McGuinty, the Gift That Keeps on Giving

Jeebus, I've known for years that this guy was (1) stupid, (2) slimy, (3) stupid, (4) corrupt, (5) stupid (6) an asshole and, most of all (7) stupid. Just look at the blank stare, and listen to the stuttering, stumbling, monotonous delivery of boilerplate talking points from any speech he gave back when the adults were in charge of the province.

Anyway, what I never thought he'd be is the non-idiotarian blogger's gift that keeps on giving. Of course, I never expected to be a blogger. Hell, blogging didn't even exist back when I had this unflushed turd's number. But, to give the devil his due, the dumb fuck simply can't open his slack jawed pie hole without giving me the inspiration for a post.

The latest McStinkyism to inspire me to put fingers to keyboard? Mr. McShitforbrains considers it to be absolutely imperative that we all get the Mexican flu vaccination. Even though it's not properly tested. Even though it's been rushed to market. Even though the doctors' stories change on a daily basis. Yup, it's essential that we get the fucking shot.

Well, now that McBonehead has weighed in, the decision is made. No shot for the fulminatin' one. If he wants me to get it that much, it's gotta be a bad thing. That particular blind squirrel has already found his nut for the decade.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those "vaccinations are the debbil" fruitcakes. Mrs. Fulminandrew has friends who express profound regret that they got their first child all the standard childhood vaccinations. Yes, it's a crying shame that the little nipper won't die of whooping cough, or be crippled by polio, or go sterile from late contracted mumps. Mrs. F was wondering if we should get the boy his vaccinations. As she stays home with the little devil, she makes most of the decisions regarding his upbringing. BUT. But the fulminatin' one put his size 11 down there, and the little booger got his shots.

Having established my not-a-distilled-water-in-place-of-actual-medicine takin' pinhead, I gotta say, I had serious reservations about the Mexican flu shot. As noted above, too rushed, untested, changing stories, not to mention single source. So, I must now do something I thought I'd never, ever do. I must give sincere thanks to Dalton "dumber than dishwater" McGuinty for sealing the deal. Now I know the Mexican flu shot is worse than useless, and won't bother to get it.

Thanks, Dalton. You moron.

Heavy Metal Monday, McGuinty is a Pinhead Edition

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, calling this the "McGuinty is a Pinhead Edition" of Heavy Metal Monday really doesn't narrow down the possible topics a whole helluva lot, does it?

Let's narrow it down. The two greatest spending priorities of the provincial governments are (1) health care and (2) education. In Ontario they eat up about 3/4 of the provincial budget (1/2 for health and 1/4 for education), and the functional retard we have "running" the show in Queen's Park is fucking up both of them at this very minute.

How? I'd say. "Let me count the ways," but I have two specific examples in mind. Universal, all day babysitting for 4 and 5 year olds. Oops, I mean kindergarten. And the hatchet job the fucker is doing on the folks in Cambridge.

I gave props to Premier Ferret Face for figuring out that all boys education is an idea whose time has come. Now it's back to the brickbat.

Universal, all day kindergarten for 4 and 5 year olds, Dalton? To the (official) tune of 1.5 billion dollars per year. When, you cock smoking prick, your govt is running a 25 billion dollar deficit?

Some questions, you weasel faced street pizza: Do you really think I'm stupid enough to believe any govt's spending projections, much less a socialist piece of crap govt? Or do you just figure you need the anencephalic vote?

Do you really believe there is any educational and economic benefit to it? Or are you disturbed that you didn't get re-elected with 99% of the vote, so you need to start the statist indoctrination at 4. Hell, numbnuts, some dipshit in Washington DC wants to start kindergarten at 3. Get 'em before they're out of diapers, maybe then you can program all independant thought out of their heads.

Why are you such a lying crapweasel? This has nothing, specifically, to do with the topic to hand, I just want to know.

Considering you're about to pile probably 3 billion a year onto a budget already 25 billion in the red, just where is the money going to come from? You think that HST tax hike is going to increase revenue? Really? No increased underground economy, no driving business under or out of province? You're really gonna get all that lovely money, are you? Shithead.

I know, you can get the money by cutting health care. You can start by screwing over those impertinent bastards in Cambridge, who absolutely refuse to be good little germans and elect a Liberal.

For my reader, if you don't get the reference, I heard on the news today that the toad the province has parachuted in to shut down the Cambridge hospital...oops, I mean, balance the hospital budget, is planning on cutting 5 million from the budget. Brilliant plan. The fucking hospital is 28% underfunded. Let's see if we can't get that underfunding above the magical 1/3. Maybe then there'll be an outbreak of e difficile, or flesh eating bacteria, or the bubonic plague, and a bunch of people will die, and you can finally close the place down. That'll teach the stupid, PC voting peasants not to pay proper homage to His Royal Scungiliciousness, Dalton fucking McGuinty.

Sayyyyy, actual, real cuts to health care. The ones I showed in my last post to never have occurred in the Mike Harris years. Brought to you by the party of "protecting health care and Canadian Values," the lying, scum sucking, Liberal Piece of Shit party.

I truly hope you die a lingering and painful death, you vomitous cretin.

What in the hell am I going to choose for a song to go with this? These two latest ilLiberal moves are nuts, but I did Crazy Train last week.

Lets go back to good ol' rock and roll, heavy metal ancestors AC DC to describe where McShithead is taking us.



And for real heavy metal...gonna go to Opeth, and Ghost of Perdition, also in honour of where the spineless crapweasel is taking us. God DAMN, I hate that prick.

Cancer Treatment in Canada Suck - Colour Me Shocked

So, there's a new Cancer Advocacy Coalition of Canada study out saying that access to chemotherapy drugs varies widely across the Deranged Dominion. Now, I know this can't be true, since we have single payer universal coverage, and our medical system is the bestest in the whole universe. Certainly better than eeeeevil "two tier, American style health care." At least that's what I read in the Red Star over Toronto. Therefore, treatment is equal, and first rate. The logic is inescapable. Shit.

Snark aside, what the fuck did you expect, geniuses? I blogged about Canadian tiered health care here, but the meat of it is that we have multi-tiered health care, with unequal access to care, based on geography and socio-economic conditions and connections. Why the fuck would cancer treatment be any different than simple access to a GP?

As to cancer treatment, this is the takeaway line:

Want an appointment with a specialist? 7 - 13 weeks. Need treatment? After getting to see the specialist, add another 6 - 16 weeks. Do the math, 3 to 7 months from your GP to specialist treatment. Geez I hope you don't have anything serious, like pancreatic cancer (median survival 3 - 6 months).

Those are averages. Canadian health care IS multi-tiered, and it IS waiting in line. Granted, I didn't mention waiting for new drugs to be approved...oh, wait, yes I did. So the reccomendations from the panel:

• Establishment of a nationwide catastrophic drug strategy to resolve access inadequacies
• Development and implementation of Canada-wide guidelines to speed up access
• Increased research to identify subsets of patients who would best benefit from new therapies
• Introduction of an ongoing evaluation process for new cancer drugs
• Incorporate patient involvement and choice into decision-making

Because:

"People are dying because of the delay in approval by Health Canada for these new drugs," said oncologist Dr. William Hyrniuk of the Cancer Advocacy Coalition.

Ring a little hollow. Welcome to the party, pal, I've been screaming this for years.

America, don't let 0bama do it. Or, at least if you do, don't get cancer.

McGuinty, You're an Asshole

So, Premier McDickhead is steaming ahead, full speed, to fuck over the Cambridge Memorial Hospital. The hospital, according to the evening news, is about 5 million dollars in the red. According to the local dead tree media, it's 6.5 million in the red, and I'll use their numbers. This is all, according to Premier McGetafuckingclue, 100% totally, absolutely the hospitals fault, there's no more money, and the board will just have to make cuts to make up the shortfall. Let us see how quickly we can tear up that steaming turd.

Hospital budget: $106 million
Hospital deficit: $6.5 million
Deficit expressed as a percentage: 6.1%

Average Ontario per patient funding: $1009
Cambridge per patient funding: $730
Funding expressed as percentage of the average: 72.3%

So, McShithead, tell me again that the hospital budgetary shortfall is due to inefficiency. Just looking at those numbers indicates to me 2 things. First, that Cambridge has one of the most efficiently administered hospitals in the province. Hell, it should be a model for other hospitals, just imagine the level of care should they be given even 80% average funding. Second, you are a lying sack of shit. A boil on the body politic. A smarmy little creep who is playing politics with the lives of Cambridge residents.

You say there's no money, yet you've comitted 30 Billion dollars for health care upgrades. The Cambridge hospital is 10 fucking years overdue its sorely needed expnansion, and isn't even on the list for this money. But maybe for the next one. You oozing pustule, just because the good citizens of Cambridge don't elect Liberals to Queen's Park is no reason to train wreck their hospital, and fuck with their health care. In case you hadn't realized, everyone in this crappy country is subject to our POS, single payer health care system, and your petty partisan politics have no part in it.

In short, McCumstain, fuck of and die, you maggot.

Back to Health Care, Again

Recently I dropped a comment over at Cold Fury that I'd like to get to a Why Canada Sucks post on multiculturalism. Guess that one is going to have to wait, since the host of my local all news station, and his guest, were blatting on about health care, and some new study about how wonderfully wonderful, awesome, look a unicorn, Canajun health care is.

The guest is a doctor, and is proud to tell us that most Canadians are happy with their doctor. And that, five years after getting a doctor, most Canadians are still with that doctor. And they're happy with Cuban, err, Canajun health care. And when a caller mentioned the CNN add wherein a Canadian woman complains about Canuckistadian health care, said Dr. guest (or maybe it was the host) says that, well, they found the one dissatisfied patient.

Hoo, boy, as always, where to begin?

Okay, lets start with Dr. Bimbo, an impressive specimen of the Canadian affirmative action medical education system. Ahh, isn't it grand that 1/2 of all doctors graduate in the bottom half of the class? And that med school admissions are highly dependant on your skin colour and genitalia, ensuring that our doctors come not from the best candidates, but the best politically correct candidates? Hey, I'm a fair kinda guy, I like to give the benefit of the doubt. I'll blame her stupidity on her, not on having intelligence removed by the system.

Canadians, once they get a doctor, don't change doctors. Hmm, after waiting, potentially years, to get a physician, people are unwilling to leave and look for another? I can only imagine that is because of deep satisfaction with the doctor, not because they fear waiting years more for another doctor. Hey Dr. Dimwit, the patient rosters aren't static because the system is good, it's because the system sucks.

Oh, and they found the ONE dissatisfied patient to complain, did they? And most Canadians are happy with the system. Let's break that in half. Maybe this guy can find some other dissatisfied patients. And was it not in Quebec that some dissatisfied patient successfully sued, in our extreme Liberal Supreme Court, Quebec Health over it's waiting times?

Come to think of it, you can count ME as a dissatisfied patient. Why? Because I've been a patient in a better system. The American one. You know what would be an interesting survey? A survey of Canadians who have had treatment in a private system, such as the American HMO system, of their satisfaction with the Canadian system.

And we're "satisfied," are we? The survey Dr. Bimbo cites is composed primarily of people who have known 1 health care delivery method, Cubas. Oops, there I go again, Canada's. And there are those amongst the born-profoundly-deaf who object to cochlear implants giving hearing to the profoundly deaf. They've never heard Mozart, so they dismiss the ability to hear. That dismissal comes from ignorance, just as the approval of Canada Shitty Health Care comes from the subjects of the Deranged Dominion.

To paraphrase Bob and Doug MacKenzie, the difference between Canadian health care and American health care is like the difference between side bacon and back bacon...one's better, eh? And no, Virginia, the Canadian health care system is not better.

Lighten Up Fulminandrew

Okay, I've been ranting an awful lot lately, and while that is the reason for this blog, I'm finding it a little hard to scrounge up the inspiration and energy to have at it. So, thinking about the central planners who choose which of us get treatment, and which don't, who lives, and who dies, and to lighten things up a little, I present you...Arch Enemy, Blood on Your Hands.

Back to Health Care

Gah, we're back to this farging topic. Sadly, we're probably going to be stuck here until Obonehead finishes with health care "reform."

So, while Mrs. Fulminandrew was getting dressed, the boy turned on the idiot box. The default channel was showing, I think, Canada AM, and I heard the moron commentator drag out that hoary old chestnut, "Canada spends half, as a percentage of GDP, on healthcare, with better outcomes, than the USA."

Where do we begin with that stinking pile? How about with defining "better outcomes."

Is it better for the people waiting 2 years for joint replacements? How many retirees die waiting for a new hip or knee? Was it a better outcome that they spend the last of their "golden years" wheelchair bound and in pain, while Canada saves a few bucks on their health care? On the other end, was it better to skip giving that sick, premie all the care possible? Yes, the kid died, and his parents were devastated, but we saved the health care system a few bucks. How many cancer patients are forced to forego a final 6 months with their loved ones because the new drugs are unavailable because they're too expensive? That a good outcome? How many critically ill patients die waiting for surgery? How many cancers metastasize in the 4 - 6 months between diagnosis and treatment? Let's define our fucking terms...

"Better outcome" = longer life expectancy. According to worldlifeexpectancy.com Canada beat the USA's 78.1 years with 81.2 years. Okay, the average life expectancy in Canada is 3 years longer than in the USA.

In compiling that statistic, did they take into account the following:

Murder rates. Most murder victims in the USA are young men invooved in criminal activity. That's gonna skew the life expectancy down.

Immigration. The USA has upwards of 20 million illegal aliens. Most of them are from Latin America, all of whose countries have lower life expectancies and poorer early life nutrition and health care than the USA. Couldn't find statistics on legal immigrants, but, generally, people move to a better places, so I'm willing to bet that the legal immigrants, generally, suffer the same nutrition and health care issues as the illegals. This will skew the life expectancy down.

Lifestyle. The USA is trumpeted as the fattest, unhealthiest country in the developed world. Okay, if that's so, then the obesity related health care issues (diabetes, heart disease, joint problems...) are going to cost the system more, per capita.

Military forces. The USA has the largest military in the developed world, and the most soldiers in combat, and all the health care issues associated with that. Did Mr. "Canada has better outcomes on less money" take into consideration combat medicine, prosthetics, post traumatic psychiatric treatment, etc.? Did he take into consideration the deaths of soldiers skewing the life expectancy down?

How about heroic measures both at birth and death? An extreme premature birth who dies, in most of the world will be counted as a stillbirth. In the USA, if a baby draws first breath, no matter if he dies within minutes, he is counted a live birth. Not only does this skew the life expectancy down, it shoots a hole in another hoary old chestnut, "The USA has the highest infant mortality in the developed world." Yeah, because they count ALL the babies born alive, not just the ones that make their shitty socialized medical systems look good.

At the other end of life, socialized medicine is killing the elderly. In the Netherlands, euthanasia is now at the doctor's discretion for both the very old, and for deformed babies. Great, don't spend money keeping people alive, kill them before they fuck up the statistics. I know, I know, we don't have that in Canada, not actively, we just don't treat the very, very sick. We put them on a waiting list and hope they die before they cost us an opportunity to turn our noses up at Uncle Sam.

These are just off the top of my head, I'm sure you can think of more. And that is just on the subject of "better outcomes." On to costs.

Canada has only 1 health care system, the govt provided one. The USA has 2, the govt provided one, and a parallel private one. Each gets about 1/2 the per capita spending. There being 2, you have a choice, go with the govt one, or pay for the private one. In the private one you have access to much better, and faster treatment. Why?

How about this; self interest. When the payer is in charge of your treatment, it is in his self interest to deny treatment, to save money (that would be Canada). When the payee is in charge of your treatment, it is in his interest to get you treated so he can, you know, get paid (that would be any private system). With the former, costs are kept down, at the expense of the quality of treatment. With the latter, costs tend to drive up, with the benefit of better quality of care.

Don't believe me? Then why, to take a recent example, does Canada not have enough neo natal care beds to treat our babies? Why do we have to send them to the USA? If we have such a wonderful fucking system, why does our system outsource its problem cases to the eeevil, 2 tier American system. In fact, if govt health care is so bloody wonderful, why do the rich, world wide, go to the USA for treatment? Cutting edge technologies? Rapidity of treatment? Availability? The patient and his doctor being in charge of course of treatment? All of the above?

Yes, the Americans spend a whole lot more on health care than we do. Good for them, and thank them very much, because if they stop doing so, the whole world loses its hospital of last resort.

Oh, and Mr. "Canada has better outcomes on less money?" Kindly fuck off and die.

Addendum to Why Canada Health Care Sucks

Via Physics Geek in the off topic at Daily Pundit, from Purple Avenger at Ace of Spades:

Aussie scientists kill cancer cells with trojan horse.

Last I heard, Canada was using chemo drugs that real health care systems gave up on 10 years ago. Do you suppose that technologies such as this one will be rapidly adopted here? Remember, new technologies are expensive, and it's in the single payer's interest to cut costs.

Oh well, there's always that guaranteed waiting list.

Why Canada Sucks, Part III - Health Care

I realized recently that my "Why Canada Sucks" series could be broken down by components; things about Canada that suck, and reasons why Canada sucks. Correlations, vs. causes. F'rinstance, our disgusting, fundamental, bred in the bone anti-Americanism is something about Canada that sucks. Multiculturalism is a reason why Canada sucks.

I could, I suppose, separate the two, but I'm not going to, as there's too much crpsspver. Take health care as an example. Socialized medicine is something about Canada that sucks. However, being the only "free" nation in the world that refuses to allow a private medical system has become so much a part of our national identity that it affects our politics. In so doing it moves out of "something about Canada that sucks" and into the realm of "a reason why Canada sucks."

So without further ado, Why Canada Sucks, Part III - Health Care

I've been meaning to have a go at our national disgrace for some time now. Having just brushed the edges of the only other totalitarian health care system in the western hemisphere was enough, on its own, to push me to get at this. However, via Darleen Click over at Protein Wisdom, we have one Michael Stickings squatting over the inter tubes and grunting out a particularly stinky one, and that kinda put me right over the top.

Short version, severe premies need critical neo-natal care. No beds in Canada (what a fucking surprise), so they get shipped off to Buffalo. Problem; the parents don't have passports, and the family's separation is the fault of, wait for it, the USA. Yes, the failure of the Canadian medical system to provide care is no party to this tragic separation, it was goddamn George W fucking Bush.

If that soulless chimp bastard, who stole the election by the way (in spite of winning how many Florida recounts? oh, yeah, all of them), hadn't changed the entry rules, with only 2 years notice, then this would never have happened. Oh, sure the parents could have gotten passports at any time in the last 2 years, but if we mention that, we take responsibility away from where it rightly rests, on George Bush. But I digress.

First off, from Stickings:

I won’t get into the relative merits of the American and Canadian health-care systems here. Suffice it to say that there obviously need to be more neo-natal intensive care unit beds up here. Thankfully — and this doesn’t mean that the American system is better (after all, at least the couple and their baby are guaranteed care up here, thanks to our public system, even if it’s not perfect) — there was an opening south of the border.

Fuck, where to begin?

Sure, let's don't get into the relative merits of the systems. After all, that would mean examining the piece of shit system we have up here, as compared to the problematic, yet infinitely better, American system.

Suffice it to say that there obviously need to be more neo-natal intensive care unit beds up here.

Yeah, shithead, but there aren't. Why not, do you suppose? Could it be that with 46% of (Ontario) provincial program spending going to health care, there are no more govt dollars? And could it be that, since private care is illegal, there is no more money, at all? Where, then, are these beds going to come from?

at least the couple and their baby are guaranteed care up here, thanks to our public system, even if it’s not perfect

Did you type that particular nugget with a straight face? Guaranteed care up here? Guaranteed care up here? If they were fucking "guaranteed care up here" they'd be fucking getting care up here, numbnuts. Jeebus, does the word "guarantee" mean something different in your universe?

Folks, you read that number up there correctly. The 2008 Ontario budget calls for 96.2 billion in spending. Pull out the 8.9 B for interest, leaving 87.3 for programs, and 40.4 of that is for health care. Now, what does that 46% get you?

Guaranteed care? Yeah, sure, if you have connections, or money, or can get to an American hospital. If not care then, how about waiting lists? In 2008:

Want an appointment with a specialist? 7 - 13 weeks. Need treatment? After getting to see the specialist, add another 6 - 16 weeks. Do the math, 3 to 7 months from your GP to specialist treatment. Geez I hope you don't have anything serious, like pancreatic cancer (median survival 3 - 6 months). Do the math, folks, socialized medicine will kill you.

Access to a GP? That's a waiting list. Need emergency care? That's a waiting list. Need an MRI, you betcha that's a waiting list.

But the quality of care is so much better, right?

Can anyone out there tell me the name of the only industrialized country in the world to have a SARS outbreak? Anyone? Yes, Canada, stands proudly alone in that distinction. We might not have, if patient 1 had a doctor who had paid attention to WHO bulletins, and if patient 2, her son, hadn't been left, undiagnosed and untreated, on a gurney, in the Emergency at Scarborough Grace for 12 hours. How many sick people, you know, the kinds who go to the emerge, do you suppose were exposed in those 12 hours?

So, we have a lousy, overpriced system which delivers lousy care after long delays. That is the "what about it sucks." Now for the "why it makes Canada suck."

Canadians can be generally counted on for 3 things. Incredible, overwheening arrogance, disguised as modesty, rancid anti-americanism, and blind faith in our POS health care system. Michael Stickings' idiotic missive is a perfect example. He won't get into comparing the relative merits of the systems, he will just say that the one that guarantees care, and fails to provide it, is superior to the one that doesn't guarantee care, yet succeeds in providing it.

This, in a nutshell is Canada. We're better than Americans. Even when we are demonstrably inferior, we will simply assert our superiority, and move on. How, is the Canadian system superior? Everyone has equal access to a waiting list, unlike in the "Two tier, American style health care system." I swear, I will cock punch the next asshole to pull that line out of his ass. I said above that health care distorts our politics, and that is the money line for it.

When the Liberals need to bump their poll numbers during an election, you are 100% guaranteed to hear about the eeeeeevil conservatives and their hidden agenda to bring "two tier, American style health care" to Canada.

First, bullshit. Alberta has the most conservative govt in Canada, and they spend the most on their universal health care system, and don't have a parallel private system.

Second, bullshit. At the federal level, even though it's the right thing to do, even though our POS socialized medical system is quite literally killing us, the pussy "conservative" govt isn't going to touch the Canada Health Act with a ten foot pole. It's radioactive. If there was even a hint of a whiff of Harper doing the right thing on health care, the stupid fuckers who vote in this nation would hand him an electoral drubbing that would make Kim Campbell's comeuppance look mild.

Third, bullshit. We have multi-tier health care already anyway.

The bottom tier is for anyone outside a major health services providing centre. The north, the rural areas, and especially the reservations. Access to care truly sucks, and all the "guaranteed access" in the world ain't gonna change that.

The next tier up is for the ordinary riff raff who live in decent care areas, i.e. the cities. They might be lucky enough to have a GP, they can get to the emerge (where the wait could be 2 minutes, or 2 days), they can access the lovely 3 to 7 month waits for care.

The next tier up is for the connected. They might be professionals, they might be family of health care providers, they might be our ruling class in Ottawa or Queen's Park, but they're connected. If they need care, they get it, waiting lists be damned. Who out there is going to tell me that Premier McMoron, or Bobo the Clown Rae, or Jack O'lantern, champions all of our fascist health care system, would actually wait for care, if they or their families needed it?

The top tier is the wealthy. If they can't get care here, they go to the US and get it, and get reimbursed, or not, by their provincial providers.

Government health care is rationed health care. Follow. It is in the payers interest to slow down the provision of care. The patient might get better, or might die. In either case, no payment necessary. So, if govt is the payer, the govt rations care, to reduce the payout.

This is no different from private payers. It is also in their interest to slow down payment. Of course, if there is more than one payer, let a private insurer get a rep for refusing payment and it's out of business.

Who prescribes treatment? The doctor, AKA the payee. It is in the doctor's interest to get paid, so rapid treatment is in his interest. If he works in a system of multiple payers, competing for clients, rapid treatment ensues. So, in the USA, you go to your doctor, he sends you to a specialist and you get treated. Waiting times are measured in days, not months.

Don't believe that? Look at the health care options not covered under the Canada Health Act. Need acupuncture, massage therapy, physio therapy, dental work, chiropractic, etc.? There is a surplus of providers lining up to compete for your business. Only with the medical/hospital system is there a shortage. And only in the medical/hospital system is there a single payer.

Of course, this is reality. And we can't allow reality into the little fantasy world constructed by the soft fascists in charge of our health care.

at least the couple and their baby are guaranteed care up here, thanks to our public system, even if it’s not perfect

You simply cannot penetrate arrogant ignorance like that, and as long as a majority of Canadians believe this sort of tripe, Canadian health care is going to suck, and it's going to help Canada continue to suck.