SirRiff

oddly nobody addressed my very targeted question as to why the US gov isnt citing all this so called evidence...i will repost the questions that need to be answered before anybody could even consider the arguments put forward.. does it strike anybody rather odd that if all this obvious evidence exists, the bush admin several statements clarifying saddam had nothing to do with 911 would be false? if there is evidence, why is it being argued on a canadian message board rather then by the bush admin? especially considering it would have given them real justification for going into iraq and helped thier position in the world. did bush just forget all this 'evidence'? were they wrong when they admitted saddam had nothing to do with 911? please explain sirriff

Moderate Centrist is exactly right. once you belief you hold the absolute truth you no longer retain rational thought nor the abilty to learn. an oft cited pseudo definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior expecting a different result. well i would submit a unquestioned belief in ones infallibility is the reason why there is hatred even within christianity or any religion. sirriff

Lost in Manitoba, i think any society that took that sort of hard line approach to thier needy would quickly find those people would be desperate enough to bring down the whole society. when a human being is hungry and desperate and hopeless, he is far more likely to act outside the bounds of the rest of civil society. just looking at the correlation between war and poverty should be a warning to us all. history if full of the weak being mobilized by poverty to desperate and destructive measures against their own people. a good metaphor would be: no matter how nice your house is, you are only as safe as your worst off neighbor. to the original question... while a society that does neither will collapse, i think from a purely functional nonmoral view equality will breed a more stable society then raw capital accumulation. while competition is certain the machine of innovation and advancement, ruthless competition has many hidden social costs that are rarely discussed. what good is a new vaccine if large segments of poor are like to be diseased? will it be given for free? could the resources used for the drug have been used to prevent the spread of the disease in teh first place? humans have a misery thresehold, and given enough misery like you see in africa, and to a lesser extent the middle east, we will revert to animal instinct and forgoe civilized thought. just the fringes of society who are desperate will drain the resources of the majority in trying to deal with them. sirriff

this is more specifically what i am talking about.. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2003Nov19.html talk about disrespect. and the RCMP seems to have been more concerned with helping the US rather then assuring the safety of its own citizen. amazing. if this is how they treat us, nobody is safe sirriff

does it strike anybody rather odd that if all this obvious evidence exists, the bush admin several statements clarifying saddam had nothing to do with 911 would be false? if there is evidence, why is it being argued on a canadian message board rather then by the bush admin? especially considering it would have given them real justification for going into iraq and helped thier position in the world. did bush just forget all this 'evidence'? were they wrong when they admitted saddam had nothing to do with 911? please explain sirriff

its not the law that is harming criminals, its themselves. my point is if two drug dealers kill each other it doesn;t bother me for the same reasons as if an innocent bystander was killed. my concern is for law abiding citizens first. one person chooses to act like a criminal, the other doesnt. sirriff

i remember when this broke it was like canada was a terrorist haven.. link then we screw ourselves over a bit.. link it almost feels like our presence is an inconvienent to this grand security plan now. maybe if we had gone into iraq we would get the benefit of the doubt, but i would have a huge problem deproting a US citizen of any kind to some middle east country to face torture. i also have enough faith in the US legal system to be able to prosecute its own citizens, and think its a diplomatic courtesy to send citizens back when there is no real proof of wrong doing. what is going to happen to our so called 'special' relationship with teh US? britons dont even want the hassle of being best buds with the US. canada generally does want to be close but i dont think we are being treated like the caliber of nation we are. we gotta demand protection of our own interests too. anybody else see the bad outcomes of this? sirriff

all this seperation talk is stupid. you cant leave canada. there. if its so unbearable move to the US. else you are stuck here just like everyone else. if everybody seperated because they didnt feel loved nothing would function at all. no BC shouldnt leave. or alberta or quebec or whoever else thinks they are getting a raw deal. Sirriff

well i think all your info is right. i belive the same trend in the US too, with crime decreasing over the last 20 years. but, i think we are willing to accept less violence as the middle class grew richer during the 80s and 90s. drunk driving and domesitic abuse were all made social issues, which really helped us advance as a society. to be honest, if two rival gangs in toronto beat each other up, well we will never stop that. i dont really care too much if some gang banger dies because he lived a violent and risky life for whatever reason. as long as it doesnt spill onto innocents. i considering the biggest quality of life crimes to be sexual assaults against young women/children. i am not sure how rape as decreased over the last 20 years, but something tells me that the exploitation of women is still a very big problem and alot of the suffering goes unreported. i dont think we can ever gauge how many young girls and boys are molested every year. incidently, for the first time in my life, or really anybody i know, i had my car broken into. the first time it was sitting in the middle of a mall parking lot and my parents left the door unlocked. someone took apart the steering column and tried to get it started but couldnt. 800$ cost to insurance. just last week again it was sitting in the middle of my apartment lot and someone ripped out my stereo. its a 1998 neon with a cassette deck. so i cant imagine what they were trying to get at exactly. sirriff

there is no substance to kays report that says iraq has even programs of WMDS. all he said was thay there MAY be "PROOF" of "INTENT" or something vauge like that. THERE IS NO SMOKING GUN i dont care who claims it, if there was it would be all over CNN tomorrow. kays report never cited real material evidence of WMDS existed. in fact, nothing material was found at all. only some labs that could have come from any high school lab in north america. so in reality he found nothing. now he is saying there is no evidence of WMD transfer either. so in truth NOTHING that was claimed to be so certain and obvious before the war has come to the light of day. kay has never found anything but he cant say that so he is being diplomatically vauge about it without outright lying. its all he can do without screwing himself. sirriff

that is meaningless because it is not a justification for war to supply al queda anyways. as we all know, the US sent $3 billion in weapons to afganistan, where alqueda started. thus the US is guilty of whatever ties saddam is accused of. thus any accusation by the US is baseless, as they have gleefully engaged in teh same activity. not to mention they have every incentive to lie as they based thier entire argument on WMD and have found none. the fact that the US never puts its secret wars under the microspoce for scrutiny means they have no authority in leveling this charges against others. the war war repeatidly justified on the existance of WMDs and the transfer of WMDs. i'm not sure how you can just forget that since it was all bush blabbed about for weeks to scare people. of course, not anymore you notice. and i will state once again, this is from the UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENCE. the least credible source around right now. thats like asking bush what the justification for war is this week. anybody that believes a bush admin politician as GIs are dying in iraq everyday with an election coming up, american attitiudes on war justification are slipping LINK , and they desperatly want to save face, is relying on people as unreliable as osama and saddam. its a useless source unless supported by some international credible third party. else you would have believed the aluminum tubes and yellowcake story too. Sirriff

A is the closest logical choice, but its not perfect. we still have room believe it or not for new canadians. so i dont know if 100K is so much better then 150K or 200K. if your idea that less is better, eventually you will advocate 0. my ideal is that less is not better, and some generous number of immigrants should be allowed. especially if you encourage them to settle in rural areas. definately criminals must be screened as much as possible. like former nazis, and african military people who engaged in genocide, or known terrorists or whatever. that is concerned about screening more then limiting. absolutely immigrants should have to complete a comprehensive canadian history test before granted citizenship. in truth, all high school students should be required to pass some basic level of science and history and english too. but there is absolutely nothing wrong with demanding immigrants accept our culture and history as thier own if they want to live here and enjoy our nation. i think the US has gotten heat about fast tracking citizenship for immigrants in the military. i think people who sign up to serve should get a range of benefits anyways. priority citizenship after serving your term honorably seems reasonable to me. sirriff

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2003Nov15.html washington post cites briefings from kay saying there are no WMD links... it seems more and more like some people want it to be known thier intelligence was twisted. i'm sure the CIA doesnt appreciate having its accuracy questioned around the world. SirRiff

hey alliance fanatic, i had no idea you were native american. the only "true" canadians were the ones that have been here since the beginning of mankind. those whites that feel out of place now are the decendants of whites who made indians feel out of place a long time ago. the solution to that problem would have been to prevent whites to continue to settle in canada 200 years ago. so there is no great authority that any white canadian has over any other canadian. in truth there really is no problem other then ones peope invent. blacks and whites and asians invent this huge divisions and futher divide themselves. nobody can make you feel less canadian. sirriff

as if pat robertson, and jerry falwell, and all those other evangelical right wing nuts whose only job it is to point out supposed immorality in others dont have a vested interest in thier position? the entire conservative christian political movement is one big corporperation, huge amounts of money and power in claiming the moral highroad and convincing bible belt citizens to follow them. everyone has an agenda, but i doubt planned parenthood is even close to the conservative christian machine in the states in terms of revenue and power. not to mention, most medical services are for profit in the US. alot of churches make pretty damn good $$ too from what the sex abuse scandels showed us. Sirriff

you cant be serious, obviously i am also suspect of anythign that isnt right in front of my nose, but when the washingtonpost or some reputable news organization quotes a CIA source, its usually true. just like the leaked CIA operative, or all the classified pre iraq reports that have come out, people leak to news organizations specifically because they feel this is information that needs to come. you notice government never comes out and absolutely denies this stuff, because if they did the memo would appear front page the next day. its been reported for months that many inside the CIA disagree with the use of intelligence, and several have spoken out through newspapers. SirRiff

well yes hugo you are right, but that philosophy is valid in the context in which the outcome of that presumption will change the decision made. in truth, even if a clump of cells can be considered life, a women can still not want that life to proceed inside her. so even if we err on the side of life, and claim that even fertalized eggs having the potential of life, must be protected as life, we end up with the situation of forcing one person in the interests of another. and i dont think that that is philosophically less important that making the initial distinction. if the entire point of identifying life and sencient thought and humnanity is to preserve and protect its important, then by forcing a women to submit her autonomy to the presumed unborn child, you end up weakening very point you are trying to make. that life itself is the qualification for self determination. so i dont see how both points can be valid at the same time. sirriff

i think you are missing the point here... i am not sure if he is dangerous or not, that comes from investigation, else the RCMP would have already arrested him. the problem here is that the US knowingly sent him to be tortured as a way to break him. they knew he was canadian, they knew he lived in canada, they knew he requested deportation there, they could have handed him over to us. but instead, they sent him to syria where they knew he would be tortured. even if he is guilty of something, it is immoral and unethical to throw him to teh dogs in the hopes of finding something. the fact that teh RCMP hasnt arrested him means its unlikely he is dangerous or they have specific info on him. regardless, being suspicious of a person is not enough for the US to deport a Canadian citizen for torture. we shouldnt tolerate it. hell if he was guilty of something, we should be the one to lock him up too, he is our citizen. SirRiff

hey fastned maybe you should try reading the thread before singling something out. the original post specifically states. to which i respond i will just point out how uninformed it makes you look to not even know what is being discussed back and forth. if you cant take the time to read the discussion don't bother trying to criticize others. it only reflects badly on you to not follow the topic of discussion, which if you read the link, was economic sanctions and potential US reponse as the original poster said. this is how you guage economic power? as someone who has actually been to india, its obviously disgustingly overpopulated. THAT is why there is a huge net outflow of people to less populated regions like north american and europe. adn the best and brightest have the most opportunity to go to north america, where they earn the best return on thier human capital. this all has nothing to do with the strenth of teh world ecnomic powers. while the US may get some of indias best programmers, the TOTAL effect is that there are still hundreds of thousands of qualified IT professionals in india who work harder and better then anybody because they are more desperate. we are talking about nations against nations, and not even the top 1% leaving for more money will slow down india and chinas huge advances in global influence. hell in 10 years there may be no brain drain there at all if they can properly reward human capital. the US is loosing its dominance as globalization takes place, every year the amount it imports from teh world increases, its trade debt is huge. india with its massive workforce will supply huge amounts of IT expertise, which is already taking share away from the US and taking away its high value jobs. china with its manufactuering power will only continue to grow and i think be dominant in the world eroding away the once safe US markets around the world. in short, western nations cannot match the desperation and populations of potential economic competition. sirriff

there was some story on CBC i think about a man looking for his uncle who died in WWII. the kid was like 17 walking through a wheat field somewhere in europe when they were attacked. was from Saskatchewan. i was just thinking, i coudnt even do my own laundry at 17... those were tough kids. it was also nice to see the ceremonies by the french gov in honor of teh canadians that fell on the beaches there. very nice tribute. SirRiff

stems cells are just the intermediate path to very precise control over individual genes in teh body. we need to use stem cells to learn about regenerative genetics before we can advance to true gene therapies which will bypass diploid cells as teh basis for generating healthy genes to replace defective ones. the technology will someday improve the quality of life of alot of people, but it definately borders on designing life with some applications. the ethical implications are what need to be discuss, for instance, in the near future, if down syndrome (trisomy 21 i believe) could be prevented by some sort of stem cell infusion, a mother who actually has a down syndrome baby might be looked apon as morally wrong for not making sure her baby is either cured or aborted. some common medical problems will be able to be cured, thus leaving those who are born with them to be classified into "could have been prevented" humans. with the blame on their parents perhaps for letting such a preventable defect to continue to exist. especially when you consider the advances in prenatal genetic screening, there will be hundreds and hundreds of potential defects that can be identified, and you have to decide what needs 'treatment' and what is cause for abortion? SirRiff

i dont know why americans continue to think they are dominant in every field. india and china together could easily replace every job in the US overnight. other nations will erode the USs economic strength around the world, especially when US companies are threatened by terrorism and hostile governments. china and india are advancing rapidly, and in 10 years, together could definately counteract US actions in the world. SirRiff

i recall reading a stat that there are 30,000 rape pregnancies in the US every year. source was listed as some US agency. if true, its sickening, but also another reason why abortion must be an option, not to mention many other instances of unwanted pregnancies that dont classify as pure criminal rape. sirriff

it is a really bad case of Canadians not protecting their own. first we give them info on a potential threat, fine, i will give the rcmp or whoever the benefit of the doubt that there was a reason, even if false, to act in that manner. but having received this cooperation, the US agency must realize that our cooperation is based on the promise that our citizens will be treated with respect, and would obviously be deported back to Canada for us to handle. if they cant do this, we should stop sharing intelligence until they get their act together. sirriff

oh and one more thing for those who like to occupy thier minds pretending the Liberals are the sole actors of corruption.. as if it wasnt obvious enough, corruption is an inevitable consequence of the design of government. SirRiff