cougar

Faster than your two barrel shooting gun, where you shoot 2 times and then reload. People went hunting for lions and man-eating tigers with these guns in the not so distant past. Present day morons need an AK-47 style weapon to hunt for deer!

No, all you have at your disposal is your toaster, no knives or guns! You know the point which is being made? A fast shooting gun can kill more people in a shorter period of time and there is absolutely no reason why a peaceful citizen should be in possession of such a weapon in peaceful times. I actually think having toasters as weapons in the next war is not such a bad thing. You do not need to kill anyone, all you need to do is win the war. Look at rams, bears, elk etc, they do not fight to kill one another!

Litter picking is in the road maintenance contracts from what I know; but the companies who get the contracts never do it properly and thoroughly. For this reason, we have accumulations from prior years. Some plastics - lid caps in particular become brittle after a season of sun exposure and become impossible to remove 100%, but a lot of garbage also gets buried along highways after road sanding and snow removal. And then in addition to drunks and morons throwing their empty cans and small litter out their pickup windows, you have the big offenders who take their large items to the first forestry road to dispose of them there! Part of the problem is our landfills are now charging fees for garbage disposal instead of paying people for bringing their garbage to them! In the fall of 2018 I found a large camping trailer hauled to the head of my trail to the river together with a pile of furniture and bags of stinky garbage! I refuse to see my outdoors turned into a landfill! So after snow melt in 2019 I was at this trailer with a hatchet and tin snips. It wasn't a pretty job and I did shed some blood in the process, but by mid July there was absolutely no trace of the trailer. All piles of metal, plastic, plywood and styrofoam gone. I had the conservation office catch me at it one evening and they promised help with hauling the debris but this help never came before I was done. Interestingly over the months the piles were there, someone showed up and picked up the trailer's water tank, which apparently he could reuse. He did not touch anything of the rest.

Those semi-automatics were purchased legally too. This is why they are going to be buying them out instead of simply seizing them. Argus can write the Canadian military a letter recommending toasters to be used as weapons in next military operations. I am sure the commanders will follow his logic and buy his old toaster for good money.

Your line of logic, now involving toasters i so bizarre, I cannot follow it. Try killing 25 people with your old toaster in a few hours and see how that works out for you.

It makes all of those guns ILLEGAL. This is not NOTHING! Get your logic straight.

I usually fish this time of year and usually catch fish. But not this year. Few fish left for a variety of reasons. Garbage along the highways, however is in abundance. And I discovered that I do not care much if I have a fish at the end of the line or a soiled diaper at the end of my litter picking stick; both are a measure of success. My rough estimate for our "virgin" Northern British Columbia roads running through what used to be breathtaking scenery is that you can fill up a bag every 50 to 100 meters doing both sides of the road. If you see 1 item, you find at least twenty items when looking around. The most common items are beer cans, followed by McDonalds cups with a plastic lid, straws, plastic bottles, glass bottles and jars, cigarette boxes, plastic bags, auto-parts, tires, container lids, lunch boxes and trays. Diapers are not that uncommon; found 3 of them today; I sometimes catch 3 steelhead on a good day. Went up along a forestry road in the middle of nowhere in the Nass valley and in the 2km I still found two bags of plastics, cans and other garbage! You'd think if this is a result of a few bad apples, the rest of us, the cautious ones will be able to clean after them and live in a tidy place. Since this is not the case, I have to assume that the majority of our population are bad apples with just a few good ones here and there who are drowning , like me, in this crap. Since fish are disappearing (surprise surprise), I am convinced that a day will come when those morons chucking their garbage where they see fit, will be served that soiled diaper for dinner and that old bottle of engine oil for a drink! In the past two weeks I have removed over 12 bags full of garbage. Still a drop in the sea!

Those guns should be outlawed before we see the level of mass slaying the US is notorious for. You can keep politics out of it; it is not appropriate Sorry Argus, we never seem to be in agreement on anything. Are you a pro-gun nut by the way?

Is there a limit to the number of pages a thread can have? We are on page 62 already and I have a feeling this new normal may last for years. If they open up the economy as they say they would, the water in the kettle will start boiling again pretty quickly.

relevance to points made?

Excuse my short-sightedness but I see no balancing when all that happens is taking over new lands and selling them to the higher bidder. Did you ever take over a parking lot and turned it into a forest and returned it to wildlife to "balance" the situation? I guess not. From a selfish perspective (thinking only about myself and not including wildlife) I am also convinced that the disposition of crown land is infringing on my previous rights to be on that land. I am also dispossessed of this land and not compensated for the lost recreational habitat. It is theft by the Crown.

I wrote a couple of articles to a local newspaper two months ago. One got published. One was going to get published but never did. Instead, the journalist I was in touch with switched jobs. Not sure if the article below had anything to do with this. Hopefully not. =========================================================================== CROWN LAND We all have our interpretations of land definitions - private land, crown land, city land, public land and they all conjure up images in our minds. The vision that comes up in my mind, when crown land is mention, is that of forests , mountains and streams teaming with wildlife and fish; undisturbed by any human activity. The secondary image is that of the golden crown on the head of Queen Elizabeth II; not that it really matters whose head the crown is on. We supposedly have unimpeded access to crown land and can use it for recreation; this is where the remaining wildlife is trying to survive. Wildlife are other forms of life very similar to us by having typically two eyes, two ears, a nose, a mouth, four limbs and a tail, something that we lost along the evolutionary curve. They have blood, warm as ours and of the same color; they have the same emotions and can express themselves well within their environment. We can understand them too, if we chose to, but that wasn't to the benefit of the crown so the Queen turned a blind eye on them and called them property. The poor souls did not speak the Queen's language and could not defend themselves in court, so there went all their rights. Hardly a surprise, considering slavery was originally abolished in 1833 but can be argued, still exists today and that racism and discrimination are alive and well around the world (no matter what some might tell us). Land occupied by wildlife became up for grabs. Humans rushed into it with excavators, chopped it to pieces, pushed wildlife away and killed (or humanely euthanized) the rest. With the land cleared they could start building their homes and businesses, thus obliterating the habitat forever and making it useless for any life sustaining functions. There were no trees to absorb and hold up moisture or to produce oxygen and biological material that sustains the cycle of life. However those humans taking residence had their own biological needs , demanding food to be provided to them from the remaining healthy ecosystems that still functioned properly. Demands of course grew. Under the right system which treats people as a commodity, the human population exploded and the disposition of crown land continued in full force. They called it "development", "growing the economy" or "creating jobs". Some of us noticed animals were being wiped out and getting close to extinction, but we would still not recognize and rectify the problem. Foundations were created; non-for profit organizations were started and funds were raised to save species - tigers, lions, salmon, whales, bears, elephants; well of course every species could go on the list for the very basic reasons that they were dispossessed of land, their food was stolen or their waters and air were polluted with toxins. In addition, their environment was filled up with objects posing new threats - ropes, fishing lines, plastic bags and bottles, glass, lead, fast moving vessels, vehicles, trains and airplanes. Wildlife continued to serve as food for us. Their peace and quiet was forever gone. But we would still not rectify the problem. We camouflaged the mayhem behind the sophisticated terminology of "sustainable practices", "environmentally friendly methods", "green" and the "millions of dollars raised" for this or that cause. The uncomfortable truth is that anything raised originated from the pillage and plunder of the land. The even more uncomfortable truth is that crown land does not belong to the crown or to humans only. It is common land that is there to be shared and the only thing that needs to be managed is our numbers, as nature has so far taken care of managing the numbers of anything else. But keep in mind that the government does not collect property taxes from wildlife; neither income taxes, nor GST or PST or carbon tax, or licenses and registration fees. To the government the wilderness is of zero value unless developed and exploited; and here we are in an economy of constantly growing population chasing our tails on the "forest service" roads, servicing the forests and promoting the new destructive project which will turn a healthy forest into a wasteland. Isn't our world run like a giant Ponzi scheme, where new players are needed to sustain the future gains of a few up the pyramid? Those schemes that inevitably fail bringing everyone involved down with them. Poor wildlife and poor us, at least those of us who can realize where we are headed.

I read somewhere he was married and this is why I believed someone knew of his vehicle months or years earlier. Sometimes you read things and before you know it, they change. Like they first reported the shooter was in custody; then they changed it to the shooter was dead. Go figure what happened.

For one, I know he did not have the printing capabilities to make those decals on his own. Dentures and decals are not the same thing! Someone knew!

Yes. And he may well be right about his wife. My point is, if whoever knew about the police cruiser alerted the police, the person might have prevented much of the massacre. Since he or she did not, I find them responsible. If Police issued their alert that night, maybe that particular nurse would have survived, but another person would have died. The killer had the same amount of time at his hands; whether he killed one person in that time or another, I do not think this matters much in the grand scheme of things.

Without the decals I would not call the vehicle a police cruiser. So the question remains. How can a married person have one and store it somewhere without anyone knowing or noticing? I know how...it is impossible. So why not go after those who knew and never alerted Police, instead of going after police over some alert that was unlikely to change anything.

Thinking about the NS tragic news these days and now blame shifting to the Police not issuing a proper alert on time, it makes me wonder what is wrong with the whole investigation. How on Earth do you buy a police cruiser, put all decals on it, register it (or not) and then hide it from your family so you can attack the neighbors when they least expect it? Didn't that guy have a wife? A friend who knew about the cruiser? Maybe he used the services of a local sign design studio to get all decals printed and put on the car? Were all those people sleeping at the wheel? And why would one now blame the Police about not issuing an alert, which would have been out at a time when most are asleep anyways. Getting sick and tired of being fed BS, half truths , speculations and manipulations.

Oh no! Hamilton is the cherry on the cake! After a while you get so used to the stench it starts smelling like home.

Wonderful news!! Hope all crowds go that way to those marvelous places to live!

I went to one of the parks this evening to walk the dog. It is not a city park, but one outside that has campsites and of course even on a good year no one comes to camp this early. But the park was closed! There was a "No Entry" sign! WTF ! I am allowed to walk the dog along the city streets with all pedestrians and traffic, but I cannot walk my dog in a wilderness park where the only visitor is myself! Mind boggling.

I heard the US was going to "temporarily suspend" their immigration program to reduce the risk of COVID infections and leave more jobs for the jobless Americans. I never heard anything about what is being done in Canada. Are those planes with immigrants and temp workers keep on coming? 300,000 immigrants is like 1,000/day that need to land at our airports. And this with all travel bans and restrictions and of course the 25% unemployment we see these days. Is this insanity still happening?

It will minimize their loss and allows them to carry on for a longer period than if the just shut down. They still have to pay rent and utilities when closed. Let alone the prospect of losing their employees and being unable to start again.

You've identified one example. Think about real estate. I have a 52 year old house that increased its "value" by 100% in one year. The assessment office would not even send an inspector as they know they are running a scam. They inflate "values" to bring them into the stratosphere and then call it wealth. No, not wealth; just a scam!

Absolutely. But then think about all those people who want to go on a cruise ship to tell their friends that they are living the dream, traveling around the world, or those taking some girlfriend to impress her, or old folks who thought they have worked a lot all their lives to deserve being on a cruise. None of them ever thinks about what this does to the environment, wildlife or to the lifestyle of other people. (those living at the coast and having to put up with all noise and pollution come to mind). I think we live in a very interesting time where the scams of capitalism can get exposed. Whether this will happen , I have no idea, most likely not. The "economy" is an engine that puts food on the table of regular people, gives them shelter and means of transportation, while letting some individuals amass what they think is real wealth - rights over huge properties, tons of gold, ridiculous bank accounts etc, etc. Now that the economy has slowed down, the government will print money to give people , which would be the equivalent of taking the money from those useless fat accounts the rich people have. Imagine they had their money stored in a warehouse and this warehouse burnt; then at the same time the government printed the same amount of money and gave it to the poor. Who would even notice? (since the warehouse has not actually burnt and the rich still think they have the same buying power) But then imagine for a moment that the money the rich had before the pandemic was equally worthless because it wasn't going to buy them the amount of food, services and materials at regular prices, since there are not enough available on the planet. They simply ran a scam, keeping everyone in control and living for free, while laying hands on the best items and properties they set their eyes on. After the pandemic, they will continue doing the same thing, they've lost a bit of "growth" - an increment in those overinflated accounts. They have to swallow that to continue doing business as usual. Once COVID-19 disappears, we , the ants, will continue to destroy the environment at the highest pace possible to satisfy the madness of those few people running the Wold.

Supposedly now we have a number of different programs designed to help those who lost their jobs in the pandemic. You've got the EI, the $2,000/month whatever program, the mortgage payment deferral program, the Wage subsidy program, the Small Employer interest free loan program and God knows what else is going on. Well, here is the question. What about us who still go to work and risk our lives, sometimes to make less than $2,000/month? Something is wrong with this picture. I do not mind people receiving help payments; I just think that all those who still work need to be receiving some sort of bonuses too. Otherwise we look stupid we still show up for work! On the wage subsidy side I also do not want to see myself paying 75% of someone's wages, if this someone is working full time to generate profit for a private entity! This program , in my view, creates an opportunity for gross abuse of taxpayer money. But at the end of the day, it is probably not my money they will be using, but money they will print; just paper or digitally created numbers.