?Impact

When I was 13 (early 70's), sex was indeed on the mind of my peer group. We talked about it all the time, bragged a lot, and certainly were not the angels our mothers thought we were. While sexual intercourse was still a few years away, we certainly spent time with girls out behind the bleachers (so to say) doing things that would make our Sunday school teacher blush. The important point however it was among peers, not significantly older kids, and certainly not adults. Humans are sexual creatures, and the age of puberty is driven by biology. Kids are vulnerable at that time because adults have the experience and can easily take advantage of the changes they are experiencing. That is why we need to look not at the age of an individual, but the disparity between different ones. Certainly we want to educate our children to protect them from the complications of becoming sexually active (disease, pregnancy, etc.), and to prepare them to have the confidence to say no to anything they are not comfortable with and make them aware of how bad people may try to take advantage of them. What we don't want to do however is punish them for being human. Given recent events, we can even encourage our daughters to hold onto their virginity until 18 and then they may become millionaires.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Neilson is questioned by Senate committee about the "strong language" the President used. She hummed and hawed but couldn't remember any of it... and now the clincher. She is asked about the President's preference for immigration from Norway. She is asked by one of the Senators "Norway is a predominantly white country, isn't it". Her answer: "I'm... I..... ehhh... I actually do not know that sir but I imagine that is the case". If you didn't get it, go back to her name, did you notice that silent 'j' in it? I hope you get a lifetime supply of shovels if you are part of the Trump administration.

It was a good paper you referenced, worth reading it all. Yes, forced (economic) isolation does tend to promote internal corruption, we see it today as well in countries subject to economic sanctions - a self reinforcing negative feedback loop.

Unfortunately you are not very well schooled in the biological sciences. You need to study and understand the many predictions around things like common ancestry that have been made and later confirmed. We may not have a lab to reproduce 4 billion years of global evolution, but the that does not mean that everything is simply speculation.

Donald Trump infamously called Haiti a sh*thole country, does he know how it became that way? Haiti was a colony of France, and had many black slaves to enrich Napolean's coffers. The majority of sugar and coffee imported into Europe came from Haiti. There was a many years long battle in the 1790's, culminating in Haiti winning independence in 1804. Unlike the US won independence a couple of decades earlier however, the black former slaves of Haiti were punished for gaining their independence; with Europe and the US alike refusing to trade with them. After many decades, the French finally relented and opened trade on the condition that Haiti pay 150 million gold Francs reparations. That took many more decades to pay off, and left Haiti in debt to US bankers who got President Wilson to invade Haiti in 1914 and empty all their gold reserves. What if Europe punished the US for winning independence the way they beat Haiti into submission, would Trump be president of a sh*thole country? What if the former black slaves were treated as equals to the new America, would their wealth of sugar and coffee allow them to build a strong, vibrant, and world leading economy?

Transparency is a good thing, one nation oppressing another is bad.

Fine, it is a big punch. Well the knock-out blow is the one I score when I responded to his ridiculous claim: " The interactions of light with small molecules is well understood. The experiment has been performed. The outcome is known. Regardless of the wavelength of the light, no plant ever forms. " by pointing out that conducting a couple of experiments in limited circumstances in no way is a "well understanding" of the countless different conditions that existed upon the Earth over billions of years. I can server up rhetoric just as well as your intelligent design nitwits. Really? You are going with that? Not even worth responding to.

Yes, when not all questions have perfect answers invoke God. What a ridiculous notion, evolution theory has a lot of refinement needed but creation has absolutely nothing to support it.

Interesting, does she have any relationship with the school? If not then who invited her?

Here is his tweet to Canada, you decide.

Would that be like Jason Kenney tweeting a photo of girls in chains when he was Minister, and proclaiming it represented Muslim oppression in the world. The problem however is the girls were taking part of the ceremonial Shiite Ashoura procession. The girls covered in black and chained were performing a reenactment of the aftermath of the battle of Karbala where the granddaughter of the prophet was brought chained to the Caliph in Damascus after her brother had been decapitated. This marks a time of mourning and sadness and recall the heroism of the prophet’s descendants in the face of tyranny. Yes, hoaxes are a problem.

Chastised? Taken out to the woodshed? Slashing? The Intelligent Design nitwits are certainly over the top with their rhetoric. In a universe of billions of billions of planets, we have explored less than a dozen, and those only extremely superficially. The statement " Beyond our planet, all the others that have been probed are lifeless" is completely devoid of any meaning. That is like saying I sampled 3 people (actually more like 0.00000000000000003 people) and predicted the outcome of the 2168 US election. Equally the statement " The interactions of light with small molecules is well understood. The experiment has been performed. The outcome is known. Regardless of the wavelength of the light, no plant ever forms. " is meaningless, and I would go as far to say in that case Tour is absolutely wrong. Comparing a day/week/month long experiment with a multitude of conditions that exist over billions of years is irrelevant, and calling it well understood is completely wrong. If those are indeed Tour's words then I would say he has taken a severe blow to his otherwise good credibility.

You are quite correct, BMI by itself doesn't tell the whole story. Trump could be a star athlete like Kim Jung Un.

I wonder how much I would have to pay my physician to say I was in excellent health if I had a BMI of 30 which is defined as obese for everyone else. A BP of 122 over 74 is a little high, not something I would worry excessively over but to call it excellent is a bit of a stretch as well. The total cholesterol of 223 is fairly meaningless by itself, it sounds high but as a single number quoting it provides zero information - what else are they hiding?

Any report on his mental health?

Where is the guess in "The mother is a long time right wing Muslim activist. "? You stated it like a matter of fact, but now admit you made up the whole thing. Where is the outrage from everyone else here who wants to tar and feather this 11 year old Muslim girl, could it be that Muslim is their agenda. I am not the one making assumptions, it that that person in the mirror. * note * yes she may have been repeating a lie, I have zero evidence of that. If I said she made up the lie then that was in error, please point out where you are accusing me of saying that. I said she told a lie.

Taking a quote and then saying it means something like he is against macroevolution is exactly what twisting is. It is trying to pull the wool over other peoples eyes. He very clearly says that his scientific background (chemical tools) do not not allow him to assess intelligent design - in other words there is zero scientific basis for it. Please repeat that a thousand times.

Where did I say I supported special treatment?

I don't, I am pointing out the the Intelligent Design community have twisted his words.

Exactly, now you know why the Intelligent Design community has zero credibility, they twist words to further their agenda.

You take "Western voices world news" as truth? I guess critical thinking is something you missed.

Wrong, go read his words and stop putting yours forward. He is not against macroevolution, that is not what he said.

Could you cite a few other news stories where this well known Muslim activist has appeared? I wouldn't want to accuse you of making up stories, that is the domain of 11 year old girls.

So what is your opinion of the false report from Quebec construction companies last month that said mosques were telling them not to use female workers? Are you equally outraged at that, or do you reserve your outrage when it serves your agenda?

As always, we need to leave it up to the liberal media to actually report on the details of what happened and how this became national news. We know the right wing media was only interested in getting their microphones there (all right wing with the exception of city pulse which is more balanced) for the original media event. I guess if twitter is good enough for the President of the United States to distribute his incoherent thoughts, then why not the Toronto Police Service.