Jack Kemp

I found this interesting article about Bethlehem:

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/eye-on-palestine/russia-allocates-4-million-to-renovate-unesco-sanctioned-bethlehem-street/2017/05/12/
Russia Allocates $4 Million to Renovate UNESCO Sanctioned Bethlehem Street


Russia has allocated a $4 million grant to the Palestinian Autonomy for the reconstruction of a street in Bethlehem that has been sanctioned as a UNESCO monument, TASS reported Thursday, quoting Aidar Aganin, head of Russia’s diplomatic mission to the Palestinian Authority.

The "Star Street” is a road that runs through the old town of Bethlehem, leading to the Church of the Nativity. It is about half a mile long, and was included in the UNESCO list of world heritage sites in 2012, under the name "Path for Pilgrims.”
In addition to the street itself and the buildings adjacent to it, the Peace Center on Nursery Square in the center of Bethlehem will also undergo reconstruction. According to Aganin, the initial agreement on his government’s allocation of a grant for the reconstruction of the Star Street was signed in September 2016, and the first check was sent in February 2017.

The reconstruction of Bethlehem’s Old City will increase tourism, Russian President Vladimir Putin said following his talks with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Sochi on Thursday.
Putin pointed out that "the development of humanitarian ties has always played an important role in cooperation between Russia and Palestine.” Noting the cultural projects implemented recently, particularly the reconstruction of Bethlehem’s Star Street,

Putin said: "I am sure that the renewed complex will become an iconic sight attracting even more pilgrims and tourists from Russia.”

Read the rest.

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Jack Kemp

As a child reading the Saturday Evening Post, I recall big half or full page ads for the Parke-Davis drug company titled "Great Moments in Medicine." They showed doctors and others (probalby Pasteur) doing scientific inquiry, discovering secrets of health and diseases. One of these was Dr. William Harvey in 17th Century England teaching his students about his discovery of the human circulatory system. The painting shown included a cut open cadaver. Indeed, a website praising Dr. Harvey rightfully praises him as well. See http://www.returnofkings.com/30414/william-harvey-explains-the-circulatory-system

But one thing both the website and the Saturday Evening Post left out was the answer to the question "Where did Dr. Harvey get these cadavers?" After all, the Church (and the synagogue) were totally against the violation of the holiness of dead peoples' bodies and souls. Nobody willed their bodies to science and/or medical schools in those days. Indeed, even the Jewish Press used to contain ads (and may still do) by Orthodox observers denouncing the practice of doing autopsies on the dead.

Dr. Harvey was believed to have hired grave robbers to supply him with study subjects (or should I say study objects?). Notice the elegant painting in the advertisements for Parke-Davis did not feature a seedy looking man with a shovel counting his money as he exited Dr. Harvey's teaching facility. Perhaps they should have. They then would have taught a lesson about the complexity of existence and what sometimes is necessary to do in order to produce a greater benefit for all of humanity.

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Jack Kemp

Virgin Atlantic is supposed to be a classy, semi-private flight airline.

I don't own a cell phone - but I do own a small Apple iPod Touch which can take videos with sound. It will be my camera of choice for my trip to visit Dana and Martha in Minnesota. And the iPod will be fully charged and the use procedures reviewed (I once took videos with this at a political demonstration and uploaded the video onto YouTube).

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2017/05/11/disabled-woman-virgin-atlantic-serivce-dog/

Disabled Woman Kicked Out Of Airline Lounge Because Of Service Dog
May 11, 2017 11:27 PM

SANTA CLARITA (CBSLA.com) — A Santa Clarita woman in a wheelchair said she was kicked out of an airline lounge because of her service dog.

Micaela Bensko was in tears, crumpled in pain when she said she was denied access to the Virgin Atlantic lounge at JFK International Airport in New York because she had a service dog.

Read it all.

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Dana Mathewson

http://gunbuzz.com/2017/05/11-possible-contenders-to-replace-comey/

I like seeing Ray Kelly's name there, but the Democrats would never confirm him.

Likewise Trey Gowdy.

But heck, the Democrats really, ideally, want a gay, transgender Muslim (though they'd never admit it); and I doubt Mr. Trump will serve one of them up.

So I offer up my own suggestion. How about Ann Coulter? She's a lawyer.

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Timothy Birdnow

A Washington  University  Student is angry that the University has not come to grips with a rape complaint she made.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/student-who-reported-a-rape-to-washu-is-still-waiting/article_f0bdb354-a513-5ce2-a832-73ae4d805dba.html

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

"Her complaints add to those already being raised nationwide about whether any university is equipped to be the judge and jury on such cases.

Federal guidelines urge campuses to get to the bottom of sexual abuse and harassment allegations like Hutson’s within 60 days — a target Washington University acknowledges it is not reaching.

But while school administrators will not comment directly on Hutson’s case, they do say the university is seeking to improve from an average investigation time of four to six months."

[...]

"Title IX covers issues of discrimination based on age, race and gender, as well as issues of sexual harassment and violence.

Federal guidelines tied to Title IX mandate procedures for investigating allegations of sexual misbehavior.

But campus-based investigations have been widely criticized. Some accuse schools of failing to investigate rape allegations aggressively enough, while others say the system is stacked against those accused.

A student from St. Louis University, for example, has complained that an inquiry accusing him of sexual assault dragged on for more than a year — holding his education in limbo — before he was cleared.

Many on both sides, meanwhile, wonder if investigations would better be handled by law enforcement.

Looking back, Hutson wishes she had gone to the police. If she had, maybe she’d have a resolution by now, and the investigation wouldn’t be dragging into her summer and likely her sophomore year."

End excerpt.

If there is a crime committed why go to the UNIVERSITY? There is no sane reason not to go to the police if a woman is raped; it is only done to keep the actual law enforcers out of the situation. Why is that?

I would argue that rape is a tool of the feminist/progressive partisans, and they want the numbers radically inflated so they can push for things they want. There is power in being able to accuse a man of rape.

Doubt that? Here is more from the article:

"On Dec. 16, (Katy) Hutson was at a party in a dormitory. In her published account she said she had been drinking and next remembers waking up "with a bloody vagina” and bruises "encircling my neck.”

She broaches the alleged rape only briefly in her column. "It’s not about him,” she says. He was an acquaintance, someone who lived a few doors down the hall from her."

End excerpt.

The "victim" did go to the hospital, but she seems to have failed to follow up after that. Why? She says she had a bloody vagina, but if she was a virgin and voluntarily sunmitted to a sexual tryst (and the boy was probably hardly in better shape) then IT IS NOT RAPE! Rape involves sex forced on a woman against her will. Just because an irresponsible freshman gets bombed and does something stupid does not mean a crime was committed. She knew it, too, or she would have chosen to have forensic evidence from the hospital.

Words mean things. Sex with a drunk girl is a moral fault but hardly constitutes rape. That it is called rape, and that a young man may well have his life ruined by such a charge, and that the accuser may be crazy or ashamed, does not justify redefining the term. This young lady was guity of terrible judgement in all likelihood. Her "rape" was likely her own guilty conscience.

Here is the girl's own account of the incident.

"I went to a dorm party Friday after having a rough day and blacked out around midnight. I woke up next to a monster with a bloody vagina, bruises encircling my neck and a stone deep within my stomach that’s been there ever since. At first, all I could feel was fear. Then disgust. Mostly with myself. I wasn’t a virgin anymore. Eventually I felt nothing. I walked around a friend’s apartment like a zombie. I didn’t sleep, or eat, or turn off the lights. My eyes stayed wide, as everything I could remember played on loop within my mind. I went to the hospital on Sunday and had a rape kit done. Monday I reported to Jessica Kennedy, the Title IX coordinator. All I wanted to do was kill myself. Reporting was what I decided to do instead.
When discussing the logistics of my case, as I was filing days before winter break began, Jessica suggested we not officially start the process till spring so that he (my rapist) could "enjoy his winter break.”

When I met with Jessica, she was receptive, she listened, she stayed unbiased, like her job calls her to. She said one thing though that I’ll never forget. When discussing the logistics of my case, as I was filing days before winter break began, Jessica suggested we not officially start the process till spring so that he (my rapist) could "enjoy his winter break.” I ended up agreeing, as I wasn’t comfortable being interviewed over Skype. While he "enjoyed his winter break,” my mother forced me to explain the hospital wristband she found in my jacket. While he "enjoyed his winter break,” my parents cried as they learned what happened to their baby girl. While he was "enjoying his winter break,” I was having panic attacks, unable to sleep, unable to eat and replaying my mother’s words in my head, "Were you drinking?” Because it had to be my fault, right? I did not enjoy my winter break.

Another thing Jessica asked me in that first initial meeting was if I had talked to him since he raped me. Because, you know, that was first on my list of things to do. She was wondering because sometimes individuals will admit to having relations over text and that can help with the investigation. So, halfway through winter break, I messaged my rapist asking him what happened. I’d already taken Plan B. I knew I wouldn’t get pregnant, but the small tortured part of me just had to know, and a bigger part of me wanted to gather every shred of evidence I could. He responded, admitting to the relations, and I sent his response to Jessica. In his response, he gave a half-assed apology, admitting no guilt. Jessica responded to my email by asking if I still wanted to report. Yes Jessica, his measly GroupMe direct message, "sorry,” in which he took zero responsibility for his actions really made up for him RAPING ME. I sent you that email with the fooking subject line as "Katy Hutson” because I changed my mind about the whole reporting thing. Needless to say, that was the last time I contacted Jessica Kennedy."

End excerpt.

Get that? A rapist hardly texts with his "victim" and apologizes. Nobody is that stupid. And notice the girl does not tell us the results of the rape kit, meaning it probably was at best inconclusive. The student was not arrested as far as we can tell. In America we are supposed to be innocent until proven guiilty.

Notice, too, the almost light-hearted writing of the "victim":

"Friday, Dec. 16, 2016, I sat alone in my dorm room drinking green apple vodka, eating Bear’s Den pizza and staring dejectedly at Michael Scott, begging him to make me smile. Three days later I was doing the same thing, sans alcohol with the addition of some bruises and emotional scarring. Friday night a boy raped me. And it fooking sucked."

Pardon me, but who, having gone through a terrible trauma, speaks this way? Generally real rape victims are reluctant to talk about the incident at all, much like soldiers who have been in battle. This girl uses words like "fookin".

Notice too how the Post-Dispatch did not speak with the police. This article was written entirely from the perspective of the victim without any balance or questions about the account. This fairly reeks of the Duke LaCross case or "mattress girl". The accused - Michael Scott - now faces a lifetime of trouble. We do not know if he is guilty of anything but poor judgement.

Academia and the media are happy to destroy lives. They were the ones who engineered the whole Sexual Revolution in the '60's, and now they are using the fruits of their fondest hopes to attack and destroy people. It is despicable. It is why the public now considers established news outlets like the Post-Dispatch to be fake news. They are.

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Dana mathewson

This gal got canned from a newspaper gig with the St. Louis Post Dispatch. In her own words, she was "asked to balance their opinion editorial page by writing a weekly column last fall." But somebody at the paper took offense with her shooting down an article that likened U.S. gun owners to ISIS.

She has great "cred," as the article shows.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/05/12/stacy-washington-hysteria-over-gun-ownership-has-devolved-into-nra-derangement-syndrome.html

Stacy Washington: Hysteria over gun ownership has devolved into NRA Derangement Syndrome.
There is no better place on earth to be a gun owner than the United States.

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Timothy Birdnow

Recently, Stephen Hawking, the supposed smartest man on Earth, made a series of ridiculous comments, among them that Humanity would have to abandon the Earth within a hundred years. This so aggravated M theorist (string theorist) Lubos Motl that he tore into Hawking in grand fashion.

From his essay at The Reference Frame:
'
"'Hawking claims that Mother Earth would greatly appreciate it if we could gather our belongings and get out - not in 1,000 years, but in the next century or so.'

Again, Mother Earth cannot "appreciate" something like that because only agents with some thinking ability and perhaps consciousness – sufficiently similar to the human beings – may "appreciate" events.

Moreover, the Earth itself is our belonging so if we were leaving, we would keep the Earth or take it with us. You know, once again, "belongings" is a concept that is only well-defined at the level of the human society and/or perhaps some multi-species generalization of it. According to the land registry, you own a piece of the land – so the corresponding piece of the Planet Earth is one of your belongings. To deny this statement means to twist the meaning of "belongings" or "ownership" and any other interpretation of these words than the legal one is bound to be nonsensical.

It seems that Stephen Hawking has become just another radical environmentalist whacko who wants to apply the logic of attorneys to non-human "agents" such as Mother Earth. But you know, all these ultra-green people build their "logic" on a complete misunderstanding of pretty much everything about the world and the society. People protect their belongings because it's useful for them – and they can. Mother Earth has no "enforcement forces" to claim that "Her" geological layers are "Her" belongings, and that's the point at which the notion dies and becomes nonsensical to talk about. An ultra-green loon may say that it's "unfair" that Mother Earth doesn't have a great attorney or army to "enforce" "Her" ownership right – but this whining is nothing else than the denial of the basic facts about Nature and the basic laws of Nature. "She" just cannot do such things. Get used to it.

The idea that the Earth appreciates, kicks, and strips us of our real estate belongings is not only childish but also strikingly unscientific in character. I think that not all children talk in this way; only the kids who aren't approaching the world rationally (plus Stephen Hawking) do."

End excerpt.

Now, I grant you, Dr. Hawking is a brilliant fellow, and has done some outstanding work in Cosmology in the psst, but he is famous primarily as a popularizer of science rather than for his work; he has never received a Nobel Prize, for instance. And Hawking's fame comes in no small part to his disability; he is completely paralyzed by amyotrophic laterals sclerosis Aka Lou Gerig's Disease, and this gives him an air of authority, much as the Blind Sheik was viewed by Muslims as having a deeper vision. This is human nature, and Hawking has profited from it (the poor man deserves to profit in some way from this horrible suffering.)

The point is, Hawking is hardly the equal of Albert Einstein. (His I.Q. is estimated at 160, but is unknown for certain. It should be pointed out that I.Q. is not all of one piece, either; Richard Feynman had an i.q. of a scant 125 yet he was a first rank genius where math and physics are concerned.)

Hawking's sense of self esteem seems to have a central locus, and he seems to thrive on accolades. If you want kudos by the media the fastest way is to preach gloom and doom - especially environmental disaster.

Another point to ponder; a rare side effect of ALS is Frontal Lobe Dementia. Perhaps Hawking is developing this cognitive disruption?

It's hard to say, but in the end Dr. Hawking has become increasingly erratic in recent years, and it is only his prestige (and the good press he receives from such things as his appearance on the Big Bang Theory) that gives him credibility. Saying we willl have to leave Earth in a century (something largely impossible, though we may have some people living off planet by then) is just plain crazy.

But the media will never understand that. And they will never report it, since Hawking is doing their work for them.

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Timothy Birdnow

Well, well, well; a Russian hacker says he was offered U.S. citizenship and money if he would confess to a crime he did not committ - and blame the Russian government for hacking John Podesta's e-mails.

According to Newsweak, er, Newsweek:

"Yevgeniy Nikulin, 29, has found himself in the middle of an international dispute between Washington and Moscow, at the very center of which lies U.S. allegations that Russia sponsored a series of hacks targeting Democratic Party candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in favor of Republican candidate and current President Donald Trump. On October 5, 2016, days before U.S. intelligence publicly accused Russia of endorsing an infiltration of Democratic Party officials' emails, Nikulin was arrested in Prague at the request of the U.S. on separate hacking charges. Now, Nikulin claims U.S. authorities tried to pin the email scandal on him.

...he claims in an undated letter reportedly given to U.S. Russian-language news site Nastoyashchoe Vremya by Nikulin's lawyer, Martin Sadilek, that the FBI visited him at least a couple of times, offering to drop the charges and grant him U.S. citizenship as well as cash and an apartment in the U.S. if the Russian national confessed to participating in the 2016 hacks of Clinton campaign chief John Podesta's emails in July.

"[They told me:] you will have to confess to breaking into Clinton's inbox for [U.S. President Donald Trump] on behalf of [Russian President Vladimir Putin],” Nikulin wrote, according to The Moscow Times."

End excerpt.

This is a classic example of a black op by security agents. One of the old tricks is to trap a foreign agent and make this type of offer to get them to frame someone else. In this case the framee is the whole Russian Federation and then Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump, who had promised to "drain the swamp" in Washington and had offended any number of the Black State, those in the bowels of the national security apparatus.

This is a monumental charge, one that has profound implications. It illustrates that the Deep State/Black State has taken an overt hand in manipulating the American political system, and they were willing to cause a major rift between the U.S. and Russia, one of the world's top nuclear powers. This is a scandal worse than Alger Hiss.

Here is something pertinent.

Executive Order (E.O.) 13470, (July 30, 2008)

(a) The Central Intelligence Agency. The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency shall


(4) Conduct covert action activities approved by the President. No agency except the Central Intelligence Agency (or the Armed Forces of the United States in time of war declared by the Congress or during any period covered by a report from the President to the Congress consistent with the War Powers Resolution, Public Law 93‑148) may conduct any covert action activity unless the President determines that another agency is more likely to achieve a particular objective;

End

So who authorized this action? This type of arrangement was either made by a very, very out of control deputy or it goes all the way to the top. And I mean the top. Who was at the top in October of 2016?

The Media/Democrats/Progressive axis are engaged in a conniption over Donald Trump's firing of James Comey because the F.B.I. was engaged in an investigation of "Russian hacking". (There are three separate investigations ongoing, and Comey's removal does nothing to stop any of them.) The question is not "what does Trump know and when did he know it" but rather "what did Obama know and when did HE know it". Ditto Hillary. Congress should subpeona this Russian hacker.

Of course, you have to be alive to testify, and given the man's precarious health one wonders if he could make it to the Capitol building. Certainly people who have crossed the Clintons have an unfortunate tendency to pass away unexpectedly.

https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12333.html

3.4(h) Special activities means activities conducted in support of national foreign policy objectives abroad which are planned and executed so that the role of the United States Government is not apparent or acknowledged publicly, and functions in support of such activities, but which are not intended to influence United States political processes, public opinion, policies, or media and do not include diplomatic activities or the collection and production of intelligence or related support functions.

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Wil Wirtanen

Here is the third part of the series.
http://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2017/05/11/energy_revolutions_hidden_in_plain_sight_part_3_of_3_policy__110221.html

See parts 1 and 2 here.

http://tbirdnow.mee.nu/the_true_energy_story

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Jack Kemp has some thoughts on cultural appropriations:

http://tbirdnow.mee.nu/left_complains_about_cultural_appropriation

I was going to protest Gentiles eating bagels and wearing Levi's jeans - but then the drugs wore off and I decided not to.

What about those people smoking Dutch Masters cigars who aren't even from Holland and can't even name the painter of their corporate image (Rembrandt)?

And the drinking of scotch whiskey - and using Scotch Tape by Americans of other ethnic backgrounds?

A NOTE FROM TIM:

How about people eating German Potato salad? Or drinking Bailey's Irish Cream? Wow; the cultural appropriations go on and on!


A NOTE FROM DANA MATHEWSON;

Very good points, Jack. I hadn't thought of those. You could send those as comments to Power Line. Don't forget Mogen David wine. On second thought, please DO forget Mogen David wine. *) laughing

There might even be one or two non-Scandanavians around here who eat lutefisk, though I certainly wouldn't want to join them. Come to think about it, I wouldn't even want to be on the road when they were.

Clarinetists, oboists and saxophonists all over the world use French instruments (Buffet, Selmer, Leblanc and Loree), and there are a growing number of musicians who use Japanese instruments (I wouldn't trade my Yamaha clarinet for any other -- as far as I'm concerned they ate Buffet's lunch years ago). Yamaha pianos and electronic instruments are hugely -- make that yugely -- popular in this country; Martha's Yamaha concert grand piano is loved by all who play or hear it.

I suppose it doesn't really matter where those clarinets I mentioned are made, but the clarinet used in most of the world IS a French design, so I suppose all non-French musicians must immediately stop using it. It's called the Boehm System -- as opposed to the Oehler System used by the Germans and built, I believe, exclusively in Germany. However, the co-principal clarinetist of the Los Angeles Symphony, Michelle Zukovsky, uses one, and therefore is guilty of the same crime the liberals are kvetching about (oops, here I go using a Yiddish expression, so I'm guilty too). (The Austrians use an offshoot of the same instrument, but who really cares what they do in Austria? In various small towns in Eastern Europe you may find the odd Oehler System instrument, or its predecessor, but I'm quite sure if you try to accuse an Eastern European of cultural appropriation he'll just kick you in the, er, sensitive parts.) The Oehler System clarinet is a beastly design and any clarinetist who can play the Boehm System clarinet with any degree of facility will absolutely refuse to learn to deal with it; consequently, clarinet playing in most of the world will die immediately.

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Dana Mathewson

Blessings upon this man -- he makes totally clear things that were not before. I suppose in retrospect we should have recognized all this last year. It's easy when it's laid out this way.

But most of us think the FBI -- and its Director -- has more power than it in fact has. A holdover from our knowledge of J. Edgar Hoover, perhaps? Anyhow, during the two "investigations" of Hillary last year, McCarthy makes it clear that Comey was never anything more than the Palace Eunuch, playing the role forced upon him by his boss and her boss.

https://pjmedia.com/andrewmccarthy/2017/05/10/in-clinton-caper-comey-was-the-most-visible-player-not-the-most-consequential/

Now if somebody could just explain that to The Hag?

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Dana mathewson

Now, this could be fun to watch. Make sure you don't run out of popcorn.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/11/sanders-inspired-dem-aims-to-hand-pelosi-spectacular-upset.html

Sanders-inspired Dem aims to hand Pelosi a ‘spectacular upset’ .


Self-described "old straight white” guy Stephen Jaffe has joined the list of those trying to topple Democratic Party icon Nancy Pelosi.

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Wil Wirtanen

http://www.investors.com/politics/columnists/larry-elder-dear-jane-fonda-minimum-wages-destroy-jobs/

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Dana Mathewson

So now you're going to expect some comedy. But Scott Adams gives us some really intelligent and well-thought-out ideas here. I'll quote one paragraph that pretty much absolves Comey's apparent fumbling of the Hillary case last year, although he's not saying Comey should NOT have been fired. Here's why he didn't go after Hillary:

My opinion of Comey’s handling of the Clinton email issue remains the same. I believe he sacrificed his career and reputation to avoid taking from the American voters their option of having the leader of their choice. If Comey had pushed for Clinton’s indictment, the country would have ended up with a President Trump without a "fair” election. That was the worst-case scenario for the country and the world. Comey prevented that disaster while still making it clear to the American public that Clinton was not guilt-free with her email server. He let the voters decide how much weight to assign all of that. In my opinion, Comey handled the Clinton email situation like a patriot. The media is spinning the situation as "making it all about himself.” That’s true in the same sense that a Medal of Honor winner who jumped on a grenade to save his buddies is "making it all about himself.” I don’t disagree with the characterization that Comey was trying to be the "hero” because that’s how it looks to me too.

Now, regarding the idea of the country's having ended up with Trump "without a fair election," way too many people are saying that now. But imagine what it would have been like if Hillary had been in the dock -- or in jail -- on Election Day. Not a pretty picture.

The article is here and worth a read: http://blog.dilbert.com/post/160515646406/the-comey-firing

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Timothy Birdnow

Recently a McKlatchey News Service writer penned an awful editorial celebrating Jimmy Kimmel’s rant against the repeal of Obamacare. I couldn’t let the unbalanced piece stand, so sent the author the following e-mail:

Dear Ms. Irby,

Your column entitled "Jimmy Kimmel ‘apologizes’ to his critics for saying children should have health care"
http://www.bnd.com/news/nation-world/national/article149440644.html#storylink=hpdigest was a most dishonest or ignorant exercise, one in which you fail utterly to explain why conservatives criticized Kimmel. If you hold the opinion that Obamacare is a good thing and Kimmel was correct that is fine, but if you are even remotely objective (as journalists always claim) you would at least have given the opposing view a fair airing. You illustrate why conservatives call your side the Fake News Media, and why journalists are viewed with such contempt by the general public.

First, Kimmel confused health CARE with health INSURANCE, a point you should have noted. Nobody thinks children should not receive health care and the argument is whether children are better served with a very poor insurance plan or one that is more affordable. Forcing insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions is driving up the costs of health insurance drastically, and the end result is the insurance is becoming unaffordable to the general public.

I should know; I have a number of serious pre-existing conditions and my health insurance went up from an original $450 when I first went on the exchange to now over $1400 a month. And my deductible is $7500, so I struggle to pay the deductible costs. Families who can only afford a bronze plan may have deductibles as high as 12,000 or more, making follow up visits for a child like Kummels’ unaffordable. (By the way, I have to pay for eye care and dental care while I don't receive any benefits for these services.) It is necessary to make the insurance to be affordable, which means low and high risk pools. How do you think it can be otherwise? These companies are not going to lose money and stay in business.

Oh, I know your answer; single payer. Let us call that what it is - socialized medicine. It is a disaster wherever it is tried. In Britain, if you need an Avastin shot for macular degeneration (I have to get those) you are not allowed to receive one until you are blind in one eye. Only then will the government authorize the treatment. That is what is meant by death panels; since everyone is covered by taxpayer money the government sets stringent regulations on how care is rationed. As Barack Obama said, if your grandmother has a broken hip and needs surgery, government will instead give her pain pills, hastening her death because it's not worth keeping granny alive. THAT is what socialized medicine gives you.

The fact is, decades of government intervention in the health insurance market has driven prices up to a point where people cannot afford to pay it themselves. The answer provided by people like Kimmel (and yourself) is more of the medicine that is killing the patient.

By the way, fewer people were covered under Obamacare; most were covered under the Medicaid program, and more people actually died as a result. See here http://www.nationalreview.com/article/445260/obamacare-no-lives-saved Only more Medicaid - a welfare program, not insurance - improved any numbers. See also http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/05/obamacare_killed_80000_people_in_2015.html


I lost my employer based health insurance when Obamacare was first enacted and drove premiums too high. Under Obamare I had to pay the deductible for medicines - including my insulin. Had it not been for Walmart offering a type of insulin for $25 a vial I would be dead. But I suppose that doesn't matter to people like Kimmel.and http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/02/10/column-obamacare-killed-my-sister

Honest, open disagreement is fine, but your article (like so many these days) simply points a bony finger of judgment at Trump and his supporters (half of the public) simply because you loved Obama and hate Mr. Trump. If you wish to be a true journalist rather than a propagandist you will have to do better.

Sincerely,

Timothy Birdnow

St. Louis

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Jack Kemp

Sinclair’s high-stakes gamble to reshape television news

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[W]hat if Italian-Americans started objecting to cultural appropriation? What if, for example, Italian-Americans began complaining that Americans of non-Italian descent are appropriating Italian culture by consuming pizza and pasta?

The logical corollary would be to stamp out this hijacking of cultural heritage. In school lunchrooms, pupils would be required to show proof of Italian ancestry before getting a pizza slice. Supermarket checkout counters would require similar proof from putative pasta purchasers. Similarly for paninis at Panera Bread, chicken Parmesan at Olive Garden, etc.

Fortunately, modern technology makes this possible. Schoolchildren and supermarket shoppers could display their Ancestry.com profiles on their smartphones as readily as they already brandish student IDs or credit cards. Others, however stereotypically Italianate in appearance, would have to be politely but firmly informed that their ancestry bars them from partaking of cuisine their ancestors had no part in concocting.

Admittedly, this would be tough on proprietors of Italian restaurants, whose potential customer pool would be reduced by 95 percent. It would be tough on parents trying to raise children without serving the pizza and pasta they see their Italian-American playmates enjoying.

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Dana Mathewson

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Dana Mathewson

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