Uncommon Common Sense

It's well past midnight and I should be sleeping, but I can't. I am sick at heart and am not sure what to do about it. My father was a great patriot; he loved this country with a deep and abiding love. My mother is his equal. They both instilled in me a deep love for the United States of American and freedom. Because of their example I have loved this country from my very beginning. That love was strengthened by the time I spent in Europe. I loved my time overseas and had a wonderful experience--but it also served to deepen my appreciation for the rights and liberties I had taken for granted most of my life. I fear that too few of us realize what a precious gift it is to be born an American--a privilege and a blessing, with an attending responsibility and duty. I have never been able to get through our national anthem without crying. Not once. It causes feelings to well up in me that are hard to express. This year on the Fourth of July it was different. For the first time in my...

This is a very informative letter I received from a friend. I have contacted this doctor and post this with his permission. This should make all of us stop and think. "August 06, 2009 ObamaCare and me By Zane F. Pollard, MD I have been sitting quietly on the sidelines watching all of this national debate on healthcare. It is time for me to bring some clarity to the table by explaining many of the problems from the perspective of a doctor. First off, the government has involved very few of us physicians in the healthcare debate. While the American Medical Association has come out in favor of the plan, it is vital to remember that the AMA only represents 17% of the American physician workforce. I have taken care of Medicaid patients for 35 years while representing the only pediatric ophthalmology group left in Atlanta, Georgia that accepts Medicaid. For example, in the past 6 months I have cared for three young children on Medicaid who had corneal ulcers. This is a potenti...

I received this letter from a friend and I checked back and am confident of its veracity. I don't know this lady personally, but her experience is enlightening to say the least. Do you want to learn how this White House operates? This is her letter in its entirety (as I received it). " Hello All, By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered. I feel that since Bill and I live here and we were at the airport on Friday I should share some facts with you. Whatever you decide to do with the information is up to you. If you choose to share this email with others I do ask that you DELETE my email address before you forward this on. On Wednesday, August 5th it was announced locally that the President would be coming here. There are many groups here that are against his healthcare and huge spending so those groups began talking and deciding on what they were going to do. The White H...

I have heard a lot of discussion about the "death panel". Just by way of clarification, this death panel does not exist in the House version of the healthcare proposal. It was in the Senate version, which I have not read, only read about. Supposedly, it has been removed from the Senate version due to its controversial nature. The House version does provide for end of life counseling, which already happens with any decent doctor anyway. I'm not sure why it's even written in to this legislation, other than they're trying to encourage people to do it (which is a good idea). But we really don't need to fund a government program to do it, we should do it as responsible individuals by talking to our doctors. Also, the House healthcare bill, no. 3200 was written way back in November 2008. I would really like to know who wrote this bill. Supposedly, Washington has been negotiating with the interested parties (insurance companies, doctors, hospitals, etc.), but I wonde...

I have spent the last week wading through the House version of healthcare, HR 3200, all 1018 pages of it. I am not an attorney and I am as good at reading "legaleeze" as any of you, but I felt it was important to read the bill myself. Sadly most of our representatives don't feel it is important to read the legislation they are voting on, so I guess I must take that responsibility upon myself. To be clear, I did not read every word of the bill. I read as much of it as I could without having access to the Internal Revenue Code or the Social Security Act. There were also parts of it that I didn't find pertinent to my purposes in understanding the goals of this legislation. (In other words, there's a lot of fine detail and changing of words that amends old legislation, etc.) I did spend a lot of time on the parts that will have the greatest affect on our lives. I have read the passages I am about to address thoroughly and have done my level best to honestly read and ...