Mid Week Discussion

After last night’s State of the Union Address, I’m sure that there should be some fairly good comments on Obama’s speech. While I had some fun with it last night, I need to go back and read what he said more closely.  Here is a link to the speech:   http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/12/transcript-obama-state-union-speech/

After the speech, Marco Rubio took over the TV screen (I missed this completely) with the GOP answer to Obama’s speech.  His comments can be found here:  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/13/rubio-obama-must-abandon-his-obsession-with-tax-hikes/

In other news, it appears that the Chris Dorner story has come to a smokey end.  He is believed to be dead in a burned out cabin in California, after shooting and killing one more cop going out.  The charred body must still be identified, but it looks like it will be Dorner.

And Next…. The FCC Will Pass a Drug Trafficking Tax

I know, that headline got your brain moving in a really weird way first thing in the morning. The words in the sentence simply don’t fit together. I mean, what the hell does the Federal Communications Commission have to do with Drug Trafficking regulation or taxing? The answer: Absolutely nothing. But it would be a heck of a revenue generator for the organization. Can’t happen, right? I would normally say no. But in light of what I am about to share I am beginning to question that premise. I used to think that an organization couldn’t simply randomly decide to tax or regulate something that it has nothing to do with. Then I ran across an article tonight on Fox News with the headline, “World Health Organization Moving Ahead on Billions in Internet and Other Taxes.” You read it right. I am not making this up. The World Health Organization, in an effort to both raise revenue and further redistribute wealth from countries like the US to poor countries, has decided to move ahead with an internet tax. What?

Medical Ethics Questioned in Florida

I figured I would keep it somewhat light here on a Sunday night when I imagine that many folks don’t have to go into work on Monday morning. Oh how I wish I was one of you. But I will be schlepping into work, wishing I was home doing some blog writing. I saw this article from Fox News, and read a couple of others on the subject at the NY Times and Huffington Post. It appears that Alan Grayson, Democrat bigmouth dujour, has decided that he is going to file a complaint against this doctor because the doctor put a sign up on the front door to his practice that said if you voted for Obama, then you can go and find another doctor. What doesn’t seem to matter to Grayson is the fact that the doctor apparently didn’t do anything that qualifies as complaint worthy according to the folks who make that decision in the state of Florida. But the question isn’t whether Grayson has the right to file a complaint, although we are going to touch on that. The question instead is whether this doctor is within his rights to post such a note. And further, even if he is within his rights, is this an unethical stance for a doctor to take?

OK, A Little Health Care

But not the real article I know that you are expecting. I am still reading through all the “changes” and “fixes” that have been done. Trying to re-evaluate and see if there is anything that I can find that I like about what has been passed. So my true evaluation of the bill is forthcoming, but could take a bit. 3000 pages is a lot of reading. What I am finding extremely frustrating is the consensus from those on the left that the passage of this monstrosity is a good thing. It is almost as though they have no concept of what is in the bill. I am failing to comprehend how on earth anyone could think that this is a good bill that we should be celebrating the passage of.  Strike that.  I absolutely understand why the politicians think it is a good thing. But I am talking about everyone else. It simply baffles the mind.

Why the Democrats are Doomed with Health Care

I know, I know, that starts out a little tough. Democrats are doomed. But I really do believe this to be true. Forget about the actual bill for just a moment. We all have differing opinions on whether the bill is a good one or not. But ignore that fact for a moment. What I want to look at is the process we are seeing unfold. I know that those on the left have attempted to justify each of the shady moves that have been either proposed or actually used in order to attempt to get this legislation passed. But the fact is that I simply cannot recall a time when a legislature has acted in such a subversive way in order to do what they would like to do. I am aware I am but a young buck, and I have only followed politics for about 20-25 years. But I simply have never seen something like what we have witnessed over the last year in the health care push. Obviously you can all correct me if I am wrong. But even if I am wrong, and there was a time where stuff like this happened before, I simply fin it sickening to watch it happen in this environment and under these circumstances.

Initial Thoughts on “The Summit”

I could literally sum up my entire thoughts on the health care summit held at Blair House yesterday with just a line or two. They would be: The was nothing more than theater put on by the two parties. There was nothing accomplished and this was a complete waste of time and money. Of course if I summed it up in two sentences like that, this would not be a very interesting blog to read now would it? I am simply not prepared to dissect the entire 7 hours worth of bullshit that went on there quite yet. And I am not even sure that it is worth dissecting. However, if after this short piece, you would like me to delve further into what went on, I will. I live to serve. Instead I am going to offer some very quick observations and thoughts on what I saw of the summit. I watched a good portion of it. Morbid curiosity. It was big news so I feel like I had to at least touch on it tonight. But I will keep it short. Because it is guest commentary night and I don’t want to take away from the article that was submitted.

State of the Union? Same old Crap….

So I have finished watching both the State of the Union and the Republican rebuttal. I thought both were weak. I thought both were full of bulldookey. I am not going to address every single thing that the President said tonight, but I am going to address some of the things that jumped out at me. Because in the end, I felt like he was right back in campaign mode, but more importantly, he was right back to claiming one thing while doing something completely different. I am sure that Black Flag will say “what did you expect?” I would answer that I expected exactly what I got. I am simply pointing out my disappointment that I was not surprised. And there are just so many things that I have to rebuke, if nothing else for the plethora of facebook posts from all manner of my friends saying how great Obama was and how awesome it is that he is on our side and how proud they are to be Democrats tonight. It literally almost drove me mad. Had I not had a few Raptor hybrids that D13 sent me to test out, I wouldn’t have had anything to kick and might have gone out and attempted to remove the pom poms and springs from Nancy Pelosi’s hindquarters. By the way D13, they really are as trainable as you promised.

Tuesday Night Open Mic for January 5, 2010

Open mic returns to its regularly scheduled night. Last week was a Wednesday, but the discussions were just as good. I would still like to see more of folks using the format that I do to bring their own topics to the table. I know discussing my chosen topics is fun and all, but with all the multitudes of brainpower here at SUFA, I know there are tons of other interesting stories and thoughts out there that we are missing. The same goes for the guest commentary pieces. I haven’t seen nearly enough of them lately. I know the holidays are a busy time with family. But now it is time to get back to business and begin hearing everyone’s thoughts on how things are and how we can make them better. It is no fun to just talk about what I want to talk about. So bring it on!

Tuesday Night Open Mic for December 15, 2009

Tuesday night is upon us, and with it comes the ever popular open mic. I do have a bit of a request for folks who post articles for open mic, or on other days, for that matter. If you want to post an article here, that is welcome and great. It is sharing information. But add to the conversation when you do. Help those of us here to understand why that article is pertinent, important, or interesting. As you can see, with each topic I offer, I attempt to add some thoughts of my own, a synopsis or analysis of what I am reading. It helps folks to weed through it all. We have hundreds of comments here daily. Without understanding the importance or relevance of an article, many folks may simply skip over it and miss out! I appreciate the patience everyone has had over the last two weeks with my sporadic participation. Busy and long days for me. I feel good about the amount of articles I have managed to post, but I know that it is disappointing for some when I have a day where there is nothing new to discuss or comment on. I greatly appreciate the extra things others have added during discussions that help make up for my December shortcomings!

Tuesday Night Open Mic for December 8, 2009

Another Tuesday is upon us already. And that means open mic. I will use my first topic to respond to Black Flag on his rant on the Iran being a threat article. This time of year I often struggle to find the time to dole out the responses at the appropriate times and with necessary detail. When I devote an entire article to one person’s point of view, I at least should ensure that I find the time to answer that person. Such is the case here. On top of this topic, there are some other compelling ones for tonight. We have more climate madness. We have the Senate Majority leader inserting foot into mouth quite well. We have the possible dropping of the public option altogether on the health care bill (including why I don’t think this is a good thing). And finally, we will have a quick hit on the fact that Obama’s poll numbers are now below 50% for the first time.

And So the Rationing Begins?

I first heard this story the other night while driving on our long road trip. I, at least initially, didn’t think that the story meant much. They were discussing the fact that the guidelines for breast cancer screenings were changing from annually after 40 to annually after 50. The report stated that the “hazards” of annual screening before 50 were not worth the risk. I simply listened to the story and thought, “that sure seems like a weird reversal in recommendations.” The next day I was sitting around thinking, because it simply didn’t make any sense to me. The more I heard the story, the more puzzled I became. And then the idea hit me that this is really convenient timing while so much debate is going on around health care reform. So I decided to dig into the story a little more. I began to research and read the articles that were flying around about the new guidelines. I was surprised with some of the things that I found. And I realized that this could be the first step in conditioning the American public to accept less health care in the future.

Health Care Part 6 – A Right or a Privilege

Allow me to first apologize that I was still unable to get through all of the health care bill passed by the House of (Non)Representatives on Saturday night. I am working through the first half of the week preparing for my business to run without me for the second half of the week. Never an easy task. Please remember all that I will have articles set to post for the second half of the week, but I will not actually be here posting them. I will attempt to jump in whenever possible to take care of any moderation, but can make no promises. I will return home after the memorial services on Monday and should be back in full swing then. For tonight I am going to focus the health care discussions on the premise stated in the title. Just a Citizen posted an interesting interview last night and when I watched it I was reminded of the right versus privilege debate. It seems that at the center of the health care debate is the debate over whether health care is a right, and it is time for us to discuss this….

The False Emotional Appeal of Health Care Reform

As I monitored the comments to yesterday’s article on the public option, I was saddened to see some of the folks who discussed things fall into the common trap of using an emotional appeal in order to attempt to win a debate. Unfortunately, the entire health care reform debate has become little more than an emotional argument along the same lines of so many other political topics and debates. I won’t attempt to say that the GOP arguments are not also just as emotional in their “appeals”. The GOP is just as guilty in this tactic as the Democrats are. I am going to point out a few emotional appeals that are flawed positions from the GOP. And then I am going to delve in to the health care discussions here lately, and point out the emotional appeals. I will also point out where a few of them are fatally flawed. But what I would like to do is point out to everyone that these emotional appeals are quite effective rhetoric, but completely useless against those who use reason and logic as their starting point.

Health Care Part 5 – Understanding the Public Option

And just like that, I am back to writing about the health care madness that is sweeping the United States Congress. As anyone following this debate can see, the major point of contention in the health care debate is the inclusion or exclusion of some form of a public option. The problem that I see when I talk about this with folks is that there are many who don’t understand the public option very well. And that gets compounded by the fact that there are so many different versions of a possible public option being floated out there. I will come right out and say that I would be OK with the most limited form of a public option that is possible. I will discuss what I mean below. But thus far, I have seen nothing in the offerings that even comes close to meeting my standard of what a public option should be. I will also remind everyone up front that I oppose all of the health care reform as it currently stands. I think the ideas being pursued are both Constitutionally illegal, and for the most part completely self serving for the federal government. The stuff being discussed out there will do nothing to make things better for anyone involved. They will only make things worse.

Tuesday Night Open Mic for November 3, 2009

Good Morning fine readers of Stand Up For America. As I begin writing this evening I am in a fairly good mood. Tuesday night open mic is upon us again and it seems that the very elections we discussed yesterday are dominating the news cycles tonight. I am going to avoid open mic’ing the big governor’s races and the “message sent to Democrats” nonsense that seems to be dominating the airwaves. I will touch on some of the election night news in some different ways, however. I am excited to be working on what I think are some good upcoming articles and I have been discussing a few things with some of the folks that read here daily for future ways to get us back to discussing the things we need to be discussing. I do have a request of everyone though… If you have any guest pieces that you are thinking about, I am in need. I have one from Black Flag that I plan on posting this week, and I know many of you have been anticipating that one. But I have a specific need here…

Something Different and Short for a Change

I have come home this evening and watched a little baseball, which as many of you know I am passionate about (even with by beloved Red Sox sent packing), and caught a little football. Allow me to first, before I forget, offer my congratulations to those who are fans of the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees. It should be a good world series. It isn’t often we get to see the real two best teams in baseball playing each other for the championship (heck, sometimes the best two teams in baseball reside in the American League East), but I really do feel like this year we are seeing the two who most deserve to be there duking it out for the title. As I watched, slumped on the floor with the puppy laying beside me, Mrs. Weapon walked in and said, “you are using one of your sick days tonight. You get 10 sick days a year on the blog, and tonight is one.” I chuckled and said I would love to, but tomorrow is Monday! Monday’s are bad enough without also missing out on waking up and arguing some topic with people at Stand Up For America. But I am fairly whipped tonight, so I offer something a bit different.

Health Care Part 4: Death Panels

I figured it was about time that I got back to the health care series and began answering some of the questions that are out there. You all presented a plethora of things that you wanted me to research and I have been attempting to read everything I can in order to find some answers. Tonight I am going to talk about one of the hot button issues that seemed to stoke the fires at the town hall meetings. It seems there was a lot of sentiment out there for the fear of government creating death panels that will decide life and death for our elderly. I know that there is strong belief on both sides of this debate. Those on the left compare anyone who even asks the question to the “birther” movement and therefore state I am simply crazy for even giving any time to look deeper into the allegation. But I say failing to do some research and find out what government is really up to is as naive and crazy as anything I have heard. After all, with this group of 535 criminals running the show, Death Panels isn’t that far fetched of an idea.

Health Care Part 3: The President’s “Plan”… Taking Things Too Far

As the next section of the health care series I wanted to take a moment and touch one of the the three promises that President Obama made during his joint session of Congress “Infomercial” the other week. I remember watching the speech, and thinking to myself that the man really is such a gifted speaker. If only he had something worth saying, these speeches wouldn’t be a complete waste of my time. But, alas, he often doesn’t have anything to say, but he sure does say nothing far more eloquently than the other politicians out there do (although it was fun watching him get punk’d by George Stephanopolous on the Sunday morning infomercial circuit today). What struck me the most about that speech to Congress was the reaction the next day from many of my liberal friends to a few key things that the President offered as cornerstones to the “plan”. Because I don’t see them as valid positions to take, at least not in a free society.

An Official Denial From the White House

I apologize that I was unable to write last night and further that I am writing quite late and quickly tonight. To say things have been difficult around the Weapon household would be an understatement. I appreciate all the kind words everyone offered and the well wishes for Mrs. Weapon as she recovers from a major surgery. It is certainly taking more that we imagined to get through all the surgery stuff and deal with all the stuff we will have to deal with going forward as a result of the surgery. So please bear with me the next few weeks, as I will sometimes offer great articles, sometimes offer decent articles, and sometimes offer nothing at all, LOL. I am working on another article that I don’t have quite ready yet, so for tonight I wanted to start a discussion to attempt to get to the reality of what we witnessed this weekend. Another “Tea Party” was planned for 9/12, and thousands of people showed up….

Health Care Part 2: The President Speaks (and so Does Joe Wilson)

Like a lot of Americans, I watched the President’s “I am going to get tough with Republicans” speech in front of Congress last night. I wanted to write about the speech but it seems that very few people seem to care much about what he actually said, even though there were some important things said in that speech. So I will take a moment and address the President’s speech and what I thought of it. But the topic that seems to have everyone in the media’s attention today is the moment where the President was speaking about coverage for Illegal Immigrants, denouncing the wicked untruths that have been spread about it, and he was the victim of a verbal assault. Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina, spoke a little louder than he intended and was caught in front of the national audience saying that the President was lying to the American people. Right or wrong, that stole the show….

Health Care Part 1: Making The Case for Reform

So I am finally ready to begin the health care series that I have been working on. I will say up front as I begin this series of articles that I am NOT the expert in this arena. I wish that I could say that I am. But there is so much information out there, and even more misinformation out there, that it might take a lifetime to read it (and the first lifetime of reading may only get you through the bill itself once they are done writing the massive thing). I wanted to take a moment here in the first part to this series to discuss the “need” for health care reform. Health care is such a gigantic subject, and there are so many parts to it. So the term “health care reform” in and of itself does nothing to tell us what part of the system they intend to “reform” (since government is doing it you can read “reform” as RUIN). We will get into the actual proposals and bills being offered in later parts. For now, let’s understand what is in play and whether the claims being made about the need for health care reform are accurate.

As the Poll Numbers Drop…

It seems that there are endless numbers of polls out there that tell us whatever the talking heads want us to believe. I take them all with a grain of salt. So when the new poll numbers came out from Pew, I wasn’t surprised. I had already seen about 30 different polls claiming that Obama’s approval ratings were dropping. It brings to light an interesting conundrum for the far left in America (and remember I speak of the far left, not all the left). For they have been rubbing this last election cycle in the faces of conservatives and Republicans for quite a while now. So as we see the changes occurring in public opinion, what are we to make of it? I know there will be some out there who simply say the polls mean nothing. But those same folks sure thought the polls meant something 6 months ago. I was reading over at CNN and Jack Cafferty, someone I have a healthy respect for, offered some thoughts that I will share below. But I am interested to hear what everyone thinks on this subject.

Mess With the Bull… Get the Horns

I saw this article on Fox News tonight discussing health insurance companies possibly being targeted for not supporting the Democrat’s health care reform plans. Being Fox News, I decided I wanted to read a bit more before I actually just bought the concept and formed an opinion. As I researched, I found a lot of articles on many different major news outlets so I am filing it under “the actions are true”, while opening the debate for whether the intent offered is present or not. Why do I have a feeling that those on the left will support the move and deny the motive, while those on the right will not support the move while accepting the motive as true? Because, my friends, I have a crystal ball. I got it from the illegal intergalactic aliens in Ohio. Once I was alerted to their presence yesterday in the comments, I contacted them and demanded they fork over the ability to see the future. I turned them in for being undocumented anyway, and Agent “O” was assigned to bring them in. He chose not to do so, as he realized they vote, and he didn’t want to offend the intergalactic alien voters and risk them voting Republican. Typical government response ….

Howard Dean Publicly Exposes All Politicians

Whew…. Back at home once again. After a month and a half or so filled with travel and family and all kinds of stuff, my life begins its return towards normal (or at least my own abnormal version of normal). I spent the weekend back in my hometown. I had taken my computer, hopeful of some quiet time with my blog. No such luck, the one hotel in town had no internet access. Which was actually kind of nice. So I spent some time at Gettysburg battlefield (I grew up about 25 miles from there) educating my son and wife on the historic battle. Visited a couple of old friends. Marveled at the town’s growth. And didn’t know a single political thing that happened for the entire three days. Tomorrow begins the adoption process for our new family dog from the local shelter. But other than that, things begin getting back to some semblance of normalcy. I had been thinking about this article prior to leaving, so I return to it now. It seems Howard Dean felt it necessary to remind our representatives that they don’t answer to their contituents….

Pigs Revenge… Just the Facts Please

I have seen several comments on this site over the last couple of weeks that lead me to believe that many of us are quite uneducated in regard to the Swine Flu pandemic that has been proclaimed by the World Health Organization. And it is starting to hit the news cycle regularly again, after an initial die-down following the first outbreaks. So I thought maybe I would take some time to weigh in on it, and perhaps even give my left leaning folks some stuff that even they can agree with (after all it is no fun having them NEVER agree with me). So I am going to answer some of the myths about the H1N1 virus, using information I found on the web. And I am then going to quickly discuss the entire subject broadly to offer my thoughts on where we are and why.

Upcoming Health Care Reform Discussions

As many of you know I have been working to put together a series of articles about the health care reform we seem to have government ramming down our throat whether we like it or not. It is a tough series to do as there is so much to read and so many different ways I could tackle the subject. As some of the parts to the series I have decided I am going to research as best I can and answer questions about the reform ideas that are out there and what is actually in the bill. To that end, I need a little help from all of you over the next couple of days.

Not the Country I Grew Up In….

I was again going through the news tonight, reading different stuff from all kinds of stuff, mostly further researching for the upcoming series on health care. I ran across this video of Chris Matthews on MSNBC. It seems that his segment focused on the idea that the people who are against the health care reform offered by Obama are doing so because they are racists. You all know how much I hate that term being thrown around these days. He was interviewing a woman from the Atlanta Journal Constitution (a true biased rag of a paper). And she made a comment that just completely threw me for a loop. First because her conclusion is so faulty and unsubstantiated, and second because I think that the left may possibly be completely misunderstanding the position of the average American today.

More Media Bias and Marginalizing American Sentiment

What would happen if that creepy “Sham Wow” pitch guy had an audience that called him out on the things a critical viewer notices in his sham of a commercial? What if someone pointed out during the commercial that that piece of rug he just showed wasn’t the same one that he had just poured the soda on (or pointed out that he shouldn’t beat up prostitutes?) ? Last week, when I had time, I was following the happenings of the supposed “town hall” meetings that were happening throughout the country. With Congress in recess, members were back in their districts “getting in touch with their people” (read as: doing more personal Sham Wow commercials for health care BS). I think that the answer to what would happen to the Sham Wow guy is being shown to us each day at these town hall meetings. I know my liberal friends here are going to cry foul, but I am personally tiring of every public outcry against the policies of this administration being labeled as either “right wing extremists” or “GOP plants that are not the feelings of regular voters”…..

Tuesday Night Open Mic for July 28, 2009

Well, I enter the regular Tuesday Night Open Mic weathered and worn. A teenage son that actually wants to hang out with and do things with his dad is a beautiful, albeit tiring endeavor. Add to that work and a blog, and I sometimes feel I am burning the candle at both ends! Add to that more character attacks to defend against, and I am downright worn out. But it’s all good, folks, that’s what I signed up for when I began writing this blog many months ago (Hard to believe I have been at this for 9 months already). Lots of stuff going on out there. I am finding that I tend to tackle things in the open mic that I don’t want to dedicate an entire article on. It is like Open Mic allows for the distracting stuff, so that we don’t let it get in the way of the important stuff the rest of the week. And that is a nice freedom to have during at least one night of the week. So without delay, I offer my Open Mic Topics and look forward to yours!

Making Nationalized Health Care MANDATORY…

I wanted to write tonight but I have found that perparing for my trip after a long day of work is proving more time consuming that I had intended. So rather than leaving you all with nothing, I decided that I would post the article that I was planning to write about this evening. Starting to see bills like this pop up really bothers me and worries me at the same time. It seems that the Senate has decided that not only will Congress plan on making national health care a reality, they will also work to make it a punishable crime to decide that you don’t want coverage at all. As I said, little time this evening so this is the article exactly as it appeared. I will try to find time while traveling tomorrow to jump in and add my thoughts.