Leaderboard

Same reason I have said all along. Here you and I are debating the pro's and con's of the most powerful country in the world. You feel free to despise them and post articles about all the evil they have done and yet you have no fear of boots kicking down your door or having your entire generations of your family sent to work camps. Hate them all you want. They have made sure you have that right. We had a person on this forum defend their leader because a man was charged for insulting him by saying he would not serve him tea. Now that is petty. States are not perfect and yes lately I have enjoyed British TV more than the American but it beats the alternatives on how the world could have turned out. Its not like they are flying planes into buildings or stoning people.

Well you said at least that, Had to hurt admitting the states are the best at something

diversity now mean , whitey move over.

We're not talking about a cure for cancer but cars. The Venezuelan government is wholly incompetent to run an economy, except into the ground. They reject the profit motive, and insist retail outlets and manufacturers sell things at a loss. The result is closed down stores, closed down factories, shortages of everything, and growing unrest. Its economy contracted by almost 20% last year and is still going down the tubes. More than a million private sector jobs disappeared last year and the government now refuses to release statistics on the unemployment rate. Inflation is running at 300% It's running out of foreign reserves to make its debt payments and will almost certainly go bankrupt and default on its debt this year. I really don't see how corporate morality plays into this. The lack of morality is that of a communist government determined to hang onto power at all costs. I expect civil war to break out eventually, because there is no way this government is going to surrender power in an election.

Your premise is fatally flawed. You cannot base judgement of anything that happens in Venezuela on notions like logic, common sense, morality, virtue or fairness. The country is in the grip of an ideology that has zero interest in any of that. They will do whatever is necessary, and that includes massive amounts of bloodshed to come, to remain in power. Mass starvation in a relatively wealthy country is certainly a possibility. Their economy and politics are most closely aligned now with North Korea, they are headed quickly towards the failed state status of Somalia.

Are you saying until someone dies the politicians should remain silent? That makes sense to you?. What someone must die before intolerance gets a special mention in Parliament? Will I have to wait until a Jew is killed by a Muslim before Trudeau or that MP will speak out against the Imams in Canadian mosques calling out to their followers to kill Jews? Politicians who only react once there is death because of that very timing pander.They use the death as an opportunity for feel good pandering to the people of the group who feel singled out for hatred. That's what Trudeau and that MP did. No I don't buy into your line of reasoning that since people died it merits singling out Islamophobia. Intolerance is intolerance. You don't have to wait until death to point out intolerance of any kind is wrong. Tell me if death is your criteria Michael Harder to pontificate about intolerance why does our government not single out Muslim terrorism? How many deaths have come about from Muslim terrorism? Or are you one of those who say there is no co-relation between Islam and terrorism and the moment someone points out terrrorism done in the name of Islam, that makes it Islamophobic? Why has Trudeau refused to call out Muslim extremism? What stops this man from doing so other than Muslim votes? This current government won't acknowledge a link between Islam and terrorism or acknowledge extremist Muslims in Canada. Trudeau uses as his Middle East advisor Omar Alleghbra an out and out anti semite who condones terrorism and defends it. He will have an MP sit up in Parliament unable to define Islamophobia and demand the government investigate what she can't even define it and just,where was she when Imams called for the violent death of Jews in the Mosques? Where was she? How could she be so obviously silent? Where is her credibility or Trudeau's? How does Trudeau get his Middle East advise from a man who openly supports Hamas. JHezbollah and Al Quaeda? . Where is Trudeau now as thousands are breaking the law and illegally coming to Canada from the US and he doesn't dare say a word because he fears that will be construed as anti Muslim and he has told the world Canada will welcome all the Muslims Trump will not. He is on record as saying that. You can not tell me by leaving the accusation of islamophobia undefined and wide open if I use the words Muslim terrorist that won't be called Islamophobia. Can I point out in the very Mosques this MP claims are under attack contain violent extremists or does that make me Islamophobic? You want me to defend Muslims against hatred, I will. For sure. But if they engage in hatred of course I will challenge them.Just as Muslims and Christians have stood by Jews in Canada when we were targeted for hatred I will do the same for them. You want me however to only single out hatred of Muslims I will not. No Muslim has asked me to do that by the way or suggested hatred against them requires more of a priority then other forms of hatred. Not the Muslims I know. How dare ay idiot politician play priority politics with hatred-all hatred is equally a priority. What a farse. Where were you Michael when the Liberals ran a leadership campaign saying don't vote for Bob Rae because his wife was a Jew. I can tell you where I was. My point Michael is because I am not far off from you on this issue although I am ticked off at Trudeau, is that I believe people who discriminate against all Muslims simply because they are Muslim are as intolerable as if they do it about Jews, Christians or anyone else and no form of intolerance is more important than any other and yes the government should speak out against. Intolerance in ANY form. I argue that Trudeau selects the hatred he speaks out against and for that-it makes him in my mind a panderer. As for Taxme's comments, I distance myself from them. I agree with the MP speaking out against Islamophobia and all other forms of intolerance but I believe she purposely singled out Islamophobia for special consideration and that is where I believe she went wrong. I would have also taken her more seriously if she could define the hatred she claims. Leaving it open ended makes a mockery of it-it allows her to make it up as she goes along. That's not credible. Islamophobia is engaging in negative stereotyping of all Muslims with a specific agenda to incite hatred against them. She could have simply said that. She didn't because she feels pointing out when terrorists are Muslim is Islamophobic. No it is not. Its not unless the person making the link uses it as a pretense to hate ALL Muslims. I do not hate all Muslims because of Muslim extremists any more then I hate all blacks or whites or Christians or anyone else in the same group as someone who commits an act of crime or terror.

Well the Australian government has decided to impose a values test on new immigrants. Facing rising support for nationalist parties Australian PM Turnbull decided that, unlike European governments, he was going to pay attention to the anger at all the new 'others' coming into Australia, and make it a little harder to qualify. Now to become a citizen you'll have to spend four years in Australia (the left wing labour party had reduced it to just one), pass a values test which requires demonstrating your efforts to assimilate, and have a superior command of English. By contrast, of course, European parties, and the Democrats in the US, completely ignored such sentiments as beneath their notice, thus leading to the rise of the far right, and the ascent of Donald Trump. Canadian political parties and the national media continue to march in lockstep, fully and enthusiastically supporting open immigration, rejecting any kind of screening, and embracing Islam without reservation. Canadians on the other hand, are far and away less enthusiastic. Should the Liberals ever bring in a real proportionate rep electoral system you would quickly find a new anti-immigration party rising in Canada too. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/australia-plans-to-add-new-australian-values-test-for-citizenship/article34757313/

Gee, I wonder in which other areas the evil Americans have been a force for good ? How about....the Internet ? Which came from investments in the massive military industrial complex (ARPA/DARPA) . Don't people like the Internet, and resulting Web used around the world ? How else would they get all that good, American porn !

Because most of us believe the evil that the US stopped was worse. Maybe we did drink the Kool aid but we are not having mayday parades or dropping people off buildings for being gay. We have our faults to be sure but we are trying to be better.

I use to like the idea of a global culture/civilization/government when I was young and naive. But then I realized that it's a lot better to have 200 different nations, so if one gets messed up you always have the option of going to another. A lot more redundancy that way. One bad cultural, economic, or political trend crippling all of human civilization as opposed to just one or a handful of countries? No thanks. Not to mention people are different... they have different values, cultures, etc. And the geographic region they live in may have a significant impact on their outlook on things. Diversity of cultures around the world is better than a single homogeneous worldwide culture.

Yup. I also have been able to live in a country that can afford health care because we have a strong neighbor that watches over us. It is for their own benefit but it works for us. I am a greedy selfish individual that is glad the US dropped two nukes that ended WW2 quicker and kept the wonderfully peace loving communist block in check.

Here is the short version for those who can't stand all the military porn:

Great thread...we get to post more military porn because it is on topic, including government myth propaganda ! America's Navy....A GLOBAL FORCE FOR GOOD (and blowing things up)

The U.S.A is great...I love it ! More people have emigrated to the United States from around the world than to any other nation on the planet. They must love it...too.

BYE BILL!!! We won't miss you! You're a horrible human being nice knowing you!!

You speak very good common sense and logic language. People like you are hard to find. Liberals and their emotionalism and foolish talk sadly appear to be in the majority in Canada. They appear to be eating to much of the politically correct language pie I guess? Aw well.

This is the issue for me too - how those religious beliefs translate into everyday life. Someone who has been taught from infancy that women are to be in submission to men, be covered at all times or else they are whores, etc.......that translates into how they treat Canadian women when they get here. That means they treat the female bank teller, female service person, female coworker, really any female they meet is treated very badly. Same for homosexuals. It's not just that they hate women or gays, they really feel they need to die. Now. Families that have been here for decades but still believe in honor killings, have killed their girls while in Canada. They are not allowed by their own communities/families to assimilate. They self-segregate into neighborhoods, mosques and cultural group gatherings that continue to fuel these religious beliefs. I know not all who believe in Islam will do these things, but the underlying thinking doesn't seem to change once they arrive in Canada. I'm sorry, but I lived in a high Muslim population neighborhood and I am extremely happy to have gotten out of there. I don't think the politicians even have a clue as to what they are foisting on the Canadian people. It's not Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau who has to live next to the man who smacks his wife across the head every chance he gets. It's not Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau who has to serve or help a man who treats her like a piece of garbage. I don't think they have any clue about how those religious beliefs translate into everyday life for the average Canadian.

A tax on foreign ownership means less houses will be constructed since companies are not going to build houses if no one is going to buy them in the end. The focus on foreigners is ignoring the fact that in both Vancouver and Toronto there is a resistance to building apartments buildings and condos by the general population.