Wild Bill

I think you're quite right, Bryan. Even if some Tories ARE guilty! Throwing mud is such an easy thing to do. Couple this with my long-held belief that leftwing voters seem to be more "heart" people than "head" people and it's not hard to see why so many get so riled up about these things. The real issue of course has nothing to do with the truth. Rather, it's to do with how many voters change their mind because of an apparent scandal. The opposition supporters are actually a null factor. They have long ago made up their minds and their numbers won't change. Still, many feel a duty to somehow strike down their EVIL political opponents! They will fling monkeypoo at the slightest provocation, over even the most trivial issues, hoping desperately that something will stick and tarnish their opponents to the point where they lose power. What totally flies over their head is that the average Canadian just doesn't care to the same degree that they do! They also have a healthy skepticism over ANYTHING told to them by political types! So such scandals can just blow over, except for those few times when an issue exceeds a critical point. What is a critical point? Adscam was one. A friend of mine who was normally not very political was incensed over that scandal, often ranting loudly about the "crookedness" of the Liberal Party. I asked him why he suddenly was paying so much attention and he told me that he expected politicians to be a bit crooked but when they took DIRECTLY FROM HIS TAX MONEY and spent it not on pet or pork political projects but solely and only on THEMSELVES that was crossing the line! Some folks here on MLW might remember the uproar years ago with the cable companies attempting "negative billing", where if you didn't happen to notice or respond to their info about additions to your service you automatically were given them and billed for them! That issue touched ordinary folks directly and so they responded when normally they didn't pay attention. After a while your nose gets used to monkeypoo! It can actually get boring! As you said, it's a case of crying wolf. And so even when the wolf actually is there no one listens to the warning! With politics, that is actually a tragedy. It is the job of the Opposition to keep the ruling party in line for the good of the people. Somehow they have long forgotten that and act as if their job is simply to up seat the government and get themselves into power. The people for the most part don't care that much for the politicians' power games. The Opposition have trained the Canadian people to "tune out" - exactly the opposite result they were hoping to achieve. Which means that if we are ever truly ruled by wolves we are going to get eaten! Thanks a lot, Opposition supporters!

Well, all I can say is that the level of evidence at the time for the alternative approached certainty. The world is lucky that someone of your viewpoint was NOT in charge! The odds are overwhelming that if you had made the decision according to your arguments that hundreds of thousands if not millions would have died. You can afford to play debating games. Truman did not have that luxury.

How so? Since the Americans used nukes to end WWII and prevent hundreds of thousands of future casualties, what country with the Bomb has used it?

As I keep saying, MF, we can only pick the one who smells the least! As Canadians, our choices perpetually boil down to Huey, Dewey and Screwy...

http://chenected.aiche.org/general-interest/chinese-speculate-about-mining-asteroids/ "A paper published in the Chinese Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics hypothesizes that an asteroid could be temporarily captured in Earth’s orbit, making it possible to mine it for valuable minerals." Yep, yet another example of how Space will more likely be developed and colonized by China than by Uncle Sam.

I've never understood why such regimes go through the pretense with phony elections. Is there anyone who actually believes them?

An excellent example to prove my point! The PCs thought he was a good candidate because the real conservatives would have no other choice and the Red Tories would see that he really wasn't a Conservative anyway!

At one time I agreed with you. Then over the years I realized how party solidarity worked and I was back to trying to choose the best party. Not a GOOD party, of course! Simply the best of bad choices.

This is a hilarious example of the low standard of basic science amongst the general population, Peeves! Solar flares have been happening as long as the Sun has existed! They are as common as a rainbow. Yet we have so many posters showing such worry and concern for a very simple reason - its the first they've heard about it!

I still think this is an umproven assumption! Iranians, especially the younger demographics, are NOT stupid! Or ignorant either! They are very modern people who are well aware of world politics and not nearly as inclined to be comfortable under a fundamentalist, primitive dictatorship than countries like Afghanistan or parts of Pakistan. Because of that, I don't believe they would automatically side with the mullahs who got them into the mess! More likely, they would think that their best hope is a revolution before those wackos get them all killed. My premise of course is unproven as well but I think it is more likely than this knee jerk idea that all these civilized Iranians would rally round the Ayatollahs.

Once again, you had better adapt!

You know, this board is NOT rubble.com, thank the stars above! We do get a bit testy from time to time but we are nowhere near as insulting and downright rude and profane as that and other boards. Being new, you might not be aware that this board has a different, more adult style. I suggest you adapt or you will simply end up bounced!

Topaz, what do you do if the other parties are all WORSE? Not everyone believes the other guys are all just SO nice and SO trustworthy!

Anyone who blindly trusts ANY politician is a fool! He or she is also a likely candidate to become a Moonie!

http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/back2.html "NASA knows of no asteroid or comet currently on a collision course with Earth, so the probability of a major collision is quite small. In fact, as best as we can tell, no large object is likely to strike the Earth any time in the next several hundred years. To be able to better calculate the statistics, astronomers need to detect as many of the near-Earth objects as possible. It's likely that we could identify a threatening near-Earth object large enough to potentially cause catastrophic changes in the Earth's environment, and most astronomers believe that a systematic approach to studying asteroids and comets that pass close to the Earth makes good sense. It's too late for the dinosaurs, but today astonomers are conducting ever-increasing searches to identify all of the larger objects which pose an impact danger to Earth." Earlier in the article it says that the chances of a BIG asteroid are about once every million years. Meanwhile we are getting better and better about spotting them. This sort of thing however is one of the major reasons it is so important that Man colonizes Space! If we are living on the Moon, in orbiting satellites and perhaps Mars and eventually other star systems then we will never have to worry about our race becoming extinct. While all this is going on, Obama cuts American space funding so far that she is effectively no longer a player. We may someday see a Star Trek Enterprise but Captain Kirk will be Chinese!

You just broke all the rules of debate! If you don't have to explain your position, why should anyone else believe it? Or even consider it? Moreover, the idea that such a war would affect the world economy was YOUR premise! It is up to you to defend it! All you have done is turn the question around, as if somehow it is j44's responsibility to prove YOUR premise!!! More nerve than a bum tooth, as they say.

Topaz, if I were a Tory I wouldn't give EC the time of day! When they investigated the in and out issue they lost in court and kept at it anyway! Eating up our tax money, I might add. Plus, it was something that ALL parties did yet EC only accused the Tories and then only after the Liberals had lost the election! If I were Harper, I would cooperate with the Law, as far as police and RCMP. Elections Canada would be quite another story. Screw them and the horses they rode in on! Do unto others as they have done unto you, I say!

Thank you, MM! That should have been the FIRST choice, IMHO! Presumption of innocence is for politicians as well as human beings!

No it's not, I agree. Once again, that wasn't my point. My point is that so many jump to the conclusion that Iceland wants to join Canada and start to debate the issue, while we summarily dismissed the idea of the Turks and Caicos out of hand! Simple or not, I should think that allowing the Islands to join us is something Canadians could warm up to!

Sorry MM, but I'm out too! The fact that you can't see the bias in your responses, or more particularly in those you did NOT include is telling! I trust in your good character but in this case I think you are blinded by your anti-Tory stripe! For the record, Tory skullduggery wouldn't surprise me. Nothing ANY party or politician did would surprise me! Still, as far as your poll, how long have you stopped beating your wife?

Why should I? It's not my premise to defend and I don't think it's worth my spending MY time to try to prove the OP's point!

I agree! Why on earth would they want to? They are under fiscal pressure that they could satisfy by using our dollar. That's it! They have no need or pressure to even consider a political union. Meanwhile, we keep turning down the Turks and Caicos Islands, who would LOVE to become part of Canada! They are a holiday destination! We are perpetual idiots to keep refusing while talking about letting Iceland join up!

I've been following your answers in this thread and I can't help but notice how you seem to take money and financing for granted in your arguments against the US. What do you think would happen to the rulers of either Pakistan or Afghanistan if the US cut off the money flow? And all the foreign aid of food and materials? Not to mention weapons! What do you think would happen to the economies of those South American countries if America closed its borders to trade? When you buy groceries (I'm assuming your mother doesn't do it for you and that you don't live on pizza and takeout) do you pay attention to how much fruit and vegetables come from South America? America would not be hurt by refusing to trade with those countries scarcely at all! She grows her own and has other, larger trading partners, such as Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean countries. Not to mention how eager Greece and Spain would be to take up the slack! There are a LOT of countries with agrarian economies so desperate for trade they couldn't care less about Argentina and politics! Are you yourself so independently wealthy you take financing for granted? Do you think everything works for free? How long would an Argentinian ruler stay in power if the Argentinian people started to lose their jobs while their currency inflated? You over-exaggerate the poverty of America to wage military actions and hyper-exaggerate the fiscal situations of any and all of her rivals, even and especially the "craphole" countries. This is why many of us here on MLW feel you are often blindly biased against the Americans.

Well, its YOUR premise! Perhaps you could name some of those allies?

How Have I uttered a contradiction? Oil should not get subsidies! Oil should not have gotten them in the first place! Where's the contradiction? Are my statements wrong? As for PV collapse, then I guess you are telling me that those industries in Europe don't need subsidies! The fact that countries are stopping them will not affect the industry in the slightest. For that to be true, the industry must be profitable and self-sustaining at producing power on its own. I would assume that means that new installations are still being built at an accelerated rate. After all, if it is profitable on its own wouldn't they be fools not to?