Reader Tips

John R. Graham at The Health Care Blog:

If the lawyers are designing the health-care system, shouldn’t they be forced to operate under regulations similar to those they’re imposing? How, for example, do lawyers get paid? Today, they negotiate fees with clients. That hardly seems fair. In health care, doctors don’t negotiate fees with patients, they get paid according to an opaque schedule determined by health plans. Lawyers should do the same. The solution is “legal insurance”. After all, who amongst us knows when we’ll need a lawyer? It is often an unpredictable expense, and yet the “market” seems to have failed to provide such insurance. Government must intervene.

[…]

And what about the quality of legal advice? Look again at the ongoing Supreme Court ObamaCare case. Anyone could submit an amicus brief without any external vetting. Today, the only person a lawyer has to satisfy is her client. Any lawyer who wants to try out a new legal theory is free to do so. This is very confusing, messy, and adds needlessly to legal costs. So, the federal government should establish a 15- person “independent legal advisory board” comprised of the best scholars from the nation’s top law schools. All legal arguments will have to be approved by this board before being used in court, arbitration, or negotiation, to ensure that clients (and “the system”) get value for money.

Well, lawyers, what do you say? Any takers?

Sweet.

h/t Maggie's Farm

20 year anniversary of the L.A. Riots, a.k.a. the Rodney King Riots.

Why can't we all just get along?

Has it really been 20 years?

Apropos of nothing, EBD, that's actually how Roman law under the Justinian Digest worked.

Socialism in action.

20,000 NK S.Hwanghae province residents die of starvation
More than 20-thousand North Koreans in South Hwanghae province have died of starvation since former leader Kim Jong-il's death in December last year.
This is according to the Japanese daily Tokyo Shimbun.
The paper cited North Korea sources and said a case of severe famine in the region is being blamed for the high death toll.
It added that the North's new leader Kim Jung-un has recently instructed authorities to distribute rice from military rations to the hunger-stricken residents.
The paper also pointed out that, while lavish celebrations were being held to mark the centenary of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung's birth, a great number of people across the country are literally starving to death.
The acute famine was reportedly caused by heavy rains and flooding last year, which sharply reduced the harvest of crops in South Hwanghae Province.

http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=128463&code=Ne2&category=2

EBD,

You're not suggesting that's a real song...RU?

Just wonderin'.

Good choice EBD. Im finding corb has an angle on most situations particularly the guy who's hard on equipment, work with several.

Interesting listening to CBC's rising indignation over convicted white collar criminal, Conrad Black will being allowed back into Canada. How does this stance square with their wild support for returning omar kadhr?

Ezra reminded me about the KGB's psyops during the cold war. Has anyone ever confirmed for sure that Greenpeace etc were all KGB backed organizations? I know they were huge backers of islamic terrorism starting with the PLO etc but were they also behind the various radical leftist enviros as well?

Here's another funky music video, from Vancouver by yours truly (on piano): Coldwater Road - Time To Fly

Anybody who has been near a colony loves the line about the Hutterite truck. Mighty neigbourly.

Actually EBD, why yes, yes he did tell me about that time and it was right here on SDA! This song was posted a few years ago!
But it's still one of my fave's so don't worry about it!

I'm scared that song might be defamatory towards the Hutterites. I don't really know exactly who the Hutterites are, but they look similar to the Amish. I don't wanna mess with the Amish.

Also, it really looks flat out there. The flatness must be hard to put up with.

Black Mamba:
We tried to change all that flatness awhile back to something more soothing, more western, more picturesque... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstrap_Ski_Hill

I mean, we tried, really tried.

In celebration of the Diamond Jubilee – compare your world travel to Queen Elizabeth II: BBC – Have you been where the Queen's been?

↑ What's fascinating to me is the places she's been (esp. last century) that would be waaay too dangerous for her to visit today. Ex. Tobruk, Libya; Aden, Yemen; Asmera, Eritrea; Karachi; Tehran...

marc - I bet you can see it right now if you look out your window!

That being said, I am convinvinced that the Saskatchewanian skiing industry has a robust and inspiring future.

And for those who care...today is the 1st annivesary of Osamma Bin Ladens take down.And we have moved forward how much? A muzzie in charge of the US armed forces,Useless Nations Agenda 21 going ahead,scare mongers screaming cAGW,and McLiar and RedFraud elected.Yup.I feel secure.Oh yeah.And multi-culti for all.Yippee.

That photo doesn't do it justice.

http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/24546688.jpg

And it's Mount Blackstrap, please.

Oh.And the Zero just promised 10 years support for the Afghanis...AFTER the troops withdraw.Ummmm. Support without troops.THAT I want to see.

"That photo doesn't do it justice.

http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/24546688.jpg

And it's Mount Blackstrap, please.
Posted by: Kate at May 2, 2012 1:25 AM "

Well. I guess somebody could mount it,if they where from Brockback,Kate.And where are the cows??

It's one year later, and Osama bin Laden is still dead.

Of course, this is just a huge dust-devil; you can count on the French to exaggerate things:

BBC – Tornado filmed in southern France

(Warning: video loads and plays automatically.)

Kathy Shaidle pointed out a pretty cool Ezra piece:

http://www.fivefeetoffury.com/2012/05/01/must-see-video-soviet-defector-explains-how-communists-infiltrated-u-s-media-other-institutions/

This was interesting.

"According to a high-level source in Beijing, key leaders in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Politburo have reached four points of consensus that will be announced on or around the 18th Party Congress. The tenor of the decision is that China will take the path of democracy. The news has been circulated hurriedly in Beijing.

http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/

Maybe the US leads better through negative example?

This was interesting.

"According to a high-level source in Beijing, key leaders in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Politburo have reached four points of consensus that will be announced on or around the 18th Party Congress. The tenor of the decision is that China will take the path of democracy. The news has been circulated hurriedly in Beijing.

http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/

Maybe the US leads better through negative example?

james@1225:

Greenpeace and the soviets were not pals. The little I know about greenpeace-soviet interaction was greenpeace activists harassing soviet whaling ships and protesting nuclear weapons. Patrick Moore would be the horse's mouth on the issue. There's no mention of environmentalists in the appendix of The Mitrokhin Archive.

Today's greenies are redder than the soviets ever were though, and it's no fault of the KGB.

To EBD: yeah, "sweet" alright. First, using OHIP as an example, start by offering each and every lawyer an average of $400K per year out of the public purse with little or no overhead, to sign on to "lawyer insurance" - "Any takers?" Yeah, get ready for the stampede of lawyers wondering where to sign and asking what took you so long.

Yesterday the new One World Trade Center became the tallest building in NYC. / *speaking of Mount Blackstrap, I stand CoRrEcTeD. :)
There's still more to be built, another 20 or so levels and it's only 50% leased but here's the story so far:

stolen early this fine morning from Theo Spark's site...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDeLzf576vY

Its one year later,
and I love watching liberal cabbage heads explode:

“But the more [President Obama] tries to take the credit for killing bin Laden,
the more the ground operators are saying,
‘Come on, man!’
It really didn’t matter who was president.

At the end of the day, they were going to go.”

-

When asked what he would have done?

Mitt Romney smiles and says:

“Of course.
Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order.”

Re Soviet infiltration of environmental groups.

I recall some 20+ years ago a special on CBC (!) about an organization called the World Peace Council, which was a front for Soviet-sponsored activities on the west.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Peace_Council

It still exists, but in a much diluted form.

Repeat for leftists:

"Some charitable environmental groups in Canada are "laundering" funds from offshore donors to obstruct Canada's environmental assessment process, Environment Minister Peter Kent says."

"Some charitable environmental groups in Canada are "laundering" funds from offshore donors to obstruct Canada's environmental assessment process, Environment Minister Peter Kent says."

...-

"Environmental charities 'laundering' foreign funds, Kent says"

"Environment minister says money used to improperly obstruct assessment process"

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/05/01/pol-peter-kent-environmental-charities-laundering.html

This is from Jim Geraghty's National Review Online Morning Jolt:

“What a great [anti-Obama] video from Veterans for a Strong America: ‘Real heroes don't brag.’"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsrSAqRrCc0&feature=player_embedded

I've revised this to be filter-proof, I hope:

This is from National Review's Jim Geraghty: “What a great video from Veterans for a Strong America, 'Real heroes don't brag'. . ."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsrSAqRrCc0&feature=player_embedded

quote of the day: 'bamabots take heed...

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”

-- Harry Truman

May Day in Seattle: more Occcupy/Commie violence.

oopsie! . . . wonder who Sean Penn blames?

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-18-01/%E2%80%9C-great-train-robbery%E2%80%9D-california-version?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29

Wake-up call for the rest of country for November

Some good news from Montreal: McGill University is not on strike, as McGill is the only Quebec university whose degrees are actually useful as a
ticket out of Quebec.

Roughly two-thirds of Quebec students are not on a declared strike from their classrooms, are not necessarily participating in daily marches against tuition hikes, and not getting the attention of the national and international media.

What are they doing? They're completing their semester on time.

At McGill University, classes and exams have been largely unaffected by the student unrest. Only three departments - Gender, Sexuality and Women's studies; Graduate Art History; and French Literature - are on strike.

No comment.

Bonus: meet a mature, responsible young Lower Canadian on whom a university education was not completely wasted.

While those strikers are now in scholastic limbo, mechanical engineering student Nick Zsofcsin has just finished his last semester at McGill.

He's now planning to travel to South Africa this summer. Zsofcsin cited several reasons for why he hasn't been participating in the protests - namely, he was busy with his studies and wanted to graduate.

He joked that different faculties might have different values when it comes to protesting.

"Maybe arts students feel that if they want to have an impact on this world, they have to speak their minds more," he said. "I guess (engineering students), if they feel like they want to affect the world, they just build something really cool," he added with a chuckle.

He'll go a long way. Pray it's far away from Quebec. In ten years young Lower Canadians like Zsofcsin shouldn't be paying Quebec taxes to keep together the bodies and souls of the strikers, few of whom will be able to make a living off Parisian tourists who "forget" to tip their server.

http://www.globalmontreal.com/meet+quebecs+silent+majority+of+students+the+two-thirds+quietly+completing+class/6442631761/story.html

Looks like Obama's US has betrayed the Chinese dissident, Chen.

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/05/02/did-the-obama-administration-abandon-chen/

He took refuge at the US Embassy in Beijing, but, the US told him that the Chinese had said that if he didn't leave, they would beat his wife to death.

Instead of the US, Hillary and Obama speaking out against this declared atrocious agenda, they actually removed him, moved him to a hospital. They declared they would be responsible for his safety but according to Chen, the US embassy people are absent. No-one is there for him.

and we had to call up the reserves to put ONE battalion in the field in Afghanistan...thanks pierre...and jean...

http://www.timesofisrael.com/knesset-approves-call-up-of-22-idf-battalions/

The IDF has issued emergency call up orders to six reserve battalions in light of new dangers on the Egyptian and Syrian borders. And the Knesset has given the IDF permission to summon a further 16 reserve battalions if necessary, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.

U.S. launches first-ever marketing campaign to halt falling numbers of tourists

"While tourism has increased globally over the last decade, the U.S. slice of those travelers has fallen, due in large part to complicated visa procedures and heightened security that followed the Sept. 11 attacks. The 10 years after the attacks are often referred to as the 'lost decade' for U.S. tourism, because new procedures drove millions of international travelers to other countries. Japan, Canada and the U.K. were chosen as the first round of targets because of the relative ease of their U.S. travel restrictions and the large amount of tourism dollars visitors in those countries spend here."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2137963/US-launches-marketing-campaign-halt-falling-numbers-tourists.html#ixzz1tk0xh600

Best comment - "Possible future US travel slogans: America - worth the TSA strip search"

a must-see :)

http://www.theospark.net/2012/05/new-panthers-stadium-retractable-roof.html

Owner of Harley Davidson washed up on Canadian shore from Japan Tsunami is tracked down (and he wants his bike back)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138494/Japan-tsunami-Harley-Davidson-washed-Canadian-shores-owner-Ikuo-Yokoyama.html

President Genius his due. He is marginally more literate than his wife.

Give...

"Decoupling, no. Depression, yes"

"The Economist’s Free Exchange blog is turning up the heat on Europe, moving past the recession call and declaring that the region is heading into a full-on depression. And what’s particularly distressing is that it could be avoided – but probably won’t.

“The euro-zone economy is large and overwhelmingly driven by domestic demand,” the blogger said. “That demand has been steadily squeezed by a broad, sustained fiscal tightening. Monetary policy is providing almost no relief. The ECB raised rates last year, and while it has since unwound the 50-basis-point increase from 2011, it shows no interest in cutting rates further below the present 1 per cent level.”"

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/markets/markets-blog/decoupling-no-depression-yes/article2420499/

FYI Geert Wilders is on GBTV today for a full hour; I'm listening to Beck introduce him right now. He's had more than 250 threats against his life, this brave man.

I'm sure they'll have clips available later on.

"All of Obama’s friends were Pakistani – Hasan Chandoo, Wahid Hamid, Sohale Siddiqi, Beenu Mahmood." (Paragraph 15.)

Oh, and he's insufferably pretentious and narcissistic. Shocka.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/02/obama-girlfriend-revealed

Gun control is war on women.

http://townhall.com/columnists/jacobsullum/2012/05/02/twenty_years_for_standing_her_ground

I think this is an important, unfortunately overlooked story: 13 year-old Jada Williams run out of school district by her teachers after criticizing them.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/05/black_teen_run_off_the_liberal_plantation.html

Lets have more crown corporations:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1171401--chris-mazza-s-girlfriend-glided-into-vp-job-at-ornge

Here is a post from the National Review on Obama that will make ET's day.

"When I was teaching junior year high school English, I was given the unenviable task of bringing my students, many of whom had not had to complete a written assignment since middle school, up to grade level in writing ability so they could pass the numerous tests required by the State of New Mexico for graduation.

I recall giving a diagnostic assignment. I wrote a topic statement on the board and told my students they were to give me three paragraphs dealing with that topic (and no, those weren't my precise words). Most of my students did a pretty good job of explaining the topic provided and making their point, but it was obvious that three to four years of limited to no written work had taken their toll on the skills of these young people to write with clarity. The first nine weeks of that school year were a writing "boot camp," and by the end of those nine weeks, the majority of my students were writing at grade level. Some were beyond grade level, and a very few weren't yet there, but were close enough that work and practice would get them the level required.

Here's the kicker: All but one of those students were Navajo. One young man was Colombian. NONE of them expected affirmative action to get into college, and ALL of them expected to have to work hard in order to succeed academically, not just in my class, but later in life and school, as well. Obama's written language skills are a sign of not just limited ability, but also of a lazy mind, and display the sense of entitlement and arrogance which permeate his spoken language. Obama knew that he would, because of the color of his skin and his chosen ethnic identity, always have the skids greased for him. He knew he'd never have to perform. He knew he could do D level work, but would always get A's. My students were already aware that if it came down to a minority-reserved slot for entrance to any given institute of higher learning, and it was a Native American versus a black, the black would always win. So did both Obamas. The young people in my classes didn't want to be tainted by affirmative action. They wanted to succeed on their own, thus, they worked on their writing and other academic skills as if their lives depended on it. Neither Obama felt the need to do that, because for them, there was no need to. They knew they would be protected by their ethnicity and would always be given a pass, regardless of how awful their work was.

Obama's miserable communications skills, both written and oral, are the results of his lack of intelligence and never being required to perform. Were Harvard still a rigorous institution and not just a high-priced community college, I have no doubt any of my students would be able to succeed there, because they have demonstrated the ability. Obama was admitted simply because of skin color and "legacy" status. He never had to perform, and indeed, was unable to perform. The writing Dr. Cashill has presented is evidence of that. Both Hussein and Michelle are examples of what being "entitled" results in: Arrogant, incompetent brats who loathe the very nation that enabled them to have such an inflated sense of self worth. Now both are in situations where affirmative action can't save them, and we see the result of Nixon's folly...a devastated economy, foreign policy in shambles, and a world which no longer respects nor fears us.

Education can't make the dull into the smart, but it can provide the average with the tools needed to succeed and to compete with the above average, perhaps even to outdo them. By simply passing the unqualified, by advancing a dullard beyond where he is actually suited to go, simply because of his skin color, neither society nor the dullard is done any service. Barack and Michelle Obama are an object lesson of the failure of affirmative action in education. His writing predicted that failure, and his lack of performance as president (and hers in any job she ever held) is solid evidence to support that prediction. Any of my students would do better in any position of responsibility than these two have done."

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/08/early_obama_letter_confirms_inability_to_write_comments.html#disqus_thread#ixzz1tl2JdiZW

Sorry, American Thinker for the post.