about national health care

I am removing this post because I think the explanation here is better, BTW, my cousin susan pointed out that my hyperbole was incorrect because the 15,400 charge was for a family, not per person. What it basically means is that if you take the figures I used(very reserved assumptions) that healthcare would add at least 1.2tn to the federal operating budget.

Anyway, go here for more info. http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml

BTW, I am not against national healthcare, but I think that people are not conscious of how much it will cost and the fact that the money will come from us(the middle class) even though many politicians want to make you believe it is being paid for by some anonymous group called the super-rich.

Another blast from the past, Gen. 6.6

Here is another thought from a 19 year old Brent.

8/31 Genesis 6.6

I don't understand how it says that he Lord was sorry that He had made mankind.  Why did He make us if it would grieve Him.  He must have known that the world would go down this path.

Blast from the past, notes on Genesis 3.1-14

I was sorting through old papers and I ran across this old journal entry and thought I would post it, I am not going to edit it though I could think of a few modifications I would make if I wrote on the same subject today, for now you get to see the way I was thinking when I was 19:

From 8/12/1996

In this chapter we have the fall of mankind.  The serpent knew what he was saying as he told Eve that she would know "good and evil".  As she ate the fruit, she obtained a whole new view of the world, the moral view.  However, this view compromised the most important part of her existence, her innocence.  The rush/high of the experience overcame her and she shared that sin with her husband.  Adam could have refused the fruit and saved his future, but he took of the fruit, and he too was changed.  (This situation is much like a child that is told not to touch fire.  The child sees the flames dance and is drawn by the light and the warmth, and he touches it.  He is then burned.)    The first indication of sin's burn was the realization of their nakedness.  Then there is the fear of God as He approaches the couple.

Both Adam and Eve knew God was great, and they feared Him after they shared the knowledge of Good and Evil.  They lost their innocence, and they found themselves separated from God... They also lost their trust in God, and God cannot talk to those who don't trust Him.

My son is one

A year ago today, my little Asher was brought into the world.  It was a tough day, or rather week.  My wife tried to have a natural birth, but my little boy was too big and she had to have a C-section after 72 hours of labor.  He was having trouble breathing when he came out and my wife was exhausted and in serious pain after an emergency surgery.  At that moment I became a father.  I realized that day that I no longer belong to myself.  I stayed with my son and talked to him as he laid under an oxygen hood with and IV in one arm and an oxygen sensor on his toe.  He didn't have the strength to move and I just told him to breathe.  I would go to my wife and report on the status of our new little man.  I was a bridge between my wife who was constrained to her bed and my son who could not leave the nursery.  He overcame those tense few hours and now he is a strong little man.  I got past those first days of sleeplessness and I cannot imagine a world without my little boy.

Not really a comment about God

My gov't is buying banks.

WHAT!!!

I am disgusted with the bailout plan. There was a cabal of financial executives that developed a complex plan to create value when there was none and that plan collapsed. Now, rather than closing those companies and imprisoning those people that understood how bad this would be and still signed off on it, we are propping up their business with tax dollars. But, not even tax dollars. We are doing it by issuing treasury bonds which means that we are mortgaging the future of our children to bailout people that defrauded us because they ran organizations that were "too big to fail". McCain and Obama have coddled this bailout as a measure to stop the downslide of our economy. I have news for them. The economy will rid itself of non-value regardless of how much money we pump into fraudulent companies. It will just take longer and we will suffer for a longer amount of time. Someone needs to read some Machiavelli and realize that if you have to do distasteful things, get them all done at once and then work on rebuilding. People can forget a single disastrous blow but long drawn out suffering breeds contempt and resentment. Just ask Bush. There is a reason that he is the least favored president in US history.

Back to the bank thing. Paulson rounded up execs from the top banks and extorted them to sign the agreement to allow the treasury to purchase their stock. The CEO of Wells Fargo objected to the plan(probably because his bank managed to steer clear of the tempting ponzi scheme which was being peddled on Wall St.) and the response given was something like "if you don't sign now, the Gov't may not be so generous later". Why didn't Paulson just tell Rocco to take them out for a walk by the pier? Hopefully, I will be proven wrong, but I am not happy about the way this bailout plan is shaking out. It seems more like a shakedown to me.