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Something of beauty to shine against these dark times.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_8GGAL2TRQ

Jean Sibelius, born 150 years ago on Dec. 8, 1865, was the first Finnish composer to reach an international audience, but his popularity began at home. In the late 1890s, Finland was a part of the Russian empire and its people were striving for independence. Sibelius, who would struggle with alcoholism and loneliness, found a way to express their frustrations and hopes through patriotic pieces like Finlandia — and less obviously in his seven symphonies. Sibelius' stature outside Finland swayed severely during the composer's long life (he died in 1957 at age 91). In 1940, critic and composer Virgil Thomson,...

There is widespread fury at the lies which were used to sell ObamaCare, a more than 2,000-page piece of legislation no one read before it was passed, a law opposed by the majority of voters which was crammed down our throats without a single Republican vote. The law essentially was a mishmash blank slate which left it to the administration's HHS head, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to write as she pleased and the president to -- by Executive order -- pay off with exemptions and special treatment those cronies and rent seekers not already paid off in the legislative and regulatory...

psy·cho·sis noun, plural psy·cho·ses Psychiatry. 1. a mental disorder characterized by symptoms, such as delusions or hallucinations, that indicate impaired contact with reality. These two people displayed a severely impaired contact with reality today. Patient Sibelius:Classic case of psychosis. Patient presents with loss of contact with reality, punctuated with outbursts of patently false statements. Sibelius said: 'No one indicated it could possibly go this wrong' Ah but they did. Washington (CNN) – The Obama administration was given stark warnings just one month before that the federal healthcare site was not ready to go live, according to a confidential report obtained...

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told Congress today she didn’t know if Obamacare health care plans force Americans to pay for abortions, despite evidence that many plans will force enrollees to fund abortions.Although Americans will definitely fund abortions under Obamacare, the top health care official didn’t know that was the case.“If someone, a constituent of mine or someone in this country, has strongly-held pro-life views, can you commit to us to make sure that the federal exchanges that offer that are clearly identified so people can understand if they’re going to buy a policy that has abortion coverage or not, because...

Embattled Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will testify before Congress next week about the botched rollout of ObamaCare’s insurance exchanges after rejecting GOP demands to appear this week. The House Energy and Commerce Committee confirmed Monday night that Sebelius would meet with the committee next Wednesday. The notice capped a day of wrangling between Sebelius and congressional Republicans who repeatedly attacked her for rejecting calls to testify at a Thursday hearing. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) accused Sebelius of “seeking to avoid accountability and stonewall the public” by declining to attend this week’s hearing. “What is more important to...

The Affordable Care Act's botched rollout has stunned its media cheering section, and it even seems to have surprised the law's architects. The problems run much deeper than even critics expected, and whatever federal officials, White House aides and outside contractors are doing to fix them isn't working. But who knows? Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is even refusing to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a hearing this coming Thursday. HHS claims she has scheduling conflicts, but we hope she isn't in the White House catacomb under interrogation by Valerie Jarrett about her department's...

(Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, center, addresses attendees at a stakeholder meeting to address implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Monday, Aug. 19, 2013, in Houston.) (CNSNews.com) - The Department of Health and Human Services is sponsoring a video contest (“the weirder and more outlandish the better”) to attract an important group of insurance subscribers it describes as "young invicibles." Under the Affordable Care Act, everyone must purchase health insurance or a pay a fine. But if young people don't sign up for health insurance through the Obamacare exchanges, premiums for everyone else will increase, even...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius yesterday compared people who oppose the Obamacare health care law to segregationists who opposed civil rights legislation in the 1960s.While pro-life advocates oppose Obamacare because of its abortion funding provisions, the HHS mandate that thwarts religious conscience and for other reasons, Sebeluis appears to think they are no different than people who stood in the way of laws protecting black Americans.CNS News broke the story with Sebelius’ comments, which appear below: “The Affordable Care Act is the most powerful law for reducing health disparities since Medicare and Medicaid were created in 1965, the...

A dying girl who needs a lung transplant and only has weeks to live has will receive the long-awaited lung transplant she so desperately needs. Sarah Murnaghan, the 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl dying of cystic fibrosis, received national attention after HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius refused to help.

Documents leaked to Operation Rescue by a confidential informant show Central Family Medical, also known as Aid for Women, in Kansas City, Kansas, is illegally dumping private patient information related to abortions and is engaging in dangerous abortion practices. All documents were improperly discarded by the abortion clinic. Patient identifying information has been redacted by Operation Rescue.

The administration this afternoon released its “Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on preventive services policy.” Translation: President Barack Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius are moving forward with their controversial contraception mandate, which requires even religiously affiliated employers to provide their employees with insurance that covers contraception — even if those employers object to contraception on religious grounds. But don’t worry: Secretary Sebelius says your religious liberty is assured, so it is assured. “The President’s policy respects religious liberty and makes free preventive services available to women,” she said. ”Today’s announcement is the next step toward fulfilling that commitment.” Never...

Liberals accuse conservatives of using secret signals that only conservatives can hear -- dog whistles -- to send racist messages. These accusations are in reality a reflection of what liberals think rather than accurate assessments of what conservatives are saying, like the pimpled teen who thinks that nearly everything is a dirty joke. Liberals, on the other hand, constantly have to hide what they believe in order to get votes -- getting rid of blacks by making abortion easily available in minority neighborhoods and advocating socialism are not winning campaign positions these days. That's why almost every liberal runs for...

At a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Secretary of HHS Kathleen Sebelius confirmed the fears of many pro-life advocates who worry that the recent HHS mandate requiring all insurance plans to cover contraception and sterilization, regardless of an employer’s moral objection, is just the beginning.The same statutory authority of the Administration to mandate contraception could just as easily mandate abortion on demand. The Administration believes in essence that employers are not really paying for contraceptives or abortion since they would be cheaper than providing for prenatal care, childbirth or child care.In an exchange with pro-life Congressman Tim...

(CNSNews.com) – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Planned Parenthood’s relationship with the Girl Scouts of America is “very valuable,” Wednesday, at a congressional reception to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the organization for young girls. Rep. Pelosi was featured at the reception with a group of female government leaders to promote the Girl Scout’s new initiative “To Get Her There,” which seeks to create “gender balanced leadership” in one generation.After the event CNSNews.com asked Pelosi: “The Girl Scouts has had some ties to Planned Parenthood, do you think that’s a valuable relationship to have working together?”“The Girl...

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix has become one of the first Roman Catholic bishops in the nation to openly defy the Obama administration over new rules forcing employers to include access to contraceptives and sterilization procedures in health-insurance coverage. Although the Catholic Church itself is exempt from the proposed regulations, Olmsted believes the federal government’s decision is an attack on religious liberty. He is encouraging church members to actively oppose it.Rob DeFrancesco, spokesman for the Phoenix Diocese, said that even though the diocese, its parishes and its schools will likely all be exempt from the rule, the bishop is...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on today’s announcement from the Obama administration that it is going forward with its original “Obamacare” policy that mandates coverage of sterilization and contraceptive services in most healthcare plans:Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said today that aside from houses of worship, all other religious agencies and organizations will be required to provide sterilization and contraceptive services, including abortifacients, in their employee healthcare plans; none will be allowed to charge co-pays or deductibles. The policy goes into effect in August 2013 for these entities; all others will be required to provide these...

The country’s first criminal prosecution of Planned Parenthood was left teetering Friday when it was revealed the state of Kansas destroyed abortion records that prosecutors planned to use as evidence. Johnson County prosecutors asked a judge to delay a Monday hearing to decide if there’s enough evidence to try Planned Parenthood on 23 felony counts of falsifying pregnancy termination reports. Prosecutors say the records, which are central to making their case, were shredded sometime in 2005, roughly two years before charges were brought against Planned Parenthood by former Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline.

...Fortunately, before the HHS really beclowned themselves by going through with this farce, public outcry (received, no doubt from the time the NYT article was published up until this evening) forced them to “rethink” the idea... Notice, however, how the HHS phrases their back-down: “now is not the time to move forward with this research project.” Makes me wonder exactly when will be the time to move forward with it? Probably once we’ve all gotten more comfortable with Big Brother breathing down our neck about every medical decision made... Let’s see: they’re dropping this “mystery shopper” program. They’re dropping the...

A German foreign exchange student we had living with us last year received word of the death of her grandfather. She explained that he had broken his shoulder. We were appalled. "His shoulder?" we asked. "Yes" was the reply. The explanation was the German death panels: he was elderly and not worth the expenditure of funds when complications set in. His death was a shock to her, BUT not to her teenage understanding of German health care. She understood it perfectly. The bureaucrats decide who is worthy of expensive care and who isn't: only the strong survive. Not to pick...