Up here in the frozen north country we can’t understand the gyrations and hand-wringing that the idea of national health care provokes south of the border. To the best of my knowledge the US is the only civilized country that doesn’t provide health care for its citizens. It must be some kind of ideological paranoia about the thin-edge of socialism or something.
It was positively amusing to hear John McCain pontificate about this during the primaries: I know there is nothing more distasteful to the American people than state run health care. He flipped on that one pretty fast when the polls showed that a majority of Americans wanted universal health care.
Canada has had universal health care since 1966. The first province to have government health care was Saskatchewan where it started in 1946. Our health care is single-payer, another bogey man down south, apparently. The system we have costs about twenty percent less than current costs in the US. Is it socialism? Who knows and who cares? All I know is that nobody in this country is bankrupted by medical expenses or forcibly ejected from a hospital when their insurance runs out.
Don’t believe all the scare ads that are running on TV right now. Sure we have problems. Health care is an ongoing expense. Some doctors and hospitals are obviously better than others, which is all that those ads are saying anyway.
Let me share a personal story.
In 1978 I was living in Queen Charlotte City on the Queen Charlotte Islands. Part way through my work day I became simultaneously nauseated and ravenously hungry and I had trouble lifting one of my legs. I went in to the hospital and was diagnosed with acute appendicitis. Three hours later a helicopter landed on the ball field near the hospital. That chopper flew me to Sandspit Airport where a Lear jet was waiting for me. Two hours of travel time and I was admitted to St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. They yanked my appendix or what was left of it. Apparently it had burst and I was in the early stages of peritonitis. I was in hospital for six days. The cost to me of that little adventure? Zero. Zip. Nada.
Get with the program guys! Health care is a basic human right, not a political football. The only people against it are the ones that already have theirs. As far as the plaint that we can’t afford it is concerned, I can only say that, if a piss-ant country like Canada can afford it with a population of only 33 million people, then a country that claims to be the greatest society on earth certainly can. Maybe all health care should be suspended until it is available to all. That might do it.
The Canadian health care system is not perfect. Neither is the French, the British or the German system. That doesn’t mean the idea is unworkable. Sheesh! Take care of your people. If you can’t do that, what’s the state for?
This was reported on the CNN show Your Money. According to some money gurus the economic collapse we are experiencing was caused by us boomers.
Apparently the thriving economy we were experiencing prior to last November was driven largely by boomers pursuing an extravagant lifestyle. Something happened last fall that made us stop being so profligate and we began being careful with our money. Maybe we all forgot to put on our tinfoil hats one day and the mother ship reprogrammed us all. At any rate and whatever the reason, our sudden caution in money matters is what really sank the economy. All over the world. That talk about toxic assets and other cool swindles was just a smoke screen.
This is a real switch, isn’t it? For years we’ve been warned that it was our out of control spending that was causing all the problems. Remember when economists were expressing grave concerns about the perils of an overheated economy and blaming it on us? Some talking heads at that time sounded positively gleeful as they told us how bad we were going to be hit when we got our reality check.
C’mon guys, you can’t have it both ways. It seems to me that our generation is doomed to being the whipping boy for all societies woes until we’ve all been planted. After that they’ll probably say the world would have been a much better place if we hadn’t screwed it up.
Mounties shoot man in Gibsons GIBSONS/CKNW(AM980) 6/27/2009
RCMP say they had no choice but to shoot a man after he began advancing on them with a claw hammer friday night.
Sgt. Peter Thiessen says the were acting on a request from Langley RCMP to check on a man accused of uttering threats on a social networking site.
Thiessen says they were speaking with the 34-year-old when he came toward the officers with the hammer above his head.
“It was as a result of that action that one of the officers drew his sidearm, firing at that suspect, striking him twice.”
Police have not released the man’s identity. He remains in hospital in serious but stable condition.
This type of occurrence is a particular bitch of mine. I don’t know what its like in other places, but in the Vancouver area police feel justified in shooting down people who have some kind of non-projectile weapon in their hands. Knives, hammers, screw-drivers, whatever. In the news reports they usually say the person brandished a weapon. I guess brandishing is a new captital crime that hasn’t made it into the legal statutes yet.
The thing that really pisses me off about these kinds of cases is that the officers are not in fear of their lives or protecting the public in any immediate sense. The victim is usually a poor schizophrenic who has gone off his meds or is intoxicated on some illicit substance and is simply waving the tool around and raving. This is admittedly an unpleasant and potentially dangerous situation that has to be dealt with, but there is no immediate threat to anyone. It seems to me that the officers simply don’t want to mix it up and take the easy way out. Bang.
Another aspect of this is that the shootee is usually not a suspect or perpetrator of any description. The officers are generally questioning them about something or just trying to get them to move on down the street.
What happened to batons? I simply can’t believe that well trained police, acting in a co-ordinated manner, are unable to disarm somebody that’s waving a knife ,hammer or screw driver. Sure, somebody might get hurt, but if they aren’t willing to get their hands dirty maybe they should quit the force and get a job driving taxi or something.
I also have a problem with the number of people who are being shot or killed simply for acting like ass-holes. People are dying for offences which would get a suspended sentence or a day in jail if they went to trial. That isn’t right and its happening more and more around here. And isn’t it strange that the people shot are always street people? The cops react quite differently when some trader from Howe street gets a skinful and starts taking apart one of those toney bars or smacks the girl from the escort service around.
I’m nearly one month into my official retirement. The real month-anniversary is in two days. In some ways, I feel like a recovering alcoholic: Got my one month pin, yay. Actually, that’s another one of my contests. Its been nearly two years since any alcohol passed my lips and that has been a bigger struggle. Every day I feel like sucking back a few beers but I haven’t once had an overwhelming urge to jump on the bus and go up to the university to work. Huh?!
What I really had planned for this time was to really bear down on my online projects. Obviously, that hasn’t happened. Anybody checking on my blogs would think I’d died. Instead I’ve been sleeping in in the mornings, staying up late at night and doing things I never got around to before. Reading books for instance. At first, this idleness really bothered me and I felt guilty, but I’m learning to relax about it. When the time comes to do something I’ll know. In the meantime, its feet up and tube on.
One thing I’ve come to realize is that this stage of life is the last chance to become the person I always wanted to be. The kids are grown and gone. All the structure and pressure of a working life has been released. So what do I want to do in my heart of hearts? What can I get back to that I was forced to drop all those years ago? What did I always want to try but never got around to or couldn’t afford either in terms of money or time or energy?
I do realize that I’m a member of a fortunate minority because I even have choices. Many people my age can’t even pretend to retire and are forced instead to grind to the grave. I know that I’m very lucky. But I don’t feel guilty and I have to take my own journey.
One of the biggest things I’m learning is that I’m not who I thought I was. For instance, I always prided myself on not being particularly materialistic. In the past if I was given a chance to buy something I would almost always say I wasn’t interested in things like that. I couldn’t say that I wanted something but couldn’t afford it. In fact, it got to the point that I couldn’t even compose a list of things I would buy if money was no object. I simply couldn’t do it. Now I suddenly find myself in the position that I actually can afford most things and, lo and behold, I do want some of them. This realization comes and goes and when it does it feels like my head is expanding and contracting. Most disconcerting.
Ayn Rand said that a man’s true character could be discovered by watching how he spent his money and what he did with his free time. Well, I have plenty of free time now and sufficient money. Who is going to emerge from this process? I don’t know, but I’m looking forward to finally meeting him. When I do, I’ll finally know the answer to the childhood question: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Both of my regular readers have probably been wondering what became of me. Major changes have taken place here in The Swamp and I’m just starting to get my head above water.
The biggest change is that I’m now retired. The last day I went to work at the university was Thursday of Easter week-end. I’m still officially on payroll until the end of May, but I’m at home burning up my accrued holidays.
I never really intended to leave SFU. For twenty-four years it seemed like the coolest place to work in the whole world. Things started to change last New Year. I need to have one more adventure in my life and it seemed obvious that if I didn’t get at it soon I’d miss the boat. Marilyn is totally supportive and the money sitch is okay. Around the first of March I suddenly realized the time had arrived and went out for coffee with my supervisor and gave her the news.
Right now it just seems like I’m on holidays or sick leave. One of these days its going to sink in and I’ll realize emotionally that I’m never going back. That will be unsettling, I’m sure, but it hasn’t happened yet.
There are a lot of things I want to do, mainly to do with internet marketing. So far, because of the holiday syndrome, I haven’t really gotten down to it. For now I’m just coasting.
Another major change that has happened with us is that we have a new dog. We didn’t think we were ready for this step, although we had started to talk about it. Seven days ago, a friend who breeds West Highland Terriers came over and offered us a puppy. She couched it as a personal favor to her if we would take this pup off her hands. We had been saying that when we were meant to have another dog one would appear, and now it had. So we said yes.
Since then, of course, it has been a whirl of house-breaking, training and integrating the new little girl with our three tomcats. Thank goodness they are all used to dogs and they are teaching her what her place in the pecking order is without drawing blood. That could change, but she’s a quick study and so far things are going well. She is also having to learn what horses are all about. Truthfully she was more impressed by the horses than the cats.
The new pup (still unnamed) is very energetic, very intelligent and a natural retriever. This marks a big change from Saddie who was much too dignified to fetch. We’re glad she likes to chase flying objects, as that means we can give her all the exercise she needs with minimal exertion ourselves.
My cousin John Caspell died on the first of May. He was 58 years old. He was very intelligent, a great musician, and an avid motorcyclist.
John was riding his scooter through an intersection in Victoria on the 27th of April when he was T boned by a drunk driving an SUV who ran a red light. He sustained a broken leg, a crushed foot and bruised kidneys, but nothing life threatening. Doctors performed the operation to repair his foot yesterday and all seemed to go well. He came out of the anesthetic with no problems, but grew dizzy while walking around. And then he simply died. A classic example of the operation was a success but the patient died. The best guess is that a blood clot lodged in his brain killing him instantly.
In some ways this is the best sort of death. No pain or suffering just gone. It’s also the most unsettling. One minute you’re here having a beer with your friends, the next God reaches his hand down and flicks you off like a switch. No need to worry now about how you’ll support yourself in your old age, and the question of whether your were a good person or a bad one will have to be decided by somebody else. The whistle has blown and you’re out of the pool.
This is the kind of event that makes you wonder what the point of worrying about anything is. It should teach us profound lessons, but it probably won’t. And in the end we’ll all simply continue with our lives until our own time comes, because what else can you can do?
At least we know there’s music in heaven. Maybe God laid on a few motorcycles as well.
TWO OLD MEN DECIDE THEY ARE CLOSE TO THEIR LAST DAYSÂ Â AND DECIDE TO
HAVE A LAST NIGHT ON THE TOWN. AFTER A FEW DRINKS, THEY END UP AT THE LOCAL BROTHEL.
THE MADAM TAKES ONE LOOK AT THE TWO OLD GEEZERS AND WHISPERS TO HER MANAGER, ‘GO UP TO THE FIRST TWO BEDROOMS AND PUT A BLOW-UP DOLL IN EACH BED. THESE TWO ARE SO OLD AND DRUNK, I’M NOT WASTING TWO OF MY GIRLS ON THEM. THEY WON’T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE.’
THE MANAGER DOES AS HE IS TOLD AND THE TWO OLD MEN GO UPSTAIRS AND TAKE CARE OF THEIR BUSINESS. ! ;
AS THEY ARE WALKING HOME THE FIRST MAN SAYS, ‘YOU KNOW, I THINK MY GIRL WAS DEAD!’
‘DEAD?’ SAYS HIS FRIEND, ‘WHY DO YOU SAY THAT?’
‘WELL, SHE NEVER MOVED OR MADE A SOUND ALL THE TIME I WAS LOVING HER.’
HIS FRIEND SAYS, ‘COULD BE WORSE I THINK MINE WAS A WITCH.’
‘A WITCH ??. . WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU SAY THAT?’
‘WELL, I WAS MAKING LOVE TO HER, KISSING HER ON THE NECK, AND I GAVE HER A LITTLE BITE, THEN SHE FARTED AND FLEW OUT! THE WINDOW…. TOOK MY TEETH WITH HER!’
I realized yesterday that I have lost the ability to read, and I really miss it but can’t figure out just where along the way I lost it.
Don’t misunderstand me. I can still understand the meaning of printed words and sentences. Guess what I should have said is that I have lost the mindset necessary to read a book or even a longish magazine article.
I was raised without television. My father loathed TV and wouldn’t allow a set in the house. Then I spent the years in the Queen Charlotte Islands and there simply was no TV. Hell, there wasn’t even electricity in the sense of power from the grid.
The main source of entertainment and education all those years was books. Almost everyone on the islands was an avid reader and I was known for chewing through books faster than most and being able to retain and synthesize the material I read. That characteristic provided a great deal of my identity and self-image.
Now I find it difficult to read a simple novel. Reading requires being able to make a sort of ‘mind-meld’ with the author. You have to be able to enter his world and accept his premises, at least for a while. I guess its my ability to concentrate that’s shot. I can’t think of a better way to describe it anyway.
I’m not sure what caused this. Computers certainly had something to do with it. My use of the net is, I think fairly typical. I bounce from page to page, spend some time on this task, some on that. Multi-tasking.
In this information age there is simply so much data available that the biggest problem isn’t finding information, its determining relevance and trustworthiness. Someone famously said: Looking for information on the internet is like trying to get a drink of water from a fire hydrant. That certainly has something to do with it. The other factor is simply the modern lifestyle that I’ve plugged into, although that lifestyle has its roots in computing, so it is sort of a different side of the same thing.
There are simply so many things to keep up with and care about nowadays. Everybody I know has lots of different irons in the fire and they spend most of their time trying to determine the most important thing to invest their energy in for the next five minutes.
One thing that reading requires is the ability to set aside substantial blocks of time to hang out with an author. True reading isn’t just being exposed to the information. No, its chewing the information slowly, absorbing it and eventually understand what the writer meant down below the words the used to form the sentences. For a while, you have to be able to abandon your way of thinking and try on someone else’s, see what is useful to you, keep that and junk the rest. Its a very active process, not a passive one.
That’s what I’ve lost. That’s what I miss. I hope the reading muscles have only lost tone and not atrophied altogether. Wish me luck.
Has anybody else noticed this and been bothered by it? What did you do to counter-act this?
Retirement is staring me in the face. My pensions and so on won’t be enough to support us. I spent most of my income over the years on horses and other bad habits. One bright side to that is that I don’t have anything invested in the stock market, so I don’t experience the roller-coaster emotions that investors are experiencing right now. Not having a house to worry about feels pretty good too.
But,,, I feel a distinct need to develop another source of income. My latest endeavor is the creation of niche websites.
The idea here is to find certain search keywords that get some traffic from google and don’t have too much competition. Then you get an ebook created in that area which you can sell. Finally, you drive traffic to the site via article marketing. This gets you a fairly high google ranking.
A key difference with this approach is that you don’t try to get rich off any one site. If you can pull $30 a day from a site you’ve succeeded and anything beyond that is gravy. Once the site is up and running you basically let it take care of itself and repeat the process for another topic.
Thirty bucks a day isn’t much, but if you can do that ten times? You do the math.
I’ve put up my first two niche sites. One is on koi care. The other is built around grape growing. Feel free to check them out, but be kind. They aren’t done yet. This is just a sneak-preview. Certainly don’t try signing up for the mini-course on either site because the forms aren’t hooked up yet. With those caveats in mind, any comments or criticism is welcome.
Just finished reading an article by Dave Winer called How I made over $2 million with this blog. A lot of people nowadays are blogging just for money and many others would like to make a little cash from their blogs, even if that isn’t the main point of the exercise. The usual way of doing this is by putting ads of some sort on the blog. I’ve written about this before. With all the study of marketing that I’ve been doing lately it was interesting to get someone else’s perspective, especially a heavy-weight like Winer.
You may be asking Who’s Dave Winer? If you aren’t, you can pick up your official geek-trivia-champion badge at the door. I’d like to take that up at the end of the post, because it is important. Lets leave it aside for now, though.
The basic message of the article was this: Blogs don’t make money, but people with blogs can make a lot. Winer proudly states that he has never put any kind of ad on his blog, yet he has made a fortune because of his blog. He lists the sources of that income, and damn, they are impressive. According to him you should simply publish a blog with fantastic content, establish a real relationship with your readers and that relationship will result in a healthy income in other ways. Ads just get in the way of the relationship. Blog what you love and the money will come so to speak.
This is actually sound advice. The whole blog is in effect an ad so anything else you put up is just a distraction. In the best of all world’s good content would be enough. There’s something to keep in mind, though, and it goes back to the question about who Dave Winer is. I didn’t know, by the way.
Turns out that Winer is a big gun in blogging and internet circles. He developed RSS which is used to syndicate blog feeds. He pretty much invented blogging single handedly and developed the first public hosting platform for blogs.
Some people are what Seth Godin called ‘tribe leaders’. They established entire fields of discipline and remain among the foremost authorities in their areas. Eric Meyer is the same type of personality in the field of CSS and web standards. If guys like this never did another thing they could enjoy a very nice income on the lecture circuit giving historic overviews of how things came to be the way they are. When someone of this caliber says that great content is enough its like a great white shark telling a sardine to just be yourself and swim proudly.
Winer lives in a different world than you and me. I’m sure he never worried about search engine optimization or traffic building. In fact, his blog is a straight text blog without graphics, video or even color. Probably half his traffic comes from people googling his name. He really doesn’t have to worry about the fact that a new blog is launched every 28 seconds. People are looking specifically for him and they’ll persist until they find him.
Money blogging has its own firmament of stars, of course. John Chow, Darren Rowse, Yaro Starak to name a few. And Sixty, of course (Hi Mark!). The rest of us have to slug it out. That means worrying about SEO, link building, social networking etc and still try to produce good content.
Believe me, we all blog out of love. If we didn’t love it, most of the time at least, we couldn’t continue. Frankly, its pretty hard work sometimes. But money is also a factor for many of us so there have to be ads of some kind.
If a blog ever achieves fame and begins to get massive amounts of traffic, things change. Advertisers get in touch with you and offer big bucks for the privilege of appearing on your blog. The ads they produce are done by professional designers and cost a ton. The perfect example of this is the australian car advice blog. That blog is around 3 years old and they now get so many cars sent to them to try out that parking is becoming an issue for them.
Such is the fame to which we tadpoles may aspire. Down here in the trenches, though, its adsense, banners and sidebars for the foreseable future. Sorry ’bout that.
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