To begin with I should make a few things clear. This blog is entitled de rebus, my intended meaning being “about stuff”. Essentially my intention for it is to explore ideas whether or not they relate to present events: My only criterion is that what I write about is something that interests me. I hope that other people will be interested enough to respond to my posts but I maintain my right to remove replies I deem inappropriate or offensive. Something that would classify as inappropriate would be discussion, especially defamation, of actual people; this blog is meant to be about ideas not about people.

Now I should make a few more things clear, namely give a broader sense of my opinions and background as a whole. I am Christian. My views are shaped by this and if you think this is likely to be problematic I would caution you that I will not compromise my moral views unless I see good biblical reason to do so. That said I do not wish this blog to become a battle-field between the various denominations of Christians. Discussion is encouraged but if I feel that it is getting out of hand I will shut it down.

I am also a student. I feel it necessary to at this point signal that I do not claim to have certain knowledge of anything I say; rather I claim only what I think are a consistent set of beliefs. The only way, as I believe, to obtain real truth is through God and His* word. That said, on matters not pertaining to my religious beliefs I will be flexible – or will try to be flexible –  in my views. My particular interests are in the classical world. I have been studying Latin and Greek for sometime now and would recommend them to everyone. I am also interested in Music, its performance, composition and enjoyment. I should specify that I mean classical (in the broadest possible sense of that word). I myself am a bassoonist and dabble in the piano.

That’s about it for now.

I hope you enjoy reading.

*I have here capitalised “His”. This is my normal practice for pronouns referring to the Christian God. Likewise I use AD and BC for years. CE and BCE are illogical since their purpose is to secularise but they still define themselves from the year when Jesus was thought to have been born.

post scriptum: initium means beginning

SOURCE: http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/

The president gives you the “facts about the stability and security you get from health insurance reform.” I give you the facts behind these “facts” Doggone it, I agree with the White House on one thing:  facts sure are stubborn things. (especially with the whole text of the bill available for perusal)! Links HERE!

“Fact”1 Reform will stop “rationing” – not increase it
WHITEHOUSE VIDEO: http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/4

The president’s plan will stop insurance companies from charging more for pre-existing conditions and will dictate plan coverage this will raise overall prices because preexisting conditions are costly. This will also not stop the government from rationing its own provision of health care. The woman in this video lies that it will not create more bureacracy. The AAHCA bill will create numerous boards, administrations and new officials, all directly appointed by the president. The president has said “time and time again” you can keep your plan and doctor. If you already have what you like you can keep it, but the federal (Read: TAXPAYER) subsidy will give the plan an unfair advantage, in addition to being able to set ALL the rules and coverage requirements AND levying a tax on the private plans it will increase the cost of the private plans and competitive forces will exterminate the private options (how can you compete when your opponent can offer as “low” of prices as they want, and cannot go bankrupt, merely absorbing more and more tax money to stay afloat). So once again, the president’s words prove ultimately meaningless (much like his transparency pledge and waiting period pledge for bills). This video also does not show his repeated desires to set up a single payer plan.

“Fact” 2 The “euthanasia” distortion on help for families
WHITEHOUSE VIDEO: http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/7

First of all, what business does the government have demanding “end of life” counseling? Given that they want to require it more frequently for nursing home and critical patents, how can it not have anything to do with euthanasia? This is where the “drop in a bucket” savings will come from ObamaCare, by eliminating those most costly to the system, who have social security and medicare and other unfunded lien against the government. Yes, social security is a lien, the government took our money with the promise to return it in old age, and they have spent it and now they are clamoring for ways to get out from under that burden. Death counseling will eliminate 2 birds with one stone. The government hates being responsible to people, even if those people have been healthy productive citizens their whole lives. That is why the elderly have been some of the most vocal and adamant protesters at town hall meetings, THEY are the ones that will be most seriously impacted initially through these orwellian measures.

“for president obama, health care is a deeply moral issue…” Obama has shown he all but completely lacks a moral compass. From his wish that he had voted against trying to save Terri Schiavo to his stalwart opposition to ANY restrictions on abortions (including babies born alive, which even NARAL didn’t oppose) in the Illinois senate. Forgive me, but I do not trust our president’s ability to handle “deeply moral issues” let alone the fact that the constitution gives him no such power to control health care. His service to the American people is not to run our lives and make all our choices, but to “uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States,” which he has shown no desire to do whatsoever.

This bill will withhold services from the elderly, opting instead to give only pain medication in liu of “expensive” options. page 425.

*  Sec. 1233, Pg. 425, Lines 4-12 – Government mandates Advance (Death) Care Planning consultation. Think Senior Citizens and end of life. END-OF-LIFE COUNSELING. SOME IN THE ADMINISTRATION HAVE ALREADY DISCUSSED RATIONING HEALTH CARE FOR THE ELDERLY.

* Sec. 1233, Pg. 425, Lines 17-19 – Government WILL instruct and consult regarding living wills and durable powers of attorney. Mandatory end-of-life planning!

* Sec. 1233, Pg. 425-426, Lines 22-25, 1-3 – Government provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death.

* Sec. 1233, Pg. 427, Lines 15-24 – Government mandates program for orders for life-sustaining treatment (i.e. end of life). The government has a say in how your life ends.

* Sec. 1233, Pg. 429, Lines 1-9 – An “advanced care planning consult” will be used as patient’s health deteriorates.

* Sec. 1233, Pg. 429, Lines 10-12 – “Advanced Care Consultation” may include an ORDER for end-of-life plans – from the government.

* Sec. 1233, Pg. 429, Lines 13-25 – The government will specify which Doctors (professional authority under state law includes Nurse Practitioners or Physician’s Assistants) can write an end-of-life order.

* Sec. 1233, Pg. 430, Lines 11-15 – The government will decide what level of treatment you will have at end of life, according to preset methods (not individually decided).
(Source: http://www.lc.org/index.cfm?PID=19319)

People can already get access to living will services, and other services regarding life decisions. Again, the government has no legal right to provide or mandate such services.

“Fact” 3 Vet’s health care is safe and sound

I am not that familiar with the current system of Veteran’s health care, so I am not going to comment excessively on this, other than to say that it will certainly be as “safe and sound” as the rest of the Americans that will eventually be herded onto the government program through unfair competition and special taxes on private options.

Also, one has to wonder how much the President really likes Veterans, since his DHS appointee Janet Napoliano has openly called returning veterans likely domestic extremists/terrorists.

UPDATE: Obama has re-instituted the VA “Death book” which referred its readers to counselors associated with the (successor to the) Hemlock Society (this book had been BANNED under the Bush administration once they found out its contents). This also brings into question the administrations adamant mockery and denial of “death panels.”

“Fact” 4 Reform will benefit small business – not burden it.
WHITEHOUSE VIDEO: http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/21

It will benefit small businesses to be taxed for not providing health care. It will also penalize larger firms. Why does a small business pay more to offer health care programs? Its because when you have a larger business, you are “buying in bulk” when you offer a health care plan, which means that you can negotiate lower rates just because you are so big. A smaller business, with fewer people, has less leverage, they are not buying as much, so they cannot get the same rates. So, in effect, ObamaCare will levy an extra tax on the larger firms to subsidize the smaller ones – keeping with the president’s long term theme of “spreading the wealth around.” Not to mention any business not offering “approved health care” will be levied an additional tax, and employees which do not opt for an “approved health care plan” will also be slammed with a hefty tax, all for not wanting to buy a product they do not want!

“Fact” 5 Your medicare is safe, and stronger with reform.
WHITEHOUSE VIDEO: http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/31

“cutting unnecessary subsidies” Reduced reimbursement will mean reduced acceptance of medicare, increased costs.

*  Sec. 1162, Pg. 341, Lines 3-9 – The government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans (Part B), HMOs, etc. This will force people into a government plan. “The Secretary may determine not to identify a Medicare Advantage plan if the Secretary has identified deficiencies in the plan’s compliance with rules for such plans under this part.”
(Source: http://www.lc.org/index.cfm?PID=19319)

“Fact” 6 You can keep your own insurance
WHITEHOUSE VIDEO: http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/3

Its Linda Douglass from the snitch video plays a starring role here. In fact, its the exact same video, with the exact same lies, claims of  “sentences and phrases out of context.” The president has indeed been talking to the American people, and he has been saying radically different things to his audiences. While talking to the radicals, he promised “single payer” he has repeatedly said he favors “single payer” government health care. However, all the recent clips shown are from his efforts to get the American people to swallow the poison pill of a “public option,” which, through unfair competition and controls will ultimately become the only option, thereby government will nationalize healthcare and it will appear that the “free market” has caused it to happen. Thus, I give the president props for a very clever and ingenius method to get the people to swallow his scheme. (Double props to the senior citizens and many others who have seen through this deceptive veil and have come out strongly against it!)

If you want to pay a special tax on it to help fund the government’s plan, and, as people migrate to the tax-payer subsidized government plan, are willing to pay increasing premiums until the government mandates that to stop and the provider subsequently goes out of business. The long term affect is being compelled onto the government plan, since, if your insurance goes out of business and you refuse coverage, you will be taxed for doing so.

The bottom line is the president advocated a “voluntary” universal health care program and adamantly campaigned against Hillary’s involuntary program. Once again, the president, through his strong support for AAHCA shatters yet another in a long list of broken promises.

Just for the record, if Bush had lied this often, he would have been impeached without hesitation…

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Mehr hat der verdammte sörver im moment nicht für mich übrig. Nicht einmal mehr ein ls geht.

Und dann kriegt er sich plötzlich wieder ein.

Manchmal hasst man diese biester einfach nur.

It’s everywhere you go. Any where you look, Any where you hear, Any where that’s anywhere. IT’s there. That feeling… It’s there. This sounds poetic, and I think pretty good if i say so my self, but its as real as your computer and your desk. What’s that feeling? well you read it here first on February 28th 2009. There are changes in Americans.  What is that feeling? People… are beginning to despise government.(about time) But its not something like how Ron Paul supporters dislike the government. This is a wave of Anger of the government from all Americans. Every time Obama speaks the stock market drops 200 points. It’s DROPPED 2000 points since he took office. Obama is just lucky he is still in his honeymoon. This movement is something I personally want. Why? Well cause I’ve been angry at the government lately because they DON’T GET IT! Then even more angering is that PEOPLE DON’T GET IT! But at least the people are coming around and starting to. Ok, 8 millionth time, The economy does not get better because government helps by giving money and putting regulation into the markets. The media is controlled(or manipulated) by the government also so don’t believe what they say about the bills, Not even Fox news sometimes.

The fact is that the economy does best when the government only does 1 thing. That is protecting the rights of everyone and NOT over extending its reach in the name to “protect the rights of everyone”. Well what if there was a bill everyone decided was necessary but wasn’t constitutional? Simply follow the constitution to the letter. If a part of a proposed bill doesn’t fit with the constitution then either scrap the bill OR amend the constitution to make it ok. This is how the founding fathers made it to allow changes but so that those changes are damn good ones. Because if it’s so good then everyone would be ok with it right?

I hope we can get though this because the world needs us. They need us so they can survive. We are so advanced and ahead that they need us. EVERYONE does. Even china does because without us their economic growth is killed. The world would have shortages, From lack of the food at all, of food. We need to stay here, we need to fix this country.

My proposal

We fight Washington liberals and help the conservatives in whatever way we can. It’s our only chance. Not just conservatives should help, but liberals too and moderates. You can join Ron Paul and the revolution and stop this madness. Or join your own thing, Whatever you want. We need to become so enraged that they have to stop. We need to put so much pressure on our congress people that they have no choice but to fight for OUR side. Because they aren’t on our side. If they were then they wouldn’t vote for this bill. Voting for this bill should be considered a mortal sin, A Federal crime, One punishable by death… In your minds. You MUST understand they are doing something bad for this country and need to stop! YOU NEED TO FIGHT TO STOP IT!

Your checklist(Courtesy of Chris-Portela.com)

1. Get your Congressman’s phone number(s).(Go here to find it)
2. Call them. You tell them you don’t want to have this bill.
   If you need something to say, say “I do not want you to make this country to be in debt and continue to use unsound economic practices to fix this country and I order you as your boss,An American Citizen, to NOT(emphasize the word “NOT”) vote for the stimulus bill and any other bills that make the government bigger or spend any more money.”
3. Once this is done, You have played your part. Feel free to write a sticky note, or make a calendar item to call them again later to remind them what their BOSS wants. They answer to you and that’s the truth.

Know that you have senators and representatives. Call as many of them as possible. It’s your part in the fight against the government.

Extra: I like to take credit for being able to for see these things though and post them here as PROOF that I knew that already… Just something I do.

Posted on Feb 16, 2009, www.truthdig.com

AP photo / Petros Giannakouris

Riots have become common occurrences in many countries as the financial meltdown continues. The U.S. military is preparing to quell civil unrest at home.

By Chris Hedges

We have a remarkable ability to create our own monsters. A few decades of meddling in the Middle East with our Israeli doppelgänger and we get Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaida, the Iraqi resistance movement and a resurgent Taliban. Now we trash the world economy and destroy the ecosystem and sit back to watch our handiwork. Hints of our brave new world seeped out Thursday when Washington’s new director of national intelligence, retired Adm. Dennis Blair, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee. He warned that the deepening economic crisis posed perhaps our gravest threat to stability and national security. It could trigger, he said, a return to the “violent extremism” of the 1920s and 1930s.

It turns out that Wall Street, rather than Islamic jihad, has produced our most dangerous terrorists. You wouldn’t know this from the Obama administration, which seems hellbent on draining the blood out of the body politic and transfusing it into the corpse of our financial system. But by the time Barack Obama is done all we will be left with is a corpse—a corpse and no blood. And then what? We will see accelerated plant and retail closures, inflation, an epidemic of bankruptcies, new rounds of foreclosures, bread lines, unemployment surpassing the levels of the Great Depression and, as Blair fears, social upheaval.

The United Nations’ International Labor Organization estimates that some 50 million workers will lose their jobs worldwide this year. The collapse has already seen 3.6 million lost jobs in the United States. The International Monetary Fund’s prediction for global economic growth in 2009 is 0.5 percent—the worst since World War II. There are 2.3 million properties in the United States that received a default notice or were repossessed last year. And this number is set to rise in 2009, especially as vacant commercial real estate begins to be foreclosed. About 20,000 major global banks collapsed, were sold or were nationalized in 2008. There are an estimated 62,000 U.S. companies expected to shut down this year. Unemployment, when you add people no longer looking for jobs and part-time workers who cannot find full-time employment, is close to 14 percent.

And we have few tools left to dig our way out. The manufacturing sector in the United States has been destroyed by globalization. Consumers, thanks to credit card companies and easy lines of credit, are $14 trillion in debt. The government has pledged trillions toward the crisis, most of it borrowed or printed in the form of new money. It is borrowing trillions more to fund our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And no one states the obvious: We will never be able to pay these loans back. We are supposed to somehow spend our way out of the crisis and maintain our imperial project on credit. Let our kids worry about it. There is no coherent and realistic plan, one built around our severe limitations, to stanch the bleeding or ameliorate the mounting deprivations we will suffer as citizens. Contrast this with the national security state’s strategies to crush potential civil unrest and you get a glimpse of the future. It doesn’t look good.

“The primary near-term security concern of the United States is the global economic crisis and its geopolitical implications,” Blair told the Senate. “The crisis has been ongoing for over a year, and economists are divided over whether and when we could hit bottom. Some even fear that the recession could further deepen and reach the level of the Great Depression. Of course, all of us recall the dramatic political consequences wrought by the economic turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe, the instability, and high levels of violent extremism.”

The specter of social unrest was raised at the U.S. Army War College in November in a monograph [click on Policypointers’ pdf link to see the report] titled “Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy Development.” The military must be prepared, the document warned, for a “violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States,” which could be provoked by “unforeseen economic collapse,” “purposeful domestic resistance,” “pervasive public health emergencies” or “loss of functioning political and legal order.” The “widespread civil violence,” the document said, “would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.”

“An American government and defense establishment lulled into complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly divest some or most external security commitments in order to address rapidly expanding human insecurity at home,” it went on.

“Under the most extreme circumstances, this might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States. Further, DoD [the Department of Defense] would be, by necessity, an essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance,” the document read.

In plain English, something bureaucrats and the military seem incapable of employing, this translates into the imposition of martial law and a de facto government being run out of the Department of Defense. They are considering it. So should you.

Adm. Blair warned the Senate that “roughly a quarter of the countries in the world have already experienced low-level instability such as government changes because of the current slowdown.” He noted that the “bulk of anti-state demonstrations” internationally have been seen in Europe and the former Soviet Union, but this did not mean they could not spread to the United States. He told the senators that the collapse of the global financial system is “likely to produce a wave of economic crises in emerging market nations over the next year.” He added that “much of Latin America, former Soviet Union states and sub-Saharan Africa lack sufficient cash reserves, access to international aid or credit, or other coping mechanism.”

“When those growth rates go down, my gut tells me that there are going to be problems coming out of that, and we’re looking for that,” he said. He referred to “statistical modeling” showing that “economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they persist over a one to two year period.”

Blair articulated the newest narrative of fear. As the economic unraveling accelerates we will be told it is not the bearded Islamic extremists, although those in power will drag them out of the Halloween closet when they need to give us an exotic shock, but instead the domestic riffraff, environmentalists, anarchists, unions and enraged members of our dispossessed working class who threaten us. Crime, as it always does in times of turmoil, will grow. Those who oppose the iron fist of the state security apparatus will be lumped together in slick, corporate news reports with the growing criminal underclass.

The committee’s Republican vice chairman, Sen. Christopher Bond of Missouri, not quite knowing what to make of Blair’s testimony, said he was concerned that Blair was making the “conditions in the country” and the global economic crisis “the primary focus of the intelligence community.”

The economic collapse has exposed the stupidity of our collective faith in a free market and the absurdity of an economy based on the goals of endless growth, consumption, borrowing and expansion. The ideology of unlimited growth failed to take into account the massive depletion of the world’s resources, from fossil fuels to clean water to fish stocks to erosion, as well as overpopulation, global warming and climate change. The huge international flows of unregulated capital have wrecked the global financial system. An overvalued dollar (which will soon deflate), wild tech, stock and housing financial bubbles, unchecked greed, the decimation of our manufacturing sector, the empowerment of an oligarchic class, the corruption of our political elite, the impoverishment of workers, a bloated military and defense budget and unrestrained credit binges have conspired to bring us down. The financial crisis will soon become a currency crisis. This second shock will threaten our financial viability. We let the market rule. Now we are paying for it.

The corporate thieves, those who insisted they be paid tens of millions of dollars because they were the best and the brightest, have been exposed as con artists. Our elected officials, along with the press, have been exposed as corrupt and spineless corporate lackeys. Our business schools and intellectual elite have been exposed as frauds. The age of the West has ended. Look to China. Laissez-faire capitalism has destroyed itself. It is time to dust off your copies of Marx.

Un de mes plus vieux amis a travaillé très longtemps dans des cabinets ministériels avec des gens de la haute Fonction publique qui se glorifient toujours d’appartenir à des “grands corps” (Inspection des finances, Cour des comptes, Conseil d’Etat, Mines, Ponts et Chaussées etc). Depuis des décennies, tous ces corps se bouffent le nez et ont littéralement gangrené la France en polluant la décision politique mais ils continuent inlassablement de se vanter en se drapent orgueilleusement dans la gloire de leur “Corps”…

Un jour, à un cocktail lors d’une réunion à l’ONU où il le voyait discuter avec le Directeur exécutif, un ambassadeur s’approche de mon ami et, le toisant du regard, lui demande :

“Mais Monsieur, quel est donc votre corps d’origine ?”…

Et mon copain de lui répondre :

“Mon corps d’origine Monsieur l’Ambassadeur ? Connaissez-vous L’origine du monde de Courbet ?

Et pan sur le museau !