SpankyMcFarland

What you’re trying to say is that because Israel isn’t quite as vicious and nihilistic as Hamas it’s the good guy. Let me tell you something about tribal wars - there are no good guys. Israel isn’t as vicious because it doesn’t have to be right now. From the river to the sea was Likud’s policy from the start and Zionist policy before that. Look up their original platform. Now it is a reality. And make no mistake. Israel will not hesitate to use its fifty five year old nuclear stockpile (which America tries to ignore at every opportunity because it broke its own laws in ignoring Israel’s theft of US nuclear technology) should the need arise.

Separate people should serve as heads of state and government. That’s the best arrangement and it’s the one followed in most European democracies. It forms yet another bulwark against authoritarianism. Unfortunately, we have made it virtually impossible to change our current arrangement short of war but I think there is one thing we might be able to do without a protracted legal crisis - allow parliament to take a series of votes, preferable secret, on candidates for the GG and take the result as non-binding advice to the PM. This would strengthen the independence of the office and in time make them a de facto head of state. The PM should not be directly involved in choosing the GG. This isn’t in our top twenty problems as a state but I suspect it’s going to become a bigger issue. Trump has set out to cause crises abroad and is succeeding. We never want to see some unfortunate monarch having to say one thing in Canada and quite another in Britain.

Why it’s awkward has just been illustrated in the tariffs saga. We all hope the current hullabaloo will die down but the direction of travel of the West is not encouraging at the moment. It’s no longer difficult to see a day when the PMs of Canada and the UK will have diametrically opposed policy positions on a vital matter. If that ever happens I hope everybody here understands whom Charles and his heirs will follow. Their full time job is in Britain.

Are these chants so different? https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-jerusalem-nationalist-march-ben-gvir-0c6471592182aac205115150d1b3a552

The awkward truth remains; our monarch is a foreigner, an Englishman. We may pretend that’s not the case but there it sits.

If people love crowns and sceptres so much we could always get some German prince to do the job full time here as the British did with the Hanovers. Even some obscure member of the House of Windsor might hanker for such glory.

Seriously? Our head of state should be here annually or we should look for a new arrangement. The GG is simply not the same. We have just seen what happens when the UK and Canada have different policy agendas. Charles could only signal his support for us in oblique ways.

Incredibly, Canada was last visited by its monarch fifteen years ago. That’s not a normal state of affairs. Our head of state should live here and should be able to speak freely and at length every day about the wonders of this country.

Malema has done that for sure but everybody in South Africa complains about violent crime. Actually, the whites designed the cities to insulate themselves from the African majority by putting the Indians and other designated groups in between. When Apartheid ended that protection waned too. Talk to Indians about crime there and you’ll never hear the end of it.

How does one search topics here?

Let’s not start demanding an NHL team for Hamilton because Toronto will want one then.

Violent crime in South Africa is utterly rampant - nobody is safe - but that terrible state of affairs alone doesn’t prove that there’s a government plot to kill white farmers, let alone Afrikaans-speaking farmers who would be a majority.

Why would anybody want to appear with this sociopath in the White House if they’re not Putin or Netanyahu? He certainly won’t be picking up the tab for the enormous global ill will he has created against his country.

There’s a lot of competition among Christians for top antisemite of each century in the Common Era but let nobody forget Martin Luther’s claim. He did the work.

What does the Bible say about the two state solution to British North America? I wait with bated breath.

Yes, he is more likely to die of it than merely with it. A lot of men his age and older with low grade prostatic cancer die of something else.

A more aggressive tumour like his would probably have been around a shorter time and might have proliferated between PSA tests.

It’s an aggressive type of prostate cancer. I’ve seen the Gleason score reported as 9/10, so not what most men can expect to have if they live long enough. But it’s an odd scale - scores under 6 are unusual. Think of it as a 4/5 histological grade and 4/4 stage. Not good news. However, a lot depends on how the tumour responds to treatment which is getting better all the time.

Jim Flaherty.

Our debts are serious too but the PM and president have significant differences. There’s no militant, quasi-religious cult around Carney. If he had lost the election, no mob would have stormed our parliament.

While he’s reshaping global dynamics, America’s president might want to spend a little time on this matter: https://globalnews.ca/news/11184458/us-credit-rating-moodys-downgrade-aa1/ Debt isn’t a problem until it is and then things can go sideways very quickly.

Brown is a pretty colour and then they fall off. Did I see an ancient newspaper article that called them leaves? I do think it’s fitting that two of our most admired telecom/media/etc. conglomerates are so deeply involved with the Leafs and show exactly the same commitment to quality on the ice as they have elsewhere.

‘England’ will not sign any deal with Trump. England is a non-sovereign country. The term is used by a certain sort of American to refer to the UK.

And what about Iraq? Who wanted us more heavily involved in that conflict - Chrétien or Harper?

Do you believe Poilievre’s position on the convoy was popular in Ottawa? Either way, Poilievre provokes strong opinions. Some people like him but a lot of people dislike him intensely, especially women. In that sense he divides people much more than, say, Erin O’Toole or Scheer did. His party did very well and yet he was thumped in his riding. It wasn’t close. That says something. In the same way, I suspect, for example, that Carney will be a less divisive figure with ordinary Canadians than Trudeau was. His personality is less extroverted, less obtrusive. There’s less about him to get annoyed about.