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June 15, 2009

The Great Debate

i loVe how Canada is pretty much the worst nightmare of the doomsayers (Socialism worse even than Taxachusetts or Regulafornia), but it's actually doing Quite well for itself...
Literacy: 99% (same as U.S.)
Per Capita GDP: $39,183 (big enough to make The G-8)
9,984,670 sq km (bigger than the U.S.)
33,000,000 people (between Australia and England)

"LOOK AT THEIR HEALTHCARE!" the unfair and unbalanced scream.
Okay, let's ACTUALLY look at it -instead of just spreading gossip...

Infant mortality rate: 5.04 deaths/1,000 live births (BETTER than our 6.26)
Life Expectancy: 81.23 years (BETTER than our 78.11)
Health System Performance Rank by the W.H.O. by: (BETTER than our #37)
Happiness Ranking in university psychological study: 10 (BETTER than our #23)

"WELL, IT'S ALL ABOUT COST EFFICIENCY!" the news spinners scream.
Okay, let's ACTUALLY look at it -instead of just spreading gossip...
Per Capita Spending:
#1 $4,271 United States
#2 $3,857 Switzerland
#7 $2,697 Germany
#8 $3,857 France
#9 $2,243 Japan
14 $1,939 Canada
18 $1,675 United Kingdom
So... we spend TWICE as much as Canada and the U.K.?! Even i didn't realize it was THAT bad. What a wa$te.

If their healthcare is better by Infant Mortality, better by Life Expectancy, better by Cost Efficiency, and better by every other metric i could find out there, by WHAT measure, by what formula could one POSSibly say it's "worse"? I'll tell you how... LIES > truth. Don't believe in hype. Believe in facts.

Although, and i don't mean to brag, we aRe the best gorramn country evar. ("America! Designed By Geniuses to Be Run By Idiots.") My patriotism doesn't change the fact that we are most definitely NOT, by any measure other than wishful thinking, "the best healthcare system in the world". As awesome as we aRe, we can aLways do better.

CIA Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ca.html
World Health Organization http://www.who.int/whr/2000/en
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada
University of Leicester http://www.le.ac.uk/users/aw57/world/sample.html
Nationmaster.com http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_spe_per_per-health-spending-per-person

June 05, 2009

i had The Dream again

The one about the zombies.

This time we were at Keefermansion west (somewhere in Cali i guess). Our supplies were running low and i knew we had to make a run for higher ground. There had to be more food and maybe even a government beachhead out there. i dreaded leaving the relative safety of our bunker for a run out in the open -in what was still, basically, zombie country. i didn't like the idea of trying to make it past the roving pressgangs either, but... desperate times.

The worst part was the cats. Oh, man, what are we going to do with the cats? We've had them for ten years. That's longer than most friends. It's practically family. You can't just Leave 'em, but... you can't take 'em with you either. You know you can't. What do you do? What do we do...

Upstairs i left as much catfood and water out as i could. i filled bowls and bowls and bowls of water. i put one of those babygates with a catdoor up on the stairs itself. Then i put another one on the back door. Then i sawed a cat-sized door into the back fence. That should give them a decent chance against zombie dogs or rabid raccoons. Three gates, two floors, and a house in which they knew all the hidey places. Then i put more waterbowls out on the patio and a bucket under the drainpipe. It's not going to be enough though. This summer's going to be another hot one.

Spent as much time with them that last day as we could. They loved it. They always love it. They don't even know there ARE any zombies out there. Or that we have to leave soon.

As we turned to head out onto the road, of course i had to look back one last time. Of course they were there. Crying out, but we couldn't hear them. They had their faces against the window and were crawling over eachother to get a better look at us as we walked away. Weirdly enough it was the saddest moment of the whole zombpocalypse so far. Everything else was a horror or a terror or some numb disbelief. This was just... sad.

The odds were against us making it back for them. It might be months, maybe even years. If at all.

We've had them for all those years and been locked in this cage with them for the past three months, but we were probably never going to see them again.

i woke up feeling like such a failure.