"Fall Forward" (Denzel Washington)

I like this commencement speech by Denzel Washington (University of Pennsylvania, 2011). He seems sincere, humble, honest. The speech is sweet, funny, a little clumsy, but ultimately, quite moving.

I like his emphasis on faith, on persistence (even after failure), on trying things you don't feel comfortable doing (like speaking at commencement ceremonies). I like that he himself didn't quit, even when he almost flunked out of college. 

I like that he's a man of faith. Thank you, Lord, for this man, for this speech. It's a good message for this generation.

"Hope"? Nah. "Change"?

Yep...

Someone posted this on Twitter

Democratic Leadership: A Study in Smarmy

Henry A. Waxman, U.S. Representative (33rd Congressional District, California)

 Don't you just love Democrats? 

“These people have to ridiculed,” explained Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI). . . They have to be run out of town rhetorically . . . "

Waxman added that Obama might take unilateral action on climate change. “He’s not running for re-election."

 Nice, gentleman. That's exactly how we Americans want our elected leaders to govern.

"Dem Strategy: Climate Change Opponents Must be Ridiculed" (Breitbart News).

Time to Diet, Ms. Latifah

Now that the American Medical Association has declared obesity a disease, it will be hard to look at people (like the beautiful Queen Latifah) without wondering if her doctor has had "the talk" with her and whether she'll comply with Uncle Sam's expectation that she lose weight. 

"AMA Declared Obesity a Disease," by Melissa Healy and Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times (June 18, 2013).

Sarah Palin Was Right

Remember when Sarah Palin was mocked for suggesting that ObamaCare contained what she called death panels?



It appears Miss Henny Penny was right all along. Here are a few excerpts from an article that appeared this week in the Wall Street Journal, written by David Rivkin and Elizabeth Foley ("An ObamaCare Board Answerable to No One")"

Signs of ObamaCare's failings mount daily, including soaring insurance costs, looming provider shortages and inadequate insurance exchanges. Yet the law's most disturbing feature may be the Independent Payment Advisory Board. The IPAB, sometimes called a "death panel," threatens both the Medicare program and the Constitution's separation of powers. At a time when many Americans have been unsettled by abuses at the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department, the introduction of a powerful and largely unaccountable board into health care merits special scrutiny. . . 

The ObamaCare law also stipulates that there "shall be no administrative or judicial review" of the board's decisions. Its members will be nearly untouchable, too. They will be presidentially nominated and Senate-confirmed, but after that they can only be fired for "neglect of duty or malfeasance in office" . . . 

The IPAB's godlike powers are not accidental. Its goal, conspicuously proclaimed by the Obama administration, is to control Medicare spending in ways that are insulated from the political process. . . 

The power given by Congress to the Independent Payment Advisory Board is breathtaking. Congress has willingly abandoned its power to make tough spending decisions (how and where to cut) to an unaccountable board that neither the legislative branch nor the president can control. The law has also entrenched the board's decisions to an unprecedented degree. . . 

ObamaCare mandates that the board impose deep Medicare cuts, while simultaneously forbidding it to ration care. Reducing payments to doctors, hospitals and other health-care providers may cause them to limit or stop accepting Medicare patients, or even to close shop. These actions will limit seniors' access to care, causing them to wait longer or forego care—the essence of rationing. ObamaCare's commands to the board are thus inherently contradictory and, consequently, unintelligible. 

Once again, the Obama people speak from both sides of their mouths: no, you may not ration; yes, you will in all likelihood be forced to ration. 

Read full article here. And below is an ad where Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman is seen essentially concurring with Sarah Palin, albeit from a cynically leftist point of view. 

I don't expect any apologies to Ms. Palin will be forthcoming; I do, though, expect Congress to take the WSJ writers' advice to "act quickly to repeal this particular portion of ObamaCare or defund its operations." That would be a start.