Month: May 2014

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Our Daily Thread 5-31-14

Good Morning!

The weekend is here! And it’s supposed to be a good one around these parts. 🙂

On this day in 1859, in London, Big Ben went into operation. 

In 1889 more than 2,200 people died after the South Fork Dam collapsed in Johnstown, PA. 

In 1909 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) held its first conference. 

In 1955 the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that all states must end racial segregation “with all deliberate speed.”

And in 1962 Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel. Eichmann was a Gestapo official and was executed for his actions in the Nazi Holocaust. 

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Quote of the Day

“There is no week nor day nor hour when tyranny may not enter upon this country, if the people lose their roughness and spirit of defiance.”

Walt Whitman

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This morning we’re gonna start with some hippie music for Peter Yarrow’s birthday. Plus it’s a Dylan written song, and he just had a b’day too.  🙂

And it’s Johnny Paycheck’s too.

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Anyone have a QoD?

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Prayer Requests 5-31-14

Who has a request or praise they’d like to share?

Psalm 119:1-19

¹Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.

2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.

3 They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.

4 Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.

5 O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!

6 Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.

7 I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.

8 I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.

9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.

11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

12 Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me thy statutes.

13 With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.

14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.

15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.

16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.

17 Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.

18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

19 I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.

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Our Daily Thread 5-30-14

Good Morning!

It’s Friday!

On this day in 1431 Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France, at the age of 19.

In 1848 W.G. Young patented the ice cream freezer. 

In 1883 twelve people were trampled to death in New York City in a stampede when a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge was in danger of collapsing occurred. 

And in 1971 Mariner 9, the American deep space probe blasted off on a journey to Mars. 

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Quote of the Day

“Worry is interest paid on trouble before it comes due.”

William Ralph Inge

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Today is Benjamin David Goodman’s birthday. And on this day in 1962 he led the first American jazz band to play in the USSR. And yes, I found some footage of it. 🙂

And this is because I’d like to hear something loud today.

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Anyone have a QoD?

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Prayer Requests 5-30-14

Anyone have a request or praise they’d like to share?

And it’s Friday, so please remember to pray for Mumsee, Mike, and the Nestlings.

Psalm 118:14-29

14 The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.

15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.

16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.

17 I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.

18 The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.

19 Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord:

20 This gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter.

21 I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.

22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.

23 This is the Lord‘s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.

24 This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

25 Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.

26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.

27 God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.

28 Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee.

29 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

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News/Politics 5-30-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. The sad state of American politics. This is part of the reason good people don’t waste their time with politics. Why bother, when this is what you get for your troubles?

From BizPacReview  “Annette Bosworth, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in South Dakota, held an adults only press conference on Tuesday due to the graphic matter that served as a backdrop.

According to the local NBC affiliate KDLT, the physician asked graffiti artists to paint her campaign signs with the same graphic names she said she has been called since entering the race, which she then displayed on the walls around her. “What you see around you are the words which have been written about me on blogs, on the internet, throughout this campaign,” she told shocked attendees, KDLT reported.

A tearful Bosworth also spoke about her 10 year old son, and how this “filth” shows up “when he Google’s his mom’s name.”

“The Democrats talk about a war on women, but much of what you see here is written by the supposedly tolerant liberals, Bosworth said. “They are hateful, they are hurtful and no person should have to endure it.” “It is its own form of abuse,” she added.

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2. A new tool in the fight against abortion. This one targeting the country’s abortion leader.

More here, from HotAir

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3. While vets die from a lack of timely care, some VA employees do nothing for vets. Their work in no way benefits vets, yet taxpayers pay for their full-time union activities.

From NationalReview  “In 2012, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs paid at least $11.4 million to 174 nurses, mental-health specialists, therapists, and other health-care professionals who, instead of caring for veterans, worked full-time doing union business.

The list of these taxpayer-funded union representatives at VA offices around the nation and their salaries was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by Georgia representative Phil Gingrey’s staff and provided to National Review Online.

“So many health-care providers were on that list — nurses or physical therapists or whatever they may be — when so many veterans are falling through the cracks,” a Gingrey aide tells me. “It’s kind of shocking that these paid employees wouldn’t be fully dedicated to patient care.”

In total, the VA spent at least $13.77 million on 251 salaried employees performing full-time union work. Others, who were not included on the list provided by the VA, work part-time for unions at the taxpayer expense. In fiscal year 2011, the latest on record, the VA used 998,483 hours of this “official time,” costing taxpayers more than $42 million.”

Disgraceful.

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4. It seems the VA and ObamaCare aren’t the only govt run healthcare debacles.

From GreatFallsTribune  “Misdiagnosed illnesses, denied payments and a shortage of trained medical personnel in government-run clinics are wrecking the federal health care system for Native Americans, tribal leaders said Tuesday as they pressed officials to overhaul a system beset with problems.

With the head of the Indian Health Service listening on, representatives of seven Montana and Wyoming reservations delivered a litany of health care woes suffered by their members during a U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee field hearing in Billings. They described an agency compromised by a bloated bureaucracy and unable to fulfill its core duty to provide health care for more than 2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives.

“All too often, tribal members complain of ailments but get sent home from the Indian Health Service with cough medicine or pain killers. Later we learn the situation is much more serious, like cancer,” said A.T. “Rusty” Stafne, chairman of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of northeast Montana’s Fort Peck Indian Reservation. “We have lost fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers and future leaders because they were unable to get the health care they need,” he said.”

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5. Here comes the pain for millions more Americans.

From USAToday  “More employees are getting hit with higher health insurance premiums and co-payments, and many don’t have the money to cover unexpected medical expenses, a new report finds.

More than half of companies (56%) increased employees’ share of health care premiums or co-payments for doctors’ visits in 2013, and 59% of employers say they intend to do the same in 2014, according to the annual Aflac WorkForces Report. It’s based on a survey of 1,856 employers and 5,209 employees at small, medium and large-size companies.

In 2013, 19% of companies implemented a major medical plan with a high deductible (more than $1,000) and Health Savings Accounts as an alternative to a traditional medical plan, the study finds.”

That $2500 savings for a family thing the President talked about was yet another lie.

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6. A problem of their own making. And amnesty doesn’t fix this, that’s part of the problem, not the solution.

From Reuters  “Tens of thousands of children unaccompanied by parents or relatives are flooding across the southern U.S. border illegally, forcing the Obama administration and Congress to grapple with both a humanitarian crisis and a budget dilemma.

An estimated 60,000 such children will pour into the United States this year, according to the administration, up from about 6,000 in 2011. Now, Washington is trying to figure out how to pay for their food, housing and transportation once they are taken into custody.

The flow is expected to grow. The number of unaccompanied, undocumented immigrants who are under 18 will likely double in 2015 to nearly 130,000 and cost U.S. taxpayers $2 billion, up from $868 million this year, according to administration estimates.”

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7. Things have gotten so bad in some places that federal authorities are flying them, and then releasing them elsewhere.

What do we call this? Illegal alien redistribution maybe? Everybody gets their fair share I guess.

From AZCentral  “Scores of undocumented immigrants from Central America have been released at Greyhound Lines Inc. bus stations in Tucson and Phoenix over the past several days after they were flown to Arizona from south Texas, officials acknowledged.

Andy Adame, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in Tucson, confirmed that over the weekend federal officials flew about 400 migrants apprehended in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas to Tucson to be processed. He said the migrants were flown to Arizona because the Border Patrol does not have enough manpower to handle a surge in illegal immigrants in south Texas.

The release has drawn criticism from those on both sides of the immigration issue.

Border enforcement groups are concerned that the migrants will now disappear into the U.S., spurring even more to come illegally.”

Gee, ya think? 🙄

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Our Daily Thread 5-29-14

Good Morning!

On this day in 1765 Patrick Henry denounced the Stamp Act before Virginia’s House of Burgesses. 

In 1827 the first nautical school opened in Nantucket, MA, under the name Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin’s Lancasterian School. 

In 1849 a patent for lifting vessels was granted to Abraham Lincoln. 

In 1953 Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became first men to reach the top of Mount Everest.  

And in 1978 postage stamps were raised from 13 cents to 15 cents. 

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Quote of the Day

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”

Patrick Henry

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Today is Danny Elfman’s birthday.

And it’s Mark Lee’s. From K-Love

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Anyone have a QoD?

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Prayer Requests 5-29-14

Anyone have a request or praise to share?

And it’s Thursday, so please remember Jo and the folks in PNG.

Psalm 118:1-9

¹ O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever.

2 Let Israel now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

3 Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

4 Let them now that fear the Lord say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

5 I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.

6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?

7 The Lord taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.

8 It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.

9 It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.

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News/Politics 5-29-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. It’s system wide.

From TheDailyBeast  “Last week, President Obama pledged to address allegations of corruption and dangerous inefficiencies in the veterans’ health-care system. But before the president could deliver on his pledge, the scandal has spread even further. New whistleblower testimony and internal documents implicate an award-winning VA hospital in Texas in widespread wrongdoing—and what appears to be systemic fraud.

Emails and VA memos obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast provide what is among the most comprehensive accounts yet of how high-level VA hospital employees conspired to game the system. It shows not only how they manipulated hospital wait lists but why—to cover up the weeks and months veterans spent waiting for needed medical care. If those lag times had been revealed, it would have threatened the executives’ bonus pay.

What’s worse, the documents show the wrongdoing going unpunished for years, even after it was repeatedly reported to local and national VA authorities. That indicates a new troubling angle to the VA scandal: that the much touted investigations may be incapable of finding violations that are hiding in plain sight.  

“For lack of a better term, you’ve got an organized crime syndicate,” a whistleblower who works in the Texas VA told The Daily Beast. “People up on top are suddenly afraid they may actually be prosecuted and they’re pressuring the little guys down below to cover it all up.”

They have a lot more details and paperwork proof at the link. You should read it all if you have time.

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2. Everybody’s gettin’ in on the scam.

From TheWashingtonTimes  “Retired military officers deeply involved in the climate change movement — and some in companies positioned to profit from it — spearheaded an alarmist global warming report this month that calls on the Defense Department to ramp up spending on what it calls a man-made problem.

The report, which the Obama administration immediately hailed as a call to action, was issued not by a private advocacy group but by a Pentagon-financed think tank that trumpets “absolute objectivity.” The research was funded by a climate change group that is also one of the think tank’s main customers.”

“One of the CNA panel’s vice chairmen, retired Navy Vice Adm. Lee Gunn, is president of a private think tank, the American Security Project, whose prime issue is warning about climate change.

The other vice chairman, retired Army Brig. Gen. Gerald E. Galloway Jr., is a prominent adviser to the Center for Climate and Security, a climate change group.”

The piece is long on details as to all the connections.

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3. They know they can’t do it thru proper channels, the legislative way, so they’ll try it thru regulation and executive order.

From TheDailyCaller  “Despite being soundly rejected a few years ago, cap-and-trade will soon get its U.S. encore — but not in Congress. The Obama administration will likely use its executive power to unilaterally impose carbon dioxide emissions trading systems.

The Environmental Protection Agency will unveil regulations for existing U.S. power plants early next month. For months, onlookers have been speculating about what could be included in the EPA’s rule for existing power plants.

But over the past few days it has become clear that the Obama administration will use the EPA to push cap-and-trade systems and other anti-fossil fuel policies on U.S. states. Administration insiders have told news outlets that cap-and-trade will likely be one of the options the EPA gives states to cut their carbon dioxide emissions.”

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4. It appears that stories of their demise have been greatly exaggerated, at least in some areas.

From CBSNews/Houston  “Republican voters appeared ready to push Texas even further to the right Tuesday, backing Tea Party favorites and casting out longtime Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for a state senator and firebrand radio talk show host who criticized the incumbent as too moderate for one of the state’s most powerful political jobs.

Dan Patrick, who emerged as the front runner from the first round of voting, easily beat Dewhurst in the primary runoff for the GOP nomination, ending the political career of a multimillionaire energy businessman who has been lieutenant governor since 2003. Dewhurst had said this would be his final campaign.”

“With Texas Democrats again the underdogs in November, many Tea Party-aligned candidates who won Tuesday are poised to pursue an aggressively conservative agenda that would likely include further spending cuts, expanded gun rights, and more restrictions on abortion and illegal immigration.

Tuesday’s Republican runoffs settled nominations for four major offices and nearly a dozen statehouse seats.”

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5. Time to shill for Hill. And of course, run interference.

From Politico  “An array of Democrats — including Hillary Clinton’s allies — are meeting this week to hammer out a united front on national security issues, including a clear response to Republicans over the Benghazi controversy.

They see an opportunity to wrest control of a narrative that some allies fear could be damaging to Clinton if she moves ahead with a 2016 presidential campaign.”

“A major milestone in the effort will take place this Friday, when a coalition of Democratic-leaning groups and influentials converges at the headquarters of the centrist think tank Third Way for a briefing that includes top Clinton adviser Philippe Reines.”

“Several people involved in the meeting say Reines was invited to speak at Third Way on Friday to discuss the chapter of Clinton’s upcoming book “Hard Choices” that covers the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on U.S. diplomatic outposts in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead — including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. Reines is one of a few guests expected to speak on various topics. Other anticipated topics of discussion include President Barack Obama’s Wednesday speech about foreign policy.”

Let’s face it, the book will be nothing more than an attempt at CYB, and an attempt to list her “accomplishments,” pathetic as they are.

I say, what difference does it make at this point? The 3 am call came, and she and the White House ignored it. Attempts at revisionist history won’t change that.

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