Who wrote those beloved Christmas songs?
As long as Democrats keep preaching socialized medicine (as most of their candidates for President are doing), I’ll keep highlighting how it’s failing. This time out, a new report showing the same old thing.
Boris Johnson and the conservative Tories in the UK had an historic win in Parliamentary elections. Brexit is happening. And, of course, like here, the Left over there is in #Resistance mode.
And who wrote those beloved Christmas songs you hear this time of year? The answer might surprise you.
Mentioned links:
The Private Cost of Public Queues for Medically Necessary Care, 2019
Left-Wing Newspaper Advises People “How To Leave The United Kingdom” After Election Loss
‘Not my prime minister’, protesters march in London against Johnson
All those Holiday/Christmas Songs: So Many Jewish Songwriters!
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Show transcript
A new report is out that confirms the same old thing; socialized medicine does not live up to its promises. The Fraser Institute out of Canada reports on “The Private Cost of Public Queues for Medically Necessary Care, 2019”. (“Queues” is Canadian for “waiting lines”. I’m bilingual like that.) Just by the title, you know it can’t be good news.
The estimated cost of waiting for care in Canada for patients in 2018 was about $2.1 billion. Now, that’s just only hours lost during the average work week. If you consider costs outside the work day or cost by other taking care of them, the number jumps north of $6 billion. Now, that’s just the cash involved. The authors note, “Moreover, non-monetary medical costs, such as increased risk of mortality or adverse events that result directly from long delays for treatment, are not included in this estimate.”
I know what you’re saying. You’re saying, “Doug, you keep beating the drum on this. We’ve heard this all before from you.” And y’know, you’re right. This has been a hobby horse of mine over the years. But y’know what else? It’s also been a hobby horse that Democrats as well have been riding for quite a while now, including just about all their latest contenders for President. So as long as they continue to ride in the wrong direction, I’ll continue to point in the other directions, with studies that continue to say that it would be big mistake to follow them.
People in the UK have been threatening to leave. The papers are even giving instructions on how to put your affairs in order so you can move permanently. The hashtag #NotMyPM has already popped up on social media. This can only mean 1 thing; the conservative Tories won the most recent election with an outright majority in Parliament.
Oh, and it also means almost no one will follow through with leaving the country, so I guess that’s 2 things.
After the initial referendum on Brexit 3 years ago, which many MPs said they would honor right up until the vote didn’t go the way they thought it would, there was much back and forth trying to come up with a Brexit deal that the UK Parliament would go for, never mine whether it was acceptable to the EU. Ask former Prime Minister Teresa May. There were calls to have another referendum, which is Leftist for “We keep voting until it goes our way.” But then May stepped down and then (insert all sorts of wrangling around parliamentary stuff and add 1 smidgen Queen) and then there was an election. When the dust cleared, Boris Johnson (BoJo to his friends, or maybe that’s his enemies) emerged, not just victorious, but historically so.
You wanted a new referendum on Brexit? There it is. But of course, I just know that, if there had been another referendum and it went the same way, the Left would still complain. How do I know? Well, there’s the aforementioned hashtag #NotMyPM. There are the protestors the very next day shouting exactly that. They are complaining and resisting even after a far bigger win for the Brexiteers.
If you don’t like the outcome, your beef is not with BoJo, it’s with your next door neighbors who have seen too much bickering and division. They made their voice heard to Parliament, and Parliament didn’t listen, so they came out to vote and fix that problem.
This is not unlike the Left in this country, who chided Donald Trump for saying he might question the outcome of the election if Hillary won, then proceeded to do exactly that when their candidate lost, amidst unprecedented whining and complaining.
With Johnson over there and Trump over here, the Left has shown they are the petulant ones when they don’t get their way. Meanwhile, I guess there’s something these days about heads of state with weird hair.
As I alluded to earlier, this is the Christmas season. Well, for me it is. Others may be getting ready for Hanukah or Kwanza. But in the United States, when you turn on the radio or walk into a store, you’re very likely to be listening to music of Christmas.
In my home growing up, at this time of the year, it was the job of the first person home to pull together a bunch of Christmas records, stack them on the spindle of our massive Magnavox console, and get them going. My dad was known for his love of Christmas music. Sometimes he’d have fun with the music and sing it loudly with an exaggerated vibrato. “Chestnuuuts roasting on an open fiiire!” He loved Bing Crosby crooning “White Christmas” and “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”, as he hit every little note that Bing ad-libbed. As kids, we loved watching the annual Christmas specials, like Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. As I grew up and had a family of my own, I got CDs and cassettes of the Christmas classics. When my older son was in the high school band, the tradition was that a student would conduct the song “Sleigh Ride” in the Christmas concert, so he got to know that song very well.
Christmas music like that is all around us now. And it seems just natural to wish people a Merry Christmas; the waiter, the cashier, the delivery driver. But what if they’re Jewish? Won’t they be upset? Well, I used to be on another political podcast back in the say (Shire Network News, for those who remember), and there were at least 3 other contributors to that who were Jewish. They said to me that, for them, a “Merry Christmas” from someone was just a nice, polite greeting, and nothing to be upset about. They’d say a polite “Thank you” in return. So don’t worry, be happy.
But, if you know the person you’re talking to is Jewish, you might also consider another bit of politeness. “Thank you for the music.” Because all the songs I’ve just mentioned, and more, were either written or co-written by Jewish songwriters. In fact, the American Society of Composers and Publishers, ASCAP, put out its list of the 30 Most Played Holiday Songs of the Past Century back in 2014. Of those 30, fully half involved Jewish lyricists and/or composers.
So to all my Jewish listeners, from me down south in Georgia, I just want to say, “Shalom, y’all!”
The post Episode 276: Canada’s Queues / Boris Wins / Christmas Music appeared first on Consider This!.