charter.rights

That is a misconception. Aboriginal, gay, religious rights etc are "collective" rights which are put on par with individual rights under the Charter. Their inclusion are not tyrannic. They are the foundation of a true and democratic society.

Mchale is neither confrontational or abrasive. He is a moronic psychopath-like boy who is annoying alone and incites hate when he gets into his crowd of uncontrolled rowdies.

Of course none of that is entirely true. Common services such as ambulances and fire brigades weren't available 150 years ago and yet your great grandparents survived long enough reproduce the gene line. When public services are not provided, common services from from different sources. Some used to have to pay their doctors in goats and chickens. Some used to build tabs at the local mercantile and pay at harvest time. Some use folk medicine remedies. There was lots of ingenuity. The provision of common services for the most part is one of convenience. And certainly we know that having the know-how to set a broken bone properly at home far outweighs the 6 hour wait we have in the emergency department, only to be sent home to come back in two days because the six hour wait caused too much swelling and cannot the bone be set. As a society we have become dependent on common services being provided for free. In many rural communities they don't depend on these services as much as the urbanites do. That would make any reduction in services potentially fatal only to city dwellers and only because they aren't being responsible enough or smart enough to look after themselves.

No one is saying that any race is "inferior". Most the meatheads here just claim that "whites" are "superior", that's all........They don't concern themselves with who they are superior to, just that they are superior. (and we know that when it comes to be ignorant and stupid they are the Kings!)

Getting a nomination, and getting the award are two different things. It is beyond the deadline and I don't have a problem with that. I don't necessarily agree that a Queen's Cross of Valor is warranted in this case since the guy was doing his job and got ambushed by a coward. That doesn't mean he did something extraordinary "above and beyond the call of duty". He has already been memorialized with a park in his name. There isn't much more needed IMO.

He has a Napoleon complex.

I don't doubt there are nasty things that people did. However, I don't ever recall any of the stories about it say that is was because of their spirituality, or their religious beliefs. On the other hand Christianity is filled with conquests, abuses and murders, torture and thefts that were done in the name of Christianity. If we want to stand in that kind of pious judgment then we had better be prepared to examine our immoral and spiritually corrupt systems. The sad thing that people fail to notice is that most of what happened in the past in the name of Jesus, could just as easily happen again today because the thinking behind Christianity is still ever-present in society today. And when one takes a full examination of native history, culture and practices as I have, there is more good that comes out of it than naught. I can't say the same thing about my years spent examining Christianity from an outside perspective and the decades of Bible study I have taken prior to that. "Somebody's been swallowing a lot crap about how Man is born as a "Noble Savage"." I suppose somebody's been swallowing a load of crap about how Man is born as an inherent sinner. At least one looks for the good in the man, and the other point of view looks for his evil.

(I gathered he was 16 when the affair started because they talked about his birthday). The teacher's lawyer was asked the question: What if the roles were reversed and it was a 26 year old married man having sex with a 17 year old school girl?

Ya. I see your point. It is kinda like the ritualized cannibalism practiced by Christians today. And we can't forget the burning of witches, and the tortures of the dark ages, either. Oh and what about the the violence - murder and abuse - that Christians imposed on native children during the residential schools - the last closing in th 1980's. In all of that there certainly doesn't appear to be any spiritual redemption, or a sign that Christians were connected to a benevolent God.

Answers: They don't. They dont and, They don't. There is no discrimination. Taxes do not belong to us. They belong to the government long before you get your paycheck. You have no control over how much they get, or when you pay (except perhaps if you are self-employed and then there is solid reasoning behind it). The government OWNS the tax for every second that you work and it is payable when it is collected. What the government does with all the taxes collected is nothing we can argue with, because they are not under our control. They belong to the government, and they alone decide how they should be divided up. There is no discrimination in their application any more than you are discriminating against someone because they choose to use the health care system and you don't. These are the institutions we want our government to support. And if it isn't your personal choice to support a social safety net then you can try to elect MPs that agree with you. Good luck on that because they aren't interested in what you think. They just want the majority of votes in their riding...and the majority says we want all these things. Kwityerbellyachin'! It is what it is.

Ya. I bet their parents are pleading that it was just a harmless prank by a bunch of their teens and THEIR son was just an observer.....

Actually, you just used up your credits for the next month. GOOD DAY. I said GOOD DAY!

First of all you have to understand how technology advances. You continue to insist that technology is an entitlement of Europeans, or settlers yet fail to recognize that had it not been for Chinese, Japanese or German ingenuity Canada would not be like it is today. Technology is share and adapted and reinvented over and over again. There is no doubt that First Nations have adapted (and would have adapted) available technologies to suit their culture and beliefs. Just like the Europeans did when they borrowed those technologies from other cultures and civilizations. Poverty is relative to the excesses of society it participates in. In some households in Canada not having a Nintendo - even a used one could be a measure of that poverty, since most households not only have new Nintendos, but X-Boxes and now Wii, even though few of them are ever used simultaneously. However, judging another culture by using our society icons is incorrect. Of you were smart about it you would be comparing their icons of wealth within their own cultural block, in order to determine what constitutes poverty or wealth. If you did that you would find that their egalitarian societies put emphasis in different places and personal possessions are way down on the list. Instead they ensure that every individual within the collective have their basic needs met by the community as a whole and the "rich" person is one who gives more of himself, without expectation of a reward. The sad mistake made by those harbouring colonial world views is that we are somehow better than others because we have two of everything, despite the fact that we leave our kids home alone after school without parental interaction, just so we can pay for those excesses. First Nations have proven adaptable, albeit not without a tremendous symptomatic cost demonstrated in social disease and dysfunction. There desire for isolation isn't to get away from the technologies that make all our lives easier but to get away from that colonial imposed thinking that causes them so much grief. By decolonizing they revert back to indigenous thinking patterns that help them realize that material wealth really is nothing more than a disease, and spiritual wealth represents simplicity and focus on more concern for others. So yes your argument is a red herring without relevance to the issue of selective cultural participation in a modern society. It is still possible to speak Italian, play voce and enjoy pasta WITHOUT having to justify the technology that brought that stuff to Italy, or now to Canada as a immigrant. Cultural purification has nothing to do with technology but rather involves a way of different thinking and approaching life. Who cares if one chooses to recite the Rosery, even if the beads are made from plastic?

Generally speaking, neither are the majority of Christians. Many are anally retentive types and many more are hypocrites. I'd say as a religion Christianity appears doomed. Funny enoug, native spirituality is on the upswing...and catching many former Christians as well.

Ah, but you are a declared Christian and therefore consider "one of them". However, the view of Muslims and other religions are with contempt and prejudice. The icing on the cake are the nuts who go around here proclaiming that anyone not like them are sinners, and not worthy of God's Paradise. The evidence is in the "works", not in their faith.

I think you are dreaming. The Harper Conservatives were no better than the Paul Martin Liberals - worse in some cases. Polls have suggested that Canadians won't likely give anyone a majority and Harper has done little with his minority government except to use it as an attempt to get re-elected. And that kind of abuse of the office pisses most off.

That's just it. Repentance in the Catholic Church is superficial. It has no meaning except to make someone feel good about sinning against another. Yet there was no doctrine that said the thing wouldn't happen again. And if it did there wasn't any corrective measure. Just confess your sins (again and again) say your Penance and carry on the way you always had. If you aren't Christian, then you are considered Godless and heathen. There is no room for tolerance and acceptance in the Christian Church. There is only perpetual judgment and condemnation and from a Christian's perspective, if you aren't one of them you are a heathen sinner.

You've added a red herring to the discussion because having running water, central heating, computers or cars have nothing to do with culture or language and they certainly were not invented exclusively to one culture or race. These are simple tools of technology that we all have adapted to our own lives. It takes nothing away from our Scottish, or Italian cultural heritage to own and use a car. I've heard this assertion many times over - that natives have to give up luxuries, or assimilate to use them. The need to do nothing of the sort, since these are not inventions own by Canadians, or Europeans but are just "things" we can use if we can afford them. It has nothing to do with forced assimilation - even a little forced assimilation is genocide.

Ah, the Ecclesiastical Excuse: We are ALL Sinners so therefore we have no need to be Perfect and are forgiven the for all the Sins we commit against others.... That was the premise behind Penance. You're not Perfect. Tell me your juicy sins, let me recommend a suitable punishment (that you will take upon yourself) and all is forgotten. It is the scourge of Christian hypocrisy. Do unto others....before they do it to you....and if you get away with it, then all is right...('cause no one else knows). That is why the Church is losing followers. There is no honour in Repentance. It is just a useless exercise without any real consequences.

If you are going to get into semantics -which is what you are doing - then whether or not life is fatal is all relative to your beliefs. A worm while breathing digs through the dirt digesting organic matter as he/she goes. Yet when it stops breathing, after having reproduced a couple of million times before it stopped breathing, decomposes and becomes worm food for other worms. Philosophically, the worm is still alive being propagated by its offspring, and in the guts being converted to make other worms. Since our understanding of life is still pretty limited and no one can say from experience what death really is, we can only speculate what the result is. Speculation comes from our beliefs and our understanding - both of which could be wrong. And since history has shown a need to redefine what constitutes death, going from lack of breathing, to heart stoppage, to loss of brain activity, I would just as well leave that idea open. It all comes back to this: All we know and can know is life. Death is just a concept we have placed on something we don't understand. And since there was never a time we could remember being "unborn" we can only imagine that we exist, if only in another state.

"Pathological liars never lets facts get in the way their beliefs.", Carl Jung I'm not sure whether this is true of Kengs333 or whether he is just plain lazy or whether he is merely avoiding facts because he's afraid of finding out he is wrong. However, his participation in discussion without providing some basis for his assertions makes it discussion with him useless. I wonder why you continue to torture yourself Rue in trying to discuss or debate a subject with someone who isn't interested in the truth, or presenting the facts - expecially when his claims are so far "out there".

It was me. But I didn't say he was a Christian when he committed the cannibalism. So your quote is irrelevent.

Again, you are hardly an expert and just advancing some ignorant viewpoint.

Wrong! Of course you can spread as much manure as you want and it still doesn't help you. I have been growing organically for more than 20 years and even though some yields are lower during the first couple of years of introduction to a new crop, they eventually adapt to the environment and the organic enrichment I provide. In a small garden (three strips of 50 feet and a 20x20 patch, we were able to bag, freeze, dry and store all the vegetables we need for a family of five, on top of giving a good part away to family and friends. Between composting, crop rotation and companion planting the garden not only gets what it needs but becomes more easily dug. Corn and beans together make perfect protein and with squash it provides about 90% of the required daily nutrients. No wonder the Iroquois held it in high esteem. However, that is not all they grew. They were experienced and prolific farmers cultivating everything from fruits and nuts to even managing deer and elk for future consumption. They had (and many still do in my experience) an exceptional understanding of the land and agricultural practices. The early texts suggest that European farmers were less experienced. Not only did they not have a wealth of vegetable variety, they also knew little about low impact farming. Even today when topsoil erosion is worsening and soil becomes dead from over planting certain crops, farmers are just beginning to rediscover many of those old practices. The conflict is that indeed organic and low-impact farming is labour intensive. However, it is no less "work" as a farmer must invest much more to maintain mass field-seeders, fertilizer spreaders, cultivators and harvesters. The "work" involved in paying for the equipment is about equal to the "work" required to plant corn under the sod, or to plant in compact companion arrangements. Small organic gardening such as my practice, is actually less work than using chemicals and pesticides as I am able to grow and produce what I have with no more than a 1/2 dozen week-ends from April to November. I don't need to worry about too much about bugs and weeds as they become a vital part of the gardening process, and the seeds build up resistance. So really, what is ignorant and irresponsible in my opinion is to advance a topic you haven't a clue about. However, that is your M.O.D. isn't it...to inject and project into every discussion as if you were somehow an expert. You are as transparent as cellophane.

Forced assimilation is genocide.