Wild Bill

Doesn't Mayor Miller and his council run Toronto? I'm the last person to agree with Harris' amalgamation. We are paying dearly here in Stoney Creek since we were forcibly joined to Hamilton. Still, Toronto runs its own budget. They pay far more than they should to any union worker. They seem to choose the most expensive way to do anything. From what I've read in the papers they never seem to be efficient and much of anything. How can you put all the blame on Harris? Doesn't Toronto deserve the blame for any of their own actions?

Topaz, if the suspicions that McGuinty set up a friend for the top position and allowed her and others to rake off millions, this would be worse than anything Harris ever did! I am constantly amazed at how you seem to forgive anything from those you like and blame everything up to earthquakes and tsunamis on those you don't. Right is right and wrong is wrong. If it is proven that Dalton has done what it sure looks like he's done then he's done something very, very wrong.

Love your signature quotes, BTW. Is that first one about 'choosing us' from Robert Heinlein?

You know, often I agree with you but with the Afghanistan mission I have mixed feelings. I DO believe the mission is worthwhile! I have two daughters myself and the thought of them ever having to live the kind of life the Taliban culture imposes on their women is frankly, repulsive! Burhkas, no education, if they were to be raped THEY would be put to death! I do not class all cultures as equally moral. Some have very negative aspects that must be eliminated if Mankind is ever to progress as a species. However, the problem I have with staying in Afghanistan is that other NATO partners aren't pulling their weight! I find this deeply offensive. If they champion freedom so poorly then perhaps we shouldn't be NATO allies. Why should we rely on them if WE were in peril and needed their help? So how do you get a slacker to pull his weight? By being an enabler and doing the job for him? Should our soldiers continue to pay the price for the moral cowardice of countries like Italy and others? At the same time, should we cast the Afghanistan people back to the wolves for a failure of those other countries? Perhaps we should continue to contribute and accept the lesson of the lack of character of our so-called NATO partners? I'm torn on this one.

Like most threads on this board, this one deals with opinion. Including yours! I make my living from musicians. I run a business from my home building and repairing amplifiers. I talk to musicians from all genres every day. Perhaps I AM more familiar with music today and that of yesterday than you are! That doesn't mean you have no right to your opinion. This thread isn't some mathematical formula where you can cite a link to some equation and consider yourself as having settled everything. If you were more up on music you would see the obvious, that there are vast differences between popular music today and that of yesterday. Some of these differences stem from 'dumbed down' musicianship and songwriting. That can be indicative of many trends of today. So far I find your opinion to be based on just a traditional generalization of attitudes between generations. It would help if you could give just a few specifics! Why not take some time and tune your radio to some of today's stations catering to the younger set? I suspect that you and Sir Bandelot are not that deep into music and so you wouldn't see what we're talking about. That doesn't make this thread bogus. Not meaning to be too personal but frankly, all that means is that you folks don't have an informed opinion.

You may be right but my own experience with people says that very few Canadians will agree with you. Again, this is one of those "how do you feel about it" issues, rather than one of "is it technically legal?".

Bogus? Why bogus? It IS 'Art and Culture", isn't it? Seems to me we're really commenting on differences between the culture of the 60's & 70's vs that of today. It has tie-ins with work attitudes, values, competencies with practical subjects and much more. It can help provide a benchmark of the baseline of practical knowledge between today and 40 years ago. Can the average citizen today put a new plug on a lamp, or is changing the bulb the limit of his abilities? Is he more easily fooled by sizzle and unable to appreciate the taste of the steak? Extrapolate long enough and you'll get a general sense of whether today's citizen is easier or harder to govern!

I think you're missing the point. It's obvious you like Ignatieff and so you'll cut him some slack about being out of the country so much of his life. However, politics is not a courtroom, where we can defend with technicalities. It's all about perceptions. How will the average Canadian feel? Remember, Ignatieff didn't just spend a few years in the US. He spent almost his entire adult life! What would someone's chances be of becoming premier of Quebec, if although he was born there he had grown up in Ontario? I'm starting to agree. Once the campaign writ is dropped the Tories are going to have a field day with this stuff! It's just the sort of thing to make the ordinary Canadian feel a total disconnect with Ignatieff. His speeches in the US are guaranteed to fan the flames of anti-Americanism latent in us all. The Liberals seem to value academia more than the common touch. They choose philosopher kings and not a barber shop sage. I'm not saying this is right or wrong. It's just the way it is. To many Canadians Ignatieff is going to look more American than Canadian, or at least not an ordinary Canadian. This WILL hurt him! How much? I'm not certain. Still, it's definitely a weak spot.

"I don't know where I'm comin' from, but I just met a girl name of Dynamo Hum!" - Frank Zappa One thing that seems to differ between modern indie rock and the classic rock we grew up on is a clear vocal that paints imagery. I get a lot of young 'screamo' metal customers and although I can admire much of the guitar playing, with the harmony leads from more than one guitar played like a machine gun with never a dropped note, I still can't truthfully say that I would ever actually listen to that genre on my own. Without those vocal and images they seem to be simply generating primal angst. Great for getting concert audiences stirred up into slam dancing but still, when you think about it the songs are basically just instrumentals. Instrumentals rarely have lasting appeal, at least, not since the Ventures were popular! Who is going to still have today's screamo song on their playlist a couple of years from now? This of course suits record labels just fine! The more trendy and disposable the product, the faster turnover and the more money they make. What's more, artists rarely develop the stature to negotiate their fair sized slice of the pie. So they get tossed aside in favour of some new (and just as short-lived) band or artist. How many songs from this decade will last as long as so many of those from classic rock days?

Nothing wrong with being a newbie. EVERYBODY starts out that way! However, assuming that things began only when you joined up is not logical. I don't think anything personal was meant by calling you "new". It's just that over the months and years that I've been here I have to absolutely positively agree that the bulk of the ad hominem name calling has been from the 'left' against the 'right'! There have been some exceptions, of course. Still, if you pick a thread or two and start a tally as you scroll through the posts I think you'll find things overwhelmingly one-sided AGAINST your premise! I think perhaps your post just surprised 'Keepitsimple' so much that he typed a response a bit too quickly to avoid ruffling your feathers. Be thankful this board is not like "Rubble.com"! The response would have contained at least a dozen profane words and some pretty personal descriptions of your morals and sexual habits, with likely ZERO reference to your actual point!

Here it is! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaoulli_v._Q...torney_General) "Jacques Chaoulli is a doctor who provided home appointments to patients. He attempted to get a licence so he could offer his services as an independent private hospital, but was rejected due to provincial legislation prohibiting private health insurance. Together, the two men sought a motion for a declaratory judgment to contest the prohibition." This went to the Supreme court recently, which ruled AGAINST Quebec! This is perhaps the most interesting: http://www.righttohealthcare.org/Intl/Can.htm "The Right to Health Care ** Public Perception or Legal Right? To begin, it is important to distinguish between a legal right to health care and the public perception of the existence of that right. In Volume Four, the Committee noted the existence of public opinion polls that reveal that Canadians, encouraged by politicians and the media, believe they have a constitutional right to receive health care even though no such right is explicitly contained in the Charter. Nor does any other Canadian law specifically confer that right, although government programs exist to provide publicly funded health services." Or this one! http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/164/6/825 "WE ADDRESSED THE QUESTION OF WHETHER PRIVATE HEALTH CARE IS ILLEGAL in Canada by surveying the health insurance legislation of all 10 provinces. Our survey revealed multiple layers of regulation that seem to have as their primary objective preventing the public sector from subsidizing the private sector, as opposed to rendering privately funded practice illegal. Private insurance for medically necessary hospital and physician services is illegal in only 6 of the 10 provinces. Nonetheless, a significant private sector has not developed in any of the 4 provinces that do permit private insurance coverage. The absence of a significant private sector is probably best explained by the prohibitions on the subsidy of private practice by public plans, measures that prevent physicians from topping up their public sector incomes with private fees." Seems to me that the point IS worthy of debate after all! The Supreme Court decision against Quebec is relatively recent. 6 out of 10 provinces outlaw private insurance and the other 4 technically allow it but have so many nitpicking rules that nobody even tries to do it. It would appear that reality is in conflict with perception.

Not totally true, Molly! Yes, you can purchase extra insurance to get a private ward that you don't have to share with others. However, if you want to pay a specialist directly for a procedure or pay cash for basic medical coverage, that is totally illegal. If you need an MRI and are worried about the wait times, you wait! Paying private would be illegal. The same to remove your appendix or even visit a GP if you have a cold! If you are rich, you could go to the States. Our system would then pay 90%! So the rich have an out. What else is new? I still remember when Bob Rae was in power as premier of Ontario. I can't remember if it was his mother or his granny who was very ill and was flown to a hospital in Buffalo. I can't even afford the gas to drive there! Seems to me we've always had a two-tier system. Anyhow, there are only a couple of other countries that made paying private for basic care totally illegal. There's Cuba and Angola. Good company for Canada, I guess. So if you're waiting for a heart bypass, take good care of yourself. From personal experience, you will be told that if it becomes an emergency you will be immediately looked after. How do you predict an emergency? If you keel over, hopefully someone will be there to notice and call an ambulance. Let's also hope you don't die on the way to the hospital. I waited 3 months and then was bumped for another month. To be truthful, I never felt in any imminent danger but then as every wife knows, we men tend to live in denial about such things! How reliably can these things be predicted? If your heart is bad enough to need bypass surgery what are the odds against you suffering an unexpected attack? I don't know myself but I doubt it's 100%! When it's your own life on the line you can't help but feel a bit uncomfortable about taking such chances. I should admit that my care in the hospital was excellent! The doctors and nurses treated me fabulously. When I first woke up a nurse said "If you do what you're told things won't hurt!" I replied "I never argue with a woman of experience!" She laughed and said we'd get along just fine. She was right about everything. I figured she'd have a lot more experience with such an operation than I did. I find it both amazing and a bit suspicious how so many of my fellow Canadians go absolutely rabid at the thought of there being the slightest flaw in our system, particularly if someone's comparing it to the American one. How about comparisons with most European systems? We don't stack up so well against them either! This fanaticism totally prevents addressing any problems or even some improvements. Anyone who reports personal negative experience is written off as either a flake or some kind of "lackey of the American running dog bourgeoisie". Bill Gairdner wrote a fascinating history and description of our system in his book "The Trouble With Canada". It's a good read. Especially for those who disagree with him. He has footnotes and stats coming out the ying yang! Over the years I've heard little or nothing from his critics that wasn't simple ad hominem gibberish.

Are you implying that an independent Senate is the normal status quo? Perhaps you could cite me something to show me how we've had an independent Senate at any time during the last 30-40 years. Or ever, for that matter! Perhaps it depends on your definition of 'independence'. I had thought that our Senate was pretty well always Liberal dominated but I'm willing to be shown some differing history.

Sounds like a bit of a stretch to me but it's your opinion and you're entitled to it. I just don't think that most of the people of Toronto share it! I think Miller lost public support, big time! Torontonians are feeling financially strapped by taxes and all the nickel and dime user fees. The garbage settlement really looks to many as if Miller simply caved. He has always appeared to be very much a union supporter anyway. The converse of that is that if you're not in CUPE he doesn't appear to support YOU! Who cares what you and I think. The next mayoralty election could be very interesting.

We should perhaps be more clear here, jdobbin. First off, we don't have a legal requirement for how much of an individual's adult life has been spent in Canada, if he wants to run for Prime Minister. If it's legal, who's to stop him? However, obviously some of us would lack confidence that someone who has been away for so long can relate to the problems of our country today. Others might have confidence that a man like Ignatieff is more capable than some of rising above that limitation and doing a better job than perhaps an opponent who may have lived here longer but lacks some other strengths. These are personal value judgements. We can all argue all day about such points till the cows come home and it won't resolve anything. Obviously, the accusation will be made during the next campaign. It will be up to individual Canadians if they think the point is important enough to sway their vote. Nothing said in this thread is likely to correctly predict how large numbers of Canadians will feel about the issue when asked to vote. However, it is also obvious that it WILL have some effect, one way or the other!

As a techie who works with vintage guitar amps, I can't resist pointing out that vacuum tube technology is immune to EMP! This was a real concern in the 70's, before computers. The USSR was still mostly vacuum tube based in its equipment and thus was much less vulnerable to the effect than the USA. I guess if the balloon ever goes up it will knock us back to the old ways, live gigs, vinyl and no download piracy!

I guess we have two very different points of view. We actually agree on gay rights. You appear to be from the "it takes a village" school. My school says "Geez, this village is getting kinda noisy!". You should understand that my attitude is NOT exclusive to the gay right's movement! I don't like social crusades of any kind. I get bored when I see another "Save the unborn baby whales from drunk gay car drivers and nuclear power!" tv special. I'm a tech. I make my living building and repairing guitar amplifiers and equipment. I believe in practical cause and effect. Feelings and attitudes will not do diddley to help me repair a broken amplifier. I happen to think that we should be more practical with social problems as well. The focus should be on actually fixing a problem, not in getting 'attention', 'consensus' or 'mind share'. When I saw those candlelight vigils in Montreal after that wingnut Marc LePine murdered those poor girls at that tech school, I didn't think that it was great to see so many people caring about the tragedy. My first thought was that if they had a few guards in that school with service revolvers Marc could have been taken care off very quickly, probably leaving a much lower body count! When I see at my daughter's school a bullying problem I don't have any respect for how they keep putting the bully through 'sensitivity training'. The kids that are victims keep getting victimized! My first priority would be to protect the victims. The fastest way to do that is to remove the bullies from the school! Give them their 'sensitivity' training somewhere else. Later, let them back to see if the training worked. If it didn't, then send them to a youth camp! I would include taunting or teasing a young child with sexual orientation issues in the 'bullying' category. To some my approach seems to harsh but I would submit that all the parades and crusades seem to be having a very poor success rate in actually FIXING problems! They only seem to change how people FEEL about them!

Well, it doesn't give the specifics I would want but I will agree it shows clear intent. I was only concerned with the federal NDP. This link clearly states that it has no federal numbers, as the structure of the NDP in Canada makes them "hard to come by". The closest I get is one reference to the Ontario NDP as receiving about 18% of its donations from organized labour. However, I can't argue that the link shows a clear intent by the NDP to become more grassroots in its funding. I respect this much more than I do the actions of the Liberal Party, who appeared to just chug along until the laws were changed and they woke up one morning and said "Gee, we're nearly bankrupt!" They only appear to have adapted recently, as we've seen in how their fundraising has been much more successful. As far as my father's experience, your link has nothing to say one way or another. It simply does not address that period in history. Union membership was much higher in those days and could easily have represented a much higher percentage of the total take. What's more, the percentage taken does not address the coercive technique used by making union dues donations an automatic process, with such a disturbing method of appeal as to make a union member publicly ask before all his peers at a public meeting. What ever! All parties have dirty laundry in their past. This is today. Old sins merely act as a comparison yardstick to see if we have improved or slipped in present times.

You've obviously had some negative experiences in your life and for that you have my sympathy. However, I do think you would fare better if you refused to see yourself as a victim. I was a salesman for years, in an industry that employed thousands. With a sample size that large, there were a number of gay folks. Nobody cared! Many successfully achieved positions in management. I had a few "work mates" myself who were gay. We only cared about who could get away with putting our beer tab on their expense account that week. Virtually none of them saw themselves as 'victims'. Different in some ways but mostly the same. Like red hair. I never saw any examples of someone being rude to them. I never saw any making their 'difference' into a 'crusade', either. They were just people, like anyone else. What I see as most ironic is that none of my gay compadres supported the NDP! That in itself wasn't surprising. Few people in sales or private industry do. If you're not in a union or on some form of government assistance why would you? That's not the whole of it. They told me that in their gay 'community' they didn't dare admit to voting Liberal or <gasp> Conservative! They would be crucified, like black Republicans down south. No doubt you're going to tell me that I'm either lying or imagining all this. I frankly don't care! My memories are quite clear. I still phone some of these old friends once or twice a year. Our industry virtually collapsed after 9/11 and thousands of us had to find new careers, so it takes more effort to keep in touch. My impression of the NDP is that they LOVE victims! So much that they encourage them to stay that way!

Don't tell me. Show me!

Yet another example proving that there is nothing left of Reform/Alliance in the present Conservative Party. The tiny rump that was left of the old Progressive Conservatives has successfully morphed the new party into a clone of themselves. Why did Manning even bother? And why do so many on this board moan and groan about the loss of the old PC's? Look at what's done, not what's said! This is exactly the sort of thing the old Mulroney party would have done. If it walks like a duck...

Why am I "just as bad" for something someone ELSE does? Collective guilt? Screw that! I have enough trouble trying to live my own life properly and atoning for my own sins. I don't feel the slightest shred of guilt for someone else's transgressions. I am an individual, not a 'number' or a member of a tribe. Maybe if we ALL worried about our own character you would have less to be upset about!

2001? My father retired in the late 80's, after nearly 30 years. You know, the universe DID exist before Coldplay or Katy Perry! Sheeesh!

it's obvious to me that YOU don't get it! If you and your partner want to kiss on the street I would NOT stop and stare! I wouldn't consider it that big a deal. Do what you want! Am I supposed to feel responsible for what OTHER people do? God, I'd spend my entire life walking around in a guilt trip, 24/7! Forget that! Let other people feel guilty for their OWN actions! It's not holding hands or kissing that bothers me. It's constantly beating some damn drum!

The problem with car batteries is that they can't handle being deeply discharged often. They are designed to be constantly recharged by a car's alternator. So if you have to drain it deeply when you go for a long time without sun or wind the battery soon becomes useless. If you have a connection with a place that services electric golf carts they often have lots of older deep discharge batteries. These batteries tend to "sulphate" up as they age. Often they will give them to you to avoid having to dispose of them in an environmentally approved fashion! Do a google on lead acid battery "de-sulphaters" or "rejuvenators" and you will come up with some electronic circuits that can make these batteries useful again. They would be excellent batteries for an off-grid power setup.