A Switch in Time Saved Now, and Now This....

There's a famous saying about how "a switch in time saved nine" Supreme Court justices under FDR, who was threatening to pack the court unless it quit ruling his laws unconstitutional. When one judge switched to the liberals' side, it was just in time to save all of them.

Now, for all of us who consider the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) evil incarnate, it was an ill senator who saved the nation from the twin terrors of card check unionization and forced contract arbitration.

One of the EFCA's sponsors, Senator Tom Harkin (D.-Iowa), has revealed he had a deal in place in July to pass EFCA--with labor leaders set to descend on the capital to celebrate--when all he needed was just one more vote to reach the 60-vote cloture threshold. That vote belonged to the late Ted Kennedy, but when Harkin inquired of Kennedy's doctor if the senator could spend just three days in Washington, D.C., the answer was no; he's too ill.

Harkin wouldn't reveal what was in the deal:

"I will not say [what was in the bill] because it was closely held, it never leaked out and it still hasn't," Harkin said. "I took it off the front-burner and put it on the back-burner so it is still on warm, OK?"

No Surprise in This Lilly Ledbetter Endorsement

I came across an obscure news item in the Web site for Alabama TV station WHNT, which announced that Lilly Ledbetter--she of the eponymous Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act--had endorsed Democrat Artur Davis for governor of her home state of Alabama.

The last line of the brief article pretty much summed up Ledbetter's rationale--and gave me a good chuckle at the same time: "Davis was the only Alabama congressman who voted for the Ledbetter act."

HR 3200 in One Illustration and One Page

If you can figure out this illustration, you're a better man than I am, Gungha Din. However, it gives you a pretty good idea of what a monstrosity the House health reform measure (HR 3200) is.

Also, here's a rundown of some of the salient features of the legislation, ranging from home visitations to governmental access to your bank account for payment!

Japan's New First Lady Flew UFO to Venus

Now, tell me this doesn't sound surreal (if not downright wacky)?

"While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and went to Venus," Miyuki Hatoyama, the wife of Japanese premier-in-waiting Yukio Hatoyama, wrote in a book published last year.

"It was a very beautiful place and it was really green."

I bet.

Give Him a Gun and a Chamber, He's Dr. Mengele

One of the heads of the Obama Administration's effort to reform health care says the Hippocratic Oath is to blame for our woes. To wit, we treat patients too well and shun the hard decisions regarding who should live and who should die, and thus our health care costs too much.

Meet Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House Svengali Rahm, who together seem on a fascistic mission to take over every industry and service in America. You know, just like Mussolini made the trains run on time, they obviously know better since they're better than you and I, so don't challenge their assumptions and viewpoints.

Zeke is the more transparent of the two since he's been writing about how to whack away old people and save medical costs for a long, long time now. Given the choice between saving a 65-year-old and a 25-year-old in a "cost-effective" health care environment, Zeke has been known to quip, "Well, the 65-year old has already been 25." Time to check out, baby!

Don't take my word for it. The man who would be Health God is quoted and featured extensively in today's Wall Street Journal.

Catch this gem from his lips (or his computer anyway):

"When implemented, the complete lives system produces a priority curve on which individuals aged roughly [between] 15 and 40 years get the most substantial chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated."

Wow, this is precisely what Hitler aimed for--elimination of all who weren't productive for the social machine that was National Socialism. ("Chances" means: "Well, maybe we'll try to save your life if you're younger than 15 or older than 40, but don't count on it. If you can prove you can produce lots of taxes in the future, we'll negotiate. Otherwise, adios."

And how do you like that Orwellian construct--"the complete lives system"? Under this system, the only ones who are guaranteed to complete their lives are the ones running it.

The man also sees "the constant introduction of new medical technologies, including new drugs, devices, and procedures" as evils to be disparaged and contained--to be used only if they are universally applicable as well as dirt cheap.

I think The Good Doctor would, equipped with a harness and a pistol and an end-of-life (read: gas) chamber, fit right into Hitler's Germany.

But then I happen to believe in the Hippocratic Oath.

Poor me. My "chance" is slim under Zeke and Obama. I've already been 25.

There They Go Again: Stripping Nude in Protest

I've exposed you readers before to the nefarious tactics of French workers, who will take employers hostage and threaten to blow up the establishment if they don't get the proper severance package. Now some French workers are exposing themselves in the name of the cause.

Some 13 men from the Chaffoteaux et Maury boiler factory in Brittany have bared it all--save hard hats--for a nude calendar (how many months do they have in France?). Supposedly, they will use the proceeds to journey to the factory's owners in Italy to beg them not to close the facility.

It was not revealed if the male delegation will appear in calendar-ready costume.

Swine Flu Conspiracy: Listen to These People!

I've been fairly skeptical about the swine flu and even more so about the vaccines being developed against it.

However, my skepticism is nothing compared to what these people opined about the Centers for Disease Control and its plan to vaccinate the totality of the U.S.

They say it's all a conspiracy to reduce the population and swell profits for the laboratories and pharmaceuticals. Scarily, they may be at least partially--if not wholly--correct on one or both of the charges. (The last time there was a massive swine flu vaccination program--in 1976--25 people died and many more developed Guillan-Barre Syndrome, not a pleasant thing to have.)

READ WHAT YOUR FELLOW AMERICANS FEEL ABOUT THE H1N1 VACCINE PROGRAM