Entries Tagged 'culture wars' ↓

Another hidden zinger in Obamacare

Originally published on 2.0: The Blogmocracy


Welcome to Obamaland animation: Obama logo becomes bottomless pit

In Fundamentally Transforming the United States, Phyllis Schlafly explains how the Democrat party voter base is founded upon those who get (or hope to get) their livelihood from the federal government. It goes much further than Chicago-machine patronage politics writ large; the federal government is deliberately destroying the family structure so as to make people more dependent on the federal government and the Democrat party. Unmarried mothers are a key part of Obama’s voter base. Thus, it is in his interests to discourage men and women from getting and staying married.

How do the Democrats go about attacking the family structure? The attacks go much further than promoting gay marriage and abortion on demand, or free condoms and salacious “sex education” in the public schools. Detrimental as those things are, at least they are visible. It’s the progressives’ stealth jihad against the family that I’m talking about here.

Check out this hidden zinger in Obamacare:

Marriage Penalty in Health Care

A huge marriage penalty is hidden in Obama’s Health Control Law. This law is another federal program providing financial incentives to subsidize marriage avoidance and illegitimate offspring.

Even though all evidence shows that marriage is the best remedy for poverty, lack of health care, domestic violence, child abuse, and school dropouts, federal welfare programs continue to discriminate against marriage and instead give taxpayer handouts to those who reject marriage. This isn’t any accident; it is a central part of the Democrats’ political strategy that produced 70% of unmarried women voting for Obama for President in 2008.

Here is the approximate cost in the Health Control Law for an unmarried couple who each earn $25,000 a year (total: $50,000). When they both buy health insurance (which will be mandatory), the combined premiums they pay will be capped at $3,076 a year. But if the couple gets married and has the same combined income of $50,000, they will pay annual premiums up to a cap of $5,160 a year. That means they have to fork over a marriage penalty of $2,084.

The marriage penalty is the result of the fact that government subsidies for buying health insurance are pegged to the federal poverty guidelines. Couples that remain unmarried are rewarded with a separate health care subsidy for each income.

When the Wall Street Journal reporter quizzed the Democratic authors of the health care bill, they made it clear that this differential was deliberate. The staffer justified the discriminatory treatment because “you have to decide what your goals are.” Indeed, the Democrats have decided what their goals are. They know that 70% of unmarried women voted for Obama in 2008, and the Democrats plan to reward this group with health insurance subsidies.

The House staffer told the Wall Street Journal reporter that the Democrats can’t make the subsidies neutral towards marriage because that would give a traditional one-breadwinner married couple a more generous subsidy than a single parent at the same income level. Horrors! The Democrats certainly are not going to allow traditional marriage to be preferred over couples who just shack up!

Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously and accurately explained the disastrous results of welfare back in 1965. The welfare system created a matriarchy with millions of children lacking their father in the home. It’s no wonder illegitimate birthrates are soaring and unmarried mothers now give birth to 4 out of every 10 babies born in the United States.

Means-tested welfare programs already cost taxpayers close to $1 trillion a year (even more than national defense!), and Obamacare is projected to add another $2.5 trillion after all its provisions take effect. There’s no end in sight to the increasing costs of these entitlements. In one year, the Obama Administration will spend more taxpayers’ money on spreading the wealth to non-taxpayers than George W. Bush spent on the entire Iraq war.

Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a liberal firm that consults for clients such as Bill Clinton and John Kerry, admitted: “Unmarried women represent one of the most reliable Democratic cohorts in the electorate . . . leading the charge for fundamental change in health care.”

It used to be that a husband was responsible for the financial support of his wife and children, but the feminists’ agenda calls for replacing husbands with Big Brother Government. The feminists call their movement “women’s liberation,” and Obamacare is one more way to help them achieve their goal.

Feminists keep tightening their control over the social policies of the Democratic Party, and Obamacare will be his third payoff to the feminists. The first bill Obama signed as President, the Lilly Ledbetter Act, enables women to sue employers years many years after any alleged workplace discrimination (when no one is still alive to defend against allegations), and the second payoff was getting Obama to give the majority of taxpayer-paid Stimulus jobs to women even though men have suffered the big majority of job losses.

Read it all.

The scavenger hunt is on

I am neither a lawyer nor an accountant nor a “policy wonk” (whatever that is supposed to be). Sorting through the huge pile of paperwork that makes up the Obamacare bill, or for that matter, the recent financial regulatory bill, and piecing together the hidden “zingers” that are poised to harm each sector of our economy and society, is beyond my capabilities. This is not a one-person job. I would like to urge everyone who is able to do so, to help complete this task by researching how those bills will affect their community and their sector of the economy, and submit that information to 2.0: The Blogmocracy.

The scavenger hunt is on, and the only prize is preserving your freedom.


Which side of the fence are you on?

Animated thoughtful smiley stroking chin If you ever wondered what side of the fence you sit on,
this is a great test!

If a conservative doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one.
If a liberal doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat.
If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.

If a conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a liberal is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.

If a conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Liberals demand that those they don’t like be shut down.

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church.
A liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced. (Unless it’s a foreign religion, of course!)

If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
A liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.

If a conservative reads this, he’ll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh.
A liberal will delete it because he’s “offended”.

Well, I forwarded it to you.

…from Alec at errortheory.blogspot.com

…from Alec:

A petition to stop the crescent memorial is now being circulated on the ground in western Pennsylvania. As a complement to this old fashioned canvassing effort, an electronic petition has also been created at ipetitions.com. Please circulate far and wide!

The petitions highlight four cases of apparent Islamic symbolism in the memorial design. Here is the text (electronic):

Call for Congressional investigation of Islamic symbolism in the Flight 93 memorial

Many features of the chosen Flight 93 Memorial design are intolerable:

1. THE GIANT CRESCENT. The centerpiece of the original “Crescent of Embrace” design was a giant red Islamic shaped crescent. Every particle of this original crescent design remains completely intact in the so-called redesign, which only added a few irrelevant trees. The giant crescent is still there.

2. IT POINTS TO MECCA. The giant crescent points to Mecca. A crescent that Muslims face into to face Mecca is called a “mihrab,” and is the central feature around which every mosque is built. The Flight 93 Memorial is on track to become the world’s largest mosque.

3. THE ISLAMIC SUNDIAL. The minaret-like Tower of Voices is a year-round accurate Islamic prayer-time sundial (one of many typical mosque features that are realized in the crescent design, all on the same epic scale as the half mile wide central crescent).

4. THE 44 BLOCKS. There are 44 glass blocks on the flight path, equaling the number of passengers, crew, AND terrorists.

Intentional or not, these features are entirely unacceptable. This travesty must stop and investigations must begin.

  1. We the undersigned call on our state and federal legislators to undertake their own thorough and independent investigations of the Flight 93 Memorial design. The truth must come out.
  2. We ask that the crescent design be scraped entirely and that it be replaced with a new design that is not tainted by Islamic or terrorist memorializing symbolism.
  3. We demand a fitting and proper memorial that HONORS the brave men and women of Flight 93.

Please take a minute to electronically sign this petition. All signatures collected by the end of April will be printed out and delivered to the May 3rd public meeting of the Memorial Project, along with Xeroxes of the hand-signed petitions.

That is just the start. There will be another public meeting in August, where we hope to present a much larger pile of petitions, and all signatures will eventually be delivered to the Pennsylvania state legislature and to Congress. Keep sending until the crescent design is stopped!

In the short term, we have a number of supporters in the Pennsylvania legislature at this point who are working to gain backing for an investigation. A demonstration of public demand should help that effort.

The paper petition

In order to make the paper petition self-sufficient, there is a second page, to be printed on the back of the petition, that provides explanations and graphical documentation of the four highlighted cases of Islamic symbolism. The idea is to have a petition that can circulate virally. Anyone can print it out and have enough information right on the petition itself to know that the objections are legitimate. (Mailing instructions are also included.)

Here are the back-side explanations of the four intolerable features:

1. THE GIANT CRESCENT

The original Crescent of Embrace design was a giant Islamic shaped crescent with the crash site placed between the crescent tips, in the position of the star on an Islamic crescent and star flag:

The redesign was supposed to eliminate these Islamic symbol shapes, but as Congressman Tom Tancredo wrote to the Park Service in November 2007, these features remain completely intact in the so-called redesign, which only disguised the crescent with a few additional trees. Architect Paul Murdoch’s refusal to eliminate the Islamic symbol shapes suggests intent, but intentional or not, these symbol shapes are unacceptable. Congressman Tancredo is now calling for the crescent design to be scrapped in its entirety, and we join in that request.

2. IT POINTS TO MECCA

Several credible analysts have found that a person facing directly into the giant crescent (still present in the redesign) will be facing almost exactly at Mecca:

The green “qibla” circle in the graphic above is from the prayer-direction calculator at Islam.com. It shows the direction to Mecca from Somerset PA (ten miles from the crash site). The red arrow shows that a person standing between the crescent tips and facing into the center of the crescent will be facing almost exactly at Mecca.

This Mecca orientation claim must be authoritatively investigated and answered. If it is true that the crescent points to Mecca, and hence can serve as an Islamic prayer direction indicator (the central feature around which every mosque is built), then whether this construct was intentional or not, it indelibly taints the design.

3. THE ISLAMIC SUNDIAL

Anyone can see the overt similarity between a traditional Islamic sundial (left-hand image) and Tower of Voices part of the Flight 93 Memorial (right-hand image):

When the shadow of the traditional sundial reaches the outer curved vertical in this photo, it will be time for Islamic afternoon prayers. Shadow calculations confirm that, on any day of the year, when the shadow of the 93 foot tall crescent shaped Tower of Voices reaches the inner arc of trees, it will also be time for Islamic afternoon prayers.

4. THE FORTY-FOUR BLOCKS

Tom Burnett Sr. does not want Tom Junior’s name inscribed on one of the 44 translucent blocks that are to be emplaced along the flight path. Forty-four is the number of passengers, crew, AND terrorists:

The left side of this graphic shows the Memorial Wall, which follows the path of Flight 93 down to the point of impact. At eye level are 43 glass blocks. Forty are inscribed with the names of the 40 heroes. Three are inscribed with the 9/11 date.

Right-hand image: the 44th glass block sits at the end of the Entry Portal Walkway, where the flight path crosses the upper crescent tip. It marks the spot where, in architect Paul Murdoch’s description, the terrorists broke our humanitarian circle, turning it into a giant (Islamic shaped) crescent. This circle-breaking, crescent-creating feat is memorialized by the inscription: “A field of honor forever.”

The Park Service dismisses the suspicious block count on the grounds that the 44th glass block is much larger than the others. Mr. Burnett is not comforted by the magnificence of the 44th block, and neither are we. This design must be stopped, and investigations must be launched!

Other petition formats

The same four intolerable features are described in the annotated “Map of Betrayal” that was the subject of one of last month’s blogbursts. Thus the map makes a perfectly serviceable back side for the petition, providing an alternative petition/flyer combination.

The information on the map is denser than the explanations above, but has its own intrigue, showing how the different terrorist memorializing parts fit together like an elaborate puzzle.

The petition being circulated on the ground now in Pennsylvania is still another variation. It has slightly different wording than the electronic petition, and slightly different explanations of the four points than presented above. All the different formats are interchangeable. They all highlight the same four objectionable features, and they will all be delivered together to state and federal legislators.

Until we get a Congressional investigation, the petition will be an ongoing tool for raising awareness and registering opposition. If you participate in any activist fora or email lists, please forward the text and links along. (The electronic and paper-petition links are collected together on this petition Page at CrescentOfBetrayal.com.)

Blogburst blogroll

To join, email Cao (caoilfhionn1 at gmail dot com) with your blog’s url.

Censorship Update 10/28/07: SonicWALL unblocks JihadWatch!

SonicWALL finally unblocks Jihad Watch!

This calls for a PARTY!

Smiley beach party

Stein hoist smileys Smiley doing cool dance Dancing elephant Smiley guitarist Smiley singer Smiley drummer Smiley thumbs-up Hello Kitty clapping hands Smiley applause Smiley eating ice cream Smiley drinking from bottle Smiley jester Smiley with party blower

JihadWatch Unblocked

Other bloggers who have been wrongfully blocked by SonicWALL or other censorware providers should read this article carefully. Also, please read the comments that follow. If necessary, do as Robert Spencer did and consult an attorney!

Also see:


Blogger WiredPig faces a takedown request Pig smiley

Musings of Wired Pig 2.1: Takedown Request (Updated)

WiredPig is a retired sheriff who is a prominent Twitter user and a web design/mobile computing expert. He recently got a takedown request that he believes may be bogus. He’s currently trying to determine the legitimacy of the request.

If you get a takedown request on your blog, please make an effort to verify that the request is legitimate and is not coming from a prankster!


Lawsuit Jihad flame smiley

This could happen to any of us.
That said, the consequences of failing to confront jihadism would be even worse!
For what you can do to help, see:
Litigation Jihad Update 10/31/07 – Let’s DO something about it NOW!


Smiley with sign: This Means War

Attempted Murder: The Ultimate Censorship

We have to keep going nonetheless. After all, they can’t kill us all!


Italian Government Caves Koran being flushed down toilet (small, not an actual "smiley")


Writing smiley

Wiki page for reformist Irshad Manji vandalized, then reverted


Posted on 1389 Blog – Antijihadist Tech and on Fort Hard Knox


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Censorship Update 10/26/07

ABC News: Free Speech on the Internet: Will net neutrality help?

Will net neutrality keep the largest ISPs from restricting the way we use the Internet? Michael S. Malone thinks so. He says: “That does it: I am now a full-fledged convert to net neutrality.” Read the article and decide for yourself.

Seattle talk radio host Dan Sytman reveals IFAW protesters for what they are

Tiny jihadi "smiley"

Dan Sytman, of Sytman & Boze, brings us some audio from the jihadist ranters and ravers who are protesting Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week (IFAW). For other IFAW censorship issues, see yesterday’s Censorship Update 10/25/07.

On the evening of October 25, I attended the protest of Islamo-fascism Awareness Week at the University of Washington. Here is my conversation with Zakariya Dehlawi, President of the UW Muslim Student Association. He insists that even though Islamic terrorists frequently invoke their religion before detonating themselves, we shouldn’t ever mention the word “Islam” when we’re talking about those attacks. The conversation is interupted by an angry Muslim man, who you’ll hear from next.

UW Muslim Student Association President

Here is the rest of my conversation with the Muslim man who clearly wanted to talk, but didn’t want to answer questions. Note that he says “you didn’t catch Osama Bin Laden.” He, along with the next member of the UW MSA, doesn’t appear to identify with the country in which this protest is taking place. This leads to the obvious question: which side are these guys on, anyway? The following clips includes both men, both of whom seem to justify the 9/11 attacks because of the American foreign policy.

Hostile Muslim Protestors at the UW

Smiley with mouth sealed shut

Academic Freedom? Not at University of Delaware, not at Brookings or the Pentagon!

The University of Delaware folds like a lawn chair!

Yesterday, the University of Delaware asked Asaf Romirowsky to step down from an academic panel at the University of Delaware because another panelist, University of Delaware political scientist Muqtedar Khan, didn’t want to share the podium with anyone who served in the Israeli Defense Forces.

And how dare the Pentagon get its advice from such a bigot?

If Khan was just an academic, that would be one thing. But he also straddles the policy world: Khan is a a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a Pentagon consultant. According to an e-mail he sent to the University, he gave a workshop at the Pentagon yesterday afternoon.

Censorship Update 10/25/07

Useful idiots protesting Daniel Pipes at Tufts (click to view)

Free Speech on Campus Takes Another Hit

Emory:

GWU:

Wisconsin:

Elsewhere in Wackademia:

Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week (IFAW) has certainly brought out plenty of barking moonbats from the infamous leftist/jihadist convergence:

Animated Barking Moonbat smiley

Stein hoist to Jenn Sierra and to Terp Mole on LGF!


Bad News in the EU


Murder – The Ultimate Censorship


Cartoon Censorship


Privacy and Freedom of the Press

The take-home lesson is encouraging:

Your time and effort is well spent when you write or blog to raise public awareness about threats to our First Amendment rights, or when you write, call, or email to protest against infringements on these rights.


Media Disinformation

Flooding both the blogosphere and traditional media with disinformation is a de facto method of censorship, because it crowds out any attempt to get true information in front of the public. Those using search engines will see the baloney at the top of the list, and most people won’t bother to dig down to find the real information. This technique is well known to black-hat search engine optimization (SEO) and “reputation management” purveyors.

Stein hoist to Little Green Footballs!


“Fairness” Doctrine


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Tinpot Tyrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio Invades YOUR Internet Privacy

(Updated 10/22/2007) Your opinion in the blogosphere makes a difference!

IN YOUR FACE! FURIOUS PUBLIC BACKLASH FORCES COUNTY ATTORNEY ANDREW THOMAS TO DROP CASE AGAINST NEW TIMES.

Your time and effort is well spent when you write or blog to raise public awareness about threats to our First Amendment rights, or when you write, call, or email to protest against infringements on these rights.


“But I’m not a prisoner and I’ve never been to Maricopa County!”

Doesn’t matter! If you’ve visited Phoenix New Times Online, your browsing history has been swept up into a nasty local investigation that has nothing whatsoever to do with you. Everything in the server logs pertaining to your visit is up for grabs.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio in one of his jails (Jeffrey Coffman/ABC News)

Reason Online: Sheriff Joe Arpaio Wants to Know What Websites You’ve Visited

If, that is, you’ve ever read the Phoenix New Times online. The alternative weekly has run several articles over the years critical of the so-called “toughest sheriff in America.” But when an investigative piece on a series of questionable Arpaio real estate transactions included the sheriff’s home address (possibly violating state law), Arpaio launched an incredibly broad, wide-reaching investigation that looks an awfully lot like retaliation.

East Valley Tribune: New Times owners arrested by deputies

Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, the executive editor and CEO, respectively, of Village Voice Media, were arrested at their homes on suspicion of violating grand jury secrecy, said sheriff’s spokesman Capt. Paul Chagolla.

Both were released from custody early this morning. Lacey posted a $500 bond, according to New Times.

The two, who together started New Times in 1970, were the authors of Thursday’s cover story revealing that a special prosecutor, retained by the county attorney’s office, had issued subpoenas to them and other staffers in a criminal case against the paper. The case stems from the paper publishing Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s home address more than three years ago.

. . .

Especially disturbing, Lacey and Larkin wrote, is that one subpoena asks for online profiles of anyone who read four specific articles about Arpaio and profiles of anyone who visited the paper’s Web site since Jan. 1, 2004. The county officials also want to track what Web users did while on the site, the story says.

NYT: Media Executives Arrested in Phoenix

Michael Lacey, the executive editor, and Jim Larkin, chief executive, were arrested at their homes after they wrote a story that revealed that the Village Voice Media company, its executives, its reporters and even the names of the readers of its website had been subpoenaed by a special prosecutor. The special prosecutor had been appointed to look into allegations that the newspaper had violated the law in publishing the home address of Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s home address on its website more than three years ago.

The weekly and its leadership has been in a long running battle with Mr. Arpaio, after the weekly published a series of stories about his real estate dealings.

How did Arpaio become entrenched in power?

He’s no hero!

Too many conservatives admire Arpaio from afar, thinking he has the answer to problems of crime and social disorder.

It’s true that there are some very real problems in Maricopa County, especially in regard to illegal immigrants, and some people are content with the fact that Arpaio seems to be addressing those problems and are unwilling to look any further.

Nonetheless, riding roughshod over due process of law, common decency, and everyone’s privacy is never the way to go. Think about it: If you enter Arpaio’s jurisdiction and you get picked up for something you didn’t do, especially if you are physically fragile, you’re out of luck. Don’t think it can’t happen to you!

To top it off, Arpaio has such an effective PR campaign going that you’ll be unlikely to get anybody’s sympathy or help. He has played on public anger at rampant crime to make a seeming virtue of his smug, self-righteous, and cruel behavior. Even so, these tyrannies don’t last forever. When the bovine effluent from Arpaio’s reign of terror finally reaches the rotary ventilation enhancement device, Maricopa County will become known as an object of derision and a place to avoid.

Commenter blames federalism:

Mr. Nice Guy | October 19, 2007, 10:46am | #812184

I hope the folks who always moan about the federal government is always evil and federalism is always da bomb read this. Local government can be very tyrannical, and often it’ only the feds who can set these kind of tin-badge tyrants straight.

1389′s response:

1389 | October 19, 2007, 4:12pm | #812774

Mr. Nice Guy:

You are correct in pointing out that state and local authorities can become tinpot tyrants too. However, I take issue with your assertion that the feds can set them straight. That doesn’t seem to be happening! It’s the job of the local citizenry to do that! In other words, it all comes down to YOU!

1389

What to do?

Smiley running Vote with your feet and boycott the place! If you live or have a business in Maricopa County, Arizona. move out! For everyone else, don’t visit!

Arpaio the Voyeur – So concerned about his OWN privacy! (Updated 10/20/07)

Arpaio loses long battle over jailcam

Dennis Wagner
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 12, 2006 12:00 AM

Maricopa County inmates have won a settlement with Sheriff Joe Arpaio over his live Internet broadcasts that showed prisoners being booked, photographed and, in some cases, using a toilet at the county jail.

The Sheriff’s Office agreed Monday to pay the legal fees for the inmates, plus $500 in damages to each of the 11 who remain in the case that was filed five years ago in U.S. District Court. Arpaio also agreed to accept the court order blocking the so-called jailcam.

. . .

Donna Hamm, executive director at Middle Ground, said the inmates all were pre-trial detainees, presumed not guilty under the law, subjected to public humiliation, with women prisoners shown partly undressed as they used a toilet.


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CAIR bullies CBS into dumping a Christian talk show host?! Let them know what you think!

CBS has no room for Christians or for American Southerners.

For those who are not aware of this, it’s part of the Christian faith that believers are required – yes, REQUIRED – to tell the truth about our beliefs, and to bring the Good News to everyone we can reach. Taqiyya has NO place in Christianity. Florida televangelist Bill Keller was simply doing what a good Christian should do on a Christian talk show. But CAIR, a Muslim pressure group affiliated with Hamas, bullied CBS into dropping Keller’s show.

Here are two accounts of the disgraceful way CBS Corporation treated Florida televangelist Bill Keller:

But that’s not all. The CBS website has been providing a forum for over-the-top hate comments. CBS has allowed random crazies to spew filth and venom on the CBS website, particularly against American Southerners. After they got enough complaints, they eventually deleted the comments and, in effect, pretended the comments had never existed.

A high-traffic mainstream media site such as CBS has no business ever allowing unmoderated comments to appear in the first place. They should publish a comment policy with enough moderators to enforce it. They refuse to take any responsibility for what happens on their site, and they have no respect for Southerners or for anybody with traditional values. With that corporate mindset, it’s no wonder that the networks and the mainstream media have been steadily losing their audience!

Now let CBS know what you think of this!

Address of CBS Headquarters:
51 West 52 Street, New York, New York 10019-6188


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Also on FHK and on JennSierra.