PRESENTING PIANIST 
CHARLIE ALBRIGHT
Our heartfelt thanks to DUCKY for making this significant discovery known to us. We chose this short video to show the young man's extraordinary mastery of the instrument. In a music world world filled today with Young Turks and Titanic Virtuosi the dexterity and great mastery of phrasing and dynamics by Mr. Albright stands out as especially noteworthy. 

OBAMACARE and 

the CULINARY ARTS

A Classic Culinary Disaster

The President’s Signature Legislation is a Septic Sauce

Funny that no one yet (to my knowledge has used this singularly apt analogy from the Culinary Arts: It is virtually impossible to "fix" a sauce that has gone wrong. Once you've put in a wrong ingredient –– or even too much of a right one –– there's really nothing to do but throw the whole batch away, and start over again –– THIS time paying STRICT attention to ALL the details in the list of instructions of a tried and true recipe.

Instead of wasting time and energy hurling insults, hooting catcalls and throwing brickbats at Democrats for their treachery and idiotic misdeeds, what REPUBLICANS should have been doing all this time was SETTING UP and EMPHASIZING a simple, clear set of instructions designed to make our medical system work better for a greater number of people.

HOW WE SHOULD HAVE FIXED our MEDICAL CARE SYSTEM

1. ALL medical expenses should have been made TAX-DEDUCTIBLE –– PERIOD!

2. ALL HEALTH INSURANCE POLICIES should have been made PORTABLE from state to state and job to job, and should not lapse because of unemployment. 

3. ALL policies should be written for MAJOR MEDICAL EXPENSES ONLY with a 5 to 10 thousand dollar deductible. (Anyone who can't afford to pay 5K toward his own medical care probably doesn't deserve to live anyway.  

4. Doctors and Hospitals should be REQUIRED by LAW to accept regular MONTHLY PAYMENTS without INTEREST, however small, from patients unable to pay their deductible expenses. 

5. ONLY the absolutely DESTITUTE (i.e. mentally and physically incompetent people living in the street with no hope of becoming gainfully employed), should receive ANY government assistance whatsoever. 

6. Our DISABLED VETERANS should have ALL the very BEST CARE AVAILABLE provided FREE of CHARGE, and they and their minor children be given decent housing, and a TAX-FREE status for the rest of their lives

7. VICTIMS of VIOLENT CRIMES [these should NOT include "Date Rape" or "Statutory Rape" or the so-called mental suffering from the long-term after-effects of Child Abuse, Racial Slurs, Name-calling, Sexual Harassment, etc.] should receive MONETARY COMPENSATION for their losses, and whatever treatment they may require FREE of CHARGE, and be granted TAX-FREE status for the rest of THEIR LIVES. [Violent assault implies the need for extended medical treatment, and long lasting effects of maiming or crippling, hence the need for special status.]

8. Strict and severe limitations should have been placed in the right of anyone to SUE doctors, hospitals and laboratories for MALPRACTICE. The process has become a tremendously lucrative RACKET for unscrupulous attorneys and wily, unprincipled individuals eager to “milk” or “game” The System. The EXPENSE to the Medical Community has been RUINOUS, and has, of course, been passed on to decent, perfectly innocent “consumers” like you and me.

Let's see if we can get our heads together and try to refine and improve these thoughts, then send our findings to the legislators. Please don't laugh, I beg you.

Classic Role Reversal thanks to the Feminazis

Timeless Wisdom from Dr. Laura:

"If you're having a CRAPPY day, 

make it a HAPPY CRAPPY day!"

THERE! Now don't you feel 
much, MUCH better?

Good! I'm so glad. I knew you would.

CHEERIO!

A Song for November 23, 1963 Thank you, Lee, boy! Your sacrifice may have been made in vain, because you gave us LBJ, but at least you tried. I'm sure Marina remembers you with deep affection and great pride. So do we. I can't tell you how much we wish you were with us today now that your country needs you more than ever.

FIFTY YEARS AGO TODAY

Joseph P. Kennedy, Patriarch of the Kennedy Clan

The Deviltry That Led To

November 22, 1963

Joseph P. once had a Master Plan.

Oh, what dreams of Glory he possessed!

His lust for Conquest never let him rest.

Naught but vain Ambition drove the clan

Kennedy had sired to fulfill

Ego-driven fantasies of ruling

Nations. Wealth, ill-gotten, had us drooling.

Nothing seemed to thwart Old Joseph’s will.

Enter World War Two: It killed young Joe,

Destined to be President one day. 

Even so, despite this transient woe,

Ambition took the lead again, so Jack

Took his brother’s place. That was Joe’s way.

His will was thwarted by a rifle’s crack.

~ FreeThinke (11/22/13)

The famous Book Depository in Dallas where Oswald took his aim

Could this be apocryphal? –– 

fictitious? –– genuine? 

Who cares! It’s funny as all get out.

General Stanley McChrystal

I’LL NEVER STAND IN LINE AGAIN

by General Stanley McChrystal [reportedly]

 [NOTE: General Stanley McChrystal is another American warrior Obama viewed as a threat who was forced to retire. Billed as “A TRUE STORY about General McChrystal's  resignation in Obama's office, excerpted  from General  McChrystal's book.”]

  

Some men handle diplomacy better than others. You’ll have to be the judge on this.

When the former U.S. Military commander in Afghanistan, was called into the Oval Office by Barack Obama, he knew things weren't going to go well when the President accused him of not supporting him in his political role as President.

"It's not my job to support you as a politician, Mr. President, it's my job to support you as Commander-in-Chief," McChrystal replied, and he handed Obama his resignation.

Not satisfied with accepting McChrystal's resignation the President made a cheap parting shot. "I bet that when I die, I'll bet you'll be happy to pee on my grave, won't you?"

The General saluted, and said, "That's unlikely, Mr. President, I promised myself after leaving the Army I'd never stand in line again."

Let's draw lots to see who gets to make the first cut, okay?

HOW WE SHOULD HAVE FIXED our MEDICAL CARE SYSTEM

1. ALL medical expenses should have been made TAX-DEDUCTIBLE –– PERIOD!

2. ALL HEALTH INSURANCE POLICIES should have been made PORTABLE from state to state and job to job, and should not lapse because of unemployment.

3. ALL policies should be written for MAJOR MEDICAL EXPENSES ONLY with a 5 to 10 thousand dollar deductible. (Anyone who can't afford to pay 5K toward his own medical care probably doesn't deserve to live anyway.  

4. Doctors and Hospitals should be REQUIRED by LAW to accept regular MONTHLY PAYMENTS without INTEREST, however small, from patients unable to pay their deductible expenses.

5. ONLY the absolutely DESTITUTE (i.e. mentally and physically incompetent people living in the street with no hope of becoming gainfully employed), should receive ANY government assistance whatsoever.

6. Our DISABLED VETERANS should have ALL the very BEST CARE AVAILABLE provided FREE of CHARGE, and they and their minor children be given decent housing, and a TAX-FREE status for the rest of their lives

7. VICTIMS of VIOLENT CRIMES [these should not include "Date Rape" or "Statutory Rape" or the so-called mental suffering from the long-term after-effects of Child Abuse, Racial Slurs and Name-calling, etc.] should receive MONETARY COMPENSATION for their losses, and whatever treatment they may require FREE of CHARGE, and be granted TAX-FREE status for the rest of THEIR LIVES.

8. Strict and severe limitations should have been placed in the right of anyone to SUE doctors, hospitals and laboratories for MALPRACTICE. The process has become a tremendously lucrative RACKET for unscrupulous attorneys and wily, unprincipled individuals eager to “milk” or “game” The System. The EXPENSE to the Medical Community has been RUINOUS, and has, of course, been passed on to decent, perfectly innocent “consumers” like you and me.

Let's see if we can get our heads together and try to improve on these thoughts, and then send our findings to the legislators. Please don't laugh, I beg you.

Dear God! Where are we going to find the MONEY?

The POWER of PATHOS 

MATH TRICK:

This really works and will only take you about ten seconds.

This is a sure fire way to find my all-time favorite movie.

I happen to be very good at math, so I did it in my head, then on paper, and finally on a calculator just to confirm my numerical capabilities.

Each time I got the same answer, and sure enough it IS my very favorite movie EVER!

DO NOT cheat. DO YOUR math, THEN compare the results to the list of movies at the bottom

You will be AMAZED at how incredibly accurate this test is.

1. Pick a number from 1-9.

2. Multiply that number by 3.

3. Add 3.

4. Multiply by 3 again.

5. Your total will be a two digit number. Add the first and second digits together to find your very favorite movie (of all time) in the list of 17 movies below:

Movie List:

1. Gone With the Wind

2. E.T.

3. Blazing Saddles

4. Star Wars

5. Forrest Gump

6. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

7. Jaws

8. Grease

9. The Obama Farewell Speech

10. Casablanca

11. Jurassic Park

12. Shrek

13. Pirates of the Caribbean

14. Titanic

15. Raiders of the Lost Ark

16. Home Alone

17. Mrs. Doubtfire

Now, ain't that something?

An' GAWD, Ain' it de TROOF?

AH, the IRONY of it all!

SENIOR TAX RETURN

I just received an audit on my tax return for 2012 back from the IRS. It puzzles me.

They are questioning how many dependents I claimed.

I guess it was because of my response to the question: "List all dependents?"

I replied: 12 million illegal immigrants; 3 million crackheads; 42 million unemployed people on food stamps, 2 million people in over 243 prisons; Half of Mexico, 535 persons in the U.S. House and Senate, and one worthless President, and his high-living, free-spending, vulgar, excessively self-indulgent wife.

Evidently, this was NOT an acceptable answer.

I KEEP ASKING MYSELF, 

WHOM DID I MISS?

OUR FABULOUS FIRST LADY

A Photo Essay 

Accompanied by Automated Anagrams

Halal Be Commie, A Camel Lib Home 

Baa Commie Hell, Label Ha Commie 

Cable Imam Hole, Label Imam Echo 

Liable Mocha Me, Blah Ale Commie

Mambo Leach Lie, Blame Malice Ho 

Ameba Loci Helm, Labial Come Hem 

Amoebic Ma Hell, Mamba Lice Hole 

Able Malice Ohm, Becalm Email Ho 

Mocha Meal Bile, Cabal Hole Mime 

Embalm Ache Oil , Amicable Hem Lo 

Bleach Imam Ole 

Lab Malice Home 

Me Claimable Ho

Editorial Post Script:

It's disappointing –– but by no means surprising –– to see how dangled bait almost invariably creates a feeding frenzy –– especially when the bait is putrid.

Death by Obamacare: Reform Reams Cancer Patients

by Robert Goldberg - The New York Post 

http://nypost.com/2013/11/12/death-by-obamacare-reform-reams-cancer-patients/

November 12, 2013 

Bev Veals, undergoing chemo at Duke Cancer Center, was in the hospital when she learned 

that the president's "reform" was forcing her into a higher-cost health plan.

ObamaCare is supposed to be a huge boon for anyone with a pre-existing condition. Count that another promise broken: It’s actually denying care because of pre-existing conditions.

Millions of Americans with cancer and other chronic illnesses will wind up paying more for lifesaving care, if they can get it all.

To keep costs down, the White House designed ObamaCare plans as cut-rate HMOs. The low profit margins have forced insurers to downsize the number of doctors and hospitals in their networks — and to slash what they cover for out-of-network treatment.

So most ObamaCare plans don’t include the vast majority of the best cancer doctors and cancer centers. That’s a huge problem for these patients. As Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former Medicare official, writes: “Cancer patients often need the help of specialized doctors and cancer institutions that won’t make it into many of these cheapened networks.”

All across the country, leading cancer centers — including New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering — are excluded by the largest plans. In Washington state, the largest exchange plans exclude world-class cancer care for kids such as the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. California’s state-of-the-art Cedars-Sinai cancer center isn’t in any ObamaCare plan. Only a few plans include the Mayo Clinic.

And if you want a doctor outside such networks, you’ll generally have to pay the full cost of care.

Many people will get better coverage at a lower cost under ObamaCare (after all, the feds are spending hundreds of billions on it). But most cancer patients will wind up paying more for less.

Take Michael Cerpok, a leukemia survivor in Fountain Hills, Ariz. Right now, his monthly premium is about half his monthly take-home pay. But the ObamaCare law forced his insurer to kill that plan for one that fits the law’s rules.

Now he’ll have to pay more for drugs, and his Mayo Clinic doctor is no longer in his network.

Last year, his treatment bill was more than $350,000, but thanks to insurance his out-of-pocket was only $4,500. Now, to keep his doctor, the one who has kept him alive for seven years, Cerpok will have to pay $26,000 out-of-pocket.

ObamaCare also stints on drug coverage, severely limiting the medicines plans cover. Many pre-Obama plans just charged a co-pay of about $50-70 a month for cancer drugs. Under ObamaCare, thousands of cancer patients will have to pay more than $2,500 a month for medicines.

Horribly, ObamaCare is limiting access to new medicines just as a revolution is delivering far better treatments. More than 40 new treatments target the genetic source of tumors, as opposed to older therapies that kill cancer cells after they spread. On average, ObamaCare plans cover only 10 targeted therapies, and insurers don’t have to add new breakthroughs until 2016.

A study by Avalere Health found that up to 90 percent of ObamaCare plans will force cancer patients to cover half the cost of new drugs until they hit the out-of-pocket maximum. By comparison, only 29 percent of non-ObamaCare employer-based plans do so.

Many patients will just give up. Another Avalere study found that people are four times more likely to stop using innovative therapies if they have to pay $500 or more.

South Carolinan Bill Elliott, 50, and a late-stage lung-cancer survivor, is looking at doing just that. He reports that premiums for his family will jump from $150 to $1,500 a month. His doctor isn’t in the ObamaCare network and neither are his medicines, so he’s thinking about stopping altogether, “pay the $95 or whatever fine and I’m just going to let nature take its course,” because he doesn’t want to burden his family.

Forget the Web site and other disasters: The ugliest part of ObamaCare is how it denies life-saving coverage to cancer patients. That isn’t a “glitch”; it’s a cruel and key feature of the law.

[NOTE: Robert Goldberg is vice president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and publisher of valueofinnovation.org.]

MORE ON: OBAMACARE

Clinton to prez: Fix ObamaCare

Fewer than 50G ObamaCare Web applicants so far

ObamaCare enrollment far short of target

Texas governor: Obama should admit to health 'fraud'

What Else Could You Hope to Add to This?

IN HONOR of VETERAN'S DAY

Who never lost, are unprepared

A coronet to find;

Who never thirsted, flagons

And cooling tamarind.

Who never climbed the weary league --

Can such a foot explore

The purple territories

On Pizarro's shore?

How many legions overcome?

The emperor will say.

How many colors taken

On Revolution Day?

How many bullets bearest?

The royal scar hast thou?

Angels, write "Promoted"

On this soldier's brow! 

~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Illustration of A. A. Milne's "Vespers" by E. H. Shepard (1879-1976)

A Most Touching Relic  from a Regrettably Bygone Era

Gracie Fields, ne Grace Stansfield, (1898 - 1979), was an English actress, singer and comedienne, a star of music hall, cinema, radio and recordings.  Beloved by the British public, she became affectionately known as “Our Gracie,” and did much to boost morale during the Second World War, traveling far and wide at considerable risk, and great personal inconvenience to entertain the troops. Largely because of this she was regarded as a national treasure, and was made a Dame of the British Empire in recognition of her service. Gracie kept performing till virtually the end of her days, and was still singing as well as ever at the age of eighty.

The following poem by A. A. Milne, sung here by Gracie Fields, was so loved it was made part of the Library of the Queen’s Doll House. When it was published as part of When We Were Very Young, the author made a note in the Index acknowledging that it was printed there by “special permission.” The music was composed by Harold Fraser Simpson, whose name Alas! has been all-but forgotten..

VESPERS

Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.

God bless Mummy. I know that's right.
Wasn't it fun in the bath tonight?
The cold's so cold, and the hot's so hot.
Oh! God bless Daddy - I quite forgot.

If I open my fingers a little bit more,
I can see Nanny's dressing gown on the door.
It's a beautiful blue, but it hasn't a hood.
Oh! God bless Nanny and make her good.

Mine has a hood, and I lie in bed,
And pull the hood right over my head,
And I shut my eyes and I curl up small,
And nobody knows that I'm there at all.

Oh! Thank you, God, for a lovely day.
And what was the other I had to say?
I said, "Bless Daddy," so what can it be?
Oh! Now I remember. God bless me!

Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.

~ A. A. Milne (1882-1956)