Obama Contraception Mandate: Could it be a political payoff?

In a stunning and defiant push, President Obama has mandated that all companies, including religious organizations, pay for health care insurance that covers contraception and sterilization. However, widespread complaints, particularly from the Catholic church and other groups, forced the President to modify his policy. His compromise was to require all insurance companies to provide contraception free of charge to everyone.

Initially, the President allotted a 1 year period for those who objected to come to terms with their religious souls and objections. But, after the push back, Mr. Obama shortened the timeline, and has set an August 2012 deadline for his new rule to be implemented.  This means the implementation of the rule would not be subject to his winning re-election.

Still infuriated that our constitutional religious freedom is being violated, seven States have now filed a lawsuit to block this mandate. But, the President is not budging.

Wondering about what is motivating the President's decision, I asked myself: Where are condoms were made. Were they manufactured in China? Could this be a reason to insist that condoms and other devices be provided for free? Is it something else?

Well, interestingly enough, I read the article: "How Products are Made, Volume 2: Condom".

Towards the bottom, they have a section headed "The Future", which talks about the "Reality" condom for women that is manufactured by Female Health Company (FHC). It is incorporated in Wisconsin and lists its principal executive offices in Chicago, Illinois. This is the same city where President Obama owns a home and where the President's re-election campaign, Obama for America, is located.

When visiting the FHC website, one is  presented with a Yahoo Finance chart which illustrates the company's stock price for the past 6 months. While having a few ups and downs, it has continually risen from approximately $4.5 a share to $5.50 per share during the past 6 months (see widget at right).

According to its history page, the Female Health Company has been licensed to provide female condoms since 1987. However, its latest product, FC2, was only given US FDA approval in 2009. The company was then listed on the NASDAQ-CM stock exchange that same year.

Coincidentally, the Obama "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" was passed by the Senate on December 24, 2009, and signed into law by the President on March 23, 2010.

Now given that:

• the Female Health Company went public about the same time as the Affordable Care Act was being written in 2009,
• its FC2 contraception device was FDA approved under the Obama administration in 2009,
• President Obama is requiring all insurance companies to provide free contraction devices, including those manufactured by this company,
• the FHC stock price has risen by nearly 20% in the past few months,
• and that FHC is headquartered in Chicago, along with the Obama political campaign,

we must raise the question:

Are there any political or financial connections between President Obama, his political staff, or other members of Congress and that of the Female Health Company which has motivated the President's mandate for all insurance companies to provide free contraception devices to all Americans?

We do not know the answer to this, but we do know that there is no Chinese connection as we originally thought. Could this be another Solyndra scandal? Or, is this all simply coincidental?  You decide.

Sources:

• Obama's Contraceptive Failure
• 7 states sue to block contraception mandate
• Obama / Biden - Contact us
• Female Health Company

Saying hello to old Adgitize & CMF friends

It's been about 7 weeks since Adgitize closed and even longer for CMF. During the heyday period of those two blog advertising networks, my regular schedule was to visit many of the members participating blogs. But now that they are closed, I find myself daydreaming about the good old days.

While traffic for this particular blog has dropped substantially, my two lottery blogs have seen a dramatic growth in search engine traffic. This has kept my morale up and generates enthusiasm to keep on blogging.

To keep myself stimulated, I've settled on routine of regularly visiting a few of the blogs who were active participants in the above networks. In particular, I enjoy stopping in and reading the posts of:

• Orient Lodge and learning about Aldon's political, professional, and personal involvements,
• Sharkbytes My Quality Day which has helped me weather the winter and enjoy the Michigan scenery
• Dickster's Random Thoughts which shares Dick's personal thoughts and the family's difficulties with dealing with an autistic child
• Some Assembly Required that is written as a personal diary documenting the life of an successful advertising executive in Texas
• Carmen's Chronicles , an old favorite and a frequent commenter on my blogs, who has been recently visiting and living in India
• Quick Blog Tips by Ben Barden (of CMFads fame), and Floor15 (which will be closing shortly)
• English Wilderness by John who posts beautiful pictures scenic UK locations

While I rarely leave comments on the blogs that I visit, I just wanted to share my thoughts and let everyone know that I am still thinking about them!

PS: And of course, I continue to miss postings by our old friend Ken Brown!

The global warming and climate change hoax overplays receding glaciers

The politicians and proponents of taxing carbon emissions have continually cited "Global Warming" as the reason we must impose new taxes.  However, a variety of sources have uncovered evidence of manipulated temperature record keeping for the purposes of supporting the global warming hoax.  After this was publicized, the proponents changed their argument to "climate change".

Well, having been around for quite a few years, I've learned that the climate is always changing. Sometimes it is hot, cold, rainy, snowy, dry, cloudy, sunny, or even simply mild. Because of these seasonal and yearly fluctuations, I've always dismissed the climate change argument.

However, global warming is a bit more interesting. Here in the northeastern United States, temperatures have been above normal for most of the winter months. That seems like warming to me. But then I read about the record breaking low temperatures in Alaska and Europe this year, and it seems like cooling to me.

Wattsupwiththat.com wrote an interesting article that summarizes the sub-zero temperatures experienced in various parts of Alaska this year titled: Bitter cold records broken in Alaska – all time coldest record nearly broken, but Murphy’s Law intervenes. And, a search for the term "record cold in alaska" returns

• Record Lowest Temperatures by State — Infoplease.com (note Alaska in 1971)
• Record Cold in Alaska – updated | WOODTV.com Blogs (September 2010)
• Media Ignore Near-Record Cold in Alaska | NewsBusters.org (April 2007)

Looking at this list, we realize that it has been cold in Alaska for a number of years. That consistency hardly qualifies for either "climate change" or "global warming".

Undaunted, the proponents point to the glaciers and scream "The Glaciers are Receding!" This proves that global warming exists.

Unfortunately, glaciers grow and recede as part of their natural life-cycle. Years ago, I visited an Alaskan glacier. The ranger there explained why using glaciers as an argument was a fallacy. He told us:

Glaciers are formed by the constant snow in the mountains. As the snow builds up, it becomes a glacier by compressing the snow at the bottom into hard ice. After a while, the force of the snow becomes too great for the friction to hold the glacier on the slopes. When this happens, the glacier slides down the mountain. Thus it is growing. After a while, the glacier is spread over a wide surface and the friction holds it in place. Because the lower portion is at a lower altitude and in warmer temperatures, that portion begins to melt away. This means the glacier is receding. After some point, the snow at the top builds up again, and forces the glacier to slide down the mountain again. Thus, the glacier naturally grows and recedes.

A number of sources verify the park rangers explanation You can see this by visiting the following sites:

• Glaciers (animated source -click on "Overview" button, then arrow forward at "Types of Glaciers")
• PBS: Interactive Anatomy of a Glacier
• NSIDC: All about Glaciers

Additionally, the book Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud by Robert L. Park provides an excellent description of this and other scientific hoaxes.

How the national debt increased by $1.6 trillion in 2011

In 2011, the national debt increased by $1.6 trillion.  This was amassed by the government's spending $3.8 trillion while only receiving $2.2 trillion in revenues.

Bill Whittle (BillWhittleChannel) has prepared and published a comprehensive video detailing the sources of all U.S. income and spending for fiscal year 2011. From it, we learn that of the $3.8 trillion spent, $2.2 trillion was used for entitlement spending (social security, medicare, unemployment, food stamps, etc). This is the same number received in revenues. This means that all the money we taxpayers paid was given directly to entitlement recipients. Since there isn't any money left over, the government must borrow the difference for it to operate (paying salaries, retirement, funding all agencies, NASA, the armed forces, cost of war, etc).


 While Whittle's message is intended to inform us how the massive entitlement spending could positively influence the re-election of the president, we believe the message more importantly highlights our economic vulnerability to potential collapse. The national debt is now at $15 trillion, and Mr. Obama will ask to raise the debt ceiling to $16.6 trillion. By adding this amount each year, the national debt will double in 10 years. And, if interest rates rise, the interest we pay for this debt will further compound the problem.