SENATE HEALTH CARE BILL PASSES

ALL IMPORTANT SIXTY VOTE HURDLE

The US Senate last night voted sixty to forty basically along party lines to allow a final vote on Obama's health care bill. This was at one o clock in the morning. The Republicans have tried and will continue to try to put obstruction after obstruction in the path of this bill's passage. The sixtieth vote was assured when the Senate made a deal with Ben Nelson of Nebraska on Saturday to assure his vote. He won the concession of anti abortion language in the bill, and also got a sweetheart deal for the state of Nebraska not having to pay any of the Medicaid expenses that the rest of the states have to bear. The final vote on the bill is scheduled for 7:00 PM on Christmas Eve. This bill will cost 871 Billion dollars and will raise a number of taxes including the "Cadillac plan" tax on coverage that exceeds minimum. Also taxed will be Union benefits that go to health care. There will be a requirement that every individual have health insurance. Some may compare it to requiring every driver to have auto insurance. But the difference is that you have a choice whether or not to own a car. There may actually be constitutional questions concerning this insurance requirement. The phrase "lipstick on a pig" comes to mind when describing the provisions, or lack thereof, of this bill.

The Eastern Orthodox Church is coming under heavy restrictions in its home in Western Turkey where the roots of Christianity run further back than just about anywhere else in the world. Of course the book of Revelation describes a circle of Seven Churches in the area of western Turkey and they may have sprouted up as worship centers for the semi-historical figure of Apolonius of Tyannus, who died about AD 115 and was said to have ascended into heaven forty days later. Many unsubstantiated myths have grown up around the figure of Apolonius. It's my belief that in a reversal of what Scripture says, that the Apostle Paul came to this circle of Seven Churches and was in fact the first Judahiser. Justin Martyr says he got "saved" and became a Christian because he met an "old man" walking along the sea shore one day. It is my belief that the "old man" was the Apostle Paul, or some historical antecedent. Marcion wanted the Gospel of Luke (minus the Christmas Story) and the first ten letters of St. Paul to be adopted as the New Testament cannon. Justin Martyr, like St. Paul was a "Judahiser" and Marcion reacted to this force and came up with a counter doctrine. But before any of them got to western Turkey, that the "Church" of Apolonius already was functioning. Merged with belief in this man was the cult of another man, an Egyptian with Zionist beliefs, called "Crestus". Paul in his letters seldom ever uses the name of "Jesus" but almost always prefered the generic term of "Christ" or "Messiah", leading many to believe that Paul did not actually believe in a historic figure who actually lived. Mark, according to the Coptic Church teaching, was an Egyptian with "African" features, and is said to be the founder of the Coptic Church. The Gospel of Mark lacks most of the "Q" sayings of "Jesus" or Crestus, that were originally in what we call the "Q" document, such as prophecies of the end of the world. This Crestus cult thus pre-dates the Apolonius cult by many decades. Crestus was a man who died as an older man about age 55 around fifty AD. It is possible that Crestus came to Rome, where his cult ended up being centered. The book of Acts actually makes reference to this "Crestus" being a living man, in an edict that tried to expel them from Rome under Claudius. But Nero let them back in. At some point the Crestus cult merged with the Apolonius cult in western Turkey.

The economy is going into its third year of economic recession. Cities throughout the "rust belt" are suffering through their third Christmas of economic want. Taxes and welfare services are being strained to the max, and the continued lengthly unemployment of people will be depressing the GNP. A double dip recession appears ever more likely. The Republicans are trying to blame President Obama for everything, but in truth things would be much worse, were there no stimulus packages. But all of the economic aid has not been enough.

Our next posting will be at a different blog. I don't know which one that is right now, but it will be one I haven't posted on since early last summer. Last Friday President Obama bombed Al Qaeda centers in Yemen. The President said in that speech that he would root out Al Qaeda wherever it was throughout the world. To me it doesn't seem like you'll be able to stamp out Al Qaeda, any more than the Caesars could stamp out Christianity in the ancient world. It's hard to fight against a belief, even a destructive one such as Al Qaeda. But as I have said, the CIA itself funded and supported these extremist Islamic sects in decades past, and at the present, it's only a case of the chickens coming home to roost.