Only a Week Away

Each year, no matter how much I think I may be ready for them, the holidays always seem to arrive much more quickly than expected.

Priscille's festive Annalee Dolls welcome
guests who enter into the foyer of our home.

In early October, I begin getting my thoughts in order for the onset of Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

I start thinking about making up a Christmas wish list; begin to consider what gifts to buy for others (I’m not very good at that).

But mainly, I look forward with anticipation to our convivial gatherings with friends and family – dear people with whom Priscille and I have the chance, once again, to share, to reminisce, and to be joyous.  Having the opportunity to add to one’s storehouse of precious memories is a privilege – a gift from the Almighty.

House Overwhelmingly Passes Health Care Fix

The Statue of Freedom crowns the dome of the
U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C

This afternoon at 1:36 pm, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill that would reverse and extend all cancelled privatehealth care plans.

Five million insured have already received cancellation notices under a regulation of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA).

About fifteen million private health insurance policies were in effect prior to the disastrous October 1^st enrollment rollout of the ACA.

The final tally to renew private plans and to permit the sale of new ones passed by a vote of 261 to 157, a margin of 104, or 66% above votes recorded in the negative.

The not-so-surprising outcome is that while the GOP count was 222 in favor, 39 Democrats joined the Republicans.  The House bill will now go to the U.S. Senate where it faces an unsure outcome.

Kristallnacht and the Iranian Peace Talks

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussing the since
aborted bombing of Syria, August 30, 2013
 (Fox New Screen Shot/Dick Bergeron)

THE BACKGROUND:  Saturday marked the 75^th anniversary of the beginning of a series of nightmarish atrocities that would not end until years later when, towards the end of World War II, allied troops led by United States Armed forces opened the gates and walked into the horror of Nazi concentration camps in Europe to liberate the emaciated remnants of Jews, gypsies, and other ethnicities of Hitler’s failed attempts at “the final [Jewish] solution.”

An estimated 11 million people were eliminated in killing centers such as Treblinka, Sobibor, Auschwitz, and others across Europe.  At least 6 million of those were Jews exterminated in these places of unimaginable revulsion. 

Holocaust survivor and author Elie Weisel stated that "while not all victims were Jews, all Jews were victims."

A Goose Ducks below the Affordable Care Act

If you become sick or have an accident, and suddenly find yourself in need of life-saving healthcare, the outcome may be better were you a goose. 

Such a goose lives in the UK.  It was involved in an accident in West Yorkshire.  When its owner saw that it was unable to eat properly as a result of having lost its lower beak, its disability was remedied.

See an account of what happened in this brief video.

The foregoing comparison to the ACA may sound cynical, but is far from it.  Over four million Americans have had their private insurance plans cancelled by the terms and conditions of legislation incorporated into President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. For an estimated fifteen million Americans who have been covered under private, individual healthcare plans, there will be neither “Protection” nor “Affordability.”

A Couple of Sure Bets

NJ Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli (R), left,  and
NJ Senator Christopher ‘Kip’ Bateman (R) chat,
as they await the arrival of Governor Chris Christie
for a Town Meeting held at the Raritan Valley Community
 College on April 11, 2013

In New Jersey on this Election Day there are, as always, seats that the incumbents are sure to retain.  Two of those are currently held by State Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli (R) and State Senator Christopher ‘Kip’ Bateman in Legislative District 16. 

I was unable to vote on their behalf today, because I find myself in another district.  (If you want to get an idea of how the political sausage is made, check out this official color map of New Jersey’s hacked up districts.)  But I digress.

Were these two public servants within my district, they would have had my votes.  Bateman has held progressively responsive positions in the New Jersey Legislature for almost twenty years.  He is one of the sons of former NJ Senate President Raymond Bateman who was also a contender for the NJ Governorship in 1977.