Wild Bill

If we do still have laws, they are ignored, Betsy. You may remember there was a case during the Serbian-Croatian war in the early 90's where a 2nd generation young man of Serbian descent went back to Serbia to fight AGAINST Canadian soldiers and the other Allied nations! He was discovered fighting for the "other side" but still claimed the rights of Canadian citizenship! Naturally, there were a lot of "useful idiots" over here who supported him! When the conflict was over he had announced he intended to return to Canada and that caused a brief flap in the news. However, despite the fact that I follow the media rather closely I never heard anything about how this was resolved! Either I totally missed it or more likely, he was taken back but it was hushed up! While the flap was on there were many cries that what the young man had done was by definition an act of treason. There were other cries about hyphenated Canadians who have stronger loyalties to their old country than to Canada. I would love to find out just what was resolved. Perhaps someone can help out!

Eyeball, I really think you've totally misread the feelings of those on the right. The reason they are against the Liberal gun registry is simply because they don't think it works or is worth all the money that was spent! It has nothing to do with being soft on crime! The registry is a registry and sentencing is something else. They think the whole thing was loopy, plain and simple! To paraphrase the Bard, "A plan made by idiots, signifying nothing!"

You must have tuned in late! Perhaps you might check my msg 178 in this thread and also checkout this link: http://www.letsfixcancon.ca You see, CANCON hasn't promoted new Canadian talent for years! Virtually NO new artists get airplay unless and until they have become successful in the States! Meanwhile, the Canadian content is filled by endless reruns of old Rush, Lightfoot and Neil Young material. New artists are ignored. This is not opinion, it's fact! Talk to new artists! Listen to some radio yourself! The situation is blatantly obvious! "Useful tool"? Hardly!

Maybe it makes sense but that's NOT what happened! You really should pay attention to history. What happened was a nutjob named Marc LePine taking a semi-automatic rifle to a Montreal school and murdering 14 women, injuring another 14 people, mostly women! He had declared his hatred of women and made them his main targets. The incident promptly became all about women's issues and not about nutjobs. The Liberals immediately offered a new gun registry that was supposed to make us safer, implying that during the previous years we had no gun control at all, which was a load of crap! I guess to some people if they haven't heard of something it never existed. Ah, ignorance! Only the big cities in Ontario and the province of Quebec seemed to support the idea. To me at the time, it seemed as if rational voices went unheard and everybody was on an emotional, politically correct bandwagon. If you tried to criticize not the idea of a registry but rather the way the LIBERAL registry was put together you were immediately branded as anti-women and ignored. When the costs of the registry hit over $2 billion dollars you still dared not criticize, or you were accused of putting a price on women's lives! All the logical criticisms of the Liberal registry were pointed out beforehand but as I said, no one in power cared. The Liberals got a lot of votes from those areas of the country that were their power base. They didn't really care about the other areas. When I think about how many more police on duty we could have had for that kind of money!

You really should look at things mathematically, Topaz. If we had 10% of the people unemployed with no hope of a job that's a bad figure but it also means that 90% of people HAVE jobs! The NDP gets good support from those with no jobs. They don't do so well with folks that do! That's because the perception is that NDP governments mean higher taxes taken off your pay cheque. It may not be a true perception but it is what it is. Unless we have more than half of our people on welfare I don't EVER see an NDP government in Ottawa, unless the NDP drastically changes and modernizes to become more like the Labour Party in Britain. Right now they always sound like they want to wage a strike with General Motors, in 1965! They just haven't changed with the times.

Not at all! I've only fired a gun a few times in my life and it wasn't really a thrill. That's why hunting or target shooting never became one of my hobbies. As for 'macho syntax', to me that's just crap! It's merely an ad hominem attempt to equate being against the gun registry with being some kind of shotgun totin' Bubba! No, the whole issue comes down to some simple logic, as far as I'm concerned. Criminals don't register their guns and there is no need to fear a law-abiding citizen who's carrying a weapon. The entire argument for the Liberal gun registry has always seemed specious to me anyways. After all, they never added ONE DAY of mandatory sentence for illegal use of a firearm! That tells me that they really couldn't care less if a criminal uses a firearm! If they did, it would have been part and parcel of instituting their registry. They never allocated a fiddler's fart towards the idea! It was all symbol and no substance. Like most Liberal solutions, it was a case of "It doesn't have to WORK! It's enough to say we've got one!" As a political 'utilitarian', I say 'do it for real' or don't waste my time!

Two brands, huh? Oh dear! Well, I guess there's nothing else I can do! I'll have to drink a lot of BOTH to be sure I've fairly sampled them! How else can I make a comparison?

I may not be able to speak it or spell it but damn, it still tastes good! Years ago when the wife and I were courting we and our friends would have supper most every Friday at the Schwaben Inn in Dundas. Sadly the owner's wife passed away. She did the soups and although good, they were never again like she made! Still, the main entrees were to die for! I don't know if you ever went there, Jack. At the time the only alternative was a restaurant in downtown Hamilton but they never seemed to offer anything but variations on schnitzels.

Any people that can give us Staten Pils, Dortmunder Union and a plate of rinderbraten mit spatzle are just fine in my books!

I heard that some of the planes were found and many of the bodies lacked genitals. Of course, it's hard to say if this was done after the crash or if they were born that way, since they were all members of Ignatieff's caucus...

I disagree! Canadian organizations acting in foreign environments reflect on our country as a whole. Worse yet, they tend to claim the will of a far larger percentage of Canadian citizens than they are entitled. The perception the world sees is that Canada's people believe contrary to the policies of their legitimate government. Unions represent their own members and nobody else! What's more, when they take international political stands they NEVER represent even the majority of their own members! All these unions are accomplishing is diminishing Canada's stature on the world stage. If there isn't some law to charge them with then there damn well should be! If these union apparatchiks want political power then they should run for office and let citizens VOTE for them! Of course, it's obvious they know that if they did, they would never win. That's why they use these back door, sneaky techniques.

Really? You would see the vast majority of them simply walk away! The entire Canadian marketplace is smaller than that of one American state, California. Unlike you, my entire career was spent selling all those high tech computer chips, ICs, resistors, capacitors and such. I worked for large American distributors and several of the few Canadian ones that are left. After 9/11, that industry totally collapsed! Almost all of it left the country. They went to China and Ireland, not really for cheaper labour but more for less taxes and drastically reduced government paperwork. Thousands of us lost our jobs. Go on, Don Quixote! Chase those companies and demand they play by our rules! I could use a good laugh!

Why do you need to make a moral judgement? Simple logic says that someone will always be stealing wallets but drug violence would disappear if drugs were legalized and the incredibly high profits disappeared.

Well, there's this one: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2010/08/23/15116956.html "OTTAWA -- Conservative MPs are pointing to a straw poll of 2,631 frontline police officers as proof the long-gun registry is worthless. In Edmonton, Const. Randy Kuntz's survey, which was included in a police magazine recently, 92% of the officers who responded said the registry was a useless crime-fighting tool." The police magazine in question is called 'Blue Line', if you care to delve further. However, I'm sure that you will believe that the poll is not sufficiently scientific but merely anecdotal. 92% of 2631 is about 2420 officers. I'd expect that you would find the anecdotal opinion of 2420 front line officers to be far less worthy than that of a few police chiefs.

So you just contradicted your own premise! You agree that corporations move to 3rd world countries! That was precisely my point! YOU said they would always be here! Now you agree that many have left and more are leaving today.

Here we have the perpetual leftwing fallacy! Business folks will always be there to be taxed 'cuz they are genetically programmed to do business! They will never leave! That's a pile of crap! Look around your own little pond! Business has been leaving for the past couple of decades! Countries like China and Ireland have been taking our business people, with all their jobs. Business migrates to where it can make the most money with the least aggravation. Leftwingers migrate to where they can get the most welfare! Here in Hamilton, Ontario we have seen this trend plainer than most. We've lost literally thousands of high paying manufacturing jobs. The city lost so much business tax that they've had no choice but to try to make it up by taxing the homeowners. Now we are about to lose our Tiger Cats, a 141 year tradition in this town. Why? Because our leftwing municipal politicians took it for granted that the owner would stay here forever and accept a stadium venue that would have him continue losing money forever! When he complained about it they accused him of "not having enough civic spirit"! As a businessman, that's how lefties see his place in the scheme of things. He's supposed to just run his team at a loss, out of civic charity. Dr. Greenthumb, it's people with views like yours that are going to have us end up with no jobs in this country at all! What are you going to do, hold a shotgun to a CEO's head and tell him he HAS to have his business here in Canada?

Did you watch the faces of the dancers? After a few moments I realized that they were pleased and happy that the PM was dancing with them! I think that Harper danced with them out of respect and down to earth friendliness. At least, that was certainly the way it appears the dancers took it! If some folks in the big cities want to make jokes about it then screw them and the horses they rode in on!

No, I'm saying that you make strong statements only they are phrased as strong inferences. Anyone initially takes your meaning as quite plain but when challenged you pull out some loophole as an alibi. You'd make a good lawyer! Unfortunately, it also means that we can't take your statements at face value. They become more political than debatable.

I was hoping someone would go that far in the site! I agree with their proposals as well! Nice to find a kindred soul! As for being wrong on the Rush chronology, what can I say? Those were hazy times for this old hippy! Actually, Rush played our high School around 1968 or 1969. They were terrible! Great music but horrible production! They had already gotten a reputation of being a poor live band. Obviously, they more than corrected that failing! I make my living fixing and building amplifiers for musicians. It breaks my heart to see how difficult it is for young folks starting out to make any income from their music. CANCON essentially ignores them in favour of "classic rock" stations playing the same old hits from artists that have long since moved beyond needing the exposure. A local AM station of all things deserves credit for bucking the trend! They run a show late Friday afternoon and early evening as a remote from a local blues club, featuring local artists. God bless them and all their sponsors! They're not just fighting the CANCON failings. Fewer young people are tuning in radio at all! An entire generation is growing up that never, ever tunes to AM or FM! They have never TOUCHED a CD, let alone bought one! Yet their digital players contain huge libraries and they constantly listen to them. If radio doesn't find a way to attract this audience back then CANCON will indeed become a moot point! There will be no radio for the CRTC to administrate!

It's FAR worse than you think, TB! Like most government solutions, it has evolved to where it is doing exactly the OPPOSITE of the original intentions! Here's a link from a group set up by a man with years of experience with the radio ratings people: http://www.letsfixcancon.ca/ "Frankly, Avril Lavigne doesn't need government legislation to receive radio airplay in Canada or anywhere else in the world. The songs of Sarah McLachlan, Nickelback and Celine Dion are heard in many countries around the world and will be played on our airwaves regardless of their nationalities. They are fully developed artists and are profitable, sustainable entities. In short, they've made it. Canadians are proud of our international stars, yet surely, the point of creating CANCON (forcing radio stations to play more Canadian music) was not to merely pad the airplay of international superstars and the profits of U.S. based record companies. CANCON was constructed around a sound idea. More radio play for homegrown artists would mean more musicians, more instrument sales, more rehearsal spaces, more recording studios, more managers, more promoters, more labels, more record stores, more fans of Canadian music, etc... When Shania Twain gets a spin on Canadian radio today, it does none of the above. CANCON's current formulas are undercutting the very foundation on which it was created." Artists like Rush and the Guess Who actually became successful BEFORE CANCON was even created! The problem today is that radio stations get zero extra credit for playing songs by an "up and coming" Canadian artist. Much easier and safer to keep playing the same old hits by the same old "geezer" Canadian artists. Their royalties can buy their Geritol. The "new" artists ironically are in the same position as bands before CANCON - they have to make it on their own to become stars in the American market before they can get on Canadian playlists. If anyone is truly interested in the Canadian music scene I suggest they read my link thoroughly. It's a real eye-opener! All CANCON has ever done is put Sheila Copps in a position where she can go to the JUNOS and have throngs of wannabes kiss her ass in hopes of a grant!

Eyeball, sometimes you sound like Bill Clinton: "It depends on how you define the word 'is'."

Nope! More Liberal propaganda! Here's a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkerton_Tragedy "The water supply for the town of Walkerton was operated by the Walkerton Public Utilities Commission, with Stan Koebel as manager and Frank Koebel as water foreman. Neither had any formal training in their position, retaining their jobs through three decades of on-the-job experience." So Stan and Frank had been doing the job for 3 decades! "From the report: For years, the Walkerton Public Utilities Commission operators engaged in a host of improper operating practices, including failing to use adequate doses of chlorine, failing to monitor chlorine residuals daily, making false entries about residuals in daily operating records, and misstating the locations at which microbiological samples were taken. The operators knew that these practices were unacceptable and contrary to Ministry of Environment guidelines and directives. The Ontario government was also blamed for not regulating water quality and not enforcing the guidelines that had been in place. From these accounts, if Harris' government HAD enforced the guidelines they would have been the FIRST provincial government to do so! While that doesn't excuse Harris for what happened during his watch it certainly doesn't make any of the others look like saints either! The plain and simple fact is that no one ever thought a municipality would be so stupid as to hire the incompetent and criminal out of patronage with something as important as water quality! What was the Harris government supposed to do? First of all, why would you even suspect it was happening at Walkerton or other municipalities? Should Harris as his first act of office sent out inspectors to every city, town and village? Should they then immediately have over-ridden the purview of the local government, fired their staff and hired new ones themselves? What evidence was there before the tragedy that the problem was even going on? In the final analysis, governments have to respect each others' turf or the system can foster resentment and break down. Obviously, this had been going on for decades. Perhaps somebody in Walkerton should have TOLD the Ministry what was going on! Of course, that's easy for one of us to say. There's no protection for a whistleblower to keep his job. Even if there was, if your bosses are a couple of drunks well connected with city hall I doubt if they would treat you very well for "squealing".

No you don't, Smallc! If you can dismiss my logic as merely anecdotal then the same must be said for yours! Sauce for the gander! Don't be a hypocrite!

Sorry Michael, I think you just don't have perspective on this one! 'Keeps' is quite right! EVERY time you mention Walkerton you have to be reminded of any factor OTHER than Harris! Even more, once someone DOES mention those drunken good ole boys and their corrupt town council you acknowledge their relevance with a quick "yeah, but HARRIS...!" You are just over the top obsessed with Harris' involvement on this issue. When you post, you always sound like Harris was 99.9999999999% responsible! I don't think it's hyperbole to say that if you had been involved with the Inquiry you might have ended up apologizing to Stan Koebel for Harris making him fake the water samples and poison the wells! I'm willing to put some of the blame on Harris but Michael, you make it sound like it was all a DELIBERATE act on Mike's part! I keep expecting you to insert a "Mr. Burns laugh" about the babies dying! Don't mean to dump on you but I really think you should spend some time on introspection with this one, Michael!

No, you are not a dinosaur. It would also seem you are not one of those who grew up in those times. Yet you paint a picture that totally contradicts the experience of those of us who DID grow up in these times! As for being 'anecdotal', I was not making any attempt to call you down for it. Not a case of pot and kettle but rather "sauce for the gander". Lately it seems on this board that some folks will attack any anecdotal evidence they disagree with but beam widely at any slung on their side of the fence...