A set of values
I refer to a letter in the Feb. 20 Readers' Forum ("Apolitical God") that stated that God is apolitical and supports no set of values. I'm sure the writer of the letter is a sincere Christian man. However …
I will refer to the Bible because what other source of authority do Christians have?
Apolitical? We know that God dealt with Pharaoh about 3,500 years ago and with many kings in the Promised Land, as well as David and Solomon. Around 600 B.C., God told Belshazzar, king of the great Babylon, that he had been weighed in the scales and found wanting. The king was dead by morning.
Around 60 A.D. Paul wrote in Romans, "There is no authority except that which God has established."
No set of values? In John 14:15, Jesus said, "If you love me you will keep my commandments." And how many times did he say, "Go, and sin no more"?
God has told us, over and over, what to do and what not to do. Now, there is no law that says anyone has to believe all this, but if they do believe it, they might conclude that God, himself, isa set of values.
If God does not support a set of values, we poor Christians would be a hopeless and foolish bunch. But we're not, are we?
SMITH HAGAMAN
Winston-Salem
Necktie conspiracy
You have printed advertisements of knitted and silvery neckties but have never mentioned the risks of tying bands about one's neck. Most political speakers wear them regularly.
President Obama is occasionally seen lecturing without a tie. The Journal could spread the word and document the alarming evidence.
ED SPUDIS
Winston-Salem
Saving taxpayer dollars
I read that Forsyth County is facing an upcoming budget shortfall ("Forsyth expects big budget gap," Feb. 10). As the bean-counters work to reduce costs, a look at both the county employee benefits consultant and the pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) suggested by the consultant would be a good place to start. If there are undisclosed financial conflicts of interest between these entities and the county, those potential conflicts can lead to wasted taxpayer dollars.
PBMs are the claims-processing middlemen between employers and pharmacies. The PBM industry originated as a means to reduce costs and administrative burden, but has morphed into a shady, unregulated industry that refuses to act as a fiduciary for the plan sponsors they serve. "Spread pricing," "rebate retention" and "mandatory mail order" are just of few of the drug-cost-inflating games played by the PBMs.
Benefits consultants are the "middlemen to the PBM middlemen," and they make large sums of money by recommending to employers which PBM to use. What is often undisclosed by the benefits consultant, however, is how much money the PBM is paying to the benefits consultant (directly or indirectly from the insurance plan) to suggest their PBM, or specific programs (like mandatory mail order).
DAVE MARLEY
OWNER, MARLEY DRUG
Winston-Salem
Gas prices
The jump in the price of gas is being blamed on the trouble with Iran. But Saudi Arabia is an enemy of Iran, and it has the reserves and capacity to make up the loss of Iran's oil to the West. So what's driving up the price of oil and gas? The commodity brokers are pushing up the prices through speculation to fill their greed.
It's time for the U.S. government to roll back the price of oil to $70 a barrel and put a limit on the amount it can increase a day. It also needs to allow the U.S. companies to increase production and approve the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada.
Will the government do any of these things? Not as long as Obama is president. His veto of the Keystone pipeline is a prime example of his attitude about making the U.S. energy-independent. This pipeline was approved by the Republican House and the Democratic Senate, one of the few bipartisan-approved bills in the last three years, and Obama vetoed it. No wonder the U.S. is in such a bad condition.
MELVIN LANCE
Winston-Salem
LTE #! Well, Smith, you poor Christians are just like any other group, some are foolish and hopeless and some aren't. Pharaoh was a very wealthy job creator, Moses, a community organizer.
ReplyDeleteLTE #2.... Neckties are dumb and only serve superficial purposes. I got rid of those chains years ago.
LTE #3.... 3 words that go together often: "shady, unregulated industry".
LTE #4.... According to Edward Morse, a former senior U.S. energy official who now directs global commodities research at Citigroup, the U.S. is importing a smaller share — 49% in 2010, down from 60% in 2005 — of the oil it uses,
According to a FoxNews report: or anyone bummed out about the United States' dependence on foreign oil, try this forecast on for size: The U.S. is on track to be a net exporter of petroleum products this year for the first time in 62 years -- and yet, domestic gas prices remain at or close to record highs for this time of year.
But so far, that decreased domestic demand hasn't translated into decreased domestic prices at the pump.
“Instead of that product backing up and depressing prices, it’s being sent to other countries,” Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
As far as commodity brokers and oil speculators go, The Koch Industries is in the forefront of speculating on oil for profit, contributing to the sky-high gas prices and record volatility.
I think Ed Spudis is an old fraternity brother of my Dad's. Could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteLte4...I thought you were going somewhere with your comment. You missed by a mile. There is no future in Nixon redux as a solution. Some of the usual factors are at play, but the biggest factor of all is nowhere mentioned because it is not an easy headline nor can it fit into a political campaign if needed. More later if needed.
ReplyDeleteI don't get it, I have to say. What is so "dirty" about Santorum trying to get Dem's to vote for him? Just asking.
ReplyDeleteNothing dirty about Santorum seeking votes. What is dirty is unions telling Dems to cross over and vote for him because he is (correctly) perceived as less electable than Romney. But, unions like having their puppet in the WH, and having a tax-funded organizing arm in the form of the NLRB.
DeleteI've not heard of the labor union's involvement, just that the Repub's are mad as Hades that Santorum robocalled Dem's to encorage them vote for him. I just don't get why any one would be upset over someone campaigning for their vote.
DeleteThere were a number of reports re unions encouraging Dem members to vote for Santorum, but the effect appears to have been minimal. MI voters were probably also inclined to vote against Romney because of his opposition to bailing out GM and Chrysler. I agreed with Romney.
DeleteLaSombra, crossover voting for a weaker candidate is nothing new. Romney did it, Rush committed to it with Operation Chaos. Even Abraham Lincoln's "super-pac" played dirty politics at the 1860 Republican Convention at the Wigwam in Chicago. They printed 1,000's of fake tickets and packed the halls of the convention with Lincoln supporters before the real ticket holders got there and made behind the scenes promises to some of the other candidates that Lincoln didn't approve of. Cassius M. Clay of Kentucky even got 2 votes on the 2nd ballot and 1 on the 3rd.
ReplyDelete:) the last sentence is just an irrelevant side note.
DeleteCross over voting I understand. I've done it quite a bit in my lifetime in what I call informed voting. What I'm trying to understand is why it's a problem.
DeleteSounds like something you would do.
DeleteIt's only dirty when the other guy does it to you.
ReplyDeleteGood afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: As I've noted previously, I do wish the Journal would set aside space on the Religion section for those who wish post theological arguments.
LTE 2: Ooh...Pres. Obama doesn't wear a tie...proof positive he's a Marxist, communist, socialist, Kenyan Muslim who favors big banks and big business and is out to destroy America. Good one, Mr. Spudis :)
LTE 3: I read a post from a pharmacist who said over 1/2 of the health ins. premium a person pays goes to the ins. agent and the ins. company rather than to pay for actual health care. I wonder if a major part of the reason the US health costs are so much higher than the rest of the world is the presence of all these middlemen. Perhaps a single-payer system has greater merits than we think.
LTE 4: In addition to speculation by the commodity brokers, there is also the issue of refineries shutting down for maintenance and the conversion over to summertime blends. Pres. Nixon tried to cap prices in the 1970's and it wound being a colossal failure. Why do so many who claim to be free-market capitalists want the govt to control oil prices?
Regarding Dotnet's comments to LTE#3.
DeleteI have never encountered a statistic as high as over 1/2 of the health ins. premium a person pays goes to the the ins. agent and the ins company rather than to pay for actual health care although I do not doubt that this may be correct especially as it pertains to prescription drugs.
The Affordable Care Act is supposed to address this issue. If I recall correctly 85% of premiums must be used to pay for actual health care I believe beginning this year. Insurers are already working on how to reclassify marketing as an actual health care expense.
As Mr. Marley states Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PMBs) have strayed from their original purpose. One recent issue was with the generic availability of Lipitor last November. PMBs receive rebates from the drug maker and the PMBs would loose these rebates with the introduction of generics, so at least one PBMs decided to not cover the generic and only cover the brand name Lipitor at a generic copay for the customer. Sounds like a good deal for the customer doesn't it? And it might be for someone with no insurance maximums. For seniors with Medicare D plans it pushed time into the coverage gap (doughnut hole) quicker because the cost of Lipitor paid by the Medicare D plan was substantially much higher than would have been the cost of the generic product.
LTE #4 -
ReplyDelete1. OPEC, not the Saudis, controls production quotas (or allocations, as they are now called).
2. Another major factor is that the US now exports almost as much oil as it imports...why? Because the US oil companies can make higher profits by selling their oil overseas.
3. Nixon's price capping was more than a colossal failure, it was a real disaster, because it made the worldwide shortage of oil even worse. The situation got so bad that truckers were shooting at each other and blowing up each other's trucks and the economy was plunged into a downward spiral that lasted for nearly a decade.
Now Rick Santorum is talking about the "men and women" who signed the Declaration of Independence. There were 3 named Francis whom I suppose could have been born Frances or maybe Button Gwinnett from Georgia, that's kind of a crossover name.
ReplyDeleteI think Santorum was going after the Bachmann/Palin vote by showing that he is just as ignorant of American history as they are.
DeleteAnd Romney dropped a stinker of his own by saying that he didn't follow NASCAR very closely but "...I have some great friends who are NASCAR team owners." Yeah, we know, poor little rich boy.
As I forecast months ago, the most entertaining race ever...even the Know Nothing Party candidates were smarter than this bunch.