At the time I posted this article I was (and still am) concerned about several issues regarding the current proposals to have the federal government greatly enlarge their role in our citizen’s health care needs.

1. The governments track record of management (or if you prefer, mismanagement) of virtually every government agency is extremely poor to be very generous. The current Medicare Medicaid programs are on track to go bankrupt in a few short years. The Post Office is notorious for mismanagement. The EPA, the IRS, etc. etc. all have over spent and underperformed for years.  
2. The government by almost all observers state the government is riddled with corruption. Special interests are draining tax payer moneys that should be going to the benefit of all.
3. The government and the current administration in particular are among the most untrustworthy we have seen. This administration has more instances of doing exactly the opposite of what they promised than any previous administration. This has lead to this administration making claims such as the Catholic Church and many Catholic groups have endorsed their health care plan. The fact is the Church and these groups have said they would support a health care plan that met all Church teaching criteria. The proposals up to this time have not met Church requirements.  Now, the Obama administration is claiming they will not (for instance) pay for abortions with tax payer moneys. The problem here it this administration has no credibility any longer.

Because of these concerns, I suggested in the referenced article that the Church and all Catholic agencies should not support any health care plan proposed by this administration. This administration has been openly hostile to Catholic teaching and simply put, cannot be trusted.

This administration has deliberately misled the American people about the number of people without health care and therefore the urgency of adopting health care reform. They have repeatedly stated that over 40 million Americans do not have health care insurance. This is an extremely misleading statement. First of all even if it were true that there were over 40 million people in this country without health care insurance, there is zero people in this country without access to health care. Since 1986 there has been a federal law requiring medical treatment for any and all who appear at any emergency room hospital in the United States, so for this administration to claim 40 million Americans do not have health insurance, while it may be literally true, they know that people hearing this believe that 40 Americans do not have access to health care and they make no attempt to clarify this.

The truth is that a large percentage of these 40 million Americans are not even citizens and have not paid into any of the social programs that support the free care they already get. And all people (even those here illegally) are receiving free medical care currently. And, I really do not object to this, what I do object to is the lies and attempts to take away more of our freedoms in this obvious power grab.

Problems with Catholic Organizations Supporting ANY government sponsored health care program at this time….

I am readdressing this issue because I learned today that I am not alone in this approach to resolving the health care issue. I received an article from the “Our Sunday Visitor” stating that several Bishops have begun to address this issue by becoming vocal about keep large government out of such endeavors. They are being backed by a long dormant Church principle of subsidiarity. Subsidiarity holds that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least-centralized competent authority. I am in complete agreement with these Bishops.

Here is a link to the entire article

Scott’s explanation as to why this debate continues to rage is because of our society’s indifference to truth. We tend to accept relativism instead of a definite truth. Instead of seeking what is true, we accept some middle ground that allows us to do what we would not do if we knew the truth.

If we truly believed that an embryo was human, we would not permit it to be destroyed.

Scott started his talk by outlining a few of the points his opponents make in their argument for a woman’s right to choose abortion.

1. Pro life people do not have the right to impose their opinion on others
2. Every person has the right to “choose”
3. Abortion is a choice between a woman and her doctor. No one else’s business.
4. Restricting abortion for the poor who cannot afford more children is unfair.
5. Women should have the right to abort their pregnancy at any time though out the nine months of pregnancy.
6. Women should not be required to give birth to an unwanted child that may be subjected to abuse, poverty, or illness.
7. Abortion should be permitted in all cases of rape or incest.

Scott surprises his opponent and his audience by agreeing with these arguments. He agrees with every aspect of their arguments; IF, the fetus is not human.

Scott’s point is that the whole controversy boils down to “is the fetus human?” Virtually no one would use any of these arguments to kill a 2 year old toddler. So, the question really is, “is the fetus human?” If the fetus is not human then all of the pro choice people are correct and we pro life people concede the right of a woman to have an abortion. The reason however, that we continue to oppose abortion is that all scientific evidence supports the fact that the fetus is human.  If we were however, to concede for arguments sake that we do not know when the fetus becomes human; does that alone permit us to morally kill the fetus? If there is a doubt should we assume the fetus is human or assume it is not human? To illustrate this point, Scott uses the analogy of hunting with a friend and you see a bush rustling, and you are not sure if it is the deer you have been pursuing or your hunting partner, do shoot hoping it is the deer, or do you not shoot until you know it is a deer?

The pro choice people seem to take the position that since they do not know if the fetus is human or not, It is okay to accept this as an unknown and an excuse to do what is convenient. The fact that they do not know does not mean there is no truth or correct answer. There was a time when people were not sure if slavery was right or if the world was flat or round, but there always was a correct answer, as there is for this question.  We should always error on the side of morality.

Some pro choice people like to make this an argument about religion. Religion has nothing to do with if we have the right to kill another human being. The most devout atheist does not believe we have the right to kill another human being. The religion argument is nothing but an attempt to change the subject and not face the real issue.

Some pro choice people like to use the argument that the fetus is not fully human by using the well known argument of the laboratory fire. This argument goes like this; you are in a laboratory that is on fire, in one corner are several frozen embryos, in another corner is a 2 year old toddler, you have time to save only the embryos or the toddler, which do you save? Because most people would choose the toddler, the pro choice argument is that even you pro life people do not believe that the embryos are human. Scott’s rebuttal is that emotional feelings do not change the fact of what is human and what is not. His example was if his 8 year old daughter was in the auditorium with us and a fire broke out and he had the choice of saving his daughter or all of us, we would all be “toast”; this does not prove that none of us were human.

Over the years of dialog I have had with those supporting the right to “choose” I have always been intrigued by the fact that they, almost without exception, have not watched, and refuse to watch any picture, video, or image of an actual abortion.  Of course the excuse is always, “I refuse to watch such gory pictures” because they are offensive to me. Interestingly, these same individuals will pay good money to go to a movie which contains more graphic images then the abortion images. So, what is the real reason they do not want to see the images of an abortion; maybe, because they don’t want to subject themselves to the reality of abortion?

This link will take you to a short video of not an actual abortion but the after math; if you have not seen these images, you need to see them at least once, once will be enough. If these images do not convince you that the fetus was human, I don’t think anything will.

Abortion after math Video

It is a poverty to decide that a child must die

so that you may live as you wish.

~Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

With all of the negatives that our technology brings us, there is at least one very powerful good that many of us are ignoring. In the past, before the age of the internet, the vast accumulated knowledge of mankind was difficult to access for the average person. Not so with the age of the internet, all of the various Pope’s encyclicals and more are available to us with a simple click of the mouse. Every thinking American should be taking advantage of this wealth of wisdom at our finger tips.

For those who have doubted the wisdom of Church teaching in the past, or even those who have accepted it but not thoroughly understood it, now is as good a time as ever to jump into this pool of knowledge and then begin to share your new found wisdom with those around you.

Pope Benedict XVI’s new encyclical is an extremely good place to start. Don’t let the length or sometime unfamiliar words deter you. Read slowly, take your time, stop and mark your place when you get tired, use on line encyclopedias to look up unfamiliar words, and use the hyper links provided to take quick looks at referenced material; but do get started.

Most of this material has been skimmed in a very cursory manner by left wing news agencies and dismissed with obvious ridicule because it does not fit their ideological mind sets, however, for any open minded thinking individual, the evidence of truth is overwhelming. The wisdom and prophetic messages of previous Popes such as Pope Paul VI will astound you. Pope Paul VI was so clear about what would happen if we followed the path being proposed in the 1960’s. You will be convinced he was indeed a modern day prophet.    

The following is a short excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI’s “caritias-in-veritate” to get you started.

14. In his Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens of 1971, Paul VI reflected on the meaning of politics, and the danger constituted by utopian and ideological visions that place its ethical and human dimensions in jeopardy. These are matters closely connected with development. Unfortunately the negative ideologies continue to flourish. Paul VI had already warned against the technocratic ideology so prevalent today[26], fully aware of the great danger of entrusting the entire process of development to technology alone, because in that way it would lack direction. Technology, viewed in itself, is ambivalent. If on the one hand, some today would be inclined to entrust the entire process of development to technology, on the other hand we are witnessing an upsurge of ideologies that deny in toto the very value of development, viewing it as radically anti-human and merely a source of degradation. This leads to a rejection, not only of the distorted and unjust way in which progress is sometimes directed, but also of scientific discoveries themselves, which, if well used, could serve as an opportunity of growth for all. The idea of a world without development indicates a lack of trust in man and in God. It is therefore a serious mistake to undervalue human capacity to exercise control over the deviations of development or to overlook the fact that man is constitutionally oriented towards “being more”. Idealizing technical progress, or contemplating the utopia of a return to humanity’s original natural state, are two contrasting ways of detaching progress from its moral evaluation and hence from our responsibility.

 caritias-in-veritate

How many readers of this article were aware of an attack on Christians in Gojra Pakistan on August 1^st of this year? If you are aware of it chances are you became aware of it through some small unaffiliated news outlet. I first heard about this attack today via the “Voice of the Martyrs” web site http://www.persecution.com/

Wondering why I had not heard of the attack until a month later I “googled” gojra aug 1. Not surprisingly on the first page of hits, not a single one was from a major news source.

The first 10 hits in order were;

www.ucanews.com

Article:     

 http://www.ucanews.com/2009/08/10/christians-remember-victims-of-gojra-violence/

en.wikipedia.org

Article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Gojra_riots

www.silobreaker.com

Article:

http://www.silobreaker.com/gojra-pakistan-11_113364

www.newstin.com

Article:

http://www.newstin.com/rel/us/en-010-016873836

www.topix.com

Article:

http://www.topix.com/world/pakistan/2009/08/clashes-between-two-groups-in-gojra-7-dead

www.nowpublic.com

Article:

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/christian-houses-burnt-muslims-gojra-pakistan

www.christianitytoday.com

Article:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/augustweb-only/131-51.0.html

www.assistnews.net

Article:

http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2009/s09080026.htm

www.dawn.com

Article:

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/provinces/18-gojra-riots-accused-sent-to-jail-am-01

hrcpblog.wordpress.com

Article:

http://hrcpblog.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/gojra-admin-knew-about-pre-planned-attacks-hrcp/

More evidence of this was recently brought to my attention by a friend who ask me, “have you noticed that the continuous reporting of body counts and bombings in Iraq that were so prevalent all during the Bush administration have suddenly disappeared?” And miraculously they stopped the day Obama took office and have not resumed in spite of recent setbacks, amazing.   

The obvious lesson here is; do not rely on the NBC’s, ABC’s, CBS’s, Reuters, Associated press, and even FOX for all of your news sources. Because of the internet and the many sources available information is now available, we just need to look for it and determine which is reliable and which is not. The old days of trusting NBC, ABC, and CBS are over.

Groups such as the Saint Vincent DePaul Society, Catholic Charities, and even the USCCB have recently announced support for such a government program.

While this sounds like a viable thing we all could and should get behind and support. There are a couple of problems with this.

Number one, the current administration has clearly demonstrated their willingness to say one thing and do another. Even if by some change in their approach to this subject they agree to ALL of the requirements of Church teaching to get approval of a government controlled national health care plan, their track record tells us that they will not live up to any such agreement and our Children and Grandchildren will be saddled with a health care plan that funds abortions, does not provide for health care of an unborn human, and will deny health care to old or terminally ill patients.

Number two, the current administration will (as they already have) start spouting advertisements that the Catholic Church, St. Vincent DePaul, and Catholic charities supports the currently proposed health care plan which clearly provides for all of the issues listed above.

I believe the best course of action now, is the one many Americans are taking. Get Vocal, attend town meetings, write your representatives and let them know we do not trust them for obvious reasons and because of this we will not support ANY health care plan sponsored by this anti life pro death culture administration…

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Matthew 5: 13 – 16
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It appears that he would like to turn the previous classes upside down and have the classes that were the underdogs in the old class system be the superior class in his new system and vice versa. This is not entirely the case because there seems to be some exceptions to a complete reversal. It seems that he would like former minorities to become the new upper class and the old white majority to be the lower class; however, he also appears to want to create a new super elite class of those who would rule the rest of us and would have (as they do now) different (and better) health care and retirement plans then the unwashed masses.

What leads me to this conclusion? Several things; for one the appointment of a individual to the supreme court that has openly and frequently expressed opinions that amounts to favoritism for certain classes of people. Obama has expressed and demonstrated his bias against the very young (abortion) and the very old (limited health care).

His current health care plan and his recent comments appear to favor reducing medical care for the elderly (they should accept old age and the aches, pains, and illnesses that go with it and quit seeking expensive health care and medications) and increase provision for tax payer provided abortions.

People such as myself are being told we should be more compassionate and give up the benefits we have paid for all our lives to those who have not paid anything into these government controlled Medicare and Social Security systems. Those of us who have built this country, who have paid income taxes to local, state and federal governments, paid taxes on our homes, sales taxes on all purchases, paid into Medicare and Social Security, and numerous other taxes through cost of goods and services that were taxed by various government agencies on the producers of these goods and services, are expected to fade quietly into the sunset.

The ironic part of this whole government fiasco is that people such as myself have been more responsible and more compassionate than those currently in power. We retired people that are under attack by this administration; have provided for our own families, for our own retirement, and also have donated generously to charitable organizations and causes. Many of us provide volunteer services to the needy of our area. Yet, this administration which has not done anything to advance our society, but has done much to devalue and dehumanize human life places themselves at a superior level and attempts to tell us that they know better than us and better then our creator what we should do.

Why, we ask ourselves is this happening? The answer, I fear is that they are not concerned about us or any class that they seek power over; this is all a ploy to gain and keep power and to establish for themselves a powerbase that cannot be destroyed or eliminated by anyone or anything. This is not new in our world we have seen it all before. Fortunately, we have not seen it before in our beloved America and I pray that they are not successful in their attempts to implement it here now. However, if we are alert and paying attention, all of the signs are here.

1. Already they are attempting to gain control over census taking and redistricting to control voting and voters.
2. They have established organizations (such as ACORN) to interfere with the free election systems.
3. They are already taking steps to eliminate or modify the 22^nd amendment which limits presidential terms.
4. They are attempting to gain voting rights for illegal aliens who they can coerce into voting for them.
5. Once they gain sufficient power they can (as they already are in some areas) enact, delete, and modify laws to their own benefit.
6. They are now asking private citizens to inform on other citizens and tell the Whitehouse if they get emails with negative statements about their healthcare plan.
7. They have zero tolerance for any opposing opinion contrary to their own.
8. They claim all individuals will be able to keep their own current healthcare insurance knowing that their healthcare system will force these providers out of business.   
9. They have successfully recruited most of the old mainstream media into their camp to the point that these old mainstream media outlets no longer engage in journalism, they now spend all their time aiding and abetting the power structure of this ideology. Apparently, they expect to be part of the ruling class elite in the new order.

     10.  They are showing complete contempt for the constituents that have erroneously placed them in   power. They call anyone who  dares express their God given right to free speech and disagree with them, angry and unruly mobs or hateful right wing nut jobs. This is a common trait among those who do not want to debate issues with logic and common sense. Attack their character and marginalize your opposition so you do not have to face them honestly. 

Ask your representative; “If I were the same age as Senator Kennedy and was diagnosed with the same condition; under the proposed healthcare plan, would I receive the same treatment?” If your representative answers yes, watch and see if his or her nose is growing.

They are supporting the special interest trial lawyer groups which are primarily responsible for our sky rocketing healthcare cost. Malpractice insurance is ridiculously expensive because of millions of lawyers on TV begging people who have lost loved ones or had a bad outcome from medical care to “allow” them to sue in your behalf. If they can gouge millions from the Doctors and insurance companies they can pay for millions more TV ads to do it all over again. If by some quirk of fate they get an honest judge and are unable to collect, no big deal, it cost you nothing; we will have better luck the next time.

It is time to wake up America, now is the time to join the millions of other true Americans that are beginning to mobilize against this move to socialism. I suggest joining in with the peaceful demonstrations, writing not just emails to your non-representing representatives but good old fashioned letter writing. Support the failing government run post office and load the representatives up with paper, it is harder to get rid of then emails. Maybe just maybe if enough of us write and get vocal they might just think we mean it this time. If we are successful in convincing them that we are on this and will not get off of it until they start listening and start representing US, then they will begin to do our bidding instead of the power hungry leaders they have in congress. And once they quit listening to their power hungry leaders in congress, their power hungry leaders will start to lose their power. Sound like a plan? Let’s do it.

John 15:18

Too soon old, to late smart……….

When evil days are upon us and the worker of malice gains power, we must attend to our own souls and seek to know the ways of the Lord. In those times reverential fear and perseverance will sustain our faith, and we will find need of forbearance and self-restraint as well. Provided that we hold fast to these virtues and look to the Lord, then wisdom, understanding, knowledge and insight will make joyous company with them.

Today Reuters and other news agencies are reporting a win for conservatism claiming that the “Blue Dog” Democrats have won a $100 billion concession on the proposed $1 Trillion Health Care proposal. .

Don’t be fooled by yet another attempt to misinform and lead voters by the nose. The extremely liberal (socialist) press and Democratic leaders are hell bent on pushing this through so they will have still more control over our lives. .

We know why these sessions are held behind closed doors with high levels of security; to keep out dissenters and to keep the public uninformed. If the truth were known instead of the concocted story the media presents, it would probably look something like this; .

Rather than the “Blue Dog” Democrats “winning” concessions as is being reported; the “Blue Dog” Democrats are being “told” by Pelosi, Reed, Obama, etc. they had better follow their leaders or they will not be supported by the “Party” come reelection time. The “Party” will find someone else to run on the Democratic ticket (Remember Joe Lieberman?). The “Blue Dog” Democrats are catching it from both sides; their constituents are becoming very vocal about not wanting the Federal Government’s further involvement in their Health Care and their “Party” leaders telling them they better go along. .

The “real” compromise is probably that Pelosi, Reed, Obama, and the other Democratic leaders will help them smooth over the ruffled feathers of their constituents by selling the sellout as a win for the Blue Dog’s by claiming a huge $100 Billion savings. After all what makes the difference, the whole plan will probably cost double that anyhow and they will cross that bridge when they come to it. They can always make up a “new” story. They are not hampered by that troublesome thing called “truth”. .

The good news is that the vote will not occur until the law makers return in September. Don’t fall for this new lie, when your legislators return home, be sure to let them know you do not buy this new tactic. Let them know you are their boss and they should be more afraid of you then their socialist leaders. We understand what is going on and we still have the vote and we will use it to remove them and their socialist leaders. .

Do you believe that Obama could be this devious? He certainly has a staff of people capable of planning such an attack.

The Vortex opinion of Obama strategy