Category:

Government Shutdown

10/5/2013

Yep, they did it folks. The House, the Senate, The President. They shutdown sections of the federal government.
I've been watching the mainstream media, from CNN to FOX. I've been watching Facebook comments and links. I've been reading and listening.
Anger, frustration, worry, fear, and a lot of finger-pointing.
So, who is to blame? Here is my take on who is to blame and how much fault do they actually carry?
The President, you bet! He's the top dog and in any business, the buck stops at the top (or should). He gave the actual order to shut it down.
The Senate, of course! It is controlled by the Democratic Party, which seems hell-bent on being against anything the Republican Party proposes.
The House, absolutely! It is controlled by the Republican Party, which seems hell-bent on being against anything the Democratic Party proposes.
The American people? Beyond a shadow of a doubt!! WE, the American People, are to blame for this shutdown. We, by whichever statistical margin you wish to cite, voted these people into office. WE BLEW IT. And, in our society today, we don't want anyone to point that out. We want to blame someone else for every problem and ailment that comes down the pike. It isn't our fault, our actions are a results of someone provoking us, hurting us, etc.....EXCEPT.................... Except what??? That is wrong. We are accountable for our actions and how we react to those around us. WE ARE. Not others.
We voted those disagreeable, arguing, belligerent, stuck-in-their-party-rut, uncompromising, salary-guaranteed, buffoons into office. We believed every word when we voted.
Maybe some of us just believed a good set of lies disguised as pretty promises, wrapped up for us to infer that they were actually working for our healthy well-being, our ability to provide for ourselves, our ability to get others to provide for us. Did you just catch that?
Are we wanting to provide for ourselves or wanting everyone else to take care of us? Did that impact your voting? Who would give you the most??
And now, some are screaming for pity because those who get the entitlements (which, are misnamed, since they are not earned at all, they are, in fact, handouts), may not be receiving them with the government shutdown. But,

WHO voted for people who would just keep handing out?
Who voted for those who would create jobs so we could feed ourselves?
Who voted for a healthcare plan which had not even been read and studied before it was approved?
Who voted to fund those who lay around in families for generations collecting government checks (i.e., taxpayer money) and food stamps, etc.?
Who voted for abortion (i.e. the killing of unborn children)? Who argues when unborn children are murdered by the murdering of their pregnant mothers -- and the file charges against a killer who killed an unborn baby?
Who vetoed an immense project known as the Keystone Pipeline which would have created jobs and used our own natural resources instead of paying for exorbitant foreign oil?
Who voted to keep the minimum wage stagnant?
Who voted for our 'leaders?'

WE, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, DID. If you voted for the leaders, you voted for all these things. You and I caused this mess and we are starting to pay dearly for it. We can't blame Canada. We can't blame the European Union or China or Mexico. WE VOTED for these buffoons who, by law, continue to collect their paychecks while our government is shut down. (Granted, some are refusing their checks and some are donating checks during the shutdown to charity, but overall, they will receive their checks and pay tax on them no matter what they do with them, because, by law, they get paid.)
WE, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, SHUT DOWN OUR GOVERNMENT. WE VOTED THESE SO-CALLED LEADERS INTO OFFICE - consisting of Democrats, Republicans, and a few others. WE DID THIS.
Quit finger-pointing. Accept responsibility and encourage your representatives, your senators, and your president to start listening.
Don't let skewed surveys, polls, and statistics, along with media-slanted PR pushed ideas taint your intelligent ability to discern what is right, what is wrong, and who has to be impeached, voted out, and recalled. In fact, while you're at it, let the media know we want factual reporting without bias and the personal slants of the reporters. We want stories that stick to the facts and only the facts.
Quit allowing yourselves to be entertained by the press. Their job is to report facts, not entertain.
Our job is to use the brains God gave us. We quit using them a long long time ago and it's time to quit babying ourselves and grow-up.
We caused this mess. We can stop it. It will not happen overnight. Have you ever watched a house that has been subject to a natural disaster? Repairs do not happen overnight and sometimes the building has to be brought down to its bare foundation with new strong timbers placed.

We need to go back to our constitution and read it daily and start to live what we say we believe in. Here is the full transcript: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html .
Pledge Allegiance to Your Flag, not your leaders. ""I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Read the history of our Pledge through the years at this link: http://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm .
Remind yourself daily of the words coming from our Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" You may read the full text here: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html .

To quote Woody Guthrie's song, "This land is your land, this land is my land." WE, who come from so many different ethnic backgrounds, need to work for our fellow man as well as ourselves.
Our constitution guarantees each of us life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It does not promise us utopia; it allows each individual to pursue whatever his or happiness goal is. It allows us our lives and our liberty. That is tantamount to granting us the ability to work and provide for ourselves, it does not say giving it all to those who don't want to work. It seems today that some (many) in our society find their pursuit of happiness to be pushing for laws so that those who do work will provide for those who do not. I do not believe that is what our hard-working founders had in mind; they did not create a welfare state. They created the best governing system the world has ever seen. Today we are on the verge of destroying even the principles upon which this system was founded.
If you love where you live, if you love your country, if you love yourself, this is going to take a lot of hard work by ALL of us. WE CAN FIX OUR COUNTRY.

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Abortion and Birth Control

10/25/2012

1 Comment

The following is derived from from my morning comments on Facebook. I read so many things about Women's Rights. I am a woman. I have rights. I am a human. I have rights. I am a Christian. I have rights. I am middle-aged. I have rights. Having rights does not mean I am entitled to having things handed to me on a silver platter at someone else's cost.

All this talk of government-funded birth control.......makes me think. Why should the government pay for a what is an individual responsibility?
It isn't medical care, it is a luxury for those who want to have sex without responsibility.
Who remembers China enforcing the one-child-per-family rule to curb population growth? You know, forced abortions, punishing those who did have more than one child, government-funded birth control.......
If this keeps up, soon we women won't have a choice over bodies, the government will have more control.....all under the guise of "liberated" women who want control of their bodies!!!
The women of this country need to get a grip on reality.
Fetuses are living human beings from the moment two cells join and multiply, scientific fact. Fetuses are not tumors to be removed. Each of us was once a fetus. Fetuses are not constipation for which you need a laxative. They are living human beings in a growing maturing state.
Sex is an enjoyable act (except in such cases as rape and incest). Sex can lead to creation of a fetus. Birth control is available if one wants to prevent conceiving. Men AND women are responsible for creating that fetus, both parties should be responsible in whether or not they wish to create a fetus. IF neither party is responsible and has sex without birth control in place and conceives a child/fetus, then they are responsible for it's care and welfare. Killing a child outside the uterus is not acceptable, nor is it acceptable in utero.
The government has no place in my sex life or anyone else's. Expecting the government to pay for acts I choose is morally wrong. If one chooses to enjoy sex, that is awesome. If one expects the government (or me, through my tax dollars) to pay for their luxury of birth control, that is morally wrong.
Sex is the individual's choice. Birth control is the individual's choice. Murder is also a choice. Murder (aka abortion of a living human being in this discussion) is not healthcare. It destroys the health of the child. It goes against the doctor's hypocratic oath of doing no harm.
If a woman does not want the government taking away her right to abortion, how can she possibly want the government to pay for her birth control. Faulty faulty logic.
Sadly, any woman who is convinced she has a right to abortion is seriously misguided. Her child has a right to life the conceiving parents have given it. The woman loses her right to chose when she has sex and conceives. She, and the father, have a moral commitment to that child. IF they cannot honor that commitment, give the born child to someone who desperately wants a child.
Killing is killing no matter how you look at it. Treating a fetus as if it were a cancer to be removed is still killing. When one has cancer, one seeks a doctor to kill the cancer cells. There is an awful lot of society and media supported killing going on in this country.
Asking the government to pay for birth control as a preventive measure to the killing is equally wrong. Individuals need to take up responsibility for their own actions. Women and men alike.

As a side note, please feel free to follow this blog on Facebook too! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rita-Prestons-Views . Thank you!

1 Comment

This and That

7/15/2012

0 Comments

Our country, the good ole USA is in trouble and many are content to sit by and watch waiting for someone to do something.
Our healthcare system is a mess and getting worse.
Our government is showing serious of signs of comedic stupidity. (meaning: it is so stupid it is laughable)
Our country is being overrun by illegal persons who have no intention of becoming citizens and working hard; rather, they are choosing to come here and bleed our country dry through our "entitlement programs." We are known as the hand-out nation. Come, and we will give you much while our own people suffer.
Our own people, legal citizens, are falling into a trapped lifestyle of "gimme more, gimme more."
The rest of our citizenry still believe in the American dream, hard work, and the pursuit of happiness (not guarantee of happiness) and are slowing failing in an economic plan that will kill off the money supply.
Government legislators recently caused an uproar over the US Olympic team's uniforms being made in China; yet our people do not even know all the details of a health care plan being crammed down our throats. What a time for our legislators to worry about clothing made overseas!! How many of our purchased goods are made overseas, yet there's not been a fuss until now. Trying to distract us perhaps? (Shortly after the President signed an Executive Order giving him power over ALL communications, e.g. cell phones, internet, media.....)

We Americans are never happy: it's too hot, it's too cold, it rains too much, there's no rain, someone else got a pay raise, our car isn't as nice, the neighbor has a pool, the guy at work smokes, and etc. Then, there are those who complain about religious denominations: but we don't complain about cult members running for office, or leaders who support those of terroristic-based philosophies stemming from other religions; and, heaven forbid, we include God in our Pledge of Allegiance!
Apparently, we've forgotten what our Declaration of Independence says from history classes long ago!
When we will learn???
Think. Read. Educate. Listen. Don't sit there complacently waiting for someone to do something. Each one of us is part of the answer. Our leaders are elected by us, "we the people," and they must be accountable to us, to their country and countrymen. They are to listen and govern intelligently, not idly and without knowledge of those they govern and without knowledge of the laws they enact.

YOU and I, each of us has a responsibility to ourselves, to our children, our families, our friends, our enemies to protect and preserve the Constitution of the United States of America, keep the USA as a land of the free, home of the brave..............not the land of the freeloaders and home of the taxed.

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4th of July

7/4/2012

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Happy 4th of July to all!! To all who are here as legal citizens and who seek to be legal citizens that is! To all who take our freedoms for granted.   To all who serve in our nation's military protecting our very way of life!

I would love to write and say, "Let's celebrate" but I cannot do that, not this year. This is a presidential election year, "Obamacare" was upheld as a tax (taxation on the lack of a purchase), our economy is still struggling, too many people seem blind to the socialization of our country (removal of the democracy), double-standards are rampant, and people (human beings like you and me) are falling through the cracks of statistics. (Just as a side note, my spell-check program wanted to auto-correct "Obamacare" to "macabre." Amazing the similarity in both spelling and intent!)

This July 4th may we all remember what occurred 236 years ago in this country. Our founding fathers prepared and put forth the Declaration of Independence! They gave us certain rights and freedoms which we lacked under the oppression of a monarchy across the ocean. They gave us the right to not suffer taxation without representation. They gave us the right to free speech. They gave us the right to bear arms. The list goes on. They didn't create such statements without serious thought to the future our our country and her people. They were wise.

I believe they were doing their very best to make sure some of the falsehoods and tragedies we are seeing forced through by "executive" privilege these days could not happen.   Our founding fathers created a triangle government: executive, legislative, and judicial to avoid an over-powerful leader as we had been under from England. Those three branches of government were to be a check-and-balance to one another.

Bear in mind, I am trying to keep this as simple as possible dear readers. Our country is changing rapidly, on a downhill spiral away from an awesome system set up by very wise men, all in the name of taking care of those who now arrive illegally, who do not work (and care not to work), by labeling them as the needy for whom we must care.   I am consistently amazed that we, although we used to be the most powerful nation on earth, are losing our ground (rapidly) and that the American people sit by and watch it happen as if it's just another movie with a happy ending coming up.

If our country continues in this fashion there will be no happy ending and with today's technology it will be too late to regain our status and way of living by the time we do wake up. I pray for our country every day for she is my home and pray she has the strength within her to stand up to tyranny of all forms, to maintain the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. (Note, the founding fathers stated the pursuit of happiness, not the right to happiness. Happiness cannot be guaranteed nor handed out.)

May we realize that there are a lot of "moochers" in our country who are stealing our way of life, who are breaking the bank, and who in the end will end up as poor as those of us who work and support them once the government is fully bankrupt.   Those of us who work and pay our taxes are held accountable, so too should everyone within our borders - illegals need to become legal if they want to stay here - illegality prevents you from benefits, but somehow they are rising through the cracks while American citizens are falling through the cracks.

I show photo I.D. for many purposes, I have NO PROBLEM with showing photo I.D. to vote. Why would anyone else? Unless you are illegal and want to cheat the system. If one votes illegally, then isn't that cheating to win an election? We teach our children not to cheat in board games and in life, why should we let them see our elected officials and illegal persons cheat our country out of our way of life?

I wish each one of you a Happy 4th of July and pray we can always celebrate this date!

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Patient - Victim

2/7/2012

1 Comment

It is 4:41 AM. I am awake. With pain. Again. And, as I sit here waiting for some pain reliever to kick in, I realize I am a Victim. Yes, a victim. A victim of a society that has screwed up it's medical system completely. This is a tragedy not just for me, but for thousands (millions?) across our great nation.
I completely agree with those who said (a few years back) that our country needed healthcare reform. What we did NOT need was the hodge podge of ridiculousness that was hastily crammed down our throats to make a new president look good.

Since the passage of "Obamacare" my deductible has increased from $500.00/year to $1,250.00 /year. Our prescription co-pays (Thank God they still allow co-pays) from $20.00 to $40.00 for a month supply of name brand (non-generic) drugs. Items that used to be covered by our insurance (e.g labwork and tests like sonograms and MRIs) now must be paid for out of pocket until the deductible has been met. And yet, the insurance premium has continued to increase....for less coverage.

Let's try Health Care, NOT Financial Ruin. To do this I suggest the following:
Prohibit pharmaceutical companies from advertising prescription medications in the common media (e.g. television ads, magazine ads, etc). The money saved on advertising could be used to lower drug costs overall and/or be directed towards research for newer better medications. The average person who has not been to some sort of medical school should not be second-guessing the doctors all the time by asking if the drug he/she saw on television is right for him/her -- THAT is what the doctor is there for!!
Insurance companies should NOT be permitted to raise rates along with deductibles. "In the old days" it was common to save money on an insurance policy by increasing the deductible. If rates go up, deductibles should go down. Common sense.
Insurance companies should be prohibited from requiring pre-approval for testing, and from requiring a certain order of tests. Most of the ones doing the approving have most likely not been a doctor with a patient to know what is best for each patient. If they haven't been "on the floor" like most doctors and nurses, they have no business second-guessing the doctor's decision.
Insurance companies should be prohibited from denying coverage to anyone with a pre-existing condition. Period. There should be no waiting periods. Premium paid, coverage starts. Period.

I have asthma. My husband, of retirement age, worries about maintaining coverage for me once he takes the step into retirement. He should not have to worry about such things as to whether or not we can get coverage for me, let alone afford it.

I am a Victim. I sit here awake because of pain in my mouth. Pain I have experienced now for over two years. Long story short, my bite shifted. Braces are needed. We actually are blessed with great dental insurance through my husband's employer. Guess what? I'm "too old." I need to be under age 19. In Pennsylvania it is against the law to set age caps on medical procedures, but our insurance has written it into the policy. We have explained the law, and they have enforced that my husband's employer chose this policy so this is the hand we are dealt. I have attempted to find individual coverage on my own that my orthodontist accepts. Found a great company, but the plan I can purchase without a group isn't one of the ones he takes. I like my orthodontist and he is highly recommended. I shouldn't have to doctor hunt to suit an insurance company. Finally found a discount plan that merely caps what the orthodontist can charge me, so yesterday afternoon I wrote out the large downpayment and my bottom braces were applied. Eighteen months from now I hope the pain is gone. For now, I am awake and aching from the new appliances in my mouth, from the ongoing pain in my jaws, from anger that our medical system has only been further ruined by "Obamacare."

Our country does not need socialized medicine -- one only need observe the waiting lists in other countries that have tried such programs. Mind you, I am not blaming one specific person. I do not blame the President for the pain in my mouth, for my insurance costs, etc. I use the term "Obamacare" because he was a driving force in the "reform" that took place during his first year in office. I use the term because he stood behind it. I use the term because the media so nicknamed it. I blame a large group of people: the President, the Congress, the insurance company lobbyists, the pharmaceutical lobbyists, the American people.

Yes, I blame the American people. We have become a country of the "quick fix." Throw a band-aid on a gushing wound and it will still bleed, but that is what we do. We have quit looking at the long term. We look at the moment, live in the moment, and then cry tomorrow when the blood is all gone. We must not wait for tomorrow. We must not expect others to take care of us - we need to do it ourselves. Band-aids are great for the short-term, but for the long-term we need to suture and heal.

We need reform in three main venues: Pharmaceutical companies, Insurance companies, and the Complacent American. Period. Fix those and things will come around.

1 Comment

Government Shutdown

Abortion and Birth Control

This and That

4th of July

Patient - Victim

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