scribblet

I'm posting this here because it's from the Toronto Star, I'm actually amazed that they would publish such an article. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/07/24/why_hamas_is_guilty_for_the_gaza_war.html Two months ago, world leaders worried about the more than 200 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls. Since then, a more outrageous mass crime has occurred in the Middle East. The radical totalitarian group Hamas is holding nearly 700,000 Gazan children, another 900,000 adults — and much of the world — hostage, with lethal results. Nine years ago, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip. A constructive nationalist movement could have built a viable Palestinian state on Gaza’s beautiful seacoast. The world was ready to shower Palestinian pioneers with billions in aid (and did, even as Palestinian extremists chose to develop crude weapons, not their coastline). American Jewish philanthropists alone donated $14 million to purchase Israel’s Gazan greenhouses to share with the Palestinians. The agricultural techniques Israelis developed — often working with Palestinians — cultivating Gaza’s natural assets could have made Gaza the Palestinian Riviera. Had this experiment in Gaza nation-building succeeded, it could have encouraged a peaceful transition toward an independent West Bank state. Instead, claiming that not one inch of Palestinian land is free until all of it is freed, which means destroying Israel within pre-1948 borders, blinded by the totalitarian, anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist Islamist ideology articulated in Hamas’s charter and celebrated in mainstream Palestinian political culture and street culture, Palestinian extremists trashed the greenhouses within hours of receiving them. By 2007 Gaza had degenerated into Hamasistan, an Islamist thugocracy. Since then, Hamas has developed Kassam rockets and engineered sophisticated tunnels to smuggle weaponry from Egypt and cross Israel’s borders with killing squads. Every missile fired and every tunnel burrowed represents an investment in targeting Israel rather than building Palestine, hurting Arabs and Jews alike. cont.

Hamas is evil and cannot possibly be conceived as doing what they believe is best for the civilians. If so, they would quit lobbing 100s of rockets a day into Israel knowing the response it will get. Their 'Dead Baby Strategy' (forces Israel to kill as many people as possible) can't be good for the people, but it does get them some PR and sympathetic response, which is what it aims for.

I think Jonathan Kay has it right and maybe all of this is simply because Palestinians have been taught to measure their national self-worth by the amount of pain and chaos they can inflict on Jews. http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/07/22/jonathan-kay-hamas-tunnel-network-could-have-been-a-game-changing-strategic-asset-for-the-terrorists-now-its-gone/ The IDF should continue its military operation until it has destroyed all of Hamas’ tunnels into Israel. When the army eventually leaves, Hamas will declare “victory,” as it always does. And many Palestinians no doubt will echo the cry, given how low they’ve set the bar for gestures that restore their “dignity.” Until that changes, Gaza’s people will remain prisoners of Hamas’ hopeless, savage war on the Jewish state

I don't often agree with Bill Maher but check this out on youtube http://youtu.be/6qeHvd8Tdmo

Poor choice of words there.. Israeli soldiers are dying so their civilians won't. Palestinian civilians are dying so their soldiers won't. Golda Meir had it right “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”

Well said Rue !!

Hamas was the aggressor in this crime. The hundreds of rockets and mortar bombs fired indiscriminately into Israel did not provoke a response from the IDF for at least a day. The Israeli gov't is fully within its rights to defend its people including elimination of the source of the shelling. The onus for preventing civilian casualties is on the aggressor.

Hamas likes to get their body count up as it plays well to the anti Israel types, As opined in the http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hamas-is-playing-a-dangerous-game-with-gazan-lives/2014/07/15/cc5f101e-0c3b-11e4-8c9a-923ecc0c7d23_story.html, The Islamic movement calculates that it can win the concessions it has yet to obtain from Israel and Egypt not by striking Israel but by perpetuating the killing of its own people in Israeli counterattacks. More than 200 people, including a number of children, have already died in Gaza; Hamas probably calculates that more deaths will prompt Western governments to pressure Israel to grant Hamas’s demands. Stomach turning indeed

I see that but I guess he doesn't respond to PMs and all this has been a waste of time. http://www.mapleleafweb.com/forums/topic/23434-moderating-mapleafwebs-moderation/page-7#entry952766 cheers have a good summer

Refugees can apply for an Employment Authorization after about 3 months. http://www.fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraser-ca/Content/research-news/research/publications/immigration-and-the-canadian-welfare-state-2011.pdf http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/05/17/immigrants-cost-23b-a-year-fraser-institute-report/ Migrants to Canada cost the federal government as much as $23-billion annually and “impose a huge fiscal burden on Canadian taxpayers,” according to a think-tank report released Tuesday that was immediately criticized as telling only part of the story. The Fraser Institute report (download the PDF here or see it below) says newcomers pay about half as much in income taxes as other Canadians but absorb nearly the same value of government services, costing taxpayers roughly $6,051 per immigrant and amounting to a total annual cost of somewhere between $16.3-billion and $23.6-billion.

thanks... I wonder what happens to all the pms and emails he surely must receive, are they all deleted automatically after a certain length of time or does someone else check his account I wonder ? If so, then is Greg no longer actively looking after this place...

Good one !!!

I wonder if Greg will ever come back and respond to all of this and was also wondering if Greg replies to his PMs. Has anyone had a reply from Greg directly about anything ? cheers

Interesting.. I'm of the opinion that the healthcare should pay the amount it would cost if it were done in Canada, probably less than they need but likely would make it affordable. I looked into a less invasive surgery for my back problem, a procedure not available in Canada. I know two people who have had it done and it worked for them. OHIP (Ontario) only covers what they consider 'evidence based' and does not cover 'experimental' procedures, even though there is a high success rate in the U.S. they are not recognized in Canada.. I know they sometimes will pre-approve a procedure which they will then pay for, but they wouldn't pre-approve mine. I guess B.C. is the same. This sounds similar but is 2007, I suspect they are pre-approving fewer surgeries now. http://www.metroland.com/page/Cross-BorderCare Long waits, unavailable procedures and poor physician access are driving record numbers of Ontarians to seek treatment south of the border and sometimes overseas. A Metroland Special Report on Cross Border Care shows: • A 450 per cent increase in OHIP approvals for out-of-country care since the beginning of this decade, a period of explosive growth in new technologies and therapies not covered or available here. The province agreed to fund 2,110 procedures or treatments in 2001, and 11,775 last year. • Patient demand has created a new breed of health-system navigators, known as medical brokers, who find U.S. options for the growing number of Ontario patients who elect to pay for medical services south of the border.

I don't know who owns what or what political persuasion they are, but you are right about nationalnewswatch and Bourque torquing their headlines to favour liberals. Headlines on these sites are paid for so I suppose the client with the highest bid gets the headline. I like to read the news on my tablet and find the app for Canada Newspapers pretty good, no bias that I see, just the sites and news. Funny tho, I can't get the Toronto Star to come up on my tablet - don't know why, all the others do. This is from 2008 but still apprapro. I guess the Liberals have outbid the conservatives the last couple of years or so. http://www.marketingmag.ca/media/bourque-news-site-headlines-considered-political-ads-14244 Bourque openly advertises its headline service for sale, and on Friday, the top four “news” links on the site all slammed Liberal leader Stephane Dion, along with an unflattering photo. Anti-Dion headlines have been common in recent weeks.

Saw that too... Hillary Clinton got it wrong but maybe deliberately because she knows how to play the game. She broadly defined Hobby Lobby as being against all contraception when she must know that it isn't, but she knows how to manipulate and sing the right tune. Misrepresenting the decision will play well on the campaign trail and might be a valid point if not for the fact that no one is denying women the right to birth control. She is after all a politician and knows how to frame the argument to get the votes. She will play this bigtime if and when she runs for President. No doubt this will spun to a different tune by some people -

I quit with them also for the same reasons, although I still check now and then. Bourque was okay up until a 2 or 3 years ago (I think) when I guess the Liberals outbid the conservatives... who knows. Try http://www.jacksnewswatch.com/ (but its not comprehensive) http://o.canada.com/ and canoe.ca for U.S. there's the drudgereport and this one that I know of. http://polurls.com/red/

Maybe he supports beheading his way to Ottawa or some such thing. Does anyone really take this hyperbole and extremism seriously?

Thanks... Still, if they are covering birth control for women why shouldn't condoms for men be covered even if no prescription is required. After all, they are not only for birth control but aid in protection from disease for both male and female. Surely a savings for the health care system. I've read that there is r/d going on with regard to hormonal birth control for men most likely given by injection. Should that ever become a reality I suppose that will eventually be another issue for the S.C. MInd you, I bet most men wouldn't want to use it - Even Hilary Clinton misunderstood the ruling. ETA: I just read that HL's plan does cover vasectomies and female sterilization.

Why aren’t male contraceptives covered ( in the U.S.) for men, maybe if they were men would take more responsibility for family planning and health issues. I wonder if they cover vasectomies or would cover any future/potential hormonal male contraception

Buy a tablet, that way you have both. You can install a Kindle reader app on it along with others and the library epub.

Maybe, more Liberals in the 905 area at the expense of the NDP. No surprise the Liberals retained Scarborough-Agincourt, it's been solid Liberal for decades.

HL objects to Plan B, Ella, and two IUDs, I suppose the jury is still out on whether they cause abortions or not but I'm pretty sure they simply prevent implantation of a fertilized egg.