Critics Jitterbug on S.C. Obamacare Victim's Plight

 The only way you can be a victim in the Age of Obama is if you’re a liberal.  Conservatives can only expect ridicule and condemnation when things go horribly wrong.  That was the case when a Ft. Mill, South Carolina man asked for help on GoFundMe.com as a vehicle to defray the cost of expensive surgery.

Luis Lang is a self-employed handyman who is unable to work due to degenerative eye problems caused by diabetes.  He, like many of the self-employed, declined to purchase, or renew their health insurance due to the prohibitive cost of Obamacare. 

I’m sure Mr. Lang didn’t realize that by going public, he was going to be a poster boy for statist and their expanding welfare state.  I’m sure he’s taken aback by those who find pleasure in his life altering illness; or, in some cases glee, like local media personality WBT’s Master of the Mundane – Keith Larson.

Mr. Lang’s critics point to his 3,300 square foot house valued at $300,000 and his unemployed wife as justification to jitterbug on his plight.  Not one of them condemns the mandates, regulations and third-party payer system that have rendered health care unaffordable to those who have the courage to be self-employed.

The Cato Institute, back in 2004, published an accounting of the uninsured.  Here is an excerpt:

"The high cost of health services regulation is responsible for more than seven million Americans lacking health insurance, or one in six of the average daily uninsured. Moreover, 4,000 more Americans die every year from costs associated with health services regulation (22,000) than from lack of health insurance (18,000). The annual net cost of health services regulation dwarfs other costs imposed by government intervention in the health care sector. This cost exceeds annual consumer expenditures on gasoline and oil in the United States and is twice the size of the annual output of the motion picture and sound recording industries

As you can imagine, the implementation of Obamacare has made matters worse. 

Statists argue the expansion of Medicaid would have helped Mr. Lang.  I doubt it.  One must qualify.  North Carolina has an income and resources limitation, which means he would have to divest himself of home and savings.  You would have to practically impoverish yourself, or hide what little wealth you have, to glom onto the government teat.

And what if you qualify for Medicaid?  Doctors are refusing patients due to low reimbursement rates.  And if you do find one, good luck in getting an appointment.  Rolls have expanded.  North Carolina’s rate has increased 12.4 percent.   

Luis Lang is a victim of Obamacare and the many years of government intervention in health care industry.  This entrepreneur should be able to afford eye surgery without being impoverished by punitive health insurance and overinflated doctor’s bills.       

Source:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/peter-st-onge/article21023718.html

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/health-care/health-care-challenge-blog/article20822808.html

http://costonscomplaint.blogspot.com/2010/01/senator-kay-hagans-wild-health-care.html

http://costonscomplaint.blogspot.com/2012/09/is-medicare-distorting-health-care.html

 http://www.gofundme.com/s78e9w

http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/obamacare-what-we-know-now

    

http://kaiserhealthnews.org/news/third-of-medicaid-doctors-say-no-new-patients/

 http://www.ncdhhs.gov/dma/medicaid/who.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/upshot/medicaid-rolls-surge-under-affordable-care-act.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1

Liberals Have No Faith in the American People

I cannot believe that I’m stuck with only two talk radio stations in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Last Friday, NPR’s 9:00 AM show featured a segment on baking.  Well, that was it for me.  So, I turned the dial to WBT 1110 AM.  Keith Larson, master of the mundane, had taken the day off.  Jerry Klein, an old bitter hippie, was the guest host.  And as you can expect, he accused conservatives of being selfish pricks, who need to compromise their principles, and what little wealth they have, for the common good, as he sees fit.

Mr. Klein likes to address his audience as boys and girls.  That is how liberals see us common folk.  We are just a bunch of children that need to be shepherded and lectured on how to live, spend our money, and care for others.  And of course, who knows better on how to run our lives than an old hippie?

During Mr. Klein’s three hour lecture, I realized something.  I realized liberals have no faith in the goodness of the American people.  They don’t believe we will do the right thing for ourselves, our family, or our neighbors.  Liberals have faith in one thing only, and that is the general government.  Only by force of a bureaucrat will the American people do what is right.

Mr. Klein took a caller to task about social security and the welfare state.  He asked who would take care of the poor and elderly if not the government. The caller replied friends, family, neighbors and local churches.  That wasn’t good enough for the old hippie.  Klein insisted that the poor were left out in the streets while the bourgeoisie callously stepped over them.  Only the federal government had the heart to take care of the downtrodden.  I’ve got news for Mr. Klein, history states otherwise.

Before Progressives began their crusade against the U.S. Constitution, liberty, property, and the middle-class by implementing the welfare state; fraternal organizations and mutual aid societies helped the poor, not just by giving them a handout, but by giving them a hand up.  Here is an excerpt from Intellectual Takeout:

America’s first settlers and Founders were certainly not oblivious to the problems of poverty, nor were they callous in their treatment of it. Yet they explicitly urged its alleviation by means other than the federal government. This ideology was concisely expressed by James Madison, who declared that "Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government." And Ben Franklin once stated, "the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it."

Giving the poor a hand up rather than a hand out continued beyond the Founding era through a variety of private organizations and charities known as mutual aid societies. After visiting America in the early 19th century, Alexis de Tocqueville made note of this phenomenon when he wrote, "Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions, constantly form associations. ... Wherever, at the head of some new undertaking, you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association."

These types of organizations originally opposed a government-run, government-funded welfare state because they viewed mutual aid as an expression of independence and personal responsibility. With dues from members, they provided services such as unemployment insurance, workers compensation, health insurance, life insurance, and sick pay. In many cases, a fraternal society would hire a doctor to care for the members' families giving them access to reliable, inexpensive healthcare. Additionally, these organizations established a privatized safety net through orphanages, hospitals, and homes for the elderly.

Liberals, like Jerry Klein, would have us believe Americans are callous and selfish.  They don’t see the inherent good in our history or our people.  If anything, their views are a reflection of their instincts and ideology.

Source:

http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/from-mutual-aid-to-welfare-state

http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/library/sociology-and-culture/poor-america-welfare-state

http://www.poorhousestory.com/history.htm

WBT's Keith Larson: Charlotte's Master of the Mundane

 Anyone who listens to talk radio in the Charlotte/Mecklenburg County area is well aware of the slim pickings.  Many of us who don’t care for music have a choice between NPR, WBT, sports, or gospel stations.  Many times I can’t even get NPR.  That leaves me with 1110 WBT.

Keith Larson has the 9:00 – 12:00 slot.  Basically, he’s the warm up, or should I say filler until Rush Limbaugh comes on.  And he knows it.  A day doesn’t go by without this minor leaguer taking potshots at his better.  It really is unbecoming; even worse, is when he demeans the intellect of Sarah Palin.  I have news for you Mr. Larson; you’re no intellectual giant yourself.

I will give kudos to the LAMA man.  You do know how to stretch the mundane into a 3 hour show.

 I admit I half listen to Mr. Larson while I work.  But sometimes it comes to the point when silence is the better choice.  I swear, this man droned on about free cheeseburgers for the man who saved 3 women in Ohio for three hours.  He also, to my amazement, was able to complete a whole show on fat homeless people.  At 11:15, I finally shut off my radio.

But what really separates Mr. Keith Larson from all the other personalities that litter the airwaves is his “red jersey, blue jersey” dichotomy.  According WBT’s Master of the Mundane, we should eschew the political process as a means of protesting political parties.  But in reality, if we took his advice, the only people not participating would be the conservative voter.  The teat squawkers would continue to vote themselves goodies at our expense.

I have an excerpt from Jesse Norman’s book on Edmund Burke that addresses those whom disparage political parties.

No human institution is perfect, of course, and many political parties are highly imperfect institutions.  But the extraordinary fact is that properly functioning political parties have long been recognized in political theory as the very essence of mature democracy.  Through them, ideologies clash.  Different political opinions and concerns are stimulated, debated, and gathered into manifestos or programmes of government.  Policy ideas are developed in opposition and presented at elections.  Individuals are recruited, educated in the craft and traditions of politics and taught to campaign.  Power passes peacefully, from one party to another.  It is only through political parties and the whipping system or its equivalents that politicians are reliably able to carry into law policies on which they have been given a democratic mandate at elections.  The cure for those who hate political parties is to visit countries in which there are no such parties, or only one.

Source:  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/05/23/man-who-helped-rescue-3-kidnapped-women-in-ohio-gets-awesome-hometown-surprise/

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=jesse+norman+edmund+burke&tag=googhydr-20&index=stripbooks&hvadid=25971110197&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=333050669892643173&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_gzitzt2s1_e    

The Brad and Britt Show: Carpetbagger & Scalawag

If you’ve scanned AM radio in Charlotte, NC you’ll notice a lineup change at the 3:00 – 6:00 drive time slot at 1110 WBT.  Not even a year ago, the geniuses at this station replaced Vince Coakley with a carpetbagger and a scalawag; two unendearing qualities for a southern state.  Apparently, the geniuses who run that place believe their audience is a bunch of country bumpkins who enjoy being berated.

Brad Krantz, the carpetbagger in this dynamic duo, promised his NYC wife that North Carolina is just as progressive as the rotten apple.  When the Republicans took over the General Assembly and the governorship, his tone became particularly vicious.  The same goes for his fat ass toady, the scalawag, Britt Whitmore.

I hope these two enjoy their new digs at the after-drive time slot.  You know, the time everybody is home enjoying dinner, family and relaxing.  Geez, I wonder when their contract is up.  Ha!  Who cares?  Nobody listens to them anyway.   

Evolution from Federalism to Totalitarianism

The past couple of weeks have been interesting.  The steady, unrelenting assault on citizenship and personal liberty is something to behold.  Here in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, the media – both newspaper and liberal talk radio, have renounced the principles of our Constitution.  Actually, I don’t believe the “broadcast specialist” at WBT 1110 AM understand the concept of federalism.

 

 

 

Recently, both the morning and afternoon local “talent” criticized two North Carolina republicans for trying to protect our local governments from the abuses of the ACLU and the federal government by introducing a bill that reemphasized our Founders’ intent on the First Amendment.  Somehow, the progressives have equated prayer at county commissioner meetings as establishing a religion.  This conclusion is historically inaccurate.

The establishment of a religion, as our founders meant, is the federal government imposing a tax on the several states to support a state sanctioned “religion.”  A religion being Anglican, Congregationalist, Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, etc…etc…  A religion was not considered Hinduism, Islamic, Buddhism, Judaism or Christianity. 
    
Look, the majority of us are victims of a public education, and to a greater extent the indoctrination of our universities.  But when we reach adulthood, you’d think a little intellectual curiosity would carry the day, especially those who pontificate on the great issues of our time.  I ask where did we go wrong.

 It all started back in 1857, when political science was introduced at Columbia and John Hopkins.  Francis Lieber was a German immigrant deeply influenced by Hegel.   Progressives such as Woodrow Wilson embraced this foreign philosophy.  Here is an excerpt from Bradley C. S.  Watson’s Living Constitution, Dying Faith:

 

The birth of American political science created a bastion within the academy for the view that perpetual societal improvement is possible and inevitable, partly because of evolutionary unfolding, but partly with aid of the right kind of superintendence.  The institutional and theoretical departures implied by this view would have made the new political science unrecognizable to the American Founders, whose “new science” in its dismissive contempt for traditional political philosophy, unchanging principles of political right, and ideas and institutions from prior centuries, turned its back on the Founders.  For the most part, it still does.  American political science therefore remains almost genetically incapable of understanding the Constitution of the fathers.
 

Now, we have people like this guy teaching college kids.
 

 

 Evolution at its finest.   

Source:  http://www.campusreform.org/blog/?ID=4702 

The Brad & Britt Show: Radio for the Low Information Voter

I am in radio hell.  The only game in town is 1110 WBT.  And believe me, when Rush Limbaugh states that his show is the fastest three hours in media, he’s not kidding.  Today, I was stuck listening to the Brad and Britt Show.  Sometimes I can handle their insipid commentary and their ill-fated humor, but today was insufferable.

The first hour was devoted to sniggering at citizens who begin their city affairs with a prayer.  The ACLU – a communist organization that devotes its time squashing the free speech rights of Christians – has filed a lawsuit.  Brad Krantz thought it a waste of time and money that a government entity should defend its rights.  When a caller asked why he was against city councilmen, or county commissioners engaging in prayer, he stated it was unconstitutional.   I’m here to say he’s wrong.

Any student of history can tell you that the U.S. Constitution would not have been ratified had it not been for the Anti-Federalist demanding a Bill of Rights.  The state of North Carolina waited until after the Bill of Rights passed when it finally ratified the Constitution.  And why was this demanded?  Because they did not trust a central government and wanted to protect the States and their citizens from federal tyranny.  The founders’ intent was reaffirmed during the Marshall Court.  Barron v. Baltimore set a precedent stating that the first eight amendments did not pertain to the States.  But as we’ve witnessed, the Supreme Court is fickle, especially when it's infested with progressives.

Next, I had to endure the sanctimonious testimonials of “republicans” whom have left, or are leaving the party.  The first was especially galling.  A 77 year old man stated he had been a republican all his life; but no more.  He demanded that the party raise his taxes; embrace universal health care and gay marriage; and chuck the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck.  Oh, and by the way he voted for Obama!  And did Brad and Brit question the authenticity of this caller?  Hell, no!

Then came the best caller of them all.  A world-weary 27 year old – fresh from law school – lectured everyone above the age of 50 on how to run this country.  And what special knowledge did this oracle have that none of his elders could possibly comprehend?  He knows the meaning of derivative markets.  Wow!   That is amazing.  It’s amazing that this snot-nosed kid thinks he’s the only one who knows what derivative markets are.

The wizard wasn’t through lecturing.  He proclaimed that traditional marriage was hedonistic, and true freedom is gay marriage.  This coming from a punk whose only reference of liberty is what encompasses his cubicle.  And what was Brad and Britt’s response? You’re great.  We enjoy your enthusiasm.

As I listened to this nonsense, the only thing I could do was shake my head.  If this is what our country has come too, we’re lost.  And the saddest part, is when our liberty has truly been taken away, the libtards won’t even know the difference; because they never comprehended what freedom meant to begin with.

Charlotte: A World Class City with Second Rate Talk Radio

Charlotte conservative talk radio is becoming nonexistent.  I woke up earlier this week to discover 1660 has changed its format to sports.  Unbelievable.  If you’re a conservative in the Queen City you’re in a veritable hell.  The only game in town is that joke WBT 1110 AM.

This is so depressing.  My days have just gone longer.  1660 AM had a great lineup.  I would start with Glenn Beck at 9:00; turn over to the joke for Rush; then I went back to Hannity at 3:00.  I would then finish with Laura Ingraham on my way home at 6:00.  Now, it’s gone.

It looks like I’ll have to get XM or something equivalent.  I just can’t tolerate the “talent” on 1110 AM.  Charlotte, you can’t be a world-class city when you have second rate talk radio.

   

WBT 1110 AM Radio and Vince Coakley to Part Ways

If you listen to radio talk shows in the Charlotte, NC area, you’ll be surprised to hear that Vince Coakley will no longer hold the 3:00 – 6:00 pm time slot at WBT-AM (1110). The geniuses that run this radio station decided not to renew his contract. Apparently, a black conservative is too much for the progressives who run this town. They sure don’t want to give the Democratic Party the wrong impression when the Queen City hosts their convention. A strong voice such as Mr. Coakley would be an affront to progressives’ preconceived notions of what a black man should be.

The Charlotte Disturber reports:

Vince Coakley, the former WSOC (Channel 9) anchor who last June followed Tara Servatius in WBT’s afternoon slot, will work through June 19. “We won’t be renewing Vince’s contract,” said Carl East, WBT’s program manager.

Krantz joined WBT in 1999 and was teamed with Richard Spires, an outspoken Libertarian. Their show was canceled in 2003.

Whitmire helped with comedy bits on their WBT program, doing voices like Strom Thurmond’s.

“It’s difficult to put into words just how happy I am to be returning to WBT after nine years, but let me try, in as simple a way as possible – it’s great to be home again,” Krantz said in a statement.

East said their new show will be a departure from the heavy political menu WBT has been serving for more than a decade in the afternoon.

“They’re not going to be 100 percent politics,” he said. “They’re going to be a lot more fun. We’ve tried these political shows for a long time, but we need to appeal to a wider audience.”

All I have to say is thank God for 1660 AM. I no longer have to listen to the insipid musings of Keith Larson in the morning. Glenn Beck is far more informative and entertaining. And with the departure of Vince Coakley, I will go back to listening to Sean Hannity.

The one moneymaker that WBT has is Rush Limbaugh. I wonder how long it will take the geniuses who run this station to screw that up.

Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/06/08/3301890/krantz-replacing-coakley-on-wbt.html#storylink=cpy

http://tunein.com/radio/Americas-Talk-1660-s39282/