Wild Bill

Well, lots of people tell other people lots of things. You've made the statement but so far given nothing to substantiate it. Have you got anything other than your own opinion to justify someone changing their mind?

My point is that during Lastman's strike Miller was carping from the sidelines, saying that if HE was mayor there either would not have been a strike or it would have been over much sooner. Now David has had a far LONGER strike! With hefty concessions to the union that have many quite upset and resulted in a very close vote on council to accept the settlement. http://www.torontosun.com/comment/editoria...264231-sun.html " It was easy for Miller to criticize his predecessor, Mel Lastman, during the last municipal workers' strike in 2002 which lasted 16 days before it was ended by provincial back-to-work legislation. Back then, Miller, a city councillor, suggested the strike wouldn't have occurred or would have been shorter had he been mayor, while making it clear he was sympathetic to the workers. But that was then and this is now. Now Miller is learning what Lastman knows -- that when you're in charge, rather than just heckling from the stands, your job suddenly gets a lot harder. " http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/t...poll-finds.aspx "Mayor David Miller’s support among Toronto voters has “plummeted” to the point where a majority disapprove of his performance, and he would lose in a race against possible challenger John Tory, a new poll shows. The dismal poll numbers, which also suggest the incumbent, two-term mayor would lose to Deputy Premier George Smitherman, come as Mr. Miller struggles to contain the political fallout of a crippling strike of municipal workers. But the collapse in Mr. Miller’s support -- from 69% four years ago to 43% today -- is not just an expression of frustration with the stopped garbage collection and closed public services. The poll, conducted by Ipsos-Reid for the National Post, Global Television and CFRB radio, was done largely in advance of the strike, with about 100 out of 803 respondents polled after it began." So Miller was already slipping in the polls. It will be interesting to see the polls after this week's settlement of the strike. It will be even more interesting to see the next mayoralty election, especially if Tory runs again.

I'm not fluent in Klingon, so I can't make a fair comparison. There does seem to be more consistency in Klingon with tenses and such, which is not surprising for what is really an artificial language, like Esperanto. I had 5 years of high school french. I was the type of student who would travel uptown to a French bookstore and by a copy of Playboy, en francais. Of course, I would get caught reading it in french class, just to make the point that the articles were improving my reading comprehension! Afterwards, I discovered that my education forever branded me as an Anglo! In the interests of Canadian unity, they taught us all European French! Go figure! It took working for some years and reporting to a sales office in Pointe Claire make my accent a bit more acceptable.

What are YOU talking about? When did I say that I care one way or another about two men holding hands? When did I say I care about gays acting gay in public? Tolerance to me is an individual thing. These things aren't a problem for me. I actually don't really care much for ANY parades, although I will admit to getting a thrill up myspine everytime I hear the bagpipe bands. It just seems that every day is SOME minority group's SPECIAL day! I don't consider anyone special, including myself. People are people, period. As the actor who portrays Admiral Adama says in the tv show Battlestar Galactica, "There is only ONE race, the HUMAN race! And so say we all!" I don't believe that I personally am being intolerant. If someone IS being intolerant, I say just hang 'em and let's move on! If someone commits a hate crime against someone else, we can always use more organ donations. We all have more important things to do than wallow in insecurity and self-pity. Hopefully, a thousand years from now no one will know or care about racial or sexual prejudice. Unless of course, we keep constantly refreshing it!

Pick something that you know for absolutely certain your own father experienced while you were growing up. Something that you PERSONALLY witnessed and both you and your father, if not others in your family, remember. Now, allow me to state that whatever it is, it's untrue! Now, how do YOU feel?

"Esperanto? MajQa'! Qu'vaD II' Devam! batlh Daqawlu'taH!"

Considering Mr. Miller's words against his predecessor Mel Lastman during the last strike and how much longer and more expensive Miller's strike has proven to be, don't you find Mr. Miller to be a tad hypocritical?

Well, perhaps that's where we differ. When it comes to my beliefs, I don't care about the numbers! Having large numbers of people agree or disagree with me has never determined my own idea of what is right or wrong. I found prejudice to be illogical nearly 50 years ago, long before it became 'trendy'. The problem with needing people to agree with you is that it's a two-edged sword. People can also be dead wrong! Worse yet, they can be very cruel and unfair while being blissfully unaware of doing it! Just look at the spectacle of some of our Human Rights Commissions. Or how the Americans treat any black Republican. Or even some white Republicans! "What's your sign?" "Have you consulted the I Ching?" I'm afraid I don't share that insecurity.

That's because of recent changes. It doesn't change previous history. Sometimes its worth it getting old, just for having a memory to gainsay all the young revisionists.

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, the love that for years dared not speak its name is now the love that won't shut up! I'm getting really tired of EVERYBODY being SPECIAL! Especially for what are trivial reasons. Race and sexual orientation are irrelevant in a modern world. Who cares? If you're stranded on a desert island, being gay or straight matters SFA when all you really care about is having someone with you smart enough to build a radio out of coconuts! If all they can do is make something 'pretty' out of coconuts then they are not much help to survival, no matter what their race or inclinations.

Tell that to my father, who belonged to the Steelworkers Union for his working life. A portion of ALL their dues on their paychecks went to the NDP. It was not coerced, of course. All he had to do was to personally stand up in front of all his union brothers at a union meeting and ask for that portion of his dues to be stopped. Certainly, no one would EVER have had any reason to feel intimidated!

We're arguing over who has the best numbers and are ignoring an important sea change in Canadian politics. The Liberals are now raising their money honestly! I'm not just being facetious. No longer are they beholden to rich donors and corporations. They are receiving their money from individual Canadians, the same as the Tories. This is a legacy direct from Preston Manning and his Reformers. Before they came on the scene the old Progressive Conservatives got their funding exactly the same way as the Liberals. Or the NDP, for that matter, if you substituted 'unions' for 'corporations'. Reform got virtually ALL their money directly from the people who supported the party. This will have a HUGE influence on Liberal policies, as soon as the oldtime hacks die off and the new power movers are running things! IMHO, this is a very good thing, both for the Liberal Party and for Canada. If they keep cleaning up their act I might actually vote for them again some day!

"There was a young lady named Bright Who traveled much faster than light! She started one day, in the relative way And returned home the previous night!" Sorry. I just couldn't resist!

Not necessarily, Bryan. It could be simple good politics! You have to always remember that the true goal of a politician is NOT to come up with a solution but rather to get more votes! These goals do not always mesh. Newfoundland has had the "10-42" for years, where EI pays 42 weeks for 10 weeks of work. This was given after declaring the province an "economic disparity zone". A friend of mine move to PEI some years ago and got involved in the government grant process for starting up a business. He quickly learned that few of these businesses last more than 5 years. As soon as the start up grants run out they fold up and start another! Workers in Ontario have naturally resented not having the same EI benefits if they have the misfortune of having to file a claim. So for Ignatieff and the Liberals to propose to "level the playing field" across the country could be a real vote grabber! Consider the Roman Empire. Some believe that the start of the fall came when they extended the vote to the "rabble", who promptly voted themselves "bread and circuses" until the bread ran out along with the money to pay for the circuses. Why did this happen? Because it helped elect many Roman Senators, that's why! It's not that so many citizens are greedy, although of course, some are! It's just that most folks don't think that deeply about consequences, especially when they are getting a "gift". This is the principle behind nearly every scam. When you are being asked for your account info by that Nigerian minister who's going to give you a million dollars to free up a bigger amount to feed his orphans it's easy to get distracted by that million! The "360" plan is no different. What's more, if you time things right you can delay any significant negative effects for years! You simply drag your feet on implementing the scheme as long as possible, until the economy improves and the number of people making EI claims falls anyway! It could be a couple of generations before we face another recession like this one. So it will be some other guy's problem to solve an EI deficit! So yes, it's a bribe that in the long term can hurt us. Still, the greedy will be happy, the hungry will be happy and the gullible will be happy. That could add up to a majority for Ignatieff!

When I was a small boy my father used to take my brother and I on board his ship, the aircraft carrier Bonaventure. I was maybe 8 tops and my brother was 2 years younger. When he took us for a walk on the flight deck we were in utter awe. It was the biggest thing we had ever seen! Then one day the Yanks had come in with a fleet to Halifax harbour. They had made the weekend a holiday, opening up their ships to the general public for tours. I still remember the USS Trumpetfish, a submarine. The sailors were especially kind to us small kids. Then we were taken on the USS Essex, a FULL SIZE AIRCRAFT CARRIER! You could have picked up the Bonnie, plunked her on the Essex' flight deck and still been able to have a few planes take off and land beside it! Our little minds were totally blown! Some of the talk in this thread about what makes a ship 'large' and if our definition of a destroyer is the same as that of most other countries made me remember that day.

Right from the OP, it was obvious that many posters in this thread were going to be quite predictable. An issue like this illustrates the inherent difference between the typical Tory and Liberal supporter, that of "head" person and "heart" person. "Head" people are more practical, forming their beliefs and values according to reason and experience. "Heart" people lead with their "feelings". They tend to follow by faith. They might not understand very much of what a leader says but if they have a good opinion of him or her they will follow them blindly. "Head" people are more willing to change their minds when confronted with strong new evidence. That's why Mulroney's party was knocked down to only TWO SEATS in Parliament when they were offered the option of the Reform Party. "Head" people could not continue their support in the face of his ACTIONS! "Heart" people will rarely change their minds, if ever. They tend not to scrutinize new evidence very closely anyway, so why should they change their mind? As long as they LIKE their leaders they will stick by them! The electorate is made up of these two groups plus a perhaps equally large third group of people who are much more fluid in their choices. Most of who post on this board seem to fall strongly in one or the other of the first two camps. "Heart" people forgave Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggart. Their faith could not be broken! They will continue to support the Liberals. Adscam, Shawinigate, HRDC, the Gun Registry cost and now 'Wafergate' notwithstanding...

Failed analogy. If nothing can exceed the speed of light there's no way for you to receive any info 600 years before you see it happen. Happen in the past? Who's past? THAT'S the point! It's as valid to assume the present is NOW on Betelgeuse as it is this moment here on Earth.

I'm still wrapping my head around it, and I first read about it when I was 12 years old! I think I was 16 when it broke my heart. With no common frame of reference for time and no common elapsed rate between frames, I realized there could never be a United Federation of Planets! You could schedule a meeting at Federation HQ for October 4, 2250. You give everyone 4 weeks notice. NOBODY would have a chance of being on time! A month on one planet in one frame of reference could be several months on another, or days, or literally any time period, depending on the vector speed and direction between HQ and that planet. Yet WITHIN EACH FRAME it would seem to be 4 weeks! Only when you arrive in another frame would the difference show up. This is bad enough between two planets. How about for a hundred of them? Mr. Spock could serve 5 years in Star Fleet and come home to find 50 years had passed!

"Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse! BETELGEUSE!" Just thought I'd bring him back!

Topaz, according to this article this viewpoint came from Elaine McCoy, a Progressive Conservative Senator. Would you really expect someone from the old Progressive Conservative Party to say anything nice about Steven Harper, who was a large part of what DESTROYED her party?

Jack, this view is just not logical! Just because one person has a good experience doesn't mean there are NO bad ones! Or the converse, for that matter. It just means that you yourself had ONE good experience! You can't plot a curve from one point! A LOT of people have had problems! Just because you personally did not, does that mean that anyone who claims he did must be either lying or a tool of the American lackeys of the bourgeoisie? Did they imagine what they experienced? I'm struck by the digital thinking of so many in this thread. It would seem that because there are so many good things about our system that there can't be ANY BAD! This is not logic or reason. This is just faith! Patriotic jingoism! Any system made by man will have flaws, ESPECIALLY one rooted in politics! The idea is to recognize faults and correct them, so that the system in question is constantly corrected and improved. To hide behind a wall of defensive pride and fear of admitting problems (especially in any comparisons with America!) is frankly juvenile. However, when we do fool ourselves in this way it sure lets a lot of politicians off the hook!

I heard that if you look at the tracks they appear to be those of white mice. 42 of them, actually!

You seem to have a very digital form of logic. If one person is in the wrong how does that automatically make the other right? You can BOTH be wrong! You seem to think that you have the right of retaliation. That's not the way I felt this board operated. Aside from the odd slip, most folks that feel another poster has offended them that badly make a report to the moderators and let them handle it. You just seem to let fly from both barrels! There is also the 'ignore' list in the control panel. I have half a dozen or so names blocked, not because I disagreed with their politics but because I was disgusted by their lack of manners! Except for one name. I blocked him because he was so predictable he actually became boring! Anyhow, the list works great for me to keep my aggravation level down. I really can't spare the effort to read back and find out whether you or Alt4ever hurled the first rude insult. I really don't care! When you do this, you both turn debate into juvenile drivel. And for the record, if you had read my posts long enough you would have found it obvious that I hardly am the world's biggest CPC champion. I continue to vote for them only because to me they smell the least of all rank choices! That being said, I could switch my vote in a heartbeat if the Liberals changed their philosophies! I actually consider myself more of a 'classic' Liberal, which the present Liberal party hasn't resembled for generations, if ever. Still, just because I don't like a party doesn't mean I would try to win an argument over something they had done or proposed by called them rude names. Or calling another poster rude names. Enough! I suspect we may be so different that you can never understand my POV. That's your right and I support it. However, nothing says I have to stick around and listen to yours! I won't call you names. I'll simply go for a coffee! Maybe load up a Pat Travers or Frank Marino LP on my turntable! If things become less rude, then no big deal. If they go the other way, then I'll decide about adding to my 'ignore' list. And if your way becomes the norm for this board, there's other things to do.

You must be spending too much time over at "rubble".com. Where are your manners? One of the best things about this board is that for the most part people are civil! You almost ALWAYS attack ad hominem and emotionally! You're not the only one. The past few months seem to have shown more and more of these kinds of posts. Still, you ARE a prime example! I'm not a moderator but if this behavior is going to become the norm for MLW then I will vote with my feet and move on. I was disgusted with "rubble" and appreciated finding this board. If it goes the same way then I'm gone! I'm not trying to make some pompous statement. I really don't care how anyone else might feel about it. I just don't enjoy that sort of atmosphere. I may or may not represent a significant number of members who feel the same way and would also bail. I don't care. I just want to participate somewhere civilized! Perhaps it's just human nature. Perhaps all boards eventually deteriorate into "rubble". I don't know. I just know I'm getting tired of an ignorant and severe lack of manners.

All generalizations are dangerous, Angus. Including this one! We may be bringing hundreds of thousands of Muslims into Canada but that is not the same as bringing the same number who have this attitude towards women. Not all Muslims have that attitude! I worked with two young Somali teenagers once, a young man and a young girl. They were dating but secretly. Both were resisting arranged marriages. They told me how their parents had appealed to the imam, or 'minister' at their mosque to tell them that the Koran insisted on arranged marriages. They were both disappointed and upset when the imam refused! He told them that to his knowledge the Koran said no such thing and that the idea was solely a cultural issue, not a Muslim one. Not all Muslims practice radical or fundamentalist beliefs. That being said, perhaps we should be screening better those immigrants who come from those SPECIFIC COUNTRIES that DO have non-Canadian values in their culture, regardless of their religion! After all, to my knowledge there have been no honour killings amongst Irish Catholics or Scottish Presbyterians. We have no obligation to take everyone from everywhere. Immigration should be screened solely and only for Canada's benefit. Those who can help Canada should get in. Those who can't are someone else's problem. Race and country of origin are irrelevant. Culture may be relevant, in some aspects. Moreover, when we charge someone for murder over an honour killing, we should absolutely send a clear message by following the maximums of the law in sentencing. Religion should not be allowed to be introduced as a mitigating factor.