Michael Hardner

Agreed.

Blueblood offers us an interesting break from the "emotional" versus "rational" debates that we have here. While he does say: He also says: So on the one hand, he criticizes the idea that someone would use an emotional argument, but he uses a kind of emotional argument himself, which I guess I would characterize as 'contempt'. The trouble is, nobody will ever be swayed by someone with a lot of money saying "who cares" about my fellow citizens. The best American success stories have been philanthropists and benefactors to great charities, and have given back to their society. This is what the French called "Noblesse Oblige". What Blueblood seems to offer is that wealthy indifference that the French Revolution and Bolsheviks reacted to with violence, and that the socialists still use as a cartoony image of affluence. America was built into world dominance in the 1950s and 1960s on a top marginal tax rate that was several times what it is now - including 90% or somesuch under Eisenhower. Those taxes were NOT used to give handouts to poor, but to build institutions like the Interstate System or NASA as well as the military. We need to pay to keep our infrastructure, institutions, and services strong. Those best positioned to pay for that are the ones who have benefited from it, through their own hard work - yes - and through luck and other factors.

Education for what ? You can't take a high school class and make them into 'information age specialists'. Unless you're including education to massage therapist, trades, graphic design then I don't know how education will help us compete. Our labour costs too much internationally and that isn't going to change.

Thanks for your post, jbg. I think that Judaism is different from the Christian religions today, in that there is a stronger community and social aspect to participation in the faith. It wasn't always so, but it is like that today. I'm part of a secular community that, to me, is building itself up along the lines of the religious community I experienced as a child. It's a community of artists, writers and performers with an informal ethic and loose bonds, but nonetheless it is there. I feel that economic specialization splintered our geographic communities so that the traditional village of commoners with common interests is forever gone. But we still need to create communities for ourselves. You're lucky that you have Judaism to go back to. Peace to you.

Yes, I do. Lebanon has a large number of Christians, and calling somebody "Lebanese" is like calling them "Canadian". i.e. There's no likely racial or religious background to somebody from that country. I read enough of the second link to make my criticism. How does identifying the background of the assailants address the bizarre problem of "police taking a terrified hands-off approach" ? I concur with the point you have well made here in the past - that publishing background information may help throw light on a problem. However, you actually hurt your case by publishing tracts from folks who overstate the case, or arrive at the problem with a solution in-hand. Assessing crimes by background is dynamite, and as you're showing here is more likely to result in negative reactionary policies and politics than it is to result in positive focus on the area of the problem. This is why we're afraid of talking about these things in Canada - it's people like the policeman in your 2nd link who make it impossible for us to talk objectively about cause and effect as well as academics and the link who don't trust people like your policeman.

And as was explained above, the Crown has a say over exploration rights. All of these things are negotiated, and as another poster stated, above, divisiveness is being exploited for political purposes. It`s all rather silly - this east vs west and Ontario vs Alberta. Who cares ? Regional identity means less than ever in this era of globalization. As I`ve said before, if you see a flag waving in the background of the TV image, you`re likely watching a truck ad. ( Or a government ad.)

I agree with you. It seems the richer we get, the more we focus on money. It should be the other way around.

Lebanese are non-white ? How so ? The first link doesn't support your assertion that non-whites are assaulting Indians, and the second link is a long anecdotal lecture that I lost interest in after a few pages. I don`t doubt that liberals are reluctant to blame non-whites for racist attacks, but you haven`t shown it here.

Western democracy is designed to encourage open criticism and keep powers in check. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. Winston Churchil 1947

Wrong. The single case that happened in Canada was Sikh terrorists, not Muslim.

Not at all. I was responding to this point of yours: I don't think TV manufacturers want to add 3D into the mix - unless it's a marketing thing. I can see Sony or LG advertising screens that meet a certain "3D standard" On the contrary. We have a system in place that creates terrific incentives to innovate. This is a race to the top. One reason I dislike professional sports and prefer market relations is this point exactly. When professional sports people compete, nothing new is produced. When engineers compete, society gets new ideas. You see - they're hucksters. If they can add a pinwheel to a TV, and sell it as an improvement then they will. I have bad vision and HD looks good to me. But maybe that helps your point.

maple_leaf182 - if this doesn't happen, will you learn from this experience ? This doom-and-gloom article makes pretty specific predictions, so it will be easy to check back in a year to see that they didn't come true.

<sarcasm>And we'll help the US invade you.</sarcasm>

$12 an hour doesn't buy much. You can fire the dude but his replacement will likely be as bad or worse.

"Say what they like" includes saying that the project will be shut down, of course.

I like how you bolded Alberta there to make the point that Alberta has complete control over them. Very clever. It tells me that you believe that the province of Alberta - not the corporations who own the rights to the oilsands projects, or the federal departments that have jurisdiction over them. Got it.

My God, you're right.

Well, the original report came from Ottawa so... So much for criticizing things based on where they're from. How is it that we have one government department criticizing another ? Isn't there already a process whereby the Natural Resources Department documents are reviewed ? Why do we have to manage natural resources through press leaks and intrigue ? I would rather have the original paper, and the review be done above board - otherwise it all stinks of politics.

<sarcasm>Oh, on the contrary, it comes across so well on the forums</sarcasm>

I noticed, though, that most rageous people have dark eyes. Could mean something. Not sure.

WA - I think you're right, but there have always been mechanisms that parties have used in political strategy. I would have guessed that the public would yawn at the prorogation and gone back to sleep, however it seems that the government action is in disfavour with the public.

That's a strange statement. Democracy depends on open media to create a public sphere of discussion and debate.

What the community has lost, though, the individual has gained. We have more personal freedom, and less pressure from our peers and community to conform than ever. People are always lamenting the loss of old values, where in fact things generally get better and better.

The site feeds on the tradition of American paranoia, but you likely made the mistake I did and didn't clip Topaz's url properly. here it is again: Infowars Site

No, we don't. That would be handy though.