ObamaCare: Who Needs Surgery? Just Take A Pill*

*Video courtesy of YouTube.

The above video is very disturbing, if only for the fact that it underscores the argument that President Obama's plan for rationed, socialized healthcare will only place a dollars-and-cents value on individual American lives--and a cheap one, at that.

Interestingly enough, both the so-called Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans have each recently offered non-binding health insurance alternatives, though whether these are workable solutions to this odious healthcare catastrophe remains to be seen.

In the best event, Congress will not act on any comprehensive healthcare bill--or at least not anytime soon. Reasonable observers can usually agree upon the need for reform, perhaps even drastic change, but this pressing need doesn't mean that more government intrusion is the solution. In fact, as in so many scenarios, it is actually a compounding problem. And the current reform under consideration is just that--a hasty governmental fix to a complex issue profoundly affecting hundreds of millions of lives for years to come.

Healthcare decisions--and this includes those made in quality-of-life and end-of-life contexts--should most definitely not be made by bureaucrats and politicians pondering banal statistical extrapolations on the cost of providing adequate individual care for one procedure or another. People are not, and never have been, numbers. To the point, these issues should be handled by qualified medical professionals and specialists, patients, and in some cases, patient advocates such as loving, immediate family members if an individual cannot argue on their own behalf.

And whatever healthcare plan comes to the forefront, it is clear that it should include for patients more insurance coverage choices at reasonable rates, greater access to alternative treatment options supported by research, and an undeniable affirmation of their right to a respected voice in the specific treatment approaches applied to their own care.

In other words, both President Obama and Congress should simply show a genuine respect for human life.

IN OTHER NEWS: For better or worse--and really, it is the latter of the two--Sonia Sotomayor moves closer to confirmation as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

Taking The Iranian Nuclear Threat Seriously*

*Image courtesy of AP Images.

American interests in the Middle East can be protected from a nuclear Iran by a "defense umbrella," according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Come again?

Clinton's second hasty try, as cited in the article above, does deny any sort of "nuclear umbrella" to shield presumed protectorate countries from Iranian aggression. Yet as so many have noted of this sloppy remark--and she knows better as a vetted veteran of high-powered political maneuvering--the suggestion is that America will actually permit the development of such a pernicious danger towards vital friends like Israel.

Thankfully, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates appear to agree that this threat will not be tolerated ad infinitum--and perhaps of greater importance, that all deterrence options remain viable for just such a threat. To be sure, Israel will need these options as experience has shown that dictators tend to force the international community beyond all reasonable limits in the misguided pursuit of world-stage influence and irrational, nationalistic pride.

But allowing such sobering hypothetical scenarios, the question remaining can only be one of tolerance. With the middling support President Obama and others have shown Israel since his infamous Cairo speech, Iran will undoubtedly be given an unreasonably long tether to strain against. And this is unpleasant news indeed for those aware of the real dangers posed to Israel and other American allies in the Middle East.

Perhaps President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton will put aside their shared pursuit of legacy and popular image long enough to address some of the more challenging issues facing America at present. Doubtful, but one can always hope.

IN OTHER NEWS: It appears that Thomas Daniel--the independent investigator persistently lobbing obnoxious ethics complaints at Sarah Palin--is in fact a major contributor to the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, it seems no one noted his faithful personal contributions to this institution, or that peers in his law firm frequently serve as counsel of record for the party on the left, or that several lawyers he makes a living with recently represented President Obama in his bid for this country's highest office.

Minor details, we must suppose, when one is bent on the character assassination of perhaps one of the strongest threats to liberal ideology to come out of the Republican ranks in several years.

President Obama Loses Some Of His Luster*

*Image courtesy of AP Images.

President Obama's catastrophic push for socialized healthcare reform is quickly deteriorating--mostly, as Charles Krauthammer puts it, because "[r]hetoric met reality." In other words, doctors, nurses, and regular Americans that use or will need to use our healthcare system in the near future realize that services will not get better. And they will cost far more than anyone will be willing to pay.

To the point, while the American Medical Association recently backed the President's plan, many of its members are jumping ship while noting the long lines, care rationing, and ultimately inferior quality of delivered services that are sure to result should the reform be rammed through Congress. And they are not alone. In a recent policy piece for the Mayo Clinic, it was noted that the reform will actually inflate patient costs while ensuring poorer care. Significantly, this comes from an institution seemingly committed to a drastic overhaul of modern medicine in America.

Without a doubt, many of those who actually remain committed to achieving quality care at reasonable fees view this bill as nothing other than idealistic or self-preening boilerplate aimed at an unprecedented reordering of American society that will do little to care for a growing and aging population.

Thank goodness Americans at least have a reprieve from this legislation as it is likely to be postponed past Obama's arbitrary August deadline. Perhaps by then, Republicans and Democrats will come together in a commitment to meaningful and effective healthcare reform that puts more choices in the hands of the people.

IN OTHER NEWS: President Obama shows his undying friendship to radicalism by involving himself in a local Cambridge matter to defend his friend Henry Louis Gates Jr., a leading light in the academic pantheon of politically correct race relations. All this, of course, because one Police Sgt. James Crowley Jr. had the nerve to investigate a possible break-in at a previously burglarized home only to discover Mr. Gates trying to enter and refusing to identify himself. While Gates did eventually provide identification, he also threw a tantrum and flatly accused the officer of racism--a claim echoed by that darling of the Democrats with the statement that Sgt. Crowley "acted stupidly," as quoted in the linked article above.

Unfortunately, such is to be expected as President Obama claims Mr. Gates as a personal friend, and he is undoubtedly all about the payback expected in personal, Chicago-style politics. Of course, one might also note that our leader runs with a very nasty group of egotistical people.

The Rape Of Iran's Women*

*Image courtesy of AP Images.

"The Jerusalem Post" is currently carrying an interview with a serving member of the Basij militia in Iran. And it is horrifying.

The interview itself was obtained by telephone after this married man with his own children served a period in jail for showing some humanity to two Iranian teenagers; apparently his error was in allowing them to escape imprisonment, an undeniable hell for those forced to experience such a place. And this, unfortunately, is the one encouraging point delineated throughout the course of the conversation.

The Basij militia member interviewed eventually details his so-called honor to marry virgins the night just prior to their own executions. As Iranian law under Ali Khamenei forbids the execution of virgins for whatever crime, this man would then be joined to these tortured individuals in an obviously forced ceremony, see to their drugging to ease any struggle, and then rape them--a legal right that he admits caused more anxiety and suffering in these young girls than the executions that followed.

Apparently his experience is not unusual.

Oddly enough, it needs to be said here that any regime torturing and murdering its own citizens is depraved--and such a fact should draw reasonable minds together with the aim of its overthrow. But any culture that routinely sanctions the legal rape, torture, and murder of women and children is playing with the blackest sort of sin--and that kind of tyranny deserves not only the harshest condemnation in words, but also utter annihilation by whatever violence justifiable within moral limits, either by their own freedom-seeking citizens or by a nation such as America that holds the moral and historical imperative to act.

Without a doubt, Iranians have the right to freedom. Their men have a right to dignity and the honorable pursuit of any worthwhile profession. Their women have a right to speak, to live their lives unmolested, and to be free of the fear attached to indiscriminate execution. And their children have the same rights in fully realizing their own potentials, along with a supreme right to innocence as they grow toward maturity.

President Obama knows this. He has known this long before he ascended to the Presidency. And he has no excuse to remain silent concerning the atrocities being carried out right now with such terrifying brutality in Iran. Consequently, both Democrats and Republicans should join together in condemning his appalling lack of action, his inexcusable lack of courage, and his inscrutable lack of support for Iranian freedom.

After all, there is enough complicity in these horrific crimes as it is.

Iran's Struggle For Freedom Continues*

*Image courtesy of AP Images.

Contrary to the fashionable and yet damning mutism presented by the White House concerning pervasive human rights abuses in Iran, citizens of that troubled country continue to protest courageously for their own liberties.

Significantly, tens of thousands crammed into Iran's primary prayer service on Friday as the cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani called for "action to remove this doubt" stemming from Ahmadinejad's rigged election. And this after so many days of falling behind in the headlines. Tellingly, those attempting to attend the sermon received a government dose of tear gas before, during, and after services for their efforts.

Another less than pleasant vignette serves to illustrate what the average Iranian protester has to look forward to on any given day: human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr was kidnapped and beaten on her way to Friday prayers with friends, a practice apparently intensifying with Iran's repressive regime in recent days. Significantly, Sadr requires medical attention and was scheduled for an operation in the coming week--an appointment she is unlikely to meet while being relentlessly interrogated and beaten in prison for her pains in supporting the radical idea that all men, women, and children might in fact have God-given liberties. She joins a growing group of as many as 2,000 individuals that have been scooped up and arrested since the election protests began.

Hopefully, Iranians understand that American prayers are surely with them as they continue to fight the tyranny of their own government with commendable courage, even if our politicians are not. With this in mind, President Obama should not place his confidence in their kind feelings should they succeed in what is clearly a just revolution for freedom.

IN OTHER NEWS: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli populace in general buck some of the ridiculous strictures insisted upon by the international community by allowing a construction project in East Jerusalem to move forward. And just as a matter of record, it should be noted that there are those that popularly believe any such activity on this side of the city is a settlement, and therefore an obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

Unfortunately, there is no word yet as to whether or not any descendants of the axis of aggression serving as the catalyst for the Six-Day War in June 1967 have finally recognized the depressing consequences of their own hubris. Then again, expecting such an admission would be paramount to suggesting that Israel has the right to both existence and natural growth--even in East Jerusalem.

Minority Rule*

*Image courtesy of AP Images.

It seems that Sonia Sotomayor has mustered enough colonic fortitude to muddle through the Judiciary Committee hearing on her Supreme Court nomination and confirmation without actually betraying how her racially-driven philosophy of the law and even the world will affect her judgments.

But as Louis Michael Seidman has carefully pointed out in the third installment of a recent debate over her future role on the Supreme Court, Sotomayor "very substantially misrepresented her own views" during the hearing. Clearly. And so it is that many continue to wonder just how she will perform once installed on America's highest judiciary body--as a Justice cautiously and yet firmly applying the fundamental principles of our Constitution, or simply as a predictable liberal ideologue dabbling in the legislation of divisive race politics.

Given these lingering doubts, Sotomayor will undoubtedly find her seat as Associate Justice. But even with those crucial 60 votes in pocket, it is absolutely appropriate that nominees thrust forward to potentially fill what is ostensibly a life-long position safeguarding our fundamental law be given a thorough and challenging test concerning their past decisions and writings, their current attitudes towards the law and their role in administering it, and their outlooks on the future of our nation's legal system.

To this end, reasonable observers might understandably conclude that Sotomayor got off easy given her previous statements showing obvious racial preferences and the "disheartening" campaign of late to smear firefighter Frank Ricci. And for the most part, these same bystanders would be correct, though a caution against the temptation of character assassination also bears some consideration here--after all, destroying a candidate for lofty office is much different than simply rejecting the same.

And for this very reason, the role of party politics should not be overlooked in this critical vetting process. Notably, Patrick Leahy's shameless exercise in keepsake photography does little to help Democrats seem impartial. In fact, the undiluted lovefest pursued by the majority party should give even casual observers pangs of embarrassment not easily dispelled in the near future. Conversely, the Republicans thankfully included in this hearing generally asked appropriately pointed questions, though without any regrettable hint of hysteria. To be sure, the ambiguity so many Americans are feeling towards an arguably hypocritical nominee were adequately presented without the questioners coming off as the sniveling minority party--a right not held by any group of elected officials.

Yet only time will tell if our nation and history itself can treat Sotomayor's obvious deficits with the same magnanimity and forbearance, especially as we have yet to see what challenges she will face on the bench. Whatever the case may be, Americans should be deeply grateful for a solid and at times majestic system of law that generously permits so many missteps and downright mistakes.

IN OTHER NEWS: Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf concludes that the Obamacare bills currently on the table would drive both government spending and healthcare costs through the roof. Will this warning be enough to stop the asinine socialization of our healthcare system? Probably not. Or at the very least, it won't be enough to stop the misguided effort. And that should be enough to disturb anyone planning on medical care in the foreseeable future.

The Price Of Pelosi's Career*

*Image courtesy of AP Images.

It seems there is nothing Democrats will not do to save Nancy Pelosi's career.

First it was the push to label the CIA as a den of liars for failing to brief her on waterboarding. As it turns out, she was briefed along with everyone else in Congress that cared to listen.

And then she asserted that the CIA lied to Congress about a covert operations program that never got off the ground, though this seems an asinine point as these efforts were reportedly aimed at counterterrorism. Truth be told, Congress was actually briefed and Director Panetta has also posited that nothing illegal was done.

How many lies will be told to cover up earlier lies? No one knows, but it should be obvious by now that the Democrat's push to target publicly the intelligence agency charged with protecting American lives is despicable.

IN OTHER NEWS: Kim Jong Il apparently has pancreatic cancer. Thank heaven for simple mercies.