One day a few years ago I informed a online friend that I was going to take Wedding photo's with a disposable camera and that christmas I received their 4 year old Digital camera in the mail as a present and have since never looked back!!
then I joined a photography social network
http://eyefetch.com
and I formed a Group for California members and oversaw that group while I Lived in California. I ran a few photo challenges in the group then one Day decided it was time to try and plan a photography trip with anyone in the group that wanted to take part. So a handful of us put our heads together and decided where to go and when!! to make a long story short we ended up going to Crowns Memorial State Park which is in the Alameda area of the East Bay of California!
http://www.shareapic.net/content.php?gid=353228&owner=paulwhite42
We got a Double Bonus because we only went to the Beach with the intent of capturing some Beach photo's and to our delight found there happen to be a Sand Castle Contest going on that day so we obtained some great Activity shots and as we were packing up someone informed us of an Activity across town at the decommisioned Navy base!! the folks there were attempting to enter the Guinness World Record with a large chalk drawing!! and let me back up here.. When we started the planning for this trip there was to be maybe 5 of us going but when all was said and done Myself and Marsha Black and her Husband were the only ones that followed through with the trip!! Now I share with you her Talent that she wishes to be passed on!! although our focus on subjects and our style of photography are different. I take Joy in being able to connect with someone with the depth of a Traveling Photographer such as her!!
http://www.visualtravels.net/wordpress/
The Chalk Drawing was a fun event to witness!! I was able to trade a photo book i had created for a activity T-shirt because they only took cash and i had a debit card on me so we bartered!! look here for more great shots of that activity!!
http://reenchantingtheworldthroughart.blogspot.com
and that's my photography journey so far!!
P.S. some of my work is currently at display in a Gallery till the end of august here in Cedar city!!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
My Thoughts on Obama to meet this week with Professor Gates and Cambridge officer
I have a few bones to pick on this!!
1.Do we really have to know what Beer is being served at the White House during what appears to be a Casual Meeting!!
2. I believe The Cambridge Masschussetts Police has computer access to residential records to determine the owner in a moments notice and should have used that resource the moment there was a question of who the owner was of the house in question!!
3. The President should not have stepped into this situation just because a party involved is a apparent good friend of his!! Calling certain parties Stupid!! Didn't he ever listen to his mother when I am sure she imparted wise wisdom with the familiar Saying!! If you can't think anything nice to say then Don't say anything at all!! Especially with the Admission that he Did not know all the facts at the time he spoke up about the situation!!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Obama says you can't have the red pill
--Red Pill Blue Pill-- In the President's prime time televised press conference on Wednesday, he revealed his real goal in the health care reform debate -- government rationing. He added this puzzling abstraction about cost containment:
"If there's a blue pill and a red pill, and the blue pill is half the price of the red pill and works just as well, why not pay half price for the thing that's going to make you well?" he asked.
Conservatives have no problem with Americans bargain shopping for their medications -- that's what they should do. But the government should not have the power to make these decisions for us. The President's statement makes it clear that, despite his campaign promises, he is not going to allow Americans to keep their current benefit plans and choices.
In another bizarre hypothetical, the President accused a pediatrician of violating the Hippocratic Oath by unnecessarily removing a child's tonsils just to make more money. If this is how the President views physicians, he probably isn't going to allow us to choose our doctors either.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Total Solar Eclipse
those photographers that live in Asia have a rare treat this week. A total Solar Eclipse that will last about 5 Minutes!!!!
Happens on Wednesday!!
Total Solar Eclipse
Shared via AddThis
Happens on Wednesday!!
Total Solar Eclipse
Shared via AddThis
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
new header photo
this was one of the first photo's I took of a person that we ended up good friends!!
enjoy this header photo for awhile
enjoy this header photo for awhile
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Information regarding the Health Care Bill!! Please Read!!
Understanding the Kennedy health care bill
Posted on June 8th, 2009 by kbh in featured, health, taxes
Over the weekend a draft of Senator Kennedy’s (D-MA) health care bill leaked. After playing with Adobe Acrobat, here is the text of the draft Kennedy bill as a text file (173 K), and as a single Acrobat file (3.4 MB). Update: I fixed the broken link to the PDF. Unlike the leaked version, both of these are searchable.
Calling it the “Kennedy” bill is something of an overstatement. Senator Kennedy chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, and his staff wrote the draft. By all reports, however, Chairman Kennedy’s health is preventing him from being heavily involved in the drafting. Senator Reid has designated Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) to supervise the process, but as best I can tell, it’s really the Kennedy committee staff who are making most of the key decisions. For now I will call it the Kennedy-Dodd bill.
As the committee staff emphasized to the press after the leak, this is an interim draft. I assume things will move around over the next several weeks as discussions among Senators and their staffs continue. This is therefore far from a final product, but it provides a useful insight into current thinking among some key Senate Democrats.
Update: I now have a three-page outline of the House Democrats’ health care bill. I have a new post which contains all of the content below, and compares it to the House bill. If you read the new post, you’ll get two for the price of one: Understanding the House Democrats’ [and Kennedy-Dodd] health care bill[s].
Here are 15 things to know about the draft Kennedy-Dodd health bill.
1. The Kennedy-Dodd bill would create an individual mandate requiring you to buy a “qualified” health insurance plan, as defined by the government. If you don’t have “qualified” health insurance for a given month, you will pay a new Federal tax. Incredibly, the amount and structure of this new tax is left to the discretion of the Secretaries of Treasury and Health and Human Services (HHS), whose only guidance is “to establish the minimum practicable amount that can accomplish the goal of enhancing participation in qualifying coverage (as so defined).” The new Medical Advisory Council (see #3D) could exempt classes of people from this new tax. To avoid this tax, you would have to report your health insurance information for each month of the prior year to the Secretary of HHS, along with “any such other information as the Secretary may prescribe.”
2. The bill would also create an employer mandate. Employers would have to offer insurance to their employees. Employers would have to pay at least a certain percentage (TBD) of the premium, and at least a certain dollar amount (TBD). Any employer that did not would pay a new tax. Again, the amount and structure of the tax is left to the discretion of the Secretaries of Treasury and HHS. Small employers (TBD) would be exempt.
3. In the Kennedy-Dodd bill, the government would define a qualified plan:
1. All health insurance would be required to have guaranteed issue and renewal, modified community rating, no exclusions for pre-existing conditions, no lifetime or annual limits on benefits, and family policies would have to cover “children” up to age 26.
2. A qualified plan would have to meet one of three levels of standardized cost-sharing defined by the government, “gold, silver, and bronze.” Details TBD.
3. Plans would be required to cover a list of preventive services approved by the Federal government.
4. A qualified plan would have to cover “essential health benefits,” as defined by a new Medical Advisory Council (MAC), appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The MAC would determine what items and services are “essential benefits.” The MAC would have to include items and services in at least the following categories: ambulatory patient services, emergency services, hospitalization, maternity and new born care, medical and surgical, mental health, prescription drugs, rehab and lab services, preventive/wellness services, pediatric services, and anything else the MAC thought appropriate.
5. The MAC would also define what “affordable and available coverage” is for different income levels, affecting who has to pay the tax if they don’t buy health insurance. The MAC’s rules would go into effect unless Congress passed a joint resolution (under a fast-track process) to turn them off.
4. Health insurance plans could not charge higher premiums for risky behaviors: “Such rate shall not vary by health status-related factors, … or any other factor not described in paragraph (1).” Smokers, drinkers, drug users, and those in terrible physical shape would all have their premiums subsidized by the healthy.
5. Guaranteed issue and renewal combined with modified community rating would dramatically increase premiums for the overwhelming majority of those Americans who now have private health insurance. New Jersey is the best example of health insurance mandates gone wild. In the name of protecting their citizens, premiums are extremely high to cover the cross-subsidization of those who are uninsurable.
6. The bill would expand Medicaid to cover everyone up to 150% of poverty, with the Federal government paying all incremental costs (no State share). This means adding childless adults with income below 150% of the poverty line.
7. People from 150% of poverty up to 500% (!!) would get their health insurance subsidized (on a sliding scale). If this were in effect in 2009, a family of four with income of $110,000 would get a small subsidy. The bill does not indicate the source of funds to finance these subsidies.
8. People in high cost areas (e.g., New York City, Boston, South Florida, Chicago, Los Angeles) would get much bigger subsidies than those in low cost areas (e.g., much of the rest of the country, especially in rural areas). The subsidies are calculated as a percentage of the “reference premium,” which is determined based on the cost of plans sold in that particular geographic area
9. There would be a “public plan option” of health insurance offered by the federal government. In this new government health plan, the federal government would pay health care providers Medicare rates + 10%. The +10% is clearly intended to attract short-term legislative support from medical providers. I hope they are not so naive that they think that differential would last.
10. Group health plans with 250 or fewer members would be prohibited from self-insuring. ERISA would only be for big businesses.
11. States would have to set up “gateways” (health insurance exchanges) to market only qualified health insurance plans. If they don’t, the Feds will set up a gateway for them.
12. Health insurance plans in existence before the law would not have to meet the new insurance standards. This creates a weird bifurcated system and means you would (probably) be subject to a different set of rules when you change jobs.
13. The bill does not specify what spending will be cut or what taxes will be raised to pay for the increased spending. That is presumably for the Finance Committee to determine, since it’s their jurisdiction.
14. The bill defines an “eligible individual” as “a citizen or national of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence or an alien lawfully present in the United States.”
15. The bill would create a new pot of money for state gateways to pay “navigators” to educate people about the new bill, distribute information about health plans, and help people enroll. Navigators receiving federal funds “may include … unions, …”
This would have severe effects on the more than 100 million Americans who have private health insurance today:
* The government would mandate not only that you must buy health insurance, but what health insurance counts as “qualifying.”
* Health insurance premiums would rise as a result of the law, meaning lower wages.
* A government-appointed board would determine what items and services are “essential benefits” that your qualifying plan must cover.
* You would find a tremendous new disincentive to switch jobs, because your new health insurance may be subject to the new rules and would therefore be significantly more expensive.
* Those who keep themselves healthy would be subsidizing premiums for those with risky or unhealthy behaviors.
* Far more than half of all Americans would be eligible for subsidies, but we have not yet been told who would pay the bill.
* The Secretaries of Treasury and HHS would have unlimited discretion to impose new taxes on individuals and employers who do not comply with the new mandates.
* The Secretary of HHS could mandate that you provide him or her with “any such other information as [he/she] may prescribe.”
Posted on June 8th, 2009 by kbh in featured, health, taxes
Over the weekend a draft of Senator Kennedy’s (D-MA) health care bill leaked. After playing with Adobe Acrobat, here is the text of the draft Kennedy bill as a text file (173 K), and as a single Acrobat file (3.4 MB). Update: I fixed the broken link to the PDF. Unlike the leaked version, both of these are searchable.
Calling it the “Kennedy” bill is something of an overstatement. Senator Kennedy chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, and his staff wrote the draft. By all reports, however, Chairman Kennedy’s health is preventing him from being heavily involved in the drafting. Senator Reid has designated Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) to supervise the process, but as best I can tell, it’s really the Kennedy committee staff who are making most of the key decisions. For now I will call it the Kennedy-Dodd bill.
As the committee staff emphasized to the press after the leak, this is an interim draft. I assume things will move around over the next several weeks as discussions among Senators and their staffs continue. This is therefore far from a final product, but it provides a useful insight into current thinking among some key Senate Democrats.
Update: I now have a three-page outline of the House Democrats’ health care bill. I have a new post which contains all of the content below, and compares it to the House bill. If you read the new post, you’ll get two for the price of one: Understanding the House Democrats’ [and Kennedy-Dodd] health care bill[s].
Here are 15 things to know about the draft Kennedy-Dodd health bill.
1. The Kennedy-Dodd bill would create an individual mandate requiring you to buy a “qualified” health insurance plan, as defined by the government. If you don’t have “qualified” health insurance for a given month, you will pay a new Federal tax. Incredibly, the amount and structure of this new tax is left to the discretion of the Secretaries of Treasury and Health and Human Services (HHS), whose only guidance is “to establish the minimum practicable amount that can accomplish the goal of enhancing participation in qualifying coverage (as so defined).” The new Medical Advisory Council (see #3D) could exempt classes of people from this new tax. To avoid this tax, you would have to report your health insurance information for each month of the prior year to the Secretary of HHS, along with “any such other information as the Secretary may prescribe.”
2. The bill would also create an employer mandate. Employers would have to offer insurance to their employees. Employers would have to pay at least a certain percentage (TBD) of the premium, and at least a certain dollar amount (TBD). Any employer that did not would pay a new tax. Again, the amount and structure of the tax is left to the discretion of the Secretaries of Treasury and HHS. Small employers (TBD) would be exempt.
3. In the Kennedy-Dodd bill, the government would define a qualified plan:
1. All health insurance would be required to have guaranteed issue and renewal, modified community rating, no exclusions for pre-existing conditions, no lifetime or annual limits on benefits, and family policies would have to cover “children” up to age 26.
2. A qualified plan would have to meet one of three levels of standardized cost-sharing defined by the government, “gold, silver, and bronze.” Details TBD.
3. Plans would be required to cover a list of preventive services approved by the Federal government.
4. A qualified plan would have to cover “essential health benefits,” as defined by a new Medical Advisory Council (MAC), appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The MAC would determine what items and services are “essential benefits.” The MAC would have to include items and services in at least the following categories: ambulatory patient services, emergency services, hospitalization, maternity and new born care, medical and surgical, mental health, prescription drugs, rehab and lab services, preventive/wellness services, pediatric services, and anything else the MAC thought appropriate.
5. The MAC would also define what “affordable and available coverage” is for different income levels, affecting who has to pay the tax if they don’t buy health insurance. The MAC’s rules would go into effect unless Congress passed a joint resolution (under a fast-track process) to turn them off.
4. Health insurance plans could not charge higher premiums for risky behaviors: “Such rate shall not vary by health status-related factors, … or any other factor not described in paragraph (1).” Smokers, drinkers, drug users, and those in terrible physical shape would all have their premiums subsidized by the healthy.
5. Guaranteed issue and renewal combined with modified community rating would dramatically increase premiums for the overwhelming majority of those Americans who now have private health insurance. New Jersey is the best example of health insurance mandates gone wild. In the name of protecting their citizens, premiums are extremely high to cover the cross-subsidization of those who are uninsurable.
6. The bill would expand Medicaid to cover everyone up to 150% of poverty, with the Federal government paying all incremental costs (no State share). This means adding childless adults with income below 150% of the poverty line.
7. People from 150% of poverty up to 500% (!!) would get their health insurance subsidized (on a sliding scale). If this were in effect in 2009, a family of four with income of $110,000 would get a small subsidy. The bill does not indicate the source of funds to finance these subsidies.
8. People in high cost areas (e.g., New York City, Boston, South Florida, Chicago, Los Angeles) would get much bigger subsidies than those in low cost areas (e.g., much of the rest of the country, especially in rural areas). The subsidies are calculated as a percentage of the “reference premium,” which is determined based on the cost of plans sold in that particular geographic area
9. There would be a “public plan option” of health insurance offered by the federal government. In this new government health plan, the federal government would pay health care providers Medicare rates + 10%. The +10% is clearly intended to attract short-term legislative support from medical providers. I hope they are not so naive that they think that differential would last.
10. Group health plans with 250 or fewer members would be prohibited from self-insuring. ERISA would only be for big businesses.
11. States would have to set up “gateways” (health insurance exchanges) to market only qualified health insurance plans. If they don’t, the Feds will set up a gateway for them.
12. Health insurance plans in existence before the law would not have to meet the new insurance standards. This creates a weird bifurcated system and means you would (probably) be subject to a different set of rules when you change jobs.
13. The bill does not specify what spending will be cut or what taxes will be raised to pay for the increased spending. That is presumably for the Finance Committee to determine, since it’s their jurisdiction.
14. The bill defines an “eligible individual” as “a citizen or national of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence or an alien lawfully present in the United States.”
15. The bill would create a new pot of money for state gateways to pay “navigators” to educate people about the new bill, distribute information about health plans, and help people enroll. Navigators receiving federal funds “may include … unions, …”
This would have severe effects on the more than 100 million Americans who have private health insurance today:
* The government would mandate not only that you must buy health insurance, but what health insurance counts as “qualifying.”
* Health insurance premiums would rise as a result of the law, meaning lower wages.
* A government-appointed board would determine what items and services are “essential benefits” that your qualifying plan must cover.
* You would find a tremendous new disincentive to switch jobs, because your new health insurance may be subject to the new rules and would therefore be significantly more expensive.
* Those who keep themselves healthy would be subsidizing premiums for those with risky or unhealthy behaviors.
* Far more than half of all Americans would be eligible for subsidies, but we have not yet been told who would pay the bill.
* The Secretaries of Treasury and HHS would have unlimited discretion to impose new taxes on individuals and employers who do not comply with the new mandates.
* The Secretary of HHS could mandate that you provide him or her with “any such other information as [he/she] may prescribe.”
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
The Marine
THE MARINES WANT THIS TO ROLL ALL OVER THE U.S.
Please don't delete this until you send
it on, Let's send it around the world.
This is a poem being sent from a Marine
to his Dad. For those who take the time
to read it, you'll see a letter from him to
his dad at the bottom. It makes you truly
thankful for not only the Marines, but
ALL of our troops.
THE MARINE
We all came together,
Both young and old
To fight for our freedom,
To stand and be bold.
In the midst of all evil,
We stand our ground,
And we protect our country
From all terror around.
Peace and not war,
Is what some people say.
But I'll give my life,
So you can live the American way
I give you the right
To talk of your peace.
To stand in your groups,
and protest in our streets.
But still I fight on,
I don't fuss, I don't whine.
I'm just one of the people!
Who is doing your time.
I'm harder than nails,
Stronger than any machine.
I'm the immortal soldier,
I'm a U.S. MARINE!
So stand in my shoes,
And leave from your home.
Fight for the people who hate you,
With the protests they've shown.
Fight for the stranger,
Fight for the young.
So they all may have,
The greatest freedom you've won
Fight for the sick,
Fight for the poor
Fight for the cripple,
Who lives next door.
But when your time comes,
Do what I've done.
For if you stand up for freedom,
You'll stand when the fight's done
By: Corporal Aaron M. Gilbert, US Marine Corps
USS SAIPAN, PERSIAN GULF
Hey Dad,
Do me a favor and label this 'The Marine' and send it to everybody on your email list. Even leave this letter in it. I want this rolling all over the US ; I want every home reading it. Every eye seeing it. And every heart to feel it. So can you please send this for me? I would but my email time isn't that long and I don 't have much time anyway.
You know what Dad? I wondered what it would be like to truly understand what JFK said in His inaugural speech. 'When the time comes to lay down my life for my country, I do not cower from this responsibility. I welcome it.' Well, now I know. And I do. Dad, I welcome the opportunity to do what I do. Even though I have left behind a beautiful wife, and I will miss the birth of our first born child, I would do it 70 times over to fight for the place that God has made for my home. I love you all and I miss you very much. I wish I could be there when Sandi has our baby, but tell her that I love her, and Lord willing, I will be coming home soon.Give Mom a great big hug from me and give one to yourself too.
Aaron
Please let this marine (and all our military) know we care by passing his poem onto your friends even if you don't usually take time to forward mail...do it this time!
Thanks,
Let's help Aaron's dad spread the word .... FREEDOM isn't FREE Someone pays for you and me.
God bless you!
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