Hydraboss

Man, am I sick of hearing "Canada should or should not have a two-tier health system". Canada has so many tiers it'll make you dizzy. Always has. I paid for an MRI on the wife and got it in just over 24 hours. Cost me $500. I deal with a ton of workers through WCB and guess what? We can get them into a Occ Specialist in...just over 24 hours if we pay; usually about a week if we let WCB handle it. Same doc is booking 6-9 months ahead for any "regular joe blow" being referred by a GP. Jack used a private health care facility. Tons of Canadians go to private practitioners. Tons of Canadians pay for their own tests so they don't have to wait (this is why Medical Imaging Consultants - MIC keeps an MRI machine that is not for use by Alberta Health Services). Armed Forces. Sports teams. Politicians. WCB. Private citizens. Medical personnel (like my wife). and.... ...everyone else.

Actually, his post is perfectly clear. He's claiming that doctors are manipulating the supply-and-demand market for medical practitioners. He may not be far off. The College of P&S are the ones who set the requirements to practice. Sure, they could let someone from Backwardsland just come to Canada and be accredited, but then where is the power they have over fees? Gone. And I agree 100% with the comments made about the 20% held for foreign doc's that have no intention of practicing in Canada. Go check out who the residents are for ped's specialties (Fellowships, etc) at the Stollery Children's Hospital (UofA) in Edmonton. My favorite was Utipong Wong Swatawat (sp?). The wife and the other nurses just called him "ping pong". He was one in a continual list of doc's from some backward country that take up the very, very few Fellowships and then go home once done. Then our specialists start the training again with another can't-spell-his-name. Year after year. How, exactly, is this process benefiting Canadians?

Well, I have two kids (now 13 and 14) and they can behave in any setting. Actually, we never ever had any problems at any time (someone mentioned the "dad would slap our asses" approach). My vote is that any restaurant should be able to ban any age group they want. The fanciest place my kids ever ate when they were really young was Kelsey's. I would never have dreamed of taking them to Von's or Hy's (in Edmonton). Those places are designed for a "better" crowd (and their prices prove it). I don't want to hear anyone's kids screaming while I'm running up the Visa. And we all need to admit that, although they SHOULD, very, very, very few managers/supervisors are going to ask a family to leave because they run the risk of ending up on the front of a newspaper or in a blog as being "unreasonable and rude". Only in EXTREME cases would families with kids be told to go away...so the rest of us (paying customers that don't cause a problem) have to suffer. For years, if the wife (girlfriend at the time) and I wanted to go out to a nice place, we always looked for a restaurant with a separate lounge that served the full menu. Why? Cause we didn't want to have to listen to some "progressive parent" try to reason with a two year old ankle-biter.

Bill, the problem with the switch is not what is mandated by the Feds. Going digital...whohoo. No big deal. I haven't seen rabbit ears in probably 20 years. Got a few brand new 20" crts in the basement I bought for the kids video game systems that aren't being used. Still could, but might just junk them now. What pisses me off is that my service is with Shaw Cable and they're doing their own conversion. I always have "full" cable (don't ever use PPV, but the family likes to have all the regular channels). As of very soon, I will have to get a converter box for every tv in the house if I want to watch anything above about channel 20 (right where the good shows start). Why does this piss me off? You're a techie, you tell me... 103" screen/projector 1080p via hdmi 60" plasma 600hz 1080p 57" RPTV 720p 52" lcd 1080p 32" lcd 1080p 32" lcd 720p (x2) 24" led 1080p With all that technology, I still have to use those little stone-age, garbage design boxes with perhaps the worst remotes in history. No Shaw box, no view. How impressed would you be?

Hey!!!!!!!!!!!! I just found Waldo. He jumped out the window at the end.

So it begins... Knife Control (for those of you who don't believe in the "slippery slope" argument)

and that, despite all the ranting on both sides, people can't seem to understand that the single biggest opposition to the registry has basically nothing to do with guns. "Search and seizure without warrant." The only reason I won't register any of mine. Right now, they need reasonable grounds to enter my premises. Not that I have anything to hide (except unregistered firearms), but I won't give them open access without permission. Strikes me as hilarious that the people who scream about Harper and his boys and girls being jackboot freaks, are the same ones in support of the system that allows search and seizure without warrant.

You haven't got a clue what the hell you're talking about. As usual. My business IS safety, and I can tell you your numbers are ridiculous. And so far from accurate it's laughable. A whole "3 workers out of 20,000,000", eh? Can you even SPELL "statistic"? Stick to something you know. Not sure what that is, but stick to it.

It would be if it happened to my family. The only problems are: 1) Hiding the body sufficiently 2) Being willing to give up 25 years (maybe) of your life to do what's right. Count me in.

Geez Jack...what took you so long? You didn't show so I had to start without you here. Try not to be late next time.

Well genius, please feel free to point out what I will be "sued" for. Come on - you had to exercise your mouth, know-it-all. Come on and share. We'll wait mouthpiece. [sp]

^ | | | Thanks dad.

Actually, they are unless they're used to pay off the debt we owe. If they are used for new spending...theft.

Great! Another fricken Albertan. "But it's OUR oil!" Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. "Our votes don't count!" Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. "Let the eastern bastards freeze in the dark!" Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. "Why does all our money go to Kwebek????" Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Just what the board needs. Another "anti-eastern Canada, anti-Kwebek, anti-equalization, anti-bilingualism redneck". You and Jack Weber ought to get along fine.

Nope. I cannot be sued (successfully) on this. His name IS John Layton. It's his legal, given name. Use of the word "the" was the poster I quoted. Sun Media ran the story quoting the Toronto cop. I corrected his legal, given name in the previous poster's quote. Go ahead. Report the post to Das Commandant. Please. Please. See where it gets you. You really are special, aren't you?

No...JOHN Layton is the leader of the NDP. Just ask the Toronto cops.

I believe we're supposed to use proper names (and not slang) on this board. So to restate you accurately, it should be ...just aiming for accuracy...

None of them deserve another chance. CFS. Can't fix stupid. Bye bye.

That's my point. Everyone seems to bitch that "the deficit" and "the debt" are "out of control". It's like they're two monsters from a Japanese movie in 1965. They are so vocal about two things: taxes are too high and spending is too high. If the government doesn't spend enough on an individual's pet project, the screaming starts that the government needs to increase spending. If the government spends money on a project that an individual doesn't agree with, the screaming starts that the government is "out of control" and there must be cronyism involved. I say this: if the debt and deficit is too high, cut spending. Taxes in this country are way too high in my opinion, so the only thing left to do is reduce spending on the unnecessary. Arts. The french language. The CBC. Immigrant services. Foreign aid. The Olympics. Welfare. EI. Pot laws. Multiple appeals for criminals. Shawinigan fountains. Etc, etc, etc. Why are people allowed a tax-free level? Do they not use public services? Hospitals? Roads? Why do they get a free ride? Need some more revenue? Finally make everyone pay their fair share. Invoice the bums and if they don't pay, throw them in collections.

Oops. I guess he dies. Happens to stupid tourists all the time. Swim near the Great Barrier Reef? Guess you risk being eaten by a shark. Go on an African safari? Guess you risk being eaten by a lion. Go on a "stroll" in Afghanistan? Guess you risk being taken out by firing squad. Oh well. [sp]

It's called hyberbole. There are only two parts to the equation. Money in and money out. If you personally don't want to change/curb spending, then the only thing left is to raise revenue. Taxes. So, what level of taxation are you comfortable with? Should we only add increased tax load to the "rich" (you know, those of us who make more than $50k a year)??? I have a better idea. Get rid of the base tax exemption. I'll pay the additional tax on the first 15 or 20 grand, as long as every other person in Canada does. Enough with the freeloading. Make $28000 a year? Guess what? You now pay tax on the full amount. I don't even care what the bracket percentage is...as long as they start contributing.

Uhm...as much as I looovveee the CBC [/sarcasm], this looks pretty damn accurate to me. When all the pollsters were announcing that "all bets were off" when it came to predictions, these idiots seems to have come pretty close. Ekos / actual CPC 130-146/167 NDP 103-123/102 Lib 36-46/34 BQ 10-20/4 Grn 1/1 They called the CPC as winning with a possible increase in seats. Missed. They called the NDP in second place with a low count of 103. Missed by 1. They called the Libs getting creamed down to 3rd with a low count of 36. Missed by 2. They called the BQ getting bitch-slapped to second fiddle in Kwebek with a low count of 10. Missed by 6. They called the Greens actually getting a seat. Bingo. Considering this election was so upside down the last half, I actually think they did not bad considering even John Layton didn't predict his success. Did I mention how much I love the Communist Broadcasting Corporation?

Killing the deficit is the easiest thing in the world. Killing the debt is the second easiest thing in the world. Klein did it in the 90's. Now the tough part...what are people willing to give up to do it? More to the point, are there politicians willing to give up any hope of re-election to get it done? Essential Services Decimate the funds for the armed forces. Vastly reduce covered services under the public health system. Reduce the pay of all civil servants by...what...50%? Non-essential Services Completely cut all arts funding. Completely cut all costs associated with bilingualism. Completely cut all foreign aid funding. Taxation Triple the taxes on Kwebek's electrical generation industry. Triple the taxes on Alberta's oil and gas sector. Triple the taxes on what's left of the forestry industry. Triple the GST and apply it to absolutely everything (food, essentials, children's clothes, etc). Double income taxes and apply it beginning at dollar one (no exemption limit). So, how important to you is it to reduce and "slay" government debt and deficit?

He's hanging around for now. There's no way in hell that ego-maniac would give the "right" fodder by moving back to the States immediately. When things settle down and he is mostly forgotten (like Dion), then he'll quietly slip over the border and back to teaching and writing another book about his successes in politics.

Wait till they read mine. "Knowingly falsifying government documents" anyone? They can't do much if I didn't clearly understand the questions now can they.