Moonlight Graham

The term "progressive conservatives" is an oxymoron, so they never existed in the first place.

BC, aren't you going to answer this question?

Well, the bright side is that these poor blokes will dying of preventable causes instead of incurable diseases. That's at least progress.

I would put down our troops. They are well-trained and respected. But yes, our equipment is a problem. Even with finely trained troops our military is still a joke if we can barely transport them anywhere.

heh heh true on both. Chretien did sit on the fence. He gave no opinion on Iraq other than Canada will do what the U.N. decides.

I'm so-so on the military funding. On one hand, i don't support the war in Afghanistan since it is unwinnable the way it is fundamentally being handled so more equipment for crap like this angers me. On the other hand, our military is a joke and needs better funding so it can at least stand on 2 feet. In the end i suppose it's needed, but will be used poorly.

Check this out. Imagine the lives saved if this goes through! Imagine the increase in unwanted pregnancies too lol

Any thoughts on the recent coup in Honduras? Interesting reaction by Obama on the coup & his support for peaceful reinstatement of the ousted President:

Stephen Hawking believes in man-made climate change and its perils, similar to that of most of peers. I'm no scientist, let alone a brilliant one, so if Stephen Hawking believes it, that's good enough for me. If any of you arm-chair scientists want to challenge the scientific opinion of Hawking and look like idiots to your radioactive grandchildren in 40 years be my guest.

Smart man, interesting & tough job. Always enjoyed "The Fog of War", great doc. He also had really greasy hair.

I agree. However, had members of Congress and the public known that there was no real evidence that Saddam was creating nukes, had links to Al-Qaeda or 9/11, or had WMD's of any kind do you think this policy may have still gone forward? That's a slippery-slope argument. It isn't pointless because somebody should be accountable for lying a country into war, and there needs to be some kind of precedent so that something like this never happens again.

I'm disgusted with the 2004 coup in Haiti and ashamed of Canada's role in it.

you're right, such as Dennis Kucinich. But as Hillary being an example, many others just got notes from staff on the "gist" of the report. I would think many items would be legitimately digested this way by members of Congress since it would require too much time to read the massive texts put before them, however something as important as an NIE to go into war i think would demand ones full attention. So it's nobody's fault Iraq was B.S. before and after the invasion? How so? How do you sum up invasion? Justified? Successful? Americans and the world told the truth?

Yes, Congress approved the resolution...based on a falsified NIE (here it from the mouth's of former CIA members: PBS Frontline) which few of them even read (Dennis Kucinich even had Clinton admit during the 2008 Democratic debates that she didn't read the NIE) , and influenced by pressure from public sentiment...sentiment based on the admin's propaganda crap they had been spewing since 9/11. So yes, i blame the Bush admin foremost, but also blame Congress for being idiots also. Ok, i'll expand: You'd either have to be ignorant of the facts, a close-minded partisan, or just plain stupid to want to continue U.S. Iraq policy. Just my opinion of course.

Amen on both accounts. What's happening in Iran is that the people expect their "democratic" elections to be democratic. We may not even be talking about this and Iran may have been a much more thriving and free democracy if the U.S. didn't lead a coup to oust the democratically elected leader in Iran in 1953 and install the Shah in his place. Oil & self-interests > freedom/democracy. As for the other, add a few others like Rice & Tenet to the list.

I believe in talk, but when talk fails the next step in the process shouldn't be military action. You can do other things, you can play hardball without dropping bombs. The last thing in Iraq was not to invade, they should have continued with inspections. They could have done more than just oust the man on false pretenses while crippling the country in the process.

Eh??? I'd have to disagree on that one bigtime.

Bush lied America into a war in Iraq. Uhm, were you watching the U.N. slideshow they had Powell present? Or how about some yellowcake from Africa? Or the "links" between Saddam and Al-Qaeda. It was all B.S., among tons of other B.S. and a garbage NIE that seemingly few in Congress even bothered to read. Even say Bush didn't lie, you don't go into a war based on best guesses. You better be 100% sure they have WMD's. Oops. Why do ostriches like you still have your head in the sand?? Is it a partisan thing or something?

this is why we love our Jerry.

Obama certainly tries to pander to everyone too much instead of going with "what's right". However, i can't bash him on how he's handled what's going on in Iran. He didn't want to incite things further, or give some Iranians cause for violence in the name of Anti-American/anti-west sentiment. If Obama condemned Iranian leaders it would have done nothing to help the situation. That;s not to say covert U.S. operations aren't well underway in Iran ready to take advantage of this situation. Once things settle i'm sure he'll have more to say about it. Just freakin let the Iranians do their thing.

Politics? Add history & foreign affairs to the list, or generally any knowledge outside the realm of moose-hunting. She could always make a fine speech (re: 2008 GOP convention), but ask her what the capital of Somalia or Turkmenistan is and she'd be clueless i'm sure. That NBC interview showed nothing. It was a prepared question about Alaskan energy, they showed a FREAKING MAP GRAPHIC OF THE OIL LINE DURING HER LIVE INTERVIEW AS SHE WAS TALKING ABOUT IT for pete's sake!! As for the Letterman stuff, again she obviously had a prepared stance on that as well Her problem isn't her public speaking, it's her knowledge of U.S. civics, world politics, history etc. She is just not well informed, but she has a few years to cram for her exam. IMO conservatives deserve much better for a leader.

I was referring to hot military action, not U.N./NATO peace-keeping missions. You are right, we have been in many countries and certainly made a difference, but when the heavy poop hits the fan & bullets may need to be fired we almost always turn away (ie: Rwanda, Sudan). Your point is taken though.

Unfortunately, western democracies don't intervene in the name of human rights unless it benefits them somehow, sorry.

Morality comes down to a simple principle IMO, though this principle is often difficult to calculate accurately. Individual rights vs collective rights etc. etc. it just always comes down to this, the basic principle of Utilitarianism: "the greatest good for the greatest number of people". In terms of war, if usually comes down to a delicate balance of rights. It also comes down to what those who are waging these wars are willing to sacrifice to obtain these goals.

There's tons of them here too. I've never seen anything like it this year. Just insane. Almost hit 2 of them while on a winding highway the other week. Yes you'd think their natural predators would off these geese to a manageable level. Not sure what they are though. Wolves & coyotes??