Moonbox

If anything, the F-22 was at least a groundbreaking project as far as technology was concerned. Operationally, no really feasible, but REALLY cool things were done with that plane.

Which is stupid. They have planes that cost a fraction of what the F-22 does both to build, maintain and fly, and that also fulfill ALL the roles the F-22 is intended to fulfill. Unless the US goes to war against Russia or Europe, there's really no risk of the F-15's, F-16's or F-18's not vastly outclassing anything they go up against. By the time these planes have much to worry about, the F-35 will be rolling off the production line, also at a fraction of the cost of the F-22.

This thread should be moved.

The F-22 doesn't have a real role to fill. Maybe if the idea was, "Hey guys let's try and find the absolute most expensive way to accomplish a military objective" then maybe the Raptor could stay in production. As it is, any current and future anticipated threats are VASTLY VASTLY VASTLY outclassed by the Raptor. It's like ordering a taxi to go across the street, or buying a thousand dollar alarm clock, or building school desks out of mahogany and walnut, or building a submarine to go 10000 feet underwater to bring back sand to make glass out of. Are you getting the picture?

Sounds like a sweet deal to me. Where do I sign up?

This is a perfect explanation on how I feel about the situation. How many gestures has Israel made in the peace efforts? How much territory has it returned and how many settlements have been dismantled as concessions towards a peace effort? Did the people hiding amongst civilians who were also murdering civilians acknowledge these gestures and come to the table? Absolutely NOT! The main problem with the whole situation is that the people attacking Israel and murdering its citizens are operating in the shadows and are refusing to even acknowledge Israel's right to exist as a state. They have no vested interest in the area or its people/prosperity and their mission is altogether to destroy a sovereign nation and its people. They couldn't care less about peace because their goal is not one accomplished through peace.

Everyone knew Harper wasn't going to do anything on this. The agreement to 'talk about' and 'review' EI was a straw man to begin with, just like the 'quarterly reviews' Ignatieff accepted on the Budget vote. They were just things he threw in there to make it look like he was doing SOMETHING, rather than becoming completely irrelevant.

The rights of union workers in our country are not fair. Some labour laws SHOULD be reversed. It's not fair that unions in vital public service monopolies can hold Canadian taxpayers hostage for vastly superior wages and benefits to their public sector counterparts. It's not fair that a union is able to shut a company down and pretty much force it into gradual bankruptcy because they refuse to accept wages and benefits anywhere NEAR what the market would bear (GM/Chrysler/Ford anyone?) and instead insist on grossly overinflated contracts. What's especially not fair is that when this union DOES shut a company down they're then LEGALLY allowed to prevent and accost anyone who IS willing to work for a fair wage. There's two sides to the coin here. Right now our public service unions are out of control. There are uses for unions and labour laws, but they should NOT be to bully/intimidate/inconvenience companies and governments into accepting TOTALLY unjustifiable wages and benefits. BANKING SICK DAYS? ARE YOU SHITTING ME!!!????

I'm not going to argue numbers or figures but I think there is probably a VERY strong relationship between public service unions and an increased rate of 'sick/family emergency' days on Mondays and Fridays.

Not every event that qualifies gets the money. There has to be choices regardless. Limited resources, better places to spend the money. Call them hypocrits if you want, but that's like calling the sky blue.

Terror 'the emotion' is very different from terror 'the deliberate murder of innocents'. Hamas and others like it are very much inclined to the latter.

I can't really disagree with any of this. It's yet another example of how the informed and the intelligent take advantage of the dumb/ignorant. More so than ever in the history of man we are of sheep being led by wolves. The reason the rich are so entitled and looked after is because the poor and middle class are too apathetic and unconcerned to care. If people REALLY understood the economy and laws of our nation, and actually made an ELECTION issue out of making the economy fair for everyone (NOTE: This does not mean increased social spending, but rather fair market and tax laws) we'd reverse the whole situation in an instant. Instead, we have a blissfully ignorant electorate that continuously votes away its future in favour of our politicians and corporations. The alternative to our recent and current governments is a bunch of bed-wetting simpletons proposing a nanny-state to sell out our economic future to baby-sit our nation's morons. Both choices make me sick but one is better than the other. Personally, I'd prefer Canada in general just got smarter and more interested in politics, but unfortunately I don't see that happening anytime soon.

This really isn't a good comparison. Stealing is stealing, no matter how you cut it. The reason you can't put away a financier for stealing a poor person's life savings is because the poor person has little/nothing to steal and hence you'd probaby at worst be looking a petty theft. Additionally it's a pretty weak argument to say that outright stealing is the same thing as the intelligent and well-informed profitting off the stupid/ignorant, providing no laws are broken. The Rule of Law is there is not there to protect the stupid, it's there to protect basic property rights. When it all boils down to it we are talking about laws and regulations. I never believe that clients, rich or poor, should suffer because their advisors/bankers/agents etc acted in bad faith and deliberately lied to them, mislead them or omitted important details. At the same time, I don't necessarily think that it's wrong that the smart and informed profit off the weak and the stupid. It's a fundamental part of our economy that you make money by knowing more than the other partner in a transaction. Retail stores can make huge profits through customer ignorance. If you've ever bought a computer from Future Shop or Best Buy you'd know that you could have probably had a better system built by a small computer store for less money. If you didn't know that it will cost you money. It's the same with real estate, landlord and tenants and investment speculation at large. One good example that I can provide of this is how when I was at university years ago my landlord tried to get my friends and I to sign another full-year lease on our rental house after our first year long lease expired. Knowing a little about the Landlord-Tenant Act, I told him that we can continue to live there without signing anything providing we continue paying the rent monthly. He tried to tell me that we HAD to sign another lease, and I told him legally I did not and unless he was selling the property or moving in himself he couldn't kick us out. If he'd have tried to kick me out, I would have been protected by law. If I had not known this, I would have signed another year-long lease and wasted money. At the same time, however, I don't think it was necessarily criminal for him to have wanted to make sure he had renters for another full year. It was a little shady yes, but it's also a little shady for People's to want to sell me a 0.75 carat I2 yellow diamond for $4000 and tell me it's a 'great deal' and a 'beautiful diamond'. I know better and I don't pity the sucker who falls for that.

Before you use the word 'terrorism' maybe you should understand the meaning of the word better. Like I said earlier, comparing Hamas terrorists with Israel is a pretty shakey assertion given that Israel, if it wanted, to, could wipe the Palestinian population off the map. If it wanted to wipe Egypt off the map, it could likely do that too. There's a tremendous difference between a group of people who DELIBERATELY attack and murder civilizian populations and an established country that goes out of its way to prevent civilian casualties when it feels the need to retaliate against hostile targets. If the Israelis wanted to murder innocent civilians, why wouldn't they be carpet-bombing instead of surgically striking specific targets? I really wonder at that...

and this is really the crux of the whole argument. What does Israel have to gain by giving up settlements and land? Hamas will attack regardless because their argument isn't one about settlements, it's about Israel being there at all. Israel has been there now for 60+ years. It has the means and capability to vastly and easily increase its territory, yet it stays its hand. If Hamas and other organizations would lay off for a significant period of time, and negotiate to NOT attack at all providing recently appropriated land was given back, you might have an argument. As far as I know, however, they don't do that. Hamas and Hezbollah etc are financed in large part by foreign nations who have no interest with peace in Israel/Palestine. Hamas will continue attacks regardless and thus Israel, while not completely blameless, has no reason to make concessions.

No offense but I think this line of thought is idiotic. Excuse me if I'm being rude, but how do you NOT think stealing people's LIFE savings is not worth having the criminal spending the remainder of his life in prison? If stealing $50 million dollars only put you away to jail for 5 years or something, a lot of people would probably consider doing it. An utterly incompetent argument. Not only does this show a complete lack of understanding of ANYTHING money related, but it's almost as if you're blaiming the VICTIMS of FRAUD. When you keep money safely in the bank you're generally going to BARELY cover inflation costs. A GIC or savings account will net you little more than preserving the value of your money. Relative to inflation, it's not really going to grow. Equity investors generally know they are taking a risk when they purchase an investment, that's true, but when they do so criminal fraud is NOT one of the risks they should have to weigh against their fortunes. That sort of risk should be no more relevant to equity investments than it is for your meagre term deposit savings. You're an idiot if you think otherwise. Nobody ever said it was a safe business. That being said, if intelligent and informed people want to make balanced decisions and invest their money in ventures they believe will be profitable, they should be free to do so without having to worry overmuch about having their life savings squandered to finance criminal lifestyles. Saying they're at fault because they didn't give their money to a bank like an idiot to sit around and do nothing is about the stupidest idea possible.

Yeah I tried to acknowledge that there certainly isn't any copulation or anything and most gay people have just as much shame as anyone else normally would. The 2% that do let their dongs and butts flop around however are the ones we mostly remember I think I misunderstood you. I agree with everything you say here and think you have some really good points.

Yeah jobs also trail a faltering economy as well. We still haven't seen anywhere near the whole picture in terms of job losses. There are many more to come.

We need reduced spending. Harper and Martin have been overspending for years now.

I really don't think this is a good comparison. Have YOU actually been there? My knowledge of what transpires there is based on first hand knowledge. While I'll admit it doesn't go as far as two guys rutting in the middle of the street, there certainly ARE a lot of dongs hanging out and a lot of bare asses walking around. This isn't just Church St either. Just because I don't support funding a gay parade doesn't mean I hate gays. I don't support funding any special-interest festival, the Calgary Stampede included. All I'm saying is that given how questionable some of the antics are during the Pride Parades, and given that the Tories already funded the one in Toronto and experienced a backlash amongst its less moderate base, I really don't blame them for not funding the festival in Montreal. People can get as uppity and indignant as they want, but the fact remains that politicians ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS consider what's best for them when they are trying to decide which projects to fund and which ones to not fund. There isn't a government out there who hasn't/doesn't. 9/10 times if a politician has nothing to gain and a lot to lose by funding a project, they're not going to do it. It's simple and fundamental reason. Funding a gay festival in a Liberal stronghold is absolutely pointless for the Tories. It's not like we're talking about social services or anything. We're talking about a Festival. It's not like the Gays in Montreal are been oppressed. They're just not getting any special consideration money. Too bad so sad.

When is that? I started confronting my father when I was probably 11-12. How about you? Regardless of whether or not Khadr was acting on his father's instructions, he was definetly old enough to know what he was doing. As a combatant/supporter of the Taliban there, he was certainly smart enough to understand he might be shot at. If he's smart enough to know that, he's also smart enough to know life might not be rosey after being captured.

I'm happy to keep the GST where it is and NOT increase stimulus spending any further thanks. Ignatieff can stuff it. Ideally I would like the GST at 7% still AND no extra stimulus planning so we could pay down our debt, but that doesn't seem to be an option either is providing us. Once again, I'll go with the lesser of two evils.

That's easy to say knowing that you can never be disproven I mean, Paul Martin increasing spending at the exact same rate as Harper is totally a good indication of this. Having the Liberals demand spending over and above Harper's is another good indication of their so-called fiscal responsibility. Mhmm...Totally. Everything you've been saying all along is clearly supported by the LPC's actions over the last 6-7 yeas. For sure...Yep....

Yeah oh wow. Totally incomprehensible.

Only in Quebec...for whatever reason....