?Impact

I thought I was blaming it on the Brits

Yes, I dread the day when I no longer have to pull into the gas station lineup to fill the tank. Gone will be those enjoyable moments spent sniffing the gas, and having my hands reek of gasoline for hours from holding the pump handle. I will miss standing there in minus 20 winds waiting for that lethargic pump to dispense the fuel. I will miss making the mad dash across the open tarmac trying not to get too wet under the torrential downpour to run into the kiosk to pay. I will miss that lineup while I stand there with exact change waiting for the 2 ladies in front of me to check their last 3 months worth of lottery tickets. Yes, the lifestyle changes will be unbearable.

I just looked through the latest NATO defence expenditure report. The one generalization I can make is that over the past 7 years only three countries made significant increases (Turkey, Hungary, and Norway), and one country made massive decrease (USA). Most of the others were fairly flat line.

Perhaps there should be a minimum IQ, but I don't think that IQ by itself is a good indicator of decision making capability on a broad range of subjects.

Cool, it has quote marks around it so it must be true.

Hear, hear for the return of the feudal system. The lords have spoken, and the serfs must comply.

So the word of God changes with the people and the time? How convenient.

I believe the ethic of reciprocity is evolutionary morality. Yes, in the end it is self serving, but it is based on the concept of "pay it forward" instead of "pay back". Evolution has created a hierarchy of life, and we are only viewing evolution from a window in time and cannot make any reliable predictions about how we will have evolved in a billion years. Most of life, in terms of diversity of species, is unable to live in its environment without feeding on other life. That is natures conflict in basic morality that we have to resolve. The cat's concept of morality is obviously very different than our own, but it can learn that that there are superior long term benefits rather than immediate gratification. As we have evolved, we have been able to understand and express those learnings in more abstract terms. We have also become much better passing that knowledge from generation to generation. We don't just kill the pet mouse, we nurture it. We understand that we cannot just take away indiscriminately, we have to build and sustain our environment. We evolve from foragers to farmers. Yes, basic morality is evolutionary. The complexities of how we express our morality however is entirely arbitrary.

Who changed the title? Betsy, or our ever vigilant moderators?

Cool, I didn't know that. Does it affect the appointment of Supreme court justices? Here we have to have 3 out of 9 with practical experience in the Quebec civil code which essentially means they must be from Quebec. That is not too bad because Quebec has 25% of the population, and that is only 30% of the justices. I can't see that happening when Louisiana has less than 2% of the population. b.t.w. the civil code of Quebec is only for civil litigation, criminal law is consistent across the country.

These things take years, Obama will be a distant memory then.

Let's see the bureaucratic overhead of the medical system in the US (yes, it is private even though it receives government money) is about 5 times as bad (ie. expensive) as in Canada. No, the private sector fails miserably in providing better service. Providing options, only available to a few at a greatly inflated price, is not better it is far worse.

So what do you have to say about the Toronto Star then. It is probably one of the best researched and written papers in Canada, but has a very strong political bias. The Globe and Mail and National Post have opposing, although not quite as strong bias. All three papers do provide counter opinions as well, the Globe and Mail being the most balanced and the Toronto Star being the least. All three papers do a fair job of separating the opinion from the news, although you need to be a regular reader or else do your homework on the byline to know. The CBC is not a newspaper, and their website articles are very superficial. Television (and radio) media is very different, and should not be used as comparison to mainstream newspapers. I don't judge any media by their headlines, they are all 100% complete crap designed to get readership only. I have no problem with political bias in the media, I make sure however to be aware of it and read opposing views as well. Surrounding yourself with opinions you nod to is not educating. That is why I laugh at the Rebel and their readership.

Yes, beat the shyte out of someone while yelling "stop resisting" and you have your excuse. There are two problems with police. The training - assume they want to kill you so kill them first The thin blue line - support the dirty cop, always I think these problems are far worse than the individual cop who makes a mistake, or even the very few bad cops

I don't know about 'projections', but that has been the actual case for the 6 months ending in March. I would like to see that continue for the rest of the year, but I wouldn't hold my breath. The interesting note is they are not waiting for the June quarter results to be posted. Since Wynne is not in election mode she doesn't have the incentive to lie like the federal projections we were talking about a year ago so hopefully any inside knowledge she has is being properly reflected.

I agree this is one factor, but lets not discount the other ones as well. Certainly the steady pay cheque and benefits help, the education and career advancement are good, the variety and interesting work environment, but most significant is the sense of adventure that appeals to the young recruits. Yes there are countless issues, politics, bureaucracy and frustrations that go along with the job, but that is no different than in the private sector (especially in larger corporations). All in all, the Canadian Forces is an excellent and rewarding career choice.

That presumes there is [real] competition. That is not the case in power generation/transmission/distribution. That is not the case in landline communications, and barely the case in wireless communications. In most other industries it only works until the point that the industry giant start to gobble up the competition and then it ceases there as well.

Not to worry, us Canadians are always commenting on American government. Opinions should always have a place, you don't get a vote but you do get to speak your mind. If you are heard depends on the quality of your argument, but we respect your right to express it. We are all influenced by others, the French had a large influence in the American form of government; not by meddling, but providing an example. Britain had a large influence in both our countries, although the Americans were much more active in eliminating some of the problems of their system early on. Britain had a big influence on the legal system of America and most of Canada, although France influenced the law practiced in Quebec (yes, we have two legal systems in Canada).

I agree that rape is not necessarily what the quoted passages in Deuteronomy are about. The main topic is property rights, women being chattel of their fathers until married off.

No, I am blaming Mike Harris for unlocking and opening the door. That was the first step for Wynne opening it even further. That was a dumb move that should never have happened.

Actually not viable until near end of term (about 35 weeks). The only reason we have younger babies surviving is due to heroic scientific advancements in life support. At the other end of the spectrum, we also have eggs being fertilized outside the fallopian tubes and allowed to divide for many hours in a petri dish before being implanted in the uterus. Perhaps one day we will have full term artificial incubation, although there are many hurdles to overcome first. I wonder if Betsy is against fertility clinics that discard embryos, it happens all the time. They are politically correct and call them pre-embryos, but essentially they are fertilized eggs. According to Betsy, that is murder.

In Canada the right wing have a deluded sense of reality. The 'transfer payments' that August1991 is speaking about are paid from general revenues of the government of Canada. 25% of those general revenues are from Quebec, and 38% are from Ontario. It is Ontario that has propped up this nation for decades, and still does despite receiving a pittance from these transfer payments (far less than it contributes). Of that $10 billion, about $2 billion comes from Alberta & Saskatchewan. b.t.w. up until recently, Saskatchewan has been a net receiver of transfer payments and many decades ago Alberta was as well. How soon they forget. ---- I don't know why you don't consider the Telegraph not a tabloid. Other than the dimensions of the paper it is written on, it is absolute tabloid. Look at the front page of their website, about 50% of the articles are about tweeting, popular culture, swimsuit pictures, Pokeman, etc.

Mike Harris - 1998 Electricity Act - the sale of hard earned public assets to support the cronies.