Thursday, August 8, 2013

The Right Lane update 8.08.13



The pursuit of Constitutionally grounded governance, freedom and individual liberty
"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." --George Washington
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Poll Shows Public Schools Gaining Ground in Brainwashing Students To Believe In Evolution  By R. L. David Jolly
The Bible is very clear that God created the earth, universe, life and man in six literal twenty-four hour days a little over 6,000 years ago.  Two centuries ago, some naturalists began to try to find ways to disprove the biblical account of creation.  All they had to do was to find a way to convince the world to believe in millions of years and the rest of the Genesis account would crumble.
Charles Darwin plagiarized the works of his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin and of Alfred Russel Wallace and published his treatise On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life at the insistence of staunch atheist and hater of the Church, Thomas Huxley.  From that point on, evolution has been pushed and pushed hard for sole purpose of undermining the Bible and Christianity.

A century and a half later, Huxley’s efforts are coming to fruition in the United States.  Evolution has been taught as fact in public schools for over fifty years.  Millions of kids have been relentlessly brainwashed to be believe that evolution is fact and that the biblical account of origins is false, superstition and anyone believing it is uneducated and ignorant. Their efforts have been paying off as indicated in the latest poll taken by YouGov.  Their poll showed that 21% of Americans believe in naturalistic evolution, meaning that God had no part of human origins; 25% believe in theistic evolution, meaning God used evolution to create man; and 37% believe in biblical creation, meaning that God created man less than 10,000 years ago.  Seventeen percent of the respondents said they had no idea about human origins.
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Associated Press Reporter Accused of Covering Up Obama’s Geography Gaffe Mike Opelka
Is the mainstream media in the pocket of the president? Some are saying a recent story by the Associated Press is just the latest evidence supporting the affirmative. Wednesday’s most-viewed story was the item about “President Obama’s U.S. Geography Fail On Leno.”  The story went viral soon after, and thanks to our legion of friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter, it was shared and re-tweeted and ultimately seen by more than 225,000 web users.

So how did the mainstream media report the presidential screw-up that would have embarrassed a beauty queen? Associated Press reporter Russ Bynum seemed to covered for the president by correcting the gaffe in his story that was carried in papers and online across the country.  First, here is the actual text of the exchange between Obama and Leno (taken from the White House transcript):
LENO:  You mentioned infrastructure.  Why is that a partisan issue?  I live in a town, the bridge is falling apart, it’s not safe.  How does that become Republican or Democrat?  How do you not just fix the bridge?  (Laughter and applause.)
THE PRESIDENT:  I don’t know.  As you know, for the last three years, I’ve said, let’s work together.  Let’s find a financing mechanism and let’s go ahead and fix our bridges, fix our roads, sewer systems, our ports.  The Panama is being widened so that these big supertankers can come in.  Now, that will be finished in 2015.  If we don’t deepen our ports all along the Gulf — places like Charleston, South Carolina, or Savannah, Georgia, or Jacksonville, Florida — if we don’t do that, those ships are going to go someplace else.  And we’ll lose jobs.  Businesses won’t locate here.
Bynum (who lives in Savannah, one of the three oceanfront cities incorrectly identified by the President as “along the Gulf”) wrote a story about the “Tonight Show” interview but made a critical addition to the story (in parenthesis below):
“If we don’t deepen our ports all along the Gulf — (and in) places like Charleston, S.C., or Savannah, Ga., or Jacksonville, Fla. — if we don’t do that, these ships are going to go someplace else and we’ll lose jobs,” Obama said.
Russ Bynum’s story on Obama’s Leno appearance that appears to cover his geography gaffe. (Source: Charlotte Observer) By adding the parenthetical (and in), the gaffe magically disappears. This did not get past the vigilante Michele Malkin also reminded the AP that they were quick to point out geography gaffes when Sarah Palin made them, but don’t mind covering for Obama.
Tom Blumer at Newsbusters points out that Bynum’s Twitter profile claims that he is “nobody’s fool.” Blumer “begs to differ.”
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‘Faith-Based Hate’ Charge Has Become the New Racism - by Jerry Newcombe
Some atheists took offense recently to a military chaplain’s quoting of the old saying, popularized by Dwight Eisenhower, “In battle, they learned the great truth that there are no atheists in foxholes.”[1] Some atheists in the military have taken issue with Ike’s quotation, calling it a “bigoted, religious supremacist phrase.” One of them said, “Faith-based hate, is hate all the same.” Meanwhile, constitutional attorney Ken Klukowski, who wrote about this in his article, “Military Censors Christian Chaplain, Atheists Call for Punishment” (Breitbart, 7/24/13), said the chaplain was completely within his first amendment rights of free speech and religious liberty. Obviously, since there are professed unbelievers who serve in the military, the “truism” that there are no atheists in foxholes is not always true. Every man or woman who serves our country in the military, regardless of religious views or the lack thereof, deserves our respect. But I must admit that the phrase “faith-based hate” galls me, because in reality I see so little of it. And I travel in mostly Christian circles, and have for years. If I see hate, it’s not based in faith in Jesus Christ. Maybe it’s there, despite professed belief in Jesus — like leftovers from an ornery disposition that has not yet been changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I’m rereading To Kill a Mockingbird, and I note that the deep-seated racism is there, despite the professed Christianity of the townspeople. Yet the hero of the story, Atticus Finch, is also a man of Christian faith. He says, “This case, Tom Robinson’s case, is something that goes to the essence of a man’s conscience — Scout, I couldn’t go to church and worship God if I didn’t try to help that man.” He adds, “The one that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” In our time, people of faith, acting on their consciences shaped by the Judeo-Christian tradition are being accused of hate. “Hate” has got to be the most overused word of our time. If someone is politically incorrect in their views, they are often falsely accused of hate. According to Webster’s, hate means “To feel great hostility or animosity toward.” Some people assume Christians are hateful because we favor traditional marriage. We favor bringing babies to term. Does that make us hateful? Does it not seem absurd to accuse conservative traditional Christians of faith-based hate, simply based on their views of morality (which we believe were revealed by God in the Bible) — and which have stood the test of centuries? Is it faith-based hate when the Salvation Army, closely followed by the Baptists and the Catholics, are virtually always first on the scene of any disaster to help anyone in need? Is it faith-based hate when the myriad of inner-city soup kitchens and rescue missions dish out food for the hungry out of love for Jesus? This happens daily by the millions. Is it faith-based hate when the hundreds of pregnancy care centers lovingly provide alternatives for pregnant women, so that they can keep their babies? Many a young mother is extremely happy for those Christians who provided that lifeline to them in their time of need. Is it faith-based hate when Christian education is provided at a greatly reduced price for inner city children? For example, look at all the Catholic schools in the ghetto, providing a lifeline and a future hope for children in need. Is it faith-based hate, in our day of hookups and one night stands, when Christian abstinence groups warn people of the consequences of their lifestyles — where one night’s pleasure can lead to a lifelong disease? Otherwise, someone might well say, “Why didn’t anybody warn me of this?” Open rebuke, says the Scriptures, is better than hidden love. And no it’s not faith-based hate when someone speaks the truth in love. When the word hate gets bandied about to be applied to your opponents in the culture war, then it loses its meaning. Love is hate, and hate is love. The Christian ideal is to love everybody, not that we all live up to it by any means. The idea of “faith-based hate,” when talking about active followers of Jesus Christ, is a contradiction.
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Blue Cross, Aetna, United, Humana Flee Obamacare Exchanges  By Elizabeth Harrington
Major health insurance companies--Blue Cross, Aetna, United, Humana--have decided not to participate in various states in the Obamacare health-insurance exchanges that will be the only place Americans will be able to buy a health insurance plan using the federal subsidies authorized under the Obamacare law.
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare), every American must buy a health insurance plan that meets minimum government specifications. If a person does not get health insurance through their employer, and is not on Medicaid, they can buy insurance through their home state's insurance exchange (which, depending on the state, will be run by either the state or federal government). States will also operate exchanges where small businesses can buy health-insurance plans. Individuals and families making up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level will qualify for a federal subsidy to help them buy their government-mandated insurance--but only if they buy their insurance on the government-run exchange.

Also under Obamacare, insurance companies are required to take customers with pre-existing health problems and to provide certain services mandated either by the law itself or by regulations issued under the law by the Obama administration--thus driving up the insurance companies' costs. Aetna, a fortune 100 company with $34.2 billion in revenue, has pulled out of the government-run exchanges in three states, including the state of Connecticut, where it is based.  Founded in Hartford, Conn., in 1850, Aetna withdrew its application to participate in that state on Monday, the Hartford Courant reported. The company said it was withdrawing from there and in Georgia and Maryland because limitations the state governments would impose on their rates would not allow them to make money.
“We have spent considerable time identifying those states in which we can be competitive and add the most value to the market,” Aetna said in a statement.  “As a result of our analysis, we have reluctantly concluded that we will withdraw certain Individual Exchange filings for 2014, including filings in Connecticut, Georgia and Maryland.” “This is not a step taken lightly, and was made as part of a national review of our Exchange strategy,” the company said.  “Unfortunately, we believe the modifications to the rates filed by Aetna will not allow us to collect enough premiums to cover the cost of the plans and meet the service expectations of our customers.”
California
Aetna will also not participate in California’s exchange, and a spokesperson said that the company never intended to do so.  “We did not withdraw exchange plans in California, as we never planned participation nor filed [Qualified Health Plans] QHPs to participate in the California exchange,” a spokesperson said. Anthem Blue Cross has withdrawn its bid to participate in the California's government-run Obamacare exchange marketing insurance to small businesses. United Health Group, the largest health insurer in the United States, has taken a pass on California's individual health insurance exchange.
Aetna will stop selling health insurance policies to individuals in California all together, leaving nearly 50,000 existing individual policyholders to find new coverage by January. The company will continue to directly sell health insurance to employers in California--outside of the government exchange system.

‘If You Like Your Doctor,’ Hope Your Insurer Is Participating in the Exchange
“No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period,” Obama said on June 15, 2009.  “If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period," he said.  "No one will take it away. No matter what.”  That promise, however, has been revised by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which now says, “you may be able to keep your current doctor” in the health insurance marketplace.  “Most health insurance plans offered in the Marketplace have networks of hospitals, doctors, specialists, pharmacies, and other health care providers,” HHS said on its website for the health reform law.  “Networks include health care providers that the plan contracts with to take care of the plan’s members.”  “Depending on the type of policy you buy, care may be covered only when you get it from a network provider,” they said.  With insurers opting out of state-run health insurance exchanges, individuals are left with fewer options.

Following Aetna's departure, only three companies remain in Connecticut’s “Access Health CT” exchange. Similarly, only five insurers are participating in the exchange in Georgia, after Aetna and Coventry Health Insurance dropped out last week. The Savannah Morning News noted that this will “leave residents of some parts of the state with limited choice.” Two of the three largest health insurers in Wisconsin will also not participate in the state’s Obamacare exchange.  Though they will not participate in at least four state-run exchanges, Aetna said they “appreciate” the opportunity to work with state regulators on complying with the ACA.  “We have appreciated the chance to work with the regulators in each state for the past months on a variety of key issues regarding ACA implementation,” Aetna said in a statement.  “We will continue to work with them, and various Exchange leadership teams, as we evaluate exchange participation in future years.”
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Exclusive: IRS manual detailed DEA's use of hidden intel evidence  by John Shiffman and David Ingram
(Reuters) - Details of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration program that feeds tips to federal agents and then instructs them to alter the investigative trail were published in a manual used by agents of the Internal Revenue Service for two years.  The practice of recreating the investigative trail, highly criticized by former prosecutors and defense lawyers after Reuters reported it this week, is now under review by the Justice Department. Two high-profile Republicans have also raised questions about the procedure. A 350-word entry in the Internal Revenue Manual instructed agents of the U.S. tax agency to omit any reference to tips supplied by the DEA's Special Operations Division, especially from affidavits, court proceedings or investigative files. The entry was published and posted online in 2005 and 2006, and was removed in early 2007. The IRS is among two dozen arms of the government working with the Special Operations Division, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. An IRS spokesman had no comment on the entry or on why it was removed from the manual. Reuters recovered the previous editions from the archives of the Westlaw legal database, which is owned by Thomson Reuters Corp, the parent of this news agency.
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"To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business; To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts, in writing; To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties; To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either; To know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor, and judgment; And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed." --Thomas Jefferson, Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia, 1818
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