In essence, he admitted that the bill was written in a way that would allow its purveyors to characterize it as the cure-all and salvation for a health care system that was in trouble, with no danger of their deception being discovered by a populace that is trusting and naive. He obviously never intended for his comments to make it into the public sphere and did not consider the fact that someone is always recording on their smartphone. What is truly disturbing is the fact that our government is willing to engage in the purposeful deception of the populace in order to thrust its secretive agenda onto an unsuspecting populace and a sycophantic mainstream media. As I have said many times before, Obamacare was never about health care; it was about government control and wealth redistribution. If there was real concern about the uninsured, it would have been much cheaper and considerably less complex to simply give all of the uninsured Cadillac health plans for life. I am a firm believer that health care reform was and is needed, and I have been advocating for it for several years. It needs to be done correctly, though, and in a way that does not create different levels of access and treatment. There is no question that the American people are distracted by sports and entertainment and that we confer godlike status on actors and some athletes. There is also no question that we could do more to enhance our knowledge about important issues. However, to assume that the American people are stupid and uncaring and to design programs and speeches around that assumption is arrogant, disrespectful and, frankly, very shortsighted. As has famously been said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” This most recent revelation by the unmasking of one of the chief architects of Obamacare is far from the first and only indication of a pattern of deception and manipulation by the current administration. There appears to be overt contempt for the intelligence of the populace by people who would have us believe that the Benghazi disaster was caused by an ill-defined and little-watched video, and that there was not even a smidgen of evidence of wrongdoing surrounding the “phony” Internal Revenue Service scandal, and that the government would never engage in spying on its own citizens without cause. Unfortunately, the administration knows that it can say virtually anything, and that there are some people who are so desperate to believe that it will be accepted as truth. They also know that many members of the mainstream media subscribe to their same ideology and will protect them, regardless of the consequences. Only people who doubt the analytical ability of the populace would believe that giving people Next Thursday, Nov. 27 Is THANKSGIVING DAY • No Alternate Side Parking • No Garbage Collection • No Mail Delivery • Schools Closed • Government Offices Closed The Offices Of The Times Newsweekly/ Ridgewood Times Will Be Closed Next Thursday AND Friday, Nov. 27-28. HAPPY THANKSGIVING (and don’t forget to buy our paper that morning!) MMAAUURREEEENN EE. WWAALLTTHHEERRSS..........................................PPuubblisshheerr && EEdditoorr JJOOHHNN TT.. WWAALLTTHHEERRSS................................................................................................PPuubblliisshheerr EEmmeerriittuuss RROOBBEERRT POOZZAARRYYCCKI.................................................MMaanaaging EEdditorr JJOOSEE VVAARRGAAS.............................................Prrodducction//Saaleess MMaanaageerr DDEEBBOORRAAHH CCUUSSICCKK..............................................CClaassssiffieedd MMaannaaggeerr MMAARRLLEENNEE RRUUIZZ............................................AAssssisst. CClaassssifieedd MMaanaageerr TTIIMMEESS NNEEWWSSWWEEEEKKLLYY IIss LLiisstteedd WWiitthh TThhee SSttaannddaarrdd RRaattee && DDaattaa AAnndd IIss AA MMeemmbbeerr OOff TThhee NNeeww YYoorrkk PPrreessss AAssssoocciiaattiioonn TIMES, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014 • 4 BEN CARSON News & Opinion Times Newsweekly EEDDIITTOORRIIAALL What To Do About ISIS Times Newsweekly Established In 1908 As Ridgewood Times PPhhootoo SSuubbmmissssioonnss AAnndd RReeqquueesstss Photographs submitted to the Times Newsweekly/Ridgewood Times should be in electronic high resolution (300dpi) JPEG (.jpg) or TIFF (.tif) formats. Sharp and clear non-Polaroid photo prints in color or black and white are also acceptable. Photographs submitted will become the property of this newspaper, with the exception of photos or other materials sent for use by The Old Timer and photos which are part of paid announcements. 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It is the responsibility of the advertiser to make sure copy does not contravene the Consumer Protection Law or any other requirement. CCOOPPYYRRIIGGHHTT 22001144 RRIIDDGGEEWWOOOODD TTIIMMEESS PPRRIINNTTIINNGG && PPUUBBLLIISSHHIINNGG CCOO., IINNCC. 60-71 Woodbine St., Ridgewood, N.Y. 11385 General Pub. Office: P.O. Box 863299 Ridgewood, N.Y. 11386-0299 Periodicals Postage Paid At Flushing, N.Y. (USPS 465-940) TTEELEEPHHOONEE: 11--771188--882211--77550000/77550011/77550022/77550033 FFAAXX: 11--771188--445566--00112200 EE-MMAAIILL: iinnffoo@@ttiimmeessnneewwsswweeeekkllyy..ccoomm WWEEBB SSITTEE: www.timessnnewssweekklyy.ccoom OON TTWWITTTTEER @@timessnnewssweekklyy PPUUBBLLIISSHHEEDD EEVVEERRYY TTHHUURRSSDDAAYY FFOORR OOVVEERR 110066 YYEEAARRSS Jonathan Gruber set off a firestorm of controversy, at least in the conservative media, with the recent revelation of his comments about the “stupidity of the American people,” which allowed the Affordable Care Act to be passed. -SEE CARSON ON PG. 26- What must be done to stop the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) from savagely and publicly beheading American missionaries and other innocents under their rule? President Barack Obama can say its “evil,” which it is, and other politicians talk about the horrors of these public executions. A handful of troops have been dispatched to the region; since August, air strikes against ISIS happen on an almost daily basis. But the public, disgusting executions ISIS carries out continues nearly unfettered. It would be interesting to know how our readers feel about these online videos that are shown on the nightly news shows and written about in newspapers. What do you—as you read this—feel should be done in response to these murders? Should hundreds of thousands of armed forces be deployed into the area that harbors ISIS and proceed to destroy them, one by one? It seems unbelievable that a country like ours, the United States of America, could rally together just days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and, within four years’ time, lead the defeat of the Japanese, German and Italian armies, forcing them into unconditional surrender. The country was similarly motivated following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to defeat the enemy that killed almost 3,000 people on our turf. We went to Afghanistan and bombed al-Qaeda and the Taliban enough to send them running for the hills—but our limited action there kept their pulse. We then turned to Iraq to depose the dictator Saddam Hussein and prematurely declared “Mission Accomplished” weeks after forcing him out of power. But anything resembling order in Iraq disintegrated, Islamic extremists filled the power vacuum Hussein left behind and started killing and maiming American soldiers by the thousands. Thirteen years after 9/11, and the Taliban is still a menace to Afghanistan’s fragile, corrupt democracy; the Iraqi government is incapable of keeping their country together; and ISIS—a force so dark even al-Qaeda wants nothing to do with it—emerged like a grave disease, spreading its bloody wrath upon Iraq and civil war-torn Syria. Since World War II, the U.S. tried to quell tension around the world with “limited war” campaigns, starting in Korea and followed soon thereafter by Vietnam. These efforts cost thousands of American lives but did little to either preserve democracy in one region or peace in another; the Korean peninsula remains divided, and Vietnam eventually fell completely under communist control. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that this same limited war approach in the Middle East resolved virtually nothing—and may have actually made things worse. Now, with the perennial powderkeg between Israel and Palestine set to ignite following Tuesday’s terrorist attack at an East Jerusalem synagogue, the entire region is on the verge of disaster. What do we do now? Stay out of the region and let the chips fall where they may? Continue our limited involvement that has done little to change the status quo? Or does this war-weary nation go all in once more and send thousands of men and women to fight the barbarians at the gate? If you were president, what would you do? If you were a member of Congress, what would you do? We want to hear from you on the Middle East crisis. Email us at [email protected] or write us at P.O. Box 863299, Ridgewood, NY 11386-0299. Let the world know how you feel, because in the long run, we will have to solve our own problems, too. Stupidity Reconsidered MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD! SSeenndd AA LLeetttteerr TToo TThhee EEddiittoorr BByy EEmmaaiill TToo iinnffoo@@ ttiimmeessnneewwsswweeeekkllyy ..ccoomm WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
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