blackbird

What difference does it make if Trump was once not opposed to abortion if he is opposed to it now. He said in the campaign he is opposed to abortion. That what matters on that issue. People change and he evidently did. Didn't he cut funding to a big abortion organization? He appointed a judge who might be pro life. I didn't say I agree with every single thing he said. Nobody is perfect. I much prefer him to Clinton who I don't trust. The thing is the main platform of Trump I strongly agree with. I think I already listed them earlier. That is what matters, not some comment he made or didn't make or something in his personal life. The big things are the policies that will actually make a difference and make America a better and safer place. The spillover effect of some of his policies could benefit Canada as well. Maybe he will be able to deport a lot of criminals. Maybe he will be able to make an impact on the flow of illegal drugs and criminals from Mexico. Clinton was not willing to do anything. Useless. Yes there are hard core christians who are opposed to any divorce. It is pharisaical. People like to put other people down to try to make themselves look good. They should read Luke 17 or 18 about the pharisee and the publican. All are sinners. Trump is probably no bigger a sinner than most people. Some people's sins are in secret; others are open for all to see. Again it has nothing to do with policies and governing for the most part.

Judging Trump by his personal behavior has nothing to do with his policies and how he will govern. Lots of people have divorces and often there are good reasons for it. Women (or men) who are abused should get divorced. Abuse of all kinds is prevalent in the world; many people should get out. Staying in marriage when there is abuse is contributing to the abuse. It is pharisaical to judge divorced people. You do not know them or their circumstances. Supporting Hillary and the democrats which endorse and defend abortion (8 million abortions in a short number of years) and being judgmental about Trump's personal life is very Pharisaical and hypocritical. Hillary also attacked the women whom Bill Clinton assaulted.

The health care system in Canada is already having a lot of trouble. Many people are sucking more out of it than they should with unnecessary doctor's visits for every cough and cut. In fact it most towns it is difficult for a person to get a personal doctor. The waiting time for some specialists and procedures is also excessively long. You can wait a year or year and a half to see an orthopedic surgeon. You can wait many hours in an emergency room to see a doctor. You can be put on a bed in a hallway or storage room in a hospital because of overcrowding in some places.

We are in trouble if a lot of Canadians think it is a crime to tear up a religious book. Freedom (including freedom to offend) is a tenuous thing and will only exist as long as people are prepared to defend it. There are a lot of left wing freedom justice warriors in Canada who think nobody should be able to legally "offend" anyone else. They are on the warpath. Watch out.

Perhaps calling Trump the devil is hate speech or more likely just a complete mis-characterization of the man. Trump has his accusers but he denied all the allegations and said he had mis-spoke. Whether he groped some women 10 or 20 years ago I don't know. Some of his accusers were associated with the democratic party. The point is his alleged behavior has no bearing on his electoral promises. His personal behavior, whatever it was, do not define the policies he has talked about and which are the things which will have a major impact on America and as many believe, make America safe. Things such as protecting America from Islamic terrorists, deporting illegal aliens who are criminals or suspected criminals, building the wall, changing Obamacare, reducing taxes, strengthening the military, bringing jobs and companies back to America and stopping the draining of companies and jobs to Mexico and China. These promises appealed to a wide swath of Americans who distrusted Clinton and believed she would do nothing and just continue more of the same. That's basically why people who supported him were not going to be convinced to vote based on allegations against his personal life. They wanted someone who promised to go in and shake up the establishment and make some major changes.

Here's a link which lists the violent protests by the left in recent years. http://www.dailywire.com/news/13228/here-are-all-left-wing-violent-protests-over-past-aaron-bandler Quote The left has a bad habit of allowing their protests to descend into rioting and violence, particularly over the last several years. Whether it's a police shooting or just being angry about the democratic election of President Donald Trump, destructive riots seem to have become the status quo for the left's "demonstrations." Here are all the leftist violent protests and riots that have occurred over the past several years. The protests following the Oscar Grant shooting. In 2009, a police officer for Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) shot Grant as he was being detained, later claiming that he thought he was firing his taser. Since the shooting involved cop and a black victim, protests ensued in Oakland, CA. The protests quickly disintegrated into rioting and looting. Occupy Wall Street. The left-wing movement in 2011 spawned numerous sexual assaults, rapes, destruction of property and all kinds other shocking and nonsensical violence. The riots in Oakland and Los Angeles after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the Trayvon Martin shooting. In Oakland, the protesters were chucking bottles and rocks at police officers and attacked a reporter, photographer and TV cameraman. They also slowed down traffic. In Los Angeles, numerous protesters vandalized cars and businesses as well as assaulted people on the street. Unquote

That wasn't created by the U.S. the jihad terrorists have been at it for about 1300 years.

Do you live in Turkey?

Actually I did read your quote from Blum. But I don't believe all the propaganda you have fallen for. If you believe 9-11 was a conspiracy by the U.S. government, I don't see how we can even get past 1st base or get agreement on anything. It just baffles me why you believe all that stuff. There must be something you're not telling as to why you believe that conspiracy stuff. Each to his own I guess. I think I guessed correctly the other day that you are a young idealist. Probably in university and maybe influenced by other leftist professors or students. Shame that one gets that from a university professor, which should be neutral and not teaching left wing politics and anti west stuff. I bet you like the NDP Leap Manifesto. What do you think is the solution to all the evil U.S. imperialism?

The U.S. system which you dislike has also rescued people being held hostage by evil groups in different parts of the world by using their highly trained special ops. This is an elite group of specially trained military men who are dropped in to an place in the world to rescue people or remove dictators who are brutally oppressing their people. One is example was Noriega in Panama. Special ops landed and eventually arrested Noriega. When Iran took over 100 people hostage for 400 days, they tried to rescue them in 1980 after the Ayatollah came to power in the revolution in 1979. The rescue did not succeed because of a helicopter failure. The hostages were released a day or two after Reagan was sworn in as President. They did not pay attention to Carter who was too weak. A strong president made a big difference.

Communism/marxism is a failed system. It deprives it's people of basic human rights. Certain people in positions of power help themselves. It is anti-democratic and a totalitarian system that has brought poverty and misery where it has been tried. The capitalist system has brought prosperity and a good living to the middle class in western countries.

Actually international communism was a reality and a threat during the cold war era. Examples are Cuba, some countries in central America where revolutionaries were fighting. Places like El Salvador, Other places where communists were trying to spread were Vietnam, Cambodia, possibly Laos, and in Africa, Angola. Cuba sent communist troops to fight in Angola. Cuba also brought in missiles in 1961 and precipitated the Cuban missile crisis which put the world on the brink of nuclear war with the USSR. It was averted at the last minute by Gorbachev and President John F Kennedy. Cooler heads prevailed.

Just reported on CTV news. A pro Trump demonstration in California was met with anti-Trump supporters, several of whom used pepper spray against Trump supporters causing a riot and physical confrontation. Several people were arrested. Why is it the liberal anti-Trump people have to resort to illegal, violent confrontations?

What genocide are you speaking of? What lies? Please expound on that.

I just wondered where you get your information. You haven't said yet. You must have got your ideas from somewhere. You know I am on the side of the west, Canada and our allies. You are not and you have a problem. You are not living in reality. I would like to help you but you have to come clean first. Where did you get your ideas?

And the point is?

Did you learn your anti Americanism, anti west from left wing university professors in your university in Calgary? Please explain why you take such a radical position. Don't you realize that the world is full of tyrannical dictatorships who hate the west and everything we stand for? (China, North Korea, Iran, Russia, etc.) They do no respect human rights or fundamental freedoms which you enjoy in the west. You would not be free to criticize them in their countries as you are free here. Whose side are you on anyway?

Are you opposed to the war against ISIS?

Another thought about this. If they can discriminate against students from TWU, why not discriminate against anyone who holds certain beliefs. How is it possible to find out exactly what individuals believe about something? It is not only that TWU students have certain values or beliefs, most of the society does. People from all walks of life have certain beliefs and people from various different religious backgrounds have various beliefs. Are they going to say to a Muslim you can't become a lawyer in Ontario? You better believe they are not going to say that. They would be taken to the Human Rights Tribunal so fast it would make your head spin. What about Jews? The list could go on. But for some reason it is in vogue to discriminate against WASPS, white anglo saxon Protestants. Time to get over that.

I would add that the Japanese had a history of militarism, a kind of religious belief that one never surrenders. That' s why they had the Kamakazi pilots (or suicide pilots) who flew their planes into American ships. The Japanese military tradition was to fight to the death and the whole country was being readied to fight to the death should the American land on the mainland. Surrender was not in the vocabulary of the militarists that were in charge. It would take a spectacular event to cause them to change their minds. The atomic bombs saved a lot of American lives and brought the war to a quick end.

Yes, I get your point and agree. This is a more difficult issue and could be quite complicated. But basically I think you are correct that the issue with the law society in Ontario was that the students signed a covenant agreeing to no pre-marital or extra-marital sex. But there could be more to it than that.

The reality is I think that everyone has biases in one way or another. It is impossible to have a world with people free from some kind of bias. So why would they single out the TW students as unsuitable to be lawyers in Ontario. I don't see it as an issue of conflict of interest. I think it depends on what the issue a lawyer would be asked to do or defend, not necessarily whether the client is gay. I don't think it was suggested by anyone they would not serve certain clients based on their sexual preference. The law society is probably simply biased against people that have christian convictions. One can be representing a gay person in a matter that has nothing to do with gay rights or discrimination of gays. Those kind of cases are probably very few. If it was a case where for example a gay person wanted representation because he was being discriminated because of being gay, then the lawyer could advise the client, he simply can't represent him because of his religious beliefs. There are lots of lawyers around. This shouldn't be a problem. It is wrong for the law society to impose their own personal beliefs or lack of beliefs on other people and say that only people that fit their mold can become lawyers.

We live in a society where multiculturalism and diversity is made much of. I don't think it is right to ban a segment of society because of their religious beliefs. This is where the issue of freedom of religion and freedom of expression will be tested.

You're absolutely correct. A sensible voice. Lots of younger people growing up today have no idea about war. They have never studied it and live in a kind of dream world where they think about things in terms of peace, love, and selfies. As you pointed out, there were all kinds of horrors continuing every day. Not to mention the prisoners of war that were treated very cruelly in many cases. Just because some military leaders thought the war "was over" doesn't mean Japan had surrendered. They had not in fact. They were preparing their citizens on the mainland to fight to the death of every person. The Japanese military had no intention of surrendering if they could keep the fight going. That is ingrained in their thinking from history. That's why after the war, all Samurai swords had to be surrendered to the occupying American forces in Japan. They were considered a symbol of Japan's historic militarism and never surrender attitude. People had to take their personal collector's Samurai swords to depots set up all over the country and turn them in. Many some how made it back to the states and were given to some military veterans as a gift for serving.

The claim that the war was over is nonsense. If it was over, why did the Japanese not surrender until after the two atomic bombs had been dropped? War is a very tragic business but it's not something where you give the enemy any advantage or sacrifice the lives of your own country to reduce the loss of the enemy. They were the enemy at that time and started the war by attacking Pearl Harbour where they killed three thousand people. Tens of thousands of American men died on the island of Okinawa to take it. Where is your sympathy for those people? Wake up. You do what you have to do to save your own people first.