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Friday, September 24, 2004
Wouldn't It Be Nice...
if our governments were this enthusiastic about going after, I don't know, real criminals?
Ontario's health minister rushed new legislation into law yesterday and promised to go personally to the U.S. border to stop an American for-profit company that provides health tests on wheels."They're not welcome here," George Smitherman said of Life Line Screening, a private medical testing firm from Cleveland. "I'll meet them at the border or confront them where they are."
Ah. So Smitherman (there's a superhero-with-a-lame-name joke in there somewhere, but I can't quite work it at the moment) is prepared to bring to full force of governmental authority, nay! even willing to speed up the passing of legislation, nay! even willing to go to the border himself to confront those, those, those... bastards who are... offering mobile facilities which "test for blood vessel problems that could lead to stroke or other problems". Nice.
Smitherman appealed to the public to help fight for-profit health companies from south of the border."Ontarians, every single one of them — 12 million of them — can in a sense be deputized to play a role in this," Smitherman said. "If anybody finds out about this stuff, you call that in. We have a quick response capacity, and we will stamp these out. We will protect public medicare in the province."
Got it. If someone sees the unmitigated evil of the fell demogorgon named "for-profit health care" (sometimes being so conniving as to operate under the street name "American-style"), fear not! Smitherman, Liberal attack schnauzer, will "stamp them out", with his "quick response capacity"!
Whew!
Hey, um, Mr. George, sir? Any chance we could get that "quick response capacity" to take on, I don't know, say, the murderous pedophiles your government releases onto our streets? No? Shucks. Oh, well. I guess we can thank our friendly neighbourhood Liberals for ensuring that we don't have the opportunity to indulge should we ever have the temerity to desire to spend our money the way we see fit. Keep those eyes peeled, George! You never know when someone might be trying to make a buck trying to sell something that people actually want to buy! Courage!
[cross-posted to Let It Bleed]
Posted by Account Deleted on September 24, 2004 | Permalink
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Comments
"They're not welcome here," George Smitherman said of Life Line Screening, a private medical testing firm from Cleveland. "I'll meet them at the border or confront them where they are."
Save yourself the limo ride, George. Just ask Ontarians who are already at the border to police it for you. You know, the ones who didn't feel like dieing on a waiting list and are on their way home after getting fixed up in Michigan or New York.
Posted by: surly | 2004-09-24 9:26:44 PM
Bring Em To the Indian Reserves! Roll'em on in! And watch how "effective" Mr.Smitherman is in trying to get them off of an Indian reserve while such "for-profits" start providing jobs, capital and better health-care to Natives and Non-Natives alike!
Posted by: MWW | 2004-09-25 8:00:11 AM
So Smitherman wants to prohibit access to private medical services paid for by individuals with their after-tax dollars, and now he is asking Ontarians to be spies for his scheme. Looks like it's time to drag out Roger Q. Mills 1887 quote again:
"Prohibition was introduced as a fraud; it has been nursed as a fraud. It is wrapped in the livery of Heaven, but it comes to serve the devil. It comes to regulate by law our appetites and our daily lives. It comes to tear down liberty and build up fanaticism, hypocrisy, and intolerance. It comes to confiscate by legislative decree the property of many of our fellow citizens. It comes to send spies, detectives, and informers into our homes; to have us arrested and carried before courts and condemned to fines and imprisonments. It comes to dissipate the sunlight of happiness, peace, and prosperity in which we are now living and to fill our land with alienations, estrangements, and bitterness. It comes to bring us evil -- only evil -- and that continually. Let us rise in our might as one and overwhelm it with such indignation that we shall never hear of it again as long as grass grows and water runs."
Posted by: Tony | 2004-09-25 8:35:23 PM
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