The nation seems to be staggering into the abyss, as today’s stories hint.
Abominable Act (ObummerCare) – War on Some Elderly
NIH Offering Grants to Study ‘Palliative Care’ for Elderly, Even in ERs and ICUs
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Bad as the “tax” or “fine” or “involuntary contribution” part of the Abominable Act is, there is worse to come, that the Abominable Act lets be developed and take place, if not immediately then in the future.  As far as NIH and HHS and the rest of the toadies and minions of the “messiah” (and HIM) are concerned, they should all be put down anyway.  They can’t wait for ObummerCare to do that, so these grants will find ways to speed that up.

Congress in action (or not) – War on religion
Latest House CR Funds and Permits Obamacare’s Attack on Free Exercise of Catholicism
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: As a group, GOP congress members don’t really care any more about the free exercise of religion than the Dems do, except when they can make a buck or get a goodly number of votes.  All that Bill of Rights stuff is just nonsense to them, something to be gotten rid of or ignored.  Yeah, there are a few that really don’t feel this way, but it clear who is in charge.

Congress in action (or not) – Shutdown stupid government (3 stories)
AKA Government’s war on anyone that is a target

GOP Reps Topple Barriers to Memorial So Veterans Can Enter During Shutdown
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: I heard about this very quickly yesterday, but not the role of some GOP representatives.  Good for them: statists, true, but at least with a shred of human decency.  Unlike the career bureaucrats and thugs in the National Park Service and the Park Police there in DC, who seem to relish playing the heavy in shilling for the “messiah.”  This entire business seems obviously thought through to try and blacken ANY opponents to the current “messiah’s” regime.

‘What Are They Going to Do Next? Hang a Drapery Over Mt. Rushmore?’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This is a quote from Rep. Goehmert of Texas, who helped an anger-crazed mob of 84 to 99 year old coots (who claimed to be WW2 veterans) illegally break down barricades and ignore the LAWFUL orders of Park Police to NOT enter the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in DC.  He just echoed what my son and I had speculated about: that since you can still see Mount Rushmore’s faces withOUT going through the visitor center, but just by driving by on state highways, that they’d have to put a tarp over the faces as part of the “government shutdown” to make us all suffer for what the GOP representatives have done in DC.  (Unfortunately, Matthias and I forgot to take the road through Keystone to go past Rushmore this afternoon to see if there WAS a drapery on Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and T. Roosevelt, or just on Jefferson’s face.

Mama’s Note: Actually, I consider Rushmore to be large scale graffiti and have no desire to see it at all. I’ve driven Hwy 16 many times, and never saw it either, just that “Crazy Horse” thing. That is little more than graffiti either, but at least it’s privately owned (I think).

Politics 2013 – Shutdown stupid government
Gov’t Shutdown Blamed on ‘Cruzites’ – ‘Anarchist, Radical Libertarians’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Gee, we get blamed and didn’t have ANYthing to do with it.  Cruz is NOT, of course, either an anarchist nor a libertarian: not even a minarchist.  But Reid and his fellow Democrats have picked up this new meme and seem to be trying to make hay with it.

War on some AmerInd – Tranzis
HHS Promoting ‘Long-Acting’ Contraception, ‘Sterilization’ in Dwindling Navajo Nation
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Hmmm.  A story close to home.  Actually, the decline of 3.6% of population in Dinetah is problematic: it may not really have happened.  The Census ALWAYS has a problem counting people on the Rez, and distinguishing between enrolled members and total population.  Even on the Big Rez, there are a lot of people who live there that are NOT enrolled in the Navajo Nation – you must have AT LEAST 50% Navajo blood to be enrolled.  And people move back and forth all the time: but unlike many tribes, you cannot vote or participate in any Navajo governmental activities if you don’t actually LIVE on the Rez.  And since there is no private land ownership, if you want to own and live on your own land, you must move off-rez, even if just across the border.  I know several people who have done just that.  But the main point of this request for grant proposals is that HHS seems to want to encourage population reduction of the Navajo (don’t know about other tribes): so why isn’t this GENOCIDE?

Europe’s collapse – Morality’s collapse
Pope Francis stirs debate yet again with interview with an atheist Italian journalist
(Washington Post) “Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good . . . Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.”

Mama’s Note: He’s no libertarian, by any means, but I’m starting to like this guy a little better. I’ll just bet the newspaper secretary about had a heart attack. The pope, calling in person? All the stuffed shirts in Rome are probably beside themselves.

Nathan: What Francis says is certainly true, and NOT what you would expect to hear from the sitting pontiff.  But what he does NOT say is also important: people WILL receive the reward (or punishment) for their choices, according to the laws of nature and nature’s God.  If their visions, actions, their ideas, their choices are the wrong ones, they WILL pay for them, by falling into the abyss, and (sadly, I agree) taking many with them.  This has always been implicit in Roman Catholic theology, wrong as it is.  But the Vatican has long fallen into the trap of the end of the Book of Joshua:  “There was no king in Israel in those days, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”  Being FORCED to “do the right thing” is no solution for morality and salvation:  it just ensures that a lot of people will be with you!