Moonlight Graham

Wouldn't really be smart to let the insurgents know in advance that the the Prez is coming would it? I'm sure Bush thought that brilliant strategy up all by his lonesome.

lol true.

exactly

Does this mean i can't be a ghost for Halloween?

Right back at ya

that's so gross.

That's only 1 side of the story.

Sometimes government solutions are needed, as disdainful as they may sometimes seem. Its been very much shown that pure radical socialism/communism doesn't work well, and its been shown that laissez-faire doesn't either (ie: business-owner exploitation of workers pre-Great Depression, which led to the New Deal in the U.S. and govt enforced minimum wages and union rights etc.). If you look at the countries which rank at the top of having the highest standard of living, health etc. they strike a good balance between free open markets and gov't intervention/social programs. Clinging to some principle/ideal seems counter-intuitive rather that doing what actually works. The U.S. is by far the richest and most powerful country in the world. Yet they rank 13th on the U.N. Human Development Index, which ranks countries overall based on life expectancy, average standard of living (GDP-per-capita), adult literacy rates etc. With the resources the U.S. has they should be the #1 country to live in by a long shot! The U.S. certainly has the best healthcare in the world IF YOU CAN ACCESS IT. Canada has a doctor shortage, longer ER wait times, and longer wait times for surgery. Yet Canada, with its yucky social programs and gov't run healthcare system, ranks higher in average life expectancy and child mortality rates than the U.S. The U.S. also spends more per capita on healthcare than Canada, but the results are less, at least averaged across the whole population. Socialism oooh no such a scary word! What the concept of socialized healthcare basically means is that even though i may not know people from another city, i still give a crap about their health and well-being and i'm willing to give up a few bucks to ensure it.

Ocean currents won't stop, not unless all the oceans in the world freeze completely. Big difference in the ocean conveyor and in ocean currents in general. 99% of all life species that have existed throughout the history of the earth have gone extinct. That's nature. For sure that rapid climate change is not friendly to the survival of many species. Humans are a very adaptable species, and i think if the average global temp rapidly rose to 25C that our species would survive, though or course i'm sure many would also die as a result. I could move to the Yukon and likely do ok.

If the earth continues to warm at the rate its going there will certainly be negative (and some positive, but certainly a lot of negative) effects for humanity and many parts of the biosphere. However, i doubt the ocean conveyor will stop and cause mega disaster as Al Gore claims. During the vast majority of the Phanerozoic eon (last 500 million years) its been a lot warmer than it is now, over 10 degrees warmer than todays global average though 4 separate and a very long periods: http://www.scotese.com/climate.htm There was no catastrophic disaster from the extended warm periods, in fact life thrived through much of it. There have been many times in the past where there was no major glaciation on earth, which was naturally followed by an ice age, and the cycle continued.

Canada doesn't "like to say we have free speech". We do, its legally enshrined in our Constitution in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Section 2. But sometimes people infringe on other people's rights, thats called breaking the law. If any people feel they have been wronged & their legal rights infringed, they should take it to the courts.

You mean sea to sea to sea.

Interesting letter/article. I don't know what will happen regionally in the rainforests due to global warming, but isn't it basic science knowledge that more warming temperatures creates more evaporation, at least on a global average? On a global scale, when the earth has warmed in the past it has usually caused more precipitation. As i said, if the rainforests are indeed susceptible to drought and somehow global warming will cause more drought there i'm thinking it will be a regional phenomenon. Throughout history flora and fauna have thrived in warmer times. Take the era when dinosaurs lived, which was a very fertile time for life on earth and was much warmer then than it was today. Also, during the Holocene maximum, Egypt (one of the driest places on earth now obviously) was much more fertile and the Nile much more flooded with water. There was lush Savanna all over Egypt at the time. This time also coincided with the great rise of human civilization along the Fertile Crescent, which included Egypt. As the earth became cooler following the Holocene maximum the Nile & Egypt dried up eventually to what it is now. Antarctica, the coldest place on earth, is also the driest place on earth as well. Antarctica and Arctic rank 1 and 2 in having the largest deserts on earth.

You and I would get along just fine i think.

i dunno. The # impressed him and actually made him more interested in conversing with him. I love the Normandy scene, but after that i think the movie was just ok. Not one of my all-time fav war flicks overall.

Pretty good flick, enjoyed it. I hated the lead character, he was an ass. The ending was a little cliche. But still good flick. Better than Avatar lol.

Tell that to Tiger Woods. And OJ. But in this case, its great for her. Especially if she still got paid for the canceled speech.

Where is it reported that the protesters threatened assault or showed violent behaviour in any way? I would think that if the University didn't want her to speak there, they wouldn't have let the organizers allow her to come in the first place. If anything i would say shame on the Ottawa U Students Association for banning people from putting up posters advertising the event because of their views on her.

Nobody prevented her from speaking but the organizers themselves. They were the ones who canceled the event. Not the university, not the police. And i've heard no reports of the protesters doing anything other than arriving in large numbers and chanting. The safety issue was in the large number of the crowd at the building, and only the "potential" for something to happen. Nobody besides the actual organizers prevented her from stepping in front of the mic. Ann has the right to free speech (though i actually dont legally know how this applies to foreigners), but Canadians also have the right to "freedom of peaceful assembly" as guaranteed in Section 2.c. of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Organizers, not university cancelled Ann Coulter: U of O

How does what happened in Ottawa have anything to do with sexism? It's more like arsehole-ism. Its not like people didn't protest when Bush Jr. spoke in Alberta last year. He, to my knowledge, does not have a vagina.

I have no problem with free speech. When i first heard about this incident i thought it a bit dumb that it was canceled. I originally thought "she's a moron but should be able to talk". However, after just reading some things she's said & what she recently said to a Muslim student at the University of Western Ontario i think she is seriously bordering on hate-speech: http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/03/22/13322641-qmi.html Coulter is smart in that she knows how to get people talking and how to make a buck. But she is completely immoral as a human being. Anyone who has to say this crap to make a living is morally repugnant. Even if some of it is tongue-and-cheek. Personally i'm glad her ugly face was denied from speaking and i want her out of this country ASAP. She can say whatever she wants in her own country but don't bring your garbage into ours. See ya Ann. The most unfortunately thing is that this gives her even more attention that she loves and will make her more money. Its idiots like this that give Conservatives a bad name. Shame on people like Shady who pay her money to read her trash and to see her speak.

Canada and the U.S. are each others biggest trading partners. Logic says that a U.S. economic pooper would affect Canada the most. And its not like the economy in southern Ontario hasn't been ravaged by the U.S. car industry crisis. Canada has a better banking system than the U.S., and most of the rest of the world for that matter. Deal with it.

I certainly do try to scrutinize everything i read/hear etc. on the science. Am i 100% convinced the hockey stick graphs are wrong, and that i'm right? No certainly not. Even though i learn towards the side i argued, half the reason i made the argument was just to answer your challenge. But i still believe that tree rings aren`t the most valuable temp proxy. For either side of any debate on so many issues in climate science one can make a legit case with seemingly compelling arguments for each side of any issue. So what i generally said a while back is still my opinion on the whole climate debate: that humans understand so little about climate that anyone it makes the entire debate a giant piece of garbage. both the "skeptics" who say its cooling or its "blah blah" reason why its warming not CO2 and also AGW "alarmists" who are convinced on the effects of CO2 and that we headed for disaster both don't know a poop what they are talking about. I am actually very open-minded on the debate, or at least try my best to be. It seems like every week there is some new revelation about the climate science. I just think that we have so far to go in the science that anyone who claims to be sure of any conclusion is full of it. And i am quite tired of people trying to convince me and others of their views when they don't know what the heck they are talking about.

Thats true. Particulates and aerosols have a cooling affect, they reflect and block the sun as you said. One of the reasons volcano eruptions usually have a net cooling effect.

The Blackbird has always been very cool. Had a big G.I. Joe plane that looked like one as a kid. Black and everything. Badass!! This is a helicopter, but i also love the AH64-D Apache Longbow. Its too bad the Taliban don't use tanks because i'm sure the Longbow would be wildly effective among the mountains/hills in Aghanistan: