PoliticalCitizen

My understanding of Democracy is everyone's (or at least the decided voter's) opinion should matter and once a certain number of people vote for something that something has to materialize in a tangible way. Ignoring the minorities is Dictature, not Democracy... Let's simplify things a bit... Let's vote unanimously for one guy for life so that he can do what needs to be done for the country without the hassle of bikering parliamentarians. Let's not vote after that - it's a waste of time and money. Besides, this one guy we elected will most likely appoint someone before he dies...

A big part of voters don't care who the MPP is. They don't care about the particular person in their riding. They vote for their party's platform. And who would determine what this percentage would be? And which minorities should be ingnored? Should we ingnore the gays and lesbians? Or black people? Or people on welfare? Or the disabled? That view is more faschist than democratic...

My bad - I counted 10% of total population instead of registered voters... I guess the real fugure would be somewhere between 1 and 2 million (as indicated by the current polls). The total number Green votes in the 2006 election was over 600 thousand - 664,068 (as reported by Wikepedia).

Socialist / Communist / Police State countries are safe... but we probably don't want to become either one... Cuba, for example, is extremely safe. I lived in Montreal and Ottawa before I moved to GTA. No city in Canada that I've seen has the desolate ugly violent districts where you're scared to even stop at the red light while driving... I've seen them in Chicago, LA, New Haven, Nigara Falls (USA)...

It is funny how you're trying to paint me as an anti-male sexist, me being a male and you having a female name But honestly, how many girls you know who are into younger girls? What about older guys? You get it... Seriously, unless there was some psychiatric examination of the girl that indeed proved that she's attracted to younger girls OR if she has been involved in making of any of these videos I'd still say it's her dad's collection... As to the anti-pedophilia campaign in general - they should probably be more discriminate with the ages of the victims... There should probably be stiffer punishments for younger ages and milder for ages nearing legal... there should also probably be some distinction as to pre- and post-puberty... in many cultures girls were (and some still are) wed as young as 10 or 12... Violence and drugs used should also add to the sentence... as should probably the perversity of the act itself...

So you're saying it's more like snuff films... You've got a point...

I agree with you here. Ideally I would like people leading my country (and eventually the globe) to be educated, trained and tested for the job. I'd like the Minister of Finance to have financial education and experience; I'd like the Minister of Health to be a Medical Doctor etc. So you're saying we're SUPPOSED to ignore the will of minorities? Over 3 Million people in Canada appear to support the Greens but their opinion is irrelevant because they're a "thin mist" and not 50 ridings? I think ignoring the rights of minorities is the exact opposite of "Democracy". But then again, our electoral system today appears to be written by "your books"...

American culture needs no defence, as a matter of fact it was in offence for at least 50 years and has won over people from all over the globe (even Iran). As to the shootings - I believe the root cause is the lack of spiritual development in Western (including Eastern-European) education system.

Don't worry, Mother China will never experience the hardship of oil shortage with the Russian Brother beside her As to the topic of the thread: There's no need for any "terrorist organization" to organize "terror acts" in US proper as US Government conveniently supplies them with a steady stream of US Soldiers to practice on, delivered to their doorsteps. Now that's service

Damn Lib...errr, Democrats!!! I'm sure McCain will fix all that... especially with Palin's financial insight...

Exactly my point - same sh!t, different name with Liberals and Conservatives. If you want to make a change - vote Green Especially taking into account that the only "Green Shift" we may will be the shift in votes toward the Greens, as all of us will see what a majority "Blue Shaft" really does for our country...

I prefer to live in a city where I, my wife and my kids can walk anywhere at any time of the day or night without fear. Right now with the huge income disparity and growing segregation of the poor Toronto is becoming more and more like most big american cities where some areas you'd rather not be in EVER. Light them up would only work until lightbulbs are busted (again). Brick them up is the scenario portrayed in "Banlieue 13" (I think the English name of the movie is District B13). Not a pretty world...

I prefer to live in a city where I, my wife and my kids can walk anywhere at any time of the day or night without fear. Right now with the huge income disparity and growing segregation of the poor Toronto is becoming more and more like most big american cities where some areas you'd rather not be in EVER. Light them up would only work until lightbulbs are busted (again). Brick them up is the scenario portrayed in "Banlieue 13" (I think the English name of the movie is District B13). Not a pretty world...

It looks like G8 will become G13 rather than G7: http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/id...-29172820070827

How about slavery, witch burning (Condy comes to mind ) and blood rites? Should we bring those back too?

I believe the "moral" ban on human genetic experiments is as backward as Taliban's view on most modern things. Immoral how? Why? Because God wouldn't want us to? Because we can create monsters? Well believe it or not "monsters" are born all over the earth, and that doesn't even serve science - just luck of the draw. If God allowed the nuclear bomb and the Internet he would probably allow everyhting else...

You may be right, especially when you add that to the existing 10+ Trill of national debt... Bush's reputation was true - he ruins everything he runs Let's hope he doesn't get elected as anything after this...

83 K? That's a huge figure... I was thinking about "correctional facilites" for a while... we're a civilized society and the institution of "prison" reeks of medieval brutality... They could be useful to the society as colonists (on Mars, for example) or in some other way... Keeping them in prison is a waste of their lives and our money...

Not everyone gets a choice, AG. Some are hooked from birth because their parents were addicts. Some are administered their first shot(s) by force. Some others find their personal lives so utterly depressing that they have to be on something all the time... And when I said society takes away your choices I meant prison. We have come a long way to abolish capital punishment. We should get rid of prisons next. Correctional institution should not be something that indoctrinates you even further into the criminal way of life, it should be something that teaches you the senses of guilt, compassion and gives you social skills necessary to live abiding the law in a normal society.

So much for the coalition talk, then...

Cool. I bet it helps

The ends won't meet if you can't pay your rent and buy food. With half the money you need you're more screwed than assisted. Everything in life is a choice, at least to the point when the society or fate takes away your privilege to choose... There's a variety of reasons why people are on welfare. In some cities work is really hard to find (not Toronto). Some are refugees that do not speak English or French. Some are cronically drunk or stoned and will never be hired by anyone...

I'm glad you have internet there, dude What is it, satellite?

Because what they get paid today is half of what they need. If someone needs $500 to pay for a room (not an apartment) and you give him $250 - does that really help? If you mean to assist - do it in a way that's meaningful, not a half-ass way... The less assistance you get the more inviting that choice becomes... But it doesn't stop with the welfare recipients. Once we give them more we should also raise the minimum wage to make it worthwile for them to even look for a job. And then, of course, increase all the other wages...

The benefit of making life comfortable for those on welfare is that you don't have to be afraid to walk down a dark alley in a poorer neighborhood.