Health Care Reform

Well the Health Care Reform Bill has passed the House of Representatives. I'm actually quite amazed at the number of people against this bill. I guess living in Canada for all but the first three years of my life affects my bias a little. But honestly, what is so bad about this? I think Michael Moore does a good job dispelling the myths with his movie "Sicko". If you haven't seen this movie then you should.

While watching Sicko, I was awe struck when the man who cut off the tops of his fingers had to choose which ones to put back on because he couldn't afford to re-attach them all. WTF? Living in Canada there is no question. If the doctors can, they will, re-attach all of them. They wont even ask questions about it.

I've heard bits a pieces from the media and one thing I seem to hear, complaints about the cost. I don't pay a single penny directly to this wonderful health care system. Sure I pay taxes and that goes towards it but big deal. Take away the health care and do you think my taxes will go down? I think not. Waiting times will go up they say. Well sure, now everyone can go to the hospital when they cut off a finger (or worse). No need to kid yourself that the pain in your chest is the cheeseburger you had for lunch because you don't have Medicare. On the flip side, if more patients are going to the hospital that means the hospitals and doctors make more money and thus more hospitals can open.

Everyone knows that the biggest problem with this new bill is that there is really only one looser, the Insurance companies. Profits will decrease, but they will survive. Everyone one still wants to have the extra perks; a private room; elective surgeries; life insurance; etc... Billions of dollars will be diverted from the Insurance companies and end up in the hands of the American people. This new found disposable income will boost the economy as people start buying again. Retail stores, realestate and automotive sales, to name a few, will see large growth again. Now how is that for a stimulus package!

Come on you guys! What are you thinking about!

What GlobalWarming!

Gripped by the chilling winter, we wonder if the snow will ever melt and return us again to the euphoric summer months. I've noticed lately that everyone is mocking Global Warming (or the lack there of) and some are indicating that the hype is wrong. With resent headlines of old growth forest dieing faster than expect and polar ice melting at alarming rates. I wonder where these people are finding their astute knowledge. Thus I turn to my trusty search tool: Google.

I found the site www.globalwarmingisafarce.com which claims to tell the other side of the store. There are some links to recent news reports that “support” their claim. The articles I looked at appeared to be reports poking fun at the global warming issue. One article caught my eye though. The story Report: Ice Age to blast Earth. The article explains how the northern hemisphere has had record lows for the past two years and that we are at the end of a 100,000 year cycle. But at the very end of the article, Professor Steve Colman states "the amount of greenhouse gases we are contributing to the atmosphere, and the rate at which we are doing so, completely dwarfs the natural variations.". Interesting how an article selected to convince the reader that global warming is a myth goes and contradicts itself.

There is also a great video The Global Warming Myth - Dr Noah Robinson - Telecosm 2007 that breaks down the myths presented by Al Gore. They show graphs and explain how solar radiation, not carbon emissions are affecting the planet. I was getting convinced myself. It's interesting to note however, that the video ends by saying that Carbon Dioxide is a good fertilizer (plants grow faster when their is more CO2 in the air) and that taxing or rationing energy will only hurt US industry as well as third wold countries who rely on high co2 levels for farming.

That's great, now I need to burn more fossil fuels so I wont loose my job or starve the poor people in third wold countries! I thought you told me Al Gore was trying to sell me fear!

Well I couldn't bring myself to read anymore. Sure, Al Gore and everyone he supports might be wrong. But I'd rather see humanity error on the side of caution for once. Why does a civilization need to abuse its resources in order to see what will happen.

SpotTheCamper

Camping Trip

I went camping last weekend to Algonquin Park. I just love that place. I went canoeing with my youngest son (6), my brother and his oldest daughter (7). Keeping it simple for the kids, we decided to do Rain lake. Padding from the put-in to the opposite end of the lake, where we made camp, only took about an hour. The kids enjoyed the short paddle and so did we.

We stayed for 2 nights in the same site. This gave us the entire day Saturday to hike, fish, paddle, etc... The kids managed to run around and make up their own games like all kids should. The weather was ideal, overcast and about 20C. Just warm enough that you could wear shorts and a t-shirt and just cold enough that the mosquitoes didn't bother us too much. As a matter of fact I didn't wear any bug spray the entire weekend. There were a couple of quick showers but they didn't dampen our spirits (no pun intended).

The site we stayed at was nice and large. It was located right beside a smaller, feeding lake that had no sites or water access. There was a trail that went over to it and you could honestly say there was no one else there with you. I enjoy the solitude, which is why I camp.

Rain lake is a long, narrow lake. The put-in and first 15-20 minutes looks more like a river. I like this setup over larger lakes for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, the kids don't get board as easily; secondly I feel like I'm making progress as the scenery glides by; and finally, when the wind picks up you don't have to battle large waves.

Because Rain lake is not off of Hwy 60 it's not as busy as the bigger, easier to access lakes. Once you pull off of hwy 11 at Emsdale it's about 10 minutes to the ranger station in Kearney. Then it's another half hour down this terrible dirt road before you arrive at the put-in. Most young adults don't appear to like this extra hassle and thus the lake is less crowded.

Absenteeism

I’ve been busy lately with the family and work but I have found a new hobby, Genealogy. Several times in the past years I've gone looking for family tree info on the internet. I’ve always been able to find the same old stuff. I'd send some updates to whoever ran the site and a couple of years later I could never find the same stuff again.

Well, tired of sending emails for the umpteenth time I decided to keep track of it myself. http://www.familySearch has a great free program to aid in the creation of your family tree. There are several places on the internet where you can find GEDCOM files to start you tree with or just start with what you know and build on it.

I've been having fun with it and discovering that it really tries to take over in the hobby department.

Ireland Trip Review Part 1

What an amazing country. There is so much to see and do there. Unfortunately my visit was limited to Dublin and Athlone. Because my wife is Irish, we were able to stay with family and enjoy their company every night of our stay. During the day we went off and did tourist type activities.

Although I wanted to do some hiking there was never any time for it. I spent most of my days walking through historic buildings/sites and shopping malls. Getting onto some trails was just too hard to do.

The weather was, well, Irish. Let's face it, the local weather report said, and I'm really quoting this, "…with Frequent Changes." It only rained once while we were there but it was almost always overcast and fairly cold. We did get a couple of truly spectacular days though.

Places of interest:

• Guinness Brewery http://www.guinness.com
  
• Kilmainham Jail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilmainham_Gaol
  
• Christ Church Cathedral http://www.cccdub.ie/
  
• Malahide Castle http://www.malahidecastle.com/malahidecastle/default.asp
  
• Hill of Tara http://www.knowth.com/tara.htm
  
• Newgrange http://www.knowth.com/newgrange.htm
  
• Sean's Bar (Oldest bar in Ireland/British Iles/Europe/World) http://www.seansbar.ie/index.php
  

Ireland Trip

Thought this day would never arrive but now it's just around the corner. My wife and I are going to Ireland!

A couple of things on my to-do list:

• New Grange
  
• Guinness Brewery
  
• Hiking local parks
  
• Dublin bus tour (See everything worth seeing in Dublin)
  
• Did I mention the Guinness Brewery?
  

Earth Hour Update

According to my local newspaper the town I live in managed a 9.4% drop in power during Earth Hour.