Philosophy

Ultrasound law due September 1

The Texas Tribune, as part of its “31 Days, 31 Ways”  series of articles has a video interview with Dr. David Spear, an Austin abortionist and director of Planned Parenthood, concerning the soon to be enforced law requiring the doctor to meet with women before an abortion, and give her the information available from her pre-abortion ultrasound.

“The law is currently being challenged in federal court. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks has said he plans to rule on the case by September. The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights filed the suit in June, before requesting an injunction to prevent the law from going into effect on Sept. 1. In the suit, Texas Medical Providers Performing Abortion Services v. Department of State Health Services Commissioner David Lakey, the group argues that the law violates the equal protection clause by “subjecting [women] to paternalistic ‘protections’ not imposed on men” and the First Amendment rights of doctors by “forcing physicians to deliver politically-motivated communications” to their patients.”

Dr. Spear confirms that the ultrasound is standard of care as we heard that over and over in testimony at the Lege. The woman pays for the Ultrasound, already. It is her medical information.

No responsible doctor would introduce an instrument into the uterus without an ultrasound these days. It’s common practice to do this a couple of days before the abortion, although Dr. Spears implies that it is done the same day as the procedure. If it is true that it’s done the same day, is that before or after sedation and/or is the woman given the chance to evaluate her medical information while clothed, eye to eye with the doctor, or is she in a gown, feet up in the stirrups?

No one complains about other informed consent laws. There’s already law describing the informed consent for electric shock therapy, radiation therapy, sterilization and hysterectomy. Hysterectomy was the first such law. These (and the mandatory waiting period before Medicaid will pay for sterilization) came about because of a patronizing “doctor knows best” attitude of the past.

There’s nothing either political or religions about informing women about the ultrasound. There’s certainly noting political or religious about expecting the doctor to give informed consent – can you imagine if this conversation were about the heart catheterization and the heart ultrasound (echo-cardiogram)?

Part of the law includes the requirement to give information about the father;s responsibilities and about aide that is available locally for pregnancy and after the birth. These lists have been printed by the State and paid for by licensing fees for abortion clinics since 2005.

Government Motors Spends Your Money | RedState

Ben Howe at RedState questions General Motors’ spending, including $15 Million on advertising at one football game.

So the government appointed CEO has taken the company’s stock to historic lows; pushed out money losing, government subsidized cars that the American people don’t want, all at the behest of his bosses in Washington; and is sitting on enough cash to pay back the loan but is instead choosing to wait for the treasury to lose money when it sells our shares. So what’re they doing with all that money?

Well, they’re handing out bonuses that will be over $400 million and could exceed 50% of workers salaries. In fact, nearly all 28,000 engineers and managers will get 4-16 percent of their base pay.

They’re paying homage to the green gods by investing in solar panels and wind farms. Not exactly sure how that contributes to making cars, but what do I know? In fact they’re spending just under $1 million for weatherization projects in Maine which they claim will be the first of similar investments in all 50 states.

GM is investing over $40 million dollars to “offest its carbon footprint,” and invested enough money into the World Golf Championship in Doral, Fl to get them to add the word “Cadillac” to it.

The average cost of a superbowl ad is $3 million for 30 seconds. GM aired 5 of them.

They’re working on getting the green light for a reality tv show about their Chevy Volt. I’m guessing it’ll include a cast of 20 people that will coincidentally be the only people in America that actually own one.

In fact, they are spending on entertainment at a faster rate than any other category.

And I know what you’re thinking, “Hey, companies have to advertise man! It’s getting them name recognition!” To that I would ask you if you really believe that GM’s name is so unknown that they need to spend a minimum $15 million worth of advertising during one game, or if, perhaps, they might be well known enough to advertise somewhere other than the most expensive commercial spot on planet Earth.

via Government Motors Spends Your Money | RedState.

Marriage – it really is a beautiful thing

from Fox’s Steven Crowder:

What’s not a matter of opinion, however, is that when it comes to marriage, we’ve all been lied to. Far from the miserable, broke, sexless life that it’s made out to be, the life of today’s married man is more fulfilling than any lonely, self-pleasing, single guy could hope for. So to all of you cads and good-time gals out there, read on and take note.

Statistics and Marriage (and a calendar)

Watch out for statistics, they are not always accurate. Especially if your statistician doesn’t notice the calendar.

From the New York Times‘ “Divorced from Reality,” published in September, 2007,

The Census Bureau reported that slightly more than half of all marriages occurring between 1975 and 1979 had not made it to their 25th anniversary. This breakup rate is not only alarmingly high, but also represents a rise of about 8 percent when compared with those marriages occurring in the preceding five-year period.

But here’s the rub: The census data come from a survey conducted in mid-2004, and at that time, it had not yet been 25 years since the wedding day of around 1 in 10 of those whose marriages they surveyed. And if your wedding was in late 1979, it was simply impossible to have celebrated a 25th anniversary when asked about your marriage in mid-2004.

If the census survey had been conducted six months later, it would have found that a majority of those married in the second half of 1979 were happily moving into their 26th year of marriage. Once these marriages are added to the mix, it turns out that a majority of couples who tied the knot from 1975 to 1979 — about 53 percent — reached their silver anniversary.

Office of the Governor Rick Perry – [Press Release] Gov. Perry: Fiscal Responsibility is Essential for Prosperity and Job Creation

Gov. Rick Perry touted Texas’ strong economy and job creation, and discussed the importance of fiscal responsibility at all levels of government. The governor delivered the keynote speech at the National Conference of State Legislatures Legislative Summit (NCSL).

“Jobs are the fundamental building blocks of any community, and over the last two years, 40 percent of the net new jobs created in the United States were created in Texas,” Gov. Perry said. “That’s why we continue to make the tough choices that all states and the federal government should be making. We passed a balanced budget while maintaining essential services, kept taxes low and preserved more than $6 billion in our Rainy Day Fund.”

Gov. Perry noted that government doesn’t create jobs, it creates the environment for jobs to grow. He credited Texas’ economic strength to our state’s low taxes, reasonable and predictable regulatory climate, fair legal system and skilled workforce.

“Employers fleeing the over-taxing, over-regulating and over-litigating atmosphere that has taken hold in so many other states come to Texas because we’ve cultivated a culture that rewards innovation without all the red tape,” Gov. Perry said.

via Office of the Governor Rick Perry – [Press Release] Gov. Perry: Fiscal Responsibility is Essential for Prosperity and Job Creation.

“D” is for Dereliction of Duty | Empower Texans / Texans for Fiscal Responsibility

Just enter your zip code here if you want to check out your Legislatures in the Texas House and Senate.

What’s disturbing is that of the 18 House Republicans who failed the Fiscal Responsibility Index with a “D” or lower, 9 of them were committee chairmen appointed by the Speaker. Put another way, half of the House republicans who failed the Index were in positions of leadership. This shouldn’t be all that surprising considering that overall Speaker Straus’ appointees as chairmen averaged a failing 63.3% on the Fiscal Responsibility Index.

As we’ve mentioned before, chairmanship and leadership matter. Committee chairmen have a great deal of influence over what bills are heard and when (if at all). Whether conservative initiatives are actually given the opportunity to be considered on the House floor (or even held for a vote in committee) is up to the committee chairmen.

For those freshmen on this list of failures who rode the “tea party wave” into office, conservatives should feel more bitterly a special sting. They failed to provide the leadership voters expected. Conservative voters are going to have to reconsider if this is the type of future leadership they wish to see in the Texas House.

The same can be said of the failing establishment. Voters will consider whether they would like a “Republican” status-quo to stick around, or work to promote a true conservative majority in the Texas House.

You can find out how your legislators performed on the Fiscal Responsibility Index HERE

via “D” is for Dereliction of Duty | Empower Texans / Texans for Fiscal Responsibility.

Common State Abortion Restrictions Spark Mixed Reviews

Why would anyone want doctors to be forced to perform elective, interventional procedures that they find morally wrong?

Gallup typically finds few differences between men’s and women’s attitudes about the legality of abortion in general. Consistent with that, the new poll shows relatively minor gender differences in views about the seven specific restrictions tested.

Partisan differences are much greater, although majorities of Democrats as well as most Republicans favor informed consent, parental consent, 24-hour waiting periods, and a ban on “partial birth abortion.”

By contrast, Republicans and Democrats are on opposite sides when it comes to opt-out provisions and withholding federal funds from abortion providers.

via Common State Abortion Restrictions Spark Mixed Reviews.

Doggett layoff author opposes Perry

Big surprise: Lloyd Doggett doesn’t like Perry. I guess he’s given up on winning his primary against one of the Castro twins (I can’t tell them apart), so he’s going to spend time campaigning against the Governor who wouldn’t lie for money.

ABC.news has a blog entry explaining the details, here.

Doggett’s the creator of the Doggett layoff, causing school districts all over the Nation to layoff teachers. Doggett was the author of the amendment to part of a stimulus bill, refusing money to Texas education by setting specific, individual requirements for Texas that no other State must meet and that go against Texas’ Constitution. Doggett repeatedly claimed at the time that claiming the Governor could lie and violate the State Constitution if he wanted the money badly enough.Doggett kept repeating that the requirements weren’t “unConstitutional.”

Last year, I met with this man with a group of doctors about graduate medical education, identifying as a doctor interested in primary care, not as a Republican. He assumed he could talk freely to us and literally shook with fury when he criticized Conservatives and the Tea Party. Claims Republicans don’t think for ourselves and only listen to Fox news and Limbaugh.

And yet, here I am reading ABC.news and there he is spouting his hate for conservatives. Well, he won’t be unopposed this election – and he’ll have a great panel of Conservatives vying to run against him on the Republican ticket, too.

Mona Charen: Gov. Perry right to question skyrocketing cost of college | The Daily News Journal | dnj.com

Governor Perry takes on the Academic elites:

“Between 1978 and 1997, home prices increased annually at about the same rate as general prices, but then appreciated at a faster pace over the next decade. In the ten-year period starting in 1997, home prices increased by 68 percent, or more than twice the 29 percent increase in overall prices, and that home price appreciation caused an unsustainable housing bubble that burst in 2007 and contributed to the financial crisis of 2008-2009.

During that same 1997-2007 decade that home prices increased by 68 percent and created a housing bubble, college tuition and fees rose even higher — by 83 percent. In fact, college tuition and fees have never increased by less than 73 percent in any ten-year period back to the 1980s. And in the decades ending in 2009 and 2010, college tuition increased by more than 90 percent. The still-inflating increases in the price of higher education are starting to make the housing bubble look pretty tame by comparison.”

In addition to suggesting that tuition be reduced, a panel appointed by Governor Perry suggested that professors were “wasting time and money churning out esoteric, unproductive research.” Shocking. The panel suggested dividing the research and teaching budgets to encourage excellence in both, while also introducing merit pay for exceptional classroom teachers.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports that students are flocking to colleges and universities in flat, freezing North Dakota to take advantage of lower tuition rates. Enrollment at public colleges has jumped 38 percent in the last decade, led by a 56 percent increase in out of state students. Colleges around the nation, the Journal advises, must now compete for a new kind of student: “the out-of-state bargain hunter.”

via Charen: Gov. Perry right to question skyrocketing cost of college | The Daily News Journal | dnj.com.

(Hat Tip to tweet from @TotalProfMove

Why I support the Texas DREAM Act

I was the first in my family to graduate from college, much less to go to Medical school. I believe I was blessed by attending Texas elementary and high school, Tyler junior college, UT at Tyler, and then Med school and residency in San Antonio, Texas. I’m grateful, knowing that a “non-traditional student” (an older woman with a family) couldn’t have done that in any place but the USA and Texas. No one took my place or squeezed my kids out of a good education, even though we live in a small city where more than 50% of the surnames are of Spanish origin and we know that we have kids of illegal aliens in our schools.

Our law in Texas, (unofficially called The Texas DREAM Act after the failed Federal Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors), allows a young adult — who was brought here as a minor through no fault of his own – to be counted as a resident only for calculating tuition rates in our State-supported colleges. The Federal residency or citizenship requirements do not change for someone going to college under this provision. Young people who finish at least 3 years of high school, get their diploma from a Texas high school, have lived in Texas the 12 months before applying, and who get admitted to a Texas college, pay in-state tuition. In contrast to what we often hear, the law doesn’t discriminate against legal aliens from other states: rather than 3 years of residency, they only have to live in Texas for one year to establish residency and it doesn’t matter where they went to high school.

In order to continue to qualify for in-State tuition rates, he must pass his classes, take a full or near-full load and promise to formally apply for legal residency status as soon as Federal law allows.

The “Texas DREAM Act” is the law in our state and was passed with veto-proof numbers by the Texas Legislature over 10 years ago, in 2001. HB 1403 passed in the Senate with 29 “yeas,”no “Nays.” It received 130 votes in favor in the House.   The text of the Bill is, here.  The Texas Legislature has never repealed the DREAM Act, although it was revised and made stricter in 2005 with SB 1528. That Bill also appeared veto-proof, with 31 votes in the Senate, and a non-recorded vote in the House.  This year, the sole attempt by Senator Birdwell to increase tuition for undocumented students failed to make it out of the 82^nd Legislature’s Senate, even when he tried to tie an amendment onto the larger Education Bill.

On most immigration subjects, I’m probably to the right of many people. I would insist that adults who cross the border illegally must go back to their country of origin before beginning any path to citizenship or residency. They should start the process on the other side of the border — *especially* if they have an anchor baby as proof that they have already broken our laws.  No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

In fact, I’m all for identifying adults who came here illegally, breaking our laws and for deporting the whole family until they can get in line and come here legally. Otherwise, we are encouraging people to break the law over and over. They go “underground” and are vulnerable. As a consequence, young people often graduate from our high schools truly “undocumented” in either country.

However, Federal law interferes with any attempt by the State to stop the problem where it begins. The Feds won’t deport people. They won’t allow us to identify those illegal adults with kids in our schools and deport them. Federal Courts have ruled that we must bend over backwards to prevent any appearance of scrutiny that might “chill” the educational prospects of any child, from preschool to high school graduation.  In spite of all these limits on what the States can do, there’s no Federal attempt at a legal provision for identifying their country of origin.

So, until we can get the federal law changed to better control and deport known adult illegal aliens, do we Texans encourage their identification as (grateful) United States Americans and Texans or do we make them men and women without a country?

Rick Perry is against embryonic stem cell research, but he wants Texas to be center of stem cell advances | Texas on the Potomac | a Chron.com blog

The Governor has always opposed unethical destructive stem cell research, but Representative Hardcastle changed his mind on embryonic stem cells and cloning this year.

Hardcastle said the governor’s office didn’t ask him to carry it — as the only member of the Legislature with MS, he said, it’s been on his mind for “a long time” — but one of the governor’s staffers did advise him on it. Somewhat involved, Hardcastle said, was Jones, who has already removed some of Hardcastle’s stem cells to prepare them for re-injection.

A spokeswoman with the Health and Human Services Commission said the agency is in the very early stages of considering whether to create the stem cell bank. A few weeks ago, the agency received a letter from Houston Reps. Beverly Woolley, a Republican, and Senfronia Thompson, a Democrat, expressing their “serious concern” with the measure, for fear it might hinder the work of public and private scientists.

Meanwhile, Texas Medical Board spokeswoman Leigh Hopper said the regulatory agency held a stem cell stakeholder meeting last week — “at the governor’s behest, via Dr. Jones” — to start dialogue about adult stem cell treatments in Texas. The question? If Americans are — like Jones — increasingly flying all over the world to get promising stem cell treatments, shouldn’t Texas be a scientific and economic center for it?

via Rick Perry is against embryonic stem cell research, but he wants Texas to be center of stem cell advances | Texas on the Potomac | a Chron.com blog.

Texanomics: Texas Wage Growth Faster than Other Big States and US

Pretty graph!

Texanomics: Texas Wage Growth Faster than Other Big States and US.

Ann Coulter on Civility

Ann Coulter at the Daily Caller on civility and the relative safety of liberals in the public compared to that of Conservatives.

Dose of Reason: Perry and Gardasil

Bear with me, this isn’t a “sound bite” subject.

(Edit 8/23/11: The opt out is for 2 years, not 1. BBN )

The Human Papilloma Virus is an infection, and should not be a moral issue. In contrast, the vaccine against four strains of the virus, Gardasil, has become a political issue, even though the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now recommends it for all boys and girls.

Governor Rick Perry has been criticized for his February, 2007 Executive Order that made the vaccine mandatory for girls before entering the 6^th grade. Very little is said about the part of the EO that affirmed the right of and facilitated parents who wish to “opt out” of not only Gardasil, but other vaccines as well.

We expect the Governor to direct the people that he appoints, right?  The Governor is responsible for management of the Executive Branch, including the Department of State Health Services. He appoints the head of the DSHS, who supervises the people who decide which vaccines will be mandatory. Texas’ Legislature modified Chapter 38.001 of the Texas Education Code over the years to mandate certain vaccines and allow the DSHS to add other mandated vaccines without Legislative oversight.  Just before the Gardasil controversy, the Department had mandated Chicken Pox and Hepatitis A, which are both manufactured using cultures of human fetal tissue obtained at an abortion.

The Governor’s Executive Order (RP 65) that caused all the controversy also ordered the director of DSHS to make it easier for parents to opt out of vaccines. The Legislature had changed the law from “opt in” to a requirement to “opt out” once for all the school years. Next, they changed to a two year limit on the opt out, and then in 2005, the Legislature restricted the period to one year and required a new State form bearing a “seal.” Parents had to go to Austin or start early in the summer. There were bureaucrats who maintained that the only way to get the form with the seal was to go to Austin, find the right office and make the request in person.  Perry used his EO to tell the Director of DSHS to make the request (and the seal) available on-line, making it easier to “opt out.”

In fact, the reason for the Executive Order was to speed up private insurance coverage and to make it easier for parents to exercise their right to opt out.

The Federal government doesn’t have the authority to mandate vaccines in the States.  Not yet, not exactly. However, thirty days after the National Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended the vaccine, Texas was required by Federal law to buy and distribute the vaccine in the “Vaccines for Children” program.  The program provides vaccines without cost to uninsured children up to age 21, those who are insured by Medicaid, and those whose private insurance does not pay for vaccines at all. In effect, the only families who have to pay for Gardasil – for whom the State of Texas will not pay, anyway, under Federal law – are those whose private insurance will only pay for mandated vaccines.

Gardasil is manufactured the same way that insulin for diabetics is made these days: using recombinant DNA. In this case, common bakers’ yeast makes the proteins that cause the immune response. Gardasil had been thoroughly studied even in 2007, and is not only included in the Vaccines for Children program, it is the most-requested vaccine for girls. We are even seeing cross-protection from other strains.  It has recently been recommended for boys. The recommended time to give the HPV vaccine is at 11 or 12 years old, when children are scheduled to receive other shots (tetanus and MMR boosters) and before they were likely to be infected.

The only reason that we do “Pap smears” (the papanicolaou test) is to look for changes in the cell nuclear DNA of the cervix, the opening to the uterus or womb. Over the last 15 years, we have found that 99.7% of these changes are due to HPV infections. In the US, 70% of cervical cancers are caused by HPV 16 and 18. (50% by HPV 16.) These are the two types of HPV that result in the most damage and cost, due to repeat paps and the subsequent biopsies, freezing, “LEEP,” or other treatments in which the surface of the cervix (the opening to the uterus or womb) is burned off to remove cancerous and pre-cancerous cells. These treatments lead to infertility and premature births.

Because 15% of girls begin sex before age 15 and half of girls who have sex before 20 say their first time was involuntary, the first trial of Gardasil involved 1200 girls between the ages of 9 and 15. The girls 15 and under had a better response to the vaccine than the older girls and women 16 and above. The researchers compared blood levels of antibodies. The research ethics committee ensured that no paps or pelvics were done on the young girls. (Every one of the young women under the age of 21 when I sent them for colposcopy for cancerous changes had been raped before they were 15 years old.)

The reports of deaths and injuries from Gardasil are poorly documented. The great majority of the adverse effects in the reports include pain, redness, and tingling at the injection site and fainting and headaches. People often faint and complain of headaches after seeing a needle, even without being stuck. It looks awful sometimes, like a seizure. The FDA has ruled that none of the deaths that have been confirmed were caused by the vaccine. In addition, this article from the Canadian Medical Association Journal contains a table showing the numbers of serious events and the numbers of deaths in several studies on the use of the HPV vaccine.

Remember your statistics classes. With 33 million doses, there are bound to be deaths that coincide with the timing of the vaccine use. The teen death rate from all causes is 62 per 100,000 across the US. Most of those are boys, but still: In 10 million girls, 30 deaths are not outside the rate for the age group. They are tragic, but consistent with life on this Earth.

More likely the girls who had severe reactions or death had other risk factors, due to the population presenting to clinics giving the vaccine: those who present with worries about STD’s, the newly sexually active and those entering college. The records show that many were given new scripts at the same visit for birth control pills and other vaccines and medicines, according to the analyses in the medical literature. (Also, remember the silicon, SSRI, and the general vaccine scares that have been blown out of proportion through the years and later proven to be untrue.)

The reports on the possible vaccine-related deaths are available for viewing at” the “Vaccine Adverse Event Report Site” (VAERS),(drop down to the table at the middle of the Page, option #3) using “HPV4” (This is the Merck vaccine), at Option#4, check “YES” at “life threatening” (or you could check “death”) and (top of page)”Sort by submission date.”

Here’s a few examples:

    Administered by: Unknown  Purchased by: Unknown Symptoms: Adverse reaction Write-up: It was reported from an article, published on 29-JUN-2009 that there were “hundreds” of life-threatening reactions said to be associated with GARDASIL. This is one of several reports received from the same source. Attempts are being made to obtain additional identifying information to distinguish the individual patients mentioned in this report. Additional information will be provided if available.

Another:

FINAL DX: Hodgkins lymphoma, nodular sclerosing, stage IIA. Records reveal patient was pale & had firm left clavicular lymph node. Excisional biopsy done 7/23/09 revealed diagnosis. Tx w/chemotherapy & possibly radiation tx when chemo completed.

And another:

    Write-up: Vaccine was administered, patient became dizzy 30 seconds after shot. Patient was pale, diaphoretic & nauseous. Symptoms lasted about 45 minutes. BP dropped to 90/50 & pulse to 50/min. 8/20/09 PCP note received DOS 8/4/09. After shots pt became naseated, pale, diaphoretic, dizzy and had difficulty breathing. BP dropped to 90/50 and pulse into the 50’s. Sx lasted ~45 minutes with return to baseline. Vax record states pt “passed out.”

Debt ceiling: never lowered

That should be enough to make the people who holler, “The debt ceiling has been raised dozens of times over the decades,” reconsider.  But probably not.

The problem is not revenue. Revenue is high, but spending is higher!

Governor Rick Perry at The Response (video)

Governor Rick Perry spoke at The Response, a prayer meeting held at the Houston Reliant Stadium, without introduction. I watched the Internet live video stream.

News stories said that the big screen only noted, “Rick Perry, Austin, TX.” This was the same sort of identification given the rest of the speakers. There’s a news story and video montage here, at the Austin American Statesman.

There was nothing political in his talk, just prayer, testimony and reading from the Scriptures in Joel, Isaiah, and Ephesians. And he gave a good testimony.

News coverage also said that he had asked the American Family Association, Reverend James Dobson (founder of Focus on the Family), John Hagee (of San Antonio’s Cornerstone Church) and other groups to organize this meeting long before the media began playing up his name as a possible Presidential contender in 2012.

As I watched the video, I followed the chatter on Twitter (mostly #theresponse, some of the #theresponseusa messages). Maybe 2/3 or more of the messages were from nonbelievers who spent nearly the whole 7 hours mocking the proceedings. The messages were filled with hate and profanity – while claiming that it is Christians who hate. Some of the worst hate messages came during the prayers for Israel.

What a shame – but at least they watched all day, so I won’t call it a waste of their time!

I’m afraid that many of the Internet audience does not understand our motive for praying. Yes, we do ask for help, protection and forgiveness. But the main reason we pray is our gratitude and wish to be one with our Creator and Saviour God.  I wasn’t raised to dance, clap or make showy prayers with my hands in the air, but I appreciate that the people I saw online appeared to be genuine and consistent in their acts of worship.

The protesters online, in Austin, and in Houston claim that the evangelicals represented “hate groups” and a religion that excludes most Americans. Well, they’re wrong. Christianity has some basic rules of conduct, but no one is excluded. It’s not as though we check your pedigree or believe that Christ requires years of study and onerous tasks before you can become a Christian. John 3:16 pretty much tells you what to do, Romans 5:8 tells you why He died for us, and Ephesians 3:14 -21 explains what we were doing today.

John 3:16  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Rom 5:8  but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Ephesians 3:14 – 21  For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,   that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,   so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith–that you, being rooted and grounded in love,   may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,  and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.   Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
Eph 3:21  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Perry, Palin: fish or cut bait!

It’s time for Governor Sarah Palin and Governor Rick Perry to fish or cut bait. Conservatives must begin the process of forming a coalition that can beat Obama. Like everyone else in the Nation, I’m waiting for an announcement from one or both, declaring their candidacy for the Republican nomination for President.

However, Conservatives must remember that we are first of all Conservatives, not Palin-supporters or Perry-supporters. Our true enemy is big government and threats to our Conservative ideals. We must strive to conduct the 2012 Primary in order to build up and not tear down fellow Conservatives and avoid writing the Dem’s ads or making the progressive spoilers stronger.

Today, Governor Palin “reTweeted” an essay written by one of her supporters on the blog Conservatives4Palin. The article is absolutely more pro-Palin than anti-anyone, and rightly praises her for her accomplishments  in her two years in office in Alaska.  Unfortunately, the fact that she shared the piece is being touted as proof that Governor Palin will run and/or will not endorse Governor Perry.

If we are going to begin to compare the candidates, I would like to see a true comparison that properly evaluates Governor Perry’s 10 years in office:

1. that doesn’t mix liabilities and debt

• Texas has  a Constitution that requires a balanced budget.
• Texas does not allow the Governor a line item veto.
• Occasionally, we have to dip into our “rainy day fund” for Katrina, Rita, Ike, wildfires and other unexpected expenses.
• Governor Perry oversaw two years of hard cuts in Texas, in 2003 and 2011.

2. the equivalent calculation considering relative population through the years and in light of Texas’ originally higher population compounded by growth of approximately 1000 a day, mostly from people who move here from other parts of the US,

3. the relative burden of illegals crossing the Rio Grande

• The Feds impede our State’s attempt to identify and deport illegals.
• We are forced to educate and provide healthcare, food stamps.
• Our State must pay for law enforcement when other crimes are committed.
• Governor Perry has waged constant fights to control our Border. Governor Perry has had to deploy Texas Rangers to assist the Border Patrol,fight off claims that the drug cartels are of no concern in South Texas,finally persuaded the Feds to send us 2 (maybe 3) of 6 unmanned drones and 250 of the grudgingly deployed 1200 National Guard troops sent to assist the Border Patrol, andmanaged to get their stay extended when Obama tried to remove them after less than 6 months.

4. the Federal  Department of Justice, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security policy of transporting illegals from all areas of the US to Texas prior to deportation.

• Texas has eleven (11) ICE detention facilities where the detainees are often criminals from other States.  Alaska has none – 0. California, 6 and Arizona, 5.
• The Department of Homeland Security and ICE have been dismissing these cases in large numbers over the last 2 years, releasing illegals into our State.
• Our courts and State bear up under the backlog, with legal costs and law enforcement expenses.
• ICE Detention Centers list here.
•  Here is a Houston Chronicle article on the dismissal of several thousand cases and anticipation of up to 17,000 of 23,000 pending cases last August, 2010. Note these are often people convicted in other States who served time in prison and then transported to the detention centers, according to this article.

(edited at 5 AM, to add note that “Texas does not allow the Governor a line item veto.” BBN)

Open the Doors and Windows to the Ivory Towers – Big Government

More on that fuss about Texas higher ed from Dr. Trowbridge:

A barn burning study last month from Richard Vedder’s Center for College Affordability and Productivity revealed that of the more than 4,200 faculty members at the University of Texas at Austin, the 840 most productive faculty members teach an extraordinary 57 percent of student credit hours, while the least productive 840 members teach only 2 percent of student credit hours.

But this disparity is not the greatest abuse.

Rather it is the fact that of the faculty members outside the 20 percent most productive teachers, the average teaching load is 63 students a year. That borders on semi-retirement – research and publications notwithstanding.

Former Harvard dean Harry Lewis writes in Excellence Without a Soul that universities have shifted priorities to research first, students second. “The ultimate source of this cultural shift,” he writes, “is the replacement of education by research as the university’s principal function.”

But not all research is valuable. John Silber, former dean at UT-Austin and president of Boston University, recently told the Texas Tribune that many products of research “aren’t worth anything.”

Hofstra University law professor Richard Neumann reported at a conference in April that it costs approximately $100,000 for a tenured law professor to publish one article per year and that 43 percent of law review articles are never cited by anyone. In Neumann’s words, “At least a third of these things have no value.”

World Shakespeare Bibliography reports that from 1980 to mid-2010, there were 39,222 scholarly articles published on Shakespeare. Professors can research and publish anything they wish; it’s a free country. But should they be given reduced teaching loads, at student and taxpayer expense, to publish the 39,223rd article?

Lewis reports that “academic presses now publish books selling fewer than 300 copies,” and he quotes a humanities editor as saying that “the demands of productivity are leading to the production of much more nonsense.”

Yet former Harvard president Derek Bok reports in Our Underachieving Colleges that “fewer than half of all professors publish as much as one article per year.”

A September 2010 issue of The Economist reports that “senior professors in Ivy League universities now get sabbaticals every third year rather than every seventh. This year, 20 of Harvard’s history professors will be on leave.” Perhaps one reason universities may not want regents to peek inside the ivory tower is that it’s somewhat empty—with the exception, of course, of adjuncts and young, inexperienced teaching assistants.

via » Open the Doors and Windows to the Ivory Towers – Big Government.

» Higher Education Reform Meets Professor X – Big Government

Wow, what this man exposes! No wonder our Universities and Colleges are so expensive. And no wonder Governor Perry’s recent recommendation that State institutions spend more on teaching and less on research caused such an uproar.

Professor X pulls down a six-figure salary, plus 25 percent in fringe benefits. He teaches two 15-week courses per semester – for a total of 30 weeks per year – and has 22 weeks off.

He says he “works 60 hours a week.” Maybe so, but many of these hours are extraneous to his teaching and focus on outside matters that he wishes to pursue.

With tenure, he has no accountability to students, administrators, or the public. He can confess, with impunity, that his teaching is beyond reproach.

With tenure, he cannot be forced into retirement at any age, but even in retirement, his benefits will be bountiful.

Is there any wonder why college teaching is one of the most coveted positions in the world?

Now here is the sad part: the above prototype is real. There are countless professors like Professor X. I have discovered a great many of them in my five decades of working in higher education.

To be sure, there are thousands of excellent, conscientious, hard-working professors out there, but the educational system enables indolence and abuse, with impunity.

Now here is the key question: How many professors at our colleges and universities are like Professor X?

I don’t know.

But I can also tell you that regents, chancellors, presidents, faculty, students, parents, and the public don’t know either – at least not yet. Awareness is limited to the respective trenches of compartmentalized universities. The history faculty knows who the slackers are in the history department, but not in the physics department. Nor do regents or presidents know who the slackers are because there is no overall accountability.

And naturally, the status quo defenders want to keep it that way.

As I mentioned at the outset, there are charges and countercharges, both sides seeming to be right at the time to the confused public. There is only one way to resolve this conflict: regents must require thorough examination of compartmental trenches in the university and report the results to the subsidizing students and taxpayers. That is beginning to happen in Texas, with predictable howls of indignation from university faculty, administrators, and the alumni elites.

via » Higher Education Reform Meets Professor X – Big Government.

The moon or bust

Funny, as I was writing this, David Letterman discussed the future of the US in space with Chris Ferguson, the commander of the last flight of the space shuttle Atlantis.

This afternoon, I got a reminder that Tweets sometimes play time-warp games – I suppose when someone signs up for the first time.

A tweet on the TMA member’s only daily newspaper sent me to an old 2006 post on the Residency Notes blog,with their beautiful theme and graphics (why didn’t I think of that?).  The post concerned Slate.com’s complaints (yes, they’re still around, even today) about NASA and President Bush’s former proposal to put a permanent base on the moon. Why not a little time travel to a time when the US was still considering out of this world research?

It looks like NASA’s cuts may have limited the progress on the base.The recession/depression is reality. Wonder whether there’s any private money out there working on the idea?

NASA is working on a new lunar landing, though, called Morpheus.   You can even follow them on facebook.

I’d donate my own money to a permanent base. Great boon to research in low gravity, some place for kids to reach for and part of that horizon we’re always looking over. (Heinlein, Asimov,and Wall-E fan)

New Right to Government Funding?

“Americans will be thrilled to know that the courts have invented a new “right” to government money.”

These are points that need to be clarified: How much control do the people of the State have when money passes from the taxpayers to the Feds, and then back through the State’s Treasury under the State Legislature and does any entity have a “right” to tax funds? In other words (borrowed from something I read somewhere from Justice Rehnquist) are the courts to decide the big issues and only allow the Legislatures to decide small, inconsequential issues?

Today’s Washington Update, an e-mail newsletter from Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council, reviews a recent legal ruling in a Kansas Court.

The Judge indulged in political speech, himself (“The purpose of the statute was to single out, punish, and exclude Planned Parenthood.”) but he may have a point that Kansas Legislators might not have legal standing to limit the use of Federal Title X (“Title Ten”) family planning funds that come out of Medicaid appropriations. This is a point that needs to be clarified: How much control do the people of the State have when money passes from the taxpayers to the Feds, and then back through the State’s Treasury under the State Legislature?

Here in Texas, there haven’t been any challenges against our new laws that will eventually limit tax payer funds that will go to PP. We worked on Texas’ family planning funds rather than Federal money. We prioritized funds going to hospitals, county health and federally qualified health clinics that provide comprehensive and continuing care for more than one body system. We also tightened up law prohibiting State tax funds from going to any organization or clinic that performs abortions.

Conservatives in Action: JOHN MCCAIN IN FANTASY LAND – SUPPORTING OBAMA

From Red Sonja, at Conservatives in Action

‘No Labels’ may have been around for just a few months but this ridiculous group has just now gotten around in sending me an invitation. Can the Socialists/Liberals/Democrats blur the lines any more then they already have? Same Sex Marriage, free contraceptives for everyone, and my hard earned money is your lazy bones money too. The radical Islamic Muslim is just like a Christian. Just how much sameness and sharing can any one handle? If you do not know who you are, if you do not know what you stand for, how can you decide on anything? This reminds me of the mindless mob mentality. Someone screams something, anything and another in the mob mimics the scream.

Sorry to say that Senator John McCain has entered the world of hope and fantasy with Obama, his former presidential opponent. Evidently McCain is now working on the other side with an R next to his name. No wonder he attacked the Tea Party on the Senate floor, claiming the Tea Party was foolish and ‘bizzarO’ because they made demands about raising the Debt Ceiling.

via Conservatives in Action: ‘NO LABELS AND SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN IN FANTASY LAND – SUPPORTING OBAMA.

Supreme Court: Higher First Amendment Hurdles for Public Health Regulation

From the New England Journal of Medicine:

Vermont’s statute had a fatal self-inflicted wound. By prominently announcing that the state intended to tip the balance in the “marketplace for ideas” against drug companies, the law dug itself into a constitutional hole: state interference with that marketplace was likely to provoke the ire of a majority of the Supreme Court. Writing for the Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy stated, “[t]he more benign and, many would say, beneficial speech of pharmaceutical marketing is also entitled to the protection of the First Amendment.”

Instead of dealing with this statute under existing precedent, Kennedy seized the opportunity to expand the First Amendment’s reach and power to strike down government regulation of health care information. The Court’s opinion raises serious questions for some public health rules and the regulation of drug marketing. Justice Stephen Breyer, writing in dissent, charged that the Court added an unprecedented constitutional standard that would hinder consumer-protection regulations, including Food and Drug Administration (FDA) restrictions against off-label marketing.

Although the First Amendment’s core is the protection of religious freedom and political speech, in recent decades, federal courts have expanded its application to business-related or “commercial” speech. In the 1970s, the Court used the commercial speech doctrine to reach state laws prohibiting advertising by professionals such as lawyers, accountants, pharmacists, and physicians. These professions had been self-regulating, following ethical rules that limited market competition. The Supreme Court struck down the prohibitions, using a standard of review that reserved some deference to the state legislature. By 1980, this “intermediate-scrutiny” standard was encapsulated in the Central Hudson decision, and until now, the Central Hudson test — whereby it’s considered constitutional to regulate commercial speech only if doing so “directly advances” a “substantial” government interest in a way that “is not more extensive than is necessary” — has been the operative standard.

Kennedy applied a more stringent “heightened-scrutiny” standard to the Vermont law, seeing the additional burden as justified because the law regulated specific conduct (drug marketing) and specific persons (data miners and drug companies). Under this standard, the Court didn’t carefully weigh the health care cost savings described by Vermont and gave short shrift to physicians’ confidentiality in patient-related decision making, claiming that prescriber-identifiable information was widely available in the marketplace. The majority dismissed Vermont’s concerns about data mining as “nothing more than a difference of opinion,” without considering seriously the peer-reviewed evidence on marketing’s effect on prescribing choices. Indeed, experts’ testimony to the Vermont legislature was offered as evidence of the state’s bias.

via Higher First Amendment Hurdles for Public Health Regulation | Health Policy and Reform.

Partisan disagreement over Health Care Law

Which way will those Independents vote in 2012?

Data Watch | Health Policy and Reform.

The Brief: Top Texas News for Aug. 4, 2011 — Texas News | The Texas Tribune

Governor Rick Perry is quoted as saying, “You know I don’t mind being the first. I like it.”

The Brief: Top Texas News for Aug. 4, 2011 — Texas News | The Texas Tribune.

Susan Combs: The TT Interview — 2014 Statewide Elections | The Texas Tribune

A change of heart? I certainly hope so,and she says that she and her husband have donated to the Austin Crisis Pregnancy Center. I thank her for this conversation and testimony, but I’d like to hear more. Texas Comptroller Susan Combs on “personal responsibility,” but not on the wrong of abortion itself:

Twenty years ago, I was pro-choice, not pro-abortion. I was pro-choice because I had concerns about the role of government. Here we are, you go to 2004, 5, 6, 7, 8, and I am actually stunned to find, in the 21st century, past the year 2000, that we are seeing abortion — which I really thought was rare — being used as a contraceptive. It’s just birth control. I spent some years that I am very proud of, being a prosecutor, handling child abuse and incest cases. And I saved kids. I really did save kids. I really think that I got them a better life.

I don’t know what you can call it but a lack of personal responsibility. If people are having abortions because they’re not taking personal responsibility, I find that just morally repugnant. It has reached such incredible numbers. I have been looking at studies and data and reading books and it is stunning to me. I say this with all seriousness. It is stunning to me that we are at the point in this country where in 2011, you have incredibly high numbers of women choosing to abort rather than have a baby or to have avoided the problem in the first place.

So I am unequivocal about it. I was wrong and it’s 20 years later, and I feel very strongly about it.

via Susan Combs: The TT Interview — 2014 Statewide Elections | The Texas Tribune.

Perry’s Surgery Included Experimental Stem Cell Therapy — Rick Perry | The Texas Tribune

I’ll admit it: this is just cool!  Notice the political and ethical comments from the Texas Tribune:

The governor’s procedure did not involve embryonic stem cells, which he and many other conservatives ardently oppose using for medical research on both religious and moral grounds. His treatment involved removing his own adult stem cells from healthy tissue and injecting them back into his body at the time of surgery, with the belief that the cells would assist tissue regeneration and speed recovery.

via Perry’s Surgery Included Experimental Stem Cell Therapy — Rick Perry | The Texas Tribune.

The FDA, which is in litigation over its authority to regulate new stem cell clinics, has not approved the use of adult stem cells for anything other than bone marrow transplants, which have been used for decades to treat cancer and sickle cell anemia patients. This has largely kept doctors from openly advertising these stem cell injections, but not from capitalizing on them by offering the therapy to their patients.

It also hasn’t stopped Perry from pushing for adult stem cell research and industry in Texas. During the governor’s 2009 State of the State address, he called on state leaders to invest in adult stem cell companies. Later that year, his Emerging Technology Fund awarded a $5 million grant to the Texas A&M Health Science Center Institute of Regenerative Medicine and $2.5 million to Helotes-based America Stem Cell to develop new adult stem cell technology.

Last month, three weeks after his adult stem cell treatment, Perry wrote a letter to the Texas Medical Board, which is considering new rules regarding adult stem cells, saying that he hoped Texas would “become the world’s leader in the research and use of adult stem cells.” He asked board members to “recognize the revolutionary potential that adult stem cell research and therapies have on our nation’s health, quality of life and economy.”

In the weeks since the procedure, the governor has traded his cowboy boots for orthopedic shoes and donned a back brace, raising questions that his recovery may be slow-going. Still, he has traveled extensively; in an interview with The Associated Press last week, Perry said he felt 80 percent recovered and was swimming and using the treadmill.

As for the high cost of such stem cell injections, Miner said that whatever health insurance didn’t pay for, “Perry did.”

In Perry’s procedure, his doctor, Houston orthopedic spine surgeon Stanley Jones, said he pulled stem cells from fatty tissue in the governor’s hip, left the cells to expand in culture for several weeks at a Sugar Land lab, then injected the cells back into the governor during his back surgery, into the spine and into Perry’s blood stream.

Red Tape: Rising Cost of Government Regulation

More Costly Regulations Looming. The torrent of new regulation will not end any time soon. The regulatory pipeline is chock full of proposed rules. The spring 2011 Unified Agenda (also known as the Semiannual Regulatory Agenda) lists 2,785 rules (proposed and final) in the pipeline. Of those, 144 were classified as “economically significant.” With each of the 144 pending major rules expected to cost at least $100 million annually, they represent at least $14 billion in new burdens each year.

This is an increase of 15.2 percent in the number of economically significant rules in the agenda between spring 2010 and spring 2011. Moreover, in the past decade, the number of such rules has increased a whopping 102 percent, rising from 71 to 144 since 2001.[9]

via Red Tape: Rising Cost of Government Regulation.

More de Tocqueville moments (yes, they want to tax and spend)

Last Friday, I was asked by the editors of the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung, to write the “Counter-Point” to an essay by the Comal County Democratic Party chair (behind a pay-wall, here.) At the time, I didn’t know who the author was and only had a portion of the original to read, but the major points were that the debt ceiling debate was only meant to be used against President Obama and all due to “past policies.” Here’s my answer, along with the title given it by the H-Z:

“The Public Is Being Bribed”

Yes, the current problems with the United States’ budget are due to errors of the past, including those of the current Administration. However, the first author’s basic philosophy is wrong.

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville observed, “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”

Last year, nearly half of the people in the United States didn’t pay income taxes. The top 50% paid 96% of the income tax revenues. The top 5% (those earning over $160,000) paid 55% of all income taxes, although they earned 33% of the gross income.

Congress and Federal bureaucracies have expanded the budget and the reach of government regulations. They heaped “ObamaCare”, on top of the “Stimulus,” on top of TARP bailouts, on top of earlier spending that made Conservatives angry enough to stay home in 2006 and 2008. The American voters didn’t like spending in November, 2010 and we don’t like it now.

Ronald Reagan convinced the Democrat-controlled Congress to cut tax rates along with tax deductions and loopholes, increasing Federal revenue. However, promised cuts in spending never materialized and the National debt exceeded $2 Trillion dollars in 1988. In 1995, Bill Clinton forced two government shut-downs, but the Republican House and Senate persisted until he signed  balanced budgets four years in a row.

Unfortunately, since 2001 both Parties have increased non-defense spending in addition to recovery from September 11, 2001, the war on the Afghanistan and Iraqi fronts, and the near-failure of the banking system in 2008. Attempts to decrease the rate of growth for non-essentials and bureaucracies were knocked down by histrionics from special interests and the media, even as new layers of tax credits and deductions were added, until half the country pays no taxes.

America was built on the dream that every child could grow up to be President or start a billion dollar business in the garage like the Wright brothers, Henry Ford and Bill Gates. I don’t remember hearing that if I worked hard, I could grow up to be middle class.

We Americans have a tradition of giving back, lending a hand up, and rescuing the helpless. Bloated Government bureaucracies divide families and force PC “separation of Church and State.” They’re poor substitutes for Churches and private charities that we choose as stewards for our duty to the less fortunate.

Yes, it’s important to think for ourselves and research the truth behind the latest controversies. I wouldn’t expect anything less from the people I know. However, we can learn from history. De Tocqueville also predicted, “”A democracy . . . can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”

Edited for spelling 3/28/2012 BBN

‘Civility’: The Denouement – WSJ.com

James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal’s “Best of the Web, Today” talks about the other side of civility government, reviewing yesterday’s talking point that Republicans are terrorists when it comes to the debt ceiling.

He also may have picked up on the next talking point. I heard similar talk from a doc tonight, who (just before telling me that no one needs to earn more than $500,000 a year and that the rest should be taxed away) claims to have been a “conservative Republican” until recently. It seems that the Republicans have been creating “fear” about the failure of the Government.

“Now He Tells Us”

Former Enron adviser Paul Krugman weighed in late yesterday morning against the debt compromise:

What about the catastrophe that would result? Several thoughts.

First, what I keep hearing from people who should know is that Treasury won’t actually run out of cash tomorrow, that it still has a few more days.

Second, the people who claim that terrible things would immediately happen in the markets also claimed that there would be a big relief rally once a deal was struck. Not so much: the Dow is down 121 right now.

Third, the idea that a temporary disruption would permanently damage faith in US institutions now seems moot; if you haven’t already lost faith in US institutions, you’re not paying attention.

Isn’t his position the same as Michele Bachmann’s?

via ‘Civility’: The Denouement – WSJ.com.