Moonlight Graham

Methane is also a greenhouse gas.

Don't forget the third world has low education among populations, therefore they don't even know what the heck "global warming" is. Or know how to spell it.

It's not that simple. The effects of colonialism didn't just end magically when the Europeans left. There's plenty of blame to go around, for the West and certainly the developing countries themselves, along with circumstances that were out of everyone's control. OPEC dramatically raised oil prices in the 1970's from $2 a barrel to $39. For oil-importing countries, especially poor ones, this was devastating. The 1970's also saw huge amounts of lending to third world countries because interest rates were low, which helped many developing countries at the time. But shortly after, the U.S. and Western banks raised interest rates in order to try to end inflation. This led to some countries (Mexico, Brazil, Argentina) to default on their loans in 1982. Others had to take out new loans just to pay the interest on their former loans. Third World countries have their own share of the blame. Poor gov't investments & decisions, war, brutal dictators. The whole underdevelopment situation is such a complex problem it's mind-boggling.

riverwind does. I can't 100% answer that. I suppose Europe was just more developed (economically, politically), better educated, more advanced technology, went through the "Enlightenment" period, led the Industrial Revolution. Comparing tribes of North American natives or Africans to European towns, cities etc., i guess Europeans just won the race. Thems the breaks? Heck ancient Rome had most of Africa & the Americas beat. I never said they would have caught to the Europeans, though it's reasonable to assume that without the exploitations of colonialism they would be further along that path today. Here's some interesting reading for you that may answer some of your questions. Andre Gunder Frank, an important development theorist: "The Development of Underdevelopment"

They do not ignore them. But there is a difference between them. What is the similarity in the former colonial states you just mentioned? They were permanently settled & colonized by white Europeans. These colonies had the luxury of not having most of their resources exploited, sold and/or and exported because they (for the most part) had the support of their mother European metropoles. It's obviously much more complicated than this. Europeans obviously aren't responsible for every problem in third-world countries, but their meddling imperialism certainly put them on the wrong track, especially after the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the capitalism world economy. Look at virtually any third-world/developing country on the map today. Almost every single one was formerly colonized by a European power during the last 500 years or so without permanent white European settlers controlling the country. (one exception would be China, although parts of it too were colonized by the British ie: Hong-Kong, Taiwan, but China also has had a better economic fate than most other developing countries)

Ok, enough with the hearsay. Can you provide peer-reviewed scholarly sources for your claims? I can. I did a quick search on a local University online database portal of peer-reviewed scholarly journals. I entered keywords "global warming", "climate change", "droughts", "floods", "hurricanes", and here's 4 journal articles i quickly found. I will cite each work, followed by a copy of the entire abstract of the article (i'm obviously not going to copy & post the entire articles). Feel free to look them up yourself. There's my evidence of the "link between natural disasters and climate change". I'm sure i could probably find 500 similar articles easily. It really doesn't take journals though to see how warm temperatures affect the severity of weather. Go to any lake during the summer. If it is a relatively sunny & warm day (say 25 degrees C or higher) there will likely be some kind of breeze, and there will almost certainly be waves on the lake water. At around near dusk or dawn on that same day & through the night, unless there is a storm system that comes through, you will see the waves dramatically drop in size, sometimes even stopping completely & the water looks like glass. The only difference in variables here is 1) temperature and 2) sunlight. This is very observable, i see it all the time at my cottage. Anyways, I invite you to post some scholarly evidence for your claims. Your claim on land use seems logical. I'm sure this affects flood & droughts. I would appreciate some sources on these claims though if you have them. The vast consensus among development theorists, political scientists, and historians agree that European colonialism of Africa, Asia, and Latin America (ie: developing countries) was by far the #1 factor in the underdevelopment (economic, social, and political) and political instability of third world countries. So Europeans of particular countries are greatly at fault, though whether their currently living descendants spread across the globe should be held responsible in any way for this is obviously debatable.

Have you ever read the Qur'an?

I admire your enthusiasm. However, if you are going to create such a party you need qualifications. A degree in political science, public/international affairs, history, business/economics, or law etc., or at least a firm grasp in knowledge in some or all of these, is vitally important if you want to start and lead a national political party, let alone become PM. Do you know how many Senators we have in Canadian Parliament? Have you ever read Marx and Engels' "The Communist Manifesto"? Do you know what the capital of Singapore or Bolivia is? Can you explain to me what the Treaty of Westphalia was? Who is the current Chancellor of Germany? You need to know how the world and the country works before you can lead in it. Also, the idea of creating a "centrist" federal party in Canada isn't exactly an original one. But heck i wouldn't mind seeing it!

WHOA THOSE PREZ's AND PM"S BETTER WATCH OUT!!! This has teeth... p.s. nice website.

Interesting editorial. If true, i think that's mostly crap ie: "repaying environmental damages". There is truth to the damage, drought, floods etc. that climate change will cause, but i'd rather any such "retribution" payment be seperate from a climate treaty. I don't even like the term "retribution". Should just be called "aid". I would like to read the draft of the plan for the myself. I encourage everyone to give it a glance before you make judgments based on an editorial.

Hard to say. Afghanistan is not exactly popular among Canadians. I would say there is a definite chance they would extend the mission if elected to a majority. However, would they do it and risk the negative press? I think they would if they announced the extension at the beginning of their majority reign, giving them 4-5 years to shake off the negative effects of that flip-flop.

It must be noted that nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize ended only 10 days after Obama was inaugurated as President. What a joke, really. Talk is cheap, actions speak much louder than words...no moreso than in politics. And no moreso in politics than during campaigns.

From cbc.ca: It's no secret that Harper has said Canadians will remain for reconstruction etc. after the 2011 pull-out. However, of note to me are the parts i put in bold. This to me is not appropriate, and does not constitute "humanitariun development & reconstruction". The training of Afghan soliders IS part of a military mission and a military agenda, in my opinion. It is using Canadian soldiers & equipment to militarily support the Afghan gov't & military/police against threats from the Taliban. I find this unacceptable. Your opinion?

That's the spirit!! Bomb for the sake of boredom. What i don't understand is how can Israel arm their subs with nuclear missiles if, according to Israel, they don't even have nukes?

C'mon. It's widely believed internationally that Israel has a capable nuclear weapons arsenal. And with them having the support of the US, it would be quite easy for them to obtain some. They own nukes, they just deny it. If Israel won't allow the IAEA to inspect anything, what grounds do they have to call for Iran or any other country to be inspected? The US and other western countries are also massive hypocrites on this issue. They condemn Iran and call for inspections, yet they allow Israel to avoid inspections and keep a secret arsenal of nukes without questioning or condemning it. Obama's response to Tehran’s disclosure of the second secret nuke facility was this: As Matthew Good aptly points out about Obama's above response: There is an obvious double-standard in the treatment of Iran and Israel. It seems clear that the U.S., the West, and many in the U.N. are against secret acquisition of nukes...unless it somehow serves their own best interests. Total hypocrisy. (and btw, i'm not Jewish or Iranian or Muslim or Arab or Palestinian etc. so i come with no regional, racial, nationalist, or religious bias on this subject unlike many on these forums.)

Because of those darn "big-government", "anti-capitalist" bank regulations and oversight.

"War room"? Wouldn't Jack Layton have a "Non-violent resistance" room? heh heh heh.

I agree, they have no idea as to what those terms mean. If they did, they wouldn't use them because it makes absolutely sense. I especially like the "Obama with Hitler mustache" posters. Ya that makes sense.

whether its racist or not i think depends on the intent of the person who made the poster. As well the intent of the poster's meaning to those who use it. I agree with other people here, the poster doesn't make much sense, other than The Joker being a villian.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/09/29/a...o-obama029.html Somebody in power has finally figured out that the strategy of the last 8 years in Afghanistan hasn't worked. They don't need a new strategy, what they need is an entirely new philosophy in that region. I doubt though that Obama will do anything other than "send more troops". It's amazing to me how Obama and NATO seem to have been walking around dazed over the past year, as they have no idea what exactly they doing.

You speak as if all socialists are the poor and they all benefit from the redistribution of wealth. That's incorrect. What about when rich countries like ours gives money & aid to poor third world countries to help them develop? Are we "jealous" of the poor countries? Do they have more than we do? Socialism is about trying to fix income inequality between the rich and the poor.

I respect a solider's opinion. But that is all it is, a soldier's opinion. This solider thinks were are making a difference and not losing the war. How does he knows this? He has a narrow perspective of the war limited to where he is stationed and the areas he has seen. What does he know about the gov't stability and politics of the entire country? About the strength and successes/failures of the insurgents not in his area of deployment? About the other areas of the country? This soldier could very well be making a difference in his area of deployment, but the rest of Afghanistan could be a mess. This is a very complex region and a very complex war.

thank you friend.

This is odd. When i click on any thread, i can see the opening post, but anything underneath it is gone and replaced with header links showing the responses to the opening post. I can click on the reply links to see them but can only view them one at a time. This is an example of what i basically see beneath an opening post, except in bigger text and they are all links: - - GostHacked How about we have Israel declare what her nuclear ... Sep 25 2009, 12:02 PM |- - DogOnPorch QUOTE (GostHacked @ Sep 25 2009, 09:02 AM... Sep 25 2009, 12:10 PM |- - M.Dancer QUOTE (GostHacked @ Sep 25 2009, 12:02 PM... Sep 25 2009, 12:14 PM ||- - GostHacked QUOTE (M.Dancer @ Sep 25 2009, 05:14 PM) ... Sep 25 2009, 12:42 PM ||- - M.Dancer QUOTE (GostHacked @ Sep 25 2009, 12:42 PM... Sep 25 2009, 02:07 PM ||- - Shady QUOTE (GostHacked @ Sep 25 2009, 12:42 PM... Sep 26 2009, 09:01 PM ||- - Shady QUOTE (GostHacked @ Sep 25 2009, 12:42 PM... Yesterday, 10:53 AM ||- - GostHacked QUOTE (Shady @ Sep 28 2009, 03:53 PM) I... Yesterday, 01:44 PM If anyone knows how i can fix this and return these forums to normal for me it would be appreciated as i can't really use the forums this way.

Maybe Iran should give up its weapons when Israel actually ADMITS it has weapons and lets inspectors in to see them.