Delftsman

WWRRD?

Looking around today, it is becoming more and more evident to anyone with half a brain that things are going very wrong these days, and they are sliding downhill at an ever increasing rate.

Iran is on the brink of a civil war; yesterday, even the Iranian Guardian Council admitted that there were irregularities in over 50 of the voting districts in the recent elections. The Iranian people are tired of their President spewing Jihadist hatred out into the world and they felt in their hearts that the elections had been rigged. Braving a tyrannical theocratic regime, they have taken to the street to protest the farce that the elections have become. The regime has taken a hard line against the protesters; killing thirteen since last Saturday.

A young lady named Nada has become the face of the protesters to the world, as the world watched as she bled out her last after having been shot by "person unknown" as she was standing watching on the sideline of an anti-regime protest. Even the enforcement arm of the regime is beginning to question their orders to use live rounds against the protesters.

North Korea is threatening to launch a rocket at Hawaii. The rocket will supposedly fall 500 miles short.

President Obama is taking a "hands off" approach to the crisis in Iran and in North Korea. He seems to be worried that if the tyrants do succeed in suppressing the voices of freedom, that they will be upset with him and refuse to accept further sops to discontinue on their present courses of action.

I have to ask, what would Ronald Reagan have done if he had been the President under these circumstances?

President Reagan never had a problem confronting evil and calling it out on the world stage. He was never afraid to call evil what it is: evil. He called down tyrants publicly and without apology. The world is a better place because of his commitment to liberty.

Mr. Reagan understood that the United States was a unique place with unique role to play in world affairs. He understood that most people in the world wanted nothing more than the freedom to be allowed to conduct their own affairs without fear or oppression, and that the U.S. was the lantern that provided the light to show the way to that freedom simply by being.

If Obama were President in 1989, would the Berlin Wall have fallen? Would the Soviet Bloc have fallen as it did under the relentless pressure that Reagan placed upon it simply by refusing to accede to it?

Reagan’s Berlin speech was a turning point in history. We shall never forget those famous words, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” ...29 months later the wall came down.
Had Obama been president.....well that's speculation at best, but I think given his performance since his ascension to office, I think I can safely state that ,at the least, that The Wall would still be standing and Germany would still be a divided country.

We can never go back, but please let us take note from the past. The only way to stop tyrants is to not be afraid to stand up to them. Unlike Mr. Obama's seeming passion to apologize to the tyrants of the world for U.S. past actions both real or perceived, we need to tell these tyrants that we will not accede to their threats, but will oppose them wherever, whenever, and however it is in our power to do so.

While the Iranians are putting their lives on the line in a bid to exert their natural desire for freedom, and North Korea is publicly threatening our territorial sovereignty we here in there in the United states are passively sitting by and watching our hard won freedoms held for over the last 233 years slowly slip away under the leadership of an incompetent albeit glib thug coming from the Chicago political machine tradition.

In the time that he has had the reigns, Mr. Obama has tripled our national debt, nationalized our banking industry and a large part of our vehicle manufacturing industry, and seems hell bent on doing the same to our health-care industry.
He has apologized to petty tyrants and dictators all over the world and ignored his own citizens' pleas for redress.
He, with the assistance of his party and a compliantly fawning press has forced through legislation with lightning speed, such as the TARP bills and the other stimulus packages against the wishes of a majority of the American people.

No one truly knows just what is in those bills, no one has read them completely. The only thing that we can be assured of is that there are myriads of government-growing riders in those bills that we may not realize even exist until they come around and slam us with the heavy weight of government regulation and control. Little things like forcing all doctors and hospitals to become a part of the government network of providers or face stiff fines...(yep, it's in there!) Sounds reasonable? After all, we do want consistency in health-care don't we? Until you realize that it gives some governmental bureaucratic council the power to decide if your doctor can or cannot take a certain course of treatment for you. Thems that pay the bills make the rules, regardless of their expertise....do you care to put your health under the aegis of a G7 bean-counter? If the pResident has his way, you won't have a choice in the matter.
Realize that under the new system, you become a cipher in a cost analysis equation...if your too old, or too ill, you will not get the treatments that are available to you now. Even if you do qualify to get treatment, it may take a longer time to get needed treatments, thus reducing their efficacy. If you don't believe it, just look at the results in the two most referred to systems when touting government health care, the British and the Canadian NHS's...the single largest growing segment of the Canadian health care industry are the private companies that intercede for Canadian patients to be able to come to the U.S. for treatment that is either unavailable, or the waiting period before receiving treatment is too long for the treatments to be efficacious.
In Britain, if you are over the age of 59, you are not allowed to receive a heart bypass, or a stent procedure under NHS guidelines...seems the perceived benefit is outweighed by the high cost, you just need to "do quietly fade away without a fuss, dear boy", since your perceived worth to society isn't on a par with your perceived expense to same. Elderly patients with macular degeneration are not allowed a certain (you guessed it, expensive)sight maintaining drug until they have lost the vision in one eye, to try to maintain vision in the remaining eye.

Horror stories like these abound in all government run systems, it's an inherent consequence of government run systems. Just take a look at the Post Office or the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and ask yourself if you would want the clowns operating them to have control over your health care. I think NOT.

That's not to say that the system we have now is acceptable as it stands either. Health care costs have outpaced the average cost of living by treble percentages for over the last twenty years. The system is breaking under the strain, and action must be taken if we are to save it.

I think that tort reform would go a long way to that end, along with some changes in insurance requirements that only serve to raise costs without adding any true benefits...(tell me, why should I have to pay for obstrectical(sic) benefits as a 55 year old male in my policy?!?)

Ronald Reagan once said: "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
Americans have traditionally always had a well founded mistrust of government. It seems that we have forgotten that attitude of late, and I fear that unless we return to it with a vengeance, and soon, we will find that the reason for that mistrust will have bound us 'round with the chains of regulation and (albeit well meaning) control over every aspect of our lives by an overarching federal bureaucracy. When that state of being becomes entrenched, America shall cease to exist as America.

It's up to every one of US to try to ensure that it will not happen on our watch, lest our posterity curse us for the ones to lose their liberty for them.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. Ronald Reagan

Posted by Delftsman3 at June 23, 2009 01:48 PM | TrackBack