Sir Bandelot

Are the Republicans buying into false leftist narratives? And why. Or could it be that those narratives are not false in their view, but they are false in yours. Otherwise, I can't imagine why they would cut their own throats.

More likely none of this is possible, since the level of corruption in our society is so pervasive.

It's only when things become a problem that action has to be taken. There's no law against inhaling petroleum fumes, for example. But hardly anyone does it, and there's no "black market". There has to be at least some regulation or restriction, if anything to protect the public. These potheads making claims that marijuana is harmless need to be countered, lest naive people believe them.

It has happened in the past. But even spending 27 years in jail only to find out the accused was innocent, their lives are ruined. Off topic anyway.

Oooh... ouch!

I won't say it's not a problem. Has DNA evidence ever been wrong?

Like the examples you cited?

We should never allow emotion to could our judgement, especially the court of public opinion but the real problem is, corruption. How many cases have we seen with trumped up evidence? Those people should be heavily punished, with incarceration. But the real killers, Olsen, Bernardo, Homolka, Williams, should not be kept alive IMO. Although, it comes down to a question of should the state have the right to take a life, for me it's a trade off between the rights if the individual and the rights of the people to peace and security.

Which government is new?

It's true; but likewise there WILL be some who no longer fear reprisal and are therefore wiling to come out. I personally don't condone legalization. Decrim, yes but I would want to see more treatment programs available. This would cost more, but is offset by the cost savings avoiding incarceration. Beyond that, we take some of the pressure off jails. More room for bad criminals. And taking control away from organized crime does appeal to me. The economic argument also appeals to me, in this time of fiscal restraint.

Not so sure after seeing Manson on TV recently, and his accomplices. Somehow keeping them alive and in the media year after year, hearing about their crimes and their attitudes after years in prison. doesn't satisfy me that they are being adequately punished, and that the public conscience is undisturbed.

It 'could', but until you provide some hard data this is conjecture as well. It is pretty much expected that there will be increases in both demographics, new users, and old users coming out. How much, falls under the domain on sociologists.

There's always gonna be some waste, no matter what. And we're at the point now where we've already made a lot of cutbacks. Further cuts will only cause undue suffering. There's really not a lot of "fat" left to be trimmed from the system. Cuts are no longer the answer, lest we enter into the absurd situation where we as taxpayers are shelling out more than we take home, and get no services for it. Further cuts, those of any real substance (not... coffee breaks and daycare) will only go to the bone. Our economic "system" has a terminal illness. Some say it's already dead but we refuse to acknowledge it, and try to revive the corpse by dumping vast sums of emergency funding to business and banks deemed to important to fail. We took the public money and gave it to private businesses. And now you people come back looking for billions in cuts... realizing the rescue efforts have failed, economy is dead. The soviet union collapsed and reformed itself, but the same disease is within us.

Yes, and it's good to see the system work that way. Question is, will we learn our lesson after paying out? No! That's why the real criminals keep getting away with it, time and time again. Our laws are hollow and we've proven it by looking the other way from our own offences. Not that I hate our government, of course. But I hate what they do!

Because you work for the capitalists. Without even knowing it, you are just another little Eichmann...

This protest continues gaining credibility. Homeowner taps 'Occupy' protest to avoid foreclosure

It is hampered. You just demonstrated it. In the recent example, you said it is unlikely that the they change the male progenitor, even if Canada voted for it. Like it or not, the next Canadian Monarch must be a male first, if there is a male heir in line! This shocks and offends my conscience...

We should then become disentangled from the political influences/ beliefs/ cultural bias of other commonwealth countries. We need only make decisions with our own Monarch.

It also shows how ineffective, ie. paralyzed the US system is in being unable to resolve this issue. Successive presidents have tried, failed and failed again to provide a satisfactory model.

I don't want the 'heirs succeeding'. I would rather want a person who gets selected by the Canadian people through some democratic means. The 'First Canadian' would be the Canadian Monarch for life. It will not gender biased, and does not get passed on through heredity.

Today is apparently a global Occupy day in support of those who began at Wall Street. This hasn't died yet. It's gaining momentum, whether we like it or not.