6345...Senator/Chief Vern White Won't Like This

With all due respect to Senator Vern White he is wrong about safe injection sites.

He had a letter to the editor published in the two big Ottawa dailies Thursday slamming said sites.

Giving free needles to junkies seems to be counter intuitive and costly but according to information reported from the Washington's Department of Health today in The Atlantic it is neither:  "...the repeal of a decade-long ban that prevented D.C. from using local funding for clean needle exchanges led to a major reduction of needle-caused HIV infections. The city is now reporting an astonishing 80 percent decrease in the number of newly diagnosed HIV cases where the reported mode of transmission was injection drug use."

Furthermore "... In 2007, the year Congress lifted the 1998 ban on D.C.'s needle exchanges, there were 149 cases of needle-caused HIV. In 2011, there were just 30."

It is difficult to wrap one's head around the fact that giving junkies needles is going to help reduce HIV.  Empirical data says it does.  Less HIV equals significant health savings.

It surprises me when presumed fiscal conservatives like Senator White and the rest of the Stephen Harpers reject the fact that, for example, as the LA Times reported, "...The California Department of Public Health calculates the lifetime costs of treating one person with HIV at $385,200. If those 34,000 Angelenos had an HIV rate of 16% rather than 5%, we'd be spending an additional $1.4 billion in treatment costs."  That's an LRT's worth of savings.

Not only are needle exchanges the right thing morally they are the right thing financially.

If anything Health Canada and its provincial counterparts should be all over this file.

WFDS

6344...Ali G Truth Talk About Syria

WFDS

6343...Ottawa Is Montreal Lite

It really is.

Montreal, as you know, is where the unthinkable happens on a regular basis.

Ottawa has similar issues, although they tend to be more benign.

Case in point:  Oktoberfest.

Just saw an ad for Ottawa Oktoberfest.

It is being held this year from September 27 to the 29th.

Seriously.

http://www.oktoberfestottawa.com/

One would think...

WFDS

6342...Joe Pao Pao Is A Gift

Jennifer Brenning, the athletic director at Carleton, wasn't raised by her momma to be no fool.

That be why she scheduled Joe Pao Pao and the Waterloo Warriors to be the first home opponent of the new Carleton Ravens football team.  The first year Ravens have a cool logo, multiple unis ala the Oregon Ducks but are not, as expected, too good at football.  In fact they are so not good at football that they lost 71-4 against the Western Mustangs last week.



Don't fret.  Joe Pao Pao to the rescue.  If there is going to be a W for alma mater today is the day.

WFDS

6341...Forget About Harper And Trudeau

And that other fellow Mulcair.

NFL.



Tonight.

Peyton Manning/Joe Flacco.

WFDS