Canadian: Socialized medicine sucks

Does anyone out there with more than four brain cells to rub together really believe that socialized medicine…ala the systems in Canada and Europe (notice I’m not going to include Michael Moore’s Eden-like Cuba in that list)…provides better health care than the United States? Being married to a doc naturally skews my perception…and talking to several former Canadian docs who have emigrated makes me view any claims on the superiority of socialized medicine with a very, very jaded eye.

David Gratzer takes on the topic in Investor’s Business Daily.

A clip:

Canadian doctors, long silent on the health care system's problems, are starting to speak up. Last August, they voted Brian Day president of their national association. Day has become perhaps the most vocal critic of Canadian public health care, having opened his own private surgery center and challenging the government to shut him down.

And now even Canadian governments are looking to the private sector to shrink the waiting lists. In British Columbia, private clinics perform roughly 80% of government-funded diagnostic testing.

Oh yeah…and that jaded eye thingie? I can get that fixed this afternoon here in the United States…how long’s the wait in the vaunted socialized medicine paradise?

Weird King-esque photo-op

I just came back from Wal-Mart (buying groceries for the seven hungry South Carolina locusts currently visiting our house) and saw something that reminded me of the movie version of Stephen Kings “The Stand.”

Perched atop the warning sirens for the Perry Nuclear Power Plant were four huge turkey buzzards…boy, talk about apocalyptic! In “The Stand,” it was only a measly crow perched on the warning siren…how much worse could things be if four buzzards are taking up the same foreboding position? In the book, almost everyone in the world dies from a bioweapon release. What's in store now...everyone dies from radiation PLUS has to pay vastly increased electrical rates to cover the cost of the cleanup? The mind boggles...

I’m not sure why the buzzards were congregated there…I didn’t see any fresh carrion baking to the perfect stage of buzzard-yummy putrescence…maybe the buzzards were keeping their eye on the group of recreational bike riders that had pulled up to patch one of the members’ tires, figuring one of the bikers must be sick and would soon fall from the pack.

File this one under “weird.”

The holy caste of Journalists

*****Warning: Looooong post*****

I am endlessly fascinated by the print and news media assumption of some holy mandate proclaiming their product to be sacrosanct because they’ve been anointed by the sweet balm of a journalism or communications degree. This divine diploma apparently sanctifies as holy writ all information imparted by such beings…and condemns news generated by lesser- or non-degreed pamphleteers to the dustbin of irrelevant history.

It fascinates…and embarrasses me…because I was once a member of that priesthood.

I graduated from a small liberal arts college with a degree in print communications, jumped into the Professional Journalist world with both feet, won many awards, had many stories on the national wires, and eventually worked my way to the news editor position of a couple of large suburban papers. I’ve questioned Presidents, Governors, sports stars, murderers and movie stars (though I never wore a trench coat or a fedora.) and I’ve been in contact with local and national media of all persuasions.

I took a step back from all that when my first child was born and my wife started her medical residency a couple months later. Fourteen years later, I’m still Mr. Mom (and Farmer Dad) and have had the luxury of watching a titanic sea change in my former professional world. The monopoly is gone, the gates have been broken and the internet hordes have been pillaging the halls of “the big story,” formerly the exclusive home of Professional Journalists.

In the words of the great sage Austin Powers, “It’s a brave new world, baby, and it’s very groovy.”

Oh yeah, and that Journalism degree? That and $4.50 will get you a mocha-frappa-cappa-gollychino at Starbucks (my, how times have changed.) Now anyone can write and publish anything in any media, 24 hours a day, with worldwide exposure…an internet post can go from the keyboard to the Kremlin in less time than it takes to brush your teeth.

The problem with a degree in journalism or communications is that the profession has always been more about affinity and ability than degree…the university time does little to train someone in the profession. You can either organize your thoughts and write or you can’t; you either have the wit and drive to recognize and follow stories or you don’t; you either have the fortitude to write the blunt truth or you don’t. That’s my perspective, and as someone who interviewed dozens of journalism school graduates for various positions I can say that the only way to truly gauge ability is to watch and read what they produce.

And as far as the “impartial servant of the truth” goes, journalists never have been and never will be impartial. Discrimination and slant comes into coverage in so many ways, the best that can be hoped for is that names, dates and numbers are accurate in whatever is forthcoming.

Core beliefs influence which stories are covered and the manner in which they are covered…it could range from something as simple as “it never occurred to me to ask that” to outright sympathetic coverage because the journalist believes in the cause. To pretend impartiality is laughable…at the risk of parroting Fox, it’s better to be accurate and balanced.

All of which brings us back to the new media…the internet…and its hordes of ardent, largely unpaid, pamphleteers. On the whole, I think much better coverage is provided about items of local and national interest by internet journalists and bloggers than by the major media outlets and Professional Journalists. Internet journalists, imbued by their interest in the story with more drive than the pros, dig deeper, provide more detail and follow up better than the mainstream can ever hope to do. Sometimes the writer is skilled in the area about which they’re writing…how much better to have the source for a story writing the story than some journalistic hack who doesn’t even know which questions to ask? You go from hearsay to a first person narrative, cutting out the annoying middle man! Instead of lazily printing some pols comments instead of digging into the facts (that’s too tiring), internet journalists are frequently focused on a single issue, devoting more attention, determination and passion to researching that issue than a Professional Journalist could ever match.

The coverage is better because it is more thorough and there is usually more than one writer digging into the subject.

The recent coverage of the immigration bill is a perfect example of internet journalists burying the professionals’ efforts on the story. The internet writers, no doubt clad in pajamas and merrily typing away on their basement computers, actually READ the bill instead of relying on the boilerplate commentary supplied by the politicians. - the commentary that was the mainstay of mainstream media coverage. Thanks to their superior knowledge (superior even to the pols supposedly crafting the bill), bloggers were able to define what the bill actually said and were able to point out huge problems that resulted in public outrage and the bills eventual demise.

Bloggers exposed the chinks in the armor of the media and showed that the mainstream media is not the only way to get information and, in this case, was certainly not the best way. Score one for the new media. But change comes slowly, and I’m sure our society will experience more growing pains as we shift from the old way of delivering information to the public to a new, more individually-tailored, way.

During “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” in January, I was talking to one of the other actors, a very bright and talented girl who graduated in May with plans to pursue Professional Journalism. She looked like I punched her in the stomach when I said “well, we’re all young and stupid once...(perhaps I could have come up with a better choice of words, but diplomacy has never been my strong suit).” I then explained how, for the most part, journalism has become the profession of everyman now and to jump into journalism is to board the Titanic about an hour before its rendezvous with the iceberg. We talked about it for quite a while and she said her plans were a little more focused on television than print, a venue in which there will still be some opportunity (though I told her I hated to see her intelligence and ability wasted on such a vapid enterprise.)

I hope she’ll eventually rethink her plans…

Gone are the mantles of indispensability and impartiality which once graced journalism – it’s been demonstrated that drive, knowledge and ability outweigh degree anytime. The mainstream media beast is ailing and may very well be dead…it just hasn’t gotten the news yet.

Norm would be proud

*****Warning: Family Update Post – of limited appeal*****

This week has been like an episode of New Yankee Workshop at the Rantmeister hacienda as we’re building a host of bookcases so we can actually put many of our books in the room we call the Library. Norm Abrams would be so proud! So far, we’ve built a couple floor-to-ceiling cases with fixed shelves and another couple cases with one drawer at the bottom and adjustable shelves through the rest of the seven-foot tall cases.

On tap for tomorrow are the final cases…a couple lateral file drawers at the bottom with more shelves in a step-back arrangement at the top. Crown molding, baseboards and face frames will finish it off. See what happens when there’s no pressing theater or farm task to keep our hands busy?

We’re building the cases from birch plywood and the faces, crown molding and baseboards will be made from cherry cut on my father’s farm about 25 years ago. This is not a new pursuit for me…I built quite a few full sets of kitchen cabinets for Doc-wife’s parents, who own a lot of rental property in South Carolina. During my wife’s medical school years, I also rebuilt and salvaged a lot of antique furniture we purchased for pennies at auction or picked up from the trash. We’d then take those items to the antique shows over the weekend…it was a rare weekend that we didn’t pick up at least a couple hundred bucks worth of after-expenses spending money through selling our restorations. Our house is still furnished with some of those curbside finds.

Still, it was nice to get the sawdust flying again…though my current workshop facilities are somewhat less than optimal. My tools are located in the hay barn, and I’m constantly fighting with resident birds and high humidity to keep my machinery usable.

We’ve also got a full store of projects located with my tools in the barn…they include a nice oak pier mirror, several stack bookcases, a nice set of oak chairs and a primitive cabinet we brought along from our West Virginia house.
Later this summer or fall, we plan to build a concrete-floored pole barn to store our farm equipment. We’re planning a 40-by-80 foot building with a 12 foot wall height. We would also section off (and heat) a portion of the building as workshop space – a place where my cabinet saw, bandsaws, shaper, 12-foot wood lathe, planer, drill press and other assorted guy toys could be used and kept in relative luxury. This will be a new experience for us as we haven’t actually hired anyone to build a structure for us at any of the houses we’ve owned…we figured if we couldn’t build it ourselves, we didn’t really need it.

Stay tuned for construction updates.

Medievel meandering

At the Faire

The Rantmeister clan visited the Great Lakes Medieval Faire over the weekend, decked out in our medieval finery. Here, Doc-wife, son-and-heir and blog daughter enjoy the performance of the comic fire eaters near the entrance to the Faire. As we’re the proud holders of season passes, we expect to visit the Faire regularly over the summer.

Drawbacks of travel

Having been nauseated after periodically picking warbles from the skin of various pets, this struck me as particularly yucky – boy, talk about those drawbacks of international travel that no one mentions! This leaves dysentery in the dust, in my book!

The Spud that roared

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight…it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”

It’s one of those old truisms…and I found out yesterday that it can be applied to cats, too - even half-grown cats who are more a legend in their own minds than in reality.

Remember the kitten I pictured in the tortilla a couple months ago? We call him “Spud” now and he’s been a constant companion on our outdoor forays. He’s the source of a lot of exasperation as he winds his way around ankles and under feet as we’re trying to leave the porch of our house, though he does make up for his trouble with a constant parade of mice, moles and voles served up for our scrutiny.

Yesterday, as Doc-wife and I were surveying the garden (and gobbling some early season tomatoes), Spud was contentedly pouncing on grasshoppers unlucky enough to come to his attention. Suddenly, he stopped and went flying, arms spread for the pounce, into a patch of tall weeds.

We heard a weird burping noise and then a hiss.

Spud came sauntering out and stood by our feet with a “what the hell was that?” look on his face.

The weeds moved…we investigated…reluctantly. A very large, somewhat puzzled, woodchuck poked his head out and then made a beeline for the mound of dirt behind our chicken coop, Spud in hot pursuit. This woodchuck had to be at least 2-1/2 times as big as Spud, but the kitten wasn’t backing down. It was like those old Foghorn Leghorn cartoons with the tiny chicken hawk…”I’m a chicken hawk and you’re a chicken, so are you going to come along quietly or am I gonna have to get rough?”

Spud’s probably outside now, bragging to anyone that’ll listen about the “ginormous mouse that got away.”

Michelle Malkin: You go, girl!

Blogger Michelle Malkin has launched a new campaign aimed at pressuring Congress to do something about the revolving door of criminal illegal aliens being "caught and released" in the country. She's started www.deportthemnow.com to try to do something about the problem.
Here's the website's debut video....with promises for many more to follow.


It's a problem the pols and immigration amnesty supporters would prefer was quietly swept under the rug...it's time to bring it into the light of day.

Another endangered RINO

I wonder if anyone except John McCain is surprised that his 2008 Presidential campaign is tanking?

While the Arizona Republican was busy cozying up to his buddies inside the D.C. beltway and in the mainstream media, his antics weren’t playing too well in red-tinged flyover country…you know, John…that backwater place where all those VOTERS live? Perhaps your positions on critical issues were just too nuanced for our pedestrian minds to grasp. Perhaps your support for the Illegal Immigration Amnesty excrement being floated by Pres. Bush and Teddy Kennedy was in reality a subtle ploy designed to reveal that borders are too concrete a concept in an existential world…maybe we just couldn’t see the obvious truth that all the world should be one society under newly-elected King John?

Or that McCain-Feingold “Campaign Finance Reform” nonsense…perhaps we just couldn’t see that muzzling our free speech is the first step to…setting us free? Help me out here, John…throw me a frickin’ bone, okay?

I think maybe you mistook popularity in the New York Times and Washington Post for popularity with those flea-bitten flyover flatlanders who actually do the voting, the ones to whom deed matters more than word. That’s the beauty of our system…even incumbent dinosaurs like you have to return to the people every so often to renew your mandate as a representative. After a couple tries, and some really strong glasses, even us outside-the-beltway dullards can tell a Republican from a Republican in Name Only (RINO) like you.

Thanks for the service in Vietnam (and sorry about that prison camp and torture thing while you were there) but don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. The brand of two-faced politics-as-usual that you’re selling is not what anyone is interested in buying.

Capisce?

Rantmeister's Cincinnati Chili

You know, the exchange students may leave our home, but they always take a little something along with them – a longing for some gustatory delight produced in the Rantmeister’s kitchen. Latest case in point: our first exchange student, German Till, caught me on MSN Messenger the other day, prostrated himself (figuratively) on hands and knees and begged for the recipe for Cincinnati Chili.

And being the magnanimous (and modest) person that I am, I agreed to post it on my blog. Please be warned: Anyone shopping the internet for Cincinnati Chili recipes should beware – there are a lot of fakers and pretenders out there, trying to pass off something as Cincinnati Chili from which even a moderately self-respecting Cincinnati dog would turn away.
Some tips:

*Clue 1 – If the recipe calls for you to brown the beef…run away! This person has never been to Cincinnati or savored the spices of Gold Star.

*Clue 2 – If the recipe calls for tomatoes or peppers or includes the word “healthy” in any context, take cover! It ain’t Cincinnati chili, just some would-be west coast gourmand trying to bring nouvelle cuisine to the masses.

*Clue 3 – If it includes the word “quick” in the recipe description, it’s time to find another listing…Cincinnati chili is equal parts alchemy, wizardry and patience. So without further ado:

Cincinnati Chili Recipe (a work in progress)

2 quarts water
3 medium onions (chopped very fine…I use a food processor)
2 small cans tomato paste
1 tsp ground allspice
2 tsp +/- red pepper
3 tsp ground cumin
5 tbsp chili powder
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
3 pounds lean finely ground beef (or venison, which also works well)
6 garlic cloves (chop finely in the food processor)
3 tbsp vinegar
3 bay leaves
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp cinnamon
2-3 tsp salt

Bring water to a boil in a large pot…like a pasta pot. Add ground meat. Cook meat until it begins to separate and disperses evenly throughout water. Add remaining ingredients and reduce heat. I like to cover the pot and cook for about 30 minutes over medium low heat, then uncover and simmer for at least an additional 3 hours, stirring occasionally until desired consistency is achieved.

Serve over spaghetti topped with finely shredded cheddar cheese (3-way) and chopped onions (4 way) and/or beans (5 way.) Sprinkle liberally with oyster crackers and enjoy. May also be served with hot dogs (coneys) in the following manner: place hot dog in bun, add line of yellow mustard down bun, fill to overflowing with chili, pile finely shredded cheddar of top of that and then try to eat the whole mess without wearing most of it.

Harry Potter: Good but...

We just got back from the debut showing of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” at one of the local movie theaters. My take? This is the first Harry Potter movie that felt like it was made simply to set up the next installment in the series.

It was good and an enjoyable 2 hours and 10 minutes, but it seems like the production staff is starting to trade story for special effects, as happens so often in series productions. It fell well short of previous efforts. I thought the new characters in this movie were well crafted…I particularly liked the fey new “Luna” character. Having never read the books (I started one, but found Rowling’s prose unbelievably tedious), I don’t know how she figures in the continuation of the adventures in the already-completed volumes.

It was a sparse crowd at our local theater…I’d say it was at only about 30 percent of seating capacity – seemingly bad news for day one of an expected blockbuster, though I expect box office totals will eventually meet expectations.

*****

We also went a little over a week ago to see the new Die Hard movie, “Live Free or Die Hard.” Pocket review? Yippee Ki Yay MF’ers! Bruce Willis never disappoints ad this is no exception. We took the children, who then spent the next day in a Die Hard-a-palooza, watching the entire rest of the series.

This post brought to you by MacBook

"The only constant in this world is change..."
I forget which great thinker said that (maybe Harpo Marx) but it's true. Change has even come to the Rantmeister this week in the form of a brand spanking new Apple MacBook Pro 17 laptop computer. This s my first blog post from the new computer...sitting wireless on my bed...and, yes, dressed in pajamas. I can practically feel the specter of Steve Jobs guiding my fingers. I began my computing journey with Macs working at the newspapers, had a Mac Performa in the early 90s, then switched to PCs because of the availability of software. With this Core Duo Mac able to run anything made for either machine, the decision to switch back was a no-brainer.
Ain't life grand!
The new Harry Potter movie is on the agenda for today...leisure time is welcome after the last five weeks of performances at the Ashtabula Arts Center (three weeks of The Wizard of Oz and two weeks of The Fantasticks.) The Fantasticks was a ball, though, working with a small cast of very talented people...you were never quite sure what the show was going to be from night to night (there was a lot of improvisation going on.) It was very challenging for me musically, as my last formal musical training was as a chorus member at the arts center in probably 1974, but it could have been a lot worse.
On the home front, the garden is growing somewhat slowly because of the drought, but our four acres of sweet corn looks good as do the peppers and tomatoes. We've also launched a somewhat preemptive pogrom against raccoons (or consider it payback for all the chickens they've killed here) with the current tally standing at 12 confirmed kills and a couple probables.
More incisive blogging to follow as I sort out the ins and out of this new platform.