I’ve said before that Republicans aren’t too good at protests because we are just too polite, but maybe it’s time we stepped up to the plate EACH time anyway. Maybe we can stop this leftwing hate machine.
As a reminder, Governor Palin is a Tea Party supporter; Andrew Breitbart even basically called her the candidate of the Tea Parties. If any of our readers can put us in touch with New York Tea Party organizers, please let us know
So, if you are keeping notes: Republicans don’t get into protesting, because they are so polite. However, in the same post we see a reference to the ongoing and sometimes very impolite Tea Party protests that have sprung up around the USA. Amazing.
Lest you think this is unique; check out this one:
If you want to show your disgust at Pelosi, be there! Now, I’m not one for protests. I’ve been to a few (I think of the Tea Parties more as rallies), and frankly Republicans and conservatives aren’t too good at protest because we are just too well behaved. Take a look at the rest of the protest page:
People who advocate for Private “American Style” Medicine in Canada crack me up:
Ontario’s healthcare monopoly almost killed Lindsay McCreith. After suffering a seizure in January of 2006, the 66-year-old retired auto body shop owner from Newmarket was told he had a brain tumour. But he would have to wait four-and-one-half months to obtain an MRI to rule out the possibility that it was cancerous. Unwilling to risk the progression of what might be cancer, Mr. McCreith obtained an MRI in Buffalo, which revealed the brain tumour was malignant. Even with this diagnosis in hand, the Ontario system still refused to provide timely treatment, so Mr. McCreith had surgery in Buffalo to remove the cancerous brain tumour in March of 2006.
In Ontario, Mr. McCreith would have waited eight months for surgery, according to his family doctor. Eight months is quite enough time for a cancer to worsen, spread and progress to an irreversible stage. Had Mr. McCreith not paid $27,600 (USD) out-of pocket for immediate medical care, he might be dead today.
Shona Holmes, a self-employed family mediator and the married mother of two children, began losing her vision in March of 2005. She also experienced severe headaches, anxiety attacks, high blood pressure, extreme fatigue, and weight gain. In spite of these serious symptoms and an MRI revealing a tumour in Ms. Holmes’ brain, Ontario’s health care system told her that she would have to wait months to see a specialist.
With the Mayo Clinic test results and diagnosis in hand, Ms. Holmes returned to Ontario, only to be told to wait for more appointments and tests. Having lost one half of her vision in her right eye and one quarter in her left, and unable to expedite appointments with specialists, she returned to the Mayo Clinic, where surgeons operated to remove the tumour. Within ten days, Ms. Holmes’ vision was completely restored. Visual field testing and a post-operative MRI also confirmed that the tumour caused the vision loss. Surgery had indeed been necessary to save her eyesight. Nevertheless, the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) refuses to reimburse Ms. Holmes for any of the expenses she was forced to incur in seeking necessary medical care abroad. While she has returned to work, her husband must now work two full-time jobs to pay off the debts they were forced to incur to save her vision.
Did you ever get the idea that Private Care proponents don’t read their own press? The answer; in their minds is to sue to force a tiered health care system, where the wealthy can jump the line and take up the limited health care resources because the can afford it. I mean, what if there was private care in Ontario before these two sad sacks got sick? Would there magically have been more doctors? It’s not like the doctors would magically appear out of thin air:
“The United States is experiencing a primary care shortage the likes of which we have not seen,” Jeffrey P. Harris, MD, FACP, president of the American College of Physicians (ACP), told the House of Representatives Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee. “The demand for primary care in the U.S. will grow exponentially as the nation’s supply of primary care dwindles.”
As the population ages, and dementia, delirium and Alzheimer’s disease impact millions each year, Medicare refuses to grant psychiatry the same “specialty” rates as others, and only pays these physicians about 50 percent of billings.
–Michael Golding
Patients per Doctor
Perhaps in MAgic Private Enterprise Land, health care is better, by and large, right?
This is from the CIA World Fact Book, not “My Commie Left Wing Free Halth Care Supporting Guidebook” at all. I keep for that for verbal debates.
Anyway; the only thing I hate about the free health care is that it isn’t actually universal, dentistry isn’t free, nor is eye care. All of these things should be free too. They all relate to quality of life and for the most part good overall health is good for the country, because healthy people both happy and productive and in our Hybrid economy, productive people have money and money is spent.
If anything, the two unfortunates should be suing the Federal and Provincial governments for not ensuring that staffing and funds were there to ensure their good health. That’s what our taxes as for, not adventures in the Middle East!
Ever since I signed up for daddyhood, I can’t stomach these sorts of stories. I can’t read things like that without imagining my own son or daughter as the victim. I’m going to have to go hug something.
“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.”
-Oscar Wilde
It seems that almost every one of my male friends who become Dads also become Mothers. They cease to hold onto the essential Maleness of their lives and start being fretful hens who “get all concerned” when something happens to a kid somewhere (anywhere) in the world. This may go a long way to explaining the lack of violent kid death in movies and video games. I’m probably a hypocrite on this matter myself, as the Parent who brushes hair and checks clothing before my own goes out the door (but I believe strongly that I am motivated by necessity and not nascent ovaries).
When did it become “okay” for Dad’s to stop being “Fatherly” and start wearing the proverbial June Cleavers around the house? These aren’t even Single Dads or Stay-at-home Dads; I’m talking about Dad’s who are out of the house for eight hours a day, drink beer, watch Nascar and Fret Fearfully when little Portia skins her ‘wittle‘ knees while playing on television in another state 20 years ago. The kind of Dad who knows how to unstop a drain without Draino and knows what a Ubend is for. Why is he crying on the Internet about some tragic horror in a world of Tragic Horror?
For that matter; who CRIES ON THE INTERNET at all? ( Results 1 – 10 of about 66,200 for “cryingrightnow“. (0.27 seconds)
It’s not like I expect Fathers to be the Violent Misanthropes we’ve been trained by Television and Movies to think they were or even Wise Patricians like Heathcliff Huxtable or Atticus Finch; just something more masculine than “The Fresh Prince” (circa 1991). No crying Jags in public and no fretting like hens over other people’s kids. It’s okay to worry in private, sensible people don’t need you to shred your shirt every time someone’s kid gets a boo-boo, even a fatal one.
The bankruptcy signals that Obama is prepared to play hardball with holdout lenders rather than knuckle under to their demands and will likely set the tone for similar discussions with bondholders of General Motors Corp — which is now on the clock to restructure its operations by the end of May.
While Obama voiced his support for Chrysler and the deal with Fiat, he was pointed in his criticism of the investors who did not agree to this deal.
“I don’t stand with them. I stand with Chrysler’s employees and their families and communities,” the president said. “I don’t stand with those who held out when everybody else is making sacrifices. That’s why I’m supporting Chrysler’s plans to use our bankruptcy laws to clear away its remaining obligations.”
Don’t visit his page; it’s infectiously crazy. DrinkwithBob is all about selling ads for his Mouth Stretching goods. Not for me; not for you. If you need yuor mouth stretched, let me suggest the Pear of Agony. It’s less of a chore.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showth…
Next up is saran wrap. The idea is that you wrap saran wrap around the mouth in several layers, and poke a hole in the mouth area, and then waterboard away. I didn’t reall see how this was an improvement on the rag technique, and so far I would categorize waterboarding as simply unpleasant rather than torture, but I’ve come this far so I might as well go on.
Now, those of you who know me will know that I am both enamored of my own toughness and prone to hyperbole. The former, I feel that I am justifiably proud of. The latter may be a truth in many cases, but this is the simple fact:
It took me ten minutes to recover my senses once I tried this. I was shuddering in a corner, convinced I narrowly escaped killing myself.
Here’s what happened:
The water fills the hole in the saran wrap so that there is either water or vaccum in your mouth. The water pours into your sinuses and throat. You struggle to expel water periodically by building enough pressure in your lungs. With the saran wrap though each time I expelled water, I was able to draw in less air. Finally the lungs can no longer expel water and you begin to draw it up into your respiratory tract.
It seems that there is a point that is hardwired in us. When we draw water into our respiratory tract to this point we are no longer in control. All hell breaks loose. Instinct tells us we are dying.
I have never been more panicked in my whole life. Once your lungs are empty and collapsed and they start to draw fluid it is simply all over. You know you are dead and it’s too late. Involuntary and total panic.
There is absolutely nothing you can do about it. It would be like telling you not to blink while I stuck a hot needle in your eye.
At the time my lungs emptied and I began to draw water, I would have sold my children to escape. There was no choice, or chance, and willpower was not involved.
I never felt anything like it, and this was self-inflicted with a watering can, where I was in total control and never in any danger.
And I understood.
Waterboarding gets you to the point where you draw water up your respiratory tract triggering the drowning reflex. Once that happens, it’s all over. No question.
Some may go easy without a rag, some may need a rag, some may need saran wrap.
Once you are there it’s all over.
I didn’t allow anybody else to try it on me. Inconceivable. I know I only got the barest taste of what it’s about since I was in control, and not restrained and controlling the flow of water.
But there’s no chance. No chance at all.
So, is it torture?
I’ll put it this way. If I had the choice of being waterboarded by a third party or having my fingers smashed one at a time by a sledgehammer, I’d take the fingers, no question.
It’s horrible, terrible, inhuman torture. I can hardly imagine worse. I’d prefer permanent damage and disability to experiencing it again. I’d give up anything, say anything, do anything.
The Spanish Inquisition knew this. It was one of their favorite methods.
It’s torture. No question. Terrible terrible torture. To experience it and understand it and then do it to another human being is to leave the realm of sanity and humanity forever. No question in my mind.
Even if it was hot yesterday, it wasn't hot enough
Published by NiteMayr on June 22, 2009Due to La Nina it continues to be a lacklustre summer all over Southern Ontario: