I am Groot

And you're sounding very much like a dick. You know, like one of those cocky internet flame warriors sitting in mom's basement who loves nothing better than to sound superior to everyone and ensure that they all know that makes them a better person. Only it doesn't. It makes you a dick. And I haven't whined about unique helicopters. You're confused about who you're talking to. Should I rub your face in your ignorance?

I'm making an assumption since that seems to be how we do all these contracts. Sikorski forms partnerships with Canadian branches of companies like General Electrick, General Dynamics when bidding on these sorts of projects, and with local companies, ie, electronic suppliers you've never heard of. Edit. It was made in Florida. I"m fairly sure much of the guts was manufactured in Canada, though. Else why buy it rather than something off the shelf.

We haven't built a nuclear power plant in a generation because the Left is so afraid of them, and just disapproves of the concept entirely for a variety of reasons. If environmentalists had their way we'd close down the nuclear power plants we have. They have this idea that we can power the country with wind, solar and wishes. Note that the Greens in Germany forced the closure of their reactors even while they were in desperate straits from Russia cutting off their gas. There's no reasoning with them. We can afford nuclear subs if we wanted to, but submarines are a rock bottom priority for the government to begin with because we can't build them in Canada. So no economic benefits or kickbacks. Nuclear would cost more. Australia, two thirds our population, is getting a dozen.

The additional issue is that we have facilities here that can build the Cyclone. Wherever possible, the government wants to recoup the value of military spending in taxes from companies, their suppliers, and employees of them all, while garnering votes from the areas around those facilities. Lockheed Martin and its partners in Canada employ a lot of people at very comfortable salaries.

If you're desperate you buy off the shelf stuff. What do/were the Americans using on their frigates? He became obsessed with balancing the books, only to discover Canadians no longer cared and went for the guy who promised they could party now and pay never. And I guarantee you that if we use the same accounting for what we're spending now and account for inflation it's no better than Harper at his worse.

Ex head of the defense staff says Canada faces irrelevance due to our lack of military and lack of serious foreign policy. “Our irrelevance. The fact that nobody even bothers to phone us if they’re talking about doing something as a group of Three Eyes or a group of Five Eyes or things of that nature,” Hillier said. “All those things you described are very real geopolitical and strategic threats and they can destabilize the world even more than it is now. And when the world is destabilized, it’s bad for Canada.” https://globalnews.ca/news/10310531/rick-hillier-canada-defence-irrelevance/

The inevitable is that Russia gobbles up Ukraine. If you think that a ceasefire would hold Russia back longer than it takes for them to reequip and rearm his military you're mistaken. Putin has made it clear that Ukraine - ALL of it - is part of Russia. He has made it almost as clear that he intends to rebuild the Soviet Union. Once he's done with Ukraine, the Baltic states and Georgia will be next. Belarus will be annexed, and then the new and mightier Russia will go for Poland. Western states are now starting to rearm, except Canada. They're pouring money into armament plants and tripling orders for missiles, tanks and other weapons, except Canada. They need time before a confident Putin can push into NATO territory.

18 will reach the goal by end of year, and all have given NATO formal plans to reach 2% by stated dates. Except Canada. What excuses have I made for anything? You're the one who seems to be making excuses to do nothing.

Bill S210

My point was that we WILL be the only one. Are you saying Trudeau is a conservative?

So they watch it on a friend's phone, or over at a friend's house. How many parents use those devices? And how good are they for teenagers who probably know more about technology than their parents?

In past days we were far from the only country that was a laggard. The Germans weren't much better, and only a very few actually came close to meeting the goal. Now it's different. Something like 18 will by the end of this year, and every country EXCEPT Canada has provided NATO with a plan and date for when they will meet the 2% minimum. It's one thing to be one of a bunch of laggards, and another to be there all alone while everyone else stares us down. I'm hoping that provides inspiration to get it done.

No, and as I mentioned, most sites are pay sites, and require a credit card. Others just ask you if you're over eighteen. I think the concern here is privacy, and the security of personal information. Nobody wants to worry about some website keeping a log of what you access under your real name and getting hacked, or something similar. I think most of these sites are pretty shady, run by a guy from his basement or something. The big ones all charge. The exception are a few ad-supported sites like Pornhub. Aside: Maybe fifteen years ago one of the guys at work and I were chatting. He was an IT guy and was providing bootleg videotapes of Hollywood movies for cut-rate prices. We were joking about porn videos and he shakes his head and says he was playing poker on the weekend with his buddies and walks past the living room to find his 11-year-old daughter still awake and watching a porn video on cable. He tells her to get to bed and she wants to wait until the movie is over. That was fifteen years ago. Now it's everywhere. You're not gonna be able to keep kids away from it if they have any interest.

So what's wrong with that? Israel as a religious state has a helluva lot more room, respect and rights for people of other religions than other religious states like Iran, Sudan, or Saudi Arabia. It's also the only state in the region with gay bars and where women have equal rights. Is there a state in the entire middle east where Muslims and Christians have more rights than they do in Israel?

The only report I've seen in the media was after Trudeau's first election which said they voted overwhelmingly Liberal. I don't know that this has changed. We could start by getting rid of all the foreign workers other than agricultural and highly skilled. And I don't mean coders or computer technicians. Require any schools that bring in foreign students to be able to house them on campus. Legally renounce any treaty that impacts how we deal with refugees. Put in place a new refugee policy using the Notwithstanding clause to ban the courts. Then we detain migrants - er refugees until their hearings, which would be done rapidly, within weeks, and hearings within months. Then out the door if they fail. I'd also simply reject and send back anyone who comes here from the US or who flies here from a safe country like France. If they were legit they could have applied there. All of that should free up a million or so low income/middle income housing and would soon free up the shelters so we could get those people in tent cities off the street. Then we cut immigration completely and retool it. We have something in very high demand in the world. Why the hell do we just give it whoever applies? We would be out their looking for people with the skillset we really need. Which right now would include medical professionals and tradesmen. Why aren't we encouraging (through subsidies) local trade councils to go over to places like Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal, which produced so many of our tradesmen back in the 50s,l 60s and 70s and offering to assist any who want to come here? We could bring them in as temporary foreign workers with the option for them to stay. If you want half a million people a year you have to lower your standards. I you drop it to one hundred thousand you can be much more particular. There are people in China with no love of the Communist Party. There are Indians who are forward thinking and not bound by that countries present backward cultural beliefs and values. There are Muslims who want to live in a more secular way, who aren't particularly devoted. We should be restricting immigration to these types of people there and elsewhere. And only if they can support themselves. This should not be populated almost entirely by immigrants and refugees.

Do you really think the people in the protests believe that would happen? Lots of groups are and were stereotyped. I'm talking about actions, not reputation.

Well, bear in mind that if that was their policy they had overwhelming force and could have expelled all the Palestinians back then, shoving them into Jordan, for the most part. But they didn't do it. Do you imagine Hamas would be as reluctant to employ force? There's nowhere to shove the Jews but based on Oct 7 I don't think their plans call for just removing them so much as burying them or tossing their bodies into the sea.

You know that's not what they want, right? You know there's no way that's going to happen? My solution is to take all the Palestinians out of Gaza and move them to the West Bank, take all the Jews off the West bank and move them to Gaza, then give the West Bank to Jordan. That would take an enormous bribe for the Jordanians, and certain security guarantees, and I know it's unlikely, but it's the only one I can imagine being workable. Those people worked quietly away, despite the disapproval. They didn't get welfare, weren't disproportionately involved in violent crime, didn't campaign for laws to suit them, and didn't express hostility to just about all of the local values and customs.

I think that term is very overused. What exactly is this Jewish lobby and how much influence do they have in a day and age when donations are limited to $1200? There are 335k Jews in Canada. They're certainly not going to influence an election with their voting. Are you suggesting this Jewish Lobby bribes politicians under the table or something? Every politician goes to mosques, temples and churches come election time. There are tons of pictures of Trudeau and Poilievre and past leaders at such gatherings, often wearing the weird costumes you need to wear. Campaigning for the ethnic vote is huge. More than half the population of Toronto and Vancouver are immigrants.

I don't think we really have a point of contention here. They weren't a bunch of Nazis and racists. You can 'argue' almost anything. That doesn't mean trying to depict them as a bunch of terrible people, as the government most certainly did was in any way fair. I don't believe I've ever used that word. I'm fully in favour of sex ed. I'm not, however, in favor of teaching nine year olds that they're not actually the gender they thought they were, or that they could switch at any time, or the rest of that nonsensical anti-biology, anti-science, anti-reality screed the progressives are insisting on today. Saying something against Islam is not racism. And I'd have to see the words spoken by the 'leadership', which was an amorphous, changing group. As of now I don't consider it reasonable. I actively disapprove of Islam as a vicious, heartless, violent religion and I think anyone who embraces it and follows its dictates in this day and age has something seriously wrong with them. I think those women walking around covered in bedsheets are nut jobs and I don't want them in my country. Or at any rate, I certainly don't want more of them. I think the Amish, Mennonites and Hasidics are crazy too, as are the more extreme Christians. But none of them are any particular danger to me or mine, now or in the future. They mind their business and are productive and law abiding. Muslims... not so much. Call me judgemental. Call me a snob. I call myself a realist. You mentioned saying something bad about Islam as justification for Pat King being a racist. I disagreed and then explained myself further. I've frankly found your hostility to those who disapprove of/dislike Islam to be somewhat baffling, as its followers stand for everything you hate, and hate everything you stand for.

Zionism is about there being a Jewish state. To be opposed to that is to be in favor of what exactly? When your friends say "From the River to the Sea Palestine will be free" what does that mean, BD? Also, do you think any of those earnest college progressives joining in with the demos have the slightest concept that a 'free' Palestine would most likely resemble Yemen or Iran? Well, I'm old, but not old enough to remember such times. And I doubt you are either. Let's live in today, hmm?

The Tories have reiterated that they're opposed to any sort of digital ID. And I can't see them passing a law requiring people to give their private ID to a porn site. Though I believe the nastier ones all require you to pay to become a member anyway. So evidently people DO, in fact, give them their credit cards. I don't believe Poilievre came out and intended to support this but he was asked and he just said yes. Most likely his advisors are now trying to figure out how to reconcile this as it's not actually possible anyway, technically speaking. I think the NDP and BQ both supported the bill that passed the senate - unanimously, I believe, so while I haven't read it I doubt it's going to do much even if implemented, which it won't be. On the other hand, the Liberals apparently are readying their own version which would be more restrictive, so we'll have to see what happens with that. They've already tossed one internet control bill due to massive opposition. We'll see how the next goes. I think this is all a stupid distraction anyway. Nobody thinks the government can do anything about porn and a sizeable number - like me - don't want them to.

Holy shit, boy. How old are you!? I don't think any of the corner stores - now all corporate owned - have had any porn, even soft porn, for years. There was a time, though, when I would indeed go to my corner store - named Sams - and grab the nasty stuff. Sams was in a small clearing on the corner (literally a corner store) with trees all around it and nothing but trees on all four corners. It now has shopping malls on three corners, and a large seniors building on the fourth. I doubt there's porn to be had anywhere. But now I can just google it on my phone if I wanted to see it. Which, for the most part, I don't.

The Jews have been here an awful lot longer than the Muslims. Have you ever heard of anything remotely like this coming from them? More to the point, Jews are Canadians. We don't get much immigration from Israel. The Jews here are integrated, except for the likes of the Hassidics. And most of them are fairly liberal and secular in their outlooks. You can hardly say the same with Muslims, the vast majority of whom were born elsewhere, mostly in the Middle East and North Africa.