President Obama says he doesn’t like bullies. The White House has even launched a website to help kids and parents recognize the signs of bullying and advise them on how to get help.

Maybe the White House should take its own advice, as the individual mandate portion of Obamacare is nothing short of bullying American citizens into purchasing something they may or may not want or need.

Take a look at this short video from Momthink.org:

The video depicts a group of kids playing on a playground, and a big, mean bully coming in and forcing them all to buy lemonade – whether they want it or not. The idea is that the kids playing are Americans, and the lemonade stand bully is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. The bully demands that the children purchase his lemonade, and when they can’t afford it, he takes their toys as payment.

The White House articulates three points that bullying involves: 1) An imbalance of power, 2) Intent to cause harm, and 3) Repetition. Let’s take a look at how these concepts apply to the individual mandate laid out in section 1501 of the health care law.

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If one bad apple spoils the bushel, what happens when the whole bushel is rotten?

In a sleepy little suburb outside of Portland, Oregon, there is a monster lurking in the classroom, teaching schoolchildren their three Rs—Reading, Radicalism & Reprisal. The monster is known as the McMinnville Education Association [MEA].

McMinnville School District is in negotiations with the MEA (hereafter to be known as MEAn) and has been since last year (with the occasional help of a mediator), with the parties having been millions apart.  However, according to local press reports, with a state school budget crisis, while some progress has been made, so far an agreement has been elusive.

Nevertheless, as negotiations have dragged on over months, the MEAn has gotten…well…MEAner.

On Valentine’s Day, prior to the McMinnville School Board meeting, the McMinnville Area of Commerce’s Governmental Affairs Committee had sent out a statement (via e-mail) to hundreds of local businesses and residents. That evening, at the school board meeting, Leslie “LV” VanBlaricom (a member of the chamber’s board of directors) read the statement (text below the fold). Apparently, her reading of the letter did not sit well with MEAn, who then allegedly had her fired from her job: (more…)