Wilber

Why is it tragic? Is it more tragic than the construction worker who falls off a scaffolding and dies? the soccer mom who rolls her mini-van after dropping the kids off at school? The miner who succumbs to cancer after years of breathing chemical dust? These are tragedies because, though some jobs are dangerous, unlike soldiering, death is not an expected outcome. A soldier's job is to die, so why are we surprised or upset when they do? Didn't Patton say, "It's not a soldier's duty to die for his country but to make the other poor bastard die for his"? Or something like that. A soldiers job is to protect his/her country and carry out his/her governments policies, not to die.

Don't let the name fool you. London Drugs have specialized in cameras and computers for years. Most of their sales persons are quite knowledgeable and they stand behind what they sell. They also do computer repairs on site with their own technicians.

We are NATO.

A few months ago I was looking for a telephoto attachment for a Nikon digital I bought a few years ago. I buy most of my camera and computer stuff from London Drugs so I went to them. They found it on Nikon's website and looked up the price. Sales person said "yikes, you might want to try Ebay". Canadians do get the short end of the stick on a lot of this stuff but I don't think it is always the retailers fault.

People have to ask themselves whether what these people are doing is worthwhile. By all accounts, those who are there putting themselves at risk do believe it. If you also believe it is, do you walk away because a female is killed? Do you cut the rug out from under them and make all their efforts and sacrifices mean nothing? Do you make them even more of a target because the bad guys know the folks at home have no balls and it won't take much to make them cave? She went there to do the same job and take the same risks as the guys. Wouldn't treating her death differently actually be showing less respect for her than the men who have died?

No one disputes that Asian gangs are a problem on the west coast. The term is used in the media almost every day. They are not the only ones of course but they constitute a large part of organized crime in the area and many have contacts with their countries of origin. To say it isn't so in the interest of political correctness is just plain dumb, as in NDP.

The same might be said of a Porsche, Corvette, Ferrari, Viper, Harley, fast boats, etc, etc. No one needs any of them either. Should they be banned as well and we'll all have to drive Prius', Yaris', Smart Cars and Lambrettas? So what if guns are another penis extension. Is that a reason to ban them? We have had a handgun registry since 1934. Since most shootings are now done with handguns that entered the country illegally and never will be registered, how do you propose to get rid of all guns? What do you think your chances are of stopping illegal guns coming across the border? Better than we have done with drugs? I doubt it.

Exactly. You would not be offended if Oh Canada were sung in Chinese but I"d bet most Canadians would be offended if an American told them it should be sung in Chinese. I wouldn't blame them if they were.

Rue was speaking directly to Americans. I'm sick of self righteous Canadians who think they are so morally superior that they can tell the citizens of other countries how to conduct themselves when it comes to things that are none of their business. It embarrasses me. When Americans do it, they are called "Ugly Americans". Sometimes we really do act like their retarded cousins. If you wouldn't tell a Yank what to do, you do agree.

I can't get over the arrogance of those who tell the people of other countries how they should sing their national anthems. Whether you agree or not, it is for Americans to decide and non Americans should butt out.

Christ married a hooker! Why hasn't the Vatican declared a Fatwa against this guy?

If you want to know the trajectory of a missile, take a globe and stretch a string from point to point. The shortest distance will be the great circle route. Using a computer cable on my globe (probably not the best thing to use) It looks like a missile fired from North Korea at New York would enter Canadian airspace somewhere around Inuvik and leave it near Toronto. One fired from Iran would pass over the Maritimes somewhere.

Who cares about the NHL. Vancouver Giants. Western League and future Memorial Cup champions. 12 and 2 in the playoffs.

Not surprising at all and Canadians shouldn't be smug because we are a lot more like Americans than Brits. Brits walk, they don't drive everywhere. You will see as many people running, walking, skating, skate bording in the parks of London as anywhere in North America. The much maligned British diet is just that. It is such a cosmopolitan country that it has the best of the worlds cuisine. Probably more choice than anywhere on the planet. Europe's easy access to alcohol means they don't feel the need to get pissed all the time. Drinking is a part of society, not an end in itself. There are exceptions to every rule of course. As an aside, I just came back from Sydney a few days ago. While I was there I walked across the Harbour bridge and wondered around the Kirribilli area. A high rent district to be sure with Admiralty House and several private schools. What struck me was all the kids getting out of school, heading for the rail stations and ferry wharfs (ferry's are like busses in Sydney Harbour) all by themselves with no adult supervision. This in a city of over 5 million. In Canadian cities most parents won't let their kids get 20 feet from the school yard without picking them up. God forbid they should walk anywhere. No wonder the Aussies kick ass in the Summer Olympics compared to countries five times their size. Where did we go wrong?

Being an antifadite, I will not read anything by Dan Brown. If the 70% of our population who voluntarily read 10 books or less in their life time think it is so great, I'll pass.

Being the country's final arbitrator does make the Supreme Court exceptional and somewhat God like. That doesn't make the people who sit as Supreme Court justices either exceptional or God like. They have no more immunity to criticism than anyone else in our society, whether that criticism is justified or not.

"Let the UN deal with Darfur. Much as it would seem ideal to be seen as the protector of the worlds....we cannot realistically do it all." A country that doesn't understand violence is sometimes necessary, is not capable of protecting anything.

Do we hang everyone who votes for the Bloc or PQ in Quebec?

My BBQ is surrounded by my bear trap collection and I hope nobody hurts themselves when they come to 'borrow' it. You know of course that if they do come to "borrow" it and step on one of your traps, you will wind up in court, not them and they will probably sue you to boot.

As they say in the US, a conservative is a liberal who has just been mugged. (And a liberal is a conservative who has just been falsely accused of a crime.)All things considered, blaming the victim for the criminal's act is moral relativism gone wild. This country has been indulging in "moral relativism" for decades. It's what too many Canadians do. Our mayor has labeled an area of our fair city off limits to the police, to be used as a tent city for the homeless. Several people have written letters to the editors of our local news papers blaming local residents because their barbecues and other belongings are being stolen as well as their trailers and campers being broken into. They have no right to complain you see because if they didn't leave their barbecues out on their patios and didn't leave their RV's parked in their driveways, there would be no problem of course.

From a letter to the Vancouver Province. "It seems the same crowd who would spend huge amounts of taxpayers' money on the gun registry because "If it saves just one life, it's worth it" now suddenly abhor spending anything to put more criminals behind bars. I guess their new mantra against prison funding is: "If it costs even one dollar, it's not worth it.""

The best description of the Canadian criminal justice system I have heard yet is the "Hug a Thug" theory of deterrent. They continue to commit crimes because we aren't nice enough to them.

You have to decide whether this is a private function for friends and relatives or a media event. The country has to have a policy for this kind of thing and stick to it. The previous government's making it up as it went along was what started this controversy. You can't put it to a vote every time it happens. There were four soldiers killed in this incident. If three of their relatives didn't object to the media being there but just one said, "no, I don't want to the country watching me on national TV when I see my dead son arrive home" That parent's wish trumps the other parents, the media, the PM or anyone else in my opinion. These things are between the soldier's families, friends and Regiments. IMO no one else has a right to be there unless they are invited by all the involved parties.

Leafless If one of my children had been abducted from a schoolyard, raped and murdered and you said something like that to me, I would rearange your dental work.

In years past our war dead were buried where they fell. Except for Rememberance Day, mourning was the sole property of relatives and comrades. Relatively recently we have started bringing them home and everyone seems to think they have some sort of God given right to be part of the action, regardless of the feelings of those directly involved.