Mr President, the American people can read

The protesters to the so called Health Care reform of Obama's, are not (as Obama says) "lying" or "terrorists" but simply asking questions about things stated IN THE BILL for which we have received NO ANSWERS TO DATE other than to trust Obama which is hard to do with ANY politician and especially one who has broken a lot of his campaign promises very early in his term. The following blog - by a lady who read EVERY WORD of the health care bill (HR 3200) expresses well, concerns and questions many of us have. Now can anyone really ANSWER these concerns with other than calling us liars and conspirators and terrorists or telling us to "trust Obama"?

Mr. President -- American Citizens Can Read . . . .



Most Americans, including Republicans, favor real health care reform . . . . we just don't want a government takeover of our health care . . . and neither do the majority of the American people. The townhalls (those not staged, that is) show frustration more than anger. Are you listening? People want reform, not a dismantling of the system. Where are the true reforms like limiting malpractice? Where are the efforts to cut down the real fraud committed by some?

Why are many concerned citizens (including many moderate democrats and independents) being stereotyped as a vast right wing "unAmerican" conspiracy "mob." You disparage those who disagree with you by stating they created the problem and you don't want to hear from them.. . . so they need to sit down and shut up. Those were not your exact words, but it certainly is the message you conveyed.

You campaigned on the promise of a more transparent and open government . . . so far, I see little evidence of any CHANGE . . . except for more behind the scenes negotiations to further a very liberal agenda. The health care reform issue only highlights that you believe when citizens ask questions -- it is enough to just say . . . "Trust me, health care reform will reduce costs, expand coverage, and improve quality." Well, Mr. President, that is NOT enough! Apparently, the idea that American citizens would actually read the proposed bills and ask SPECIFIC questions never occurred to you.

Believe it or not, private citizens are intelligent and understand that under the government plan costs will go up -- not down -- and the only way government can control costs is through additional taxes and by rationing services. The House bill creates a new “Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research” to gather data and to determine which treatments and drugs are the most cost-effective in handling particular medical cases. Would you please explain how a panel of “experts” (chosen by politicians) who establish a standardized one-size-fits-all treatment based on their cost effectiveness will improve the health of American citizens? Cost effective to whom?

Would you explain why a new Health Care Commissioner, appointed by you, Mr. President, would have the unprecedented authority to determine what is "acceptable" health care coverage and establish the rules for what ALL health care coverage MUST include. And be honest, doesn't that MUST include coverage include abortions? If it does not, why are there attempts to block amendments that specifically prohibit the use of tax-payers money for abortions? The Health Care Commissioner which you will be appointment will also have the authority to determine what treatments patients could receive and at what cost. Who would you appoint as the new Commissioner to have this awesome responsibility? One of your present "czars" perhaps? Personally, I have concerns about the ideologies of some of these "advisers."

Would you please explain how "if we like our current insurance, we can keep it" will not be affected by the requirement that private insurers must comply with new coverage and underwriting rules in order to offer insurance? Oh, by-the-way, was the 5-year grace period included in the House bill so you could publicly state this claim? Would it not be more honest to say "if we like our current insurance, it is grandfathered for 5-years?"

Would you please explain why health insurance should be mandatory for ALL but only cost those who can afford to pay for it? Most Americans cannot really afford health insurance -- but responsible citizens make health care a priority and "budget" for the cost. Compassionate citizens acknowledge there are some who absolutely cannot pay for their health care and agree that taxpayers should. But Mr. President, do you really expect the American people not to complain when they see recipients of Medicaid, food stamps, free school lunches, subsidized-housing, etc. wearing $140.00 tennis shoes, designer jeans, carrying cell-phones and I-pods? Since many of those presently uninsured will be going into Medicaid programs, shouldn't some attempt be made for abuse prevention? How many of the uninsured which will be covered under this reform are not even in this country legally? Now that's abusive -- to average, everyday, tax-paying citizens.

While you are at it, would you give the American people an estimate of how much this health care reform is going to "grow government" -- I came up with at least 3 new agencies, a powerful new Commissioner, 3 or 4 advisory panels, 2 task forces, and a medical device registry, before I gave up the count ! ! ! And you really want the American people to believe that the government is not going to micro-manage their health care? Really?

And, by-the-way, isn't the authority of the HHS Secretary to use electronic transactions to determine an individual's financial responsibility AT THE POINT OF SERVICE, including whether the individual is "eligible for a specific service, with a specific physician, at a specific facility" just a little invasive on American citizens? To say nothing of being an administrating nightmare? Is it really necessary when a machine-readable health plan benefits identification card will be issued as set out in the House bill?

These are only some of the questions which American citizens would like to have answered. Would you please enlighten us with some truthful detailed answers instead of the partial truths and meaningless talking points we continue to hear. Yes, Mr. President, Americans can read . . . . and buckets with holes will not hold water!

I am signing my real name . . . just in case someone forwards this information by email to others who might view this text as "fishy."

-- Diana Schwab --

Thanks for Diana for her permission to share...

President Obama and the Pope - what REALLY happened

As we can expect, the meeting between President Obama and Pope Benedict XVI was badly misreported, even by Catholic news service. We must read the news media critically, remembering that reporters are often given deadlines in terms of HOURS which is all too often, not NEAR the time they need to research stories, let alone, write them up for publication.

While not expecting reporters to do what they physically can't, we need to realize that on certain subjects such as medical studies or Papal encyplicals, the media is about the worst source you can read, EVEN groups like Catholic News Service.

So I researched the meeting with a source who actually interviewed Fr Frederico Lombardi, spokesperson for the Vatican (Raymond Arroyo of EWTN).

As for what the encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, really says, I did the best type of research - I read it in its entirety, myself spending about 4 hours, studying it, carefully.

Unlike the media has suggested, it's not a wimpy document but rather as strong in its condemnation of abortion, euthanesia, same sex marriage and immorality as is Humana Vitae or the "Gospel of Life" but newly profound in that it presents an extremely strong argument for the need for ALL development; economic, technological, medical, sociological or otherwise, to be ROOTED in truth and morality and THE PROFOUND respect for human life from conception to natural death, and states rather bluntly that unless it IS thus rooted, it will not only fail but also, have a destructive effect on society.

Benedict gave Obama, as a gift, an autographed copy of "Caritas in Veritate", his newly released encyclical. And it DOES get specific, least one might misunderstand, so if Obama really reads this extremely profound document, he will INDEED, get an eye-full.

It is rather certain, however, that the Pope in his meeting with Obama reiterated some of what he wrote in "Caritas in Veritate".

And to underline the seriousness of the life issues at stake, he also gave Obama a copy of the instruction, "Dignitus Personae" the Vatican's 2008 document on bioethics and respect for human life and condemning, embryonic stem cell research.

Fr Frederico Lombardi, the Vatican's spokesman said "there is no need to hide it - giving the book to the President was to be clear it was NOT polemical." (an attempt to teach the President 'here is WHAT WE BELIEVE and WHY WE BELIEVE IT').

Fr Lombardi also said the president told the Pope he was "committed to reducing the number of abortions" but recently the administration under great pressure from the abortion providers (who financed Obama's campaign) stated that it sees good reason to reduce the NEED for abortions but NOT THE NUMBER of abortions now being performed.

So what BHO told the Pope would represent a "reversal of policy" however, on the home front the Administration is doing as some prolife folks suspected they would do i.e. passing "FOCA" in small segments as attached to other bills.

Thus the Catholic News Service article which stated that the Vatican said Obama has not done any harm to the pro-life cause yet, was incorrect. He is INDEED, fulfilling his promises to the abortion providers who financed his campaign.

Here is just what recently transpired in the last week:

• According to the Catholic Family Institute, the Obamas have introduced "sweeping language on abortion rights" at the United Nations calling for "universal access to reproductive health and family planning services". (U-N-speak for abortion and contraception)




• And in Washington, a Senate panel has passed legislation that would codify into law, President Obama's January directive to fund abortion promoters and providers overseas, a reversal of the so called Mexico city policy instituted by Bush which stopped this funding. NOTE: This was an E.O. but Obama wants to make it a law, so it can NOT be easily reversed by the next president.




• Meanwhile on Capital Hill, a Senate committee drafting the Health Care reform bill this week, accepted language that COMPELS insurance companies to pay for abortions. The amendment was Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski's and it was accepted by one vote.




• Finally on Monday last week, the NIH released guidelines for the President's decision to fund "embryo DESTROYING" embryonic stem cell research. The National Catholic Bishop's committee complained about the broader guidelines and pointed out that the comments of 30,000 people objecting to these guidelines on the NIH site, were ignored (Comments were solicited by the administration about these guidelines)

This last action is progressing full speed ahead, even though embryonic stem cell therapy has been declared by several scientists to be a "dead end research" because in all the rat studies and one human study (in Asia) the transplantation of embryonic stem cells has not cured any disease but has CAUSED the growth of cancerous tumors.

(Dr Oz, Oprah's medical advisor pointed out on National TV, that if this dead end research is funded, other stem cell research which is ALREADY CURING DISEASE (as well as being ethical and NOT destroying any kind of human life) is denied funding.)

The acting director of the NIH said it wasn't a question of whether embryonic stem cell research should be funded but HOW it should be funded.

Every one of the above actions was CONDEMNED STRONGLY by the Pope's new encyplical, Caritas in Veritate which I have now READ in entirety and I would suggest that every Catholic (and educated person) do same if they can possibly swing it: Link to document on the Vatican website

The following is a taste of how incredibly profound Caritas in Veritate is:

Here's what the Pope said about abortion (in part - although respect for human life is woven throughout the document):

"we must not underestimate the disturbing scenarios that threaten our future, or the powerful new instruments that the "culture of death" has at its disposal.

To the tragic and widespread scourge of abortion we may well have to add in the future - indeed it is already surreptiously present - the systematic eugenic programming of births.

At the other end of the spectrum, a pro-euthanasia mindset is making inroads as an equally damaging assertion of control over life that under certain circumstances is deemed no longer worth living.

Underlying these scenarios are cultural viewpoints that deny human dignity. These practices in turn foster a materialistic and mechanistic understanding of human life. Who could measure the negative effects of this kind of mentality for development? How can we be surprised by the indifference shown towards situations of human degradation, when such indifference extends even to our attitude towards what is and is not human? What is astonishing is the arbitrary and selective determination of what to put forward today as worthy of respect.

Insignificant matters are considered shocking, yet unprecedented injustices seem to be widely tolerated.

While the poor of the world continue knocking on the doors of the rich, the world of affluence runs the risk of no longer hearing those knocks, on account of a conscience that can no longer distinguish what is human.(Paragraph 75: Caritas in Veritate)

Here's what the Pope wrote about drugs (and what he might have discussed with President Obama):

The new forms of slavery to drugs and the lack of hope into which so many people fall can be explained not only in sociological and psychological terms but also in essentially spiritual terms. The emptiness in which the soul feels abandoned, despite the availability of countless therapies for body and psyche, leads to suffering. There cannot be holistic development and universal common good unless people's spiritual and moral welfare is taken into account, considered in their totality as body and soul.(paragraph 76 Caritas in Veritate)

He referred to the widespread rejection of God as the greatest obstacle to development stating that:

"A humanism which excludes God is an inhuman humanism." (paragraph 78)

He strongly advocates that marriage MUST BE between a MAN and a WOMAN suggesting that otherwise can be nothing but destructive.

Also he gives a set of rather strong reasons why decreasing the population is a bad idea:

"Populous nations have been able to emerge from poverty thanks not least to the size of their population and the talents of their people. On the other hand, formerly prosperous nations are presently passing through a phase of uncertainty and in some cases decline, precisely because of their falling birth rates; this has become a crucial problem for highly affluent societies.

The decline in births, falling at times beneath the so-called 'replacement level', also puts a strain on social welfare systems, increases their cost, eats into savings and hence the financial resources needed for investment, reduces the availability of qualified labourers, and narrows the 'brain pool' upon which nations can draw for their needs.

Furthermore, smaller and at times miniscule families run the risk of impoverishing social relations, and failing to ensure effective forms of solidarity. These situations are symptomatic of scant confidence in the future and moral weariness. " (paragraph 44 Caritas in Veritate)

What he might have told Obama about Immigration is this:

"We are all witnesses of the burden of suffering, the dislocation and the aspirations that accompany the flow of migrants. The phenomenon, as everyone knows, is difficult to manage; but there is no doubt that foreign workers, despite any difficulties concerning integration, make a significant contribution to the economic development of the host country through their labour, besides that which they make to their country of origin through the money they send home. Obviously, these labourers cannot be considered as a commodity or a mere workforce. They must not, therefore, be treated like any other factor of production. Every migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance" (paragraph 62).

On Poverty:

Poverty is often produced by a rejection of God's love, by man's basic and tragic tendency to close in on himself, thinking himself to be self-sufficient or merely an insignificant and ephemeral fact, a “stranger” in a random universe. (paragraph 53)

And about the environment, he states that although nature is a gift from God to be treated with utmost respect, we cannot respect Nature while disrespecting the sanctity of human life.

Love, stated the Pope, without respect for human life and without being founded in the truth, becomes the opposite thereof:

"Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word 'love' is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite." (Paragraph 1)

My favorite one liner! (AMEN!!!):

Pope Paul VI noted that 'the world is in trouble because of the lack of thinking' (paragraph 53)

Finally in the conclusion, he urges ALL to PRAY - at least to pray the "Our Father" often:

"In union with the only-begotten Son, may all people learn to pray to the Father and to ask him, in the words that Jesus himself taught us, for the grace to glorify him by living according to his will, to receive the daily bread that we need, to be understanding and generous towards our debtors, not to be tempted beyond our limits, and to be delivered from evil (cf. Mt 6:9-13)."

Basically, if you thought "Humana Vitae" (which turned out to include extremely profound predictions on what destruction on the family and human life, the encouragement of contraception would bring) and "The Gospel of Life" (JP II) were strong, know that "Caritas in Veritate" is EQUALLY strong and utterly profound in so much that it is so INCLUSIVE and actually presents an excellent case of why the survival of society DEPENDS upon morality, and ethics and a strong reliance on God, being THE FIRST REASON for all decisions even in things like economics and politics.

Mistake not - this is not only NOT the wimpy document the news media made it out to be but rather bound to go down in history as one of Benedict XVI/Ratzinger's greatest and most profound writings (in a life characterized by profound thinking and great contributions to society).

Great book: Tour de Force by Elizabeth White

So are you tired of the endless "love stories" in books and TV where love is defined as hopping into the sack on the first date and shacking up long before marriage is ever discussed?

And are you looking for a story which not only mentions God but has a theme of God running through it which is about REAL people with real life situations?

Sounds like Elizabeth White's TOUR DE FORCE may be the right book for you! But Caution, it's also an exciting page turner so you may not be able to put it down (that DID happen to me as I became interested in the exciting plot of this book and I enjoyed every moment!)

TOUR DE FORCE takes place among ballerinas in a New York setting and in Alabama (the author is apparently from Alabama!) and plunges you into the colorful world of the professional ballet, a world which those of us not involved wouldn't have a chance to experience otherwise. White pens skillfully, painting clear images of the world of ballet, the experiences and feelings of a ballerina - so well, that the reader actually feels what it's like to BE a dancer.

The main characters in TOUR DE FORCE are people the reader gets to know well - the book is so much fun, it's almost a disappointment to get to the end of it!

And it HAS a happy ending (another thing we don't see much of these days!).

Intertwined throughout the whole book is a refreshing morality - not at all "preachy" but just refreshing - people are NOT hopping into the sack and human situations arise but are treated with charity.

TOUR DE FORCE is not a "romance" but a REAL LOVE story of the type we seldom see these days! The type of story where two people, one of them a young prima ballerina named Gilly Kinkaid and the other, a director named Jacob, slowly begin to realize that they are the soul mates God has picked out for each other. Gilly and Jacob are real people, not Holy Card figures, but people we can relate to. The well written book with many surprise events (and even some mystery!) - leaves the reader on the edge of his/her seat until the last page!

This is one of the most delightful fictional works I have read in a long time and I think if you are a reader of this blog you WILL enjoy the book immensely - I would really recommend it ... click here to for more info

To read more about the author, here's her blog.

a REAL commencement speaker - Steve Jobs

Stanford University was a lot smarter than Notre Dame in their choice of a commencement speaker. While Obama droned on about coming to a “common ground” on what HE called “irreconcilable differences” about beliefs in abortion (like that’s really relevant to graduating seniors… NOT… BHO TOTALLY politicized his speech but stupid ND for choosing him!), this speaker in the youtube below, Steve Jobs, shared about his life and how he ended up making a success with no college education (he was a college dropout and also was adopted – his birth mother didn’t want him – good she didn’t believe in abortion, isn’t it) and ends with advice everyone can use regardless of their religious or moral beliefs.

I found this interesting and one of the best commencement speeches I’ve ever heard – it’s short only 15 minutes but worth listening to. It would have been “the right thing” for Notre Dame, a Catholic institution, to select a keynote speaker who did not oppose Catholic moral teachings. But often the “right thing” is also the smarter thing as you may agree when you listen to Steve Jobs speak:

80 year old Catholic priest arrested for quietly protesting

Besides the questions we might ask like why would a CATHOLIC University call the police on an 80 year old Catholic priest and some of his friends who were quietly walking around campus, carrying a cross and pro life signs, the bigger question we might ask (well there are several) is what is happening to freedom of speech? We would have never seen THIS type of thing even a decade ago!

Our generation cries in outrage at the death of a dog but ignores the deaths of millions of unborn babies? Is upset about a rough interrogation of some terrorist enemy of the country to get information to save lives but not upset about the ripping apart of a baby in the womb for the convenience of the adults?

And a Catholic school which charges thousands of bucks a semester to offer a safe environment in which parents can be assured their young folks will be protected from things Catholics feel are immoral, violating this trust which is not only against Catholic principles but is CHEATING those parents who have entrusted their progeny to this school?

These ARE hard times. Christians need to take back our country soon before it's too late.

Watch and weep:

Dr Oz announces that embryonic stem cells are a dead end and will NOT be the cure!

One of the IMPORTANT agendas in this administration is embryonic stem cell research and it's a complex issue about which we are only getting partial information. The Catholic church is against this because it wastes a human life even in the embryo but it's a hard issue because the question is, since there are so many embryos already created in the test tube so to speak, what to do with them? Is it right, the pundits argue, to allow them to die when they possibly could help many people in finding a cure for horrible diseases like Parkinson's? The issue is so confusing that few know the difference between DIFFERENT TYPES of stem cells (less undifferentiated vs totally undifferentiated which is what embryonic stem cells are) or what "stem cells" even ARE. But most folks have seen the poignant films of Michael J. Fox shaking a lot, begging the voter to allow this "life saving" research.

Note: Some experts pointed out that Fox's sometimes shaking can be caused by a double dose of his medication, a statement which the news media condemned folks for uttering ("how heartless") and yet, on the Oprah show, Michael J. Fox admitted that his medication sometimes causes him to shake MORE.

Back to embryonic stem cell research, I had read quite a bit about it, but it was all coming from Catholic sources and knowing the creditability Catholic sources have (sadly) even among Catholics, I figured "who's going to believe THEM?" and thus, I have kept silent on the issue and continued to do more research.

My research has pointed out that they have done rat studies on doing embryonic stem cell implants with disastrous results... the stem cells grew tumors and killed all the rats! I did find evidence of this on the web although anything AGAINST embryonic stem cells is hard to find since it's such a political football for the pro abortion side!

Supposedly there was a small human study on Parkinson's patients with an embryonic stem cell implant with the same disastrous results as in the rat study... the patients who had the implants, so goes the story, all died because the embryonic stem cells grew tumors in their brains. But unfortunately, I have NOT been able to find evidence of this study on the web AT ALL so did not feel "ethical" in reporting about it. I waited, PENDING...

Well, folks, the PENDING has happened. The exploding of the truth of how embryonic stem cells have CURED nothing and on the contrary are a dead end research, and on national TV, FROM a respected physician, and author and ON a hostile source at that, the Oprah show (Oprah is extremely in favor of embryonic stem cell research and was in fact, pushing it on that show before Dr Oz made his unexpected announcement!).

Here is the video which the Oprah show has NOW removed from Oprah.com! But it happened because I just happened to have recorded that show (wanted to see Dr Oz and Michael J Fox) and I backed it up when I heard Dr Oz make that announcement and sure enough!!! He actually DID say that.

time is marching on - are we??

Hi anyone who is reading this. Do you ever feel frustrated? I feel like that right now. Because basically most parts of the pro life movement (OK I will admit there are a few mavericks in the crowd and I'll give their websites later) are proceeding using the same strategies which have NOT worked for us in the past - not really as shown by our total and unutterable loss on this last election.

As we speak, the Democrats and Obama are busy unraveling everything we've done in 35 years.

According to Randall Terry (and I SO AGREE with him!!!) we only have one option left to us. To educate the people and make SURE we fire a bunch of Congress persons in 2010. We can get a pro life majority again in Congress if we START working now.

As far as "alerting" the pundits, it doesn't do any good. The only thing the march in Washington did is the warn the media to intensify their efforts to smear pro lifers in the press - thus the lastest bunch of insults calling us "terrorists" etc. We got by some estimates over 400,000 in Washington and who knows how many more in San Francisco (TOTAL media silence on that march).

In other words, we alerted THE WRONG people.

Remember Teddy Roosevelt's advice? "Walk softly but carry a BIG STICK!" We should be making FAR LESS NOISE and FAR MORE PLANS.

Randall Terry is leading a great effort - please go to his website - let's join with him. A humble plea He says too, "LET'S FIRE THESE PEOPLE IN 2010". With a targeted vote, we CAN get back, at least, a majority in Congress which would go a long way to neutralize the untold damage being done to our cause as we speak.

Randall has joined the Catholic Church by the way and one thing we REALLY need to do is educate the Catholics because 52 percent of us voted for Obama and the Democrats in this last election. We need to get those folks back in OUR camp. If you go to Randall's website, Randall has ideas of how to do that.

The other real activist pro life group is "Priests for Life". Fr Frank Pavone, the head of PFL is dynamic and brilliant. Again he is about educating the public and working toward firing more than a few politicians in 2010 (that's only ONE YEAR FROM NOW). They have some excellent literature on their website. See them at Priests for life.org

If we focus in our support in aligning with these two groups, I think we can achieve what we need to do which is work toward stopping the killing.

As individuals, we each need to realize that we should be doing something activist each day. Like praying the Rosary for life. Our lady told the children at Fatima that if only a percentage of Catholics prayed a daily Rosary, WW II could have been stopped.

But we also have to make sure WE are educated. Read Randall's literature. Look at Fr Pavone's photos and listen to his videos and audios. We need to STOP BEING SILENT but to TALK to folks around us. Fr Pavone said on EWTN the other day "there are some lives only YOU can save."

A good example of individual activism is the 73 year old fiddler in San Luis Obispo who plays well enough to gather a large audience at a local restaurant. He ALWAYS, courageously, displays his pro life signs. You can read about him and hear his great playing at http://prolifefiddlin.org/

With a focused effort and God on our side, there is no way we canNOT reverse the evils which are happening now and to save those infants being wantonly killed, 9 per minute in the USA.