You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2014.
What the hell is this? Am I living in the US or something?
This story broke on on CBC radio June 27th, and listening to what happened I filled this news tid-bit safely under the “smart people doing stupid things” category. The tale of this doctor’s mixed up medical ethos stuck in my brain though and managed to annoy me enough inspire a blog post on the topic.
“A Calgary doctor is being criticized by patients for refusing to prescribe birth control at a walk-in clinic. When Dr. Chantal Barry is on shift a sign at the WestGlen Medical Centre informs patients that the doctor on duty does not prescribe birth control pills.”
Whut? Naw, lets append that to, “What the ever living frak is Dr. Chantal Barry thinking/smoking?”
“The Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons has a policy that states doctors are not required to provide care that violates their moral or religious beliefs. However, physicians are expected to refer patients for care in a timely manner.”
Okay, a stupid policy if I ever heard one, but at least it has the proviso that patients that you happen to neglect because of your particular voodoo should be referred to another doctor that is less reality challenged then yourself. In this situation though, being a clinic with only one doctor on duty per shift, that particular option doesn’t exist.
Pam Krause, head of the Calgary Sexual Health Centre, said she is shocked to hear about a doctor at a walk-in clinic refusing routine medical care.
“Easy access to birth control works,” she said. “It prevents pregnancy and it prevents other social problems down the road, and it should be easily accessible in a city like Calgary from a family physician.”
The solution, Dear Doctor Barry , is keep your ‘morality’ hung discreetly under that MD in evidence based fucking medicine and do your damn job.
Good morning. Today’s disservice, with many thanks to AntiCitizen-X, is on the short and sweet side as cracking this particular religious chestnut is neither particularly complex or time consuming. Necessary? Of course, but hey on the Canadian long weekend everyone gets a brain break. :)
Enjoy.
[Edit: Grr. – What I get for not previewing my post. This is the correct video, Dr.Oz is scheduled later in the week.]
[Edit #2: Adding the syllogism for sake of clarity.]
1. God is omnipotent (definition of God).
2. Omnipotence is the power to do all that is logically possible.
3. A logically possible feat is any coherent action one can speak out loud without contradiction (definition of logical possibility)
3a. Any feat that has ever been done before is logically possible.
4. It is logically possible to create a finite mass of rock that cannot be lifted by its own maker.
5. Therefore, an omnipotent being can create a finite mass of rock that cannot be lifted by its own maker.
6. Therefore, an omnipotent being can create a finite mass of rock that cannot be lifted by an omnipotent being (definition of “maker” by an omnipotent being).
7. For any finite mass of rock, it is logically possible to generate a force that will lift it against a uniform gravitational field. (Newton’s 2nd Law of Motion)
8. Therefore, an omnipotent being can lift any finite mass of rock. (from #2 and #7)
9. Premise #6 and premise #8 are contradictions.
10. Therefore, it is logically impossible to be omnipotent (from #3 and #8)
11. Therefore, God is logically impossible.
Ouch. :>
Follow the theme – Hint: It is the ‘eggs’ :)
Ah, friendly readers, behold the surreal world of MRA ‘reality’ compared to what, in fact, is reality.
I get email:
From the Sandyhook Promise –
Dear Friend,
“The person who killed my precious son Dylan carried 10, 30-round, large-capacity gun ammunition magazines into Sandy Hook Elementary. 300 rounds. He deliberately left the smaller-capacity magazines at home.
In approximately four minutes, he shot 154 bullets, killing 20 children and 6 educators. Five of those bullets hit my son, and in an instant, Dylan was gone.
But in the time it took the shooter to reload, 11 children were able to escape. If magazines were reduced to one-third the number of rounds available that day, just think how many more could have survived. Perhaps my son would still be alive.
Right now in New Jersey, the clock is ticking for Governor Chris Christie to decide whether or not to sign a bill into law that would reduce the size of ammunition magazines to 10 rounds – and opponents of common sense reforms from across the country are pressuring him to veto it. We need your help today to make sure Governor Christie signs this common sense, potentially life-saving bill into law before the June 30 deadline.”
Reduce the size of the magazines?
Let me ironically restate that in bold lettering – Reduce the size of the magazines? (???)
One hundred and fifty four bullets and twenty-six deaths later the people in the US are talking about reducing the size of magazines? How ridiculously absurd is this plea?
How is this even a thing? Don’t even start to talk to me about incrementalism – how many more berserk white dudes killing scores of people does it take for the US to wake the frak-up and institute gun control?
Gaaa!
[Source]
Oh Canada! Producer of so much oil and making strides to export it to other countries just had its first jump in gasoline prices. One question to contemplate is that rather than exporting oil to other countries wouldn’t it be nice to stabilize the domestic market supply and give Canadian consumers a break at the pumps? Wouldn’t a steady rate of return and a Canadian public that doesn’t hate your guts be a good thing?
“Sorry Canada-friends!”, says the Oil Industry there are bottom lines to fatten up – the door to fuck-right-off is on your left please use it at our convenience, plebs!
Oh, and the usual excuses about market instability. I really enjoy paying for market jitters and financial speculation.
“McTeague blamed jitters and excessive financial speculation over instability in the Middle East for “distorting” fuel prices.
Meanwhile, he noted, actual supply for crude has never been better.
I love the fresh pungent smell of oligarchy in the morning.
“Laura Lau, a senior vice-president portfolio manager with the Brompton Group specializing in natural resources, said the markups are a direct reflection of international headlines. The risk premium for oil has soared, even though the unrest hasn’t stopped crude from flowing.
“We could see some relief, but it depends on what happens in Iraq,” Lau said. “If it escalates, we’ll probably see it go up. If it’s resolved or the intensity comes down, we could see oil and gasoline prices come down.”
She noted that no shortages have been reported so far, although oil companies in the region have begun to withdraw nonessential staff following the violent siege of northern Iraq’s Baiji refinery by Sunni militants.
“So could oil production be reduced? Yes,” Lau said. “But right now, it’s more the threat of it than the actual reality.“
This just in, lone Donkey in Iraq pisses on Pipeline – Corrosion could destroy Iraq Oil forever! Oil Barons in North America: Raise the prices, call it “market-forces” and let’s get to work acquiring that 5th yatcht, STAT!!!
Comments on the CBC article nail the BS surrounding the gas gouging:
“These price hikes are pure BS. Only 6% of the oil used in the North America comes from Iraq. The 2 biggest sources are 28% Canada and 16%Saudi Arabia. Then we have Mexico and Venezuela at 11% each with 27% coming from various sources. So to say the price of fuel is rising (in North America) because of a conflict in Iraq is a lie.”
Of course if it is a profitable lie for the right people then it isn’t really a lie then, is it?
Bonus Round!
Profitability above all!
Graph (1) above: as experience has shown, Americans love a good fairy tale. In the case of U.S. involvement in Iraq we have been fed a long series of substantially unrelated rationales from political ‘liberation’ (1990-1991) to WMDs (weapons of mass destruction) and democratization (2003 – 2006) and now on to ‘re-stabilization.’ Left unstated are economic interests like oil company profits, munitions sales and contracts for rebuilding what the U.S. has destroyed. Graph (1) illustrates the relation of oil prices to oil company profits. Wars against oil-rich nations raise the price of oil to the benefit of international oil companies. What do one million dead and four million displaced human beings matter when profits are to be ‘made?’ Source: Reuters.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…