RUTHFULLY YOURS

The Affordable Healthcare Act is apparently the gift that keeps on giving. A series of new revelations are highlighted by the idea that if you like your current ObamaCare plan you can keep it—but it will likely cost you more, and you may have trouble finding a doctor who will treat you.

A devastating expose by the National Journal reveals that Americans who decide to stick with their current ObamaCare plan “are at risk for some of the biggest premium spikes anywhere in the system. And some people won’t even know their costs went up until they get a bill from the IRS.”

At the heart of this daunting new reality are the taxpayer-financed premium subsidies that Americans receive to offset the true costs of their health insurance. Because of the way the law is written, many Americans will have to switch their plans to maintain their current costs. That in and of itself is a major headache, because it means another visit to the infamous HealthCare.gov website. Healthcare experts already question how many Americans will re-visit that ordeal, especially when the Obama administration has set up an automatic renewal process for one’s current policy.

Yet that current policy may end up costing enrollees considerably more because of changes in the law triggered, ironically, by increased competition among insurers that will bring lower-priced products to the marketplace. Newer plans offered by this competition will change the entire structure of subsidy payments because those subsidies are tied to what is called a “benchmark” insurance plan. As its stands now, lower-income consumers are only required to pay a certain percentage of their total income to acquire health insurance. The rest of the premium is paid by the government subsidy. Those who choose a more expensive policy pay the difference out of their own pocket.

There are no silver bullets. The price of freedom is hard work and vigilance.

West Bank
Rocket hits house in West Bank Photo: screenshot
Hours before Israel accepted the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire deal on Monday night, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu traveled to the south to try to allay the fears of area residents.

It’s not at all clear how successful he was.

Residents of the communities bordering the Gaza Strip who evacuated their homes are skeptical of the IDF’s claims that it is safe for them to return.

In an interview with NRG website, Yael Paz-Lahiany, a mother of three young children from Kibbutz Nahal Oz just across the border from Gaza professed profound confusion and concern.

“I really don’t understand what is happening here and don’t know what to think. Just on Saturday we had 10 red alerts at Nahal Oz and I don’t know what to say. I also don’t understand what the prime minister said [Saturday].

How many times have you heard on television or read in the media that the Gaza Strip is “the most densely populated area in the world”? Repeating this statement, however, does not make it true. There are dense parts of Gaza, especially Gaza City, Beit Hanoun and Khan Younis, but there are far less dense areas in Gaza between these cities. Just look at Google Earth, or this population density map.

(Image source: Peace Now)

The fact that these sparsely populated areas exist in the Gaza Strip raise several important moral questions: First, why don’t the media show the relatively open areas of the Gaza Strip? Why do they only show the densely populated cities? There are several possible reasons. There is no fighting going on in the sparsely populated areas, so showing them would be boring. But that’s precisely the point—to show areas from which Hamas could be firing rockets and building tunnels but has chosen not to. Or perhaps the reason the media doesn’t show these areas is that Hamas won’t let them. That too would be a story worth reporting.

Second, why doesn’t Hamas use sparsely populated areas from which to launch its rockets and build its tunnels? Were it to do so, Palestinian civilian casualties would decrease dramatically, but the casualty rate among Hamas terrorists would increase dramatically.

Italian journalist Gabriele Barbati said he was able to speak freely about witnessing a Hamas misfire that killed nine children at the Shati camp, confirming the Israel Defense Forces version of events, but only after leaving Gaza, “far from Hamas retaliation.”

On Twitter, Barbati, Jerusalem Correspondent for Radio Popolare Milano, and a former reporter for Sky Italia, in Beijing, said, “Out of #Gaza far from #Hamas retaliation: misfired rocket killed children yday [yesterday] in Shati. Witness: militants rushed and cleared debris.”

He said, “@IDFSpokesperson said truth in communique released yesterday about Shati camp massacre. It was not #Israel behind it.”

On Tuesday, the IDF released aerial photos showing how a rocket from Gaza targeting Israel hit the Shati camp, run by the UNRWA, and Al Shifa Hospital, which has become a de-facto Hamas headquarters, against international rules of war.

Barbati said he was unable to speak about the Al Shifa hit, but he was certain that it was a Hamas rocket that hit the Shati camp, and a witness saw militants rushing to clean the debris.

The Iron Dome, well this particular hi-tech defensive shield certainly has been splendid in protecting Israeli parents and their kids from rocket attacks coming in from Gaza – and we’re speaking about thousands of Hamas rockets over a period of a dozen years.

So the Iron Dome keeps being blessed for all the wonderful work it’s been doing, and Amen to that – but is this the answer?

Not for me.

I love the Iron Dome for all the right reasons. But I have learned to hate the Iron Dome because it keeps Israelis conditioned to expect a lifetime of warfare.

It means there is no end to the terror.

It means that Israelis cannot expect their government to fully protect them.

It means that Israel has surrendered into accepting a life on the run.

It keeps Israelis trained into believing that they have no right to expect peace or tranquility, ever.

It means that Israeli kids can never be tucked into bed safely. The next siren can go off at any minute. This time, will the Iron Dome succeed?

This time – will it fail?

Is this any way to live – for parents, for kids?

http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/british-reporter-returns-from-gaza-and-gives-heartbreaking-account-of-what-he-saw/

Jon Snow… J’accuse!
Dear Jon Snow
I watched your recent report from Shifa Hospital, as well as the additional piece on your return from Gaza; with great interest.
As you rightly say to viewers “we have to know that in some way we actually share some responsibility for those deaths”. And let me say that I “did choose to watch” and I am indeed “motivated to do something”. That something is this…

Jon Snow, I accuse you of being complicit in the wilful and reckless endangerment and death of these same children and other innocents in Gaza.

I accuse you of aiding and abetting Hamas in their diabolical plan to manipulate world opinion by ruthlessly engineering the maximum possible death toll among their own civilian population, especially their children.

I accuse you of wilful negligence, professional misconduct, and abject failure to report the facts as they truly are.
Yes Jon, I watched your macabre, heart wrenching “infomercial” / “propaganda film”, which might have been written by Hamas itself.
I can’t say as I am that surprised, as I remember how you described Hamas rockets in the past as “nothing more than fireworks, pretty harmless really”.
Well Jon, let us examine the facts as they truly are…

Four days ago, one of your harmless fireworks managed to kill 4 Israelis and wound 9. Last week your harmless fireworks killed a 32 year old father and wounded his whole family, leaving his three month old baby daughter fighting for her life and her four year old brother with serious shrapnel wounds. Your harmless fireworks also injured two sisters, one of ten years old currently fighting for her life in hospital and her thirteen year old sister wounded but recovering. That same harmless firework also injured an 81 year old disabled man.

Perhaps the saddest and most ironic examples of your harmless fireworks in action are two of many Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets which misfired, one which hit the Shifa hospital killing 16 and the other hitting a playground in the Shati refugee camp killing 10 children. Indeed one of your colleagues, an Italian journalist has confirmed that it was a misfired Hamas mortar shell which hit the UN school killing another 17 and injuring countless others.
As an experienced reporter who wants his reports “to mean something”, surely they can only do so if they are honest, non-partisan and factual. In your report you purposely omitted key facts concerning the plight of innocents in Gaza and failed to provide important information which could put the desperate situation of these poor and unfortunate people into proper context.

An Open Plea to the President and All Other Sworn Federal, State, and Local Public Officials Concerning Marijuana Policies and Laws in the United States: What Part of “I swear to take Care that Laws be faithfully executed” or “I swear to support and defend the Constitution” Do You Not Understand?

Public officials in the U.S. take oaths to support and defend the nation’s Constitution and laws. Indeed, the President of the United States takes an oath and has a Constitutional obligation in Art. II, Sec. 3 to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”. The President swears or affirms “to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”. Those serving in elective or non-elective roles at all levels in government swear to support and defend the Constitution. All may want to keep in mind the following questions when it comes to U.S. laws and Constitutional obligations:

Can a State constitutionally pass and implement laws that are in effect in violation of Federal law and that are in contravention of International Treaties to which the U.S. is a signatory?
Can the Federal government constitutionally allow a State to take actions that are in violation of Federal law and in contravention of International Treaties to which the U.S. is a signatory?
Should sworn Federal officials countenance or even, in effect, promote civil disobedience and disregard for duly enacted Federal laws?
Does the failure of a public official to act when a felony is committed constitute “imprisonment of a felony”, itself a crime according to 18 USC 4 and punishable by fines, imprisonment or both?
When a State legislature votes to enact a law that is in violation of Federal laws, is the Governor of such a state obligated to veto such a law? The Governor of New Hampshire has vowed to use her veto power if the New Hampshire State Legislature passes legislation that would allow recreational use of marijuana.
What is the significance of the January 15, 2014 ruling of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to “uphold three lower court decisions” and “(follow) previous rulings by federal appeals courts and the U.S. Supreme Court” and thereby affirm the Federal government’s policy that “California medical marijuana dispensaries have no protection under state law from drug prosecutions” (LegalNewsJournal.com, 2014 Jan 16)?
What are the implications for the rule of law and the primacy of the U.S. Constitution if the laws of the U.S. and the International Treaties to which the U.S. is a signatory are abandoned, ignored, disobeyed, or otherwise unenforced?

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/yes-sue-our-lawless-president?f=puball

“Today, however, President Obama has taken the concept of discretion and so distorted it, and has taken the obligation of faithful enforcement and so rejected it, that his job as chief law enforcer has become one of incompetent madness or chief lawbreaker. Time after time, in areas as disparate as civil liberties, immigration, foreign affairs and health care, the President has demonstrated a propensity for rejecting his oath and doing damage to our fabric of liberty that cannot easily be undone by a successor.” (Judge Andrew P. Napolitano, Washington Times, July 31, 2014)

Americans and many around the world are increasingly fearful of a President who has demonstrated no regard for the checks and balances of our incredible Constitution, the oldest in the world that still functions to protect individual rights and which sets forth the divisions between our legislative, judicial and executive departments of government.

Congress, however, will not impeach President Obama, but the House will sue him on the basis of just one of the many examples of his dictatorial use of executive orders to ignore the power of the legislative branch to pass laws he took an oath to enforce. He has unilaterally and illegally altered the Affordable Care Act 27 times, his signature legislation that former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, said Congress had to pass “so we can find out what is in it.” No Republican member of Congress voted for this two-thousand-page-plus law, passed late in the evening of Christmas Eve, 2009.

The decision to impeach a President is essentially a political one and Republicans understand that the impeachment of President Obama would be interpreted by nearly half of the voters as an attack on a President they support. There have only been two impeachment actions in U.S. history and both have failed.

The nation is significantly divided regarding the President and Congress has been in gridlock as Democrats as the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, has refused to let more than 300 House bills sent to the Senate be debated and voted upon.

Suing the President has ample history. It is hardly “a stunt” as Democrats have labeled it. New York Democrat Louise Slaughter called it “preposterous”, but failed to mention that eight years earlier, in 2006, she was a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by congressional Democrats against George W. Bush!

From Northern Iraq to Northeastern Syria, from Nairobi, Kenya to Benghazi, Libya, from Lahore, Pakistan to the rugged mountains of Mali and Afghanistan, militant Muslims have executed tens of thousands of their fellow Muslims and are on a killing rampage against Christians. The world is shocked and distressed.

The Muslims’ killing campaign did not end with their defeat at the gates of Vienna. Their eviction from Spain was a temporary forced retreat. But now Muslims have, in huge numbers, penetrated the gates of every city and town in Europe and North America without even having to use their swords.

Distressed by the Muslims’ trouble-making and killing sprees, civilized nations are bending over backwards in the hope of placating them and helping them join the family of humanity by admitting hordes of immigrants and offering them all manner of hospitality and assistance. All these gestures remain in vain and to no avail. Many of the new arrivals, deeply infected by the Islamic ethos, find it impossible to assimilate in the host countries. Instead, they strive to impose their defunct order which is the cause of their own backwardness and inhumanity on the host nations.

The non-Muslim world is at its wits’ end. No accommodation or kindness seems to stem the tide of Islamic violence. Countless numbers of proposals have been advanced in dealing with this systemic Islamic disorder. Some feel that, in general, Muslims are law-abiding citizens of their adopted countries and it is only a minority that is responsible for the violence and mayhem. Thinking along these lines has prompted people to say that the solution to Islamic violence rests with Islamic leaders. That is, Islamic leaders should speak up and condemn jihad and jihadists.

Western armchair theorizers and wishful thinkers need to take time and study the Islamic system in order to avoid making demands on Muslim leaders-demands that will never be met because they are completely unrealistic.

Islam presently has its stranglehold over on a billion humans, posing an existential threat to all non-Muslims. When this billion and a half adhere to the pathological belief of Islam and use it as their marching orders of life, the rest of humanity ignores this threat at its peril.

Islam, yet again, has risen from the ashes and is on a campaign of conquest throughout the world. Hordes of fanatical Islamic foot soldiers are striving to kill and get killed. What they all want is the opportunity to discharge their homicidal-suicidal impulses, on their way to Allah’s promised glorious paradise. And in the background, granting the foot soldiers’ wishes, are their handle

‘Hitler Was Right!’
With Europe’s Muslim immigrants come ancient hatreds and a revival of anti-Semitism.

The Bergische Synagogue in the German town of Wuppertal has a history with arson. The nearly 120-year-old synagogue was burned down during Kristallnacht in 1938. Rebuilt after World War II, it was targeted again about a week ago by arsonists who threw Molotov cocktails at the house of worship (although, thankfully, they failed to set it aflame).

Welcome to the New Europe, where the street thugs have learned a lot from the Old Europe. Their protests of the Gaza War during the past few weeks haven’t been anti-Israel so much as anti-Jew. Some of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world — Paris, Berlin, London — have witnessed demonstrations airing hatreds associated with Europe’s darkest crimes.

You don’t have to be a German speaker to sense the ugliness in the chant, “Jude, Jude feiges Schwein! Komm heraus und kämpf allein!” That was the verbal calling card of protesters in Berlin a few weeks ago. Translation: “Jew, Jew, cowardly swine, come out and fight on your own!”

The former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany warned that Jews shouldn’t do anything to make themselves recognizable in public. The current president says, “We would never in our lives have thought it possible anymore that anti-Semitic views of the nastiest and most primitive kind can be chanted on German streets.”

In France, protesters have stormed synagogues yelling “Hitler was right!” and “Death to the Jews!” — apparently forgetting in the heat of the moment that what they are supposed to be upset by is disproportionate Israeli attacks in Gaza, not that Adolf Hitler didn’t finish the job.

On Twitter, the hashtag #HitlerWasRight was trending globally in mid-July. Usually, Israel-bashers accuse the Jewish state of being the new Nazi Germany. But don’t sweat the details. All they know is that they hate the Jews, and they will use whatever rhetorical provocation at hand to communicate their venom.