i love the smell of dead crickets in the morning
There's been a large number of e-mails swelling stating that America is founded upon Christian morals, correct? Okay, then would somebody please refresh my memory; wasn't there something somewhere in the book of Exodus about some kind of commandment? And wasn't there somewhere around TEN of them? And there HAD been something about "not lying," right? Just making sure.
Because lately, there has been a lot of misconstrued information on the Internet about Obama and his policies. recently, i ran across an e-mail which listed 50 lies that Obama had told. this will highlight some of these (not all, because i am a singular person, and I have a life other than making these kinds of e-mails, but you can find them on snopes.com), and show evidence to disprove them. It will also list several lies which have been told about his policies (mainly his health care reform), and evidence as to why these are false as well (for more information, please see politifact.com)
1. Selma Got Me Born - LIAR, your parents felt safe enough to have you in 1961 - Selma had no effect on your birth, as Selma was in 1965.
TRUTH: this is from a speech made back in may of 2007. Obama was, in truth, making a far stretched statement that he had CONNECTIONS to the city. To put into context, the speech was made on the anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" when hundreds of civil rights marchers had been beaten. Obama also mentions Birmingham, Rosa Parks, and other events which sparked "hope" in the world.
2.Father Was A Goat Herder - LIAR, he was a privileged, well educated youth, who went on to work with the Kenyan Government.
TRUTH: His father DID work with the Kenyan Government... but he had also been a Goat Herder earlier in his life.
3. Father Was A Proud Freedom Fighter - LIAR, he was part of one of the most corrupt and violent governments Kenya has ever had
TRUTH: Actually... Obama has written (and spoken) at length about his father's returning to Africa from America to work for the Kenyan government, with that country's political turmoil eventually leaving him a "bitter drunk" and "a defeated, lonely bureaucrat."
4. My Family Has Strong Ties To African Freedom - LIAR, your cousin Raila Odinga has created mass violence in attempting to overturn a legitimate election in 2007, in TRUTH: Kenya. It is the first widespread violence in decades.
Raila Odinga claimed to be Obama's cousin, but nobody has been able to find any substantial evidence to prove this claim.
5. My Grandmother Has Always Been A Christian - LIAR, she does her daily Salat prayers at 5am according to her own interviews. According to the New York Times: "I am a TRUTH: strong believer of the Islamic faith," Ms. Obama, 85, said in a recent interview in Kenya.' Not to mention, Christianity wouldn't allow her to have been one of 14 wives to 1 man.
Like every human, Obama has TWO sets of grandparents...
6. My Name is African Swahili - LIAR, your name is Arabic and 'Baraka' (from which Barack came) means 'blessed' in that language. Hussein is also Arabic and so is Obama.
TRUTH: Just like many other languages (English for example), Swahili has roots in another language... Arabic.
7. I Am Stronger On Foreign Affairs - LIAR, except for Africa (surprise) and the Middle East (bigger surprise), you have never been anywhere else on the planet and thus have NO experience with our closest allies.
TRUTH: "Barack Obama has lived in, traveled to, or otherwise spent time in countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, including Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, the Palestinian Territories, Afghanistan Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa, as well as serving as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee." (direct quote from politifact.com) However, whether or not this makes him a better person for the job, can still be debated.
8. I Was A Professor Of Law - LIAR, you were a senior lecturer ON LEAVE.
TRUTH: He was indeed a professor of law... AND THEN A senior lecturer. As stated on Snopes.com, most senior lecturer's were highly active in the political realm, which kept them from having full time tenure. The school offered Obama full-time status, but he turned it down.
9. I Took On The Asbestos Altgeld Gardens Mess - LIAR, you were part of a large group of people who remedied Altgeld Gardens. You failed to mention anyone else but yourself, in your books.
TRUTH: Yes he was, and yes he did.
10. I Am Not Acting As President Yet - LIAR, after the NAFTA Memo, a dead terrorist in the FARC, in Colombia, was found with a letter stating how you and he were working together on getting FARC recognized officially.
TRUTH: "On March 1, a Columbian Army strike on a FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) rebel camp in Columbia killed 24 people, including Raul Reyes, the FARC's foreign minister. Files in a laptop computer seized from the wreckage of the rebel camp included references to U.S. diplomatic overtures which the Associated Press described as "scintillating, if vague":
In a Dec. 11 message to the secretariat, [Ivan] Marquez writes: "If you are in agreement, I can receive Jim and Tucker to hear the proposal of the gringos."
Writing two days before his death, Reyes tells his comrades that "the gringos," working through Ecuador's government, are interested "in talking to us on various issues."
"They say the new president of their country will be (Barack) Obama," he writes, saying Obama rejects both the Bush administration's free trade agreement with Colombia and the current military aid program.
Exactly who the referenced "gringos" were and whether they had any substantive connection to Barack Obama is unknown. "
(snopes.com)
This is an attempt to, yet again, link Obama to some kind of terrorist group... and it, yet again, has no bearing whatsoever in reality.
11. I Want Americans To Decide - LIAR, you prefer caucuses that limit the vote, confuse the voters, force a public vote, and only operate during small windows of time.
TRUTH: They're giving an awful lot of power to him, aren't they? Each individual state, not Obama decides on whether or not to have caucuses.
12. I Don't Take PAC Money - LIAR, you take loads of it.
TRUTH: "Senator Obama didn't say that has never accepted money from political action committees. (He used PAC money in his previous U.S. Senate and Illinois state Senate races.) He pledged that he would not accept PAC money for his 2008 presidential bid, a pledge that he has upheld" (snopes.com)
13. I Have Always Been Against Iraq - LIAR, you weren't in office to vote against it AND you have voted to fund it every single time, unlike Kucinich, who seems to be out gutting you Obama. You also seem to be stepping back from your departure date - AGAIN.
TRUTH: Senator Obama expressed opposition to the war in Iraq well before he gained a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2004. (The vote that authorized U.S. military action in Iraq was held in 2002.) He has since voted in the Senate to authorize funding for that war, for reasons he defended in a February 2008 Democratic debate:
[...] Clinton voted in 2002 to authorize the invasion, which Obama opposed from the start. After Obama again touted a high-profile antiwar speech he gave in Chicago before the war, Clinton pointed out that he, like her, had subsequently voted for war funding, and that their records on Iraq were similar since he came to the Senate in 2005.
"When it wasn't just a speech, but it was actually action, where is the difference?" she said. "Where is the comparison that would in some way give a real credibility to the speech that he gave against the war?"
Obama shot back: "Once we had driven the bus into the ditch, there were only so many ways we could get out."(snopes.com, bold added)
14.
Inside the stimulus package "is anti-Christian legislation that will stop churches from using public schools for meeting on Sundays, as well as Boy Scouts and student Bible study groups."
TRUTH: This statement is based off of the part of the bill that "that provides $3.5 billion for public and private colleges and universities to modernize, renovate or repair facilities. The bill says money may not be used for buildings that are 'used for sectarian instruction or religious worship or a school or department of divinity; or in which a substantial portion of the functions of the facilities are subsumed in a religious mission.' [...] the stimulus clause refers specifically to money for higher education, not elementary and secondary schools as Gingrich's comment about "public schools" suggests." (politifact.com)
15.
The health care reform bill -- on Page 16 -- outlaws private insurance.
TRUTH: Now, this actually does get a little messy. However, according to politifact.com, section 102 says (this would be page 16), is that
'There will be individual policies available, but people will buy those policies through the national health insurance exchange,' she said. The House bill allows for existing policies to be grandfathered in, so that people who currently have individual health insurance policies will not lose coverage. The line the editorial refers to is a clause that says the health insurance companies cannot enroll new people into the old plans." (politifact.com, bold added)
16.
Under Obama's budget plan, families making over $250,000 are "going to lose their mortgage deduction, their charitable deductions."
TRUTH: Actually, it's only that "families in higher tax brackets, say 36 or 39 percent, they'd only be able to write off 28 cents on the dollar (as opposed to 36 or 39 cents), said Eric Toder of the Tax Policy Center. Say you are in a tax bracket where you pay a 36 percent rate; if you had $1,000 a year in mortgage interest payments, you'd currently be able to deduct $360. Under Obama's plan, you'd only be able to deduct $280. (Now, Lummis is right that families making over $250,000 would see an overall tax hike under Obama's plan. That was a hallmark of Obama's campaign. Essentially, Obama would allow the Bush tax cuts for those earners to expire next year. That would raise the tax rates for some from 33 to 36 percent; for others from 35 to 39.6 percent.)" (politifact.com)
by the way... under Reagan (in 1985) if you were single, and made over $85,000, you had a marginal tax rate of 70%.
17.
"Obama's Ten Point Plan to 'Change' the Second Amendment…Ban use of firearms for home defense."
TRUTH: "Here's Obama speaking at a forum sponsored by WJLA-ABC7 and Politico.com on Feb. 12, 2008: "I think we have two conflicting traditions in this country. I think it’s important for us to recognize that we’ve got a tradition of handgun ownership and gun ownership generally. And a lot of people - law-abiding citizens use it for hunting, for sportsmanship, and for protecting their families (emphasis added). We also have a violence on the streets that is the result of illegal handgun usage…We can have reasonable, thoughtful gun control measures that I think respect the Second Amendment and people’s traditions.”
18. i like this one a lot.
"According to The Book of Revelations the anti-christ ... will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent ... is it OBAMA??"
TRUTH: "To be clear: Nothing about this detailed allegation is true.
Let's begin with the Book of Revelation (note the singular, which is accurate), the final book in the Bible's New Testament, which is 22 chapters long. Its sweeping apocalyptic language is laced with metaphors and symbols that challenge modern readers, but nowhere does it offer the kind of cookbook definition of the Antichrist proposed in this e-mail.
To reach our findings, we read the Book of Revelation and interviewed two religious scholars. Here's what we found:
• The word "anti-christ" does not appear in the Book of Revelation.
"The word Antichrist is not used in the Book of Revelation so this is important to point out," said Dr. James D. Tabor, professor and chair of the religious studies department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "Everybody thinks the word is used."
That's a pretty big hole in this e-mail from the get-go. We didn't find the word in reading the text and our second scholar confirms this critical point.
"First and foremost, the word Antichrist and a figure called the Antichrist never occurs in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament," said Dr. L. Michael White, professor of classics and religious studies at the University of Texas and director of the Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins.
[...]
"It wasn't there in the Bible," White said. "It emerges in the Middle Ages. It's something historians deal with."
Now the word Antichrist does appear a few times in other books of the Bible, specifically in First John and Second John. The description in First John, Chapter 4, verse 3 says: "And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world."
(ps- "spirit of antichrist" = a spirit opposite of the Christ)
• There's no mention of a man of a certain age.
The Book of Revelation talks of God, Jesus Christ, John, spirits, Jezebel, a beast like a calf, a beast like a flying eagle, elders, a great red dragon and many more animals and people. But nowhere does it describe "a man, in his 40s," as the e-mail alleges.
"As you notice, there's nothing about being age 40," Tabor said. "This is completely wrong. The Book of Revelation doesn't say that. It says it's a male, so I guess they got that right. It says 'he,' 'he,' 'he.' "
• There's no mention of the word "Muslim."
Considering the Bible was completed by the early second century, and the Islam religion wasn't founded until the early 600s, it's not surprising that the world Muslim (the name for Islam followers) does not appear in the Book of Revelation.
So it's this part of the e-mail, where it says the Antichrist will be a man "of Muslim descent," that our religious scholars find particularly ridiculous.
By definition, the Antichrist is "the polar opposite and ultimate enemy of Christ," according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. And because Muslims believe "there is no god but God," they would have great difficulty with the idea of elevating a person to a divine status, White said.
"A Muslim would be a monotheist and the last thing a Muslim would do is have anyone worship anyone other than God," Tabor said.
Not to mention the fact that Obama is not a Muslim"
(politifact.com)
I don't know about you, but I am TIRED of people misquoting and misinterpreting religious books for propaganda. A similar e-mail has been circulating about a verse in the Koran (verse 9:11, as a matter of fact) which is said to read something like: "and the Eagle came into the land of the Muslims, and lo! The lands of Allah were wiped clean, and there was peace."
I have a Koran. No, I am not Muslim, but I once had an ongoing open discussion between a couple Muslims, and one of them gave me a copy of it (which, by the way is not actually considered a holy book, because it was translated into English). To put it in perspective, "verse 9:11" comes out of the section of the Koran entitled "Repentance." Before the discussed verse, it is talking about how a Muslim should react if an "idolater seeks asylum with you [a Muslim]." (9:6)
verse 9:11 -- "If they [the idolator] repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, they shall become your brothers in the Faith. Thus do We make plain Our revelations to men of knowledge."
19.
Obama would "experiment with socialism."
TRUTH: "Socialism refers most commonly to a system in which the government owns the means of production and distribution of goods. That is, the state truly is responsible for creating and spreading the wealth. Let's look at the root of Palin's claim - Obama's Oct. 12, 2008, exchange with plumber Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, who has come to be known simply as Joe the Plumber - and see if that's what Obama was suggesting." (politifact.com)
Well, I don't think that I need to restate what the exchange was, but I'll paraphrase anyways, "Joe the Plumber" asked Obama if he'd be interested in a "flat tax." Obama said, well it would be nice, but it's not going to work, because there's a lot of sales taxes that go along with it. Now, the socialism bit that everybody seems to put in there comes from Obama saying that he's OKAY with sharing a bit of his money with the po' folk who are having a rough time, because Obama's "attitude is if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's going to be good for everybody. If you've got a plumbing business, you're going to be better off if you've got a whole bunch of customers who can afford to hire you. And right now, everybody's so pinched that business is bad for everybody. And I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
20.
Obama isn't doing anything. Period.
now, this is not coming from anywhere particular, but from everywhere. Nobody seems to think that Obama is acting fast enough as a president. A while ago, I had mentioned that even in the crummiest job, a worker is given a YEARS probationary period. And when I say crummy, I mean flippin' burgers crummy. Our president is a green president. He is new, and just learning the ropes. Now, many would argue that because of this, we should have went with a "seasoned" veteran. But, how many of you, when you first got into the work force, complained that you couldn't get a job because the job required you to have experience, but how could you GET experience if nobody would hire you? Don't take me too seriously on this folks, but I'm just pointing out a fact. I do not believe that we should give the president a "probationary" period, to make sure they know what they are doing. They should know what they are doing BEFORE they take office. What I am trying to suggest is that people are expecting too much out of one man too soon. The man has not even been in office for a year yet -- and, as you SHOULD know, Congress moves like molasses during an ice storm.
But, I digress.
So, Obama isn't doing anything?
TRUTH:
1."The nation’s unemployment rate dropped to 9.4 percent on Friday, an unexpected burst of good news for President Barack Obama after a very rough month for his agenda." (politico.com)
Granted, that's not much. And it was unexpected, but if he wasn't doing "anything,' would there be improvement at all?
2.Obama created a foreclosure prevention fund
3. Obama created the credit card bill of rights
4. Obama expanded state's children health insurance fund (SCHIP)
That's just 4 of several things that he has already done in the first 8 months of office.
People lie. Politicians are great liars. I fully believe that Obama was using "rhetoric flourish" when he announced all the change that he would enable. I mean, how often do we see people, or hear about people telling a dying child that "everything is going to be okay"? Is that dying child going to be okay? Maybe. But even if he survives, is EVERYTHING going to be okay? No. Do we hold it against that adult for misleading the child? No. Sometimes, all we need is a positive uplifting message to motivate us to do better. This is the message that Obama has been trying to deliver. During his run for presidency, he always said "we need to do this together." But now, the country is dividing, which means nothing's going to get done. If we let the country to continue to divide, than Obama's presidency will have been a failure.
i honestly don't believe that the country was founded on christian morals. the only reason that I had even said that was because it's something that everybody keeps saying. but it's not true. The country was founded on science and reason. if it had been left to jefferson, "god" would not have been included in any document at all. the only reason it WAS had been to pacify Christians, so that they, too would be okay. For instance, "we find these truths to be self evident..." that is NOT a christian statement. Most definitely, that is an Enlightenment thought.
besides the obvious lying, and tearing down of each other which shows our unchristian-like manner, there's another great example that I like to use in conjunction with people complaining about "spreading the wealth;" When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field nor gather the gleaning of your harvest; you are to leave them for the needy and the alien. Leviticus 22:23. Therefore, it would be our duty, if we WERE a Christian nation, to help take care of those who are less fortunate than us (and... ALIEN. I find that equally as interesting). Instead, we want to horde up "treasures on earth." I'm sure that if i had more time, i could find many more examples of why we are NOT a Christian nation.
I am not necessarily FOR universal health care. I like having options. BUT, I am for having health care being affordable for everybody. I am for having people helping other people out. Interestingly, when you take education classes, you learn that the "middle class" morals teach children to be competitive in the class room. Almost an "everyman for himself" mentality. In poverty stricken/poor classrooms, the moral is to "help each other out." They want to cooperate and work together. Maybe that's why the "po' folk" want universal health care... not to LIVE off of others money, but to live cooperatively with each other.
i'm glad you asked. absolutely NOTHING. but, that does not change the fact that i bought about 50 crickets at the beginning of the week, only fed pumpkin about 10 of them, and over half of them died! it's not a pretty smell!
Because lately, there has been a lot of misconstrued information on the Internet about Obama and his policies. recently, i ran across an e-mail which listed 50 lies that Obama had told. this will highlight some of these (not all, because i am a singular person, and I have a life other than making these kinds of e-mails, but you can find them on snopes.com), and show evidence to disprove them. It will also list several lies which have been told about his policies (mainly his health care reform), and evidence as to why these are false as well (for more information, please see politifact.com)
1. Selma Got Me Born - LIAR, your parents felt safe enough to have you in 1961 - Selma had no effect on your birth, as Selma was in 1965.
TRUTH: this is from a speech made back in may of 2007. Obama was, in truth, making a far stretched statement that he had CONNECTIONS to the city. To put into context, the speech was made on the anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" when hundreds of civil rights marchers had been beaten. Obama also mentions Birmingham, Rosa Parks, and other events which sparked "hope" in the world.
2.Father Was A Goat Herder - LIAR, he was a privileged, well educated youth, who went on to work with the Kenyan Government.
TRUTH: His father DID work with the Kenyan Government... but he had also been a Goat Herder earlier in his life.
3. Father Was A Proud Freedom Fighter - LIAR, he was part of one of the most corrupt and violent governments Kenya has ever had
TRUTH: Actually... Obama has written (and spoken) at length about his father's returning to Africa from America to work for the Kenyan government, with that country's political turmoil eventually leaving him a "bitter drunk" and "a defeated, lonely bureaucrat."
4. My Family Has Strong Ties To African Freedom - LIAR, your cousin Raila Odinga has created mass violence in attempting to overturn a legitimate election in 2007, in TRUTH: Kenya. It is the first widespread violence in decades.
Raila Odinga claimed to be Obama's cousin, but nobody has been able to find any substantial evidence to prove this claim.
5. My Grandmother Has Always Been A Christian - LIAR, she does her daily Salat prayers at 5am according to her own interviews. According to the New York Times: "I am a TRUTH: strong believer of the Islamic faith," Ms. Obama, 85, said in a recent interview in Kenya.' Not to mention, Christianity wouldn't allow her to have been one of 14 wives to 1 man.
Like every human, Obama has TWO sets of grandparents...
6. My Name is African Swahili - LIAR, your name is Arabic and 'Baraka' (from which Barack came) means 'blessed' in that language. Hussein is also Arabic and so is Obama.
TRUTH: Just like many other languages (English for example), Swahili has roots in another language... Arabic.
7. I Am Stronger On Foreign Affairs - LIAR, except for Africa (surprise) and the Middle East (bigger surprise), you have never been anywhere else on the planet and thus have NO experience with our closest allies.
TRUTH: "Barack Obama has lived in, traveled to, or otherwise spent time in countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, including Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, the Palestinian Territories, Afghanistan Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa, as well as serving as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee." (direct quote from politifact.com) However, whether or not this makes him a better person for the job, can still be debated.
8. I Was A Professor Of Law - LIAR, you were a senior lecturer ON LEAVE.
TRUTH: He was indeed a professor of law... AND THEN A senior lecturer. As stated on Snopes.com, most senior lecturer's were highly active in the political realm, which kept them from having full time tenure. The school offered Obama full-time status, but he turned it down.
9. I Took On The Asbestos Altgeld Gardens Mess - LIAR, you were part of a large group of people who remedied Altgeld Gardens. You failed to mention anyone else but yourself, in your books.
TRUTH: Yes he was, and yes he did.
10. I Am Not Acting As President Yet - LIAR, after the NAFTA Memo, a dead terrorist in the FARC, in Colombia, was found with a letter stating how you and he were working together on getting FARC recognized officially.
TRUTH: "On March 1, a Columbian Army strike on a FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) rebel camp in Columbia killed 24 people, including Raul Reyes, the FARC's foreign minister. Files in a laptop computer seized from the wreckage of the rebel camp included references to U.S. diplomatic overtures which the Associated Press described as "scintillating, if vague":
In a Dec. 11 message to the secretariat, [Ivan] Marquez writes: "If you are in agreement, I can receive Jim and Tucker to hear the proposal of the gringos."
Writing two days before his death, Reyes tells his comrades that "the gringos," working through Ecuador's government, are interested "in talking to us on various issues."
"They say the new president of their country will be (Barack) Obama," he writes, saying Obama rejects both the Bush administration's free trade agreement with Colombia and the current military aid program.
Exactly who the referenced "gringos" were and whether they had any substantive connection to Barack Obama is unknown. "
(snopes.com)
This is an attempt to, yet again, link Obama to some kind of terrorist group... and it, yet again, has no bearing whatsoever in reality.
11. I Want Americans To Decide - LIAR, you prefer caucuses that limit the vote, confuse the voters, force a public vote, and only operate during small windows of time.
TRUTH: They're giving an awful lot of power to him, aren't they? Each individual state, not Obama decides on whether or not to have caucuses.
12. I Don't Take PAC Money - LIAR, you take loads of it.
TRUTH: "Senator Obama didn't say that has never accepted money from political action committees. (He used PAC money in his previous U.S. Senate and Illinois state Senate races.) He pledged that he would not accept PAC money for his 2008 presidential bid, a pledge that he has upheld" (snopes.com)
13. I Have Always Been Against Iraq - LIAR, you weren't in office to vote against it AND you have voted to fund it every single time, unlike Kucinich, who seems to be out gutting you Obama. You also seem to be stepping back from your departure date - AGAIN.
TRUTH: Senator Obama expressed opposition to the war in Iraq well before he gained a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2004. (The vote that authorized U.S. military action in Iraq was held in 2002.) He has since voted in the Senate to authorize funding for that war, for reasons he defended in a February 2008 Democratic debate:
[...] Clinton voted in 2002 to authorize the invasion, which Obama opposed from the start. After Obama again touted a high-profile antiwar speech he gave in Chicago before the war, Clinton pointed out that he, like her, had subsequently voted for war funding, and that their records on Iraq were similar since he came to the Senate in 2005.
"When it wasn't just a speech, but it was actually action, where is the difference?" she said. "Where is the comparison that would in some way give a real credibility to the speech that he gave against the war?"
Obama shot back: "Once we had driven the bus into the ditch, there were only so many ways we could get out."(snopes.com, bold added)
14.
Inside the stimulus package "is anti-Christian legislation that will stop churches from using public schools for meeting on Sundays, as well as Boy Scouts and student Bible study groups."
TRUTH: This statement is based off of the part of the bill that "that provides $3.5 billion for public and private colleges and universities to modernize, renovate or repair facilities. The bill says money may not be used for buildings that are 'used for sectarian instruction or religious worship or a school or department of divinity; or in which a substantial portion of the functions of the facilities are subsumed in a religious mission.' [...] the stimulus clause refers specifically to money for higher education, not elementary and secondary schools as Gingrich's comment about "public schools" suggests." (politifact.com)
15.
The health care reform bill -- on Page 16 -- outlaws private insurance.
TRUTH: Now, this actually does get a little messy. However, according to politifact.com, section 102 says (this would be page 16), is that
'There will be individual policies available, but people will buy those policies through the national health insurance exchange,' she said. The House bill allows for existing policies to be grandfathered in, so that people who currently have individual health insurance policies will not lose coverage. The line the editorial refers to is a clause that says the health insurance companies cannot enroll new people into the old plans." (politifact.com, bold added)
16.
Under Obama's budget plan, families making over $250,000 are "going to lose their mortgage deduction, their charitable deductions."
TRUTH: Actually, it's only that "families in higher tax brackets, say 36 or 39 percent, they'd only be able to write off 28 cents on the dollar (as opposed to 36 or 39 cents), said Eric Toder of the Tax Policy Center. Say you are in a tax bracket where you pay a 36 percent rate; if you had $1,000 a year in mortgage interest payments, you'd currently be able to deduct $360. Under Obama's plan, you'd only be able to deduct $280. (Now, Lummis is right that families making over $250,000 would see an overall tax hike under Obama's plan. That was a hallmark of Obama's campaign. Essentially, Obama would allow the Bush tax cuts for those earners to expire next year. That would raise the tax rates for some from 33 to 36 percent; for others from 35 to 39.6 percent.)" (politifact.com)
by the way... under Reagan (in 1985) if you were single, and made over $85,000, you had a marginal tax rate of 70%.
17.
"Obama's Ten Point Plan to 'Change' the Second Amendment…Ban use of firearms for home defense."
TRUTH: "Here's Obama speaking at a forum sponsored by WJLA-ABC7 and Politico.com on Feb. 12, 2008: "I think we have two conflicting traditions in this country. I think it’s important for us to recognize that we’ve got a tradition of handgun ownership and gun ownership generally. And a lot of people - law-abiding citizens use it for hunting, for sportsmanship, and for protecting their families (emphasis added). We also have a violence on the streets that is the result of illegal handgun usage…We can have reasonable, thoughtful gun control measures that I think respect the Second Amendment and people’s traditions.”
18. i like this one a lot.
"According to The Book of Revelations the anti-christ ... will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent ... is it OBAMA??"
TRUTH: "To be clear: Nothing about this detailed allegation is true.
Let's begin with the Book of Revelation (note the singular, which is accurate), the final book in the Bible's New Testament, which is 22 chapters long. Its sweeping apocalyptic language is laced with metaphors and symbols that challenge modern readers, but nowhere does it offer the kind of cookbook definition of the Antichrist proposed in this e-mail.
To reach our findings, we read the Book of Revelation and interviewed two religious scholars. Here's what we found:
• The word "anti-christ" does not appear in the Book of Revelation.
"The word Antichrist is not used in the Book of Revelation so this is important to point out," said Dr. James D. Tabor, professor and chair of the religious studies department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "Everybody thinks the word is used."
That's a pretty big hole in this e-mail from the get-go. We didn't find the word in reading the text and our second scholar confirms this critical point.
"First and foremost, the word Antichrist and a figure called the Antichrist never occurs in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament," said Dr. L. Michael White, professor of classics and religious studies at the University of Texas and director of the Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins.
[...]
"It wasn't there in the Bible," White said. "It emerges in the Middle Ages. It's something historians deal with."
Now the word Antichrist does appear a few times in other books of the Bible, specifically in First John and Second John. The description in First John, Chapter 4, verse 3 says: "And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world."
(ps- "spirit of antichrist" = a spirit opposite of the Christ)
• There's no mention of a man of a certain age.
The Book of Revelation talks of God, Jesus Christ, John, spirits, Jezebel, a beast like a calf, a beast like a flying eagle, elders, a great red dragon and many more animals and people. But nowhere does it describe "a man, in his 40s," as the e-mail alleges.
"As you notice, there's nothing about being age 40," Tabor said. "This is completely wrong. The Book of Revelation doesn't say that. It says it's a male, so I guess they got that right. It says 'he,' 'he,' 'he.' "
• There's no mention of the word "Muslim."
Considering the Bible was completed by the early second century, and the Islam religion wasn't founded until the early 600s, it's not surprising that the world Muslim (the name for Islam followers) does not appear in the Book of Revelation.
So it's this part of the e-mail, where it says the Antichrist will be a man "of Muslim descent," that our religious scholars find particularly ridiculous.
By definition, the Antichrist is "the polar opposite and ultimate enemy of Christ," according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. And because Muslims believe "there is no god but God," they would have great difficulty with the idea of elevating a person to a divine status, White said.
"A Muslim would be a monotheist and the last thing a Muslim would do is have anyone worship anyone other than God," Tabor said.
Not to mention the fact that Obama is not a Muslim"
(politifact.com)
I don't know about you, but I am TIRED of people misquoting and misinterpreting religious books for propaganda. A similar e-mail has been circulating about a verse in the Koran (verse 9:11, as a matter of fact) which is said to read something like: "and the Eagle came into the land of the Muslims, and lo! The lands of Allah were wiped clean, and there was peace."
I have a Koran. No, I am not Muslim, but I once had an ongoing open discussion between a couple Muslims, and one of them gave me a copy of it (which, by the way is not actually considered a holy book, because it was translated into English). To put it in perspective, "verse 9:11" comes out of the section of the Koran entitled "Repentance." Before the discussed verse, it is talking about how a Muslim should react if an "idolater seeks asylum with you [a Muslim]." (9:6)
verse 9:11 -- "If they [the idolator] repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, they shall become your brothers in the Faith. Thus do We make plain Our revelations to men of knowledge."
19.
Obama would "experiment with socialism."
TRUTH: "Socialism refers most commonly to a system in which the government owns the means of production and distribution of goods. That is, the state truly is responsible for creating and spreading the wealth. Let's look at the root of Palin's claim - Obama's Oct. 12, 2008, exchange with plumber Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, who has come to be known simply as Joe the Plumber - and see if that's what Obama was suggesting." (politifact.com)
Well, I don't think that I need to restate what the exchange was, but I'll paraphrase anyways, "Joe the Plumber" asked Obama if he'd be interested in a "flat tax." Obama said, well it would be nice, but it's not going to work, because there's a lot of sales taxes that go along with it. Now, the socialism bit that everybody seems to put in there comes from Obama saying that he's OKAY with sharing a bit of his money with the po' folk who are having a rough time, because Obama's "attitude is if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's going to be good for everybody. If you've got a plumbing business, you're going to be better off if you've got a whole bunch of customers who can afford to hire you. And right now, everybody's so pinched that business is bad for everybody. And I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
20.
Obama isn't doing anything. Period.
now, this is not coming from anywhere particular, but from everywhere. Nobody seems to think that Obama is acting fast enough as a president. A while ago, I had mentioned that even in the crummiest job, a worker is given a YEARS probationary period. And when I say crummy, I mean flippin' burgers crummy. Our president is a green president. He is new, and just learning the ropes. Now, many would argue that because of this, we should have went with a "seasoned" veteran. But, how many of you, when you first got into the work force, complained that you couldn't get a job because the job required you to have experience, but how could you GET experience if nobody would hire you? Don't take me too seriously on this folks, but I'm just pointing out a fact. I do not believe that we should give the president a "probationary" period, to make sure they know what they are doing. They should know what they are doing BEFORE they take office. What I am trying to suggest is that people are expecting too much out of one man too soon. The man has not even been in office for a year yet -- and, as you SHOULD know, Congress moves like molasses during an ice storm.
But, I digress.
So, Obama isn't doing anything?
TRUTH:
1."The nation’s unemployment rate dropped to 9.4 percent on Friday, an unexpected burst of good news for President Barack Obama after a very rough month for his agenda." (politico.com)
Granted, that's not much. And it was unexpected, but if he wasn't doing "anything,' would there be improvement at all?
2.Obama created a foreclosure prevention fund
3. Obama created the credit card bill of rights
4. Obama expanded state's children health insurance fund (SCHIP)
That's just 4 of several things that he has already done in the first 8 months of office.
People lie. Politicians are great liars. I fully believe that Obama was using "rhetoric flourish" when he announced all the change that he would enable. I mean, how often do we see people, or hear about people telling a dying child that "everything is going to be okay"? Is that dying child going to be okay? Maybe. But even if he survives, is EVERYTHING going to be okay? No. Do we hold it against that adult for misleading the child? No. Sometimes, all we need is a positive uplifting message to motivate us to do better. This is the message that Obama has been trying to deliver. During his run for presidency, he always said "we need to do this together." But now, the country is dividing, which means nothing's going to get done. If we let the country to continue to divide, than Obama's presidency will have been a failure.
i honestly don't believe that the country was founded on christian morals. the only reason that I had even said that was because it's something that everybody keeps saying. but it's not true. The country was founded on science and reason. if it had been left to jefferson, "god" would not have been included in any document at all. the only reason it WAS had been to pacify Christians, so that they, too would be okay. For instance, "we find these truths to be self evident..." that is NOT a christian statement. Most definitely, that is an Enlightenment thought.
besides the obvious lying, and tearing down of each other which shows our unchristian-like manner, there's another great example that I like to use in conjunction with people complaining about "spreading the wealth;" When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field nor gather the gleaning of your harvest; you are to leave them for the needy and the alien. Leviticus 22:23. Therefore, it would be our duty, if we WERE a Christian nation, to help take care of those who are less fortunate than us (and... ALIEN. I find that equally as interesting). Instead, we want to horde up "treasures on earth." I'm sure that if i had more time, i could find many more examples of why we are NOT a Christian nation.
I am not necessarily FOR universal health care. I like having options. BUT, I am for having health care being affordable for everybody. I am for having people helping other people out. Interestingly, when you take education classes, you learn that the "middle class" morals teach children to be competitive in the class room. Almost an "everyman for himself" mentality. In poverty stricken/poor classrooms, the moral is to "help each other out." They want to cooperate and work together. Maybe that's why the "po' folk" want universal health care... not to LIVE off of others money, but to live cooperatively with each other.
i'm glad you asked. absolutely NOTHING. but, that does not change the fact that i bought about 50 crickets at the beginning of the week, only fed pumpkin about 10 of them, and over half of them died! it's not a pretty smell!