Wilber

Actually it was an old Chinese weather satellite in low orbit. Does say something about their capabilities though.

I agree.

This war requires each country to commit to a timetable and to give advance warning of when they will rotate off the line. More than two years on the frontline is enough. if NATO really believes in the mission, they will not continue to dodge who goes to Kandahar next. It is foolhardy to make an iron bound commitment to leave, two years in advance. It just isn't necessary. If it is worth doing and takes more than two years, so be it but everyone will have to pull their weight for it to work, not just the people who are there now.

A lot of the people involved in drug operations are as well armed as the police. Better sometimes. They had a warrant to enter from a judge. It is not a red herring. I am saying that if they had found such a thing by chance while exercising the grow warrant, would the judge have thrown that out as well? Why not, if he threw out the grow case, what reason could he use to allow a murder charge under the same circumstances? In BC the average number of convictions before a person serves time for operating a grow is ten and then it isn't much. They buy 700K+ houses in nice neighbourhoods and turn them into junk. How would you like one next door? Nice town house complexes have been found riddled with them. A couple of weeks ago a Surrey neighbourhood was nearly evacuated when construction workers digging in a vacant lot found a chemical dump. Guess what, from a meth lab. How would you like your kids playing in that lot? Due process is fine but when they've had the process, do them. Or latest BC Attorney General was a judge. Prior to leaving the bench I had often thought him an apologist for the judicial system. It has been interesting to watch him become more and more frustrated with it now the shoe is on the other foot.

Move to Saskatchewan. Don't they have standard time all year round? I want daylight saving to be year round, in effect the new standard time.

We have a timetable as well, I don't have a problem with that. I do have a problem with saying two years in advance that we will stick to it regardless of what happens in the meantime.

A year ago in Mission the RCMP were excercising a warrant on a grow op. They forced the door and sure enough they found one. A judge threw it out because he said that because the police didn't wait long enough for him to answer the door, they violated the guys rights under the Charter. How keen do you think that would make you if you were a cop or a prosecutor? Now the police have to give the suspects adequate time to arm themselves before the can force an entry under a warrant. I wonder what that judge would have done if they had found someone lying dead in a pool of blood and the suspect standing over him with a knife in his hand. Would he have thrown that out to and if not, why not. It's this kind of f___d up logic that people are sick of when they see their neighbourhoods ruined by grows and meth labs and the courts doing nothing about it when these people are charged. They need a reality check.

It's about sentencing not convictions. Doesn't matter what the jury decides, if the judge gives a marshmallow sentence it's a waist of time. Never said judges were involved, I said that prosecutors will arrange a plea agreement because they know that a judge is very unlikely to give a sentence that makes it worth going to trial. The police may not even bother to go to all the trouble it takes to recommend charges for the same reason. Neither are prepared to waist their time if they feel the courts won't make their efforts worth while because they don't have the time. How many times do you hear or see in the news that the culprits, victims or both are well known to police? At least a couple of times a day around here. Because the courts keep putting them back on the street.

I don't believe anyone else is saying that they are categorically leaving on a certain date, particularly a date two years from now. If I was there and Dion told me that, I would say put me on the next plane home. Why should I stick around and get shot at when you have no intention of staying here even if we are accomplishing something worthwhile. If we are really going to pull out, six months is more than adequate notice for our allies. Two years in limbo for our guys is garbage.

This is a yuk. Everyone jumping on the global warming, anti polution band wagon but when you ask them to move up the date they change their clocks by a month, half of them get their knickers in a knot.

I wish they would make daylight saving the new standard time and keep it year round.

Has nothing to do with "should", as long as others continue to do it, you don't have much choice other than losing the industry.

Is this really a smart thing to say? After all, who is going to be in a big rush to come and help if we are not staying anyway. Why bother, just deal with it when it happens. Might not something like. While we are committed until 2009, unless we begin to see more help within the the year it is extremely unlikely that we will extend that commitment. Be more appropriate. It would put the ball in their court, without slamming the door on our options should things change significantly and might actually get our people some help before they leave. I can't help but think this statement is directed at the possibility of an early election and has little to do with the situation in Afghanistan. If Dion should win, it could amount to sentencing our guys to the status quo for two years. No additional help and continuing to take casualties for two more years knowing that they are leaving regardless. No wonder the bulk of the military has little use for the Liberal Party.

They often make plea deals because they know that any sentence they might get isn't worth the trouble of going to trial. Same goes for the police when they recommend charges. They have to decide whether the outcome is worth their time which could be better spent elsewhere.

Give us a link. Laws are passed by Parliament. I think the reason Harper is getting a lot of support for this is that the public is tired of the judiciary not applying those laws. In other words they are getting damn tired of the "judiciaries" law and order or more to the point, the lack of it.

Any RRSP funds will still be there if one spouse dies. By law, no benificiary can receive less than 60% of their spouses pension unless they sign it away and even then they cannot receive less than 50%. Most registered pension plans have an option of a 100% survivor benefit but of course the benefit is taken at a reduced level when the pensioner retires. The assumption being that the partner will live longer. That has nothing to do with whether the woman stayed home with the kids. I really don't see why a persons income should be cut in half when their spouse dies unless it was because of poor planning.

What hypocracy. "When they get home, when they get out of Parliament, when they are 50 yards from Parliament Hill, they are no longer honourable members, they are nobodies." PET

The opposition has a majority so stop yapping and bring down the government. I for one disagree, judges don't need muzzling, they need a swift and firm kick in the ass.

How so?

I'm not sure why that should be and even if it is so, what makes you think all those poverty striken widows are women who stayed home with their kids?

My point is, the only reason other people don't use them is because the don't have them.

The Scud is also a ballistic missile. Your link is to a cruise missile which is basically a subsonic unmanned aircraft that generaly flies at very low level. Very accurate very long range artillary. Yes, many have been used including by Argentina against British ships in the Falklands (Exocet) but never with nuclear warheads, which they are capable of carrying.

Cool. Great performance but: How fast can you drive it and still get that 250 mile range? Even if you do get 250 miles you have to wait four hours for a full charge. What else can it carry after you put 1000 lbs of batteries that little two seater? Add that 1000 lbs of batteries to the 70 lb motor and the weight is almost as much as the 5.9 Cummins and a full tank of diesel in my truck. I like it though. Looks like they've got something going there.

Good for town cars but no good for long distance travel with today's technology. Right now the best bet for a good all round electric is probably fuel cell technology, also somewhere in the future.

So far the only people I can think of who have used ballistic missiles in anger are the NAZI's (V2) and Saddam (Scud). I have little doubt they would have been equipped with nuclear warheads had they possessed them.