Wild Bill

Scary! Scary! Scary! Please be careful. Children might read your posts!

It was mentioned today on the Mike Duffy Live CTV politics show that 3 of the boxes seized in the raid contained files outlining the entire strategy of the Tory party in their lawsuit against Elections Canada. These documents fall under lawyer/client confidentiality and privilege. For Elections Canada to now have these documents in their possession as a result of their raid will make their legal situation very, very interesting. I think this raid is going to become great amusement in the days to come. Elections Canada may have made a very big mistake. I love it when bureaucrats get their come-uppance! They too often forget that the people through elected officials are actually in charge and not their hairy-assed desk-warming selves. Also, the speed with which the Liberals were able to get cameras to cover the raid is proof in itself there was a leak. It would have been flatly impossible otherwise.

You seem to imply that this is a fault found only on the right. That is what I meant when I said I thought you had to be younger for having less time to observe. By any chance did you live in Ontario during Bob Rae's administration? I have come to believe that people of all political stripes can have this fault. Still, what I have seen over the years has led me to believe that percentages favour the LEFT! I rarely hear suggestions from the Left about the materials and methods to be used to build a safe bridge. Usually I just hear demands about the colour of paint and how it suits the decor of the nearby community. The Left in Canada doesn't seem to attract people from practical disciplines, like maths, hard sciences (NOT botanists like Suzuki!) or technology. These are people trained in "cause and effect". Rather, they are heavy on academics and people from the arts. A well-balanced society needs all kinds of people but following the wrong sort in an inappropriate situation can get you in a heap of trouble.

Actually, I agree with you! We all have our own prejudices. There is an old story about a pair of identical twins. Their father was a violent, abusive drunkard. One twin grew up to be exactly like his father. When asked why, he replied "With a father like mine, what would you expect?" The other twin grew up to be a model citizen. He had a good and steady job, providing for a loving family with some beautiful kids. When asked why he turned out the way he had, after coming from such a dysfunctional family he stated "With a father like mine, what would you expect?" We usually don't have any choice about the cards Life deals to us. We do however have total control over how we choose to play them. I have my perspective and yours is quite clear...

I suspect you are a younger person, Kuzadd. You're painting a model that someone who had been observing Canadian politics for decades would never have attempted. They would have seen too many examples of how the model didn't fit. Reform and now the Tories threw MPs out of caucus for offending Canadian values. Liberals have only thrown MPs out for offending the party leader! Tell it to John Nunziata! To be fair, Garth Turner would be the exception that proves the rule. His ouster is one of the many reasons I'm not happy with the present Conservatives. I just have no other acceptable choice. If I'm ever offered one I can respect, the Tories will choke on my dust!

Now I'm totally confused. Maybe I'm missing something but I can't find a single thing in your answer that refers to simply not shooting kids! I asked about taking responsibility for your own actions. I've never heard of a white man FORCING some FN gangbanger to shoot innocents! What has being poor or resenting historical injustice got to do with choosing to fire random bullets in a driveby? Bullets that can and do strike your own people? Somehow, I don't think I'm ever going to get a straight answer...

I'll give you a "fer instance" that might illustrate the problem. Years ago when Reform was growing it seemed that every news spot on CBC NW was negative about Reform. Especially about how Reform was so "white bread", being made up of "old white guys". Now, any camera pan across the House would make it obvious that this was total BS. The number of visible minority faces sitting as Reform MPs was much greater than that of any other party, ESPECIALLY the Liberals! Didn't matter. Anyhow, one night I happened to tune across some sweet young female talking head on NW interviewing Preston Manning. All her questions were not so much slanted as simply coming from some grievous and naive assumptions. She was asking Preston about the "white bread" aspect of Reform and just couldn't seem to believe him when he pointed out how Reform had so many more visible minority MPs. Finally she blurted out "Well, just HOW MANY visible minorities do you have in your party?" Preston smiled and said sweetly "We don't really know offhand. We don't believe in counting them!" She was obviously stunned! She stammered something and just moved on. This is what conservatives are fighting. There's no real organized media conspiracy. It's just that the players in the media all seem to have come from the same schools like Ryerson or Queens and share the same views and culture. To make an old FireSign Theater quote: "When I grow up I'm gonna find a bunch of guys that dress alike and follow them around!" It's a lack of fair perspective and the practice of what's called "situational ethics", where the situation can be used to excuse a faux pas by "your guy" and to hang an opponent for the very same thing. When Reform found a racist MP in their ranks they threw him out. One election they discovered one at the last minute and chose to run NO candidate in that riding because of lack of time rather than allow him to represent their party. The Liberals had similar situations and would never have dreamt of tossing their candidate out! Meanwhile Liberal MP Hedy Fry could accuse an entire BC town of being "cross burning racists" and no one at the CBC batted an eye.

Right now, that means nothing. Wait till the writ is dropped. It's not enough to sling mud onto your opponent. You also have to convince people your guy would be a better choice. The Liberal party strategy seems to be to keep slinging mud, avoid an election as long as possible and pray for a miracle. I find it sad. I'm not totally fond of the new Tory party but the Liberals just won't give me an alternative I can stomach! I guess like most Canadians I'm doomed to spend the rest of my life voting for who reeks the least! I miss you, Preston!

Tell me, in the culture you seem to espouse, does anyone take any responsibility themselves for ANYTHING? Frankly, after reading your posts it would seem natives are totally blameless for anything that happens and white folks are responsible for everything bad, up to and including earthquakes and hurricanes. It seems to me that YOU are the one who substitutes fingerpointing for actually recognizing a problem and doing something constructive to fix it!

Surely you've seen enough examples through history! Socialist governments ALWAYS drift into authoritarianism!! The usual explanation is that socialists tend to be more academic than practical in their approaches to the real world. This means that for them, things rarely work. This gives them only two options. They can admit they are wrong and try something more practical or they can get angry and blame it on evil capitalists, greedy people or (the favourite in Canada) American influence. The only way to deal with the latter is with force. Of course, things still don't work any better because the socialist approach was flawed in the first place. So they just get angrier and even more forceful. They believe that if they could just achieve absolute control they can FORCE things (and people) to work the way they think they should. Unless the process is stopped eventually we see a totalitarian state. Sometimes we see what appear to be exceptions to the rule but on closer examination we see that things are quite different. A government may be socialist in name but practical in application. Witness Tony Blair's Labour government or some of our prairie NDP provincial governments. Then look at Bob Rae's NDP government some years ago in Ontario. Or the federal NDP. Obviously completely different animals. IMHO, of course.

If we could just get those damn seals to respect the size limits on the cod they eat...

Perhaps. Like some Witnesses who won't make love standing up, 'cuz it might lead to dancing!

Good thing you put "loyal allies" in quotations. After the Six Nations tactics at Caledonia, they could not possibly be truthfully described as "loyal allies". While you're totalling up who owes for what, be sure to include the electrical transformer that fed the town. Perhaps some of those towers that were destroyed as well. It has been posted before that public support for native rights may be eroding in the general public, outside of the NDP/socialist protester fringe group, of course. My impression belies that. From what I read and hear, public support for native rights in general is as strong if not stronger in the general Canadian population as ever. It's just eroding as specifically regards Six Nations! I see this as a good thing. It is NOT fair to tar ALL native bands with the same brush! They are not all united as per their governance and they do not act in the same manner in disputes and protests. The fuse is still smoking at Caledonia...

Is anyone else finding these polls to be lacking a factor or two? Something's just not adding up to me. These polls are for public consumption. They don't tend to be very specific as to region or more importantly, seats! I'm sure the polls paid for by the parties themselves are much more focused and would give a clearer picture of the likely seat count from an election. That being said, if the Liberals and the Tories were truly in a "dead heat" I find it hard to believe that Dion and his crew would be so obviously terrified of an election. If the polls are truly showing that the numbers are not much different than last election then the likely result would be few losses for Dion and the possibility of some gains! No, Dion would not be caving at every opportunity to bring down the government if his polling information was showing the same likely results as what we are fed from CBCNW and Mike Duffy. Dion's polling info must not only be much more accurate but far scarier to him! He's acting like he's facing a rout! We should stop nitpicking through the forest, to mix some metaphors...

You've put your finger on the real problem: ignorance! Cops are usually not chosen for technical background. They don't know how many things work, including tasers. When they had their taser training they probably were told that "only one in a million people might die from the shock!" Also, they no doubt had heard stories of people that had to be tasered multiple times before they went down. All this adds up to a perception that tasers are a safe option. Airport cops may never have had occasion to use a taser before. They likely were genuinely shocked and surprised that the gentleman in question died. It's sad but true that the more you simplify something for training purposes the more vague and inaccurate you make the information. I feel sorry for the cops in question. I've no doubt they were given sizzle instead of steak in their taser training.

Not true! Both the USA and Britain wanted to buy the Arrow and all the plans and paperwork. Dief's people flatly refused. I think I'm gonna have to dig through my library again and get some quotes. When I do, I'll start a new thread if anybody's interested.

There are a number of very good books written about the Arrow. You might want to read a few. It would likely change your opinion. The best and simplest explanation given by those who were there at the time was that Avro Arrow was very well connected to the Liberal Party and never bothered to build any bridges with the Conservatives. Diefenbaker had railed while in Opposition against what he called a Liberal money pit. He had no idea of what the Arrow was or what it could mean to the Canadian aerospace industry. He had no thoughts about our domestic need for such a fighter or how much money could be made by selling the plane to our NATO partners. His ties were to the Prairies, not Malton. When Dief got into power in a surprise upset he immediately moved to cancel the contract for Arrow fighters. He had other plans for the money, like for wheat farming. Unfortunately, cancelling the contract meant the fall of the company. It has been reported that when the stories about the layoffs hit the papers Dief and his advisors were horrified! Lost jobs are very bad press for a government. So they phoned up Avro Arrow and asked "Can't you just build something else, like tractors?" They had no idea of the consequences of what they had done, but they sure understood the political tricks to try to bury it! They quickly understood that if the Arrow was sold to Britain or America (both of whom were frantically waving wads of money!) and proved to be as leading edge and successful as it appeared it would be hugely embarrassing for Dief's government. So the plane had to be scrapped and the plans burned! The spin immediately started that the Arrow really didn't fit our needs and wasn't really so "amazing". No conspiracies about American plots out of jealousy. No secret plots to make us spend the money on missile defense. Simply a mistake by a new government that had a different power base to reward and a frantic cover-up when they learned what they had done. To me that makes much more sense. Occam's Razor, eh!

Contemptuous? Perhaps, but not of opponents personally. Rather contemptuous of some opponents' tactics, especially when they practice them over and over and over and over... When someone will excuse an action by one of their heroes yet condemn the same action by an opponent as a crime against the universe... When someone will take a trivial issue and stretch it to the nth degree, trying to make something stick that isn't really sticky... If a Tory used such a tactic I'd deplore it just as strongly. However, it would be impossible to deny that there are a few posters on this board that tend to be Liberal or NDP who constantly use such tactics. From careful study I've come to believe that only a couple are doing this deliberately, as a conscious tactic. Most of them seem genuinely incapable of understanding what they are doing! Their politics are their religion. Their guys are saints and all others are devils. It gets kinda same-y after a while...

Nice dodge on my request for a source...

There are a LOT of things being deliberately overlooked! Let's apply Occam's Razor. 16 years ago the MP in question was your typical arrogant young smartass pup. Sadly, many of us go through that stage in life. Some never leave it. It's doubtful if Tom K had ever met a homosexual or much less cared! He was simply mouthing off at some function that happened to be filmed. Like most young smartasses, he seemed to think he was funny because his words were shocking, rather than showing true wit. Fast forward all these years and he's a mature man who I'm sure has matured greatly from that smartass of so long ago. There was a time when Trudeau drove around on a motorcycle wearing a German WWI helmet, after all. It's not so much that he has changed his views as he actually has developed some concrete ones! Any of us over 30 are well aware of the shallowness of adolescence. What Tommy K should have said in his apology was this: "I was a young smartass a**hole! Now I've grown up and learned better. Perhaps some of you might do the same!" This is all being blown out of proportion by Opposition desperation. Yet clip after clip on the news shows most Canadians are treating the issue for what it is, rather than what the Opposition wants it to be. Want to see some REAL villification? I have a gay friend who is a conservative! Not socially of course but in pretty well everything else. He's treated like dirt in some quarters for not being at least Liberal, if not NDP. He manages a sales crew well and no one gives a damn that he's gay. I pick on him for being a drummer but then, I pick on ALL drummers! I wish we could just get the election underway and get past all this crap. We always have a certain amount of this lowbrow muck to wade through but lately it's been getting a bit too much.

Perhaps you might consider the example of "rabble.ca", the self-proclaimed "home of progressive thought". I've been there and posted in what I thought was a polite and dignified fashion. Of course, I was questioning the views of most posters on that board. Like you, I was challenged, sometimes vigorously. Unlike what you've experienced here, I was blasted with total ad hominem attacks using the strongest of profanity! Appeals to the moderator were a waste of time - they support such actions! Unless they've excised the threads and posts involved they are still there for anyone to see for themselves. "Rabble", indeed. This board is a LOT more "civilized" than most! You may find it disconcerting to be forced to make a better defense of your views but at least you won't be called every vile cuss word under the sun. Be grateful for small mercies.

Do you have any sources for this view? You see, I googled "neutral indians" and got a long list of links. I started going through them and didn't find any that supported your claim of peaceful integration. Some did illustrate how the Neutrals were hardly saints themselves and a case could be made that they provoked their own fate. Perhaps I should just orally make something up that feels good. You know, perhaps some old farts on the Supreme Court were politically correct enough to buy into this oral history thing but common sense on the part of the rest of us says it totally depends on the integrity of those claiming the particular oral history version. Even then, memory is rarely accurate over generations and centuries. Sure is convenient, though!. Might be a good thing in the long run. It forces Canadians to look at their Supreme Court and be less naive. This can only result in a change in attitudes at voting time. One more straw on the camel's back, as it were.

Wouldn't that mean over a million new prison inmates? Leaving aside the political optics of imprisoning that many people for such a trivial "crime", what about the logistics and costs of constructing that much extra prison capacity? Doesn't matter. The Drug Lords would never allow it. I am convinced that they and their money are behind the war on drugs. It keeps them rich. It is the only thing that makes sense. Al Capone is laughing in his grave.

They are indeed the Opposition - within Canada's Parliament. A NATO summit is NOT Canada's Parliament! It is an international meeting, where it is expected that each nation presents a united view from its government, which represents its people. Our Opposition obviously sees these international meetings as an opportunity to embarrass the sitting government, to score cheap points at home. This may or may not work, I dunno. I DO know that it makes us look cheap and petty on the world stage! Thanks a lot, Dion! Yet again!

You're not likely to get an answer, Angus. It's a classic case of double-think. Someone publishes cartoons that depict Islam as a violent religion and some fundamentalist Muslims promptly start rioting and even killing to protest such an idea! It is a logical fallacy to claim that since not ALL Muslims are violent that NONE are violent! How many suicide bombers are Innuit? Or Japanese? The problem with those billion Muslims is that few show any willingness to purge their ranks of violent fundamentalists. Some polls claim that large numbers actually condone the violence as helping move towards a universal Islamic society, even if they would never commit violence themselves. In the States when the times changed against the Klan there were many, many white folks who joined the struggle to purge them from American society. So far we see little or no similar action in the world of Islam. However, for even posing these points I guess I must be racist and biased so they can be conveniently ignored...