Stuff For a Thursday

Here it is....


How much the Drummond Report was like a refreshing punch to the kidneys. Except that being punched in the kidneys hurts and is not at all refreshing, nor should anyone do such a thing. Things are grim, is my point:

Clearly, Ontarians want their health care system not only sustained, but also improved. Can fears of unsustainability — that the system will not remain affordable — be eased by proposing some of the more obvious — or at least most often cited — solutions? Again, unfortunately, there is no straightforward response. Sustainability involves many moving parts; any number of changes to the equation can render health care more sustainable or less so. Three of the moving parts come to mind:

• First, stronger productivity growth, by generating more economic growth, would make it easier to afford more health care spending. But even if productivity growth doubled from its low levels of the past decade, trend growth in nominal GDP would still fall far short of the projected increases in health care spending. In any case, such an aggressive assumption about productivity growth is mere wishful thinking since we have no ready answers on how to revive it. Wishful thinking, needless to say, cannot be the foundation of a policy response to the sustainability issue.
• Second, we could afford more health care if we raised taxes, but tax rates would have to rise persistently to keep the new revenue received above income growth. This might generate voter tax fatigue and would inevitably result in broader economic losses as the economic distortions induced by rising taxes magnified.
• Third, we could restrain all other government spending severely to leave more room for health care. But as TD Economics pointed out, status quo trends suggest that by 2030, health care would account for 80 per cent of Ontario’s program spending. The remaining 20 per cent would not even cover the current education system, let alone any other public services.

It goes almost without saying that these are not solutions; the status quo growth path of health care spending needs to be curbed. At the same time, much of the Ontario health care system not only can be improved, but calls out for improvement.

 Oh, I'm sure this is going to help:

The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly ratcheted up the pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday by overwhelmingly approving a resolution that endorses an Arab League plan calling for him to step aside.

The initial count showed that the resolution, which is similar to one Russia and China vetoed in the Security Council on February 4, received 137 votes in favor, 12 against and 17 abstentions, though three delegations said their votes failed to register on the electronic board.

Russia and China were among those opposing the resolution, which was drafted by Saudi Arabia and submitted by Egypt on behalf of Arab U.N. delegations. Unlike in the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the General Assembly, and its decisions lack the legal force of council resolutions.

"Today the U.N. General Assembly sent a clear message to the people of Syria - the world is with you," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said in a statement.

"An overwhelming majority of UN member states have backed the plan put forward by the Arab League to end the suffering of Syrians," she said. "Bashar al-Assad has never been more isolated."

Well that's going to show him!


Where were they a year ago?



Some people deserve to rot in hell. Like this lady.



I wonder how this wastrel is going to suck moolah out of the mullahs in Tehran:

Former Roseau River chief Terry Nelson is asking Iran for help with the governance issues on his and other First Nations.

A referendum on how Roseau River chooses its leaders was postponed Thursday. Aboriginal Affairs said it needed more time to work with the community, which has been plagued by issues at the ballot box.

When the news came down Thursday, Nelson decided to lead a caravan of cars to the Iranian embassy in Ottawa in about two weeks. He plans to thank Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his condemnation of Canada’s treatment of aboriginal people, and ask him for help in bringing attention to the issue of missing and murdered women.

“I am not going to spend my time trying to get the immigrant governments to hear our plight, it is time to ask other nations to investigate and support us directly,” he wrote.

“Ottawa police and RCMP are just going to have beat women, children and men to keep us from attending to the embassies.”

Nelson plans to hold a press conference in Roseau River Friday to detail his plans.

“I don’t want violence to be the only option left for my community. They should have had a simple referendum to allow the people to decide, but now what options do the people have?”

Financial and emotional blackmail is not beneath sleaze like him. Idiot.


(Mamnoon)



Why Celebrity Apartheid Week matters: if Sean "Pig" Penn really loved Hugo Chavez, he would move in with him:

Actor Sean Penn criticized Republican presidential candidates during a visit to Venezuela on Thursday, saying that right-wing policies in the United States aim to benefit the wealthy....

Penn said he doesn’t think “the use of those exploitive sort of demonizations will be very beneficial to this crew of candidates.”

“That would be the least amongst their weaknesses,” Penn said. “It’s never predictable what can happen in an American election, but we certainly believe at this point that it’s becoming increasingly clear to the American people that the policies of the far right are the policies of the rich, and that they are to the exclusion of the middle class and the poor, and that no society has a future on that basis.”

The Oscar-winning actor has met with Chavez several times in Venezuela and has a friendly relationship with the leftist leader.

 
The delicious periodic table done in cupcake form.



Mmmm.... frosted boron....


Perhaps an inventive teacher could teach the periodic table WITH cupcakes, having the students decorate the cupcakes with the appropriate number of sprinkles for atomic numbers and such.


Just a thought.


We knew this had to happen: LEGO Blade Runner.