Sicko - Michael Moore

I just finished watching Michael Moore's Sicko. It's his latest documentary on the American Health Care system.
I have never seen a Moore documentary before, at least not in its entierty. Of course I have heard about many of his previous works, such as Fahrenheit 911 and Roger & Me.
I can safely say that I haven't watched a movie that has moved as strongly as Sicko has in along time.

I know that our Health Care system has many things wrong with at the moment, wait times being the most problematic, but I can't believe what is happening just across the border.
Most Canadians have heard horror stories of outrageous cost's of getting sick in the U.S. and wouldn't dare travel with out some type of insurance to protect themselves, but I can't believe how out of control things have gotten.
The show starts with a couple in there late fifties, early sixties, who could be my parents or some of yours, moving out of their home and in with their daughter.
This couple was fairly well off, had a nice home, put all their kids through college etc. That was until their father suffered from a series of heart attacks and then their mother was diagnosed with cancer. This couple had nice jobs with insurance but as soon as they got sick their insurance company looked for a reason to cut them off, when they couldn't find one they hiked there premiums up so high (something close to $9000 a year) and drove the couple in to bankruptcy.
What kind of choice is it when you have to sell your home just to get life saving treatment.
It just made me sick(no pun intended) that this could happen in North America. My own mother went through a battle with breast cancer recently and what if we had to come up with ten's of thousand's of dollars to keep her alive. We would have figured out a way to come up with the money one way or another, but your supposed to be focusing on healing not how your going to pay a bill.
There was another gentleman that had an accident with a table saw. He was uninsured.
The saw cut of the tip of his middle finger and almost did the same to his ring finger. When he arrived at the hospital he was told that to fix his ring finger it would cost him $12,000 and to reattach his middle finger it would be $60,000. He had to decide which finger he could afford to save.
Which one would you choose?
Cut to Canada where a similar gentleman had cut off all four fingers on one hand. After more than 24 hours of surgery with four highly specialized surgeons he left the hospital with all his fingers reatched and no bill.
Health Care in the U.S. is a business and like all business's the object is to make as much money as possible, and if that means a few people have to die, so be it.
I know that I'm not doing this film justice, but I think all Canadians should try to see this documentary.
We have a conservative government in this country calling most of the shots, trying for a majority so they can control all the shots. I promise you that if they succeed in an election we will be hearing alot more about private health care and how it will save our system. In fact, it will probably help, just only those who can afford to pay for it.
Those who can't pay, will end up like the American citizen's who right now as you are reading this, are being put in taxi cab's, by private hospital's when they can't pay for treatment, and dumped (literally) in hospital gowns on the street outside shelters.
It just makes me sick.

Here is the trailer.

Tulsa's Buried Car

Apparently the good people of Tulsa Oklahoma buried a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere along with a time capsule next to the County courthouse. The car was put in a vault in the ground that would withstand a nuclear blast....
The plan was to open the vault 50 years later.
On June 15th the vault was opened.
There was a big celebration in Tulsa as it was opened.

In case you not sure what a Plymouth Belvedere looks like here is an old ad for one.



This is what they found.



Looks like the vault could stand a bomb but not rust.
The contents of the time capsule faired much better.
I love the contest they were running in 1957.



I wonder if the will actually award the prize.
You can also see that they were not exactly politically correct in 1957 assuming that it would be a male winner. (His heirs).

Here is a link to the video of the unveiling.

Here is a link to more pictures if your interested.

Connie Talbot

I don't know if you have heard about this young girl yet or not but her video clip has gone round the world over the last few days. Her name is Connie Talbot and she is trying out for "Britain's Got Talent". Yet another show staring Simon Cowell. Here is her audition performance where she performs "Somewhere over the Rainbow".



I get goose bumps when I here her sing it. I can't imagine getting up and singing in front of all those people, let a lone doing it at the age of six.

Here is the latest performance where she is trying to secure a spot in the finals.
Connie is singing "Ben". Not quite as fantastic as the first but still better than most of the people that sing on these shows.
Enjoy