Moonlight Graham

Canada is in a great situation. The U.S. and Russia can have its giant bombs and go flying around the moon all it wants, China can have its fancy Olympic opening ceremonies etc. But i'll take Canada's high life expectancy, quality of living, low crime/ violent crime rates, resilient economy, and international respect etc. Other countries may have been/may be much more powerful than Canada, but it looks like we, along with states like Australia, Japan, and the Scandinavian countries, are the smart ones. CANADA #1 BABY WOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

But he wore a cowboy hat. That must mean he's hardcore rightwinger huh?!?

The Dalai Lama is a nice guy, and one cool dude. China should just shove it. He's welcome in Canada any time.

Read some articles on this. It's definitely premeditated. I would call it a terrorist attack. If he was a Muslim, they definitely would call it one. Crime, terror...does the definition really matter? Guy rammed a plane into a government building.

Very interesting. From cbc.ca: Full article: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/02/17/scanners-muslim.html#ixzz0forp4ZVD

CFRA is ok. My conservatives parents have always listened to it a ton, especially Lowell Green. At least it airs different view point from people like Lowell, yet also lets more moderate voices like Michael Harris have a show. So in that sense, its a good station. Good for liberty and free speech (as Green has been harassed by the CRTC a gazillion times yet CFRA still backs him up)

That's the big problem i have with the olympics. Money has as much to do with the quality of athletes a country has. But other than that, the Olympics as a whole are fine to me. Heck, i think it brings international cooperation and unity. Is there a better example where so many countries throughout the world come together and cooperate in such a peaceful (well, 99% of the time anyways) way? It's (mostly) friendly competition, and IMO has a positive affect on the world. It's a great example of how the international community can come without trying to figure out ways to kill or not kill each other.

Most of the protesters aren't violent. It's a minority of idiots, and there is a myriad of people in the protests who are there for a myriad of reasons, many having nothing to do with Vancouver or poverty. Heck, many of the homeless have been shipped out of the city to the suburbs before the games as to not make Vancouver look "icky". You are such a tough guy. I wonder how you'd feel if it were your son or daughter, mother or father out on those streets. Hell you'd probably change the locks on your doors.

I don't think Iran should have a nuke because their gov't is a bunch of a-hole thugs. However, they do have very valid reasons for wanting nukes. The U.S. and allies have invaded both countries neighbouring Iran to the East and West, Iraq and Afghanistan respectively. For the people and leaders of Iran, only a fool wouldn't want a deterrent to prevent a possible invasion somewhere down the line. Also, the U.S. and the West are COMPLETE HYPOCRITES when it comes to the NPT. We have let Israel build a nuke program and acquire an arsenal of nuclear weapons (that only a moron would deny), we let them deny inspectors, and heck it's likely we have even helped him them in their nuke acquisitions at some level. So why do we, the West, not even raise a stink about Israel, yet we condemn Iran? Obviously it has to do with who we are allied with. The NPT apparently doesn't apply if it fits our security agenda.

I'm pretty positive Canada has killed thousands of people through the years.

How so? He pushed the bailout of some huge companies and a big stimulus package. I think most of the stimulus should have kicked in sooner and more punishment/responsibility reigned down upon the greedy wallstreeters. But the bailouts saved tons of jobs, and the interest rate cuts and stimulus spending is classic Keynesian economics.

Ok, in the name of a friendly debate i'd honestly like to know the reasons why you think it was/is the right decision?

I did a research paper last year on what motivates Muslim terrorists, and there seems to be a pretty clear consensus on the main factors. Western foreign policy in the Middle East is only half the issue. The foreign policy is the primary reason that makes them hate us the most in particular. However, it does not explain why they are trying to kill people in general. Why are radical Muslims the only people who have wage a global terror war against the West? Why not the Vietnamese? Koreans? So many in Latin America who have been f'ed by Western policy? The reason is religion, more specifically radical Islamic fundamentalism. The teachings of Qutbism in particular have been a massive inspiration to bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and so many other jihadists and comprise most of the ideological basis for them. Here is a brief overview of Qutbism's influence on al-Qaeda from wikipedia's main entry on "al-Qaeda": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-qaeda#Ideology I recommend everyone research Qutbism on wikipedia or in other more scholarly sources. It is fascinating. That article doesn't mention that Qutb lived the U.S. for a few years and wrote how he despised their culture (obviously it was much different than traditional Islamic culture).

wow.

Argus, you have no idea what you're talking about. There's poor people. Then there is the type of horrendously poor and homeless and drug users like those that reside in Vancouver's downtown lower east side. You, along with most of us here, have absolutely no clue the horror and pain these people have gone through in their lives. Many of them were abused as children or came from despicable homes altogether. I wonder how "whiny" you'd be if you're dad was giving you blowjobs when you were 5 years old. Get a clue.

lol i meant Afghanistan

Ya, JFK shot himself in the foot. The entire point of my reference to the Cuban Missile Crisis was to use the Crisis itself as an example of the biggest poop-pile a President has ever been in. One should ask themselves how they think a potential candidate for POTUS would perform in such a situation. Things like healthcare and taxes are important, but they are Pringle chip crumbs compared to that hot potato.

Probably over a billion dollars it will cost for these Olympics. Thats well over budget and the area will be paying off that bill for decades. Vancouver needs to get its damn priorities in check. They have huge drug and homeless problems. The downtown lower-east side is the poorest neighbourhood in Canada. Would have been much better to put that money into helping solve these social problems than a massive sporting event, as nice as it is.

Obama says less than 100 al-Qaeda operating in Iraq. Hmm, since the insurgents won't be beaten, time to leave then.

Never said the Bay of Pigs wasn't stupid. The number of proxy wars and covert actions that JFK was involved with never had close to the potential of destruction that nuclear war with the USSR. Hell, JFK ordered a draw down of 1000 U.S. troops in Vietnam a month before his death, which Johnson reversed, and McNamara said he wanted to pull out the troops by 1965. Point is, JFK got the U.S. out of the situation. If he had listened to his military, like Bush likely would have done, poop would have hit the fan, well beyond what the blockade did:

I don't know if it makes her stupid. If she doesn;t realize it, then yes she's stupid. But if she does realize it (how can she not??) and still wants to run makes her selfish, and in a way, unpatriotic. To know you are not competent to be POTUS, let alone, VP, and yet still run for the job, you are doing your country a huge disservice. But then, the voters have the final say. Thankfully they they didn't vote her into office with McCain.

The problem with Palin isn't that she is stupid per say. The problem is that she is very uninformed and uneducated in matters of politics and history and how the world works. She proved that over and over during the 2008 campaign. That's what would make her an incompetent President...or VP. She needs to stop writing books and start reading some. But even being educated doesn't guarantee anything. Condoleezza Rice was very educated yet still was a bonehead.

He got out of the situation without nuclear bombs going off didn't he? Someone else may have listened to the Joint Chiefs, and boom.

If Palin were President during the Cuban Missile Crisis many millions may have got nuked. I'll go with sneaky over stupid any day.