The Knock in the Dark of the Night

A wise person told me something many years ago; he said that nothing good occurs after midnight. I know that there are parts of town that I would not want to walk through at 1 am. That includes most of Washington DC. But there is a part of the capital that should not be occupied at such a late hour, the hallowed halls of Congress. But now we find that our freedoms are under attack by those who have sworn to defend the Constitution. If this is such a good and important thing; shouldn’t the American people be included in the decision? Why does the Congress keep passing bills in the dark of the night?

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For years people around the world have feared the knock that came in the middle of the night. The American people as a whole have not known this fear since the creation of the republic. But this week there will be a knock in the dark of the night for the American people. With a bill that has been hidden away from the light of day, the leader of the Senate is unveiling it in the dark of the night and forcing a vote. He followed through and the bill is another step closer to becoming the law of the land. He is preparing to make major changes to the American health care system without most of the American people even aware of what is occurring. His reasoning seems to be the promise of "giving the President a present." That is no reason to pass a bill without proper airing.

Do you really trust politicians and government bureaucrats to make the right decisions on your health care? The problem is that since the details are hidden, we don’t know the truth. Where is the President's promise of openness? Will follow through on his other promises? Well so far he is zero for zero on the transparency promises. I don't think I believe his promises on the health care bill.

Many believe that there are illegal/unconstitutional provisions in this bill. One thing for sure is that we will all lose freedoms when the Federal government takes control of every ones medical care. But as we can see with the illegal alien issue, right and wrong, the law, and the Constitution does not matter to our “leaders.” They prefer to work in darkness and away from the public view. Like thieves in the night they are stilling our liberties. With the so called “Health Care Reform Bill” they are now putting themselves in the position of affecting all of our lives.

So now the American people must constantly fear the new knock in the dark of the night. With the backroom dealing, political pay offs, and late night votes that has occurred; how can we trust that the final law? Too many lies have been told. Too much money has been wasted. Is it not time to reconsider the direction of our nation?

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The Cap and Trade bill passed the House in same manner. Now we know with the truth that has been revealed with the “Climategate” emails that show that the whole thing is passed upon LIES. Are we governed by fools or are we fools for trusting them? Can we trust that they are really looking out for our best interest? Or could it be that they are only interested in power?

Now that they are spending TRILLIONS of dollars what comes next? The politicians must be honest to the American people. Tell us what they are really doing. Stop the stealing in the middle of the night. Not only are they stealing our money, but they are stealing our freedoms. Once they take the right of choice away from us, what else will they take? Could they next be requiring us to buy cars from Obama Motors? Will they next be ordering us to buy government newspapers? Will they then require us to purchase only government approved products?

With these new mandates the government will now be able to pick the winners and the losers. The only way you can be a winner is to make sure you support the people in power. So we now must fear that knock at the door. We must now fear that we can go to jail for not buying the correct heath care insurance. The politician and the insurance company win. We the American people lose.

©2009 Pedro Sykes - Some Rights Reserved

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Scientific Research vs. Lies

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In an earlier time, man was ruled through superstition. When little was understood about the natural world the belief in the supernatural or the mystic realm allowed people to be easily manipulated. Over the years science has evolved to help explain the mysteries that have enslaved mankind for centuries. There are no absolutes in science, only theories. True scientific inquiry is governed by skepticism. The ultimate goals of science are the pursuit of true and to doubt all conclusions.

Scientific research must be based upon the basic tenet of disbelief. An individual has a theory. This idea is tested to prove and disprove the underlying concepts. It can not be rushed. On March 23, 1989 Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons announced a major breakthrough on cold fusion. They provided all of their data and detailed descriptions of the process. This news was met with much enthusiasm and fanfare. This process could provide almost unlimited energy.

Knee-cap(ing) and Trade

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Well now that most peoples’ attentions are on Healthcare it is important to remember that there is another Presidential priority bill that they are ready to push through without debate. His cap and trade plan will (in his words) “make electricity rates skyrocket.”

 In fact the US Treasury (not exactly a right wing organization) has estimated that this bill could cost the average household $1761 a year or $146.75 a month or about $4.83 a day added to their electric bill. Hey, but that’s less than a latté at a lot of coffee shops. If you don’t drink lattes then you might as well start. Then you can stop buying them after the bill is passed, so that you won’t miss the money. Of course you might have a hard time coming up with that extra $4.83 a day after the Obama healthcare plan starts to empty your wallet. There are estimates that range from $3100.00 to $800.00 a year. Of course these estimates come from the same people who said that $1 billion would be enough for the “cash for clunkers” program for 3 months. So their estimates may be low.     

Of course months after the President had received the Treasury report he said that the cost of the bill would be less than the cost of a postage stamp. I guess he was just letting us know that the price of a first class stamp would be going from $0.44 to around $5.00 very soon.  

This plan would seem to be nothing more than a “billions for billionaires” program. You must understand that the original idea for this new trading plan came from the folks at Enron. The people who created one of the largest energy scandals of the century were only interested in how to make more money, any way they could, by raising energy prices. So the idea of trading carbon credits is nothing more than making industry buy and sell meaningless paper and paying commissions for the privilege. Those commissions will make some traders even more comfortable while the rest of us pay higher energy cost, a lower standard of living, and a declining future.

This political payoff will not decrease pollution. It will only make those who are on the inside of this grand scheme even richer. It will kneecap the economy and leave the lower and middle class with a permanent limp. With the government spending our money faster than they can print it, we need to reconsider what price we are willing to pay.

 ©2009 Pedro Sykes

Fear

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The mind is a funny thing. With all the talk of insurance reform an old memory worked its way up to the surface. I remember when I was a young child, setting at the doorway as my Mother and Father listened to an insurance salesman. You must understand that for years the common sales technique to sell insurance has been fear. They always paint the grimmest and most frightening scenarios. That is their jobs. Things like: What if your husband dies? Who will take care of you and your 3 young children? But that was his job. He never talked about the odds. Of course like many Americans, my parents would more than likely never understood or just been confused by the numbers. Anyway numbers can be twisted. Remember what Mark Twain said: “There are three types of lies; lies, damn lies, and statistics.

I’m not going to say that that insurance man was a villain. After all what he was saying was the truth. In the early 60s my mother and my siblings would have been in a desperate position if my father had met with an accident. He stayed on message and convinced my parents that life insurance was a good bargain. He didn’t lie or even stretch the truth. He simple painted the picture of “what if.” Unlike the current debate there was a consistent message.

Trust?

In the current debate over the health care bill we can see a continued shift in the American public. For years the members of the middle class have been so busy that many have ignored politics. We’ve been busy raising our children, feeding the cat, paying our mortgages, worried about saving money to send our kids to college, and hoping that those who we elected every couple of years were doing the right things.

But suddenly we find ourselves in some very uncomfortable situations. We find that many of the promises we have been made were totally ignored. We find that the only ones who have any real input into Washington are buying access. We hear a bureaucrat say: “You can not let a crisis go to waste.” We find that our leaders call those who that agree with them, good American and anyone who disagrees, un-American. We see our “leaders” not only vote on bills but pass them without bothering to read the contents. Then a leader says it doesn’t matter, since he would not understand what he was reading.

Next year many of these “leaders” will be asking for our votes. We must remember what they think of us. It does not matter if you agree or disagree with the current debate; you must remember that if our leaders are this arrogant, then they have no desire to serve. They may be doing what you think you want now, but can we trust them. We are stronger because of our differences. No one group is totally right or wrong. If we are not willing to listen to those who disagree then our ignorance will be used against us.

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When our leaders will not listen and call us a mob, un-American, and say we are lying when they don’t know if it is true or not, it is time to throw the bums out. How can we trust them? I can see no reason to trust these career politicians who are so isolated from us that they seem to have forgotten what it means to be an American. As they make these huge power grabs we find our freedoms slipping away.

Something has been bothering me for a while now

Something has been bothering me for a while now. I’ve had the same doctor for years. In fact we went to high school together. His kids and mine are friends. Hell he saved my life about ten years ago. I thought I knew and could trust him. But as I listen to the leader of our country, I find out some troubling things. To think that he removed my son’s tonsils not because they were inflamed and he was constantly sick, but because he some how got paid extra for doing it. I really don’t know who paid him extra, since I paid him for the operation. Then I hear that he is contemplating cutting off my leg to collect $30,000 from my insurance. So I guess he’s using reverse psychology on me every time he tells me that I need to watch my weight and cut down on the salt and fat. Who would have thought that my friend and doctor is so evil.

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Well I’m sorry Mr. Obama, I’m not buying it. My friend and doctor is a caring person who went into the medical profession for the right reasons. He really cares about his patients and takes his Hippocratic Oath to heart. For anyone to paint all doctors as uncaring and evil only shows how twisted our President thinks. Why would anyone trust a word that he says? He will say anything to get his way. He seems to be saying; to Hell with the country, he has his legacy to care about.

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©2009 Pedro Sykes - Some Rights Reserved

Is the American Two Party System Broken?

The founding fathers were very wise when they created the American system of governance. Considering the chaos and tyranny that governed the world in the 18^th century it is amazing that a system based upon the intricate checks and balances of this country was devised. Our system was originally designed and intended to protect the minority and the majority equally. This system had at least one major flaw, one of them being that they allowed the institution of slavery to continue. The resolution of that error was very costly. By ignoring the social consequences the nation was nearly lost. But it was saved and its fragile legacy lives on till today.

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As the years go by there is another flaw that is becoming more and more evident. The idea of seniority rule could cost us our very freedom. We have an entrenched bureaucracy consisting of career politicians and life long government employees. One of the biggest danger is the seniority of the politician. The American people for many years have punished politician and the party for unpopular actions or policies. But the system stays the same. In 2006 and 2008 the American people punished the Republican Party for not sticking to its principles. In districts throughout the country many representatives were shown the door and replaced with “blue dog” Democrats. This was an effort by many to take back our country and return our system to one that was more (lowercase) conservative.

It seems to be a sound principle to punish those who did not follow through on their promises. Holding our leaders to a higher principle is a good American (not just conservative) value that should not be abandoned. But as we have seen since the 2008 election, the people who took control were not the conservation “blue dogs” that were sent. The power just shifted to the senior members. We’ve put people like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Chris Dodd, Barney Franks, Ted Kennedy, and John Conyers, Jr. in charge.

Mr. Conyers has openly admitted that he is not qualified for the committee that he chairs. By saying that it would do him no good to read the Health Care Reform Bill, since he would need two lawyers to help him understand it, he in effect said that he does not have the skills need for his position. So how did he get this position? He got it through majority rule and seniority. Don’t get me wrong, I believe we must have a government run by the people. I just would like to see people who are qualified in leadership positions.

The President, Healthcare, and Snake Oil II

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Red vs. Blue Pills

Like many 50+ Americans, I know a little about medicine and healthcare. In this week’s press conference Mr. Obama started talking about different medicines and gave the analogy of the red pill vs. blue pill. He made the choice of medication sound simple. He also a little more than intimated that all doctors are driven by greed.

Mr. President. If the choice of medication should be determined by a bureaucrat in Washington; then will you next be determining food supplements? Peanuts are a great source of protein. Why doesn’t the FDA mandate that all foods have peanuts added to make sure that all foods are higher in protein? Oh, there is that little thing about some people being allergic to peanuts. Yes our diets would have more protein, but some people would DIE. The same will be true if you put our health care in the hand of a faceless, heartless, and self-serving “healthcare board.” Medical decisions must be made by the doctors and patients. There is no reason to destroy 100% of the American healthcare system with the stated goal of providing it for less than 10% of the population.

Last year my insurance company denied paying for one of my medication. They determined that I could take an over the counter medication. Since the medication I used was not available, and I tried the OTC medicine (that did not work), I appealed their decision. After a couple of months, I won the appeal. I have to ask: Will you be able to appeal to use the blue pill if you are required to take the red pill by the government? Will the blue pill even be available if the government does not allow it to be prescribed? If the government decides that people can only take the red pill then, will any companies be allowed to make the blue one? How many people will the red pill kill?

So I personally don’t care which pill you take. Just make sure that we have the pills that work.

©2009 Pedro Sykes

The President, Healthcare, and Snake Oil

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Well last night President Obama presented his latest dog and pony show to try and tell the American people that he must take control of the healthcare system. The biggest problem with last night’s speech was its lack of details. He is pushing us to accept his word that this is now insurance reform. But that is not what the bill in Congress says. As more and more information comes out about what the bill really contains those of us who care can see the lies that we have been spoon fed.

The pattern that is easy to see is that the rush to pass bill through Congress is nothing more than those in power forcing upon us something that few of us would accept if we knew the contents. Just one of his repeated lies would be: The bill in the House will outlaw private insurance. But Obama keeps saying that if you are happy with your current plan you will be able to keep it.

So why the hurry to “fix” healthcare? Well consider the fact that all of the other government healthcare programs are currently out of money. Medicare and Medicaid are in trouble. Those in power seem to thing that the problems with these programs can only be fixed by making them bigger. They need to force more people into the government programs so that there will be more funds to pay off the bills. Kind of like a Ponzie scheme. But this Ponzie scheme will make Madoff look honest when it runs out of money.

So where did we go wrong? Price controls were proven to be a total failure in the Nixon Administration. The government can not set prices in a free market without a major ripple throughout the system. For years Medicare and Medicaid has set prices. Just because the government sets a payment rate does not mean that it actually covers the cost. The large private insurance companies followed suit by using the power of their massive subscriber base to negotiate prices. The government mandates that no one can be denied care. The cost of that care is covered by the Federal and local governments. This system has caused the ridicules and unbelievable situation where the uninsured are forced to pay inflated rates.

So as I sat and watched a press conference that was nothing more than a snake oil sales pitch, I felt like I was watching a work of fiction. There were no facts in his presentation. I’m still waiting for an answer to the question of if our “leaders” will be put under the same system. As I was watching his speech I was thinking of a Clint Eastwood movie; “The Outlaw Josie Wells.” In it there was a character selling his miracle medicine. He asked the Chief to try it. His response was; “You drink it.” So Mr. Obama and members of Congress are you willing to drink your own medicine?

I didn’t think so.

©2009 Pedro Sykes

Welcome to Pedro's Podium

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The current political climate is so volatile and divisive that most people are shouting and few are listening. Too many people see the world in simplistic terms. The world is too complex to simple put everyone into two groups. Our "leaders" seem to have one goal and that is to divide and conquer. Our enemies from within and without would have us destroy ourselves by exploiting our petty grievances. For too many years the average American has been so busy with their lives that they had to trust our leaders to do the best for the country. Now is the time for the average citizen to consider what the changes that are being rammed through by Congress will mean for the long term. I fear that in the hurry to do something, our leaders will do the wrong thing. Haste makes waste is something that should be considered, not ignored.

©2009 Pedro Sykes