I heard about Jessica for the first time this morning as she was highlighted on the Crystal Cathedral morning worship service.   The story of Jessica Cox is inspiring.  What a testimony.  What determination. 

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — Even though she was born without arms, Jessica Cox never says "can’t."  Instead of saying she can’t do something, Cox prefers to say, "I haven’t figured it out yet."

Amazing parents.

When Jessica was born without arms, she said her dad never shed a tear for her.   Jessica. speaking about her father, says: “He never saw me as a victim. I never had that as an excuse, that I was a victim of my condition. This is just who I am and I’m not a victim of anything.”

Nobody needs to ever worry about Jessica.  She’s a winner.  Her parents are winners. 

She’ll never be waiting around for someone from the government to come and help. 

Nick Vujicic is another one, born without arms or legs he’s now a testimony to the love of God, as he travels around the world giving inspirational Christian testimonies.  He heads up the Life Without Limbs organization.

"Consider it pure joy, my Brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds."

Some conservatives are ecstatic over the performance of the republicans during the nationally televised health care summit hosted by Obama. 

“Republicans should thank the President for giving them the stage on which they were able to make their case to the American people” so said Colin Hanna, president of Let Freedom Ring.

“Make their case to the American people”.  No, sorry, although the republicans did a great job of stating their case, the summit went on death ears as Americans were not glued to the TV broadcast of the health care summit.   It was not the Olympics or American Idol.  Even the media got bored.  Democrats sitting around the table were bored.  Republicans had presumed that Obama wanted to hear their objections and that was the first mistake republicans made.

Sorry, Americans were not watching.   Americans couldn’t care less.  Americans knew the summit would be a farce from the git go.  Nothing’s changed.  Obama’s mind did not change.  He did not hear anything new.  When republicans were speaking and trying to make a point, Obama was formulating what he would say next.  That’s not listening.  He’s the president and his time don’t count.  His rules.  His summit.  His way.  

Obama can now say that reforming health care is desired by both sides, it’s a bi-partisan deal that most Americans want.  He will say that now that the republicans had their say-so at this summit, passing a health care reform package is a bi-partisan desire.  He opened the agenda to the republicans, so it is now bi-partisan with republican support because they came to the meeting and heard the 2 hour presentation of the democrats, and the two hours that Obama himself spoke, and the republicans had their turn to bring any of their good ideas into the open.

Another farce.  Another shearing of the sheep.

Americans are bored with Washington as it’s been and want to start all over with an entire new bunch, ones who know the constitution, ones who will abide by the constitution, ones who will hold the line on expanding bureaucratic agencies.  So come November, 1/3 of Congress can be turned over.  Then in two years another 3rd, along with Obama.  

The latest ethically challenged member of congress to get caught is Charlie Rangel, the esteemed representative from New York’s Harlem area, who with over 40 years of government employment service has been given the position of Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.  Which committee by the way, is responsible “for raising the revenue required to finance the Federal Government. This includes individual and corporate income taxes, excise taxes, estate taxes, gift taxes, and other miscellaneous taxes.” 

Hmm?

The House ethics committee accused Rangel on Thursday of accepting corporate money for trips to Caribbean conferences in violation of House rules.

But wait, this is the tip of the iceberg, there’s more.

The ethics panel is also focusing in part on Rangel’s use of official stationery to raise money for a college center in his name.

Wait, there’s more.

He seems to have cheated on his income tax obligations.

“. . .and his belated financial disclosure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unreported assets and income.

The unreported assets included a federal credit union account worth between $250,001 and $500,000; a Merrill Lynch account valued between $250,000 and $500,000; tens of thousands of dollars in municipal bonds and $30,000 to $100,000 in rent from a multifamily brownstone building in New York.

And there’s more.

He blamed it on his staff.

"Common sense dictates that members of Congress should not be held responsible for what could be the wrongdoing or mistakes or errors of staff unless . . . “

Here’s a short brief message to the people of New York’s 15th district.  Send this 79 year old man home to retire where he can live out the rest of his comfortable life contemplating his proud accomplishments learned over 40 years for using the various ways and means to enrich himself.

And so, on Monday as promised, Obama put forth his new health care take over plan. 

Building on that year-long effort, the President has now put forth a proposal that incorporates the work the House and the Senate have done and adds additional ideas from Republican members of Congress. The President has long said he is open to any good ideas for reforming our health care system, and he looks forward to discussing ideas for further improvements from Republicans and Democrats at an open, bipartisan meeting on Thursday.  

The proposal will make health care more affordable, make health insurers more accountable, expand health coverage to all Americans, and make the health system sustainable, stabilizing family budgets, the Federal budget, and the economy:  whitehouse.gov

 The White House claims that the president’s proposal will reduce the budget deficit by $100 billion over the next 10 years and by about $1 trillion over the second decade by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse and cutting "government overspending."  

But wait there’s more: “the CBO cannot provide a cost estimate for the proposal without additional detail, and, even if such detail were provided, analyzing the proposal would be a time-consuming process that could not be completed this week. said it is not able to verify those claims.”

Americans for Tax Reform estimates the plan would cost $629 billion.

Another entry estimates the cost of the plan at $950 billion.

And yet another says $1 trillion would be the price tag.

Just to be nice, I’ll start with the low figure of $629 billion.   100 million families across the USA would each be responsible for $6,290 in increased taxes to pay for the plan that would insure all Americans government run health care.  Now, you also know that because millions of uninsured people do not carry health insurance is the reason the liberals want to impose government mandated health care insurance on all of us.  That estimate has always been around 30 million people who cannot or will not health care carry health insurance.

Now the number of people paying for this drops, and the price tag rises to $8,986 per family.  At a cost of $950 billion, the taxes on the average family would be $13,571, and we’d still have to wait to see if the bureaucrats running the show approve of the doctor recommended treatments.

Obama says, he has said, and he says again and again that he is open to good ideas for reforming our health care system, because he wants a bi-partisan bill. 

How about these ideas Mr. President.  

1. Get the government special interest groups out of the health care system.  (Put a binder on lawyers as one example.) 

2. Allow real free-market competition among insurance agencies.

3. Make all elected officials live under the same plans, the same rules, the same insurance options as the rest of us. 

4. Shut Up.  

Tiger made his statements today and included in his remarks about his selfish behavior was the statement that he “felt like he was entitled”   Entitled to what?   Irresponsible behavior at the expense of others.

“I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in. I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply. I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead, I thought only about myself. I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple should live by. I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn’t have to go far to find them.”

Because he was on top of the world in his profession, had a million plus  a year income, had the fans and the media worshiping his skill at hitting a golf ball, he did not feel responsible to those fans who paid to watch him play and purchased his sponsors products, by acting morally responsible himself.   He left his former ways.  He never thought of who he was hurting.    

Sounds like many of our politicians who have done the same, thinking the same, that the rules do not apply to them.

Thus, being on top of the world, Tiger felt he could do whatever he wanted and the normal rules of responsible moral behavior and accountability that apply to the rest of us did not apply to him.

We the people of this country have the same feeling about our current political class, those politicians who have been re-elected over and over again, that they feel they are entitled to run the country and spend our tax monies in any way they wish.  They feel they are entitled to their power, after all, the voters keep pulling the lever for them.  They feel they are entitled to spend our taxes as if there was no tomorrow, after all, the voters keep re-electing them.  They feel as if they’ve been given the freedom to engage in irresponsible behavior neglecting the principles put forth in the constitution because the voters keep them in office.  They make the rules but don’t expect those rules to apply to themselves.  The laws that apply to the rest of us don’t apply to them.

That’s the entitlement feeling.

And then there is a small portion of our population who have been on welfare and after a period of time feel they are entitled to continue receiving those funds without responsibly trying to do like the rest of us.

The time has come to make “real” changes.

No doubt you’ve heard and have been reading about climategate, amazongate and the other misdeeds of the scientists of the UN IPCC.

But now, there’s been a substantial amount of fraudulent finagling discovered of the basic facts that the scientists used to establish their theories.  At the core of the entire climate changing theories are the weather stations that have been gathering the data to substantiate their claims of man made global warming trends.

And now weatherstationgate makes the front page news.  At least in the UK it does in this article in the Telegraph.co.uk: “UN global warming data skewed by heat from planes and buildings.”

The findings are set to cast further doubt on evidence put forward by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which claims the science supporting rising temperatures is unequivocal.

The report co-written by Anthony Watts, an American meteorologist and climate sceptic, shows photographs of weather stations near heat-generating equipment which could be distorting their readings.

Back in 2007, the light of day about the weather stations had already been exposed.  See my post of November 2007: “Temperature Station Guidelines”

For the complete list of weather stations in unusual sites see: SurfaceStation.org for odd sites.

And now the question arises, what will the politicians say or do about the substantial information exposing the UN IPCC claims of global warming looming catastrophes based on scientifically accurate data.    The politicians will want to save face first and foremost, as an admission of being led astray, of being gullible and then that feeling of being wronged by the people they were betting their sustainable power on, is as common to a politician as not having a Kennedy or a Murtha sitting in Washington.

We the people can help the incumbents save face.  Un-elect them.  Pull the plug on their feeling of ownership to the office.  They can then go home saying the election process was broken, the people were betrayed, the voting machines were rigged, etc. and etc.

It would be a win win situation.

As congress and the green movement moves ahead pursuing clean energy legislation, there’s a simple question that must be asked.

If windmills and solar panels are so great as electricity generators for consumption by individuals, then why does the federal government have to subsidize the industry?

Wouldn’t the power companies invest millions installing the windmills to replace the conventional means of generating electricity?  Once installed, the wind is costless.  Simple maintenance of the turbines seems economically feasible.   Wouldn’t the private industrial complex invest their capital in the wind mill market, and also make millions converting homes to solar heat when solar panels are of more benefit than traditional sources of electricity?

Not that many years ago, the computer made it’s debut on the market.   A couple of college guys saw the “need” and started developing computer software enabling the first born computers to do amazing things, and Microsoft and Apple became billion dollar companies.  Where was the government then?  The government already had computers that took up an entire climate controlled room, but Gates made the computer consumer friendly.   An industry was born and now that government computer fits in your hand.

Did the federal government subsidize the telephone industry to transition from the wired telephone to wireless phones?

Then, why does the federal government think that now is the time to subsidize an entire industry that has not yet proved itself useful to the average consumer?

See Wind Energy’s Ghosts for more.
There’s one solid fact about consumer behavior.  People will purchase products that will be of the most benefit to themselves, and will discard products that do not live up to that standard.

There’s one solid fact about government intentions.  They are more often wrong than right.

A Madison Wisconsin city bus driver is on the payroll  for over $159,000 yearly, which is more than the mayor makes.  In fact, there are over 7  making over $100,000 driving the city transportation buses.   How and Why?  Simple answer: union contract.

It’s dangerous work.

In the past, drivers have defended the pay, saying they earn it by working long hours that can create hardships on families. Also, the job requires navigating an oversized vehicle through city streets and dealing with sometimes uncivil riders and other challenges, they have said. 

Madison Metro driver highest paid city employee

Put the government and unions together and you’ve got the budget of the federal government, along with the state and city budgets going through the roof.  The state of California is at a budget tipping point. 

And then, just average people like the rest of us wonder why our taxes are so dam high and climbing along with the costs of everything increasing daily.

Obama is promising to create jobs.  Jobs in civil service.  Jobs in the green industry which is highly subsidized by the feds.   In fact, the green industry cannot make it on their own merits, as that technology has yet to be proven cost effective to the average person.   The feds don’t care about that, it’s time to ram the changes down the throats of average people.   Think light bulbs.

After the recent outing of the climate change corruption, the US NOAA still plans to open a new Climate Service office devoted solely to the study of and the dispensing of information about global warming, or as they prefer to call the scheme: climate change.  But the blizzard of 2010 has deterred the opening until the weather changes.  You’d think that the humility the IPCC has been subjected to would put the entire plan on hold until . . . this can all be explained away.  Al Gore could make another movie.  Obama is all for it, as it increases the size, scope, power and influence of government.

The East Anglia Email gate is not deterring them.  Nor is Amazongate or Galciergate either.  The plans are made, the blueprint is finished, the site is up and running, the people are in place in their chairs and only the official opening has been delayed because of a change in climate not forecasted correctly.

The purpose of the new NOAA office would be to “help federal agencies and businesses prepare for and cope with global changes”

"This service will be a vital part of our growing body of knowledge on climate change, and will be held to the highest standards of scientific integrity and transparency," said Rep. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

Obama’s Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said changes to the Earth’s temperatures threaten to melt polar ice caps, raise sea levels, threaten farmers’ crops and change weather patterns. Last month, the National Climatic Data Center reported that the decade that ended in 2009 was the warmest on record worldwide, surpassing the 1990s. Many scientists believe human activity has played a substantial role in the changes.

Human activity has played a substantial role in the changes to the climate?   These scientists say that hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, snow storms and thunderstorms are exacerbated by the activities of mankind?   Yep, I’ll believe it when I see the evidence of hell freezing over.  You see, it takes faith to believe these theories, and faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  (Heb 11:1)  As Blaise Pascal describes faith: it is “a belief held without evidence”.  Believing in Global Warming (climate change) is the new religion of secularists and community organizers. 

For further reading see:

Amazongate: new evidence of the IPCC’s failures

The IPCC is beginning to melt as global tempers rise, says Christopher Booker

‘Climategate’ Scientist Faces New Fraud Claims

Data behind some work of Jones work can’t be verified

Leaked climate change emails scientist ‘hid’ data flaws

U.N. Panel’s Glacier Warning Is Criticized as Exaggerated

Commentary: The Case For Climate Change Must Be Remade From The Ground Upwards

Climate Change End Run

How the ‘climategate’ scandal is bogus and based on climate sceptics’ lies

New federal office would study global warming

NOAA Climate Services   Their very own website for your viewing and getting the latest of the latest most transparent up to date gobbledeegook about human activity causing climate changes.

An agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded . . .

Dr. Lynn Fiellin, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine, $3.9 million over five years to develop a video game to teach “sex, drug and alcohol negotiation and refusal skills" to children 9-14 years of age.
The game will feature “virtual characters or avatars” that are guided by the children playing the game to make decisions about whether to engage in behaviors that put them at risk of being infected with HIV.   Read the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Ah, $3.9 million is just a drop in a bucket when it comes to our bureaucrats and politicians spending money.  Our money, our taxes, that’s all, and it must be redistributed from the people to those who work for the betterment of us all.  And who could dare be against a program that teaches children about safe sex skills?  

So what’s the big deal when a figure in the billions is most often used to describe government waste?  This is pocket change as it only amounts to a bit over a penny from each of us.

I’ve got a few of those canning glass jars I use to for my daily pocket change.  The last time I took the jars to the bank for counting and depositing I had enough for two exceptionally good steak dinners, plus pocket change left over.  Think of how much each federal agency could save by eliminating these million dollar fringe awards.  But our congress keeps increasing the budgets of agencies.

So, when the general election comes around this November, it’s time to replace those House and Senate incumbents with brand new fiscally conservative faces who will work to put binders on these federal agencies.