ReeferMadness

Your link is broken - but go Bernie!

Nobody is happier to see Palin back than the TV comics. The Donald is a joke but not in a funny way. Palin is pure gold.

Nobody ever gets shot in America!

I can't disagree with anything you say but has there ever been a Canadian leader (federal or provincial) who rose to this standard?

Yeah, I agree that's what you heard. It wasn't what people said, it's just what you heard.

Oh, those pesky regulations like ensuring the drugs don't kill people? Yeah, let's get rid of that kind of red tape. I've got a better idea. Instead of handing massive amounts of money to foreign drug companies to fund their ridiculous bonuses, let's properly fund universities so they can do research. It will be cheaper and provide opportunities to Canadian universities and students. Once the research is done, we can license the product to drug companies and they can compete on a lowest cost basis to do the production.

So, let's agree that this government could be clearer about the strategy. I'm willing to give them some more time to pull something together. But let's be clear about something else. The previous government got us into this campaign with no evidence that the bombing would help either the civilians on the ground or us. If we're bombing to help the civilians then we should be damned sure they want us there. I don't recall anyone among the "let's go drop bombs crowd" that has even bothered to ask that question. Not the media. Not the paranoid group who want to drop bombs in the hopes that there won't be so many refugees wanting to get in. And certainly not the government. It's more than just a little arrogant to drop bombs on someone else's homeland because we've determined we know what is best for them. And if we're bombing for our own selfish reasons because we're afraid ISIS is going to come and get us, there is even less evidence to support that. In fact, the reasons given for the attacks in Canada are that we are involved militarily in the middle east.

In a startlingly frank admission of the failure of their capitalist business model, a collection of some of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies said they need incentives to develop antibiotics to fight 'superbugs'. Apparently the giveaways that are being promoted in the TPP like longer patent lifetimes and the ability to sue governments that do anything to interfere with their profits is no longer enough for multinational corporations. They need direct cash infusion now. One line in this story is particularly interesting. Not only does it indicate where the drug companies focus their efforts. It also indicates why there is no incentive (and in fact powerful financial disincentives) to cure any chronic condition or disease, ever. This case illustrates a problem that plagues not only the drug industry but the whole medical industry, the crime industry, the military industry, the insurance industry and every other industry ever created to address problems. These huge industries become dependent on the problems they were created to address. If those problems ever disappear or even are significantly diminished, it will threaten the salaries of powerful people. And so the last thing these industries want is for those problems to go away.

What's really terrible is people who want Canada to be so cowardly that we are afraid to have an independent foreign policy, especially when our so-called allies are pursuing cynical, self-defeating and conflicting aims.

So you both are OK with Conservatives who were too cowardly to voice their opinions suddenly coming out against Harper's policies after he's gone? Hypocrisy - the one true value of the CPC!

Maybe the question is how many times did any of these people want to meet with Harper?

I think the one thing he wishes they'd "done differently" is not to have selected a dictatorial, micromanaging, self-serving control freak as leader.

Could you imagine the uproar if he didn't attend?

...and you preferred Harper who had neither style nor substance. Got it.

Well, I guess there are three possibilities: 1. The Indians don't need baseload 2. The Indians aren't smart like you and understand baseload 3. You're WRONG and the scientists who actually understand these things and have shown how renewables can supply reliable electricity are right. I know which one I pick. :D It means that anyone with half a brain can turn on the radio and hear economists say that the low cost of oil is contributing to sinking markets and economic volatility and come to a few conclusions: 1. The volatile price of oil is bad for anyone with a retirement fund (and that means everyone when you include the CPP) 2. It turns out that it's bad for everyone when tens of billions in investment are sunk into producing a commodity that can't be sold 3. Markets are great at "correcting" but suck at predicting (who knew??). Which makes idiots of those who worship at the altar of free market capitalism. And the peak oil calculations were formulated in the era before tar sands, fracking or deep sea drilling. All of these things have altered the parameters but the basic science was (and is) still sound. Unless you believe that oil is abiotic and the earth naturally replenishes oil reservoirs naturally. Not all consumers are blithering idiots (maybe it's just the ones you know). It isn't hard to figure out that there is a limit to how long oil will be produced at less than the cost of production. Those American rigs that have produced all that fracked production are being idled. Fracked wells peak and go into steep decline much more quickly than conventional wells. And once the Saudis have the market where they want it, you might see OPEC discipline restored. Price stability might not be important for all consumers. Just the smart ones.

In the clearest possible damnation of their own failed administration, Conservatives are reversing themselves on one failed Harper policy after another. First, it was supporting the MMIW inquiry. Then Jason Kenney called on the Liberal to release the contents of a report on the Saudi arms deal that his government refused to release. Then Rona Ambrose announced she wanted to meet with the government to discuss the upcoming budget (quick - when was the last time Harper agreed to meet with the opposition to discuss budget priorities???). In the latest example of blatant Conservative hypocrisy, Rona Ambrose is urging the government to move quickly on legalizing marijuana. "The faster they move on this the better". You got that right. The party that put people in jail for having 6 plants wants the Liberals to hurry up and make reefer legal. Hahahahahahahahahahaha You can't make this shit up.

Fossil fuel devotees will be crushed to hear that bids for PV electricity in India are consistently coming in cheaper than coal. Anyone relying on current fossil fuel prices to last should look at the history of the volatility of the price of oil.

Oregon governor Kate Brown has asked the feds to send the yeehawdis packing.

Turkey has one of the world's largest standing armies and has a border with Syria. It could squash ISIS like a grape if it chose. Instead it looks the other way as ISIS fighters cross its border and oil is traded across its border. The entire war on ISIS is a huge exercise in hypocrisy.

When it comes to international politics, hypocrisy is the norm. You guys just prefer the militaristic hypocrisy over the less militaristic kind.

Aaaaaand the difference between the baby boomers, GenX and millennials and all of the technology negates the use of diplomacy ...... how exactly? If, for whatever reason you lack the financial resources to access the internet or the mental capacity for critical thinking, then it's fair that you might not be aware of the problem. But (as is the case with most adults), if you're just too busy making money or memorizing hockey stats or if you just avoid the truth because it's uncomfortable that billions of people don't even have a shot at a decent life, there's no excuse. The truth is out there, Skully. And it's not even hard to find.

I sympathize with this government trying to avoid the rampant militaristic hypocrisy of the stance taken by our "allies" while still avoiding calling them out for the hypocrites they are. It doesn't help that the mainstream media and much of the population are either clueless when it comes to modern history or warmongers who see every international problem as just another bombing opportunity. So, yes, it would be less hypocritical and braver of them to simply pull out and go home. But how many of us really have the courage to match our convictions? Well, in fairness, this government has already begun to address a much broader range of issues than the last one did in its entire mandate. Harper wasted his entire majority term trying to scare people into re-electing him, using the twin bogeymen of terrorism and the failing economy while trying to manipulate the elections act in his favor. And I think the government would take this more seriously if the Canadian people and media did. But they're too busy checking under their beds for Muslim terrorists. But this is progress for you - I don't recall you ever raising any concerns that didn't centre around giving the military more money or giving yourself more rights to be heavily armed.

Now here you are trying to suck and blow at the same time. You just said that the invasion was justified because Iraq didn't comply to UN resolutions. Now you're saying it's got nothing to do with the UN. You can't have it both ways. Some people will do anything to justify war. It's not just dictators and despots that have despicable ideas.

So, what you're telling me is that this is important because you knew one of the pilots and the hundreds of thousands of other people who die on the job don't matter? The kids who die digging cobalt in African artisanal mining operations, the Chinese workers who would love to commit suicide but are prevented by nets put up on factories, the Indian kids who are poisoned picking heavy metal recyclables out of landfills, all of whom are dying to provide us with cheap cellphones - they are all less important that the one pilot who died in the crash because you knew him. Is that what you're saying? Because, while it would have cost big bucks (millions?) to upgrade those choppers, it might only cost an extra few bucks on a cellphone to save thousands of lives. Maybe Apple could accept a 390% profit margin instead of 400%.

The end of the cold war was the opportunity of a century to change the world. It was undermined by warmongers who glorify war and make their living from production and use of deadly war toys (and it was they who suddenly discovered that "terrorism" could take over as the boogeyman now that communism was gone). It was sabotaged by the elite in wealthy western nations who sought to extend and preserve hegemony over the world. And it was squandered by capitalists who used the discrediting of socialism and the rise of globalization to run up mind boggling fortunes. As long as the former Soviet bloc didn't revert to communism, western leaders and media were mostly too polite to point out that leaders of the former (so-called) socialist nations were suddenly wealthy capitalists and the new states were often nearly as totalitarian as the old ones. Times are inherently no different than they ever were. There are rabidly paranoid people who distrust everyone around them and so it's no wonder they are mostly the same people who want trillions to be spent on the military and who think they need to walk around with a gun to protect themselves. Then there are others who recognize that nobody is ever going to be 100% safe but the fewer weapons there are in the world, the safer we all are. And nobody wins a war except for the people who stay out of it and prosper from it. So everyone has a choice. You can be part of the problem or part of the solution.