Drea

Thing is there is no equivelant male word for "slut". It is exclusively used to degrade women. When I was young we'd call a guy a "male slut" but it was more like a title of honour than a derogatory slur. A woman (even in this enlightened day and age) who sleeps with many different men is considered a slut by both men and women. A man who sleeps with many different women is not. I tried on a helluva lot of men before I found the one I love. Yup I slept with them all. I cannot imagine entering into a marriage without trying out the sex first. I have been with some men who I dumped simply because of sexual incompatibility. Imagine how many divorces I would have had to have if I married them all before sleeping with them! Ack. One does not buy a $25 pair of shoes without putting them on your feet first... yet we are encouraged to marry without knowing if we are sexually compatible or not. Craaaazzzy IMO.

You're right. Some people need an external conscience (god) while some do not. Believing in god is not a bad thing. Religion (the forcing/coercing/cajoling/begging/marketing of others to bend to a certain belief) IS a bad thing. That's why I respect Freemasonry. All beliefs are equal. No one god is better or more "true" than any other god. In Freemasonry one only need believe in a "god" of some kind. That god could be a bearded fellow on a cloud, an alien from another planet or a force within nature. I like the latter

What I mean was that people can't just make up a note. It must be specifically endorsed by (in this case) the Bank of Canada. I suppose a merchant could refuse cash...(from the link, it seems they can legally refuse it) but they would lose that sale so I don't think it's a real issue that people deal with day to day. Have you ever had anyone refuse your cash? I have had merchants refuse my Visa and my debit card but never cold hard cash

It's not god that calms you down if you've been cut off by a bad driver. It's you. Your own psyche. But if you want to call your own psyche "god" and give credit to an outside source (instead of yourself) go ahead. People don't need god. People need a calm psyche. What if I don't "comprehend the reality of god"? Will I not be able to calm down? Do I need god to calm down? Of course not. I am responsible for my actions and reactions, not god.

It is still a promise... "This note is legal tender" just means that other notes are NOT legal tender. ONLY that specific note can be legally used. I go to the store and give the clerk a $5 bill. In exchange he gives me a bag of chips and a pop. He then puts the $5 note in his till and at the end of the day puts it in the bank. He can either keep the note, put it in the bank, or use it to barter for more goods. Really money just makes our barter system more consistent and convenient. Instead of 2 chickens for a loaf of bread, I give you one toonie and you give me the bread. It's hard to pack around all those chickens! LOL

It's all barter really. When you boil it all down. We barter virtual money for goods. Used to be people bartered a bag of gold for goods. Before that people traded chickens, fur, etc for goods. Gold has "real" value, unlike a promisory note one can melt down their gold earrings... One cannot melt down promisory notes.

The Banking system does not consist of real money. It is all promisory notes. The first "banking" was started by the "Kights Templar". Christian piligrims would get robbed on their way to the holy land so the Knights took their gold and gave them a "note" with the promise that when they got to their destination they could give the note to another Templar and get their gold back. So those notes (back then) were backed by the promise of real gold. Today we no longer use the gold standard. Currency is no longer backed by real gold. It's all basically virtual. There are no vaults holding all the "promises" and nothing with actual "worth" (ie; gold or silver) is sitting there waiting for you to "cash in" your promisory note. I think this is what dpwozney is trying to say. Our money today is not real. The Canadian dollar (and all other currencies) is virtual. Currency is made of only a promise and has no "real" value (like in the old days when a goldminer could plop his bag of nuggets on the counter and get a beer).

I did not say that Freemasonry had nothing to do with religion. Masons must believe in a "god" of some kind in order to obtain membership. Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas are two excellent authors. My hubby is interested in freemasonry and has read alot about it. The entire subject of "rituals' means dick all to me so he knows more about it than I do. White, do take a look at some books by the authors above. Very informative. See how friendly and non-insulting I can be? Can you?

Ah yes, but agnostics believe in something (atheists believe there is absolutely no god) -- and the only requirement to become a freemason is to believe in a "god". That "god" could be humanities collective conscience or it could be an actual being in the sky. What matters is that they believed in humanity first, "god" second.

Oh cry me a river... pft. Religion (as we know it today) has been around for 2000 years. Why, during those first wonderfully "enlightened" years, did humanitarianism NOT come about? What is it exactly, about the last few hundred years that have afforded us a higher level of humanity? Science and education. Not religion. Education and science are what brought us out of the dark ages. Would you say Islam (a religion btw) holds back human rights? Would you say Christianity (in it's early years) held back human rights? Freemasonry (agnostics) are responsible for the human rights we know today. I will look up a link when I have more time. The unsubstantiated belief in an invisible judge in the sky has held us back from realizing that life is all we got and we really should make the best of it. I understand why people needed religion before science, but I cannot understand how people can still believe a god is responsible for the sun coming up every day. If you do not pray to sun god Ra, the sun WILL still rise, believe it or not! I know that is hard for fundies to wrap their brains around but it is true. No god is responsible, not Jesus, not Allah, not Yaweh, not G-d, not even Santa or the flying spaghetti monster -- we know the sun will rise because of two things -- science (somebody studied it) and education (somebody taught somebody else what they discovered on their scientific soujourn).

Hear Hear! Two words - secular humanists. Rights didn't come along until such a short time ago... so I don't know how anyone can think that religion is responsible for how far we've come in terms of our humanity. On the contrary, it has been (still is) religions that have held us back for so long.

Generally in a monogamous relationship both partners are equal -- generally In a situation of multiple wives I doubt if they share "power" with the male head of the household. The women have no rights, no power, no decison making capabilities -- they are just a bunch of concubines. I'm actually quite suprised that the young men aren't made into eunics... The wrinkly old bastards of Bountiful make me so sick. Dirty filthy sicko pigs.

Betsy, legalizing polygamy would put women's rights back hundreds of years. The men will say "but women can have multiple husbands too!" But more than likely it would be men with economic power wielding it over women with no economic power. Like Bountiful where the women are brainwashed into thinking that this is their god-given lot in life. One 15 year old (on news interview) said "God has asked me to put up with this bad life on earth so that I can go to heaven". She said this as she was slated to marry a wrinkly old bugger. I always wondered about Bountiful's young men -- if all the young women get married to old buggers who marries the young men? Where do they go? What do they do?

And name ONE thing that has been dictated to you. One thing (good god don't bring up paying taxes!) that you have been forced to do by the "left". I am not a "lefty" by the way (as you and I have agreed on a topic or two) I am a centrist. What is a centrist? Socially liberal, economically conservative. And how are you so different than how you propose Kuzadd is? You are full of hatred for the "left". Admit it, religion divides people. Humanitarians such as Kuzadd and myself don't call others "evil" simply because they don't believe in the "flavour of the day" religious doctrine. On the contrary, we are all FOR individual human rights. I have said right out that I would see religion banned in the public. Worship at home or church but don't bring crazy (yes crazy, but not evil) beliefs into gov't or schools.

What good is this useless information? It was written before America started going down the crapper. You still looking over that Berlin wall? Booga Booga the commies are coming for you!

Correct! Native Canadians and their society built the northern portion of North America. They hunted and fished and lived life completely free of nasty immigrants until those nasty Europeans showed up and ruined everything. Those immigrant's kids -- they are NATIVE Canadians. You too are decended from immigrants. Immigrants created the Canada we know today. You can thank your ancestors for immigrating. You can thank them for "Not" giving up their european culture when they came here. You can thank them for doing exactly what today's immigrants are doing -- buying land, opening businesses and being successful.

I suppose (and this is all conjecture as I have no stats on it) that there are more opportunities in a larger centre (the USA) than a small one (Canada). Sort of like moving from a small town to a big city. There are more opportunities in the big city. Also one can completely "lose" themselves in a large populace. I remember a young friend of mine wanted to move to LA so he could be "anonymous". And of course the largest centres - New York, LA all are wonderful fun. Lots of people, lots of clubs, lots to do. I don't think, however, that the lack of bodies in AB and BC are a direct result of bodies moving to the states. Those bodies would move south whether there were jobs available here or not. Friend of mine moved because he didn't like the "politics" of Canada. He went to Florida in 1994. Perhaps he was the swing vote for GW (he was a wannabe Republican when I knew him and maaan did we argue LOL) We simply don't have enough people to fill the jobs. Every single one of my clients is hiring. All 50 of them.

I don't think you can blame this one on so-called "socialists". This is capitalism in it's purest form. A "socialist" would tell the company to set up a fitness program and offer low fat food (for free!). The capitalist simply takes money out of pockets. Which is what this is about. Money. It's not about helping people lose weight. It's just another way to take money out of the pockets of workers. Moxie, we are lucky to be thin (I too am a small person). Some people live on pure salad and gain weight. They should not be penalized for their bad luck.

We have an *Indian woman as head of one of our most successful departments.... my niece is marrying an *Indian fellow. But no, we all know that ONLY in AMERICA do people of differing cultural backgrounds work together successfully. ONLY in AMERICA can an "ethnic" woman run a department. ONLY in AMERICA can a jew swim with a black. ONLY in AMERICA! *from India

Sorry American Woman... about the link part of my post. I said: "whoever said" as I was too lazy to go back and see who said it. It wasn't you. And I also said they are there by choice OR because they are druggies. I did not say druggies choose to be druggies. Of course they DO usually try that meth the first time by choice. After that they're hooked. I'm hooked on cigarettes -- it is my choice to continue smoking is it not? Anyway... People are moving to BC and AB in droves for the jobs and the beauty of both provinces.

I've always been suspicious of sunscreen and avoid it when possible (it is in most makeup and facial moisturizers...). The sun is good for us as long as one doesn't get burned to a crisp. I would rather take my chances with the sun than with chemicals.

It's true.Labour Force Survey In BC and Alberta if one is unemployed, one does not want to work. There are homeless of course. Manyy are druggies or simply want to be there. In BC we also have a problem with the mentally handicapped being on the streets. Our premier a-hole thought it a good idea to close down institutions housing them so they are on the streets too. But mostly those you see are there because they don't want to work (don't want to bend to society's rules) or they are druggies. Our employment rate (Canada as a whole) is at it's lowest since 1974. And who was it that mentioned "illegals" coming from Canada... I laughed! Canadians are not Mexicans. We are not crossing your border in the middle of the night. We don't need to. We have it good here. Why would anyone in their right mind leave a place where basically every need is taken care of to a life of illegal uncertainty in the US? Doesn't make sense. Got a link proving that Canadians are crossing the border illegally?

Got a link? Booga booga! Commies! Aliens! Terrorists! Muslims! Socialists! Unionists! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! /kidding have a good day Betsy.

I left in 1987 well before WalMart was even a thought. I left to go to college. Like many other young folks I wanted to leave my boring old home town Now that I am middle age (ack!) I would relish a quiet town to live in. But alas! I am stuck in the city because of my job. see some folks don't want WalMart Demonstrations greet Wal-Mart's India plans Traders protest against Wal-Mart entry into retail sector Student organizes rally against new Wal-Mart in White Plains

Yes they are pro business. they do whatever they can to get businesses to locate in their communities (even WalMarts!)