Mook of the Week

The latest Mook of the Week award goes to Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter.

Proving that an NDP government can be just as bad, or even worse, than a Tory or Liberal government he continues to show his stupidity. The latest idiocy sees the Dexter regime asking the Federal government to take $47 Million out of a money being given to Nova Scotia for infrastructure spending and putting it toward the building of a new convention centre in Halifax. That isn't even counting the over $200 Million in Provincial and Municipal money that would be spent as well.

The Federal money is slated to be used for roads and the building of community centres across the Province. Instead Mr. Dexter wants to use it to build a convention centre that is not really needed in Halifax. The convention centres that currently exist aren't being fully utilized and this twit wants to spend OUR money on building another one.

The money would be better spent on the infrastructure it is meant for as well as on Health Care and Education. Nova Scotia needs more long term care spaces for the elderly, hospital facilities, doctors and nurses. The Education budget in Nova Scotia is going to be cut 22%. Yet Dexter wants to pump money into a convention centre that isn't needed.

After expense scandals, donation scandals, and bullshit like this convention centre the Dippers have proven they are no better, and in some ways worse, than the other parties. As the leader of the NDP Mr. Dexter has show how much of a hypocrite he and his party is.

Mr. Dexter, you sir, are a political mook, and if I start a mook of the Month or Year category you will definitely be a front runner.

Access to medical care in Nova Scotia

The other day my mother, 78, slipped and fell. She was helping a friend, who had fallen and broken her foot a week ago, get out of the car after taking her shopping. She turned and caught her foot on the curb and took a tumble landing hard on the right side of her head/face.

She received a lot of help. Some workmen helped her up and put her in a wheelchair. A woman living in the condo is a retired nurse and came to help. Mom was cut above her eye and blood was gushing out like a wildcat oil well. The condo superintendent called 911 and then called me. I got there after the EMT's arrived. They took great care of mom and said she should go to the hospital and get checked out. They were worried about a concussion more than anything else. Her face around the eye and cheek was already bruised and swollen. Since I was there, and an ambulance ride costs $500-600, I drove mom to the Dartmouth General Hospital.

We got there around 11:300 AM and the Emergency Room was packed. Some of the people ahead of mom at triage had injuries such as a bleeding nose that needed to be cauterized, a sprained ankle, a migraine, and other assorted injuries. Mom had a head injury with ;possible concussion. We left the hospital around 6:10 PM without having seen a doctor.

Everyone who was there before we arrived was in AND out of the ER. Lots of people who came in after us were in and out. Mom was still waiting.

I don't want to knock the staff that works at the hospital as I know they do their best with what they have. But if mom's injuries were so insignificant that she was on the bottom of the totem pole, someone with a bleeding nose that was packed and not bleeding got in hours before we left, then why didn't they tell her that and suggest she see her family doctor the next day, or the duty doctor that day? A few hours after no signs of concussion showed they could have suggested that. It boggles my mind that a nose bleed and a migraine were given priority over a 78 year old woman who fell and was possibly concussed.

Why was the wait so long at the hospital? Well, people go there to have things treated that could just as easily be seen by a family doctor or a duty doctor at a clinic. A migraine. A cold. A sprain. One woman came in to get IV antibiotics, at her family doctors request, for an infection. These are all things that should and could be dealt with at a clinic or doctor's office. Yet people go to the ER and clog it up.

One of the things I loved about Korea was the care you could get IN a doctor's office or clinic. Needed a blood test? They drew the blood AT the doctor's office. You didn't have to go to a special clinic that is only open a couple of days a week or the hospital. You needed minor stitches? Clinic. Needed an x-ray? Any doctor's office I was at in Korea had an x-ray machine. Need IV antibiotics? Doctor's office. You didn't have to go to the ER, let alone the hospital, for minor things. Add to that there are enough doctors in Korea that you can walk in without an appointment and reasonably expect to see the doctor in less than an hour. The access to health care in South Korea makes Canada's access seem ... third world.

Then you have another problem making things worse at the ER. No beds in the hospital. A lot of patients who SHOULD be admitted to the hospital have to wait in the ER for days for a bed to become available. The mother of a friend had a mini-stroke last December, at the time they thought it was a full stroke. She spent THREE days in a small room in the ER waiting for a bed to become available in the hospital. When my mother had congestive heart failure 3 years ago she spent over 12 hours in a bed in the ER waiting for a bed to become available in the hospital. That is an insane situation.

A lot of the hospital beds are being taken up by people waiting for beds to open in long term senior care facilities. Twice while we were waiting in the ER a "Code: Census" was announced. Another person waiting went up and asked a nurse what that meant and was told it meant there are NO beds left in the ER and they can't admit anyone else until one opens up. It was over an hour before they took another patient into the ER to see a doctor.

In Nova Scotia there is a shortage of long term care facilities for the elderly, hospital beds, doctors, and nurses. Which makes what the Provincial Government wants to do now obscene. They want to take $47 Million of Federal money slated for infrastructure and use it to put towards having a new convention center built in Halifax. THAT is pretty fucked up.

We currently have a convention centre in Halifax that is NOT being fully utilized, the World Trade and Convention Centre. Also there is the Summit Place, a convention centre that was built to host a G7 meetings in the 1995. Why in the blue hell do we need another centre? One built with government money? If a new centre was REALLY viable the private sector would be ready to build it without government money.

The $47 Million dollars that the Dexter government wants from the Federal government was slated for infrastructure investment, mainly repairing and upgrading the roads in Nova Scotia as well as recreation centers around the province. I could see them wanting to take it away from roads for another infrastructure area, let's say long term care facilities for the elderly or more hospital facilities and staff, but a convention centre that we DON'T need?

I thought things were supposed to be different under an NDP government? The Dippers are more worried about "the people" than business. I guess that was just a lot of bull shit used to get themselves elected. Like any other party. Based on the expense scandals, donation scandals, and bullshit like this convention centre and self congratulatory spending one would think it was the old Buchanan government in power and not the Dippers.

If you HAVE to take $47 Million in Federal infrastructure funds away from from roads you should be putting it in health care and not a white elephant Mr. Dexter.

Smells of Winter

Just like summer has some fantastic scents so does winter. It seems as though the cold air enhances the olfactory sense. There is nothing quite like the smell of a wood fire burning on a cold winter day. Kind of like a mowed lawn and salt water in the summer.

Official Stupidity

They closed some local schools at noon today and others were sending students home 2 hours early because a snowstorm MIGHT hit this afternoon. It is almost 1:50PM and while it is snowing it is not storming. All it could be called is a flurry at most.

Not to sound too old, and I know it does, but we walked to school in snowstorms when I was a kid. Nova Scotia has the MOST days set aside as snow days of any province in the country. school starts earlier here and has more days than other provinces to cover it. Yet parents still piss and moan about snow days and missed school.

Maybe my parents were right, the next generation is wussier. :)

What the ... faggot 2?!?!?

It turns out 2 radio stations decided to protests the Canadian Broadcast Standards Commission (CBSC) ban of "Money for Nothing". One here in Halifax and one out west. Q104 in Halifax played the song for an hour on a Friday night. What happened?

Two asshats complained to the CBSC about it. The CBSC announced yesterdat they will investigate the complaints. If they find Q104 guilty what will happen?

Q104 would receive a reprimand from the CBSC and have to read it on air twice. What the hell?!?!?! That is it? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Is it just me or does the CBSC sound like a bunch of morons with no power?

The CBSC is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with no real power to enforce it's rules. It is a useless tool which, looking at the absurdity of their ruling on "Money for Nothing", is governed by a bunch of useless tools.

What the ... faggot?!?!?

I knew that one culture shock I would face when I moved home would be Political Correctness. You can call Koreans many things but PC isn't one of them. In the West we tend to be too PC. Case in point the recent "controversy" of the use of "faggot" in the Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing".

A complaint to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council by one person in Newfoundland caused them to issue a ban on the use of the song except for versions with "faggot" removed/replaced. The Council didn't seem to expect as many people to be pissed off with their decision. Instead of being greeted as enlightened and proper most people seem to think the Council are a bunch of PC fucktards with more shit for brains than common sense.

In some ways the CBSC reminds me of Hagwon owners. Becaise one parent complained about something, no matter how stupid the complaint, the owners would do whatever to make the one parent happy.

The assholes that ran Ivy School in Cheongju were that type of Hagwon owner. Mrs. Kim once told me I wasn't to converse with the kids in my CONVERSATION class in English, only talk about the book. Why? Because one student, whose level was too low for the class, didn't understand and told mommy who complained to the school. Fucktards.

I can actually see the CBSC's decision doing more harm than good. Reacting the way they did to 1 complaint in the 20+ years the song has been around just gives the homophobes something to point to when complaining about gay rights.

Not to mention that they even missed the point of the song. It was satire showing how some people talk and are intolerant. Reminds me of a website I used to frequent. They turned so PC it makes you want to smack them upside the head. In a post talking about racism in Korea. "If you are white you are American. Unless you are blond in which case you are Russian. If you are black you are from Africa. If you are SE Asian you are poor and dirty. If you are Japanese you are evil." The moderators considered explaining about racism in Korea was too racist and cut it down to "Koreans pigeonhole people by skin colour." or some such nonsense. What a bunch of PC retards. But I digress.

As the South Park episode showed, language does change over time. Fag doesn't have the same derogatory meaning as it used to. Hell, many of my gay friends greet gay and straight people alike by saying "Hi fag." I guess they should be censored too.

It turns out that some radio stations are ignoring the CBSC ban. A radio station in Halifax played the song non-stop for an hour as a way of telling the douchebags at the CBSC to go fuck themselves. Which is a go way to end this ...

CBSC and the lone pathetic moron who complained about the song ...

... go fuck yourselves.

Close Encounter of the Mook Kind

God damn mooks! We should be able to kill them, or at least beat them soundly, when they are too mookish.

I walk our dog 2-3 times a day. We both enjoy it. I try to stick to the hiking/biking paths behind the house or the side walks. Sometimes you want to change up your route and there are no paths or side walks. I trust drivers here slightly less than I trusted them in Korea. There aren't as many mookish ones but it only takes one mook to ruin your day.

Tonight we took a route that involved a street with sidewalks and a street with none. Of course I walked facing the direction traffic would be coming. I also kept the dog between me and the sidewalk.

We were about 20 to 25 feet from the end of the street, it ends in a T intersection. Down the street, to the right of the T, some mook is speeding . He whips onto the street I am walking down and missed me by about 4-5 inches. He continued racing off up the street.

What a fucking mook. The street was damp, and the temperature dropping. Black ice was forming. And this asshole drives like that. I wish I could have 5 minutes alone with him.