Saskatoon contractor Ralph Worel tells us about how he’s finding up to 400 needles a day on the job. He says they’re putting him and his co-workers in danger and it’s a problem that needs to change.
Click here for the audio file.
Top 100 Sports Photos of 2010
Guarding the henhouse
From a letter sent by the Conservative Party’s lawyer to Pierre Boutet in the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer:
After our various discussions, you expressly confirmed to me that no advance poll or other form of polling had been sanctioned by Elections Canada for any location at the University of Guelph that day, and that accordingly, any ballots which had been received and placed in the ballot box then located at the University of Guelph were a nullity, which would not be recognized, counted or used for any purpose relating to the 41 st general election now underway.
[…]
Following our discussions, I am advised that the Returning Officer for the electoral district of Guelph, or an individual identifying herself as the Returning Officer personally attended at the University of Guelph to order that the collection of completed ballots from supposed voters continue, and further, that the hours the poll would remain open were extended for a second time that day, such that this supposed poll remained open beyond 7:00 p.m. Indeed, the final ballot was cast and put into a supposed special ballot box at 8:00 p.m. last evening…
(emph. mine)
The whole Third World-y thing here.
Reader Tips
Habs legend Guy Lafleur (“Le Démon Blond“) wasn’t just a terrific hockey player, he was also no slouch when it came to making disco-themed hockey instructional tapes.
Have a pen and a notepad ready, you might want to take notes.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Fight Like A Girl
Take Me, Obama
The second stage is Anger.
On the eve of the Power Shift 2011 climate youth conference, no one expects President Obama to show. If he did, he’d probably get booed by activists angry about his tightening embrace of the oil, coal, gas, and nuclear industries. But it was a very different story two years ago at the last Power Shift, when 10,000 young, idealistic activists filled the Washington Convention Center screaming his name on the opening night of the conference, anticipating his arrival after tantalizing hints from White House staff that he would accept an invitation to speak.
[…]
Then we heard the rumor and saw the dreadful confirmation on the news: Instead of giving a few minutes of his time to rally the movement, he was three blocks away at the Verizon Center in a front row seat watching the Wizards play the Bulls.
Revisiting The Bay Of Pigs
“Kennedy lied, Cubans died.”
“Two planes, Mr. President!” Admiral Burke sputtered into his commander in chief’s face. The fighting admiral was livid, pleading for permission to allow just two of his jets to blaze off the carrier deck and support the desperately embattled freedom-fighters on that heroic beachhead.
“Burke, we can’t get involved in this,” replied JFK.
“WE put those Cuban boys there, Mr. President!” the fighting admiral exploded. “By God, we ARE involved!”‘
More here. (h/t Marc in Calgary)
The First American Prime Minister, Aroused
h/t Mike in Calgary
Flashback!
Pharma Shrugs
Further to this lengthy SDA post from last December (which I suggest you re-read in its entirety), the problem of pharmaceutical shortages continues unabated – and largely unreported. An Instapundit reader;
As a pharmacist of 25 years currently working in hospital pharmacy-I can tell you that the drug shortages are ongoing, dire, and in some cases life-threatening. Take a look at ashp.org/shortages to see the extent of the problem. Many items on the list are for crash carts and critical care.
We’ve had to resort to back-up products, alternatives and work-arounds. All of which compromise quality of care and safety.
Here’s the current list of drug shortages from American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
Ayn Rand, 1957;
Men considered only the ‘welfare’ of the patient, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter, was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said only ‘to serve’…Their moral code has taught them to believe that it is safe to rely on the virtue of their victims. Well, that is the virtue I have withdrawn. Let them discover the kind of doctors that their system will now produce..
Reader Tips
In tonight’s tips music an unidentified – and presumably married – fellow gives a Yankovician backyard performance of These Are Things You Don’t Say To Your Wife.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Heeeeeeeeere’s Iggy!
Politician plus axe plus cameras… what could possibly go wrong?
In related campaign developments …
The First American Prime Minister
Rules out Canadian military defense of Israel;
In the French debate on Wednesday, Ignatieff said a Liberal government would only allow Canadian troops to be deployed on missions that had the blessing of the United Nations.
“The Canadian army must never be used outside the country without the authorization of the UN,” Ignatieff told his audience in French.
Not Waiting For The Asteroid
[Editor’s note: The headline on this article, like all headlines on opinion essays, was crafted by Monitor editors, not the writer. Please click on the “Comments” section below to read a note by Stefan Simanowitz outlining his objections to the headline, which he feels does not reflect the tone or content or his article.]
Deep Impact
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Is There Nothing That Obama Can’t Do?
“They told me if I voted for John McCain, we’d have a president who’d lie us into another war against an Arab country. And they were right!”
Get our pilots out of there.
The Government They Deserve
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Time Magazine, 2008 – Obama’s Youth Vote Triumph
CNBC, 2011 – Teenage Wasteland: Jobless Rate For Young Is 25%—and Rising
University Of Guelph “Votemob”
No votes cast Wednesday in a special ballot at the University of Guelph should stand, according to the Conservative Party of Canada.
The party wrote Elections Canada on Thursday to request that none of the votes collected during the U of G session be included in the final tally of votes in the Guelph riding. The letter was sent by lawyer Arthur Hamilton, of Toronto-based law firm, Cassels Brock.
In his letter, Hamilton alleges the polling station was illegal and also that partisan election material was present at it, which is a violation of the Canada Elections Act.
The polling station in question was located on the main floor of University Centre, where approximately 700 students cast sealed ballots.
The letter.(pdf)
Another question: “How many of the students that voted today will be residing on campus on May 2?”
2006 Flashback – [University of Toronto students] had arranged, through the returning officer for the Trinity-Spadina riding, to vote by special ballot last weekend, but Elections Canada quashed the event after the campaign manager for Liberal incumbent Tony Ianno raised procedural concerns.
Update, by David Akin – “Elections Canada says (just called ’em) that the U of G voting was not an advance poll, as per the Act.”
Let the tantrums begin!
12:15 ET – the latest update on The Elections Acorn Incident!
Final update: Elections Canada statement, via David Akin.
In light of the focus on youth and student electoral participation at the 41 st general election, and on efforts to increase voter interest and turnout among this group, a well-intentioned returning officer undertook a special initiative to create an opportunity for students at the University of Guelph to vote by special ballot. Once Elections Canada officials were made aware of the local initiative in Guelph, the returning officer was instructed not to engage in any further activities of a similar nature. All returning officers have received this instruction.
The PM? He’s super! Thanks for asking!
Canadian election watchers may recall that Stephen Harper’s French-to-English translator during the October 2008 leaders debate sounded….well, to be perfectly blunt, as gay as a three-dollar bill, while Stephane Dion’s translator sounded like a caber-tossing Scot. The cognitive dissonance might have been amusing – at least to the extent that one values humour over fairness – but in the case of Mr. Harper the dub was not only distracting to viewers but arguably reduced the efficacy of the his arguments.
In Wednesday’s French language debate, Stephen Harper’s voice for English-speaking Canadians was, once again, delivered by an ineffectual sounding individual with an annoying, nasal-sounding, effete voice and a conspicuous lisp, while this time it was wee Jack Layton who got the burly Scotsman’s voice.
Turns out it wasn’t the luck of the draw: the broadcast consortium (whose Spokesperson, Marco Dube, is also the Spokesperson for CBC/Radio Canada) that stages the debate does hold a draw to determine everything from the candidates’ respective podium positions to “arrival times…dressing room assignments and the timing and order of appearance at the post debate scrums”, but the translators are assigned by the Official Languages bureau of Public Works and Government Services Canada, who put their heads together to —
…(figure) out amongst themselves who is the best fit for which leader.
In other words, a group of people in the Official Language bureau at PWGSC have made the considered determination, in two successive election campaigns, that a translator with a lisping, effete voice would be the best fit for Stephen Harper.
And then, presumably, they high-fived each other and laughed amongst themselves.
Reader Tips
Tonight’s tippity amusement features a little vintage music from the state of Georgia, as the sorority sisters of the Phi Mu Washboard Band treat us to their peppy, happy-go-lucky version of Boudleaux Bryant’s oft-recorded classic Love Hurts. Yes, love hurts, it just doesn’t hurt badly or for very long, apparently.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire
Sleep tight.