Why Do You Oppose Obamacare?

The following is a quote from Stuart Butler of The Heritage Foundation.

In a civilized and rich country like the United States, it is reasonable for society to accept an obligation to ensure that all residents have affordable access to at least basic health care — much as we accept the same obligation to assure a reasonable level of housing, education and nutrition.

http://www.heritage.org/research/testimony/laying-the-groundwork-for-universal-health-care-coverage

He continues on.

But as part of that contract, it is also reasonable to expect residents of the society who can do so to contribute an appropriate amount to their own health care. This translates into a requirement on individuals to enroll themselves and their dependents in at least a basic health plan - one that at the minimum should protect the rest of society from large and unexpected medical costs incurred by the family. And as any social contract, there would also be an obligation on society. To the extent that the family cannot reasonably afford reasonable basic coverage, the rest of society, via government, should take responsibility for financing that minimum coverage.

So this is from The Heritage Foundation, the bulwark of conservative thought against the onslaught of socialist triumph. And this is the best that they can mutter up? This is an implicit agreement with socialist thoughts about equality. If this is supposedly the conservative thought, then what is the source of opposition to Obamacare? It makes me wonder what the popular opinion would have been amongst conservatives had a Republican president pushed such legislation.

For the libertarian, opposition to the bill is simple. It is too demanding on employers, infringes on liberty, forces young people to buy insurance when they usually do not really need it (thus making them poorer), and does nothing to fix our corrupt medical establishment (medicare, medicaid, forcing employers to provide healthcare, the HMO favoritism which obscures a price system, etc.).

So I will pose the questions to you. Do you consider yourself a conservative? Do you agree with the thoughts of Dr. Butler? Do you oppose Romneycare on principle or was what he did okay because it was at the state level? Do you oppose government ownership of industries?

I would love to see the discourse on this issue, especially among those who portray themselves as vehemently against Obamacare, yet are supporting Mitt Romney.

The National Defense Resources Preparedness

Just a quick post today and I will update on what sounds like a shocking executive order that no one has heard about.

Quoting from the article at the Huffington Post:

Last Friday, March 16, President Barack Obama may have quietly placed the United States on a war preparedness footing, perhaps in anticipation of an outbreak of war between Israel, the West, and Iran. A newly-propounded Executive Order, titled "National Defense Resources Preparedness," renews and updates the president's power to take control of all civil energy supplies, including oil and natural gas, control and restrict all civil transportation, which is almost 97 percent dependent upon oil; and even provides the option to re-enable a draft in order to achieve both the military and non-military demands of the country, according to a simple reading of the text.

He wants to control all energy supplies, restrict transportation (sounds like martial law), and even re-enable the draft? Bloggers, this is up to you. Spread the word about this monstrosity. The reason that you have not heard about this is because both Democrats and Republicans support our military and police state. Do not let them get away with this. We have at our hands the power to spread awareness about this. Do not let the state hide this!

Sourced at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edwin-black/obama-national-defense-resources-preparedness_b_1359715.html - Thanks to Edwin Black

Do You Really Want Another War?

Let's think clearly about this. Do we really want to get into another war in another Middle Eastern country? Do we really want to take on another regime that supposedly poses some great threat to our safety? Do we want to go down this road again?

Do we have the money to go and invade another country? Have we been cutting spending and reducing our debt? Is our economy improving? Are employers hiring? Is our standard of living rising? Do we have the financial resources to topple and install a new regime?

Have we studied and do we know the enemy? Do we know what their people are like? Do we know generally how they feel about their government? Do we know their religion? Are they Sunni or Shiite? What is the difference between a Sunni or Shiite? How does the Iranian government feel about the new Iraqi or new Afghani government? Do they support Hamas, Hezbollah, or neither?

As to the actual threat, do we know that they are building a bomb? What type of bomb are they building? Where are they building it? Do they have the resources to actually pull it off? Are they even enriching uranium for weapons? Are they allowed to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes? How does the Ayatollah feel about acquiring nuclear weapons? Do the people of Iran like the idea of their government acquiring weapons?

Before we even begin a hot war, how would we asses our cold war? How effective has our intelligence been recently? How well do they know the area of Iran? What effect have our sanctions had? Have they crippled the government? What do the people of Iran think about our sanctions? What do they think about the US national government? What do they think about American people?

Have we remembered one of the most famous quotes from Sun Tzu's Art of War, "It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle."?

And this is just a short list of question. I would hope that at the very least we would be able to answer these questions before we push for war with Iran. I think that most people who are agitating for it cannot answer even half of these. And if history teaches us anything, it is that this does not matter, and we will invade anyway and ignore the consequences of our actions. Iraq was only 10 years ago. Do we really want to do what seems to be almost the exact same thing?