And yet, on the other side of the fence, what do we have? What are the professionals doing? This is the third day in a row that the Globe has printed some "The Public Health Care System In Canada Is Crap" story.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050331.wxblatc0331/BNStory/National/

First of all, this isn't just a story, this is a polemic disguised as a story. Would it be too much to ask for them to print a counter-argument or in this case a counter-story? Apparently, yes. I'm
sure there are many counter-arguments out there. I can think of a few.

But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe as well as this "people are dying because of lack of care here in Canada" there is an item buried somewhere deep in the paper that takes the other side. In fact, the story is mainly about people who are merely 'worried about going to the hospital' and it encourages others to come forward with their accounts of hardship. So it's possible that these persons wouldn't be worried if there were more public funding or if there weren't a story everyday in the Globe about how our system is crap. And maybe on the back page somewhere there is an item outlining how in the private system people die much more often because they have no insurance and nobody cares about that. Maybe there is even an article somewhere that discusses the actual statistical rarity of these kinds of events in Canada, or the fact that private health care is very expensive. In fact, any of these alternate angles would do.

But I don't think the Globe has in fact printed the other side and I don't think it will because it already has the answer and the answer is this: privatise parts of the system. It's the only way to save it. Unfortunately, that's not balance. Balance is printing both sides. In fact, here's the thing about balance: you don't need to personally approve of counter-arguments, but you do need to print them. Because acting as though rational arguments are in fact irrational fluff is
crazy.

This whole business really does remind me of a student newspaper though. It's incredibly unprofessional. On this issue the Globe is advancing the interests of a minority over the interests of the majority. It's taking sides in a debate. How very like a blog.¹<blockquote>¹<small>[2d ed by its author]</small></blockquote>

Here is a question I posed to DJ Fleamaster Flea: what is the difference between amateurs [Ed.: <i>unkindness removed - I was too rude again</i>] like Doctorow and those of the pro-creationists school. Each attacks formal liberal education and evangelizes their (most generously put) "niche" understanding of a broad range of topics.

Ha. That's not a difference that's a similarity. You can't fool me.

I don't know if this Doctorow guy is a saint or a sinner. But I do think that blogging is an interesting development. It's something I would not have anticipated.

I think the concurrent rise of the popular as opposed to niche legitimacy of pentecostalism and the internet is not to be dissed. I am on to something and you are what might be called the voice of Old Europe.

Thank you.

Dimwitted? At least I know the difference between "discrete" and "discreet." Also: both parents have PhDs in education and taught for decades, brother is a teacher, I lecture at several universities.

I'm not on Google am I? Crap. I will remove that unnecessary slur. I was thinking naive and threw "dimwitted" in a pre-java haze. What a wasteland of unspelling as well.

There. But, Cory - none of those references were in your post (which is fine) and that is beside my point. As a source of wisdom, the internet is sideshow. You may get something of learnin' there but it is not the sort anyone would call education. Opinion laced blogs are a prime example of the disutility in the medium for purposes of education (among other things). They are much like that great big classroom window looking out on the sports field in an early Grade 11 day in June, teens staring absently on that guy sneaking out to his $800 Trans-Am to take off. They are the student teacher trying to make education fun only to end up screaming at the kids to sit down.

Actually, here's a Journal of the American Medical Association article that supports the case I made above (it's posted as my web page). There are, according to this article, more deaths related to health care in the US than Japan, Canada, Sweden and many other nations because their two tier system encourage some to get more medical interventions than they need while it encourages others to get less than they need, i.e. 40 million have no insurance. The US is 12th with respect to leading indicators when it comes to health despite paying more for health care than almost anyone.

This thread has quickly spun off. Marian, you need to synthesize all that has been said here in a haiku. Not two haiku, either.

Health care sucks
not it does not
carpe diem

You have only grasped a part of the matters discussed.

Creation
Evolution
Cow Vs. Ape

Blogging's fine.
Seriously?
Humor me.

How about:<blockquote><i>Rude prig, schools and health:<br>Web facts are less than real ones -<br>But pros conceal hide those.</blockquote></i>

Flogging will
Spare me funny
bed spelling!

|Rude prig, schools and health:
|Web facts are less than real ones -
|But pros conceal hide those.

I give up, you win!

Oh, just saw that Amanda ... She looks like that actress in Kill Bill. I thinks she's pretty funny and articulate, so I see what you meant.

Oh wait ... did I miss your irony again? :-)

I cannot explain my art.

C'mon guys. Too linear, not enough faux-Zen. Howzabout:

blogger hates bloggers
health care, Globe, not well at all
Boing Boing gets more hits

Boing Boing volunteers
Invisible hand makes news
Health care? Sell your house

That's the best I can do.

That's not faux zen. This is frigging faux zen:<blockquote class="smalltext">Pot dry, java soon:<br>Dawn. 'Pest hears twelve bells, Euro keys<br>Click. Small mice pass gas.</blockquote>[Ed.: <i>I had to rejig it for get the 5-7-5</i>.]

Alfons is right. You win. I am in awe, sir. Please use your powers of haiku for good, and not evil.

Keep trying. We'll set up a club of international media critics only working in haiku. I trust you are in Pest and not Buda.

Alan, please,
utter vowels
to reach Zen.

You mean like my personal word for meditative focus "sooooooooooooooooooooooofaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa".