Graham Collections

Great teaching moment on Ricochet:

The NY Times versus the Wall Street Journal on financial reform.

This post is amazing. I have never supported the AMA with  my money, and know many others who refuse to as well, but I never knew why they had so much money to spend. Now I know.

The AMA endorsed Obamacare as a way to protect its medical coding monopoly with the federal government, in-turn, the Obama Administration recieved the medical communities support for socialized healthcare – that was the deal. “Dollars are driving the entire process,” said Dr. Whitaker. “Doctors and patients want a national voice different from the AMA that is not controlled by the educational elite.”

I whole-heartedly agree.

This article by Glen Reynolds sums up what may be the next bubble to burst.

College has gotten a lot more expensive. A recent Money magazine report notes: “After adjusting for financial aid, the amount families pay for college has skyrocketed 439 percent since 1982. … Normal supply and demand can’t begin to explain cost increases of this magnitude.”

Consumers would balk, except for two things.

First — as with the housing bubble — cheap and readily available credit has let people borrow to finance education. They’re willing to do so because of (1) consumer ignorance, as students (and, often, their parents) don’t fully grasp just how harsh the impact of student loan payments will be after graduation; and (2) a belief that, whatever the cost, a college education is a necessary ticket to future prosperity.

Part of the problem is that government subsidies made college more affordable and therefore the price rose at an accelerated rate; reaching the ridiculous cost that we see today. In 1981 you could go to a private school for $6,000 for everything; room and board included. The same school today is over $32,000 for the same thing! And that is not the most expensive; some are $12,000 to $60,000 per year.

College in and of itself is not the path to prosperity, and much of what is taught is of questionable value at best. A liberal arts education may be nice as an adjunct to something else; usually of the science or math types, but in and of itself may not be worth the expense. People would be warned to consider well before jumping into debt to obtain a college education.

Read the whole thing.

Clearly Government is too big and its worker’s are overpaid, but as the number grows and the pay keeps increasing there is little incentive for them to support the removal of those departments of government for which they work. Dan Mitchell has put out another video documenting the statistics on government pay structures.

In addition this classic article from Thomas Sowell talks about public “service” as a career.

Many of you have not had time to read the ballot propositions for California; the primary election is Tuesday June 8th.

The problem with propositions is that there is not clearly a useful idea in the bunch, and seldom is. often we have to vote just to keep them from doing something else stupid to us. My first plan, as for many in California, is to vote no unless it is protecting liberty or a really good idea. This year is a little different…

Prop 13: Yes (Keeps retrofit from increasing taxes)

Prop 14: No (A crazy idea to increase taxes)

Prop 15: No (Another dumb idea)

Prop 16: Yes (halfway there, but better than the current takeover plan)

Prop 17: Yes (Why do we vote on this stuff???)

I have a republican primary ballot, so my picks for offices are based on the ideas of small government more liberty conservatism. There are no perfect candidates, but there are better choices.

Governor: Steve Poizner, an actual conservative

Lt Governor: Sam Aanestad, another actual small government conservative

Sec of State: Damon Dunn; Controller: Tough, but I am voting for David Evans I think; Treasurer: Only one choice; Insurance Commissioner: Brian Fitzgerald.

Attorney General: John Eastman; from Conservative think tank at Claremont.

US Senate: Chuck Devore; likely splitting the vote but what can you do, cannot vote for Tom Campell the professional candidate who is pro abortion and I like Devore better than Fiorina.

In my area: Duncan Hunter; Joel Anderson; and Bill Wells

Many times when discussing the past with people, selective memory raises its head. Thomas Sowell writes a great post about how we teach our children about the past selectively and leave them with a warped sense of history.

“If the history of slavery ought to teach us anything, it is that human beings cannot be trusted with unbridled power over other human beings — no matter what color or creed any of them are. The history of ancient despotism and modern totalitarianism practically shouts that same message from the blood-stained pages of history.

But that is not the message that is being taught in our schools and colleges, or dramatized on television and in the movies. The message that is pounded home again and again is that white people enslaved black people.

The treatment of white galley slaves was even worse than the treatment of black slaves who picked cotton. But there are no movies or television dramas about it comparable to Roots, and our schools and colleges don’t pound it into the heads of students.

The inhumanity of human beings toward other human beings is not a new story, much less a local story. There is no need to hide it, because there are lessons we can learn from it. But there is also no need to distort it, so that sins of the whole human species around the world are presented as special defects of “our society” or the sins of a particular race.”

Very much worth reading the entire article. Give it to every history teacher you know.

One more quote:

Those who mine history for sins are not searching for truth but for opportunities to denigrate their own society, or for grievances that can be cashed in today at the expense of people who were not even born when the sins of the past were committed.

My son reminded me of this spiritual song from many years ago; I still cannot remember the third line of the second verse and I think there was another verse as well.

Update: Finally remembered all the words.

VERSE 1

Jesus your blood has washed me Oh so clean and white

And you’ve set me in this body of righteousness

And you’ve given the manifestation of your spirit

So that I might profit, in everything he’ll do.

CHORUS

I will behold your glory with an unveiled face

I will proclaim the mighty working of your grace

I will refrain my lips from speaking words that do not profit

And I’ll yield myself to the spiritual

VERSE 2

Though the world may try to take this faith from me

And the doubter will say that it could never be

Well, I know your word and your promises are true

And in everything I do, I put my trust in you

Hab 2:1 ¶ I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

Rev 3:14 ¶ And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Pr 3:11 My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:

Heb 12:5* And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

6* For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

7* If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

8* But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

9* Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

10* For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

11* Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Ps 141:5 Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.

Pr 9:8 Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.

Pr 19:25 Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware: and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge.

Jer 10:24 O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.

Ps 6:1 <<To the chief Musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David.>> O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

Ps 38:1 <<A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance.>> O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

1Co 11:32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

Psalm 2:1 ¶ Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,

3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

Men think that they can decide to stand against the God of the whole earth; see God’s response below.

4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.

5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.

6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

7 ¶ I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

Jesus is God’s answer to those who oppose him. His judgments will be just and the end of all things will be righteousness on the earth. Following is the call to seek the Lord with all your heart and to walk in the rejoicing of his glory.

10 ¶ Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.

11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

They did it, they jammed through by hook or by crook the worst piece of legislation of my lifetime. The US economy may never be the same and elections in this country will degenerate further into the kind of silliness we see in Europe. For some they will be glad that the era of Big Daddy America as the guarentor of peace in the world will now be over. The economy cannot bear the defense spending in addition to the social welfare debacles we have, let alone a new one bigger than all the rest.

Read this.

Not only do they lie, they lie without a hint of shame. To pretend that this will not make deficit spending of unimagined proportions is to fly in the face of what everyone knows. You cannot buy a new car when you can’t pay for the one you already have, OH except if you have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the US government backing you up. Yes, it is the same old thing, we will guarentee that all will be well, just check your liberty at the door and trust the government, the nanny state, the one powerful enough to…take away all the liberty you have.