Canuckistani

What he actually wrote is that he thinks many entrepreneurs work harder than he does. That may well be true, you have no way of knowing. I think many entrepreneurs do put in the long hours and take a big financial risk to get their businesses off the ground. The ones I've known certainly did. But they do tend to forget, many of them, that they didn't do it by themselves, that they had a whole society supporting their efforts. You only get rich building a business if you take part of the effort of other people and add it to your pile, ie off the work off others. Otherwise you're just a worker who may earn a good income but won't be rich. But, within reason it's a fair bargain - somebody who has the brains and willpower to take the risks and puts in the effort gets part of the value produced by the people who work for him. But, the people really cleaning up aren't entrepreneurs for the most part. Mitt Romney isn't an entrepreneur, but a job killer. The wizards on wall street are just gamblers that have fixed the system. CEO's with their bloated pay packages are the same. None of them deserve the outrageous money they earn.

I do, despite myself. It's pretty obvious and broad, but since I'm sympathetic to his pov a lot of the time, I'm still happy to let myself be preached to. Certainly more watchable than Game of Throwup.

People with money don't need the feds spending. Buy private insurance for health care, hire nannies for daycare, don't need no stinkin welfare. This isn't just a war on labor, but on the middle class. It will be very nice to be part of the global 1%, because you'll once again be able to get your servants for a pittance.

Wow. You sure have a lot to say on the subject. After your initial post, I noticed that the Vancouver Sun uses "the Jews" when talking about Israel. Seems to be common usage, so you have a lot of river to push uphill to reverse that. I my saying "the Jews" when talking about Israel isn't 'bad' in your eyes, I'm not sure why you're getting so exercised about it here. Making way more out of it than it seems to deserve. I guess to deflect from the simple criticism that if Israel wants peace, annexing more and more land isn't the way to go about it.

Take a look at Norway's approach to the penal system and their recidivism rate.

How is it that Texas has such a high murder rate if this were true? Texans would be killing each other in even greater numbers if Texas wasn't so enthusiastic about doling out the death penalty?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/5039020/One-in-six-inmates-become-drug-addicts-in-prison.html That's for Britain, doubt it's any different here. How about reading the entirety of my argument instead of just picking out a small snippet? How about reading the entirety of my argument instead of just picking out a small snippet? You make it sound as if I'm advocating for castrating sex offenders, when I'm arguing against it. Really, it's not obvious to you that doing meaningful work is more rehabilitative than sitting around festering?

Only starting to wonder? Our banks have grown very big. While we have very good regulations on them, those can be broken. So I do think it's a matter of yet. Posted a good editorial on another website, that basically said congress sent 97 investigators to look at one baseball player using steroids. Nobody's been charged with the subprime scandal or this libor now. We as a society can't seem to keep our eye on the ball. Why would we expect the petty crooks to reform when the elite steal trillions and are admired for it?

The problem is the prison system breeds better criminals, addicts (ie people come out addicted who weren't going in), and isn't very good at reforming behavior. Putting people in hell holes and expecting them to come out better is insane. We need much more emphasis on rehabilitation. Aside from the services offered for that, I think we need longer sentences. Firstly to keep people in jail long enough for a rehabilitative program to take effect, then to have them on length periods of parole, where they're given a chance to demonstrate they've reformed, or back in they go. For that we need a much better parole system that actually stays involved with the convict, monitors their behavior and offers support. If we want people to act civilized we need to treat them civilly as an example. Castrating sex offenders - it's not that simple, many will re-offend even if castrated. Many should be declared dangerous offenders and kept locked up for long periods or life. Again, we don't need to create a hell hole to keep them locked up in. Having prisoners do meaningful work is a really good idea. The problem is we have high unemployment, so if we have them do jobs that the public could do, that won't get public support. Meaningful community service and restorative justice are good ideas for young offenders and minor offenders. Have them make up for what they did - they'll feel better and act better. So our focus should be on rehabilitation, but with longer sentences (including parole) to give that rehabilitation a chance to "take." For the life of me I can't understand how prisoners get access to drugs while there. There must be collusion by the guards - that's something we should stamp out. But the number one way to reform our prison system is to intervene in offenders lives before they become offenders. The Globe and Mail published an interesting timeline of an 18 yr old murderer, and all the chances for intervention in his life that were missed from birth on. Price Albert, Sask, has had great success taking a multidisciplinary approach to this, involving social services and the police getting involved in the lives of children at risk. Oh, sorry, that's number two. The number one way is to reduce poverty and provide more social supports so poor children have a better chance of success. And number three would be - legalize and regulate drugs.

I doubt it too, but it's conceivable. She is acting tough, finally, she'll get credit for that. And a lot of support for the NDP is soft. The election will be closer than the polls currently indicate, is my guess.

Depending on the timing, this could kill off the nascent BC Conservatives and give hope to Christie Clark and the BC Liberals.

Medicare should be a federal responsibility - you should be able to get the same care no matter where you go in Canada.

Between the province and the Natives this project could be tied up in court for years, no matter if the feds approve it. If things get bad enough, non-Navites just might join the Natives on the barricades, as they did in the 'war of the woods' (Clayoquot Sound). Not sure if the CPC is willing to lose every seat in BC.

Not sure what the point is. We know there's tonnes (literally) of bud and X flowing south and coke and guns flowing north. No drones, chain link fences or cameras are stopping them. Same with Mexico.

I don't know if that's feasible, but that's my thinking too.

The terminal aren't the tankers that have to navigate those waters. http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/earthmatters/master-mariners-critique-proposed-enbridge-tanker-routes

Interesting article, but it doesn't even address the area of main concern - the BC coast. While Enbridge may not own the tankers that transport the oil, no tankers, no pipeline. And it's the threat of a spill on the coast that has people really exercised. The Exxon Valdez cost 6 billion to clean up in today's dollars. Many claims are still outstanding 20+ years later. The risk to the marine environment has to go into any calculation of the project.

BS. Our liability laws place a cap of 1.3 billion for the company to bear. A spill on the coast could cost 10 times that to clean up, with lasting damage that can't be cleaned up. BC takes a huge proportion of the risk for very little reward.

I find what you say strange. I thought Israel was the homeland of the Jews. How then is it bad to talk about the Jews when talking about Israel. As for the non-Jewish Israelis, I would be surprised if they were in favor of the settlements and continued land grab. As for non-Israeli Jews, the Israel lobby in the US, (ie US Jews) as I understand it, is second only to the NRA in influence. It certainly sounds like Jews outside of Israel seem to feel a connection to Israel. Then the reason I hear why the settlements should continue is that God gave the Jews (not the Israelis) that land, and they area just reclaiming their rightful heritage. I have met Jews who definitely don't support Israel's current policies, seem to be some of the most vocal critics, in part because they don't have to worry about being called anti-Semites for doing so. How is it I so often read letters to the editor in the paper that call people who criticize Israel anti-Semitic? Seems like a lot of twisted logic going on here. I mean, if only you could criticize Israel with the same sometimes over the top vigor we might criticize the US or Russia without being labelled racist for it. I'd be happy to never say the Jews when meaning Israel in that case.

Don't worry about it, the pipeline is dead. Between the Natives and the NDP govt in 2013 this thing ain't going nowhere. BC takes the risk but gets a pittance of the profits - not gonna happen.

I didn't realize how disingenuous the right was being until I saw this, as I hadn't see the speech before. And the left just falls into their trap by taking them seriously instead of just laughing at how stupid they are. Good for Stewart.

Relatively speaking, Israel is a beacon of sanity in crazy country. But the more they emulate their neighbors, the less they are a beacon and hold the moral highground. Land is important. It's why Jews make such a fuss about Israel - a home land. (Duddy Kravitz said he same thing, you're nobody without land, never made the connection before). But the very people who realize how important it is to have land want to deny other people their land. Keep taking Palestinian land and you'll never have peace. Israel can only show it wants peace if it stops the settlements. Until then it's just mouthing empty words, while accusing the other side of it. Occupy the West Bank with soldiers until the Palestinians are ready to make peace. But don't keep annexing more land.

Kind of a diversion you're pulling here, isn't it? This thread is about Israel. We can just about always point to somebody who's worse than what ever the topic at hand is. Does that mean Israel should receive no criticism until the rest of the world is as pure as the driven snow?

Protestantism in general certainly contributed a lot to the modern states we enjoy. Question authority, worth and empowerment of the individual, etc. Work ethic. The Scandinavian states may be atheist now, but I think Lutheranism laid a lot of the groundwork for their success. OTOH, Germany is predominanlty Lutheran, and that didn't always work out so well.

Do you think the Jews seriously want to negotiate with the Palestinians? They won the war, they can afford to be a little magnanimous. Stop building settlements, otherwise what exactly do the Palestinians have to negotiate for? It would show the good intentions of the Israelis. But they don't seem to have them any more than the Palestinians.