What’s interesting in the news today?

1. As we prepare for the Easter season we should obviously be thinking of the sacrifice Christ made on our behalf. Many will give up things for Lent as a symbolic sacrifice of their own. It’s a great time of year for opportunities to share what Christ has done, why He did it, and how it affects us. I’ve always thought the focus should be entirely on Christ, the cross, and what it means to the world.

Some people though, are using it as an opportunity to push for social justice and climate change issues.

Misguided? In my mind it is. They don’t seem to have Christ as the focus and seem to be wasting a chance to share the true meaning of the season. In their defense they do witness to the public during this, but it doesn’t seem to be their primary focus.

But what do you think?

From FaithAndLeadership  “Katharina Wilkins still passes on things like alcohol and Facebook during the season of Lent, but what’s really important to her is giving up needless car rides and investment in fossil fuels. That’s because, for the third year in a row, Wilkins is participating in the annual Ecumenical Lenten Carbon Fast.”

“The Carbon Fast was started in 2011 by New England Regional Environmental Ministries (NEREM), which describes itself as “a loosely affiliated group of Christian environmental activists from throughout New England.” It asks Christians to deepen their commitment to the fight against climate change between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.”

“The goal is to reduce carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas driving human-made climate change. It is created when people burn fossil fuels and clear forests. In 2013, mean atmospheric carbon dioxide reached more than 395 parts per million (ppm), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Many climate scientists believe that the safe upper limit is 350 ppm.

This year, each week of Lent has a different focus. Themes so far have included public witness, simplicity and fossil fuel divestment. One link has an online calculator so participants can figure out the carbon cost of their current lifestyle and develop a goal to reduce it. Other suggestions range from flying less and living more simply to talking to a congregation about divestment and joining with others to protest the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.”

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2. This just get’s more interesting. Cummings is complaining of McCarthyism in the IRS investigation.

From Politico  “Rep. Elijah Cummings is pinning the McCarthyism label on Rep. Darrell Issa in the ongoing fight between the two Oversight Committee leaders about the IRS targeting scandal from last year.

The Maryland Democrat who is the ranking member of Oversight has put together a report saying Issa is pulling from the playbook of the late Sen. Joe McCarthy, who waged an infamous witch hunt against alleged communists in the 1950s.

As Issa, a California Republican and the Oversight chairman, pushes for former IRS official Lois Lerner to be held in contempt for invoking her Fifth Amendment rights not to testify before the committee, Cummings’s office is releasing research Wednesday showing the majority of the previous times Congress took such a step were during McCarthy’s investigations.”

That’s what I’d expect a guilty party to say, and yeah, he’s lookin guilty.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has accused the panel’s top Democrat of prompting the Internal Revenue Service in 2012 to target a conservative organization applying for non-profit status.

Issa said records obtained last week from the IRS show communications from the office of ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., about True the Vote, a Texas-based, non-profit conservative group that aims to prevent voter fraud.

The communications at one point involved Lois Lerner, the ex-IRS official whom Issa’s panel is poised to hold in contempt of Congress on Thursday for refusing to provide testimony about her involvement in targeting conservative groups.

“The IRS and the Oversight Minority made numerous requests for virtually identical information from True the Vote, raising concerns that the IRS improperly shared protected taxpayer information with Rep. Cummings’ staff,” a statement from the Oversight panel reads.”

Is this also why he has obstructed this investigation from the start? Talk about a conflict of interests. He’s quite possibly been investigating himself.

But he also had plenty of willing co-conspirators.

From TheWashingtonTimes  “In one case the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates federal employees who conduct politics on government time, said it was “commonplace” in a Dallas IRS office for employees to have pro-Obama screensavers on their computers, and to have campaign-style buttons and stickers at their office.”

“In another case, a worker at the tax agency’s customer help line urged taxpayers “to re-elect President Obama in 2012 by repeatedly reciting a chant based on the spelling of his last name,” the Office of Special Counsel said in a statement.

OSC said it is seeking “significant disciplinary action” against that employee.

Another IRS employee in Kentucky has agreed to serve a 14-day suspension for blasting Republicans in a conversation with a taxpayer.”

And we also now know that Lois Lerner was considering a move to OFA, the Obama campaign spinoff. It appears that was to be her reward for targeting conservative groups and helping re-elect Obama. But then the scandal hit, so she got taxpayer funded retirement instead. Nope, no scandal here. 🙄

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3. Another busted meme. 

From TheDailyCaller  “Americans have recently been hit with some of the largest premium increases in years, according to a Morgan Stanley survey of insurance brokers.

The investment bank’s April survey of 148 brokers found that this quarter, the average premium increase for customers renewing an insurance plan is 12 percent in the small group market and 11 percent in the individual market, according to Forbes’ Scott Gottlieb.

The hikes — the largest in the past three years, according to Morgan Stanley’s quarterly reports — are “largely due to changes under the [Affordable Care Act],” analysts concluded. Rates have been growing increasingly fast throughout all of 2013, after a period of drops in 2012.

While insurers were hiking premiums since 2012 by smaller amounts, the lead-up to the Obamacare’s launch has seen the average rate at which premiums are growing fourfold.”

And some are starting to realize that while they may have health insurance, that doesn’t mean they have health care. But don’t worry, they’re blaming doctors, not Obama and the Democrats that created this mess.

From EbonyMag  “As a proud new beneficiary of the Affordable Health Care Act, I’d like to report that I am doctorless. Ninety-six. Ninety-six is the number of soul crushing rejections that greeted me as I attempted to find one. It’s the number of physicians whose secretaries feigned empathy while rehearsing the “I’m so sorry” line before curtly hanging up. You see, when the rush of the formerly uninsured came knocking, doctors in my New Jersey town began closing their doors and promptly telling insurance companies that they had no room for new patients.

My shiny, never used Horizon health card is as effective as a dollar bill during the Great Depression. In fact, an expert tells CNN, “I think of (Obamacare) as giving everyone an ATM card in a town where there are no ATM machines.” According to a study 33% of doctors are NOT accepting Medicaid. Here in Jersey, one has a dismal 40 percent chance of finding a doctor who accepts Medicaid – the lowest in the country.”

The govt. is offering incentives for doctors, but they’re not biting. As one of the story’s comments said, embrace the suck, after all, you voted for it.

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