August1991

KK, are you always that block-headed? Did Bush follow his agenda on Sept 11? He didn't have to follow those suggestions, if that's what happened. Bush gave the order to fly to Nebraska, after being advised. There is no way that plane would have taken off without his nod of approval at some point. On the contrary, the good politicians tell the security people to stuff it.The security and military types typically take the heavy-handed, unoriginal appraoch. They usually have no concept of optics. IOW, they are not politicians. Look, KK, I just don't see someone like Thatcher or Trudeau flying away like that. Rumsfeld didn't go running to some bunker some place. These kinds of leaders dominate the situation. That's why they were/are leaders. Bush Jnr isn't like that. I think he lacks courage. The quote is from the recent Kerry-Edwards interview in the NYT.

Sorry, you're wrong. Bush does decide what time he wakes up, if he wants to decide. The decision to fly to North Dakota, or sit in a schoolroom, was not like deciding to scrub a toilet. That's absurd. Of course Bush knew. I didn't say he should have done that. But the presidency is in part theatrics.******* Kennedy made the decision not to use the bubble top, despite being warned. Thatcher decided to go to the hotel, despite being warned. Churchill chose to fly, despite being warned. Leadership means believing strongly enough in something that you go ahead despite the risks. It means having the wisdom to know when to take the risk. KK, you talk of Brigadier-Generals. Have you never sat in a room when a leader walks in? Have you never seen someone pause and say, "No, we're not going to do it" when everyone else has just said it was a great idea? Where did Giulani go that day? What did he do? Rumsfeld went down to help people in the wreckage. I don't know what Bush should have done that day but staying in Nebraska the whole afternoon strikes me as senseless. Even Jimmy Carter wouldn't have done that. Kerry in the Washington Post The Dems are going to hit Bush with this. Maybe it will work.

I can't speak for Krusty but it seems to me that it's you Caesar who doesn't comprehend the situation. Remember "war-torn Beirut"? Car bombs and so on. No one talks about that anymore. Why?

I hope that all those Canadians who thought they were "saving Canada" understand what they were in fact voting for.

CTV Report How to "succeed" in life? In Canada? Have a kid who marries the son of a son of a Cabinet minister. (Ben Mulroney/Justin Trudeau etc.) In America? Have a kid who drops out of university and goes into computers. Gates will last longer than Bush.

Discrimination? Blatant?Illiterate hockey players earn millions while schoolteachers manage at best to pay their bills. Who is more important to society? Hockey players or schoolteachers? So, why does our society pay these people differently? What kind of message does this send to young people? What kind of society will we have in the future? Why do hockey players earn so much? Do schoolteachers earn too little?

Who is going to know that? How to decide? I agree. Let's find a way to make it work for parents that choose to stay at home, those who choose to work and those who are idiots. Universal fulltime school starts at age 6. Why not age 3, but voluntary and State paid?I would have happily paid when I was 2 if I had had the money I have now. IOW, tax the rich now as a post-accident insurance premium. Their poverty could have happened to them. When does "school" start? Good point. Drunk driving is maybe worse than smoking. A smoker kills herself, a drunk driver kills others. I think the government should use my tax dollars to protect my life through advertising against drunk driving. Change people's lifestyles, please!

Do you mean that Canada was a richer country in 1977 than now (or the late 1990s?) Well, true, there was no AIDS in 1977. But there was also no Internet and no DVD rental. (What do you mean by "income"?) More important, how much did the poorest 20% of Canadians get on average after taxes in 1977 and how much did they get in 2002, in after inflation dollars? IOW, forget about what the rich got. I want to know what the poor got. I've got my numbers. Let's see yours.

Do you think Kim Il Sung (son, father) is simply adopting a bargaining tool? Or is he a psychopath? When the HMO guy on the phone dismisses your claim, what do you do? Phone again and speak politely? Hire a lawyer? Go to their office, complain and then become belligerent? When you are misunderstood, what do you do? ***** I understand your point, Ft. Niagara, about bargaining and so on. I tend to think the great thing about America is that people are free to bargain with whomever they want. Question: Who has managed better, Americans or Canadians? That is, are Blacks better in America or French in Canada? (The test of a society is how a majority treats a minority.) Answer: Hands down, North America wins.

I was going to say his lack of courage.I was surprised that in his movie, Moore did not show what Bush Jr did that fateful morning. After the Fla school, he flew in Air Force One to Louisiana and then to North Dakota. As a Canadian, I was appalled when I learned that. I thought he should have told his handlers to get him back to the White House immediately. He didn't have to say, "You want to kill Americans? Start with me!" He could have said that America is bigger than a President or some buildings. On 24 June 1968, Trudeau went out on to the balcony of Montreal's city hall and stood up to the mob. I don't think he cared a wit about cameras or journalists. Churchill flew constantly during the war. I'm sure he thought about the danger but then thought about the point of it all. Even Kennedy, I'm sure, decided that democracy means no bubble top. Thatcher withstood a bomb attack and then got on with business. Reagan took a bullet, and then ran again for re-election. George Bush Jr flew to North Dakota.

Ft. Niagara, you just implied that Quebec was like North Korea. Are you serious? There were three groups of people who, involuntarily, wound up in the North America we all know. Everyone else chose to come here or had ancestors who chose to come (which then became a family legend about "stepping off the boat with nothing in my pocket...") The three groups? Native Indians, French, Black. These three groups did not choose to live on this continent the way it is now. In the American context, you can understand French Canada by asking an African-American about why his ancestors decided to come to America. Don't get me wrong, Ft Niagara. Your posts seem reasonable and I'm a fervent believer in American ideals.

Stoker: I agree 100%. IMV, too many Canadians are children. WTF? "etc" What do you mean by "etc"?Should the government pay compensation to ranchers? Is that in the "etc"? What about a satellite to study the environment? Etc? Research for the satellite? Also etc? How about the design and orgainization of a universal pension scheme? Another "etc"? Where do you draw the line, Stoker, between roads and gun registries? So, government should never have subsidized the Tar Sands or Hibernia? (Business)Six year old kids with alcoholic parents should play on the street rather than go to school? (Daycare) People who smoke cigarettes should not be reminded that their habit is bad and costly to society? (Dictating values) I generally agree with you Stoker, but the choices are not black and white. There is too much "I'm right; you're wrong. I win; you lose." Dramatic confrontation is black and white. Win/lose. IME, human interaction, trading and indeed life itself are not like that at all.

The poor buy products delivered by trucks which drive on roads. Those products might be medicine critical for life. My point too. Not stealing? You and I go to a restaurant and order the same meal at a cost of 10 bucks each. At the cash register, I reach into your wallet and take out a five. You pay 15 and I pay 5. That's not theft?Why did I do it? You have blue eyes. Or, you are smarter. Or, you have a better education. Now it's not theft. It's "fairness".

I agree that the least government is the best government. But that does not mean no government. So, what should the government get involved in? The rich pay more in tax than the poor but both get to drive on roads built with those taxes. I'd call that stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Is it more obvious if the tax money is used to subsidize public transport?

I imagine that many social customs intrude on one's use of Armenian in many aspects of life in Toronto too. What's your point? Do you really believe that this problem is due to a decision of the UN? That is how the BNA Act was written. The BNA Act was also called "confederation", which it was not. And Canada was called a dominion, which it never became.The fact of the matter is that the use of French and English in Canada requires different government attention for the simple reason that the two languages don't have the same usage on the continent. If the federal government won't take this task seriously, the Quebec government will. I have never, ever heard ultra nationalists talk seriously about using violence. (I guess the idea was discussed about 30 years ago.)In truth, the separatists lost the vote in 1995 by a margin smaller than Gore in 2000. Yet, the separatists accepted the defeat and got on with life. Tell me, who was more respectful of democracy: Pierre Trudeau or Rene Levesque? The great thing about Canada, IMV, is not that we stay together but rather that we resolve our differences in a civilized way.

Use the terms anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist or, if you prefer, variations on these terms that don't use the word "anti". Make sure you mean what you say. (Does it make sense to say someone is anti-Canadian?) An anti-semite is anyone against the Lebanese, Palestinians and so on. Too broad for any meaning.

On second thought, the final result for the Green Party is not within the margin of error, and I don't think the "polls" were the "1 poll in 20" that's wrong. And, unlike you, I don't think Ispsos-Reid played around with the numbers to make the Greens look stronger at the expense of those evil NDP. Rather, the Liberal attack ads really kicked in at the end and many people who previously intended to vote Green got scared and voted Liberal. PM PM owes Herle big time for pulling this one out of the fire.

MS, is Andrew Spicer the son of Keith Spicer? I agree with both Spicer and Coyne. My View The Tories have to present an intelligent version of the free market (Harris, from what I could gather, presented the stupid version). Harper is well placed to do that. The Tories also have to go back to the original intent of the BNA Act and the true meaning of a confederation. All Tories have to accept that Canada in the 21st is a socially liberal country but this does not mean that people can live consequence-free. In practical terms, social conservatives should be tolerated and even encouraged to make their case - as long as their case does not rely on mumbo-jumbo. I liked the free vote idea. Lastly, the Tories have to define Canada. Like it or not, juvenile or not, we expect our federal government to explain to us what our country is. In practical terms, the definition should make it plain that we are not American. Since Canadians are not in fact Americans, that shouldn't be hard.

The Green result is within the margin of error. But MS, the last few days of the campaign saw an orgy of negative ads by the Liberals. The ads' basic point was that if the Tories won, the sky would fall in (Canada would join the US, the economy would implode, the Christian right would takover, etc. etc.) As a result, ALL parties saw their vote numbers drop a little except the Liberals. (I suspect the bulk of the change was in Ontario, particularly among women.) This explains why many of the polls were wrong. Your party, the NDP, probably suffered the most. It might have had the balance of power. Incidentally, I do not think these past elections have been healthy for Canada. Warren Kinsella says rightly that attack ads work. They do. But if Canada is going to exist, it must be an oeuvre of idealism.

This "decision" was an Advisory Opinion. World Court So, Kofi Annan asks some guys in The Hague what they think about Israel building a wall. (This is why the UN is now basically irrelevant.) The question is whether the actions of the US government over the past three years or so have increased or decreased the likelihood of a terrorist attack. If you believe that, then I think you are extremely naive and have little or no understanding of the nature of terrorism in the Middle East.Who were the 19 idiots who flew those planes? Where were they from? What reason did they give for doing what they did? Simply put, it is impossible to provoke these people in the way you think. They are provoked rather by the kinds of things you post to this forum. They think it is blasphemy.

What's that supposed to mean?Of people who breathe air, some become heroin addicts. Is that some too many? Stoker, the government has many legitimate reasons for getting involved in the lives of people. I even think the government has the legitimate right to steal from the rich and give to the poor. I don't think that this makes the government "socialist". If the government taxes you and hires schoolteachers, does that mean it's socialist? Will this eventually lead to the government forcing you to work where it decides?

Redistribution of wealth did wonders for the Soviet Union, MS.Canada suffers less from theft and violence than the US which in turn suffers less than the UK. Is the government composed of Martians? The government should reflect us. We should nurture and protect our citizens. There are many ways to do this.

Are you referring to his membership in Skull and Bones? That flaw applies to Kerry too.CBS News on Skull & Bones

KK made and long and good case above that the war was perfectly justified under UN security council resolutions. What in God's name is the World Court getting involved in this question for? (I don't think the US has a veto on World Court decisions.) You really don't get it, do you.****** Several years ago, there was a vast movement in the West in favour of nuclear disarmament. Everyone was afraid of a nuclear war. Ever heard that song by Sting? Reagan wanted to install Pershing missiles in Europe and the Left went nuts. Huge anti-American demos in Europe. Nobody hears much about nuclear disarmament anymore. Why? Because the US won the Cold War. And frankly, I don't care if they won it legally or illegally. True, those idiots who flew those planes into big buildings pose a different kind of threat. But the US must prevail.

Sue Califormia. I agree completely with you. My point is that even if your store offers the best products at the lowest prices, customers may choose not to buy from you. Are the customers dishonest? Do they trade in bad faith?