A Declaration of Reascendance In 1776, our Founding Fathers faced a crisis of tyranny in their own government, and lacking our good fortune of having them in their past, they found themselves left with no other option, than to issue the Declaration of Independence, which of course began with:
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
Fortunately for us however, because of their actions, and their later efforts almost two decades later, which resulted in our Constitution and Bill of Rights, we no longer need to dissolve the political bands which connect us with one another, we only need to reassert them.
First and foremost, we should reassert that:
–We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
And amend the next phrase to:
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter ***or to abolish*** it, ***and to institute new Government, laying*** reaffirming its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
That is the job of our legislators to perform, and to see to it that it is held to. But even more than that, it is our responsibility as citizens to see to it that our representatives are reminded of their responsibilities and of our awareness of that.
Through the creation of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, and further acts of Congress, we have an agency of the government, the Internal Revenue Service, which has been acting in rebellion to both the Constitution, the laws of the land and its own charter, abusing its power, intimidating the people of our land, and doing so while operating directly under the supervision and oversight of the Commerce Dept, the Justice Dept and the President of the United States of America.
As such, it has become self-evident that neither of these entities can any longer be trusted with managing or investigating that which they have already so completely lost control of.
As our representatives in Congress, We The People insist and demand that you, our Senators and Representatives, shall see to it that there be:
an immediate halt to normal operations of this IRS
an immediate hiring freeze
an immediate investigation by an independent prosecutor
an immediate halt to any plans that this agency be given oversight of any area of our healthcare system
For when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, (H/T Dana Loesch’s “Defund the IRS” and Jim Hoft “Now is the time to Speak Out“):
Though it is our right, because we have you, our Senators and Representatives, representing us in government, we do not need to do as our Founders did, and throw off our Government, we only need to re-apprise you of your duty to institute reliable Guards upon it for our present and future security.
–And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Sequester to Ensure Truth of Sec Kerry’s “Troops are Dumb” Comment
I joined the Army back in 1999 for several reasons. At 19, even after three semesters of college, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Staying in school at that point would have been a waste of my time and a waste of my parents’ money. So when the recruiter talked to me about job training, adventure, and benefits (that included education) it sounded too good to be true. And to soldiers who are currently serving, it apparently is too good to be true.
Education is one of the main reasons young soldiers give for joining the military. An incredible number of soldiers receive degrees from the Associates level up through the graduate level using the highly successful Tuition Assistance program to access thousands of online courses through schools all over the United States. And I think we would all agree that educating our soldiers could prove to be beneficial in regards to national defense.
Enter sequester, stage left. Yeah. From the White House. And if that’s not enough, in order to ensure that the evil Republicans (who in this case did nothing more than cave and let the petulant child-in-chief have his way)get what’s coming to them, an e-mail from the White House directed at least one department to do whatever was necessary to ensure that the fears “mongered” by the administration concerning sequester cuts were realized by the American people.
It stands to reason that a true leader would look for the spending cuts that would do the least damage to the American people. It stands to reason that a true leader would cut wasteful spending first. Like grant money for shrimp on treadmills, cocaine for monkeys, or – oh, I don’t know – excessive golf outings. But not our President. He figures that the best people to absorb the sequester cuts are our soldiers. The guys who put their lives on the line everyday to keep his golf courses safe. The guys who, unless they finish their educations and become officers, will probably spend most of their lives earning a salary that barely qualifies as “above the poverty line.” The guys who, whether they like the President or not, would step in front of a bullet for him because they understand the meaning of words like “honor,” “duty,” and “leadership.”
A memo from DoD Comptroller Robert Hale dated March 5, 2013, went out to each service branch, strongly suggesting that all new enrollments to the Tuition Assistance program be placed on hold. The Marine Corps has since announced that they will also be pulling all Tuition Assistance funding for current students at the end of this semester.
You’d think this administration couldn’t sink any lower. And you’d be wrong. One possibility for further cuts is TRICARE, the healthcare program for active duty soldiers and their families.
But that’s not even the best part! What is the best part, you ask? This President can still be the hero! How is this possible you ask? Well…
If these and other cuts are implemented, as directed, in such a way as to make them as acutely felt as possible, Americans will cry out for relief. The President, with the help of a complicit media, has already been mildly successful in convincing the public that the sequester can be blamed on the Republicans. The minute he signs into law any eventual compromise that brings relief, it will be a fairly simple matter to convince the public that he is the author of their salvation.
In the real world, when one party intentionally injures another party for the sole purpose of then swooping to the rescue, it’s a mental condition (Munchausen by proxy). When the President does it to the entire population of the United States, it’s apparently grounds for reelection.
Perhaps like many other Americans, you just grew up with guns. Learning how to shoot and to hunt — the thought of doing anything evil with a firearm never entered your mind. With the constant bombardment by the liberal media, you may think they have a point, in order to prevent tragedies such as the Sandy Hook massacre.
Pastor Reg Kelly examines the Holy Scriptures for an answer to this debate at the God, Guns, and Liberty Conference, scheduled for February 26 th at 7PM at Bethel Church1233 American Legion Dr. Festus, MO. There is no fee for this Conference. No registration is required.
The entire conference will also be aired live online.
So, angry callers swamped the phone lines of The Dana Show this afternoon wanting to excoriate the popular Christian talk-show host for wanting to engage in culture.
Dana live-tweeted the Oscars last night while watching the glamorization of ego event…and some on the Christian right were infuriated at her for wanting to engage in culture. These people argue that by any engagement in modern-day culture, one is promoting and contributing to the leftist Hollywood agenda.
Seriously? Seriously. I’ve got some news for you. Christianity is under attack here in America, in case you haven’t noticed. This is a cultural war we are in the midst of. Politics is downstream of culture. Until we reign in the culture, there is little that anyone will be able to do regarding violence, abortion issues, domestic issues, marital issues, abuse issues…shall I go on? First, we must recapture and inject pure biblical principles back into our society. What happened to honesty, humility, compassion, responsibility, purity, and respect? Until we obtain these, the rest is moot. The only way to achieve this is to engage in the culture that promotes the antithesis of Godliness.
And just a reminder: Without cultural engagement, we would never have had Elvis, Johnny Cash, Bob Hope, Ronald Reagan, Charles Schultz, CS Lewis, or, of course, the show Growing Pains! Could you imagine?
Christ calls us to engage, specifically, in Matt 28 16-20. I wouldn’t argue with that. Just sayin.
In a culture caught up in firearm fear, fueled by the mainstream media, state officials are positioned to vote on legislation to preserve the very life of the Second Amendment in Missouri.
HB 436, sponsored by Rep. Doug Funderburk, (R)- St. Charles County, is the strongest protection of the right to keep and bear arms in the entire nation
The hearing for HB 436, originally slated for a vote Tuesday, February 26, is now expected in public hearing, March 5th at 12:00 in Hearing Room 4, but the official hearing schedule will not be published until later this week. This provides a greater opportunity for Missouri residents to voice their support of their Second Amendment rights by filling out a witness form.
From perhaps the most patriotic lobbyist in Missouri, Ron Calzone at Missouri First:
Details about HB 436 & and it’s companion Senate bill SB 325. Since the 10th Amendment makes it clear that all powers not granted to the federal government are reserved to the states and the People, the regulation of the ownership of arms is a state, not a federal matter. That applies to ALL such regulation.We must demand from our legislators no less than the strongest, most principled stand they can take to defend our right to keep and bear arms!Rep. Doug Funderburk and Sen. Brian Nieves’ “Second Amendment Preservation Act” is the strongest and most principled protection of the right to keep and bear arms in the nation!.
Notice that it utilizes the words of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison to explain Missouri’s authority to nullify unconstitutional federal edicts within her borders. Including this language is essential to the success of the bill. It also specifically lists the types of things we will not put up with, and that’s what gives state officials the “cover” they need to enforce the bill.
Right NOW, either plan to attend the hearing for HB 436 (time to be announced), or fill out the online witness form..
Pass on this email or another with the generic witness form link to as many liberty loving people as you can.
If you have any personal contact with your rep or senator ask them to commit to supporting these bills.
Ron has upped the ante offering to hand deliver your witness form and also make your testimony available online for the committee to read. You can email your witness form and additional testimony directly to Ron at ron@mofirst.org
Former Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop died Monday at his home in Hanover, N.H., died Monday at his home in Hanover, N.H.. The cause of his death has not been made clear at this point. He was 96.
Koop, nominated by President Reagan in 1981, served seven years as Surgeon General. The evangelical Christian was initially faced with great opposition to his nomination due to his personal views on abortion. Koop, however, was one of the few figures in American history who had the ability to separate his personal views from the politics of it all.
During the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, Koop became a champion for AIDS research and education, and was heralded by both the homosexual community and AIDS activists alike. The AIDS scare came to an end in 1989, when Koop retired his post. Among the other health issues facing the culture at that time, he declared smoking a public health hazard, pioneering the way for the inquiry into big tobacco corporations.
I had the honor of working with C. Everett Koop, a pediatric surgeon, in the mid-nineties as a PR Agent. Face to face, the enormity of his stature was diluted by his humility and wit. He did of course, however, pull me aside at a gala in 1994 at a gala at the Adam’s Mark Hotel, taking a stern tone after he caught me smoking outside the event. His works, and our conversations left a lasting impression on me to this day.
Sad to see him go, perhaps his passing will not only bring to spotlight his great accomplishments and service to his country, but also serve as a reminder to those in the world of politics that it is possible to put aside the personal, and work for the common good of the people.
As if Hanoi Jane weren’t fuel enough. Oh My God – the Academy actually fans the fire by drafting First Lady Michelle Obama to help present Best Picture from presumably the White House? So unnecessary and inappropriate to inject so much politics into the Oscars yet again.
Finke has never been what anyone would call a conservative but has always been brutally forthright with Hollywood criticism. Pretty significant.
SIUE Thwarts Armed Robbers…With Text Warning System
This morning I was awakened by a text message at 2:30am. That isn’t necessarily odd, as my husband is a baker and is occasionally (ok, more than occasionally) at work at that hour. But it wasn’t my husband. It was the emergency text alert system from my school – Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
SIUE, like much of the state of Illinois, is a gun-free zone. It’s not even legal to store a weapon on campus, which essentially means that aside from campus police, no one is armed. Which is awesome, because that means we’re all totally safe.
Except the text message I received this morning suggested otherwise in a big way.
A little after 1am today, according to Fox News, two suspects robbed a 20 year old male student in Cougar Village (an SIUE apartment complex) at gunpoint. Only one of the suspects was armed, but surprisingly enough, when none of the victims are armed, one is generally enough to do the trick.
The questions running through my mind were simple enough
How exactly does an armed robber get into a “gun-free zone”? Doesn’t he set off an alarm of some sort? Aren’t there automatic sensors for that kind of thing? And if there aren’t, how can any politician claim that a “gun-free zone” is anything other than a euphemism for a “conveniently disarmed victim zone”?
Whatever the case, the words “gun free” don’t make me feel any safer as I head to class less than 12 hours after receiving that message. A .38 Special tucked discreetly into my bag, however…
Ah. Another wacademic professor of law, struts his stuff in the White House. It remains to be seen whether or not we can survive the lessons they’ve been teaching us, the last one nearly did us in… will this one make us stronger? Listen to this:
““While there is no law, or set of laws, that can prevent every senseless act of violence completely, no piece of legislation that will prevent every tragedy, every act of evil, if there’s even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there’s even one life that can be saved, then we’ve got an obligation to try. And I’m going to do my part.
This will not happen unless the American people demand it. If parents and teachers, police officers and pastors, if hunters and sportsmen, if responsible gun owners, if Americans of every background stand up and say, “Enough, we’ve suffered too much pain and care too much about our children to allow this to continue,” then change will come. That’s what it’s going to take..””
Yeah. One of the more straight forward things he’s said.
My understanding however, is that, although it took a couple tries for Mr. Obama and Justice Roberts to get it right, he did take an oath of office, and that oath was this:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.“
Leaving aside the splitting of legal hairs… how does any reading of the Constitution of the United States of America, condone the President, the Chief Executive of the Administrative branch of the Federal Government, issuing executive orders that ‘clarify’ how individual, private, doctors, should attend to how,
“…The Administration is clarifying that no federal law in any way prohibits doctors or other health care providers from reporting their patients’ threats of violence to the authorities, and issuing guidance making clear that the Affordable Care Act does not prevent doctors from talking to patients about gun safety.”
Clarify. Yeah. As Don Corleone’s muscular friend Vinny ‘clarifies’ that
”doz are sum nice kidz youse got dere… it’d be a shame should sumthin’ happen to ‘em.”
These have NOT been attacks upon the 1st and 2nd amendments, so much as they are attacks upon the very concepts and principles of Rights as such. Getting people to comply with justifying their rights – or not – as I tried to point out the other day, is but a means of sweeping them aside by reducing the One concept of Rights in the public’s understanding, to many particular chips, which can then can be easily stacked up, measured and bargained away.
Pay closer attention to what the President said with “This will not happen unless the American people demand it“. Worse than targeting specific amendments that protect our Rights, they are targeting our thoughts and the words we think them with. After over a century, they are succeeding in getting people to think of their Individual Rights as being simply a fluctuating set of privileges and pleasures, to be justified, and re-justified (or discarded) as reflects their present popularity. Once that is complete, and it is frighteningly close, then all of our Rights will have been transformed into favors and privileges to be bestowed upon us by those we’ve given the power to do so.
You don’t really have to destroy the amendments, only what people believe they are.
Make them think that the Right to bear arms in defense of your life, and all aspects of it, is something to be measured by what might be useful for hunting or taking down burglars – and it ceases to be a Right.
Make them think that the Right of liberty to follow your conscience depends upon making allowances for birth control, or exemptions from it – and it ceases to be anything other than administrative concessions to mollify those who can raise a ruckus.
I’ll go a step further. What Obama actually said yesterday, as he signed his executive orders and called for legislation, was no more important than what he said the day before yesterday, in calling for such. Why? Because what is truly important right now, is not how those in power go about doing what they’ve been saying they’re going to do, but in what you say and do about it (Sen. Rand Paul did make a nice start at getting the conversation started).
What is or is not Constitutional, hasn’t changed all that much since it was ratified. As I pointed out in an earlier post “♫ ♪ ♬ You say you want a Constitution … wellll ya know, we all want to change the world ♬ ♪ ♫“, when a Federal Roads bill was passed in 1817, President Madison vetoed it as unconstitutional. When a Federal Roads bill was passed, and it was signed, by President Wilson, in 1916, and was not overturned as being unconstitutional, by the courts. Something had changed in that century, and in this regard, it wasn’t the constitution, but We The People.
The Constitution records what We The People established for what may, and may not, be considered lawful. If any President or functionary seeks to act in contradiction to the Constitution, they are outside the bounds of law, as defined by the Constitution, which we defined.
If we forget the meaning of what it defines, and the reality behind that, then it’s gone. A steady drip, drip, drip corrupting our understanding of what is, and is not, true, has been nibbling away at our Rights for 150 years. The more we forget that that paper serves only to remind us of who and what we are, that our Rights must be recognized and respected, that in order to ‘pursue happiness’ we must secure ourselves from what those in power would do – the more we forget that, then the more they will get away with doing what they will.
With FDR’s outright theft of the citizens gold, where Supreme Court Justice McReynolds stated “This is Nero at his worst,” he thundered. “The Constitution is gone.”, but a case could be made that had happened twenty years earlier with the establishment of the first alphabet agency, the FDA. The Constitution has been dead and all govt actions have been those of outlaws for quite some time… but they can only get away with what you, We The People, forget about what they shouldn’t be doing.
At the very least, the govt has been engaging in outlawry for a century. Thanks to an educational system that has taught us how to not only not understand what it means to be an American, but to actively wish that we weren’t, we’ve now got a media, a culture, a President, a Congress, and a Supreme Court, who not only routinely disregard, but discard and disparage, the Constitution which they are formed from.
The Constitution hasn’t changed. What Rights are, hasn’t changed. You have.
And the more you continue to play along with their arguments, instead of pulling them up short, as any adult should do to an errant 8 year old trying to bargain their way around the rules, then those Rights which the Constitution serves to record for us, and which it does its best to uphold and defend, will be lost.
The secret of America and of the Constitution, is that the document doesn’t actually do anything about your Rights – You do. It has always been you. The problem with Conservatives, especially, is that they have been foolish enough to believe in the magical talismanic power of paper. It has no power.
Never has, never will.
The Constitution does nothing more than serve as a reminder to us, all of us, that we do have Rights which are inherent in our nature as human beings, and which require a careful, orderly, defense – from our inherent nature as human beings. If we forget that it is every bit as much part of our nature to desire to exert power to get what we want, which is the reason why those Rights must be recorded, understood and defended – by us – if we get carried away with thinking that all is well because of some asinine notion that ‘We are the people we’ve been waiting for!“, then what chance can Rights have to be respected and defended? And lacking that, what chance does Liberty itself possibly have? If you TRUST those who seek power over you, what chance has liberty got?
If we forget our Liberty and the Rights which enable it, or if we don’t bother learning what they mean and require, if we are foolish enough
, deluding ourselves into thinking that lines on paper are somehow going to prop your liberty up for you so you don’t have to strain yourself – then it will be lost.
Period.
Stop looking to politicians and start looking to your own understanding, or lack of it. If you don’t understand Liberty and the Rights it requires, then you have already lost it. If that is the case… what are you going to do about it?
So, this is how it has all played out: We now have the planks in place for a National Healthcare Registry, enwrapped within President Obama’s announced 23 Executive Actions yesterday. A National Health Registry system via *gun control legislation*…who’da thunk it?
Is that so far-fetched? It isn’t. In fact, I will argue, it has been the plan all along. Of course, his Obamacare plan was not to go into effect until his second term. He held his cards…waiting. He waited for the beginning of his second term as POTUS to implement part two of his socialist plan to ensnare Americans into a much larger, much more intrusive, completely freedomless scenario.
Obama knew there was no way he could never, ever, sell a National Healthcare Registry to the people at face value. He knew that there had to be a knee-jerk reaction to a highly emotionally charged scenario first. He knew that this needed to be carefully calculated into his pre-inaugural schedule. What better way to gloss what is going on.
My comments aside (which, by the way do not include any assumption to suggest that Sandy Hook was some sort of conspiracy), take a deep look at the abusive and invasive (non)wording of Obama’s 23 planks…then decide for yourself is this truly is not the implementation needed for a National Healthcare Registry System under the guise of *safety* or *the greater good*.
I kid you not, last month I went to the doctor for an annual wellness visit. This visit, by the Grace of God, was covered by my husband’s corporate insurance. Upon making the appointment, I was told that I was required to register my medical history online into Digichart. I refused. Upon showing up at my appointment, I was told the doctor would not see me unless I registered online via an in-office laptop. Digichart is a device in which to set up an EHR, or Electronic Health Record. Long and short, it is a medical information gathering system in digital format that is integrated across the medical spectrum to include a full and comprehensive record in one place…to be shared universally. An absolute invasion of privacy, regardless of HIPAA laws, and without accountability or consequence.
Unintended consequences
Per empirical research can lead to both intended and unintended consequences:
A 2008 Sentinel Event Alert from the U.S. Joint Commission, the organization that accredit American hospitals to provide healthcare services, states that “As health information technology (HIT) and ‘converging technologies’—the interrelationship between medical devices and HIT—are increasingly adopted by health care organizations, users must be mindful of the safety risks and preventable adverse events that these implementations can create or perpetuate. Technology-related adverse events can be associated with all components of a comprehensive technology system and may involve errors of either commission or omission. These unintended adverse events typically stem from human-machine interfaces or organization/system design.” The Joint Commission cites as an example the United States Pharmacopeia MEDMARX database where of 176,409 medication error records for 2006, approximately 25 percent (43,372) involved some aspect of computer technology as at least one cause of the error.
The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK reports specific examples of potential and actual EHR-caused unintended consequences in their 2009 document on the management of clinical risk relating to the deployment and use of health software.
In a Feb. 2010 U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) memorandum, FDA notes EHR unintended consequences include EHR-related medical errors due to (1) errors of commission (EOC), (2) errors of omission or transmission (EOT), (3) errors in data analysis (EDA), and (4) incompatibility between multi-vendor software applications or systems (ISMA) and cites examples. In the memo FDA also notes the “absence of mandatory reporting enforcement of H-IT safety issues limits the numbers of medical device reports (MDRs) and impedes a more comprehensive understanding of the actual problems and implications.”
A 2010 Board Position Paper by the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) contains recommendations on EHR-related patient safety, transparency, ethics education for purchasers and users, adoption of best practices, and re-examination of regulation of electronic health applications. Beyond concrete issues such as conflicts of interest and privacy concerns, questions have been raised about the ways in which the physician-patient relationship would be affected by an electronic intermediary.
Privacy and confidentiality
In the United States in 2011 there were 380 major data breaches involving 500 or more patients’ records listed on the website kept by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights. So far, from the first wall postings in September 2009 through the latest on December 8, 2012, there have been 18,059,831 “individuals affected,” and even that massive number is an undercount of the breach problem. The civil rights office has not released the records of tens of thousands of breaches it has received under a federal reporting mandate on breaches affecting fewer than 500 patients per incident.
Governance, privacy and legal issues
Privacy concerns
In the United States, Great Britain, and Germany, the concept of a national centralized server model of healthcare data has been poorly received. Issues of privacy and security in such a model have been of concern.
Privacy concerns in healthcare apply to both paper and electronic records. According to the Los Angeles Times, roughly 150 people (from doctors and nurses to technicians and billing clerks) have access to at least part of a patient’s records during a hospitalization, and 600,000 payers, providers and other entities that handle providers’ billing data have some access also. Recent revelations of “secure” data breaches at centralized data repositories, in banking and other financial institutions, in the retail industry, and from government databases, have caused concern about storing electronic medical records in a central location. Records that are exchanged over the Internet are subject to the same security concerns as any other type of data transaction over the Internet.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed in the US in 1996 to establish rules for access, authentications, storage and auditing, and transmittal of electronic medical records. This standard made restrictions for electronic records more stringent than those for paper records. However, there are concerns as to the adequacy of these standards.
Threats to health care information can be categorized under three headings:
-Human threats, such as employees or hackers
-Natural and environmental threats, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and fires.
-Technology failures, such as a system crashing
Wait! What? What about governmental intrusion? Most States already do background checks…so what in the world would be so far-reaching as to open familial documents to search for hereditary traits? This is so encouraging…let’s continue:
Within the private sector, many companies are moving forward in the development, establishment and implementation of medical record banks and health information exchange. By law, companies are required to follow all HIPAA standards and adopt the same information-handling practices that have been in effect for the federal government for years. This includes two ideas, standardized formatting of data electronically exchanged and federalization of security and privacy practices among the private sector.
Did you catch that? right at the end there. . .FEDERALIZATION. Yep, sure took a long time to get there. Of course, the whole point is to bury that part by exhaustively dry mumbo-jumbo.
Private companies have promised to have “stringent privacy policies and procedures.” If protection and security are not part of the systems developed, people will not trust the technology nor will they participate in it. So, the private sector know the importance of privacy and the security of the systems and continue to advance well ahead of the federal government with electronic health records.
Pinky-swear? Really? Our privacy is contingent upon the spit-handshake between a private corporation and the federal government…who could, incidentally that could be bought out at any time…including by the government.
Now, if you are still unsure yourself on this, with the above information in mind, read through Obama’s 23 Executive “Actions”, and decide for yourself:
The following is a list, provided by the White House, of executive actions President Obama plans to take to address gun violence.
1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.
2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.
11. Nominate an ATF director.
12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.
16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.
21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.
22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.
23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.
It’s okay. It’s a lot to chew on…take your time…
For the record, I refused to submit my private information in digital form. I informed the secretary that I was concerned that there was no guarantee that the company collecting the information would not be sold out, therefore, selling my personal, private health information. SHe looked at me as though I had three heads, then responded with “The Doctor will see you now”.
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