Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

No one could have predicted…

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Infrastructure week. at last.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

We still have time to mess this up!

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Let’s finish the job.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

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222Comments

  5. 5.

    gbear

    If he lived in Canada, he would have been wearing proper winter footwear and wouldn’t have fallen.

  8. 8.

    dr. bloor

    Sure, but all the Molson’s and donuts he can knock down after the surgery.

    And live Hockey Night in Canada on the hospital teevee, eh?

  10. 10.

    trollhattan

    @#5 gbear

    If he lived in Canada, he would have been wearing proper winter footwear and wouldn’t have fallen.

    And the Canadian Department of Snowclearing and Sidewalk Heating and Drying would have ensured the hazard didn’t exist to begin with.

  13. 13.

    Michael

    Death Panel case in most countries. Here, we love Jesus, so he gets his operation for eleventy jillion dollars and 98 cents.

  17. 17.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    At the grocery store today I sampled something called “rugalagh”. Is that as bad as arugula or am I still a real American?

  18. 18.

    GReynoldsCT00

    @gbear:

    I think it was more that Lily had no footwear and necessitated being picked up and carried and then crash, bang, boom on the ice…

  20. 20.

    Comrade Dread

    Try going to the ER on a Friday night in a big city.

    Anything short of a bleeding gunshot wound or full blown cardiac arrest gets you relegated to waiting four to five hours to even see a doctor for 5 minutes, and then he disappears again for another 2 or 3 hours.

  23. 23.

    Sue

    Which means that, unlike several million Americans, eventually he would have actually gotten the surgery.

  25. 25.

    Michael

    OT, but here is Loving the Troops, FReak edition.

    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2437795/posts

    Of course, they want troops all over their little rallies and wearing Oathkeepers paraphernalia, but it can’t go the other way.

    Oh, and in case you wonder, the poster who is filing this complaint is named Bob Hahn – he’s a big, lumpy douchenozzle, and was deeply involved with the Swiftboat assholes. As I recall, he was also entwined in the Redstate startup.

    ClownPosse lives on, baby.

  28. 28.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    Oh, that stupid bipartisan debt reduction commitee idea was voted down by the Senate. Awwwwww( ( ( ( ( ( (

  30. 30.

    ellaesther

    Look, I do apologize, but I’m going to be earnest for a mo:

    I lived in Israel for 14 years, a place where the socialized medicine is just as good and/or fucked up (depending on your perspective or immediate problem) as it is in Canada (or, it was back then, at any rate), and I will tell you all quite honestly:

    I would rather have those long lines in those crowded waiting rooms and the not-infrequent difficulties with obtaining exactly the care you want — because bottom line, MOST people got MOST of the care they needed MOST of the time. And you are not bankrupted in the process, and neither is society when it winds up paying for the people it was trying to get away with not taking care of.

    Anything people do is messy. Any effort to reach more people in their hours of need is better than any effort to reach fewer people.

    /ends earnestness.

  35. 35.

    Calming Influence

    Remind John that if he lived in Canada and was eventually able to get the surgery, he would still die from septic shock that the bogus counterfeit drugs they gave couldn’t control.

  36. 36.

    Glocksman

    In Indiana Senate race news, Republican Mike Pence isn’t going to run against Evan Bayh.

    NY Times

    Representative Mike Pence, the No. 3 Republican in the House, will run for re-election this year rather than challenge Senator Evan Bayh, the Indiana Democrat.

    The other ‘name’ Republican in the race is 8th District former Congressman John Hostettler.

    Wikipedia page on Hostettler

    Hostettler may come of as somewhat of a religious nut (because he is), but if he can bring together both the religious and secular teabaggers, he stands a very good chance of knocking off Bayh in an anti incumbent year.

  39. 39.

    Why oh why

    If he lived in Canada, a government death panel would have killed him before he even had an accident.

  40. 40.

    Tax Analyst

    @ #17 Notorious P.A.T.

    At the grocery store today I sampled something called “rugalagh”. Is that as bad as arugula or am I still a real American?

    Maybe it’s the same thing and the store clerk who wrote the product sign has a severe form of dyslexia.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne

    @Incertus:

    Dang, you beat me to it. I do love how the comments seem to mostly be, “Serves you right, asshole.”

    And what is it with Republicans breaking into Democratic offices to bug the phones? I know the Democrats have been acting like it’s 1968 all over again, but I didn’t realize the Republicans were, too.

  42. 42.

    beltane

    Six months? Nah, the Royal Canadian Mounted Death Panels would have finished him off much sooner than that. Glenn Becks says the Canadian Death Panels are a model of socialist efficiency.

  45. 45.

    sacrablue

    oops, I thought I was replying to Notorious P.A.T. at #17. For some reason the reply to arrow didn’t work. Sorry.

  47. 47.

    Osprey

    @JK: What, Bobby Jindal was unavailable?

    And McDonnell is from Virginia? Hmmm….

    I’m going to hope Obama makes a commitment to ‘tornado monitoring’, and just as McDonnell says “and just what is this tornado monitoring”, and F5 sucks his dumb-ass up and deposits him smack-dab in the middle of Oz, which is full of gay soshulist munchkins and the wicked witch (which looks just like Nancy Pelosi) sends a battalion of Flying Muzlim Munkeys after him.

    One can dream….

  48. 48.

    Leelee for Obama

    @Notorious P.A.T.: I’m afraid your status is in jeopardy, Pat. Rugalagh is a Zionist plot to make all of us lovers of Jewish Grandmothers. I, myself succumbed to the siren years ago, as rugalagh is required eating in Brooklyn NY.

  53. 53.

    Loneoak

    If John was getting the surgery in Canada, they would have replaced his scapula with one from a beaver.

  54. 54.

    PTirebiter

    Ask John if they needed to use any cadaver bone. I had some pretty weird dreams after shoulder surgery.

  56. 56.

    Sloegin

    Read recently that the current Canadian delay is aboot a 16 week wait for elective surgery per a Oct 2009 report.

    Don’t really think you could classify JCs surgery as ‘elective’ however.

  59. 59.

    carlos the dwarf

    OT question:
    I’m a newly-minted college grad in my first job out of college, a low-level office job. I’m finding myself endlessly surprised at how little competence is expected from my co-workers and I. Is the bar for competence really this low everywhere, or does my employer just have an unusual tolerance for stupidity?

  60. 60.

    Glocksman

    @Glocksman:

    Forgot to add:

    Evan Bayh is the second Bayh to hold that Senate seat.
    His father Birch Bayh held the seat for 3 terms, but was defeated in his run for a fourth term by Dan ‘Potatoe’ Quayle during the 1980 Republican landslide.

    It’d be ironic if the son was defeated by a lightweight Repub ‘true believer’ as well.

  63. 63.

    licensed to kill time

    @Ash Can:

    And he’d have to do it himself.

    Considering his tale of the doorknob and the dislocated shoulder repair, I bet he could do it, too!

  66. 66.

    Violet

    @carlos the dwarf:

    I’m a newly-minted college grad in my first job out of college, a low-level office job. I’m finding myself endlessly surprised at how little competence is expected from my co-workers and I. Is the bar for competence really this low everywhere, or does my employer just have an unusual tolerance for stupidity?

    Depends on the industry, but as a general rule I’ve found that many offices tolerate pretty low levels of competence. And a lot of bosses are ridiculously incompetent. Hence the popularity of “Dilbert,” “Office Space” and “The Office.”

  67. 67.

    Dreggas

    oh since this is an open thread.

    Saw Avatar in 3D over the weekend and loved it, however the big highlight for me was seeing that a re-make of clash of the titans is coming out in march.

    Oh and I watched Year One. Reminded me of Monty Python’s life of brian, highly recommend it.

  70. 70.

    Ash Can

    @Sloegin:

    Don’t really think you could classify JCs surgery as ‘elective’ however.

    That’s pretty much the point of the joke. In all seriousness, though, I’m wondering why he had to wait as long as he did for the surgery. Was it for some legitimate reason, like waiting for the tissue to stabilize or something? Or was it because of — perish the thought — imperfections in the system?

  71. 71.

    kay

    @Incertus:

    All four were charged with entering fedral property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.

    Lord. Why her office?

  72. 72.

    toujoursdan

    Actually John isn’t too far off target, at least in Ontario.

    I ran John’s condition through Ontario Ministry of Health: Wait Times Calculator and got anywhere from 51 days at Credit Valley Hospital (Mississauga) to 455 days at St. Michael’s Hospital (Toronto).

    In Ottawa, it would 77 days at Arnprior and District Memorial Hospital (Arnprior) to 331 days if you went to Ottawa General Hospital (Ottawa).

    But the Ontario provincial wait time target from diagnosis to surgery is 182 days. This is due to the fact that Canada has fewer orthopaedic surgeons per capita than any other western country. Canada Medical Assn: Crisis in orthopedic care: surgeon and resource shortage

    Of course, there would never be a bill.

  73. 73.

    pcbedamned

    It’s a good thing I know that all of the comments about our Health Care up here in the Great White North are snark, or I’d be getting pretty pissed right about now. This whole health care thing and your ‘right-wing’ attitudes (your countries, not the BJ community) was actually my “Terri Schiavo” moment (a la John Cole – yes, some of us take longer than others :) Personally, I wouldn’t trade my ‘free’ health care system for yours anyday…
    Fast recovery John.
    Peace…

  74. 74.

    gex

    @carlos the dwarf: People everywhere, at every station in life, and of all different groups have abilities across the bell curve spectrum. You’ll get used to it.

    I am constantly amazed at how little effort some of my coworkers make at thinking their way through a problem. If they try to do A, and A is not possible, plan B is to throw up their hands. I spend a lot of time asking, “Have you tried C, D, and E?” C, D, and E are not difficult options to think of, but you have to try to think of them.

    And it seems to really boil down to motivation and attitude. Some people don’t really care if they do their best or not, they are happy to do what is minimally acceptable, even if they have greater capacity.

  75. 75.

    Chum

    If he lived in Canada his husband would be able to visit him in hospital, take over power of attorney, and maybe get custody of Lily in the divorce.

    The 10’ snow drifts would have cushioned his fall

    We wish. Two weeks to Olympics and it’s super warm in Vancouver. Snowboarders have been asked to bring their own snow.

  76. 76.

    Brachiator

    @ellaesther:

    I lived in Israel for 14 years, a place where the socialized medicine is just as good and/or fucked up (depending on your perspective or immediate problem) as it is in Canada (or, it was back then, at any rate)

    I wonder if the wingnuts and Palinistas know that Israel has a universal health system?

    Your interesting note made me curious about Israel health care. A few general nuggets:

    Many students said that their experience with health care in Israel was comparable to that of the care Stateside. Israel, which has had a hybrid public/private system since 1994, covers its entire population through four private companies, which are heavily regulated by the government and subsidized by taxpayer funds.
    …
    According to 2000 study by the World Health Organization (WHO), Israel has the 28th best health care in the world. The study cited its universal treatment, but also pointed out long waits and high taxes. The United States was ranked 37th; the study lauded its responsiveness but criticized its high costs.

  78. 78.

    licensed to kill time

    @gbear:

    If he lived in Canada, he would have been wearing proper winter footwear and wouldn’t have fallen.

    I was visiting a friend in Canada once and remarked on her slippery driveway, something to the effect of “Jeez, somebody might fall and sue you”. She laughed and said, “Only an American would say that, here if you slip and fall your own insurance pays – there’s no “sue the other guy”.

    So sensible, those Canucks.

  80. 80.

    socraticsilence

    You know- normally, I don’t agree with the “socialized medicine” demogogary- but Canada’s healthcare system while better than ours isn’t exactly a model we’d want to follow (neither is the UKs- we want a French or German style system- public-private partnership and all that).

  82. 82.

    jibeaux

    @johnny:
    I don’t think it’s Canada that throws in free ass surgery in with the shoulder surgery. I forget who that is. New Zealand, maybe?

  83. 83.

    Ash Can

    @toujoursdan: I think your appraisal of the situation is what’s off target. I followed your link, and the orthopedic surgery listed in the wait-time calculator is defined as “Orthopaedic Surgery – Includes surgical procedures performed to treat benign conditions of the musculoskeletal system, including bones, joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments.” John’s condition is not “benign” by any stretch of even the bureaucratic imagination.

  85. 85.

    Violet

    @socraticsilence:
    I’m still pulling for the system in The Netherlands. It was voted the best in Europe last year I believe. It’s heavily regulated private insurance with limited public coverage for those who can’t afford the private. Everyone’s required to have insurance.

  87. 87.

    Bubblegum Tate

    And if Obama had his way, John would be shot like a racehorse with a broken leg instead of getting surgery.

  89. 89.

    Napoleon

    @Ash Can:

    I was just about to point out without bothering going to the link that in Canada the long waits are for things people can wait for (not emergencies). Clearly John is (well by now hopefully was) in that category.

  90. 90.

    batgirl

    @toujoursdan: There is also a 4 level priority system. I think the wait time represents the lowest priority.

    According to the website these are the targets based on priority (not sure if they are met or not):

    ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY TARGETS

    Priority Level General Surgery Priority Descriptions Access Target
    1 Surgery is urgently required
    i.e. fractures, tendon/ligament injury, significant joint derangement
    Within 1 week
    2 Severe pain that actively affects role and independence;
    High probability of disease progression and morbidity affecting function
    Within 6 weeks
    3 Moderate pain;
    Disability is a threat to role and independence;
    Disease progression is moderate
    Within 12 weeks
    4 Minimal pain; disability does not threaten role and independence;
    Disease progression is minimal
    Within 26 weeks

  91. 91.

    rootless_e

    I’m a newly-minted college grad in my first job out of college, a low-level office job. I’m finding myself endlessly surprised at how little competence is expected from my co-workers and I. Is the bar for competence really this low everywhere, or does my employer just have an unusual tolerance for stupidity?

    Why of course not. As one rises in the corporate hierarchy , one needs to demonstrate more and more competence, bordering on genius.
    /Dick Fuld and Chuck Prince

  92. 92.

    MTiffany

    How awful it is that John has to wait because the undeserving are receiving medical care as well. Disgraceful.

  93. 93.

    Ash Can

    @toujoursdan: Very true. And BTW, I re-read my comment and realized that I came off sounding snottier than I intended. Mea culpa.

    @Brachiator:

    I wonder if the wingnuts and Palinistas know that Israel has a universal health system?

    Just another imperfection in that part of the world that the Rapture will take care of, I’m sure.

  94. 94.

    toujoursdan

    I am not bashing the Canadian system. I grew up in Québec and despite the flaws (and Quebec has the most underfunded and worst healthcare system in the country by far), I’d still take it over what I have now in the U.S.

  95. 95.

    kay

    @Incertus:

    I’ll say.

    Also arrested were Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan, all 24. Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, who is the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, the office confirmed

    Uh-oh. Daddy’s gonna be angry.

  97. 97.

    FlipYrWhig

    @gex:

    I am constantly amazed at how little effort some of my coworkers make at thinking their way through a problem. If they try to do A, and A is not possible, plan B is to throw up their hands. I spend a lot of time asking, “Have you tried C, D, and E?” C, D, and E are not difficult options to think of, but you have to try to think of them.

    It’s a relief to realize that that problem is limited to your coworkers, and not, say, an entire political system in a familiar nation.

  99. 99.

    Comrade Mary

    If John lived in Canada, we would have kissed it and made it better, then fed him poutine to cheer him up even more. Because we forgive people who BRIEFLY FUCKING PISS US OFF with “jokes” about our medical system.

    #cough# OK, over it.

    Careful hugs on one side, John. You’re going to feel a little creaky and weak for a while, but it will get better.

    EDIT: Really, not pissed off, just kidding.

  100. 100.

    toujoursdan

    @Ash Can:

    No problem. The calculator isn’t intended to give a diagnosis or make a final decision. It was just an indication.

    BTW, I lived in St. Mary’s Bay, New Zealand for several years. The NZ system is a hybrid. You buy insurance that covers your primary doctor visits, but the expensive stuff: diagnostics, surgeries, phys ed, etc. are performed at the State run hospital system. Most of the State run hospitals are kept small and community based and are generally highly regarded. If you need cutting edge surgery, you generally go to Auckland.

  101. 101.

    Dreggas

    @You Don’t Say:

    what I found more amusing is that in the comments someone posted a link to a site that “lolcatizes” websites you visit translating the text into lolcat.

  102. 102.

    MMM

    HE’S ALIVE!

    Just talked to him on the phone. He sounds under the influence (and not cheerful). His mother refuses to give him his laptop. Told him to go to sleep and wake up on Thursday.

  105. 105.

    gwangung

    @batgirl:

    1 Surgery is urgently required
    i.e. fractures, tendon/ligament injury, significant joint derangement

    Um. I think Cole’s injury would definitely fall here.

  114. 114.

    Seth

    ******************************************************
    UPDATE ON JOHN
    ******************************************************

    This is John’s brother and he wanted me to update all of you on his status. The operation was a success although he did screw up his shoulder worse than they thought. He is currently on morphine and does not have an internet connection (probably a good thing given the morphine, although some of you might think it a good thing regardless) so you will not be hearing from him for a bit. Anyway, he is recovering and the operation was a success.

    ******************************************************
    UPDATE ON JOHN
    ******************************************************

  116. 116.

    tamied

    @MMM: That’s good to hear.

    His mother refuses to give him his laptop.

    Now he needs to get back to work! (-:

  118. 118.

    Ash Can

    @Comrade Mary:

    we would have kissed it and made it better, then fed him poutine to cheer him up even more

    And if you were to give him some Screech to wash it down with, he’d be able to hop off the operating table and dance a jig.

    @MMM:

    and not cheerful

    Our John? Not cheerful?? Shocking. Seriously, though, thanks for the update.

  119. 119.

    Violet

    @kay:
    Yeah, it’s gotta be embarrassing. But if they’re Republicans they’ll keep it in the family, present a united front to the world, and Daddy will cut some deal to get him community service or a suspended sentence.

    If the someone without connections did this exact same thing, they would be looking at a long time behind bars.

  120. 120.

    kay

    @Ash Can:

    He’s an “acting”. The Bush appointee left and joined a law firm, so Mr. Flanagan got a promotion.
    I looked.
    Here, they would ship him off to a rehab, quickly, whether he was substance-addicted or not. It’s like Step One for dealing with humiliating episodes by the children of local big-shots.

  123. 123.

    Liberty60

    Just got back from a MoveOn rally at Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s field office. Her aide read a statement from Rep. Sanchez, restating her committment to passing something.

    At the rally, a guy from Sweden talked about his health care there; of course, he paid $7.00 for his recent wrist surgery, and pays 30% of his income in taxes, or about what I pay in California.

    But I guess he has to live with the horror of cradle to grave so-shul-ism so I guess thats something.

  124. 124.

    EriktheRed

    @ellaesther:

    Just wanna add an A-men to that. No good goes unpunished, but that doesn’t always mean the deed itself is not worthwhile. So it is with getting a socialized healthcare system in the US of A.

  125. 125.

    Citizen_X

    A Screech reference, the news about the Acorn asshole, and John emerging from the OR alive: this is a happy-making thread, it is.

  127. 127.

    JL

    @ellaesther:

    For the life of me I can’t figure out why health reform and single payer supporters don’t bring up Israel more often. Conservatives like to pretend that they support Israel’s every move and yet they don’t recognize the fact that they have “socialized” medicine.

    More importantly is what you said about not wanting to trade Israel’s system for America’s system. This is true of most Israelis and Canadians, Swiss, French, and more who have similar systems. Bottom line – some waits are better than bankruptcy.

  131. 131.

    toujoursdan

    @JL:

    …and it’s not like Americans don’t have waits already. I have a friend who had to wait months to get his knee worked on. I suppose a conservative could say that my friend could have paid out of pocket and got it straightaway but he couldn’t afford it (and it wouldn’t make sense to pay for a procedure covered by insurance anyway.)

  133. 133.

    JL

    One more comment. I was diagnosed with skin cancer last year. I am financially f*cked for the rest of my life now. I have huge debt (thankful for the successful treatments), increasing insurance premiums and can never switch insurers because no one will take me. A future employer would be financially hurt by putting me on a group plan which would affect my paycheck/value to the company. My 2-year-old daughter is screwed for life because of “family history” of cancer now. In no other modern, industrial country would I be put in such a ridiculous situation.

  134. 134.

    maus

    @liberal:

    OT: the douchebags who “exposed” ACORN might be in some big doo doo now.

    Fox won’t bail them out, but I’m willing to bet that they’ll have comfy wingnut welfare and a steady behind-the-scenes “documentary” career in the coming.

  139. 139.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Seth:

    I would love someone to take notes of Cole in Morphineville looking for his last shaker of Galt.

    kidding – keep the dude away from anything that could do harm. Like say keyboards and such. Until it’s time.

    DougJ can opine about the good old 60’s when he was but a twinkle in his daddies eye.

  140. 140.

    Seeley

    I currently live in the US, and used to live in Canada. My husband still lives in Canada. (We commute on weekends.)

    I admit that one of the reasons that I moved to the US was because Canada was too “socialist” for my liking. That includes the medical system.

    Over the past decades I have gained a lot of experience with BOTH country’s medical systems. I have family here in the US that have been seriously ill. They have gotten good care. However, my husband was recently injured up in Vancouver, and I thought he received SUPERB care. (Like, how fast they were able to get him in for this elective surgery. And how long they were willing to keep him in the hospital just to ensure his solid recovery.) One thing about it… no insurance company argued with the doctors about costs. My American family members were astounded by the level of care my husband received.

    While I would be the first to admit that Canada’s medical system isn’t perfect, it’s a real shame that here in the US, we can’t have a REAL discussion about options — with truth and facts.

  142. 142.

    liberal

    @JL:

    My 2-year-old daughter is screwed for life because of “family history” of cancer now.

    Well, not really. Either we’re going to move to a rational health care system or we’re not. If we do, she’s fine. If we don’t, we’re all screwed, not just her in particular, because at the rate health care costs are growing as a fraction of GDP, we’ll be bankrupt.

  145. 145.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Seth:

    you will not be hearing from him for a bit

    We will believe that when we see it.

    @Notorious P.A.T.: no hard feelings from last night, eh? apologies in the spirit of well-being.

    Still taking bets on who will be the asshole *during* the SOTU – DeMint(ed) and Coburn are sewn up.

  148. 148.

    licensed to kill time

    I’m V.Happy that John made it out of surgery fine but cranky. I can’t wait for his description of his morphine haze and recuperation. All in good time, of course.

    Get better quick and come back and be curmudgeonly, John!

  149. 149.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @JL:
    Heart is out to you.
    E.R. stories:
    I’ve taken my kids to the ER when they were running very high fevers (major american metropolis) and the wait was 4-5 hours. I sat in an ER recently for a back injury and the doctor looked at me for less than five minutes. The bill was over $600.

    I used to work answering phones in an E.R. and unless it was a cardiac arrest or something with bleeding (like a gunshot wound), you would wait regardless of how many rooms were open in the ER at the time. It was disgusting, and this was back in the ’80s, when health insurance and non-profit hospitals meant something other than screwing the customers.

  150. 150.

    Violet

    @Seth:
    Thanks for the update! I hope someone is taking notes while JC’s on morphine. Could be very entertaining.

  151. 151.

    PurpleGirl

    On the other hand if he didn’t have a job and insurance, if he depended on medicaid he might not have had the surgery at all. Granted a friend of mine didn’t damage his rotator cuff to the extent that John torn up his joint shoulder, but my friend isn’t able to get his shoulder fixed — it’s a chronic problem that won’t kill him so…. but it does mean it’s harder for him to get a job because it does limit his range of motion. He hurt his shoulder about 10 years ago, btw.

  152. 152.

    Liberty60

    @JL: I had only a passing glance at the article about it, which seemed to indicate it was doomed; but I am supporting Jerry Brown for governor so it will be interesting to see what his position on this is.

  153. 153.

    Ash Can

    @Seth:

    you will not be hearing from him for a bit

    Twenty minutes, a half hour tops. Got it.

    Seriously, though, many thanks for the update.

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    Still taking bets on who will be the asshole during the SOTU

    Maybe Scott Brown’s brand new BFFs will put him up to it.

  158. 158.

    Mnemosyne

    @PurpleGirl:

    I was very lucky that my knee injury happened at work so worker’s comp took care of the whole thing. Since I was working as a temp at the time, I don’t even want to think about what it would have been like if I’d had to navigate through my agency’s crappy health insurance.

  159. 159.

    Mike E

    Any chance that John goes all Glenn Beck with his recovery?

    What, they operated on his asshole too?

  160. 160.

    Origuy

    @Comrade Kevin: If Evan weren’t the spitting image of his father, people would wonder what his mother had been up to. Birch was a lot more liberal than Evan has turned out to be. He’s still alive; I wonder if he ever calls his son and chews him out.

  162. 162.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @gbear:

    Hmmm. I live in Duluth, and it doesn’t look like that around my place.

    Oh wait, I’m in Duluth, Georgia.

    The photos are wonderful, gbear. I love frozen waterfalls. Years ago I visited Niagara at about 2:00 in the morning on the first day of spring. The falls were still frozen solid on the outside but things were starting to warm up and you could hear the most extraordinary muffled rumbling from behind as they had already thawed and were beginning to move. Wish I could have been there at whatever point they burst forth in all their torrential glory.

  163. 163.

    kay

    @Violet:

    The New York Times will probably print an apology for running the story, without the “balance” of a matching liberal-activist felony charge.
    They’re hunting one up right now.
    “The ACORN man was arrested, but a liberal was arrested yesterday too”.

  166. 166.

    Svensker

    @trollhattan:

    And the Canadian Department of Snowclearing and Sidewalk Heating and Drying would have ensured the hazard didn’t exist to begin with.

    Our son is living in Toronto and he was SHOCKED to find out what a shitty job of clearing the sidewalks they do there, compared to New York. But he has learned to ice skate…in sneakers.

  169. 169.

    ellaesther

    @Brachiator: That sounds about right. I left mid-way through 1998, and with the advent of the second intifada (or, more to the point, the Israeli government’s response to it) wound up not going back, as planned. And just before we left, that hybrid was taking root.

  170. 170.

    salvage

    If he lived in or around a large city with many hospitals, no, he would have gotten it just as quick, if he lived in some rural cow-town maybe.

    I had a friend who went from “Wow, this headache won’t go away!” to open brain surgery in three days. When it needs to be done they find a way to get it done.

    And it cost his uninsured self his taxes which he could afford that he had already paid, that’s the real difference between us and the U.S. in HC.

  171. 171.

    RareSanity

    @Loneoak:

    Maybe she’s Brick Oven Bob?

    Why did I read that as: “Maybe she’s a brickhouse!”?

    I don’t whether to laugh at myself or be completely ashamed. However, there is a funky baseline playing in my head…

  172. 172.

    kay

    @Will:

    Two made an admission to entering under false pretenses and two made an admission to aiding and abetting the entry, it looks like, reading the affidavit.

    All that without extraordinary coercive measures, incredibly.

  173. 173.

    chris

    One of the horrors of living in Canada is that they TAX me to pay for healthcare. I have to pay about 1.5% of my income for universal healthcare. Some of that money even goes to other people if you can imagine that! Stealing, that’s all it is. Damn socialists have taken my freedom!
    Mind you I had enough sense to keep my mouth shut the last time I needed health care. After the initial ER visit I had to go every day for a week to get IV antibiotics. That saved the fingers and they all work because of the physiotherapy. All in all it probably cost about the same as a small car.
    No bill, but my FREEDUMB…
    Just kidding, glad to know John’s alright.

  176. 176.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Violet:

    I hope someone is taking notes while JC’s on morphine. Could be very entertaining.

    If the Tunch LiveCam isn’t in use at the moment, maybe someone could borrow it, set it up in John’s room, and post the ensuing hilarity on YouTube.

  177. 177.

    PeterJ

    @Incertus:

    The ACORN pimp was one of the four arrested trying to interfere with Mary Landrieu’s phones.

    They will be out in no time and have all charges dropped…

    Also arrested were Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan, all 24. Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, who is the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, the office confirmed.

  178. 178.

    jl

    I assume that is snark in the post, but if not:

    How does Cole know how long he would wait in Canada for surgery?

    Did he go to a Canadian doctor and learn what his priority would be for surgery, as a function of pain he was feeling, prognosis for recovery and adverse events with and without surgery.

    These docs do that you know, even here in the US, when you can pay. If you cannot pay you get no surgery at all and permanent bum shoulder. They do it in Canada for everyone who has insurance.

    The stupid, cowardly bogus non-freeze spending freeze announcement by Obama was pathetic.

  179. 179.

    Cain

    @JK:

    PersoPersonally, I thought it would be Scott Beefcake Brown given the fact that Republicans are gaga over his stimulus package.Finally, I thought it would be Scott Beefcake Brown given the fact that Republicans are gaging on his stimulus package.

    Fixt.

    cain

  181. 181.

    Comrade Mary

    @Svensker: Oh yeah, Toronto doesn’t do snow properly at all.

    Every freakin’ year, the first flakes fall and just about everyone here runs around screaming with their skirts flipped over their head. I don’t take my bike out after the first snowfall because so many drivers need to relearn winter driving the hard way. And the city is desultory about plowing sidewalks and cycling lanes (oh, don’t get me started), so you think homeowners would take snow clearance in front of their homes seriously. But they don’t.

    Plus: Toronto’s finest snow moment. I am not making this up just to make Rick Mercer happy.

  182. 182.

    Svensker

    @Seth:

    Thanks for the update on your bro. Give him our best regards and warm fuzzy thoughts. Just to make him feel at home, you could also tell him to go fuck himself. :)

    Seriously. Glad he’s doing OK.

  185. 185.

    kay

    @Ruckus:

    It would be wrong not to speculate, wouldn’t it?

    I think you can speculate.
    We, of course, being law abiding and decent people, afford these fine young men the presumption of innocence.
    Not that they’d extend the same to us, and not that they extended the same to those ACORN employees they sandbagged and smeared, but what the hell. I’m generous.

  187. 187.

    RedKitten

    I hope John’s doing well. And the wait times for surgery in Canada are pretty misleading. When my mom fell and broke her arm, they set it right away. Two days later, it was swelling more than normal, so they did an MRI, discovered that it was a compound fracture that was compressing some nerves, and she was in surgery the following day. So if it’s urgent, you get in right away.

  188. 188.

    WaterGirl

    @kay: Maybe you’re all right. Daddy sent him to do it, Daddy is angry because he got caught, and Daddy will get him off with a light sentence.

  190. 190.

    Wile E. Quixote

    What gets me is that people don’t understand that we have waiting times down here in the US as well. I broke my scaphoid bone (one of the many stunning refutations of the doctrine of “intelligent design” contained within the human body) a few years back and went down to Harborview to get it fixed. It was July when I broke the bone, December when it was correctly diagnosed (the break was hard to see on the X-rays, it required three sets of films) and since I had been walking around with it for six months and wasn’t too grossly inconvenienced, two more months before I could get in to see a surgeon and have a screw installed, and this was with kick ass insurance.

  191. 191.

    Older

    MikeJ (#22), I think a lot of us here in Oregon would be grateful if Canada would annex the area west of the mountains at least as far south as Eugene.

  192. 192.

    Cain

    @Seth:

    thanks for the update, for godsakes take the remote from him as well. He’ll probably boil over unless you stick to Animal Planet and not go anywhere else. (although I’ve been more outraged watching animal planet than anything else.. jeez the thing people do to their pets.. argh)

    cain

  193. 193.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @Red Kitten

    I hope John’s doing well. And the wait times for surgery in Canada are pretty misleading. When my mom fell and broke her arm, they set it right away. Two days later, it was swelling more than normal, so they did an MRI, discovered that it was a compound fracture that was compressing some nerves, and she was in surgery the following day. So if it’s urgent, you get in right away.

    Just to be pedantic, but your mom didn’t have a compound fracture, because you don’t need an MRI to diagnose those since the bone is sticking out through the skin.

  194. 194.

    slag

    @johnny:

    Any chance that John goes all Glenn Beck with his recovery?

    Probably only if he needs the money to cover his medical bills. I, for one, would definitely pay to see that.

  195. 195.

    KDP

    @toujoursdan: Ooo, ick! How would they stabilize his shoulder in the interim. It seems that they would have to smash his shoulder to bits – again – in order to repair the original injury along with additional damage from healing improperly.

    @Seth & @MMM – Glad to hear he is out of surgery, recovering, and the surgery went well

  196. 196.

    kay

    @WaterGirl:

    You guys are so cynical about our criminal justice system.

    I’m really not that cynical. Not yet, anyway. I’m sure I will get there, but Lordy. You guys have them out with all charges dropped, and signing deals with FOX.
    Although. The FOX deal will go forward with or without a conviction, so that may not be relevant…

  197. 197.

    pcbedamned

    @salvage:

    …if he lived in some rural cow-town maybe

    Actually, if it were serious, he would be sent to one of the major hospitals (I live in one of those ‘cow towns’).

    Many years ago, with my 2nd pregnancy, I went to emerg at around 11pm with cramping and bleeding. I was in surgery by 6:30am with an ectopic pregnancy. Six months later, pregnant again. Back to emerg with cramping and bleeding, and within the hour next thing I know, I am being hooked up to an IV (due to previous history ‘just in case’). By this time I had already lost the baby, but was sent to Ultrasound anyway. (Thank God the next pregnancy came to term with my beautiful boy). Cost to my family, $0 (except for those pesky taxes, don’t ya know…) And since my husband and I are self-employed, we don’t have any additional benefits except those provided by the province (Ontario). The only things that are out of pocket are meds, dental, and incidentals such as crutches etc. Would I trade our system for yours? Not on my life…

  199. 199.

    Ruckus

    @arguingwithsignposts: I had to go to the ER with an unknown problem – I could barely walk and in intense pain. I was the only patient in the place, I saw a nurse (3-4 minutes), a doc (3-4 minutes), an x-ray tech (10 minutes), doc (2 more minutes). The bill was approx $3500. Total time there about 1 1/2 hr. This was about a year ago.

  200. 200.

    pcbedamned

    @Comrade Mary:

    (oh, don’t get me started)

    Yeah, that’s pretty much the way the rest of Canada feels about Toronto too…

    The army thing STILL kills me. I live in NEastern Cottage County, and I always laugh when my mom used to complain about the snow down in Whitby “we’re getting 2 inches today!!!” I would tell her that that isn’t even enough for us to go out and shovel! They (my parents) just moved up here to my little cow town in Dec. and now she finally gets it…

  202. 202.

    And Another Thing...

    @toujoursdan: I believe you misread/misunderstand the information at the link you provided. For example, if you need a hip replacement because you have worn it out, you would have a waiting time. If you fell and broke your hip, that would be an emergency and there is no way you’re going to lie around with that broken bone for several weeks. There can be serious and fatal complications from an untreated broken bone. John’s orthopedic procedure is not elective surgery. There’s no way that the Canadian health service would apply those 16 week waiting periods to a case like his.

  203. 203.

    WaterGirl

    @Seth: Great news that John’s operation is a success! Not so great news that it was worse than expected, but very glad to know John is recovering. Thank you so much for letting us know.

  204. 204.

    YellowJournalism

    People who live in Canada know how to walk on ice and don’t end up with a broke dick shoulder.

    I’ve lived here for more than five years. The first year, I bought the best snow boots and wore them faithfully every time I went out, amazed at the fact that my husband wore running shoes and fell on his butt not once. (I fell a few times that first year.) Now I just throw on whatever is at the front door. You learn how to walk on the ice fairly quickly. Even my two-year-old knows how to walk on it for the most part without taking a spill.

    Glad to know that John is doing okay, although sorry to hear that his shoulder is worse than expected. I hope that doesn’t hurt his recovery.

  206. 206.

    J. Michael Neal

    Open thread, so . . . it’s become apparent that I won’t be getting a second interview with the forensic accountants. At the first one, which was two weeks ago today, he said that they would be calling to let us know sometime the next week. That’s now come and gone. I called yesterday to ask what the status was. The receptionist put me on hold, then came back and told me he was in a meeting; note that you can see the whole place from the receptionist’s desk (it’s a five person office), so she would have known that he was in a meeting without checking. She put me through to his voice mail, and I asked him to call me. 29 hours later, no call. It’s over, and these people don’t have the basic courtesy to let the losers know. I wish I could say I’m surprised, but that seems to be the way that everyone does it these days.

    It’s very depressing. I can’t think of another entry level accounting job for which my resume and experience would stand out in a positive way as much as it did for this one. If I can have all of those advantages, and still not get a second interview, I don’t know why I even fucking bother to fill out applications any longer. It’s a waste of time.

    As for the people talking about the low expectations for employees, I can agree with them based solely upon what I pick up in the job search process. If companies really wanted competence, I wouldn’t have been told so many times that I’m overqualified for a position. A *good* company would want that in an employee, because they have them in the door, and can move them to a more suitable position when one opens up. If a company with more than 20 employees tells you that they won’t hire you because you are overqualified, what they are saying is that they think that their company is such a bunch of losers that your only goal once you get there will be to get out, because they don’t do anything that’s interesting enough to make you want to be there. It’s an admission that they don’t believe in their own organization.

    I think the best case of that was when I interviewed (about three years ago) for a job at Securian, which is an insurance company in St. Paul. I was applying for a job as an analyst on their trading desk, as this was before I’d really started moving into accounting. I didn’t get called back for a second interview. When I asked the woman from HR why, her response was that they were worried that I wouldn’t want to stay in the position, because I was also taking the actuarial exams at the time. Think about this. An INSURANCE company is telling me that they don’t want to hire me, because I’m taking the actuarial exams, and might want to move to a different position. A fucking insurance company, and becoming an actuary is a negative. Of all the idiotic things I’ve heard while looking for a job, that is probably one of the three stupidest. Probably.

  208. 208.

    JL

    @Liberty60:

    As of now, Jerry Brown seems to be “for it” but doesn’t think it’s politically feasible. I know for sure that Meg Whitman is openly hostile to SB-810 or ANY reform for that matter.

    But since there would be a tax to fund it, there needs to be 2/3 support in the legislature thanks to prop 13 so in a way, it doesn’t matter who the governor is – with 2/3 it would also be veto proof.

    Trick is to educate and activate. If you’re curious, check out http://www.californiaonecare.org

  209. 209.

    JL

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    Thanks for the sympathy. We will be fine. Cancer is beat and I am lucky to have extended family to help with all challenges. Not everyone is so lucky.

    Your ER stories are disquieting. And to think, those opposed to reform are fond of saying that “everyone has coverage” because no one can be turned away from an ER. Meanwhile, people have to wait 4-5 hours because people are using the ER as a primary care facility.

    We absolutely have the best medical care in the world (great med schools, docs, technology, medicine). But we also have the worst access to it.

  211. 211.

    CaseyL

    @MMM:
    @Seth:

    Thanks so much for the updates – we’re very relieved to hear John’s out of surgery with personality unbowed, even when squiffed on pain meds. (And very sad to hear his shoulder was even worse than thought; PT is not gonna be fun for him.)

    How long before he goes home? Between not being able to post, and missing Lily and Tunch, he’s gonna be completely whack until he’s home again.

  212. 212.

    CynDee

    @toujoursdan: I live in Florida USA. Had serious pain and 80% lack of use in both hands and arms since last March. Took five doctors to get a diagnosis. None of them cared at all about how much this was affecting my life (three hours sleep per night from the pain, could hardly use my hands). Many delays in getting appointments.

    One doc was a real jerk who was horribly condescending and arrogant and whose totally misdirected “solution” put me in the OR and hospital with massively dangerous high blood pressure.

    In August finally got in to see a neurologist (on my own, no suggestions or referrals from the five MDs) The neurologist did tests and diagnosed severe carpal tunnel syndrome. He referred me to a neurosurgeon who is reported to be very good, but whose schedule was so full he couldn’t see me until October. Then my appointment was bumped twice into November, and I finally saw him in early January and will have surgery this week. I have been in terrible pain all this time and no help until now. Shortage here of docs who will see you for more than 10 minutes, docs who care, and shortage of good specialists.

  213. 213.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    @socraticsilence: Actually, I think the best one we had going here was OHIP previous to 1995. OHIP = Ontario Health Insurance Plan, and was administered by the Ontario Health Insurance Corporation, a Crown corporation of the Government of Ontario. It was run by actuaries hired by the corporation, and had a Board of Directors made up of various stakeholders, including the Minister of Health, a rep from the OMA (Ontario Medical Association), and various other folks, usually appointed for fixed terms by the government of the day. It had the power to levy a payroll deduction on everyone in Ontario who made a paycheque, indexed to income, and set to raise the goals set by the board (based on well-understood actuarial techniques) to figure out how much money they needed to pay for everything. Everyone who provided health services had to sell only to OHIP. It worked, and it worked well. Monopsony is truly the way to go… a non-profit insurance corporation buying services from competing private providers gives the best of both worlds in the health marketplace.

    Bob Rae, NDP premier of Ontario in ’95, brought it under general taxation. Biggest mistake he made while Premier of Ontario, imho. Despite that, Rae is still my overall favourite Premier of my memory; I never got the sense that he was bullshitting me.

    Interestingly enough, most of the various social welfare programs (health care, welfare, disability, etc etc) in Ontario were set up by the government of Premier Bill Davis, who ran the joint for literally decades. I was a little too young to be able to get a good grasp of his character, though. Why is it interesting? He was a Conservative.

    @JL: It’s stories like that that make me really really hope you guys get something out of hcr.

    @GregB: TANSTAANFL

    @Comrade Mary: To be fair, I was in Montreal in ’98 during the ice storm. We had military then too. They cut down the tree in front of my apartment that was getting ready to give up the ghost after the storm was over. It was a maple. There were two big boughs coming up from the main trunk, and that’s where the tree split… right down the main trunk. It was pretty crazy.

  214. 214.

    Comrade Mary

    Oh, the ice storm was a serious, serious problem. I know my ex-in-laws near Ottawa were without power for days. I would never make fun of Montreal’s need for the army under those conditions.

    Toronto just had damn unplowed streets because the city government forgot that it actually snows here sometimes. Fuckwits.

  215. 215.

    darryl

    John would like you to know that if he lived in Canada, there would be a six-month wait for the kind of surgery he is getting today.

    Well, I live in America, where I’d be facing an infinity-month wait for that surgery, because I don’t have health insurance. Canada sounds pretty sweet.

  217. 217.

    Chad N Freude

    @J. Michael Neal: I sympathize, having on occasion in the past been denied a job I wanted for being overqualified. The reason is generally the one given by the insurance company: We’re afraid you’ll leave at the first opportunity. If you offer to sign a contract, they won’t because then they might (not actually, but might) lose the right to fire you at will. It’s Catch-22 squared. I wish you the best of luck.

  218. 218.

    Chad N Freude

    @JL: Meg Whitman is openly hostile to anything that doesn’t immediately enrich Meg Whitman or enhance the position of Meg Whitman.

  219. 219.

    Jane2

    BS. He’d be getting the kind of surgery he’s getting today AND he’d get to pay taxes while watching CBC….all at once.

  220. 220.

    Steeplejack

    @JL:

    Late to the thread, but for what it’s worth . . .

    I was diagnosed with skin cancer last year. I am financially f*cked for the rest of my life now. I have huge debt (thankful for the successful treatments), increasing insurance premiums and can never switch insurers because no one will take me. A future employer would be financially hurt by putting me on a group plan which would affect my paycheck/value to the company. My 2-year-old daughter is screwed for life because of “family history” of cancer now.

    You may not be as fucked as you think. I had skin cancer–basal cell carcinoma, the very best kind to have if you’re going to get skin cancer–which required multiple procedures from the late ’90s up to 2005. And yet I was still able to get on the company health insurance plan at the Big Box Bookstore after that.

    I have not had a recurrence of skin cancer, so I don’t know if the company health plan would give me problems about a preëxisting condition, but I have used the plan successfully for other stuff (primarily a severely broken jaw that required major surgery and four days in the hospital).

    This is just one anecdote, admittedly, but I think your situation may not be completely hopeless. And my company’s provider is UnitedHealthcare, not known for being the most enlightened, touchy-feely insurer out there.

  221. 221.

    JL

    @Steeplejack:

    Thanks for the positive story. I had melanoma which is more deadly, but it appears we got it all.

    You are likely correct that an employer-based group plan would accept me. Which is why I’m job hunting like crazy!

    Thanks and stay healthy!

  222. 222.

    Steeplejack

    @JL:

    Glad to see that you got my comment. My schedule has been really messed up last week and this week, so I have been getting to the threads even later than my usual lateness. But I have been through the whole “no insurance”/”not enough insurance” thing and really sympathize with you.

    Sorry to hear you had melanoma. I know I was really sweating bullets from the time they took the first biopsies until I got the test results back. Hearing “basal cell carcinoma” was almost a relief. The killer for me–expense-wise–was Mohs surgery on my forehead and cheek. Other places they just hacked it out. It was interesting to find out that modern dermatology hasn’t changed that much since the Middle Ages. At least no leeches were involved. But I digress.

    Anyway, glad that you have a clean bill of health now. Please keep it that way!

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