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1. Ron | July 7, 2012 at 10:12 am

   Loved the song. It’s appropriate for the weather we’ve had lately. I know you all have had it hot the last several days. The last 4 days our area has set record high temps. Yesterday it only got up to 102 degrees. However, most of us here have power so we can get out of it. Those of you without power, I hope you get it back soon. Blessings!!
2. Ron | July 7, 2012 at 4:05 pm

   As it has been so hot outside, I decided to spend most of today inside. Among the many things I’ve gotten done is reviewing some of my family history. I discovered something that I had forgotten. My 5th great grandfather Frantz Phillip May, his wife and two of their sons, on this day in 1752, stepped off the ship Phoenix in the port of Philadelphia. They had come to America from Langendiebach, Germany. Frantz’s wife was pregnant at the time because my fourth great grandfather, Thomas, would be born in November of 1752. After getting off the ship in Philadelphia they would join other extended family members in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Thomas, after the American Revolution, would move first to Rockingham County, Virginia and then later to Knox County, Tennessee. One of Thomas’ sons, Jacob, would move his family to Lawrence County, Illinois in the 1820s to continue the family’s migration. Jacob’s grandson, Charles Abraham, moved his family to Knox County, Indiana and that’s where my life began.

   I’m not sure whether my ancestors entered the country legally or not. I guess I’m glad we didn’t have an Immigration Service in those days. People immigrating to the American Colonies, later to the U.S.A., came for a variety of reasons. However, for most it was a step toward a life of opportunity that was not available to them in their native country. More than 260 years later they are still coming here. Again, the opportunity for a better life seems to be the driving force.

   Next summer I plan a trip to Germany to spend time with May family relatives who descended from those who stayed behind. I hope to find information about what lead my ancestors to pack up possessions, family and whatever else they had, to get on a small ship and travel thousands of miles to an unknown future. It is, for me, an intriging mystery.
3. Ron | July 7, 2012 at 4:53 pm

   Seems to me we’ve forgotten the message shared in this song by the Oak Ridge Boys.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWM415haiHE.
4. Dan Casey | July 7, 2012 at 5:25 pm

   Elvira, baby!
5. Ron May | July 8, 2012 at 8:04 am

   Since Dan & I seem to be the only ones posting here, I thought I would post this comment here. Below is a statement from a friend of mine giving his views on the ACA. His comment is clear. If you are opposed to the ACA, give very specific and “factual” reasons why.

   By the way, you may notice that I have posted my full name on this post. I did so to honor my ancestor, Frantz Phillip May, for his courage and determination. I figured if he could take the courageous act he took 260 years ago, I do something simple like revealing my name.

   Have a great day fellow bloggers.
6. Ron May | July 8, 2012 at 8:05 am

   I guess it helps to post the comment from my friend. Sorry about my mistake.

   “I wish that people who post against the ACA (ObamaCare) would be specific as to their reasons to oppose it. Here is what it does for me.
   It allows me to have medical coverage. Those of you that know me know that I am a laundry list of pre-existing conditions. Without the ACA I would not be able to afford medical insurance. It also allows us to put my youngest on Christie’s policy while he finishes college. I know that many people don’t care if their older children have coverage or not but I do care. I experienced a catastrophic accident when I was 25 and had no insurance. Someone paid the bills for that but it wasn’t me. Closing the donut hole saves most elderly people around $2,000/ year.
   I know there are problems with it and I am all for making changes but I do not want to hand control back to the Insurance companies. They have spent billions demonizing it(lies of death panels and such) and only for monetary gain.
   60% of personal bankruptcies in th USA are from huge medical costs and 80% of those people had health insurance.
   If you don’t like Obama then vote against him but please don’t take away my health coverage to show your dislike. The ACA is a step in the right direction.
   Let’s keep the ACA and fix the problems.
   I love facts so please be specific. If you share your info with me I might see it from your side.

   This concludes my annual post. ;D”
7. Sandi Saunders | July 11, 2012 at 10:27 pm

   Ron, you remain an example for us all. Thanks! Your friend makes some very valid points.

   Sometimes I do believe we have all taken our eyes off the prize. Nothing we have can go with us when we go but things we do while here can live on for a much longer time. I will die knowing that however imperfect and short tempered I was, I never shifted from my belief and practice that I am my brother’s keeper and it is my lot to do what I can, contribute what I can, and speak out when I can to further what I consider to still be THE goal of “love thy neighbor”. As a person and as a citizen of this society, that remains our “job”. And the ONLY one we will be judged on.

   Granted you can believe that and not believe you will be judged for it, but you cannot believe you will be judged and not believe that IMO.
8. Suzie | July 11, 2012 at 11:29 pm

   If you are opposed to the ACA, give very specific and “factual” reasons why.

   If your “friend” has a bunch of pre-existing conditions, it isn’t health insurance he wants; it’s welfare.

   I’ve listed the reasons I opposed it many times before, but I am patient when it comes to teaching. For starters, government control of health care will send the debt into the stratosphere and will drastically raise the taxes of nearly all taxpayers. Someone making $30,000 a year will see their tax bill go up $2000 by 2016 just to pay for this monstrosity.

   Secondly, government has never been trustworthy about exercising fiscal discipline. Medicare has grown into a medusa. SS is moribund. Why would we trust government with something much larger? Show me the history where government spent responsibly. You can’t.

   Thirdly, 0bamacare will result in the destruction of private health insurance BY DESIGN. Everyone’s choices will be limited. Doctors will become scares, treatment will become slower, options will become limited. Just like in England. Just like in Canada and every place else they have government-run health care.

   Fourthly, it won’t work. It hasn’t yet. Only morons jump on something that has never worked.

   There ya go, Liberal Ron. Tell your friend you’re sorry he wasn’t responsible enough to buy a decent health insurance policy when he could like most people do.
9. Dan Casey | July 12, 2012 at 12:34 am

   It works in Massachusetts.
10. Ron May | July 12, 2012 at 9:51 am

    Suzie Q,

    It’s a waste of time but here goes anyway. First, the Affordable Care Act is a direct descendent of what the Heritage Foundation (Ultra Conservative Think Tank) proposed in 1989.

    “In 1992, Heritage proposed a sweeping reform it called the Heritage Consumer Choice Health Plan. Among the plan’s features:

    “Require all households to purchase at least a basic package of insurance, unless they are covered by Medicaid, Medicare, or other government health programs. The private insurance market would be reformed to make a standard basic package available to all at an acceptable price.”

    As President Bill Clinton began to push for a government-run system in 1993, Republicans introduced bills that included an individual mandate. At the time, Newt Gingrich hailed them:

    “I am for people, individuals — exactly like automobile insurance — individuals having health insurance and being required to have health insurance,” he told “Meet the Press” in 1993. “And I’m prepared to vote for a voucher system which will give individuals, on a sliding scale, a government subsidy, to ensure that everyone as individuals has health insurance.”

    That same year, Heritage Foundation health care guru Stuart Butler argued before Congress for “a requirement on individuals to enroll themselves and their dependents in at least a basic health plan — one that at the minimum should protect the rest of society from large and unexpected medical costs incurred by the family … To the extent that the family cannot reasonably afford reasonable basic coverage, the rest of society, via government, should take responsibility for financing that minimum coverage.” See source below.

    http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2012/03/ironic_challenge_affordable_ca.html

    Second, you can provide no link to a source that supports your allegation that “Someone making $30,000 a year will see their tax bill go up $2000 by 2016 just to pay for this monstrosity.” It simply isn’t true and you know it.

    Third, my friend is not seeking welfare. He’s a successful businessman who owns & operates several businesses employing upwards of 100 employees. He’s covered under his wife’s health insurance plan, rather than the plan he has for his employees so as not to have his health issues increase the cost of premiums his employees pay.

    I’d go on but why waste my time and talent on you.
11. Suzie | July 12, 2012 at 10:16 am

    Second, you can provide no link to a source that supports your allegation that “Someone making $30,000 a year will see their tax bill go up $2000 by 2016 just to pay for this monstrosity.” It simply isn’t true and you know it.

    Ron,
    If I provide the link will you agree to apologize, then shut the hell up?
12. Ron May | July 12, 2012 at 10:54 am

    You can’t provide the a credible link because it doesn’t exist.
13. Sandi Saunders | July 12, 2012 at 11:11 am

    Suzie, we are more than a little aware that you have “listed the reasons I opposed it many times before”, and you remain wrong.

    For starters, there is no “government control of health care”. This bill was mainly insurance reform (and badly needed). The debt was already going “into the stratosphere” so NO, this will not “drastically raise the taxes of nearly all taxpayers” in any way, shape or form. That is absolutely a lie.

    There is no way that “Someone making $30,000 a year will see their tax bill go up $2000 by 2016″ unless they choose to take no action and like you, be belligerent over deciding on health insurance. The tax money, if it is even collected, will not even begin to pay for their coverage so they will essentially pay for nothing and only the right wing crazies are that hard headed.

    While you might make the argument that “government has never been trustworthy about exercising fiscal discipline”, that holds true no matter who has been in power. Saint Reagan and both Bush regimes enlarged government and increased its power.

    Medicare has the “baby boomers” to contend with and then gets back to normal. Social Security is just that and will remain an important commitment even after reform. We trust government because this is a representative republic and that is how things are done. Your trust is not required. Never has been.

    Your “Thirdly” is too stupid to deserve an answer, but single payer and end the entire “insurance dependency” is a good thing in the long run. We are the only industrialized nation still fighting this losing battle. Mainly because business, including the insurance industry, runs our government.

    Doctors will become richer and have more say, more medical schools will be built, more hospitals will be expanded, and more jobs will be created with this reform than anything before it.

    You remain wrong. No news there.
14. Sandi Saunders | July 12, 2012 at 11:13 am

    Suzie, take your own advice and “shut the hell up!” No apology needed.
15. gdad | July 12, 2012 at 11:28 am

    #11 You mean like when you provided the link to the long-disproven story about painters tape destroying the marble at the Wisconsin capitol?
16. Suzie | July 12, 2012 at 12:53 pm

    Second, you can provide no link to a source that supports your allegation that “Someone making $30,000 a year will see their tax bill go up $2000 by 2016 just to pay for this monstrosity.” It simply isn’t true and you know it.

    SEKULOW: A 30 — a household of four with an income of $30,000 will pay the equivalent by 2016 about $2,200, $2,300 a year. That is a big tax increase on the middle class, the largest we’ve ever seen. And Juan, hey you want to call it politics, I call, you know, basically a complete fabrication. The President of the United States said, it’s not a tax and he sent his solicitor general to the United States up there to argue kind of it’s a tax. Hesitantly, but they were worried about the politics.

    http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100007214&docId=l:1696675147&Em=7&start=5

    Clowned. Now apologize, then shut the hell up. Then we can move on.
17. Dan Casey | July 12, 2012 at 1:09 pm

    Suzie,

    Ron was asking for a credible source, not prattle from Jay Sekulow on the Sean Hannity show. Jay and Sean are the clowns, not Ron.
18. Suzie | July 12, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    For starters, there is no “government control of health care”.

    Yep, it will. It was designed to put private carriers out of business. Guess who that leaves as the only alternative. Duh.

    —–

    NO, this will not “drastically raise the taxes of nearly all taxpayers”

    Who do you think is going to pick up the tab in the trillions? The tooth fairy? My God, we see what a bottomless pit Medicare and SS have become for taxpayers. Why would something even larger not cost them even more? Are you purposely that stupid, hon

    ——

    There is no way that “Someone making $30,000 a year will see their tax bill go up $2000 by 2016″

    Not my analysis, hon. Somebody a whole lot smarter than you came up with that.

    ——

    We are the only industrialized nation still fighting this losing battle.

    Right. You want us to be like Europe which is going broke. Why you leftwing tools want to emulate a record of 100% failed policies is beyond anyone.
19. Suzie | July 12, 2012 at 1:28 pm

    Ron was asking for a credible source, not prattle from Jay Sekulow on the Sean Hannity show.

    Dan chimes in because he’s the king of getting clowned for challenging Suzie.

    He thinks MSNBC and CNN are credible sources. Ron implied I made it up. I proved I didn’t. He owes me an apology.
20. Sandi Saunders | July 12, 2012 at 1:48 pm

    “Require U.S. citizens and legal residents to have qualifying health coverage. Those without coverage pay a tax penalty of the greater of $695 per year up to a maximum of three times that amount ($2,085) per family or 2.5% of household income. The penalty will be phased-in according to the following schedule: $95 in 2014, $325 in 2015, and $695 in 2016 for the flat fee or 1.0% of taxable income in 2014, 2.0% of taxable income in 2015, and 2.5% of taxable income in 2016. Beginning after 2016, the penalty will be increased annually by the cost-of-living adjustment. Exemptions will be granted for financial hardship, religious objections, American Indians, those without coverage for less than three months, undocumented immigrants, incarcerated individuals, those for whom the lowest cost plan option exceeds 8% of an individual’s income, and those with incomes below the tax filing threshold (in 2009
    the threshold for taxpayers under age 65 was $9,350 for singles and $18,700 for couples).”
    http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/8061.pdf
21. Richard J Beason, CPA | July 12, 2012 at 1:53 pm

    18. Suzie – Of only you were correct on any of your points it would be unbelievable.
22. gdad | July 12, 2012 at 1:54 pm

    #19 Note that suzie is, as usual, changing the parameters. She’s not claiming now that the $2,000 number is true, simply that she didn’t make it up. For her trolling purposes, she doesn’t care whether or not it’s true. Just like with the painters tape.
23. Sandi Saunders | July 12, 2012 at 1:55 pm

    Suzie, “a household of four with an income of $30,000 will pay the equivalent” of $750.00 IF they pay anything at all in 2016.

    Owned. Now apologize, then shut the hell up!
24. gdad | July 12, 2012 at 1:55 pm

    suize sure is trying to shut up a lot of people these days. Pretty curious for somebody who whines and pouts like a child about Dan “censoring” her posts.
25. Sandi Saunders | July 12, 2012 at 2:20 pm

    It is pretty incredible Gdad, when she was describing herself and her childish tirades, interruption, unsolicited BS, fits and insults and ascribing them to others, it was downright laughable. She isn’t a troll, she is a joke.
26. Shrillary | July 12, 2012 at 3:01 pm

    #18 most ill-informed…”You want us to be like Europe which is going broke. Why you leftwing tools want to emulate a record of 100% failed policies is beyond anyone.”

    You sound more and more ignorant with each post. Go get a globe or a world map and study it… you will find
    that Germany is in Europe. Sweden is in Europe. The Netherlands, yep, in Europe. All economies are doing well – heck even France will post a small increase to their economy.

    You really need to stop posting when the adults are exchanging FACTS and information – your interruptions are, well, so childish.
    Now go run along, and go somewhere you can sit quietly reading something filled with real information.
27. pammala | July 12, 2012 at 3:13 pm

    So why does the healthcare 0bamascam have a tax on selling your home, beginning in 2013? What does selling your home have to do with anyone’s heath insurance?
28. K | July 12, 2012 at 3:24 pm

    We are going broke partly because of Bush tying us up in too many wars, just like the USSR did.
29. Dan Casey | July 12, 2012 at 3:30 pm

    “So why does the healthcare 0bamascam have a tax on selling your home, beginning in 2013? What does selling your home have to do with anyone’s heath insurance?”

    More RWer propaganda that is in its best light highly misleading and in its worst a rotten lie.

    The facts are here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/realestate.asp
30. Shrillary | July 12, 2012 at 3:40 pm

    #27 pamadoodle…I’m sorry, I should have included you too in my post @26, and saved you from making a fool of yourself again.

    “You really need to stop posting when the adults are exchanging FACTS and information – your interruptions are, well, so childish.
    Now go run along, and go somewhere you can sit quietly reading something filled with real information.”

    Comment by Shrillary — July 12, 2012 @ 3:01 pm
31. gdad | July 12, 2012 at 3:41 pm

    #27 Imagine that, pammalalalapdog spreading more right-wing lies. Something tells me the lies will be coming fast and furious for the next few months.
32. Ron May | July 12, 2012 at 3:48 pm

    The Medicare Tax as it is called applies to homes occurring after December 2012. Additionally, it applies only to individuals earning more than $200k or more or couples whose income exceeds $250k. Further it applies only to profits above $250k on the sale. Couples can exclude $500k from the tax. The Tax Foundation estimates it will impact less than 2% of real estate sales.
33. Contrasuzie | July 13, 2012 at 7:47 am

    pammalapdog, why do you care about homeowners? You’re renting that single-wide.

    Screwzie, nobody owes you an apology for sh*t. Ever.
34. Ron May | July 13, 2012 at 9:19 am

    32.The Medicare Tax as it is called applies to homes occurring after December 2012.

    That should read “home sales…”