WestCoastRunner

There is a fine line between hate speech and free speech. Many writers have opined that this is such the case with her events. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/opinion/free-speech-vs-hate-speech.html?_r=0 http://www.salon.com/2015/05/06/pamela_gellers_south_park_idiocy_satire_hatred_and_the_rights_faith_based_fear_mongering/ http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/04/opinions/moghul-texas-shooting-gellar/ Some quotes: "Geller’s project demands that her followers work entirely off of fear-based emotions, leaving all reason aside. This, of course, may be her greatest insult to the idea of free speech. Free speech is not a license to be stupid; in fact, the very right to free speech depends on the idea that humans are rational subjects. Sure we defend all sorts of speech under the notion of the first amendment, but we would never have even had such an amendment without a firm belief that the rights of the citizen should be grounded in reason and not faith. And there is no greater testament to reason than satire. Satire requires the brain to understand layers of meaning, to unpack irony, and to form independent ideas." "Whether fighting against a planned mosque near ground zero, posting to her venomous blog Atlas Shrugs or organizing the event in Garland, Ms. Geller revels in assailing Islam in terms reminiscent of virulent racism or anti-Semitism. She achieved her provocative goal in Garland." "After the attack, she didn't call for dialogue, for understanding, for bringing people together, which is what real leaders do. Instead, she went on Fox news and called it a war. And that appears to be what she wants. That's why she's dangerous, not brave. She's not celebrating hate speech for the sake of free speech, but to provoke reactions that polarize America, set people at odds, and alienate Muslims, who are American citizens and often first in line to report planned terrorist attacks. (American Muslims are allies, not enemies.)"

The problem is that women are not treated as equals in many situations which is why feminism is still alive and why women continue to fight for equal rights. As far as being manipulated by the feminist movement, you make it sound like being a feminist is akin to belonging to a cult. Do you think feminism is a cult? Do you know what feminism means?

It was mentioned in the thread about the F35 female pilot that feminism is not needed anymore. Well, I would tend to disagree and I made some points in the thread 'In defense of the F Word'. Here is another reason why women need to keep fighting to keep our issues at the forefront. The GTFO (Get The F*** Out, You Are Not Welcome Here) documentary was created (by Shannon Sun-Higginson) to address the misogyny, trolling and discrimination that is prevalent in the online gaming community and to push back and show that female gamers have just as much right as men to participate. The documentary focuses on the death threats, vile and incredibly violent harassment that female gamers are faced with everyday. A great trailer of this documentary can be viewed here: http://gtfothemovie.com/

You are misinterpreting my statements. I don't make choices for my daughters. They make their own. If they want to work on a DND base, I can't disallow it.

If you have a problem with my whatever....let it go

The accomplishment is that it represents a huge milestone for women to achieve whatever goals they desire no matter the male denomination. You don't need to be proud of the specific goals yours daughters achieve. It's the fact that many more opportunities open up for them. If your daughter decides to engage in warfare by piloting a f-35, that is her choice. And that is the beauty of this accomplishment. She gets to decide.

Right. So you are not totally disagreeing with the election results.

You guys seem more hell bent on distracting female accomplishments. That's ok with me except I'm going to broadcast these accomplishments to my daughters and future grand daughters. Do you guys have a problem with this? Should I not mention these female accomplishments in a male dominated industry? What if one of my daughters wanted to be a fighter pilot? Should I ignore this rather fabulous milestone?

Right. You miss the whole point that she is the first female to pilot a F-35.

This is no small act. And why on earth would it be demeaning to women to call it out? She is the first woman. It is a great accomplishment.

Yea I get that. Your point?

What you are saying is that the elected members have no qualifications when in fact new members bring a refreshing perspective to a party's policy that they believe in. It can't get any better than that! Let's hope they stick to the reasons they chose politics regardless of their inexperience. And let's hope they don't get discouraged from rants of 'their inexperience'.

Seriously? You are comparing Toronto to the Dnd for predators? Do you have cites to back this up? I suppose you would apply this to any large city in Canada. Do you not see how absurd this is? I would feel far more safe walking in the streets of Vancouver, Montreal or Toronto than being stationed in a base of the Dnd. Of course I am speaking from a female perspective.

i wasn't sure where to put this but I thought it would be great to give a shout out to the first female pilot of the f-35, Christine Mau. She was also part of the all women combat mission in Afghanistan in 2011. Well done!

Why is it a disgrace to vote for a party instead of the candidate. This has been a regular pattern with Canadian voters. Show me why this is a disgrace. I am hopeful that the ndp govt will be able to establish a relationship with our liberals here in BC to reach some degree of civil communication that has been lacking with the previous Alberta govt. Every politician has to start somewhere even the green ndp politicians in Alberta. Let's see what they bring to the table. The people of Alberta has spoken and I'm sure if they don't deliver, they will be tossed in the next election. This is what democracy is all about. It's not about minority or majority govts. It's about who the people have elected regardless of their past political experience.

Fareed Zakaria: "His lessons are worth taking seriously, since they come from a friend of America and a die-hard conservative," Zakaria writes. "Black cites the plea-bargain system in America for its 95 percent conviction rate compared to 60 percent in Canada and 50 percent in Great Britain. American prosecutors aren't that much better than their counterparts in other countries, Zakaria writes, but, quoting Black, says they instead using bullying tactics that would get them "disbarred in most other serious countries, (and which) enables prosecutors to threaten everyone around the target with indictment if they don't miraculously recall, under careful government coaching, inculpatory evidence."

Like I say, at this point, I don't care. I am curious as to why anyone would want to be anonymous when no one else is? And it makes it even weirder because BC is a perceived troll.

If someone is contributing to a forum, why are they signed on as 'invisible'. It makes no sense to me. Especially when they are contributing on a regular basis. Why not say 'hey, here I am'. Let's have a discussion. Instead of 'I'm invisible and I'm going to pretend i'm not here and lurk to see what everyone is posting. I may or may not respond, but it doesn't matter, because no one knows I'm here. It's not transparent at all and it is very interesting that the perceived trolls are the ones who are 'invisible'. I don't mean to belabour this issue and at this point, I don't care. I just think it's an odd way to belong to a forum but to yet stay 'invisible' to all members when signed in.

What he is trying to do and if you follow his columns, you will see that he is trying to address the issues in the u.s. prison system and how it is affecting our system. Perhaps he is making amends. Who knows. I am by nature, an optimist and I like to give folks a second chance and the benefit of the doubt.

You have no idea who Conrad Black is.

Interesting!

I understand that this is the reaction to be expected towards Contrad Black, but you can't underestimate his thoughts on the u.s. prison system. He has some highly intelligent analysis to offer.

Sometimes you need to spell it out exactly for certain members.

Conrad Black has spoken out and written many commentaries on the u.s. Justice system ranging from prisoners rights to jail conditions and the dysfunction of plea bargaining. He goes on to discuss how the Canadian system is falling into a similar pattern. For example he states ".The familiar facts need not be over-emphasized: The United States has 5% of the worlds people, 25% of its incarcerated people, and50% of its lawyers, where legal practice requires serious professional formation. The U.S. legal profession takes 10% of GDP, $1.8 trillion. There are 48 million convicted felons in the U.S. population, the country has 6-12 times as many incarcerated people per capita as Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. American prosecutors win 99.5% of their cases, 97% without trials, numbers rivalled, if at all, only by North Korea." http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com//full-comment/conrad-black-americas-correctional-system-is-utterly-disgraceful-and-ours-seems-to-be-heading-in-that-direction A closer examination needs to be called upon to analyze these prosecutorial wins. Perhaps they have to do with them moving up in the legal profession and nothing at all to do with the rights of the charged felon.

Interesting that our favourite troll is always invisible.