http://scrimshawoliver.com/wordpress Sat, 22 May 2010 15:10:30 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en My wife and I have a standing joke nowadays. It stems from the headlines over the last 9 months or so. MSNBC and the AP seem to have part of their headline stuck in memory or something. I'm talking about the word, "unexpectedly". It has been almost funny to see the headlines repeat themselves. ... http://scrimshawoliver.com/wordpress/?p=302 ABC News reports that states, looking for ways to balance their budgets, are coming up with new ways to get money from their citizens. Cash-strapped states across the country are looking to their cash-strapped residents for even more money — by taxing services they buy, not just goods. ... http://scrimshawoliver.com/wordpress/?p=301 16,500 isn't a very big number. Unless it represents the number of IRS agents who will be added to police compliance with the Health Care bill.  We apparently need those agents (the biggest expansion of the IRS since World War II) in order to make sure families and small businesses, ... http://scrimshawoliver.com/wordpress/?p=299 I have been watching news lately and wondering where I went wrong. First the banks get bailed out and get to make millions and billions in subsequent profits. I have seen where people who jumped at the chance to get first, second and even third-mortgage loans on homes worth half that ... http://scrimshawoliver.com/wordpress/?p=298 Now that the budget-busting "health care reform" bill (that neither reforms health insurance nor health care), has passed, we are finally beginning to hear some of the truth of what the bill contains.   While some goodies kick in immediately (waiver of pre-existing conditions for CHILDREN, children can stay on parents' ... http://scrimshawoliver.com/wordpress/?p=297 Percentage of men and women who survived a cancer five years after diagnosis: U.S.   65% England 46% Canada 42% Percentage of patients diagnosed with diabetes who received treatment within six months: U.S.  93% England 15% Canada 43% Percentage of seniors needing hip replacement who received it within six months: U.S.  90% England 15% Canada 43% Percentage referred ... http://scrimshawoliver.com/wordpress/?p=296 Part of Congress/Obama's great healthcare plan is to put 15 to 20 million of uninsured Americans onto the Medicaid rolls.  Obama also wants to cut $500 billion from the program and doctors are already worried about if they can continue to accept these patients. ObamaCare hasn’t even passed ... http://scrimshawoliver.com/wordpress/?p=295 I gave a talk last night to a group of Catholic high schoolers about Pope John Paul II's encyclical, The Gospel of Life.   It was a pro-life talk, but I focused on all life issues, not just abortion, but euthanasia, assisted suicide, cloning, embryonic stem cell research, capital punishment, ... http://scrimshawoliver.com/wordpress/?p=294 My heart and prayers go out to this woman's family. A veteran animal trainer whose dream was to work at SeaWorld’s Shamu Stadium was killed Wednesday when one of the show’s killer whales dragged her underwater and she drowned. SeaWorld said that 12,000-pound Tilikum pulled Dawn Brancheau, 40, into the orca’s tank ... http://scrimshawoliver.com/wordpress/?p=293 Housing prices "unexpectedly" fall. U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday as consumer sentiment dropped sharply and house prices unexpectedly dipped, denting optimism about a economic recovery. ... The releases followed an unexpected decline in business sentiment in Germany, which pressured overseas markets and fed uncertainty among investors who were worried about the U.S. ... http://scrimshawoliver.com/wordpress/?p=292