NYT Fact Checking Obama

The liberal media has stopped accepting everything Obama says as the absolute truth.  Here is a big one the Obama has loved to repeat:

If we had done nothing, if you had the same old budget as opposed to the changes we made," the deficit over the next 10 years would be $2.2 trillion greater, the president said.

In fact, $1.5 trillion of those "savings" are mainly based on an assumption that the United States would have had as many troops in Iraq in 10 years as it did when Mr. Obama took office. But before leaving office, President George W. Bush signed an agreement with Baghdad mandating the withdrawal of all American forces within three years.

So Mr. Obama is claiming credit for not spending money that, under the policy he inherited from Mr. Bush, would never have been spent in the first place.

 

Full article

Blue vs. Red

Obama solves the healthcare crisis:

 "If there's a blue pill and a red pill, and the blue pill is half the price of the red pill and works just as well, why not pay half price for the thing that's going to make you well?" Now, there's good idea. Why hasn't anyone else thought of that? For this reform, we need to spend $1 trillion?

Kristol's interesting insights.

Clumps of Tissue Can Remember?

The Washington Times summarizes a report in the Journal of Child Development:

The unborn have memories, according to medical researchers who used sound and vibration stimulation, combined with sonography, to reveal that the human fetus displays short-term memory from at least 30 weeks gestation - or about two months before they are born.

"In addition, results indicated that 34-week-old fetuses are able to store information and retrieve it four weeks later," said the research, which was released Wednesday.

Is it still possible that pro-choice individuals can still convince themselves that a unborn baby is a clump of tissues?  

In a previous study:

In 2003, psychologists and obstetricians at Queen's University in Canada found a profound mother-baby link. In a study of 60 pregnant women, they found that the unborn babies preferred the voices of their own mothers - both before and after birth.

The heart rates of fetuses sped up when they heard their mother reading a poem, and slowed down when they heard a stranger's voice - evidence of "sustained attention, memory and learning by the fetus," said Barbara Kisilevsky, a professor of nursing who led the research.

So what we have is a fetus that seems very aware and even remembers for weeks that particular stimulus are not harmful.  This fetus that is months from being born can still be legally terminated, even though it has a very well developed memory.   These studies show that not only can the baby learn, but she also recognizes and is comforted by the voice of her mother.  Does this little person still not deserve the right to life just because she is located in the womb?   Does the convenience of one individual trump the life of another?

Is Obama More Catholic Than the Pope?

Newsweek says, "Without a doubt!"  

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In truth, though, Obama's pragmatic approach to divisive policy (his notion that we should acknowledge the good faith underlying opposing viewpoints) and his social-justice agenda reflect the views of American Catholic laity much more closely than those vocal bishops and pro-life activists. When Obama meets the pope tomorrow, they'll politely disagree about reproductive freedoms and homosexuality, but Catholics back home won't care, because they know Obama's on their side. In fact, Obama's agenda is closer to their views than even the pope's.

Newsweek seems to think that the Church is a democracy and majority should decide dogma.  

Who will innovate in a nationalized system?

"Literally we're surrounded by medical miracles. Death by cardiovascular disease has dropped by two-thirds in the last 50 years. You've got to pay a price for that type of advancement."

Canada and England don't pay the price because they freeload off American innovation. If America adopted their systems, we could worry less about paying for health care, but we'd get 2009-level care -- forever. Government monopolies don't innovate. Profit seekers do.

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