Read All About It in the Sunday Papers-May 31, 2009

‘Bulo apologizes to his fan(s) for the relative lateness of this post. He was at the Arden Gild Hall last night, and comfortably blended in with those granola grannies while watching Marcia Ball and scorching opener, The Skyla Burrell Band, tear the roof off the place. So, he’s posting this and returning to Dreamland. 

LEAD STORY: Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman (Wasilla, Alaska): Will The Anti-Christ Be a Homosexual?

Some stories just need to be read in their entirety. However, the Beast Who Slumbers will provide you a taste. He bets you can’t resist reading the rest. From Sarah Palin’s hometown ‘news’paper:

From a lost perspective, the reason sex sells, pornography is profitable, and prostitution is “the world’s oldest profession” is mankind’s desire of women. From Christianity’s position, it is part of the glue for the bond of marriage and the propagation of a godly heritage. But homosexuality does not regard this — in their unbridled lusts they burn for their own gender.

But consider this: The time is ripe for such a leader. Indeed, it should not be surprising that the one who is against everything Biblical and Christian should be a partaker of so great a sin; there is no greater way to reject the Creator than to reject your gender and his design for it. And at what other time have we seen such perversion come out of the closets onto our streets, threatening violence if we do not accept their ways?

Words fail ‘bulo, but he bets they won’t fail you. Comment away!

Boston Globe: ‘Non-Profit’ Hospitals Scamming Government for Indigent Care Funding

What a surprise. You’ve all heard how health care costs are so high because of what is spent to care for the uninsured. Turns out that hospitals have been scamming government for reimbursement that far outstrips the cost of care:

However, as hospitals have prospered and grown, so too has the value of the breaks on state, federal, sales, and property taxes they enjoy as charities. And that fact has triggered a growing debate, among policy makers and politicians, about whether the public is still getting its money’s worth from an exemption that dates to the 19th century and was created to encourage hospitals to treat the poor.

Today, in fact, the value of tax exemption far exceeds the amount the state’s leading hospitals spend on free care for the poor and other community benefits they report annually to the attorney general, a Globe review has found.

What’s more, hospital spending on free care is declining because of the state’s 2006 healthcare reforms. Today, hospitals typically spend about 1 percent of expenses on free medical care, as measured by the attorney general, half of what they spent before reform made insurance available to many more low-income people.

The gap between tax benefits and charity care varies widely among hospitals. The gap is widest at the most prosperous hospital companies. And some less profitable institutions actually spend more on charity than they save on taxes.

So, what does this have to do with Delaware. Well, let’s just see how Christiana Care describes itself:

Christiana Care is a private not-for-profit regional health care system and relies in part on the generosity of individuals, foundations and corporations to fulfill its mission.

In part. What kind of breaks on state, federal, and property taxes is Christiana receiving? Are they being reimbursed for more than their ‘charitable’ endeavors warrant? El Somnmabulo cannot trust any organization that has Wayne Smith, Delaware’s Newt Gingrich, as it’s ‘government representative’.

Were El Somnambulo a News Editor, he would assign one of his top reporters to dig into this. He hopes the News-Journal will do the same.

The (UK) Guardian: Expats Flock to Cuba After Obama Eases Travel Restrictions

Now, really, was THAT so hard to do?

Cuban-Americans are flocking home. “For me this is a real, concrete change,” said Estefania, hugging her mother at arrivals after two years away. “I am studying and working in Miami, and now, with the cash I am earning there, not only can I travel as often as I can to visit my family, but I can also give them more money and bring more supplies. This is real change for many Cubans.”

At some point, cooler heads will realize that the economic embargo is also nothing more than the last vestiges of Cold War thinking, and both Cubans and Americans will benefit from its overdue demise.

Washington Post: Obama Forces Overhaul of Auto Industry

Can the Obama Administration rescue Detroit from Detroit?  Maybe yes, maybe no.

In the space of five head-spinning months, the economic downturn and a few strong-willed financial officials in the Obama administration have done what legions of car executives, consultants and policymakers had failed to do in three decades: overhaul the U.S. car industry.

The irony being, of course, that Detroit’s intransigence, aided and abetted by the John Dingells of Congress, led to unplanned obsolescence that seemingly now only the government undo.

The (UK) Independent: World Leaders Tackle Global Warming With Urgency

Can you just imagine how much damage 8 years of Bush’s Global Warming Denial has caused our planet? And can you just imagine how much further along in recovery our planet would be had not the El Supremos stolen the election from Al Gore?

Eight years later (hopefully not too late), a sense of urgency has finally taken hold:

World leaders are to meet for an unprecedented second summit on climate change this year to try to get agreement on a tough new treaty by December, and may even get together for a third time before the end of the year.

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, is to call the world’s heads of government to New York in September to “galvanise political will” about what he describes as “the defining issue of our time”. And there are plans for another G20 summit to discuss the issue in the autumn.

These will follow a meeting of 17 key world leaders convened at the initiative of President Barack Obama immediately after the annual G8 summit in July. Observers cannot remember any similar progression of top-level meetings to address any issue over such a short period of time.

The moves come as pressure mounts on the leaders to reach agreement at December’s vital negotiations in Copenhagen, billed as the world’s last chance to get to grips with global warming before it escalates out of control.

Dubya: He kept the world safe from…nothing.

McClatchy Papers: California Cracks Down on Charitable Telemarketers

Good for California. Do you know that, when you get a call from a telemarketer on behalf of a police, fire, or other charity, the telemarketers often keep 90% of the funds that are raised? Have you ever noticed that, when the call is for a police charity, the person on the other end of the line almost invariably sounds like a police officer, even though they’re not? Do you feel guilty when you say  ‘no’ and hang up? Don’t.

Not only is it disgraceful that proceeds largely benefit the telemarketing firm, it is equally disgraceful, IESHO, that police, fire, and other organizations contract with these firms. It is almost an abuse of authority since the person receiving the call might feel like you’re paying for ‘protection’. ‘Bulo thinks that that’s, in part, what the RICO statutes are for.