Wild Bill

My understanding is that Dr. Martin is a medical doctor. I agree that medicine is indeed a branch of science but for purposes of my point I perhaps should have been more specific. I'm actually referring to what are called "hard sciences", i.e. physics, chemistry and maths. The others seem to be more "rote" knowledge, depending on learning as big as possible a database of facts and then using them as a "lookup table", applying symptoms to a probable disease. Medicine to me really becomes a science when we get into gene splicing, nanotechnologies and recombinant DNA techniques. Perhaps Dr. Martin indeed is at that level but if so I am unaware of it. I'm talking about the people who could help put men on the moon, not those who could make a guess that you have a cold. How about it? Any among the opposition you champion that understand how a motor or a generator works, a device which is about a century old? Who can describe a P/N junction, the basis of transistors which are virtually everywhere in our modern environment? As I love to repeat, I don't see any who I would trust to replace a plug on a lamp yet they have the power to make decisions in areas of science that affect our future and our economy, almost every day.

Have you considered ion engines, TB? http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2010/05/ion-drive-aiming-at-mars.html "Forward-thinkers say that VASIMR's continuous thrust could be what we need to get to Mars. The technology to maybe bang a bucket of bolts together and half-land it on Mars has been around for a while - the real race is against time, with the inconvenient fact that most of space is trying to kill us. You have to get there before the radiation that soaks interplanetary space becomes too much, and the superconducting plasma rocket could cut the trip down to 39 days - within what we're able to do with our soft flesh. " Is 39 days not comparable to your model?

Why stop with Day, TB? There's not a politician in power today, federally or provincially, that seems to have even a 6th grade understanding of basic science! The only one I ever knew was Chuck Cadman. Of course, I'm biased 'cuz like me he repaired guitar amplifiers!

I just can't resist this one! Do you realize the logic of your argument? Essentially, you are saying that because 3 other groups are getting away with something wrong that YOUR group is entitled to something they don't deserve! Geez, if that's the way things work how about everybody rip everybody off for EVERYTHING??!! Have you no sense of cause and effect, of justice as an absolute? Oh no, I forgot. Because there have been so many white biased judges you have no reason to be impartial yourself. No wonder things never get resolved...

"...more wisely"? As an Ontarioan who witnessed Bob Rae's NDP government first hand, I think you would first have to define 'stuff for the people' more precisely. From what I saw, an NDP government would dive into a program to put bike racks on all public buses, while blissfully ignoring the fact that the streets have so many huge pot holes that the buses can't travel through the city anyway! After critics point this out, they would then give every citizen a bike, since bikes can more easily navigate around potholes. Before you try to claim I'm exaggerating, I personally saw Bob's government hire guys for unnecessary highway work crews in order to give them enough weeks to qualify for EI. They put them on the highway with NO safety training, pouring concrete in bitterly cold January. The concrete of course froze and had to be replaced in the spring. Many experienced old hands were so disgusted at this and many other examples that they took early retirement, causing a 'brain drain' that the dept has not recovered from to this day.

You know, I am getting very tired of hearing people cavalierly blowing off the idea of protecting one's property, as if that is no real hardship. Many times, it is the difference between keeping the electricity paid or feeding your kids! Many of these folks seem to think that insurance is cheap and pays for everything. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many small businesses are just scraping by. Every time they are robbed, the insurance costs go up, till eventually companies refuse to insure them! Even with insurance there is the cost of any deductibles and getting through the wait for a settlement cheque. It's too easy to say that property damage is no big deal when it's not your OWN property! Not everyone is as rich as Conrad Black. Making such implications seems to me to be callous, thoughtless and downright cruel! It's always the details that matter. We shouldn't look at things so simplistically. Take horse theft, for example. The standard punishment in frontier times was hanging! The modern 'property' outlook might feel this is harsh and inappropriate. However, if you examine the details of the times you find that stranding someone without their horse on the 'wild prair-ee' was tantamount to a death sentence! You simply weren't likely to survive without your horse. So stealing it was essentially murder, or at least manslaughter. It's just one more example of how we've lost the ability to empathize with the victim, I guess.

Now I see where the confusion lies. Here's your original statement: "Always rememebr.. The Harrisites were the first to throw this one out there...And they would have if they had the chance.It was one of Slasher Jimmy's pet projects..." First you said Harrisites. Some posts later you focus on Flaherty. You do come right out and say that the 'Harrisites' would have implemented the HST "if they had the chance". Obviously, Harris could have done this but didn't! He had the two largest majorities in Ontario's history so no one could have stopped him. You are probably right that Flaherty and perhaps some other ministers in his cabinet liked the HST but the fact remains that Harris did NOT want to or he could easily have done so! The confusion springs from your statements wobbling from blaming Harris to just Flaherty to the entire caucus. Being a bit more specific might leave you fewer outs but it would make it easier to discuss the same point.

Ah Jack, debate doesn't work like that! YOU made the claim about Flaherty so it falls to YOU to back up the claim! White's Rules of Order and all that. You can't just state anything you want and demand that the OTHER guy prove you wrong! Even if it wasn't ridiculously unfair, if you are right you would be forcing him to spend eternity in a futile effort, whereas you should have been able to support your own point quite quickly. Geez Louise....

Ah, the 'Chretien Manoever'! I remember it well. All this 'sound and fury' to depose Harper. What a waste of brain power! So many folks reading the entrails and spinning out possibilities as to how an election would go. It really doesn't matter! If an election is called all the soothsayers will run up against the same brick wall: despite any dissatisfaction with Harper when it comes time to mark the ballot voters will be faced with Ignatieff! As I keep saying, any salesperson knows well that it's not enough to knock down the incumbent competitor's product. You also have to give good reasons for people to switch to yours! This is where Ignatieff has failed and this is why Harper will win the next election. He may get yet another minority but he is NOT likely to lose! I guess we Canadians are doomed forever to have only poor choices...

Here's a newsclip about Cuba that seems appropo: http://news.sympatico.ctv.ca/home/contentposting?feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&showbyline=True&date=true&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20100629%2fontario-teen-cuba-100629 "An Ontario teen will be stuck in Cuba indefinitely after Cuban authorities ordered him to stand trial for a traffic accident his family says was not his fault. Cody LeCompte of Simcoe, Ont., was on vacation with his mother in April when the two decided to rent a car. On April 29, LeCompte was at the wheel, his mother in the passenger seat and a cousin and his fiancée in the back when the car was hit by a dump truck. Two months later, Cody is still in the country, and while the family was informed by their travel agent that he will face a trial, they have no idea when it will begin or what charges he faces. "We were hit, our party were the ones that were injured, so in no way was it my son's fault," Danette LeCompte told CTV News. " Why so many Canadians persist in vacationing in that 'Marxist paradise' is beyond me! It seems so crass to bask on the beach at a luxury resort while poor cubans peer at you through fences and offer to sell you their bodies for toilet paper and aspirins. I guess that group of us has no real principles except the enjoyment of a cheap holiday! Money trumps honour, I guess.

I personally have worked in stores and sold goods to people carrying aboriginal tax cards. I had been instructed to NOT charge PST on such sales! We simply took the number off the card the same as we would have a PST exemption number. So my personal experience is that 'natives' flashed me their card and voila, no taxes paid! I hesitate to relate my personal direct experience in this thread. I fully expect that some posters like CR are promptly going to claim that my evidence is merely anecdotal and that I am lying, since my disagreeing with him on a native issue is proof in itself that I must be a racist. Still, for anyone else who is interested, there it is.

Name three! And DON"T try to claim hospital care! They may have a lot of doctors but their hospitals are lucky to even have bandaids and Aspirin! Anybody who has had to be treated at a Cuban hospital can tell you horror stories. I have a personal friend who was injured down there on a holiday and she walks with a limp to this day!

Tammy, I'm afraid that your search for "invoice suppression" may prove a waste of time. It's not that relevant to your problem. You can prove the illegality of the 407's actions six ways to Sunday but so what? Do you expect to just call up the police, tell them what's going on and they will promptly arrest the 407 accountants for you? No, sadly what happens is that you won't be able to get anyone anywhere to bother getting off their ass to address the problem! The 407 cartel is huge! It has an incredible amount of political pull, especially since many politicians are heavily invested in the company. I suggest you keep trying to get as many politicians as you can to fight for you. The only thing the 407 cares about is negative publicity. One at a time and they can just ignore us. If it becomes a big enough political issue the politicians might start worrying about keeping their seats more than the money they're all making and change the rules to make things more fair. Remember, this is a company that at one time had over 800 thousand complaints on file and just ignored them! As long as the money keeps pouring in they couldn't give a damn about how many of us they blatantly screw over with their mistakes!. They will only respond to strong enough political pressures, Tammy. It's not right, but that's reality.

Actually, many of the homeless were already there by the time Harris was in power. Bob Rae was the man responsible! Good ole Bob passed legislation that stopped authorities from institutionalizing someone with a mental problem for their own good. He felt that this was an infringement of their freedoms! If they wanted to run around on the streets and refuse to take their meds that was their right. Almost overnight we began to see these former patients wandering the streets. Famiiies of these former inmates of course complained out of concern for their loved ones but no one in government listened. Of course, what no one was willing to admit was that this move saved the provincial government a fortune in care costs! I guess you could include the Harris government for not repealing Bob's legislation among all the others we've had since Bob, but Rae was the originator.

Actually, I thought their goal was just to steal some guitars from Steve's Music! Seriously, I agree that many of the protesters really haven't got a clue on how to actually get something changed. I think many are really just drama queens, looking for a parade to get out in front of, so they can feel they've done something. If they torch a cop car they think that makes them look even more dedicated! To me, they just look like dillholes! I respect actual positive efforts and results. Any dimwit with hair in his ears can get ugly in a mob scene.

Well, I'm in favour of legalization too! It seems where we differ is that I believe that the majority should get what they want but NOT only when they agree with me! You're either a democrat or an elitist. There really is no middle ground, eyeball!

Hey, the mayor of Toronto is David Miller! That guy is so far left that if Harper had have held the conference ANYWHERE within 100 miles of Toronto Miller would have said it was a terrible idea! Really, when someone is just like a jukebox, where you can push a button and know exactly what he's going to say, why bother listening to him?

That is the funniest thing I've seen in days!

Well, if you're right that being tougher on crime will bring Harper more power then that would have to mean that he is pleasing more voters than before! Are you against the principle of governments following the wishes of the majority of their citizens?

Once again we see how the values of a Quebecer are vastly different than those of much of English Canada. August, if Harper pleased Quebec in the manner you describe we would indeed have another Chretien. Harper would only hold most of Quebec and Ontario. Like Chretien, he would do very poorly for seats in the rest of Canada. Like Chretien, he no doubt would still try to claim his was a truly nationalist party! Although I would prefer that Quebecers WANT to stay in Canada, more and more when I read posts like yours I am coming to think that perhaps our cultures ARE too different! That no party could EVER please the ENTIRE country! Certainly, except for Mulroney's two massive majorities we haven't seen such a government in a long, long time. We all saw what happened to Mulroney's "big tent", as well. If the culture of Quebec and that of all the other provinces are so truly different then perhaps we all would be better off if Quebec did leave! Certainly, the rest of Canada would see a financial advantage. Just as a matter of interest, if separation did occur, wouldn't that mean Quebec would be far too small to be represented at the G20? Certainly, they could not be a member of the G8!

Yeah, the hippy movement meant well. We weren't always sure just what the hell we meant but we knew we meant it nicely! I just refuse to believe that just because I disagree with someone he must automatically be a bad person.

Despite being a techie and rather rightwing/libertarian BM, I've also got a LOT of hippy still in me!

Do you live down here on Earth with the rest of us or do you walk around all day with your head in the clouds? The world does not run on wishes and dreams. If you aren't willing to deal with people as they are then you will never be able to persuade them to change, even in the slightest! You are a dreamer, sir! Bless you, dreamers are wonderful people. It's just that they are completely useless at dealing with problems in the real world.

Here's another example of police stupidity with tazers: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0625/officers-taser-86yearold-disabled-woman-bed-lawsuit/ "When Lonnie Tinsley of El Reno, Oklahoma, called 911 to ask for medical assistance for his disabled, bed-ridden grandmother, he couldn't have dreamed it would end with police tasering the 86-year-old woman twice, stepping on her oxygen hose until she couldn't breathe, and sending her to a psychiatric hospital for six days." Yep, Oklahoma's finest tazered an 86 year old grannie in her bed! Forget about the tool. Sometimes the craftsman needs meds!

Agreed! And that's not all that's retarded! Where is it written that there MUST be a completely safe method of stopping someone who is being violent, for whatever reason? The reality is that at present, WE HAVE NO PHASER WITH A STUN SETTING! Tazers never came with an iron clad guarantee. Leaving aside the stupidity of cops piling on multiple tazer hits, even one hit can kill someone with a weak heart or other medical problem, but what's the alternative? If you have someone acting in a violent manner where he poses a threat to himself and/or others, the police have to do SOMETHING! Before tazers they had only their guns and their nightsticks. A nightstick can be swung hard or soft, at any number of body areas, to inflict differing amounts of pain depending on what was necessary in an officer's judgement. Of course, there will always be those "Deputy Dawg" types who are sadistic enough to indulge in overkill but most cops don't fall into that category. You will never have a perfect world. No, a tazer is just another option that while not guaranteed to be absolutely safe is still likely to be a better choice in most cases than a billyclub or a bullet! In the real world, what more can we expect?