Timely medical care: Against the Law

Amongst us this topic pops up from time to time. As always I will happily admit there are failures in our current healthcare structure but I also feel the need to warn against the seductive call to “nationalize”. Canada is often used by the staunchest defenders of socialized medicine as a shining city, an example to be admired and carbon copied. Hopefully with this little tidbit, Canada will become instead a cautionary tale of the dangers of simply handing over your medical care to bureaucrats in Washington.

But the universal health-care system - while considered one of the fairest in the world - has been plagued by long waiting lists and a lack of doctors, nurses and new equipment. Some patients wait years for surgery, MRI machines are scarce and many Canadians travel to the United States for medical treatment.

In most Canadian provinces, it is illegal to seek faster treatment and jump to the head of the line by paying out of pocket for public care. Private health clinics have sprouted up even though they are technically illegal, though the provincial governments tend to look the other way.

How fucked up is that? I thought the idea was to make sure the “poor” had care and not compelling everyone, by law, to wait an exorbitant amount of time for that care. I guess I was wrong. As for those in Canada concerned that this ruling that will allow private insurance will lead to a two tier system they are either idiots or lying to cover up some agenda as Canada in fact already has a two tier system. Tier one are the Canadian waiting around in Canada for slow, outdated sub par care and the other tier is all the Canadians that go to the US for care.

BOTD: Summit Hefe Weizen

Yesterday Jeff called and asked if it would be okay for him to bike over after stopping to get a 6 at a local beer specialty shop. I asked why he was afflicted with the need to ask rhetorical questions and told him to hurry. Jeff then proceeded to bring over a Hefe Weizen by the Summit Brewing company.

It wants to be your friend.
I had spent the day working in what ended up being 92° heat so any beer would have tasted good to me. That’s where the concern is as the beer only tasted good. It had little nose and a very subdued citrus. It was okay. The most unremarkable hefe I have had. It seems that they couldn’t pull the trigger to go all the way in the brewing process and have created a hefe for people that would really rather be drinking an ale.

Brewery: Summit Brewing Company
Year: 1986
Origin: American (St. Paul, Minnesota)
Style: Hefe Weizen
Content: 4.2%
Rating: Not bad
Recommendation: If it’s on special or you aren’t sure what you are in the mood for give it a try.

Summer Project Day2

Here are the pictures from yesterday’s progress.

There's not much as fun as digging out 5 inches of compacted root infested gravel

Anyone looking for a 90 year old glazed road paver? I have a couple.

With this picture perhaps people can stop asking me if I'm done yet.

Some people

Click HERE to check out the Tempo and Topaz club. Yes, that’s in Ford Tempo and Mercury Topaz, two of the very worst examples of 80’s mediocrity and unreliability. However after a look on the site I could not find one single mention of a gathering or convention, which leads me to thinking that this is not so much a “club” as it is an internet support group where freaks of a like mind may send pictures and messages to each other.

One thing I must mention about the site is that the creator has the inability to properly capitalize words. Every word has a capitol letter randomly placed in it. For example the header reads, “foRd tEmpo meRcury topAz cAr club of noRth ameRica”. Why in the world would someone type like that once they are past the age of 12? Poor taste, which I guess is the territorial norm for one that loves the Tempo and Topaz.

The big summer project

This summer I have been tasked with building a new porch and walk off the back of the deck. I have done a bit a peice meal work on the site for the last few weeks but yeasterday marked the big push as I am out of classes.

And so it begins.
Today's high is supposed to be 89°, yea!

I are reel smart

Ah, getting back into the swing of posting. Hopefully I should be able to get in a good number of posts in the near future, although I don’t hold out much hope as to there being a number of good posts.

So…

Much was said during and after the election last year about how much of a dullard Bush was in comparison to the intellectual might on one John F. Kerry. Those who believe that rested their case heavily on Bush’s less than stellar 77% average while at Yale.

Could they have found a less flatering picture?

Now that it has come out that the brain trust Kerry eked out a mere 76% at Harvard I just have to laugh. Not at Kerry, but at those who think public speaking ability is directly corollary to intelligence.

Done, for now.

Whee! Just finished my last final and have a nice 20 day break until classes start again. Durring which I must build the patio. After that I should be ready for summer trem to start even though my humanities professor is a Ba'athist apologist.

BOTD: "33" Export

Today we have for our enjoyment a bottle of “33” Export. This beer comes to us all the way from Vietnam. You know the old wounds of war have healed when you start importing beer from them. There are still many who will be tormented for the rest of their lives, but as two nations I believe we have moved on.

Maybe the 33 stands for the number of ingredients.
Okay, on to the beer. All the Vietnamese beers that I have seen have all come in brown glass and not a one of them has been skunky. This “33” Export is no different. There is a bit of age to the taste, which is to be expected as they don’t overnight the stuff, but no skunkiness. That’s good, and that’s about all that’s good. It’s just missing something. It’s not quite anything. It’s not a flavorless beer, it’s just hard to pin down. Almost as if they made this lager with a little bit of everything and it’s just not working.

Brewery: BGI Tien Gang (Fosters)
Year: unknown
Style: Lager
Origin: Vietnam
Rating: Poor
Recommendation: If you need to be able to say you’ve had Vietnamese beer then okay.

Saab in the news

Good News for Saab, >sales up 7.6% for May 2005 compared to May 2004. Bad news is sales are still down 6.7% on the year but a few more good months should turn that around and with sales of the 9-7X starting they year should finish out well.

Also is the news of the 2.8l all aluminum V6 for the ’06 9-3. This motor is based on the 3.5l V6 available in the Cadillac CTS, however it has been well massaged by the Saab engineers.

The new 9-3 Sportcombi for 2006 will also feature the 250hp 2.8l V6.
The Saab version differs from its larger Cadillac brother with stronger aluminum cylinder heads (with sodium-filled exhaust valves) than does the normally aspirated version, as well as piston-cooling oil squirters, forged crank and connecting rods, unique cam profiles, dual-skin exhaust manifolds and of course, it’s turbo charged as well. The Saab 2.8 delivers 250hp compared to the 260hp of the much larger 3.5 naturally aspirated version and it makes the 250 with a low 8.5lbs of boost.

The current 9-5 Aero makes 250hp in a 2.0l I4 but needs 15lbs of boost to get there. Also with only 8.5lbs of boost that leaves room to grow. Could a 300hp monster be in the offing?

To my Saabophile friends that have recoiled in horror to the idea of a Saab having a V6 I say, get over it. Saab loses sales every month precisely because they don’t have a V6 to offer in a segment full of V6’s. I the American market the top hp rating and the offering of a V6 help move the lower cars. Is the American market wrong to think that the 4 cylinder motor is for economy cars only? That’s completely moot. The fact is that the American market does and to ignore that is to risk oblivion, which is close at hand for Saab if sales don’t start to move up.

I guess I’m just not as big of a car snob as some people, which is saying something.

BOTD: Quilmes Cerveza

Interested in Argentinian wines are you? Well today we get to take a look at Quilmes Cerveza, “Argentina’s favorite beer”. Other than being brewed in Buenos Aires I was not able to glean much info from the Spanish only web site. I guess that’s just further proof I am a racist pig.

From the home of Patagonia.
As I get ready to open this bottle I am over come by a feeling of doom and worry over exactly how old an Argentinian beer in Ohio just might be and am only slightly quieted by the dark brown glass of the bottle. After opening I learn my fears were well founded, also I was lucky to have opened it outside. The beer was old and fully skunked. Hiding under the age I sense there is a decent lager to be had. Unfortunately I doubt it can be had fresh this side of the equator.

Brewery: Quilmes
Year: 1890
Origin: Argentina
Style: Lager
Content: unknown
Rating: skunk
Recommendation: Best to avoid unless you are in Argentina.

Brits have a point to make.

This is just going too far. A group in England wants to ban pointy kitchen knives. Oh my sweet Jesus. So after they banned guns there are still murders? But how is that possible when it was the guns killing people? Well I guess now that the knives have started to kill people you sure ought to ban them too. And maybe in 10 years you can ban cricket bats and then eventually people’s hands. After all didn’t Michael Meyer’s use a big chef’s knife in Halloween? They must be outlawed.

So called "kitchen" knives found typical violent American homes.
Of course I can already hear the right wing nut jobs screaming, “You can have my boning knife when you take it from my cold dead fingers”.

Thought I wonder if, when they are outlawed, the government will ask for them back on an honor system or if they’ll send the army into kitchens to forcibly confiscate the deadly weapons.

BOTD: Dinkel Acker Pils

Today we have our first true pilsner for the BOTD. This particular pilsner comes from the Spaten brewery in Munich. The Dinkel Acker is, like most German beers, made in strict accordance to the Reinheitsgebot. Some have voiced a concern over the EU ruling in 1997 that Germany can no longer enforce the Reinheitsgebot, but the ruling only forced Germany to allow the sale of non- Reinheitsgebot beers. Breweries are still freely allowed to follow the old rules if they wish and only beers made such can have Reinheitsgebot on the label and the Germans themselves rarely purchase a beer that is not.

Go Buckeyes!
Opening the bottle and pouring the beer creates a nose completely lacking in any skunk. This is something to consider in that the bottle is green. If only the Dutch had their own Reinheitsgebot. As you drink the Dinkel Acker pils the taste is crisp and lightly hopped. There is in the middle just a hit of apples. Over all it is an appealing and fine example of a pilsner.

Brewery: Dinkel Acker (Spaten)
Year: 1888
Origin: Germany
Style: Pilsner
Content: Not much, as it is a pilsner
Rating: Good
Recommendation: If weather predicts to be hot this is worthy of strong consideration.