stignasty

Tories broke law by scrapping program: report Last Updated: Friday, May 11, 2007 | 9:31 PM ET CBC News The Tory government violated the Officials Languages Act when it cut the court challenges program, according to a report by the official languages commissioner obtained by CBC News. In his first report as commissioner, Graham Fraser looked into more than 100 complaints about the cancellation of the program. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/05/11/...-languages.html

Or, more accurately, it's the rotation of the planet and it's orbit around the sun which was discovered through logical science, despite blind faith.

Job growth unexpectedly stalls Last Updated: Friday, May 11, 2007 | 9:28 AM ET CBC News Canada's economy shed 5,200 jobs last month, ending the pattern of strong job gains seen since last September. But the unemployment rate remained steady at 6.1 per cent — matching a 33-year low — as the labour force shrank, according to Statistics Canada figures released Friday. April's job losses surprised analysts, who had been expecting payrolls to rise by 18,000 to 20,000 jobs. "All good things must pass … including robust Canadian job growth, it seems," said BMO Capital Markets economist Doug Porter in a commentary. http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2007/05/11/jobs-april.html

prove it "Proof is for math" - Graham Kendall

He's evil because he's promoting a scientific theory (that most of the scientists who are qualified to debate agree with him on). Okay. But, does your hysteria, rhetoric and scare-mongering in this public thread also qualify you as evil? Jus' wonderin'

The logistics might be a bit hard to work out though. If we were to do this on a nationwide basis, we would have to be able to identify only the batteries sold in Canada and that deposit was paid on. I don't know what percentage of the batteries we use are actually manufactured here, and labeling may become a problem. It would be even harder if only some of the provinces went to this kind of a program.

That is a really good idea.

I have the hard time with the analogy between videotaping a movie and stealing a car. I don't believe they are the same and I don't think they should be treated the same.

There is nothing in either Christianity, Judaism or Islam that either promote or condome female genital mutilation. It is a cultural occurance. The point was that neither males or females should have their genitals mutilated to satisfy religious ritual. That's where he makes the case for child abuse. While "the big three" don't condone ritual female genital mutilation, there are religions that do. That's what he's saying. He's not just bashing Christianity, Judaism or Islam, he's saying that the whole of religious thought is flawed.

To be fair, Hitchens describes himself as a "former Marxist." He also doesn't limit the child abuse label to Christians. He's all too happy to apply it to all religions. His examples of circumcision and ritual female genital mutilation are the bulk of the chapter on the subject. As I'm getting near the end of the book, I think it should have been called "If you can't say anything nasty, don't say anything at all." Even though he gives backhanded compliments from time to time he doesn't pull any punches in savaging people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

What doesn't seem to register is that by noting Ron Paul has a following of 1% of republicans, it is a fair shake.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A majority of the U.S. public disapproves of President Bush's decision to veto a war spending bill that called for U.S. troops to leave Iraq in 2008, according to a CNN poll released Tuesday. The poll found that 54 percent of Americans opposed Bush's May 1 veto, while 44 percent backed the president's decision to kill the $124 billion bill. http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/

The first poll taken after the "debate," saw Paul's support hold at 1%. CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. May 4-6, 2007. N=414 registered voters nationwide who are Republicans or lean Republican. MoE ± 5. http://www.pollingreport.com/wh08rep.htm

I'm about half-way through Christopher Hitchens' book right now. His recurrent themes are that God and Religion are transparently man made and therefore flawed. I think he's over the top on many occasions, such as when he refers to Mel Gibson as an Australian Nazi. His world is split into the blind believers of religion and the enlightened (such as himself) who see flaw in it. I feel totally left out, neither being affiliated with a religion nor caring about discrediting it.

CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. May 4-6, 2007. N=454 registered voters nationwide who are Democrats or independents who lean to the Democratic Party. MoE ± 4.5. "Please tell me which of the following people you would be most likely to support for the Democratic nomination for president in the year 2008 . . . ." Names rotated 5/4-6/07 Hillary Rodham Clinton 38% (+8%) Barack Obama 24% (-2%) Al Gore 12% (-3%) John Edwards 12% (-) Bill Richardson 5% (+2%) Joe Biden 2% (+1%) Christopher Dodd 2% (+1%) Dennis Kucinich 1% (-) Mike Gravel -% (-) Unsure 6% (-1%) http://www.pollingreport.com/wh08dem.htm

CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. May 4-6, 2007. N=414 registered voters nationwide who are Republicans or lean Republican. MoE ± 5. "Please tell me which of the following people you would be most likely to support for the Republican nomination for president in the year 2008. . . ." Names rotated 5/4-6/07 Rudy Giuliani 25% (-2%) John McCain 23% (-1%) Fred Thompson 13% (+2%) Mitt Romney 10% (-) Newt Gingrich 9% (+1%) Mike Huckabee 3% (+3%) Sam Brownback 2% (+1%) Jim Gilmore 2% (+2%) Tom Tancredo 2% (+1%) Duncan Hunter 1% (+1%) Ron Paul 1% (-) Tommy Thompson 1% (-) Unsure 8% (-5%) http://www.pollingreport.com/wh08rep.htm

An official from the Prime Minister's Office recently followed a journalist off Parliament Hill, then approached the reporter to challenge a story about the PMO's refusal to disclose how Harper's travelling hairdresser is being paid. The official told the reporter three times that accountability measures are for crooks, not honest people. It appears to be a theme in the Harper government. While stressing the need for clear rules and transparency for others, the cabinet continues to tightly control information, censor documents and only selectively disclose ministerial expenses. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/05/07/...n-expenses.html

This CNN story features Ron Paul predominantly. The first story highlight: "Rep. Ron Paul alone in backing Iraq pullout; others blast war's execution" In the first section: "But Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who voted in Congress against the war, called his party to return to a "noninterventionist" foreign policy, which he said was "the traditional American foreign policy and the Republican foreign policy." "Think of how Eisenhower came in to stop the Korean War. Think of how Nixon was elected to stop the mess in Vietnam," Paul said." http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/04/gop...folo/index.html In the section entitled Grading the Debaters, CNN gave Paul a B (fourth best among the ten candidates) and said: "Stayed more consistently on his (libertarian) message than anyone else on stage. Might see a spike in Internet donations from voters who oppose big government and the Bush foreign policy. But made no effort to contrast his views with those of his competitors, and at times seemed to encourage the no-chance, alterna-goof role. " http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/rep...1617582,00.html Considering he has been running in the 1% region of the polls, that's a pretty good slice of attention.

Right. Only a professionally manipulated poll can be trusted! You have obviously misunderstood what I said. I'll restate. An interactive poll is not a good indicator of public opinion because it employs a self selected sample. This is unreliable because a self selected sample is typically not representative of the population at large. An example of this was a phone in poll on QR77 radio in Calgary in 1993. According to callers, the Reform party would score a landslide with 80% of the popular vote. Because the sample was not representative of the Canadian electorate it was not representative of what happened at the polls. A poll conducted by a reputable group, using an unbiased question can be considered valid and reliable because of the sampling techniques used. For example, a random sample of registered republicans is a proper sample to judge the popularity of republican candidates for president. Like I said in the post above, the number of people supporting Ron Paul may have increased after the forum (was it really a "debate?). However, an interactive poll is not a reliable indicator of that. While mistakes have occurred in sampling (that's why the disclaimers of +/- x%, 19 times out of 20), it's wrong to accuse those conducting the polling of manipulation without any evidence of wrongdoing.

The fact that you are able to read your conspiracy theory websites and watch your conspiracy theory movies coupled with the fact that you can post your conspiracy theories without threat should indicate to you that the world we live in today is unlike the fictional world George Orwell created in 1984.

A couple of essays: Dehumanizing People and Euphemizing War by Haig Bosmajian Politics and the English Language by George Orwell

I once applied for a job (with a large multinational financial institution - gasp!) where they had me complete a questionnaire after the first interview. One of the questions was "Do you ever lie?" I of course answered "no." I got the job too.

I'm going to take a stab and guess that you've never read 1984. Or, if you have, you obviously missed the point. Read it online before the illuminati has it removed. For the rest of us: Big Brother's Quiz for Loyal Party Members

Newsweek Poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. May 2-3, 2007. N=324 registered Republicans and Republican leaners nationwide. MoE ± 7. "Suppose the race for the Republican Party's presidential nomination next year comes down to a choice between [see below]. Who would you MOST like to see nominated?" If other/unsure: "As of TODAY, do you LEAN more toward [see below]?" 5/2-3/07 Rudy Giuliani - 56% John McCain - 41% Unsure - 3% Rudy Giuliani - 71% Mitt Romney - 20% Unsure - 9% John McCain - 66% Mitt Romney - 21% Unsure - 13% Newsweek Poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. May 2-3, 2007. N=422 registered Democrats and Democratic leaners nationwide. MoE ± 6. "Suppose the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination next year comes down to a choice between [see below]. Who would you MOST like to see nominated?" If other/unsure: "As of TODAY, do you LEAN more toward [see below]?" 5/2-3/07 Hillary Clinton - 51 Barack Obama - 39 Unsure - 10 Hillary Clinton - 57 John Edwards - 38 Unsure - 5 Barack Obama - 49 John Edwards - 41 Unsure - 10 http://www.pollingreport.com/2008.htm

I'd sell my backyard to an oil refinery. But I bet you would have a big problem if your neighbor did and caused your property value to collapse as a result.... Does anyone remember Hub Oil? Wasn't that in geoffrey's backyard?