Blog about politics (mideast and pro-Israel, Canadian and local Montreal), world events, and random thoughts.

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The World I Know is updated on a semi-regular basis by segacs.

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10:30 PM
I must have blinked and missed a drastic political shift in Quebec: it seems our province has the "distinction" of favouring two-tier healthcare:

A poll conducted last month by Environics and CROP for the Centre for Research and Information on Canada shows support in Quebec for a two-tiered health care system has been steadily rising over the past three years. While only 38 per cent of Quebecers supported the concept in 2001, that figure rose to 49 per cent in 2002 and 53 per cent this year.

However, the picture in Quebec is distinctly different than in the rest of the country. The poll found 52 per cent of Canadians think governments should increase health care spending rather than allow private companies to deliver health care services to those who can afford it. Only 37 per cent favoured allowing the private sector to deliver services while 9 per cent would limit the availability of some treatments and medications.

The Gazette article is sensationalizing somewhat. People said they favoured the private system providing some services to supplement the public one. They weren't asked outright if the rich should have better healthcare than the poor; I am sure that the results would have been drastically different if the question had been phrased that way.

But since when did Quebec ever position itself to the right of the other Canadian provinces on any issue before?

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10:25 PM
I really, really, really hate having to go to the dentist.

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1:09 AM
Thanks to the person who bought me Six Days of War from my Amazon.ca Wish List. You know who you are. It's always nice to get presents.

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1:05 AM
SPHR invited Netanyahu . . . 's nephew to speak at Concordia, only just over a year after violently rioting against Netanyahu himself to get his speech shut down.

Eric Ben-Artzi came to speak on behalf of the Refusenik movement - Israelis who would prefer to go to jail than serve in the IDF.

SPHR once again demonstrated that the only speech it will tolerate is speech it agrees with. As for Ben-Artzi, the only thing he proved - besides being shameless about trading on his family connections - is that he represents nothing but a fringe minority in Israel:

The bigger issue involves his repeated claim that he represents the Israeli centre, while he himself admitted that despite the million Israelis who serve in the army, and the six million citizens, only 550 make a point to refuse to serve. He went further and explained that 1,300 other Israelis signed a petition in solidarity. That still makes it far fewer than one per cent of the population.

If we were to have a legitimate discussion about people refusing to serve in the Israeli army, I think the focus would most likely be on the thousands of people who don't serve due to religious exemptions. Or even on the under-the-radar Israelis who look for creative ways to skirt the draft, including medical excuses or "instead of" service. The first group - and even the second - are surely much more numerous than the "Refuseniks".

Either way, even the fringe element that Ben-Artzi represents doesn't want to see SPHR's goal of no more Israel. But SPHR wasn't interested in any of that. They saw an opportunity to exploit him for their propaganda purposes, that's all. As usual. Only this time, the attempt was as transparent as glass.

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12:52 AM
If this is true, it's a disgusting example of what can happen in places where gays are the last remaining legally persecutable minority:

An 18-year-old student has filed a suit in Palm Beach County, Fla., against a private school, alleging he was expelled for telling a teacher he is gay.

Jeffrey Woodard claims that Jupiter Christian School expelled him three days after he was pulled out of Bible class by a teacher and asked in confidence if he was gay.

When Woodard answered "yes," a school official called his mother and told her Woodard couldn't attend an upcoming school retreat unless he and his mother, Carol Gload, met with the school to talk about his sexual orientation, according to the lawsuit.

"We were given three choices at the meeting -- to get counseling, for him to voluntarily withdraw or expulsion," Gload recalled.

[ . . . ]

School President Richard Grimm said last week that he could not comment on the issue because it involves private information about a former student, but he said the school's policies are based on Biblical values.

Florida laws don't prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. So the sickest thing is that this student might actually have no legal recourse.

All this is assuming, of course, that he was expelled for being gay. There could of course be some other reason - maybe he failed all his courses, or assaulted a teacher, or set fire to the locker room.

But if it's true he was thrown out for being gay, then I can only hope, for his sake, that his case causes enough public debate in Florida to make some changes. It's time for people to stop justifying this blatant kind of discrimination.

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12:31 AM
Around the blogosphere in 60 seconds:

While I've been procrastinating, others have been posting.

Damian has the latest on the politician who just won't leave office, and Paul has a few thoughts on the corruption within the Liberal government under said politican's leadership. Steve has the shoot-an-FLQ-terrorist video game . . . and the offended reaction of a bunch of separatists with way too much time on their hands. And Occam's Toothbrush has a link to a George Jonas story in the National Post on the real problem in the Palestinian society. (You'll note that, unlike Jonas's horribly sexist article on why women should be flattered to be groped by Arnold Schwarzenegger, this article has a web link).

Allison has a few thoughts on how the Israeli government can step up its PR by recognizing the contribution of bloggers to the pro-Israel effort. Lynn has a brutally honest article by what passes for a "human rights activist" in Jordan (read: someone who wants to destroy Israel). And Imshin helps Lynn figure out what Israeli turkeys say. (Personally, judging by the menus at most Israeli restaurants I've ever been at, I'd guess they probably say something like "I don't want to be schnitzel!")

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12:03 AM
I've come to the conclusion that blogging is a lot like going to the gym.

Both are routines. Both are great, when done regularly. And both are extremely difficult to get back into once you've let yourself stop for a short while.

I haven't posted a blog entry in 4 days. I haven't been to the gym in 4 weeks. My site is looking a little thinner. I'm, well, not.

The lack of motivation is probably stemming from an exceptionally busy period at my day job. But I'm determined to shake out of the procrastination mode. And the easiest way to do that is just to force myself right back into it.

So here's a blog posting. It doesn't say much, but it's up there. And it's easier than the alternative, as it doesn't involve any cardio activity whatsoever (unless you count my fingers moving over the keys).

As for when I'll get to the gym next, well, don't ask.

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