Infographics on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. The reality is often not what we think it is.
No, Sen. Santorum, you fighting Obamacare is NOT like Mandela Fighting Aparthied
by Vyan Fri Dec 06, 2013 at 10:36 AM PST
In fact, you yourself are much more like former South African President Botha, fighting to return us to a system of Medical Aparthied - to torture the analogy - that we've been suffering under for decades.
“Nelson Mandela just died,” O’Reilly said. “I don’t know if you’re aware. Ninety-five years old. Nelson Mandela — I spent some time in South Africa, he was a communist, this man. He was a communist. But he was a great man anyway. The sacrifices he made for his people were just stunning. But he was a communist. A great man, but a communist.”
“I would never attack Nelson Mandela,” O’Reilly continued. “I told Bishop Tutu, who’s like that too, but I told him ‘I respect you.’ Why can’t you guys in the Republican Party bring that to the forum?”
“Well, Nelson Mandela stood up against a great injustice,” Santorum replied. “And he was willing to pay a huge price for that. And it’s for that reason he — he — he is mourned today, because of that struggle he performed. But what he was advocated for was not necessarily the right answer, but he was fighting against some great injustice.”
“I would make the argument,” Santorum continued, “that we have a great injustice going on too, in this country, with an ever-increasing size of government that is taking over and controlling people’s lives, and Obamacare is front-and-center in that.”
Oh. NO! He didnt!
Yes, yes, after less than 24 Hours, with President Mandela barely cooled down, he did. He certainly did.
And now Conservatives are really, Really, REALLY, against that because - eventually - President Obama (who did not originally endorse such a mandate even though Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton did), signed on to it.
Now that Highly Conservative idea has got like... Terminal Cooties. It's THEIR idea, but now it's Bad. Bad bad BADDY bad Bad!
So if you choose not to get insurance what happens? Well, if you don't get hit by a truck, fall down a sewer hole, contract Meningitis, Gall Stones, Kidney problems, Diabetes, Fall down a Flight of Stairs, Stub your toe, cut off your thumb with shears or come down with the Flu - you might get assessed a penalty on your taxes.
And what if you decide not to pay the penalty, then what?
Section 5000A(g)(2) of the IRC limits the means the IRS may employ to collect the penalty established in the section. First, the taxpayer is protected from either criminal prosecution or penalty for failure to pay the penalty. Second, the IRS is prohibited from either filing a NFTL or levying any property in an effort to collect the penalty.
They can however, issue a Levy on or Lien for the unpaid amount.
Thirty days after providing a Final Notice of Intent to Levy and Notice of Your Right to Appeal, the IRS may levy the taxpayer’s property, both real and personal.22 This means that wages may be garnished until the tax is paid in full. All funds in a bank account that are available for withdrawal on the date the levy is received by the bank may be taken.23 In some cases, the IRS may sell property belonging to the taxpayer after providing public notice and advising the taxpayer of the minimum bid price.
But that isn't the case for everyone. For some not purchasing Health Care - assuming they don't already have it through your Employer, aren't on Medicare, Medicaid, CHiP, TriCare or VA and also can't afford to pay for care either because it's too expensive for them in their area even with subsidies or their yearly income is so low they don't even reach the minimum IRS filing limit - means NOTHING because those people are Exempt From the Mandate and the Penalty.
Nevertheless, individuals who fall into one of these two categories (individuals who pays no net income taxes or falls below the federal poverty guidelines) may qualify for any of three income based exemptions... 1) the exemption for individuals who cannot afford coverage [Must be greater than 8% of their family income] 2) the exemption for individuals whose household income does not exceed the filing threshold; or 3) the hardship exemption as determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
In other words, if you already have Healthcare, or you have the money to pay for insurance and there are affordable plans available but you simply refuse to get it anyway, what you get is a BILL from the IRS, which you can pay or not pay depending on how much you value your Credit Rating.
That's like Aparthied how?
Where exactly is one group of individuals are being forced to live in a separate homeland (aka "Reservation") away from everyone else? Where in fact, those individuals aren't even considered Citizens of their own nation, and must have "Passports" to travel outside those designed homeland areas in order to work? Where are they prohibited from traveling at night? Where are they prohibited from working in certain types of jobs or industries?
The Affordable Care Act does have a Government Component, and I've just described the most intrusive portion of it, but it doesn't tell you where to live, or how to live. In fact, most of the Government Power in the ACA isn't directed at individuals - it's directed at Private Corporations because there's something we often forget about the ACA -- its full name is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
-- Stop insurance companies from limiting the care you need. -- Remove insurance company barriers between you and your doctor. -- Reviewing Insurers’ Premium Increases. [85% MLR] -- Getting the Most from Your Premium Dollars. -- Keeping Young Adults Covered. [Until Age 26] -- Providing Affordable Coverage to Americans without Insurance due to Pre-existing Conditions: -- No Pre-Existing Condition Exclusions -- No Arbitrary Rescissions of Insurance Coverage. -- No Lifetime Limits on Coverage -- Restricted Annual Dollar Limits on Coverage. -- Protecting Your Choice of Doctors -- Removing Insurance Company Barriers to Emergency Department Services. -- Reducing the "hidden tax" on insured Americans (due to the Uninsured) -- Improving Americans' health [With Free Preventive Measures] -- Protecting Americans' savings [Avoiding Medical Bankruptcies]
Rick Santorum is fighting to take all that away. To return us to the "Aparthied" of the sick being treated dramatically differently from the healthy by the insurance industry. These are things that the Insurance Industry can NO LONGER do To Individuals. This provides People With Freedom, not Oppression.
By admitting that the health care system has created a financial burden for families, Santorum is essentially conceding the need for the Affordable Care Act. Even though he has repeatedly claimed that children like Bella would receive inferior treatment under “socialized medicine,” the ACA actually guarantees that insurance providers cannot use disabilities like Bella’s as an excuse to deny service, nor can they cap how much money is spent on an individual’s medical benefits. It also prevents insurers from denying or limiting benefits. Children of families that don’t have a million dollars would have a better chance of managing costs.
So now, because of the PPACA, Bella can be insured anywhere. She can no longer be blocked from coverage by insurance companies. And Rick Santorum's own out-of-pocket costs for her care are now subject to a yearly CAP, which should be able to save HIM a significant amount of funds.
He might even now have The Freedom to be able to give more than 1.7% of his income to charity in the future.
That is, if he actually cares one wit about people in need. Other than himself, of course, since he so desperately and deeply Needs a Clue.
2:36 PM PT: I posted this video [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY3w9gLjEV4 (below, as embedded)] 3 Years ago myself, taken from my own VHS Copy of the Original Full Length "Sun City" Video - which I still have - and in the last day it's had over 3,500 views, and counting.
Pope faces Mexicans worshipping skeletal 'Death Saint'
Devotion to the Grim Reaper-like Santa Muerte (Holy Death) in Mexico is growing fast despite the Vatican's rejection of the figure as blasphemous (AFP Photo/Yuri Cortez)
Posters of Santa Muerte (Holy Death) read: "I protect delinquents, but robbing me and in my house is your death" at a sanctuary in Santa Maria Cuautepec, Tultitlan, Mexico on February 7, 2016 (AFP Photo/Yuri Cortez)
View of a figure of the Santa Muerte (Holy Death) dressed as a bride at a sanctuary in Santa Maria Cuautepec, Tultitlan, Mexico on February 7, 2016 (AFP Photo/Yuri Cortez)
Devotees pray in front of a figure of the Santa Muerte (Holy Death) d at a sanctuary in Santa Maria Cuautepec, Tultitlan, Mexico on February 7, 2016 (AFP Photo/Yuri Cortez)
The Death Saint is famous for being worshipped by drug cartels but is followed by a wider sector of Mexican society, from the poor to blue-collar workers, police, doctors and teachers (AFP Photo/Yuri Cortez)
Pope Francis has also weighed into the debate on same-sex unions, reminding Catholics the Church rejects all forms of union outside of marriage between a man and a woman (AFP Photo/Alberto Pizzoli)
In this Jan. 17, 2016 photo, a Tzotzil Indian man prays in front of a religious image at the Church of San Pedro in Chenalho, Chiapas state, Mexico. The Vatican said Pope Francis will present a decree during his Feb. 15 visit authorizing the use of indigenous languages. The Chiapas Mass itself would include readings and songs in three different indigenous languages. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
By Laurent Thomet February 10, 2016
Tultitlán (Mexico) (AFP) - Two weeks after baptizing her at a Catholic church, baby Adriana's parents put her in a white gown again for a second sacrament: This time, with Mexico's skeletal "Death Saint."
As they held the sleepy three-month-old child, a priestess sprinkled holy water infused with rose petals on her in front of 300 people under a 22-meter (72-foot) statue of the Grim Reaper-like "Santa Muerte" in a Mexico City suburb.
When Pope Francis arrives in Mexico for a five-day visit on Friday, he will find a country where devotion to Santa Muerte is growing fast despite the Vatican's rejection of the figure as blasphemous.
Every Sunday, a big crowd comes to Enriqueta Vargas' outdoor temple in Tultitlan to pray in front of the black fiber-glass statue, which was erected in 2007 in a lot and can be seen from a busy boulevard.
They leave tequila, candy and flowers at six chapels, where they pray for love, money or health. Vargas has gone a step further than at other Santa Muerte shrines in Mexico by officiating over weddings and baptisms.
Adriana's young parents, Daniel Anguiano and Lucero Aguilar, had pleaded for help from Santa Muerte during complications in the pregnancy.
"I promised her that if she gave our daughter to me in good health, I would come here in front of her to baptize her," said Anguiano, a 22-year-old Corona beer company worker.
Like many worshippers of Santa Muerte, Daniel and Lucero, 18, remain Catholic despite the Vatican's hard line against it.
"Santa Muerte is an absurdity," Cardinal Norberto Rivera, Mexico's archbishop, told AFP. "Every Christian should be in favor of life, not death."
But the Church is losing the battle against the Death Saint, which is famous for being worshipped by drug cartels but is followed by a wider sector of Mexican society, from the poor to blue-collar workers, police, doctors and teachers.
Journalists are "always looking for criminals but they never find them," Vargas said before leading a mass-like ceremony in which people stood, kneeled and invoked the Death Saint while also reciting "The Lord's Prayer" of Christian faith.
- Soaring movement -
Andrew Chesnut, professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, estimates that between 10 million and 12 million people follow Santa Muerte in Mexico, the United States and Central America.
That leaves the Roman Catholic Church worried in Mexico.
"This is the fastest-growing new religious movement not only in Mexico, but in the entire Americas," Chesnut, author of "Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint," told AFP.
Historians trace Santa Muerte to the late 18th century, when indigenous populations turned Spanish images of the Grim Reaper into an icon, prompting the Church to destroy chapels devoted to the folk saint.
After that, the skeleton went underground until anthropologists found devotees again in the 1940s -- mostly women asking Santa Muerte to get rid of their husbands' mistresses, Chesnut said.
The number of worshippers soared from 2001, when another woman named Enriqueta, "Dona Queta" Romero, displayed her Santa Muerte figure in Mexico City's rough neighborhood of Tepito.
Now, a steady stream of people come to her altar every day to kneel and pray for help from Santa Muerte. A crowd attends a massive ceremony on the first day of each month.
Romero, meanwhile, remains a devoted Catholic churchgoer.
"On one hand I have God, and on the other I have Death. And when I die, God will tell the skinny one to take Dona Queta away," said the 70-year-old great-grandmother.
"How great that the pope is coming. Glory be to God. How great that he is coming to give us many blessings."
- Santa Muerte justice -
The caretaker of Tultitlan's outdoor temple, Enriqueta Vargas, is a more recent convert to Santa Muerte.
She became the leader of the place of worship after her son, who founded the temple, was gunned down in 2008.
"I promised Santa Muerte that if she delivered my son's assassins, I would seek to take her message as far as possible," Vargas told AFP.
A newcomer visited her outdoor temple last Sunday.
Felix Lugo, 74, believes that Santa Muerte made him fall in his bath in 2013, causing leg injuries, as punishment because he had hoped that a neighbor would fail to build a shrine in her honor.
"I'm here to ask for forgiveness. I feel like I offended her," said Lugo, a Catholic follower of Mexico's patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Perhaps due to plain ignorance or emotional bias, many religious folks think and spout divine command theory as if it hadn’t been soundly defeated thousands of years ago. The funny result is that theists are often operating under the misapprehension that atheists cannot account for morality, when in actuality, it’s exactly the reverse.
The F6/Mark Atheist Library, welcomes you to - King Solomon
All below are taken from (the one this sits in reply to) the F6 biggie dated Wednesday, 12/04/13, and headed, Catholic Church Has Been 'Outmarketed' On Gay Marriage, Says New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the post this one sits in reply to .. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=94631972
What if original sin had never occurred? I think you'll find that the fantasy concept known as "sin" is actually quite integral to our physical structure and success as a species. So, whether you take Genesis literally or not - if you believe we were designed by God - who is truly to blame for our "nature"?
After Pat Robertson explained that the earth is more than 6000 years old, using dinosaur bones as evidence, Ian Juby responded by explaining how that can't be true because death didn't exist before Adam. "So, Mr. Robertson, was there death before Adam or not? Is the bible true or not? Jesus was supposed to bear the consequences of our sins, which is why he died on the cross; it was a consequence of sin. You have just nullified the reason for Christ's death." ~ Ian Juby This exchange occurs at 8:20 in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URP2WJ6st-E
The premise of this video was suggested to me by DaithiDublin and his wonderful video: "Re-Imagining Paradise (Poem)" Check it out and send him my best! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82RDXjIcysg
Theists, when you make this argument, do you not realize that you're trampling all over your god's omnipotence? If the universe was made for life, with all the universe's dangers and inefficiencies, then to say that it could be no other way is to say your god couldn't do it any other way - and obviously, a way less hostile and more conducive to life would have been a better way.
A couple questions for creationists: Was Adam flesh and bone? If you dropped him off a 100 foot cliff before he ate the fruit, would he have died? If lions weren't carnivorous before the fall of man, then please explain how a man eating a piece of fruit would cause the digestive systems of large cats to be permanently altered, and why we've never found the fossils of such cats. What is the purpose of an extinct species? Why did God condemn 99% of all species that have existed thus far to extinction? Why did he design them in the first place if He knew that they were going to be unsuccessful (though, humans aren't yet nearly as successful as some species that have survived for many millions of years before their extinction)?
My contribution to Intelligent Design: "The Wasted Theory".
Most life is antagonistic to other forms of life. That is illogical if life was designed by a single, perfect, all-knowing creator. For example, why would God design something if He knew it was going to be unsuccessful (go extinct)? Why would God design his creation to be in constant conflict with itself?
There are two possible solutions: 1. The Wasted Theory 2. Evolution
Of course, evolution solves the problem perfectly: adaptation, natural selection, etc.
For religious people, my "Wasted Theory" also solves the problem. You're welcome, religious people; and you may freely use my theory at your discretion.
That pesky First Amendment is always gettin' in the gosh darn way! For many folks, being free to practice their religion just isn't enough. Nope. They want to be able to force other people to observe and practice their religion as well. Now that's freedom! ...or maybe not.
I can do something that the mythological Abrahamic God can't: I can forgive someone without giving them an ultimatum. Omnipotent my ass. Love is unconditional...God is not.
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