Rue

1. You show your immaturity and ignorance each and everytime you presume to know what truth is and then mock and insult others because they do not subsribe to your subjective opinions you refer to as "truth". 2.You do not get it. In fact you show yet again how you are unable to recognize or understand any opinion or feeling other then your own and dismiss anything and everything not created and prescribed by you-that makes you a closed minded, intolerant, bigot and narcissist of the highest degree. Until you can come on this post and speak to people in a civil manner without mocking or insulting them and admitting what you state is only your opinion all you are is someone who exhibits anger, intolerance and sheer ignorance as to who others are and what they believe in. 3. Military people do not thank themselves on behalf of Canadians to validate themselves. That is your fabrication-that is something you created. It is your subjective belief based on nothing but your own prejudices, stereotypes and preconceived negative views which you then assign to all people in the military. It repeats what you have done when you discuss women, Jews, gays,and other groups you have identified you feel you should criticize. You make sweeping generalizations as to their motives and beliefs, assume they are negative, and then assume they all do and engage in the exact same behaviour. That renders you an illogical and absurd person, someone who spews illogical, irrational hateful remarks designed to do but one thing insult and incite hatred to the group you target-that Sir is why you should be condemned and will be condemned time and time again on this board by so many of us. 4. Your absurd sweeping statement that history has shown the military does little but inhibit peoples' rights shows but one thing-you pretend to be an expert on history and yet never provide any historic references for your comments but do make sweeping statements as to history with no corroboration who you try pass off as historic truisms. All you spew is subjective fabrications. Everyone knows you make it up as you go along Kengs. Your sweeping unreferenced generalized statements evidence the repeated behaviour pattern of someone who rejects and denies the outside world and all its variables. You block out the world. You then engage in a fantasy world where you create a world that only exists if you say it does and according to your rules and truisms. You live in a fantasy world that excludes and rejects everything but your own noise and that Sir renders you nothing more then someone who screams at his own echo because you lack the insight to realize it is just an echo. 5.How dare you insult yet another poster. Everyone of your posts turns into an insult to people and comments that mock them. Get a job? Who are you to lecture anyone? 6.Now you get this straight Kengs. Your above comments are cowardly. They are cowardly because you mock people you do not understand and who are not in the position to speak back. You mock brave men and women who died and will die. You mock veterans. You mock people that sacrifice in a manner you will never understand. You mock their pain and suffering. That Sir is dispicable. You mock precisely because the people you mock sacrificed to enable a society where you can mock. That Sir is what you do not get. What you do not get is that you mock because they died and now are permanently disabled or suffer from chronic pain and trauma so that you can continue to mock. You mock the very people that give you your life. How dare you state soldiers self-serve their battles and sacrifices.You know nothing of them. Why don't you take yourself to a vet's hospital and shut your mouth and sit and talk to a vet. How dare you suggest they sit and brag about killing and all they want to do is kill. That Sir proves to us all what an ignorant man you are. You label them, you label this group of people with your negative stereotypes that have been preconceived precisely because you are sheltered from war and do not understand it. I will say this once to you. I have had the honour to listen and witness soldiers. I have seen the pain in their eyes. That pain Sir, the fatigue in their eyes, the way they wear their weight on their shoulders and stand Sir, that is the message you can not see because you are deliberately in love with yourself and can see no reflection other then your own.

I am with you two on this. Do not blame me for Keng deciding to become a female fashion critic. I always suspected he was a drag queen but hey I guess this now confirms it. Quoting the Bible to critique a woman's wardrobe. Good grief. The Mullah has spoken. Next he will be on Next American Model as a Judge. Oy. And another oy.

Now you are a fashion critic. G...od help us all.

No don't insult the man. She was brought on the ticket to bring back the right wing evangelical Christian interest groups who were single handedly instrumental in getting both Bush's elected as well as Reagan and have been the key to Republican election victories. She was brought on because of her strong anti-abortion beliefs. McCain is a moderate Republican on gay rights and abortion. She was far from his choice. It sounds like she was the third or fourth choice after all the others refused. The ideal women candidate had they wanted to woo Clinton voters was Elizabeth Dole but on that one McCain said no because he hates her husband and there is very bad blood between them. Dole the former head of the American Red Cross is widely respected for her intelligence and ability to run large organizations. That is why they passed on her. There was also too much bad blood for McCain to bring in Huckabee to win back the evangelical vote. The old dude from Law and Order was only running as a favour to McCain who he clearly backed throughout the campaign. Thompson only ran as an added buffer for McCain to balance the odds a bit. Thompson made it clear he had no interest in the VP role from the get go because of his age and health and he never hid he was a McCain supporter. The question is if you wanted to woo moderate Democrat voters the very last person you would select is Palin. Its an insult to think women are so stupid they will vote for someone like Palin simply because she has a vagina. She is the anti-thesis of everything Clinton and most progressive women stand for. She might appeal to fundamentalists and a portion of the population that is brain dead and still takes valium but in case you haven't noticed most Stepford wives died out once it got out there wasa G spot and men were not finding it.

Keng stated the following: "From the very day that I started posting here, M.Dancer has been making personal attacks. He's got close to 10,000 posts, and my guess is that between 95-98% of them contain some sort of insult or personal attack… He's one of a handful of members who can go around with seeming impunity hounding, baiting, attacking other members. Why a certain group of members get special consideration is beyond me." For the record at the time I file this response Kengs made 13 responses of which 8 of them I have restated below were comments designed to attack other members on a personal level and did not contribute in any manner to the original post . This amounts to 61.15% of his posts in this thread to date containing exactly the kind of thing he has accused M. Dancer of and again demonstrates two things; i-Keng criticizes others for exactly the thing he engages in; Keng often makes comments that have nothing to do with the original post and turn the dialogue into personally insulting attacks. More to the point on this thread, his making a reference that rape victims in Canada develop eating disorders, etc., is odious. The fact that people suffer trauma and may develop psychological or other problems from it has nothing to do with the original issue which was how fundamentalism causes the kind of behaviour pointed out in the story. The fact that Kengs feels Canada has social or other problems is not germaine to the topic which was how fundamentalism contributes to the behaviour reported. Keng's belief that Canadian society is flawed was raised to argue that the problem in the story is not fundamentalism but the fact no one follows Keng;s version of fundamentalism and thus the personal attacks to other members when they did not prescribe to Keng's beliefs. This is not about what Keng believes and thinks others should believe. This is not about Keng and his once again taking a post and redirecting it towards himself and his opinions. It is about what happens when we become blind to rules and doctrine something I would argue Keng continues to evidence in his comments: 1-Either you're a complete idiot… 2-Typical American. You can dish it out, but can't take it. 3-You would be living in a mudhut in abject misery if it wasn't for Christianity. 4-I had the misfortune of reading M.Dancer's post… his type type are partial to creating a culture that imbues people with a inherent sense of self-hate and self-destruction. 5-Do you have reading comprehension and critical thinking problems? 6-That's asking the impossible from M.Dancer. May as well ask him to climb Everest in nothing more than a pair of Speedos. 7-From the very day that I started posting here, M.Dancer has been making personal attacks. He's got close to 10,000 posts, and my guess is that between 95-98% of them contain some sort of insult or personal attack… 8-He's one of a handful of members who can go around with seeming impunity hounding, baiting, attacking other members. Why a certain group of members get special consideration is beyond me.

Nowhere fast. Please do not be shifted from the focus of your original post and that is, fundamentalist beliefs blind humans and make them capable of engaging in outrageous behaviour precisely because they can then rationalize it as being the desires of the God they claim to do it on behalf of. The fundamentalist Islamic sects in Somalia are at a stage of development where Christianity was not so long ago and where we Jews were before that and where some others were at and are at or will be at. Fundamentalism is really nothing more then the exercise if engaging in rigid, inflexible rules that must be "obeyed". I can't stand any fundamentalist religion, political belief or any belief that is rigid and inflexible to the point where common sense, human decency and compassion are ignored. There are modern Muslims trying their hardest to reform Islam as there are Jews and Christians and Siekhs Hindus, etc., trying to do the same with their religions. It is for their sake I try remember their on-going efforts and not let these fundamentalists get me down. Not sure if that helps but all I mean to say is do not let this barbaric behaviour turn you cynical.

Yah that was you I saw driving that truck that was falling apart. You looked like Fred Flintstone driving his car with his feet on the ground. Still proud of you. Reserve or not. The uniform is the same. Of course I blame Paul Hellyer for the truck and the fact your pants didn't fit you properly.

Bush some people's ignorance really angers me. Lol but then some of us can't help it..others however....I will hold my breath on this one and state I actually was fortunate enough to have an relative who served as a psychiatrist in the US Army in WW2. He actually had some very interesting stories about Nuremberg. He did spend some time telling me a bit about the code talkers. I am sure you saw the movie that came out a few years back. Read some other stuff on it. An amazing story especially the part how they could not be taken alive and what that meant. My father was a career soldier who retired when I was young. One thing he did was make sure I visit the permanent war vets in the hospital. Of course they would not talk of themselves but they could tell me what others did. I dare say there are an infinite number of stories of ordinary men, just ordinary guys asekd to do extra-ordinary things and some times just do ordinary things that were part of a bigger thing they could not see but had to have faith in...so many stories....of modest, humble, people...I think for me the thing I remember most when I thing of vets and what they mean to me and what I think they mean for the world I live in, is there modesty at their contribution to a life I enjoy and I am the first in my family to have been able to live. I am not sure how you tell a vet or soldier how awesome freedom is and how grateful I am for it and what their role is in assuring it. It just can't come out in words. Nov.11 is a day I am proud of my father, all soldiers and vets and am fucking grateful. That's all I can say. Having relatives serve in Canada, Britain, the U.S. and New Zealand armed forces in ww2, all I can say is I am proud of them all.

Thank you all and thanks to them all.

Well wild Bill knows I appreciated his comments. As for you Capricorn, I second your effort and salute Army Guy and all the others tommorrow and wil never forget. That is all that needs to be said. Respect sometimes comes from being silent and bowing.

As you might be aware immigration is more likely to consist of those with more education seeking better opportunities or if not formally educated the kind of personality where the people would be risk takers or more willing to take chances. Those kinds of personality traits have been quantified in immigrants although like any such studies they only provide general observations and of course each individual would have their own characteristics and traits. What we also know is immigration creates a brain drain. The so called cream of the crop leave the country of origin-the intelligentsia leaves meaning the country is left with no future. This phenomena sees the intelligentsia leave for other countries often on government loans and bursaries never to return to the country that invested in them. The other problem of course is measuring education equivalency between different countries and deciphering who actually has an education and who fabricates their educational designations. I think one of the phenomena that current immigration policy makers struggle with is how to transfer professional training from other countries to their equivalency in Canada. For example, medical training. Sometimes we hear stories of doctors driving taxis but of course the problem is not that simple. The Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons have an obligation to protect the public and so sometimes they struggle to determine whose medical training is or is not up to the standards in Canada. It is interesting because I knew a Russian with a Ph.d in kinesiolgy from an institute that used to churn out the Russian Olympic athletes and he was well known for the studies he had done with so many gold medal winners and the development of the coaching techniques used for them and yet when he came to Canada his designation was pretty much ignored. He fought hard and retrained in Canada and eventually became a physiotherapist. Sometimes what we accept and do not accept as equivalent professional training can seem unfair but I think its a complex task to decipher. Does it suprise me many immigrants would be from the intelligentsia of their societies, no. However interestingly our immigration policies which are designed to assign points to certain values we seek or to fast track certain professionals we need when their training is deemed appropriate or acceptable, does not seem to be working. For those immigrants who say they were given false repersentations of what Canada would be like when they got here and can not understand why they are not living the same lifestyle they did in their country of origin I have mixed feelings about. I think some of them are unrealistic and think they are entitled to the same class structure they left where they were privileged and now they find themselves in the working class and have no luxuries and privileges like they use to and sorry I come from a long line of refugees and immigrants that came with nothing and did not resent people for that fact and did not feel entitled to automatic lifestyle privileges, i.e., a house, a car, a job. They did not just expect these things to exist when they got here. I know that comment applies to most if not all immigrants who have come here whether they be Jewish, Irish, Ukrainian, Caribbean, etc. However I am not sure what has happened in the last ten years. I think there is a new phenomena where some people feel these things are automatic entitlements on arrival. I am not sure where that message is coming from-their own unrealistic expectations or something the government said. I do know working with new Canadians the ones I have encountered who blame the government for misleading them usually evidence a sense of entitlement and completely unrealistic expectations and quite frankly I find selfish, self-centered, nasty people who just as soon would exploit their mother if they thought it would help them. But then I also know so many new Canadians and the ones you never hear about. They come, they expect nothing from anyone and they work. They take jobs no one else wants. They work and they send their kids to school and they live in an extended family or group under one home and all contribute to the mortage and so if one loses their job the others can keep paying the mortgage until the other finds a job again. They work any job they can get. Sometimes they are paid under the table and that triggers off some to claim they all do. However that underground economy in itself still pays taxes because when they spend that undeclared money it is taxed by the gst, pst, or at the gas pumps or it circulates into the economy in purchases of things. Its interesting because everytime the economy starts to suck the usual don't take in immigrants song begins and immigrants are accused of stealing jobs others need. What the stats actually show is immigrants create jobs for others and do not take jobs Canadians want or will take even when they become unemployed or go onto welfare. I do not doubt the refugee system has provided an opportunity for unskilled immigrants to come to Canada who can not speak English or French and who used the system to jump the line. The problem is even when such people are denied refugee status they are not deported and so they go underground and have become a large population forced to create false identities and become vulnerable to organized criminal syndicates using their labour. There are also nasty immigration consultants bring in labour and lying to them and exploiting them. All that said I think the vast majority of immigrants are needed as our population is not reproducing fast enough to be able to keep paying into the infrastructure needed to pay for cpp, schools, roads, hospitals, and other common social needs and the needs of labour and commerce as our existing labourers age and new ones are needed with new computer skills or other technological skills the aging ones do not have. The balancing act of building your society with positive people who want to contribute as opposed to filling it with self-centered opportunistic people who simply want to take and not build is of course the continuing issue and those against immigration will focus on the negative and those who are not against immigration will focus on the positive. Me I think most immigrants are hard working sob's and the ones that are not to me do not justify smeering all immigrants just like people who are born in Canada who are sob's does not mean the rest of us are sob's. Also as far as I am concerned the only people who are not immigrants are the native peoples and I know they think we all look the same anyways and they probably are right on that one. We all seem to have come here after them, had a tendency to think we are better then the ones who follow us, and yet we all seem to pollute and agree that Gary Bettman is an idiot.

Now let us be fair with our analysis of appearances shall we: Stephen Harper- fat boy computer geek Gilles Duceppe: Vampire, drunk undertaker Stephane Dion: sickly boy computer geek Ms. May: schitzophrenic homeless person bag lady. Honourable mentions: Bob Rae: the mating result of Bugs Bunny and the Angry Martian Peter McKay: Camel Jim Flaherty: Nazi Munchkin Dr. Ignatieff: James Bond with severe hemmeroids There now. It is important we be fair.

Oh I am confused. Do tell us, which parties are you referring to?

Guilt? Oy no guilt. proper perspective yes. Respectand awarness of their culture as the founding culture in Canada yes. Guilt no. Cuz that is what Italians and we Jews do. Trust me its a waste of energy. Now as for these savages, well you know I happen to know Argus has some relatives in his family tree that aren't exactly examples of moral righteousness and civility. That is precisely the problem. People most likely to accuse others of being savages usually have some interesting skeletons in their own closet. Now me I never met a European who didn't have a cannibal or two in their back-ground not to mention rapists, thieves, torturers, homicidal murderers, dim wits, people with webbed fingers and sloping foreheads, etc., not that I would suggest for a second anyone is an inbred or dim witted. No no no. No no no. We are all children of God.

Good grief. Mr. Canada stated; "Without Europeans this country wouldn't be what it is today." and yet he has no clue how ironic that statement is( and why he will die of testacle cancer from drinking the water). But wait he was not done: " It wouldn't be here for others to take advantage of." Got it. Europeans when they came to Canada never took advantage of it. Never. Never. Never. Never. Speaking of Europeans that is an ambiguous term. Do you think he means only British people, or does he include French people. But wait what about Spanish, Dutch, Luxembourgish, Belgian, German, Italian, Swiss, Danish, Norweigan, Portugese, Swedish, Finnish, Russian, Bulgarian, Polish, Czechs, Slavs, Lithauanians, Estonians, Ukrainians, Belyorussians, Georgians, Albanians, Geeks, Macedonians, Turks and do we include Romanos and Jews from Europe or only Christians from Europe, no wait, I already know the answer. In my opinion the only people who have not taken advantage of Canada are people in Innavut. It is hard to get a bargain in the stores when there is only one store.

TCCk is a good name for you. You give me Lyme disease with your comments with due respect. Here are some that are giving me my rash; "They want all the gold and glory of the country but avoid paying the taxes and costs of the nation saying that is the responibilty of those born here." The above is you imposing a negative generalization on all people in a perceived group, in this case given your earlier comment third world immigrants. In fact Statistics Canada clearly indicates the vast majority of immigrants pay taxes and so are contributing to our economy and will form the tax base that will pay for you in a few years when you are old and need the government to look after you because by then there will be someobody we beed to pay for CPP to keep going. Think about that. You sound like dementia from aging could be a concern to you. Here is my point. There are people born in this country who do not pay taxes and do not contribute. There may very well be newer Canadians who do the same but for you to write off all immigrants with one negative stereotype is pure b.s. The only non immigrants in Canada are aboriginal peoples and I suppose you can start another thread on something negative about them as well. "Well if that is their attitude I say we keep the coutry for THOSE THAT ARE BORN HERE! and turf the rest of them." Right. Original. Not in your back yard. Turf them. Real tough guy. How about you. Should we turf you if you don't pay taxes? Does the fact you were born in this country give you dispensation? See the problem with your quick to judge others and turf them approach is when you point the fingers at others and accuse them of being useless be careful with your own track record. "You may call me a bigot..." You are a bigot. Thanks. I wasn't going to but since you said I could.... " but as I get older I relize that so many people of colour quickly call us Canadian caucasins bigots and prejudice yet they are 10-20 times more prejudice than we are." It could be as you get older you may be experiencing the first signs of dementia as well. Have you had yourself checked out? Again I do not mean to be rude but your comment is absurd. You again utter a racist stereotype. You can't possibly know all people of colour and be in the position to know they are 10-20 times more prejudice then caucasians. That is your subjective presumption that is not based on anything objective just your negative bias towards people who are of "colour". What also makes your comment absurd is the fact there are more caucasians then people of colour and so necessarily if you are only prejudice against people of colour you would be less prejudice then people of colour if they hated all white people. The point is your presumption is absurd. Whether a person hates one person or millions of people, the number of people hated doesn't define its moral value. Its still hatred. "They will not talk to thier neighbour because he is of a lower cast, they will not buy from that man because he is from China and therefore will try to charge too much, they will not have that nationality work on thier jobsite becasue they are bad luck, and so on and so on." Who is "they". You use the word "they" to define an entire group of people you do not know you then assign a negative characteristic to. That is illogical and hateful. "I hear it from people of colour all the ime and it sickens me.." I do not doubt you hear selectively and see selectively. You see and hear what you think is the negative in others-its a self-fullfilling prophecy-you are a classic example of someone who sees Mary in a gravy stain on your shit. Of course that is what you see. It is what you want to see. "..then they call me a racist because I do not want them here..." You are called a racist because you assign negative general characteristics and motives to an entire group of people you do not know and make it clear you think because you are born in Canada it gives you an automatic claim to superiority over those who were not born here and presumably have skin of colour. Using your logic the aboriginal people have the right to turf you. Keep it up. " or I want them to pay the taxes when they are asking me if I ill sell them something worth over $10,000 and can they pay CASH so as to not pay the taxes???? " How about you pay your taxes and let Revenue Canada worry about the rest. Again your example is absurd. Are you suggesting caucasians or peole born in Canada do not work under the table or do not declare their taxes? "GET REAL!!! " Yes. Please get real. "PAY TO LIVE HERE." Now you sound like Revenue Canada and Mayor David Miller of Toronto. Stop that. "ANd if the Liberals get in, we will pay way more to live here!!! " Right now that Harper was re-elected everything will be just fine and there will be no tax increases ever again. AHAHAHAHAHAH. Ooops sorry. You were being serious. " Oh no, sorry sir, the employee that made that ice cream cone for you exhaled CARBON DIOXIDE so there is a "Green/ Carbon Tax" on that ice cream cone." I did speak to Stephane Dion and passed on your comment. His exact words were " F..ck you." He was in a bad mood. "Dion's wording and rules on what will have the carbon tax on it is so open ended and unclear he could add a 10% straight across the board carbon tax on almost anything and then keep upping the tax rate anytime he wants." Yah and thank G...d Stephen Harper will never do that.

What if that was true. How does that justify your using Judaism in a manner to suggest we are superior or morally better then others? That is what you are doing and it violates one of the most basic and fundamental precepts of Judaism that we do not use our faith to insult or put down others or suggest we are morally superior or better then others. That is what you are doing and just did again and it is why I so strongly object to your continued decision to use Judaism in such a manner. More to the point when you insult others as you are doing, you give them the pretext and motive to repeat the exercise to you. I could easily be an angry Palestinian responding to you with anger stating I have been the victim of violence by Jewish settlers on the West Bank. How do your comments to anything but incite such resposnes or responses from anti-semites looking to someone like you so they can spit back venom that we Jews think we are superior to others. You play into the very anti-semitic stereotype I loath. You play into the hate mongering I loath in all humans for any reason. I have already said what I had to say. I can't stop you from using your religion to engage in these exercises to suggest you are superior to others I can only speak against it. Argus I can be the first to enter into an educated discussion as to fundamentalist Islam and how it incites intolerance and violence but I would not do so in a way that stereotypes all Muslims. I can't stand this kind of thread where we point fingers at people and point out they are savages. Where I sit everyone looks like an ape playing with themself in a cage at the zoo.

I don't know what his point was but mine is your comment that everything was peechy hunky dory for Jews in the Muslim world as usual is an example of how you talk of things you do not understand. Here's a hint. Dhimmitude. Now run along and try read up on what you try sould like an authority on. Boo!

With due respect as a Jew I find your comments stupid and insulting to Jews let alone Hindus and Muslims and anyone else with any intelligence, compassion or self-respect. What was your point of this story other then to incite resentment towards Muslims? Please don't use my religion and faith in an exercise to exploit and incite hatred against Muslims or anyone else. You know damn well within Jewish religion and society there are many intolerant fundamentalists who have triggered violence against each other within the Jewish faith and outside it - all religions have their intoelrant fundamentalists who do such things and in our jewish faith please don't you dare tell me there isn't intolerance displayed towards inter-faith marriages and other religions and sects. Your tossing in the Bar Mitzvah ritual which clearly was not inter-faith in an effort to suggest it shows Jews are tolerant happy people makes me want to puke as a Jew and ask are you even jewish or are you deliberately doing this to antagonize people to think other Jews are as intolerant as you and we go around exploiting other peoples' conflicts to suggest we are better then them? All religions have intolerant people and all religions have disputes as to inter-faith unions that trigger off violence and other conflicts. Don't use my religion as some cheap aside to justify your inciting of intolerance towards others. No do not use my religion to insult others! A Jew is taught to show their pride not by insulting others but by being humble and modest and not bringing credit to themselves for doing the right thing but simply showing people respect-to be respected we need to show respect -that is what we are taught-in fact we are taught if we do the right thing to be silent and never try use it for personal or collective credit or try make ourselves seem better then others- one's soul can not be defined by putting down another soul's values-what you do is a repudiation of the most basic and Jewish laws-by inciting intolerance towards non Jews you do everything we have been taught is morally wrong. For someone who claims to be a Jew you keep violating this basic rule of ethics we are to follow. The above incident was unfortunate and an example of humans being intolerant because of their rigid fundamentalist views. Your thread evidences the exact same thing. However I am confident the vast majority of readers know you do not speak for Jews just as the above incident does not speak for Muslims or Hindus or anyone else. I told you-no good comes from trying to exploit the suffering and misery of others to make yourself appear better. If you insist on doing that and use my faith as some cheap aside to enable this exercise I will condemn you with all my might because that is what we Jews have been taught to do-confront people like you and say stop it, stop the hatred its wrong. If people conflict do not take pleasure in it. Your duty is to try help them find ways to reconcile peacefully not fan the flames. To take misery and conflict and exploit it for political gain which is what you are doing is just nasty.

With due respect as a Jew I now find your comments stupid and insulting to Jews leta lone Hindus and Muslims. What was your point of this story other then to incite resentment towards Muslims. Don't use my religion and faith to exploit and incite hatred. Your pitting religions against one another like some competition and acting smug and inferring Jews are more civil then Muslims proves what other then you are being hateful. Like I said don't use my faith to try sound better then others. That is not what Jews believe or were taught to believe in and for someone who claims to be one you are acting like a hateful man trying to hide behind your religion to justify it. You want to take pride in Judaism don't do so by insulting others or pointing out the intolerance of others all that does is prove you are exactly what you criticize others of and I am quite satisfied most posters who read your thread no you do not reflect the average Jewish person anymore then the above story reflects the average Muslim or Hindu or anyone else. You know damn well within our religion there are many intolerant fundamentalists who have triggered violence against each other and in regards to inter-faith marriages.

My analysis would be as follows; 1-the vote shows a clear distinct split between rural and urban voters - with the vast majority of rural voters soundly rejecting the carbon tax platform of Dion and thus picking up 10 seats in Ontario which accounts for the major amount of seats the Tories picked up; 2-The NDP's gaining of 8 seats again came from rural areas rejecting the carbon tax-the only noticeable NDP wins in the urban areas are Jack Layton and Olivia Chow who are voted in very much as individuals and not necessarily as NDP'ers-I used t live in Chow's riding and many non NDP'ers vote for her because as a councilor in city politics and as an MP she is very much a street MP-she is grass roots and involved in local issues-the NDP pick up was clearly a repudiation of the Liberal carbon tax in rural areas where they would not go Tory; 3-the Block Quebecois retention of 50 seats represents 2 phenomena; i-Harper was counting on 30 Quebec seats to push him over the top-he might have had them but the moment he opened his mouth and made the anti-artist speech he literally handed the province back to Gilles Duceppe; ii-the Liberals failed to rally badly needed Quebec seats which is a clear repudiation of Dion which is not suprising given his role in the Clarity Act and once again Quebec shows the Liberal party is a party only elected on the Island of Montreal, i.e., its rejected by rural Quebecers for both Dion's role in the Clarity Act and his embracing of carbon tax; 4-the country has clearly rejected Stephane Dion coast to coast-people just did not buy his carbon tax and it will cost him because all his flunkies said don't push the carbon tax you will lose the rural vote if you do and he refused to listen and bam that is what happened - what Canadians rejected was not just the carbon tax but the fact that Dion just is not a people person - he lacks the chemistry to be able to carry a party and inspire a vision and its not just his severe English language problems but his method of communications-he lectures and he lectures as an angry professor and Canadians don't like angry people; 5-as per 4, Layton's smarmy cheeriness did get him some more seats but once again the NDP shows it is never going to be anything but a rump party of up to 40 seats; 6-Harper once again has shown us what we know-Canadians don't like him-Canadians don't like his anger, his arrogance, his cheap shots, his smugness, his attempts to portray himself as cuddly-they know what he is-a Social Credit Westerner whose agenda is to protect Alberta's oil industry at all costs-all Harper blew Quebec away with his costly anti-art comment-what he did show is he has pitted this country against itself and has used his rural popularity to get elected depending on the urban vote splitting itself between Liberal, Green and NDP-the pick up of seats is a rejection of the carbon tax scheme, not a love for Harper; 7-since the departure of Trudea no federal politician has offered a unified vision of Canada-we went from Mulroney putting together a coalition of Quebec Union National voters joining the federal PC party and Westerners with rural Ontario and half the Maritimes all based on playing to regional politics not a central vision. Then came Chretien who very much is a political fluke and survived as long as he did precisely because the Tories imploded and split in two with Reform and Progressive wings paralyzing it and easily allowing Chretiens to come up the middle. All Chretiens had to do was keep Ontario in his hip pocket, 20 seats from Quebec and half Atlantic Canada to rule and that is what he did-again someone who did not give a damn about the West or Quebec and appealed to only certain regions to keep him in power-now comes Harper, a Social Credit politician who hijacked the Conservative Party, routed out its Red Tories and now runs it with an iron fist and again a politician who deliberately exploits Western alienation to keep himself in power; 8-look around notice anything-I do we have two seperatists, Harper and Duceppe in essence running the country-two politicians committed to a fragmented regional view and not interested in all of Canada just their home bases. I think personally Stephane Dion was a disaster an absolut eunmitigated disaster. He presented a platform that no one would be able to understand in the short sound bites of todays election campaigns and he compounded the error by being unable to explain it in either language-he went into an election convinced he should talk environment and it was economics that took over. The best thing for this country would be if both Harper and Dion departed. Instead what we will get is more of the same. Harper will rule easily as if he has a majority for a minimum of one year and more like two. In the next two years the Liberals will implode with Ignatieff and Rae and their collosal egos attacking each other trying to get rid of Dion. Both will polarize the party and heaveb forbid but McGuinty might just enter the race as the compromise and offer the bland, boring, middle of the road politician this country might embrace after two more years of the abrasive Flaherty in finance who I predict will be transferred out of finance in two years when the recession is at is peek and he has succeeded in insulting all Canadians. Whether Harper sticks around for another election is anyone's guess.

Let me respond American Women. As I understand it this girl will have a particular life until she menstrates then they will release her back into regular society and this particular life includes; 1-only being able to leave her palace on ceremonial occasions; 2-her family can't see her unless she is engaged in some formal ritual then they can see her indirectly or briefly; 3-the people she will grow up with, i.e., other children are screened and selected from the same caste she is in, the Newari caste and these children must show respect to her; 4- she will ceremonial duties and be taught with private tutors; 5-people will come to her with a wide range of illnesses seeking her blessing; 6-she will have servants (Kumarimi). So in that respect one might argue there is a fine line between her life and what we see in Royal families or for that matter the children of extremely wealthy people or celebrities. In a way is her life that much different then what say Prince Chuck and Princess Ann and Eddie and Harry went through? Is it that much different then how Brad and Angie's kids live? What makes her life a bit questionable is that once she menstrates she is pretty much sent back to her ordinary life very quickly with little time to adjust. Poof one day a pampered Godess, the next day, a Joe Blow like everyone else. From what I understand former Kumaris receive a life pension from the state of 6000 rupees per month ($80). I would imagine that is adjusted to inflation and supposedly this pension is twice the official minimum wage and said to be four times the average income in Nepal so she does have that to fall back on. So on the one hand, yes it seems to be a bit strange using our Western standards but is it any different then our extremely wealthy children or royalty or for that matter children living in extreme fundamentalist orthodox families? Probably not. I imagine she will have a lot in common with Michael Jackson's children.

And of course Brian Mulroney was as virgin. Give it a rest with the selectivity. Harper engaged in a pre-election spending spree to get votes no different then any other incumbent using the office to try corupt people. He was not against breaking the election law and calling an election. he had no problem using taxpayer's money to send out mailouts from his MP's that clearly violated the law and were designed to serve as electioneering brochures. Harper has demonstrated he will scream law and order to get a vote but will break it when it does not suit him. This is a man who openly threatened Judges who did not make decisions he liked including Supreme Court of Canada Judges. Harper has engaged in the exact same questionable practices when he was in the opposition or in his citizen's movement he used to scream and have tantrums over. Got news for you, all politicians have fungus.

Do you know anything about the Carbon tax? For a guy who is imrpessed with canned messages on his phone from Stephen Harper, I must ask, did you even research what it is?

Of course it was. It is actually an old tape from the former Australian Prime Minister that's been recycled.