Open thread for Sunday, March 31st: The Mercy Seat Part 2
Here is the open thread for Sunday, March 31st; please feel free to leave links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues come up during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
As always, you can follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking on the links to the right, and you can also subscribe to receive email updates. You may have noticed I changed by sidebar around a bit because I felt the links to follow America’a Watchtower were hidden a little too much.
Happy Easter everybody, I hope you all have a wonderful day!
In last week’s open thread I mentioned that my son and I were going to see Nick Cave in Boston; it was an absolutely incredible and intense show which actually exceeded my expectations! We had a great time.
So this week I have decided to post ‘The Mercy Seat’ again, this time from a cell phone from a person at the show, here is ‘The Mercy Seat’ live in Boston:
There are only three possible explanations that I can come up with for the federal government’s large ammo buys: One; they are preparing for an insurrection and riots when Barack Obama achieves his goal of crashing the United States economy. Two; they are purposely trying to create a shortage of ammo because they know gun control legislation is doomed to fail and they feel this is the next best option. If people own guns but cannot buy ammo–either because it is unavailable or too expensive–for their guns then their guns are rendered useless. Or three; all of the above.
I happen to believe it is all of the above. But regardless of my belief one thing is certain; the Obama regime is accomplishing its goal of removing ammunition from the hands of the American people.
Sequester? Joe Biden takes his third vacation of the year
Even as the Democrats warn us of new potential calamities due to the sequester cuts–prison riots, cocaine flooding the streets, terrorists on airplanes, and hurricanes and tornadoes left undetected–Joe Biden has decided to follow the First Daughters’ lead and will be heading to Kiawah Island for his third vacation of the year.
The ruling class in Washington has had to make some tough choices now that the sequester is in place and that is what they did: They chose to cancel the White House tours and tuition assistance for veterans, but they chose to keep multiple vacations for the First Daughters and for the Vice President and his wife, and nobody dared to tell Michelle Obama that she couldn’t have her 50th birthday bash with Adele and Beyonce so that sure as hell didn’t get cancelled either.
It seems to me that if there really was a serious cocaine or prison riot concern, or an increased threat of terrorism, that the Royal Family and the King’s Hand would be willing to cut down on their extravagant and lavish lifestyle in order help ensure the safety of the plebeians but they are not and that is because, as I have written over and over again at this point, the Democrats’ plan is to inflict as much sequester pain on the American people as possible because in some sick way they feel it will help them hold onto power and that is really all they give a damn about.
While the White House tours have been cancelled and the program which provides our veterans with assistance for college tuition has been cancelled as a result of the sequester the First Daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama, have been vacationing without their parents in the Bahamas. And meanwhile Michelle Obama’s is moving forward with her 50th birthday party plans which include entertainment by Adele and Beyonce.
It now appears as if Sasha and Malia’s Bahamas vaction is over, they are now skiing on the taxpayer dime in Idaho.
In an exclusive photo obtained by Idaho’s First News, you can see the First Daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama skiing at River Run Thursday. The Sun Valley Ski Patrol confirms the girls were enjoying the wonders of the mountain. We also received unconfirmed reports the daughters were staying at Thunder Spring in Sun Valley
What did the Obama regime do when this news was made public? They ordered the original story to be taken down, which it was, but they did not deny it was true:
From the beginning of the administration, the White House has asked news outlets not to report on or photograph the Obama children when they are not with their parents and there is no vital news interest. We have reminded outlets of this request in order to protect the privacy and security of these girls.
The Obama regime controls the media and thereby control the narrative and they realized how damning this story was so they ordered its removal, meanwhile the propaganda being forwarded by the Democrats about the painful effects of sequester continue. The story is being manipulated by the Obama regime and it all too willing accomplice–the media.
Barack Obama ordered at least one agency to make the sequester cuts as painful as possible on the American people yet the Royal Family remains unaffected by the cuts. And this is coming from the man who has repeatedly stated that we ALL must sacrifice for the greater good…..
Obamacare: Are sex changes going to be covered by Medicare?
Are sex change operations soon to be covered in Medicare? According to this article this could very well be the case in the near future:
For the first time since 1981, when it dubbed sex-change operations “experimental,” Medicare has opened the door to covering transexual operations, adding to the growing list of operations that would be allowed under Obamacare.
Acting on a new request, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it is starting a new analysis that could lift the spending ban for sex-change operations with a goal of making a decision two days after Christmas and on the eve of Obamacare kicking in Jan. 1.
Note the timing of the decision; two days after Christmas when the regime knows that people will be distracted by the season and will not being paying attention to politics, a typical move by this regime.
Here is the definition of Medicare according to dictionary.com: A U.S. government program of hospitalization insurance and voluntary medical insurance for persons aged 65 and over and for certain disabled persons under 65.
Medicare was designed to provide hospitalization insurance for the elderly and for people with disabilities but here we have yet another example of a government program expanding beyond its intended goal and might soon be offering the elective surgery as one of its services.
We already know how this will end because we saw it play out when Barack Obama ordered private insurance companies to provide another elective service–birth control. The Obama regime will classify people who are transgendered as people who have a disability and even in the unlikely event that Medicare decides not to offer this surgery willingly the Obama regime will dictate that it must be covered, and Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer will be left on the hook to pay for this.
And there is already a bit of precedent for this: A judge has ordered the taxpayers of Massachusetts to pay for the sex change operation of an inmate who is in jail for murdering his wife because it is the only “adequate treatment for the inmate’s mental illness.”
Afterburner with Bill Whittle: Canaries in Coal Mines
Here is the latest Afterburner with Bill Whittle entitled ‘Canaries in Coal Mines.’ In this video he talks about the economic woes of the Euro-Zone and Cyprus and talks about how Barack Obama is in the process of bringing those woes to America.
Good stuff as usual, enjoy.
Obamacare: claims costs will increase by an average of 32%
Here is the latest example of how wonderful Obamacare is going to be once it is fully implemented:
Medical claims costs — the biggest driver of health insurance premiums — will jump an average 32 percent for Americans’ individual policies under President Obama’s overhaul, according to a study by the nation’s leading group of financial risk analysts.
The estimates were recently released by the Society of Actuaries to its members
This study only includes those Americans who do not have healthcare through their employer, in other words these are the people whom Barack Obama is going to fine if they do not have healthcare insurance. How many of these people do not have healthcare insurance because they cannot afford it in the first place?
And now we are learning it will be even more expensive for them, but of course that is all part of Barack Obama’s plan to drive private insurance companies out of business, drum up support for single payer, and implement what has always been the end goal here–government run healthcare.
His plan is working to perfection…..
Sequester? Sasha and Malia Obama vacation in the Bahamas
We were told that the sequester cuts were going to be very painful and the Obama regime even went as far as to tell at least one federal agency to make the cuts as painful as possible on the American taxpayers.
But there is one family that doesn’t seem to be feeling the pain of the sequester cuts and that would be the Obama’s; while Barack Obama stopped White House tours and threatened to cancel the Easter egg roll, the plans for Michelle’s 50th birthday bash are proceeding as scheduled, as are the plans for their August vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, and now it is being reported in this article that Sasha and Malia Obama are vacationing in the Bahama’s without their parents even as I write this.
It seems to me that all three of these taxpayer funded events could have been cancelled before the Obama regime stopped tuition assistance for military veterans but Barack Obama obviously has a different agenda. Life will go on as planned for Dear Leader and his family while he does his best to make the cuts as painful as possible on the people who are paying for his extravagance.
And Barack Obama calls himself the middle class warrior?
Open thread for Sunday, March 24th: The Mercy Seat
Here is the open thread for Sunday, March 24th; please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues may arise during the course of the day.
If you are so inclined you can follow America’s Watchtower on both Facebook and Twitter by clicking on the links to the right, and you can also subscribe to receive email updates by clicking on the link to the right.
Tonight my son and I are going to Boston to see one of my favorite artists–Nick Cave–perform at the Orpheum theater.
Nick Cave has not toured the United States in several years and the last time he did the closest he came was New York so I had given up on the thought of ever seeing him live until just recently.
I am very excited about this show so I thought I would share with you the ultimate Nick Cave song, it is entitled ‘The Mercy Seat.’
The Mercy Seat is about a man on death row for allegedly committing murder, although he claims he is “nearly wholly innocent” of said crime. The song starts out slow with a crescendo building slowly throughout culminating when the subject is led into the mercy seat.
It began when they come took me from my home
And put me in Dead Row,
Of which I am nearly wholly innocent, you know.
And I’ll say it again
I..am..not..afraid..to..die.
While on death row he begins to read the Bible and learn about Jesus and while he maintains his innocence the song alternates between what he is learning about God and what he did in his past, but as we can see in the last line below he is still a little skeptical at this point.
I began to warm and chill
To objects and their fields,
A ragged cup, a twisted mop
The face of Jesus in my soup
And the mercy seat is waiting
I hear stories from the chamber
How Christ was born into a manger
And like some ragged stranger
Died upon the cross
And might I say it seems so fitting in its way
He was a carpenter by trade
As the song continues it becomes apparent that the subject is indeed guilty although he tries to separate himself from the crime by declaring he has a “good hand” and an “evil hand” but he does place some blame on “the good hand” for not resisting his “evil hand”
Like my good hand I
tatooed E.V.I.L. across it’s brother’s fist
That filthy five! They did nothing to challenge or resist.
My kill-hand is called E.V.I.L.
Wears a wedding band that’s G.O.O.D.
`Tis a long-suffering shackle collaring all that rebel blood’
It is interesting to note that his “kill-hand” wears the “wedding band that’s good,” perhaps trying again to deflect the blame by placing some of the blame on the victim and giving us a glimpse into his motive for the crime, but he keeps coming back to what he is learning about God on death row.
As the story continues the subject begins to compare the Mercy Seat in heaven to what he now sees as the mercy seat on earth–the electric chair.
In Heaven His throne is made of gold
The ark of his Testament is stowed
A throne from which I’m told
All history does unfold.
Down here it’s made of wood and wire
And my body is on fire
And God is never far away.
At this point the subject still denies his guilt, but while he still claims he is not afraid to die he begins to waiver.
And anyway there was no proof
Nor a motive why.
No longer is he professing his innocence, instead he says there is no motive for the crime and no proof he did it, this leads us to believe he is guilty and when he finally climbs into the mercy seat he admits the truth.
But I’m afraid I told a lie
At this point he confesses he has been lying as he goes “shuffling out of life just to hide in death awhile” and he meets his fate.
The song ends leaving us to wonder about his fate in death: was this final admission an act of repentance for which he could be forgiven, or was he only admitting he was in fact afraid to die and face God’s judgement for his crimes without truly repenting?
A brilliantly written song in my opinion, enjoy, I know I will!
Obamacare: Senate votes to repeal the medical device tax but it will not see the light of day
After years of shirking the responsibility of passing a budget for the political reason of operating under continuing resolutions in order to hide the true magnitude of the sending crisis, while at the same time trying to blame the problem on Republicans, the Senate finally passed a budget early this morning.
According to this article Orrin Hatch added an amendment to the budget which would repeal the medical device tax (this is the tax which will cause veterinary costs to rise) and the amendment passed by a vote of 79-20.
This was nothing but a symbolic vote because amendments to budget bills are non-binding, and the budget is DOA in the House, but it does show us that there is growing support for this repeal in the Senate. Orrin Hatch has introduced a bill which would repeal the medical device tax and if it passes and the House approves the measure it would then head to the president’s desk for either his signature or his veto.
While the repeal of the medical device tax enjoys widespread and bipartisan support it should not be surprising to learn that Harry Reid was one of the 20 who voted against repealing this tax. So it will be interesting to see–if Harry Reid even allows a vote on this bill–how the Democrats will vote when the repeal would be binding.
Will they stand up for the American people or will they fall in line with Barack Obama when Harry Reid begins his arm-twisting? I don’t think it will come to that and here is why:
My prediction is that Harry Reid or one of the other 19 Democrats who do not support the repeal will add a totally unrelated amendment to the bill which will draw off support for the original legislation by Republicans and the repeal will not see the light of day. The propaganda machine will then be set in motion and Republicans will be blamed for keeping the medical device tax in place.
Technically the Democrats will be right about the Republicans killing the repeal of the tax even though they will be voting against the amendment to the bill and not on repealing the tax, but the end result will be the same. The Democrats will win the public relations battle and the Republicans will have been out-maneuvered once again and will be left holding the bag.
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