SpankyMcFarland

March 6

11 hours ago, Nationalist said:

Nobody's gonna run outta oil. Never heard of deep well drilling? There's lots of oil on our...carbon based planet.

Is our planet carbon-based? Life is based on carbon but it’s not that abundant in the earth’s crust.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth's_crust

March 5

Quote

Engage in insightful discussions on the intricate relationship between religion and politics, exploring how faith influences governance, policy-making, and societal norms. Share perspectives on the impact of religious beliefs on political ideologies and practices worldwide.

Insightful, my painful backside, just a bunch of balloons yelling at each other.

March 5

11 hours ago, Dougie93 said:

the Papists are confronted by the heresy of a godless atheist Pope

any honest Papist admits that he is lost in a wilderness therein

what Papists defend & uphold the degenerate Papacy now ?

I don't know any

they are all being converted to Protestantism in the face of the Vatican siding with Communists

whether they admit it or not

although most admit it now, since they cannot abide the heresy of Woke Pope.

Where did you learn this retro vocabulary about Catholics? These days, people with any education in Scotland would be embarrassed by you.

March 4

3 hours ago, WestCanMan said:

Is it theory?

CBC has the article posted themselves:

https://cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/media-centre/trusted-news-initiative-plan-disinformation-coronavirus

Trusted News Initiative announces plans to tackle harmful coronavirus disinformation

Members include, but are not limited to: BBC, CBC, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, AFP, Reuters, Financial Times, WashPo, NYTimes, Wall Street Journal, and the European Broadcasting Union.

So, when they said that they were "tackling harmful covid disinformation" what they really meant was they were on a global book-burning tour. They were propagating Fauci's lie and going scorched-earth on free speech and most likely the truth.

This is beyond "theory". It's not a theory that TNI exists or that they manufactured parts of the covid narrative. Their hands are right there in the cookie jar.

It's just a matter of what you think about it now.

Sorry, I was talking about the lab leak theory.

March 4

2 hours ago, WestCanMan said:

That's not the point. The point is that people should have been allowed to talk about the BSL4 lab. Instead, TNI went fascist with Fauci's narrative.

Every single newspaper and social media giant went into book-burning mode, because they're part of TNI.

I’ve seen a lot of talking about this theory right through the pandemic.

March 4

4 hours ago, WestCanMan said:

Nope. Not at all.

Maybe to you it was, because you were just following along with the CBC/CNN narrative, but unbeknownst to you, not long into the covid saga people started going on FB and Twitter saying: "Uh, guys? There are 2,000 wetmarkets in China. 400 of them carry exotic species. There's only 1 BSL4 lab in China and it's right beside the notorious wetmarket. Should we be talking about this?"

Didn’t I just say I have an open mind about this? Far brighter people than me know about the Wuhan lab and they will go wherever the evidence leads but it has be hard and fast. The actual molecular data etc. doesn’t point either way so far. When it changes, I will change my opinion. Whatever the outcome, be it from a lab, a wet market or something else, the PRC has been highly obstructive to finding the truth.

March 4

56 minutes ago, WestCanMan said:

That's not the issue.

The issue is that people who became adults in the lat few years don't have the same respect for actual vaccines that us older folks do.

People born in the '40s remember when polio was destroying lives and killing people, and how vaccines put an end to that.

Older people remember when vaccines eradicated smallpox and TB.

My parents impressed all that on me when I was growing up in the '70s and '80s.

People who just turned 23 have had a completely different experience with the word vaccine.

Vaccines didn't come along to save their lives, and they weren't glad to take them. They were forced to take fake vaccines that they wouldn't have needed even if they were real. That's their life experience. Same planet, completely different experience with "vaccines". The word means a completely different thing to young people than it meant to us.

In 1970, vaccines were like a gift from God. People were thrilled to take them.

In 2024, vaccines were snake oil that was inflicted on you by an authoritarian government. You might not see it that way, but I hope that you can understand why other people do.

Perception is not reality. If people stop taking vaccines, let me assure you these plagues will reappear.

And what about HPV vaccines? They have the potential to virtually eliminate cervical cancer and its precursors which are a significant threat to the health of young women right now.

BTW vaccination played a modest role in the 20’th century decline of TB.

March 4

The origin of Covid has been an open question since it appeared. I think it remains so. BTW the alternative theory of wet market origin does not reflect well on the Chinese government either.

March 4

So what are the dangers of these childhood vaccines? What is the risk of death or serious illness per million vaccinated? And how does that compare to the risk of not being vaccinated?

March 3

38 minutes ago, CdnFox said:

No, that presumes there must be a weaker partner. That is not true.

It doesn’t assume that but in bilateral relations it is often the case. Us talking to the Americans is not like Belgium doing a deal with the Netherlands because the US is a superpower with an economy that dwarfs ours.

March 3

2 hours ago, CdnFox said:

Please. "They didn't take away something we already had so i'm a hero".

We already got hosed in the deal and lost much ground - the fact we didn't lose it all is not 'service', it's "slightly less incompetent than he could have been".

I was talking about his entire career in the quote there. It is impressive to me that a private citizen nearing 80 mark and long out of a major political post would still be as engaged as this. Fortunately, up here we’ve learned to put our leaders out to grass quite a bit before that.

Re: NAFTA, like any weaker partner in (effectively) bilateral negotiations we can only do our best to get what we can. That’s how it has always been here, and everywhere else in the world. I think we’ve played a bad hand well.

March 3

And then there was the after-sales work long after the warranty ran out, maintaining NAFTA:

Quote

In the frantic final days of NAFTA renegotiations in September, 2018, a single sticking point threatened to derail more than $1-trillion of continental commerce.

Then-U.S. president Donald Trump’s trade chief wanted to do away with a dispute-resolution system that would enforce the terms of the agreement. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, knowing that without such a system the U.S. could run roughshod over Canada’s much smaller economy, refused to make a deal without one.

Enter Brian Mulroney. As part of a full-court press by the Trudeau government to break the logjam, the former prime minister quietly worked a back channel to the Trump administration. He made clear that dispute resolution had to be part of any pact or Canada would not sign. Finally, the Americans relented.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/us-politics/article-mulroney-worked-to-defend-nafta-legacy-long-after-leaving-office/

Of this man it could be said, ‘I have done the state some service, and they know't’.

March 2

Here is a typical Mulroney quip:

Quote

When Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government swept to power in 1984 following 15 years of reckless Liberal rule, Ontario Liberal leader and eventual premier David Peterson opined: “Brian Mulroney inherited one hell of a mess.”

Even Jean Chretien, who was one of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s finance ministers, admitted: “We left the cupboard bare.”

As Mulroney said to much laughter during a speech in Calgary back in 2007 when he was on his Memoirs book tour, “That was (Chretien’s) only understatement.”

Of the criticisms that could be leveled against him, not being conservative (as in pro-free market) enough would be a rare one:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-brian-mulroney-canadas-unabashed-champion-of-free-enterprise/?utm_source=infobox&utm_medium=inarticle&utm_campaign=mulroneyinfobox

March 2

1 hour ago, CdnFox said:

Chretien ran on scrapping the gst and the free trade agreement - and kept both. That is the liberal mind at work - lie, achieve power, break your word and then steal as much as you can for yourself.

Political campaigns inevitably focus on unpopular policies and inconsistency in these matters is not a prerogative of any political faction. Look at the shambles of our military procurement. I’m grateful that both Mulroney initiatives have survived to this day.

March 2

21 hours ago, taxme said:

No big loss for Canada. For a conservative, i was surprised when he gave us all the GST. That was not a very nice conservative thing to have done at all. Bulroney was just like the rest. He believed in more government, more taxes and less freedom. He didn't help make Canada great. He made it even worse. But what can one expect from a liberal wearing conservative clothing. Stop praising a guy who really did nothing for Canada. 👎 Just my opinion.

Mulroney was hardly in a fiscal position to radically reduce the tax burden after the conspicuous spending of the Trudeau years. If we accept that, then aren’t consumption taxes generally more favoured by conservatives than, say, income taxes? The GST’s survival ever since speaks to its effectiveness as a policy. I think it would be less unpopular if it was hidden in the cost of the item but other legislation made that change impossible at the time. One annoying thing, in my part of Canada at least, is buying a pricey item like a car. The sales people inevitably quote the price sans the taxes, not what I really have to pay, which makes me want to walk out immediately.

The free trade deal with America was not nothing - it was exactly what most conservatives and many others consider an intrinsically good thing. Indeed, the Americans had to be persuaded to take that plunge as well as the Canadian public. Although an unpopular policy at first that made Mulroney’s life considerably more difficult, he persisted and risked his job over it.

Unlike Trudeau, whose career loomed over both him and Chrétien, he was no intellectual - it is said he preferred policy options to be made as simple as possible, sometimes in cartoon form - but he had excellent instincts. NAFTA, the GST and many other initiatives are testimony to that. We needed such pragmatism at that time.

Politics is the art of the possible. Any leader who moves too far from the mainstream will fail. Canada’s centre is considerably to the left of America’s and that’s how it is.

Here is one assessment of Mulroney’s legacy. For monoglot dunces like me, the English starts around 3.40:

In my opinion, Poilievre would do well to give more speeches like this which echo Mulroney’s style somewhat. It was touching. Zingers about the government have their place but voters also need inspiration.

March 1

25 minutes ago, Dougie93 said:

1. nobody cares about French Canada, disloyal Fenian bastards

Fenian? That is another tradition.

25 minutes ago, Dougie93 said:

2 Free Trade was all part of his downfall, since it was extremely unpopular at the time

It was the right decision for the country.

25 minutes ago, Dougie93 said:

4 Roman Catholicism is the Whore of Babylon, leading us the collectivist lunatic asylum of the Post National State

Is this a joke?

March 1

On 2/25/2024 at 1:02 PM, Perspektiv said:

With a looming US election and the realities on the battleground, one can't help but wonder why one would want to delay the inevitable any longer.

It’s not hard to see why Ukrainians ‘would want to delay the inevitable’ as long as possible. They know exactly what Russian rule will mean.

March 1

Mulroney’s verbal skills - he always spoke in well-formed sentences - and those brown envelopes from Mr. Schreiber led many to dismiss him as a con man, Lyin’ Brian, but he got an awful lot done: the Free Trade Agreement was a watershed moment for both Canada and the US, paving the way for NAFTA; the much maligned GST is still with us; and the US-Canada Air Quality Agreement that tamed the acid rain threat gets far less attention than it deserves. What an unlikely rise from Baie-Comeau. Was he our first PM from a working-class background? Although it’s the fate of most politicians, even prime ministers, to fade into obscurity, I think the tributes being paid to him are more than the usual boilerplate responses:

Quote

“He was prime minister for two long terms and I was an opponent of him all my political career. But in politics, opposition is opposition. It’s like playing hockey, you can fight on the ice, but you have a beer together after that,” said Chrétien.

Chrétien said he enjoyed jousting with Mulroney in the House of Commons and that they enjoyed teasing each other, even though they had “terrible disagreements” on the issues. Most importantly, Chrétien said, they both took the job of prime minister seriously, but didn’t take themselves too seriously, which allowed a friendship to flourish.

“He was himself a minority. He was anglo in Quebec while I was franco in the rest of the land. And, you know, it was possible coming from rural Quebec to move up the ladder to be prime minister of Canada, as he was, and a very successful one,” said Chrétien.

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/brian-mulroney-death-politicians-reactions

February 26

20 minutes ago, CdnFox said:

IT's not even remotely close to the same thing even a little bit. And the fact that there are other differences doesn't help your argument

Consider france's system for example.

We really do have a private health care sector in this country whether we like it or not. And it’s only going to get bigger. A friend of mine just paid a lot of money for the King Charles treatment in another province.

20 minutes ago, CdnFox said:

Sure, a single universal program. BC does. And if its something that the people of that province want more of they could easily have expanded it.

But does that cover the entire cost of drugs in BC? Do some people out there not claim they are struggling with those bills? It doesn’t sound like a universal program to me.

February 26

As Hitchens remarked, we are all atheists about other people’s gods.

February 26

2 minutes ago, CdnFox said:

The west bank gov't welcomed and signed on with Hamas. That killed negotiations which were underway at the time for a long term peaceful resolution.

I may have more sympathy for them to a degree but at the end of the day they've made the same kinds of decisions. When Palestine chooses peace and leans into that, they'll get their own state and they'll have a chance to build a real life for themselves but its got to be all or nothing.

I doubt Israel will ever permit a Palestinian state now, no matter how peaceful and secular the Palestinians become. Netanyahu has made clear in English what he often implied in Hebrew and what his party has always been committed to - an Israeli state from the river to the sea.

What this means is permanent, stateless ethnic segregation for Palestinians in the West Bank under 24/7 Chinese-style harassment and surveillance in perpetuity. A South African politician recently objected to the term Apartheid for this system, saying what the Israelis have created is more severe. In any case, it seems destined to last a lot longer.

February 26

On 2/24/2024 at 4:14 PM, Gator said:

There are two types of people in the world, those who are of God and those who aren't.

That sounds rather biblical. Does the next verse mention stoning by any chance?

February 26

15 hours ago, CdnFox said:

Advanced countries in europe have a dual public private health model. You can't compare two completely different things and then say they should be similar.

We have arrived there too in our typically chaotic way. A lot of procedures and drugs are paid for by patients and employers already. BTW Europe’s systems have many differences among themselves.

15 hours ago, CdnFox said:

And most provinces HAVE a universal pharmacare program already.

Really? A single universal program? What I see in my province is a higgeldy-piggedly mess of plans that have ‘just growed’ over time. Just in terms of negotiating prices with the drug companies, we’d be better off doing it as one group.

February 26

24 minutes ago, CdnFox said:

And how does that make israel responsible for their happiness today? They've had 100 years to build a life for themselves - israel did it in that same time frame. Instead they chose violence and hatred and look where it got them.

The reason they dont' prosper 'at home' is that very choice - they choose to lead disruptive and destructive lifestyles and that has consequences.

What you are saying applies to Gaza - it seems to be in a doom loop at this stage that will take at least a generation to recover from and hopefully see more secular leadership emerge.

But in the West Bank, how can Palestinians build a future there when Israel is clearly intent on paving the place? Where are they supposed to go? Even through this current Gaza crisis, Israeli settlers, often dressed in IDF uniforms, continue to harass and kill Palestinian farmers in an effort to drive them off their land. The other day, plans for thousands more settler houses were announced by America’s ally. The only reasonable thing to do for individuals who can do is to leave which is what Israel wants, of course.

February 26

4 hours ago, carepov said:

Jews are not the cause of Palestinian suffering:

a) 2 million Palestinian citizens of Israel enjoy, on average, some of the best living standards in the ME

b) West Bank and Gaza (before 10/7) residents have living standards comparable to other Arab countries

c) Completely unrelated to Jews/Israel, there are plenty of Arabs throughout the ME that are "paying the price"

They are in the sense that they and the British took Palestine from them in the 20th century. That’s a fact independent of living standards.

Palestinians have done well enough in other countries when they’re given a chance, not least the Arabian peninsula, Central America and Chile, so it’s not unreasonable to surmise they would prosper at home under the right conditions. I’m sure Lebanon and an independent Palestine could do much better than they are doing at the moment if they could end instability in their territories. Their record of indigenous entrepreneurship is stronger than that of, say, Egypt. Of course, only a fraction of the issues holding the ME back have anything to do with Israel.

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Trusted News Initiative announces plans to tackle harmful coronavirus disinformation