SpankyMcFarland

Ban the hijab and you've got to ban all head coverings. It's not a practical or sensible idea.

Most GPs I know gross more than 200k after real expenses and any reasonably frugal dermatologist/radiologist/ophthalmologist could retire after ten years. Admittedly, docs are at the bottom of the top 1% of earners but it's still way more than middle class Canadians make.

Most doctors who benefit from income sprinkling are in the top 1% of Canadians by income. They are not in the middle of the pack by any stretch of the imagination.

The price of oil deserves a mention here. It's part of the story.

Are you really a socialist spoofing ignoramuses on the right? Yeah, Chrétien the leftist (!) was so wrong to control the deficit.

The Iranians are naturally going to support the Shia side in most conflicts. If they don't who else will? That doesn't make all these groups 'terrorists'. For example, in Yemen the Iranian-backed Houthis control Northern Yemen and the Sunnis control Southern Yemen. The sensible thing would be to repartition the country.

In human history, very few countries have welcomed secession; war is the time-honoured response to such movements. The votes in Scotland and Quebec show that such issues can be handled in a new way. This is what the EU and Spain need to learn, as does nearly every other country in the world, including the US.

Take a look at the colour and appearance of these people. This is a race war as well as a religious feud. The number who fled in such a short time is quite extraordinary and suggests serious and widespread violence against them. The Hindu allegations are impossible to verify and are of a tiny scale compared to the human tsunami fleeing to Bangladesh of all places.

Interesting family history: http://nationalpost.com/news/world/who-is-stephen-paddock-nothing-secret-or-strange-about-retiree-behind-las-vegas-shooting I wonder if open venues near high-rise buildings will need to be reviewed? Insurance costs may rise.

He's an entertainer. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/mar/23/very-interesting-boris-johnson-brexit-treasury-select-committee

A new difficulty for both Iran and the US is the plebiscite in Kurdish Iraq. At the moment, they both oppose the vote but, given the support the Kurds have rendered against ISIL, Trump will be under tremendous pressure to return the favour.

Countries are free to leave. The EU is not a prison.

Canada is already a mixed public and private health system but the private sector will get larger and will require more legal recognition. All health systems are imperfect. The US has centres of excellence but can't control costs. The UK, much maligned, has done a relatively good job at controlling costs and provides better drug coverage than we do. We need to look more carefully at the various systems beyond the Anglosphere esp. in Europe and pick the best from each.

Regarding unnecessary testing, here is a response at the national level: https://choosingwiselycanada.org/ and provincially, for example: https://choosingwiselycanada.org/campaign/nl/ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/choosing-wisely-pat-parfrey-1.3914592 The physician profiled above visited more than 200 GPs in their offices to discuss this initiative with them. Outliers are being contacted to discuss their testing patterns.

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen [shillings] and six [pence], result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." Charles Dickens, David Copperfield So, for retirement, three approaches: 1. Spend less. Some people retire or go part-time very early in life because they are hyper-frugal. Many are modestly wealthy but are more financially secure than the rest of us. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com Many of us (including me) could only manage something like this if we were forced to. 2. Make more. Anybody with 200 k a year in retirement probably had a big income, other wealth, or a generous ps pension to start with. 3. A combination of the above. We all know this - simple but difficult stuff.

Tech startups compete with the whole world on price and product. Many go bust. I would listen to their arguments carefully. By contrast, doctors really have to try to end up in such a state. In Canada's system, they are unusual entrepreneurs to put it mildly. And regarding a mass medical exodus, I have been hearing about that since I arrived in Canada.

I don't have access to tax returns but I can't see how many docs in my region would have real expenses more than 100k pa. For example, very few own expensive medical equipment. Those who choose to live in large cities could rack up a bigger bill.

Most docs are in the top 5% of income earners, many in the top 1%. Definitions of middle class vary but few would put them there. It's true that very few are mega-wealthy.

Doctors making over 400 k pa are not middle class by any stretch of the imagination.

Politics is about looking good so she's just the same as anybody else. She's also perfectly entitled to reply in one of our national languages. Morneau's tax proposals are reasonable, not just fluff actually, and he has explained them well. Tax sprinkling is an indefensible practice and it's about time it was stopped.

Really? You must think people like me are extremely energetic.

Bibi can't be too pleased with his son at the mo: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.811420

Google the images for 'Turkey people' and compare them with 'Kazakhstan people' or 'Kyrgyz people'. This one ain't even close.

I'm not sure I follow the logic about the genes there. The Gul lawsuit is well documented: http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gul-files-suit-against-aritman-10624092 and the Wikipedia article has numerous scientific sources, some from Turkish scientists. National myths are hard to question even when the evidence is stacked against them. In one study, Anatolians were most closely related genetically to Circassians - who are certainly not Turkic but rose to many important positions in the Ottoman Empire. Another snippet of good news - Greek and Turkish Cypriots are very closely related.

I hesitate to post links about DNA because I am largely clueless about their contents but let's start with something even I can understand on Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_studies_on_Turkish_people This gives an upper limit of 22% ethnic Turkic origin of the current population of Turkey which corresponds to the phenotypic evidence I saw on my brief vacation there and what anybody can google. Many Turks are even hairier than I am (neck shaves are widely advertised) and eye shape is definitely Caucasian. Incredibly, given the tragic recent history of the region, a serious insult in modern Turkey is to suggest that a person has Armenian blood: https://armenianweekly.com/2010/11/06/11-month-sentence/ The obvious irony is that such remarks are broadly true. Most people who live in Turkey today are more closely related to Armenians than to the Ottoman horsemen who swept in from the steppe. This is a common mistake in such narratives. In Ireland, for example, the Celts were comparatively recent invaders (2.5k ya) who replaced the original language but not the indigenous people.