August1991

Why are beards unattractive? What male politicians are bald? Why do women prefer taller men? Why is Clinton sexy?RB, perhaps unwittingly, you are raising a complex question. I raised such a question on rabble and I was banned. On this forum, I think, you are free to discuss your opinions. In any case, I will defend your right to argue whatever you believe. On Rabble, nobody came to my defence. RB, I have defended vociferously other posters on this Maple Leaf forum so you should feel free here too. IMV, the measure of an Internet Forum is how participants defend a poster. On Rabble, no one defended me. I felt like Salman Rushdie.

There were many, many briefs. That was the problem. The bureaucrats cover their vitals. The politicians take the heat. Caesar, I agree with you. Unfortunately, world history shows that Paul Bernardo nutcases tend to seek power. The US Constitution was drafted in an attempt to stop this. So far, 200 years later, the attempt has worked, sort of. The UN Charter, fifty years later, has singularly failed to do anything except breed corruption. Think about it. I tend to agree. IMV, Bush Jnr is not a moron. He's a coward. (BTW, most of us are.) I think he should have flown back to Washington that morning, despite what the Smurfs around him said. That's what Churchill would have done. I think your essay has scored a perfect zero for political astuteness so far.We're all entitled to an opinion. But I disagree with you.Politicians put their face in the line of fire. Bureaucrats draw their face from membership in a gang. Are you important because of what you have done or because you are member of a club? Hmmmm... Guess you never heard of the embargoes against Iraq and Cuba.Cuba has shops that accept US dollars, the primary trusted currency of the island. How did the dollars get there? How many cigars sold in America are Cuban?Iraq embargo? That was UN. Sean Penn went there. So, "embargo"? Let's get serious. How many Soviets/Albanians/Chinese went to Paris in 1965? How many Americans went to Hanoi/Peking/Moscow? Yep, I guess the French are up in arms about nothing. Petit con? Non. Espèce de niaisieux plutôt. IOW, you have no idea. Ever heard of the Canada Council? The CBC? Are you clueless? American? It's fair to argue that Earth is flat and is made of silly putty. Whether people believe you is another matter.Huh? Never has our planet had so many humans so free. Hence, our environmental problems. Actually, they're dead. Uh, Renaissance landscape painters?I am not American but I have a deep appreciation for the Enlightenment. It is unfortunate that you don't share this appreciation.Renaissance? Enlightenment? Are you a Dan Rather, clueless American? For the US, this troop deployment is miniscule. They are not an army of occupation. Only the US can do this now, because it is a democracy. We in the West depend on this. Americans should be proud. As did Athens. Nuh uh. If the Iraq invasion taught us anything it's that the Bush agenda on intelligence is not geared towards building an apparatus that will keep America safe, but for providing selective intelligence to support a political ideaology.BD, you don't get the political/bureaucratic dance.The politicians take the risk; the bureaucrats don't. Sometimes the politicians are wrong. In this case, I think they're right. BD, the strength of the US federal president is the admission of what is possible - and not more. Is it adhered to now?IMV, the drafters were smart White European guys. (But I notice there were no Blacks nor Chinese among them. I have always been suspicious of a homogeneous room.) I agree. But the US Constitution has lasted for over 200 years.But where do ordinary people benefit most. In so-called civilized countries with so-called long histories? For example, China, India, Europe? Let's be honest. Ordinary people have benefited most and lived best in America - the New World. Think. The success of a country is not its GDP.Moreover, these stats don't give foreign trade figures. (But foreign trade is not a measure of success either.) Is the goal to be the richest cadavre in the graveyard? Leave the largest pyramid? The most kids? (How many kids has Conrad Black left?)

MS wishful thinking. I give it 50/50. Trudeau lasted 18 months or so. That's the modern Liberal benchmark. WTF? What role is that? As in, Basra quagmire? Northern Iraq, Kurd quagmire? What part of Iraq has a problem?Central, Tikrit, Iraq? And is it really a problem, or is it the "harsh Afghan winter/NYT/Robert Fisk" quagmire? Since I just drove in freezing rain in Quebec, I think our winters are harsher and this makes for my personal 2005 prediction: the harsh Quebec winter will prevent Americans from a third northern invasion. BTW, why does nobody say anything about Afghanistan? Or Basra? I wouldn't bet on it. An academic study will show that Canada's low murder rate has nothing to do with gun control. Ontario Liberal politicians will foist the problem of regulating pets onto municipal politicians (but won't provide money). The price of a Big Mac will stabilize in the US and Canada. Huh? You mean the temperature in Celsius in Canada?

The interesting side is how the NGOs use this catastrophe to raise funds. IMV, the honest ones explain that any contributions will be used for long term work. These guys love dramatic catastrophes (earthquakes, floods, wars) at slow news times. The more striking the photos, the better. Donations increase. The ongoing deaths caused by malaria or bad drinking water never get headlines. (Without headlines, Andrew Carnegie built libraries in small towns across America.) As much as I thought the movie Wag the Dog was silly, I have to admit that Leftist charities rely on such "Save the Child" images.

MS, do you mean that the air quality in Canadian cities is worse now than in the 1920s and, as a result, more people now suffer from asthma?I didn't see the CBC show. Did it tie school absences through asthma to air quality? Did it make the claim that SUVs harm the air, cause asthma and lead to school absences? Is this what Dr. David Suzuki argued?

It is precisely such evidence that removes any credibility from the environmental argument. Any measure of temperature change must be broad both in time and geography. Regional and annual variations are too large. Since Dennis Meadows' Limits to Growth (heck, since Rachel Carson and Thomas Malthus), various people have predicted the End of Civilization as We Know It. The Leftist slant to these claims is interesting. Some on the Left are Robin Hoods: steal from the rich, give to the poor. But there are some other Leftists who simply want to see the whole thing go up in smoke: Pol Pot, self-loathers, anti-everything. IME, these latter Leftists are often the granola green types. Malthus? I sense the kids have cried wolf too often. ---- With all that said, there is no doubt that, in theory, the Greenhouse Effect exists. The Sun heats the Earth like a microwave oven. The Earth radiates heat like a toaster. It is true that Kyoto is much less about the environment and much more about stealing from the rich, primarily the US. (Kyoto exempts China and India and locks in Germany and Eastern Europe at Soviet emission levels.) Lastly, nobody owns the world's air and the world's oceans. In a world made rich through ownership traded in markets with prices, this remarkable lack of ownership is a recipe for catastrophe. Too much of our world is an open dumping ground.

As to the issue at hand, I have found that Ontarians accuse Westerners of being American (Texan, Nebraskan rancher/oil/farmer types) and Westerners accuse Ontarians of being American (NY, Boston sophisticates). The US is a big country and so is Canada. But there are many differences between Canadians and Americans. Canadians travel abroad anonymously, like Icelanders and Finns. Nobody has anything against us largely because nobody knows anything about us. (Increasingly, foreigners have learned that we have many immigrants in Canada. Family names now matter.) An American abroad is associated with everything from Disneyland to W. In the post above, the only thing I find truly surprising is why any Califiornian would choose Edmonton weather. (Come to think of it, I don't know why anyone would choose Albertan weather, except maybe a Russian.) Cherchez la femme. It must be true love.

Thelonious, I believe the "local user's time" on my account page is Nfld time (1 1/2 hours behind Montreal). I suspect the package provides a time until adjusted. I wouldn't draw any major conclusions.

It is not the borrowing that is the problem. It is the government's purchases of goods and services from the US economy that pose a problem.These are productive resources that too often could be better used elsewhere. Whether the government budget is in deficit or surplus is irrelevant. The size of government purchases is the relevant question.

Unfortunately trade and politics often go hand in hand. If a regime is 'unsavoury', trade with them implies approval of their methods, and thereby decreases the chances of change. We don't trade with the government of a country. We trade with the people living in the country. (Think, if Canada were to boycott America, it would mean no longer trading with people who voted for Kerry.) Now, can you make a convincing argument to show that such a boycott would hurt Bush Jnr? I can understand a boycott focussed very specifically at the members of a regime. We imprison criminals. We don't also imprison their spouses, children, parents and cousins.

This is an excellent letter and my sentiments exactly. What's it going to take for Canadians to wake up and put a stop to these atrocities? /208 MS, are you suggesting a multi-billion dollar "dog registry"?

The CIA has been undergoing major changes in the past 10 or 15 years, accelerating in the past few years. The primary focus has had to shift from the Soviet Union to a nebulous security threat. There were serious errors in not predicting the September 2001 attacks.On this one, I think Bush and the politicians are ahead of the bureaucrats. The only power the US president possesses is military. The US president can order the military into action anywhere. No other world leader has that kind of power. (I don't mean nuclear weapons either since those are merely the power to obliterate. I'm referring to cruise missiles and soldiers on the ground. The US president can now order the capture of any leader anywhere in the world - from Saddam to Noriega.)Economic power? In the US, it is dispersed among literally millions of people. It is impossible to coordinate such power in any meaningful way. Cultural power? Same thing. No single committee or funding agency decides American culture. Political power? I don't know what is meant. If it is the power to pass laws or regulations, this is primarily a concern for ordinary Americans since they are most affected. The US Constitution limits severely such political power of the president and the federal congress. I think it is fair to argue that we have never known a world where economic, political and cultural power was so diffused. As to military power, the significant fact is that the Soviet Union no longer exists to limit the US president's actions. The UN is no longer a constraint either. At present, it appears that the only limit on the US president's military power is the US Congress. (Maybe at least some major foreign military allies are required too.) This is all to the good. The world as a whole benefits from the drafters of the US constitution. Consider, for a moment, what a world dominated by Canada or the Soviet Union would be like. PM PM has far more autocratic powers than any US president. The idea that the Politburo would dominate the world is horrific. The US is a product of the Enlightenment and we are all children of the Enlightenment. So, draw your own conclusion about who we are.

Dear Hugo, You ignored the savings to the health system if people followed government determined diets. When people eat fatty foods (or smoke, drive without seatbelts and so on), they incur extra medical costs which we all must pay.

Money, probably.IOW, the countries around the Indian Ocean chose to devote their limited resources to other things than constructing an early warning system.Sri Lanka, for example, has been involved in a bloody civil war for the past 20 years. To my knowledge, Bush Jnr is not to blame for that war. [You waterproof your basement but your poor neighbour instead buys fireworks. When the nearby river bank rises, your neighbour's house is inundated.] With 6 billion people in the world, about 150,000 die everyday. Most of those deaths could be prevented and the person enjoy a longer life. Unfortunately, most people live and die in poor countries without access to modern health facilities.This daily death does not attract dramatic headlines.

Dear Thelonious, Your CNN article/link above has this quote: Does this mean the workers were kidnapped in Vietnam and forcibly transported to US Samoa? What's the minimum wage in Vietnam?---- Thelonious, I don't mean to quibble about specific cases but the world has many idiotic regimes that impoverish ordinary people. When those ordinary people try to escape impoverishment, people in rich countries point to exploitation, or some such. I'm still curious to know why Argus tries to avoid buying Chinese made goods. Is it because Argus wants to keep trade in "the Western family"? Does Argus want to punish Chinese dictators? (Does it hurt Bush if we don't buy Microsoft products?) Or does Argus simply dislike people in China? Argus is only one shopper among millions. And I have noticed that most shoppers at Walmart don't look at tags of origin. Market relations have the advantage of anonymity. They are like a secret ballot, where voters indicate not an X, but a number on a scale, everyday. If people buy Chinese products, they're voting in the best democratic way possible.

Do you expect them to leave two months before the election rather than a month after? This is standard in the US. Remember Warren Christopher? (Warren who?)

Caesar, I could use a few bucks. If you ask for thousands, you should be able to spare a few twenties.I'm one of about 30 million Canadians - we're family - so you should take care of me.

Try to explain to the perpetually offended that they should just walk away. Not in Canada. In Canada it's up to the government DO SOMETHING about those who offend them. Make a law or something! Ban them! Fine them! People can't be allowed to walk around offending people! Argus, most of these private discrimination claims have been presented to provincial human rights commissions. The claims attract journalists, and lawyers financed by unions or other non-voluntary lobby groups. These commissions are, not surprisingly, now inundated with such claims and complain of horrendous backlogs. (They annually put in for large budget increases.) If the Supreme Court ever got involved in such claims, it too would soon face horrendous backlogs. So far, the judges appointed to the SC in Canada seem, by and large, to dislike clogged desks. (You don't get to Canada's Supreme Court by delaying... ) Unfortunately, our Supreme Court justices seem to have no guiding practical principles and seem quite willing to create extra work for lower courts, tribunals and commissions. IOW, our SC judges are bureaucrats. They think they have the ability to fix problems - and when they don't know what to do, or believe the problems will backfire on them, they send the file to someone else for further study.

The truly sad thing in this whole affair is, on one side, the partial knowledge of the situation and genuine desire to help and, on the other side, the total inability to receive help or cope with the situation. On one side, there are some people in the rich West, Christians perhaps, who feel guilty and want to "do something good". (Typically, their help will only send satellite dishes to people with wood stoves.) On the other side, many people in countries such as Sri Lanka and Indonesia are, well, poor. Confused, superstitious and ignorant, they cope. We now live in a world where we can see occasionally such poverty. To the rich, the poverty becomes more dramatic when there is a natural or human disaster. IOW, let's get real. I give this news story two weeks max. The earthquake occurred during a slow news time. (It competed with the Ukraine election. By chance, the subterranean plates didn't shift a few metres a few weeks ago during the US election.) IMV, the Canadian military should only get involved when requested or when their help can clearly help. OTOH, if I were on PM PM's staff, I'd urge sending aid workers ASAP to get the CBC vote. After all, it's all about Canadian image. PM PM's staff understand that perfectly. BTW, the Pacific Ocean has an early warning system for Tsunamis. The Indian Ocean does not. Why?

How many people wander the streets of Canada with marijuana charges/convictions in their past? How many people have gone to prison for marijuana? How much criminality occurs because marijuana deals must occur outside of the normal legal system? I don't have stats readily at hand but I believe that a large percentage of prisoners in the US are there for drug offenses. The same is probably true in Canada. We should legalize (and control) marijuana as we do alcohol. We could even consdier harder drugs such as cocaine or heroin. We can't deal with problems like this if we pretend the problems don't exist.

Isn't this getting getting close to a "friend of my brother-in-law's uncle said that he heard about a guy who..."?Do you have a link? Evidence? What's the story? Do you think it's OK to beat someone up if that person is threatening to murder you?

And I would say with all honesty that you don't know what you're talking about.The US government has never adopted policies on the whim of a dictator such as the "Great Leap Forward" which lead to mass starvation of millions. Have you any idea at all what happened in the Cultural Revolution? Such events are unimaginable (and probably impossible) in the US. You say that China is changing. Well, that has been a frequent refrain of certain Westerners over the past century. The massacre in Tianamen Square is only 15 years old. I agree though that, finally, the changes in China seem to be sensible ones. When China has an election similar to what we just saw in Ukraine, then I will start to believe truly though. ---- When you say that the US is violent, you don't know your history well. Which continents have known the most peace in the past few centuries? South America and North America. European history has been the bloodiest. In the case of Europe, it's not even history. As recently as 10 years ago the Europeans were butchering themselves in Yugoslavia. Or rather, some Europeans butchered each other while other Europeans did nothing but watched. And imagine, some people refer to "sophisticated, cosmopolitan Europe" and "overweight, ignorant America". I'm no nationalist but I do take pride in my continent. We have achieved in North America a civilized society. We don't kill each other and we respect our differences. We take people as they are with little prejudice.

Ceemus, do you consider the Chinese living in China people or not? If the Chinese regime attacks and murders millions of Chinese, should we ignore that? What in Beijing in 1989? Now then, which government is truly more violent: the US government or the Chinese government? I agree with you that the Chinese government is not a major threat to western civilization. But nonetheless, it has been an extremely harsh and violent regime that is slowly changing. In the West, how should we encourage this change?

Greyhound, how do you propose stopping women from having an abortion? How would you make it illegal? How would you ensure that the law is respected? Would you put a doctor in jail who conducted an abortion? A woman?What would stop Canadian women from travelling to another country to have an abortion? Would you charge women who do this? I ask you these questions because, if an act is legal, this does not mean that the act is moral. Our legal system is pragmatic. To some people, it may be immoral to get drunk and play cards on Sunday. In Canada, these activities are perfectly legal. Making abortions illegal in Canada would arguably cause more harm and hardship than not making them illegal.

Buy them then hire them to pay back the cost of their freedom. It would probably work out cheaper.But seriously, Argus, the issue would be how to stop "slavery" - people forced to do something against their will when there is a better, forbidden alternative. In the case of Islamofascists, in addition we face a threat. I'm not certain that stopping trade with the slaves will free them or hurt the slaveowner. Two recent examples of "slavery" are South Africa and the Soviet Union. Your guess is as good as mine if the West helped overturn these regimes.