Dirty rotten scoundrels

Lately, when I watch my Sportsnet for my hockey lockout news (or lack thereof) I hear about more & more players realizing their season is pooched an leaving to play in Europe for a year. Somehow, the players have found a way to demonstrate their greed and short-sightedness in even more blatant ways.

At first I thought it was great that players were leaving to play elsewhere. They were showing their distaste for the dispute and leaving to do what was important: play hockey. But then I realized that they weren't leaving the situation. The NHL-ers playing in Europe have got two active contracts (some more active than others)... they're still obligated to their North American clubs. In order to stay in shape for next year, they're putting European hockey players in unemployment lines.

Granted, the best hockey player gets the job, but I think it's unfair for Joe Thornton to be occupying two contracts in a limited job market, regardless of how talented he is. It would be fine if he quit the Bruins to take his spot in Europe & saw out his contract with his new European club. In reality, we all know which contract he'll breach when the NHL gets itself sorted out & he's got to make a choice.

Again, 'what suits me best right now' has been reinforced as the mantra of the NHLer.

Teenage Wasteland

Music is something pretty important to me. I like it a lot. That's why it makes me so mad when I see it twisted into a humiliating impression of its former self. Unfortunately, that's something I see a lot of these days & sometimes I just can't take any more.

Metallica, HMV and Interscope demand that I keep buying CDs instead of downloading them for free, but I'm being given no incentive to do so. Ideally, everybody buys music from bands I want to continue making music, and the good bands make money while the crappy ones don't. Except, whe I buy my new Hives CD, I know that my hard earned dollar isn't just going to The Hives. It's also going to 50 Cent and Lloyd Banks, who I'm sure are the two highest paid "artists" (that was hard) on Interscope. I'll go out and buy my Kings of Leon CD, but I know that simply buying my favorite band's music isn't enough, because unless you're on MTV you don't get those big bucks from your record company. The big get bigger while the small stay small.

I know that when I steal music, I'm actually stealing from Interscope and Bubba Sparxxx, not from the bands I like. And I just can't put into words how much it angers me that I'd be supporting 50 Cent in any way. Forget about whether I've got to pay for my music or not, I'll pay double as long as I don't have to support bullshit rap stars.

I can see that this sounds like the old broken record: "it's not about the music anymore". Maybe it never was because I'm sure people have been saying that for years.... but it's really not about the music anymore! I listen to people like Springsteen and Tom Waits, and their music is so honest, and then I turn on The Ashlee Simpson Show (I saw it last night, that's what incited this whole post) and I see how dishonest and contrived it all is and I just can't understand how we've gotten here. I think I need a cold shower.

Decompression time

Between my health crisis, exam stress, frantic job searching and training at new job & soccer withdrawl, the last couple of weeks have been rough. Virtually no blogging has been the result of all this. I'm glad to report I'm back to full health, and after writing my last midterm this morning (they all went quite well) & having my final training shift at work tonight I'll hopefully be in the groove and back to my relatively productive (and regularly posting) self. It's nice.

I haven't caught much news this week other than Colin Powell's resignation from the Bush administration which reduces semi-rational minds in the administration from one to zero.

What may be of interest is something I learned in my business marketing class this week regarding corporate taxation. As we all know, large corporations pay ridiculously low rates of tax. In theory, I think this is a bad thing. An interesting twist to the story is that a corporation pays tax in the country that it's head office is in, regardless of where it does business. Let's say we've got a corporation with factories & employees in London, Ontario. If Ontario raises its taxes on corporations like this one, they can move their head office to Detroit and avoid the tax hike. Now all the Canadian dollars you and I spend on their products goes to the residents of Michigan, not Ontario. The same works for Detroit based companies. If Ontario makes it desirable to run their business from here, we Ontarians can fund our social programs with a bunch of American consumer dollars.

Also, if a big company like GMC gets a tax break, those $100 million aren't lining the CEO's pockets. Sure, a few of them are, but most of them are invested in the business helping to create new jobs and to keep existing jobs around. In principle, I still have opposition to the idea of taxing corporations less than individuals, but in practice I'm not so sure anymore. The question may be which do I value more: that Canadians have well funded social & health care programs or that we tax the hell out of the man.

Rememberance Day

I'd been trying to think all day of some way I could write about this day that's somehow different from everything else we read every November 11th. Calvin's provided me with a little inspiration.

He blogs about how we remember only one minute annually the countless millions who surrendered their lives under horrible conditions for us. It seems odd that we do this for one minute, but scarcely ever recall our brave soldiers for the remaing year-less-a-minute.

I think that is exactly why rememberance day is so important. They gave their lives so that we could do just this. So that we wouldn't have to think about war always. So that we wouldn't constantly have to worry whether our loved ones were safe or alive. That year-less-a-minute of peaceful and happy living is the fallen's gift to us. Out of our otherwise war and pain free lives, this is why we regard this single day, and single minute annually so closely and why we must never, ever forget those by whom we were given the other 364 days of the year.

America attacks America!

George W preparing to declare war on tyrannical Bush administration after an F-16 jet fires it's cannons on a New Jersey elementary school.

On the force

PART1: WORK

While I haven't heard back yet from my interview last week (which makes me think I may not have done as good a job concealing my hideous boil as I'd thought), I did get a call out of the blue from the restaurant second on my list. I had an interview with them this morning & I was asked to start friday, so big Cam's a working man again.

And what I naively referred to last friday as the longest week ever, was in fact much longer than I'd anticipated. Upon my return to the clinic to pick up doctor's note ($20... I'll get to this later) I inadvertently picked up some type of virus along with it. So I spent the following 3 days with a blazing fever and tonsils visibly bulging from my neck, making the weekend far worse than if I'd not gone back to the clinic at all, and just toughed out the antibiotic side-effects.

PART 2: BEEF

Now for the $20. On tuesday I went to the doctor's to get my neck thingy checked out. The doc got some information from me, checked me out, diagnosed me with a neck boil, prescribed antibiotics, and I left a happy man.

I returned on thursday because I was suffering side-effects from the antibiotics. On the second visit, I was in the waiting room for 45 minutes, the doctor spoke to me for approximately 2 minutes, and gave me no medical procedure, treatment, or advice whatsoever. I was only there to document that I was indeed on antibiotics, and they indeed had side-effects (you can get that info from Shoppers, it's not an MD-specific skill).

The first trip had no fee, the second trip cost me $20. I'd totally forgotten until they asked me for it, that at some doctors' you have to pay for a doc's note (and handsomely in my opinion). I've got a problem with that. If you wanna charge me extra, charge me for your expert medical services. Being charged $20 for my doctor's signature is so reminiscent of the pain I feel when I've gotta pay $8 for a shitty airport grilled cheese.

Treating patients the central part of a doctor's job, and providing documentation of that treatment should be a trivial matter if the treatment itself has been paid for. To offer the treatment for cost, but tack on charges for documentation of it seems backwards, and like a real cash-grab because the clinics have a monopoly on the doctor's notes.

I'd expect to pay if he were endorsing a passport or something peripheral, but a doc's note is pretty directly related his main work, and paying extra for it I can't help but feel bamboozled. It's not a lot of money, but doctors are supposed to be bastions of ethics, and to feel conned by them doesn't sit well with me.

Early november roundup

Disclaimer to my vast swatches of American readers: Obviously, you are not included in the upcoming post. I know there are a lot of very hip, intelligent people down there... you just seem to be outnumbered right now.

To start with: I am truly surprised that the US wants George W Bush to keep sleeping in the white house for another 4 years. I always knew he had supporters, and I always knew that he could win the election, but I really never thought he would.

This result makes me realize that my opinion of the American public isn't true. I thought they realized what a doofus he is, and that he's done nothing, nothing, to merit another 4 years in office. I thought they understood that the issues facing the nation are what should determine the nation's captain, not his family values. Strong moral fiber in a leader is important, but I would never poll that 'values' was the issue that determined my vote (like exit polls on tuesday indicate determined the lion's share of votes). Even if it were a referendum on religoius/family values, which positive values does Bush represent? Is he a good christian? Does he believe in equality? Neither. Yet he's the captain of choice.

This leaves only one possibility, the average American must believe in the same bullshit version of religion that Bush practices. They must truly believe that two women kissing is more dangerous to their freedom than brutally torturing and humiliating POW's. I find it scary enough that one person (GWB himself) believes all that rubbish, I am stunned that the majority of American agree with him. It's true, only 51% fit this bill, but that's a majority, and it's a helluva lot more than I would have liked to believe.

IN OTHER NEWS:

It's midterm time here in Cam-ville, and what a week it's been. Election issues aside, I had 3 job interviews this week. After discovering that it really is hard to find a job here in London, I've finally landed one, and have at least 2 other great opportunities on the burner. Wouldn't you know it, the very night before my interview for a bartending spot at a classy London steakhouse, I get the first boil of my life. I haven't had a pimple in years, and on the day when my presentability is most important, I've got half a shiny, fire-engine red golfball growing from the side of my neck (right above the collar, of course).

The interviews went fine & I think I'll get the job, but the antibiotics the MD put me on to save me from the scalpel hit me with a healthy dose of side-effects. I've taken this antibiotic before & noticed no effects at all, but this time it floored me with an array of gastro-intestinal disasters I won't further describe. Suffice to say, I didn't write me scheduled exam today, & will write it next week instead. One 4-hour exam on Saturday (!?) to go & one of the longest weeks of 2004 will be over.

Pre-emptive reminiscence

Maybe I'm overdramatizing the moment, but tomorrow is going to be a turning point in US history. Regardless of who you support, Bush and Kerry represent two very different paths for the US to follow, and for better or worse, the American people will choose one tomorrow. Actually, it's quite possible the supreme court will be the ones doing the choosing, but let me be optimistic this year. I hope four years from now America (and the world) can look back at this election with satisfaction, not regret.

Sometimes I wonder why Canadian politics, while interesting, doesn't seem to have the same drama that US politics does... especially in 2004. I think it's in part because there are so many more voices in the Canadian system that it lacks that head-to-head showdown feel this US election has. The two party system in the US makes the election look a lot more like a game of gridiron football. If the election fell on a monday, having John Madden cover the results would make for good viewing.

What I think is the other main factor, also reflects on what a particularly important election this may be. Listening to the most recent Canadian political debates, I decided which candidate I thought was best. Although I didn't think all the ideas were equal, I didn't question that each candidate had my best interest in mind. Thats usually the case, but this time around, a lot of people question whether or not Bush really has the best interest of Americans in mind. I've got no doubt that he truly loves America the nation, but I'm not so sure he loves America the population with the same fervor. Rather than choosing between the greater of two goods, this election is being painted as good v. evil even more than it usually is.

You all know who I'm rooting for, but this race really does seem too close to call. Tomorrow should be exciting (too bad I'm in class 7-10pm).