SYSTEM ERROR

I've noticed that quite often when a person or a group wants to regulate something, they haul out their well-worn mantra : "it's a drain on the health care system". It's become a very popular excuse for a bunch of sanctimonious sissified do-gooders to tell you how to eat, work, drive, and now even how to play. This week it's skiing - the proposal for mandatory helmets on the slopes of Quebec - coming soon, of course, to a ski hill near you. Because if you ski, you might get hurt. And if you get hurt, you become... any guesses? That's right - a miserable selfish DRAIN ON THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM. 

When are people going to realize that our health care system wastes money faster than my brother at a blackjack table? We aren't draining the system - it's draining us! We pay and we pay, but when we need treatment we have to wait, sometimes until it's too late. Or the treatment is not available, or is hopelessly inadequate - not enough equipment, beds, or staff. Why? Because all the money that is drained out of us does not go to patient care - a huge proportion is spent on studies, advertising, "information" programs, and paperwork. Then, to add insult to injury, we are treated disrespectfully by health care providers and hospitals, because we are seen as inconveniences rather than paying customers. People feel free to pass judgement; if you just hadn't eaten that extra Twinkie or skipped that exercise class, you wouldn't be in this fix. Now, say ten Hail Marys and put out that smoke.

Contrast that attitude with the way you are treated by your dentist or optometrist - prompt, courteous, and competent - right? Imagine how different things would be if you were paying directly for your health care and were actually perceived as a customer. They would WANT to give you good service, because you would take your business elsewhere if they didn't. You would no longer have to feel pathetically grateful when some bitchy nurse finally calls your name after a three-hour wait and can't even be bothered to look pleasant, much less apologize for the delay.

The problem with socialized medicine is that someone other than the consumer gets to decide how the money is spent, so we have virtually no control over our treatment or options, or where the funding ends up. Are you happy with the millions of dollars poured into "preventative" health campaigns that don't work? Or the brainwashing of your kids in school about health and the environment, even when the information is not correct? Are you happy to fork over money so junkies can have nice clean needles and a comfy place to shoot up? In a smoke-free building, of course - wouldn't want to put their health at risk.

In a free market system, you control how your health dollar is spent, you decide when you get treatment, and you live with the consequences of your own actions. Right now, the health care system is being drained all right, but not by sick people. It's being drained by special interest groups pushing their own agendas: anti-smoking, anti-drinking, anti-obesity, anti-sport, anti-marijuana, and now even anti-co2 ( talk about taxing the very air we breathe!). They all have one thing in common - using your health care contributions to finance their own cause.

If we weren't paying outrageous taxes to finance government spending, we could all afford to pay our own medical costs, directly or through private insurance. Medical care is expensive because the government is perceived as picking up the tab, so everyone feels free to abuse the system, from within and without. And then blame others for "draining" it.

Some people don't want to pay for smokers or fatties or skiers that don't wear helmets. Fair enough - but I don't want to pay for hypochondriacs, crackheads or neurotics who run to the doctor every time they see an ad for a new happy pill. And I sure as hell don't want to pay for studies on the health impact of fictitious global warming.

As an adult, I don't need anyone telling me how to live. I don't want or expect anyone else to finance my health care. I expect value for money spent, and I'm not getting it under the current system. People seem to think it's some kind of safety net, but if you look closely you'll see that net is full of holes and fraying at both ends. People are going out of country to get the care they need, either because they can't get it here or the wait could literally kill them. 

The present situation can't last - the demographics won't support it. The birth rate in Canada is below replacement level, and there are more and more people moving into retirement as the baby boomers leave the work force. Who will finance the big machine then? Not the kids, there aren't enough of them. When the system collapses, people will have to make their own arrangements. No one will have to pay for anyone else's "lifestyle choices", and therefore will have one less excuse to impose their values on others. We'll all have to get over this nation-wide "failure to launch", and stop expecting a parent government to look after us, because it won't.

Personally, I look forward to the day when I can go to the emergency room at three in the morning with a crying baby and have the staff actually show some concern instead of acting like I'm interrupting their coffee break. I expect better than that, I deserve better than that, and I'm more than willing to pay for it directly, avoiding the expense of a middleman and the constant harping of those who think my lifestyle is their business.

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN

I just read an article in the Province about a new phenomenon known as "sexting". Actually, it's not new, they've just coined a word for it. I guess the actual definition would be "stupid teen-age girl e-mailing slutty naked pictures of self to boyfriend without using her one brain cell to realize that he could forward them". That's pretty long - maybe it could go in Wikipedia.

Apparently some people are pretty bent about it, more so in the States than here. One poor sap in Florida (18 yrs old) split up with his 16-yr-old girlfriend and then shared some naked pictures she had sent him. He ended up having to register as a sex offender and attend rehab classes.

Did his girlfriend really think he would never show anyone those pictures? Duh, excuse me: he's a young guy. They like to show off to their buddies. People break up, sometimes not amicably. Come on girls, wake up - it's not rocket science. And who took the pictures in the first place? She didn't get charged for producing the "pornography", but he's in trouble for distributing it. If stupidity was a crime, we'd all be in jail.

Some people are calling it child pornography. Give me a break - child pornography involves CHILDREN, and anyone caught doing that should be castrated and thrown off the nearest cliff. Sixteen-year-olds who hold jobs, drive cars, and have consensual sex are not in the same category as lowlife scumbags who prey on kids in daycare centres.

Baring it all is no big deal to kids these days. Just drive by your local junior high, it looks like a hooker's convention. The message from the media is that looking "sexy" is all-important - kids are encouraged to use sexuality as a replacement for personality or achievement. Their role models are brain-dead idiots like Paris Hilton, and anyone who can afford a decent set of implants has a crack at being the next reality-tv star. Reality tv. There's an oxymoron for you.

It doesn't help that a lot of parents don't spend time with their kids any more. Young people have cell phones, iPods, computers and video games, but they don't have involved parents. Because of our crappy economy, most families need two incomes and it doesn't leave a lot of time for the kids. They end up being raised in daycare or by grandparents ( if they're lucky). Then, when Mom gets a break, she wants to have some "me" time, so she gets a sitter and goes out. These kids are raising themselves and if they end up thinking that getting tattooed and pierced and hanging their boobs out on the internet is the ultimate way to develop self-esteem, whose fault is it?

Many parents have no idea what their kids are up to because they are so wrapped up in the pursuit of their own happiness. Unfortunately, when you have a baby, your quest for self-fulfillment has to take a back seat. For a long time. Kids need our support and attention, and that job should be as full-time as we can make it. Not that it's fun to spend time with a surly know-it-all teenager who thinks you're the stupidest person that ever walked the earth. It isn't - but someone's gotta do it.

Kids are going to make mistakes, it's part of growing up, but it doesn't hurt to talk to them about the pitfalls of life, even if they don't seem to be listening most of the time. I wouldn't have thought it necessary to point out that it might not be a real smart idea to send naked bimbo pictures into cyberspace, but there you go - you have to know what they're up to. The internet is great, I love it, but it exposes kids to a gazillion nutbars who are setting up websites, blogging, video chatting, and promoting their own ideas of right and wrong. The undeniable fact is, if we don't provide our kids with values and guidance, someone else will. Just think about that.

THE VOICE OF REASON

Well, I see my old buddy Shallow Al Gore took a pretty good pigbeating at the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change a few days ago. Sponsored by the Heartland Institute, it was attended by almost eight hundred people, including scientists, economists, and even (gasp!) interested politicians. Seventy-five speakers from meteorologists to astrophysicists came forward to voice their concerns over the global warming fraud.

You couldn't swing a cat in there without hitting a PhD, so this wasn't some mickey mouse gathering of crackpots. Video from the conference is available on-line at heartland.org and it was indeed heartening to hear rational discussion instead of the blatant fearmongering we've been subjected to in the interest of hosing the taxpayer.

Ironically, as I was writing this I heard the words "climate change" on my television. Sure enough, there was the standard bike-helmeted nitwit telling me to get my ass over to Environment Canada's website and find out what I should feel guilty about this week. So I did. No surprise there - a wealth of outdated misinformation on climate, and some pointers on windmills, light bulbs and calculating my carbon footprint. Actually, there was a ton of suggestions for decarbonizing my entire existence, but I didn't want to hang around there too long in case stupidity is contagious.

They handily provide a link to Health Canada's climate change site, so I went there too - and found a list of predicted "health vulnerabilities" related to global warming. For instance: cold and heat related illnesses ( you gotta wonder how much it cost for some numbskull to come up with that one), damaged public health infrastructure ( oh, please God, yes), heart attacks, diarrhea(?!!), and of course their favorite bogeyman, cancer. They like cancer so much they even listed it twice. Good old cancer, a most profitable commodity in this age of fear. Everything gives you cancer, so probably best to just stay home holed up in your closet clutching a bag of bean sprouts and a dog-eared copy of An Inconvenient Truth. Or the Canada food guide.

Although, if you actually do get cancer, and you probably will if you live long enough, good luck getting treatment or a bed in a hospital. There isn't any money for that because too much has been squandered on telling you how to live so you won't get cancer and die. Which is the impossible dream - you can follow all the health guidelines, live an exemplary life and then get cancer anyway. And die. Because valuable resources are being wasted on "healthy living" promotion instead of finding alternatives to barbaric treatments like chemotherapy.

This bogus global warming business is being approached in the same way. If the world decides to warm up, our feeble efforts are going to be like a spit in the ocean. What inflated idea of self-importance has led us to think that we can control nature? If the earth was actually warming, which it isn't, wouldn't it make more sense to be planning strategies for dealing with it instead of bankrupting ourselves in a futile attempt to stave it off?

The voice of reason is finally being heard. First on the internet, then slowly filtering into the mainstream media as it becomes painfully obvious that the public is being taken for a ride. When enough people have wised up, the profiteers will drop the global warming cause faster than rats leaving a sinking ship (or Al Gore fleeing a public debate). But meanwhile, how much money has been wasted? How many acres of farmland hijacked to produce biofuel? How many businesses losing money, shutting down or scrapped in the making because of anticipated environmental costs? We are forking over billions of dollars to do penance for an imaginary sin, and I'm sick of being expected to feel ashamed of enjoying a decent standard of living.

If anyone wants to feel guilty, go take a look at the impact of the global warming scare on development in the third world countries. That should make you feel a lot sadder than contemplating the fictitious plight of the polar bears.

Some good videos on YouTube: The Language of Fear (Michael Crichton), States of Fear: Science or Politics? (Michael Crichton parts 1-7), The Great Global Warming Swindle (parts 1-9)

Some informative sites: heartland.org, newsbusters.org, skepticsglobalwarming.com

                                                          

CARBON CREDIBILITY

Probably everyone can remember at least a few of the major disaster predictions in our lifetime. Overpopulation, global cooling, radioactive fallout, ozone depletion, nuclear winter, silent spring, SARS and Y2K, just off the top of my head. These panics run their course - people get bored waiting for the end of the world, theories fall apart and we move on. But there's a huge difference with the latest one - the global warming scare comes with a big fat price tag.

It has gone from an environmental issue to a political issue, and inevitably to a financial one. Fueled by propaganda like "An Inconvenient Truth", climate hysteria has spread world-wide like a giant international case of the clap. There are now an awful lot of pigs feeding at the carbon trough and they're not going to pull their snouts out without a fight. Al Gore is just loving it - he flies to his save-the-planet rallies in jets that puke out thousands of pounds of co2, but that's ok, because he's filthy rich and can purchase carbon credits to "offset" it. From himself.

And while he's onstage congratulating himself as the new environmental messiah, he's got his limo running outside so he can ride in air-conditioned comfort back to the airport. What a hypocrite. He probably has shoes that cost more than my annual hydro bill, but I'm supposed to keep my nasty little carbon footprint off Big Brother's nice clean rug. I don't think so.

Now that government and big business have become involved, it is politically incorrect to even question the theory of man-made climate change. Scientists who do so are criticized, ostracized and ridiculed. They endure job discrimination and funding cuts - as with any political issue, the big research and development money goes to the people who produce the right answers. The media tells us what to think as usual, slanting our views in the accepted direction with biased reporting and misinformation, right down to the language that they use: people who disagree are "deniers", and have been equated with Holocaust deniers (a cheap shot in lieu of honest debate). Environmental extremists like David Suzuki have even advocated throwing people in jail for having the wrong opinion.

The whole thing has become an embarrassment to many legitimate scientists, who realize that the credibility of their profession is being undermined by this insistence that co2 is a major problem despite evidence to the contrary. Why pick on poor old carbon dioxide? It makes up less than .04% of the atmosphere. How about a breathing tax - we exhale it. It is not a pollutant, it's a naturally occurring substance that is necessary for life. In fact, higher atmospheric levels in the past have produced beneficial effects on humanity due to increased plant growth.

Right now there are scientists and economists all over the world protesting this "consensus" that the debate is over, but the politicians don't want to wait until all the facts are in. Oh, no: it's a crisis, a catastrophe, a state of emergency - we must ACT NOW or we are all doomed. Yeah, yeah, I know the routine - grab your wallet and bend over. Once the controls and restrictions are in place, the facts won't matter anyway.

It won't matter that co2 is not wreaking havoc on our planet. Or that this monumental waste of time, money and energy could be put to far better use helping people develop resources and improve their standard of living. The global warming fanatics will never admit this, because the carbon credit scam is one of the biggest cash grabs ever to come down the pike. With what some see as the potential for global enforcement of carbon regulation, new laws are going to be making a lot of rich people even richer. And we'll be paying for it.

GREYHOUND JUSTICE

Just what is it you have to do in Canada before they will lock you up and throw away the key? I guess being insane is like a "get out of jail free" card here. A guy goes loony on a Greyhound bus, stabs a young man to death while onlookers flee in horror, then proceeds to dismember and desecrate the body. Heaven forbid the RCMP should actually take him out while he's still going at it - I mean, it's not like he's a Polish immigrant or anything.

And now we have a psychiatrist saying he could possibly function in the community at a later date. Hopefully not in my community. Being evaluated on a regular basis with the chance of rejoining society is outrageous - a person who commits a crime because of a mental malfunction is far more dangerous than one who is rational. Sane people who commit serious crimes like murder or armed robbery have obvious motivation - hate, greed or whatever, so you can be aware of the danger and at least take steps to prevent it. People who think they're getting commands from God or the devil are like ticking time bombs - you can't possibly protect society because you don't know when they're going to go over the edge.

Why is it that lack of mental capacity gives a person immunity from responsibility (I couldn't help it - I was drunk, on drugs, psychotic, etc.)? The results of the crime are the same regardless of the state of mind of the perpetrator. The victim is no less dead, the family no less bereaved, the witnesses no less traumatized just because the criminal has mental health issues.

What this man did was an atrocity. He murdered a person in cold blood in front of witnesses - there is no doubt of his guilt. For that, he should spend the rest of his life in a secure facility - to do otherwise is to spit in the face of the victim's family.

Yes, I believe that Mr. Li was psychotic. Yes, I feel sorry for people with mental illnesses. But that doesn't mean they should be exempt from the rules which govern the rest of us - he should not be allowed to escape the consequences of his actions. Confining him to a hospital for an indefinite period means he could be pronounced "cured" at some future date and released back into the general public. He brutally murdered an innocent man.  He caused pain and heartache for the victim's family that can never be erased. Should he then have the chance to enjoy life, happiness and freedom, those things he so cruelly stole from Tim McLean? Giving him that opportunity may be legal, but it sure doesn't feel like justice.