Moonlight Graham

Which countries are you speaking of. You are saying that if taxes on the very rich were raised dramatically in, say, Canada, that our democracy would corrode & be replaced by some kind of authoritarian regime? i don't see the connection.

"End of War in Iraq"...hahahahahaha It's MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! all over again. Some troops leave, yet the war marches on. As Matthew Good aptly puts it: On tuesday, 81 Iraqis were killed. and 178 wounded across the country. The war continues, newspaper headlines or not. Democracy in Iraq? Iraq has been unable to form a govt since "democratic elections" f'ed up in March. Whatever happens with this current govt situation matters little, as civil war in the country is likely at some point. It would be great to see Iraq turn into a legit liberal democracy, but like Afghanistan i'm not really that confident. What kind of "democracy" is it if you need occupying foreign permanent military bases & a massive "embassy" to keep the democracy from teetering into chaos. We'll check back in 20 years & count how many chickens have hatched. Glad to see that democratic "domino effect" of Bush's working so well in the middle east , about as accurate a prediction as the "domino effect" feared from a communist Vietnam. Ah well, a crapload of civilians died in Iraq so a crapload of people in the U.S. and elsewhere could make a few bucks. In who knows how many U.S. congressional districts bullets, guns, missiles, equipment, body armour, replacement parts for tanks/aircraft/ships etc. were manufactured so the military-industrial machine could keep churning and make America lots of jobs and $$$. The war in Iraq continues despite what your CNN/FOX anchor tells us, and it remains a complete farce to a public too stupid to realize it and a fourth estate too cowardly & headline-hungry to report it. As Matthew Good again points out: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! The war is over, yet the casualties continue.

Sums it up nicely kimmy.

And to those who don't, they can go eff themselves. These and other generations helped build & defend this great county we now live in and whose fruits we all enjoy.

I can see part of both sides of the WTC mosque debate, but this is just ignorant, hateful, and hilariously hypocritical bigotry at it's worst: A new "Ten Commandments"? Alright!!

I don't care if it's boring or not. It's incredibly important. For Canadians to have no idea where they came from or have little clue about their country is disgusting. It has destroyed Canadian nationalism in this country. Both of my grandfathers fought in WWII, i don't want their efforts forgotten by future generations. My mother was an army brat and went to school in the U.S. for a few years growing up. She said the U.S. schools just hammer the U.S. history and civics into students. Americans are proud of their history and proud of their country, and feel a strong attachment to their past. They are much more educated about their own history and politics than Canadians. This is one thing i admire about the U.S. compared to Canada.

Yes. I'd say no less than 95% of the movies Americans and Canadians watch are the same. The movie industry here is crap. You might get 1 Canadian-made movie hit mainstream theaters once every few years, and even then they usually bring in mediocre sales. Last ones were probably Passchendaele and Bon Cop, Bad Cop. We do make some very good documentaries though, but they don't really hit the mainstream theaters much & i usually pick them up on DVD. Pretty much, yes. At least compared to U.S. politics/history. I actually find it interesting, but i'm a history/poli nut and i'd gather most Canadians don't find it interesting.

Mostly agree. I think this is a good attempt to add more democracy to the Parliamentary system. Refreshing. I'm also skeptical of what kind of impact this will have on policy, but i'm optimistic it will have some kind of influence & it really can't hurt from what i can see.

With help from the CRTC, there's lots of quality Canadian tv programming and Canadian music on the airwaves. Pretty sure the CRTC has no hand in what movie theaters can/can't show, so it is smaller Canadian films with meager budgets competing for a spot in one of the 10 screens at your local cinema against Harry Potter, Avatar, Borat etc. Money talks, so theaters screen what sells to the young movie crowd. There are a good amount of quality Canadian tv movies and mini-series' though. I highly recommend the tv flick "Terry" about Terry Fox made in 2005 if you can find it, they even put it on DVD and i found it at Best Buy. woops sorry i messed up on the "invading countries" stuff. But still, pies in the face aren't as interesting as the JFK assassination, and stealth fighters are a lot cooler than 30 y/o aircraft.

That's kinda how i feel. The community centre/mosque being built so close to the WTC seems very much like these particular Muslims are just thumbing their nose at non-Muslim New Yorkers/Americans. As for Islam, i'm not a huge fan of any religion, but Islam is probably the most f'ed up of all the major world religions. But i still make a huge distinction between the extremists that kill civilians and the majority of peaceful Muslims.

For most Canadians, yes you're right. Probably most of this has to do with the fact that U.S. politics and history is a part of U.S. pop culture, which Canadians are greatly exposed. TV yes, but Hollywood movies are huge also in educating Canadians on U.S. politics/history. Unlike TV where Canadians watch both American and Canadians shows/channels, the movies Canadians watch are virtually identical to those that Americans watch. The very rare Canadian-made flick will make some noise in cinemas, but i can't name any popular films about the Vimy Ridge, Canada in WWII, the FLQ crisis, Quebec referendums etc., but just like Americans we inhale the tons of U.S.-centric Hollywood flicks about WWII & Vietnam, & all those Oliver Stone & Michael Moore political movies etc. Compound this with the pathetic lack of Canadian history taught in schools (I can barely remember any history taught in elementary school, and maybe only 4 courses throughout grades 7-12). The first time i ever heard of Samuel de Champlain or Jacque Cartier was in a grade 7 class. It's quite pathetic, and it's no wonder Canadian nationalism is so weak. It must also be said that U.S. politics are admittedly more exciting that Canadian politics. PM's don't get assassinated and we don't invade countries or drop A-bombs.

Wrong. You keep criticizing Canadians who compare Canadian politics to American politics. You're hung up on it.

Similar to how it is seemingly impossible for some Americans to communicate a domestic political concept without reference to Nazi/fascist Germany or communist Russia/China/Cuba? Get over it man.

Isn't that highly unlikely the U.S. would go bankrupt? I'm no economics expert but even i can figure that out. If they threatened to default on all their loans, countries (most notably China or course) would go ape-crazy and do everything they could to prevent this because of the insane amount of money they'd lose that would never be payed back. China would restructure repayment terms for the U.S., cancel some of the debt, or even "bail out" the U.S. if they were teetering on collapse. If the U.S. economy were seriously near collapse, virtually every country in the world would do everything it could to prevent it also because the U.S. is such a massive consumer and producer of goods & spender of $$$ that greatly benefits the economies of so many other countries. The total collapse & bankruptcy of the U.S. economy just wouldn't happen with its current place in the world.

No, you actually answered my question. You clearly choose option 1), aka the status quo. That's a perfectly valid opinion. Theft involves breaking the law, Robin Hood-style. It's not theft if it is done through legal means with consent of "the people". I have built a small island in the mid-Atlantic where the currency is hugs, lollipops grow instead of grass, and unhappiness and depression don't exist because it's illegal. I invite you to join us!

Hmm maybe right. But this time the "victims" are doing it to themselves.

Sorry for not responding to this thread of mine earlier. My main purpose of this thread was to not propose some kind of new system of grander wealth redistribution. There are obviously many complexities that would come with doing such a thing, & in reality would have many repercussions such as driving businesses out of the country thus hurting said countries' economy, among others. The MAIN purpose of this thread was to ask WHY we (people in rich western nations) don't, or historically have chosen not to, force the most wealthy of people (ie: let's say people worth a billion dollars or more or maybe the top 1%) to give the average person much more of their wealth (through taxes or whatnot)? It's clear westerners living in liberal democracies value the basic tenets of capitalism & the freedom of being rewarded for smarts/ability/hard work. However, i would think that human nature being what it is (ie: people being ultimately self-regarding/selfish) that the majority of people in any "western" country - aka those making 5-figures or less - would much rather scrap such idealism in favour of forcing the extremely wealthy to transfer enough wealth to them to add maybe the equivalent of a year's income to each person's net worth. I mean, why do most people value the right of billionaires to keep such massive amounts of wealth over the chance to attain much more wealth for themselves? It just seems odd to me. So i also want to ask this question to everyone: Ignoring the possible economic consequences for a given country implementing high taxes to the rich etc., if you had to choose between 1) billionaires having the freedom of keeping their billions OR 2) enacting tax laws forcing billionaires to give up most of their wealth (yet still keeping hundreds of millions for themselves) and you personally receiving a cheque for, say, $100,000...which would you honestly choose? (BTW I'm not talking communism here, or even a hard "cap" on wealth. People would still all earn different wages & economic classes will still exist, & the very rich can still earn as much as they are able, but they will just be taxed much greater.)

wuss?

We should have met their ship at sea, given them all refugee application papers, then turned them around and waved goodbye and good luck. Heck maybe give them some food and med supplies just to be nice. This is a spit in the face to all the other people trying to get into Canada through the regular processes. What fools they are! They'll learn now that all they have to do is show up in a boat and we'll trot them in & stick a silver spoon in their mouths...even before the tongue-depressor. What a bunch of B.S. Also read on CBC.ca today that it costs taxpayers $4,100 to process a single refugee claim. That seems...excessive.

If you're worried about spreading homophobia and misogyny via mosques, you should also be concerned with Catholic churches being built. Women can't be priests cuz that would just be wrong! Oh, and also gotta watch out for those Catholic churches spreading pedophilia too. Seriously, what up with frickin' religions and their crazy rules?

I wouldn't say they are targeting "children". The average gamer is over the age of 30 now. Tons of people who play games like Call of Duty or Halo and read gaming magazines are around that perfect military target age of 18. I remember the game you speak of. "America's Army" i think you're referring to. It was a U.S. military training program that was tweaked and ported to consoles. Back around 2005/2006 I played Halo 2 online on xbox with a young guy in his early 20's who served in Iraq for the U.S. army, and when he was back in the U.S. he would played that game.

wow, what a beautiful poem. thanks for posting.

Let's look at the overall findings (based on the polls) reported by the study in your link: Obviously a lot more complex & sometimes conflicting issues here than your citing of only one of the polls shows. This study is pretty interesting.

Wouldn't blame it on Americans. Canadian Idol and Canada's Next Top Model hurray!!! Also know a bunch of Canadian peeps who tune into the evolutionary garbage can that is Jersey shore.

There's a also a reason why so many people seem to brush an entire religion with a broad stroke of "evil" when a small minority of extremists with perverted islamic interpretations go bonkers: they are ignorant.