Another great story out of Canada's universal health system!  "She Lay 5 Days on Stretcher in ER"

Mark Degasperis was furious his mother spent five days on a stretcher at Toronto Western Hospital waiting for a room with 25 patients ahead of her -- until the Toronto Sun made a call and she was suddenly moved to a room yesterday.

"They were giving us the same old song and dance why she was in the emergency department with only a sheet draped around her. I couldn't even call her because she didn't have a phone," Degasperis of Georgetown said.

Heather Degasperis, 60, has a dangerous bacterial condition and was sent by her doctor to Toronto Western because it has the experts for her condition.

"She is not well and wasn't able to sleep and she wasn't getting any better. She needed peace and quiet to sleep.

"This is a terrible environment. I suggested taking her to another hospital, but we were told there are long waits across the region and the doctors we need are here. So there was nothing we could do," Degasperis said yesterday.

"I'm angry we pay such high taxes and the more money we throw at the health care system the worse it gets. People shouldn't be lined up on stretchers in the emergency department. If you are sick you should get a room."

Coming soon to an American ER near you?

 A new study shows that Conservatives are happier than Liberals because we're able to "justify economic inequalities."

To justify economic inequalities, a person could support the idea of meritocracy, in which people supposedly move up their economic status in society based on hard work and good performance.

In that way, one's social class attainment, whether upper, middle or lower, would be perceived as totally fair and justified.

If your beliefs don't justify gaps in status, you could be left frustrated and disheartened, according to the researchers, Jaime Napier and John Jost of New York University.

I couldn't have said it better myself!  Apparently we're happier because we're not socialist! 

I realize this study was more intended to malign Conservatives by saying that we just don't care, but the truth is we do believe that, in America - the greatest land of opportunity mankind has ever known - people have a lot of control over their own destiny.  If you work hard, make responsible life decisions, and yes, even make sacrifices, then there's a good chance that you can improve your financial status.

If you're lazy, make poor lifestyle decisions, and seek every luxury right now with credit cards or an excessive mortgage, then it's not the job of government to insulate you from the consequences by taking more from those who have sacrificed and achieved and giving it to you.

Here's a nice little story about Duvall County in Florida, where 54% of their 10th graders couldn't read well enough to pass a standardized test.  Parents are pissed!

This Ribault High School sophomore - is about as quiet as a teenage girl can get. She barely speaks. But the tears streaming down her face say a lot.

"I am not going to be successful," says the 17 year old student.

She thinks that – because she can't read well enough to pass the 10th grade FCATS.

"I was sad. It made me feel like I'm dumb,” she says.

Her score is as low as it can get – a 1 out of a possible 5. All that says is she's at least two years behind in reading comprehension. If she can't catch up and pass the FCAT - she may not graduate high school. That's news to her grandmother Eunice – who's become guardian of her education.

"They were going to wait until we thought she was getting ready to march across the stage to tell us?" says Eunice.

[...]

"I want heads to roll. I want someone to be held accountable for what they have done to this child," says Eunice.

Uh, if your 17-year-old student can't read and you haven't even invested enough time in her education to know that before the tenth grade, then that's your own fault!  Yes, it's obviously an awful school district (open enrollment and vouchers anybody?), but the government can't even balance a budget... why in the world would you make them the sole trustee of your child's education?

Zogby is showing Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) with a 14-point lead over rival Sen. HIllary Clinton (D-NY) in today's North Carolina presidential primary and with much slimmer (and surprising) two-point lead over her in Indiana.  Pollsters are never able to account for the Bradley Effect though, which is why I believe he'll only win N.C. by about nine points (state demographics strongly favor him) and she'll probably win Indiana by seven.

The DNC has placed a new attack add against presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz).  Not only does the add shamelessly show footage of American troops being killed in an IED attack in Iraq (which is why the add won't be shown here), but it is fundamentally dishonest as well.  They're claiming that John McCain wants 100 years of war in Iraq.  Here's what McCain actually said to a townhall meeting in New Hampshire on January 3, 2008:

Make it a hundred... We’ve been in Japan for 60 years. We’ve been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That would be fine with me, as long as American, as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. It’s fine with me and I hope it would be fine with you if we maintained a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al Qaeda is training, recruiting and equipping and motivating people every single day.

"As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed?"  That doesn't sound like 100 years of war to me...

A Jordanian man who converted from Islam to Christianity is about to lose everything, including custody of his children, as punishment for his "apostasy."

ISTANBUL, April 24 (Compass Direct News) – On trial for converting from Islam to Christianity, a Jordanian man may lose legal custody of his children and have his marriage annulled if found guilty of “apostasy.” Mohammad Abbad, 40, fled Jordan last month after Muslims violently attacked him and his 10-year-old son in their home and his father sued him on charges of apostasy, or leaving Islam. “I can’t win this case as long as I insist that I converted from Islam to Christianity,” Abbad wrote from the safety of a nearby country. “The court will annul my marriage, I will be deprived of my kids, I will be with no ID or passport, and my properties will be confiscated,” said the father of two, referring to a previous Jordanian apostasy verdict. In a separate November 2004 ruling, an Amman Sharia Court headed by Judge Suleiman Abdullah Abu Yahya convicted a Muslim convert to Christianity of apostasy. Stripped of all his legal rights, the convert and his family fled Jordan to escape the verdict.

I don't know who at the Obama camp thought it would be a good idea to let Obama's controversial pastor/mentor Rev. Jeremiah Wright go on tour, but he's not helping his candidate any.  At Wright's appearances over the weekend, he is claiming that criticisms of his overtly racist and anti-American rhetoric are actually "an attack on the black church." 

In other words, if you object to him yelling "God damn America" from the pulpit, you're just a racist member of the "dominant culture" who's only out to smear black Christians everywhere!

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose post-Sept. 11 comments critical of America have raised questions about his relationship with Obama, has been on a multi-stop tour to restore his image and talk about his church. In addition to speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, he sat down for an interview with PBS's Bill Moyers in recent days.

"This is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright. This is an attack on the black church," said Wright, who cast his appearance as part of a two-day "symposium" on the black church.

[...]

Playing off the crowd's energy, Wright even suggested he would be interested in the vice presidency.

[...]

Wright also reasserted Monday that Obama was only disavowing his former pastor's comments for political reasons.

I'm sure Obama must be glad to know that his mentor of twenty years is running all over the country telling people that Barack actually does believe that controversial crap that Wright's been preaching but that he's only saying that he doesn't so that he can trick us into electing him, a raging radical, to the White House.  That's gotta be great news for his campaign.  Sure it's the same game he played with NAFTA, but the public isn't supposed to find out about these things!  (Don't you just love his "new brand of politics?"  We've never seen such overt double talk from politicians before!)

Wright has also announced that he will play an extremely influential role in an Obama administration (whether Barack likes it or not), and he continues to claim that his comments have been taken out of context.  But, like any liberal trying to play this smoke and mirrors game, refuses to explain the "proper" context that would make his comments acceptable.

When Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) questions the probable Democrat nominee Sen. Barack Obama's connections to an unrepentant domestic terrorist, Bill Ayers, his campaign only responds by attacking McCain for "smear politics," but does not refute the Illinois Senator's friendliness with Ayers.  He then went on to smear McCain for his positions on the economy and Iraq.  (Ironic?)

In fact, the only defense offered by Sen. Obama regarding his relationship with Ayers was during the recent debate in Pennsylvania:

“The fact is, is that I'm also friendly with Tom Coburn, one of the most conservative Republicans in the United States Senate, who during his campaign once said that it might be appropriate to apply the death penalty to those who carried out abortions. Do I need to apologize for Mr. Coburn's statements? Because I certainly don't agree with those either.”

I wonder if the American people will find Sen. Obama's association with a sitting United States Senator just as palatable as his friendship with Ayers; a man who told the New York Times in 2001, regarding his terrorist activities during the 1970's and '80's which took the lives of numerous police officers and civilians, "I don't regret setting bombs.  I feel we didn't do enough."

I'd say Obama needs to work on his moral equivalents.  Ayers is not a guy who simply made a controversial statement.  In fact, we're not concerned about his rhetoric at all!  Ayers blew up cops!

Last October, when presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) was asked why he does not wear an American flag pin on his lapel, Obama responded:

Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest.

Instead, I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.

Well apparently keeping an overtly racist, anti-American pastor/mentor for twenty years and accusing rural Americans of being so "bitter" that they have to "cling to guns or religion," does not make for such a great "testimony" to his patriotism.

So ironically enough, Barack's lapel flag is back (Pennsylvania photo here), apparently a "substitute" for the "true patriotism" that his poor choice of company and elitist opinion of average Americans have proved he is lacking...

Only over-sensitive Liberals could possibly find a way to tag a Hispanic woman who has endorsed a African-American man for president as racist toward blacks...

Moving to nip in the bud some potential bad press, White House hopeful Barack Obama's campaign persuaded a delegate to step down after she was ticketed for calling her neighbor's African-American children "monkeys."

Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, a Carpentersville village trustee, was elected as an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention. She sports an Obama sign in her front yard.

On Saturday, two neighbor children were playing in the tree next-door to her house.

Ramirez-Sliwinski "came outside and told the children to quit playing in the tree like monkeys. The tree was not on Ramirez-Sliwinski's property," Carpentersville Police Commander Michael Kilbourne said.

Ramirez-Sliwinski admitted she used the word "monkeys," but said she did not intend racism. She said she was only trying to protect them from falling out of the tree.

I can't say that I would agree with Ramirez-Sliwinski on most public policy issues, but I feel bad for her.  These are the kind of baseless accusations of racism that have been thrown at Republicans for years.

The real irony is that Obama would throw this woman under the bus for this but when his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was found to have said way worse during his twenty years as Obama's personal mentor, Barack only threw white grandmother under the bus.

What a joke...

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Boy... Muslims sure do get angry and violent when people accuse them of being... well... angry and violent.  They're already calling for the death of Dutch politician Geert Wilders for his fifteen-minute documentary "Fitna," which chronicles Islamic violence around the world...

Here are some disturbing results from a recent study:

In the YouGov survey, nearly half of all Arabs in the Gulf, Levant, and North Africa said that they have met someone who holds extreme religious views.  Asked under what conditions violence is permissible, more than 60% cited Western interference in a Muslim country, while 55% said offensive words or behaviour was a trigger.

Troubling?  Well the U.N. - always on the lookout for the newest, most cutting edge way to appease extremists - is trying to eliminate such "offensive words" from the world!

Arab and Muslim countries defended Tuesday a resolution they pushed through at the United Nations to have the body's expert on free speech police individuals and news media for negative comments on Islam.

The United States, Canada and some European countries criticized the role reversal for Kenyan legal expert Ambeyi Ligabo, who has reported to the global body on measures by dictatorships and repressive governments to restrict free speech.

The U.S. and other Western nations warned that the Muslim-backed resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council could curtail freedom of expression and help dictatorial regimes block dissenting views.

According to presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill), children are a form of punishment:

I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby.  I don't want them punished with an STD...

Certainly an unwanted pregnancy is a consequence of irresponsible sexual promiscuity, but calling a child a punishment in the same league as an STD?  How can that come from the mouth of a father?

Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill) pastor Jeremiah Wright has openly preached that racist, rich white people are the root of the economic oppression and exploitation of black citizens.  Then he retires and asks his "economically oppressed" congregation to build him a $1.6 million mansion and to finance a $10 million line of credit.