Big Guy

Looks like the gloves are off and we are going to see the most acrimonious presidential campaigns in history. I hope there is something left of the reputation of the Republic at the end.

Why not? I believe it is the freedom of choice. There are many careers which are far more dangerous than others yet people join in either for the money or the thrill. I enjoyed playing sports for many years. Been on a few winners and a few losers. If a person is not prepared to enter athletics as a career and compete against folks who are probably using some kind of legal drugs but are against the "rules" for that sport then that is their choice. Soldiering, law enforcement and fire fighting are careers that are more dangerous than politics but folks still join. About half the soldiers in Vietnam used opiates. Don't know how many got addicted.

I disagree. Professional sports is business. Drug use is and has always been rampant in the NFL and NHL. How many hockey fans care if the "enforcer" is crazed on steroids or just doing his job when he starts to pound the **** out of the opposition star. How about the defenceman with a broken ankle playing in the playoffs with his foot frozen? Cross country bike racing, soccer, basketball etc are rampant with drug use - some for enhancement, some because they have too much money and some to stay physically able to compete. We already know that enhancement drugs are being used by all teams but the attendance or viewing audience has not suffered. I think sport fans are repelled my mediocracy and apathy of players.

You are probably correct - but using performance enhancing drugs is not a crime. Steroids and hormones, while requiring a prescription, are not illegal to be used. I agree that you should not stop trying to enforce laws, but you can change the law if/when it no longer makes sense or is unenforceable. I am not an Olympic athlete and take 4 daily medications that would disqualify me from the Olympics. We will probably continue as per your suggestion notwithstanding the inconsistency of application of penalties for athletes who use performance enhancing drugs. How many athletes do you think will be found to be using banned drugs at Rio? How many athletes do you think will be using performance enhancing drugs?

Do you know what percentage of the Israeli government represents the Palestinians? Do you doubt that this new procedure was passed to allow the government to shut down Palestinian opposition? How long do you think it will b e before the first Palestinian rep is tossed?

Thank you for your comments. I submit that we already have had, are and will be watching competitions between who has the best chemists. Most athletes compete because they enjoy their sport. Professional athletes have the addition incentive of financial gain - that is why most of them are on drugs that would be considered illegal in Olympic competitions. Professional contact sports, from football, to rugger to ... are fed by the walking wounded who could not participate without a variety of drugs. Professional athletes have a short recovery rate due to medications and other practices that will probably decrease their expected life span. Some sports like gymnastics have been playing around with puberty suppressing hormones for years. I still believe that if you want a level playing field, then have no restrictions. If the individual chooses to use performance enhancing drugs, they are responsible for their own bodies. As a compromise, perhaps have urine tests after competitions for the winners and publish which drugs were found in the system. In this Rio Olympics, I believe there will be hundreds of competitors who will be using some kind of performance enhancing techniques from illegal supplements to blood doping to hormonal additives to anything we have yet to identify. I respect your position but do not feel in this day and age that we have fool proof drug testing procedures - and we never will.

Netanyahu has driven another nail into Israeli democracy. His government can now toss out elected representatives if he does not like what they think and/or say: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/israeli-expulsion-law-violates-rules-democracy-160724071131444.html And Canada continues to support dictatorship? Shame.

I have learned that you care enough to take the time to respond. I thank you for that. There are inherent problems created by any medium which allows individuals to express themselves without having to take responsibility for their statements. Moderation is the only method of control and no decision is met with unanimous agreement. I do get frustrated when I am following or getting involved in a thread and one of the anonymous resident agitators jumps in and is allowed to derail it. But that is the nature of these boards. They seldom draw individuals who prefer, and are more comfortable with physical social contact. Perhaps that is the price to pay to dialogue with those few, thoughtful, well researched and passionate individuals who are obviously very well versed in certain issues and are prepared to share that information here. I believe that you know who the problem posters are but are reluctant to act because they are some of the most active members here, commenting on everything and anything, in an attempt get noticed. Unfortunately, I do not have any solutions short of pruning away the problems. You must be doing something right because of the number of articulate presentations that can often be found here. Again, thank you for taking the time to respond to my concerns.

How do oil spills compare as to rail traffic and pipeline. How often are there oil spills because of derailment vs those because of a pipeline malfunction? What the the average size (quantity spilled) for each?

I wonder what would follow if there was no drug testing? The drugs that are "illegal" for use in the Olympics are used by professional athletes for a variety of reasons - some legitimate some not. The previous arguments had been that all athletes would then be forced to use drugs for competition. So what? If an individual wants to shorten or endanger their lives just to win something then it should be their choice. What right has an organization to protect people from themselves? As it stands to-day, nobody any longer believes that the winning athletes are drug free. They are just temporary winners in the game of knowing the right masking agents or using a drugging timetable to make them read clear for competitions. The idea of amateurs and professionals is history and so should drug testing.

Why would Russian hacked e-mails be released to undermine the Democratic Convention in the USA?

The closer we come to the start of these Olympics the more it looks like a disaster: https://www.olympic.org/ Golf was supposed to be the new big draw except the top 5 in the world begged off. The sailors are sailing through human waste and every day more and more athletes are withdrawing. Russia has been found to be guilty of state organized doping but the IOC will not bar the whole Olympic team because if they did - nobody would show up. This event has been losing credibility for the last few years and I think they may find that nobody will want to host the next ones. Too bad. I have been enjoying them for years and have fond memories of attending the 1976 games in Montreal. They seem to have lost any relevance.

I will take the advice of the mods: Shoo, shoo. Go away. I do not feed trolls.

I have reread our posts in this stream and I do owe you an apology. My assumption was that once a soldier takes the oath it is for life. It is not. It is only for the time of service. I have spoken to a few veterans who have informed me that it is expected that while in service, a soldier is not expected to criticize the government but once released or retired, there is no such expectation. I also see where you might read some of my comments as questioning your patriotism. That was never my intent and I apologize if it appeared to be. For many years, I was employed by the government. I was told that any written public criticism of my employer my me would result in a hearing and possibly dismissal. Once I retired, I was no longer subject to that condition and have taken advantage of it. There is no reason why you would not have the same right. I do apologize for any discomfort that I have caused you.

You are missing the point. I continue to ignore that uninformed babble that you continue to contribute to any and every thread. It is obvious that you have an equal knowledge in all fields. I seldom comment on the content of your posts because there is nothing of consequence to comment upon. I do comment on your attitude and undermining of serious discussion here. You will notice that this thread deals with process and not product (you may have to get someone to explain that concept to you). You are correct in that I do sometimes react to your unique and courageous interruptions when I am having an adult conversation with someone here. I have treated you like one treats a mosquito by first just "shooing" it away. I am reluctant to "swat" since the moderators here look on that process with disfavor. By request, I have just suggested to the mods a method to objectively identify the baiters and agitators and to deal with them accordingly. I have wasted far too much time on your personally and am moving on. Shoo, go away. Go find someone else to buzz.

I believe that we both would like to diffuse any acrimony that begins to develop though discussion on this board when the focus changes to personal insults. It serves nothing to enhance dialogue and only derails thoughtful threads. I do understand the difficulty in trying to keep track of every thread that is beginning to evolve into personal grounds. Your suggestion that baiting be ignored is great advice but after a while, it becomes irritating to a point where one wants to retaliate. A mosquito ignored may go away but to guarantee an end to the buzzing - one swats it. I also assume that some posters on this board sign on to check out the "action". Many people attend car races to enjoy the accidents. My point is that there are only one or two baiters and agitators on this board. You know who they are and I know who they are. I suggested a method to verify who they are through stats on who is consistently involved in personal insults. You have those stats. On a personal level, you know I do not report others. I am prepared to accept any verbal challenge and retaliate what I feel appropriate and you may not. Where I disagree is that when a mosquito has singled me out and is buzzing around my head you allow only "shooing away" rather than a good swat. One good swat and the mosquito is no longer an irritant. Thank you for taking the extra time to address my concerns. Your job is not an easy one and I hope we are not talking past each other. But as John Lydgate said: “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time”. Thank you for trying to please Big Guy.

You obviously did not understand my message. I will repeat it for you: "Congratulations, your vocabulary seems to be expanding and your use of grammar may soon catch up. Once it reaches the level of the stronger posters here, I look forward to responding in kind." Until it reaches that level do not expect a response.

If we had fanatic patriots intent on killing anyone endangering our nation would we support suicide bombers? If we had someone prepared to surround himself with explosives, infiltrate an ISIS military leaders meeting and blow himself (and them) up, would we encourage it? Would that person be a "hero"? What about Nathan Hale's ""I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."? So would our suicide bomber be the uber patriot? What is the difference between a suicide bomber and a pilot dropping bombs on civilians (besides surviving the ordeal to do it again)?

I would not expect a more honest response from a German-Canadian-Millionaire-Working Class-Honest poster. But unlike yourself, I do not speak for others but only for myself. I let others speak for themselves. BTW - Congratulations, your vocabulary seems to be expanding and your use of grammar may soon catch up. Once it reaches the level of the stronger posters here, I look forward to responding in kind.

Your sentiments have been repeated by a number of politicians in the USA. It would be interesting if both Trump and Hillary were physically unable to run for the top job, how the campaigns would proceed.

I assume that you know that David Duke is the former Grand Wizard of the KKK. If you understand that he is still an active proponent of KKK philosophy and are relying on his interpretation of what is wrong with America then I wish you well.

More than our weight. ISIS has just killed another 80 Afghans and is starting to compete with the Taliban as to suicide bomber kills. We have to throw a lot more money at our soldiers and rearm our military and go back into Afghanistan to kill those "scumbags and murderers" and allow all those little girls (that can still walk) to go to school. There are also dams we can rebuild, eradicate the heroin trade, show them how a democracy operates, repair their roads ...

So ISIS is in competition with the Taliban as to can kill more people in suicide attacks in Afghanistan. The latest is ISIS killing about 80 Afghans. Sure is lucky for the Afghan people that Canada got involved to get rid of that dictator. http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/23/asia/afghanistan-explosion/index.html Now if our military had been better equipped we would have killed all those "scumbags and murderers" in the Taliban and all those "scumbags and murderers" in ISIS. Lets throw more money into our military and we might be able to join the USA in its next expedition to screw up the world.

Good for you. See what happens when you have a clear conscience? Congratulations on your change in attitude.