Unhealthy Political Practices

Obamacare has a new poster child... Jonathan Gruber!

It seemed appropriate to follow up my post yesterday with this one. One of the big national stories that finally made its way around the media was the comments made by one of the “Obamacare architects” regarding the construction and passage of this useless piece of legislation. Note that the ‘main stream media’ was much later in picking this up than the “conservative” outlets.

On numerous occasions, Jonathan Gruber has spoken at great length to the deception that was built into the ‘Affordable’ Care Act. He also specifically noted that much of the strategy that was required to gain support for the bill required the left to leverage the stupidity of the American people. As was reported in Politico: “In the three videos that surfaced in the last few days, Gruber says parts of the law, including its insurance subsidies and so-called Cadillac tax on expensive plans, wouldn’t have passed back in 2009-10 if voters weren’t “stupid.””

While few have denied that Gruber was an economic consultant on the bill, there has been frequent and repeated efforts to backpedal and characterize Gruber as someone with limited influence on the legislation. However, this ignores the gross misconduct at hand. While we don’t know how much influence he had on the polishing of the turd, he was at the very least in the room and was privy to the construction thereof. He knew of the shell game that was being perpetuated and this is where his comments come into play.

Equally disturbing are the outright lies that have been told to the media this week specifically those from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi who is quoted as saying “I don’t know who he is… He didn’t help write our bill.” She made this adamant statement despite the fact that she has referred to his work in the past. Of course, what do you expect from someone whose infamous pitch when pushing the bill was “But we have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”

In addition to the lies, misrepresentations, and insults that have surfaced lately (although many of us knew that they were there all along) we now find ourselves at a point in time when healthcare premiums have gone through the roof, few new people have been insured, and financial limits have been placed on hourly workers who cannot go over 30 hours per week. We are getting taxes taken out of each paycheck to cover the program, we are required to take on benefits in our plans that we don’t want or need, and the total cost of the legislative cluster is far beyond any of the projections used to pass the law. Now I am ready to say to all those who questioned my opposition to this bill, I told you so!

Generation WTF

The aftermath of an attack.

It never fails that kids are going to do stupid things but this current generation seems to be taking things to a whole different level. In a year that started with the mass proliferation of twerking among a younger and younger demographic we have now seen the devolution of ‘fun’ into the realm of aggravated assault. As many of you have seen on the news lately, more and more people are falling victim to what has been coined the “knock out game”.

The basic premise of the game is for youths to troll the streets, find an unassuming pedestrian, and try to knock them out with one punch. Thus far, the victims (men and women) seem to be of various ages, races, and in a variety of communities but the assailants seem to have three characteristics in common… they’re young violent idiots. I think it’s safe to say that MENSA is out for the question for these fine examples.

The truly sad situations have yet to unfold (and hopefully they never will). As far as I have heard, no one has died because of these attacks. While unlikely, it is still a possibility as this is essentially blunt force trauma to the head. You never know and hopefully we won’t find out.

The other situation, which says more about the state of this country than the attacks themselves, is that there have been a few instances where people have fended off their attackers. This is something I fully support. However, it may not be long before one of these attackers is injured and they wind up suing the victim or pressing charges. That is just sad but it is the legal CF reality in which we live.

Personally, if you attack me be prepared. I am going to fight back and I am not going to settle for one punch.

When these individuals are apprehended I don’t think that the traditional sentencing (and hopefully restitution) will be enough. I think we need to take a step back and employ a measure that seems to have fallen out of favor in recent decades. I think we send them to the military for extended service. Nothing like a drill sergeant to get rid of an attitude and if you really want to rehabilitate and give them a second chance, that is the way to do it. This would also give them a salary which should be garnished and distributed to the victims throughout their service.

Things need to change and many members of this current generation are in dire need of a readjustment. They don’t need to be given anything which they feel entitled to, they need to learn the cost of their lifestyle and the price of their actions. The need to appreciate what they have and respect what others have rather than covet what others have earned. While previous generations have been labeled with various descriptors (“The Greatest Generation” and “Baby Boomers”) and more recent generations have been classified with single letters such as X and Y, this generation should be classified with a simple acronym, WTF.