JerrySeinfeld

I don't think it's in anyone's best interest to give Joe Jihad a finger on the nuke button. America is a decent world policeman. It's kind of like a cop. Everyone hates 'em. There are always complaints about how they do their jobs - whether they were too tough, or not tough enough in the right situations etc. But in the end, if you're being victimized by a crime - thank god they're there and the world isn't ruled by the thugs running the UN. They've done a spectacular job policing the world thus far and I would continue to give them alot of latitude. Heaven knows if we went "multilateral" we'd all still be waiting for a "special UN envoy" to begin "humanitarian" missions to tsunami-stricken nations. Notice the term "humanitarian" is "western nation" centered - ie. we are all humanitarians - look at us - we're so proud of ourselves. That's because it's about US - not the victims. That's the problem with the UN. If it were about them, we'd all just act - but it's about us - and how we view ourselves. See? we're "humanitarians". It's more important to be on a "humanitarian" mission than it is to actually do anything remotely close to "humanitarianism". That's left-wing progressive thinking in a nutshell. I digress. US should do all it can to squash any jihadi getting power in Pakistan.

Think before you type. Vancouver city only has a population of about 600K. To get a true picture you'd have to search metro calgary and metro vancouver... Besides, the link you sent me showed me that 21 buildings are under construction in calgary and that 56 are under construction in vancouver - that means Vancouver is higher per capital whther you use the proper population (600K) or the metro (2.2 Million). Calgary "high rises" aren't quite the same, either. 10-12 of those under construction are probably 8 stories somewhere out in the blurbs. This is a dumb argument anyway. We all know Calgary doesn't even come close to Vancouver in any capacity - other than bragging (about what we're not sure). Q: How do you know who the Calgarian is at a conference? A: He'll tell you aaaaallllllll about it. Frankly - out on the coast we don't want anyone else moving here. Our house prices are the highest in the country and it's getting too crowded - would prefer if it was just our little secret while everyone moves to the pastures of Calgary to sell valves. P.s. - what's with the red vests and white cowboy hats? isn't it time ya lost those? 1988 was a loooooooong time ago.

Naw. Edmonton has to step it up - and get that new building before calgary does. It's not multi-billion. It's $300 million, of which Katz will pony up $100 million. Maybe $100 million from corporates and $100 million from 3 levels of gov? Who knows...but it WILL get done. Thee is the will and the money. Katz could do it himself if it came down to it.

Yea - calgary calling Edmonton ugly is kind of like the pot calling the kettle black. My theory is that Calgary is just a whole bunch of stripmall-laden millwoods' joined together by smalltime "freeways". I don't know what your definition of "massive influx" is - but please tell me how many residential towers in excess of 20 floors have been built in downtown Edmonton in the last 5 years. What is it? 2? 4? 6? Try vancouver - literally dozens and dozens of 30+ story highrise condos an dozens more planned, sold or under construction.....now THAT's massive.

We gotta keep the jihadi's away from nukes. That's obvious. Covert is the way to go. We should covert Ahmadinajad's ass too - and Syria's. If we covert all those f*ckers with "right of pursuit" then Iraq would settle way down.

Alberta's people are excellent - right up there with Saskatchewanians and Maritimers. I really miss the down home, blue collar attitudes there. I find myself caught in no-man's land right now being from Alberta but living in downtown Vancouver. Van is very trendy, very fashion-forward, polished, professional, youthful, dynamic and cosmopolitan...excellent restaurants etc. Sometimes I find it pretentious - but when I go back to Calgary I find myself chuckling to myself at Calgarians' attempts at "chic". It's kind of a bastardized unpolished version. You'll see a guy wearing a very expensive stylish jacket and then you'll look at his shoes or his belt and they look like he bought them at pay-less. Or at a high end restaurant the waiter will always recomend Yellow Label haha. Little things like that that make me realize I've been surrounded by an even higher level of "haute couture" if you will for some time now and it starts to rub off. I know - I'm terrible. It's shallow and pretentious - but I'm in the middle ground. On one hand I don't quite fit the Vancouver mold, but on the other I've grown out of good old Alberta in terms of "the finer things".

11 Months of rain? Ha. More like 3. Sounds like sour grapes. I'm sorry to hear about your psychologic depression issues, however if you did your research you'd know that statistically vancouver is much dryer and sunnier than Edmonton in the summertime (which, by the way, lasts longer than 4 weeks out here). Besides, it's not the snow - it's the fact that you spend 50% of your life trapped indoors scratching your dry skin, trying to fix the humidifier and replacing the batteries in your remote car starter. If you're choosing Hay River over consistently one of the top 3 cities on the planet to live, I think we know where you stand so we basically have nothing more to talk about. Edmonton and Calgary? Boring debate: Pretty much the same boing cold dumpy prarie towns. Edmonton v. Vancouver? Now this is a debate I could sink my teeth into for hours....let the games begin! p.s. Happy gopher hunting

Some of Iran's behavior is like Matt Cooke or Esa Tikannen or Sean Avery: they are little f*ckers trying to piss you off and get you off your game - but in the end they're reasonably sure the ref will step in before anyone gets their hands on them.

This thread is weird. But I will say this. I know a boy who is "mothered" by a Lesbian couple - and they're like the real man-hating type lesbians (not all are). Let me tell you - this kid is f*cked up.

No you missed it - the $14/ hour is what most of these people would be making somewhere else in the world - so they're super proud of the $80K or $90K or whatever it is they're pulling in - which is why they like to boast about how life is amazing because they have a late model pickup truck and a mortgage when to many of us this isn't a great deal of money. Sour grapes? Huh. No it's just an accurate observation from somone who used to live there and left by choice. If it was sour grapes I wouldn't have left in the first place. This comment is typical of an Albertan. Have you been to Vancouver lately? There are more cranes in a 3 block raduis then there are in the entire city of Edmonton or Calgary. So not only do we have an immense economic boom, but arguably the most beautiful city in the world with mountains, oceans, beaches, skiing, surfing, sailing etc. You can have your 6 month winters, flatlands, wheatfields and drywall / vinal sided housing - life is much better on the other side of the rockies thank you very much Which is why i left voluntarily with a smile on my face. Link to a crisp live morning here in lotusland. And another. Don't hurt your back shovelling your walk or scraping the ice off your car windows

I know that I've been there - I just threw out a name it wasn't meant to be accurate it was just making a point about the typical person that would find Alberta attractive.

Actually, to be perfectly frank - science is science. Truth doesn't care where it gets money from. The amount of research funding for "climate research" has gone from $200 million to $2 billion in the past 10 years. If you're gonna be skeptical about financial motivation, at least be balanced enough to admit that the financial motivation is far greater on the "man-made-climate-change" side of the equation as there are far more dollars, attention and praise available there. Not to mention ostracizing and shunning of very credible scientists who don't toe the line. That type of behavior reminds me of...um - what happebned to galileo when he tried to throw truth up into the face of "consensus". I think we know who the real flat-earthers are when it comes to "openness to thought"

I moved away from Edmonton to Vancouver. Before my thoughts on differences I would first say that the Edmonton-Calgary feud is pretty goofy when you look at it from the outside looking in. Why? Because they're both mid-sized prairie cities with oil money. Put it this way: if you were grabbed fresh out of mongolia or sudan or indonesia or some other far away un-prairie like place and dropped into either city from a parachute, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference AT ALL. Both places have about 1 million people. Both cities are growing at the same rate (Edmonton a bit faster I think). Both have bad architecture, filthy streets, homes built on the cheap, no sense of beauty or longevity with respect to the building of new homes & neighbourhoods. But far and away the gold medal winner is that people from both cities can't wait to tell you how "the boom is just unbelievable - it's insane....blah blah". You know I wasn't in Edmonton for like a year and Calgary for like 5. People from those places who I would talk to would always be saying "oh - well you gotta see it NOW...it's CRAZY the growth....etc." SO I went back to both places - and from my standpoint barely anything has changed at all. Yuo can still shoot a cannon down jasper avenue aftetr 5pm. There are maybe two new high rise condos downtown (there are currently 5 under construction within 1.5 block from me in vancouver). Calgary has a few new suburbs and a couple of new office towers, but it's still boring, lame old calgary. The final point I'd like to make is about the economy. Sure there is "money" and "jobs" in Alberta - but so what. I have a job. Most of us do. Alberta is great for the dregs of society who can't find a job. SO if you live in Fredricton and the fish packing plant just closed down, heck $90K a year in Calgary selling valves sounds pretty damn good. But it's not what I'd call "crazy money". Calgary and Edmonton are both CHALK FULL of people who have never made more than $14 / hour and now can actually afford a mortgage or a truck payment - so to them that's REAL money. To the rest of us, both cities are frozen tundra with a mediocre paycheque.

No - they are quotes from the link citde on the bottom of the post....excellent columnist to the Australian, Janet Albrechtsen, wrote the column.

The contradiction in this post is pure comedy. In one paragraph you're getting in a huff about how gunter and "others of his ilk" cite specific inaccurate environmental claims to discredit the whole movement.. And in the very next paragraph you argue that making specific inaccurate claims is necessary to perpetuate said movement. Classic.

Excellent post, August. I as well have travelled extensively in the U.S. Throughout Montana, Idaho, Florida, Louisiana, Washington, New York, Oregon, California, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Michigan, California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, Texas. Surely I'm not stupid, I know there is poverty in the US. But generally I agree with your post. Canada is mediocre and always has been. American roads, freeway systems (the interstate system is genius and brilliant and wonderful), airports, ferries, etc. are all excellent in the US. All of my healthcare experiences (limited) in the US have been spectacularly, noticabley excellent. Houses and large, neighbourbhoods are beautiful, clean, selection of products is better, pricing is better, raods are superb.... By comparison much of Canada is buttf*ck miserable. But we continue to eat up this BS that we're "the best country" fed to us by the feds. I think some of it has to do with that theory about Lottery winners. Did you know MOST lottery winners have spent all of it after 5 years and are right back to square one? Apparently people have a "psychological" level of financial success that they keep reverting to. I think Canada has a national case of this.

Let's concede the obvious right up front: not all Muslims are raving lunatics. No kidding. However, to say that their is no - ahem - "difference" between some basics of Islamic culture and western culture is sticking your head in the sand. Take, for example, the following quote from Hirsi Ali, Author of "Infidel: or another: I think it's an understatement to say modern left wing western progressives have been put in a bind here: since they've spent the better part of 3-4 decades fighting for both "cultural" sensitivities as well as "women's" sensitivities, who do you "award" with your sympathies when faced with the issue of traditional Islam in a multiculturla context? In some circles that decision has been made in favor of "culture" over "women: or But to the title of this topic, the interesting thing is that some Muslims, such as Irshad Manji, are calling for a distinctino to be drawn within Islam, and I personally think this is an excellent point worthy of discussion: Link to the column.

I would love to hear the telephone conversation in this push poll: Tellephone rings at Joe Gump's house in rural Iowa. Anyway - Giuliani is putting all his eggs in the big states' basket...starting with Florida. If Romney is the GOP candidate and Hillary is the Dem, I think I'll puke. I think I like McCain right now...

Gee - for someone concerned about the "science" you sure sound like you're attacking ad hominem here. Please read the sentence you quoted again. If you're going to attack a source, at least attack the cited source: Nature magazine. Yours, and other econazis, willingness to ignore any POSSIBLE evidence to your already decided upon (and bordering on religious) conclusion actually demonstrates an obvious and intentional ignoring of science or balance in favor of your opinion or "consensus" (read: group of scientists not willing to give up their big fat research funding"). All good, balanced objective science considers a body of evidence and makes statements based upon what has been learned so far. There are plenty of examples of scientific things we thought we knew but ended up modifying our conclusions later on when we had learned and observed more evidence. What good, balanced and objective science doesn't do is draw a conclusion based upon some evidence, then make a concerted effort to silence, chastize and crush any new science that comes along in order to prove to the world how correct the original conclusion was. That's not called science. It's called religion.

Them? Aren't we all Canadians?

Yes - judging by the names listed, this group represents a - ahem - what's the catchphrase? "broad strata" of society.

This is really quite an amazing post. I have put up a link showing a distasteful, hate-filled, anti-semitic and, frankly, disgusting bent, and the very first response is one jumping up and down crying foul? Crying "islamophobia"? My goodness. What about Jew-phobia? Could you at least fake some kind of concern about the jew-hating remarks on the facebook site? This reply you have posted reminds me alot of the old saying: "Muslims caution against terrible backlash of Islamophia following tomorrows train bombings"

Here is a wonderful little treat from Facebook group of Ali Zee, Usher Ahmed, Super Samer, Issam Zeineddine, Khalil Jeha, Hussein Abdulbaki, Abe Rafih, Issam Khalil, and Manal Abdallah, all of Calgary If you follow this link you can get a good idea of the kind of free speech we're trying to protect in this country. It's an important tenet of free speech that it protect everybody - even these racist bigotted a**holes. Perhaps if we invite discourse about this subject onto public forums like these, certain - ahem - groups of people will learn exactly what it means to live in a society free of persecution for what you say. This is precisely why we need to extinguish the power of Human Rights Kangaroo Courts before they destroy one of our most fundamental freedoms.

I have an ongoing debate with a family member who converted to Islam. And believe me. The more we talk, the more he galvinizes my opinions.

Hear hear. This is a complete travesty and if this complaint, along with the one against Steyn, is successful, look out Canada - we will be changed forever. Think of the chill going through newsrooms across the country. If no public discourse about Islam is allowed (ie. freedom of speech), then what is next? It's sickening that our own laws and bias toward tolerance are continuously being used ( in this country and in other western democracies) to shut us up and deny uis our basic fundamental rights. Disgusting. This is very scary indeed. Very scary.