Red Sox Nation

I guess being in Canada I would fall into the Red Sox Internation(al). I was cheering for the Sox from the moment they clinched a spot in the post season. Knowing that the Jays wouldn't be there (in August sometime ;) allowed me to adopt myself into the Red Sox Nation. Not that I was that far from it in my younger days.

I remember having a BoSox cap as a kid and wearing it all the time. I can still picture the cap. It was a faded blue almost purple. It was cloth with elastic at the back. The front panel was mostly white with vertical stripes 3 on each side separating the Boston and Red Sox which were written veritically Boston on the left side and Red Sox on the right. In the middle, between the two sets of stripes was the Boston Red Sox logo.

Today I miss having that hat.

The Truth about Cops?

I have many friends who are members of varying police forces. That being said, this is one of the funniest things I've seen courtesy of Doc in the Box.

A Real Healthcare Solution

This post was derived from a post by TZ at Heart of Canada called Americans are from Mars, Canadians are from Venus.

To read the transcript of Jonathon Kay's address to the International Law Section of the American Bar Association, one would think that everyone in Canada feels that there is that much difference between our two nations. He makes one distinction that I feel is correct in observation, Canadians value their healthcare to the highest extreme.

On Healthcare
By example, whenever a Canadian election occurs, there are healthcare issues used on both sides to attempt to win the election. Either the opponent is for two tier healthcare or the speaker is going to add money to the healthcare system to make it better. That is going to fix anything.

What most Canadians do not realize is that we already have two tier healthcare. The first tier which is not keeping up with the needs of Canadians is the publicly funded system we currently have. The second tier exists for Canadians in the United States. Canadians, as noted by several callers on John Gormley's radio show this morning, take matters into their own hands and using the money that they have earned take a trip to either the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins and any number of others, and get the treatment that is needed in a timely manner.

What this does is eliminate a person from our excessive waiting lists and move the money to the United States. There are two ways that could be constructively used to resolve both of these issues. First institute two tier healthcare here. This is a controversial view, but one which if followed into point two should help things. What this will do is two things. It will establish hospitals with business models geared for success. The hospitals will need to be viable businesses in order to succeed. The second thing this will do keep doctors, nurses and associated personnel from emigrating to the United States for more financial gain and job stability. The economic spin offs would be unpredictable, but having high earning positions in Canada for benefit to our tax system would be great.

The second element of this is to mandate a uniform quality of care. By this, we maintain the waiting lists, but allow people to choose their care platform. Those choosing the private platform would move to the for-profit healthcare system. These members are no longer taking up spots in our public healthcare system. The members remaining are taken into available facilities in the same priority as currently exists. Available facilities include the for-profit system. The for-profit tier would offer healthcare services as a means of paying their corporate income taxes. This further augments the public system by increasing the number of beds, doctors and services.

This is only a starting point, but look with honest and constructive eyes and solutions can be found. If the current system is broke, don't discount some other way of fixing it.

World Series Ratings

The ratings for the American League Championship Series were probably higher than for other series in the past few years. I, for one, had much more interest in seeing the Evil Empire fall. The manner in which it occurred is too juicy for words. To have such a lackluster performance in the first three games by the good guys and then turn it around and win it in the final game after games of extra innings ... WoW. Vince McMahon could not have written it better. My wife would say that he probably did write it. I am not so conspiratorial as to believe that.

Now we have the Red Sox coming up against the Cards. A series that should be entertaining and, should Boston win the series, historically relevant. The Cardinals are a team with vast history and great previous success. If Boston can defeat them, it will be a rewarding visitation of previous defeats at the hands of the Cards in previous World Series.

Winter

Well, it may just be that winter hit over the weekend. I had to shovel the driveway this evening when I got home from work. This is October. I wouldn't have expected this until November, and the prospect of the snow all melting within a few days just makes the necessity of having to clear things up now all the more depressing. Oh well.

They Collected How Much more than budgeted?

The original estimates for the budget surplus was in the realm of $2 Billion ... What they actually ended up with is over $9 Billion. What are they doing? When I set up a budget I usually hit within 10 to 15 percent. This is almost 500% larger than expected. I can see some of this coming from the strengthening dollar, but not 500%.

I have some ideas for how to spend the money.

20 F117 Tactical Fighters = $900,000,000
4 Los Angeles Class Subs = $3,600,000,000
100 M1 A1 Tanks = $430,000,000
New weapons, uniforms, supplies for new hardware= $3,000,000,000
Training and supplying our Military Properly and the pride we would have in our armed forces=priceless

Now please note that the prices here are figures found on websites and may not be accurate, but that much money sure would fix some issues that we have!

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

TZ's Sad Story

How often does a person come across a pet that has been struck on the street / road and not do anything? I have to give full credit to TZ at Heart of Canada for taking action for one such pet. In today's world everyone is in such a hurry to get from A to B that the path that is taken doesn't matter to those on the road. This animal was probably someone's pet. It may have been a cherished friend, a little spot of light that brightened a child's day or a companion for someone who is dealing with an empty nest of children who now have their own lives and cannot spend as much time with their parent as both of them would like.

It would be callous to not try to help this animal. Even if the only help you can offer is to save the shell of what was a living animal.

You can read the full experience here.

Jamal Lewis

What a life ... to play a game for a living in the highest stakes league that there is. What a rush it must be. But I guess it isn't enough for Jamal Lewis. He needs to buy drugs ... I would assume to use them himself ... but in any case, he admitted that he tried to arrange the deal.

What happens? He gets a four month sentence ... at the end of the season? How does the justice system work? Well, he can't go to jail now as he would miss the rest of the season and I guess that wouldn't be fair. The concept of justice for all is skewed. The league itself only gave him a 2 game suspension. That's a great signal to the rest of the players what will or will not be tolerated. The statement that the commissioner issued regarding the damage that was caused reminds me of chastising a young child (although with a few larger words) rather than actually taking a stand on this type of behavior by a player.

He should have been suspended during the season for as long as his jail term. I guess Ray Lewis referred his teammate to a good lawyer.

You can read some information on the case here.

More on Jamal Lewis and another story I hadn't heard ...

I just read here that Jake Plummer was fined $5000 for a small sticker in honor of Pat Tillman, a former teammate of Plummer's. What a sad joke.

Playoffs Continued

Well, the first round is in the books and the second has started. I hope that it turns around. I realize that in cheering for Boston against the Yankees is a little like picking a political candidate try to pick the lesser evil. Anyway, I missed the game completely and the results don't indicate that I missed much of a game.

Anyway ... GO BOSOX GO!!!

Baseball Playoffs

Without hockey to cloud my mind, and with Making the Cut coming on Tuesday nights (why not move that to HNIC's old slot?), the baseball playoffs, CFL and NFL will have to fill the void. I have some thoughts on each of these three sports.

Baseball - with the Expos moving to DC (and having been in DC last weekend) the team doesn't get any respect. One sound bite said that they really want the team, just leave the players behind ... really when you look at how the Expos had to play ... splitting time between Montreal and San Juan, and the crowds being so small in the big O, I expect that they will be much more competitive next season. As for the playoffs, I am going to cheer for the same team as always the Not Yankees. I would love to see the Twins, Angels or Red Sox beat the Yanks.

CFL - the Riders are riding high this week. Smart money bets on the Renegades to take the Riders down a notch (always happens after the Riders have a big game - sure stunk vs. Edmonton after pummelling Calgary earlier in the season). I am still hoping for them, but that isn't the smart money.

NFL - I thought that the excessive celebrations in the end zones were supposed to stop. Terrell Owens doing crunches in the endzone seems a bit far. Also, I caught the Monday Night game and apart from a couple of plays Baltimore didn't even seem to be in the game. Priest Holmes took Baltimore's D to school in the first half. I think he carried more than 20 times in the first half alone. Ray Lewis' mouth was sure running, but KC ran all over them. Almost 40 minutes for the Chief's time of possession.