JB Globe

How inept are you if you can't take out a candidate who cracks watermelon jokes about black folks? And I thought Harper had the title of political futility for not making a gain on a chump like Dion . . .

We're not talking about inspecting ships here - Israel has shut down shipping to and from Gaza. That's why it's still considered an occupied territory - because it doesn't have sovereignty over it's territory, such as it's port. As far as asking me if this justifies Hamas firing rockets at a school in retaliation . . . Do I really need to waste keystrokes typing the very, very obvious answer? What do you think? But please, back to the original point I was making to your post - explain to me why you consider Gaza to not be occupied anymore.

You do realize that just because it says "copyright google 2008" at the bottom, that doesn't mean the photographs are up to date as of 2008. My house is five years old but until 6 months ago it was an empty lot on google maps.

The thing is, the Czech Republic and Canada aren't illegally occupying German communities and Quebec, as is the case with Israel. Both communities are part of a bi-national state, Palestinians are not - they are denied their self-determination, unlike Quebecois who could separate from Canada if a majority wanted to. They're both part of a bi-national state, unlike the Palestinians, who are even denied the right to create their own nation-state. In addition, Quebecois and the Germans in Czech were there before the creation of either Canada or Czech - on the flipside, most Israelis were foreigners to the land when Israel was created. It was only in the past 30 years that a majority of Israelis have been born in Israel. It is a country that was created by foreigners in a region that was inhabited by another people for centuries. Not the same - I think this comparison of yours is a little ridiculous. This doesn't excuse bad borders however - some borders are better than others. Actually my problem stems from the fact that the Israeli occupation of Palestine is illegal under international law. That and it only increases violence against Israel, and is a barrier to Israel's prospects for peace. Last post I made I asked you why you left out of your original post the fact that Israeli self-determination has come at the expense of Palestinian self-determination. You haven't answered that question so I'm going to have to make assumptions. I'm going to have to assume that you are incapable of reconciling your Zionist-nationalist views with the fact that it conflicts with your support of the self-determination of all peoples, and you're choosing to ignore this fact. You're choosing to ignore that while you trumpet Israel's self-determination, you seek to deny the self-determination of Palestinians - even going as far as denying there is such a thing as a Palestinian nation, (because then, you can't be against Palestinian self-determination if there is no Palestine? Right? - How convenient).

I love how the problems seem to be "all their fault" - if you're conservative, it's the fault of natives, if you're left-wing, it's the fault of the government. You people are so blinded by your respective political ideologies that you're filtering out the facts that illustrate clearly that there's enough blame to go around for everyone. And in such a case where everyone has dirt on their hands the best course of action to remedy the problem isn't pointing fingers, it's looking in the mirror and seeing what we can all do to help solve the crisis on many reserves in Canada.

Not too long ago at CW Jefferies it came out that a group of boys were sexually assaulting a Muslim girl throughout the schoolyear and were never punished for it even though administrators knew about it. Do these two cases mean that the school system is biased against Christians? Muslims? Or maybe, just maybe - the system is inept at dealing with sexual violence against ALL female students regardless of religion or background . . . Just a thought . . .

So, let me get this straight. ONE Muslim boy's comments caused you to realize that SOME Muslims are bigots (and I would argue it's in no greater number than found in other communities, such as the Anglo-Canadian community). Then you make this leap . . . If only SOME Muslims are bigoted, as you claimed earlier, than how would this happen? Which edition? Protestant or Catholic? I'm sure First Nations folks have an opinion on this as well . . . Different ball game here than in the US, be careful . . . Now you're just being stupid. If I have to explain push/pull forces for emigration/immigration than that's pretty sad. You're comparing the best of "Christianity" to the worst of "Islam" - way to go. How about you compare a Christian Bolivia to Muslim Dubai. Wow, that comparison must mean that Muslims are "better" than Christians. Case closed, end of story, my argument is airtight, right?

That would imply I'm starting a synagogue, so I'm assuming there'd be an issue with that. However, book-copies of Torah are legal, so that wouldn't be an issue.

I'm afraid that's a stereotype borne out of ignorance of the facts. Polls such as this Angus-Reid poll have consistently shown that the prefered solution to the conflict among Palestinians has always been a two-state solution . . . http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/15253 The second most popular solution in Palestine is a single bi-national state for both Jews and Muslims. Between the two that's 70% of the population who prefer a solution that would involve peace with Israel or peace with Jews within a bi-national country. Sounds to me that no matter what rhetoric a Hamas organizer spews at a rally to fire up their radical cronies, the majority of Palestinians don't agree with it. But hey, if you have some studies that prove that all or even most Palestinians "want to drive Israel into the sea" (aka - killing all Jewish-Israelis or running them out of the region) as you put it, than by all means . . . Prove me wrong.

Israel never really "left" Gaza. There may be no troops inside the territory, but considering Israel has, for example blockaded any shipping to or from the territory, I'd say that Israel is still present in Gaza. It's still preventing it from operating as an independent entity. There's a reason why Gaza is still defined under international law as being an "occupied territory"

Let's be clear I was talking about suburban areas. They drain the most energy out of any lifestyle. I'm sure that all of rural Canada doesn't come close to using the same amount of energy (I'm talking gas, electricity, everything combined) as even one medium sized-suburb of Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver. And that's why we need a national land-use strategy. One that enforces sustainability and efficiency, while leaving the provinces with enough wiggle room to adapt the policy to their specific needs. I believe there is no practical reason to still be building traditional-style suburbs (think cul-de-sacs and power-centres). They are incredible energy hogs, they're money-pits because it takes much more cash to give such a low-density area adequate services, and they eat up grade A farmland which will become increasingly valuable in a world where we're seeing increasing food shortages. Every city in Canada can and should be doing more to develop in a way that can support things like transit, and it's even possible to redevelop suburbs, there just has to be enough political will to do the work and stand up to the developers.

Can a political objective still be called self-determination if it involves denying other people their own self-determination? Personally I think one groups' right to self-determination ends where another peoples' right to self-determination begins. Your post made no mention that your interpretation of Zionism involved such a thing. Did you just not think about it, or was the exclusion deliberate, and if so, why?

The best way to reduce emissions from people getting from A to B is still public transit, walking and biking. The problems with ethanol just prove this. It saves the most money in terms of total cost, it drastically reduces emissions, it reduces travel time if it's part of a regional transport strategy (and not ad-hoc), and it save individual users money. The feds should get in the transport game the way European governments are. That way even smaller cities could at least afford basic transit. We also need to do away with suburban development and redevelop suburbs so they're more transit-friendly. It's a reasonable goal - Mississauga's plans for it's main drag, Hurontario made me change my mind about the whole thing.

Looks like Mike was full of crap as usual. "Trust me! I got studies to prove my verbal diarrhea!" Still waiting.

I don't see what that has to do with the quote from the study, which talked about Muslim attitudes towards the West. Well, you sure aren't making a case for your own superiority to these "barbarians" with your bigoted diatribes. Honestly, this "Muslims are the devil" routine gets as old just as quickly as the "Jews are the devil" routine. Come on, you must be smarter than that. Doesn't look like anything like that is happening in Turkey, Malaysia, Senegal, or Indonesia anytime soon. - And that accounts for nearly 350 million people. Is this a letter to yourself or someone else?

Actually it isn't. Barring Israelis is a different ballgame than barring Jews. ie - I'd have no problem flying to Dubai, but if I bothered to get my Israeli citizenship, it'd be a different story. As for the original post, it has nothing to do with religion, after all, the article states: "However, Dr Taj Hargey, chair of the Muslim Education Centre of Oxford, said it was not true that Muslims could not swim with non-Muslims. "There is no Koranic verse or any statement from the sources of Islam that says different religions should be segregated," he said. " Seems to me that the problem is bigotry and ignorance, something that Muslims and non-Muslims in the UK both have in ample amount. People should stop pointing fingers and look in the mirror more often.

If PALESTINIANS get back the West Bank they'll get what they want, and they'll have little appetite for continuing bloodshed, especially since it would risk destroying what they've waited for so long to happen - Israel would probably re-occupy the West Bank if the violence didn't stop.

Hey everybody, who wants to make a post about how evil Jews are? We can cut n paste from Stomfront, then our case will be airtight!

Hey Mike, care to post some of these surveys which supposedly back up your claims?

This is because that, in the eyes of most Christian goi's we Jews have gone from being devils to angels in the course of this century. There's many reasons for this - constant efforts to fight the ignorance of Judaism, the economic, artistic and social successes of the Jewish community in Europe & North America, and yes - even Holocaust guilt helped, it became hard for goi's to continue to be hateful towards a group of people who were targeted with extinction, especially when their governments didn't do nearly enough to help (see: turning away boats of Jewish refugees from Poland). The creation of Israel helped as well - evangelicals got giddy because having Jews in charge of the holy land is another step closer to ushering in the Rapture, and others got a "champion of the West and democracy" that was fighting the scourge of the "evil Arab Muslim horde" Israelis became the sheriffs at the edge of the Euro-American frontier. That, and the xenophobes in society have a much more "other" other to project all their fears and insecurities onto in this century. I also have no doubt in my mind that if us chosen peoples were oppressing a few million Christians for a few decades, all of the goodwill towards Jews that white, Christian goi's feel would evaporate rather quickly. Having been exposed to Muslims from all over the place early on in life, and having studied anti-semitism in the Muslim world, I've come to know that most of the anti-semitism and the extremity of it has everything to do with Israel. Muslims who are anti-semetic come to be so in the same way that certain people come to be Islamophobic - they don't have any real relationships with anyone who's Jewish, so their information about Jews comes in the form of 24/7 news bulletins about the latest Israeli airstrike that killed 5 kids. So, all of the information they get is "bad" or rather - framed in the context of an ongoing violent conflict. Being a Jew in the minds of folks growing up in say, the Arab world is synonymous with being a zionist, and thus an oppressor of Arabs. Much like in the minds of white Canadians who self-segregate themselves or live in monocultural small towns Muslims are synonymous with terrorism. That doesn't EXCUSE their anti-semitism, just like Islamophoboes aren't excused, but it explains it a hell of a lot better than the old "Muslim hate Jews because Muslims are evil" explanation. Although individual choices are still a factor - when it comes to racism one's environment has a hell of a lot more to do with influencing opinion. And that's exactly why that here in Canada, I can go to Muslim weddings and mosques as a Jew and vice-versa - if I did so in Saudi Arabia, it wouldn't be such a pretty picture.

What's that supposed to mean? Why do you continue to position some two-bit comedian as the spokesperson for the new atheism? I mean - you'd probably want to go with Dawkins instead, wouldn't you? Although he's no religious scholar, at least he's not an idiot. Personally I'm with Sam Hedges on this one - I don't find atheist zealots who hate religion any different than Christian, Jewish or Muslim fundies who hate other belief-systems different from their own - both have an unhealthy level of absolute certainity in the universal truth of their beliefs to be able to share space with those who have different viewpoints from their own. But besides all that - how about we get back to the original post - specifically, the fact that this study contradicts many of your claims about Muslims?

Is anyone surprised? Flaherty is just continuing the policies he started in Ontario working as Harris' finance Minister. Apparently, he's not one to learn from his own mistakes. His cuts gutted the school system, health care, transit, and lead to scandals like Walkterton. His tax cuts helped only the rich - the middle class shrunk during the Tory years in Ontario, the rich saw their incomes increase while the size of the poor grew and their average incomes dropped. And, they still managed to leave a $4 billion deficit while experiencing an economic boom. I'm afraid that he's not the kind of guy to admit to and learn from his screw-ups. After all, there were plans to sell off LCBO stores and use the cash to hide the deficit in the budget (the sale would've been worth billions) . . . Of course, that would've meant a reduction nearly $1 billion a year in annual revenue, meaning the province would've been loosing money on the sale in a few years.

The thing is, if I'm discussing a certain issue, and I'm looking for a solid argument or set of facts to counter a very comprehensive study, I'm generally not going to respond by posting the name of a comedian and telling people to "check his stuff out" - It would kind of make me look like, 1 - I was avoiding talking about the issue directly, in my own words, 2 - I didn't have any actual facts to counter those in the study. It would make my position look weak. Such as? I'm aware he EXPLAINS problems in the Muslim work, but explaining why things happen isn't the same thing as condoning them. But that's really besides the point - whatever Esposito's interpretation of the stats, that doesn't change the facts that were posted above - so what do you have to say about them? No opinion is completely unbiased, but considering that both of them have to be accountable to either their university or board of directors, they are inherently more unbiased than Condell, who doesn't have to be accountable to anyone and can and does say whatever he wants, true or not. That and they have made studying Islam their life's work, whereas Condell hasn't. How cute. So in response to the findings of the largest study on Muslim attitudes ever undertaken, you post three news stories about isolated incidents. Sorry, but that doesn't stack up. Try harder next time.

I'll really have to check this out - Esposito's work has always been top-notch, and now it's backed up by the largest study on Muslim attitudes ever taken. I think it's telling about just how factually-based the "Islam is the enemy" argument when we have Dogonporch using a comedian's out-of-the-ass sermons as some sort of counter to this study, as if the two are comparable.