Tuesday, August 29, 2017

An Upside Down World

Looking at the images coming out of the Houston area it looks like the world has been turned upside down. However, the rain will stop. The flood waters will recede. Recovery and rebuilding will begin. Houston will be restored better than ever in the end.

However, the world is turned upside down in other ways. We see it nearly every day.

Ideology take precedence over facts.

Emotion controls over logic.

Political correctness eclipses practical realities.

Core values and norms that have guided societies for thousands of years have been tossed aside in the inverted world we live in today.

It is not clear whether this flood of nonsense will ever end.

There is no better example to illustrate that fact than the case of 22 year-old Kaylee Moats who has recently started a GoFundMe page to raise money for surgery to treat her for Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome.




MRKH syndrome is a condition in which a female is born without a uterus, cervix, vagina or vaginal opening. As a result, a woman with MRKH can never conceive and bear children and it is impossible to have any intimate relationship.

Reconstructive surgery can be done to create a vaginal opening to remedy the latter problem but is not considered a "life saving" procedure and is not defined as an "essential benefit" under Obamacare.

Therefore, it is not covered by any health insurance plan. As a result, Kaylee's sister started the GoFundMe page and publicized her situation with the goal of raising the $15,000 required for the surgery.

What is ironic is that if  Kaylee had instead wanted to change her gender (rather than trying to fix her gender) it would be considered an "essential benefit" and would be covered under Obamacare. In other words, Kaylee could become Kenneth and have that surgery paid for by Obamacare. However, she cannot get the surgery she needs and just be a complete Kaylee.

Of course, the reality is that Obamacare or "insurance companies" do not really pay anything in these cases. The cost of these surgeries is borne by the other individuals in the insurance pool. The federal government is merely mandating that "essential benefits" must be part of the insurance coverage. This means you and I pay for all of these "essential benefits" in our insurance premiums.

All of this gets turned even further upside down when you consider that until last week our military was spending tax dollars on medical treatments and sexual reassignment surgery for transgender personnel. President Trump has instructed the Pentagon to stop this Obama-era practice as well as cease admitting transgender individuals into the military.

We are even further upside down when we now also have convicted killers serving life sentences in prison receiving taxpayer-funded sex reassignment surgeries as recently occurred in California.

Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private who was convicted of leaking national security secrets and received a 35-year prison sentence, put it all together when he (she?) received approval for sex reassignment surgery while still in a military prison. Manning's sentence was commuted by President Obama three days before he left office.

I can only imagine what a Washington, Grant, McArthur or Patton might think today.

Their world's were turned upside down by Revolutionary War, Civil War and World War. Real life and death consequences where failure would likely mean the end of our society as we know it.

Today we turn our world upside down and risk the end of our society as we know it by ideology and political correctness gone wild. It is something to behold if not for how dangerous and destructive it is.

On the subject of Bradley Chelsea Manning, I could also not resist posting the two tweets below (hat tip to @JackPosobiec) to show how the American Civil Liberties Union views "justice". Further evidence of an upside down world. Justice is no longer blind. It all depends on who you decide is on "the right side" and who you deem to be on "the wrong side".

The ACLU's even-handed view of "justice".

This tweet was right after President Obama commuted the sentence of Manning.




This is the tweet the ACLU put out last week after Trump pardoned Arpaio.




Let us keep in mind that Bradley Manning blatantly violating his oath as a soldier in the United States Army as well as federal law.  He was convicted by a jury of his peers and sentenced to a 35 year prison term.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio was convicted of violating an order of a federal judge to stop enforcing federal and state immigration laws. The judge had ruled that Arpaio could not allow his deputies to question or detain anyone on the suspicion that they might be in the country illegally or turn them over to federal immigration authorities. Arpaio continued his immigration enforcement in defiance of the order arguing that “If they don’t like what I’m doing,” he said, addressing his opponents, “get the laws changed in Washington.”

By the way, the 85-year old Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt by a single judge. His request for a jury trial was denied by that same judge "on the grounds that the law did not require juries in cases in which the potential jail term was so short (six months in this case)".

I guess the judge forgot that the 6th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed..." (emphasis added)

The Obama Department of Justice seems to have specifically charged Arpaio with a criminal misdemeanor in this case to avoid a jury trial. Most legal observers believe that Arpaio would never have been convicted in a jury trial in this case. If what Arpaio did was so lawless why was he only charged with a misdemeanor?

According to the ACLU, and many in the mainstream media, it is "justice" to commute a 35 year sentence for breaking the law to time served but it is "injustice" to pardon a 6-month sentence for enforcing the law?


The statue of Mary and Jesus that was removed from San Domenico School in San Anselmo, CA
Credit: http://www.marinij.com/social-affairs/20170824/san-anselmos-san-domenico-school-creates-stir-by-removing-catholic-statues

The topper in all this upside down world we live in today is the story out of California about the Catholic elementary school in San Anselmo that took down statues of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus, and other religious figures, because "it could be alienating for that other religion, and we didn't want to further that feeling", according to the school's Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Indeed, we live in a world turned upside down.

May the flood waters recede.

Everywhere.

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