Yodeler

Proof positive that Theloniusfleabag's "always haggle" advice is working.

So this season DaVinci becomes the mayor of Vancouver, and the show is following Larry Campbell's life. DaVinci's term should be a short one in city hall like Campbell's. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well DaVinci's City Hall is actually having an impact on the City of Vancouver's Mayoral election on November 19. Not content to follow in Larry's footsteps anymore, they've taken their plot line a few steps forward & have instituted legal brothels (a throwaway line from the real Larry on his way out of office) in the show. So now the two main Mayoral candidates are being beseiged by the local media with questions about legal brothels in Vancouver. It has become life imitating art out here. I hope the show brings smoking back to the bars!

Mark Steyn is great alright. I remember. But here is the greatest ! http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpos...cf-803000a1eb07 Preston Manning, profiled by Lorne Gunter, Nov. 11

In his NP article today Don Martin is, as usual, absolutely right when he says: "Layton could've and should've terminated this government officially on Nov. 24 with a strong three-party push for a campaign extension to accommodate a two-week holiday hiatus. If Martin then ignored the majority will of the House and imposed a late December vote, the Christmas election would've been his call, not theirs."

Did you mean "No reality" ??? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You could be right. Today's entry of Preston Manning into the "Beautiful Minds" competition could spell big trouble for Harper's Conservatives. If he wins it all, Harper is toast. It's all in the voters' hands now.

And the optimist of the year award goes to........ YODELER! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I hate Stephen Harper. Unfortunately, there's not yet any better alternative on the horizon. He will win and win big ... that is all that there is to it. No optimism.

When I put out the above article I thought there would be lots of interest. But when there wasn't I was giving myself only a little chance of being able to read opinions and letters on it in today's papers. But the papers are FULL of opinions and letters. Here is just one example. http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpos...2a-90946131d484

"User pay fees" would tremendously improve any health care system. Nobody but nobody would be stupid enough to miss that first appointment to find out what ails them just because they had to shell out say ... twenty bucks. The needy would also have to pay, but they'd be able to claim back that money at the welfare office. All it would cost them is an extra hour or two of their idle time. Only the greedy GPs would have a legitimate reason to cry & holler because they would be losing their bread & butter ... the healthy patients. Fock them I say!

Ralphie's got some 'splaining to do. In the last election he wouldn't touch Stepen Harper with a ten foot pole, yet this time around he is singing praises about the man, exhalting him to the nth degree. When asked what he would tell Canadians if Stephen accepted his help in the next federal election he said, dreamy-eyed: "I would tell them that Stephen is an honourable man. He's forthright. He's articulate. He's smart. He can lead this country. He's not a showy person, but he does have the best interests of this country at heart. I would tell the rest of this country that a Conservative government would be a scandal-free government." What changed Ralph's mind since the last election? Ah, never mind that, the past is the past. I'm looking forward to the other old men ( i.e. Mulroney, Harris and Clark) putting their best feet forward and starting to sing THEIR accolades & praises of this beautiful man ........ although I'm not so sure that Joe Who will. That man's always been more than a few beats behind, and he may not want to tarnish this reputation. BTW - I strongly believe that anyone here who still doubts that Mr. Harper will waltz off with a majority ought to have their head examined.

Yeah, the Canadian Medicare is in a shambles. But don't despair, Stephen Harper's Conservatives are rolling into power, a majority none the less, and Mr. Harper will bring our health care up to the level that our American friends enjoy today. For now I'll just stay with what doctors Jonathan Swift (he lived to be over a hundred) swore by .... Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, Doctor Exercise, and Doctor Merryment.

I've been rolling my eyes for years. And became vocal about it while working at NPWBN, about 5 years ago. My opinion as to why the Liberals and the NDP don't want the American doctors with their portable Ultrasound, MRI, PET, CAT scan etc. clinics snooping around Canadians bodies is because American doctors are too stringent. Let me give you an example: I LOVE getting CAT scanned, so one day, as a treat, I went to a Canadian private clinic and got scanned. It's lot's of fun, let me tell you. But when they found a couple of things growing on one of my innards this time around ... that spoiled my fun a little. But the doctor immediately assured me that it's probably nothing to worry about and that I should come back for another CAT scan in about a year, just in case. At about the same time my friend who also gets his kicks out of getting MRIed, CAT scanned etc. gets this strong urge to get scanned while in the U.S.. So he pops into the nearest clinic .... and guess what? They found the same growths as they found in me, and on the same innard to boot. What a coincidence! Except his growth was only half the size of mine. And HIS doctor didn't think it as funny as mine did, and ordered an array of expensive follow up tests, including my favorite, the PET scan. Lucky sucker! Needles to say, the Canadian Medicare people weren't pleased. Is that why Canada is fighting so hard to keep these American portable clinics out? Is it because American doctors are too stringent and too stubborn, and won't lower their standards just to save Medicare piles of money on follow up tests? That's my guess, anyway.

You know what they say ... what goes around comes around.

LOOK AT THIS: http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpos...32-c09b54f051e9 The Liberals and Jack argue that if private healthcare is OK'd many a doctor from public healthcare will be lost to it. But when the American doctors want to come and help, they argue that .......... WHAT?? WHAT??? WHAT ??? I TELL YOU WHAT! THEY DON'T WANT TO SPEND MONEY ON TREATING YOU AFTER THE MRI or CAT scan reveals there is something that needs to be treated because that would be too costly. ESPECIALLY when it is a timely discovery. They'd rather it wasn't discovered until nothing can be done, crossing their fingers that you die pronto afterwards. Much cheaper that way. MUCH cheaper. WHAT FU***NG BASTARDS! In the mean time, the Liberals, Conservatives and NDP bigwigs go for their routine semiannual checkup to be pampered with MRIs, and CT scaned from head to toe. So if you think we are JUST as backward as North Korea and Cuba, think again. Those two countries wouldn't dare ban the doctors from other countries who are coming to help you. Only in Canada you say?

BINGO !!!

Sorry, wrong number.

Only if you think that being dirty is modern. Most men today like to put their pants through the wash after 2 or 3 wears. You'd throw up if you knew how many wears some men get away with before they bring their suits to the dry cleaners.

Funny you should say that. I was just thinking today that I was just a touch glad to see the problems in France this week. The French love to act superior to the barbarian Americans & I'm quite sure that they were gloating during the looting in New Orleans after Katrina, bemoaning the Americans & how they treat their black underclass & look what it has all come down to. Well hello France!

I always wondered what they did with all of those eunuchs that were formerly employed in Islamic countries to guard the women. Now I know. Thanks, Monty! BTW - Aren't you sorry that you didn't publish this thread a day earlier? We could have sued the pants off of Mark Steyn.

Well, I was wrong. They profiled zillions since, but I don't care. Charles Krauthammer and Irshad Manji are in and that's all that matters! Like I said before the betting windows are open. Wanna try your luck?

Yes the "M" word is absent. It's a group of "unemployed immigrants" hinting broadly that it's a group of layabout ex-Swedes on the rampage. The fact that they are both "M" and French-born is usually omitted. I have lots of opinions on why this is the French Government's damn stupidity after the war & now it's come round to bite them in the ass: After the war the French needed cheap labour...without thinking twice about the culture that the North Africans came from & whether they would ever fit into Western society ... they brought them in by the truckload to fill in the labour gaps. Now if they thought about the culture these people came from they'd realize that the Victorian work ethic wasn't among their values. Tribal people , in order to survive, don't put their head to the grindstone. The women of the tribe ( one step up from the camels) may have to do work, but the men consider anyone who works too hard a loser. The pre-eminent values for tribal survival are violence & robbery. If you're good at those, you'll do well. So they plunk these people into a society that tells them to turn up on time, work quietly & hard & listen to a "boss". Maybe even a woman boss. Not going to happen. At the first opportunity 90% of them (who just didn't think this was a very viable life system) just fell on the dole & sat around at coffee shops all day before going home & ordering the camels ... oops the womenfolk ... around. Kids growing up with these values generally do no better in the Western system. The German's were smarter. They recruited among the Turks, who, thanks to Kamel , had at least been exposed to Western values & then topped it off by only giving them working visas. If you're one of the few who adjust, or at least can stomach the Western Way ... you work & stay. If you can't hack it ... back to Ankara. All of Europe would have done better to get their cheap labour from India, where they had had the English bang Western values into them, or the Orient where the value of "fitting in to society" would have helped in assiimilation. They needed my valuable expertise in 1946 ... but alas I was in the cradle & now they must pay. And will they ever!

I'm not sure if you've ever had to study a technical document, but there are a lot of things external to the document itself to consider. Issues such as jurisdiction, constitutionality, other currently existing law, etc. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Layton himself admited that, and I quote ... "It's not apparent on first read how protecting public medicare is obtained here." Which means that he is either: 1 - playing up to the huge majority of his constituents. or 2 - he IS as dumb as they are.

Funny you said that, because that's exactly what *I* remember doing last night before *I* fell asleep.

Considering that you could plunk many a European country with half the population of Canada into Lake Ontario it's pretty big, really.

Knowing Martin the way I know Martin he has HUGE plans for addressing the medical wait times before the election. You see, the Liberals have already decided that they will be very selective about which wait lines will be shortened and which won't. Now, with an election looming, Martin needs those extra 4 months to figure out which illnesses have the longest wait times in the iffy ridings ... VOILA ... those will be the ones he will promise to shorten. He's one smart cookie .... not that one needs to be too smart to outsmart the Canadian public.