s such a serious thing, and yet I can’t help myself.
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Wandering Views 