Pie Palace

In this time of economic and political uncertainty, alcohol increases its importance in our day-to-day lives. As such, I am nominating Schmitt-Soehne Relax Riesling as Pie Palace’s wine of the month. It’s sweet, reminding you of the Harper government’s possible implosion; and low acid, so won’t exacerbate any indigestion you may be feeling due to your tanking investments (or utter lack of investments).

Dear Michaelle Jean,

As you have likely noticed, our present government is a bunch of wankers. Their recent fiscal update provides no economic stimulus package, makes it illegal for federal workers to strike, and overstates the likelihood of ongoing federal surpluses. All this after the Parliamentary budget officer blamed Tory policies for the evaporation of the 2006 surplus.

For once, the opposition parties are talking about bringing down the government rather than their usual song and dance of tacit support.

On Monday, if the opposition parties really do go through with their threat, please, please, please do everything you can to encourage them to form a coalition government. No, I don’t like them either, but I don’t think that now is the time for another $300 million election.

Sincerely,
esf

CBC’s Canadian doctors should face regular testing: medical school head is a great example of poor journalism. The gist of the article is simple: a doctor has recommended that Canadian doctors should be periodically recertified. The journalist has found another doctor else who says “No! doctors shouldn’t be retested.” Without talking to the journalist, we can’t tell if that was to create a sense of conflict, or to make the story more “balanced.”

There are three problems here:

1. The No doctor’s statement:
   

   What we do every day is not really a book learning thing, [...] To say, in fact, that because you pass an exam makes you a good physician every 10 years is absolutely wrong.

   is exactly refuted by the CMAJ editorial:
   

   In Quebec, investigators found that family physicians’ scores on their certification examination and Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination were related to provision of quality care after 4–7 years in practice. More recently, Holmboe and colleagues found that physicians’ scores on the American Board of Internal Medicine’s Maintenance of Certification examination was associated with higher rates of performance in care for Medicare patients.

   which goes on to cite the studies in question.
2. The Yes doctor, Wendy Levinson has qualifications as a medical instructor, and appears to study how patients interact with their doctors and is a chair at department of medicine.
3. Meanwhile, the No doctor, Howard Conter does not appear to have any any relevant publications or appointments.

News stories like this are important. They get people to think about how healthcare is delivered in Canada, and how that can be reformed. It’s a pity that the story took the form of “she said, he said” instead of dipping into the empirical studies behind the editorial.

All throughout the US election, Canadian news outlets kept running stories that featured Americans saying things like “I just can’t bring myself to vote for someone with a name like Obama, it sounds too Muslim,” or “I don’t think Obama was raised with Christian values,” or “Should we really elect someone with the middle name Hussein?”

Don Miller has written a brief blessay that may explain this mind-numbing xenophobia. It gybes nicely with Jesus Camp and The Assault on Reason: essentially stating that the unicorn chasersreligious right is born out of a horribly segmented and alienating society.

The same election that made Obama president also denied marriage to millions of Americans. California, Arizona and Florida voted to ban gay marriage. Arkansas banned same sex couples from adopting children. I can’t fathom how the same people who would elect a black man as president would deny consenting adults from making long term commitments to each other. I guess that shows what kind of community I grew up in.

Link to Don Miller via Matthew Helmke.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
esf

A comment on one of my older posts about OC Transpo got me thinking:

If OC transpo had to run as most businesses, without subsidies.. the fares would have to increase by 227% to cover their costs. Think about that as you move towards the workforce, and remember to say thanks to everybody else you meet who subsidizes your travel.

One of the joys of living in our quasi-socialist society is that everyone subsidizes everyone else. I’ve subsidized countless hospital/doctor trips of my fellow citizens. I’ve paid part of the costs of our military and EI systems. I’ve subsidized the construction and staffing of schools that neither I nor my children will ever set foot in. I’ve subsidized the construction of roads to parts of the country I will never see. I’ve even subsidized the maintenance of sewers and roads out in the ‘burbs, which is a painfully inefficient use of my tax dollar.

I don’t expect anyone to thank me for doing that. It’s part of being a Canadian. When I ride the bus, I’m thankful to the people immediately involved in the process (the bus driver, OC Transpo staffers, and my fellow riders) who make the trip enjoyable.

Similarly, I don’t expect other people on the road to be grateful to me for lessening the wear and tear on the roads by using an efficient vehicle. I don’t expect children and the elderly to be grateful to me for lowering rates of respiratory ailments by producing less pollution than the folks that drive to work. I don’t expect society to be grateful to me for lengthening the life of our oil reserves.

Image by planeta_roig.

One of the neat things about Facebook is its complete transparency. When a user comments on something, it’s displayed on their friends’ event list.

Sadly, the same can’t be said for blogs. If I comment on a blog, I’ll leave my email address and URL, but there’s no traceability on my blog. Readers of my blog won’t know that I found another post interesting enough to post a comment.

It would be nice if there was a trackback mechanism for comments. When I write a comment and submit my blog’s URL, I’d like my blog to be notified. After I okay the trackback, I’d like it to be available as a widget on my blog and (optionally) written to my blog’s general RSS feed.