The scandals continue apace, and it doesn’t seem as if they’re going away soon. A new one was added on in the past couple of days. More on that later. But first, let’s update what we know. Well, keep in mind the only reason we know anything is because whistleblowers and some reporters who still cling to the old idea of ferreting out the facts have overcome the fear of White House retaliation and come forward to present their evidence. If it were up to the White House and the various executive departments it oversees, we would remain in the dark. They want you to believe they are clueless about any wrongdoing, yet should receive total credit for anything that goes right:

At the almost-daily press briefings and on news shows, members representing the administration have one talking point only:

On Benghazi, we haven’t heard as much in the last few days, but it’s still bubbling under the surface. Rumors are that more whistleblowers are about to tell their tales. That can’t be good for those who may have tried to put a cone of silence over their testimony:

One commentator, Andy McCarthy, reminds us of an overlooked part of the Benghazi timeline: President Obama and Hillary Clinton had a 10:00 p.m. phone call the night of the attack, which was just after receiving news that our ambassador had been killed. The next day the false story about the anti-Islam video became the “explanation” for the attack. Coincidence?

We also know now that the administration has identified at least five individuals in Libya who were responsible for carrying out the attack, but have done nothing to get them. Apparently, they are waiting until there is enough “evidence” to try them in a civilian court. Again, this betrays the administration’s worldview. Obama and his people, especially Eric Holder at the Justice Department, believe foreign terrorists are entitled to all the legal protections of American citizens. Wrong.

The IRS scandal currently dominates most of the news cycle for the scandals. I think that has something to do with how every citizen feels about that particular agency. We all know it can come after each one of us individually. There’s not a whole lot love there. And even though we’re told it’s not a partisan agency, facts seem to indicate otherwise:

We also now know that on March 31, 2010, President Obama met with the anti-Tea Party IRS union chief at the White House. The very next day the “jihad” against Tea Party and other conservative organizations began. Another coincidence?

Tea Parties across the nation held rallies yesterday outside IRS offices, protesting the unfair and illegal treatment they have received at its hands. The main person responsible for that treatment, Lois Lerner, is supposed to appear today before one of the congressional committees investigating the scandal. The word is that she has decided to take the Fifth Amendment, which is a little peculiar for someone who claims she has done nothing wrong. Now, I realize the Fifth Amendment is there to protect against incriminating oneself, but one has to wonder what she has to hide—or who else she might be protecting. What promises have been made to her to secure her silence? In the law, a prosecutor must provide evidence for a conviction, so taking the Fifth is an established practice; we are told not to consider anyone guilty until proven so. However, this is not yet a legal court case where those standards exist. There’s another court, that of public opinion, and we are free to believe what we wish about this tactic being used at this point.

Another reason to be concerned about how the IRS handles its business is that it is slated to oversee the implementation of Obamacare, a law frightening enough in itself, even before the IRS is attached to it:

This whole thing has taken on monstrous proportions. How long will American citizens put up with it?

The tapping of the phones of the Associated Press is now an old story compared to recent revelations. Obama has never liked Fox News. Now we know, for a fact, that this organization also has been the subject of scrutiny. It started with the exposure of the Justice Department secretly reading the e-mails of James Rosen, one of Fox’s reporters. Rosen was merely doing what all reporters do—trying to find out information on a story. In this case, it had to do with the North Korea nuclear program. Something about that ticked off the powers-that-be. The DOJ somewhere found a judge who signed off on the secret reading of Rosen’s e-mails because he was called a “co-conspirator” in a criminal investigation.

This jarring news sent a chill through the entire press. Never in the history of this country, except perhaps after the passage of the Sedition Act of 1798, has a member of the press been accused formally of criminal activity simply for pursuing information. Then it came out that the DOJ had targeted other Fox employees as well; a further revelation is that the department also tapped into Fox phone lines. This is unprecedented.

But don’t worry. We’re told the president is a great supporter of the First Amendment. All we have to fear is fear itself.

This is a tyranny in the making. It needs to be stopped. Let the investigations proceed.

Maybe this Obamacare nightmare may be put to rest after all. Could we perhaps call it a mercy killing? Democrat Senator Max Baucus of Montana, who played an instrumental role in shoving the misnamed Affordable Care Act on all of us, in a recent hearing, called the implementation of this monstrosity a potential train wreck. In that April 17 hearing, Baucus issued a warning to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that he didn’t believe her department had done enough to ensure Obamacare would fully go into effect as planned for 2014. He expressed concern for small businesses and accountants who, he said, are throwing their hands up over this law. They aren’t getting enough information to know how to deal with it, leading to his specific comment, “I just see a huge train wreck coming down.”

Well, Sen. Baucus, there were any number of your colleagues in the Congress, policy analysts, and conservative commentators who could have told you that ahead of time. They tried. You didn’t listen. And only now you are coming to grips with this reality? What’s even more interesting is that Baucus, shortly after this hearing, announced he won’t be running for reelection. Politicos in the know were already predicting tough sledding for him in a state that seems to be far more conservative now than its own senator. I think he’s getting out of town while the getting’s good.

In a new article by John Stossel, found at Real Clear Politics, Stossel notes that HHS has already added 20,000 pages of rules to the already bloated bill itself. Those rules form a stack seven feet tall—and there are more to come. Under healthcare prior to Obamacare, there were 16,000 codes for various medical ailments; Obamacare is giving us more than 100,000. Consider these examples:

Government likes to think regulations can account for every possibility. Injured at a chicken coop? The code for that will be Y9272. Fall at an art gallery? That means you are a Y92250. There are three different codes for walking into a lamppost—depending how often you’ve walked into lampposts. This is supposed to give government a more precise way to reimburse doctors for treating people and alert us to surges in injuries that might inspire further regulation.

On Government-Planned World, this makes sense. But it will be no more successful than Soviet central planning.

And that’s where we’ve arrived on this train: the type of planning that brought down the Soviet Union. You know, the country we battled in that decades-long Cold War, the war we supposedly won. Yes, “train wreck” is the perfect description of what is taking place:

A few days ago, there were reports that Congress was considering exempting staffers from Obamacare. Apparently, that was a little overblown, but they were trying to figure out how to help staffers afford it. That’s funny. I thought this was the “affordable” care act. Perhaps we wouldn’t have all this confusion if Congress hadn’t followed Nancy Pelosi’s advice to pass the law so we can find out what’s in it. By the way, that comment ought to win some kind of award for one of the dumbest things ever to come out of the mouth of a Speaker of the House.

Will Obamacare sink itself? The ideology that brought it into being has been shown to be faulty everywhere it has been implemented. The administration tasked with carrying it out may be the most incompetent in American history. So, yes, there is hope it will implode. For the good of the country.

There are just too many stories this morning, so I’ll offer some passing thoughts on a number of them. We have to begin with the Boston Marathon bombings.

• Unlike many of the liberal news anchors [forgive the redundancy], we need to withhold our speculations on who is responsible for the attacks that killed at least three. There is no need to rush into accusations. Wait and see where the evidence leads.

• Apparently, all the pressure on the media to cover the Kermit Gosnell trial is working. For the first time, reporters from the major networks and newspapers have decided to watch the proceedings. That, by itself, is only half the battle; the second half is ensuring what they report is not skewed.

• In their heart of hearts, they’d rather be elsewhere, reporting on what they consider to be the breaking news stories of the day:

• Speaking of the media, we now know that there is no such thing as an illegal immigrant:

• On the healthcare front, it seems Obamacare’s true nature is being revealed—by its own supporters and those responsible for carrying it out:

• Then there’s the budget President Obama has presented, increasing the debt annually forever and ever. Amen. It even calls for all four-year-olds to be enrolled in school. Hey, it’s never too early to make the government one’s real family. Even though his new budget is a monstrosity, he continues to make ludicrous statements about his bipartisanship:

• Fortunately for us, his new budget is getting the same reception his previous ones received:

• I began with the Boston Marathon; I’ll end with it: May those who lost family and/or friends in this terrorist act find their true solace in the love of God displayed through His Son. May those who were injured in the blasts turn to the only One who can provide healing, both physically and spiritually, and comfort. May those in the vicinity of the tragedy who escaped serious injury come to the recognition of their mortality and how they might have to face eternity at any time, and may they turn from their selfishness and turn toward the Cross and the Empty Tomb. May those who were there and already know the reality of repentance and forgiveness, be God’s arms and hands in the midst of this turmoil.

“Obamacare Incompetence.” Those aren’t my words; they belong to Joe Klein, a big-government activist who camouflages himself as a writer for Time magazine. He’s worried that the total disregard for implementing Obamacare, by Obama himself and his underlings, will spell its doom. One can only hope he’s a prophet.

Those “exchanges” that were supposed to be set up to facilitate the takeover of America’s healthcare system don’t seem to be happening. A large number of states refuse to do them, so it falls on the federal government to devise them instead, according to the law. The feds are apparently flummoxed by the details and are stalled:

And if the government itself is floundering trying to figure out the intricacies of this boondoggle, how will consumers feel if it ever goes into effect?

That’s why we’ve just learned that, in order to help people to find their way through the maze, the government is now poised to hire tens of thousands of “navigators”—bureaucrats who will make sure you understand what it’s all about—that is, if they can understand it first.

And then there’s the cost. Anyone remember Obama’s promises about how this will bring down healthcare costs? Sure you do. It was one of his main selling points. However . . .

Okay, scratch that selling point. This thing is growing to be exactly the menace many of us warned it would be:

Where will it lead the country?

Again, exactly what we predicted. There’s a new challenge to the act coming to the Supreme Court. There’s the very real possibility the Republicans could take over both houses of Congress after the 2014 elections. There’s hope that the electorate, by 2016, will have had enough of this monstrosity that they will return to sanity. Yes, there is hope. No guarantees, but the possibility for overturning this remains.

As I was contemplating what to write about today, and perusing the various possibilities, I was struck by a “constant” that seems to run through a number of issues. That “constant” is our apparent loss of common sense—our unwillingness to allow logic to enter into our analyses. We are, in effect, losing our collective minds as a nation. I plan to treat each issue separately as we go through this week.

Today’s topic is the looming specter of Obamacare. Let’s review a few of the promises President Obama made when he pushed this legislation. One promise was that no one would be forced to be part of this system. He pledged, “If you like your health insurance, you can keep it.” I never believed that promise, but his supporters could always counter arguments by any critic by accusing us of scaremongering or, if all else failed, racism—the inevitable fallback countercharge. Now, from the Congressional Budget Office comes the news that approximately 7 million people will lose their current healthcare plans once Obamacare is fully operational. Just last August, the estimate was 4 million. Here’s a prediction: that 7 million figure will rise again . . . and again . . . and again. The goal is to ensure that all Americans are switched into the system eventually.

Then there is the cost factor. Many of us scoffed at Obama’s promise that his legislation would result in families seeing lower healthcare premiums. We said that was impossible because the socialistic principles upon which it was built have never resulted in lower costs. Again, the warning was sounded:

Obama promised, “We can cut the average family’s premium by about $2500 per year.” Now, according to the IRS, by 2016, the cheapest health premium that will be available to a family of four will be $20,000 annually. That number is staggering. How can the majority of families ever expect to pay for this? We have been sold a fantasy. Or perhaps this is closer to the truth:

Then there’s the rationing that will have to be part of the overall plan. Obama famously noted in 2009 that for some older people taking a pill might be better than surgery. After all, we don’t want to spend money on those who are no longer “contributing” members of society. The government will have to step in and decide who gets the best treatments.

So, on the issue of healthcare, we have lost our minds. Tomorrow: gun control.

Are we getting closer to a “deal” on the fiscal cliff? Interestingly, as Republicans continue to offer compromises—many of which include numbers Democrats previously proposed—all of their offers meet with condescension and a special brand of haughty disdain. I’m still not convinced that Obama and his party really want to avoid any cliff. Going over the cliff will make more people dependent on them, which is their overall aim. And to top it off, Republicans will get the blame if for no reason than the media will make it appear they are the problem. Obama’s kind of negotiating is strange, to say the least:

In the latest round of proposals, the administration is criticizing Republicans for not including enough spending cuts. Really? Spending cuts are an Obama priority? I’ve never realized that.

To me, it appears that the president is focused on one thing and one thing only, and is oblivious to the obvious dangers of his path:

We’re in for a very bumpy ride, and just wait until all of Obamacare kicks in. It won’t be fun.

I’m grateful for the Thanksgiving break last week. It was good to get away, spend time with extended family and some “old” friends/former students, and kind of let the world do whatever it chose to do for a while without my involvement. Yes, I did check in from time to time to see if the world was still here. While on my hiatus, the following events transpired:

• More layoffs occurred or have been planned by businesses since the election. The primary reason: the looming specter of Obamacare, which is threatening to destroy those businesses that can’t pay the increased costs. I see that some of our less-well-informed citizens are blaming the businesses themselves rather than the onerous regulations and cost associated with the Obama administration’s signature legislation. Our ignorance continues apace.
• Hamas decided to declare an unofficial war against Israel. Tensions peaked, with an Israeli invasion of Gaza readied. Why did Hamas choose this time to act? Could it have had something to do with the election as well? They know they have an ally in the White House for four more years, a man sympathetic to their aims. Israel, on the other hand, is poised to suffer through another four years of perfunctory public pronouncements of support coupled with private disdain and contempt. President Obama will say whatever is necessary for public consumption while undercutting the Israeli state at every turn. Meanwhile, one poll shows that only about 40% of Democrats back Israel in their quest for self-defense. It appears the image of anti-Semitism that raised its head at the party convention is making progress. One wonders how long American Jews will remain blinded by the treatment their brethren are receiving from the political party to which most of them have chosen to give their allegiance.

• Secretary of State Clinton and Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi hammered out a truce between Israel and Hamas—one that Hamas considers a victory. Don’t be surprised if this duo wins the next Nobel Peace Prize for accomplishing . . . nothing. After all, it’s been granted for doing nothing before. Right, Mr. President?
• Morsi then declared himself dictator of Egypt, setting aside the entire judicial system of that country. He is now claiming one-man rule. Ah, the fresh breeze of the Arab Spring still inspires!

Yet despite all these developments, I see no sign that the American electorate is suffering any remorse over its latest decision. As I noted in a previous post, we are a nation on the edge, positioned to jettison our Biblical heritage once and for all. We no longer think Biblically; in fact, to do so is becoming precarious for those who remain faithful to Biblical truth. Biblical morality is increasingly considered a “problem.”

The society around us is attempting to divorce itself from the truths God has implanted within each of us and seeks to create new “truths.” Christian apologist C. S. Lewis, in his treatise The Abolition of Man, described pretty well the futility of any such effort:

There never has been, and never will be, a radically new judgment of value in the history of the world. What purport to be new systems or (as they now call them) “ideologies,” all consist of fragments from the Tao [Natural Law given by God] itself, arbitrarily wrenched from their context in the whole and then swollen to madness in their isolation, yet still owing to the Tao [Natural Law] and to it alone such validity as they possess. . . . The rebellion of new ideologies against the Tao is a rebellion of the branches against the tree: if the rebels could succeed they would find that they had destroyed themselves. The human mind has no more power of inventing a new value than of imagining a new primary colour, or, indeed, of creating a new sun and a new sky for it to move in.

The rebels ultimately will fail, but they will hurt and destroy lives along the way, and may drag an entire society into the pit as they proceed.

As I said at the beginning of this post, it was nice to take a break, but I cannot leave the field of battle for the hearts and minds of my fellow citizens. Another Lewis quote reverberates within me:

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

My pledge is to keep on faithfully viewing and writing about our culture, our politics, and our government through the lens of the Christian faith. It shines the light of truth on everything it touches . . .  and it touches everything.