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Minimus Maximus

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  1. August, I disagree with this statement. Looking at this from a western perspective where our elderly simply fade into the background it would make sense to only allow spouse and kids under 18, but in many immigrant populations the elderly are very important to family life. What I'm trying to say is that in immigrant populations the elderly create stability at home so that the young can go out and work. I think restricting immigration in such a way would be to the detriment of immigrants and ultimately the detriment of Canadian society as a whole. Growing up in a part of Calgary with a large Sikh population I noticed early on that the grandparents played a much more prominent role in family than we are used to seeing in western society. Without the elderly we would see more Sikh children in need of daycare and more Sikh families in need of social programs.
  2. Mr. Dog, this is simply not true my friend. Many, many Calgarians have been cheering for the Oilers since our team lost. Its always been this way and always will. You seem to find any opportunity to slam Calgary and Calgarians so I will just file this under "has nothing to do with hockey" and leave it at that! GO OILERS!!!!!!
  3. injusticebuster, I think newbie's got it right. Volunteering can be much more rewarding than simply being another cog in the daily grind. I had never done any volunteer work until I met my wife and now find that I look forward to retirement as I plan to spend about 5 years working with Habit For Humanity. Remember that we work to live, not live to work. I sometimes have to remind myself that my most important jobs are father, husband, son, brother and friend.
  4. My best friend from childhood is an alcoholic, I've taken him to A.A. meetings and fed and sheltered his family due to his addiction so I do understand what it is to be an alcoholic. My mother's ex-husband was addicted to VLT's, it wasn't a substance but the effect was the same. He lost everything due to this addiction so he should also be eligable for disability...after all he couldn't control himself. I agree with treatment although some people will never give up their addictions so I don't see how pandering to them in the form of disability pay would help in the least.
  5. So what about people addicted to pornography? or people addicted to big block chevy engines? If they can't keep a job because they spend all of their time trolling the internet for pornographic images and aluminum heads for a 327ci should we also support them? I happen to be an audiophile, I'm addicted to high quality sound equipment. If I had lost my job due to the fact that I just had to keep an eye on various E-Bay auctions to appease my addiction would I be eligable for long term disability?
  6. Michael, correct me if I am wrong but I don't think an employer can bring in outside labor unless the jobs in question cannot be manned by Canadian workers. I know that the situation in Alberta was not about a company trying to increase profit margins but rather to bring in workers to fill vacant jobs so I don't see this as a negative aspect of globalization. I did have a line of reasoning here but seem to have lost it. I would like to say that I tend to agree with Renegade's position on this as I understood it to be an issue of taxation on wages rather than an attempt to take resource revenues directly. I'm a little confused on my fellow Albertan's cries of "get your hands off our oil" as it doesn't seem to be a cash grab by the feds in the same way that the NEP was. Another point I would like to address is that royalties on combined conventional and tar sands oil was around 3 billion last year where royalties from natural gas were around 7 billion, so whats all this talk about oil.
  7. Michael, this is already happening. I don't know what kind of wages are being paid, but I do know that there has been at least one project where Chinese workers were brought into Alberta due to a shortage of tradespeople. What are your feelings on this?
  8. While I fully agree that there are many Palastinian parents who love their children too much to allow them to take part in agressive activities against fully armed Israeli soldiers, I think that there are also many on both sides of this conflict that live vicariously through the violent acts of their children. http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=980 I can't find any justification for taking either side in this dipute as each of them are equally responsible for violent acts perpetrated on the other. Muslim and Jewish parents are to blame for teaching children to hate with the kind of venom that results in a child growing up to become a soldier who fires a round in to a childs head or a suicide bomber who stands in the middle of crowded market and goes boom...literally.
  9. Then the FEMA report WOULD HAVE SAID THAT. Sure... machines, ships, tubes, pipes, coils... NOT IN INERT STEEL COLUMNS. How did WTC7 collapse? It wasn't hit by planes.http://commieware.myftp.org/pfm/wtc-7-small.gif Why should the FEMA report state the obvious? Sulfur is a naturally occuring component of all steels including the steel grades used in the construction of the WTC. Btw, I meant to say jet fuel, not diesel. I blurred your post with a report I was taking a break from writing when I responded. Concerning your question of how WTC 7 fell, my understanding is that it was damaged by debris which ultimately resulted in collapse. This seems to be a sticking point for conspiracy theorists such as yourself, but without more information I really can't say exactly how this particular building fell and neither can you.
  10. Iron oxide+sulfur (and many other elements)=steel Sulfur found in grain boundries=naturally occuring phenomenon Clear explanation for source of sulfur=natural ocurring impurity which is often added to steel to increase machinability. http://mdmetric.com/tech/chempropi.htm This man is correct. Sulphur is part of the process and make up of steel. Now what he should have done was some kind of comparison to sulpher in a normal peice of steel compared to a fire damaged one, and one damanged from explosives. This is very basic metallurgy Gosthacked, I'm amazed at the willingness of people to accept false information and then basturdize it fit their beliefs. I should also add that the burning contents of the building, diesel fuel in particular, would result in an increase in the sulfur content found in test samples taken from the area at and below the impact site.
  11. Iron oxide+sulfur (and many other elements)=steel Sulfur found in grain boundries=naturally occuring phenomenon Clear explanation for source of sulfur=natural ocurring impurity which is often added to steel to increase machinability. http://mdmetric.com/tech/chempropi.htm
  12. Michael Hardner, I didn't say that oil had nothing to do with Alberta's success. Given a different political climate, Saskachewan's for example, Alberta's economy may have been quite different. I was one of those that needed help when times were tough. Like a lot of other Albertan's, I got through it and the lessons learned during that part of my life still help guide me today. The $400.00 cheques I could have lived without. As a family of four our $1600.00 went to a neice in university so I tend to agree with you that this money could have been better spent. I personally have not voted for Ralph for the past two provincial elections, I have tried to use my vote to strengthen the opposition as I do feel that too much power tends to lead to corruption, not always but sometimes.
  13. Sideshow (can I call you Bob?), while I don't think that Alberta is the "Mecca of Happiness" it is a place where hard work and desire for a better life pay off in the long run. I started in the oil and gas industry on the end of a broom and now own a profitable small business, and I'm not alone. Many of the young people that I worked along side of during the initial years of my apprenticeship in this industry are also very successful today. To answer your question about why Canadian's are not snapping up these jobs I would reply that some are, and some are not. Some work a few weeks out of the year and spend the rest of time on unemployment, its a sense of entitlement which keeps them from actively searching for a way to support themselves without government hand outs. Too many Canadian's feel that they have no obligation to go to the work, but that the work should come to them, their entitled to stay right where they are regardless of the economic climate of that given region.
  14. Oil=Money is entirely too simplistic to explain Alberta's success. Saskachewan has natural resources out the wazoo yet has no where near the financial success as Alberta. The simple fact of the matter is that natural resources don't jump out of the ground on command, infrastructure must be built in order for the resources to be translated into wealth. This is Ralph's true legacy to Albertan's, he created the economic climate which allowed Albertan's to take advantage of the natural resources inherent to this province. If Lorne Calvert had been premier of Alberta instead of Ralph then I seriously doubt this thread would even exist as Alberta would not be what it is today, with or without oil. Build it and they will come, tax the hell out of it and they will go elsewhere.
  15. Not all guest workers come to Canada to fill low wage jobs. In Alberta there is a shortage of skilled trades which has resulted in many employers looking overseas to fill positions that pay around $25-$35/hr. From what I understand, these people can only work for the employer which holds the permit and can be sent back when their services are no longer needed or if they fail to meet the expectations of the employer that brought them into Canada. Tha sad part about this is that these are not low paying jobs and given the unemployment stats for various regions there is no reason that existing Canadians could not fill these positions.
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