A Site for Shore Eyes

How could anyone not like this so-called healthcare bill the House has passed? Almost magically, it reduces the deficit by increasing spending by about a trillion dollars. This is similar to how the stimulus package has decreased both the deficit and unemployment. If you liked the stimulus package and TARP, you’ll love this so-called healthcare bill.

I especially like the part about health insurance providers being required to cover pre-existing conditions. That’s because I don’t own an insurance company. Whether you like them or not, the reason insurers either don’t cover pre-existing conditions, or have a waiting period before they do, is that it’s a losing proposition. For example, I had a heart attack and my kidneys failed, requiring me to go on dialysis. The amount my insurance company pays each month is considerably larger than my premium amount. If this had happened before I had insurance, it would have understandably been difficult, or very expensive, to find a company willing to take on that burden.

As a consumer, I like the idea, however. I think this practice should be extended to all types of insurance. I can avoid paying car insurance until I have an accident. I’ll get extended warranties only after something goes wrong with the equipment. When someone in the family dies, such as an uncle, I can take out a life insurance policy on him and collect a lot of money. If my house catches on fire, I can take out a policy and the insurance company will have to pay the damages. No longer can life insurance premiums go up due to increasing age. All it takes is for idiots in congress, who know nothing about business and making profits, to declare it so.

I remember a family in South Carolina that bought a new trailer and had it moved to its property. The next day a tornado came through and completely destroyed the trailer. A lady from the family said they had planned on getting insurance that day. The insurance company had this silly idea that they should have purchased the insurance before the home was destroyed, demonstrating how inhuman insurers can be.

Anyway, it’s easy to see that, by requiring insurers to cover pre-existing conditions, health insurance for all Americans will be much cheaper. Also, people on Medicare will see improved benefits after 500 billion dollars is stripped from the already insolvent program. I guess the problem is that I know so much less about math than the Democrats in congress. They never taught us about health insurance in an engineering college.

The worst part of this bill, however, is the mandate that everyone must buy health insurance, a mandate that will be enforced by the IRS. This will create jobs, because 17,000 new IRS agents must be hired. Have I mentioned that this is supposed to be a free country? That doesn’t mean free health care, but it should mean freedom from buying it unless an individual wants it.

Does it not occur to people that the government gets its money from the people, so it’s impossible to give back more in benefits than it takes in? This doesn’t require much heavy thinking to figure it out. Radicals are always demanding things from the government. They demand free college educations, free health care, and whatever else they think they lack but should have. None of this is guaranteed, and should not be guaranteed, by the Constitution.

The real problem here is that none of this is really about improving health insurance coverage for anyone, or about making it cheaper. It’s about transforming the United States to a socialist, perhaps even communist, form of government.

The president and the Democrats have continually demonized insurance providers without explaining why health insurance costs are rising. Much of it is due to government regulation, for example, preventing individuals from buying insurance across state lines, and failure to pass tort reform laws. Doctors and hospitals must pass the cost of attorney’s fees and judgments to the consumer, and insurance providers must take in enough money to satisfy these increased costs. Demonizing the insurance industry is an attempt to create a false sense of oppression among the populace. The people didn’t buy the rhetoric this time, however, with a majority not wanting this bill to be passed. That didn’t stop the Democrats and the president from shoving this bill through anyway.

Many of us attempted to warn others about the very real dangers of electing Obama, a Marxist, as president. He has aligned himself with radicals since his teen years. He still surrounds himself with those of the same ilk. So how did he manage to get elected?

Part of it was ACORN and their illegal voting practices, and part was capturing a majority of the black vote, but the biggest factor was a result of Democrats in some states crossing party lines and voting for John McCain in the primaries. They knew McCain to be a RINO (Republican in name only) and knew that many conservatives would not vote for him, just to “teach the party a lesson.” Well, it’s a lesson the country can ill afford.

This administration has trampled the Constitution by ruling by decree, just as in countries run by dictators. When congress won’t bow to the wishes of the president, he issues Executive Orders. Even before the healthcare bill, the federal government interfered in commerce, bailing out banks and businesses and even telling auto makers how much they can pay certain employees.

The ACLU persists in its attempts to secularize America, and in many cases, the liberal judges on the Supreme Court have played the game. They scratched their collective heads back in 1973 and decided that, because they couldn’t say for sure exactly when life begins, states could not outlaw the killing of babies by abortion. Most sane individuals would’ve thought the opposite, in the absence of proof. In many instances, they have decreed that public displays of, for example, the Ten Commandments, violate the so-called Establishment clause. The full text of the First Amendment reads: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

It’s difficult for me to understand how, if Congress has passed no law respecting an establishment of religion, the First Amendment has been violated? On the other hand, the Supreme Court has, for all practical purposes, enacted laws which prohibit the free exercise of religion, in a sense. Enacting laws is the sole responsibility of Congress, along with the president, not the Supreme Court. I’m tired of the government catering to the whims of some whiney individual who thinks differently than most people. If school prayer, or an invocation, offends someone, but doesn’t offend most others involved, the ruling should be for the majority, not the nutcase.

If a bull knew about the sword hidden behind the matador’s cape, it would never charge the cape. Some on the left of the political spectrum still believe that people warning about the restructuring of America and the destruction of its freedoms are conspiracy theorists. It just might be that they just want to see what’s really hidden behind the cape.

Once upon a time you could pretty much bank on public figures, especially TV people, using good grammar. Such is no longer the case, and poor grammar usage shows up everywhere.

A big problem with many people is that they want to “sound” intelligent, even if they don’t know the rules of grammar very well. For example, they tend to say, “Joe, Bill, and myself went hunting.” If you wouldn’t say, “Myself went hunting,” then I is the correct pronoun. Reflective pronouns must reflect another word, as in, “I went hunting by myself,” or, “I, myself, do not agree,” although it’s easier to just say, “I don’t agree.”

Frequently, especially people speaking in public, think that I sounds more sophisticated than me. “They asked Mary and I about it.” That’s the same as saying, “They asked I about it.” They asked me, so they asked Mary and me.

Him and her went to the movies. Nope! Him didn’t go, so her didn’t go. He went, and she went, so he and she went. However, he went with her, or she went with him. The difference here is that her and/or him are the objects of the preposition, with.

I’m not sure exactly what your stupid means. It must be something you own, because your is a possessive pronoun, as in, “I want your vote.” “You’re stupid,” means, “You are stupid.” Using your stupid just might mean you’re stupid.

What about, “The dog wants it’s bone”? “The dog wants it is bone,” makes no sense. “The dog wants its bone.” Unlike nouns, possessive pronouns do not earn apostrophes. “Take the dog and put its bowl in John’s car.”

While listening to TV I often hear constructions such as, “Joe Smith, he’s the best bowler in the league.” Did these people not listen way back in grade school? “Joe Smith is the best bowler in the league,” is all that needs to be said. Extraneous syntax runs rampant these days!

And then there’s “He’s taller than me,” which is becoming accepted due to ignorance. The completed sentence should read, “He’s taller than I [am].” It’s also generally overlooked when someone says, “It’s only me!” instead of the correct, “It’s only I.” This is because people tend to use object pronouns after to be verbs, in this case, is.

Okay, so you’re thinking, is it correct to say, “Mary would rather go with Sue than me,” or should it be, “Mary would rather go with Sue than I”? Well, in this case, it depends on the meaning. If she would rather go with Sue than go with me, then me is correct. If she would rather go with Sue than I would, then I is correct.

Maybe this isn’t exactly about grammar, but why do people insist on ATM machine, PIN number, and VIN number, to name a few? An automatic teller machine machine? A personal identification number number? A vehicle identification number number? Just stick with ATM, PIN, and VIN. Go to the ATM, insert your card, and enter your PIN. If someone steals your car, give the VIN to the police.

One common error in grammar is to classify people as objects, as in, “He’s the one that scored the winning point.” “He’s the one who scored the winning point,” is correct. I’m not going to discuss whether to use that or which, because it’s obvious that a lot of people are already confused about both grammar and Grandpa.

I’m not as tough as I used to be, that is, if I ever actually fit that definition. I keep waiting for it to get warm enough to ride my bike, but I keep seeing others already riding bikes, despite temperatures in the forties.

As a kid I rode my bike throughout the winter, except in snowy weather. When I had a paper route, I also rode in the rain, pretty much a necessity.

I also rode my first vehicle, a Vespa 125, throughout the winters, and admit that it felt pretty icy out there at times, even more so than when on a bicycle. I bundled up, though.

Okay, so if I wasn’t actually “tough,” perhaps I was a bit crazy. At any rate, I seemed to be more resilient to the cold than I am now. Even then, I wasn’t as tough (or as crazy) as my friend, Cliff, who also putted around on a scooter. He showed up at my door one evening during a snowstorm and seemed disappointed that I had no interest in riding to Cape May to go skating. He was back a few hours later looking much like Dr. Zhivago, with snow in his mustache and eyebrows.

I’m not at all certain how warm it will have to get before I get off my stationary bike and out on the street. Back in the scooter years, I remember deciding that a temperature of 54 degrees F seemed warm enough to throw on a spring jacket and go for a ride in the country. That may be too chilly for me now, even on a bike.

During the bicycle years, the boardwalk was a favorite destination for us, no matter how windy and/or cold it happened to be. Okay, so maybe sometimes it was too windy, or too cold, but not very often. I remember winds strong enough to take us down the boards without doing much pedaling. We considered ourselves fortunate if the winds happened to be out of the north, meaning we’d have a tail wind heading home.

I owned a number of bikes at one time or another, but it gets a bit fuzzy as to what bike I owned at what time. I know that in ’57 or ’58 my uncle sent my name in to a safety slogan contest, and I won a dark green, three-speed Schwinn. He submitted entries for all of us, and I just happened to be the lucky one.

At some point in time, I cannibalized a bike that used to be my brother’s and painted it red and blue, because that’s what color paint I found in the basement. This bike was a Columbia, and used to have a tank, horn, headlight and, believe it or not, turn signals. By the time I put it back into service it had two wheels and possibly a fender or two.

My last bike came from a bike rental place after the season. My dad promised me a bike if I washed dishes at our rooming house. This was the same style as the bike I “won,” but had only one speed. The color was close to iridescent blue.

I rode that bike until I switched to the scooter, meaning I rode it to high school, despite that being “not cool” at the time. I just thought the other kids were stupid for walking instead of riding. One day I intended to ride home for lunch and the bike was missing. It reappeared toward the end of lunch period, and the rider was considerably bigger than I. Instead of saying anything, I simply bought a lock, and that solved the problem.

It’s funny that now it’s okay to ride a bike at any age, unless you happen to be Owl Gore. You know, that guy who rides around in pedal-powered limos after arriving at the airport in a glider. Oops! My research assistant tells me he actually uses a hot air balloon, and provides his own propellant.

I need someone to help me out on this. . . Owl Gore now says that the cold weather proves that global warming is real. This pretty much also explains why the Easter Bunny lays eggs, I suppose.

Global warming knocked out our power for four days and fried the motherboard on my computer. When our hot water ran out, we began to suspect that we had a shortage of carbon dioxide in the home, so we headed for a relative’s house in another city. I tried calling Owl Gore to come shovel out our driveway with a solar-powered snow shovel, but finally had to rely on the city to do the chore. Unfortunately, they used conventional, diesel-powered equipment.

We had no idea that the sun could cause ice to form on electric lines, but that’s apparently what happened.

In other news, global warming alarmists stated that, because the hurricanes never got the memo about increasing in numbers due to global warming, that, what this actually means is that we’ll have fewer hurricanes, but of greater intensity. So far, neither has happened in the past couple of years, but that only proves that whatever these whackos say about global warming and/or climate change is true, whether or not it actually happens. In fact, that something doesn’t happen means that it’s happening, even if the average individual is too stupid to realize it.

This all lends credence to the Clearwater Revival, if nothing else. Just how stupid does one have to be to believe in man-made global warming? That’s a rhetorical question and need not be answered.

Meanwhile, the University of Tennessee has decided to bestow an honorary doctoral degree on Mr. Gore for his “visionary” leadership, probably because he envisions things that aren’t real. They gave Dolly Parton the same honorary degree, so that pretty much sums up the true value of such an award. An online poll taken by knoxnews.com indicates that 97 % of respondents think it’s a bad idea to give Owl Gore this honorary degree. It’s scary that 2% think it’s a good idea.

If the president wants universal health care (read: socialized medicine), he should recruit Owl Gore to write a book and make a movie about it. Apparently, a lot of people will believe anything he says, even with facts to the contrary.

In the latest shocking development, it came out that the same temperature reporting system has been in use for a hundred years. Volunteers send in temperature readings via snail mail. Apparently, many of them don’t follow guidelines with respect to time of day and location of thermometers. They also sometimes forget, or go on vacation and just fill in the forms with numbers they made up. Some thermometers were found to be situated on blacktop, for example, or near incinerators. One in Rome was near an airport runway and was affected by the heat of jet engines. The late senator, Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D, New York) once stated, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” This is one of those rare occasions when I agree with something stated by a liberal, at least when taken out of context.

I guess I never thought the global warming alarmists would ever say, “Aha, there’s snow on the ground in all 50 states, so global warming is real!”

Even if carbon dioxide were a greenhouse gas, it’s rather preposterous and presumptuous to think that the 25% or less created by humans could alter the Earth’s climate. Just how does one stop nature from generating the other 75%?