Canuckistani

And that's just a dream anyway. I recall a commune in the 70's that tried to live without money - they still could not get it down to less than a few dollars a month. You'd basically have to live a stone age existence to not use anything that society has produced. Living totally off the land is just a dream. How will you replace steel or other manufactured goods you'd need. What will you wear - hides and wool? It would be a very brutal existence. You can simplelfy, but you can't really get out of society anymore. Although I've always thought, we have lots of open land. If some First Nations really want to go back to the old ways, we could make that their reservation. You start off with a knife, but no guns and after that, you're totally on your own. And no in and out privileges. You can come out but then you have to stay out. Any romantic white boys that want to join them are welcome to. I think there would be few takers, or let's say few that would stick it out.

Hallelujah. You lost me in the first couple of sentences but got me back at the end. The degree of diparity is the problem, and we're headed in the wrong direction. If the rich keep getting richer by widening this gap, raping the environment or malfeasance, then it's not a great thing. If the rich really do float all boats, create a strong, sustainable society, then more power to them.

You seem to be contradicting yourself here. I agree with your last sentence.

No, financial arguments are not just about the numbers. If it were, we wouldn't have the financial problems we run into. Behind it are human emotions, hence the attempt to create neuroeconomics.

We have no law on abortion in Canada, so late term abortions are just as legal as any other. However the CMA has issued very strong guidelines that doctors must follow or face discipline. We don't perform late term abortions in Canada just because the woman decides to terminate, AFAIK. My understanding is that partial birth abortions area legal in the US, certainly late term ones are, with restrictions varying from state to state. You can be pro-choice, as I am, and still be in favor of laws limiting abortion, as I am. Essentially codify the CMA guidelines.

Didn't Wildrose kick out somebody in the last election? Any party would do this - you just want to make it all about the NDP.

Pretty big thing to disagree on. I mean are you saying a holocaust denier who's otherwise in tune with a party's policies should be allowed to stay? Not that I think she's all that wrong, or anything equivalent to a holocaust denier, but it all gets played the same way in the media - racist.

Well, they're not opinions the NDP or any party can avow. In fact the NDP is probably diametrically opposed to them, so she's not a good fit for the party.

there's no party that would keep this person. Too easy to sling allegations of racism. This is stuff you can only say anonymously, and she made the mistake of oouting herself.

Interesting idea - if it does turn out to be Muslim terror.

Well no. What they envision, many of them, is that they will be landlords and will sit back and collect rent or tribute. Nice work if they can get it, and they can get it if Canadians are stupid enough to pay.

IIRC, she made those statements while hurling invective about it being racist to say many natives live off welfare, and used the fact that some reserves are successful as a blanket statement. The Osoyoos band is successful. They're successful because they work for it, as Chief Louie said "you don't work you don't get any money." And because they're in a prime location to make that success. Many other reserves are nowhere, and will never be anywhere economically. Time to face reality, get off welfare and go where the jobs are.

Time for Justin to retaliate: "Stephen Harper. Thinks Canada is a second rate socialist nation and Alberta should build a firewall around it. Can't dance. Looks (even more) fugly with his shirt off ."

If they want to hunt and fish to feed themselves, let them. It's often in a treaty anyway. But no joining the world of Mammon by selling your catch. Then you're part of the system and have to play by the system's rules.

This just isn't something that works for a modern society with so many people in it. Sorry, nice dream, not reality. Sustainability will have to look a lot different and we'll likely always need large complex institutions to govern the large complex societies we've built. Now, if we have a large cataclysm, as I think is very likely, maybe we'll figure out a different way next time. Project one would have to be to limit breeding.

If we all tried to live the way you're suggesting we'd all soon starve. It's gone way beyond that. Not sure what your last sentence means.

Well great, if they're fishing under the same regs as Second Nations people, not bs food and ceremonial fishing that gets sold on the commercial market. Can't go back to before licenses, the fish just aren't there. And your solution sure won't help the people in Attawapiskat.

In BC, an employable adult can get welfare 2 years out of 5. So if a group of second nations non-Indigenous peoples decided to squat in the bush somewhere and collect welfare, they could only do it for 2 years. And they would get no free housing built for them, nothing but meager welfare checks - if that. Same deal for First Nations Indigenous Peoples.

Well at least it wasn't a Kinder Egg attack - those things are lethal and rightly outlawed, so that only outlwas have Kinder Eggs.

If natives want to live communally, ie on reserves, let them. But not if it means they have no means of supporting themselves and so need welfare. Time to move to the city or really go back to the old ways, hunt and fish, live in tents or huts, give up the pickup truck and TV.

It's the classic welfare trap with the added element of racial identity. Natives get all bent out of shape that assimilation is racism, but look at what they want, the same material lifestyle other Canadians have. That's a form of assimilation already. If they want to live collectively, but on their own dime, that's entirely up to them. Subsidizing remote uneconomic settlements just makes no sense. Unfortunatley, natives have been sold a "dream castle". The idea that they are sparate nations who can extract huge bounty from Canada for use of their lands. They think they can do whatever they want, living large on the rent they collect from Canada. At some point Canadians are going to get fed up with this and just tell them to shove it.

The machines obviously pay for themselves, or the store wouldn't do it, just hire more cashiers. Very few people prefer them over cashiers, just use them if they think they'll get thru quicker than with the cashiers on duty. Plus you can't get bus tickets, cigarettes or cash back with them.

Greece is getting closer to the bottom. Congo is the bottom.

The US has nowhree near hit rock bottom, it has a lot further to fall. Can't be bothered to follow your link and you don't explain how militarism relates to the topic. After WWII, the US stood alone at the top of the pile. It's factories were intact, it dominated the world, and the living was easy. This can't last forever. The world has caught up with the US, while the US way over reached. Trying to run the Vietnam war and a war on poverty at the same time started the downslide. The oilshocks cracked the foundations. Corporate and individula greed finished the job.

I agree