Dr Roy's Thoughts

August:Osage County

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:24:00 PST

I recently saw this Tony Award winning play. It reminded me of Buried Child. It is the story of the spectacularly dysfunctional Weston family. It was an amazing 3 hours of theater. the acting was great , especially Estelle Parsons, who played the super whacky , drug addicted matriarch. The script was funny, unexpected and poignant. The reviews have been amazing. You really should see this show.

play.

Rex on the chicken littles....

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:58:00 PST

and their new attempts to start a new religion.

What was once venerated is now, in many ways, dismissed and even despised.

Matthew Arnold, the great Victorian poet, marked the turning moment. He had early intimations of “the way we live now,” a way largely evacuated of its Christian allegiances, certainly – in the public sphere – evacuated of the regard and respect that the profession of Christianity once automatically evoked.

“The Sea of Faith/ Was once, too, at the full,” he wrote, before going on in lines of immense power to record:

But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Travers despairs of iffy

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:45:58 PST

Jim Travers of the red star and a grit cheerleader can't believe how bad iffy is at being a leader. He desparately tries to advise them, but I doubt they will listen. This issue will raise a lot of funds for Tory coffers and may yet win us some extra seats.

Liberals, desperate as always to be all things to all voters,,, will be embarrassed, as well as divided, by the second, much louder, sound wave.

It doesn't have to be that way. Between now and then, opposition parties can and should rally around specific ways and means to assure city voters that everything possible is being done to counter gun crime, while not making farmers and hunters feel like criminals.

Between now and then, the ruling party's rivals can and should debunk inflated claims that the registry is utterly useless and grossly wasteful.

A more nuanced registry is long overdue; the counter-attack beckons. Applying ointment to registry sore points should be easy for a country that accommodates cultural diversity and regional differences.

Little is required to wound a ruling party refusing to consider empirical evidence – apparently including an RCMP report – poking holes in ideological beliefs even as it pretends the registry costs multiple billions when the annual price tag is in single-digit millions.

Of course, Conservatives have nothing to fear as long as Liberals fail to offer compelling policy options or recognize that wedge issues cut both ways.

Waterloo:Institute for liberal Studies

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:37:25 PST

My friends at the ILS are having a seminar in Waterloo Ontario on Nov 28, 2009.

The seminar will begin at 10:00am and conclude at 4:00pm in Hagey Hall Room 373. Each talk will be followed by time for questions and discussion by the participants. The seminar is free for students and faculty, general admission is $20. Morning coffee and lunch will be provided. Registration will open soon.
The speakers for this seminar are as follows:
Donald Forbes (University of Toronto) - Liberalism and Terrorism: Balancing Individual Rights and Public Security
Jan Narveson (University of Waterloo) - Self and Other Defense
Bas van der Vossen (Bowling Green State University) - Do we have a duty to obey the law?

Here is video frpm the Ottawa event . John Robson on thinking like an economist. Also Stepehn Horowitz on Government Policy and the great depression.

Aretha Franklin

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:54:00 PST

Aretha Franklin was at Roy Thompson Hall. I love gospel music and I love Aretha Franklin. The concert was preceede by a lecture by ethnomusicologist Rob Bowman. He gave an amazing lecture about Aretha and her roots in the gospel church. Aretha says that she owes everything to her dad.
Bowman's lecture was very theatrical and really gave you a feeling for the roots of this wonderful singer. Bowman argues that she is the greatest singer (male or female) of the last 100 years.
The concert was amazing. Roy Thomson Hall is more intimate than the last few places I have heard her sing. I also had an amazing seat. She gave a fantastic performance. She had an amazing orchestra and wonderful back up singers. She sang a little for obama. She sang some old favourites(but not Respect or Natural Woman). She sang her song from the Blues Brother movie. The last part of her concert became a gospel service where she praised the name of Jesus. Everyone was on their feet most of the concert. I really think she was touched by our enthusiastic response. This will be a concert I will never forget.

BO and the November Elections

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:02:13 PST

A good piece on why the elections may very well halt the socialist slide.

'We don't look at either of these gubernatorial races . . . as something that portends a lot for our legislative efforts," insisted White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Tuesday, as New Jersey and Virginia voters gave Democrats a thumping. Unfortunately for the White House, its opinion no longer counts.

On Jan. 20, Barack Obama began a race against time. The White House knew its liberal agenda would prove unpopular in many parts of the country represented by Democrats. So long as the president looked strong, those Blue Dogs and freshmen and swing-state senators would stick. Show them any sign of weakness, however, and rattled Dems would begin to care more about their own re-elections than they did their president.

Tuesday, the White House hit that tipping point.

Life, Suffering and Death

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:28:53 PST

I recently attended a lecture given by Dr Jose Periera. The lecture was called Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: A Pandora’s Box?
Dr Pereira is a prominent professor of palliative care. He actually worked at a hospital in Switzerland which allowed doctor assisted suicide.
definitions: Euthanasia is a doctor( or others) actually doing something to cause the death of another ostensibly at their request.
assisted suicide is giving someone the means to take their own life.

I am opposed to euthanasia and assisted suicide. I think in most cases if suffering is relieved most people want to live. I agree with Dr Pereira and Barbara Kay who responds toHM Minister Stephen Fletcher.
Dr Pereira is also strongly opposed to euthanasia and assisted suicide. He spoke at the hearings on Parliament Hill on bill C-384. the lectured encompassed most of those comments. You can read these comments below. He believes there really is a slippery slope. In some studies as many as 14% of people who are euthanized have been clinically depressed. It is now being done without express consent in Europe. It weakens the therapeutic alliance between patient and doctor. Safeguards are not usually adequate.
Palliative care doctors deal with relieving suffering and death for a living. Palliative care is a wonderful way to embrace life and relieve suffering. Most palliative care health professionals are opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia. Let's relieve suffering and these laws become unnecessary.

Dr. José Pereira

I have seen many people die and worked together with colleagues from different disciplines, nurses, social workers, chaplains, therapists, to alleviate the suffering of these persons as best as possible.

For the last 14 years I have worked as a palliative care physician, medical teacher and researcher. I have had the privilege of caring for thousands of people with incurable illnesses as a member of palliative care teams. I have seen thousands of patients dying with dignity, after receiving good palliative care. I have witnessed first-hand many dignified deaths. I have also witnessed some difficult deaths.

Caring for these patients has taught me two important things; good palliative care can make a big difference and research into a better understanding of these persons’ needs and improving their care is worthwhile.

I have another unique experience; for almost three years I worked as a palliative care physician in Switzerland, a jurisdiction that allows assisted suicide. These experiences bring me here today because I feel now - more than ever, that the best way to help dying patients is to improve their care, not to terminate it.

There are several serious flaws in Bill C-384.

The bill is not limited to patients with a terminal illness. It allows any person with physical or mental pain to receive euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide. This means that even a young adult with depression or an elderly person who is tired of living or feeling alone may be euthanized.

It allows people to refuse appropriate treatments that would alleviate their suffering, opting to be euthanized instead. This is particularly alarming when we know that depression is treatable.

The bill does not define what is meant by terminal illness. I have seen many people who, when diagnosed with cancer for the first time, feel as though their world has fallen apart around them and that all hope is lost. During this time of intense fear and anxiety they may ask to be euthanized, even though current treatments could either cure their cancer or control it for many years.

Moreover, we as health professionals are very inaccurate in predicting how long someone has to live. One of the first persons, for example, that we admitted to a new palliative care unit that we opened in Calgary a few years ago was a man with advanced prostate cancer. He was admitted for us to control his pain. He thought that he was dying. We were able to control his pain and he went on to live for several more years. He would occasionally come to visit us on the unit and celebrate the added time he had with this family and loved ones.

The bill states that persons who “appear to be lucid” have the capacity to request euthanasia. It is open to abuse and misinterpretation. It would not even meet current standards for persons to sign consent to have an operation, receive treatment or participate in research.

Legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide places the most vulnerable at risk, particularly the elderly and disabled. In the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland, the pro-assisted suicide movement is initiating a referendum that, if accepted, would force long-term care facilities and nursing homes to allow assisted suicide within their walls or lose their accreditation status. Elderly persons living in these facilities, especially the lonely or those who feel they are a burden to their families and to society, will, over time, feel obliged to request assisted suicide.

Consider the implications of this, particularly in the context of significant needs that our aged will continue to experience in the future, recently highlighted by the Senate special committee co-chaired by the honourable Senator Sharon Carstairs on the Care of the Elderly in Canada.

Therefore, there are many loopholes in this bill, loopholes which put many other people at risk. But my concern, based on what I have witnessed and have studied, is that it is impossible to develop foolproof safeguards to prevent abuse of laws legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide.

Foolproof safeguards in these laws are almost impossible.

Let me give you some examples.

One of the main criteria established by the University Hospital of Lausanne when they allowed, under exceptional circumstances, assisted suicide within the hospital, was the presence of a terminal illness. Yet one of the first patients referred to the process was a patient with depression.

In the Netherlands, within only a few years of legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide on the basis that it would be limited to terminally ill persons from the age of 12 years and upwards, the Groningen protocol was established that allows severely handicapped young children to be euthanized.

In Belgium, within three years of legalizing euthanasia, again on the basis of being limited only to terminal illness, it was broadened to include persons with dementia.

In the Netherlands, 500 to 700 people are euthanized annually, without the appropriate consent that is required by law.

In Oregon, people seeking assisted suicide have to be assessed by a physician as a safeguard to ensure that only those with intolerable suffering access assisted suicide. However, the assisted suicide lobby group facilitated 53 out of 60 assisted suicide deaths by referring the person to a physician who supported assisted suicide.

Legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide therefore places some people at risk.

The Social Slippery Slope

Although data from Oregon and the Netherlands would indicate that there is no significant increase in the number of persons being euthanized or receiving assisted suicide; over time when these practices are allowed, I have observed a slippery slope in other forms - a slippery slope that Dr. Noella Kenny, a Canadian ethicist, calls a social slippery slope.

In Geneva, within a few months of the University Hospital allowing assisted suicide within its walls for exceptional cases, the community-based palliative care service was disbanded. The number of palliative care physicians was also reduced. The broadening of criteria to include non-terminally ill persons, including, those with depression and dementia, is another case in point as is the hundreds of persons in the Netherlands being euthanized without clear consent.

In Switzerland, only a handful of cantons have integrated palliative care formally within their health care systems - yet assisted suicide is available in all of them. Most of their private health insurances do not even cover palliative care.

None of the five medical schools in Switzerland offers adequate palliative care education and the hours available falls very short of the recommended European standards.

We therefore need to ensure that all Canadians have access to good palliative care.

Nine years ago, a senate subcommittee chaired by the honourable Sharon Carstairs, made several recommendations to ensure that every Canadian had access to quality end-of-life care.

While we have made significant strides, and have shown international leadership in several areas, many gaps still remain. Resources are sometimes not available to adequate trained nurses, social workers, chaplains, psychologists and therapists.

In some parts of our country, dying patients have no choice but to be cared for in acute care hospitals, at very high costs, instead of dying at home or on palliative care units and hospices because of a shortage of these facilities. Several important medications to alleviate the burden of symptoms are still not covered. We lack a national strategy with sufficient funding.

Such a strategy could be tasked to inform Canadians about palliative care and their rights, including the right to withdraw futile treatment that is unnecessarily prolonging their lives. It could be used to address the many misperceptions that exist about palliative care, including the misperception that morphine shortens peoples life which has been proven to be untrue.

We have seen how projects such as the Pallium Project, has developed Canadian homegrown educational programs for doctors, nurses and pharmacists to learn together.

Addressing intolerable suffering

We cannot ignore our fellow citizens with terminal illnesses who experience intolerable suffering. How then can we better relieve their suffering?

Canada has an international reputation for leadership in palliative care. Now is the time for us to step-up again and respond to calls for legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide, not by legalizing these acts, but by investing in the research that will improve our care. I am positive that we can do this.

I firmly believe that we have not reached the limits of what palliative care can offer. We need to respond by increasing our efforts to find better and more effective treatment through research and training and adequate resources.

Where I worked in Switzerland, a middle-aged man with advanced lung cancer was admitted to our hospital experiencing severe pain. He was a member of the pro-assisted suicide society and asked that we give him access to assisted suicide as it was his right. We convinced him to allow us to try and control his pain. Within a day it was controlled. He rescinded his request for assisted suicide and went home a few days later.

We need to improve the care we provide, not terminate it.

In closing, this bill brings to our attention the burden of suffering in our country. We need to respond not by terminating care through euthanasia or assisted suicide, but rather by improving care.

jihad at Fort Hood?

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:04:00 PST

Firstly my deepest sympathies to those brave soldiers murdered and injured and their families by a coward. Unfortunately these acts of individual jihad seem to be increasing. Unfortunately the jihadi madness seems to be striking very near home. This traitor has cast suspicion on all of us with brown skins. You can't tell I am Christian by just looking at me. That is part of the jihadi plan to bring discord to our peaceful societies, by making us fear our neighbours. American and Canadian Muslims must denounce this act of wanton violence and try and reach out to those that have lost loved ones. It is sadly too predictable that the jihadi apologists at cair and other such organizations will seek to excuse and downplay this mass murder. It will be hard to dismiss these as the actions of a madman. The traitor was recently evaluated by other physicians who did not note insanity. The traitor was apparently a doctor, which sickens me even more. Unfortunately it is not a unique occurrence.

I have waited a few days to try and see what had really happened. Unfortunately at this point it seems like an act of another traitorous jihadi.

The bo's insensitive reaction to this tragedy is also pretty shocking.

TRH in Toronto

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:02:00 PST

The Canadian Cowgirls

A gaggle of journalists

I went to see the opening by HRH Prince Charles of The Royal Agricultural Fair. Some video here. Thousands of people attended the evnt and they gave TRH a warm welcome. I have been quite disappointed by the neagtive spin some in the media have been giving the visit. Thousands of people came early on a Friday morning to see TRH. Afterwards while they visited the fair the were almost crushed as Canadians tried to get close and photograph their future KIng. I am gald I got to see TRh before I leave for Oz .

Video from Hamilton.

The Canadian Crown

Mark Steyn on...

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:52:21 PST

balloon boy and bo. Ever witty Mark Steyn in Maclean's.
On the day America went Balloon Boy crazy, I chanced to be on the radio, appearing live coast to coast on The Hugh Hewitt Show. And, as the Balloon Boy was the hot breaking news, Hugh asked me about it. “I don’t know what to say,” I said, “except it’s one of those peculiar and potentially tragic and instantly horrifying combination of circumstances.” If I sound a bit vague, well, that’s the idea. I’d gotten the gist of what was happening a couple of minutes before I went on air, but these days I’m wary: almost any “human interest” story turns out to be interesting for an entirely different set of reasons from the initial ones—the shocking “hate crime” the victim turns out to have perpetrated on himself, etc. So simply out of a sense of self-preservation, when I’m told that a six-year-old boy is sailing through the skies in a balloon, I try to suppress the urge to demand mandatory pilot’s licences for kindergartners or making helium a prohibited substance.

So Hugh moved on to Afghanistan and the economy and other peripheral matters, and a couple of minutes later broke in with the news that the boy had been found safe and well. He wasn’t in the balloon at all. “Thank God,” I said, still wary, “but you know, there are a lot of law enforcement people, there have been a lot of people who have been sitting around at airports waiting to scramble into planes, and at the end of the day, this kid is likely to have cost authorities some significant six-figure sum.”

Marianopolis' 100th Anniversary Gala

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:39:31 PST

My CEGEP celebrated one hundred years of excellence with a Gala yesterday. I am vice president of the alumni association. It was a great evening. We even had a few federal MPs in attendance, as well as a host of municipal and provincial dignataries. There were many officials from McGill, Concordia and Bishop's Universities.
The food was good and the company great. We raised a lot of money for the Marianopolis Millenium Fund to continue the our tradition of academic excellence. My congratulations to the many volunteers who helped make this amazing gala happen.

The Toronto grits

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:00:50 PST

The grits claim to an inclusive party, yet they have been quite divisive. The gun registry is a good example of that. The division that the grits encouraged while they had power are coming back to haunt them. Most Canadians know the long gun registry was expensive and useless. It was $2 billion boondoggle to placate the grits shrinking urban base. Now even that base seems to crumbling. Perhaps the grits should try and represent all Canadians for a change.

The gun registry was a move designed to placate urbanites who had no interest in owning guns. But practically speaking, it did nothing to protect them. Nor did it protect the police, who may have loved having an additional type of criminal charge to fling at small-time pot growers and bike-gang members, but who can never assume, no matter how much information they've looked at on a computer terminal, that an unseen suspect inside a residence has no access to a firearm. The main real-world effects of the registry, then, has been to waste taxpayer money, and to create a nuisance in rural areas where firearms are tools, not threats.

In the days of Jean Chretien and Allan Rock, when the Liberals could (and did) blow off rural votes with impunity, it was assumed that this anger would eventually diminish, and that the registry would come to be seen as

a fact of life. Today's Liberal leader, Michael Ignatieff, responded to Wednesday's free vote by more or less openly recognizing that this had been an error, and that "the problem of resistance in rural areas" is still real.

Climate realism in OZ

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:39:00 PST

A Liberal Senator in Oz understands the dangers of the copenhagen conference.

The revolt begins. Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi warns his colleagues to fight the Copenhagen treaty that Rudd wants - warning of the billions we’ll power and the powers we’ll surrender. His letter:

Dear colleagues

As some of you may be aware, the Rudd Government, is being asked to sign a treaty at the Copenhagen climate conference. Most Australians know nothing about the consequences of our nation agreeing to this draft treaty.

The detail of the draft treaty has been hidden away and only now are we becoming aware of the implications for our economy, society and sovereignty if Australia signs it in a month’s time.

By signing this treaty, we are effectively putting aspects of Australia’s sovereignty, economy and future prosperity in the hands of an unelected body that is not accountable to the Australian people.

Paranoia will destroy ya

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:54:49 PST

Wow the grits are really losing it. The route was being mapped out when the grits were in power. I'm actually beginning to pity the grits

It's true there are oddities in the layover lineup as the torch relay zigzags across the country, seeking to roam to within an hour's drive of home to 90% of Canadians.

The route will make up to three pit stops per day in 189 "community events" where local dignitaries, including the obligatory MP, will bask in the flame's glow while shaking red-mitten-covered hands with celebratory voters. Of those, 126 happen in Tory ridings.

The 2010 Vancouver Olympic organizing committee is officially gobsmacked at the suggestion they're playing favourites with Games fire.

Sponsorship and special events/torch relay vice-president Andrea Shaw told me there was absolutely no political involvement or interference in selecting celebration locations, a process that started about four years ago when the Liberals were in power. VANOC staff consulted with local organizers on a location that could best handle the crowds and the stage, she said. The political colour of the riding was never a consideration.

white house surrenders surrenders?

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:55:32 PST

An interesting result of the elctoral losses by the dems, apparently bo and his friends have given up on their war against Fox News.
Axelrod need to go on Fox. Is it also because CNN and msnbc ratings for election night coverage were so anemic(Fox news won of course)?

Salim Mansur on the Michael Coren Show

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:03:53 PST

Here is my friend Prof Salim Mansur with Michael Coren discussing his new book which you really should buy.

TRH in Canada

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:12:00 PST

More from the Royal Visit.

Slain soldier’s little boy gives Camilla a hug

By SUE BAILEY The Canadian Press
Thu. Nov 5 - 4:46 AM

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — A seven-year-old boy whose father was killed in Afghanistan reached up to the Duchess of Cornwall, put his arms around her neck and kissed her at a ceremony Wednesday to remember Newfoundland and Labrador’s war dead.

Camilla was delighted by the spontaneous show of affection from Matthew Lucas, whose father, Sgt. Donald Lucas of St. John’s, was among six Canadian soldiers killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on April 8, 2007.

Matthew gave a pin to Prince Charles but explained that he couldn’t give him the General Campaign Star he had pinned to his chest.

The Canadian Crown

Tory lead continues

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:29:57 PST

It's seems to be the new normal the Tories continue a double digit lead over the grits. It is why you hear the desperate whines and character assassination from the grits. The grits throw more and more mud and hope something sticks. The disgusting attacks during this pandemic have been particularly despicable. How's that working for you grits?

Dennis Miller on ...

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:10:02 PST

on the Nov election results

Shatner in Wax

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:26:42 PST

Shatner is still pretty funny.

Single source for flu shots: contract awarded by...

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:17:52 PST

So it seems that the grits awarded the single source contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars the same year the drug company gave the grits ( under pseudo chretien ) $56000. That's how the grits work. Perhaps apps should have thought before opening his big mouth, but that's not a liberal quality.

Around seven million have been distributed so far to provinces and territories, and shipments dropped to 436,000 doses this week.

Butler-Jones brushed off criticism that the vaccination campaign has been bungled. He said the reality is that just a week into the campaign 10 to 20 per cent of the people in many communities have been vaccinated -- more than any other country in the world.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq also noted that the government could have waited until there were sufficient doses for all Canadians to implement the immunization program, but instead they decided to roll out the vaccine early to target those most at risk.

More on the H1N1 flu from Andrew Coyne.

Long gun registry's days are numbered

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:44:53 PST

The private members bill to get rid of the billion dollar grit boondoggle passed secon reading easily 164-137.(12 ndp mps, 8 libs, 1 ind vote with CPC) That means around 20 opposition MPs voted with HM Government. This would never have happened under the grits so it's yet another reason that freedom loving Canadians should vote Tory. This long gun registry was another attempt to reward grit friend firm with tens of millions in contracts. It was supposed to cost $2 million. It ended up costing 1000 times that. 2 billion dollars!!
It is a waste of money and I doubt it has done anything to reduce gun crime.

OTTAWA — A long-running effort by the Conservatives to kill the long-gun registry has passed an important hurdle in the House of Commons, with a majority voting for the first time in 14 years to study a bill to repeal it.

MPs voted 164-137 to give "second reading" — or "approval-in-principle" - to a private member's bill sponsored by MP Candice Hoeppner (Portage-Lisgar) that calls for the repeal of legal requirements to register long-barrelled rifles and shotguns.

The stage was set for the vote to pass hours earlier when Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff declared the current long-gun registry faces a crisis of "legitimacy" in rural Canada and needs to be overhauled.

Ignatieff said his caucus supports the "principle of gun control," and he personally believes it should include long guns. But he said the issue has divided urban and rural Canadians, and faces "resistance" in rural Canada.

He said his caucus is working on proposals to bridge that gap. In French, he suggested it could include "decriminalizing" the registration system for long guns.

Goldstein on apps

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:11:09 PST

I agree with Goldstein on his opinion of apps, but he is a bit wrong about who is responsible for the shortage of doctors. Socialized medicine leads to odd attempts to cut costs. Health economists in the early 90's decided that cutting doctor numbers would cut costs. This was embraced by all the provincial governments and the grits in Ottawa. You can see the nadir of this policy in 1998. Then everyone realized the disaster they had created and reversed the trends. There should be a parallel private system to pressure better service in the public one. Competition makes things better.

Federal Liberal Party President Alfred Apps recently wrote an e-mail to top Liberals suggesting the H1N1 flu virus could be Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Hurricane Katrina.

Here's my response to him.

Dear Mr. Apps:

You're an idiot. What's worse, you're a partisan idiot who doesn't appear to have an original idea in your head. More on that in a moment.

The Royal Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:20:00 PST

The Royal visit of HRH Prince Charles and HRH Camilla continues. A video about the Canadian Crown. You can follow the visit on Twitter.

The Canadian Crown

Dishonour killing ignored

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Eappen) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:50:00 PST

Another of these crimes of hate has occurred.

During the IRA's long campaign against Her Majesty's Government, British officials had a cynical phrase about containing Northern Ireland to "an acceptable level of violence." I wonder what the silent U.S. media will settle on as the "acceptable level of violence" against Muslim women. Ten honor killings a year? A couple dozen? A hundred?

Here is the perpetrator