CLRV

I thought I was being clear that my suggestions were intended as equally "rational" to the one with which you premised this thread.

And maybe if the owners of downtown skyscrapers hadn't gotten a huge, retroactive cut in their property taxes a few weeks back, Toronto's residential taxes wouldn't have gone up so high the next week. Save your anger for the people who are really responsible for your anger. Your argument is against tax cuts, not decent wages.

Obviously this man knows the dirty little secret: TTC employees don't pay taxes on the money they make. They don't spend money in the private sector either, so don't try any nonsense about spending stimuli. In fact, TTC employees just take their money home, make a big pile out of it and writhe nude all over it until the next time their cushy, so-easy-a-monkey-could-do-it shift rolls around. Meanwhile, lets go with this as long as we're advocating letting minimum-wage income slaves vent their spleen by dictating the wages of people who happen to make more money than they do (as opposed to venting it at, oh say their chiseling employer for not paying them what they are worth). Add the following to the wish list: Layed off workers can now vote on the compensation, bonus and other sundry golden parachute items enjoyed by their former C.E.O. Investors of companies that tank can vote on same Consumers can now vote on the price of the items they purchase, weighing it against their informed opinion about such unnecessary factored costs as marketing, promotion, etc. I can come up with others, equally rational, but I trust the point is made.

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/416074 Nice to see someone intelligent enough for enlightened self-interest.

Only the latest and greatest on the list of reasons why we should haul our troops asses out of Afghanistan while they still have asses to haul. Experts agree this is going to hand carte blanche to the Taliban and other insurgents in the area, rendering the mission over there quite impossible. Only the most deluded fool imaginable would buy into Musharref's rhetoric about the "terrorist threat". Osama must be laughing his ass off.

Not only does Islamic headgear make a great scapegoat for traffic fatalities, now it seems the Conservatives have identified it as an election threat. This story on the front page of yesterday's Toronto SCUM, with a nice sinister closeup of a woman in a veil. The headline? "Veiled Threat" link NOW we know why the Tories just got their asses handed to them in the Ontario provincial election! It wasn't decent people rejecting the outrages of idiot conservatism at all! It was hoardes of filthy, hairy-pitted Islamic women, their faces carefully hidden, swarming the polling stations in droves, voting and re-voting for pinko, leftist appeasers. Otherwise, we'd be looking at a Tory paradise in Ontario today. Conservatives should get down on their knees and thank whatever vengeful god they worship that Islamic people are out there to be blamed and attacked for every single problem that comes down the pike. It's gotten so you can't openly hate blacks, hispanics, jews, etc. Too many consequences for the cowardly. But it's still ok to shower shit on muslims. It must be a balm to the tiny nazi hearts of all racists after all the liberal oppression stopping them from spewing their filthy venom on all the other people they hate. But as long as we have muslims, there will still be a powerless minority to deliver a swift kick to every so often, whenever the need arises.

Yep, here we go with the soccar riots again. I bet Ireland is happy it opened its doors to be overrun by, um, Irish. link White kids rioting, not after a single incident but regularly after every single soccar game, and yet strangely enough no outraged rants in here. I guess they (and western governments of course) don't feel "intimidated" enough. Stinking racist hypocrites. That's what you are. Go running to the moderator about that one, pussyboys. It's what you are. Each and every one of you.

I have to say this struck me as one of the most stupidly arrogant things I've seen in a while. The police have investigated the accident and laid charges. Witnesses interviewed. Etc. The justice system is going forward with a trial, but hey why bother? This bozo has it all figured out, based on nothing more than a quick glimpse of the woman in a tv report and a news photo. And anybody who disagrees with this theory is just politically correct. Common sense? At least the phrase "no-brainer" is more accurate, if less complimentary. Another cheap excuse to kick a muslim while they're down. Sign of the times, indeed.

But leaving that infinitely superior fantasy series aside for a second. It surprises me that nobody has had the reaction I have had to all this. I think it's painfully obvious that this is just Rowling's latest and most shameless attempt yet to get her books (already the most shamefully overrated and over-hyped fantasy series in literary history) back once again into the media spotlight for some more free publicity. Far from a literary achievement, the Potter series was merely a marketing triumph. The sales tactics were brilliant. Always released at the holidays. Always released in tandem with a movie so the more unimaginative don't have to work too hard conjuring up settings and characters. Always completely obsessed upon by so-called news media, providing endless "coverage" of upcoming releases. Essentially unpaid infomercials, the public mind was bombarded with images of screaming children high on brand recognition; shot after shot of hapless parents shamed into enduring days-long lineups for fear of being charged with child abuse for not getting their little darling the latest essential gift of the season. But now... Rowling's drawn a blank. She's got no more ideas; no more Potter books. There's no reason for the press to hype her work anymore. No new books or movies. No lineups to pan over. No teaser movie clips to run on an endless loop. How can she possibly get this mediocre fantasy series back into the limelight? Eureka! Dumbledore is a poof! Brilliant! This could spawn weeks and months of endless controversy and debate. All the sad, self-loathing, repressed homosexuals are bound to come creeping out from under the baseboards, as they do any time the word "homosexual" comes up in a sentence other than "Let's go out and beat up a ____". The usual sad nonsense about pedophilia will be trumped out, especially since this is ostensibly a children's series. And, of course, the liberals will feel the need to somehow justify and validate the non-issue because, well, that's just what liberals seem to feel the need to do whenever confronted with ridiculous non-issues from the right. Never mind that there's not a shred of evidence or indication in the actual text of this supposed gender bending. Rowling's characters are about as sexually real and anatomically correct as a Barbie and Ken. All smooth down there, don't you know. Doesn't matter. This is controversy for it's own sake. Roll the movie footage. Get the talking heads going in front of it. Let's sell some goddam BOOKS! Hey, it's cheaper than paid advertising...

Well, perhaps Rincewind is more of a fetishist than a homo, since he shows no sexual interest in males or females. Which is just as well, since wizards are forbidden from having sex at all for fear that they might procreate. We don't need another Sourcerer. I've always held some suspicions about Ridcully and the Bursar, though.

Rincewind.

And yet these kids don't seem to be having any trouble getting their handguns, do they? That's right. The only sensible thing to do is wait for them to actually commit the crime. Wait until somebody has actually been killed. Then, assuming somebody co-operates with the investigation and they actually arrest someone, we can spend a ton of money locking them up forever and forever amen. That way we can feel all tough without actually doing a damned thing about preventing a crime. Typical reactionary nonsense from the right. Close the barn door AFTER the horse has been shot.

Yeah yeah. I can find articles about Harper implementing the other things I mentioned too (drug war, mandatory sentencing, etc). I remind you that none of those things were on the platform when Canadians mistakenly elected this minority govt. It was boondoggle this and boondoggle that. Bring down the power-mad Liberals. It finally worked, but now the Liberals aren't in power anymore so lightning won't strike the same place twice. We'll just wait and see whether these foolish policies you're so proud of are indeed "embraced" in the next election. I see a repeat of recent history, with the Cons being rejected once again, as I've been at pains to drum through your cranium. I may be wrong in my prognostication, but at least I'm right that nobody but a minority of con cheerleaders like yourself have even come close to "embracing" these police-state policies. Canadians are, by and large, too decent and civilized.

Why would we need to, when all we have to do is "ally" ourselves with a few of the local warlords and let *them* do the slaughtering for us. You know, like last time? That way our hands remain squeaky clean...

So you figure taxpayers providing tens of thousands of dollars a year to house, feed and clothe the meth addict is the change we need? Talk about crap...