JerrySeinfeld

and the verdict about how much effcet this had on the overall world's climate is..... (drumroll please)..................................... ZERO!!!

I'm not sure what the popularity of hockey in so-cal has to do with how good a hockey team is. This is supposed to be a thread about hockey, not demographics. Why should any sports fan really care how many people follow the ducks anyway? They're an amazing hockey team.

I disagree. One major flaw is the assumption that global warming will be massively net-negative for humans and the world. As well, you could plug in "big meteor crashing into earth" in place of "global warming" and the same argument would be true so we'd have to do something about that too - just to be sure we didn't end up in column be row .2

Well more my-sideism. It's OK to run guns into a foreign country as long as you're on my side. Yes, that's exactly right. Do you have some kind of warped problem with that?

It's this kind of apologetic doublespeak and splitting hairs that the mullahs are counting on from the west which blocks accountability. Just like it wasn't the US fighting the commies in Nicaragua - it was the CONTRAS!!!

Take the time to read this article by Mark Steyn. It's largely a tribute to Reagan - a "simpleton" politician. Great article. Never explicitly mentions a comparison to GW Bush - but if you read the article and think of today's world with GW Bush as president, it is so obvious that history will be so much kinder to him than the present is. Another great republican president with the balls and clarity not to bow to the "elite" know-it-all blowhard surrender-enthusiasts. excrpt:

OK I haven't been following this very closely because over time the whining from the Atlantic provinces just starts sounding like noise. But if I get this right, the Atlantic provinces get money from their O&G revenues which, if included in the calculation of equalization payment would reduce the amount of money they get from Ottawa? So - if this is the case - they're pissed because oil and gas riches will reduce the amount of welfare they get? What planet are these people from?

I like Ottawa's chances of making it back better than the Ducks, simply based on the fact that they play in the weaker conference and, like Anaheim, most of the key components are already in place. They do need some grit up front and a goalie who's not a spaz, but other than that, they have what it takes to lose in the SCF again. Of course the same caveats I applied to the Ducks apply to the Sens. In this league, it's all up for grabs. Heck - the east is a mess. Could say the same for buffalo or pitt - add a couple of veteran solid D and a goalie and they're significantly better. Unfortunately those are tough commodities to come by these days. And don't even get me started on Ottawa's D. They were pathetically exposed in the finals.

No thanks. I just ate lunch. As an Oilers fan I used to hate pronger but then I realized, heck I have something in common with Pronger: Love the Oilers, can't stand living in the city

Bad example. The question, anyway, is not "when has a successful democracy been imposed from without". The question is "when has a foreign military power successfully defeated a domestic insurgency." The answer is: virtually never. We need to keep on it - despite the negative nellies out there who can't wait to lose "George Bush's war". It's an irrational hatred of GW bush is really what this opposition is all about. admit it.

This amusing site is wonderful - a place where it is actually up for debate as to whether Iran is arming insurgents in Iraq, arming hezbollah or the Taliban. what a laughable state of affairs. well, if there is one good thing about this world - it is certainly amusing.

Think of it this way: the UN is run by thugs and human rights abusers. So, to answer your question as to who has more credibility, the UN Secretary General or an Anonymous internet poster, it's a toss up.

Don't see it. They ain't the second coming of the 1976 Canadiens here. They weren't tested much this post-season. Next year will be a different story. And there's always injuries or a bad bounces. Liek I said, though, watching Anaheim win again would almost be enough to make me stop watching hockey entirely. Well - my prediction of a repeat is far less likely than yours of a non - so you'd have to give me serious odds. Regardless, check out these 45 photos - it appears despite the small support base, the ducks look to have done a fantastic job during the celebration - and kudos to the Guvernator for showing up to a "small time" sport in California... http://www.anaheimducks.com/multimedia/sli...n%20Celebration

Exactly. That's because Canadian left wing politics is all about doing what "feels good". It "feels good" to go to Afghanistan when the world is all a tizzy, but when it gets boring, and out of vogue, bring on BONO or DAVID SUZUKI and the next hot world crisis to temporarily masquerade as "saving". bwaaaahahaa

Yes it does - and Anaheim has plenty of cap room so they will easily match any deal offered out there - which is why I said "all else being equal". You're listening to too many local sports journalists' 5 second postulations in the 6 oclock news roundup. Selanne Scored 48 goals and 46 assist for 94 points last year - better than any oiler I believe (and I am an oiler fan). As well, he's just finished having the time of his life. There a good chance they cuold do it again, and earn a few million in the process. He's healthy, playing great hockey on a great team in a great city. Other than some sports journalists proverbial "going out on top", why WOULDN"T he play again? That's another commonly held theme about the "salary cap era" but with Anaheim the variables are lining up quiet nicely. Perry, Penner and Getzlaf all still fall under the new netrants rules, are under contract and on the cheap. and that's their top line!!! Even without neidermeyer they have a solid core of D including Pronger and Beauchemin - and of course if Neidermyere does not retire (which he won't), the Pronger / Neidermeyer one-two combo will be very tough to beat in next year's tournament. Adding the HUGE and talented Bobby Ryan, together with McDonald, Moen just got signed. Rob Neidermeyer will be there - and many of the other parts are interchangeable. The basic same formula that won this year will still be in place next year - but with a more experienced PPG line and a slew of cup rings on their fingers. Can you say R E P E A T?

Crime? Unilaterally invade? Fraud? I think you guys need to revisit your understanding of crime and punishment. This would be the crime, guys. Since the UN has no enforcement teeth, the coalition of the willing took matters into their own hands and clearly enforced 1441.

What's silly about reality? This is a valid question - with much more attention to reality than the mookies out on the street screaming for an end to Canada's involvement - without any regard to what that means for the future, or what it means for the people living in that country. When you march down the street with a placard stating "CANADA OUT OF AFGHANISTAN" the other side should read "TALIBAN BACK IN POWER!!" because that's tantamount to what you are ...in REALITY saying.

That has nothing to do with anything being discussed. Also, they aren't quite as good as you say. Barring a few breaks, it could have just as easily been Detroit or even San Jose in the SCF. If ANA loses Giguere and Selanne (and, ohpleaseohplease, S. Niedermeyer), they'll be a significantly different team. Niedermeyer still has one year on his deal. All else being equal, Giguere will stay given his loyalty after the DUcks' superb handling of his son's issues. Selanne may leave, but I doubt it - he's playing some of the best hockey of his life, and he's having fun - loves where he is. The PPG line will be promoted to the top line anyway - they were the dominating story in the finals. With Bobby Ryan likely joining the fold and fitting in very well to their devastating forecheck, I see Selanne as a bonus player anyway. I vote the Ducks most likely to repeat in a very long time.

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. Yes: L.A. and its environs are very big. Yes, there has been hockey in L.A. since 1967. And? Do these facts have any bearing on the fact that hockey is a non-entity in So-Cal? um...and does the non-entity argument have any bearing on the fact that the ducks are one of the best teams to skatein the NHL in a LONG time.

We need to strinke Iran hard and fast - like a teenage boy's sex life.

I don't know about you guys - but out on the west coast it's been bloody freezing for this time of year. Ahhh - I guess just more evidence that the earth is warming up.

Not sure - but who cares? Sounds like a pretty good idea to me. Hey - if some guy's daddy ruined your father last time you had an oil boom, wouldn't you be concerned about him getting elected? Plus - I think Justin is even more of a watermelon than Pierre was...

Why bother reading it when I can give everyone the short version: JerrySeinfeld: Here's a Mark Steyn article about immigrations and why it suxx. g_bambino: ...and here's my take on why Queen rulz. Sorry: the Queen. Now, obviously, I'm taking a poke at some of the more monomaniacal tendencies of certain posters here and am not commenting, per se, on the subject at hand. But if I may, the problem is simply this: Canada doesn't have a culture to sacrifice, at least not in any meaningful sense of the word."Canadian" culture is little more than a trite and mostly harmless collection of slogans and symbols that the vast majority of the citizenry regards with a kind of bemused affection and little else . And really, what else can be expected of a country that is barely out of its infancy as an entity, and who's citzens, for the most part, huddle together in far-flung enclaves separated by unimaginable distances filled with damn near nothing at all? Don't get me wrong: I'm all for trite symbols, be they HRH or the Tragically Hip. But they shouldn't be confused with real values, which Canadians have aplenty and which, I'm sure, are forged of sterner stuff than carpetbaggers like Steyn would have us believe. Equating the rejection of certain symbols with a rejection of values is pure sophistry. Hell, I'll go further: the whole notion of cultural suicide is bunk. 1. The amount of space between people in today's world doesn't impact what they believe as a unit. Just ask Joe afghani who still wants to beat the shit out of his wife even though he lives in Surrey, BC. 2. The age of Canada has no relevence to the quality of it's values OR the symbols of those values. Your criteria that only OLD traditions (by the way - what is the benchmark for "old") command respect would honour things like burning women alive as they do in Pakistan and condemned by amnesty international. But hey - if those ancient traditions and values trump the newly minted ones in our country, fill yer boots there old pal 3. And your chracterization that "."Canadian" culture is little more than a trite and mostly harmless collection of slogans and symbols that the vast majority of the citizenry regards with a kind of bemused affection and little else" differs from other cultures how exactly? 4. As you confidently say Canadians have "real values, which Canadians have aplenty and which, I'm sure, are forged of sterner stuff than carpetbaggers like Steyn would have us believe" -Yes - I'm sure you correct, which is why Downtown Vancouver voted for a woman who muses "what right have we to say who can come here and what they should do when they get here?" bwaaa

I suppose from a marketing standpoint you might have a point - but I just like seeing great hockey teams play hockey - and this is one of the best in awhile. I wouldn't be surprised to see the ducks repeat.

I agree that this is the underlying theme of Steyn's piece, and Roach's lawsuit is a prime illustration for it. I would say that Anglophone, Brit-descent Canadians have been suffering from a severe case of cultural cringe since the mid 1960s, when we started to buy the revisionist history and propaganda of the Quebec separatists, and felt a collective guilt over what evil things we were all supposedly responsible for. But, this actually seems to be a more far-reaching phenomenon that's also taking place in the UK, Australia, to an extent the US, and elsewhere; so, it can't just be about Anglo and Franco Canadians. WASPS everywhere, and men in particular - who have, admittedly, pretty much been running the show for the last couple of centuries - have been made to feel blameworthy over the actions of their ancestors, by any group that's learned to take advantage of this by playing up the victim card. Everywhere the values and traditions of old - i.e. prior to 1970 - are equated with the values and traditions of senior, white, English speaking men, who are, in turn, equated with colonialism, oppression, and imperialism. There's a certain validity to the equation - there's no doubt that the west is built on the actions of senior, white, English speaking men, and there's no doubt that some of their actions would be considered an affront to equality and human dignity by today's standards. But, the ironic thing is that in our rush to sprawl ourselves in repentance at the feet of those who were once our "victims," we ignore the broader scope of the world, including the injustices, prejudices, and all-round reprehensible behavior of some of these minority groups, both in the past and still in the present. So guilty do we feel about having bossed them around in the past that we'll now accommodate their discrimination against women, preaching of hatred against other groups, and practice of racism and sexism, even when it's directed right at us. It's as though Canadian identity and values from before 1982 - when the magical Charter came into effect (of course nobody has a clue what the Bill of Rights was) - are now viewed as the identity and values of racist, old, English men. The thinking then says that now we must move away from that past and establish a new epoch of tolerance and accommodation - the supposed exact opposite of what came before - which began with the establishment of official multiculturalism. Well, sure, multiculturalism is great - who wants to live in a banal society of automatons? And sure, we shouldn't necessarily hold on to every belief and every value of our predecessors. But, this sterilization of history in the name of remorse has left us as a lobotomized country - as Steyn says: now we're nothing more than who stands here at any given moment; a transient, rootless society. Everything from the past is sacrificed in the name of political correctness and reconciliation, and so the only thing we stand for is not-standing-for-anything. Because this makes us the most tolerant, we take a macabre pride in this gutless attitude. Following quickly in our footsteps, of course, is Britain, where guilt over their imperial past has given fuel to the destruction of British traditions, devolution, and a closer integration with the socialist EU; Australia, where guilt over terra-nullis and the White Australia Policy has had similar effects. Canada can be a tolerant nation. In comparison to many others throughout history, it always really has been; an end-product of the British Empire, which, despite our modern view of it, did actually accommodate local customs, cultures and languages much more than the French, Spanish, Portuguese, Persian, Japanese and others empires did. As well, Canada's always being a nation of immigrants has had an effect. But a country that willingly lets its foundations in history blow away in the winds that bring in a multitude of newly imported cultures, many of which themselves continue to practice what the WASP Canadian majority has been making every effort to stop themselves, is a dangerous experiment in social engineering. Our history is our history, for good or bad. We should absolutely acknowledge the bad, but should not lump the entirety of the past into a negative category. Our proud traditions should remain, our functioning constitutional system should be protected, and we should indeed, in no uncertain terms, expect immigrants to this land to accept this country's past, accept this country's proud traditions, accept the values of our society, and live by the rules. They can add their flavour to the societal make up, add their bit to the national debate, but this sick cultural suicide on the part of Canada has to stop. What an EXCELLENT post. Thank you for articulating this so well. My view? We could learn a thing or two from the USA on this subject.