joel99

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  1. I was chatting with someone the other day about Glenn Beck. I don't watch him as I think he falls under the "extreme political entertainment" category much like Colbert or Stewart. I didn't have anything specific about him which I found negative so I decided to do a basic fact check based on stuff I personally know about. I read two articles on his blog that I found via Google - note these were the only two I read and I found both of them to have errors: Glenn Beck - Current Events & Politics) First of this, this one is factually wrong in that there is no "Premier of Canada". How can someone not know the governing structure of another country? As for the tone of the article I find it snarky and condescending. The facts are this was the Premier (similar as a governor) of one of the poorest provinces of Canada (with only a population of 500k spread across an area about the size of California) who happens to be worth about ~$200m and has a house in Florida. So he decided to have his surgery in Florida and combine it with a quiet vacation instead of going to another province to have it done. (This one really burns me because I personally know his doctor and I myself have heart problems so I know the system from that point of view.) Glenn Beck - Current Events & Politics - Glenn Beck: Canada's Health Care system failing For this one Beck states "The guy who designed the Canadian healthcare system says it's in a crisis and he's now advocating private control of much of the system". To me this is factually wrong since the guy behind the Canadian health care system died in 1986. It's also misleading as in Canada each province runs their own system based on federal guidelines. In this article he somehow manages to tie this into a Marxist plot to take down government. To me that's beyond ridiculous. Again, this was based on reading two articles which is enough for me to not bother looking into him further. Apologists please feel free to flame him but please don't use the angle that since he's a Mormon I should support him. The fact that he's a Mormon makes me cringe.
  2. Long waits at "InstaCare"? Up here in Canada my doctor doesn't have a long wait time since she knows she'll be denounced at the next party meeting.
  3. Wait until this summer to get an iPhone as they should have a new version out in June/July.
  4. The church is fine with this when we looked into doing it. I know a few people who have done this as well. BCGuy - this is done in Vancouver and if you are interested in this route PM me and I can pass along some contacts (it's not covered by MSP though but can claimed as a medical expense in your taxes). j.
  5. Okay, so it's a guess and not a fact. Next time perhaps surround your guesses with "USA-USA-USA" so that it's more clear. :) From that article I linked to I don't think it would be accurate that companies like Bayer (Germany), GlaxoSmithKline (UK), AstraZeneca (UK/Sweden), etc. are simply companies selling generics. j.
  6. Do you have some evidence to back up those numbers? A quick look found this - which shows, in terms of the top pharmaceutical companies' revenue, that the US has less than 50%: List of pharmaceutical companies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  7. We're very excited to have the Olympics - but the lack of snow here is really going to shatter the stereotype of Canada being filled with igloos and Coke drinking polar bears. :) But the reality is that Vancouver itself rarely has any snow to begin with. But even the mountains barely have any which is a bit nuts. I'm sure after seeing it even Sarah Palin will believe in climate change. :) :) j.
  8. Let me jump in here because I have some background on this. First of all - Newfoundland & Labrador is a province in eastern Canada (both a large island and section on the mainland) with a population of about 550k spread over an area around the size of California. Or in other words the population of the Provo metro area. Given that, it's reasonable to think that they would not the same level of care as a much larger metro area such as Vancouver or Toronto (or Boston, etc.). Its largest city has a similar population as say St. George, Utah with the next closest "major" city a significant distance away in Nova Scotia. I personally know people who've lived there who required advanced heart surgery that was done out of province and paid for by their provincial health insurance. I've seen the same thing done while living in the US where people go to specialist centers for their specific ailment - Hopkins, Stanford, etc. It hasn't been disclosed yet on exactly what he had but I would imagine given his epic quantity of money he decided to go to a big name facility in the US to have it done. Probably packaged up in an all-inclusive deal (meals, drinks, access to the poolside bar, etc. :) It appears I know his doctor and I bet he was pissed. :) j.
  9. Many LDS in the SLC area LDS by tradition not by belief. This is similar to other areas where one church has dominated for many years. (e.g., where I am from that would be Catholic and Anglican faiths) That said, there are many resources for practicing LDS members - not the least of which are the many temples, BYU and the novelty of a fully staffed ward. :) j.
  10. Let's package it up as a multi-level marketing scheme and in Utah alone the system would be paid for within months. /joke j.
  11. I have nothing to add about the vent but out of curiosity have you looked into the trials they have using the drug Losartan to help treat your disease? I have another disease which they're experimenting with this drug - I'm taking it but am not in a formal trial. j.
  12. My wife sent me a card my first Christmas and that was it. Obviously in the end we got married so it all worked out. The reality is that you won't be able to have a very close relationship with your friends or family back home - at least not how you have it now. That's simply because you can't communicate at the same level via a weekly letter versus face to face contact. But in the end you only have two years on your mission and the rest of your life for everything else. Those two years will just fly by and you'll pick up where you left off with the people from home. Meanwhile, in the limited time you have to contact them while serving, do your best to pass along the great experiences you are having and the affect that the gospel is bringing to those who you are serving. j.
  13. Out of curiosity, when Kim Clark was Dean of Harvard Business School (now president of BYU-Idaho and member of the Seventy) what role did he play in their endowment investments? IIRC in the book "the Mormon Way of Doing Business" they credit him for dramatically increasing the fund. On a side note, in Canada we have the Canada Pension Plan which is our version of Social Security. The money is invested among equities, fixed income and other things like real estate. It's seen some pretty good rates of returns plus I don't think it can pillaged like SS can in the US. It would be awesome if something like that existed in the US.
  14. I'm waiting for the part where the OP tells us that the UK or a similar country (they have two temples though) will allow polygamy under certain circumstances and therefore this isn't a hypothetical question. My answer is that I'd expect the president of the church to do the correct thing. j.
  15. I'll say it again: in Canada the provinces handle the healthcare and not the federal government. You can't be serious in thinking that a comment made by a member of the opposition party (referring to ONE health district in the entire country which consists of only two major hospitals) is actually creditable? Feel free to debate the healthcare in the US all you want but please leave us out of it because the more you try to make comparisons the harder you fail. j.